0:08 3-23 in his teaching Jesus told this
0:12 story listen a farmer went out to sew
0:14 his seed and as he
0:16 SED some seeds fell by the wayside where
0:18 they were trodden underfoot and and the
0:20 birds of the air came and ate them up
0:23 other seeds fell on Stony ground where
0:25 they had not much soil these shot up at
0:27 once because the soil was shallow but
0:30 when the sun rose they were scorched and
0:33 because they had no root or
0:36 moisture they withered away still other
0:38 seeds fell among thorns and the Thorns
0:39 grew up with them and choked them and
0:42 they yielded no grain but some seeds
0:44 fell into good ground and brought forth
0:46 grain growing strongly and increasing
0:48 and yielding 30 or 60 or 100 times more
0:51 than was sown and after Jesus finished
0:53 saying this he called out he who has
0:57 ears to hear Let Him hear all right so
0:59 I'll make a couple of comments on that
1:01 I'll turn to jonath and I think to begin
1:05 with to discuss the particular the
1:07 symbolic reference of this particular
1:09 Story one of the things I found
1:11 particularly mysterious about this and
1:14 this is echoed in many other Parables so
1:15 there's the wheat and the weeds for
1:17 example and the seed growing of itself
1:19 the mustard seed and the yeast there's
1:21 an insistence in
1:23 Christ's Parable accounts
1:25 accounts
1:30 that the right metaphor for idea is is
1:33 seed and I think that's brilliant
1:36 speaking psychobiologic because it's a
1:38 real mistake to think of an idea like a
1:42 sentence in a book or an idea like a uh
1:46 an element in a Excel spreadsheet an
1:50 idea is in truth something alive and if
1:54 you can plant an idea an idea is alive
1:57 in that a sophisticated idea contains
1:58 far more than you could ever possibly imagine
2:00 imagine
2:02 this is one of the things that soljan
2:05 niten revealed in his critique of
2:08 Communism up to
2:11 soliton this is roughly
2:14 speaking most critics of the Communist
2:16 Empire criticized it on the basis of its
2:18 implementation and Solja niten was the
2:21 really the first credible intellectual
2:24 to come out and say no no no from Evil
2:26 seeds evil fruit grows the reason that
2:28 communism fails everywhere it's tried
2:30 isn't because it's impl mented
2:31 improperly which was what all the
2:33 radical leftists still say it's because
2:36 there's no way of making something
2:40 edible grow if you plant poisonous seeds
2:42 and what Christ is pointing out here is
2:44 that ideas are like seeds and that you
2:46 want to plant the proper ideas and I
2:48 would say the biblical Corpus one way of
2:49 thinking about the biblical text is it's
2:52 the seed from which Western culture
2:55 itself grew and if we lose that we'll be
3:00 in this situation where um we
3:02 this these other seeds fell on Stony
3:04 ground where they not had much not not
3:07 much soil these shot up at once because
3:09 the soil was shallow but when the sun
3:10 rose they were scorched and because they
3:12 had no root or moisture they withered
3:14 away that's the situation we're in now
3:17 so that's some of the explication around
3:20 the idea of the seed yeah do you want to
3:21 do you want to just read the parable or
3:23 do you want to read Because in this
3:26 particular Parable Jesus then gives the
3:28 explanation and he not only does he give
3:31 the explanation but he also puts a
3:34 little Preamble where he basically says
3:36 that these things are hidden to most
3:37 people that in fact the Mysteries that
3:40 he's that he's bringing about most
3:42 people cannot see them cannot hear them
3:44 that the generation is blind and that
3:48 he's gathered these disciples around him
3:50 in order to reveal these Mysteries to
3:52 them and then he gives the explanation
3:54 but what's interesting is that even in the
3:55 the
3:58 explanation right even as he explains it
4:01 the mystery still remains it's not as if
4:03 it's it's it's uh because he says like
4:05 the kingdom of of Heaven is this and he
4:08 explains that it's about he makes it
4:12 about basically receiving the word and
4:15 then how the word grows in the world and
4:17 he talks about distraction he talks
4:20 about uh you know the cares of the world
4:23 that takes that away um and so it
4:26 doesn't it still also doesn't completely
4:28 explain what it is that the the parable
4:29 is about but that's also what the
4:33 parable so powerful this Parable I think
4:36 is one of the the most powerful Parables
4:39 to explain what it is that Jesus is when
4:41 we talked about at the beginning in in
4:43 John when it says the light comes the
4:45 seed comes all of these elements of
4:46 heaven right something that comes from
4:49 above and the seed is a it's like a
4:51 pattern without body that's the best way
4:53 to understand it it has little body it's
4:55 not completely invisible but it can help
4:57 you understand what a pattern without
5:00 body is then it encounters
5:03 potential it encounters the that which
5:06 it can grow in and then it grows so what
5:08 Jesus is describing as like it's a
5:10 description of reality Christ is a
5:13 master at using short mysterious stories
5:15 they change the listener who takes them
5:17 seriously the person that you do not
5:19 think could ever be virtuous well let me
5:20 show you this is the person who is
5:22 fulfilling the law and the prophets I
5:23 don't believe in that promise I'll just
5:25 be honest on this point then it hit me I
5:28 saw it this Jew is very frightened of a
5:31 postchristian exercise The Power of Love
5:33 I don't want to be a homework I tell you
5:35 we've got our work cut out for us
5:38 gentlemen I sure hope we're up to the
5:41 task it does have moral consequence but
5:42 he's actually describing how meaning
5:46 functions and how how how how order and
5:48 variability exactly so there's this
5:51 possibility of descending order and then
5:53 it it manifests itself in all sorts of
5:54 places and some of those places are
5:56 dismal and nothing much happens and
5:58 other places are magnificently fruitful
6:01 and that's also the dance between that a
6:03 priority order and the randomness of the
6:05 world yeah and you so you could you
6:06 could actually apply to something that's
6:08 completely aoral so you could think
6:10 there's an idea I like that flying car
6:13 there's a flying car idea but the world
6:15 does not afford that possibility there's
6:17 the the the ground is not good for that
6:20 thing to land in so the the idea just is
6:22 like it remains up in the air a bird
6:24 comes and catches it and picks it back
6:27 up into the air so it never lands and so
6:29 we have things like that where they that
6:31 you need both the idea the right idea
6:33 and you need the right potential for the
6:35 world to exist there's an interesting
6:38 dance here darwinian models of
6:40 creativity indicate that the way
6:42 creativity works is that there's a
6:45 hyperproduction a hyper production of
6:47 potential solutions to a problem so that
6:49 would be the abundance you can imagine
6:50 that happening in a pedo distribution
6:53 manner right but then there has to be a
6:55 selection mechanism after that so you
6:58 want a plethora of possibility it's even
7:00 what happens on the evolutionary front
7:02 and then careful selection from that and
7:04 that's what's being referred to here is
7:06 that we want a plethora we want an
7:09 abundance we want to set the pattern of
7:11 Heaven in a productive dance with the
7:14 possibilities of the world much will
7:16 become manifest disproportionately so
7:18 and then there has to be a
7:20 a
7:22 discriminating judgment applied to that
7:25 so that only the best can be harvested
7:27 and that's Christ's judge and that's the
7:30 burning sword that bars the gate to
7:33 paradise and so or selection like just
7:34 selection even in terms of darwinian
7:37 ideas or selection exactly exactly
7:40 exactly so that's another elaboration of
7:41 it's a principle of Grace to that mean
7:44 that John Paul second said your being
7:45 increases in the measure that you give
7:47 it away so there's a paradox at the very
7:49 heart of the Gospel that our instinct is
7:50 always to hang on what we have to be
7:52 happy I need go back to our wealth
7:54 pleasure power honor I need to fill
7:56 myself up and hang on to them but that's
7:58 exactly how you're going to lose them
8:00 whatever you receive as a as a gift you
8:01 have to give as a gift and then it
8:04 increases in you 30 60 and 100 fold and
8:05 then when you get that you give it away
8:08 too and you get caught in this Loop of
8:10 life and and abundance and then the
8:12 opposite instinct is going to cause all
8:13 the trouble and I'm clinging to what I
8:15 have and then I lose it you kill what
8:18 you cling to right so so the little you
8:20 have will be taken away exactly well so
8:24 you see I saw in the AC Academy John
8:25 maybe you could comment on this there's
8:27 two kinds of
8:29 professors there's professors who cling
8:31 to their ideas and want credit for them
8:33 they don't they're not generous to their
8:34 graduate students they don't give them
8:36 authorship if they have an idea they
8:37 guard it they feel that everybody's
8:40 going to steal it they don't share it
8:42 they're stingy they're hard to work with
8:44 and the the capability of those people
8:47 to generate ideas plummets across time
8:48 then you have the other sort this was my
8:51 adviser who just gives every idea away
8:54 and the consequence of that is that he
8:55 gets a tremendous amount of positive
8:57 feedback and enthusiasm on the part of
9:00 others and neurophysiologic ically that
9:02 enthusiasm that's incentive reward it
9:06 produces dopamine and dopamine produces
9:08 neural growth and so if I share an idea
9:11 with you and you're enthusiastic about
9:13 that and I regard that as rewarding my
9:15 brain will increase the number of
9:17 resources devoted to the system that
9:19 generated that idea and so if you give
9:22 things away and you you get a positive
9:24 social consequence of that the source of
9:27 the ideas itself is going to make itself
9:29 more manifest and that's the the well
9:31 that never runs dry the great modern the
9:34 great modern Pagan Gerta used to put it
9:36 even more radically but with an even
9:39 more Christian inflection where he
9:44 said die and become and that's um
9:46 precisely this thought of the
9:48 relinquishing of self that is in fact
9:52 the key to the expansion of well the
9:54 self you relinquishing in principle
9:56 would be the limited and comparatively
9:58 dead old self which you relinquish every
10:02 time you have a idea yeah and it's also
10:05 you know with great power comes great
10:07 responsibility right is the flip side
10:09 it's the positive reinstatement of that
10:11 in a way right right you're up that's
10:14 you you pay for your talent with your
10:16 generosity and that's how the cosmic
10:18 stal scales stay balanced right it's
10:19 also how you don't get stuck in a
10:23 useless cycle of guilt around what you
10:25 have in a way that becomes sistic and
10:27 self servant right right right or that
10:30 opens you up to exploitation by people
10:31 who claim false
10:34 victimization right so
10:37 John I I'm I'm trying to not launch into
10:39 an ongoing discussion about relevance
10:41 realization which you're definitely what
10:42 this is this is what it's talking about
10:44 I believe it a l of my work and and
10:47 maybe that'll come up I'll try and weave
10:49 I have I I want to add a dimension to
10:52 this I think this is all sorry for the
10:56 pun very fruitful uh but um I want to I
10:59 want to stop a little bit um and cuz I'm
11:02 interested in the kogai of Parables and
11:05 the issue there's a problem that's also
11:08 implicit in why he's doing it this way
11:10 um and my lesson here is largely drawn
11:14 from kard uh um with like why writing
11:17 why Parables one may be oh they're
11:19 simple people and stuff but that's not
11:21 what's going on it's and you know that's
11:22 not what's going on because Jesus keeps
11:25 saying if you have ears here there's an
11:27 issue about a resistance to
11:30 understanding that the parable addresses
11:32 now that means that there's a truth in
11:34 there that is in some way threatening to
11:37 how people normally naturally natively
11:39 see the world and assume an identity in
11:41 the world there's a threat in the
11:46 parable right and so I like to try I I
11:48 like to try and this is you know the
11:49 parable that that kirar gives of the wild
11:50 wild
11:53 goose there's this wild goose and it can
11:55 fly and it flies in and it talks to all
11:56 the tame geese and it's telling them
11:58 about flying and they love it and they
12:00 love it and eventually
12:02 right they they but they get sick of it
12:03 and then then they get angry and they
12:05 want to drive them away and if the if
12:07 the story stopped there we all would say
12:09 oh well you know the wild geese is
12:12 Socrates or Jesus and we identify with
12:13 them and we want to be like them and
12:15 everything but that story doesn't end
12:17 there the story is but the wild goose
12:19 couldn't fly away because he had spent
12:21 so much time with the tame geese that he
12:24 had forgotten how to fly and you go oh
12:26 and there's a shock in there and what
12:28 you realize is you easily identified
12:31 with Socrates or Jesus because he's it's
12:33 unclear in the parable who's because K
12:36 is always talking about both right and
12:39 the point is who what identity are you
12:41 projecting into the narrative because
12:42 that's what narrative is about it's
12:45 about practicing perspective taking it's
12:47 about practicing assuming identities
12:49 what identity are you naturally
12:52 automatically projecting it
12:53 into the
12:56 parable and then how is it challenging
12:59 that how are how is it threatening to
13:01 the the way you normally understand the
13:03 way you normally see and you you
13:05 invoking creativity you're invok so
13:08 right an Insight but an Insight isn't
13:11 just that right an insight and this goes
13:12 back to the frame breaking and I I sorry
13:14 I just want to make
13:17 one very brief thing here yesterday I
13:18 misstated something and I want to
13:20 apologize for it I misstated that you
13:22 and I published the paper together on
13:24 breaking frame that's not right what
13:27 what was right is that you and I shared
13:29 Colin D young who was a ta
13:33 and Joe Flanders who was an undergrad
13:36 and we were sharing ideas through them
13:37 and you you wrote an ackowledgement on
13:40 that that I inspired the the experiment
13:42 especially around like breaking frame I
13:43 just wanted to give them due credit I
13:45 felt I realized oh I made a mistake and
13:47 I just wanted to so there's a parable
13:49 that's I'm going to interject another
13:50 Parable here that's relevant to what you
13:53 said because it has this it it it speaks
13:55 of the complexity of breaking frame CU
13:57 one of the things you might ask is well
13:59 if there's a pathway to enlighten why
14:00 don't people just follow it cuz that
14:03 sounds like a good deal and it's because
14:05 there's a sacrificial loss that's that's
14:06 that's that's what I was trying to get
14:09 at I was trying to get out that exactly
14:10 that's exactly it this isn't the
14:13 creativity I'm not I'm not I'm trying to
14:15 elaborate I'm not trying to challenge
14:17 righta it's not just the Crea of an idea
14:19 this is to be born again this is the
14:21 creation of a new way of seeing and
14:22 being in World it requires the death of
14:25 the old exactly and there's a challenge
14:27 to the identity and that's so you see
14:30 that reflected in the idea of of the
14:33 post tyranny desert soour of the
14:35 Egyptians they get out of the Tyranny
14:36 but then they're in the desert there's a
14:39 cost to a creative transformation and
14:41 the cost of the creative transformation
14:43 is the death of the old and that's part
14:45 of the crucifixion and Resurrection idea
14:48 this is portrayed in this Parable I
14:50 believe if I've got this right [Music]
