Work of the Heart
Today’s Agenda:
The Work of the Heart:
Healing the Split
Addictive predicament about the human condition
Suffering of the innocents (why must I suffer), why me?
Transformation and or death
Addiction and the Work
of the Heart
As we have seen addiction can bring us to face the meaning of existence
In the Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov we learn how wounding can lead
to both addiction and or a burning desire to understand ourselves and the
meaning of life
Hillman talked about Betrayal for Growth (Necessary maybe unavoidable)
Suffering of innocents / why must I suffer- who will save us
Fydor Karamazov - the betrayer
Caught in denial - liar - “don’t lie to yourself”
Crude, corrupt, cynical and greedy, abusive
Moneylender - binds others to him through debt
Lives unconsciously / hostage to his own addiction
Evoker of rage and hatred in others
Dimitri
Hates his father for his abandonment
Disorderly childhood
Adult life is and pain channeled through sexual escapades,
drunkenness, and moodiness
He also suffers from guilt and shame
However, Dimitri unlike his father - has an open heart and
willingly to look within (capacity for suffering)
Dimitri’s Conflict
Argument with father over mother’s estate (inheritance)
Pursuit of the same love interest (Grushenka)
Dimitri deeper conflict aries within his psyche - its overwhelming
feelings and capacity for love on the one hand and:
His rage and his capacity for murder
Ivan
Also suffers in pain from his
father’s rejection
Logic
Accepts a higher power - but
god’s creation - “the world with
its evil, injustice, and
imperfection” - Ivan rejects (p.
296).
Emotions
CONTROL
POWER
CERTITUD
E
Ivan is caught between thirst
for perfection and his
murderous capacity for his
father
World of cannot soothe his
desire for perfection no fulfill
need control it with reason
WANTS LOVE
Faith
REJECTS LOVE
CANNOT FORGIVE
Doubt
Smerdyakov: Trickster
Also abused and rejected - bastard -
Epileptic
Spawned on Ivan’s ideas for his own end
Perceived “father’s protector”
Alyosha Abyss
All of all the brother’s Alyosha was the most gentle, modest,
and even tempered
Accepted life on life’s terms
But he had a great grief in him
Served as the meditator in the family
Carried the burden of his family’s pain - Dimitri’s impulsive
rage and Ivan’s cynical madness
Alyosha’s Abyss
Despised those that would desecrate the memory of his loved “Elder”
Let’s of temptation and finds in Grushenka (would be temptress
compassion) which redeems Alyosha as he connects with Grushenka
seeing the divine in instead of a manipulator
Afterwards he experiences a dream and awakens -
•
...Every instant he felt clearly and, as it were, tangibly, that something firm and
unshakable as that vault of heaven entered into his soul... It was as though
some idea had seized that sovereignty of his mind - and it was for all his life
and for ever and ever...
Dimitri’s Transformation:
Act 1 - Jealousy
Fog of the killer - jealousy - thinks Grushenka has gone to see his father and in to keep himself
safe - Dimitri’s rage leads him to smash the servants head and flee
Pursues his ego ideal of love (Grushenka) “wins”
Father is murdered and evidence points to Dimitri
Trial begins and looks murky (father’s money is missing) looking like a frame-up
Endure an inner trial - face his feelings of being on trial - what arises as a result becomes a
psychological trial (guilt and jealousy)
Dimitri’s Contradictions:
Facing Oneself
Unravel our need to own - keep permanent
Guarding of love so strenuous - what could be worth that?
Need to feel the sting of one’s conscience
Trust oneself - “not un-consciously give one’s power over” why competition?
See our suffering - “feel the suffering of all” I am not so special (often it takes a
thunderbolt)
The New Man
Dimitri states: “And what is suffering? I am not afraid of it, even if it were
beyond reckoning. I am not afraid of it now. I was afraid of it before... I
seem to have such strength in me now that I think I could stand anything,
any suffering only to be able to say and repeat to myself every moment “I
exist”... I’m tormented on the rack- but I exist!”
Doesn’t become a martyr
Big book reminds us: spiritual progress - not perfection
Ivan’s Conflict
Martyr likes sometimes to divert himself with his despair, as it were,
driven to it by despair itself.
Driven by guilt believing he had some fault for his father’s death
Cannot reconcile his conflict between believing in god and atheism
Conflict with Smerdyakov over father’s death - why did he leave - did
he want his father to die?
Smerdyakov’s Confession
With hatred, Smerdyakov
stated: “You are the real
murderer, all things are
lawful... I was only your
instrument”
Oooooh, the trickster is
revealed or Satan
Seeing the Treacherous Mind
QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.