{"id":5104,"date":"2026-06-29T08:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T08:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/?p=5104"},"modified":"2026-06-29T08:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T08:40:15","slug":"the-smoke-and-how-to-relate-to-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/2026\/06\/29\/the-smoke-and-how-to-relate-to-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"The Smoke, and how to relate to Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

After discovering the “choirs<\/a>” as the flooding of the spiritual into the faculties of thought, mind and bigger perceptions, a new image appears: the smoke.<\/p>\n

Similemente al fummo de li \u2018ncensi<\/em>
\nche v\u2019era imaginato, li occhi e \u2018l naso<\/em>
\ne al s\u00ec e al no discordi fensi.<\/em><\/p>\n

Meaning: “Similarly, the smoke of the incense that was imaged\/imagined there, the eyes and the nose of yes and no made themselves in discord.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

So this seems to point to the next step of immersion, and of being inside of the spiritual itself. After the connection, seeing the motion of the spiritual life, and the “choirs” as different aspects of spiritual realities, there is a sense of full immersion – as if being in “smoke”, and again not being sure if it is “real” or not. And this is mechanically the next experience, from the preceding steps.<\/p>\n

And then comes the image of David, in front of the Ark and the choirs: “dancing lifted up, and more and less than a King in this case.<\/em>”<\/p>\n

This is one of the biggest moments in the whole opening of Purgatory 10. It seems to point to a basic relationship or approach to Reality in a bigger sense. Does one assume the position of a King, a Ruler towards Reality, or, an approach of a dynamic response and interaction, a sort of “dance” that is aligned with the bigger picture and one’s place within it? And suggesting that choosing the “dance” relationship to the biggest questions is what will make oneself much more<\/em> than an “internal ruler”, but also something that might seem like “undignified” and “less <\/em>than King” to the Superbia instinct inside.<\/p>\n

Which is what the following tercet in some ways also completes – the scorn and sadness from “Michal” looking at this from her window. The Prideful Self locked inside of a big palace, both rejecting the “dancing approach” to reality in a spiritual sense, but also sensing a sadness in what it is unable to do. And how it imprisons itself within a window of a “big palace”, separated.<\/p>\n

So in short: the Pilgrim (or one’s own consciousness) is here being immersed in the spiritual and faces the basic question – how to internally relate to the new reality that is unveiling itself. Which path does one choose: David or Michal.<\/p>\n

And this basic inner orientation or dynamic cannot be fully understood or detected without the preceding steps: connection, seeing the Ark and Oxen internally, and the gradual growth and unveiling of the spiritual within you. Only at that point, will the “dance” of David, and its implications, make fully sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After discovering the “choirs” as the flooding of the spiritual into the faculties of thought, mind and bigger perceptions, a new image appears: the smoke. Similemente al fummo de li \u2018ncensi che v\u2019era imaginato, li occhi e \u2018l naso e … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-purgatory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5104"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5129,"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5104\/revisions\/5129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailypurgatory.com\/purgatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}