The first of a three-volume set constructed from three cycles of lectures, purports to bring focus to the Philokalia, the five-volume treasury of Eastern Orthodox mystical thought and practice, while also critiquing the works philosophy of P. D. Ouspensky, adding to it whatever the author feels the latter left out. A nice recipe, but quickly got bogged down in medieval-style schematics. So, like Dante, I got lost. This first cycle, though, is nominally the exoteric cycle. I'm tempted to skip to the esoteric one, volume three. If Aeneus, or better yet Beatrice will join me there, I'll try to get some grounding. Hopefully he has something on deification. To be continued. ( )