Rewrite your life's script
Start with self-awareness
Have you ever experienced this?
Looking back at a turning point in your life,
it felt like a complete accident at the time,
but in hindsight,
every step seemed perfectly orchestrated.
You were five minutes late,
missed the subway,
and ended up meeting your future partner on the platform.
You randomly opened a book,
happened upon a single passage,
and it resolved a conflict that troubled you for years.
You think it's just a coincidence.
But late one night, lying in bed,
you suddenly connect these coincidences,
and realize the line they form
doesn't look random at all.
In that moment, you get a chill down your spine.
Hello,
everyone,
I'm Wang Lijie.
A viewer once left me a comment saying,
"Everything seems random,
yet it feels inevitable."
That sentence kept me thinking for a long time,
because it hits on an ultimate question humans have pondered
for thousands of years without an answer.
Is your life a roll of the dice,
or a script written in advance?
Let's start with science.
Over two hundred years ago,
French mathematician Laplace proposed a thought experiment.
He said,
if there were a super-intelligence
that knew the position and velocity of every particle in the universe,
it could calculate the entire future of the universe.
In other words,
from the moment of the Big Bang,
everything was already decided.
You drank coffee today instead of tea;
you fell in love with that person instead of someone else;
you're watching this video instead of something else—
all are inevitable results of that bang 13.8 billion years ago.
This is called Determinism.
It sounds quite hopeless.
But a hundred years later,
Quantum Mechanics dealt Determinism a fatal blow.
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle tells us
you cannot precisely know both the position and velocity of a particle.
This isn't because our measurement technology is poor,
but because the fundamental rules of the universe forbid it.
At the quantum level,
everything is probability.
Where an electron will land after passing through double slits—
even God doesn't know
until the very moment it actually lands.
So,
the foundation of the universe is not deterministic,
it is probabilistic.
Randomness truly exists.
But here's the catch:
Probability works at the quantum level,
but at the macroscopic level,
the statistical averages of massive particles become extremely precise.
The sun will rise tomorrow.
If you pour a glass of water,
it will definitely flow downward.
The Law of Large Numbers makes the macro world seem fully deterministic.
So something strange happens:
The micro level is random,
the macro level seems fixed.
What about the middle ground?
The scale of your life and mine
is exactly where the two intertwine.
Chaos theory has a famous metaphor: the Butterfly Effect.
Meteorologist Edward Lorenz asked a question in 1972:
Can the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil
set off a tornado in Texas?
The answer is: Yes, it is possible.
It's not that the butterfly has superpowers,
but in a nonlinear system,
tiny differences in initial conditions are exponentially amplified.
Your life is a chaotic system.
Say you slept three extra minutes this morning;
this tiny variable could, ten years later, push your life in a
completely different direction.
So the scientific answer isn't a choice between randomness or destiny—
it is both.
It depends on the scale you use to look at it.
I've had a very deep realization about this myself.
In 2015,
I invested in a solid-state LiDAR tech company
called Hesai Technology.
The decision-making process then was full of randomness.
It started from an entrepreneur meetup I organized in Silicon Valley.
Later, Hesai went public.
Would you say that was random?
The meetup was indeed accidental.
Would you say it was destined?
Over twenty entrepreneurs attended that day,
but I only invested in three of them.
Why didn't I invest in the others?
Looking at it more macroscopically,
over the past decade,
I've invested in 300 tech startups.
97% failed,
and only 3% succeeded.
So, my successful exit from Hesai—
was it a fluke,
or an inevitability within a large enough sample size?
Zoom out to a cosmic scale,
and the Law of Large Numbers dominates;
everything seems inevitable.
Zoom in to a specific day or a specific choice,
and quantum fluctuations and chaos make results uncertain.
Your subjective experience sits right between these two scales.
That's why you feel
everything is both random
and destined at the same time.
It's not that your perception is flawed;
it's that the scale you live on
is where randomness and inevitability meet.
Having discussed physics,
let's look from another perspective.
In previous videos, I've mentioned
how Yogācāra compares consciousness to an eight-layered system.
The deepest layer is called the Alaya-vijnana.
It's like a vast seed warehouse,
storing traces of all your actions and thoughts.
I've compared it to parameters in a Large Language Model.
An AI has trillions of parameters.
These aren't knowledge itself,
but the geometric shape of relationships between knowledge.
Humans are the same.
The "seeds" in your Alaya-vijnana are not specific memories,
but your predisposed patterns of reacting to the world.
These seeds determine what kind of predictions and reactions
your brain will produce when encountering a situation.
That's why some are born afraid of snakes,
some are naturally sensitive to music,
and some repeatedly fall into the same painful relationships.
It's not because a god is arranging it,
but because your seeds are running automatically.
From this angle,
your life does seem destined,
because seeds shape your every reaction.
But seeds are not fixed.
Seeds manifest in action,
and action perfumes the seeds.
If you make a choice today that differs from your past,
this new choice will plant a new seed,
altering your future reaction patterns.
I've said before,
"Your bank balance is determined by the script."
I've also said,
"The power of will can rewrite the code."
These two statements seem contradictory,
but they aren't.
The script determines your default path.
It is the result of your seeds running automatically
when you make no active changes.
Aspiration rewriting the code
means actively becoming aware of these seeds
and choosing to plant a different one instead.
Hearing this, you might say,
"Fine,
I'll just work hard at my practice and try to change."
But some viewers have raised a deeper question:
What if the very thought of wanting to change
is also automatically generated by a seed?
If you can achieve enlightenment,
does it mean seeds of awakening were already in your Alaya consciousness?
Does it mean you can change your fate
only because changing it was already written in your script?
You think you're using a cheat code,
but maybe the cheat was preset by the system.
To be honest,
logically,
this question is impossible to refute.
Think about it carefully,
doesn't it feel like being trapped?
It's like a Mobius strip.
You think you've flipped from one side to the other,
but as you keep walking,
you find the back is still the front.
You think you've jumped out of the frame of fate,
but the act of jumping itself
might just be part of the framework.
Neuroscience is asking the same thing.
In the 1980s,
neuroscientist Benjamin Libet conducted a famous experiment.
He asked subjects to press a button at a time of their choosing
while recording their brain signals.
The results showed that
hundreds of milliseconds before you realize you want to press the button,
your brain has already started preparing for the action.
In other words,
you think you decided to press the button,
but your brain made the decision before your conscious mind did.
This experiment terrified many people.
It seemed to suggest
that free will is an illusion;
you aren't making decisions.
The inference model inside your brain is making them,
giving you the illusion that you are in control.
But recent research offers a new interpretation.
In 2012, cognitive scientist Schurger
published a paper in the PNAS journal
offering a fresh perspective.
He suggested that
the early signal seen in the Libet experiment
isn't the brain making a decision,
but the result of random neural noise reaching a threshold.
It's like when you're hesitating to stand up from the sofa;
the internal impulse slowly builds up,
and at a certain point, you stand.
This accumulation process *is* your decision-making process,
not some external force acting for you.
So,
the brain acting milliseconds before the conscious awareness
doesn't prove you don't have free will.
It only proves
that your understanding of free will might be too simplistic.
Free will isn't a momentary on-off switch,
but a continuous, dynamic process.
This is the scientific basis for mindfulness in Buddhism.
Mindfulness isn't about control at the moment of decision;
it works much earlier.
Through continuous awareness,
it changes the direction and threshold of that build-up process.
You're not pressing the pause button at the last second;
you're adjusting your entire inner operation much earlier.
Quantum mechanics hides an even deeper revelation.
We mentioned earlier that
particles in the quantum world, before being observed,
exist in a superposition of all possible states.
Only when you observe them
do they collapse into a definite state.
The key is...
The way you observe influences the direction of its collapse.
How you choose to look
determines the result that manifests.
If you scale this up to your life,
you'll find a fascinating correspondence.
The 'seeds' in your Alaya-vijnana,
when you aren't aware of them,
behave like a quantum superposition,
running automatically according to default probability distributions.
Your fears, attachments, and reaction patterns,
they operate on their own.
You don't even know they're active.
But when you begin to awaken,
observing your own consciousness and thoughts,
and your own behavioral patterns,
you become the observer measuring the quantum state.
Your observation itself
is influencing which direction those seeds collapse.
So, the rewrite of your innate, initialized script
doesn't start
with some earth-shattering decision.
It starts the moment you begin to observe yourself.
Awakening is not the destination;
it is the start of observation.
And observation,
in the context of quantum physics,
is an act of participating in the creation of reality.
You may think you're just watching your thoughts,
but your watching
is already changing their trajectory.
Speaking of which,
we previously compared Alaya seeds to the parameters of an LLM.
Thinking a layer deeper with this analogy,
you'll discover something crucial.
An AI cannot rewrite its own underlying code.
If you ask ChatGPT,
it can't open its source code and change a line.
However,
an AI's training process can rewrite its parameters.
Every round of training
uses new data to fine-tune those parameters,
so that next time the model faces a similar input,
it gives a different output.
Humans are the same.
You can't change the underlying code of this world,
nor can you change the laws of physics.
You can't even change the seeds you've already planted.
But your awareness
is your training process.
Every time you observe your thoughts
and your reaction patterns,
seeing them without judgment,
this 'seeing' itself is fine-tuning your parameters.
You're not rewriting the script of the universe;
you're rewriting the parameters of your own model.
And what do parameters determine?
They determine your default behavior in autopilot mode.
The reactions you make without thinking,
the emotions you think are instinct, the habits you think are unchangeable—
they are all driven by old parameters.
But as you fine-tune these parameters through continuous awareness,
new parameters will gradually change your autopilot mode.
When you encounter the same situation,
you no longer have the same reaction.
This is the path of diligence.
It's not attaining Buddhahood overnight;
it's a round of fine-tuning with every act of awareness.
Awareness changes parameters;
parameters change behavior;
behavior plants new seeds;
new seeds become new parameters.
It is a cycle.
And the first step to starting this cycle
is to begin observing.
Alright,
back to the Mobius strip question.
If everything is predestined,
even your awakening,
then is effort still necessary?
My answer is:
This question itself is a trap.
Why?
Because it assumes you can see the complete script.
Only when you know the ending
does destiny become meaningful to you.
But you can't see the script.
No one can.
You don't know what will happen in the next second,
or who you will meet tomorrow.
You don't know if your awakening will occur in this lifetime.
In the face of this complete unknown,
destiny and randomness, on the level of your experience,
are equivalent.
In other words,
even if the universe is a machine of extreme precision,
and everything was determined from the moment of the Big Bang,
as long as you're inside and can't see the blueprint,
then this machine, to you,
is no different from pure randomness.
Pause and think for a moment.
This is the most subtle part of the question.
It cannot be proven,
nor can it be falsified.
But its unfalsifiability is exactly what gives you freedom.
Since you can never know if your struggle is spontaneous or programmed,
your only rational strategy is to assume your choices matter,
and then live life to the fullest.
Imagine two people,
neither knowing if life is predestined.
One says,
"Since it might be destined anyway,
I might as well just give up."
The other says,
"Since I don't know if it's destined,
I'll act as if it isn't,
and live with all my heart."
Did you notice?
The choice to give up
is also a choice.
If everything is destined,
then your choice to give up is also destined.
But if even giving up is destined,
then you must willingly accept the consequences.
If your actions truly align with your beliefs,
and you accept it completely,
that's fine too.
But most people,
I believe, are not content with mediocrity.
So why not try the other path?
The path that is more vibrant,
and filled with hope.
This is the "power of will" I keep talking about.
Willpower is not a superstition,
nor is it self-deception.
It's the narrative direction you actively choose
while unable to see the script.
You don't know if destiny has a main plot line,
but you choose to live your own version.
If the future exceeds your expectations,
you've successfully changed your fate.
Even if it doesn't,
at least you lived each moment earnestly.
A viewer once said,
"Free will isn't about having to do something,
it's choosing to do it."
"I could choose not to,
but I'm willing to."
That really resonated with me.
True freedom isn't proving your choices are uninfluenced;
that's impossible.
True freedom is when, under all those influences,
you still feel yourself choosing,
and you remain willing to take responsibility for it.
Buddhism actually gave a very subtle answer long ago.
It doesn't say everything is destined,
nor that everything is random.
Buddhism speaks of "conditioned arising."
The "cause" is the seed,
the "condition" is the environment.
The seed is relatively fixed.
But conditions are uncertain.
The same seed,
when sown in different soil, climates, and times,
will grow into something entirely different.
Countless seeds are stored in your Alaya-vijnana.
Which seed will be activated and when
depends on the conditions you encounter.
Every new action and thought you initiate
is changing this field of causes and conditions.
You aren't fighting fate;
you are adjusting the conditions.
For example,
you have a deck of cards in your hand.
The deck is already shuffled,
and the order is fixed.
These are your seeds;
you cannot change them.
But you can choose your strategy for playing them.
With the same hand,
a master and a novice will get completely different results.
The cards are fixed,
but how you play them is not.
Your seeds are the sum of your past actions.
You can't change seeds already sown,
but you can choose when and how to respond to them.
That is the power of conditions.
So don't ask if your life is predestined.
You should ask:
Beyond these invisible seeds,
what new conditions can I create?
Neuroscientist Evers proposed a concept called "Variable Determinism."
She says we are determined
yet free at the same time.
Your brain is shaped by genes, environment, and past experiences,
but within these shapes,
there is still room for variation.
Though this space may be small,
it is enough for you to plant a new seed.
And one new seed
is enough.
This is rewriting the parameters of your carbon-based AI model through awareness,
then using those updated parameters
to drive your future "autopilot" behavior.
I always encourage people:
if you are happy with life right now,
that's wonderful.
Dwell in the present
and enjoy every moment.
But if you feel unsatisfied,
if you feel you deserve a better life,
then make a great vow.
That vow doesn't need to be logical
or realistic;
it only needs to be sincere.
Because a sincere vow is a powerful seed in itself.
When you plant this seed,
you don't know when it will sprout
or what it will look like.
But what you do know is
that you planted it.
This act
was done by you,
regardless of anyone saying it was in the script.
Finally, let me ask you a question.
At this moment, you are listening to me.
Whether this is a coincidence or an arrangement,
it has already happened.
What will you do next?
Will you wait for fate to provide the answer,
or will you stand up and create one yourself?
I don't know what's in your script,
but I know one thing:
the bravest decision you've ever made,
before you made it,
you didn't know where it would lead.
That decision changed your life
not because it was written in the script,
but because in that moment, you decided to stop waiting.
Even if the script has a main plot,
you cannot see where it's going.
So, why not just live out your own script?
Wouldn't that be great?
I'm Wang Lijie.
See you next time.