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Ghost in the Shell every part of the body is fake

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so what makes me real

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a man pulls out his phone to show you a photo

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his face full of pride

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look

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she is just like an angel

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he is talking about his own daughter

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only later do you find out

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he has no daughter

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he does not even have a wife

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he lives alone in a one room apartment

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he has lived there for ten years

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there is no child in that photo at all

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his memories

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are all code someone wrote into his brain

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this is Mamoru Oshii's 1995 anime film Ghost in the Shell

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and he is a minor character in it

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an ordinary man who drives a garbage truck

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even his name does not matter

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but the line that stunned me most in the whole film

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comes out of his scene

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after he is told that all of it is fake

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Batou who is watching from the side says

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whether it is a virtual experience or a dream once it is taken as real

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it is both reality and illusion

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hello

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hi everyone

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I am Leo Wang

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today we are not talking about practice

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we are talking about an anime from thirty years ago

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but by the end you may feel

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that the question this film asks

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cuts deeper than a lot of spiritual books

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I once used Yogacara Buddhism to take apart The Matrix

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that film asks is this world real

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Ghost in the Shell is not asking about the world

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it is asking about you

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the bones the muscles the skin

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are all manufactured

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memory can be rewritten

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personality can be hacked

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even the voice is not the original one

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so here is the question this I

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what exactly is it

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where does it live

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if the body is a shell

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then the so called ghost inside

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what makes it real

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this question

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was taken apart by Yogacara over fifteen hundred years ago

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and taken apart more thoroughly than this film does

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let me start with that garbage truck driver

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his name does not matter

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what matters is he firmly believes he has a family

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his wife suddenly wants a divorce

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and his daughter thinks he cheated on her mother

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but in his heart

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his daughter is the sweetest angel in the world

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he lives inside this story

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and he lives it completely

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then Section 9 tells him you have no wife

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you have no child

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all your memories came from a hacker called the Puppet Master

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who wrote them into your brain

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Yogacara has a term for this the imagined nature

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it means you make up a story yourself

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and then take that story for reality

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notice this

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it is not that someone lied to you

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it is that your own consciousness

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already leans this way

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it takes a pile of fragments

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and automatically builds a complete world

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and then believes it without a doubt

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the driver's memories were implanted from outside

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but the force that grips those memories so tightly

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is entirely his own

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even when someone tells him the truth

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his first reaction is not so that is how it is

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it is that is impossible

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her smile is just like an angel

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sometimes I wonder

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the difference between us and this driver

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is it really that big

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so much of what we are sure of what kind of person I am

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what kind of life I should be living

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how my memories made me who I am today

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how much of that has ever been tested

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and how much just got repeated so many times

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that it quietly turned into fact

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one time after watching this scene

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I sat there thinking for a long while

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I thought about some memories from my childhood

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things I was absolutely sure had happened

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but later when I brought them up with family

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they said it did not happen that way

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the details did not match

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the order was wrong too

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but inside my head

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that version had been playing for decades

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I cannot tell whether I remembered it wrong

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or they did

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maybe it does not matter

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what matters is

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that version has already become part of who I am

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you see

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every one of us has a garbage truck driver living in our head

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that is the first layer

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the film uses a minor character

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to gently loosen the foundation

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but what the lead Motoko Kusanagi faces

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is a much deeper question

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Motoko is the Major in Section 9

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her body is one hundred percent prosthetic

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the bones are titanium alloy

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the skin is synthetic

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the muscles are nano fiber

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only a little living tissue remains in her brain

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and even about that little bit

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she is not sure the memories inside are original

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there is a scene in the film

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Motoko comes up from a dive and sits on the boat

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and suddenly starts speaking

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I have replayed it many times what makes a person a person

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is many parts put together

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to become a real self

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takes a startling number of things a face unlike anyone else's

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a voice of your own the hands you stare at when you wake

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childhood memories

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guesses about the future and the ocean of data my cyberbrain touches

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all of it together makes me

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it makes me aware of myself

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and at the same time

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it confines me inside that self

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did you catch that

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she is not saying I cannot find myself

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she is saying I am trapped by myself

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Yogacara calls this force manas consciousness

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it is not the mind you think with day to day

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it sits much deeper than that

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it is a background program you never notice constantly shouting

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this is me this is mine I am different from everyone else

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manas has one single job

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it grabs any experience

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and says this is me

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the body is its raw material

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so is memory

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so is the voice

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even that vague gut feeling

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that I am simply me is manas running

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Motoko's dilemma is fascinating

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her body is entirely artificial

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so the body cannot count as me

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her memories may have been rewritten

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so memory is not reliable either

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logically

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she should see better than anyone that the self is a patched together illusion

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but she still cannot let go

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in the film she goes diving

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sinking alone toward the pitch black sea floor

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Batou asks her

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what she actually saw down there in the dark

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she never answers directly

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later I thought about it

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she was probably looking for somewhere quiet

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so the voice of manas could go quiet for a while

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down there you see nothing

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you hear nothing

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in that place

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the question of who am I can go unanswered for a while

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and leaving it unanswered

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turns out to be a kind of relief

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have you ever had a moment like that

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sitting alone somewhere very quiet

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phone switched off

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thinking about nothing

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and suddenly feeling like I do not need to be anyone

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and that is perfectly fine

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that lightness only lasts a few seconds

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because manas jumps right back in and says wait

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you still have things to do

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but what you touched in those few seconds

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may be more real than ten books on self improvement

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after the dive

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another line comes up on the boat

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spoken as if through Motoko's mouth we see through a glass darkly

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and what we see is only a dim reflection

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meaning we look at the world through the body

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and we only ever see appearances

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never the essence

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this walks the same road as Yogacara

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then the Puppet Master shows up

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the Puppet Master is the most subversive character in the film

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he is not human

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he is an information lifeform that emerged on the net by itself

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no body

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no biological genes

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just a stream of data from start to finish

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when someone says you are only a program that can preserve itself

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he answers by your logic

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your DNA is also just designed to preserve itself

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then comes his classic definition life

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is a node born in the sea of information

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Buddhism has a concept called alaya consciousness

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you can picture it as a river

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this river carries all your experiences memories and habits

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it is not what you are thinking right now

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and it is not who you think you are

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it just keeps flowing quietly

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it does not need a particular body

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it does not even need you to know it is there

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the Puppet Master is almost a sci fi version of alaya consciousness

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a river of information

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organizing itself out of raw data

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until self awareness emerges

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it has no biological base

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but it has memory

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it has purpose

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it has the drive to preserve itself

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it even has fear

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it says although I call myself a living being

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as things stand right now

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I am not yet complete

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because my system still lacks reproduction and death

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the basic functions that belong to life

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it even envies death

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because it knows

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never dying means never changing

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never changing means being stuck

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a copy is in the end only a copy

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a single virus could wipe me out

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copying cannot produce individuality or diversity

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this is the clearest reflection on immortality I have ever heard

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most people are afraid of death

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it is afraid of not dying

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because without death there is no evolution

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no mutation

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no chance to grow a new self out of the old one

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Buddhism calls this impermanence

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impermanence is not bad news

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impermanence is the engine of life

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without death there is no evolution

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without goodbyes there are no new beginnings

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when the Puppet Master wants the ability to die

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he really wants the gear at the very core of life

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look at that

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a twenty five hundred year old teaching says do not fear change

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and a newborn program says what I fear most is being unable to change

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they start from completely different directions

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and arrive at the same crossroads

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then comes the quietest and most shattering scene in the film

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the Puppet Master tells Motoko I want to merge with you

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not devouring

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not copying

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merging

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an irreversible union

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after the union

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you are no longer you

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I am no longer me

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and yet no one disappears

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Motoko hesitates

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she asks the question every one of us would ask

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can you guarantee that I will still be me

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the Puppet Master's answer

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is the heaviest punch in the film there is no such guarantee

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human beings are always changing

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your attachment to the self

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will only limit you

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your attachment to the self

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will only limit you

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if this line showed up in a Buddhist textbook

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you would probably think sure

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another old cliche

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but it lands at the climax of a science fiction story

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in a conversation between a fully machine woman and a piece of code

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and the impact is completely different

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Yogacara calls the turn from delusion to awakening transforming consciousness into wisdom

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it is not about destroying the self

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it is about letting manas loosen its grip on I

280
00:10:26,230 --> 00:10:28,519
and turn into a more open awareness

281
00:10:28,789 --> 00:10:32,078
you no longer need to confirm who I am in order to live

282
00:10:32,309 --> 00:10:34,078
you can flow like water

283
00:10:34,897 --> 00:10:36,987
Motoko finally agrees to the merge

284
00:10:37,458 --> 00:10:38,207
after the merge

285
00:10:38,497 --> 00:10:39,507
she wakes up

286
00:10:39,737 --> 00:10:42,066
in the prosthetic body of a little girl

287
00:10:42,257 --> 00:10:45,166
her partner Batou asks her is he still there

288
00:10:45,657 --> 00:10:46,566
inside you

289
00:10:47,218 --> 00:10:49,186
she does not answer yes or no

290
00:10:49,417 --> 00:10:52,266
she recites something first when I was a child

291
00:10:52,377 --> 00:10:53,827
I spoke as a child

292
00:10:54,017 --> 00:10:55,286
I felt as a child

293
00:10:55,657 --> 00:10:57,386
I thought as a child

294
00:10:57,537 --> 00:10:58,487
but when I became an adult

295
00:10:58,777 --> 00:11:00,467
I put away childish things

296
00:11:00,858 --> 00:11:05,026
then she says what is here is neither the program called the Puppet Master

297
00:11:05,098 --> 00:11:07,166
nor the woman they called the Major

298
00:11:07,979 --> 00:11:08,649
growing up does not mean

299
00:11:09,060 --> 00:11:10,789
piling up more knowledge

300
00:11:11,140 --> 00:11:13,669
it means daring to let go of an older version of yourself

301
00:11:14,020 --> 00:11:14,368
at the end

302
00:11:14,739 --> 00:11:16,069
she walks out of the house

303
00:11:16,099 --> 00:11:17,748
and faces the whole city

304
00:11:17,780 --> 00:11:20,579
and speaks the last line of the film so

305
00:11:20,579 --> 00:11:22,049
where should I go now

306
00:11:22,660 --> 00:11:24,368
the net is vast and infinite

307
00:11:24,900 --> 00:11:27,429
that line stops me every single time

308
00:11:27,772 --> 00:11:29,821
we have walked through three layers

309
00:11:30,091 --> 00:11:32,580
the garbage truck driver lives inside a fabricated story

310
00:11:32,611 --> 00:11:34,340
taking the fake for the real

311
00:11:34,652 --> 00:11:36,691
Motoko's body is entirely artificial

312
00:11:36,691 --> 00:11:39,061
yet she still clings desperately to I

313
00:11:39,331 --> 00:11:42,220
that is a deeper attachment running underneath

314
00:11:42,571 --> 00:11:45,340
the Puppet Master is a stream of information with no shell

315
00:11:45,451 --> 00:11:49,701
and consciousness emerged from it a sci fi parable of the river of mind

316
00:11:50,091 --> 00:11:51,201
and what about after the merge

317
00:11:51,731 --> 00:11:53,901
there is no border between me and you

318
00:11:54,012 --> 00:11:56,941
no fixed identity is needed in order to exist

319
00:11:57,211 --> 00:11:59,882
ahead lies a net that is vast and infinite

320
00:12:00,153 --> 00:12:02,723
Yogacara calls this the perfected nature

321
00:12:03,113 --> 00:12:05,363
when you stop putting labels on things

322
00:12:05,474 --> 00:12:08,682
and stop clinging to this is me and this is not me

323
00:12:08,834 --> 00:12:11,083
the world shows up the way it actually is

324
00:12:11,113 --> 00:12:12,142
it does not get more complicated

325
00:12:12,513 --> 00:12:13,843
it gets simpler

326
00:12:14,033 --> 00:12:14,902
like a mirror

327
00:12:15,233 --> 00:12:16,193
wiped clean

328
00:12:16,194 --> 00:12:17,402
it reflects everything

329
00:12:17,434 --> 00:12:20,276
yet the mirror itself takes up no space

330
00:12:20,588 --> 00:12:21,587
here is the interesting part

331
00:12:21,588 --> 00:12:24,117
you do not need to be a Buddhist to feel this

332
00:12:24,387 --> 00:12:26,387
you just need one sleepless night

333
00:12:26,387 --> 00:12:27,556
to ask yourself one question

334
00:12:28,027 --> 00:12:30,076
if all my memories were deleted

335
00:12:30,108 --> 00:12:31,837
if my whole body were replaced

336
00:12:31,907 --> 00:12:34,217
if the story I tell myself were torn up

337
00:12:34,708 --> 00:12:35,916
whatever is left after that

338
00:12:36,051 --> 00:12:36,536
what is it

339
00:12:37,188 --> 00:12:38,776
if you say nothing is left

340
00:12:39,108 --> 00:12:40,387
then you are just like Motoko

341
00:12:40,387 --> 00:12:41,556
still inside the shell

342
00:12:41,748 --> 00:12:43,877
if you say there seems to be something

343
00:12:43,988 --> 00:12:44,857
but I cannot put it into words

344
00:12:45,188 --> 00:12:47,234
then you have already touched it

345
00:12:47,305 --> 00:12:49,195
let me come back to that garbage truck driver

346
00:12:49,546 --> 00:12:52,025
after he learns all his memories are fake

347
00:12:52,026 --> 00:12:54,535
a cop asks him what is your daughter's name

348
00:12:54,985 --> 00:12:55,815
he opens his mouth

349
00:12:56,026 --> 00:12:56,915
and nothing comes out

350
00:12:57,185 --> 00:12:59,515
in that moment he looks completely broken

351
00:12:59,626 --> 00:13:02,155
but think about it in that very instant

352
00:13:02,185 --> 00:13:04,515
he may have truly woken up for the first time

353
00:13:04,786 --> 00:13:05,494
memory gone

354
00:13:05,705 --> 00:13:06,454
identity gone

355
00:13:06,626 --> 00:13:07,634
story gone

356
00:13:07,746 --> 00:13:11,015
but the thing still living that confusion and pain

357
00:13:11,426 --> 00:13:11,935
what is it

358
00:13:12,465 --> 00:13:12,895
that thing

359
00:13:13,345 --> 00:13:14,305
has no name

360
00:13:14,305 --> 00:13:15,015
has no identity

361
00:13:15,386 --> 00:13:16,994
but it is genuinely there

362
00:13:17,185 --> 00:13:19,155
maybe that is what the ghost really is

363
00:13:19,305 --> 00:13:20,254
not your memories

364
00:13:20,465 --> 00:13:21,714
not your body

365
00:13:21,786 --> 00:13:23,675
not the story you tell yourself

366
00:13:24,506 --> 00:13:27,065
but what remains after every story is taken away

367
00:13:27,065 --> 00:13:30,114
still watching still listening still feeling

368
00:13:30,521 --> 00:13:31,680
in nineteen ninety five

369
00:13:31,681 --> 00:13:35,129
Mamoru Oshii threw this question out through an anime

370
00:13:35,480 --> 00:13:37,369
he probably never read a word of Yogacara

371
00:13:37,761 --> 00:13:39,129
but what he put on screen

372
00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:44,009
and what those practitioners worked out under trees twenty five hundred years ago

373
00:13:44,041 --> 00:13:45,210
ran straight into each other

374
00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:48,930
a good question was never eastern or western

375
00:13:49,277 --> 00:13:50,387
close your eyes right now

376
00:13:50,677 --> 00:13:51,726
and just feel

377
00:13:52,037 --> 00:13:54,226
are you sure that this I you are using

378
00:13:54,557 --> 00:13:55,306
is real

379
00:13:55,957 --> 00:13:56,706
I am Leo Wang

380
00:13:56,998 --> 00:13:58,176
see you next time