Reality Transurfing says you choose reality
Buddhism says there is no chooser
A Russian man wrote a book
telling you something shocking you don't need to create reality
reality has already been created
infinite versions exist all at once
the only thing you need to do
is pick one and walk into it
this book's Chinese title is Si Yi Li
its English name is Reality Transurfing
the author is Zeland
in spiritual circles around the world
its popularity is second only to The Power of Now and manifestation teachings
many readers even consider it more advanced than those
because it isn't as naive as the law of attraction
it doesn't have you make a wish and wait for the universe to deliver a package
nor like manifestation which only talks about switching inner states
it builds a complete theoretical framework
there's the space of variations and the pendulum
there's inner intention and outer intention and the law of importance
the whole system looks perfectly seamless
logically self consistent
but today I'm going to take a Buddhist scalpel
and cut this framework open layer by layer
not to dismiss it
the parts it gets right are genuinely brilliant
but to help you see clearly
where this path stops
and the very place where it stops
is exactly where Buddhism truly begins
hello
everyone
I'm Wang Lijie
let me quickly draw a map for those who haven't read the book
Zeland's theory has four pillars
the first is called the space of variations
he says
everything that could possibly happen
already exists all at once in an infinite dimensional field of information
imagine a giant supermarket
the shelves hold endless versions of your life a version where you get rich
a version where you're broke and destitute
a version where you meet true love
a version where you grow old alone
these versions don't need to be created
they're already there
what you do isn't to make a new reality
but to slide over to the shelf you want
the second is called the pendulum
this is the most insightful concept in the whole book
Zeland says
society is full of energy information structures
he calls them pendulums
a company is a pendulum
an ideology is a pendulum
an emotional storm on social media is also a pendulum
what keeps a pendulum alive
your attention and emotional energy
it doesn't care whether you support it or oppose it the more fiercely you resist
the more energy you give it
what the pendulum wants isn't your agreement
it's your engagement
the third is called lowering importance
Zeland says
the more you care about something
the greater the resistance between you and it
the thing you desperately want
is exactly what drifts further and further away
because importance creates excess potential
this potential triggers balancing forces that push back against you
so his advice is want something
but don't treat it as important
the fourth is called outer intention
this is what Zeland sees as the ultimate weapon
he distinguishes two kinds of intention
inner intention is I will go do this thing
it's you actively pushing the world
outer intention is this thing will happen on its own
it's you aligning your state with the version of reality you want
and then the world adjusts itself to match you
you don't go and take it
it comes to you
that's all four pillars
pretty elegant right
it really is elegant
the first time I encountered this theory
there were several moments when I genuinely felt
this man had touched something real
but at the same time I found several huge cracks
and these cracks
are exactly the ones Buddhism marked out twenty five hundred years ago
let's take them apart one by one
first the space of variations
Zeland says infinite versions of reality exist at once
you don't need to create
you only need to choose
this picture is strikingly similar in structure to the seed theory of Yogacara
what is the alaya consciousness
it's a vast storehouse holding countless seeds
containing every possibility
good ones bad ones ones tied to wealth
ones tied to awakening
every possible experience
really are all already there
lying latent in the form of seeds
up to this point
the two systems overlap at the level of description
but the fork is coming right up
Zeland says
you can choose to slide to any version you want
Buddhism asks hold on
who is choosing
in the Yogacara framework
seeds are not chosen by you
they arise on their own when causes and conditions ripen
what kind of reality you experience
depends on what seeds you planted in the past
and what conditions in the present activate them
in this process there is no independent chooser
strolling through the supermarket pushing a cart
you think you're choosing
but really the seeds are arranging themselves by their own logic
here's an analogy
have you ever had this experience you open a food delivery app
scroll for ages
and end up ordering from the same few places
you think you're choosing freely
but your fingers were long ago locked in by past taste memories
emotional habits and spending patterns
the options you see are infinite
but your attention
only lands on the few spots the seeds already marked
Zeland says you can slide to any shelf
but he didn't tell you your cart has autopilot
and that navigation program
is the sum of all your past choices
in my earlier episode on manifestation I made a core point
you can't manifest something you have no seed for
Zeland's space of variations is one step more precise than manifestation
he doesn't say create
he says choose
but the essence of the problem hasn't changed
your choice is still determined by your existing seed patterns
you think you're heading toward a brand new version of reality
but really the inertia of old seeds pushed you to a place that looks new
yet is structurally identical
like someone who keeps changing jobs cities and partners
each time thinking this time it's different
but each time falling into the same pattern
not because he chose wrong
but because he was choosing with the same seed bank just switching shelves
the cart still holds the same things
now let's look at the pendulum
this concept
I have to give Zeland real credit
his description of the pendulum
that society contains collective structures feeding on individual energy
has a very precise counterpart in Buddhism
called collective karma
a company's culture a nation's collective consciousness
an emotional tsunami on social media
are all expressions of collective karma
you're inside it
and get swept along without noticing
your emotions judgments and actions
are largely not yours
but the arising of collective karmic seeds activated by shared conditions
Zeland is right the pendulum doesn't care whether you support or oppose it
it only cares that you give it energy
Buddhism's formulation is more precise
grasping and aversion are two sides of the same coin
desperately resisting something
and desperately chasing something
consume the same energy at the level of manas consciousness
what actually makes a pendulum lose its grip on you
is not resistance
nor submission
but not grasping at appearances you see it
but your mind doesn't stick to it
it's not pretending you can't see it
it's truly seeing how it operates
so its hooks can't catch you anymore
but here Zeland makes a subtle mistake
he teaches you not to give the pendulum energy
and the method is to not treat it as important
it sounds a lot like the Buddhist not grasping at appearances
but the direction of operation is completely reversed
he does it to better achieve the result you want
that he teaches you to let go of the pendulum
his not caring is a strategy
a means letting go of this to grab that
Buddhism's not grasping at appearances is not a strategy
it's a letting go that happens naturally after you see the true nature of appearances
it's not letting go in order to gain freedom
it's seeing the truth
and letting go happens automatically
one uses letting go as a tool
the other is where letting go itself is the destination
this difference sounds subtle
but the consequences are worlds apart
the person who uses letting go as a tool
keeps a precise scoreboard inside I've let go for three days now
why hasn't the result come yet
he's using non attachment to be attached
but the person who truly sees through it
won't even have the thought I am letting go arise
just as you wouldn't while walking
think I'm moving forward alternating left foot and right foot
it's no longer an action
but a state of being
the third concept
lowering importance
Zeland says the more you care about something
the greater the resistance
the observation itself is fine
I've discussed similar phenomena from different angles in several earlier videos
but he explains this phenomenon as balancing forces
saying the universe has a force that automatically counters your importance
from Buddhism's view this explanation
mistakes the effect for the cause
it's not some mysterious balancing force fighting you
it's your own conscious structure creating the resistance
the more you care about something
the duality the manas draws between me and what I want
grows all the more rigid
this rigidity itself is the source of the resistance
it's not the universe pushing you
it's you twisting yourself
imagine grabbing a fish in the water
the harder you squeeze
the more the fish slips away
not because some balancing force is helping the fish escape
it's your own force that creates the fish's escape
force and resistance arise together
they're two sides of one thing
Zeland saw this phenomenon
but he mistook your own grip
for some external law of the universe
and Zeland's solution
tell yourself this isn't important
is structurally identical to what I analyzed in the manifestation episode
you can't pretend not to care in order to get a result
because the very act of pretending not to care
proves that you care very much
you're using the new label not caring
to wrap the old emotion of caring deeply
the manas is very shrewd
you can't even fool it
finally let's look at outer intention
Zeland says inner intention is you actively pushing the world
outer intention is letting the world come to match you
without exerting force
yet things happen on their own
I have to admit
this concept comes very close to some of Buddhism's core insights
Laozi said doing nothing yet leaving nothing undone doesn't mean doing nothing
it's having no attachment to a me who acts
Buddhism's emptiness of the three spheres
when you act there's no attachment to a doer
no attachment to a deed being done
no attachment to the process of doing it
these descriptions look extremely similar on the surface to Zeland's outer intention
but the deepest crack is right here
in Zeland's outer intention
the operating subject is still the self
it's the self that decides what to want
it's the self that tunes its own frequency
it's the self that aligns with the target reality
then the self waits for the world to come and match the self
throughout the whole process
the self never leaves the stage
it just moves from the front of the stage to the director's chair
but it's always present
always running the show
the state Buddhism points to
is not the self retreating backstage
it's the self being seen through it was never an entity
but a functional illusion fabricated by the manas
when you truly see how the self is constructed
it's not that the self got smarter
it's that the story of the self loses its persuasiveness
have you seen those stereograms a mess of color blocks
you stare and suddenly a three dimensional image pops out
before it pops out
you can't see it no matter what
after it pops out
you can never pretend not to see it again
what Buddhism calls seeing your true nature is this kind of experience
it's not that you learned some new skill
it's that an ever present truth suddenly becomes impossible to ignore
and Zeland's framework
amounts to teaching you how to paint a finer two dimensional picture
but he doesn't guide your eyes to discover the leap into three dimensions
Zeland says
outer intention is you don't exert force yet the world matches you
Buddhism says
it's not that the world matches you
it's that after you the middleman disappears
causes and conditions flow naturally
and what should happen happens
it's not that you're surfing
the wave and the surfer were always the same ocean
back to the original question
is Reality Transurfing worth reading
yes
its pendulum concept is invaluable for understanding how collective consciousness sweeps you along
it's far more precise than manifestation
at least it no longer naively says whatever you think comes true
its distinction between inner intention and outer intention
has touched the edge of some real structure
but its whole framework still rests on one fundamental premise
that the self can somehow choose a better reality
Buddhism would say
the very concept of a better reality is imaginary attachment
the act of choosing itself presupposes a chooser
and that chooser
is exactly what keeps you jumping between different versions of reality
yet never escaping the same pattern
Zeland gave you a map of an infinite supermarket
teaching you how to find the best shelf
Buddhism tells you something more fundamental you are not the customer
you are the supermarket itself
when you stop being busy choosing
you'll find
everything you need was already within your own nature
it's not that you own it by choosing right
it's that you never lost it
this is where Reality Transurfing's elegant detour ends
it goes further than most spiritual books
but at the final step it doesn't break through
it stands before the paper window
and paints a very beautiful picture
describing the scenery on the other side
but it never pokes through the paper
and Buddhism says stop painting
reach your finger over and poke it
the paper tears
and you're there
if you ask me what that paper is
three words I am choosing
once you see through the self
you don't need to choose any reality
because every present moment
is already complete
what do you think
is there any concept in Reality Transurfing
that you feel Buddhism hasn't fully explained
let me know in the comments
I'm Wang Lijie
see you next time