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holding up a flower and smiling

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the most beautiful story in Zen

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may not be true

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in twenty five hundred years of Buddhist history

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the most widely told and most beloved story

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is only eight characters long

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holding up a flower and smiling

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mind transmitted directly to mind

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one flower

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one smile

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and the whole lineage of Zen was passed on just like that

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but what if I told you

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that fifteen hundred years after the Buddha died

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this story appeared in writing in full for the very first time

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what would you think

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and here is the key part

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once you know it was probably invented later

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it actually becomes more profound

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why

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today let us take this story apart

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hello

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everyone

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I am Leo Wang

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first let me tell the whole story

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more than twenty five hundred years ago

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the Buddha was teaching on Vulture Peak

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the god Brahma offered him a golden flower

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the Buddha took the flower

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facing a thousand disciples below him

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and said nothing at all

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he simply held the flower up gently

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in complete silence

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everyone below him froze

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they were used to the Buddha unpacking the world with precise language

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used to the four noble truths the eightfold path the twelve links

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all that rigorous reasoning

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but today

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the teacher said nothing

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he just held up a flower

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everyone looked at each other

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with no idea what the Buddha meant

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only one person

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Mahakasyapa

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looked at the flower

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looked at the Buddha

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and the corners of his mouth lifted

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he smiled

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then the Buddha spoke

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he said

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I have the treasury of the true dharma eye

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the wondrous mind of nirvana

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the formless true form

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the subtle gate of dharma

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not established in words

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transmitted outside the teachings

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and I entrust it to Mahakasyapa

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in plain language that means

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I have one thing at the very core

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it is not in any scripture

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it cannot be said in any language

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and today I hand it to Kasyapa

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this is the origin story of Zen

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the whole Zen lineage from the Buddha to Bodhidharma to Huineng to today

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traces back to this one flower and this one smile

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it is a beautiful story

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but there is a problem

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this story

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was most likely made up

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I am not trying to provoke anyone

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I am stating the mainstream view among scholars

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let us look at the evidence

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first

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from Bodhidharma to Huineng

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the first six patriarchs of Zen

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not one of them ever mentioned this story

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if this really was the founding event of Zen

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how could six generations of patriarchs all forget it

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second

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the earliest record tied to this story

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appears in the seventeenth year of the Zhenyuan era of the Tang

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that is the year eight hundred and one

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in the Baolin Zhuan written by Zhiju

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but that version only says the Buddha passed the dharma to Kasyapa

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there is no flower in it at all

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the full flower and smile story

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had to wait for the Northern Song

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the complete scene was written down for the first time

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in the Tiansheng Guangdeng Lu published in ten thirty six

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and the lines we know best today

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not established in words transmitted outside the teachings

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were only fixed in the Zongmen Tongyao Ji in ten ninety three

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by then the Buddha had been gone

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for about fifteen hundred years

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third

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the story supposedly comes from a sutra called Brahma Questioning the Buddha

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the first person to name that source clearly

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was Wang Anshi of the Northern Song

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but that sutra itself is highly suspect

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the Japanese Soto scholar Nukariya Kaiten concluded

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that it was probably written by Chinese Zen followers themselves

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no earlier than the Jingde Chuandeng Lu

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which means no earlier than the year one thousand and four

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in other words

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the mainstream scholarly view is

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that this story was created by Chinese Zen itself

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it is not something the Buddha lived through in India

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it is a narrative the Chinese carefully built

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to give Zen a lineage running straight back to the Buddha

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okay

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I lay out this historical evidence

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not to tear anything down

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quite the opposite

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I think once you know this story may be invented

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it actually becomes more powerful

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why

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because think about it

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whoever made up this story

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what was he trying to say

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he could easily have invented something far more convincing

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for example

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the Buddha pouring some mystical power into Kasyapa in deep meditation

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or

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the Buddha privately passing on a secret mantra

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those fit the usual religious storytelling formula much better

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but he did not

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he invented the least formulaic story possible

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one flower

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one smile

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that is all

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no mystical ritual

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no secret formula

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not even a single word

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just one person seeing something

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and another person seeing it too

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and both of them knowing the other one saw it

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the person who invented this

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how deep did his insight run

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he used a fake story

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to capture a real problem exactly

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some things

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shatter the moment language touches them

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let me give you an example you have definitely lived through

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have you ever tried to describe the taste of durian

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to someone who has never eaten one

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you can say it is like cream

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a little like onion

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with a hint of caramel sweetness

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you talk for ten minutes

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the other person nods

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like they get it

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but you know perfectly well

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they do not get it at all

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between the durian taste built inside their head

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and the real taste of durian

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there is a gap language can never cross

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until they take the first bite themselves

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in that instant

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every verbal description becomes worthless

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now they finally know

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but the thing they know

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still cannot be said

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this is the core experience the flower and the smile point to

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when the Buddha held up that flower

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he was not performing some profound teaching

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he was showing a plain fact

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look

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this is it

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right here in front of you

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it does not need to be translated into concepts

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and Kasyapa smiled

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not because he understood some principle

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but because he saw the flower itself

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with nothing in between

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the difference is incredibly subtle

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so subtle that the moment you explain it in words

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you have already betrayed it

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still let me use a modern framework to bring you closer

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in nineteen sixty six

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the Hungarian British philosopher Michael Polanyi

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published a book called The Tacit Dimension

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it opens with a line that has been quoted countless times since

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we know

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far more than we can tell

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Polanyi gives a classic example

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you can recognize the face of a friend

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in a crowd

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hundreds of faces go by

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and you spot him instantly

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but if I asked you to describe in exact words

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how his face differs from all the other faces

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you could not do it

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your brain holds an extremely precise system of face recognition knowledge

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but that knowledge cannot be translated into words

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it is silent

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it is tacit

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it lives in your neural circuits

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not in your sentences

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riding a bike is the same

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you can ride

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you ride well

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but you cannot write a manual

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that lets a beginner ride just by reading it

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that live sense of balance those tiny shifts of weight

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that instinct for how far to lean into a turn

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all of it is tacit knowledge

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it can only be gained by doing it yourself

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it cannot be handed over in language

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Polanyi found a deep split

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human knowledge comes in two layers

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one layer can be spoken

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one layer cannot

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and the layer that cannot be spoken

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is usually the deeper and more crucial one

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see

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is that not exactly what the flower and the smile is about

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the Buddha holds up the flower

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what he shows is not a principle that can be stated

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but a kind of seeing that cannot be said

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Kasyapa caught it

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so he smiled

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the other disciples did not catch it

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so they were confused

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the difference is not intelligence

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not scholarship

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it is whether you can jump from descriptions about it

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to the thing itself

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modern cognitive science calls this explicit and implicit knowledge

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explicit knowledge is what you can encode in language

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like water boils at one hundred degrees

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implicit knowledge is what your body and nervous system know

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but your language system cannot say

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like how to keep your balance

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how to hear your name in a noisy room

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how to judge in a second whether someone can be trusted

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here is the interesting part

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brain research has found

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that these two kinds of knowledge use different brain regions

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explicit knowledge relies on the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex

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implicit knowledge relies on the basal ganglia and cerebellum

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they are two relatively independent systems

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you can be extremely strong in one system

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and extremely weak in the other

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a professor of Buddhist studies

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who has read every classic text

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and can write fifty thousand words on emptiness

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may never once have sat in meditation

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and watched a thought rise and dissolve

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his explicit knowledge is perfect

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his implicit knowledge is near zero

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an old farmer who has never read a scripture

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who worked the land his whole life

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and faces life and death with complete calm

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may be living the core spirit of Buddhism

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but he could never tell you what it is

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his implicit knowledge runs deep

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his explicit knowledge is almost blank

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this is where the power of the flower and the smile lies

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in one radically simple scene it tells you

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that the most essential thing the Buddha had

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belongs to implicit knowledge

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it is not in any scripture

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not in any concept

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not anywhere language can reach

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scriptures concepts words

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are only fingers pointing at the moon

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you might say

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then reading sutras taking classes watching videos

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is all of that wasted

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it is not wasted

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but you need to know where the limits are

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what language can do

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is clear away the obstacles

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and take you to the edge of the cliff

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but that final step

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the step off the cliff

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language cannot take for you

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that step you have to take yourself

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all those wild looking teaching methods

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that Zen developed later on

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the shouts the koans the hua tou

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are all doing the same one thing

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kicking you out of the comfort zone of language

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you try to grab it with a concept

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00:09:37,729 --> 00:09:39,047
and the master swings a stick at you

285
00:09:39,048 --> 00:09:40,098
the concept shatters

286
00:09:40,168 --> 00:09:41,927
you try to reason your way to it

287
00:09:41,928 --> 00:09:45,167
and the master throws you does a dog have buddha nature

288
00:09:45,168 --> 00:09:46,338
and your logic short circuits

289
00:09:46,609 --> 00:09:49,447
the moment every knowledge tool you have fails

290
00:09:49,449 --> 00:09:50,768
if you do not fall apart

291
00:09:50,768 --> 00:09:53,167
if you can rest inside that blankness

292
00:09:53,168 --> 00:09:55,218
then that thing shows up on its own

293
00:09:55,528 --> 00:09:56,618
it was always there

294
00:09:57,128 --> 00:09:58,598
your concepts were just too loud

295
00:09:58,768 --> 00:09:59,697
and they covered it up

296
00:10:00,138 --> 00:10:02,507
now I want you to try a small experiment

297
00:10:02,779 --> 00:10:04,747
it only takes three seconds

298
00:10:05,179 --> 00:10:07,608
look at something in front of you right now

299
00:10:08,258 --> 00:10:08,887
a cup

300
00:10:09,179 --> 00:10:10,147
a phone

301
00:10:10,218 --> 00:10:10,728
a wall

302
00:10:11,218 --> 00:10:12,708
or a tree outside the window

303
00:10:13,179 --> 00:10:14,387
anything will do

304
00:10:14,819 --> 00:10:15,608
do you see it

305
00:10:16,498 --> 00:10:17,297
good

306
00:10:17,334 --> 00:10:17,722
now

307
00:10:18,094 --> 00:10:19,893
try to see it

308
00:10:19,894 --> 00:10:20,983
without naming it

309
00:10:21,214 --> 00:10:22,043
do not call it a cup

310
00:10:22,254 --> 00:10:23,123
do not call it a phone

311
00:10:23,413 --> 00:10:24,383
do not call it a tree

312
00:10:24,614 --> 00:10:28,572
can you purely see that shape that color that texture

313
00:10:28,573 --> 00:10:30,883
without a single word starting up in your mind

314
00:10:31,453 --> 00:10:32,442
most people find

315
00:10:32,653 --> 00:10:33,983
that this is almost impossible

316
00:10:34,094 --> 00:10:37,783
your brain labels it automatically in a fraction of a second

317
00:10:38,053 --> 00:10:40,893
the word cup floats up like a comment on the screen

318
00:10:40,894 --> 00:10:42,263
and you simply cannot stop it

319
00:10:43,488 --> 00:10:45,928
but if for one instant you actually manage it

320
00:10:45,929 --> 00:10:47,328
even for half a second

321
00:10:47,328 --> 00:10:49,338
you see the thing itself

322
00:10:49,368 --> 00:10:51,458
with no concept translating it

323
00:10:51,568 --> 00:10:52,278
in that instant

324
00:10:52,608 --> 00:10:55,137
you know why Kasyapa smiled

325
00:10:55,529 --> 00:10:58,178
not because he grasped some profound truth

326
00:10:58,649 --> 00:11:00,418
but because he saw the flower

327
00:11:00,929 --> 00:11:02,217
really saw it

328
00:11:02,825 --> 00:11:04,313
when ordinary people look at a flower

329
00:11:04,345 --> 00:11:06,433
what we see is a concept called flower

330
00:11:06,504 --> 00:11:10,474
our brain runs a whole sequence in a fraction of a second

331
00:11:10,585 --> 00:11:14,754
detect shape match category pull memory generate label

332
00:11:14,865 --> 00:11:16,094
by the time all of that finishes

333
00:11:16,424 --> 00:11:17,954
you think you saw the flower

334
00:11:18,065 --> 00:11:21,793
what you saw was a data packet your brain has about flowers

335
00:11:21,985 --> 00:11:23,234
the actual flower

336
00:11:23,305 --> 00:11:25,954
vanished the moment you labeled it

337
00:11:26,065 --> 00:11:27,813
what you saw was your own projection

338
00:11:28,065 --> 00:11:29,273
not the flower itself

339
00:11:29,978 --> 00:11:31,368
does that sound familiar

340
00:11:32,059 --> 00:11:34,868
if you watched our earlier episodes on predictive coding

341
00:11:34,939 --> 00:11:35,828
you already know

342
00:11:35,858 --> 00:11:39,027
the brain does not passively receive the outside world

343
00:11:39,138 --> 00:11:42,228
it actively generates a predictive model of the world

344
00:11:42,419 --> 00:11:45,228
and then uses sensory input to correct that prediction

345
00:11:45,618 --> 00:11:47,267
you think you are looking at the world

346
00:11:47,419 --> 00:11:51,068
most of the time you are looking at your own predictions

347
00:11:51,618 --> 00:11:52,488
that smile of Kasyapa

348
00:11:52,939 --> 00:11:54,307
in modern terms

349
00:11:54,339 --> 00:11:57,547
means his predictive model stopped for one instant

350
00:11:57,819 --> 00:12:00,228
he stopped processing the flower with concepts

351
00:12:00,339 --> 00:12:01,988
he met it directly

352
00:12:02,601 --> 00:12:04,600
and that is why in this story

353
00:12:04,601 --> 00:12:06,600
over a thousand disciples were confused

354
00:12:06,601 --> 00:12:08,171
and only Kasyapa smiled

355
00:12:08,361 --> 00:12:10,610
not because the other disciples were not smart enough

356
00:12:11,042 --> 00:12:11,750
quite the opposite

357
00:12:12,162 --> 00:12:14,171
maybe because they were too smart

358
00:12:14,361 --> 00:12:17,691
they were used to analyzing every sentence the Buddha said

359
00:12:17,802 --> 00:12:22,370
used to hunting for conceptual depth behind every teaching gesture

360
00:12:22,601 --> 00:12:24,161
the Buddha lifts a flower

361
00:12:24,162 --> 00:12:26,331
and their brains immediately start computing

362
00:12:26,402 --> 00:12:27,350
what teaching is this

363
00:12:27,802 --> 00:12:28,671
what does it symbolize

364
00:12:29,121 --> 00:12:30,951
how does it relate to the four noble truths

365
00:12:31,604 --> 00:12:33,454
they were busy analyzing the flower

366
00:12:33,564 --> 00:12:35,534
so they could not see the flower

367
00:12:35,925 --> 00:12:38,093
Kasyapa analyzed nothing

368
00:12:38,645 --> 00:12:39,934
he simply saw

369
00:12:40,285 --> 00:12:40,674
and then

370
00:12:41,324 --> 00:12:42,015
he smiled

371
00:12:42,015 --> 00:12:42,853
you know what

372
00:12:42,855 --> 00:12:45,534
this trap of being outsmarted by your own cleverness

373
00:12:45,534 --> 00:12:48,784
has an exact counterpart in modern cognitive science

374
00:12:48,855 --> 00:12:51,343
psychologists call it the expert blind spot

375
00:12:51,775 --> 00:12:55,463
once you have piled up conceptual frameworks in a field

376
00:12:55,534 --> 00:12:58,583
those frameworks become the default filter of your perception

377
00:12:58,735 --> 00:13:01,384
and you can no longer see the world without them

378
00:13:01,694 --> 00:13:03,983
an economist looks at a cup of coffee

379
00:13:04,174 --> 00:13:06,563
and his mind jumps straight to supply chains

380
00:13:06,975 --> 00:13:09,223
futures prices consumer surplus

381
00:13:09,495 --> 00:13:11,774
it is hard for him to be like a three year old

382
00:13:11,775 --> 00:13:14,904
and simply see the color and the steam of that coffee

383
00:13:15,248 --> 00:13:16,476
knowledge is a door

384
00:13:16,768 --> 00:13:17,856
and it is also a wall

385
00:13:18,207 --> 00:13:19,976
it lets you see a great many things

386
00:13:20,248 --> 00:13:23,096
and it also blocks some deeper things

387
00:13:23,648 --> 00:13:25,566
what those Zen masters were really doing

388
00:13:25,567 --> 00:13:28,017
was helping you chisel a hole in that wall

389
00:13:28,447 --> 00:13:30,576
the flower and the smile is the first hole

390
00:13:31,479 --> 00:13:34,969
now we can come back to the question we started with

391
00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:38,689
this story may have been invented by Chinese Zen

392
00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:39,949
so does it still have any value

393
00:13:40,599 --> 00:13:41,728
my view is

394
00:13:41,839 --> 00:13:44,959
its value is greater precisely because

395
00:13:44,959 --> 00:13:46,128
it was made up

396
00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:47,488
think about it

397
00:13:47,999 --> 00:13:51,248
if this story were a real historical event

398
00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:53,648
it would only be the record of an event

399
00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:58,128
but if some awakened person deliberately created this narrative

400
00:13:58,400 --> 00:14:00,728
then the story itself is a flower being held up

401
00:14:01,396 --> 00:14:02,386
the person who invented this story

402
00:14:02,837 --> 00:14:03,996
used a story

403
00:14:03,997 --> 00:14:06,406
to show the limits of language exactly

404
00:14:06,916 --> 00:14:09,246
he did not write an essay arguing

405
00:14:09,276 --> 00:14:11,445
that some things cannot be put into words

406
00:14:11,556 --> 00:14:13,965
because doing that would be ironic in itself

407
00:14:14,276 --> 00:14:16,006
he just told a story

408
00:14:16,156 --> 00:14:18,236
and the content of that story is

409
00:14:18,237 --> 00:14:19,445
no language needed

410
00:14:19,916 --> 00:14:22,085
form and content perfectly united

411
00:14:22,396 --> 00:14:23,545
and have you noticed

412
00:14:23,957 --> 00:14:25,356
a thousand years have gone by

413
00:14:25,357 --> 00:14:27,845
and we are still discussing this story

414
00:14:28,156 --> 00:14:32,606
a story called fiction inside a sutra called forged

415
00:14:32,717 --> 00:14:34,045
has traveled a thousand years

416
00:14:34,156 --> 00:14:38,246
and still helps people touch what lies beyond language

417
00:14:38,837 --> 00:14:42,266
is that not the best proof this story could have

418
00:14:43,033 --> 00:14:46,243
what truly matters was never whether it happened

419
00:14:46,474 --> 00:14:47,422
what truly matters is

420
00:14:47,674 --> 00:14:49,443
after hearing this story

421
00:14:49,554 --> 00:14:50,382
did you

422
00:14:50,633 --> 00:14:52,203
even for one instant

423
00:14:52,273 --> 00:14:54,642
experience the thing it points to

424
00:14:55,233 --> 00:14:55,743
if you did

425
00:14:55,993 --> 00:14:57,483
then that flower is real

426
00:14:57,674 --> 00:14:58,502
if you did not

427
00:14:58,873 --> 00:15:01,162
then even if it really happened on Vulture Peak

428
00:15:01,233 --> 00:15:04,323
to you it is just a nice sounding story

429
00:15:05,170 --> 00:15:06,118
so at the end of this episode

430
00:15:06,490 --> 00:15:07,978
I am not going to give a summary

431
00:15:08,410 --> 00:15:10,218
summarizing is what language does

432
00:15:10,609 --> 00:15:12,258
I will leave you with one question instead

433
00:15:12,609 --> 00:15:13,358
when was the last time

434
00:15:13,729 --> 00:15:15,378
you truly saw something

435
00:15:15,689 --> 00:15:19,458
not recognizing it not analyzing it not labeling it

436
00:15:19,530 --> 00:15:22,458
but purely and cleanly seeing it

437
00:15:22,530 --> 00:15:23,118
when was that

438
00:15:24,209 --> 00:15:25,159
if you cannot remember

439
00:15:25,490 --> 00:15:26,498
that is okay

440
00:15:26,770 --> 00:15:28,858
but you can start paying attention from now on

441
00:15:29,170 --> 00:15:31,458
next time you pick up a glass of water

442
00:15:31,650 --> 00:15:35,819
see if before the word water shows up in your mind

443
00:15:35,929 --> 00:15:37,699
you can feel the warmth in your palm

444
00:15:38,050 --> 00:15:39,039
in that one instant

445
00:15:39,490 --> 00:15:40,978
you are holding up the flower

446
00:15:41,265 --> 00:15:42,735
what do you think of this story

447
00:15:43,186 --> 00:15:45,934
can a made up story carry real wisdom

448
00:15:46,466 --> 00:15:48,835
share your thoughts in the comments

449
00:15:49,066 --> 00:15:49,855
I am Leo Wang

450
00:15:50,186 --> 00:15:51,554
see you next time