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the chosen ones

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your brain was born with one less filter

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is there someone like this around you

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something that took you three months to figure out

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he listens to you for two sentences

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his eyes light up

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and he says

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I get it

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and he is not just humoring you

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he really does get it

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you notice he understood not just what you said

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he even understood the part you left unsaid

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then there is another kind of person

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you bring up a deeper topic with him

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like the nature of consciousness

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like the meaning of life

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like why there is a universe instead of nothing

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and he just keeps the conversation going naturally

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as if he had already thought these questions through a hundred times

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but you raise the same topic with another friend

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and the way he looks at you

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is like you are speaking alien

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what exactly is this difference

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is it IQ

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not entirely

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is it education

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also not entirely

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some people are highly educated

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very logical

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but past a certain depth the conversation just stops

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and some people may never have gone to college

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but the moment you say something

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they get it instantly

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in everyday folk language

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these people are called the chosen ones

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in spiritual practice circles

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this is called deep wholesome roots

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in occult circles

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this is called a high frequency

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but if you tear off all three labels

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what is actually underneath

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today I want to use three knives

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from three completely different directions

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to cut this phenomenon open and take a look

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hello

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everyone

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I am Leo Wang

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the first knife

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cognitive neuroscience

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in 2021

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an authoritative journal from Oxford University Press

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published a study on personality traits and brain networks

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the researchers found something very interesting

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in the Big Five personality model

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there is a dimension called openness to experience

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people who score high

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have rich imaginations

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are curious about new things

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and are easily moved by beauty and deep thinking

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people who score low

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are more practical

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prefer certainty

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and have no interest in abstract topics

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so what was the key finding

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in people high in openness

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there is a system in the brain called the default mode network

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and its internal connections are looser

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the default mode network

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I have talked about it many times in earlier videos

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it is the automatic storytelling system in your brain

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whenever you are doing nothing

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it starts running

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it writes the story of who you are

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the story of what happened to you

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the story of what you should do tomorrow

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it is the main factory that makes you feel like yourself

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in ordinary people the default mode network is tightly connected

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it runs like a smooth old machine

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clicking away telling the same story over and over

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you are John Doe

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you are an engineer

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you have a wife and two kids

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your life is supposed to look like this

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the smoother this story runs

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the more certain you are about who you are

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and the more rigid your explanation of the world becomes

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but people high in openness are different

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their default mode network is more loosely connected

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if the ordinary self narrative system is a wall

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a high openness self narrative system is more like a set of blinds

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light can come through the gaps

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what does that mean

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it means their answer to who am I is far less solid

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they more easily shake up their existing cognitive frameworks

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more easily accept a completely different perspective

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and more easily hit a moment where one sentence makes them think

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wait a second

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maybe my whole understanding was wrong

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notice

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the point of this finding is not that these people are smarter

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it is that their brains cling less to conclusions they already hold

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now let us look at another related concept

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back in the nineteen nineties

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the psychoanalyst Ernest Hartmann

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proposed a concept called psychological boundaries

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he divided people into thick boundary and thin boundary types

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for thick boundary people

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there is a clear line between reality and fantasy

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and a clear line between self and others

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they live in a highly structured inner world

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this is not a bad thing

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these people tend to be very stable

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and very reliable

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and thin boundary people

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the wall between reality and fantasy is blurry

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they have vivid dreams far more often

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they are more easily overwhelmed by music or art

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and more easily forget they are watching a movie while watching one

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the insulating layer between them and the world is thinner

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after extensive testing Hartmann found

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that thin boundaries correlate strongly with intuitive ability

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the correlation coefficient reached zero point four to zero point five

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which in psychology already counts as a strong association

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in other words

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the people whose sixth sense seems uncannily accurate

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are very likely thin boundary personalities

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they are not psychic

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the filter in their brain is just thinner

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now here comes the more interesting part

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there is a psychological concept called absorption

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people high in absorption lose themselves completely in an experience

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losing track of time while listening to music

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feeling consciousness leave the body during meditation

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or even dropping into an extremely lucid state in ordinary daily life

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a German research team

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published an important finding in 2005

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they found that absorption

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is linked to a gene polymorphism of the 5-HT2a receptor

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specifically

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there is a gene site called T102C

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people carrying the T/T genotype

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have a higher density of this receptor in the brain

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and they score significantly higher on absorption

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why is this finding so crucial

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because the 5-HT2a receptor

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happens to be the main target of psychedelic drugs

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whether it is LSD or psilocybin

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their core mechanism is activating this very receptor

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stop and think about that for a second

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the people who naturally find the world more transparent

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and slip more easily into deep experiential states

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are born with more of this receptor in their brains

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their biological hardware

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and that of people who need psychedelics to briefly reach a similar state

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run on the same neurochemical pathway

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one person takes nothing at all

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and still sees extremely vivid inner landscapes in meditation

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another needs mushrooms to have a similar experience

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it is not that the first one is further along in practice

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they simply shipped with different receptor configurations

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this is what the first knife shows us

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what we call being chosen

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on the operating table of neuroscience

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is a set of measurable physiological parameters

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how loosely the default mode network is connected

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how thick or thin the psychological boundaries are

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and the density of the 5-HT2a receptor

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the second knife

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Yogacara

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if you watched my earlier videos on Yogacara

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you should remember a concept called the imputed nature

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put simply when our consciousness perceives the world

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it automatically puts a label on everything

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and then mistakes the label for the thing itself

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you see a flower

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your brain says

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this is a flower

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flowers are beautiful

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so you think what you see is the flower itself

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but what you actually see

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is a labeled version rendered for you by your brain

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the real flower

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that dependently arisen reality

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is hidden behind your labeling system

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the imputed nature

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is that layer of filter sitting on your brain

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now here is the key

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Yogacara holds

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that the imputed nature is not equally thick in everyone

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why is that

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because the seeds stored in the alaya consciousness differ

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in the Yogacara framework

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your eighth consciousness

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the alaya consciousness

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is like a giant database

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holding two kinds of seeds

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one kind is called name and word seeds

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the encoding of all your past experience

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the other kind is called wholesome root seeds

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in modern terms your innate tendency to see through labels

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some people carry unusually many wholesome root seeds

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and unusually strong ones

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what does that mean

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it means their imputed nature is naturally thinner

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the filter others need thirty years of practice to grind down

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was already thin the day they were born

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this is what Buddhism calls deep wholesome roots

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or sharp faculties

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the Sixth Patriarch Huineng was illiterate

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but when he heard someone recite that line from the Diamond Sutra

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give rise to the mind that dwells nowhere

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he was enlightened on the spot

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you might hear the same line a hundred times

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and think it sounds reasonable

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but you never get that instant of penetration

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it is not that you are stupid

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your imputed nature is just thicker than Huineng's

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your labeling system works too well

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so well that you cannot tell you are seeing the world through labels

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you can try a small experiment right now

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look up

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glance at any object in front of you

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what did you see

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a table

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a cup

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a wall

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did you notice

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before you even really looked at it

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your brain had already stuck the label on

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name function good or bad like or dislike

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these labels arrive so fast

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so fast that you cannot tell

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whether you saw the object first

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or saw the label first

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this is the imputed nature

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it is not a Buddhist technical term

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it is what you are experiencing right now

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the seed differences Yogacara described fifteen hundred years ago

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and the thickness of the imputed nature

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and what neuroscience found about default mode network connectivity

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and the differences in 5-HT2a receptor density

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all point to the same phenomenon

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one just uses the language of seeds and consciousness

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the other uses the language of receptors and functional connectivity

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this is why I keep saying

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Yogacara is not a religious doctrine

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it is cognitive science from two thousand years ago

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the third knife

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information theory

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there is an old philosophical idea called the filter hypothesis

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this hypothesis did not come from Buddhism

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it came from the French philosopher Henri Bergson

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and the British writer Aldous Huxley independently

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their core claim is

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the brain does not produce consciousness

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the brain filters consciousness

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like the filter cartridge on the water pipe in your home

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the water comes in from outside

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but what you drink has been filtered

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Huxley said

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our brain is that filter cartridge

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the information in the real world is infinite

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but to keep you alive in this world

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your brain filters out ninety nine point nine nine percent of it

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keeping only the sliver useful for your survival

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from the perspective of information theory

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this is a signal to noise problem

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the signal

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is the raw information of the real world

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the noise

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is the labels categories and simplified models built for survival

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an ordinary brain is an extremely efficient noise reducer

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it compresses a flood of information into something called everyday reality

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you live work and raise kids inside that compressed reality

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and it works very well

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but the cost is

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you can barely see the signals that got filtered out

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the so called chosen ones

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in the language of information theory

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are simply people whose filter has a lower attenuation coefficient

281
00:10:58,816 --> 00:11:01,581
their brains filter out less information

282
00:11:01,655 --> 00:11:05,740
so they pick up faint signals that others cannot receive

283
00:11:06,671 --> 00:11:08,656
that sounds like an advantage right

284
00:11:09,230 --> 00:11:11,555
but I have to show you the other side of the coin

285
00:11:11,871 --> 00:11:13,195
when the filter gets thinner

286
00:11:13,271 --> 00:11:15,355
it is not only useful signal that comes in

287
00:11:15,590 --> 00:11:17,676
more noise floods in too

288
00:11:17,990 --> 00:11:20,916
this is why people high in openness with thin boundaries

289
00:11:20,950 --> 00:11:22,416
also tend to be more anxious

290
00:11:22,751 --> 00:11:24,435
more prone to over empathize

291
00:11:24,551 --> 00:11:27,276
and more easily overwhelmed in crowds

292
00:11:27,631 --> 00:11:29,276
that thin filter of theirs

293
00:11:29,350 --> 00:11:31,796
while letting them see more of the truth

294
00:11:31,911 --> 00:11:35,075
also makes it harder for them to stay stable in daily life

295
00:11:35,718 --> 00:11:36,882
have you ever noticed

296
00:11:37,078 --> 00:11:39,117
the people you find unusually clear sighted

297
00:11:39,117 --> 00:11:40,183
often do not fit in socially

298
00:11:40,757 --> 00:11:43,203
and the people whose sixth sense is uncannily accurate

299
00:11:43,237 --> 00:11:44,563
tend to be rather sensitive

300
00:11:44,637 --> 00:11:45,622
even a little fragile

301
00:11:46,157 --> 00:11:47,282
this is not a coincidence

302
00:11:47,477 --> 00:11:49,323
these are two sides of the same coin

303
00:11:49,558 --> 00:11:50,343
the thinner the filter

304
00:11:50,678 --> 00:11:51,722
the more you see

305
00:11:51,838 --> 00:11:53,242
and the more you have to bear

306
00:11:54,212 --> 00:11:55,337
there is a saying in Zen

307
00:11:55,811 --> 00:11:56,597
great doubt great awakening

308
00:11:56,931 --> 00:11:57,756
small doubt small awakening

309
00:11:58,051 --> 00:11:59,337
no doubt no awakening

310
00:11:59,572 --> 00:12:01,656
translated into today's framework it means

311
00:12:01,732 --> 00:12:03,771
the less stable your cognitive system is

312
00:12:03,771 --> 00:12:05,016
and the easier it is to break

313
00:12:05,092 --> 00:12:08,176
the more likely you are to go through a total reorganization

314
00:12:08,332 --> 00:12:10,816
while people with extremely solid cognitive systems

315
00:12:10,852 --> 00:12:14,090
live in a world with a very high filter attenuation coefficient

316
00:12:14,092 --> 00:12:15,131
very safe

317
00:12:15,131 --> 00:12:15,877
very certain

318
00:12:16,212 --> 00:12:17,536
but also very closed

319
00:12:17,998 --> 00:12:21,003
so the word chosen is not really an accurate one

320
00:12:21,319 --> 00:12:22,844
a more accurate way to put it

321
00:12:22,959 --> 00:12:24,638
is that in these people's factory settings

322
00:12:24,638 --> 00:12:26,043
the filter simply came out thinner

323
00:12:26,479 --> 00:12:27,584
this is neither a blessing

324
00:12:27,878 --> 00:12:29,003
nor a curse

325
00:12:29,239 --> 00:12:31,283
it is a difference in cognitive structure

326
00:12:31,359 --> 00:12:33,543
whether your eyes are near sighted or far sighted

327
00:12:33,839 --> 00:12:36,003
whether your blood type is A or B

328
00:12:36,239 --> 00:12:37,964
is essentially the same kind of thing

329
00:12:38,319 --> 00:12:40,643
Yogacara calls this the differing maturation of seeds

330
00:12:40,878 --> 00:12:42,444
when the seeds ripen

331
00:12:42,518 --> 00:12:45,283
the experience accumulated over countless past lives differs

332
00:12:45,439 --> 00:12:47,684
so the cognitive structures that emerge differ too

333
00:12:48,398 --> 00:12:52,484
some people's seed configuration makes their imputed nature thin

334
00:12:52,758 --> 00:12:54,643
which makes it easier for them to see through labels

335
00:12:54,758 --> 00:12:59,003
and also easier for them to feel out of place in this labeled world

336
00:12:59,738 --> 00:13:02,662
now think back to that friend who gets it immediately

337
00:13:03,177 --> 00:13:04,182
and think again

338
00:13:04,217 --> 00:13:07,542
about why talking with certain people feels like the frequency matches

339
00:13:07,817 --> 00:13:08,903
it is not mysticism

340
00:13:09,337 --> 00:13:13,422
your brain filters just happen to sit near the same attenuation coefficient

341
00:13:13,738 --> 00:13:15,983
you filter out roughly the same amount of information

342
00:13:16,098 --> 00:13:18,462
so the reality you see is roughly the same

343
00:13:18,817 --> 00:13:21,143
and the people whose frequency does not match yours

344
00:13:21,177 --> 00:13:24,182
have attenuation coefficients far away from yours

345
00:13:24,417 --> 00:13:27,223
the two of you are simply not seeing the same world

346
00:13:28,193 --> 00:13:29,718
I made an earlier episode

347
00:13:29,993 --> 00:13:31,718
asking whether the people around you

348
00:13:31,794 --> 00:13:34,718
are images rendered by your alaya consciousness

349
00:13:35,073 --> 00:13:36,958
the core argument of that episode was

350
00:13:36,993 --> 00:13:39,639
the world you see is not the objective world itself

351
00:13:39,753 --> 00:13:42,598
but a version rendered for you by your eighth consciousness

352
00:13:42,833 --> 00:13:44,919
today's episode digs one layer deeper

353
00:13:45,113 --> 00:13:47,958
we not only see that everyone renders a different version

354
00:13:47,993 --> 00:13:49,152
we also see

355
00:13:49,154 --> 00:13:50,358
why they are different

356
00:13:50,554 --> 00:13:53,838
because the filter on top of the renderer differs in thickness

357
00:13:54,193 --> 00:13:55,279
and that thickness

358
00:13:55,314 --> 00:13:57,913
is to a large extent determined by genes

359
00:13:57,914 --> 00:13:59,159
it is a factory setting

360
00:14:00,228 --> 00:14:01,552
but this is not the end of the story

361
00:14:01,707 --> 00:14:04,147
because neuroscience also tells us

362
00:14:04,148 --> 00:14:07,912
the brain has a crucial property called neuroplasticity

363
00:14:08,307 --> 00:14:11,712
the connection strength of the default mode network is not fixed

364
00:14:12,028 --> 00:14:13,993
meditation research confirms again and again

365
00:14:14,108 --> 00:14:18,672
that long term meditators show clear changes in that connectivity

366
00:14:18,988 --> 00:14:21,792
their brain filters are being gradually retuned

367
00:14:22,148 --> 00:14:22,853
in other words

368
00:14:23,148 --> 00:14:25,672
your factory settings really do matter

369
00:14:25,707 --> 00:14:27,393
but they are not your destiny

370
00:14:27,827 --> 00:14:31,792
you can change your filter parameters through sustained training

371
00:14:31,988 --> 00:14:33,832
this is what spiritual practice actually is

372
00:14:34,667 --> 00:14:36,226
not gaining some kind of superpower

373
00:14:36,228 --> 00:14:39,072
but adjusting the parameters of that noise reducer in your head

374
00:14:39,108 --> 00:14:41,312
letting more of the raw signal come through

375
00:14:41,777 --> 00:14:43,497
so the real question is not

376
00:14:43,498 --> 00:14:45,223
am I one of the chosen ones

377
00:14:45,537 --> 00:14:46,617
the real question is

378
00:14:46,618 --> 00:14:48,942
are you willing to go and turn that knob

379
00:14:49,258 --> 00:14:52,983
some people shipped with the knob already in a fairly open position

380
00:14:53,258 --> 00:14:56,103
since childhood they felt something about the world was off

381
00:14:56,258 --> 00:14:58,542
and they were thinking about questions they were not supposed to ask

382
00:14:58,978 --> 00:15:01,623
other people shipped with the knob screwed down tight

383
00:15:01,697 --> 00:15:04,062
but they can loosen it bit by bit

384
00:15:04,258 --> 00:15:05,003
through meditation

385
00:15:05,337 --> 00:15:06,542
through reading the classics

386
00:15:06,577 --> 00:15:10,702
through practicing over and over in daily life to see through labels

387
00:15:11,098 --> 00:15:13,582
Yogacara calls this transforming consciousness into wisdom

388
00:15:13,898 --> 00:15:17,503
turning the grasping of the sixth consciousness into observing wisdom

389
00:15:17,618 --> 00:15:21,062
turning the self grasping of the manas into the wisdom of equality

390
00:15:21,657 --> 00:15:23,263
in today's language that means

391
00:15:23,337 --> 00:15:28,103
moving your noise reducer out of the survival only mode

392
00:15:28,218 --> 00:15:32,782
and gradually into a mode closer to the raw signal itself

393
00:15:33,300 --> 00:15:34,785
but let me add one thing

394
00:15:35,099 --> 00:15:37,704
turning the knob is not a matter of better or worse

395
00:15:37,979 --> 00:15:40,624
not everyone needs to thin out their filter

396
00:15:41,060 --> 00:15:44,219
some people live in a world with a high attenuation coefficient

397
00:15:44,219 --> 00:15:45,219
very certain

398
00:15:45,219 --> 00:15:46,084
very grounded

399
00:15:46,339 --> 00:15:47,545
and very happy

400
00:15:47,780 --> 00:15:50,224
you are under no obligation to chase seeing more

401
00:15:50,660 --> 00:15:52,984
seeing more does not mean being happier

402
00:15:53,060 --> 00:15:54,704
sometimes it is exactly the opposite

403
00:15:55,565 --> 00:15:58,649
but if you were born with a thinner filter

404
00:15:58,764 --> 00:16:01,850
if you have felt out of place among people since you were a child

405
00:16:02,044 --> 00:16:05,330
if you keep thinking about questions others consider pointless

406
00:16:05,605 --> 00:16:07,129
then here is something I want to tell you

407
00:16:07,644 --> 00:16:08,850
there is nothing wrong with you

408
00:16:09,325 --> 00:16:12,529
your brain just shipped with different factory settings from most people

409
00:16:12,924 --> 00:16:13,830
and that difference

410
00:16:14,205 --> 00:16:15,649
is both your vulnerability

411
00:16:15,684 --> 00:16:17,330
and your deepest gift

412
00:16:17,684 --> 00:16:21,490
the key is whether you can learn to live with this thin filter

413
00:16:21,924 --> 00:16:24,283
learn to take in more signal

414
00:16:24,284 --> 00:16:25,649
without drowning in it

415
00:16:25,965 --> 00:16:28,244
learn to see more of the truth

416
00:16:28,245 --> 00:16:31,249
and still function normally in this labeled world

417
00:16:32,085 --> 00:16:35,769
this may be the most important lesson in a chosen one's life

418
00:16:36,510 --> 00:16:39,314
but saying all this a deeper question suddenly hits me

419
00:16:39,709 --> 00:16:42,074
if the brain really is nothing but a filter

420
00:16:42,229 --> 00:16:45,635
then the ninety nine point nine nine percent that got filtered out

421
00:16:45,750 --> 00:16:46,415
where did it go

422
00:16:46,910 --> 00:16:47,814
did it disappear

423
00:16:48,309 --> 00:16:50,474
or has it been there all along

424
00:16:50,549 --> 00:16:52,694
and your hardware simply will not let you see it

425
00:16:53,270 --> 00:16:54,094
and what if one day

426
00:16:54,510 --> 00:16:56,214
the filter is switched off completely

427
00:16:56,829 --> 00:16:57,495
that state

428
00:16:57,829 --> 00:16:59,594
could it be what the ancients called

429
00:16:59,630 --> 00:17:00,574
seeing your original nature

430
00:17:01,224 --> 00:17:03,270
I will not unpack that question today

431
00:17:03,664 --> 00:17:05,150
I will leave it for you to sit with

432
00:17:05,424 --> 00:17:06,809
which kind of person do you think you are

433
00:17:07,385 --> 00:17:08,949
are you the one with a thick filter

434
00:17:09,025 --> 00:17:10,370
living inside certainty

435
00:17:10,944 --> 00:17:12,469
or the one with a thin filter

436
00:17:12,625 --> 00:17:14,609
constantly rubbing against the world

437
00:17:15,224 --> 00:17:18,289
or are you the one already trying to turn the knob

438
00:17:18,984 --> 00:17:21,530
how did you discover your frequency was different from other people's

439
00:17:22,024 --> 00:17:23,829
I would love to hear your story

440
00:17:24,145 --> 00:17:24,809
I am Leo Wang

441
00:17:25,105 --> 00:17:25,882
see you next episode