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Yang Ning's *Water Flows, Flowers Bloom*: Cultivation Will First Turn Your Life Upside Down.

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A 23-year-old housewife,

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physically weak, lived a

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life as bland as plain water. One day, on her way

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to her mother's house, she

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stepped on a tattered book,

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without a cover or back

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cover.

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Inexplicably, she bent down to pick it up and

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casually flipped through it.

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Four lines jumped into her eyes: "I was originally from this land, to

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transmit the Dharma and save those lost in delusion.

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One flower blooms with five petals, and the

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result is natural." The instant

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she saw these four lines,

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a thunderclap boomed in the clear sky. Startled,

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her hand trembled, and the

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book fell to the ground. Looking

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up at the cloudless sky,

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she froze for a few seconds, then

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picked up the book again,

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repeatedly reading the four sentences,

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completely bewildered.

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She then threw the dirty, tattered book into the trash.

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But those four sentences,

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like a knife, were

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etched into her brain,

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never to be erased.

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From that day on,

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her life trajectory was completely rewritten.

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This woman was named Yang Ning.

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She later wrote an autobiography,

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recording her more than twenty years of cultivation experience,

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titled *Water Flows, Flowers Bloom*. This was the

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first time I read her story.  What

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touched me most wasn't the miraculous meditation experiences,

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but the middle section – as she practiced, her

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temper grew increasingly worse, her

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home became chaotic, her

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husband thought she had gone astray, and

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she herself felt she was regressing.

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That passage made me pause for a long time

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because it completely contradicted everyone's intuition about "spiritual practice." Hello

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everyone,

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I'm Wang Lijie.

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Today is the second installment of the <Stories About Spiritual Practice> series. In the last episode,

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we used the story of a cup of coffee to dissect a fundamental mechanism: what's

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in your cup is what

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spills out when it's bumped.

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Today, I'll use the same cognitive framework – predictive coding, Yogacara philosophy, and

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seed theory – to analyze what happened to Yang Ning.

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But before we begin,

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I want to ask you a question:

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If someone tells you

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they've started spiritual practice,

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what would you expect from them? Would you

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think they should become more peaceful,

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more patient, more gentle, and more "cultivated"?

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If someone around you starts meditating and studying Buddhism, and then their

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temper worsens, they argue more fiercely with their family, and they're easily

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irritable – what would you think?

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Most people's first reaction would be: this person has gone astray in their practice, gone

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astray.

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Stop right now!

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This reaction seems perfectly reasonable.

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Spiritual practice is supposed to make you better, right? If you get

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worse the more you practice, then you're going in the

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wrong direction, aren't you? If

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someone trying to lose weight gets fatter,

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you'd say their method is wrong. If

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someone learning piano sounds worse the more they practice,

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you'd think they should change teachers. The

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principle is the same.

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But what if I told you that there's a flawed premise in

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this whole chain of logic? The

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flawed premise is here:

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you've compared spiritual practice to losing weight and practicing piano. Losing weight and

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practicing piano are additions – adding a new skill,

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adding a new habit.

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Each step should show measurable progress.

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But spiritual practice isn't addition; it

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's subtraction.

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It's not about adding "good qualities" to you;

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it's about clearing away things that have always existed within you but have never been seen.

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And the process of clearing away

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inevitably involves bringing those things to the surface.

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When they're brought to the surface,

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you're more confused, more painful,

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and more out of control than before – this isn't going astray;

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it's precisely the sign that spiritual practice has truly begun.

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Today, I'm going to use Yang Ning's story to

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completely dismantle this mechanism.

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Shortly after Yang Ning stepped on that tattered book, one

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day her child was asleep.

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She suddenly became curious and wanted to meditate,

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purely out of playfulness. But

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after closing her eyes for a few seconds…

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Suddenly, her mind and body felt completely clear.

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Beautiful landscapes appeared before her eyes, peacocks

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displayed their plumage, and the sound of ocean waves filled her ears. The

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second time was even more exaggerated – she found herself sitting on a cloud, on a

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lotus throne, with

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a thousand hands and a thousand

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eyes, and hearing the chanting of Buddhist scriptures. She

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sat for over two hours, but

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felt as if only a dozen minutes had passed. Leaving aside whether

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these images are "real" or "illusory,"

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let me use a predictive coding framework to conduct a precise analysis.

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Your brain is not a passively receiving information camera;

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it is a predictive machine, constantly

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generating predictions about the world from top to bottom.

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In your daily waking state,

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your prior beliefs have a very high precision weight – simply put,

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your brain has a very powerful "story template."

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It uses this template to constantly filter and cover up raw sensory data.

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You think you see the truth of the world,

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but what you actually see is a story fabricated by your brain.

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During meditation,

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three things happen simultaneously: closing your eyes to cut off visual input, keeping your body

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still to reduce somatosensory input, and

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not following thoughts to reduce default mode network activity.

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These three things combined

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cause that powerful "story template" to begin to loosen, and its

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precision weight to decrease. At

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this time, the

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deep signals that have been suppressed before surface.

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Like background music playing in a room, you can't

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hear it when you're talking, but once it's

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quiet,

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the melodies become clear.

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Yang Ning saw such rich images during her first meditation session.

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What does this mean? It does

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n't mean she's exceptionally gifted.

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She herself mentioned a key detail—she was just having fun at the time,

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without any goals like "I want to cultivate myself" or "I want to achieve enlightenment."

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This means her prior knowledge was very low;

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she didn't pre-install a

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model of "what meditation should be like" in her brain.

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This unguarded, relaxed state is

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precisely when the gates of consciousness are most easily opened.

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But there's a trap here.

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Yang Ning quickly fell in love with these wonderful states.

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She said meditation became a habit like washing her face and brushing her teeth; she felt

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uncomfortable if she didn't meditate for a day. She

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stopped doing housework and

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even forgot to cook. Her husband,

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seeing her sitting there with her eyes closed every day,

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not knowing what she was doing,

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started to feel uncomfortable.

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But Yang Ning was immersed in those wonderful experiences and didn't

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care at all. From a

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Yogacara perspective,

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this is the Manas consciousness at work.

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What is the Manas consciousness?

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It's a "claimant" deep within your consciousness that never goes off duty.

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Its only job is to label every experience as "mine,"

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regardless of whether the experience is good or bad.  The

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manas consciousness (or subconsciousness) immediately rushes to claim, "This is mine!"

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Yang Ning experienced a wonderful state in meditation, and her manas

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consciousness immediately asserted: "This is my state!

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This is my progress!

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This is the result of my practice!"

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Thus, a craving for the wonderful experience of meditation was formed. In

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Buddhism, there's a specific term for this: "craving for meditative pleasure." Simply put, it's an

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upgrade from craving milk tea to craving meditation. The addictive

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substance has changed, but the

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mechanism of addiction remains exactly the same.

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This is crucial

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because most beginners,

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once they experience that wonderful feeling,

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think they've found the right path.

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But if you start chasing that feeling,

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you've already gone astray.

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You think you're practicing,

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but you're actually pursuing another form of "pleasure."

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Later, Yang Ning encountered

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a master who called himself "Old Man of India" in meditation, who

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taught her techniques. She

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also encountered Li Shizhen in meditation,

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learning about traditional Chinese medicine.

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Her brother later consulted the *Compendium of Materia Medica* and

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found that the uncommon herbs she described did indeed exist, and the

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illustrations matched.

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This type of experience is most likely to spark debate—either complete belief

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or complete disbelief.

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My attitude is: don't make a simple choice between "true" and "false."

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From the perspective of Yogacara philosophy...

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Alaya-vijnana – that “seed warehouse” –

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stores not only experiences from this life.

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When deep meditation significantly reduces the weight of precision at each level, the

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deepest seeds may begin to manifest,

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appearing as various contents of consciousness.

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Whether the knowledge she acquired were seeds deep within Alaya-vijnana is open to

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interpretation,

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but that's not the focus today. The

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focus is on what happens next,

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because that's the most valuable part of the entire book.

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The master told Yang Ning two things

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: First, don't look at any state that appears in meditation,

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no matter how beautiful or awe-inspiring,

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don't cling to it.

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Second, even more precisely: "Don't manage thoughts.

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Thoughts are like states of mind; let them

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flow past you like water.

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Quietly observe them,

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don't distinguish between good and evil, beauty and ugliness,

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just observe them.

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" Did you hear that?

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"Let thoughts flow past like water" – this is cessation,

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not chasing,

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not grasping,

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letting consciousness lose its raw materials.

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"Quietly observe them" – this is contemplation,

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maintaining awareness but not interfering.

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"Not distinguishing between good and evil, beauty and ugliness" –

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this is reducing the weight of precision in conceptualization,

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not labeling the raw data.

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The title itself, "Water Flows, Flowers Bloom," contains the whole secret.

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Water Flows –  Let everything flow like water, let

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flowers bloom - when you let go of attachments,

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your inherent light will naturally blossom.

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If the story had unfolded as we expected in spiritual practice,

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Yang Ning should have become increasingly peaceful

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and wise,

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eventually achieving enlightenment, right?

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But Yang Ning's story doesn't follow the script.

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As her practice deepened,

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her temper not only didn't improve, but worsened. She became

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more impatient, more

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easily irritated, and

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more easily angered. Her

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husband's eyes clearly said: "How did practicing Taoism and Buddhism turn you into this? You

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must have gone astray!" Even

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more heartbreaking was the changing gaze of

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those around Yang Ning – neighbors, relatives.

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A housewife,

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confined at home every day, meditating with her eyes closed, not doing

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housework, her

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temper worsening, becoming

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increasingly impatient with her children and husband –

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in any normal social environment,

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this person would be considered "problematic."

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No one would say, "She's going through a necessary stage of spiritual practice."

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Everyone would say, "She should stop and return to normal life."

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Yang Ning herself was confused.

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She said, "I feel like the more I practice, the more I regress.

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" Now I want to ask you a question:

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Suppose you are Yang Ning's friend, and

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she calls you

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saying that her spiritual practice is making her temper worse.  If

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family relationships are deteriorating,

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what advice would you give her?

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00:09:54,799 --> 00:09:57,580
I guess most people would say: Stop,

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00:09:57,580 --> 00:09:58,620
adjust, and

263
00:09:58,620 --> 00:10:00,020
continue when your mindset is better.

264
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This advice sounds reasonable,

265
00:10:02,559 --> 00:10:04,060
but it's precisely the most dangerous

266
00:10:04,539 --> 00:10:06,320
because it's based on a flawed judgment. It

267
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assumes that a worsening temper is a sign of "deviating from the right path," when in

268
00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:12,821
reality, a worsening temper is a sign of "reaching the destination."

269
00:10:13,379 --> 00:10:15,980
However, this destination isn't the final stop,

270
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but a necessary transit point.

271
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Let me use seed theory to provide a precise breakdown. The Yogacara school

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00:10:21,799 --> 00:10:25,321
likens the deepest part of human consciousness to a "seed warehouse," the

273
00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:26,660
Alaya-vijnana.

274
00:10:27,179 --> 00:10:30,000
Every action, thought, and emotion you have

275
00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:31,760
leaves a seed in this warehouse.

276
00:10:32,279 --> 00:10:36,019
Under suitable conditions, these seeds will sprout again,

277
00:10:36,019 --> 00:10:38,400
growing into corresponding actions, thoughts, and emotions.

278
00:10:39,139 --> 00:10:40,700
When you're not practicing,

279
00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:44,800
those seeds of greed, anger, and ignorance quietly lie at the bottom of the warehouse.

280
00:10:45,340 --> 00:10:47,480
Occasionally, they are triggered by external factors, and

281
00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:48,720
one or two surface.

282
00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:50,059
You might have a small outburst of temper, and it's over.

283
00:10:50,059 --> 00:10:50,941
 

284
00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:52,920
You might think your personality is alright,

285
00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:56,078
but this isn't because those seeds don't exist,

286
00:10:56,080 --> 00:10:58,520
but because they haven't been activated on a large scale. For example,

287
00:10:59,299 --> 00:10:59,841
 

288
00:11:00,340 --> 00:11:01,899
you have a pond. The

289
00:11:01,899 --> 00:11:03,221
surface looks clear,

290
00:11:03,799 --> 00:11:05,830
but the bottom is covered with decades of silt—

291
00:11:06,559 --> 00:11:08,669
childhood trauma, unresolved anger...

292
00:11:09,159 --> 00:11:12,841
Suppressed grievances, yearning for love, fear of abandonment—

293
00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:14,759
normally, the surface of the pond is calm;

294
00:11:14,759 --> 00:11:16,060
you only see clear water.

295
00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:18,240
You think the pond is clean.

296
00:11:18,740 --> 00:11:20,759
But what does spiritual practice do? It

297
00:11:21,159 --> 00:11:21,821
stirs up the bottom, causing the

298
00:11:22,299 --> 00:11:24,100
silt to rise, making the

299
00:11:24,100 --> 00:11:26,240
entire pond more turbid than before.

300
00:11:26,820 --> 00:11:28,360
Yang Ning's temper worsens,

301
00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:30,500
not because spiritual practice creates new anger,

302
00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:34,480
but because it unearths old anger that has been buried deep within.

303
00:11:35,059 --> 00:11:36,179
In predictive coding terms, the

304
00:11:36,179 --> 00:11:40,419
brain normally maintains

305
00:11:40,419 --> 00:11:43,500
a self-model of "I am a gentle and rational person" through high-precision weighted a priori beliefs. Spiritual practice

306
00:11:44,100 --> 00:11:46,458
lowers these weights, the

307
00:11:46,460 --> 00:11:48,198
self-model begins to loosen,

308
00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:50,380
and suppressed true emotions surge forth.

309
00:11:50,759 --> 00:11:51,980
You haven't become worse;

310
00:11:51,980 --> 00:11:54,160
you've seen your true self for the first time.

311
00:11:54,620 --> 00:11:55,919
And the true self is far more chaotic

312
00:11:55,919 --> 00:11:57,120
than you thought.

313
00:11:57,120 --> 00:11:57,800
 

314
00:11:58,279 --> 00:12:00,889
Yang Ning's husband's reaction in this process

315
00:12:00,889 --> 00:12:04,341
represents the typical reaction of most people "around spiritual practitioners."

316
00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:06,659
He doesn't understand what happened;

317
00:12:06,659 --> 00:12:09,438
he only sees the result—my wife has changed,

318
00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:10,441
become more difficult to get along with.

319
00:12:11,100 --> 00:12:14,500
His world lacks concepts like "seed surging" and "decreased a priori weights."

320
00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:15,779
 

321
00:12:15,779 --> 00:12:17,730
He only has a simplistic judgment:

322
00:12:17,730 --> 00:12:20,580
"What you did made you worse,

323
00:12:20,580 --> 00:12:21,870
so you should stop.

324
00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:24,000
" This judgment is wrong.

325
00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:24,920
But you can't really blame him,

326
00:12:25,379 --> 00:12:26,840
because from the outside,

327
00:12:26,840 --> 00:12:28,040
Yang Ning was indeed getting worse.

328
00:12:28,740 --> 00:12:30,059
That's the paradox of spiritual practice:

329
00:12:30,759 --> 00:12:33,840
you're undergoing an earthquake-level cleansing internally,

330
00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:35,961
but outsiders only see the ruins.

331
00:12:36,519 --> 00:12:39,500
They don't know what's being rebuilt beneath those ruins. What

332
00:12:40,179 --> 00:12:43,620
if Yang Ning had listened to her husband and stopped at that moment? The turbulent silt would have sank back to

333
00:12:43,620 --> 00:12:44,580
 

334
00:12:44,700 --> 00:12:48,100
the bottom, the

335
00:12:48,100 --> 00:12:49,659
surface would have returned to calm, and

336
00:12:49,659 --> 00:12:51,581
she would have become a "gentle, good wife" again.

337
00:12:52,200 --> 00:12:54,279
But the seeds would still be there,

338
00:12:54,279 --> 00:12:55,399
intact,

339
00:12:55,399 --> 00:12:56,701
waiting to be triggered again.

340
00:12:57,299 --> 00:12:58,280
Nothing would have changed.

341
00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:00,221
So Yang Ning didn't stop,

342
00:13:00,639 --> 00:13:02,821
but she experienced something even more cruel.

343
00:13:03,340 --> 00:13:07,480
Her master told her to uphold the precept of forbearance—not to argue with her husband,

344
00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:08,659
no matter what he said,

345
00:13:08,659 --> 00:13:09,700
not to talk back,

346
00:13:09,700 --> 00:13:10,310
not to be angry.

347
00:13:11,039 --> 00:13:11,841
Yang Ning did as she was told.

348
00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:13,179
She endured it, stopped

349
00:13:13,179 --> 00:13:14,140
arguing with her husband,

350
00:13:14,759 --> 00:13:15,639
but she said her

351
00:13:15,639 --> 00:13:17,820
heart was still turbulent.

352
00:13:17,820 --> 00:13:21,010
Resentment, anger, and hatred tore at her heart.

353
00:13:21,620 --> 00:13:22,160
She endured,

354
00:13:22,460 --> 00:13:24,299
and then, to a certain extent, it

355
00:13:24,299 --> 00:13:25,000
completely exploded.

356
00:13:25,539 --> 00:13:27,440
She said she went crazy,

357
00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,139
throwing all of her master's teachings to the back of her mind,

358
00:13:30,139 --> 00:13:31,200
swearing,

359
00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:32,420
smashing things in the house. At

360
00:13:33,039 --> 00:13:33,659
that moment,

361
00:13:33,659 --> 00:13:36,740
all the grievances accumulated in over twenty years of marriage,

362
00:13:36,740 --> 00:13:39,299
all the anger suppressed in her spiritual practice...  The experience of

363
00:13:39,299 --> 00:13:40,341
everything gushing out was so

364
00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:43,100
real it was heartbreaking,

365
00:13:43,759 --> 00:13:46,980
but it revealed a crucial principle in spiritual practice:

366
00:13:46,980 --> 00:13:48,460
"endurance" and "observation."

367
00:13:48,460 --> 00:13:50,620
While they may seem similar on the surface, they

368
00:13:50,620 --> 00:13:52,680
are fundamentally different things.

369
00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:54,240
What is endurance?

370
00:13:54,399 --> 00:13:56,620
Endurance is like putting a lid on boiling water. The

371
00:13:57,200 --> 00:13:58,379
water is still boiling,

372
00:13:58,379 --> 00:13:59,759
the steam is still accumulating;

373
00:13:59,759 --> 00:14:01,081
you're just preventing it from escaping.

374
00:14:01,539 --> 00:14:02,500
Each time you press down, the

375
00:14:02,500 --> 00:14:03,560
pressure increases.

376
00:14:04,120 --> 00:14:05,080
In Yogacara philosophy,

377
00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:09,179
this is called "suppressing without ceasing"—the expression of the seed is temporarily suppressed,

378
00:14:09,179 --> 00:14:11,080
but the seed itself remains intact.

379
00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:15,860
Moreover, each suppression plants a new seed of resentment: "I am enduring." The

380
00:14:15,860 --> 00:14:16,451
pressure escalates,

381
00:14:16,899 --> 00:14:19,200
like a balloon being constantly inflated. The

382
00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:20,740
harder you press it down, the

383
00:14:20,740 --> 00:14:22,180
more powerfully it bursts.

384
00:14:22,799 --> 00:14:24,240
Yang Ning endured for three years, and the

385
00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:24,780
balloon exploded.

386
00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:26,480
What is "observation"?

387
00:14:26,700 --> 00:14:28,360
Observation is a completely different operation.

388
00:14:28,860 --> 00:14:30,360
You don't suppress the water,

389
00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:31,420
nor do you boil it.

390
00:14:31,980 --> 00:14:33,039
You stand beside it,

391
00:14:33,039 --> 00:14:36,000
watching—watching where the anger rises,

392
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,879
what sensation arises in which part of the body,

393
00:14:38,879 --> 00:14:42,960
how it gradually swells from a small discomfort into an emotional storm, and

394
00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:46,520
then how it slowly dissipates without a response.

395
00:14:47,159 --> 00:14:49,279
You're not "holding back" your temper;

396
00:14:49,279 --> 00:14:52,000
you're "seeing clearly" what the temper is all about.

397
00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:54,679
When you can see this process clearly...

398
00:14:54,679 --> 00:14:56,879
Although the seed manifested and expressed itself,

399
00:14:56,879 --> 00:14:58,620
you didn't add new energy to it,

400
00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:01,770
nor did you feed it with new thoughts like "Why me?" or "This is so unfair." The

401
00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:03,060
 

402
00:15:03,740 --> 00:15:06,360
seed completed its manifestation process, and its potential

403
00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:07,581
energy dissipated.

404
00:15:07,740 --> 00:15:08,839
More importantly,

405
00:15:08,840 --> 00:15:11,639
because you didn't generate new resentment following it,

406
00:15:11,639 --> 00:15:13,721
you didn't plant new seeds of the same kind.

407
00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:15,259
In Yogacara philosophy,

408
00:15:15,259 --> 00:15:16,420
this is true "permanent severance." The

409
00:15:17,100 --> 00:15:20,039
seed completed its mission through manifestation and awareness;

410
00:15:20,039 --> 00:15:21,759
this causal chain ends here and

411
00:15:21,759 --> 00:15:22,540
no longer continues. In the last

412
00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:26,059
episode, we said: what you spill

413
00:15:26,059 --> 00:15:27,740
is what you usually put in,

414
00:15:27,740 --> 00:15:29,900
not what you "decided" to spill at that moment.

415
00:15:30,580 --> 00:15:34,070
Today, Yang Ning's story adds a deeper meaning to this statement.

416
00:15:34,779 --> 00:15:36,940
If you want to change what's in the cup,

417
00:15:36,940 --> 00:15:38,461
you must first let the old things out.

418
00:15:39,100 --> 00:15:40,379
And the process of letting them out

419
00:15:40,379 --> 00:15:42,180
looks like "spilling everything."

420
00:15:42,899 --> 00:15:43,720
Patience is

421
00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:46,640
covering the cup with your hand when the old things are about to come out.

422
00:15:47,340 --> 00:15:47,960
Observation

423
00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:49,100
is letting it flow out,

424
00:15:49,100 --> 00:15:50,340
but watching it flow

425
00:15:50,340 --> 00:15:50,920
without panic or confusion.

426
00:15:51,500 --> 00:15:54,340
Yang Ning's teacher taught her the method of "observation" from the beginning,

427
00:15:54,960 --> 00:15:56,900
letting everything flow like water.

428
00:15:57,259 --> 00:15:59,080
But facing real marital conflicts, her

429
00:15:59,659 --> 00:16:02,679
husband's lack of understanding, and the doubts of everyone around her, her

430
00:16:02,899 --> 00:16:04,759
ability to "observe" was not yet stable enough.

431
00:16:04,759 --> 00:16:06,000
She retreated to "endurance,"

432
00:16:06,279 --> 00:16:07,620
and the consequence of that endurance,

433
00:16:07,620 --> 00:16:11,200
she demonstrated to everyone through her own experience, was an

434
00:16:11,500 --> 00:16:11,900
explosion.

435
00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:13,159
Speaking of which,

436
00:16:13,159 --> 00:16:16,280
I can't help but digress with an observation highly relevant to investing.

437
00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:18,059
Have you noticed that there's

438
00:16:18,059 --> 00:16:20,990
also a very common form of "endurance" in investing?

439
00:16:21,059 --> 00:16:22,679
Many people buy a stock, it

440
00:16:22,679 --> 00:16:23,059
falls, but they do

441
00:16:23,059 --> 00:16:23,581
n't cut their losses.

442
00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:26,480
They tell themselves, "I'm bullish on the long term,"

443
00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:28,379
they tell their friends, "I'm not panicking,"

444
00:16:28,379 --> 00:16:31,770
they even post on social media, "Value investing is about patience."

445
00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:33,839
But look at their phones—they check the market

446
00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:35,140
every ten minutes. They

447
00:16:35,620 --> 00:16:37,460
say they're not panicking, but

448
00:16:37,460 --> 00:16:39,380
every cell in their body is panicking.

449
00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:42,639
This is "endurance"—they're suppressing fear,

450
00:16:42,639 --> 00:16:43,841
not recognizing it. And

451
00:16:44,500 --> 00:16:45,419
then what? When it

452
00:16:45,539 --> 00:16:46,720
falls to a certain point, they

453
00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:47,539
can't hold back anymore,

454
00:16:47,539 --> 00:16:48,441
panic-selling.

455
00:16:49,159 --> 00:16:50,980
All the "endurance" accumulated before

456
00:16:50,980 --> 00:16:53,790
explodes in the worst possible way in an instant.

457
00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:56,720
Usually, the price at which they sell is

458
00:16:56,720 --> 00:16:58,160
right near the lowest point.

459
00:16:58,679 --> 00:17:02,980
What do truly excellent investors do when faced with the same decline?

460
00:17:03,019 --> 00:17:05,000
They don't "endure without selling."

461
00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:08,980
They "recognize"—they see where their fear comes from, whether it

462
00:17:08,980 --> 00:17:12,460
corresponds to a real change in fundamentals

463
00:17:12,460 --> 00:17:14,640
or the contagion of market sentiment, and

464
00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:17,280
what's spilling from their cup.

465
00:17:17,380 --> 00:17:18,919
They can do this

466
00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:22,118
not because they made the right decision at the moment of the decline.

467
00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:25,160
It's not because they

468
00:17:25,160 --> 00:17:27,599
practiced "seeing clearly" repeatedly over the years before the downturn.

469
00:17:28,059 --> 00:17:29,138
So you see,

470
00:17:29,140 --> 00:17:31,461
Yang Ning's story isn't just about spiritual practitioners.

471
00:17:31,980 --> 00:17:34,339
Anyone who needs to make decisions under pressure—

472
00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:37,299
investors, entrepreneurs, managers,

473
00:17:37,420 --> 00:17:39,359
even ordinary people facing marital crises—

474
00:17:39,859 --> 00:17:43,720
faces the same fundamental question: When a cup is knocked over, do

475
00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:45,440
you try to stop it from spilling,

476
00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:48,299
or do you try to see clearly what it's spilling? Okay,

477
00:17:48,460 --> 00:17:48,759
 

478
00:17:48,759 --> 00:17:49,300
back to Yang Ning.

479
00:17:49,859 --> 00:17:51,140
After the outburst,

480
00:17:51,140 --> 00:17:53,201
she experienced an extremely painful period.

481
00:17:53,859 --> 00:17:57,900
Looking back on those days, she said she felt she had no wisdom,

482
00:17:57,900 --> 00:17:59,819
not even her usual intelligence,

483
00:17:59,819 --> 00:18:01,059
becoming confused and

484
00:18:01,059 --> 00:18:02,480
unsure of what she was doing.

485
00:18:03,059 --> 00:18:05,259
If you use conventional judgment,

486
00:18:05,259 --> 00:18:07,480
this is a decline in ability, a side

487
00:18:07,480 --> 00:18:08,641
effect of spiritual practice.

488
00:18:09,279 --> 00:18:11,819
But if you use the framework of Yogacara philosophy,

489
00:18:11,819 --> 00:18:13,961
you'll see a completely different picture. What is the

490
00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:16,220
"intelligence" Yang Ning spoke of? It's the

491
00:18:16,220 --> 00:18:17,039
 

492
00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:18,901
sixth consciousness—the consciousness mind.

493
00:18:19,500 --> 00:18:21,878
It's the "editor-in-chief" of your brain,

494
00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:24,641
adept at analysis, judgment, classification, and labeling.

495
00:18:25,240 --> 00:18:27,500
Your effective operation in society

496
00:18:27,500 --> 00:18:28,120
relies on it.

497
00:18:28,759 --> 00:18:31,420
But it's also the commander-in-chief of conceptualization,

498
00:18:32,059 --> 00:18:35,460
constantly adding "good" and "bad" to your experiences.  The

499
00:18:35,460 --> 00:18:38,000
narratives of "right," "wrong," "should," and "shouldn't"—you

500
00:18:38,740 --> 00:18:41,019
think those narratives are facts, but

501
00:18:41,019 --> 00:18:43,421
they're actually stories fabricated by the "editor-in-chief."

502
00:18:44,420 --> 00:18:46,420
When Yang Ning felt her intelligence had vanished,

503
00:18:46,420 --> 00:18:47,519
what did it

504
00:18:47,559 --> 00:18:50,941
mean? It meant the "editor-in-chief's" precision was significantly reduced;

505
00:18:51,559 --> 00:18:53,961
the person who had been helping her fabricate stories was laid off. With the

506
00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:56,240
"editor-in-chief" laid off,

507
00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:57,441
of course you'd feel confused, like

508
00:18:58,039 --> 00:19:01,659
someone who's always worn tinted glasses

509
00:19:01,660 --> 00:19:04,839
suddenly taking them off—their first reaction isn't "Ah,

510
00:19:04,839 --> 00:19:06,759
I finally see the world clearly!"

511
00:19:06,759 --> 00:19:07,859
but rather "Oh my god,

512
00:19:07,859 --> 00:19:09,180
everything is so unfamiliar,

513
00:19:09,180 --> 00:19:10,211
I can't understand anything!"

514
00:19:10,799 --> 00:19:12,660
That confusion isn't regression; it

515
00:19:12,660 --> 00:19:15,600
's a normal transition period after the old filters are removed. Last

516
00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:19,140
time, we used the old monk's story to establish a concept: what's

517
00:19:19,140 --> 00:19:21,480
in the cup is what

518
00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:23,820
spills out when it's bumped.

519
00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:28,269
Today, Yang Ning's story shows us a deeper layer of this concept.

520
00:19:28,859 --> 00:19:31,180
If you want to change what's in the cup,

521
00:19:31,180 --> 00:19:32,461
you'll go through three stages.

522
00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:34,260
The first stage: stirring. Cultivation

523
00:19:34,700 --> 00:19:37,779
brings up the old seeds that have sunk to the bottom of the cup.

524
00:19:37,779 --> 00:19:39,000
You're more confused than before.

525
00:19:39,519 --> 00:19:41,980
Many people give up at this stage

526
00:19:41,980 --> 00:19:43,681
because they think they've gone astray. The

527
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:45,500
second stage: differentiation.

528
00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:48,181
You begin to learn to distinguish between "endurance" and "observation."

529
00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:51,079
Endurance is like pressing down the lid to prevent it from coming out;

530
00:19:51,079 --> 00:19:53,381
observation is watching it come out without adding energy.

531
00:19:53,900 --> 00:19:55,940
This distinction may seem small,

532
00:19:55,940 --> 00:19:59,181
but it determines whether you are accumulating or releasing pressure. The

533
00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:01,120
third stage: Clarity.

534
00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:03,740
When enough old seeds have been observed,

535
00:20:03,900 --> 00:20:07,039
released, and no new seeds of the same kind are planted, the

536
00:20:07,039 --> 00:20:09,350
contents of the cup truly begin to undergo a qualitative change.

537
00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:11,759
This doesn't happen overnight;

538
00:20:11,759 --> 00:20:13,161
it's a process that takes time.

539
00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:16,280
Yang Ning spent over twenty years completing these three stages.

540
00:20:16,700 --> 00:20:20,580
I also want to share my thoughts on those miraculous meditation experiences.

541
00:20:21,220 --> 00:20:25,720
Yang Ning encountered her master, saw Li Shizhen, and learned about traditional Chinese medicine in meditation.

542
00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:27,700
What is the essence of these experiences?

543
00:20:27,700 --> 00:20:29,779
With current scientific tools,

544
00:20:29,779 --> 00:20:31,500
we cannot give a definitive answer.

545
00:20:32,079 --> 00:20:34,599
My attitude aligns with the consistent stance of this channel:

546
00:20:34,599 --> 00:20:37,259
maintain reverence for ancient wisdom,

547
00:20:37,259 --> 00:20:39,240
respect for personal experiences, and

548
00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:40,921
at the same time, remain rationally open-minded,

549
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:42,180
neither easily believing

550
00:20:42,180 --> 00:20:43,171
nor readily denying.

551
00:20:43,940 --> 00:20:46,339
But the most valuable part of Yang Ning's story, in

552
00:20:46,339 --> 00:20:50,280
my opinion, is not those "beyond conventional understanding" meditative states,

553
00:20:50,819 --> 00:20:54,440
but rather the very human things she experienced during her practice: a

554
00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:56,119
worsening temper,

555
00:20:56,119 --> 00:20:58,480
family relationships strained to the point of near collapse,

556
00:20:58,480 --> 00:20:59,680
her husband's lack of understanding,

557
00:20:59,680 --> 00:21:00,609
self-doubt, failure to endure humiliation, and

558
00:21:00,609 --> 00:21:01,420
 

559
00:21:01,420 --> 00:21:02,560
feeling like she was regressing with each practice.

560
00:21:03,200 --> 00:21:05,619
Because these are the realities of everyone who seriously confronts themselves.

561
00:21:05,619 --> 00:21:07,120
Everyone encounters these things.

562
00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:10,079
You don't need to meditate or see any visions.

563
00:21:10,079 --> 00:21:13,539
You only need to carefully observe your own thoughts and emotions, and

564
00:21:13,539 --> 00:21:17,400
you're already doing the same thing—stirring up the silt in the seed bank,

565
00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:19,740
reducing the weight of prior beliefs, and

566
00:21:19,740 --> 00:21:21,141
beginning to see your true self.

567
00:21:21,759 --> 00:21:23,579
Yang Ning wrote a sentence at the beginning of the book:

568
00:21:23,579 --> 00:21:26,039
she wrote this book for only one purpose, out of

569
00:21:26,039 --> 00:21:27,600
a need for love.

570
00:21:28,079 --> 00:21:31,579
She said this love doesn't arise from a certain moment or place, nor

571
00:21:31,579 --> 00:21:32,799
does it disappear; it's simply

572
00:21:32,799 --> 00:21:33,860
an existence.

573
00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:35,500
In this love, the

574
00:21:35,500 --> 00:21:36,500
ego has no place to stand.

575
00:21:36,799 --> 00:21:37,019
You see, the

576
00:21:37,019 --> 00:21:38,539
place she finally reached

577
00:21:38,539 --> 00:21:40,720
wasn't some supernatural power, superpower,

578
00:21:40,720 --> 00:21:41,990
or even "inner peace,"

579
00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:44,800
but a love that emerged after the ego dissolved.

580
00:21:45,279 --> 00:21:46,059
That Manas consciousness,

581
00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:48,920
that claimant who spent her whole life saying "This is mine," "That

582
00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:50,299
is mine,"

583
00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:51,141
finally quieted down.

584
00:21:51,500 --> 00:21:52,799
When "I" left the stage, what

585
00:21:52,799 --> 00:21:54,240
remained wasn't emptiness,

586
00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:54,620
but love.

587
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:56,920
But before reaching that place,

588
00:21:56,920 --> 00:21:58,800
you have to experience a collapse of the ego.

589
00:21:59,259 --> 00:22:00,419
And most people

590
00:22:00,420 --> 00:22:02,560
run away when the collapse begins.

591
00:22:03,180 --> 00:22:03,800
Yang Ning didn't run away.

592
00:22:04,180 --> 00:22:06,280
She sat on those ruins for over twenty years,

593
00:22:06,599 --> 00:22:07,960
and then the water flowed and the flowers bloomed.

594
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:08,360
 

595
00:22:08,740 --> 00:22:11,360
Perhaps you haven't started any form of spiritual practice yet, or

596
00:22:11,660 --> 00:22:14,619
perhaps you're experiencing a phase where "the harder you try, the worse it gets."

597
00:22:15,039 --> 00:22:18,701
Whether at work, in relationships, or in self-discovery,

598
00:22:19,220 --> 00:22:23,240
perhaps someone around you is telling you: "Are you going in the wrong direction?"

599
00:22:23,380 --> 00:22:24,880
Before you make a decision,

600
00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:25,921
think about Yang Ning's pond.

601
00:22:26,500 --> 00:22:27,819
The water has become murky, but that does

602
00:22:27,819 --> 00:22:28,961
n't necessarily mean you polluted it;

603
00:22:29,539 --> 00:22:31,340
perhaps it just means you've finally started cleaning it. What are your thoughts

604
00:22:31,799 --> 00:22:33,740
on this episode of Yang Ning's story? Have

605
00:22:33,740 --> 00:22:34,940
 

606
00:22:35,039 --> 00:22:38,440
you ever experienced that phase where "the harder you try, the more you regress"? Do

607
00:22:38,500 --> 00:22:40,439
you feel you spend more time "enduring"

608
00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:42,019
or "observing"?

609
00:22:42,099 --> 00:22:44,040
Feel free to tell me your thoughts in the comments section. In the

610
00:22:44,660 --> 00:22:45,440
next episode,

611
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:47,690
I'll tell an even older and more legendary story:

612
00:22:48,220 --> 00:22:50,640
a young man from 2,200 years ago who

613
00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:54,878
transformed from an impulsive assassin into one of the most outstanding strategists in Chinese history.

614
00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:57,000
And what changed him wasn't a military treatise,

615
00:22:57,000 --> 00:22:57,701
but a pair of shoes.

616
00:22:58,200 --> 00:22:58,980
I'm Wang Lijie.

617
00:22:59,079 --> 00:22:59,960
See you next time.