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Jin Ping Mei

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How desire consumes a person step by step

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More than four hundred years ago

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someone wrote a book

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In this book no greedy person meets a good end

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and no downfall happens by accident

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The fate of each person

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is sealed the moment the first thought arises

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with no way back

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Hello

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everyone

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I am Wang Lijie

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Today we are talking about Jin Ping Mei

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I know many people hear this title

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and first think of the censored chapters

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But honestly

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if that is all you see

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you miss the most precise experiment in cause and effect in Chinese literature

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The brilliance of this book is not simply what it depicts

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but the complete chain it reveals

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how a person begins to want

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then becomes unable to stop

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then hurts others to get what they want

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and finally burns to ash in a fire they lit themselves

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Buddhism calls this chain greed anger and ignorance

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But Jin Ping Mei makes it more concrete than any scripture

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because it does not preach

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it simply shows you people

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Let us begin with Ximen Qing

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Many people see Ximen Qing as merely a womanizer

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That is certainly true

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but it is far from enough

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Look closely at this man

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He wants far more than women

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He wants money

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He wants power

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He wants status

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He wants everyone to bow before him

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One wife and concubine are not enough

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he needs six

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One medicine shop is not enough

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he must open a silk shop and a pawnshop too

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Knowing one official is not enough

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he must gain access to Grand Preceptor Cai

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Do you see it

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Every time he gets something

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he is not satisfied

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he becomes hungrier

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When I read this

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I thought of a discovery in modern neuroscience

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The human brain has a dopamine circuit

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This circuit does not give you happiness

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it gives you anticipation

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the rush you feel when you are about to get something

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Once you actually have it

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that rush disappears

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so you must immediately chase the next thing

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Ximen Qing lives inside this circuit

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He does not know what he is chasing

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but he cannot stop

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One detail in the book makes this especially clear

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Ximen Qing later pays heavily to buy an official post

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Deputy Commander of Judicial Affairs

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You might think becoming an official satisfies him

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It does not

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Once appointed he thinks the position is too low

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and desperately courts more powerful officials

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He sends lavish gifts

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hosts banquets

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and forms ritual kinships

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He uses every tactic he can

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With every step upward

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he moves not closer to satisfaction

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but farther away

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because the position is not what he truly wants

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What he wants is the rush produced by climbing itself

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Once the position is his

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the rush is gone

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so he has to reach higher again

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This is the true face of greed

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Greed is not merely wanting

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greed is wanting more after getting what you want

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You think you want a particular thing

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but what you really want

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is what the act of obtaining it produces

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that brief instant of pleasure

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The moment you get it

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the pleasure vanishes

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and you can only chase the next thing

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This is where Jin Ping Mei is so powerful

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It is not condemning Ximen Qing

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it is showing you how a machine operates

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That machine is desire

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Once you start it

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it advances step by step according to its own logic

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whether you want it to or not

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So where does it go next

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It turns into anger

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Anger means rage

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and aggression

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But it does not appear from nowhere

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Anger arises automatically when greed is blocked

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You want something but cannot get it

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or someone competes with you for it

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and you become furious

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Pan Jinlian shows this most clearly

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Pan Jinlian is not simply a bad person

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Look back at where she came from

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She was sold as a servant to a wealthy household as a child

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and later made to marry Wu Dalang

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She never chose her own life

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There is a deep hole inside her

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That hole is the need

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to be seen

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and treated as a human being

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When she meets Ximen Qing

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she thinks she has finally been chosen

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But she soon discovers

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she is not the only one in this household

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She is not the chosen one

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she is only one of the things he has collected

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From that moment

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her greed turns into anger

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She begins to envy Li Ping er

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She envies Li Ping er for having a son

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and for receiving more attention from Ximen Qing

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This is more than rivalry for affection

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It is the pain of someone unseen for years

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watching another person be seen as a fire ignites inside her

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What she later does to Li Ping er and her child

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is known to anyone who has read the book

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I will not go into it

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but it is among the most chilling passages in the novel

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You may think Pan Jinlian is simply vicious

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But if you pull the camera back you can see

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a person consumed by the hunger inside her

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Her cruelty was not inborn

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It emerged after desire was denied

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as pain slowly squeezed her out of shape

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And Pan Jinlian is not the only one

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Consider Li Ping er

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Before entering the Ximen household she was a wealthy wife

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and she brought a large fortune with her

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She lacked no material comfort

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yet she never felt secure for a single day in that house

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She desperately wanted a son to secure her place

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When her son was born

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she relaxed for a brief moment

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But the soil of that household had not changed

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Envious looks hidden schemes and endless infighting

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none of it went away

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After her son Guange died

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Li Ping er quickly collapsed as well

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The passage describing her final days

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is among the quietest pages in the entire book

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That quiet is not peace

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it is the quiet of someone completely depleted

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Her greed is not as brazen as Ximen Qing

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or as scorching as Pan Jinlian

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She only wants a stable home

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But beneath a roof powered by desire

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even such a modest wish cannot survive

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This is what Buddhism calls collective karma

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The greed anger and ignorance of one person do not remain personal

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They become a kind of climate

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that spreads through the whole environment

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Everyone within it

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no matter who they used to be

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is stained by it over time

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You may not become greedier

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but you become more exhausted tense and unable to relax

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because you know

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that if you loosen your grip here

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someone may trample you down

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At this point

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I want to pause and explain an important Buddhist idea

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Buddhism speaks of cause and effect

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not the simple notion that bad deeds bring punishment

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Its real meaning is that

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every thought you have

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is changing who you are

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A greedy thought arises

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and it does not simply disappear

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It is like a seed

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falling into the soil of your consciousness

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The next time something similar happens

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that seed begins to sprout

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and you make the same choice faster and more automatically

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After enough repetition

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you no longer notice that you are choosing

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You think it is your personality

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but it is only a path you have worn into the ground

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Buddhism calls this karma

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Karma is not someone in heaven keeping score

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Karma is your own habit loop

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Every time you follow it

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the path grows deeper

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In the end

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you believe this path is your fate

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But it is not fate

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It is inertia

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This is how the greed of Ximen Qing deepens layer by layer

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and how the anger of Pan Jinlian deepens layer by layer

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Eventually

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no one can stop the vehicle

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This brings us to the third step

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ignorance

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What is ignorance

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Ignorance means being unable to see

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It is not blindness of the eyes

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but blindness of the mind

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You are already standing at the edge of a cliff

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Everyone is shouting for you to come back

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but you cannot hear them

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It is not that you refuse to listen

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Your entire system of perception

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has already been shaped by greed and anger

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and programmed all over again

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The world you now perceive

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is no longer the real world

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Late in his life Ximen Qing

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is visibly falling apart physically

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The book makes this very clear

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His energy declines day by day

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People around him warn him

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and he is not entirely unaware

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but he still cannot stop

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Why can he not stop

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Because his threshold for pleasure keeps rising

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What once made him happy

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is no longer enough

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He needs more stronger and harsher stimulation

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He is not enjoying himself

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he is chasing a finish line he can never reach

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You may think this only afflicted people four centuries ago

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But think about your phone

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You scroll short videos for two hours and cannot stop

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Is that not the same mechanism

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One video ends

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and the pleasure vanishes in a second

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so you immediately swipe to the next one

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You know you are wasting time

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but your finger does not obey you

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This is not a problem of willpower

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It is a problem of the circuit

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That circuit has been trained into this shape

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Trying to twist it back with willpower

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is like trying to bend a railway track by hand

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The issue is not simply that it is hard

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you are using the wrong tool

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Buddhism calls this state avidya

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Avidya does not mean stupidity

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It means moving in the wrong direction

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Think about it

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During the final years of Ximen Qing

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so many things happen that should wake him up

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His friends die

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his business partners turn against him

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and his own body deteriorates day by day

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Each signal is clearer than the last

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To an outside observer

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the answer is written on the wall

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but he simply cannot see it

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It is not that he lacks intelligence

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He is extremely shrewd in business

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and adept at navigating officialdom

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But shrewdness and clarity are different things

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Shrewdness is running fast on an existing track

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Clarity is lifting your head to see where the track leads

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Ximen Qing has the former

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but not the latter

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The shrewder he becomes

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the farther he runs down the wrong path

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What moves me most about Jin Ping Mei

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is the way it portrays the ending

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After Ximen Qing dies

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the household falls apart

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but not all at once

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It is like a building

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with its load bearing pillars removed one by one

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until the entire structure collapses

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00:09:53,210 --> 00:09:55,177
Every relationship he cultivated in life

283
00:09:55,249 --> 00:09:56,817
was built entirely on self interest

284
00:09:57,049 --> 00:09:57,757
Once the shared interest disappears

285
00:09:58,129 --> 00:09:59,216
the people and warmth disappear

286
00:09:59,450 --> 00:10:00,716
The women he collected

287
00:10:01,009 --> 00:10:01,928
some are sold

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00:10:01,929 --> 00:10:02,596
some enter religious life

289
00:10:02,929 --> 00:10:03,976
and some die

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00:10:04,090 --> 00:10:05,817
Not one of them meets a good end

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00:10:06,129 --> 00:10:07,076
Do you know why

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00:10:07,730 --> 00:10:09,937
Because from its very first day

293
00:10:09,970 --> 00:10:12,814
not one brick in this house was laid with sincerity

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00:10:13,328 --> 00:10:14,566
The entire Ximen household

295
00:10:14,568 --> 00:10:16,935
is like a bubble inflated by desire

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00:10:17,367 --> 00:10:20,055
Everyone inside chases what they want

297
00:10:20,367 --> 00:10:22,974
but no one truly cares about anyone else

298
00:10:23,247 --> 00:10:24,675
What connects them is not human connection

299
00:10:25,007 --> 00:10:25,935
but transaction

300
00:10:26,167 --> 00:10:28,015
Buddhism has a term called dependent origination

301
00:10:28,367 --> 00:10:31,734
It means everything arises from a combination of conditions

302
00:10:32,007 --> 00:10:32,635
When the conditions remain

303
00:10:33,088 --> 00:10:33,974
the thing remains

304
00:10:34,167 --> 00:10:35,035
When the conditions disperse

305
00:10:35,367 --> 00:10:36,375
the thing disappears

306
00:10:36,848 --> 00:10:39,935
Everything Ximen Qing builds with money and power

307
00:10:40,007 --> 00:10:41,655
exists only under certain conditions

308
00:10:42,047 --> 00:10:44,775
and all those conditions depend on him alone

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00:10:45,167 --> 00:10:45,714
When he falls

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00:10:46,167 --> 00:10:47,854
all the conditions vanish at once

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00:10:48,409 --> 00:10:49,417
This is not retribution

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00:10:49,769 --> 00:10:51,616
It is structural fragility

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00:10:52,009 --> 00:10:54,417
Anything supported entirely by external conditions

314
00:10:54,570 --> 00:10:57,777
has its ending written on the day it is built

315
00:10:58,009 --> 00:11:00,496
not because a god in heaven is judging your sins

316
00:11:00,690 --> 00:11:04,339
but because the foundation was empty from the start

317
00:11:04,811 --> 00:11:07,819
Look at how the book depicts the funeral of Ximen Qing

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00:11:08,092 --> 00:11:10,099
The people he called his closest friends

319
00:11:10,291 --> 00:11:12,699
come to the funeral merely to make an appearance

320
00:11:12,892 --> 00:11:15,658
then turn around and scheme over his property and women

321
00:11:15,972 --> 00:11:18,018
The relationships he spent half a lifetime maintaining

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00:11:18,051 --> 00:11:20,978
are cold before the coffin lid is even closed

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00:11:21,291 --> 00:11:23,011
You think you are building relationships

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00:11:23,012 --> 00:11:24,539
but you are only piling up conditions

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00:11:24,931 --> 00:11:25,638
When the conditions change

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00:11:25,972 --> 00:11:28,426
everything you built instantly returns to zero

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00:11:28,819 --> 00:11:30,786
You may have experienced this too

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00:11:30,940 --> 00:11:33,387
You spend enormous effort maintaining

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00:11:33,499 --> 00:11:36,747
a relationship a situation or an appearance

330
00:11:37,219 --> 00:11:38,406
Everything looks fine on the surface

331
00:11:38,780 --> 00:11:40,107
but deep down you know

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00:11:40,180 --> 00:11:41,467
the foundation is unstable

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00:11:41,819 --> 00:11:43,186
You do not dare stop

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00:11:43,260 --> 00:11:45,546
because you fear everything will scatter if you do

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00:11:46,140 --> 00:11:48,098
Across its one hundred chapters Jin Ping Mei

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00:11:48,099 --> 00:11:50,786
takes this inability to stop to its furthest extreme

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00:11:51,099 --> 00:11:52,219
It lets you see

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00:11:52,219 --> 00:11:54,946
that being unable to stop is itself a symptom of ignorance

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00:11:55,499 --> 00:11:58,426
You do not cling because the thing is so wonderful

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00:11:58,540 --> 00:12:01,227
You keep running because you fear that if you stop

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00:12:01,260 --> 00:12:03,066
nothing at all will remain

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00:12:03,592 --> 00:12:04,060
Ultimately

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00:12:04,352 --> 00:12:06,919
greed anger and ignorance are not three separate flaws

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00:12:07,273 --> 00:12:08,440
They form a single chain

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00:12:08,832 --> 00:12:09,619
Greed is the starting point

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00:12:10,033 --> 00:12:12,159
anger is the recoil when greed is blocked

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00:12:12,472 --> 00:12:16,159
and ignorance is losing awareness within that cycle

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00:12:16,552 --> 00:12:17,779
The three feed one another

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00:12:18,033 --> 00:12:19,080
and grow ever larger

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00:12:19,113 --> 00:12:23,560
until they engulf a person a household and an entire circle

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00:12:23,792 --> 00:12:26,840
When Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng wrote this book four centuries ago

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00:12:26,993 --> 00:12:29,320
he probably had no Buddhist framework in mind

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00:12:29,633 --> 00:12:31,320
Yet everything he observed

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00:12:31,472 --> 00:12:33,799
fits Buddhist thought with remarkable precision

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00:12:34,072 --> 00:12:36,840
This is what makes great classical writers extraordinary

356
00:12:37,072 --> 00:12:38,392
They do not need a theory

357
00:12:38,393 --> 00:12:40,639
They only need to look with complete honesty

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00:12:41,153 --> 00:12:42,019
If they look closely enough

359
00:12:42,352 --> 00:12:44,767
the truth emerges on its own

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00:12:45,001 --> 00:12:46,407
Lately I often think about one question

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00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:48,247
Is our world today

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00:12:48,320 --> 00:12:49,987
an enlarged version of the Ximen household

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00:12:50,521 --> 00:12:50,867
Look around

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00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:53,448
The underlying design of consumer society

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00:12:53,481 --> 00:12:55,048
is to make you keep wanting more

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00:12:55,401 --> 00:12:56,228
Advertising tells you

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00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:57,448
you lack this

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00:12:57,761 --> 00:12:58,348
You buy it

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00:12:58,560 --> 00:12:59,468
and it immediately tells you

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00:12:59,641 --> 00:13:00,808
you still lack that

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00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:03,808
Social media shows you what other people have

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00:13:04,040 --> 00:13:06,208
and makes you think you should have it too

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00:13:06,601 --> 00:13:09,608
Short videos compress your attention span further and further

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00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:13,223
until you need stronger stimulation to feel the slightest satisfaction

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00:13:13,536 --> 00:13:16,363
Is this not the modern form of greed anger and ignorance

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00:13:17,016 --> 00:13:17,204
Greed

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00:13:17,776 --> 00:13:20,103
is buying endlessly and never having enough

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00:13:20,296 --> 00:13:20,483
Anger

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00:13:21,217 --> 00:13:24,103
is the hostility and conflict we see everywhere online

380
00:13:24,257 --> 00:13:28,544
the recoil when something we want is blocked

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00:13:29,020 --> 00:13:29,816
Ignorance

382
00:13:29,816 --> 00:13:33,304
is losing our capacity for reflection amid all of this

383
00:13:33,497 --> 00:13:36,904
We scroll our phones attack others and buy things all at once

384
00:13:37,176 --> 00:13:38,944
believing that we are making choices

385
00:13:39,136 --> 00:13:40,463
when in reality those choices

386
00:13:40,497 --> 00:13:42,736
have already been made for us by the circuit

387
00:13:43,169 --> 00:13:44,935
The value of Jin Ping Mei

388
00:13:44,968 --> 00:13:47,455
has never been in its scandalous passages

389
00:13:47,648 --> 00:13:48,935
Its value lies in how

390
00:13:48,968 --> 00:13:52,215
it follows the complete rise and fall of one household

391
00:13:52,289 --> 00:13:54,536
to show you the machine of desire

392
00:13:54,569 --> 00:13:56,116
from activation to loss of control

393
00:13:56,409 --> 00:13:58,256
and every detail of its path to destruction

394
00:13:58,809 --> 00:13:59,955
More than four hundred years have passed

395
00:14:00,289 --> 00:14:02,095
but the machine remains the same

396
00:14:02,529 --> 00:14:03,896
Only the fuel has changed

397
00:14:04,323 --> 00:14:05,211
So you see

398
00:14:05,284 --> 00:14:08,218
reading Jin Ping Mei is not watching the absurdity of the ancients

399
00:14:08,652 --> 00:14:10,263
It is looking into a mirror

400
00:14:10,537 --> 00:14:12,348
What that mirror reveals

401
00:14:12,542 --> 00:14:14,514
may make you uncomfortable

402
00:14:14,748 --> 00:14:15,877
But that discomfort

403
00:14:15,910 --> 00:14:18,523
means it has reflected something real

404
00:14:18,878 --> 00:14:20,309
What does Buddhism call this

405
00:14:20,883 --> 00:14:21,891
Seeing

406
00:14:22,326 --> 00:14:22,794
To see clearly

407
00:14:23,128 --> 00:14:24,619
is the beginning of practice

408
00:14:24,932 --> 00:14:26,904
You do not have to change immediately

409
00:14:26,977 --> 00:14:28,548
and you do not have to condemn yourself

410
00:14:28,982 --> 00:14:33,120
You only need to see how that circuit turns inside you

411
00:14:33,393 --> 00:14:33,941
Once you see it

412
00:14:34,155 --> 00:14:36,166
you already have one more choice

413
00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:39,815
Today we explored the chain of greed anger and ignorance in Jin Ping Mei

414
00:14:40,050 --> 00:14:43,665
and how that chain appears in our lives today

415
00:14:44,300 --> 00:14:46,865
Which character in this book moved you most

416
00:14:46,865 --> 00:14:47,495
and which detail

417
00:14:48,069 --> 00:14:49,912
Have you ever noticed in your own life

418
00:14:49,913 --> 00:14:52,387
a similar loop of wanting more after getting what you want

419
00:14:52,920 --> 00:14:55,212
Share your thoughts in the comments

420
00:14:55,447 --> 00:14:56,115
I am Wang Lijie

421
00:14:56,408 --> 00:14:57,250
See you next time