Wang Yangming's Enlightenment Chapter is fake
so why does it hit harder than the real thing
have you ever on WeChat Moments or short videos
or in some middle-aged person's WeChat signature
seen a passage like this dodge the will of heaven
escape cause and effect
all these shackles trap the true self
follow the will of heaven
fulfill cause and effect
only today do I know that I am me
doesn't it sound really profound
and underneath there's usually a title
called Wang Yangming's Mind Philosophy the Enlightenment Chapter
let me give you the conclusion first
you might freeze for three seconds
this passage
Wang Yangming never wrote a single word of it
hello
everyone
I'm Leo Wang
this text branded as Wang Yangming's Mind Philosophy Enlightenment Chapter
is actually a complete forgery from start to finish
it's not in the Chuanxi Lu
not in the Inquiry on the Great Learning
and not in any of Wang Yangming's letters home or memorials to the throne
it was pieced together by modern people
mixing in the Buddhist idea of cause and effect
the Taoist idea of non-action
and sprinkling in a little of the mind philosophy's innate knowing as seasoning
then slapping on Wang Yangming's famous brand name
and serving it up
but
pay attention I want to raise a more interesting question
what I want to talk about today
isn't that it's fake so don't believe it
but a deeper question
why can a piece of counterfeit text
spread so widely across the Chinese internet
why would we rather believe Wang Yangming wrote it
have you ever thought about it
when someone sees this passage
the first reaction is to share it to like it
to say it's so well put
almost no one goes to check whether Wang Yangming actually wrote it
this act of not checking
is itself a huge signal
what does it tell us
it tells us this passage hit something
it hit some emptiness inside us
that emptiness is so strong
that we don't even care who the author really is
we just need it to be Wang Yangming and that's enough
this is the first thing I want to show you today
why do people need to be deceived by this kind of forgery
let me ask you a question first
if I told you
dodge the will of heaven escape cause and effect
all these shackles trap the true self this line
was an original post by some guy named Zhang San on an online forum
would you still share it
would you still feel its power
most likely not
but if I told you
this was written by Wang Yangming after his enlightenment at Longchang
oh
then the flavor is completely different
you'd feel every word weighs a thousand pounds
every word crystallizes
five hundred years ago that man banished to the miasmic wilds of Guizhou
the mind philosophy master who awakened overnight in a stone coffin all his blood and tears
you see
the same piece of text
change the signature
and its weight in your heart is worlds apart
this is the first cognitive trap
we're not really reading the content
we're reading authority
psychology calls this authority bias
to save computing power our brain
defaults to one logic
what great people say
must be right
and in reverse
words that sound very right
must have been said by a great person
both directions hold
so when you see a passage that sounds very reasonable
your brain automatically finds it a worthy author
Wang Yangming Laozi Socrates Einstein Lu Xun
these names are the ATMs of wisdom
any idea as long as it's under their name
you dare to withdraw it use it share it
there's an interesting phenomenon on the Chinese internet
tagged as Lu Xun said
or Einstein said
a good portion neither man ever actually said
but these fabricated quotes still spread everywhere
which proves exactly one thing
our demand for content
far exceeds our demand for the truth
and in today's age of algorithms this
gets amplified even further
the algorithm doesn't care whether a line is true
the algorithm only cares whether you liked it
whether you lingered whether you shared
so a piece of feel-good soup under Wang Yangming's name
gets pushed in front of millions within three days
while a serious scholarly article
telling you this is a forgery
might not even reach a thousand reads
this isn't a conspiracy
this is math
traffic has never rewarded the truth
it rewards resonance
and resonance
is far cheaper than the truth
alright
that's the first layer
let's set this layer aside for now
and move to the second layer
the question I want to ask on the second layer is
since this text is a forgery
should we then reject it entirely
no
this is the second mistake many people make after seeing through a forgery
throwing out the baby with the bathwater
I just spent a lot of effort telling you this is a forgery
but now I'm going to say something that might overturn your view
in this forgery
there are a few lines
that are genuinely penetrating
not powerful because Wang Yangming said them
but because they themselves hit a certain truth
do you remember
there's a line in the Diamond Sutra
all forms that exist
are illusory
Buddhism says rely on the teaching not on the person
meaning
truth doesn't hold because of who said it
truth holds because it is truth
whether a statement is right
has nothing to do with whether it's Wang Yangming or Zhang San
or an AI
nothing to do with it
so now let's tear off the Wang Yangming label
and restore this text to an anonymous piece
let's see which parts in it
are really worth stopping to ponder
I'll pick three lines to unpack with you
the first line
the poor read their fortunes the rich burn incense
muddled and confused asking about yin and yang
if you just do your own duty well
why would you need gods to grant a remedy
this sounds like a piece of worldly advice
but behind it hides a very sharp observation
by the way
this line was originally a folk saying passed down among the people
and has nothing to do with Wang Yangming
pasted into the Enlightenment Chapter
is just another reverse merger through a borrowed shell
have you noticed a phenomenon
the more unfortunate a person's life
the more obsessed they are with fortune telling
the richer a person already is
the more obsessed they are with burning incense
one is begging for the future
the other is begging to keep the present
but whether it's the poor one
or the rich one
essentially they're doing the same thing
handing control of their own fate
over to an external force
the poor person thinks their life turned out this way
because of a bad birth chart
offending the year god a bad year ahead
so he goes to have his fortune read
to read out an explanation
to read out a way out
the rich person thinks they got where they are
not entirely by their own ability
there must be some god watching over them
so he goes to burn incense
the more expensive the bigger the earlier
the more at ease he feels
these two look like one's at the foot of the mountain
and one's at the summit
but really they're standing in the same place
they both don't dare to believe
that their own fate
is decided by themselves
this is what the line do your own duty well
why need gods to grant a remedy is saying
do what you should do today well
fulfill the responsibilities you should fulfill
keep the rules you should keep and eighty percent of your fate
is already in your hands
the remaining twenty percent you can't control
burning incense won't give you more
fortune telling won't give you less
this principle
did Wang Yangming never say it
Wang Yangming actually said things with a similar meaning
Wang Yangming taught the unity of knowledge and action
if you know what's right
then you go do it
don't on one hand pray to gods and Buddhas
and on the other act against your conscience
that's fooling yourself and others
so even if this passage wasn't written by Wang Yangming
its spiritual core
lines up with the foundation of mind philosophy
this is also why this forgery can fool so many people
although it wasn't written by Wang Yangming
it really did borrow the soul of mind philosophy
alright
that's the first line
let's look at the second line
the second line is even sharper
of ten who burn incense nine do it for wealth
and how many sticks of true incense are there
the gods aren't short of three sticks of incense
a kind heart and kind thoughts and wealth comes on its own
the first time I read this line
I laughed out loud
go to any temple thick with incense smoke and look
the people kneeling on the prayer mats
muttering under their breath
if you could hear what they're thinking
you'd find
out of ten people
nine are cutting a deal with the gods
Bodhisattva bless my business to boom this year
and later I'll regild your statue
Buddha bless my child to get into Tsinghua
and I'll donate ten thousand yuan of merit
God of Wealth let this deal of mine close
and I'll offer you three sticks of incense every day
you see
how is this faith
this is investment recruitment
this is a business negotiation across the mortal and divine realms
burning incense is the deposit
fulfilling the vow is the final payment
the gods are the supplier
the believer is the client
and the client is especially shrewd
you deliver for me first
then I pay you
but think about it carefully
if the gods are really gods
would they be short of your three sticks of incense
would they because you slipped in an extra red envelope
change your fate for you
if they would
then they're not gods
they're corrupt officials
a true god
if one really exists
looks at only one thing
whether you as a person
are good by nature
or evil
how you treat people day to day
how you treat the weak
whether you hold your bottom line when facing temptation
these are what they look at
your balance of character
decides how much fate will deliver to you
I'm saying this pretty bluntly
but this is what the gods aren't short of three sticks of incense
a kind heart and kind thoughts and wealth comes on its own truly means
don't think the incense you burn is a bribe
how you treat the people around you every day
how you do business how you do things
that's the incense you burn to heaven and earth
that stick of incense
burns every day
and never stops
it records who you really are as a person
so the I Ching says
a house that accumulates good will have blessings to spare
a house that accumulates evil will have disasters to spare
Buddhism says cause and effect never lies
science says
systematic patterns of behavior produce systematic results
you see
East West science religion
going round and round they say the same thing
your pattern of behavior
is your pattern of fate
alright
that's the second line done
let's look at the last line
the one I find most powerful in this whole forgery
we're all booked guests of the underworld
why torment every single day
the first time I read this line
I froze for a long while
savor it slowly
every single one of us
no matter how old you are today
no matter how much you're worth
no matter whether life is good or bad
every single one of us
is a booked guest of the underworld
this booking isn't a metaphor
it's a fact
from the moment you were born
your death date was already written on some page of time
you just don't know which page
every minute you live each day
is walking toward that page
today compared to yesterday
you're one day closer to that page
this sounds a bit heavy right
but flip it around
if the endpoint is certain
then what's the biggest waste
the biggest waste
is tormenting yourself along the way
tormenting others
tormenting every single day
today you had a fight with a coworker
because he stole your credit
at night you can't sleep
tossing and turning
blood pressure rising
angry for three days
but think about it
thirty years from now lying on your deathbed
will you remember this
thirty years from now will you regret not winning that argument today
you won't
thirty years from now looking back at today
the only thing you'll regret is
why did I take this precious day
and waste it on something so small
this is what we're all booked guests of the underworld
why torment every single day truly weighs
you can also do a smaller experiment
tonight lying in bed
recall the thing that annoyed you most today
maybe someone shoved you on the subway
maybe your kid wouldn't do homework
maybe your boss shot down what you wanted to say in public
then ask yourself a question
a week from now
will I still remember this
what about a year from now
what about ten years from now
ninety percent of things
won't even survive a week
the tears you shed for it today
the anger the gritted teeth
seven days later
won't leave even a shadow
but today
just for something like this
you turn your most precious day into a mess
why is this line powerful
because it uses death the sharpest knife of all
and in one cut severs all our daily little tangles
little anxieties little obsessions
it lifts you out of the trivial
and lets you from the underworld that endpoint
look back at this moment and you'll see
all your worries today
ninety-nine percent aren't worth it
the Stoics have a phrase
called Memento Mori
meaning remember that you will die
there's a saying that goes around
when a Roman general won a victory
during his triumphal parade
a man would stand behind him
constantly reminding him
you too will die
whether this scene is historical fact is debated
but as a method for training the mind
its logic is clear
people lose control most easily at their peak moments
most easily get inflated
most easily forget who they are
the reminder of death
can bring him back to the ground
so
we're all booked guests of the underworld
why torment every single day
this line isn't negative
it's the deepest kind of positive
it lets you in every present moment
stand at the endpoint and look back
and then make a choice you won't regret
alright
that's all three lines
now let's return to the question at the start
why can a forgery spread so widely
by now you should understand
because although it's pieced together
it's pieced together just right
it takes the deepest spiritual needs of the Chinese heart
and packages them all up for you at once
first
the need for authority
so it has to bear Wang Yangming's name
second
the need for liberation
so it has to talk about letting go of obsession
third
the need for irony
so it has to mock the hypocrisy of burning incense for wealth
fourth
the need for ultimate meaning
so it has to bring out the booked guest of the underworld view of life and death
this forgery
is actually a precisely customized product for the spiritual pain points of modern Chinese people
the reason it spreads so widely
isn't because Wang Yangming wrote it
but because it hits the shared dilemma of a huge group of people
a group torn between material and spirit
wavering between faith and disbelief
and worn down between striving and letting go
so
the popularity of a forgery
is itself a social psychology survey report
but pay attention
I'm about to reach the final layer
and it's the most important layer today
a forgery that can hit you
can't actually make you change
you might finish reading this text
moved to pieces
share it with three friends
change your WeChat signature to a line
we're all booked guests of the underworld
and then what
then the next day
you still lose sleep over that coworker's remark
still agonize half a day over ten thousand yuan
still feel a pang when you see someone show off a luxury car on WeChat Moments
still silently bargain with the Bodhisattva while burning incense
why
because having read
doesn't equal knowing
knowing
doesn't equal doing
doing
doesn't equal becoming
Wang Yangming's real mind philosophy
isn't about these pretty words
when Wang Yangming taught the unity of knowledge and action
what he meant was
if you truly know something
you're already doing it
if you're not doing it
it proves you never truly knew it
after you finish watching this video today
and feel that we're all booked guests of the underworld
why torment every single day is so well put
if that's your entire reaction
then you haven't really known this line at all
you've only heard of this line
what does truly knowing look like
truly knowing is
tomorrow morning a coworker says something annoying again
and in that instant a voice pops up in your head
I'm a booked guest of the underworld
it's not worth it
and then you actually let it go
not forcing yourself to let go
not using reason to suppress emotion
but the line has grown into your bones
becoming part of your reflex
this is what the unity of knowledge and action means
this is what mind philosophy is
you can understand it this way
a sentence entering your body
passes through four gates
the first gate
is called seeing
your eyes sweep over it
and you know this line exists in the world
the second gate
is called agreeing
you nod
and think it's right
the third gate
is called remembering
you can at the dinner table
or on WeChat Moments repeat it
the fourth gate
is what real possession means
it's when the next time you're about to lose your temper
the line jumps out on its own
and holds down your heartbeat
the first three gates don't count
only when the fourth gate is passed
do you truly gain it
and this transformation
can't be completed by reading a forgery
it needs you in the life ahead
again and again
to practice in concrete situations
remember it every time you're angry
remember it every time you're anxious
remember it every time you're greedy
after a hundred times a thousand times
it finally truly becomes you
this is what's truly formidable about Yangming mind philosophy
and where all forgeries ultimately fail
a forgery can give you emotion
but it can't give you practice
alright
at this point
I'd like to hear your thoughts
have you seen this kind of name-dropping forgery on WeChat Moments
did you believe it back then
looking back now
do you think those so-called famous quotes that once hit you
really changed anything about you in the end
or is it
they just set off a firework in your heart
and then you went back to your old life track
feel free to share your thoughts in the comments
I'm Leo Wang
see you next time