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hey this is Leo for actualized.org and
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in this episode I'm going to be talking
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about grasping the elusory nature of
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[Music]
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thought what is a thought
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exactly what really is
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it this is one of those kind questions
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that everyone thinks that they know to
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the point where they don't even bother
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investigating it or they take it as some
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sort of philosophical question that has
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no pertinent application to their
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everyday life and nothing could be
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further from the
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truth one of the most important
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questions you can ask in your life is
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this question of what is a thought
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because after all you do think quite a
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bit
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so if what you think a thought is is not
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what a thought is then wouldn't that be
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embarrassing wouldn't that be a source
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of potentially many problems in your
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life if You Were Somehow fundamentally
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mistaken about really the true nature of
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thoughts after all you're using thoughts
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to think about your life and you're
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using thoughts to analyze reality and
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you're using thoughts thoughts
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to grasp
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truth and yet you've never really
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bothered to grasp what thoughts are
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you've always taken them for
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granted pretty much always from day one
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you've taken thoughts for granted and
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your thoughts are a very odd almost
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quasi magical mystical thing because
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they're not physical objects out in the
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physical world they're happening inside
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your mind so to speak but what exactly
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are
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they the nature of thoughts is
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illus and most people do not have
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awareness over what thoughts are and
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this gets them into so much
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trouble the difference between knowing
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what a thought is and not knowing what a
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thought is is the difference between
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living in a self-constructed mental
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prison a hellscape in which you suffer
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all all the negative emotions that you
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suffer all your anger your sadness your
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frustration all the uh difficulties you
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have in relationships with money with
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business with your health and all that
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stuff cuz all those problems are largely
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conceptually
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created they're taking place in your
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mind it's the difference between living
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in that kind of mental healthscape and
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the opposite of it which is living in a
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sort of uh freedom and getting to a
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self-actualized kind of life which is uh
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what I'm here to help you to do so if
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you want to self-actualize life you
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should really concern yourself seriously
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with the question of what is a
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thought and I don't mean just thinking
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about it in some philosophical manner or
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reading what a thought is in a textbook
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or looking up in a dictionary I mean
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getting a
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experiential direct aware Wess or
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Consciousness or mindfulness over what
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thoughts are in your experience because
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it doesn't matter what you think
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thoughts are it doesn't matter what you
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believe thoughts are cuz actually that's
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just more thinking so see you can't
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escape this problem by thinking about it
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more what you got to do is you got to
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actually become aware of what thoughts
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are in your direct experience so that
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it's functioning for you so that the
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knowledge is functioning in your life
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and it's making a difference you see and
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it's not just another
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belief what does it mean to say that
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thoughts are elusory well uh I'm not
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saying that thoughts are not
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real a lot of people hear me talking
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about Consciousness work or meditation
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or maybe some Enlightenment topics and I
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talk about thoughts and how thoughts are
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tricky and they're deceptive and they're
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elery and then say oh well yeah of
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course yeah thoughts are so thoughts
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aren't real then but that's not what I'm
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saying at all thoughts are very real
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thoughts are as real as the car the the
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tree the house your
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body
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but there's a wrinkle to it see thoughts
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are like chameleons the problem with
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thoughts is that what they appear like
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on the surface is not what they actually
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are or rather it's vice versa thoughts
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as they appear are exactly what they are
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but you take them to mean a lot more
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than they really are you attribute a
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certain depth to them that
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normally you shouldn't attribute to them
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not if you were fully
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aware there's a great story that I like
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about Picasso and Picasso I don't know
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if you know anything about him but
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basically he was a uh kind of a radical
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Avant guard Cubist painter and all of
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his paintings are not very realistic
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looking in fact it's hard to even see
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what the paintings are about sometimes
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you could have a painting of a woman and
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then you look at it doesn't even look
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like a woman so this is kind of like
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abstract type of Art and uh one day as
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The Story Goes Picasso was traveling in
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a in a train and he was just a passenger
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and there was a man sitting near him in
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the cabin and they're traveling together
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and the man he recognizes Picasso and
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says oh you're Picasso and Picasso's
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like yeah and the man says oh you know I
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don't I don't like what you do I don't
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like your work you know the art that you
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do isn't very good and Picasso says what
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do you mean the man says well what I
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don't like about your work is that it's
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not
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realistic why do you go to all this
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length to paint these paintings which
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have nothing to do with life they're not
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realistic at all and Picasso looks at
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him kind of puzzles and says what do you
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mean they're not
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realistic show me an example of what you
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mean and the man he opens up his wallet
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and takes out a photograph of his wife
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it's a little 2in by 2 in Little Square
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black and white photograph of his wife
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and he shows it to says here look look
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look at this look this right here this
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is
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real why don't you paint stuff like this
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that would be more useful than what you
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do and Picasso he looks at the he looks
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at the photograph he takes it in his
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hand he kind of looks at it like this
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brings it close to his face he turns it
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to the side kind of like looks at at the
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back of the
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photograph then he tells the
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man you know your wife she's awfully
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small and also she's very flat
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so that's just a great little anecdote
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that I like which shows us the problem
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with
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images is that images have a
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certain like Allure to them and they're
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able to suck Us in into their own
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reality without us being aware of what
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the image really literally is as in the
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case of a photograph it's a piece of
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paper with some black ink on it that's
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what it literally is but what the man
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makes it out to be in his mind is his
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wife of course the photograph is not
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literally his
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wife but it's really easy to get lost in
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such minutia because the mind is very
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good at abstracting and it tends to
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consider things that aren't really the
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thing it thinks it is as something that
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the Mind imagines because the mind likes
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to abstract
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stuff there's uh actually uh a great
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painting classic painting by Renee mcre
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he was a surrealist painter maybe you've
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seen this one it's called the treachery
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of images and what it is and I'll show
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it to you right here what it is is it's
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just a very simple canvas with a picture
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of a pipe and then it says I believe in
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French it says
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this is not a
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pipe kind of cool I like that
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one so uh what's the significance of all
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this well I want to give you some
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analogies for the treachery of
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thoughts so a photograph is not the
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thing depicted right pretty obvious I
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mean this isn't rocket science the
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problem is that we just tend to ignore
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it we tend to ignore the significance of
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such a simple little distinction that a
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photograph is not the thing depicted cuz
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here's the problem is that if you think
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that a photograph is the thing depicted
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for example I can show you a photograph
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of a a pizza a delicious mouthwatering
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pizza and if you actually believe and
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confuse the photograph for the real
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thing then you might actually delude
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yourself into thinking that this
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photograph of a pizza will be able to
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ease your hunger
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you might actually pack for a trip let's
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say to go mountain climbing and you need
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to pack some food and supplies and
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instead of packing actual food that's
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going to give you sustenance and allow
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you to live on that mountain for a week
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what you do is you just pack a box full
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of photographs of food now if you did
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that that would be a fatal
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mistake now of course this is kind of
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preposterous exaggerated example and you
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say well Leo I don't really that in my
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life but I beg to differ this is exactly
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what you do in your
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life you're just not very aware of it
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yet and I want to help you to draw this
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out in your
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experience so some more analogies if I
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show you a three-dimensional drawing of
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an
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object actually that's not a
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three-dimensional object it's a
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two-dimensional object represented in a
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threedimensional way which kind of
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creates a certain kind of Illusion which
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draws you in and makes you believe for a
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moment that it's actually
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threedimensional
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pretty common
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example another great example is a
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book have you ever just taken a book and
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opened it up and this is something I
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encourage you to actually go and do
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pause this recording and actually go do
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this after I tell
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you pick up a book and just kind of flip
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through it and notice that all there is
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in this book is just black markings on
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white paper
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that's literally what a book is It's
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Paper many pages of it with a cover and
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black
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markings the story that you think is in
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the book like let's say this is a a
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mystery novel or a romance novel or some
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sort of serious textbook on physics or
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mathematics doesn't matter what the
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content is that's what we're calling the
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story
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there is actually no story in the book
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the story is something your
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mind creates out of the black markings
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on the White
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Pages you
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see and it's really useful to to just to
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get that shift actually get this shift
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directly in your experience because when
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you normally pick up a book you're like
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oh yeah that's a sentence that's a word
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immediately your mind without even
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thinking about it your mind starts to
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interpret these markings the mind
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doesn't recognize that these are just
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markings because the mind says well yeah
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of course they're markings I know
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they're markings let's get beyond that
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let's see how these markings can
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actually be useful to me and the use of
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the markings to me is that they tell me
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a story or give me some sort of
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information so let me just go and jump
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straight into the
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information now that's not a problem
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with books but it becomes a problem when
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this analogy gets applied to your mental
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process I'm just giving you analogies
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right now and I'm going to tie it in
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with how this fits in with your life in
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a
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minute also think about language what is
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language language is just arbitrary
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sounds of course your mind immediately
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interprets meaning and assigns that to
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the sounds so the sounds sound like
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they're actually words and that the
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meaning in the words is inherent to the
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words but if I spoke to you for
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example
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for unless of course you speak Russian
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and then you can understand and decipher
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what those sounds mean otherwise those
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sounds are just gibberish to you total
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gibberish that's what language is it's
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just gibberish
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sounds which your mind
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then deconstructs and creates some kind
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of a meaning out of
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it so those are just some analogies now
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how is this possible how is it possible
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that
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meaning can be contained within just
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gibberish sounds or just markings on a
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piece of paper or pixels on a
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screen the way it's possible is through
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symbols and a symbol is a really
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fascinating thing it's it's remarkable
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What a symbol is look at this look at
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the genius of what a symbol is a symbol
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is a thing
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that
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represents something that it itself is
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not did you get
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that really think about this a symbol is
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by definition not the thing that it
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represents that's pretty
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freaky if you think about
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that symbols are actually completely
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arbitrary
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anything can stand in as a symbol for
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anything else for example I can
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represent the
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moon with any symbol that I want I can
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represent it with a
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refrigerator I can represent your mom
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with a
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fish I can represent the money in your
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bank account with five chicken eggs
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ion can represent your entire life
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story with a uh can of Coca-Cola you
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know like there is no limit to what the
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symbol can be a lot of times we think
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like well the symbol sort of has to
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resemble the original thing and no it
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actually doesn't not at all in fact most
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of the symbols we use uh most of the
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English language uh both spoken and
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written has nothing to do with the
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meanings when I say the word cat that
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has nothing at all to do it has no
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resemblance whatsoever to the actual
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animal
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cat you ever notice that kind of funny
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just like totally arbitrary right
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totally arbitrary and yet our mind is
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able to decipher it because all that's
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necessary in our mind is just a mapping
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the mapping in the mind is just like
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well cat
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equals the actual animal
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cat that's all the Sor and you can
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change all those meanings around if you
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wanted to you can teach yourself new
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languages or you can even
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reinterpret what an existing language
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means right now all this might seem kind
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of obvious but also just notice how
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unconscious this makes
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you because you're born into this world
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and just after a couple of years already
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you're just taught language you're
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taught language your mind is primed for
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learning language and then this language
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is what you use to think
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with so your thoughts are arbitrary
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symbols and your you think in language
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you also think in images but largely
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your thoughts are just kind of arbitrary
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symbols which acquire meaning over
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time and what the human brain is it's a
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magnificent mechanism for shuffling
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around all these symbols and then
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creating all sorts of meanings and
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interconnections between these symbols
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and then see what happens after a while
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after you do this for 10 20 30 years
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what happens is that you start to create
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all sorts of weird Twisted meanings in
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your
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mind where something can happen in
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reality and then it can make you feel
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depressed or it can make you feel angry
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or pissed off it can make you cry it can
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make you yell it can make you fuming mad
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full of Rage it can make you kill
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somebody because of the meanings that
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your mind assigns to certain
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symbols it's really quite remarkable
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that this is even possible it's amazing
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that symbols even
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exist but you have to also start to
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become conscious that meaning what it is
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is because it is arbitrary it's
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completely arbitrary that meaning is an
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illusion and meanings are some of the
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most meaningful things to
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you what's the meaning of money to
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you what's the meaning of a relationship
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to you what's the meaning of love to you
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what's the meaning of sex to you what's
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the meaning of your car to you or your
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house or your career or your job or how
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people think of you whether they think
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of you as a good person or an evil
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person all of these things are meanings
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that are spun by the
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mind but also you're not aware of what
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they literally are because a thought has
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two components to it so to speak there's
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the content of the thought or the story
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that's contained in it the meaning in
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other words and then there's literally
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what it
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is so if you ever get to the point in
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your life where you're feeling bad and
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depressed or you're having some kind of
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negative emotional reaction your
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suffering one thing that
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might Dawn on
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you if you uh are conscious enough is
00:19:03
that all of these meanings are not
00:19:05
actually
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true how can this be the
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case I want to show you with some
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practical examples and I'll give you
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some exercises here but just recognize
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now the significance of this Breaking
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Free from your
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mind requires that you become aware of
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what meaning is and it's illusory
00:19:32
nature gaining mindfulness over your
00:19:36
thoughts this is one of the keys to all
00:19:40
self-improvement work the more mindful
00:19:43
you are of your thoughts the less
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reactive and the less distressed you
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will be by them because distress and
00:19:52
suffering is only contained within
00:19:55
meaning there cannot really be any
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suffering without
00:20:00
meaning you might think there can be
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like you might think that there could be
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extreme pain and stuff like this but
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that's not really the
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case almost all of your suffering comes
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from meaning and yet at the same time
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meaning is illusory so you're seeing the
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significance of this extremely
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significant this is not philosophy this
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is not just some like interesting
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linguistic theory that I'm giving to you
00:20:27
very practical
00:20:29
I want to teach you a little technique
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that I kind of came up with myself I
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call it flattening the
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illusion and I want to train you how to
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use this technique so first we're going
00:20:39
to train on just some very uh simple
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examples uh that aren't very applicable
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to your life so the first example I'm
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going to show on the screen right now go
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ahead and take a look at
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it so you see a picture now what I want
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you to do is I want you to flatten the
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illusion as I say flatten the illusion
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illusion so notice the meaning that's
00:21:01
there and notice whatever your mind is
00:21:04
kind of projecting and
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perceiving of the image and now what I
00:21:08
want you to do is I want you to just
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flatten it look at it literally what is
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it
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literally so literally it is not a
00:21:19
three-dimensional Cube literally it's
00:21:22
some flat markings on a flat
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surface of course you could go even more
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literally you could say Well they're
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just pixels on a computer screen that
00:21:31
you're looking at that would be an
00:21:33
additional level of
00:21:37
literalness but we can even just kind of
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ignore that and just pretend like you're
00:21:41
looking at it on piece of paper or
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something but look at this literally
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right it's just some
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flat markings on a flat surface there's
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nothing threedimensional about it even
00:21:50
though it appears threedimensional so we
00:21:52
might say that the content appears
00:21:55
three-dimensional that's the illusory
00:21:57
nature of it the reality of it literally
00:21:59
is that it's just some uh
00:22:01
two-dimensional ink on a
00:22:05
Surface okay good now let's go on to the
00:22:07
next example so take a look at this
00:22:11
example this one might be a little more
00:22:14
tricky For You especially if you have a
00:22:18
phobia on this issue so take a look at
00:22:22
this and now notice immediately notice
00:22:24
if you have any kind of emotional
00:22:25
reactions in your body or in your mind
00:22:30
and what I want you to do is I again I
00:22:31
want you to flatten the
00:22:33
illusion so make a distinction between
00:22:36
what's literally there on the screen
00:22:38
that you're looking at and what your
00:22:40
mind
00:22:42
is projecting on to it what it's
00:22:45
interpreting out of
00:22:49
it this might mean any labels you assign
00:22:52
to this object if you assign any labels
00:22:54
to it or any kind of memories that come
00:22:57
up or any kind of Association any kind
00:22:58
of charged emotional reactions you might
00:23:01
have any kind of feelings of disgust or
00:23:05
fear or
00:23:08
avoidance notice all of that is separate
00:23:11
from what's literally there so flatten
00:23:13
the illusion right now practice this
00:23:16
actually do
00:23:20
it okay so you're seeing what's
00:23:23
literally
00:23:24
there and not the content of the picture
00:23:29
notice that the content is an
00:23:35
illusion okay good now let's go on to
00:23:38
the last example of this series so take
00:23:41
a look at
00:23:42
this now immediately what I want you to
00:23:45
do is to notice the difference between
00:23:47
the content and what's literally there
00:23:49
so flatten this
00:23:51
illusion notice any kind of emotional
00:23:53
reactions you might have had to the
00:23:55
words written on the screen and how
00:23:57
maybe you perceive received it in some
00:24:00
kind of a Charged emotional way maybe
00:24:04
you related to it in some way that
00:24:06
offended you or made you feel bad or
00:24:09
shocked you or whatever notice that
00:24:11
that's all your stuff that's not what's
00:24:14
happening on the screen and also notice
00:24:17
that the words and symbols written on
00:24:18
the screen notice what those
00:24:20
are the meaning of those is again
00:24:24
projected and interpreted by your
00:24:26
mind so flat Pat the illusion of the
00:24:29
words on the screen to the point where
00:24:31
you don't even see them as words
00:24:33
anymore but just as symbols on the
00:24:39
screen see the words and the letters for
00:24:42
what they literally
00:24:45
are not for what your mind thinks they
00:24:51
mean okay so flatten that
00:24:55
illusion okay great so now you got the
00:24:58
hang of it right pretty simple now the
00:25:01
trick though is to actually get good at
00:25:04
flattening the illusion with your
00:25:08
thoughts cuz your thoughts are just like
00:25:11
words on a screen or images on a
00:25:15
screen the problem is that you're not
00:25:18
very aware of thoughts and it takes
00:25:20
practice to actually develop
00:25:23
mindfulness to the point where you don't
00:25:25
get sucked in and reactive to the
00:25:27
thoughts that you're having
00:25:31
in order to flatten something what I
00:25:33
mean by flattening the illusion
00:25:35
basically you just ask yourself the
00:25:36
question what is this thing
00:25:39
actually what is it literally it's a
00:25:42
literal way of looking at the world
00:25:44
without any abstraction or projection or
00:25:49
any kind of vagueness it's just
00:25:51
whatever's there is exactly what's there
00:25:53
and I'm not going to assume anything
00:25:55
about it I'm not going to Extra any
00:25:58
meaning out of it I'm not going to
00:26:01
relate the thing that's there to me in
00:26:02
any
00:26:04
way I'm just going to see what's
00:26:06
literally there so let's try some more
00:26:10
real world examples with your thoughts
00:26:13
now flatten the following
00:26:18
Illusions think of your
00:26:21
mother get a thought of your mother
00:26:24
whatever it is might be an image in your
00:26:26
mind or a story a m whatever comes up
00:26:29
for you is fine not very important the
00:26:31
details so think of your mother and now
00:26:35
flatten that
00:26:40
illusion can you do it actually do it so
00:26:45
that you resolve the thought and you
00:26:48
break down its content and the thought
00:26:50
loses its content and you can just
00:26:52
experience the
00:26:54
thought as a
00:26:56
um you might say just a sensation in
00:26:59
your
00:27:01
mind cuz that's what a thought literally
00:27:03
is a thought is real in the sense that
00:27:06
it has a certain feeling or a sensation
00:27:09
to it like if you have an image of your
00:27:11
mom's face that's
00:27:14
real but it's not your mom's face you
00:27:18
see in the same way that if I write a
00:27:22
word like cat the word cat is real but
00:27:26
it's not a cat
00:27:33
this takes practice so let's do another
00:27:35
one think of
00:27:37
gravity whatever idea or concept you
00:27:40
have of gravity bring it up to
00:27:44
mind now if I ask you is gravity real
00:27:47
you would say yes it is of course it is
00:27:50
but now what I want you to do is just uh
00:27:51
take this concept of gravity and flatten
00:27:54
the
00:27:55
illusion what is gravity actually
00:27:59
you might say well gravity is a force in
00:28:01
real life no what is actually the
00:28:04
thought of
00:28:08
gravity flatten that
00:28:12
illusion notice what gravity literally
00:28:15
is in your
00:28:16
mind gravity is not a force in the
00:28:19
physical world gravity is a concept in
00:28:22
your mind now flatten
00:28:25
that and see that go from thinking of
00:28:29
gravity as a real force in the real
00:28:31
world into seeing it as a sensation in
00:28:33
your
00:28:34
mind because that is what literally
00:28:37
gravity is it's a sensation in your
00:28:40
mind and I don't mean the sensation of
00:28:42
the weight of your body I mean the
00:28:45
sensation of your idea of
00:28:48
gravity because gravity is an idea
00:28:51
that's literally what it
00:28:55
is okay
00:28:58
now we'll try something a little
00:29:00
trickier bring to mind your idea of the
00:29:04
external world so think about the
00:29:06
external world the fact that there is an
00:29:08
external world that exists so if you
00:29:10
close your eyes you think there's an
00:29:13
external world right you don't think the
00:29:14
world disappears do you probably not
00:29:18
so bring to mind the external
00:29:21
world now normally people would say well
00:29:23
the external world is a real thing it's
00:29:25
the most real thing there is but take a
00:29:28
look at what the external World
00:29:29
literally is flatten that
00:29:34
illusion the external world is not an
00:29:38
external world the external world is a
00:29:41
thought in your mind it's a sensation in
00:29:44
your mind that you experience so notice
00:29:47
it for what it literally
00:29:53
is got it good let's move on to the next
00:29:56
one think of
00:29:59
God whether you do believe or God in God
00:30:02
or don't believe in God doesn't matter
00:30:06
just bring to mind the idea of God or
00:30:08
whatever you think God
00:30:12
is okay now flatten the illusion of
00:30:19
god notice what God literally is
00:30:28
notice that you might have a resistance
00:30:30
to flattening the illusion of God you
00:30:33
may not want to see God as what God
00:30:36
literally is because you've been telling
00:30:40
yourself part of the illusion of God is
00:30:43
that no God is real God is out there
00:30:46
God's not in my
00:30:50
head God's not an
00:30:56
idea that one might be tricky for you if
00:30:59
you're an atheist that's a really easy
00:31:01
one for you cuz you already believe that
00:31:03
God is an
00:31:04
idea but that's a whole can of worms I'm
00:31:07
not going to go into
00:31:10
here okay and now what I want you to do
00:31:13
and this is the trickiest one of all be
00:31:15
real careful about this one think of
00:31:18
yourself you not just the thought of you
00:31:22
but literally you who are you what are
00:31:24
you think of yourself the most truest
00:31:28
sense of yourself that you have bring
00:31:29
that to
00:31:30
mind okay got it now flatten the
00:31:34
illusion of
00:31:39
yourself yeah that's a tricky
00:31:44
one you might have some resistance to
00:31:46
doing that one that one's even harder to
00:31:49
do than
00:31:52
God cuz you do think you're
00:31:55
yourself and part of the illusion of
00:31:57
being yourself is thinking that you're
00:32:00
not an idea but that you're really
00:32:03
yourself you're
00:32:05
real but what is
00:32:08
yourself really
00:32:10
literally look at this very objectively
00:32:13
don't let your mind
00:32:16
you flatten the illusion of
00:32:22
yourself okay got it good now that one
00:32:26
might take you some more practice to
00:32:28
really get down it's a really tricky
00:32:31
tricky
00:32:32
one so anyways these are all exercises
00:32:35
that force your mind to see reality
00:32:38
literally and to deconstruct your
00:32:40
thoughts into what they literally are
00:32:42
versus seeing the story the content or
00:32:44
the image of the
00:32:47
thoughts I really like um to draw the
00:32:51
analogy between what we're doing here
00:32:53
and what artists are taught to do when
00:32:55
they learn to draw so a good good artist
00:32:58
and if you go to a art class what uh
00:33:01
they'll teach you if you want to become
00:33:03
a good drawer is they'll sit you down
00:33:06
there there's going to be like a still
00:33:07
life like there's going to be a maybe a
00:33:08
flower pot with a vase and uh maybe a
00:33:11
bowl of fruit and it's going to be
00:33:13
nicely lit and you're going to be
00:33:14
sitting there with the whole class
00:33:15
you're going to be drawing this thing
00:33:16
they're going to ask you to draw that as
00:33:18
accurately as you can just with a pencil
00:33:20
and piece of paper you know very simple
00:33:22
and the instruction that they'll give
00:33:25
you to make you a good drawer is they'll
00:33:27
tell you draw not what you think is
00:33:30
there but literally what you
00:33:34
see and that's kind of what we're
00:33:37
telling you to do
00:33:40
here don't think abstractly about what
00:33:44
God is or what your mom is or what
00:33:46
gravity is or what you are but literally
00:33:49
just become mindful of what exactly is
00:33:51
happening in your experience in order to
00:33:53
even render the story of God gravity
00:33:57
external world yourself or your
00:34:00
mom see and a good artist at first it's
00:34:04
very difficult because you might think
00:34:06
that when you're drawing something it's
00:34:08
like well yeah I already know what's
00:34:09
there but what you quickly realize if
00:34:11
you go to one of these classes is like
00:34:12
no you don't know what you're drawing is
00:34:15
you're kind of drawing your idea your
00:34:16
image your abstract fantasy of what's
00:34:19
there when you literally draw what's
00:34:21
there it's a totally different
00:34:25
experience even though the thing you're
00:34:27
looking at didn't really
00:34:29
change it's the same thing with becoming
00:34:31
more mindful of your thoughts so this
00:34:34
entire episode what I'm talking about is
00:34:36
how to become more mindful of your
00:34:39
thoughts and hopefully this is starting
00:34:41
to show you the power of
00:34:43
mindfulness now mindfulness doesn't just
00:34:46
apply to thoughts you can apply
00:34:47
mindfulness to feelings Sensations
00:34:50
emotions all sorts of
00:34:52
stuff sights and sounds but the most
00:34:55
important thing that you can apply
00:34:57
mindfulness to is your thoughts because
00:34:59
your thoughts construct all the meanings
00:35:02
in your life what would your life be
00:35:04
without meaning it would be
00:35:06
unrecognizable to
00:35:08
you and all the problems you have in
00:35:10
your life what do you think those are
00:35:12
those come from
00:35:14
meaning without meaning there cannot be
00:35:16
a problem do you understand this a
00:35:18
problem is a meaning it's a specific
00:35:21
type of meaning that you assign to a
00:35:23
specific type of situation and then you
00:35:25
tell yourself well the meaning is baked
00:35:27
into the situation you know I'm angry
00:35:29
because that person did something to me
00:35:32
or I'm afraid because I really don't
00:35:34
have enough money in my bank account to
00:35:36
pay my mortgage next
00:35:38
month you tell yourself that but that's
00:35:40
just more layers of meaning you see it's
00:35:43
like meaning masking meaning masking
00:35:45
meaning masking meaning that's what's so
00:35:47
dangerous about Thoughts with a picture
00:35:49
it's really simple to see that a
00:35:50
photograph of a piece of pizza is not
00:35:52
going to feed your hunger that's easy
00:35:54
enough to
00:35:55
see but with thoughts you can't can't
00:35:57
see this because the thoughts just come
00:36:00
one on top of the next on top of the
00:36:02
next on top of the next and you just
00:36:04
believe every single thought that comes
00:36:06
without questioning them without looking
00:36:08
at them very carefully and so pretty
00:36:11
quickly you're overrun by thoughts and
00:36:13
you're just lost in the middle of a vast
00:36:16
ocean of thoughts and then you start to
00:36:19
drown and you really believe because
00:36:22
you're surrounded completely by thoughts
00:36:24
that your reality becomes thoughts you
00:36:27
live in an augmented reality and then
00:36:29
from this many of your problems in life
00:36:32
come if you're shy the only reason
00:36:35
you're shy is because of thoughts
00:36:38
thoughts make you shy the real world
00:36:40
doesn't make you shy it doesn't make
00:36:41
anybody shy if you're afraid of
00:36:43
something the only reason you're afraid
00:36:44
of something is
00:36:45
because you're lost in a sea of thoughts
00:36:49
the real world rarely like if a lion
00:36:52
jumps out at you from the middle of
00:36:53
nowhere yeah you're going to have some
00:36:55
kind of like really um uh lowlevel
00:36:58
Reptilian Brain response to that so from
00:37:01
there you can have kind of a chemical
00:37:02
fear but most of your fears are not like
00:37:05
that most of your fears are these higher
00:37:07
order fears that are coming from uh
00:37:11
conceptual interpretations of
00:37:14
reality same thing with anger and
00:37:17
depression and frustration and annoyance
00:37:20
and every other emotion you don't like
00:37:23
and similarly with the Positive emotions
00:37:26
a lot of those are are stemming from the
00:37:28
meanings that you assign to objects and
00:37:31
situations in the world so can you see
00:37:33
the potential power of gaining Mastery
00:37:37
over the way in which you assign meaning
00:37:40
to
00:37:42
things very powerful the trick is that
00:37:45
it requires
00:37:46
practice this is not something you just
00:37:48
kind of like watch a video about it or
00:37:51
listen to me talk about it for an hour
00:37:53
or so and it's like yep I got it Leo and
00:37:55
now I can go and apply it and now I
00:37:56
don't have any more fears or anger any
00:37:59
uh uh depression or anything like that
00:38:01
it's not going to work that quickly for
00:38:02
you because you've got so many meanings
00:38:05
you've got this giant web of meanings
00:38:08
wrapped in another web of meanings
00:38:10
wrapped in another web of meanings that
00:38:12
you're just totally lost you're totally
00:38:14
lost and it's going to take you
00:38:17
practice to unravel this web of meanings
00:38:20
that you've
00:38:22
created but can you see the potential
00:38:25
value of making this investment in
00:38:26
practicing learning how to do this you
00:38:29
might not immediately resolve all your
00:38:31
problems but can you see that over time
00:38:34
if you spend a few months or a few years
00:38:36
practicing this that over time you're
00:38:38
going to develop the
00:38:41
mental facility or ability
00:38:47
to kind of become the master of your own
00:38:50
mind and your own
00:38:52
meanings and you can become extremely
00:38:55
good at this you can become so good at
00:38:57
this that literally you can melt
00:38:58
problems away just completely dissolve
00:39:02
them but that'll take some doing so how
00:39:05
do you do this how do you practice this
00:39:07
well let me give you an assignment what
00:39:08
I want you to do over the next week if
00:39:10
you accept this challenge is I want you
00:39:13
to commit to the following I want you to
00:39:16
flatten 50 illusions that actually occur
00:39:19
in your everyday experience so regular
00:39:21
stuff not just made up examples kind of
00:39:23
like what I made up here but real
00:39:26
stuff 50 Illusions over the next week
00:39:29
and by Illusions I mean thoughts
00:39:31
thoughts that you have you're going to
00:39:32
flatten 50 of them and each one you're
00:39:35
going to write down carefully and
00:39:36
accurately in a journal so let me give
00:39:38
you three examples of how this might
00:39:40
work so let's say tomorrow I go to work
00:39:43
and something happens at work and I
00:39:44
really hate my boss so I really feel
00:39:47
like oh I Hate My Boss he's such an
00:39:50
okay good so number one so I
00:39:53
write this in my journal number one I
00:39:55
Hate My Boss that's came up as a thought
00:39:59
I noticed it okay I wrote that down now
00:40:01
what I want you to do is to break that
00:40:02
down into two components one component
00:40:04
is the content and the other component
00:40:07
is what it literally is so I Hate My
00:40:09
Boss what's the content of that well the
00:40:11
content of that is the meaning I assign
00:40:13
to it so something like my boss is a
00:40:15
complete
00:40:17
idiot
00:40:20
and I wish he was fired like that's the
00:40:23
content that's the
00:40:25
story but what is it literally
00:40:30
literally in your mind as it's happening
00:40:31
what is it so there you might write down
00:40:34
something
00:40:35
like image of
00:40:38
boss with a stupid
00:40:42
face image of Boss getting
00:40:47
fired feeling in my chest of contraction
00:40:51
and heating because that's the emotional
00:40:54
component right so a Charged thought is
00:40:57
not just a mental image but it's also
00:41:00
like probably a constriction in your
00:41:02
body somewhere some kind of tension so
00:41:04
write that down as well that's literally
00:41:06
what that
00:41:08
is so that's an example of flattening
00:41:10
the illusion now let's give you a second
00:41:13
example let's say that you're going
00:41:14
about your day and you're in a crowd of
00:41:16
people and all of a sudden you feel shy
00:41:18
and
00:41:21
insecure what's the content of that so
00:41:23
you write that down number two I am shy
00:41:25
let's say that that's your thought
00:41:27
what's the content there the content
00:41:29
there is that it's something like well
00:41:30
I'm always insecure in groups you know I
00:41:32
really feel bad about being shy all the
00:41:34
time I wish I wasn't shy that's the
00:41:38
content what is it
00:41:40
literally literally it might be
00:41:42
something
00:41:43
like butterflies in your
00:41:47
stomach
00:41:50
uh feeling the pumping of your blood
00:41:53
through your veins and your arms and in
00:41:54
your neck
00:41:57
and it might also be a kind of a feeling
00:41:59
of sadness and
00:42:01
depression and an image of you being
00:42:05
weak and awkward looking and everybody
00:42:07
laughing at you you know maybe you have
00:42:08
that kind of image in your mind and also
00:42:11
the sound of I am shy or why am I so
00:42:17
shy why was I born this way that might
00:42:20
be literally what this thing
00:42:24
is okay got that and then the third
00:42:28
example is something like let's say
00:42:30
you're going about your day and you have
00:42:33
this idea of like oh you know I'm
00:42:34
listening to all these actualized.org
00:42:36
videos and I really have a a plan for my
00:42:39
life I'm going to be rich I really want
00:42:40
to be rich I have this goal of becoming
00:42:44
rich I want to be a millionaire and I
00:42:46
want to drive around in
00:42:48
BMW okay so you're write that down
00:42:51
number three in your Journal I am going
00:42:54
to be rich
00:42:57
write that down that's your thought and
00:43:00
now what's the content of
00:43:01
that the content is something like I'm
00:43:05
gonna have a million dollars and drive
00:43:06
around in a
00:43:08
BMW
00:43:10
okay and what's literally going on there
00:43:13
in that thought well you probably have
00:43:15
an image of you with a big you know
00:43:17
stack of dollar bills or maybe it's in a
00:43:21
briefcase or maybe you're picturing
00:43:23
digits in your bank account like seven
00:43:25
digits in your bank account and and also
00:43:27
you're picturing yourself driving down
00:43:29
the coast uh you know of California in a
00:43:33
BMW and it's kind of like silver colored
00:43:35
or red colored whatever color you
00:43:38
want and also you've got this kind of
00:43:40
like positive light bubbly feeling
00:43:42
somewhere in your chest kind of that's
00:43:45
kind of like the happiness component
00:43:46
because this this is a goal of yours so
00:43:48
it probably makes you happy to to
00:43:50
picture yourself this way so that's
00:43:52
literally what this thing
00:43:54
is notice that there's a big difference
00:43:56
between between what it literally is and
00:43:58
the content that you attribute to it the
00:44:00
meaning of it big
00:44:03
difference so those are three examples I
00:44:06
want you to come up with 50 of these
00:44:08
from your real life over the next week
00:44:11
this will take some commitment from you
00:44:13
because you'll easily forget so make
00:44:14
sure that if you want to do this you
00:44:16
really commit to it and maybe set a
00:44:18
reminder for yourself so that
00:44:21
you're uh not forgetting every single
00:44:23
morning that you wake up that this is
00:44:24
what you're doing and keep your journal
00:44:26
with you throughout the day and write
00:44:27
this stuff down take it to work or to
00:44:29
school wherever you go I guarantee that
00:44:32
if you do this 50 times over the next
00:44:34
week you're going to have some pretty
00:44:35
interesting insights and already this
00:44:38
giant condensed web of beliefs you have
00:44:40
and all these meanings about how bad
00:44:42
your life is and how you can't do this
00:44:44
and how you feel deficient in this area
00:44:47
it's going to start to
00:44:49
unravel not
00:44:50
totally but you're going to start to see
00:44:53
the potential of this and hopefully what
00:44:56
it'll do is it'll just kind of get you
00:44:57
to buy into the idea that mindfulness is
00:45:00
important and that understanding what
00:45:02
thoughts are import is important and
00:45:04
maybe it'll show you how poor your
00:45:05
mindfulness skills are maybe it'll
00:45:08
demonstrate to you that man you know I
00:45:11
thought I knew what was going on in my
00:45:12
mind but really I have no freaking clue
00:45:14
what's going on in my mind I'm not even
00:45:17
sure what a thought is what is a
00:45:20
thought do this exercise 50
00:45:23
times and you'll just get to the point
00:45:26
where you'll be like oh my God I can't
00:45:29
believe I don't even know what a thought
00:45:34
is and that's true you don't know what a
00:45:36
thought is and doing 50 of these
00:45:40
examples is not going to reveal to you
00:45:43
what a thought is that's going to take
00:45:45
many hundreds of hours more of
00:45:49
work but remember how powerful this is
00:45:53
this is one of the keys to all personal
00:45:56
development this is one of the keys to
00:45:58
unlocking your entire
00:46:00
mind so don't treat this casually don't
00:46:03
expect this to come easy and
00:46:05
effortlessly for you you're going to
00:46:06
struggle a lot with this but also
00:46:08
remember that you're shooting for
00:46:10
something big here if you actually do
00:46:12
ever become fully mindful of what a
00:46:15
thought
00:46:19
is that will be huge for you
00:46:23
huge that will be more valuable to you
00:46:25
than all the self help books you could
00:46:27
read in 5
00:46:30
years but it can't be a belief it can't
00:46:33
be an idea it can't be a theory of yours
00:46:35
can't be an ideology you can't turn it
00:46:37
into a Dogma you have to actually
00:46:39
practice this is a skill this is a skill
00:46:42
no different than uh hitting a golf ball
00:46:45
well or doing a good tennis
00:46:50
serve or uh you know skiing excellently
00:46:53
down a mountain without falling down
00:46:56
these are all like pH physical skills
00:46:58
and so is the awareness of your mind and
00:47:01
of your thought process you could think
00:47:05
of it almost like a physical skill like
00:47:07
playing the piano and right now you're a
00:47:10
horrible
00:47:12
pianist there in lies one of your
00:47:14
biggest problems in life the problem is
00:47:16
that you have thoughts that tell you
00:47:17
that you're an excellent pianist and
00:47:19
that you don't need to learn how to play
00:47:20
the piano because you're just a natural
00:47:22
at it you were born good you were born
00:47:24
knowing how to think so naturally you
00:47:26
should know what thoughts are but this
00:47:28
is a very dangerous thought to
00:47:33
have and maybe one day you can become
00:47:35
mindful of the fact that you have that
00:47:37
thought and then you can flatten it and
00:47:39
see what it really
00:47:41
is you know see that and if you want to
00:47:45
take this to deeper levels read up on
00:47:47
mindfulness I have some powerful
00:47:50
videos and additional episodes that talk
00:47:53
about mindfulness meditation how to
00:47:55
practice it how to set set up a habit of
00:47:57
developing a little bit more mindfulness
00:47:59
every single day you can also try
00:48:01
different forms of meditation that can
00:48:03
build up mindfulness you can also watch
00:48:05
some of my uh other episodes that go
00:48:08
into depth into revealing the illusory
00:48:11
nature of your mind and how your mind
00:48:13
really works you know I talk about what
00:48:15
emotions are and how they work I talk
00:48:17
about what thoughts are and how they
00:48:19
work and uh many many other things like
00:48:22
this so this is a whole field for you
00:48:25
right this is just the beginning this is
00:48:27
just the opening of a little door that
00:48:29
leads to a very vast new universe which
00:48:33
ultimately leads to freedom and to a
00:48:36
self-actualized
00:48:38
life all right that's it I'm done I'm
00:48:40
signing off please click the like button
00:48:42
for me post your comments down below
00:48:44
share this with a friend if you would
00:48:46
and lastly come check out act.org this
00:48:49
is my website I have a free newsletter
00:48:51
on there I'd like you to sign up because
00:48:53
if you do sign up then you're going to
00:48:55
get kind of like weekly ERS with new
00:48:58
content new videos that I'm releasing
00:48:59
all the time which are just going to
00:49:01
take you deeper and deeper into
00:49:02
realizing and mastering your mind
00:49:05
because as you develop and master your
00:49:07
mind in ways that you have not been
00:49:09
taught in school in ways that your
00:49:11
parents have no clue about your friends
00:49:13
have no clue about the uh General uh
00:49:17
popular culture has no clue about nobody
00:49:19
will teach you this stuff
00:49:21
really uh
00:49:23
so it's really worth it to stick with me
00:49:26
if you want to to master your life you
00:49:27
want to create the kind of life that
00:49:29
you've dreamed of having and you know
00:49:30
you've struggled and you didn't know how
00:49:32
to do it well the reason you didn't is
00:49:34
because you haven't mastered your mind
00:49:36
yet and what I'm going to show you is
00:49:37
how to master your mind to the deepest
00:49:40
depth possible I'm going to take you so
00:49:42
deep on this that you probably don't
00:49:44
even want to go that deep but man if you
00:49:48
stick around me for a few months a few
00:49:50
years you're going to start to see huge
00:49:52
changes in your perspective on life and
00:49:54
what you think is possible in life and
00:49:56
you're be able to accomplish many of the
00:49:58
things that previously thought you never
00:50:00
could so sign up to the newsletter stay
00:50:04
tuned and I'll see you soon with more
