WEBVTT

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Do you feel your fate is already
decided?

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As if you have no power to change
anything?

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Today, let me share how I understand
fate.

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Think of fate as underlying code, set
before we entered this life.

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That code shapes our instinctive
reactions to what happens.

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Our perspective, and how we understand
things.

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These are the seeds we carry. There is
nothing mysterious about them.

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Buddhist teachings have long explored
this.

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All things arise in the mind, and are
shaped by it.

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The mind gives rise to thoughts.

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Those seeds are thoughts we have not
yet noticed.

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A thought takes shape in what we
experience.

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As Wang Yangming put it: nothing is
outside the mind.

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Our thoughts also give rise to
emotions.

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They become habits, and shape our
character.

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Eventually, they become fixed patterns
of reaction.

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Buddhist teaching calls this karma.

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We may call it fate.

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It is not really about outside events,
but about what happens within us.

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Fixed patterns we have never noticed
keep running on their own.

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Why do so many people feel trapped by
fate?

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We identify too strongly with the
self.

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With everything I believe is right.

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When something becomes mine,
attachment follows.

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My money, my children, my car, and so
on.

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Buddhism calls this attachment to the
self.

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So how can we step outside that
pattern?

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Through awareness. Through conscious
observation.

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In other words, take the perspective
of an observer.

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Try stepping back and simply watching
yourself.

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Notice every thought, every rise and
fall of emotion.

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Even what you think of as the self.

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I am angry. I am anxious. I am sad.

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These are thoughts, arising and
passing away.

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Yet our true awareness itself remains
still and unchanging.

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So true spiritual practice is not just
meditation.

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It is not about how long you meditate
or eat vegetarian food,

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or spend chanting and worshipping.

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It is whether we can keep that
awareness alive.

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Watching our thoughts arise and pass
away,

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while our deeper nature remains
completely undisturbed.