WEBVTT

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Hello.

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I didn't hear about this conference
till about two weeks ago,

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and then, I think it was Darius,
who was running this whole show,

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who contacted me and said
that somebody in the community thought

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that I had something to say

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that might be worth listening
to for this TEDx thing,

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and I thought, "Oh, that's cool!

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I know about TED,

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I should build a talk about something
I really think is important."

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And then Darius said,

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"You've got six minutes,"

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and I thought,
"Well, I better scale back."

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Then I thought,

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"No, I'm not going to scale back,

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I'm going to try something
I always wanted to do."

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And that was, I thought, I'd try
to redefine reality in six minutes.

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(Laughter)

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So hold on to your hats.

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So, the reality I'm going to talk
to you about today,

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it's the reality that the people
that you've listened to today,

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who were inspired,

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it's the reality that they live in,

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and what I'm going to talk to you about,

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I don't believe is metaphysics,

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I truly believe what I'm going
to talk to you about

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it's the most real thing I know;

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and knowing it is something
that's completely changed my life.

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I think the people
that you listen to today,

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who've changed
their life in various ways,

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and the lives of other people,

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know this, too.

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I also think that you will see
that what I'm going to tell you,

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you already know, too,

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but you don't know you know it.

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It's so great to be able to learn
something you already know,

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so that it can be made
conscious and explicit;

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and that's what I'm going to try to do.

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So, there's a lot of slides,
and there's lot of words,

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and so... away we go.

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First, I believe that people
suffer more than they have to

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because we profoundly
misunderstand what's real.

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We're blinded
to what's truly fundamental,

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by the things that present themselves
most easily to our perceptions;

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thus, we fail to realize
what is most genuine and important.

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We believe that the world
is made out of objects;

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I would like to propose instead

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that the world is made out
of chaos and order,

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and that the quality
of our being is dependent

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on how we manage the balance
between the two.

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Chaos - that's what manifests itself
when we don't know what we are looking at;

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it's chaos that we saw
when the Twin Towers fell,

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it's chaos that looms

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when the partner you loved for decades
reveals a lengthy affair.

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It's chaos that engulfs you
when a loved one dies;

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chaos is the unknown, the unexpected,

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the anomalous.

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It's the "mater," the mother,

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the Latin root of the word
matrix and material;

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the substance of reality.

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Chaos is the fruitfulness of nature
and the terror of time.

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It's an ocean of possibilities surrounding
the territory of human culture;

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it's the water of life bringing sustenance

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to those parched
by their own dry preconceptions,

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and it's the flood unleashed
by an angry God,

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when the ideas of man warped so badly
that they can no longer be sustained.

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It's the Yin of the Daoists,

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it's the paralyzing horror
of the darkness,

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it's the treachery of our physical forms,

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it's the monster under the bed,

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and it's the snake
that eternally lurks in the garden.

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Chaos is also what you encounter

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when you boldly go
where no one's gone before.

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Order, by contrast,

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Is where you are
when everything is working properly.

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When trains run on time, that's order.

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When you have a happy and secure home,

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that's order,

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Order keeps the operating room clean;

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order is what God calls out of chaos
at the beginning of time

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and offers to men and women
as a dwelling place.

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It's an island of stability
in a sea of ignorance,

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it's the Yang of the Daoists,

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it's the walls of the city,

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it's the principles of the constitution,

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and the uniform of the police.

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Order is the stone that lasts
and keeps the barbarians at bay.

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Taken to an extreme however,

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order becomes tyranny

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and imperils the soul.

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When human beings stray,

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we become rigid and unbending,

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or dissolute and careless;

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we can no longer think outside the box,

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or we drift without purpose
and then drown in possibility.

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We want tyranny because we despise
what we don't know,

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or we want anarchy
because we refuse responsibility.

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Either way, we risk exposing ourselves
to the opposite principle.

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Too much order makes collapse
into chaos evermore likely.

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Too much chaos calls
the devils of totalitarianism

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out from the crevasses where they hide.

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The Buddhists believe
that life is suffering.

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Jews and Christians agree.

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The former remember
a long history of persecution,

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the latter worship a god

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who's simultaneously
human, and betrayed, and crucified.

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When men and women cry out to heaven,

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in the face of their suffering,

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what is it that they can call forth?

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Meaning.

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Meaning is not a rational phenomenon.

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We detect it with our being
not with our intellect,

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which it should guide rather than follow.

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When chaos and order are balanced,
we have one foot in each domain.

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That's the meaning that life
more abundantly depends on.

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In that place,
we're secured and confident,

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but challenged enough
to be alert and developing.

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In that place, we play each game;

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not just to win

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but to become better players
at all games in the future.

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Such meaning properly nurtured

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can produce love for life
and gratitude so deep

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that the terrible limitations
of being are justified.

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It's in this manner
that paradise is regained.

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The alternative is to live
an unbalanced life;

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this is not good

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because the terrible forces
of chaos and order

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will tear an unbalanced person apart.

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He will become overwhelmed, hopeless,

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bitter, vengeful, and finally, cruel.

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She'll become willingly blind,

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narrow, bored, cynical, and vicious.

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When life is unbalanced,
people work against it

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because they're angry at the dreadful,
limited conditions of existence.

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"To hell with it,"

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That's the curse of the embittered.

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Hell is where they're headed,

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where they'd like to drag everyone else.

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This is revenge against God,

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or the conditions of being,

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- whichever you prefer -

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is motivated by the desire
that things suffer further inadequacy

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and cease to be.

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How might a person live in reality?

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This is an empirical
not a rational question.

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Start by watching yourself

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as if you're someone
you know very little about;

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see when you are
where you should be psychologically,

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and see when you're not.

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Don't think about it;

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watch,

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then practice spending more time
in the place you want to be.

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You're closer to paradise there,
and farther from hell.

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Do whatever you have to to stay there.

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Within a month, given disciplined effort,

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you'll be in the proper place more often.

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In a year, much more often.

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In three years, if you're lucky,
most of the time.

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When asked about the kingdom of heaven,

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Christ said,

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"It's like a mustard seed,
the smallest of all seeds,

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but when it falls on prepared ground,
it produces a great plant

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and becomes a shelter
for all the birds of the sky,

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It's from such small beginnings
that great things grow."

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Thank you.

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(Applause)