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What is Life?
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For Nietzsche, it's that which overcomes itself.
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It eats itself and births itself, getting more powerful with each iteration.
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Man came from ape, but what comes after man?
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Nietzsche would say that it's the Overman.
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The Overman is the next evolution of Life, and it'll be more powerful than anything
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we've ever seen.
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None of us can be the Overman, but we can be the catalyst for it.
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We can become the fruit that carries the seeds of a sweeter future, the fertile soil from
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which the grandest tree grows, and the clouds out of which the lightning comes.
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But, before we can give birth to the Overman, we must first become free spirits—we must
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become fertile soil.
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In this video, I want to go over the three stages that the spirit must go through to
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become free.
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When the spirit comes into being, it's confronted by the great, golden dragon.
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The dragon is beauty and terror, awe and fear, protector and destroyer.
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It's decorated with thousands of glittering scales, and on every scale, all of the things
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that you must do are written.
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The dragon says that “the value of all things, and all things of value, have already been
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written on my scales.”
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The spirit is filled with awe and respect for the dragon, but in realizing the greatness
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of the dragon, it realizes its own inadequacies.
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The spirit wishes to serve the dragon and learn everything that it must do, so that
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it may take part in its greatness.
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The first transformation takes place, and the spirit becomes a camel.
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The camel is a preserver: it studies, absorbs, and upholds the values of the dragon.
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It's disciplined.
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It maintains order in the realm by bearing the burdens of others.
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It takes pride in its ability to bear burdens, and it should.
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In many ways, this is an act of heroism.
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The camel bears the burden of others and, in doing so, lightens their load.
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But, eventually, the camel realizes that not all things should be preserved, and some burdens
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are too much to bear.
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It realizes that it's become a slave to the will and values of another.
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The camel is merely a tool.
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The dragon which once allowed life to survive and thrive is now the thing that holds it
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back.
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The camel yearns for freedom, and so the spirit must transform again.
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The camel, a beast of burden, becomes the lion.
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The lion is a destroyer.
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It confronts the dragon, and for every “you shall”, it says “no”.
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To every “you must not”, it says “I will!”
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The lion stands against tradition and the status quo.
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It starts to see certain traditions as unworthy of being preserved.
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Instead of serving the dragon, the lion battles it for freedom.
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In this moment, the spirit must learn to destroy the thing that it once respected the most.
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This is difficult because overcoming the dragon means that the lion also has to overcome a
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part of itself.
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But, this isn't the end.
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Like the camel, the lion is a reaction.
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The spirit is still tied to and dependent on the dragon.
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But, this battle for freedom, the courage to say no, opens up a new space of possibility:
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if destruction is possible, so is creation.
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If we can fall, then we can rise.
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A third transformation must take place: the lion must become the child.
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The child is a creator.
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Creation is redemption.
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All of the mistakes of the past, including our own, can be redeemed if something better
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can be made from them.
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The child must learn to forget the past and not hold resentment to those who came before.
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Those who came before did, after all, fertilize the soil out of which they grew.
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Every form of life, preying on each other and giving birth to one another, led to the
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birth of you.
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Can you redeem all of their pain and suffering?
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Can your life be used to create something that benefits all of Life?
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The child is a new beginning.
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It lives by its own values and its own will.
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It has the potential to redeem the past and give birth to a brighter future.
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The camel, the lion and the child: these are the three stages that the spirit must traverse
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to become free, but most people never even become a camel.
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The story of the three stages is the story of self-overcoming; it's the story of the
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one who can become tradition before overcoming it.
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The one who can overcome themselves becomes more powerful, and through creation, they
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can make all of Life more powerful.
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They can redeem our sufferings.
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Who among you can become the overflowing cup from which others can drink, the ocean that
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can't be contaminated by a dirty river, and the sun around which the planets revolve.
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Like the sun, can you shine unconditionally for all around you—unconscious of the good
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you do.
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Those of you who can are the storm cloud out of which the Overman
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will thunder.