Leonardo Da Vinci's most overlooked discovery

Leonardo da Vinci would always set

himself a list of things to find out

that day. For example, find out how the

tongue of a hummingbird fits into its

skull.

And he would explore these thoughts and

these curiosities that he had. And one

of the most interesting things I don't

care about that he invented pretty or

pretty much had the plans for the first

tank for the first helicopter and that

he was one of the most amazing costume

and stage designers that we've ever

known. What struck me most when I read

his biography was the simple, seemingly

simple observation

that the thickness of the top half of a

tree

is always equal to the thickness of the

trunk right before the branches come out

of it. You can observe this in every

single tree if you take a walk look

around your neighborhood, which is what

I did. And I could not find a single

tree that this didn't apply to. As soon

as you know the trunk goes straight

until a certain point where there are

generally on trees not a branch coming

out. So that's a uniform thickness. As

soon as a branch branches come out of it

from the side, the thickness of the

trunk is reduced exactly by the

thickness of the branches coming out of

it. And this repeats itself until the

very tip of the tree and also with the

branches. As soon as a smaller branch

comes out of a of the larger branch, the

thickness of that branch is reduced in

size by exactly that much.

And this you can see right here,

this particular one splits into three,

right? So as so it's this thick and then

as soon as

you can see these individual

major sections of the tree are equal in

thickness to the trunk that is right

below them. Right? This section and it

goes on like that. And the thickness of

this is equal to the thickness to right

below before it spreads apart.

And it goes all the way up there until

the very tip until the very tip of each

little branch and each little twig.

And it's the most amazing observation.

But that's not even the most amazing

observation of his that I'm talking

about.

The most amazing fact about that fact

is that his mind was free to have this

observation.

Every single day,

billions of people walk past billions of

trees.

Yet none of us have had this

observation.

We're all seeing trees. They're all

around us all the time. And by the way,

this phenomenon can be observed on river

bodies as well. When the river goes and

then it splits apart, those are equal to

the thickness right before the river

splits apart when you look at it from up

top. It's called Dainci's rule.

Now, how was he free enough in his mind

to be so open

to to be out in nature and to walk as we

all do,

I hope, to sometimes just take a walk.

But we're so in our heads.

We're so in our heads that all these

things pass us by.

the beauty and and the amazing design

and everything. And there's so much to

notice, so much to see, so much to

explore.

But we're thinking about what happened

last week and we're thinking about next

month

and every Sunday we think about Monday.

And do you remember when

as a child you used to play

swords with your friends and you'd stab

each other or you'd play uh pistols.

They would they would shoot you and you

and you would act like you've been hit

and with the sword you'd act like you've

been stabbed and you and you would fall

to the ground and you would you would

pretend that you're you're dying.

What happened is

we forgot that we were pretending.

And so now we're still going around

and thinking that that the pretend stabs

of people actually affect us.

And we act in accordance to those stabs

and those bullet wounds

even though they're not real.

How can the thoughts and words and

actions of other people harm you?

It's not possible.

They can harm your body. They can harm

your so-called reputation. They can harm

your so-called career. They can harm

your so-called self-esteem,

but they cannot harm you. You are not

your career. You are certainly not your

reputation, and you are not even your

body.

Yet, that is all what we're concerned

with.

And life passes us by

as it should.

Because that's what we're saying every

single day when we're fighting, pretend

fighting, but thinking it's real. We

say, "I cannot be at peace until

first I need to do this. I need to win

this. I need to overcome this. I need to

achieve this.

And then I can be at rest. And then I

can be at peace. And then maybe I can

look at a tree

and see the uniformity in it and see the

law in it and see the rule in it and the

design that pervades this entire

universe.

Until then, I must

suffer. I must fight. I must overcome. I

must prove myself

and maybe then maybe.

But how can a mind who started pretend

fighting and forgot that it's pretend

fighting ever stop to fight?

If you had no problems left, if we had

no challenges left, what would we do

with our days?

Truth is, we don't have any problems. We

don't have any challenges. Those stabs

are not real. Those bullets are not

real. They're pretend.

If people want to lie about you,

let them.

Because everyone who lies receives

instant karma in the form of becoming a

liar.

They did that to themselves. cuz no one

else did that to them.

When they cheat, they become cheaters.

When they deceive, they become deceivers

immediately. Instantly. It doesn't

matter who saw it, what they think about

it, what others think about it. Anyone

who steals immediately, as soon as they

do it, instantly makes themselves a

thief.

And there's no liar, no cheater, no

deceiver, no attacker in the world who

is at peace.

Because when you're fighting, you cannot

be at peace.

I don't think there's going to be even

one single person who can disagree with

that. Whenever you are fighting, you are

not at peace.

But notice we're fighting all our lives.

We literally say this. We say life's a

struggle.

It is a struggle because you're pretend

fighting still.

And there's nothing wrong with pretend

fighting. It's that's the most fun

thing, right? But we have to remember

that this is not real. It's an illusion.

When someone talks behind your back,

good or bad,

they are talking about an illusion. And

I will prove this to you. They're

talking about the image that they have

of you.

Images are illusions. They're not real.

No one can know another fully, truly. No

one.

And so necessarily they made up an image

of you and then they are passing that

image along by trying to add something

of their own to say this person is good,

bad, this or that. And so at that point

we're two, three levels deep into

illusion. And then we hear about that

and we say wait a minute I need to

defend that that illusion that image is

so warped and was never me to begin with

is being attacked. It's being maligned.

It's being lied about.

I need to go defend that.

Who is making the connection

between you and that illusion? It is

you. It is us who do that.

If we wouldn't hold on to illusion,

we would have nothing to fight for.

If this thing that well and truly is

being attacked, if we wouldn't hold on

to it, if we wouldn't say that's me,

then we would literally let go of

suffering of proving anything to anyone,

including ourselves.

But no, we see the person coming at us

with a with a wooden sword and making

the motion of slicing us, and then we

react to it.

We say, "I've been slashed. I've been

stabbed. And we go to the ground in

agony. And then we see we survived it

somehow. And so then we get back up to

take revenge,

to give them what they deserve, to serve

justice, to fight against injustice.

Whatever our motives are,

it's the same thing.

And we are so emotional.

We are told to be so emotional.

But every time we are angry,

every time we are disappointed, every

time we have

expectations,

we become unaware.

We say, "I was beside myself.

I was out of my mind to do that."

Who's beside whom? Who's out of whom's

mind? How many people are there inside

of you? There's only one person. And

that person does not need to communicate

with illusion.

It does not need to call it its own.

It's not real.

If you want to keep fighting, if we want

to keep fighting, let's let's keep doing

it. and it's been working out really

well so far. So, let's keep doing it,

right?

Or let's stop fighting. Let's put our

weapons down

and just sit there fully expecting to

come and be stabbed, to come and be

shot, and to die. Fully expecting it.

But to say

the way I've been doing it hasn't been

working.

So I might as well go die because I I'm

done with this. This is not a life. This

is not a way to live. So I'm going to

try something else. I'm going to try

something new. I'm going to lay my

weapons down. Even though the whole

world and especially the the fear, the

anger inside of me is telling me that

that's giving up, that that's letting

others win and that someone's going to

come and fatally stab us.

But to say, "So be it. I've been

fighting all my life. It's getting me

nowhere. I'm tired."

And so I might as well try something

new. I might as well try to be free

because the fighting is not stopping.

And as long as I'm fighting, I cannot be

at peace. That fact is well established.

No one can deny that. That's a fact. As

long as you are fighting, you cannot be

at peace.

Try to find one person who's fighting

and who's at peace. Try to find one

person who's at peace and who's

fighting, still fighting.

Impossible.

And so

let your weapons down and fully expect

to die.

And I promise you, I promise you

that person with the sword will never

come

and they will never stab you and it will

never be real and you will never die

from it.

What will happen is that you will see

that you were just this little child

playing with wooden swords and

pretending to stab someone, pretending

to attack, pretending to be angry,

pretending to go to the ground and dying

in agony.

You will remember that and you will

start smiling again and you will walk

away from the game whenever it doesn't

please you anymore and it hasn't been

pleasing you for a long time.

And you will walk by a tree

and you will see,

wow,

the branches equal the trunk in

thickness when they're put together. if

they were put together and a million

other things.

Wow. Squirrels actually don't hibernate.

I thought squirrels hibernated.

And I'll tell you why I think I thought

that. And I I'll tell you why I think

you thought that, too.

It's because of that Spongebob episode.

Sandy didn't actually have to hibernate.

And that's why we think that. And those

little clusters of leaves and twigs in

the in the trees, most of those are

squirrels nests. They live there all

winter long. They do not hibernate.

That's where they live in the winter and

probably all the all the year.

So that is one inaccuracy in Spongebob.

Sandy never had to hibernate.

And so this world truly becomes your

playground because that's exactly what

it is. You're not here to suffer. You're

not here to fight. Yes, you will

experience pain and you will experience

major major change. Everything is

change.

This tree is changed as it grows. This

tree when it cut it's cut down and it's

put into a fireplace, it changes from

wood to fire and from fire into air and

all that. The entire universe is change

every single second. We're changing.

Pain is mandatory. Suffering is

optional.