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In a world driven by chaos and noise, true power isn't found in physical dominance but in the profound silence of a disciplined soul. This episode explores the timeless philosophy of Nguyễn Duy Cần, revealing why the "Courage of the Sage" is the ultimate human evolution. We dive into the distinction between wasteful agitation and purposeful action, the vital role of internal energy, and how to remain immovable amidst life's storms. Learn why conquering yourself is the only victory that matters. Discover the secrets to building an unbreakable character and harnessing the vital force that fuels extraordinary, superior individuals today.
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00:00Welcome back, everyone. Settle in, because today, we are going to take a long, deep,
00:06and profoundly necessary journey into the architecture of the human mind.
00:10I want you to imagine, for a second, the year 1942. The world is literally on fire.
00:18You have the Second World War raging, empires clashing, entire cities being reduced to ash,
00:25and humanity seemingly standing on the edge of an active volcano fueled by boundless greed,
00:30imperialism, and ego. The noise of the world is deafening. The anxiety is palpable.
00:37And right in the middle of this global dust and wind, a renowned Vietnamese scholar named
00:42Thurzde John Nguyen Duyue can sit down to write a masterpiece. He doesn't write a manual on
00:48military tactics. He doesn't write a political manifesto. Instead, he writes a book about the
00:55mind. He writes, Tsai Dung Kwa Tan Nan, which translates to, The Courage of the Sage.
01:03Now, why does this matter to us today? Because right now, you and I are living in our own version
01:09of that volcano. We might not have global conventional warfare on our doorsteps, but we are bombarded by
01:16a digital storm. We are besieged by notifications, by outraged culture, by economic uncertainty,
01:23by the relentless pressure to react, react, react. We are living in an age of profound agitation.
01:30And what can argues in this brilliant, deeply layered text is that true strength,
01:36the kind of strength that actually changes the world, has absolutely nothing to do with physical
01:41violence. Dominance, or being the loudest person in the room. True strength is found in a concept
01:48called, Diem Dam, which roughly translates to equanimity. But I don't want you to think of
01:54equanimity as just taking a deep breath, or doing a bit of mindfulness on a yoga mat.
02:00Ken is talking about something much more aggressive, much more foundational. He is talking about the state
02:07of being completely immovable. The ability to be the actor in your life, rather than the object being
02:13acted upon. Think about how often we are just reacting. Someone cuts you off in traffic, your
02:19blood pressure spikes. Your boss sends a passive-aggressive email, your weekend is ruined. You are
02:26being acted upon. The sage, however, possesses a superior personality. They are not molded by their
02:34environment, and they refuse to be swept away by the herd mentality. Ken acknowledges that becoming
02:40this kind of person might seem like an impossible dream, a utopian fantasy. But as he beautifully points
02:47out, ideals are the engines of human evolution. If even a handful of historical figures have achieved
02:53this state, then it is a beautiful dream worth chasing, not a delusion. To really understand this,
03:00we have to strip away our modern, Hollywood definition of courage. Ken breaks courage down
03:06into a hierarchy, and it is a fascinating progression. At the bottom, you have what he
03:12calls the fisherman's courage. This is the guy who sails out into the terrifying ocean,
03:18completely unafraid of sea monsters or rogue waves. It's physical bravery against nature.
03:24Step up from that, and you have the hunter's courage. The person who walks into the jungle,
03:29unafraid of the tiger. Step up again, and you reach the warrior's courage.
03:36This is the soldier standing on the battlefield, facing a wall of sharp blades and artillery,
03:42treating the imminent threat of death as if it were just another part of life.
03:46We usually stop there. We think the warrior is the peak of human bravery.
03:51But Ken says no. There is a fourth level. The highest level. The sage's courage.
03:59The sage's courage is entirely different because it requires no adrenaline.
04:04It is the deep, unshakable knowledge that success and failure, life and death,
04:09are ultimately matters of fate and timing. Let me tell you a story can use us to illustrate this,
04:15featuring Confucius. At one point in his life, Confucius and his disciples were traveling and
04:22found themselves surrounded and besieged at a place called Kwong. The situation was dire.
04:28They were trapped, starving, and facing imminent execution by a hostile mob.
04:33His disciples were panicking, pacing back and forth, terrified. And what was Confucius doing?
04:41He was sitting inside, calmly plucking his stringed instrument and singing. His top disciple,
04:47Zilu, is dumbfounded and asks, essentially, Master, how can you play music at a time like this?
04:55Confucius stops and explains something profound. He says that he has lived his life perfectly
05:00according to virtue. He has done everything within his control. Whether this mob breaks in and kills
05:07them, or whether they survive, is no longer up to him. It is a matter of fate, and it is
05:13a matter of
05:14timing. Because he truly understands that external danger is now completely beyond his control,
05:20there is absolutely zero utility in fear. The sage remains fearless because he has drawn a hard line
05:27between what is his business, and what is the universe's business. There is a magnificent
05:33Japanese mythological fable can use to drive this point home even further. Imagine a grand tournament
05:40among the gods to determine who will be the absolute master of the world. The first to step up is
05:46the
05:46god of lightning and storms. He unleashes hurricanes, shatters mountains, and darkens the sky. He represents
05:54raw, terrifying, destructive power. Everyone cowers. Next comes the god of music. Instead of violence,
06:02he plays a melody so intoxicating, so charming, that it hypnotizes the world. He proves that
06:09gentleness and seduction can conquer violence. But then comes the third god, the god of equanimity.
06:16This god just sits there. When the storms rage and the lightning strikes, he doesn't flinch.
06:23When the enchanting music plays, he doesn't sway. He is completely, totally unmoved by both terror and
06:30pleasure. And the judge of the tournament looks at this and immediately declares the god of equanimity
06:36the master of all. Why? Because the other gods could only control external things, weather, sound,
06:43other people's emotions. The god of equanimity conquered himself. He conquered his own internal
06:50sensations. And whoever controls themselves masters the world. Now, you might be listening to this and
06:57thinking, okay, this philosophy is beautiful. I want to be the god of equanimity. I want to be
07:05Confucius playing the lute while my life falls apart. But how? And this is where Ken's book takes a
07:12brilliant, hard left turn from abstract philosophy into raw physiology. He introduces the theory of vital
07:18energy, or Kai Look. Ken argues that mental composure is biologically impossible if you do not have a
07:26specific type of physical and spiritual battery charge. He makes a crucial distinction between
07:32muscle strength and vital energy. We all know people who are built like Greek gods, massive muscles,
07:39physically imposing, but the second a real crisis hits, they crumble. They panic. They are cowards.
07:47Conversely, Ken points to Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was short, not particularly muscular,
07:54and seemingly unimposing. Yet, he possessed an immense, almost terrifying reserve of
08:00Kai Look. He could work for three days and three nights straight, directing battles, reading maps,
08:08making high-stakes decisions without a drop of mental fatigue. His body obeyed his will perfectly.
08:14This vital energy is the bridge between the spirit and the flesh. If your spirit says,
08:20stay calm. But your vital energy is depleted, your body will betray you. Your hands will shake,
08:27your voice will crack, your heart will race. So, how do we accumulate this energy? We have to stop
08:34leaking it. And we leak it through what can cause agitation. I want you to picture a car.
08:42If you turn the key, put it in drive, and press the gas, the engine revs, the tires turn,
08:47and you move forward toward a destination. That is what can cause, activity, or ho-dong.
08:54It is purposeful, conscious movement. But what happens if you put that same car in neutral and
09:01just slam your foot on the gas pedal? The engine screams, the car shakes violently,
09:06it burns through a massive amount of fuel, but it goes absolutely nowhere. That is, agitation,
09:13or nao-dong. Most of us spend our entire lives in neutral, slamming on the gas. We fidget. We tap
09:21our feet. We complain about the weather. We argue with strangers on the internet. We shout when a
09:28normal voice would do. We dramatically wave our hands. Every single one of these useless,
09:35unconscious movements is a leak in your battery. Every time you react impulsively,
09:40you are bleeding out the very vital energy you need to maintain composure during a real crisis.
09:46To illustrate the discipline required to fix this, can tells the fable of the two gold seekers.
09:52Two men are walking in the wilderness and discover a stream with tiny, almost invisible specks of gold
09:59dust in the mud. The first man looks at the dust and gets impatient. He says,
10:05this is going to take forever. I'm going to go into the jungle, hunt rare exotic animals,
10:11and get rich quick. He represents impulsive, hyperactive, bravery. The second man just sits down by the
10:19riverbank and painstakingly, speck by speck, begins extracting the gold dust. Fast forward a few years.
10:27The hunter has died of exhaustion and disease in the harsh jungle, having chased grand, impulsive
10:33illusions. The patient man, who sat by the river collecting invisible specks of gold day after day,
10:40is now unimaginably wealthy and powerful. The moral here is profound. Building the courage of the sage
10:47is exactly like collecting gold dust. You don't get it by suddenly deciding to be brave during a bank
10:54robbery. You build it by saving every tiny, grain, of energy from daily distractions. You build a bank
11:01account of power by choosing not to sigh loudly when the elevator is late. By choosing not to check
11:07your phone the second it buzzes. By choosing to sit perfectly still. This brings us to the actual
11:14training of the unconscious mind. Ken leans on the work of early 20th century thinkers like G.
11:21Sully de Morant and Emile Kuh, exploring the idea that our cells actually possess a
11:26dim intelligence. Your body is a colony, and it takes its orders from the general consciousness,
11:33your will. But if you have zero discipline in your daily life, your cells learn that the general is
11:39weak. If you can't control what you eat, when you sleep, or how you react to a minor sugar craving,
11:46why on earth would your nervous system obey you when you are facing a life-destroying tragedy?
11:51Ken uses two brilliant analogies here.
11:55First, the horse. Imagine a rider who buys a magnificent warhorse. But during peacetime,
12:02the rider is lazy. He lets the horse wander off the path to eat grass, he lets it rest whenever
12:08it wants, he doesn't hold the reins tight. What happens when that rider takes that horse into
12:13battle? The moment the cannons fire, the horse will buck him off and run away. It has never been
12:20trained to submit its will to the rider. The second analogy is the military. If the general doesn't
12:27enforce strict rules about keeping uniforms clean and boots polished in the barracks,
12:32the entire army will instantly collapse and desert when they face the enemy. The method, therefore,
12:38is to practice winning over your smallest desires.
12:42Think about it. You are sitting at a restaurant, and they bring out a basket of warm bread. You
12:48want it. Your body is reaching for it. If you can stop your hand, pull it back, and consciously
12:55decide, No, I am not eating that right now, purely as an exercise of my will. You have just won
13:02a battle.
13:02You have just trained your cellular intelligence to obey the general. These tiny, seemingly insignificant
13:10micro-victories accumulate. They are the gold dust. And eventually, they forge the great courage.
13:17Now, as we move deeper into Kant's philosophy, specifically into the second major section of
13:23his work, he starts looking at how this internal discipline physically manifests in our daily habits
13:29and social interactions. He draws heavily on historical eastern figures and the wisdom of
13:35Yoritomo Tashi to prove that composure is not a genetic gift. You aren't just born with it.
13:41It is a highly disciplined craft. He points to the great Chinese statesman Xingu Phan,
13:48known in Vietnamese as Tang Van Chin. In his youth, Sim was not a sage. He was a normal guy
13:55who struggled
13:55with bad habits. He smoked too much, and he loved sleeping in. But when he realized his grand
14:02ambitions required total self-mastery, he didn't just casually try to cut back. He treated his smoking
14:09habit and his snooze button as literal mortal enemies. He waged war on them.
14:15Kim makes the brilliant observation that the exact same spiritual muscle Xingu Phan used to quit
14:20smoking was the muscle he later used to defeat the massive Taiping Rebellion. It's the same muscle.
14:27Greatness is born from intense, mundane self-conquest. We see this in other historical figures too,
14:34men who force themselves to read ten pages of history every single day.
14:39Or write one hundred calligraphy characters daily, no matter what. These minor, unbreakable rules of
14:46conduct are the scaffolding of a superior human character. But here is where Kahn introduces a
14:52psychological hack that is incredibly ahead of its time. We usually think that the mind controls the
14:58body. I feel calm, therefore I sit still. But Kahn introduces the concept of outside-in composure or
15:07what he calls thoughts on the muscles. He argues that the body equally influences the mind.
15:13If you are terrified, but you physically force your muscles to mimic the state of calmness,
15:19your internal spirit will eventually get confused and align with your body.
15:24Have you ever heard the phrase, whistling in the dark?
15:27When people are walking down a creepy, unlit street, they sometimes start whistling a happy tune.
15:34They aren't whistling because they are brave, they are whistling to stave off the terror.
15:38The physical act of projecting nonchalance actually reduces the internal panic.
15:45Kahn points to military salutes and religious kneeling.
15:48The rigid posture of a soldier at attention isn't just for show,
15:52the physical rigidity creates an internal psychological state of absolute obedience.
15:57Kneeling in prayer physically induces a state of humility and faith.
16:01He even tells the story of a
16:05Diyudan, a famous actor who played Napoleon on stage for years.
16:09After inhabiting the physical gestures of the emperor for so long, the posture, the intense stare,
16:16the hand in the coat, Diyudan actually found his own personality changing.
16:21He became more decisive, more courageous in his real life,
16:25simply because his muscles had taught his brain how to be Napoleon.
16:29So, what is the practical application for us?
16:33Kahn advises that when you are faced with a sudden loud noise,
16:37a sharp physical pain, or a frustrating delay,
16:41your first move shouldn't be to try and think calm thoughts.
16:44Your first move is to freeze.
16:47Cultivate a cold, determined gaze.
16:50Total physical stillness.
16:52Lock down the muscles, and the mind will follow.
16:56This physical restraint naturally extends into how we interact with others,
17:00which brings us to Kahn's fascinating redefinition of etiquette, or
17:04Le Deux.
17:06In the modern West, we often view etiquette as a burden,
17:10a set of fake social rules we have to follow to be polite.
17:13But Kahn views etiquette entirely differently.
17:17To him, etiquette is a tool for self-restraint.
17:20It is an armor against your own animalistic instincts.
17:23It is a discipline for the undisciplined.
17:27He draws a brilliant cultural contrast here.
17:31He notes that traditional Asian etiquette is inherently static.
17:35It focuses on restraint, hidden emotions, and moving slowly.
17:39Western etiquette, he argues, is more dynamic.
17:43To prove his point, he looks at clothing.
17:46Think about the traditional Asian wide-sleeved robes,
17:50the flowing garments of scholars and monks.
17:52Ken points out that these clothes act as a physical constraint.
17:57If you are wearing a massive, flowing robe,
18:00it is physically very difficult to make a sudden, jerky, aggressive movement.
18:05You can't just wildly punch someone or flail your arms without getting tangled.
18:09The clothing itself forces a
18:11delay.
18:13It forces you to move deliberately,
18:15and that physical delay creates a psychological space for thought.
18:20This restraint is the ultimate shield against provocation.
18:24Because to the sage, responding to an insult with another insult is what can cause
18:29the bravery of a commoner.
18:31It's basic.
18:33It's animal.
18:34True dignity is remaining totally unmoved by disrespect.
18:38There is a legendary Zen story about a master swordsman named Tokiori.
18:43He is sitting in a room, and a Zen master, completely out of nowhere, slaps him across the face.
18:49Hard.
18:50Now, Tokiori is a lethal warrior.
18:54His instinct, his training, would be to instantly draw his blade and kill the man who disrespected him.
19:00But what does Tokiori do?
19:03He does absolutely nothing.
19:05He remains perfectly still.
19:07He doesn't even change his expression.
19:09In that moment, Tokiori realized that controlling his own burning pride and anger was a vastly
19:17greater feat of great courage than leading an entire army to victory.
19:23Of course, maintaining this level of composure is incredibly difficult,
19:28which is why Ken emphasizes the importance of environmental shielding.
19:32Humans are mimetic creatures.
19:34We naturally imitate what we see and what we respect.
19:38Ken shares a personal habit.
19:40He always kept a statue of a Buddha head on his writing desk.
19:44Whenever he felt agitated, frustrated by his work, or annoyed by the world,
19:49he would just look at the serene, half-closed eyes of the Buddha.
19:53That visual anchor of absolute stillness helped him regain his own calm.
19:58By the same token, he gives a stern warning,
20:01you must ruthlessly curate your social circle.
20:04Stay away from impulsive, boastful, jittery, or chronically anxious friends.
20:10Their erratic energy is a virus, and it is highly contagious.
20:15You also have to shield yourself against the chaotic rhythm of life.
20:19Ken argues that the vast majority of our daily anxiety comes from being a
20:24slave to time.
20:25How do we break those chains?
20:28Through meticulous, boring, unsexy planning.
20:32By strictly scheduling your day, you assassinate the three roots of agitation.
20:37You kill haste, because you are never running late.
20:40You kill regret, because you don't forget things.
20:44And you kill anxiety, because you never have to sit around worrying about what you should
20:49be doing next.
20:50The schedule decides for you.
20:52But let's be honest.
20:54You can have the Buddha head on your desk, you can have your bullet journal perfectly
20:59color-coded, and life will still find a way to test you.
21:03And here is where Ken delivers one of his most piercing insights.
21:07He warns that true composure is not tested by the grand tragedies of life.
21:12It is tested by the trivial, unexpected annoyances.
21:16He tells the story of a student named Lao, who trained under the master Yoritomo Tashi.
21:22Lao was arrogant.
21:24He boasted to his master that his mind was so fortified, so perfectly composed, that
21:30if the sky itself began to fall, he wouldn't even blink.
21:34The master listens, nods, and decides to test this.
21:38Later that day, the master secretly instructs another student to walk past Lao and accidentally
21:44step heavily on Lao's beautiful, expensive silk sleeves tearing them.
21:50The student does it.
21:52And Lao completely loses his mind.
21:55He explodes in a fit of screaming rage, cursing the student for ruining his clothes.
22:00The master steps in and points out the tragic irony.
22:04Lao had spent all his energy preparing his mind for a massive, apocalyptic disaster, the
22:10sky falling.
22:11But he was completely defeated by a clumsy foot and a torn piece of fabric.
22:17True equanimity means being unmoved by the sudden, the unjustified, and the petty.
22:22It is easy to be brave when the stakes are epic.
22:26It is incredibly hard to be brave when the stakes are merely annoying.
22:31Contrast Lao's failure with the stunning historical story of King Kankai and the assassin Yulai.
22:37Kankai was a powerful leader, but he was betrayed.
22:41The assassin Yulai manages to get close and drives a spear through the king.
22:46As Kankai is bleeding to death, his guards rush in, grab the assassin, and are about to
22:52tear him limb from limb.
22:53The dying king stops them.
22:55He looks at the man who just ended his life, and instead of exploding in rage or seeking
23:01petty revenge in his final moments, he genuinely admires the assassin's skill and bravery for
23:07pulling off such a daring mission.
23:10With his dying breath, the king orders his guards to release the assassin and let him live.
23:15That is the pinnacle of composure.
23:18That is a man who has completely conquered his own ego, even at the threshold of the abyss.
23:23And that word, ego, is the final boss in Kankai's philosophy.
23:29As we transition into the third major segment of his work, he identifies the ego, the
23:34Panna, as the root of all human fear and agitation.
23:39If you are afraid, it is because you are afraid of losing something attached to your ego,
23:44your status, your wealth, your life, your reputation.
23:48Kankai specifically diagnoses the
23:50Fear of Public Opinion
23:51As a Highly Contagious, Dangerous Mental Illness
23:55We are terrified of what other people think of us.
23:59Now, Ken admits that for the base, person, the uneducated, unrefined masses, public opinion
24:05is actually a useful tool.
24:07The fear of being shamed by society keeps bad people from committing crimes or falling
24:12into utter vice.
24:14It acts as a behavioral offense.
24:16But for the superior individual, for the person seeking the courage of the sage, public opinion
24:22is a shackle.
24:23It is a prison.
24:25If you tailor your life to seek the praise of the crowd, or to avoid their criticism,
24:30you have surrendered your soul.
24:32You are no longer the actor, you are the puppet.
24:36Ken quotes the philosopher Blaise Pascal, who said,
24:39Public opinion is the master of the world.
24:42To achieve true composure, you must drag that master off its throne and install your own
24:47inner truth in its place.
24:49And this is harder today than it was in 1942.
24:53Ken writes extensively about the concept of
24:55AMT, or suggestion.
24:59He was talking about early 20th century propaganda and advertising,
25:03the ways in which external forces subtly implant desires, fears.
25:08And beliefs into our minds until we think they are our own.
25:12Imagine what he would say about today's world.
25:15We are living in an absolute siege of suggestion.
25:19Algorithms are perfectly designed to bypass our rational minds and trigger our deepest anxieties
25:24and tribal hatreds.
25:26Advertising tells us we are inadequate unless we buy the next product.
25:31Political propaganda tells us the world is ending unless we vote a certain way.
25:36Our imaginations are completely uncontrolled, running wild with catastrophic scenarios fed
25:41to us by glowing rectangles in our pockets.
25:45Cowardice in the modern age isn't just running away from a physical fight.
25:49Cowardice is the erosion of truth.
25:52It is agreeing with a mob on social media because you are afraid of being targeted.
25:57It is staying silent when you know something is wrong because you want to protect your social
26:02standing.
26:03The courage of the sage, therefore, is the ultimate rebellion.
26:07Equanimity is not passivity.
26:09It is the most active, aggressive defense of your own mind you can possibly mount.
26:15It requires you to ruthlessly deconstruct the social illusions around you.
26:19It requires a commitment to radical honesty with yourself.
26:23It requires disciplined, unbroken judgment of external events, refusing to let the panic
26:29of the crowd dictate your heart rate.
26:32So, as we wrap up this deep dive, I want to leave you with a challenge.
26:36You don't have to become Confucius tomorrow.
26:39You don't have to face an assassin with a smile.
26:43But you can start collecting the gold dust.
26:46Tomorrow morning, when your alarm goes off, conquer the snooze button.
26:51When someone cuts you off in traffic, relax your jaw, drop your shoulders, and practice
26:56the outside in composure.
26:58When you feel the urge to react to a trivial annoyance, embrace the delay.
27:03Build that reservoir of vital energy.
27:06Stop revving your engine in neutral.
27:09The world is loud, it is chaotic, and the volcano is always rumbling.
27:14But you do not have to be the storm.
27:16You don't even have to be the music.
27:19You can just be the stillness.
27:21You can be immovable.
27:23Thank you for listening, and I'll see you next time.
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