The Joe Rogan Experience - Joe Rogan Experience #1430

00:00:01.000 Three, two, one, boom.

00:00:04.000 We're live.

00:00:05.000 What's up, Ray?

00:00:06.000 How are you, buddy?

00:00:07.000 Pretty good.

00:00:08.000 Great to see you, man.

00:00:09.000 It's been a while.

00:00:10.000 It's been...

00:00:12.000 Ten years?

00:00:15.000 No, more than that.

00:00:15.000 Really?

00:00:16.000 2007, I moved out of LA. Wow.

00:00:19.000 Damn.

00:00:19.000 That's weird.

00:00:20.000 I talked about you in the podcast several times, though.

00:00:22.000 You know what?

00:00:23.000 I never listened to the podcast until recently.

00:00:28.000 Someone told me the second time you said, I think three times you've mentioned me.

00:00:32.000 Probably.

00:00:32.000 Yoga Ray.

00:00:33.000 Yoga Ray.

00:00:34.000 And all these kids are contacting me.

00:00:35.000 They mentioned Yoga Ray on the show.

00:00:38.000 Yeah, it was cool.

00:00:39.000 I appreciate it.

00:00:40.000 I appreciate you.

00:00:40.000 I appreciate you too, man.

00:00:42.000 I always thought, truthfully, I always thought...

00:00:45.000 Joe Rogan's going to do something good.

00:00:47.000 Honestly, I can tell you that.

00:00:49.000 And it may be embarrassing to say, but I'm proud of you.

00:00:52.000 Oh, thank you.

00:00:53.000 I hope you don't mind me saying that.

00:00:54.000 I'm proud of all you've done.

00:00:56.000 Thank you.

00:00:56.000 That's very nice.

00:00:57.000 That's a funny thing to say, though.

00:00:59.000 And you've had great, just Joe Rogan time, you've done some great stuff.

00:01:03.000 First of all, stand-up comedian.

00:01:05.000 That's a great gig.

00:01:06.000 It's a fun gig.

00:01:07.000 It's a great gig.

00:01:08.000 And if I could pick a second thing besides stand-up comedian, it'd be the announcer.

00:01:13.000 I wouldn't want to be in the UFC. Even if I was good, because you get pounded on, it's a tough job, right?

00:01:20.000 Yeah, for sure.

00:01:21.000 That's why, you know, I went to Thailand, see those kids fight.

00:01:23.000 They're retired at 21. Yeah, they get beat up.

00:01:25.000 They get beat up, yeah.

00:01:27.000 But to be an announcer of the UFC, and you're also skilled at the stuff.

00:01:32.000 Most people think the announcers aren't so skilled sometimes.

00:01:34.000 You're very skilled.

00:01:35.000 I just remember rolling around with you.

00:01:37.000 Yeah.

00:01:38.000 Those were some of the greatest memories of my time in LA is when Eddie opened 10th Planet.

00:01:44.000 Yeah, we had a lot of fun, man.

00:01:45.000 I mean, it was such a special, interesting time of jujitsu, I think, that it was going to no gi.

00:01:52.000 There's this demographic of jujitsu guys who didn't want to wear a gi anymore.

00:01:55.000 Yeah.

00:01:56.000 Well, it was a lot of people wanted to learn things that would transition directly into MMA and to not have the clothes to grab onto.

00:02:04.000 It changed the grips.

00:02:05.000 And Eddie was one of the very first to really, truly concentrate on using wrestling grips, gable grips, over-unders, things along those lines.

00:02:13.000 And the other people were still really clinging to the gi.

00:02:17.000 He was like a...

00:02:19.000 And I think the thing that I was attracted to about the ultimate fighting, when I first saw...

00:02:23.000 I think the first one I saw was 2. You know, UFC 2. And I was like, oh man.

00:02:29.000 And you watch those Gracie in action videos.

00:02:31.000 It's like, yeah, this is real stuff.

00:02:33.000 I want to learn real stuff.

00:02:34.000 Yeah.

00:02:34.000 And so I started even noticing in my gi game, I just played open guard, and I was lackadaisical, and I'd always have to tell the guys, hey, do me a favor, just try to slap me, because this is getting a little unreal.

00:02:47.000 I want a real-life situation, and I'm figuring, okay, I don't want to get caught up in the gi, no gi thing right now, but I always felt like...

00:02:56.000 You know, real practical fighting.

00:02:58.000 The guy may not be wearing a tuxedo.

00:03:00.000 I think both are good, because, like, you live in New York.

00:03:03.000 New York gets cold.

00:03:04.000 If you get into a scuffle with someone, I hope you never would do.

00:03:08.000 But if you did, and he was wearing a jacket like yours, you could manipulate him with that jacket, and they really probably wouldn't know what to do.

00:03:15.000 Yeah.

00:03:15.000 You know, this is a real benefit to, like, being a judo player if someone has a winter coat on.

00:03:19.000 Yeah.

00:03:20.000 Like, if you had a fight with Cairo Parisian or Ronda Rousey or someone like that, and they're wearing a winter coat, they'll fuck you up.

00:03:27.000 You know?

00:03:27.000 They just grab that thing.

00:03:29.000 Boom!

00:03:31.000 Yeah.

00:03:31.000 Okay.

00:03:32.000 Yes.

00:03:33.000 Well, I'm glad I learned that way.

00:03:34.000 Yeah.

00:03:35.000 It's a good way to learn.

00:03:36.000 It's good.

00:03:36.000 It's good for defense, too, because the gi keeps you from just yanking out of stuff and exploding out of things.

00:03:41.000 You have to be very patient.

00:03:43.000 You have to use correct technique.

00:03:44.000 Anyway, it was appreciation, and it was one of my biggest lamentations of moving away was not to be around that whole posse.

00:03:51.000 And then I never expected it to get as big as it did.

00:03:55.000 I know, it's crazy, right?

00:03:56.000 It's unbelievable, because back then it was like the seed.

00:03:58.000 I used to bring my big kids, who are big now, I used to bring them, and they used to just box.

00:04:02.000 We used to do it at...

00:04:03.000 Legends?

00:04:04.000 No, before Legends.

00:04:05.000 Oh, Bomb Squad.

00:04:06.000 At the Bomb Squad.

00:04:07.000 Oh, wow, that's crazy.

00:04:08.000 That's old school, old school.

00:04:10.000 Yeah.

00:04:10.000 That's 2000, what, 2000?

00:04:12.000 Somewhere around there?

00:04:13.000 Yeah, it was cool.

00:04:14.000 It was a great time.

00:04:14.000 I had just got my purple.

00:04:15.000 I was super excited.

00:04:16.000 And then Eddie just got his black.

00:04:18.000 He got his brown and his black super quick.

00:04:20.000 Do you remember that?

00:04:20.000 Yeah, well, he got his brown and then he beat Hoyler and then he got his black.

00:04:24.000 Yeah, I was there that day.

00:04:25.000 Yeah, that was crazy.

00:04:27.000 When John Jacques took it off his back.

00:04:29.000 Unbelievable.

00:04:31.000 Heavy.

00:04:32.000 That was heavy.

00:04:34.000 Yeah.

00:04:34.000 It was a good place to be.

00:04:36.000 It had a good time.

00:04:36.000 It was.

00:04:37.000 It's like when you look back at those times, it was an interesting era.

00:04:40.000 It was an interesting era for us as humans.

00:04:43.000 It was an interesting era for martial arts.

00:04:46.000 There was a lot going on.

00:04:47.000 And that 10th planet was really a hub of exciting innovation.

00:04:53.000 And it still is.

00:04:54.000 But, I mean, back then it was this really unique thing.

00:04:56.000 This completely...

00:04:59.000 No-gi branch of jiu-jitsu that's directly connected to Janjak Machado, which is a totally legit...

00:05:05.000 Very conservative, legit.

00:05:07.000 Janjak is.

00:05:09.000 I was always impressed with him, too.

00:05:11.000 He still rolls, man.

00:05:13.000 He's my age, and he doesn't get injured.

00:05:15.000 He might have a little tweak here and there, but he's so intelligent, and he's so technical, and he's just so good.

00:05:22.000 That was...

00:05:23.000 I'm saying was only because I'm not there anymore, but when I was going there, I was like, this is such an amazing place, John Jacques Academy.

00:05:31.000 The quality of fighters you would get there.

00:05:33.000 Yeah.

00:05:35.000 I mean, that was also at a time where there wasn't a jujitsu in America.

00:05:38.000 I mean, you have to travel to get to a jujitsu school.

00:05:41.000 You have to be into it and go somewhere.

00:05:44.000 And to have that many black belts at a school, that was like unheard of in jujitsu schools.

00:05:51.000 I remember I was in his class one day and there was like 11 black belts.

00:05:53.000 I was like, this is crazy.

00:05:55.000 And it wasn't like that back then.

00:05:56.000 There was a random rogue black belt somewhere in Portland or something like that.

00:06:02.000 You had to find them.

00:06:03.000 It was a lot of purple belts teaching schools and blue belts teaching schools in some places even.

00:06:08.000 That was a great time to get into jiu-jitsu also.

00:06:10.000 I started with Henzo in New York.

00:06:16.000 I went there the day that Matt Sauer got his purple belt.

00:06:20.000 Wow!

00:06:22.000 That's crazy.

00:06:23.000 Isn't that crazy?

00:06:23.000 It was such a cool, interesting time in jiu-jitsu.

00:06:27.000 That place is still the top place in the world.

00:06:29.000 It's pretty impressive.

00:06:30.000 And Henson was such a great guy, too.

00:06:31.000 He's the best.

00:06:32.000 He's so nice.

00:06:33.000 Sweet!

00:06:34.000 I gave him a CD of my band, just as a gift.

00:06:38.000 I just met him.

00:06:39.000 And he gave me a Krugan Gi.

00:06:42.000 Wow!

00:06:43.000 Yeah.

00:06:43.000 That's legit.

00:06:44.000 It was super legit.

00:06:45.000 Krugans was the gi back then.

00:06:47.000 That was the gi.

00:06:48.000 Yeah.

00:06:48.000 If you had a Krugans, like, ooh, you know?

00:06:51.000 It was a fair trade.

00:06:52.000 It wasn't a trade.

00:06:52.000 I just wanted to give him a gift, and he just, like, without thinking, just threw it back at me.

00:06:56.000 He had a great attitude.

00:06:57.000 Well, he still does.

00:06:58.000 He's so loved.

00:06:59.000 I mean, that's one of the really nice things about jiu-jitsu is the camaraderie and the friendship.

00:07:04.000 It's like, It's very different.

00:07:06.000 I always compare it to other martial arts in that the problem with striking martial arts is that you hurt each other all the time.

00:07:12.000 You never develop the sort of closeness that you do with jiu-jitsu because you're always trying to kick each other's fucking heads off.

00:07:17.000 Well, you know, I did astanga yoga for years where it's sort of silent and you're just doing a set series of poses.

00:07:23.000 Mm-hmm.

00:07:25.000 I could be with people like every day for a year and practically never speak to them.

00:07:30.000 I remember meeting a guy at the DMV. I was like, I know you.

00:07:34.000 You're right next to me every morning for two hours, but we've never spoken.

00:07:37.000 Jiu-jitsu, you become best friends with the guy.

00:07:39.000 You walk out with like 20 new friends.

00:07:41.000 You know each other so well, too.

00:07:43.000 You know when someone's breaking.

00:07:45.000 You know when someone's exhausted.

00:07:46.000 You know when someone's getting better.

00:07:49.000 You know when someone's really been consistent.

00:07:51.000 You roll with someone and they're super sharp.

00:07:53.000 You're like, what have you been doing?

00:07:54.000 Going four days a week now.

00:07:56.000 Oh, wow.

00:07:58.000 You see it, right?

00:07:59.000 Yeah, they become like your best friends.

00:08:00.000 Yeah.

00:08:01.000 Well, it's also like...

00:08:03.000 We appreciate when someone's really good.

00:08:05.000 Like if you roll with someone and they're really good and they start getting you and they didn't used to get you before, you get excited.

00:08:11.000 You're like, alright, I gotta ramp up my game.

00:08:13.000 Yeah, he's doing something.

00:08:14.000 You're doing really well.

00:08:14.000 You have a different metric with all these.

00:08:16.000 Yeah.

00:08:17.000 Well, I remember you being one of the first guys that I knew that got into yoga.

00:08:21.000 And yoga is a huge part of jiu-jitsu now.

00:08:24.000 So many people that train in jiu-jitsu.

00:08:26.000 By the way, I'm jiu-jitsu illiterate now.

00:08:29.000 Oh, you still know.

00:08:30.000 When you stopped, were you a brown belt?

00:08:33.000 I was purple.

00:08:34.000 I was purple.

00:08:35.000 Because I stopped going to John Jacques' classes.

00:08:39.000 And I think it's sort of before Eddie started giving out...

00:08:42.000 Actually, maybe he did.

00:08:43.000 He gave out belts, actually.

00:08:45.000 But I just wasn't...

00:08:47.000 It was confusing.

00:08:48.000 It was confusing because I was sort of with John Jacques.

00:08:51.000 But I just wanted to do the no-gi stuff.

00:08:54.000 And Eddie has this natural flexibility.

00:08:58.000 That I related to and he's my size and I related to that.

00:09:01.000 And I'm not like – I was never super athlete in high school or anything like that.

00:09:05.000 I was short.

00:09:07.000 But I was reasonably flexible and yoga got me really flexible.

00:09:10.000 And so I was like, okay, he has a really great close guard game.

00:09:15.000 I want to learn that from him.

00:09:16.000 And I really sort of like honed in on what he could give.

00:09:22.000 And so, yeah, I never like approached him, hey, can I have a belt?

00:09:24.000 Yeah.

00:09:26.000 It was a vulnerable, weird time in my life, but you know.

00:09:29.000 Did you ever feel the desire to do it again?

00:09:31.000 Yeah, I do.

00:09:32.000 Every now and then I go back.

00:09:33.000 But I tell you, when I trained, because I trained with you guys and trained with Jean-Jacques, it's hard to go to some, it's hard to do it now.

00:09:42.000 It's 20 years later, all the stuff I just, you know, I just did some jujitsu the other day at some school.

00:09:48.000 And someone got mad at me for, I guess it's illegal, some of the stuff I did.

00:09:53.000 What did you do?

00:09:55.000 I did a bicep scissors.

00:09:57.000 That's not illegal.

00:09:58.000 It's not illegal?

00:09:59.000 No.

00:09:59.000 Someone could play.

00:10:00.000 Then I sat on someone's chest.

00:10:01.000 I do a mount where I put the feet forward.

00:10:03.000 I don't remember how I used to do that.

00:10:04.000 And I would crank their neck.

00:10:06.000 Not to tap them, but just to have them react and give me an arm or something.

00:10:12.000 So my feet are forward.

00:10:13.000 I'm sitting on their mount.

00:10:14.000 I pull their head up and they panic or something and throw an arm up.

00:10:17.000 And then I'll take a triangle or an arm.

00:10:19.000 So I did that to someone.

00:10:21.000 I said, you can't neck crank...

00:10:22.000 Listen.

00:10:23.000 I didn't know.

00:10:25.000 That's not a good school.

00:10:27.000 Those are legit techniques.

00:10:28.000 Neck cranks are legit.

00:10:30.000 Right?

00:10:30.000 Yeah.

00:10:31.000 It's crazy.

00:10:32.000 Anyway, you know what?

00:10:32.000 You just went to a bad spot.

00:10:33.000 I'm jujitsu illiterate.

00:10:34.000 Yeah, but no, I don't think so.

00:10:35.000 And here's the deal.

00:10:37.000 I didn't learn this stuff to win points.

00:10:39.000 Right.

00:10:40.000 You know, I wanted to learn.

00:10:41.000 Now I want to learn.

00:10:42.000 You know, that's how I know this other guy that was on your show, James Wilkes.

00:10:45.000 Yes.

00:10:46.000 Great guy.

00:10:47.000 And the ultimate fighter.

00:10:48.000 Great guy.

00:10:48.000 No, I knew him because I used to do some knife fighting with him.

00:10:51.000 Oh, yeah, he's a tactical instructor.

00:10:54.000 Yeah, he's a super rounded guy.

00:10:56.000 Yeah, very rounded guy.

00:10:57.000 But I knew him right when he just started jiu-jitsu.

00:11:00.000 He did a debate with this guy about his documentary.

00:11:05.000 It was very interesting because that debate really should be like 15 hours long.

00:11:08.000 We only got into some points that the other guy fucked up and got incorrect.

00:11:13.000 You get in the weeds with nutrition stuff because he was a part of that Game Changer documentary.

00:11:18.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:11:19.000 You know, I heard the documentary was good.

00:11:21.000 I sat down with my kids to watch it.

00:11:23.000 It's interesting.

00:11:24.000 It's like, there's a lot of it that's not legit.

00:11:28.000 And then there's a lot of it that is.

00:11:29.000 Like, you can eat only plants.

00:11:32.000 You can.

00:11:33.000 You can be healthy eating only plants.

00:11:35.000 But you have to do it right, and it's not easy.

00:11:37.000 And it's different for everybody.

00:11:38.000 And some people, it does not agree with their body.

00:11:40.000 It's not the optimum way for them to eat.

00:11:42.000 For some people, when they get off of it and just start eating more paleo, or they start eating grass-fed meat, they feel so much better.

00:11:49.000 I just don't know if there is a perfect...

00:11:52.000 No, I do know.

00:11:53.000 There's not a perfect diet for every single human being on this planet.

00:11:59.000 There's not one diet that you could lock in, and if you ate that way, you'd be fine.

00:12:04.000 Everybody's different.

00:12:05.000 People have all these weird autoimmune disorders and shit.

00:12:08.000 A lot of them are triggered by certain carbohydrates and plants, and when you eliminate those things from your diet, you find all these skin problems clear up, and people are trying to figure, well, what's that all about?

00:12:19.000 There's all these people that think that maybe there's certain toxins like oxalates and polyphenols and stuff that exist in plants.

00:12:25.000 That might trigger your gut sensitivity or autoimmune issues in the gut.

00:12:30.000 It's so in the weeds, man.

00:12:32.000 It's confusing.

00:12:33.000 You can go on and on and on.

00:12:35.000 And you can debate about details.

00:12:36.000 And everyone has a point.

00:12:38.000 They all have a point.

00:12:39.000 The vegan people have a point when it comes to ethics, when it comes to animal rights, when it comes to cruelty and factory farming.

00:12:48.000 They have a point.

00:12:49.000 And then the health conscious people, the people that are like, you know, I don't give a fuck about that.

00:12:52.000 I'm just trying to be healthy.

00:12:55.000 And I cured up all my diseases by just eating grass-fed meat.

00:12:59.000 I'm just going to buy it from ethical ranchers.

00:13:02.000 They have a point, too.

00:13:03.000 Right.

00:13:03.000 Well, last appreciation for Joe Rogan for a while is I'm appreciating your independent thinking.

00:13:12.000 It takes a lot because it's really easy just to opt in to one side and dig your heels in.

00:13:19.000 It's bad for you, though.

00:13:20.000 It's bad for you.

00:13:21.000 It stops you from actually free thinking, and that's the problem with...

00:13:25.000 Anything you get into, be it politics, or be it religion or spirituality, or be it ethics and diet?

00:13:33.000 Everything.

00:13:34.000 Everything.

00:13:35.000 Behavior.

00:13:36.000 I think people have to realize that you are not your thoughts.

00:13:41.000 That's my yoga thing!

00:13:42.000 Yeah, you are not your thoughts.

00:13:43.000 You're a person, and you accept thoughts and sometimes become attached to them, but it's not good to do.

00:13:50.000 Sometimes you should re-examine those thoughts and don't hold on to them as if they're a part of you.

00:13:55.000 People argue points.

00:13:57.000 They'll argue subjects and topics as if they're arguing their very value as a person, their very value to exist, and it's crazy.

00:14:06.000 It's not a good way to think.

00:14:07.000 If someone tells me I'm wrong, everyone's instinct when someone tells you you're wrong is like, no, you're wrong.

00:14:13.000 Fuck you, you're wrong.

00:14:14.000 You get into this very petty world.

00:14:16.000 But my...

00:14:18.000 My disciplined reaction when I'm doing it correctly is to go, hmm, okay, how am I wrong?

00:14:25.000 What did I do wrong?

00:14:26.000 And just don't take it personally.

00:14:28.000 If you've made a mistake, that's just a mistake.

00:14:33.000 You're not a perfect person.

00:14:35.000 Everyone makes mistakes.

00:14:36.000 So if you make a mistake about a fact or a subject or...

00:14:39.000 Just pause.

00:14:40.000 Just pause and go, okay, what is wrong?

00:14:43.000 And then, is this person correct?

00:14:44.000 Are you wrong?

00:14:45.000 Or are they incorrect?

00:14:46.000 And can you correct them without getting personal about it, too?

00:14:52.000 That's another thing.

00:14:53.000 Can you tell someone that they're wrong or that you believe they're wrong without it getting weird?

00:14:58.000 You know, that's hard to do as well because then that other person is going to be very attached to what they've said.

00:15:03.000 I mean, people dig their heels in.

00:15:05.000 Yeah, these are all points I'm working on in my book I'm working on, which is sort of extracting all these teachings of ancient yoga but not… Not getting lost in just philosophical thought, not getting lost in how to make it relevant and practical,

00:15:22.000 but it's exactly what you're saying.

00:15:24.000 It's hard for people.

00:15:25.000 It's hard.

00:15:25.000 Independent thinking is difficult nowadays because it's not the easy way out.

00:15:31.000 Right.

00:15:31.000 It's easy to have your clothes picked out for you and your ideology picked out for you, how you're supposed to look and where you're supposed to.

00:15:37.000 And if I'm a Democrat, I'm supposed to be like this and not like this.

00:15:40.000 Do you remember Bud, Bud Bretzman?

00:15:43.000 He was one of the guys that trained with us at Gen Jocks.

00:15:47.000 Older guy?

00:15:47.000 Younger guy?

00:15:48.000 He was my age.

00:15:49.000 At the time, he was in his 30s.

00:15:51.000 Anyway, Bud only wears black.

00:15:54.000 He's been on this podcast before.

00:15:55.000 He's a good friend of mine.

00:15:56.000 He lives down the street from me.

00:15:57.000 He only wears black.

00:15:58.000 Okay.

00:15:59.000 He wears black shirts.

00:16:00.000 He wears black pants.

00:16:01.000 I go, why?

00:16:01.000 I can't remember him.

00:16:02.000 I go, why do you only wear black?

00:16:03.000 And he goes, I don't have to think about it this way.

00:16:05.000 It is good.

00:16:06.000 It's a nice way to think.

00:16:07.000 He goes in his closet like, oh my god, this is a crazy person.

00:16:09.000 It's like all black t-shirts, all black jeans.

00:16:11.000 Like, what the fuck are you wearing?

00:16:12.000 But he never thinks.

00:16:13.000 He just puts his pants on.

00:16:14.000 Like, that's one less thing I have to think about.

00:16:16.000 I was like, alright.

00:16:18.000 That's his thing.

00:16:19.000 Everything's black.

00:16:20.000 Easy.

00:16:20.000 Yeah.

00:16:21.000 Black sneakers?

00:16:22.000 Check.

00:16:23.000 Black pants?

00:16:23.000 Check.

00:16:24.000 Black socks?

00:16:25.000 All right.

00:16:26.000 That's his thing.

00:16:27.000 And he doesn't have to spend time thinking about his image.

00:16:32.000 Like, it's just, this is what he wears.

00:16:34.000 It's a burden.

00:16:35.000 Yeah.

00:16:35.000 That was the one thing I really was relieved for me as a monk, I was a monk.

00:16:41.000 Did you know that?

00:16:41.000 Yeah.

00:16:42.000 I don't know if you know my bio or know me just from jiu-jitsu.

00:16:45.000 I don't even know how you called me up, truthfully.

00:16:48.000 It was a weird situation.

00:16:49.000 I was traveling with a bunch of students.

00:16:51.000 I'm a yoga teacher, by the way.

00:16:53.000 My name's Raghunath Ray.

00:16:54.000 Well, how did you get that name?

00:16:56.000 So Raghunath was my name since about 91. A teacher in India gave it to me.

00:17:03.000 How'd that work?

00:17:04.000 It works where...

00:17:07.000 You approach teachers that resonate with you, that sort of speak to you.

00:17:13.000 The universe sends you people that speak to you.

00:17:15.000 I'm sure you've found that in your own life.

00:17:17.000 There are certain people that explain something better than anybody and might be at different times in your life.

00:17:23.000 And then the teacher feels you're ready and they want to give you a mantra.

00:17:28.000 So they give you a mantra and the mantra is...

00:17:31.000 Mantra is sound.

00:17:32.000 And the sound is very powerful because sound affects the way we think.

00:17:35.000 They say as far as transformation in yoga, like we do something very physical and it starts to transform the body.

00:17:41.000 You're into yoga now, from what I know of you.

00:17:44.000 We both, I guess, have been researching each other, but...

00:17:47.000 So, and you have an appreciation for yoga because it radically starts to change your body and then starts to sort of slow down the pace of your thoughts and your mind and helps with your endurance and your cardio and all that stuff.

00:18:00.000 So the grossest way to change is the change of the body and the breathing start to also change your cardiovascular system, your endurance and And then, of course, the sounds that we hear, they say, are the most transformational.

00:18:15.000 And it's almost hard to believe, especially coming from the West, because in the West we're thinking, you know, Sounds.

00:18:21.000 How's that going to make me healthy?

00:18:22.000 But it's all about sound that creates a healthy mind, a calm mind, a connected mind.

00:18:30.000 The mind can – the idea behind yoga is it can go to a dark place.

00:18:34.000 The mind can go to a very dark place very quick.

00:18:36.000 And those thoughts – we're not our thoughts.

00:18:39.000 But our thoughts can get us into trouble.

00:18:40.000 They can get us in jail.

00:18:41.000 They can get us divorced.

00:18:43.000 The thoughts create an action.

00:18:46.000 And so we might have an external cleanliness, but if we don't have that internal cleanliness, you're not actually healthy.

00:18:53.000 So there's a different metric of what health is in the yoga system.

00:18:56.000 And we've always taken it in the Western world to be, well, health means fitness.

00:19:03.000 And so we're going to become fit.

00:19:04.000 But you could be fit And be angry.

00:19:08.000 You could be fit and be resentful.

00:19:10.000 You could be fit and be unforgiving.

00:19:13.000 And so then the next question is, what is actual health then?

00:19:17.000 What does full-spectrum health look like?

00:19:20.000 And that's sort of what I love what yoga addresses.

00:19:24.000 And I feel like what we are doing there in these great martial arts teachers that we've had teach us is how to be sort of almost like you're fighting this fight.

00:19:37.000 But there's no rage.

00:19:39.000 You're not actually even angry at the person.

00:19:41.000 It's actually just...

00:19:43.000 You're just doing what you're supposed to do right now.

00:19:46.000 Can I be completely relaxed and do this?

00:19:51.000 Under stress.

00:19:52.000 Under incredible amounts of stress.

00:19:53.000 The guy's trying to choke the life out of you.

00:19:56.000 Yeah, literally.

00:19:57.000 I had a fight back then.

00:20:01.000 I don't like to fight.

00:20:02.000 I don't look at myself as a fighter.

00:20:04.000 I looked at myself more as a meditator.

00:20:05.000 I got in a fight right at that time, probably when I saw you last.

00:20:09.000 What happened?

00:20:10.000 It was in Santa Monica.

00:20:11.000 A guy stole my car.

00:20:12.000 Oh, wow.

00:20:14.000 It was my first date with my wife.

00:20:16.000 So this is our first date.

00:20:17.000 We've married 16 years.

00:20:18.000 The guy stole my car.

00:20:19.000 And how did you catch him?

00:20:21.000 Well, we are walking up the street, and she said, oh, you left your lights on in your car.

00:20:26.000 And I said, no, I have a Saab.

00:20:28.000 You need the keys to get the lights on, so that can't be my car.

00:20:34.000 But my top was down.

00:20:35.000 It was a convertible Saab.

00:20:36.000 And the top was down.

00:20:38.000 And I was like, man, that is my car.

00:20:40.000 How are my lights on?

00:20:41.000 And then I realized there is this dude in my car trying to start my car.

00:20:47.000 And my wife left her keys in the glove compartment.

00:20:50.000 And I guess he opened the glove compartment, went into a convertible, which was open.

00:20:54.000 I had no alarm.

00:20:55.000 It was one of those old Saab 900s I used to have.

00:20:58.000 And you put the keys in and he just couldn't start because it wasn't the right keys.

00:21:02.000 So I don't know if it was...

00:21:05.000 Because of yoga or jujitsu or whatever it was, but I was so calm about it.

00:21:11.000 I just said, hold my sweatshirt.

00:21:13.000 And I was super skinny then.

00:21:14.000 I was like, I don't know if you remember my diet.

00:21:16.000 I was 100% raw foodist, vegan, like, you know, a buck 47 soaking wet with a crystal in my pocket, you know?

00:21:25.000 Yeah.

00:21:29.000 And I just said, in a very calm way, I just said, hold my jacket.

00:21:32.000 And I ran.

00:21:33.000 I jumped on the back of the trunk.

00:21:35.000 I jumped over and jumped on his head.

00:21:39.000 And I'm small, so I drive real close to the steering wheel.

00:21:43.000 And I slipped behind him and tried to choke him, but I couldn't get deep enough behind him to get the choke in.

00:21:49.000 And it was this big dude.

00:21:52.000 I couldn't really tell from when I jumped, but it was this big dude.

00:21:54.000 And he said...

00:21:56.000 You trying to choke me?

00:21:58.000 I'm gonna kill you.

00:22:00.000 But it was such a stall mate because he couldn't move.

00:22:03.000 I couldn't get to choke in deep enough.

00:22:06.000 And it was just a stalemate.

00:22:08.000 And it went on for like three minutes just there.

00:22:11.000 But I was just breathing.

00:22:12.000 And then it went back to grab my face.

00:22:14.000 And you do that thing in jiu-jitsu where you hook the guy's arm with your leg.

00:22:17.000 So I had that arm trapped.

00:22:18.000 He couldn't move.

00:22:19.000 I couldn't move.

00:22:20.000 My wife was looking at me.

00:22:21.000 She's not calling the cops.

00:22:23.000 She's just like looking there shocked.

00:22:25.000 This is your first date?

00:22:26.000 It's our first date.

00:22:27.000 It's midnight in Santa Monica.

00:22:29.000 Right in the coffee bean or something.

00:22:32.000 And finally we stand up in the seat.

00:22:37.000 We're standing in the front seat.

00:22:38.000 My windows are up but the top is down.

00:22:40.000 I cup his neck and I punch him twice and he grabs me by the shirt.

00:22:45.000 I grab him by the shirt and we throw each other through the windows.

00:22:49.000 And they snap and shatter.

00:22:51.000 We fall out of the car over the door and roll in the street and I put him in my guard.

00:22:58.000 And then he just at that point I think he just turned and ran and I pulled his shirt off.

00:23:03.000 Check this out.

00:23:04.000 I had his shoes.

00:23:06.000 Because his shoes fell off.

00:23:07.000 They were sort of like untied, Adidas.

00:23:09.000 His shoes fell off.

00:23:10.000 His pants dropped to his ankles because they were low-hanging pants.

00:23:15.000 His baseball hat fell off and I had a shirt and he ran away.

00:23:19.000 And we're both covered in blood because there's glass all over us.

00:23:23.000 And he runs away in his underwear pulling up his pants in his socks.

00:23:29.000 And...

00:23:32.000 That's the story.

00:23:33.000 My wife looks.

00:23:34.000 I was like, why didn't you call the cops?

00:23:35.000 She's like, I don't know.

00:23:36.000 That was the coolest thing I've ever seen.

00:23:39.000 I was like, that was the coolest thing I've ever think I've ever done.

00:23:42.000 She's like, he could have had a gun.

00:23:43.000 I was like, yeah, I know.

00:23:44.000 He could have actually killed me.

00:23:47.000 I've never, you know, I don't know how I would react again if that ever happened.

00:23:54.000 But that's just what happened.

00:23:55.000 I think it's because it was sort of like in that mood of this is my duty.

00:23:59.000 I have to protect my car.

00:24:00.000 Right.

00:24:01.000 And also the other thing is you are used to like pretty intense conflict when you're doing jujitsu all the time.

00:24:07.000 And then, you know, we did MMA. Yeah.

00:24:09.000 It was a week, too.

00:24:09.000 And that was always...

00:24:11.000 Yeah.

00:24:12.000 Yeah.

00:24:13.000 And all those guys at John Jacques were either cops.

00:24:15.000 I'd call them cops or robbers.

00:24:18.000 Well, the thing about jujitsu is you do it full blast, right?

00:24:21.000 You don't break arms or actually choke people unconscious.

00:24:25.000 If they tap, you let go.

00:24:26.000 You go to that last moment.

00:24:28.000 Yeah, you're going as hard as you can.

00:24:29.000 That's the difference.

00:24:30.000 You're so accustomed to that.

00:24:32.000 So when you're rolling with this guy also, people that aren't accustomed to that, they feel vulnerable, right?

00:24:38.000 Panic.

00:24:39.000 What is this guy gonna do?

00:24:40.000 You feel it right away.

00:24:41.000 They feel awkward.

00:24:42.000 They feel strange.

00:24:43.000 Yeah.

00:24:43.000 Like, I've rolled with people that don't know how to roll, just joking around, rolling with people.

00:24:48.000 Like, come on, let me do jujitsu with you.

00:24:49.000 Let me see what it feels like.

00:24:51.000 They're helpless.

00:24:52.000 They're helpless.

00:24:52.000 Helpless.

00:24:53.000 It's a weird feeling.

00:24:54.000 It's like, you look like a normal...

00:24:56.000 You look like my size.

00:24:58.000 You know, you look like we and I should be...

00:25:00.000 But you're vulnerable.

00:25:01.000 You're so vulnerable.

00:25:02.000 Right.

00:25:03.000 It's just like a...

00:25:03.000 There's such a big learning...

00:25:05.000 The learning curve is so sharp.

00:25:07.000 It's so sharp.

00:25:08.000 It's so sharp.

00:25:09.000 But once you get to blue belt, purple belt, that area, a regular person is really helpless.

00:25:15.000 They really are.

00:25:16.000 You know what's interesting?

00:25:17.000 Even with that fight, I don't look at myself as a fighting guy.

00:25:22.000 And I definitely don't look for fights.

00:25:25.000 But it's almost like you're learning a game.

00:25:28.000 Yeah.

00:25:28.000 And then you realize, oh, this game is completely deadly.

00:25:31.000 Yeah, it is a deadly game.

00:25:33.000 I mean, it's exactly what it is.

00:25:34.000 You're playing a game of, I'm trying to kill you, you're trying to kill me, but we're really good friends.

00:25:38.000 That's the crazy thing.

00:25:39.000 It's like a lot of guys who have technically killed me, you know, because I had a tap.

00:25:44.000 They're my...

00:25:44.000 They're basically...

00:25:45.000 They're really good friends.

00:25:45.000 They're like my best friends.

00:25:46.000 Yeah, they're really nice, you know, and I can't wait to try to kill them again.

00:25:50.000 Yeah.

00:25:51.000 It's a very strange thing to practice, but it's very cleansing.

00:25:55.000 Like, the people that do it all the time...

00:25:57.000 It's like therapy!

00:25:57.000 Yeah, they're so peaceful.

00:25:59.000 Yeah, I don't know if any other...

00:26:00.000 I didn't really study other martial arts except a little Muay Thai in Thailand.

00:26:04.000 But, um...

00:26:06.000 But I wonder if you get the same feeling.

00:26:08.000 It's cleansing.

00:26:09.000 Because you don't have to pull...

00:26:09.000 Yeah.

00:26:10.000 You don't have to...

00:26:11.000 You know, you either go light or you...

00:26:12.000 I mean, in Thailand, it was like...

00:26:14.000 I went to kick a guy and he blocked it with his shin.

00:26:18.000 You know, he lifted his knee.

00:26:19.000 And I got a bruise from my ankle to my knee that was like...

00:26:23.000 Yeah, it's brutal.

00:26:24.000 It's brutal.

00:26:25.000 It's brutal.

00:26:25.000 You come back.

00:26:26.000 You really have to condition the shit out of your shins.

00:26:28.000 It takes years, too.

00:26:30.000 Yeah.

00:26:31.000 It's just a different sort of camaraderie.

00:26:33.000 There's real camaraderie with striking...

00:26:35.000 But again, it feels weird because you do hurt each other.

00:26:37.000 So you don't have that same sort of bond that you have in jiu-jitsu.

00:26:41.000 Also, there's a thing in jiu-jitsu is body contact.

00:26:44.000 Body contact is different.

00:26:45.000 It's like people who don't have good friends...

00:26:50.000 They never hug.

00:26:51.000 Yeah, they don't hug.

00:26:52.000 There's a lot of men who don't want to be touched by another man.

00:26:56.000 I don't know why.

00:26:57.000 I'm not...

00:26:58.000 I'm not giving a reason why, but if you go, hey, what's up?

00:27:01.000 And you go and hug them or just shake them.

00:27:02.000 They're just grossed out by the touching of another man.

00:27:06.000 You've got to get over that quick.

00:27:08.000 Yeah, I mean, how many times have I talked about jiu-jitsu with people and the people that don't do it?

00:27:12.000 So you roll around with other guys?

00:27:14.000 Isn't that kind of gay?

00:27:16.000 People say that all the time.

00:27:17.000 There was that video out there at one time.

00:27:19.000 Jiu-jitsu, that's the gayest sport around.

00:27:21.000 Remember that?

00:27:21.000 It was from some TV show.

00:27:23.000 Oh, yeah.

00:27:24.000 They're like, I'm going to learn Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

00:27:26.000 Yeah.

00:27:27.000 Yeah, well, I mean, look, some of the positions, like being the guard or being on someone's back, you know?

00:27:33.000 Whatever.

00:27:34.000 So you were the first guy that I knew that was really into yoga back then.

00:27:38.000 I knew Hickson, like when that documentary Choke came out.

00:27:41.000 Yeah, that was a great documentary.

00:27:42.000 That was a great documentary.

00:27:43.000 It showed how much...

00:27:45.000 Jiu-Jitsu and yoga together made Hickson this really incredible force.

00:27:50.000 The yoga had affected his mind in this great way because he was able to meditate and he would do all these incredible yoga poses.

00:27:57.000 He was so flexible and he had such dexterity of his arms and legs.

00:28:02.000 I mean...

00:28:02.000 A lot of people got excited about yoga because of Hickson.

00:28:07.000 But you were the first guy that I knew that really went so deep into it, you actually became an instructor.

00:28:12.000 Because when I first knew you, I knew that you were in a band, and that you did yoga then a little bit, because everybody called you Yoga Ray.

00:28:20.000 But I felt like you were on this path.

00:28:24.000 And this yoga pack, I could tell.

00:28:26.000 And then paying attention to you on social media and following you, it's like, well, he's really into this shit.

00:28:31.000 I remember when you were moving to New York, we had talked online, and you were going out there to teach jiu-jitsu.

00:28:37.000 Or, excuse me, yoga.

00:28:39.000 And I was like, I don't even think he does jiu-jitsu anymore.

00:28:42.000 I think he's just all doing yoga now.

00:28:43.000 And that's what happened, right?

00:28:45.000 You know, I did music for most of my life with Youth of Today.

00:28:50.000 Youth of Today was the band before...

00:28:53.000 I became a monk.

00:28:54.000 And at the height of that career, this was a New York City, hardcore, straight-edge band.

00:29:01.000 We didn't drink, we didn't smoke, and we were all strict vegetarians.

00:29:08.000 That's me.

00:29:09.000 In a more relaxed form.

00:29:11.000 That's a good photo.

00:29:15.000 So that's what I did.

00:29:16.000 And the idea of the band...

00:29:20.000 We were teenagers.

00:29:20.000 We were all teenagers.

00:29:21.000 Me and my buddy Parmananda, who also later moved into an ashram.

00:29:26.000 So we started this when we were in 16, 17. And...

00:29:34.000 It was a cool scene, making our own music and stuff like that.

00:29:37.000 But when we got Youth of Today together, it was about sort of a message of better living, positive mental attitude, these spiritual principles like karma and what goes around comes around, and respect,

00:29:53.000 dignity, controlling your senses and your mind.

00:29:58.000 What led you to that?

00:30:00.000 I don't know!

00:30:01.000 Really?

00:30:02.000 I don't know!

00:30:03.000 Really?

00:30:03.000 I've always been interested in...

00:30:05.000 My idea of a good time was...

00:30:06.000 This was like 80s in New York City was...

00:30:08.000 You'd find these like easty-westy bookstores that had books on yoga and metaphysics and reincarnation and just plop it down and read books all afternoon by swamis and sadhus and weirdos and palm readers and stuff like that.

00:30:23.000 That's my idea of what a good time was.

00:30:25.000 And I always felt like...

00:30:27.000 Life is meant for our self edification.

00:30:31.000 That's why we're here.

00:30:32.000 We're here on a mission of growth.

00:30:34.000 And when I read books by sages or mystics and things like that I was always like I want to be like that.

00:30:41.000 That's what I want to be.

00:31:02.000 Okay, now we're big, and there's a lot of people who are following those sort of principles of controlling your senses.

00:31:08.000 We don't drink, we don't smoke, we don't take drugs, we can care about what we eat.

00:31:15.000 But that's not the goal.

00:31:16.000 That's like a doorway to something bigger.

00:31:18.000 And so for me, I had to step away from that, even though it wasn't Bad or anything.

00:31:25.000 It wasn't what I wanted to become.

00:31:27.000 And it was a certain point in my life.

00:31:30.000 You know, you get to a certain end of a chapter in your life.

00:31:33.000 And for me, at the time, it was the height of the band's career as well.

00:31:38.000 We started touring internationally and stuff like that.

00:31:41.000 But I realized there was no amount – and by the way, this was 80s in New York, which is a very cool time.

00:31:47.000 Run DMC, Madonna, the Beastie Boys.

00:31:50.000 You never knew like what was about to like blow up and you were with all these other people that they were your inspiration and they were your friends and stuff like that.

00:32:01.000 So – At that height and excitement, I just said, there is no amount of like material success I want that's going to fill sort of like a God-shaped hole in my heart.

00:32:14.000 There's nothing out there that I want.

00:32:16.000 And it was also a very precarious time in my life where – not precarious, but – A time where my father went into a coma for three years.

00:32:29.000 Oh, Jesus.

00:32:29.000 I know.

00:32:30.000 It's so horrible to even think about it.

00:32:33.000 What happened?

00:32:33.000 What happened was he got some unknown lung infection.

00:32:37.000 He was young, 64. Unknown lung infection and there was some neglect in the hospital and his lung collapsed.

00:32:47.000 And so comas are one of these places where you don't...

00:32:49.000 Is he dead?

00:32:51.000 Is he alive?

00:32:52.000 And it's so confusing.

00:32:55.000 For a person that loves that person, how to even react.

00:32:59.000 And I'll say in a humiliating way, I couldn't deal with it.

00:33:07.000 And I sort of shut myself off.

00:33:09.000 And I went and just started working on my music, something I could do.

00:33:15.000 And then at his death, when he finally left his body, I was cultivating a strong desire to go to India and study more.

00:33:25.000 At that time, I was also studying yoga, Ayurvedic medicine.

00:33:28.000 So he went into a coma for three years.

00:33:30.000 Three years.

00:33:30.000 And then when he died...

00:33:32.000 At the end of the coma.

00:33:33.000 He never came out of the coma.

00:33:34.000 He never came out of the coma.

00:33:36.000 And when he left his body, I decided, I'm going to India now.

00:33:41.000 That was a sign for me, and I quit the band.

00:33:43.000 And this is at the peak of the band?

00:33:46.000 It was at the peak of Youth of Today, yeah.

00:33:48.000 Was that hard to walk away from all that?

00:33:50.000 You know what?

00:33:50.000 I was at a point where I was saying...

00:33:54.000 And you've probably experienced this too.

00:33:56.000 I'm sure Eddie probably does too.

00:33:58.000 Sometimes when you become very successful at something, The thing that you love can eat away at you as well.

00:34:10.000 I'll share with you how I saw it.

00:34:13.000 I remember sitting in an ashram on 24th Street, a Sivananda ashram.

00:34:18.000 Sivananda was like a swami.

00:34:21.000 He traveled the world.

00:34:23.000 He taught the teachings of yoga outside India and he wrote lots of books.

00:34:29.000 And there's a library of books.

00:34:31.000 We're a bookstore up on 24th Street where he has an ashram in New York City.

00:34:35.000 And I remember reading this one quote by him in the midst of my life is in a band and being a teenager living in New York City.

00:34:44.000 And it was...

00:34:46.000 The first one was really interesting.

00:34:51.000 Where is your happiness coming from?

00:34:53.000 Is it coming from your day-to-day living?

00:34:57.000 Or is it just happiness from your ego?

00:34:59.000 And I thought, where is my happiness coming from?

00:35:04.000 Is it from me being a person that I want to be?

00:35:08.000 Is it from, you know, people nowadays, they collect houses, they collect cars, they collect so many things.

00:35:14.000 I collected records.

00:35:15.000 I collected rare punk records.

00:35:17.000 And in my brain, I thought, Oh man, you gotta understand what the music scene was like that if you're unfamiliar with it.

00:35:23.000 There was a band that was great and they put out 1,007-inch records.

00:35:28.000 And then the band broke up, yet the punk scene always grew.

00:35:31.000 So these records you bought for two bucks are now worth, people pay $100 for that record.

00:35:35.000 And so me and my guitar player Purcell, we had like thousands of incredibly rare punk records that if you remember the world of records, no one played their records because you could damage them.

00:35:47.000 What you did was you put everything on a cassette.

00:35:49.000 And so I started thinking about this quote by the Swami who said, Where am I getting my pleasure from?

00:35:57.000 I'm thinking, well, my records are pleasurable.

00:36:00.000 I was like, well, actually, the music's pleasurable.

00:36:01.000 The records are only pleasurable when somebody comes over to my house and says, oh my god, you got that record!

00:36:06.000 That record's so impossible to get!

00:36:09.000 And so once I've read that, it was the first shattering of...

00:36:13.000 My concept of self and what is joy and what is pleasure based on my ego and all those records that I really valued and I have really valuable records.

00:36:25.000 And we started our own record company at the time.

00:36:26.000 So we would basically print limited editions of our band.

00:36:30.000 We put out all our friends' records, Sick of It All, Gorilla Biscuits.

00:36:35.000 These were all bands that we grew up with.

00:36:37.000 Our own band, Youth of Today.

00:36:38.000 And so we'd put out these records, we'd make limited edition, and then we'd trade these.

00:36:42.000 It's like printing your own currency basically.

00:36:45.000 To make a long story short, after I read that one quote, my whole concept of pleasure changed.

00:36:50.000 And I took all those records and I threw them out on stage to all fans, record collector fans.

00:36:56.000 So all the rare ones?

00:36:57.000 All the rare ones.

00:36:58.000 It was so liberating for me to do that.

00:37:01.000 It was like maybe the first attempt of shedding my ego.

00:37:06.000 That was a roundabout story, but the second part that Swami wrote was...

00:37:14.000 And I'm paraphrasing this, of course.

00:37:16.000 The diseases of the soul are not new.

00:37:20.000 They're ancient.

00:37:22.000 The soul is pure.

00:37:24.000 The spirit is pure.

00:37:26.000 But it gets covered by lust, greed, anger, and envy.

00:37:31.000 And I started thinking...

00:37:33.000 Well, not me.

00:37:35.000 Lusty.

00:37:36.000 I'm not greedy.

00:37:37.000 I'm not angry.

00:37:37.000 I'm in a band.

00:37:38.000 I have no money.

00:37:39.000 You know?

00:37:39.000 And if you've ever been in a band, it costs money to buy a guitar.

00:37:42.000 Got a guitar?

00:37:43.000 It costs money to buy strings.

00:37:44.000 Got strings?

00:37:45.000 It costs money to buy an amp.

00:37:46.000 So it's just like a money pit to be in a band.

00:37:49.000 You get paid 50 bucks or whatever.

00:37:51.000 So I was thinking...

00:37:53.000 Not me.

00:37:54.000 But as my band got more successful, I realized, man, I do have...

00:38:01.000 There is money out there that I want.

00:38:03.000 And I remember I got offered money for the first time being in a band.

00:38:07.000 I can get money.

00:38:09.000 I wrote these songs.

00:38:10.000 I should get more of that money.

00:38:11.000 Then you get in a fight with the drummer.

00:38:12.000 No, I should get that money.

00:38:13.000 We should split it four ways.

00:38:14.000 No way.

00:38:14.000 I do so much more.

00:38:15.000 I book everything.

00:38:16.000 And I realized, wow, I wasn't not greedy.

00:38:19.000 I just had no money.

00:38:21.000 I'm covered with greed.

00:38:23.000 All these people hate the greedy, hate the rich, hate the 1%.

00:38:26.000 You got to see what would happen if you were in that position.

00:38:29.000 Yeah.

00:38:30.000 So that was like my first lesson in like, actually I'm complete.

00:38:34.000 I thought I was above it because I didn't drink, because I didn't smoke, because I was a vegetarian.

00:38:37.000 Big deal.

00:38:38.000 Big deal.

00:38:40.000 And it was this, and spirituality starts to work on these subtle things that are plaguing me.

00:38:46.000 And, you know, the people who really want social justice out there, it's very easy to point the finger at everybody and watch what everybody else is doing wrong.

00:38:56.000 But on the yogic path, it's about like putting the microscope on ourself.

00:39:01.000 Where am I wrong?

00:39:02.000 If I really want to change, how can I start to really do some psychic surgery of my own ego, of all these other things that are baked onto the spirit?

00:39:14.000 So anyway, that was...

00:39:16.000 I can't remember how you got on that tangent.

00:39:18.000 Sorry, I go on tangents a lot.

00:39:20.000 Feel free to go on tangents.

00:39:21.000 But that was my first glimpse of where I'm at.

00:39:25.000 And so my point was, my success...

00:39:29.000 Oh, you said, well, was it hard to give up the band?

00:39:32.000 And I was like, no, I was so over it.

00:39:34.000 I was over...

00:39:35.000 Because here's another one.

00:39:37.000 Envy.

00:39:37.000 That plagues the soul, they say.

00:39:39.000 So there's people that are looking up to Joe Rogan.

00:39:42.000 I want to be like that.

00:39:43.000 And there's people that maybe you're looking...

00:39:45.000 Although you're pretty big right now.

00:39:46.000 I don't know if you're looking up to anybody.

00:39:48.000 But the feeling like in a corporate world where someone wants your position.

00:39:53.000 And that plagues a person.

00:39:55.000 A person who's...

00:40:00.000 Not gracious.

00:40:01.000 Or a person who's like, there's a scarcity mentality.

00:40:04.000 There's a younger band.

00:40:05.000 I know in the music world, there's a band coming up and there's a band I want to get to.

00:40:08.000 And I realized that all these real subtle things, they were plaguing my heart.

00:40:12.000 And these are the things I wanted to work on.

00:40:19.000 So yeah, was it hard to give up?

00:40:21.000 No, it wasn't.

00:40:21.000 It was great.

00:40:22.000 I relinquished it.

00:40:24.000 You were on like a spiritual quest.

00:40:26.000 I was on a spiritual quest.

00:40:27.000 A legitimate one.

00:40:28.000 People talk about that kind of stuff all the time, like getting spiritual or being on a spiritual quest, but you legitimately went on this quest, and that's why I found it so fascinating.

00:40:40.000 That was what was so appealing to me.

00:40:42.000 It's like, okay, this is a real one.

00:40:43.000 Because there's not a lot of real ones.

00:40:45.000 There's a lot of people that pretend to be on these spiritual clubs, but really they just want everybody to think they're spiritual.

00:40:50.000 It's like you were talking about the pleasure.

00:40:52.000 What's the pleasure of owning records?

00:40:53.000 Well, the big pleasure was people coming over your house to think you're cool because you have these records.

00:40:57.000 That's the coolest record, man.

00:40:58.000 That's the same thing with spirituality in a lot of ways.

00:41:01.000 What people love is the fact that someone finds out that you do yoga every day.

00:41:07.000 Someone finds out that you meditate.

00:41:09.000 Someone finds out that you've read these books.

00:41:11.000 The ego's so damn sneaky, isn't it?

00:41:12.000 Oh, it's so sneaky.

00:41:13.000 And sometimes it's fucking obvious as shit.

00:41:16.000 Like, you know, it's like a funny story.

00:41:19.000 Brian Callen, when I first met him.

00:41:22.000 Did you do this with us, too?

00:41:23.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:41:24.000 Yeah, I love that guy to death.

00:41:26.000 When I first met him, I went over his house.

00:41:28.000 He had an apartment in Venice, no doorknob.

00:41:30.000 The doorknob had been broken out, so you could just open his door and walk in.

00:41:34.000 Anybody could open his door.

00:41:35.000 And people would walk.

00:41:37.000 He would come downstairs, and there was a homeless lady cooking in his kitchen.

00:41:42.000 She goes, son, you got it going on.

00:41:44.000 And he was like, what?

00:41:46.000 He's just eating my food.

00:41:48.000 She was just cooking food in his house.

00:41:50.000 But I came over to his house and he had a book.

00:41:52.000 I forget what book it was.

00:41:53.000 It was something obvious, like Catcher in the Rye or something like that.

00:41:58.000 It was just sitting on his coffee table.

00:42:01.000 I go, you're not reading that book.

00:42:02.000 I go, you put that book out here so when girls come over they think you're smart.

00:42:06.000 And he's like, you're so right, I'm a fraud!

00:42:08.000 And we were both howling and laughing.

00:42:10.000 But that's a thing that people do.

00:42:12.000 Like, people want a well-stocked library, not just to read those books.

00:42:16.000 Read the books, then.

00:42:17.000 Read the books.

00:42:18.000 Yes, but it's also, there's an issue where people want people to think that you're this brilliant, erudite, interesting person because you have all these books in your house.

00:42:29.000 Like, there's a factor in that.

00:42:32.000 They say the jiva or the spirit has to go through eight elements and each element to leave the material universe.

00:42:40.000 This is according to the yogis.

00:42:43.000 And they get progressively double in size.

00:42:48.000 And the last one, so the first one is earth.

00:42:50.000 And then that last one is ego.

00:42:54.000 It's the hardest.

00:42:55.000 It's the biggest of all of them.

00:42:56.000 And it's so refined.

00:42:58.000 Even people, you do altruistic things.

00:43:00.000 You do things for your self-betterment.

00:43:03.000 It gets wound up in religion.

00:43:04.000 It gets wound up in diet.

00:43:05.000 It gets wound up in politics.

00:43:06.000 It gets wound up in race.

00:43:08.000 It gets wound up in animal rights.

00:43:10.000 It gets wound up against animal rights.

00:43:13.000 Everything.

00:43:14.000 The ego is the biggest thing.

00:43:16.000 And You can sort of see it on a person, too.

00:43:19.000 And almost better than seeing it on someone else is to see it on yourself.

00:43:25.000 That's the work of the yogi is try to see, man, I was motivated by that.

00:43:29.000 Look, I was ill-motivated again.

00:43:32.000 So yeah, it's a constant checking in with the ego.

00:43:36.000 I think that was part of my...

00:43:37.000 I mean, think about it.

00:43:38.000 I came from sort of like a scene where everybody had to be cool a certain way.

00:43:41.000 There was a certain look, a certain dress, certain sneakers we wore, certain haircuts we wore.

00:43:46.000 And now I'm wearing a dopey robe.

00:43:48.000 And I'm walking around in a dopey robe.

00:43:50.000 How long were you a monk for?

00:43:51.000 I was a monk for about six and a half years.

00:43:53.000 Wow.

00:43:54.000 Yeah.

00:43:54.000 And it was a great time in my life.

00:43:57.000 How old were you?

00:43:58.000 I was 22. So from 22 to 28 you were a monk.

00:44:01.000 I was a monk.

00:44:02.000 That means celibate, no masturbating, nothing for seven and a half years.

00:44:07.000 Where'd you live?

00:44:07.000 I lived in ashrams in India and in America.

00:44:10.000 I traveled all over the world, actually.

00:44:13.000 But I'll tell you what brought me to that place.

00:44:18.000 After being very materially frustrated, and I said those two main factors were some type of material success.

00:44:25.000 I wasn't the Beatles when I wasn't Michael Jackson, but I had some materials.

00:44:29.000 I had fans.

00:44:32.000 And then realizing how life can get taken away from you in a moment with that precarious place my father was at.

00:44:41.000 It just made me start thinking, what the hell am I doing in this short life?

00:44:46.000 What am I supposed to do?

00:44:47.000 Give me some GPS. Give me some, where do I go from here?

00:44:51.000 What do I want out of life?

00:44:53.000 What is a home run?

00:44:55.000 Is it just to be very famous?

00:44:57.000 Is that the home run?

00:44:58.000 Is it to collect tons of stuff?

00:45:00.000 Is that a home run?

00:45:01.000 Is it to live a natural life?

00:45:02.000 Is that a home run?

00:45:03.000 Is it to learn some art?

00:45:05.000 Some type of art?

00:45:06.000 Is that a home run?

00:45:07.000 And so this was my burning question.

00:45:11.000 And I was still a New Yorker.

00:45:13.000 I was still sort of like New York in the 80s.

00:45:16.000 I was like a little street smart New Yorker.

00:45:19.000 I'm actually from Connecticut, but I started hanging out in New York City recently.

00:45:23.000 My parents were New Yorkers and so we used to – my older brothers lived in the city so I'd visit them.

00:45:28.000 But at the time I was 14, I used to just go to New York City and just hang out on the weekends.

00:45:34.000 And when I became a monk and went to India, I had saved about $25,000.

00:45:43.000 Not a lot of money, not tons of money, but it was, you know, some money I made.

00:45:48.000 And I thought in my brain, okay, this is my cynical self.

00:45:52.000 I'm going to go to India.

00:45:53.000 I'm going to meet a guru.

00:45:53.000 The guru is going to want all my money.

00:45:55.000 This is how it works.

00:45:57.000 But when I actually lived with the monks, India, especially India then, 1988, there is no central AC and it's hot.

00:46:08.000 There's no heat and it's cold.

00:46:11.000 In the winter, the showers are freezing because all the water's kept on a tank on the roof of the ashram.

00:46:17.000 In the summer, that water's super hot because it's all kept on a tank on top of the ashram.

00:46:23.000 There's no creature comforts whatsoever.

00:46:26.000 You go to bed early, you wake up super early.

00:46:28.000 You go to bed, you know, 8.30.

00:46:30.000 You wake up 3 o'clock in the morning.

00:46:32.000 There's nothing to buy.

00:46:34.000 There's nothing to purchase.

00:46:35.000 All the fun things that we like to ease the pain of existence are not there.

00:46:41.000 You know, there's no movies.

00:46:42.000 There's no television.

00:46:43.000 There's no comedy.

00:46:44.000 There's nothing!

00:46:46.000 And so two things happen when you strip everything away from a person.

00:46:50.000 They lose it.

00:46:51.000 They hop the fence, so to speak, and I've seen that happen.

00:46:55.000 Or they learn to find their pleasure from something more subtle.

00:47:00.000 And so when I first went there and saw the joy of the monks, I realized, They don't want my money.

00:47:08.000 They don't want anything I have to offer them.

00:47:11.000 I want what they have.

00:47:13.000 That was sort of a game changer moment for me.

00:47:18.000 I want to figure out how to be connected with nothing.

00:47:26.000 What did these guys do all day?

00:47:29.000 I don't know.

00:47:29.000 They all did different stuff, I think.

00:47:31.000 Every ashram's got their own thing, you know what I mean?

00:47:34.000 Did you have chores that you had to do to earn your food?

00:47:37.000 Yeah.

00:47:38.000 Every ashram is going to be different.

00:47:40.000 And every spiritual path.

00:47:44.000 There's Christian monks and monks from different traditions around the world.

00:47:48.000 I'm sure they all got their thing, different things.

00:47:51.000 But later, I started doing my next band.

00:47:54.000 Yeah.

00:48:15.000 The spirit and divinity.

00:48:18.000 And it's a conversation about...

00:48:20.000 It's just considered ancient wisdom for all people.

00:48:26.000 So one of the ideas of the Gita is you don't give up what you're born to do.

00:48:32.000 You do what you do, but in a spiritual way.

00:48:35.000 You don't try to like wipe out your desires.

00:48:37.000 It's not going to happen.

00:48:39.000 You take what you do and you do it in a way that is going to assist you in your liberation and is going to assist everybody else.

00:48:48.000 So I'll say I love comedy, but I want comedy that uplifts me and not doesn't degrade me.

00:48:57.000 I like entertainment.

00:48:58.000 That when I walk away from it, I learn something.

00:49:01.000 I feel like I'm growing.

00:49:02.000 I feel connected.

00:49:03.000 I don't want stuff that's going to just give me darker thoughts.

00:49:06.000 Like the Joker?

00:49:08.000 I've never seen it.

00:49:09.000 You didn't see it?

00:49:11.000 I want to say that.

00:49:12.000 I live on a farm.

00:49:14.000 I live on a farm.

00:49:16.000 I rarely watch anything except comedy.

00:49:19.000 I love comedy.

00:49:20.000 Because I think laughing is important.

00:49:22.000 But I don't watch so much TV. If I do go to the movies, it's out of like, with my wife, we want to get away from the kids, we want to do something.

00:49:34.000 But there's no plan on what to watch, but I'm open to good ideas.

00:49:38.000 The Joker's a really good movie, but it's really dark.

00:49:41.000 You walk out of there feeling really confused.

00:49:44.000 You're like, did I like that?

00:49:46.000 I don't know if I liked that.

00:49:47.000 I know it was awesome.

00:49:48.000 I know it was really well done, but did I like that?

00:49:51.000 And it's just...

00:49:54.000 It's complicated.

00:49:55.000 I mean, we could talk about the Joker for the next two hours.

00:49:58.000 You know, the mind is like a garage.

00:50:01.000 And you become like what you store in that garage.

00:50:05.000 So the thoughts, the thoughts that we put in the mind, we've got to be careful with.

00:50:09.000 The words.

00:50:10.000 Just we were talking about mantras before.

00:50:12.000 The mantras are like repetitive sounds.

00:50:14.000 But they're considered transcendental sounds.

00:50:16.000 So I chant the Hare Krishna mantra.

00:50:17.000 So the Krishna mantra...

00:50:19.000 You might have known it from the soundtrack of Hair.

00:50:21.000 Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

00:50:26.000 It's considered a transcendental sound for the mind.

00:50:29.000 And it sort of connects the soul with divinity.

00:50:34.000 It doesn't matter what religion you are.

00:50:36.000 It's considered a mantra, a sound vibration that has a potency on the man.

00:50:40.000 That's where they get the word mantra from.

00:50:41.000 It delivers the man or the mind.

00:50:43.000 So what we store in the mind starts to create our external being.

00:50:49.000 And if you don't believe in it, It's one of those things.

00:50:52.000 We have mantras in our mind anyway.

00:50:55.000 I have things on loop running through my mind that have been handed to me from parents, from elementary school teachers, from a crazy uncle, for whatever.

00:51:07.000 We get things handed to us and we play them on repeat.

00:51:11.000 And sometimes they're mantras of self-deprecation, self-loathing, you're not good enough.

00:51:16.000 And these are the mantras running through the mind.

00:51:18.000 So the yoga system says, notice those mantras.

00:51:21.000 That's part of self-edification or self-realization.

00:51:24.000 You notice what's playing in the mind and you replace those mantras with transcendental sound.

00:51:30.000 Or at the very least, training the mind to see greatness in people.

00:51:37.000 That's a big thing.

00:51:38.000 Because the material mind wants to see, what are Joe's shortcomings?

00:51:44.000 Because if I find your shortcomings, it makes me feel better about myself.

00:51:47.000 That's crazy thinking.

00:51:49.000 If you've got thousands of shortcomings, that doesn't make me better at all.

00:51:53.000 So the material mind, which sees one as so insecure that I have to lash out at other people to make myself feel whole.

00:52:02.000 And it's just crazy thinking, stinking thinking.

00:52:07.000 Whereas the yogi trains, I specifically teach bhakti yoga, which is called the yoga of connection or the yoga of the heart, and starts to deal with all the essence of the teachings of the Gita, which is you train yourself to see greatness in other people.

00:52:24.000 And if I start to note, it's good.

00:52:27.000 You could take this from a micro, like my relationship with you.

00:52:29.000 I want to notice all of Joe's great qualities.

00:52:32.000 Now, when you hear that, you might think, well, he doesn't really know me.

00:52:36.000 I got some bad qualities.

00:52:37.000 Immediately makes you a little vulnerable and you start to think, well, but you appreciate it.

00:52:41.000 And anybody in our life who appreciates us...

00:52:46.000 Sometimes they even see things in us we can't see in ourselves.

00:52:48.000 We want to become like that.

00:52:50.000 That's why this idea of changing the world really starts with your self-connection as I am a spiritual being.

00:52:57.000 Joe is a spiritual being.

00:52:59.000 And I start to train myself in not seeing what Joe does wrong, seeing everything he does right.

00:53:06.000 And it's a great exercise for the brain.

00:53:08.000 What does that person do right?

00:53:11.000 What is the good in this person that I'm overlooking?

00:53:14.000 Because I've got this lens.

00:53:16.000 It's a lens that we wear of trying to find shortcomings in people.

00:53:20.000 And it screws people up tremendously, even so-called spiritual people.

00:53:24.000 Yeah.

00:53:26.000 I just had a roll.

00:53:27.000 You can cork me anytime you want.

00:53:29.000 So you spent six and a half years living like this in this ashram, just trying to sort things out.

00:53:36.000 No sex, no masturbation.

00:53:38.000 What are you eating?

00:53:39.000 None of it.

00:53:39.000 What kind of food do they serve you?

00:53:41.000 Strict vegetarian diet.

00:53:43.000 And not only that, this is an interesting point, too.

00:53:51.000 And it's debated about, especially, you know, I was a raw foodist, so these raw foodists, they're all...

00:53:56.000 Everyone's got their take on medicine and healing.

00:53:58.000 Let me share the yogi perspective of it.

00:54:01.000 The missing ingredient in food, the vitamin, the superfood that is never spoken about is love.

00:54:13.000 Food is supposed to be grown, prepared, and then offered.

00:54:22.000 And the offering is not even to a human.

00:54:24.000 The offering is to God.

00:54:26.000 That's called prashad.

00:54:28.000 Food is first called boga.

00:54:29.000 Boga means it's for enjoyment.

00:54:30.000 And then you take that enjoyment, but before you enjoy it, you're offering it first back like in sacrifice.

00:54:36.000 The idea is that everything in this world is not for me.

00:54:39.000 Everything is...

00:54:40.000 I'm not the center.

00:54:41.000 I'm here to serve the center.

00:54:42.000 So all the food takes on the consciousness of the preparer of the food.

00:54:49.000 So to eat junk food...

00:54:52.000 Or to have people in very low consciousness cooking your food, you're taking that into your body.

00:54:58.000 You're taking the consciousness of the prepare of the food.

00:55:01.000 Do you believe that?

00:55:02.000 I definitely believe it.

00:55:04.000 Yeah?

00:55:04.000 I definitely would feel a tangible effect if I walked outside that line.

00:55:10.000 So for years, I'd only eat food cooked by Brahmins, like the priests of the ashram.

00:55:16.000 Or I would cook it myself.

00:55:18.000 Or later...

00:55:20.000 I have a very weird story, which was I became a bunch of my friends that were monks.

00:55:26.000 We started our own band and we started a record label, a second record label in the ashram.

00:55:32.000 I kid you not.

00:55:33.000 It's almost an unbelievable story and perhaps the first time historically there was a celibate rock and roll band.

00:55:38.000 But this band ended up becoming bigger than the second band.

00:55:42.000 This was my band Shelter.

00:55:44.000 And so what happened was, this band, when we started, though, we were all monks.

00:55:48.000 And we would take a candy stove on tour with us, and we'd pull over to the side of the road, and we'd make kitchery with rice and dal and, you know, fanagreek and coriander and cumin.

00:55:59.000 And we'd just cook, because we wouldn't eat outside food.

00:56:02.000 Because if you did, you would feel it.

00:56:06.000 You would feel it affect your mind.

00:56:09.000 Really?

00:56:10.000 I kid you not.

00:56:12.000 That I can say.

00:56:13.000 There's certain things like, I don't know.

00:56:15.000 There's certain things that they speak about in ancient Indian literature that I can say, maybe.

00:56:20.000 I don't know.

00:56:21.000 So you think most people are just numb to that?

00:56:23.000 I know.

00:56:24.000 I've definitely experienced that.

00:56:25.000 You think most people are just numb to that?

00:56:27.000 Numb to the effect of taking in the consciousness of someone who's on a low vibration who's cooking your food?

00:56:32.000 You're just numb to it?

00:56:33.000 You just eat the food because you're hungry?

00:56:35.000 Are people...

00:56:36.000 Yeah, are numb to it.

00:56:37.000 The people that aren't aware of that concept.

00:56:39.000 Yeah, people are aware.

00:56:42.000 For example, a home-cooked meal definitely feels, tastes better, tastes different, or feels different, as opposed to some guy just making burgers at White Castle or whatever.

00:56:55.000 So I don't know.

00:56:57.000 It depends on the individual.

00:56:58.000 But is this a perception, or is it an actual energy?

00:57:02.000 And does it matter?

00:57:03.000 I think it's both.

00:57:05.000 It's almost like fire is going to burn whether I believe it or not.

00:57:09.000 But there is a concept of once you get that food, you don't eat the food, you honor the food.

00:57:15.000 So it's not going to be like me shoving stuff in my mouth, which I do occasionally, if you've seen my eating habits.

00:57:22.000 But it should be more of a – the eating itself should be a meditation.

00:57:25.000 Right.

00:57:27.000 And it's been proven.

00:57:29.000 I'm not one of these guys.

00:57:30.000 There's a thing that's...

00:57:32.000 There's a similarity that's going to seem like it's not...

00:57:35.000 Like it's not a parallel.

00:57:38.000 But in hunting, when you hunt an animal and you kill that animal and you butcher that animal and then you feed it to your family, it sounds...

00:57:48.000 Almost hypocritical.

00:57:49.000 It's not like there's no way that would be a spiritual feeling.

00:57:52.000 But there's a connection to your food that's very, very different.

00:57:56.000 Well, we've divorced ourselves from killing animals for the most part.

00:58:00.000 For the most part.

00:58:01.000 Most people hire people.

00:58:03.000 Most people have no clue where their fruits come from, their vegetables come from.

00:58:08.000 What do Brussels sprouts look like when they grow?

00:58:11.000 What do bananas look like when they grow?

00:58:12.000 What is ground round?

00:58:14.000 So we've divorced ourselves from our food.

00:58:16.000 And that's sort of...

00:58:19.000 Anyway, I understand what you're saying.

00:58:21.000 We've definitely divorced ourselves from our food, but even agriculture, I'm sure if you raised cattle and then killed them and ate them, you would feel differently than buying it in a supermarket.

00:58:32.000 But there's something even more intense about the quest of acquiring a wild animal.

00:58:38.000 You're going into this world.

00:58:40.000 The first time I ever saw a wild deer that I was going to shoot, I swear to God, it was like a psychedelic experience.

00:58:46.000 I was looking in the eyes of this thing in its world, this wild world in Montana, and I realized, whoa, this is a different dimension.

00:58:56.000 I'm entering into this wild.

00:58:58.000 This thing might not have ever seen a person ever.

00:59:01.000 And it's looking at me and I'm going to take its life and I'm going to eat it.

00:59:07.000 I was encountering this thing because it was so intense and there was so many...

00:59:11.000 It was nerve-wracking.

00:59:12.000 It was difficult.

00:59:13.000 I was exhausted.

00:59:15.000 We're in the mountains.

00:59:16.000 We're trekking for hours and hours and hours to try to get close to a deer.

00:59:20.000 But the locking eyes with the deer, I was like, oh, I didn't expect this.

00:59:24.000 Like he saw you.

00:59:25.000 He saw me and I saw him.

00:59:27.000 But it was also...

00:59:28.000 There was a sharing of information.

00:59:32.000 There was an acceptance of...

00:59:35.000 I think?

00:59:51.000 Bringing that meat home was infinitely more enjoyable than getting something from a store.

00:59:58.000 And also just felt differently.

01:00:00.000 It gave me gratitude.

01:00:02.000 I had a connection to that animal.

01:00:04.000 It made me think about it.

01:00:06.000 Every bite I took, I didn't take any of it for granted.

01:00:09.000 It meant a lot.

01:00:10.000 I wish that everybody that ate meat went out and hunted.

01:00:14.000 Yeah, it's just there's not enough animals.

01:00:16.000 There's too many people.

01:00:18.000 We fucked it already.

01:00:20.000 We fucked it already with cities.

01:00:22.000 We fucked it already with large-scale agriculture.

01:00:24.000 We fucked it already with monocropping.

01:00:26.000 We fucked it already with you being able to buy food any way you want.

01:00:29.000 This is the reason why there's so many of us.

01:00:30.000 Is it like the end of the world, Joe?

01:00:32.000 It's not the end of the world.

01:00:33.000 It's a new world.

01:00:34.000 It's, I mean, obviously, right now, ready?

01:00:37.000 Everything's fine.

01:00:38.000 Feel it?

01:00:39.000 Feel that?

01:00:40.000 Everything's fine.

01:00:40.000 We're in this room.

01:00:41.000 It's sustainable.

01:00:42.000 I mean, people look at it in terms of they extrapolate, like if this happens and that happens, we keep going.

01:00:49.000 Oh my God, it's going to be awful in 10, 15 years.

01:00:51.000 Guess what?

01:00:52.000 They thought that when the car came out.

01:00:54.000 They thought that when the printing press was invented.

01:00:56.000 They thought that when people stepped out of the caves and started building huts.

01:01:01.000 This has always been the case with people.

01:01:03.000 We're terrified of change.

01:01:05.000 You know, I'm not terrified that...

01:01:08.000 The world is ending, that it's unsustainable.

01:01:11.000 We have problems.

01:01:12.000 We have challenges, for sure.

01:01:15.000 But one of the big ones is that we're divorced from nature in a very, very strange way.

01:01:20.000 And most people are urban population centers.

01:01:23.000 Most people don't encounter nature.

01:01:25.000 If you're in Manhattan, your best bet is Central Park, which is the most bastardized zoo-like form of nature you're ever going to find.

01:01:34.000 Right.

01:01:34.000 It's not real nature.

01:01:35.000 Like, where you live...

01:01:37.000 You live in upstate?

01:01:38.000 We got bears.

01:01:39.000 We got foxes.

01:01:40.000 You have real nature.

01:01:41.000 Real nature.

01:01:41.000 That's real nature.

01:01:42.000 Do you guys have ticks?

01:01:44.000 Do you get Lyme disease?

01:01:45.000 Have you gotten Lyme disease?

01:01:46.000 I don't have Lyme disease, but it's a serious thing.

01:01:48.000 It's a huge thing.

01:01:49.000 It's a huge thing, and I pulled off many ticks.

01:01:52.000 I've got the bullseyes on my arms.

01:01:54.000 And did you get antibiotics right away?

01:01:57.000 Um, yeah.

01:01:58.000 Yeah, you gotta.

01:01:59.000 Yeah.

01:01:59.000 They're fuckers.

01:02:00.000 And a lot of kids have Lyme disease where I live.

01:02:03.000 A lot of people have it.

01:02:04.000 It's terrible.

01:02:04.000 It's horrible.

01:02:05.000 They said there's some area of the East Coast where something like 60% of all the ticks.

01:02:10.000 Lyme, Connecticut.

01:02:11.000 Well, yeah, that too.

01:02:12.000 Yeah.

01:02:13.000 You know, a lot of people think that that was initially some sort of a biological weapon.

01:02:17.000 I heard.

01:02:18.000 Yeah.

01:02:19.000 You ever get to the...

01:02:19.000 I figured if anyone knows, you do.

01:02:21.000 I don't think anybody's gotten to the bottom of it.

01:02:23.000 But there's enough inquiry that serious people have started researching this.

01:02:29.000 And there's enough real concern that that was the original origin of it.

01:02:34.000 That it really was some sort of a biological weapon that escaped from a lab.

01:02:38.000 Because there's no doubt that they've invented biological weapons.

01:02:42.000 No doubt they've experimented on different ways to fuck people up.

01:02:45.000 And one of them is mass illness and sickness.

01:02:48.000 I mean, it's just a fantastic way.

01:02:49.000 Especially if you have an immunity.

01:02:52.000 If you're vaccinated, you can expose other people to it.

01:02:56.000 They had a vaccine for Lyme disease, but it wasn't effective.

01:02:59.000 Not only was it not effective, it actually gave people Lyme disease.

01:03:02.000 In fact, my manager's dad got Lyme disease from the vaccine for Lyme disease.

01:03:09.000 Yeah, fun times.

01:03:10.000 Yeah.

01:03:11.000 Like, boy, I don't want to get this Lyme disease.

01:03:12.000 Better get vaccinated.

01:03:13.000 I better get vaccinated.

01:03:14.000 And then all of a sudden, why do my joints hurt?

01:03:15.000 How come my knees are in fucking pain every day?

01:03:18.000 How come I can't walk right?

01:03:19.000 Well, you know, when I lived out here...

01:03:22.000 You just have to actively look for nature.

01:03:24.000 We used to go to Stony Point.

01:03:26.000 Remember that place?

01:03:27.000 Sure.

01:03:27.000 Topanga.

01:03:28.000 Beautiful.

01:03:28.000 I used to take my kids when they were little.

01:03:30.000 All the way down Victory.

01:03:32.000 I think Victory Dead Ends.

01:03:33.000 And then there's all those mountains up there.

01:03:35.000 Yep.

01:03:35.000 Victory.

01:03:36.000 Yeah.

01:03:36.000 You just got to make like a plan.

01:03:38.000 And I will say when people come up to our farm, you know, we run a retreat center.

01:03:43.000 And when people come up there, the first thing they think is, oh my God, the stars.

01:03:47.000 It's like you're divorced from the moon and the stars.

01:03:50.000 Yeah.

01:03:50.000 The stars are big, man.

01:03:52.000 I remember the first time I went to Hawaii, I went to the Keck Observatory on the Big Island.

01:03:57.000 And we went up there, and we got out of the car, and it was like you're in a spaceship.

01:04:04.000 Like, you're in a spaceship, and you're looking out a giant window.

01:04:07.000 And there's nothing else, just space, like a movie.

01:04:10.000 You see the full Milky Way, and all the stars.

01:04:13.000 It's spectacular up there.

01:04:16.000 And this is one of the reasons why they have the observatory up there, because it's really high.

01:04:19.000 It's like...

01:04:20.000 Where we were was not the very top.

01:04:22.000 There's the top and then there's a visitor center.

01:04:24.000 Oh, that's right.

01:04:25.000 Yeah, the visitor center I think is like, I want to say like 10,000 feet or something like that.

01:04:29.000 But then you get even further up, like 12, 13, and then you hit the telescopes up there on the Big Island.

01:04:37.000 And it's fucking amazing.

01:04:38.000 It's amazing.

01:04:39.000 If you get up there on a clear night when there's no moon, which is what we got really lucky.

01:04:43.000 Because I've been back since.

01:04:44.000 One time it was cloudy, and the other time we fucked up and got up there and it was a full moon.

01:04:49.000 It just wasn't the same.

01:04:50.000 Wasn't the same.

01:04:50.000 But when it was no moon, man, it was spectacular.

01:04:54.000 Like, life-changing.

01:04:55.000 Like you look at it and all of a sudden you have a fresh perspective like, oh, we're a part of the infinite.

01:05:02.000 There's a spiritual experience you get when you just throw yourself under the stars and you're like, oh, I get it.

01:05:07.000 I'm tiny.

01:05:08.000 I thought I was big.

01:05:10.000 But that's a real issue and a real cause of why we're so disconnected and why we're so egocentric and so we're not humbled.

01:05:21.000 Here's an example.

01:05:23.000 When you think about people that are humbled, like cool people, you think of two things.

01:05:28.000 You think of people who live by the ocean, and you think of people who live in the mountains.

01:05:32.000 Because those people are confronted by undeniable evidence of the majesty of nature.

01:05:38.000 Undeniable.

01:05:39.000 I'm tiny.

01:05:41.000 I'm part of something much bigger.

01:05:42.000 You're surrounded by...

01:05:44.000 I lived in the mountains outside of Boulder for a while, and when you're driving up there...

01:05:50.000 You're confronted with undeniable, spectacular beauty that really is...

01:05:56.000 Fuck every painting that everyone's ever made.

01:05:59.000 You see snow-capped mountains with a lake and just trees, and you see a deer bouncing across the road.

01:06:06.000 You see a fox, like...

01:06:07.000 Fuck, this is amazing.

01:06:09.000 I mean, it just changes your physical state to look at it.

01:06:12.000 You're like, whoa, like no artwork could ever do.

01:06:15.000 But we don't think of it like that.

01:06:17.000 We just think of, oh, there's the mountains.

01:06:19.000 Well, there's something about beauty, right?

01:06:21.000 There's physical beauty in terms of, like, you see a woman that's beautiful, and you're looking at symmetry, and you're looking at genetics, and there's something that's attractive about that because of your DNA, right?

01:06:31.000 You want to breed with this person.

01:06:33.000 Because this person has beautiful symmetry.

01:06:35.000 But there's another kind of beauty.

01:06:38.000 There's a physical beauty in nature that's spectacular that doesn't serve any real purpose for you.

01:06:44.000 Why do you feel that way?

01:06:46.000 Why are you enamored by the vision of this glacial river running down through these mountains and seeing these birds fly around and an eagle soars over?

01:06:58.000 Why is that so spectacular?

01:07:00.000 Why is it so attractive?

01:07:02.000 I don't know.

01:07:04.000 But whatever it is, there's a feeling that you get when you encounter those things that's unlike any other feeling.

01:07:12.000 And we are divorced from that feeling.

01:07:14.000 It's one of the best feelings that a human being can get.

01:07:19.000 When you can sit down, like, one of the best things about hunting is just sometimes, like, you take a break, and you sit down on a ridge, and you're just drinking water, and you're just looking out like, Right.

01:07:30.000 This place is amazing.

01:07:32.000 It's just amazing.

01:07:33.000 You ever do the Grand Canyon?

01:07:34.000 Yeah, I've been, but not since I was a kid.

01:07:37.000 Yeah.

01:07:38.000 Another one of those things, it's like, is this even real?

01:07:40.000 Yeah.

01:07:41.000 I know.

01:07:41.000 I mean, but you know what?

01:07:42.000 I used to have a bit about the Grand Canyon, about people telling you, oh my God, you have to go.

01:07:47.000 You have to go.

01:07:48.000 The Grand Canyon is so amazing.

01:07:49.000 I go, yeah.

01:07:50.000 You know what's amazing?

01:07:51.000 Yeah.

01:07:51.000 That.

01:07:52.000 Look up.

01:07:53.000 Above you is infinity.

01:07:55.000 You're looking at a fucking ditch.

01:07:57.000 You're looking at a tiny ditch.

01:07:58.000 Like, oh, go.

01:07:59.000 I can see the bottom.

01:08:00.000 It's a pretty good fit.

01:08:01.000 Look up.

01:08:02.000 You're in fucking space.

01:08:03.000 It's actually quite unbelievable.

01:08:05.000 Space is the ultimate one.

01:08:07.000 But that is the one that we're most divorced from.

01:08:09.000 So think about the beauty of seeing nature, trees and lakes and seeing fish jump.

01:08:15.000 Amazing.

01:08:17.000 The beauty that I got from seeing the sky from the Keck Observatory with no moon, just all stars.

01:08:25.000 It was just like humbling, just humbling beyond words.

01:08:29.000 Like, reset my idea of where I fit in and where Earth fits in, where people fit in.

01:08:37.000 And made me feel, in a weird way, at least temporary before it wears off, because it's just, you know, normal conditioning.

01:08:44.000 I felt temporarily more connected to people.

01:08:46.000 I felt more in tune with people.

01:08:50.000 More like we are in this together.

01:08:53.000 We all need to help each other because we're all flying through infinity.

01:08:58.000 At any point in time, a rock could just come down here and slam into this fucking planet.

01:09:03.000 Take a quarter of the planet away.

01:09:04.000 Yeah, just like it did with the dinosaurs.

01:09:06.000 Yeah.

01:09:07.000 And kill us all.

01:09:08.000 It has done multiple times throughout history, and they're constantly recognizing these new areas where impact craters happened 70,000 years ago, 100,000 years ago.

01:09:19.000 Yeah, they're always finding them.

01:09:20.000 They're always finding them, and they're like, oh, geez, look at this.

01:09:23.000 And no one prepared for it.

01:09:25.000 No, we can't.

01:09:27.000 You know, there's still these reductionist scientists, these guys, you'll talk to them like, we have a solution, we could stop it, we could do this, we could do that.

01:09:35.000 But then you talk to the real hardcore people that actually study the complications involved in deflecting asteroids and they're like, no, we need years.

01:09:44.000 We need years and years and years of planning.

01:09:46.000 If we find something coming our way, we know it's coming at us, we need all the best minds in the world and it still might take a decade to figure out how to do something about this.

01:09:57.000 And then we might see the other one that's coming behind the sun.

01:10:00.000 We might not see one that's coming from a direction that we're not observing.

01:10:03.000 How about one you can't perceive?

01:10:05.000 Yeah, there's a lot of those too.

01:10:07.000 We don't even know what we can't perceive.

01:10:09.000 Right.

01:10:10.000 Yeah, but the vulnerability that comes from that feeling is also very freeing.

01:10:16.000 It's not a bad vulnerability.

01:10:18.000 The vulnerability that I got from looking off into space didn't make me sad or scared.

01:10:22.000 It made me in awe.

01:10:24.000 I felt better.

01:10:28.000 My kids went to a Waldorf school.

01:10:30.000 Are you familiar with that?

01:10:31.000 Yeah, my oldest kid went to one in Boulder when we were really there.

01:10:36.000 So they went there.

01:10:38.000 Some graduated from there and my kids went there.

01:10:41.000 They've been homeschooled for the last two years but there's a strong...

01:10:44.000 Now they go to this...

01:10:49.000 We're good to go.

01:10:54.000 We're good to go.

01:11:05.000 It doesn't matter what the weather is.

01:11:06.000 It's like I'd even drop them off like in the rain.

01:11:09.000 I was like, oh, I'm so sorry.

01:11:10.000 But get out.

01:11:12.000 But, you know, they become resilient.

01:11:13.000 They become strong.

01:11:15.000 And you know what they do when they come home?

01:11:17.000 Them and all their friends.

01:11:18.000 I've got 13 kids.

01:11:20.000 It's like 50 degrees out.

01:11:22.000 They're playing outside in the drizzle barefoot.

01:11:25.000 And they're just like strong and happy and connected kids.

01:11:29.000 They get used to it.

01:11:30.000 They get used to it.

01:11:30.000 And I've become like a...

01:11:35.000 Domesticated dog.

01:11:36.000 Yeah.

01:11:36.000 Right?

01:11:37.000 Where it's sort of like, you know, they're not wolves.

01:11:39.000 Right.

01:11:39.000 They're domesticated dogs.

01:11:41.000 They like their food from a jar or from a bag.

01:11:44.000 Like Marshall.

01:11:44.000 You met Marshall.

01:11:46.000 Is he domesticated?

01:11:47.000 Oh my god.

01:11:48.000 What do you think?

01:11:49.000 He's as domesticated as you get.

01:11:51.000 Yeah.

01:11:52.000 That dog is the sweetest thing that's ever lived.

01:11:54.000 Oh, like Marshall, your dog!

01:11:55.000 Yeah, Marshall, the dog out there.

01:11:57.000 Oh, I'm sorry.

01:11:58.000 I didn't explain it.

01:11:58.000 I was like, is he domesticated?

01:11:59.000 No, no, no.

01:11:59.000 I'm sorry.

01:12:00.000 Yes, that dog is...

01:12:01.000 They're called a retriever.

01:12:02.000 Yeah, he's well kept.

01:12:03.000 He's the sweetest of sweetie pies.

01:12:05.000 Sure.

01:12:05.000 But that is a domesticated animal.

01:12:07.000 I know.

01:12:08.000 When it rains out, he gets outside and he's like, hmm.

01:12:10.000 I had coyotes come into my property and I'm sheep.

01:12:16.000 And so...

01:12:18.000 I got my dog, alright.

01:12:19.000 Come on, let's get those coyotes to see them!

01:12:21.000 I ran outside, the dog just goes back inside.

01:12:24.000 They're just so...

01:12:26.000 Yeah, you gotta get a dog who's used to coyotes, just like your kids are used to the outdoors.

01:12:30.000 You gotta get a dog who knows the coyote's anemone.

01:12:33.000 I'm reliving my childhood.

01:12:36.000 That's interesting.

01:12:37.000 Through my kids.

01:12:38.000 How far away are you from civilization up there?

01:12:40.000 You know, the cool thing is, not that far.

01:12:43.000 If I need to go to an Apple store or something, it's like an hour to Albany.

01:12:46.000 That's not bad.

01:12:47.000 Yeah.

01:12:48.000 Two and a half from Boston.

01:12:50.000 Oh, you're only two and a half hours from Boston?

01:12:52.000 And two and a half from New York City.

01:12:53.000 Oh, that's not bad.

01:12:55.000 Yeah, Super Soul Farm.

01:12:59.000 We do our yoga workshops and things there.

01:13:05.000 So do people travel to you?

01:13:06.000 People travel to us.

01:13:07.000 We have weekends.

01:13:08.000 We have a whole second 5,000 square foot house for guests, a yoga studio on the property.

01:13:13.000 Oh, that's amazing.

01:13:14.000 It is cool.

01:13:14.000 It's got a creek.

01:13:15.000 It's got a swim pond.

01:13:17.000 Wow.

01:13:18.000 There's something cool about when it's hot out, like it does get in the East Coast, you can just jump in a pond.

01:13:23.000 Oh, yeah.

01:13:24.000 Yeah, but you also get parasites.

01:13:25.000 Be real careful.

01:13:26.000 Don't drink any of that water.

01:13:27.000 I drink it, man.

01:13:28.000 It comes right from the mouth and I drink spring water.

01:13:31.000 Okay, well, you're pretty high up then.

01:13:32.000 Are you high up?

01:13:33.000 There's nothing above me.

01:13:34.000 Oh, okay.

01:13:35.000 Then you're all right.

01:13:35.000 I'm sort of in a valley and it comes right from the hill.

01:13:37.000 The real issue is beavers.

01:13:39.000 Yeah, if something dies above, I get it.

01:13:41.000 Well, it's shit, too.

01:13:42.000 It's beaver fever.

01:13:43.000 You get Jardia.

01:13:44.000 Right.

01:13:45.000 I drank out of a lake in Alaska, and I was really tentative.

01:13:49.000 I wouldn't drive out of a lake.

01:13:50.000 You can, because this lake is a glacial lake, or excuse me, it's a high-elevation lake.

01:13:55.000 And there's no beavers at that altitude.

01:13:58.000 It was on Prince of Wales Island.

01:14:01.000 And you can actually dip your thermos into this lake and drink it and it's the cleanest, clearest water you've ever seen.

01:14:09.000 It tastes perfect.

01:14:10.000 Exciting.

01:14:11.000 Yeah.

01:14:11.000 It's actually exciting.

01:14:12.000 Yeah.

01:14:13.000 I think when I first moved to the East Coast, I was just looking up different springs.

01:14:18.000 Saratoga Springs is a great place.

01:14:19.000 There's just all these natural healing springs.

01:14:21.000 You should test that water before you drink it, though.

01:14:23.000 Just bring it to someone.

01:14:24.000 Shake that bitch up.

01:14:26.000 There are ones that are just coming out of the side of a hill that I just go to on a regular basis.

01:14:31.000 We have an artesian well on our property, which means it's just naturally coming up.

01:14:36.000 Artesian, I've got to get the...

01:14:38.000 I think it's the pressure of the downward push is forcing it up.

01:14:44.000 What is the word?

01:14:46.000 Artesian, I always see it used in terms of handcrafted things.

01:14:51.000 Artesian?

01:14:52.000 Yeah.

01:14:53.000 It's like an artisan.

01:14:54.000 That's artisan.

01:14:56.000 Artesian work.

01:14:57.000 I think that might be artisan.

01:14:59.000 I'm sure I'm fucking this up.

01:15:05.000 There's a bit of a struggle there.

01:15:07.000 What is that cover of your phone?

01:15:09.000 This is our podcast we do, Wisdom of the Sages.

01:15:13.000 Oh, you have a podcast, too.

01:15:14.000 I have a podcast.

01:15:15.000 Everybody has a fucking podcast.

01:15:16.000 I'm waiting for my mom to start one up.

01:15:17.000 Wisdom of the Sages.

01:15:19.000 It was born out of an hour.

01:15:23.000 Partesian.

01:15:24.000 Related to or detonating a well-bored perpendicularly into water-bearing strata-laying I hate when I read something and it makes less sense.

01:15:34.000 At an angle, so that natural pressure...

01:15:36.000 I think you were kind of getting it, though.

01:15:38.000 Natural pressure produces a constant supply of water with little or no pumping.

01:15:42.000 The water from an artesian well.

01:15:44.000 Okay, so I was fucking it up with Artisan.

01:15:47.000 I was connecting the two of them.

01:15:49.000 I spelled it that way when I looked at it first.

01:15:52.000 That's A-R-T-I-S-A-N. This is A-R-T-E-S-I-A-N. Yeah, the place that I lived in, Boulder, had a well.

01:15:59.000 It was amazing.

01:16:00.000 You get this beautiful spring water like straight out of the ground.

01:16:04.000 It's just incredible.

01:16:06.000 All your water that you drank was just perfect spring water to come out of these copper pipes.

01:16:11.000 It's great.

01:16:12.000 There it goes.

01:16:14.000 Artisanal versus artesian.

01:16:16.000 Artisan is pronounced.

01:16:18.000 Artisan.

01:16:18.000 A person skilled at an applied art.

01:16:20.000 That's what you meant.

01:16:21.000 A craftsperson.

01:16:22.000 Yes.

01:16:23.000 Describes water with spouts out of the earth under natural pressure.

01:16:27.000 That's it.

01:16:28.000 Yeah.

01:16:28.000 And so sometimes these old houses in upstate New York or Massachusetts have water that's just coming up and they build a tank in the house to hold this water.

01:16:36.000 Yeah.

01:16:37.000 It's a great way to get water.

01:16:38.000 Yeah.

01:16:38.000 If you think that's going in your body, on your body, in your skin, in your mouth, it's becoming you.

01:16:42.000 As long as no one's fracking nearby.

01:16:45.000 That's a problem.

01:16:46.000 It's a massive problem.

01:16:47.000 Have you ever seen that movie Gasland?

01:16:49.000 No.

01:16:50.000 It's a great movie to really get you angry.

01:16:53.000 It's heartbreaking.

01:16:55.000 There's people in Pennsylvania that I was just reading a story about recently where they can't drink their water, they can't shower with their water, they have to get bottled water or they travel to someone else's house to shower.

01:17:05.000 It's fucking horrific.

01:17:06.000 It's heartbreaking.

01:17:07.000 Yeah, they poisoned the water supply with this desire to get oil.

01:17:11.000 But on the other hand, we don't need Middle East oil anymore.

01:17:15.000 So everybody's like, look, the United States producers, we're self-sustaining.

01:17:18.000 We no longer need the Middle Eastern oil.

01:17:20.000 But yeah, but what about these fucking people that can't drink their water or it comes out of the spout and they can light it on fire?

01:17:27.000 My teacher, Radhanath Swami, who you would love on the show, he wrote a great book.

01:17:31.000 If you ever want to read a good – it's a modern-day autobiography of a yogi.

01:17:36.000 It's about a Jewish kid in the 60s, travels, hitchhikes from London.

01:17:44.000 To India.

01:17:46.000 Wow.

01:17:47.000 You can do that?

01:17:48.000 Yeah.

01:17:49.000 For the most part, you can.

01:17:50.000 You've got to go through Afghanistan, all these tough Khyber Pass.

01:17:55.000 He hit Turkish.

01:17:56.000 Straight through Afghanistan?

01:17:58.000 That's gangster.

01:17:59.000 Super gangster, man.

01:18:01.000 He had a great experience.

01:18:03.000 But it's an all-real adventure, too.

01:18:06.000 And he ends up in India, living in the Himalayas with sadhus.

01:18:09.000 Wow.

01:18:10.000 Incredible story.

01:18:11.000 It's called A Journey Home, Autobiography of an American Yogi.

01:18:17.000 Wow.

01:18:17.000 Yeah.

01:18:18.000 I want to talk to that guy.

01:18:19.000 You could hook me up with him.

01:18:21.000 Yeah, he's great.

01:18:22.000 I spend a month with him every January.

01:18:24.000 Really?

01:18:25.000 We do a teacher training, a yoga training in India every January.

01:18:29.000 I just got back from it.

01:18:30.000 Yeah, I saw it on your Instagram.

01:18:32.000 It's great.

01:18:32.000 It's super fun.

01:18:33.000 We have three academies.

01:18:34.000 We have a music school where we study Indian music in Kirtan.

01:18:38.000 We have a 300-hour training for people who are already teachers, and we have a sacred literature.

01:18:45.000 She studied the Bhagavad Gita and all these sacred texts.

01:18:49.000 We were talking about that before the podcast, and I really wanted to get into that eventually.

01:18:53.000 The mystical aspects of the Bhagavad Gita and of the Mahabharata, all the ancient Indian texts, which are filled with really wild, out-there shit.

01:19:06.000 You know, I mean...

01:19:07.000 It's all real.

01:19:08.000 All that crazy stuff is real.

01:19:10.000 In what way?

01:19:11.000 Just like all the things that you say, like, oh, that's interesting.

01:19:14.000 That's fascinating.

01:19:15.000 That's fantastic.

01:19:16.000 The more you get into it, you realize, that's freaking real, man.

01:19:19.000 Like what?

01:19:20.000 Like, what's real?

01:19:22.000 Everything from, like...

01:19:24.000 The Vimanas?

01:19:25.000 Vimanas?

01:19:26.000 Things like that I can't say are real, but I could understand how things can be made of subtle...

01:19:32.000 Well, explain Vyman.

01:19:34.000 Vyman is like a spaceship.

01:19:35.000 It's a spaceship from, and they speak of spaceships and flying crafts, but they're not made of the same elements of this earth.

01:19:43.000 So we have all these things about, and I get it, there's a bunch of people making up shit about it.

01:19:48.000 I saw an alien, etc.

01:19:49.000 There's also very qualified people, you know, Air Force colonels and things like that.

01:19:54.000 I've had them in here.

01:19:55.000 They suffer from the same thing, these people who claim abduction.

01:20:01.000 It's not like a type of neurosis or schizophrenia.

01:20:05.000 They suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

01:20:09.000 Something happened, they disappeared, they were found two weeks later.

01:20:12.000 Do you remember the story of Betty and Barney Hill?

01:20:15.000 No.

01:20:15.000 It's the most famous abduction story.

01:20:17.000 It was an interracial couple from, I think it was the 1950s or the 1960s.

01:20:22.000 And just randomly...

01:20:23.000 My interviews always go here.

01:20:25.000 I had this girl on the podcast, this woman on the podcast yesterday.

01:20:30.000 She's an MMA fighter.

01:20:31.000 Her name was Angela Hill.

01:20:32.000 She was a couple days ago, actually.

01:20:35.000 This badass MMA fighter.

01:20:37.000 And at the end of the podcast, she goes, I forgot to bring this up.

01:20:40.000 My grandfather is Barney Hill.

01:20:42.000 I was like, that guy.

01:20:44.000 I'm like, no fucking way.

01:20:46.000 That guy, Barney Hill, was the very first really public UFO abductee.

01:20:53.000 And he describes his craft that's eerily similar to the crafts that Bob Lazar has described and different people described.

01:21:03.000 And he and his wife lost time while they were driving and then woke up with these Bizarre horrific memories that they both shared of this Encounter with these space beings and that they were abducted and they were Medical examinations were run on them then they were replaced with missing time and It's crazy if you listen the recordings of him being hypnotized and going through it like Screaming in fear that they're touching him and where

01:21:33.000 are they taking him?

01:21:34.000 What are they doing to him?

01:21:35.000 It's not like a guy acting it's not like a scene right movie where someone's screaming in fear it sounds like The teachings of ancient India is that life exists on all planets.

01:21:45.000 It even exists on the sun.

01:21:47.000 And so the first argument would be like, come on, how are we going to exist?

01:21:51.000 They just don't have bodies that are different than yours.

01:21:53.000 They have a fire body.

01:21:55.000 And therefore, I'm trying to look at how does a person with earth and water body live in the sun?

01:22:00.000 They can't.

01:22:02.000 You have to have a body.

01:22:03.000 I mean, I used to think like this when I was 13 years old.

01:22:05.000 I used to think like, okay, why can my dog hear those sounds but I can't hear them?

01:22:10.000 What am I missing?

01:22:11.000 What sense am I missing that I can't have objective reality?

01:22:15.000 You know, what am I missing?

01:22:17.000 Am I missing a sense?

01:22:19.000 Well, I have this principle called the fart theory.

01:22:24.000 Like, if someone farted but you didn't have a nose, you'd have no idea.

01:22:28.000 You'd have no idea?

01:22:28.000 You'd have no idea.

01:22:29.000 You'd be like, oh god, what is that?

01:22:31.000 That fart theory is the beginning of transcendental thought.

01:22:33.000 Yeah, because there's a sense that you possess that allows you to recognize something that's invisible.

01:22:42.000 You can't see it, you can't feel it, you can't hold it.

01:22:46.000 There's no way of detecting it other than your olfactory senses.

01:22:50.000 But through your nose, you can detect that something's awful.

01:22:53.000 What sense am I missing that's keeping me from understanding absolute reality?

01:22:57.000 Sure.

01:22:57.000 I mean, that's one of the things that you feel when you take psychedelics.

01:23:00.000 Like, is this opening up some new sense?

01:23:03.000 Is this around me all the time?

01:23:05.000 I'm just not tuned into it because I don't have the right chemical composition flowing through my brain?

01:23:09.000 When I start to teach a bigger training, like a yoga training in philosophy, that's one of the things I do mainly, I start with this concept of this is how you understand.

01:23:20.000 Like when I first approached teachers when I went to India, I would say things like, you know, I'm reading this Mahabharata.

01:23:24.000 I think it's a great book, a lot of great lessons here.

01:23:26.000 But come on, we're adults.

01:23:30.000 Am I supposed to understand that an elephant-headed man scribed this entire book?

01:23:36.000 Can't we just extract a useful lesson?

01:23:40.000 And the answer was very good that I got was, and it was very sweet.

01:23:44.000 It wasn't like cruel.

01:23:45.000 He just said, what do you know?

01:23:49.000 It sort of like caught me off guard.

01:23:50.000 Like, what do you actually know?

01:23:53.000 Right.

01:23:53.000 What do you know?

01:23:54.000 And use this example from New York.

01:23:56.000 Okay.

01:23:57.000 Suppose 300 years ago you're living in New York.

01:23:59.000 Your family is living in New York.

01:24:00.000 Your tribe is living in New York.

01:24:02.000 You have a certain amount of animals and animals that you keep, animals that you ride, animals that you hunt, foods you eat, and then one of you goes on a boat to Africa.

01:24:13.000 And you come back and you think, you're never going to believe what I saw.

01:24:17.000 I saw a striped horse.

01:24:21.000 You're thinking, well, I've seen striped horses.

01:24:24.000 White head, black neck.

01:24:25.000 No, no, no, no.

01:24:27.000 I saw a striped horse.

01:24:29.000 If you've never seen a zebra, it's almost unbelievable if all you know is ponies.

01:24:35.000 Or I saw this horse with a really long neck that ate the leaves on the trees.

01:24:41.000 Come on, man.

01:24:42.000 It's all fantastic because we've never seen it.

01:24:46.000 Right.

01:24:47.000 But that doesn't mean it doesn't – so to really understand the Vedas, the teachings of ancient India, you have to go into it like – not that it's all real.

01:24:55.000 I'm not saying to just blind faith, but I'm not saying don't be a blind doubter.

01:25:00.000 Like it's all unreal.

01:25:00.000 That's bullshit.

01:25:01.000 That's crazy.

01:25:02.000 That's nuts.

01:25:02.000 Right.

01:25:03.000 It's gotta be, could be.

01:25:05.000 I don't know, but I don't know a lot.

01:25:08.000 What do you think, like, Ganesh was?

01:25:12.000 Ganesh's a being.

01:25:14.000 By the way, when I speak, I'm speaking, it's not my feelings, whether I'm right or wrong.

01:25:21.000 I'm a yoga teacher, so I teach what the yogis teach.

01:25:25.000 Ganesh is a being.

01:25:27.000 He's a jiva.

01:25:28.000 Jiva means he's a soul.

01:25:29.000 Like in India, they say, you don't have a soul.

01:25:32.000 You are a soul.

01:25:34.000 You have a body.

01:25:35.000 So the bodies change, but the soul is eternal.

01:25:39.000 Right?

01:25:40.000 So that's called the jiva tattva.

01:25:42.000 You understand that you're separate than your – we are separate than our bodies.

01:25:47.000 Like you said earlier, we're separate from our thoughts.

01:25:49.000 We're separate from our subtle body, our mind.

01:25:51.000 So you take on a different Rogan machine, a Raghunath machine.

01:25:59.000 And sometimes the machines are good at warfare, fighting.

01:26:02.000 Sometimes the machines are good at art.

01:26:04.000 Sometimes the machines, they're just like a different vehicle you would drive.

01:26:08.000 You got a Porsche or you got an 18-wheeler.

01:26:10.000 They're both good for different things.

01:26:11.000 So in the same way, we have some karma.

01:26:14.000 These are karmatizing.

01:26:15.000 You have some karma to have this body that has such good fortune or poor fortune or some great success.

01:26:23.000 And it's the karma of the body, but you have to leave that body.

01:26:28.000 So Ganesha is also a post.

01:26:30.000 Brahma is also a post.

01:26:31.000 You could have been a Brahma in a previous life or could be one in a previous life.

01:26:37.000 And you get a body just like you get a body in this life according to how you act.

01:26:43.000 And how you behave and how you think and the people you associate with, they give you a body.

01:26:49.000 For example, if you and I grow up together and all we talk about is martial arts, we got pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger on our wall, we start to create a body that emulates those heroes.

01:27:01.000 And if we couldn't care less and we just like watching TV and doing nothing, we get a body according to – so in this lifetime, we're making bodies and we're making our minds.

01:27:10.000 We're making our intelligence.

01:27:11.000 But the yogis say that everything that we do is a practice.

01:27:15.000 Just like I just found out today that you were a Taekwondo champion.

01:27:21.000 Am I reading your bio?

01:27:22.000 Oh, you read my bio now.

01:27:23.000 I write your bio on Wikipedia.

01:27:25.000 I was like, I got to know more.

01:27:26.000 Because I just know you from just rolling around with you.

01:27:29.000 That type of camaraderie.

01:27:30.000 So you got that way from a practice.

01:27:33.000 It didn't just like spontaneously come.

01:27:35.000 You practiced.

01:27:36.000 And you bring that practice with you wherever you go.

01:27:38.000 And you can get better at the practice or you can get a little down in the practice.

01:27:42.000 But the yogis say that everything that we do is a practice.

01:27:45.000 Right?

01:27:46.000 It's our thoughts, our intelligence, our skills, our spirituality, our addictions.

01:27:54.000 They don't just fall from the sky.

01:27:56.000 We work on them.

01:27:58.000 And that's why there's these things – which is another thing.

01:28:01.000 I don't know if you've ever done this on your show.

01:28:02.000 Study the lives of – what are they called?

01:28:07.000 Savants or like these prodigies.

01:28:10.000 It's unbelievable.

01:28:11.000 Four years old musical prodigies.

01:28:13.000 Like where is that coming from?

01:28:15.000 The yogis say it's not random.

01:28:17.000 It's not weird.

01:28:18.000 It's not quirky.

01:28:19.000 It's not unexplainable.

01:28:20.000 It's a practice.

01:28:22.000 What was that child chess player from Norway who could play like six people backwards and beat them?

01:28:29.000 He was not facing them.

01:28:30.000 He's memorizing their board.

01:28:31.000 Where do you get that type of intelligence?

01:28:33.000 The yogi say it's a practice.

01:28:34.000 Or Mozart and Chopin who are like virtuosos at four.

01:28:40.000 How?

01:28:41.000 And you'll see like the saints of India, they'll be spiritual virtuosos.

01:28:47.000 Like from a very early age, like my teacher's teacher's teacher, like a grandfather teacher, he was like a master of Sanskrit at age four.

01:28:57.000 Whoa.

01:28:58.000 And could give class on it.

01:29:01.000 Imagine that at age four.

01:29:02.000 Giving Sanskrit classes at age four.

01:29:04.000 You know what I was doing at age four?

01:29:05.000 I was wrecking shit.

01:29:07.000 I was breaking things.

01:29:08.000 Yeah, lighting things on fire.

01:29:09.000 You know, Shankaracharya, another great teacher of India, age eight.

01:29:14.000 He renounced the world at 8, initiated 10,000 disciples, changed the course of all of India.

01:29:19.000 At 8, he wrote commentaries.

01:29:22.000 You can go to Columbia University, read commentaries on the Gita by this person who at age 8 walked away from his mother and said, I'm leaving for the forest.

01:29:32.000 It's unbelievable.

01:29:33.000 This stuff's real.

01:29:35.000 You find this.

01:29:35.000 And I tell you, when you go to – one of the fun things I do usually is – I do that school in January, the academy.

01:29:41.000 But in October and autumn time, I do a pilgrimage where we go to holy places.

01:29:46.000 And I take students, like 30 or 40 students, to holy places.

01:29:50.000 And we just meet interesting, cool people.

01:29:53.000 We go to temples.

01:29:54.000 We'll go to – Sacred places.

01:29:57.000 We sing.

01:29:58.000 It's fun.

01:29:59.000 At the very least, it's like a fun experience, but it's also like very transformational.

01:30:04.000 And you just meet the most fascinating people.

01:30:08.000 It's still there.

01:30:08.000 India has changed dramatically since I went there in 88. How so?

01:30:13.000 Huh?

01:30:13.000 How so?

01:30:14.000 Oh, man.

01:30:15.000 It's like the whole – I mean there was no phones.

01:30:20.000 If you want a phone, you go to the village, there's one phone in the village.

01:30:23.000 And also because when the internet came, if you think about India, it's such an interesting place.

01:30:29.000 Like when Greece was in its infancy, India was like a respected hub of learning, metaphysics, spirituality, etc.

01:30:42.000 So India, it's been invaded by Mughals, by British, by Portuguese.

01:30:48.000 So many different cultures came there and they can never really quite change it.

01:30:53.000 It was so woven into their DNA what they were.

01:30:57.000 Nothing changed it until my lifetime.

01:31:02.000 And I watched it.

01:31:03.000 I watched when cable TV hit India.

01:31:06.000 And it was paradigm shifting.

01:31:11.000 Because you got to think, you know, people dress, you know, you go to Germany in the 80s, people dress different.

01:31:16.000 You go to Italy in the 80s, people dress different.

01:31:18.000 I mean, there was no, like, globalization of, now it doesn't matter, you go to Paris, Beverly Hills, Scranton, Pennsylvania, there's the same Victoria's Secret, there's the same Gap.

01:31:28.000 You don't want to dress like Gap?

01:31:30.000 Well, we got this other store you could dress like.

01:31:32.000 And they're just selling us sort of the same thing.

01:31:34.000 People used to go places for spices, places for silk, places, right?

01:31:39.000 India was sort of like that too.

01:31:41.000 You went there and you feel like, I'm on another freaking planet.

01:31:47.000 And now, you gotta dig a little deeper to find that.

01:31:50.000 That's why I recommend people go as soon as possible because everything is gonna...

01:31:54.000 I mean, we're in the valley right now.

01:31:56.000 And there's one point up on one of these streets up here.

01:31:59.000 We went to Follow Your Heart yesterday.

01:32:01.000 Have you ever been to that restaurant?

01:32:01.000 Yeah, sure.

01:32:02.000 Love that place.

01:32:03.000 It's a great place.

01:32:03.000 Follow Your Heart.

01:32:04.000 Great little grocery store too.

01:32:05.000 Great grocery store.

01:32:07.000 Um...

01:32:08.000 But there's one little tiny block where it looks like the valley from 1950, and then there's massive high rises around it.

01:32:16.000 And so we've – in our lifetime, we've watched places just get paved over.

01:32:23.000 And it gets – sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.

01:32:27.000 But truthfully, there is a disconnect with nature often.

01:32:31.000 Even sometimes in the – it's better now.

01:32:33.000 That disconnect with nature, I sort of just like that.

01:32:37.000 I feel more connected.

01:32:38.000 I mean, now I take people on pilgrimage and we stay at hotels and it's definitely not like the old days when I used to slum it in the ashrams.

01:32:46.000 But I miss that slum in it too.

01:32:48.000 I miss sort of like just being out there in the elements when it was freezing and there was no heat.

01:32:54.000 You were forced to take a cold shower.

01:32:56.000 There was no creature comforts.

01:32:58.000 You took a bus.

01:33:00.000 And you enjoy it now looking back on it.

01:33:03.000 I enjoyed it then.

01:33:04.000 Yeah.

01:33:04.000 There's something...

01:33:08.000 Pleasurable in renunciation.

01:33:09.000 I bet you could identify with that too.

01:33:11.000 Yeah, yeah.

01:33:12.000 When you have to do something that you don't want to do for a higher purpose, but you're going to do it anyway, there's a pleasure you get.

01:33:17.000 This is a giant roundabout we went to, but I want to get back to Ganesh.

01:33:21.000 Oh yeah, sorry about that.

01:33:23.000 So what do you think Ganesh is?

01:33:24.000 They're higher beings.

01:33:26.000 Now you might say, well, what the hell does that mean, a higher being?

01:33:28.000 Right.

01:33:29.000 The idea in Vedic thought is that there's devas, or higher beings, and then there's the devati deva.

01:33:37.000 Like a Judeo-Christian tradition would say God.

01:33:40.000 How much of what these people are experiencing and talking about in the Bhagavad Gita and all the texts has to do with soma and has to do with psychedelic rituals that they were participating in while they were doing these things?

01:33:56.000 Soma?

01:33:56.000 How do you know about soma?

01:33:57.000 So funny.

01:33:58.000 I can't believe you said that.

01:34:01.000 Yeah, it's a commonly known thing, I think.

01:34:04.000 Soma is a beverage on the moon.

01:34:07.000 Oh, okay, the moon.

01:34:08.000 Makes sense.

01:34:09.000 But it's a beverage.

01:34:11.000 Right, but it's a combinatory beverage, a psychedelic sacrament that we haven't established.

01:34:17.000 By the way, I'm speaking like a matter of fact.

01:34:21.000 I understand.

01:34:21.000 I don't know this.

01:34:22.000 I'm saying it could be true, and this is what they teach.

01:34:25.000 So that's how we learn the Vedas.

01:34:27.000 What are the ingredients?

01:34:29.000 It's otherworldly.

01:34:30.000 You can't try to recreate it on earth.

01:34:32.000 There's plants, they say, that grow, that don't grow here.

01:34:35.000 And there's beings that grow.

01:34:37.000 Now, we just hear these stories and we just, it's myth.

01:34:39.000 But you know what?

01:34:40.000 The zebra's a myth.

01:34:41.000 I live around a bunch of beautiful turkeys.

01:34:44.000 But if you've ever seen a peacock, turkeys look like boring.

01:34:49.000 You know what I mean?

01:34:50.000 Peacocks are unbelievable.

01:34:51.000 Yeah, they're pretty wild.

01:34:52.000 A quetzal is unbelievable.

01:34:54.000 I don't know what a quetzal is.

01:34:56.000 A quetzal is a South American, bright colors.

01:34:59.000 What's his name?

01:35:01.000 Crazy bird?

01:35:01.000 Montezuma wore his feathers on his hat.

01:35:04.000 So, if all you know is robins, an occasional cardinal, when you see a quetzal or a peacock, it's like, what the fuck?

01:35:12.000 Yeah.

01:35:13.000 Right?

01:35:13.000 So, someone could say, well, you know, you're really going to believe in the wind god?

01:35:19.000 Come on!

01:35:21.000 But we say, hey, look, there's an ant on the table, and I blow on the ant.

01:35:25.000 The ant runs for his life.

01:35:28.000 In the ant's brain, he's not thinking, oh, Ragu is blowing on me.

01:35:31.000 He's just thinking, danger, danger, danger.

01:35:33.000 Yet, I'm a being.

01:35:35.000 I'm a being with a family, with ideas, with thoughts, with a home.

01:35:40.000 So the yogis say, you don't know.

01:35:43.000 But they say that everything is a personality.

01:35:47.000 Not just you.

01:35:48.000 Because in one sense, if I look at you, you're just a big lump of earth.

01:35:53.000 And flesh, you know, water, blood, whatever lens you want to look at, the periodic table, earth, Chinese elements, Indian elements, however they're going to look at matter.

01:36:05.000 But you're not.

01:36:07.000 The yogis say you're not that.

01:36:08.000 You just have that.

01:36:10.000 So they say the earth itself is a being.

01:36:12.000 It's a living being.

01:36:14.000 And all the animals are living beings.

01:36:16.000 And outside of the earth...

01:36:19.000 There are living forces.

01:36:20.000 All the planets are beings.

01:36:22.000 That's why there's...

01:36:23.000 Get ready for a detour.

01:36:25.000 That's why if you study Jyotish or Vedic astrology, there's different mantras to the different planets because the planets affect your karma.

01:36:36.000 So some people want to...

01:36:38.000 They realize, man, I would love to get your chart done.

01:36:42.000 Because when you have people like yourself or even myself on a lesser level where we have some types of extremes in our life, you can read it in their chart.

01:36:54.000 It becomes very obvious.

01:36:56.000 Same with criminals.

01:36:58.000 It's in their chart.

01:37:01.000 If you really knew how little control we have of our life, it's shocking.

01:37:06.000 It's shocking.

01:37:09.000 What kind of astrology is this?

01:37:10.000 They call it Jyotish or Vedic Astrology.

01:37:13.000 I'm no astrologer.

01:37:15.000 I just have had my charts done a lot.

01:37:18.000 It's an ancient system.

01:37:19.000 It's not based on the sun.

01:37:20.000 It's based on the moon.

01:37:22.000 What do they need to know?

01:37:24.000 They need to know your birth time, your longitude and latitude of where you're born.

01:37:30.000 For example, I was born on...

01:37:33.000 I'll tell you a good story.

01:37:36.000 Do you mind?

01:37:37.000 Sure.

01:37:38.000 I went to a great astrologer once.

01:37:40.000 And these guys were real, like, simple, humble.

01:37:43.000 Like, humble people.

01:37:45.000 And he lived in an ashram, and I said, I want to know my chart.

01:37:48.000 And he just said, I'm not very good.

01:37:49.000 I said, come on, I've heard you're the best.

01:37:51.000 He said, I'm not very good.

01:37:53.000 And he said, but I will tell you what Parashara thinks of you.

01:37:57.000 Now Parashara was the father of the person they say scribed or spoke all the Vedas, Vyasadeva, who was one of the great sages of India.

01:38:07.000 So Parashara was his father and he's responsible for Jyotish or what's called the Harashastras, where they get the word horoscope from.

01:38:16.000 And these are all to do with studying the luminaries, studying celestial bodies, and to pinpoint you in relationship to them.

01:38:25.000 So he said, well, at a certain period when you were born, there was a rising star, and from that star we can calculate your chart.

01:38:34.000 So I gave him all my statistics, birth time and date and longitude and latitude.

01:38:40.000 And then he opened up these books that he had on the shelf.

01:38:44.000 This guy doesn't know me from Adam.

01:38:46.000 He just goes, this is the star of music and spirit.

01:38:50.000 And you will spread music and spirit throughout the world.

01:38:54.000 Whoa.

01:38:56.000 It's pretty right on.

01:38:56.000 I've been through some very powerful astrologers, palm readers, mystics who don't even need your palm.

01:39:03.000 They say they're astrologers or they say they're palm readers.

01:39:05.000 They look right in your face and tell you all about your life.

01:39:10.000 And I'm not one!

01:39:12.000 Like, I've met many who could blow your mind.

01:39:15.000 You have to be someone who doesn't know who I am.

01:39:19.000 It's harder for you, but I'm less known.

01:39:22.000 But in India, no one knows anyway.

01:39:26.000 I don't want to have to go to India.

01:39:30.000 You know, it's one of those things, and I'm not one of these New Age guys.

01:39:34.000 I'm a New York skeptic.

01:39:36.000 Okay.

01:39:37.000 But you believe in Ganesh.

01:39:40.000 No, I believe Ganesh could be.

01:39:43.000 Could he be?

01:39:44.000 Sure.

01:39:44.000 Sure he could be.

01:39:45.000 I think most likely people are taking Soma and Ganesh appeared to them then.

01:39:51.000 Or that could happen too.

01:39:52.000 I've seen things on psychedelic experiences that are very similar to that.

01:39:58.000 Very similar to a god.

01:40:00.000 I think psychedelia can bring you into this otherworldly realms.

01:40:05.000 And even according to the Vedic concept is, there's other realms and everything's divine and everything's a person.

01:40:13.000 And there's 33 million gods.

01:40:15.000 And then of course, and that's within the material universe.

01:40:19.000 Right.

01:40:20.000 And the material universe has higher planets.

01:40:22.000 It has lower planets, like the Christians would say hell.

01:40:24.000 But they talk about whole mandalas or disks and layers of hells.

01:40:30.000 But differences from Christianity, and I don't know where the Christians actually got it from or when it was added or subtracted, but...

01:40:40.000 The Vedas teach about none of them are eternal, meaning you don't stay there.

01:40:45.000 Just like we don't stay here.

01:40:46.000 We're just sort of doing time on this planet.

01:40:48.000 We do time.

01:40:50.000 We learn a lesson.

01:40:51.000 You get some karma.

01:40:52.000 You get some good or bad karma.

01:40:55.000 And if you don't learn your lesson, just like jail, if you don't learn your lesson, sometimes you get an added sentence.

01:41:00.000 What do they call that?

01:41:01.000 You get, okay, you get two life sentences, you know?

01:41:04.000 Right.

01:41:04.000 But sometimes people are out early.

01:41:06.000 They get paroled.

01:41:08.000 They get pardoned.

01:41:11.000 Or they just say, okay, you're in charge of the library.

01:41:13.000 You're not dangerous.

01:41:14.000 You're not a threat.

01:41:15.000 And we're going to let you out.

01:41:16.000 You're good behavior.

01:41:17.000 So according to how we behave in this world, we're perpetuating ourselves.

01:41:22.000 We're going way low.

01:41:24.000 We sort of go high and people go high all the time.

01:41:27.000 It's impressive.

01:41:28.000 And you take that micro and put it on a macro as well.

01:41:33.000 And to the degree that you sort of don't learn your lessons, you just, that's okay.

01:41:38.000 I've noticed in my own life, if I don't learn a lesson, I got to get that same lesson again.

01:41:43.000 You know what I mean?

01:41:44.000 Yeah.

01:41:45.000 I've had this conversation with someone about the idea that you will live your life over and over and over again until you get it right.

01:41:52.000 And that you'll be reborn, you'll have the exact same existence, and you'll do it over again.

01:41:57.000 And this is a concept that some people believe in.

01:42:00.000 Now, I said, how do you feel about that?

01:42:02.000 And they're like, that's terrifying.

01:42:04.000 And I'm like, why is it terrifying when living is not?

01:42:07.000 Right, it's the same thing.

01:42:08.000 It's the same thing.

01:42:09.000 Like, if I had to live this life over and over again, look, I'm having a great time.

01:42:14.000 I have a lot of great friends.

01:42:15.000 I have a fantastic family.

01:42:17.000 I have a wonderful thing that I do for a living.

01:42:20.000 I'm very, very, very blessed.

01:42:22.000 I'm very fortunate.

01:42:23.000 If I had to do this forever...

01:42:25.000 Why the fuck would I complain about that when I'm not complaining about it now?

01:42:28.000 Maybe his life's not as good as yours.

01:42:29.000 Am I scared of the eternity of this existence when I'm not scared of the temporary nature of it?

01:42:38.000 That doesn't make any sense.

01:42:39.000 Why would I be scared of something that's ultimately very pleasurable?

01:42:43.000 I enjoy life.

01:42:45.000 I enjoy my children and my wife.

01:42:48.000 I enjoy my friends.

01:42:49.000 I enjoy my occupation.

01:42:51.000 I enjoy reading.

01:42:53.000 I enjoy watching documentaries.

01:42:55.000 I enjoy encountering new things.

01:42:57.000 I enjoy these things.

01:42:58.000 Why would I be upset if this went on forever?

01:43:02.000 Why would I be upset if I'm going to be reborn again and then I'm going to be confronted with the exact same problems that maybe I fucked up when I was 10 and And 20 and 30 and 40, but this time I'll have a better insight.

01:43:15.000 I'll have a subtly better perception of what is the correct thing to do, what's the best thing to do for everybody, what's the moral, the ethical thing to do, you know, and...

01:43:27.000 I don't know why that's terrifying to people, but it is.

01:43:31.000 It's terrifying, the idea of doing it over and over and over again.

01:43:34.000 Elio Gracie believed that.

01:43:36.000 Elio Gracie believed that you must do the exact right thing at all moments in your life, or you're going to live your life over and over and over again until you get it right.

01:43:47.000 I don't know what...

01:43:49.000 Those Gracies were connected with India somehow, right?

01:43:52.000 Well, they were connected with everything, man.

01:43:54.000 I mean, it's one of the most spectacular families that's ever walked the face of the earth.

01:43:57.000 I mean, you want to talk about a contribution.

01:44:01.000 The contribution that the Gracies have made to martial arts, including our instructor, John Jacques Machado, who is a cousin of the Gracies.

01:44:08.000 They're all trained together.

01:44:10.000 They're all together.

01:44:11.000 That family, Elio, Carlos, Carlson, all those people, they created this most spectacular martial art.

01:44:23.000 Out of the origins of Japanese Jiu Jitsu and Judo and then introduced it to the whole world and literally changed hundreds of millions of people's perceptions about fighting out of this small family in Brazil.

01:44:38.000 It's unbelievable.

01:44:38.000 It's amazing.

01:44:39.000 And they're all champions.

01:44:41.000 Their whole family is filled with champions.

01:44:43.000 And look, that's what made our friend Eddie.

01:44:47.000 When Eddie tapped out Hoyler Gracie, and Hoyler was the most...

01:44:50.000 It was a disruption to the family.

01:44:52.000 Tradition.

01:44:52.000 And I was there.

01:44:53.000 I flew with him to Brazil.

01:44:54.000 Oh, you went there?

01:44:55.000 Yeah, we flew together.

01:44:57.000 Who else was there?

01:44:58.000 The blonde.

01:44:59.000 Jamie.

01:45:00.000 Jamie.

01:45:00.000 Jamie, yeah.

01:45:01.000 Jamie Walsh.

01:45:03.000 I don't know.

01:45:03.000 I haven't lost touch with him.

01:45:04.000 I don't know.

01:45:04.000 He owned a moving company.

01:45:07.000 He had a fight organization for a while called Pangea.

01:45:11.000 He was putting on MMA fights.

01:45:13.000 Yeah, Jamie was my trainer for a long time.

01:45:15.000 Oh, really?

01:45:15.000 He was good.

01:45:16.000 Yeah, he was a really good trainer.

01:45:17.000 He was a good fighter.

01:45:18.000 Yeah.

01:45:18.000 I remember.

01:45:19.000 I didn't know you went.

01:45:20.000 I know he went.

01:45:21.000 Yeah, we all flew together.

01:45:23.000 2003. Flew down to Brazil.

01:45:25.000 And...

01:45:26.000 Eddie caught Hoyler in a triangle, and I'll never forget it.

01:45:30.000 I was watching it happen.

01:45:32.000 I mean, I was right there.

01:45:33.000 I was on the side of the map.

01:45:34.000 Let's get that up on the screen.

01:45:35.000 I was watching it happen.

01:45:36.000 I watched the triangle get locked up, and I'm like, oh my god, he's got him.

01:45:41.000 Oh my god.

01:45:42.000 I was thinking, Hoyler...

01:45:45.000 Probably he's going to get out of this, right?

01:45:46.000 He's Hoyler Gracie.

01:45:47.000 But I'm like, that doesn't look like he's getting out of that.

01:45:50.000 That was so locked in.

01:45:52.000 And Eddie had that masterful guard.

01:45:55.000 Still does.

01:45:55.000 But he always had this incredible guard.

01:45:57.000 And it was so sneaky.

01:45:58.000 And it was unique.

01:45:59.000 Yes.

01:46:00.000 And if you're not used to somebody's game.

01:46:04.000 I don't think it says anything bad about Hoyler.

01:46:07.000 Oh, no.

01:46:07.000 But it does say that.

01:46:11.000 Eddie's genius is he's creative.

01:46:14.000 And he tapped another world champion right before he tapped Hoyler.

01:46:18.000 He tapped Gustavo Dantes right before he tapped Hoyler.

01:46:21.000 I was there for that, too.

01:46:23.000 And I was like, holy shit!

01:46:25.000 And Eddie was a brown belt at the time, which is really crazy.

01:46:28.000 But then when he locked up that triangle...

01:46:31.000 I mean, I'll get emotional if I think about it.

01:46:33.000 I mean, I was there on the side of the mat watching, and I was like, I can't believe...

01:46:39.000 There it is.

01:46:40.000 So he tries...

01:46:41.000 What he did is he threatened...

01:46:43.000 On one side and then cinches up the triangle.

01:46:46.000 You know what?

01:46:47.000 Tell me what the crowd was going like.

01:46:48.000 Dude, total silence.

01:46:50.000 Let me tell you what happened.

01:46:51.000 What they had done before this had happened.

01:46:54.000 See?

01:46:55.000 And then he starts pulling the head.

01:46:56.000 And once he pulls the head, this is right where Hoy was fucked.

01:46:59.000 He's tapping.

01:47:00.000 He's tapping.

01:47:00.000 He had to tap.

01:47:01.000 He was going to sleep.

01:47:04.000 And he pointed to Jamie, who was right there in his corner.

01:47:08.000 That whole crowd must have been like, what the hell just happened here?

01:47:12.000 And then he walked off, and he made it look like it was no big deal, because he had to fight Leo Vieira right after that.

01:47:20.000 He had fucked up his ribs somewhere in this scramble, too.

01:47:23.000 And when he fought Leo Vieira, he was really messed up.

01:47:27.000 When you guys came back that day, it was unbelievable.

01:47:31.000 Pandemonium.

01:47:32.000 It was pandemonium.

01:47:34.000 It's hard for people outside of the jiu-jitsu world to understand the magnitude of that accomplishment.

01:47:40.000 But for me, you know, Eddie's my best friend.

01:47:46.000 So...

01:47:49.000 Flying with him to Brazil was just this ultimate support thing.

01:47:56.000 It was like, we're going to do this.

01:47:57.000 I'm going to help him.

01:47:59.000 He's going to do this.

01:48:00.000 But when he did it...

01:48:02.000 Dude, they shut off all the matches while it was happening.

01:48:05.000 They killed all the matches outside of this main match.

01:48:10.000 And they put it on television.

01:48:12.000 Because Hoyler was the multiple-time world champion.

01:48:15.000 He was the most accomplished.

01:48:17.000 He was the most accomplished Nogi.

01:48:19.000 Yes.

01:48:20.000 Well, even Gi.

01:48:21.000 I mean, Hoyler, in competition, had accomplished more.

01:48:25.000 He had competed more than any of the other Gracies in straight jiu-jitsu.

01:48:28.000 He had competed in MMA a little bit, but Hoyce obviously accomplished the most in jiu-jitsu in MMA. Hoyce was the innovator.

01:48:37.000 He was the first guy.

01:48:38.000 UFC 1, UFC 2. I mean, those are the most important moments in martial arts, Hoyce's accomplishments.

01:48:44.000 In my opinion, he's like, that's the most significant impact.

01:48:48.000 But Hoyler, in terms of jiu-jitsu, and just jiu-jitsu competitions, he had accomplished more than anyone.

01:48:54.000 He was a multiple-time world champion.

01:48:57.000 And when he was competing, everybody watched.

01:49:00.000 Everybody knew Hoyler was the fucking man, right?

01:49:03.000 And so when Eddie tapped Hoyler, it was silent.

01:49:07.000 I mean, silent.

01:49:09.000 We're in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

01:49:11.000 I mean, and we're sitting there, and Eddie is walking around like this, and Jamie is just going, holy shit!

01:49:17.000 And I'm going, holy shit!

01:49:19.000 We were just like, what just happened?

01:49:22.000 And we walked off, and there's a video of us going through the back hallway of the arena.

01:49:28.000 We're going, what just happened?

01:49:30.000 How the fuck did that just happen?

01:49:32.000 It was crazy!

01:49:34.000 It's crazy.

01:49:36.000 People...

01:49:36.000 Stunned.

01:49:38.000 No one could believe it, you know?

01:49:40.000 No one could believe it.

01:49:42.000 Yeah.

01:49:42.000 But, you know, I think he gave hope.

01:49:45.000 Even people like myself, like, oh, I get it.

01:49:47.000 You can just figure stuff out.

01:49:49.000 And there's hope for me.

01:49:50.000 It's not like...

01:49:51.000 I think that's a great thing about martial arts.

01:49:54.000 We're always looking for who's God.

01:49:56.000 Mm-hmm.

01:49:58.000 And back then, I remember, Vietra Belfort!

01:49:59.000 No one can beat Vietra Belfort!

01:50:01.000 Everyone takes turns, and then he gets beat.

01:50:03.000 And it almost breaks your hope in God.

01:50:07.000 We're looking for that superhero.

01:50:09.000 But I think the beautiful underlying story is, you can do that.

01:50:13.000 You can work your way up this ladder and figure out some unique stuff.

01:50:19.000 And with Eddie, he wasn't even a black belt yet.

01:50:21.000 That was the most crazy thing.

01:50:24.000 And he just got that brown belt.

01:50:26.000 Yeah, well, he had at least a year or so, I believe.

01:50:30.000 I believe he was a black belt, or a brown belt, for at least a year or so.

01:50:34.000 Because in 2003, when I met him, he was a purple belt.

01:50:36.000 And I met him in 99, 98?

01:50:38.000 That's when I met him in 99. I used to train with Hanato.

01:50:41.000 Yeah.

01:50:42.000 Look at how he's squeezing the head there.

01:50:44.000 That's us.

01:50:46.000 That's incredible.

01:50:51.000 Frame it!

01:50:52.000 We just couldn't believe it.

01:50:54.000 He was just crying.

01:50:56.000 He couldn't believe it.

01:50:59.000 It's crazy.

01:51:01.000 It's crazy.

01:51:02.000 I wish I went.

01:51:03.000 Dude, it's crazy to just watch now.

01:51:05.000 They interviewed him after he did it.

01:51:10.000 It was crazy, man.

01:51:12.000 It's hard to even watch.

01:51:17.000 I can't believe I won.

01:51:20.000 I can't believe I won.

01:51:22.000 It wasn't just that he won, he tapped him out off his back.

01:51:30.000 I mean, he used the ultimate expression of jiu-jitsu, which is, you know, in a vulnerable position.

01:51:35.000 The man's on top of you, and you still tap him.

01:51:38.000 It was amazing.

01:51:39.000 You know, as sort of loud as a big person as Eddie is, He's actually, and if you know him, which you do, he's got no ego about him.

01:51:47.000 I never feel like...

01:51:48.000 He's always making fun of himself.

01:51:50.000 Yeah, he's super...

01:51:51.000 If you don't know him, he seems like, who's this big mouth boisterous?

01:51:55.000 He's super humble.

01:51:56.000 He's super...

01:51:57.000 He gives all the credit to the Gracies.

01:52:00.000 He loves the Gracies.

01:52:02.000 He loves Jacques Jacques.

01:52:04.000 Yeah.

01:52:05.000 That was a...

01:52:06.000 You know, there's moments in your life where you just realize, like, wow, like, things are possible.

01:52:12.000 That was a possible moment.

01:52:13.000 Yeah, things are possible.

01:52:15.000 Weird things can happen.

01:52:16.000 You know, I was talking to a friend of mine about imposter syndrome.

01:52:21.000 Imposter syndrome?

01:52:22.000 Yeah, you know that expression?

01:52:24.000 Yeah.

01:52:24.000 You get it when people think that you're really good at something, and you don't have a lot of self-worth, or you have this perception of yourself that you're not worthy.

01:52:37.000 Maybe as an artist, that's a big one that you have it as an artist.

01:52:42.000 I had it forever as a comedian, and I probably still have it a little bit, but less so than I used to because I'm just more accomplished and more understanding of what it is and more engrossed in the process.

01:52:55.000 I know what it is now more than I did before.

01:52:58.000 When I meet famous people, if they know who I am, I'd be like, oh my god, I've got to get out of here.

01:53:03.000 This fucking person knows who I am.

01:53:05.000 I'm tricking them.

01:53:06.000 It's a trick.

01:53:06.000 They don't know.

01:53:07.000 And they're like, hey man, I love your stuff.

01:53:08.000 I'm like, no you don't.

01:53:09.000 You think you do.

01:53:10.000 You don't.

01:53:11.000 Trust me.

01:53:11.000 Let me get away from you.

01:53:12.000 It's like this imposter thing.

01:53:16.000 And then sometimes enough things happen where you go, you know what?

01:53:20.000 I think I might be legit.

01:53:22.000 Right.

01:53:22.000 I think I might be legit.

01:53:23.000 This is so crazy.

01:53:24.000 I thought I was an imposter forever, but I think I'm going to relax and just concentrate on the work.

01:53:29.000 And not worry about whether or not I'm an imposter anymore.

01:53:32.000 Just concentrate on the work.

01:53:33.000 That ego's always there, isn't it?

01:53:34.000 Yeah, it's always there, man.

01:53:35.000 But the ego...

01:53:37.000 It's interesting.

01:53:38.000 Imposter syndrome is often more prevalent in people who are legitimately talented.

01:53:44.000 And for some strange reason, because when you're legitimately talented, one of the ways you become legitimately talented is to be ruthlessly self-critical.

01:53:53.000 Because that's how you get really good at something.

01:53:56.000 And in ruthless self-critical...

01:53:58.000 I remember Cat Williams was talking about himself once.

01:54:04.000 And Cat Williams, who's a crazy person, but a brilliant comedian.

01:54:07.000 And he said something that I have always thought.

01:54:11.000 And he's like, I'm not a fan of me.

01:54:14.000 And he goes, I don't particularly like me.

01:54:19.000 I was like, that is why he's great.

01:54:22.000 Because that makes you work so hard.

01:54:26.000 The worst thing a comedian can be in the beginning is sure of themselves and then incompetent at the same time.

01:54:35.000 It's horrible.

01:54:36.000 It's horrible.

01:54:37.000 Because you're not good, but you think you're amazing.

01:54:39.000 And then you understand.

01:54:40.000 You don't know why the world doesn't think you're amazing.

01:54:43.000 Because you think you're good.

01:54:44.000 Because you're delusional.

01:54:45.000 You have this sort of artificial...

01:54:50.000 It's the image of the world that you've put up.

01:54:53.000 And in the world, you are the center.

01:54:54.000 You are the center and you want everything to evolve around you.

01:54:57.000 And the worst thing in terms of, for comedy, people have to enjoy what you're doing.

01:55:04.000 They have to enjoy, and not everyone's gonna, you're always gonna have some people that don't enjoy no matter what.

01:55:10.000 But you're trying to make it an enjoyable experience for the people watching you.

01:55:15.000 Now, if you are delusional and clueless and if you don't understand how people see you, You have a distorted perception of reality, distorted perception of your own presence.

01:55:31.000 It fucks up the vibe for the audience.

01:55:34.000 They recognize it too quickly.

01:55:37.000 Because comedy, in a weird way, Is a spiritual pursuit for the person who's making it.

01:55:44.000 Because you're putting together thoughts and ideas and you're trying to get it into these people's minds in a way that elicits a response that makes them feel good.

01:55:54.000 And the only way that you could really do it is you have to hit those notes.

01:55:59.000 You have to reach that resonance.

01:56:01.000 You have to find that frequency.

01:56:03.000 Whatever it is that works on them.

01:56:05.000 And you can't You can't be thinking about yourself too much.

01:56:11.000 You can't be pleased with yourself.

01:56:13.000 You can't be happy with yourself.

01:56:15.000 You always have to be analyzing.

01:56:17.000 You're the sculptor.

01:56:18.000 You have to be critical.

01:56:21.000 And so in doing that, it's really easy to develop imposter syndrome.

01:56:25.000 Because even when you're doing well, I've had like, I don't know, nine or ten comedy specials.

01:56:32.000 It doesn't matter.

01:56:33.000 It doesn't matter how many people like them.

01:56:34.000 They suck.

01:56:35.000 I've got to keep going.

01:56:35.000 You've got to keep working at it.

01:56:36.000 It's like a sick type of perfectionism.

01:56:39.000 Yeah, so when someone would...

01:56:41.000 I don't remember how we even got on to this, but that imposter syndrome exists because your mind understands that your ego will fuck this up.

01:56:53.000 If you let your ego say, oh, I'm the fucking man, you're going to ruin this whole thing.

01:56:58.000 You have to be aware of what this is.

01:57:01.000 This ride requires you to stay within a certain frequency.

01:57:06.000 You have to stay inside that frequency.

01:57:08.000 As soon as you start going, yeah, everything's fucking awesome, it all goes away.

01:57:12.000 All of it goes away.

01:57:13.000 You have to stay inside that frequency.

01:57:14.000 And that frequency is not a frequency where you're very pleased with yourself.

01:57:21.000 I think you've gone full circle back to the Bhagavad Gita.

01:57:24.000 Yeah.

01:57:24.000 Because the Bhagavad Gita is the warriors have to fight the war.

01:57:28.000 You think the Bhagavad Gita is going to be like, here's Krishna telling Arjuna not to fight.

01:57:34.000 Arjuna doesn't want to fight.

01:57:35.000 He's got his guru on the other side.

01:57:36.000 He's got his family on the other side.

01:57:38.000 What's Krishna going to say about this?

01:57:40.000 And Krishna is saying, you got to actually fight.

01:57:42.000 You're born to fight.

01:57:44.000 You just have to get out of your ego with this.

01:57:46.000 And you have to do it as just a service.

01:57:48.000 And I think when I apply that type of teaching to my life...

01:57:54.000 Like sometimes, I'm not a great singer.

01:57:56.000 I'm not a great Indian classical music.

01:57:59.000 But I like to do it.

01:58:00.000 And I'm enthusiastic to do it.

01:58:01.000 And to me, it's not about me.

01:58:04.000 It's about sort of like an offering.

01:58:06.000 It was like one of the first teachings I got in the ashram was...

01:58:14.000 When you're on stage, don't do it to...

01:58:18.000 Make sure you're doing it to serve God and not be God.

01:58:23.000 That statement changed my entire life.

01:58:27.000 And I was like, oh shit, everything I do is to be God.

01:58:32.000 And it changed the way...

01:58:33.000 It didn't just change the way I sang.

01:58:35.000 It changed the way I parent.

01:58:37.000 It changed the way I react to friends, to fans, to my parents.

01:58:41.000 It was powerful.

01:58:43.000 So that...

01:58:44.000 I have to sometimes, you know, I like to publicly sing on this.

01:58:47.000 Have you ever heard Kirtan?

01:58:49.000 No.

01:58:49.000 It's so interesting.

01:58:50.000 What is it?

01:58:51.000 It's, it's, it's, it's, um, chanting back and, uh, call and response chanting, uh, of chanting mantras.

01:58:57.000 And you use like this pump piano and Indian drums.

01:59:01.000 I'll place, I'll place them for you later.

01:59:03.000 Okay.

01:59:03.000 And, uh, But it's great.

01:59:04.000 And it's popular in America.

01:59:06.000 It's been sort of a little bit Americanized.

01:59:09.000 But it's good.

01:59:10.000 And it's great.

01:59:12.000 And so what we do on Pilgrimage is – I have my assistant.

01:59:15.000 He's an incredible drummer.

01:59:16.000 He's from India.

01:59:18.000 And then I play the harmonium, which is his pump piano.

01:59:22.000 And – We just sing publicly, call and response, and all the people in India will come around and they'll sing with us.

01:59:32.000 It's overwhelming.

01:59:33.000 So there's one particular temple I go to and one particular holy place where singers come from around the world.

01:59:39.000 It's like basically Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin.

01:59:42.000 It's like the best kirtan singers from around the world come and they sing.

01:59:47.000 And I remember one time I came with a bunch of students of mine and they called me up to sing.

01:59:53.000 And in my brain, I was like, you guys are like the real deal.

01:59:56.000 I don't want to sing.

01:59:57.000 And they're like, no, no, no, you sing.

01:59:59.000 And I was like, no, seriously, I don't want to sing.

02:00:02.000 Please, you sing.

02:00:03.000 And like thousands of pilgrims come in at the time.

02:00:06.000 And somehow, I have felt like I have to do this.

02:00:10.000 I have to sing because that's what they're ordering me to do.

02:00:13.000 I have to do it in a loving way.

02:00:15.000 I have to do it in a way to make everybody excited, but I can't do it with any ego whatsoever.

02:00:20.000 And it becomes like this incredible tightrope walking.

02:00:24.000 Can I do my best?

02:00:26.000 Can you get on stage?

02:00:28.000 It's not about me as the great comedian.

02:00:31.000 Can I do that sort of as an offering where I feel like people are going to walk away with something and they're going to be changed a little.

02:00:37.000 They're going to be lifted a little.

02:00:39.000 They're going to go home a little bit more connected.

02:00:41.000 It's going to help me and it's going to help them.

02:00:43.000 And can I do it?

02:00:45.000 We have this thing where we say we deflect our praise.

02:00:50.000 People say, hey, you're a great yoga teacher.

02:00:54.000 This is how I train my students.

02:00:55.000 That was a great thing you did.

02:00:57.000 Our quick answer is, by the mercy of my teachers.

02:01:01.000 Like, we don't want to hold on to praise because praise exacerbates the ego.

02:01:06.000 And so we immediately want to say, and it's not even like we're being falsely humble.

02:01:10.000 We actually are made up of the teachers in my life.

02:01:15.000 All the people that have loved me, cared for me.

02:01:18.000 Maybe people have, like, screwed with me, but they also taught me a lesson.

02:01:21.000 So the yogi's conception is everybody is creating what I am, and therefore, I don't own any of this.

02:01:28.000 You want to praise me?

02:01:29.000 I'm going to give the praise back to my teacher.

02:01:31.000 Now, the teacher's mood is by the mercy of my teacher.

02:01:36.000 I look back at my life, and I realize I'm just like a ball of energy.

02:01:43.000 And generally, the energy goes to, like, feed my ego.

02:01:46.000 How can it feed my ego?

02:01:47.000 How can I use that to manipulate girls, to people like me?

02:01:50.000 How can I use everything I've got gifted for my own self-aggrandizement?

02:01:56.000 Of course.

02:01:56.000 And so when you get these teachers in your life, spiritual teachers, who sort of, like, give you a loving slap or a loving hay, and they turn you on in some way, they take what you already have and they redirect that north instead of south.

02:02:13.000 Everything I was doing was just snowballing devastation.

02:02:17.000 And now you don't give up those qualities that you have, but you use them in a way that brings people up instead of brings them down.

02:02:25.000 That's what we were saying about movies too, or any entertainment or sounds in our mind.

02:02:30.000 That state of mind that you're trying to achieve when you get on stage where you're trying to sing with no ego.

02:02:35.000 That's exactly the frequency that you have to hit when you're doing comedy.

02:02:40.000 You do your best, but you don't do your best so that people love you.

02:02:44.000 You do your best because that's what you're trying to do.

02:02:47.000 That's your craft.

02:02:48.000 This is your thing.

02:02:50.000 Your thing that you do, your expression, your art form, you have to manage it.

02:02:57.000 And the way to manage it correctly is you can't...

02:03:01.000 You can't go out there with ego.

02:03:03.000 You'll turn people off.

02:03:04.000 They won't feel it.

02:03:06.000 There's moments where you can use that, especially with comedy, where you turn...

02:03:12.000 But it's not ego.

02:03:13.000 But even if you're doing it, though, in comedy, you're doing it for the effect of making people laugh.

02:03:18.000 You're not doing it for the effect of pumping yourself up.

02:03:21.000 And you have to be very careful about that.

02:03:22.000 And if they know that that's what you're doing, they will accept it.

02:03:25.000 That's the art of it.

02:03:26.000 Yes, that's the art of it.

02:03:27.000 It's a dance.

02:03:28.000 There's a strange sort of dance that goes on.

02:03:31.000 I would notice – this is humiliating to mention, but I will – if I wasn't doing it in a mood of service as an offering, if I got off stage and that wasn't my motivation, I'd be depressed.

02:03:44.000 Yeah.

02:03:45.000 Because – and maybe you can relate to this – On stage, I'm the center.

02:03:50.000 I'm the coolest.

02:03:51.000 I'm it.

02:03:52.000 They're singing song lyrics I wrote on my bed.

02:03:55.000 And now they're all singing them.

02:03:56.000 And then I'm in another country.

02:03:57.000 Right.

02:03:58.000 Now I'm off stage and I'm a nobody.

02:04:00.000 So if you're not medicating with any type of drug or sex, then all you're left with is a bunch of emotions.

02:04:06.000 Interesting.

02:04:07.000 And I – I don't know if this is true, but I think this is why people who are entertainers can move towards addiction or ways to mask that loneliness that comes with being the center, where the whole world is trying to convince you of the Maya.

02:04:23.000 You've heard that word, Maya?

02:04:24.000 The illusion.

02:04:25.000 The illusion of life is that you are the center.

02:04:27.000 Yeah.

02:04:28.000 By the way, Joe, this is an interesting thing I want to talk to you, mention to you too, because you brought up this point where like, I like living my life.

02:04:36.000 I live a great life.

02:04:37.000 Why wouldn't you want to do that again?

02:04:39.000 Because, and I don't know, and I didn't sort of challenge it a little because you were saying in retrospect to Helio, Helio said, why would you want to do that?

02:04:49.000 Because the whole Buddhist and Hindu thing is that I don't want to take birth again.

02:04:54.000 Yeah.

02:04:55.000 Yeah.

02:04:56.000 And since we were talking about these higher planets and higher beings, they say that planet like Earth, and they say there's other ones like this as well, there is some pleasure and some pain.

02:05:08.000 There's people who live in a penthouse, and there's people who are sleeping on the streets.

02:05:12.000 Or you can be on the 100th whatever floor it was of the World Trade Center and be a CEO, and then a plane can be wrapped, you know, two floors underneath you.

02:05:22.000 You can go from pleasure and pain, the most excruciating plane, and the most incredible highest of pleasure in a moment.

02:05:30.000 So in this sort – I mean we've got places that are like – places in the world that are like the rape capital of the world.

02:05:37.000 And then you've got places that are sort of like – go to Switzerland or Norway where the currency is strong and the people are beautiful and everything you see is like – it's from like a postcard.

02:05:47.000 So we have like great amounts of pain and great amounts of pleasure on this planet.

02:05:55.000 In such a condition, you could start to question, like, why am I here?

02:05:59.000 What is life about?

02:06:01.000 It gives you a window to even ask those questions.

02:06:04.000 Now, if there's just so much pleasure in your life, they say that higher beings don't have the impetus to evolve because there's so much pleasure.

02:06:16.000 Higher beings.

02:06:17.000 So according to the Vedas, there's higher planets.

02:06:19.000 Yeah, there's higher planets.

02:06:21.000 Okay.

02:06:21.000 Now, I don't want to say Ganesh, but there's higher planets with higher beings who are just living a high life.

02:06:27.000 Right.

02:06:27.000 And therefore, the impetus to get out of samsara, you know, this word repeated birth and death.

02:06:33.000 Yes.

02:06:33.000 There's no impetus to get out.

02:06:35.000 Sometimes people are suffering so much, there's no impetus to even see a spiritual light.

02:06:40.000 People who are suffering tremendously maybe go to prison or they get caught up in more degrading activity.

02:06:46.000 Sometimes people will have so much.

02:06:47.000 So I'm like saying, in your life, you have so much good karma, so to speak.

02:06:53.000 But because you're still embodied, there will always be sort of like a pinprick because that's part of having a body.

02:06:59.000 Right, but my point was, this journey is enjoyable.

02:07:05.000 For you, but you got good karma!

02:07:09.000 Is that all it is?

02:07:10.000 Because I've had bad moments.

02:07:12.000 I mean, is it all just boiled down to karma?

02:07:16.000 Is it choices?

02:07:16.000 It is choices.

02:07:17.000 Is it the direction?

02:07:20.000 Did you choose to push forward in the understanding of the push and pull?

02:07:25.000 The understanding of the discipline and the work and then the kindness and the generosity and that all these things are connected together and then also the expression, the ability to express yourself through podcasts or through stand-up comedy.

02:07:38.000 That all these things are enjoyable and that there's a pursuit in that and that the real benefit of it is that other people get entertainment out of it.

02:07:45.000 Your choice is perpetuated, obviously.

02:07:49.000 But there's other people who've done podcasts, who've done comedy, and they're just not successful at it.

02:07:55.000 Yeah, but it's a puzzle, though.

02:07:57.000 It's like saying other people sing songs, but people don't play them back.

02:08:01.000 Yeah, there were bands before Green Day, like the Buzzcocks from the 70s, who, in my opinion, was better than Green Day, but they just weren't at the right time historically to be that popular.

02:08:10.000 Sure, they didn't have the right publicists.

02:08:11.000 Yeah, look, there's always going to be that, but my point is, like, you don't have to be famous to be happy.

02:08:17.000 It's just, life is interesting.

02:08:19.000 Life is enjoyable.

02:08:20.000 Sometimes it's hard and sometimes it's painful, sometimes it's emotionally devastating, for sure.

02:08:25.000 But the idea, if you are alive and enjoying life, the idea of doing it forever is terrifying to people.

02:08:34.000 That was what my point was.

02:08:35.000 Like, why is it terrifying?

02:08:37.000 If it's not terrifying to do it now, why is the eternal existence so disturbing to people?

02:08:44.000 Right.

02:08:45.000 Unless they have had a traumatic life.

02:08:49.000 Yeah, I mean...

02:08:49.000 Which a lot of people have.

02:08:50.000 Yes, a lot of people have.

02:08:51.000 A lot of people have had a traumatic life.

02:08:52.000 Yes, a lot of people have.

02:08:53.000 I don't think my life was so traumatic.

02:08:54.000 I think I got some life lessons.

02:08:55.000 Well, let's leave them out of that equation and let's just talk about people who have not had a traumatic life, who have a fair...

02:09:00.000 Look, if you're in America and you're not sick and you have friends, you're doing infinitely better than most people on the planet.

02:09:09.000 Sure.

02:09:09.000 You know, that's just...

02:09:10.000 We're really fortunate in terms of the environments that we exist in.

02:09:15.000 If you're not being abused and you have a job and you have hobbies and things to do, god damn are you lucky!

02:09:22.000 You could be born in Afghanistan.

02:09:24.000 You could be living in the Congo, suffering from a host of different pathogens and bacteria and viruses.

02:09:31.000 But your thing is according to that person.

02:09:34.000 Was it Helio made up that...

02:09:35.000 I don't think he made it up.

02:09:37.000 I think Helio obviously was a great warrior as well as a great jiu-jitsu teacher, but he had this philosophy on existence and that you had to live your life and do the right things always.

02:09:52.000 And if you didn't, you would come back again and do it all over again.

02:09:55.000 Well, the Vedic system is similar, but it's not the exact – you don't get born as Joe Rogan again living a parallel life and like, oh, I didn't take out the garbage that day.

02:10:03.000 I should have taken out the garbage.

02:10:04.000 It'd more be like according to your desires and your activities and your thoughts and the people you associate with, you moved up psychically.

02:10:16.000 You got a little more degraded.

02:10:18.000 We either upgrade or degrade, basically.

02:10:21.000 We're similar.

02:10:21.000 Do you think of yourself like that?

02:10:23.000 When you think of yourself and your fortune and the interesting life you've carved out, do you feel like your past life has had some sort of an impact on who you are right now?

02:10:34.000 For sure.

02:10:35.000 For sure, huh?

02:10:36.000 For sure.

02:10:36.000 Really?

02:10:37.000 Why are you so sure?

02:10:39.000 Well, it's just sort of like my worldview, is that there's not a randomness, that everything is building upon something.

02:10:48.000 It's the same way I'm building upon tomorrow today.

02:10:51.000 And I'm building on next week, this week.

02:10:55.000 And you could take it bigger and bigger and bigger.

02:10:57.000 So in that sense, it makes sense.

02:10:59.000 But there's a little bit more of a leap of faith.

02:11:02.000 And I'm building up to a climax where it will take another body, or I'm coming from a place where I have some talents.

02:11:10.000 You know, we call them your God-given gifts, or my daughter is a gifted artist.

02:11:17.000 But the idea is that it's been a practice that we've been practicing and bringing with us for lifetimes.

02:11:24.000 And both good and bad.

02:11:27.000 And this is a belief system that you just sort of adopt because there's not really any evidence.

02:11:31.000 It's not that I've adopted.

02:11:34.000 That's how the yogis view karma.

02:11:37.000 I understand, but you taking this in yourself as well.

02:11:40.000 I take it myself because I see it in this lifetime.

02:11:43.000 Now, like I said, that I don't...

02:11:48.000 There's blind faith and then there's reasonable faith.

02:11:51.000 So my reasonable faith lies in this lifetime, I've witnessed my body change.

02:11:56.000 I've witnessed my mind change, my intelligence change.

02:12:00.000 I've witnessed myself cultivate desires that heal me, make me stronger, make me lighter, make me more connected.

02:12:06.000 I've witnessed myself choose bad choices, things that are addictive, things that are defiling my consciousness or my body or my health.

02:12:14.000 So in this lifetime, I know I can steer my karma.

02:12:19.000 And at the same time, there's certain things that are out of my hands.

02:12:22.000 Like you and me are on a flight to San Diego.

02:12:25.000 And the plane's going to San Diego.

02:12:28.000 What we do on that plane, the plane journey is our karma.

02:12:33.000 What we do on that plane, that's our free will.

02:12:36.000 So that's the difference between free will and destiny.

02:12:38.000 There is a difference of the two.

02:12:42.000 Just because there is karma doesn't mean you're bound to it.

02:12:45.000 You can move it.

02:12:47.000 But the yoga system is to bring us to this...

02:12:51.000 I'm trying to keep it simple.

02:12:53.000 It's called sattva.

02:12:54.000 It's a state of self-control, of peace, of balance.

02:12:58.000 So all the things of the whole culture is based to keep the mind peaceful.

02:13:03.000 And when the mind is peaceful, I act less on impetus and more from a higher chakras or higher thoughts or higher intelligence.

02:13:12.000 For example, if I slap a panther, panther's going to bite me.

02:13:17.000 Why?

02:13:17.000 Because panthers bite when you slap them.

02:13:18.000 If I slap Joe...

02:13:21.000 You could act from a different place.

02:13:23.000 Hey man, what's up?

02:13:24.000 Or you could be like, immediately.

02:13:25.000 And sometimes I feel that also.

02:13:27.000 I feel like I'm acting from a lower place.

02:13:29.000 I'm angry.

02:13:30.000 I'm gonna kick that guy.

02:13:31.000 Right?

02:13:32.000 And sometimes I feel like, I mean, do this with parenting.

02:13:35.000 Sometimes I get angry at my child.

02:13:36.000 I say, don't you understand?

02:13:38.000 He's just trying to talk to you.

02:13:39.000 He's just trying to share how he experiences.

02:13:41.000 And I have to pull myself back and let go of any way I was parented and try to, like, act from a higher place.

02:13:48.000 So there's always – they say in the human species, there's always this chance to either upgrade your activities or degrade your activities.

02:13:55.000 And they snowball off of each other.

02:13:59.000 Every good choice helps you make a better choice.

02:14:01.000 We said that with diet, with exercise.

02:14:06.000 How do we get talking about that, Joe?

02:14:08.000 Is this just massive detours that we're taking?

02:14:11.000 No, no, no.

02:14:11.000 We're getting into places.

02:14:13.000 We were talking about your belief that your karma is connected to what you've done in a past life.

02:14:20.000 Sure.

02:14:20.000 So that's a bigger leap of faith, and I see it in this life.

02:14:25.000 And you see it in other people as well.

02:14:26.000 So when you see people, you look at their life and you think this person, where they are right now, is directly connected to what they've done in their past life.

02:14:36.000 Yeah.

02:14:39.000 It's an interesting philosophy.

02:14:41.000 It's an interesting perspective.

02:14:43.000 You know what's nice about it?

02:14:45.000 Even in Western psychiatry, if I go and complain about my husband or my wife, a good psychiatrist will go, well, what's your responsibility in this?

02:14:56.000 Is it all your wife or is it you?

02:14:58.000 They take you back.

02:14:59.000 And when you really study this Vedic thought, you realize that there is no more blaming anybody.

02:15:06.000 I've just got what I've got for whatever reason.

02:15:10.000 Now what am I going to do with that?

02:15:12.000 What am I going to do today?

02:15:14.000 What am I going to do tomorrow?

02:15:16.000 The why me shit never happens.

02:15:19.000 Because...

02:15:20.000 I've got what I got.

02:15:21.000 I probably did something to do.

02:15:23.000 And people don't like to hear that, but we don't know our backstory.

02:15:28.000 And to be truthful, I have a blind side, a blind spot when it comes to anything atrocious I've done in this life.

02:15:39.000 I forget all the times I've hurt people, broke people's hearts, you know, was rude or cruel or thoughtless.

02:15:45.000 So I got to get some karma too.

02:15:51.000 In this life, what to speak of a previous life, where I'm oblivious to.

02:15:55.000 Right.

02:15:55.000 And if I just want to blame the circumstance, here's your option.

02:16:01.000 You can either be free from that, be acceptance and accept that there's benevolent forces that are trying to teach us lessons to get out of the birth and death, or you can just be bitter at the world.

02:16:14.000 Why me?

02:16:14.000 Unfair.

02:16:15.000 So this idea of benevolent forces that are trying to teach us, do you feel that This spiritual quest is almost like a divine puzzle that human beings are proposed and that you are given this infinite series of options and in choosing the right way of thinking and behaving you can carve out the righteous path as best you can.

02:16:44.000 You will make mistakes but that there's a spiritual undertaking That is a part of operating this puzzle correctly.

02:16:54.000 And that this is what all these teachings are about.

02:16:57.000 And we're all trying to relay what we've learned and what we've experienced personally.

02:17:04.000 And we're trying to relay it to other people so that they can relate.

02:17:07.000 And so that they can also make choices that will allow them to more refine their approach to life to achieve better spiritual balance.

02:17:17.000 Yeah!

02:17:18.000 Well said.

02:17:20.000 There's, you know, the yogis call them yamas and niyamas.

02:17:25.000 Say it again?

02:17:26.000 Yamas and niyamas.

02:17:28.000 Yamas and niyamas?

02:17:30.000 Yamas and niyamas.

02:17:31.000 Things you do and things you don't do.

02:17:33.000 Okay.

02:17:34.000 And it's the equivalent of like...

02:17:37.000 Sort of guardrails on a road, right?

02:17:40.000 You drive a little bit off too far, you scratch your car because of the guardrail.

02:17:43.000 But if it wasn't there, it'd be complete tragedy.

02:17:46.000 So there's sort of like things that we pull in with our sexuality, with our thoughts, with our words.

02:17:53.000 It's how to use the vehicle.

02:17:57.000 Right.

02:18:14.000 That in itself is not spiritual.

02:18:16.000 It just assists you in driving a car.

02:18:18.000 I still got to go north.

02:18:19.000 And so once I can take care of how to like take care of this machine and keep it on the road, then I reach out for connection.

02:18:27.000 And that's the spiritual.

02:18:29.000 So there's dharma, but then there's dharma that's supposed to get us connected.

02:18:33.000 What is the effect of dharma?

02:18:35.000 What is the definition rather of dharma again?

02:18:38.000 Dharma means sort of like a right living.

02:18:41.000 It's not – some people confuse it with, well, doing what you're born to do because I don't think it's just doing what you're good at because you could be good at leadership and be a dictator.

02:18:52.000 And you're a great leader.

02:18:55.000 Everyone is going to do what you do.

02:18:56.000 Hitler was a great leader.

02:18:57.000 Great leader.

02:18:57.000 Great leader is probably in his chart.

02:18:59.000 But then you also have great – Great leaders.

02:19:02.000 Like a Christ.

02:19:03.000 Okay.

02:19:04.000 It was like a great leader.

02:19:04.000 Right.

02:19:05.000 Also.

02:19:05.000 So it's not just leadership.

02:19:07.000 It's leading a person towards connection so that your activity has a benevolent effect on everyone it touches.

02:19:15.000 That's dharma.

02:19:16.000 That's dharma in its true sense.

02:19:17.000 And that's the dharma of your body.

02:19:19.000 Like your dharma is you entertain.

02:19:22.000 You could say a warrior.

02:19:24.000 You could also say dharma as a father.

02:19:26.000 So that's a...

02:19:27.000 These are all type of like...

02:19:28.000 You're carved out for that.

02:19:30.000 If you weren't doing that, you'd always feel like a little lack in your life.

02:19:34.000 But then there's like a nitya dharma or what you...

02:19:38.000 And the Nitya Dharma is actually the Dharma of the soul.

02:19:41.000 And that's why in the Vedic system, it's not like you're trying to convert somebody to be of your religion.

02:19:49.000 It's not like a home run to say, okay, I got a Christian to become a Hindu.

02:19:53.000 That's not what it is.

02:19:54.000 The idea is that everybody is a spirit soul.

02:19:57.000 You can change.

02:19:58.000 It's not about joining the same church or the same ashram.

02:20:03.000 It's like a soul is a soul.

02:20:04.000 It's like truth.

02:20:05.000 Truth is truth.

02:20:06.000 There's no – no one's got a monopoly on truth.

02:20:09.000 There's no such thing as – it's like math.

02:20:11.000 It's not Jewish math or Hindu math or Christian.

02:20:14.000 It's like math is math.

02:20:15.000 So we want to apply truth to the life, to the vehicle.

02:20:19.000 And that's going to give direction to the vehicle.

02:20:21.000 That's going to be the food for the soul.

02:20:22.000 And that's what the genuine meaning of yoga.

02:20:25.000 People say it's to balance the mind.

02:20:26.000 It's not to balance.

02:20:27.000 It's to connect the atma or the soul with divinity, with Bhagavan.

02:20:32.000 That's the real yoga.

02:20:34.000 Yoga means to come together, but in the original text, in the original ancient teachings of Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, it's all about is here I am lost in the crazy planet.

02:20:44.000 I'm driving my car everywhere.

02:20:46.000 How to keep it on the road and where do I go?

02:20:50.000 And that's the classical concept of what yoga is.

02:20:54.000 How do we keep it on the road and where do I go?

02:20:56.000 I like that way of looking at it.

02:20:58.000 I mean, we go off the road.

02:21:00.000 Yeah, and we need these discussions.

02:21:01.000 We've been off the road!

02:21:02.000 We need these discussions.

02:21:03.000 People need these discussions.

02:21:05.000 I mean, I need them right now having it with you.

02:21:07.000 I appreciate it.

02:21:08.000 But we need to hear other people having these discussions.

02:21:12.000 We need to have them personally, ourselves.

02:21:14.000 I do it every morning on my podcast, 5 a.m.

02:21:17.000 You do your podcast every day?

02:21:18.000 Every day for an hour.

02:21:19.000 And it's sort of like a check-in.

02:21:21.000 It's on iTunes and all that jazz?

02:21:22.000 It's on iTunes.

02:21:23.000 It's called Wisdom of the Sages.

02:21:25.000 And me and I co-hosted with another friend who was a monk for a long time with me.

02:21:29.000 And we were both teenagers from the Lower East Side.

02:21:32.000 And so we do it together.

02:21:34.000 Is he in Upstate as well?

02:21:35.000 He's in New York City, Manhattan.

02:21:37.000 Okay, so you do it remotely?

02:21:38.000 We do it on Zoom, but through Lipson with all the podcasts.

02:21:44.000 Yeah, I've done it at Zoom.

02:21:46.000 I did a Jordan Peterson podcast through Zoom once.

02:21:48.000 I saw that.

02:21:48.000 Yeah.

02:21:49.000 Great.

02:21:49.000 It works.

02:21:50.000 You can do it.

02:21:51.000 It's weird, though.

02:21:51.000 But we have like 90 people join us live.

02:21:53.000 Oh.

02:21:54.000 And so everyone knows each other, and then it's also done public, so it's fun.

02:21:59.000 I enjoy it.

02:22:00.000 There's something about doing podcasts that you are working out ideas.

02:22:04.000 It's made me infinitely more aware of my thoughts.

02:22:08.000 Infinitely better at communicating.

02:22:09.000 Speaking and writing, too.

02:22:11.000 Since I'm writing two books right now, and they're both helping me, like, yeah, I always thought that, but now this is a better way to say it.

02:22:17.000 I'm sure you do that when you write material.

02:22:19.000 Yes, for sure.

02:22:20.000 But my friend Eddie Wong, he had a really interesting take on that.

02:22:23.000 He's like, that's what I do first thing in the morning.

02:22:25.000 He goes, I write.

02:22:26.000 And he goes, and I write every day.

02:22:28.000 And he said, in writing every day, it helps me really understand how I think about things.

02:22:32.000 Because I'm really...

02:22:34.000 Really contemplating, really concentrating on how do I actually think about these things?

02:22:37.000 What is actually important to me?

02:22:39.000 And that activity of writing for his own education, for his own betterment is very important to him.

02:22:46.000 And it made a big impact on me, him saying it that way.

02:22:50.000 I'm like, okay, that makes sense.

02:22:52.000 By the way, Joe, it's so good that you're doing this.

02:22:54.000 So many people I know listen to this show.

02:22:57.000 It's weird.

02:22:58.000 It's weird.

02:22:59.000 And it's a real wide swath of people.

02:23:03.000 I know.

02:23:03.000 It's weird.

02:23:05.000 It's a strange thing.

02:23:06.000 This is going to sound crazy, but not any crazier than all the other shit we've said so far.

02:23:11.000 I feel like this show made itself.

02:23:15.000 I feel like I'm the person who's been granted the curator position on this show.

02:23:22.000 I feel like this show, all the challenges that I've had through this show, have sort of all the fuck-ups and all the things that I've said that were stupid, those almost like were put in front of me to make me understand the consequences of not respecting it.

02:23:40.000 Or of not treating it with the proper focus and concentration.

02:23:44.000 And that this thing is almost like it's always been here.

02:23:51.000 And I'm like an archaeologist who's just brushing the dirt away.

02:23:56.000 And I'm the curator.

02:23:58.000 And I have to show up every day and turn the lights on.

02:24:01.000 Artists always describe themselves.

02:24:02.000 I think it was...

02:24:06.000 Machiavelli?

02:24:06.000 Not Machiavelli.

02:24:08.000 Michelangelo?

02:24:09.000 Michelangelo.

02:24:11.000 Michelangelo described it like that.

02:24:12.000 I can say myself, as a puny songwriter, I felt like the song was already written.

02:24:17.000 Yeah.

02:24:17.000 And the lyrics were already written.

02:24:19.000 I feel like that with comedy.

02:24:20.000 When I come up with a good bit, like I have this new bit that I've only had for like four or five days now and I've been working on it, I feel like it was a gift.

02:24:30.000 I mean, I know I wrote it.

02:24:32.000 I know I wrote it.

02:24:33.000 I know I typed it.

02:24:34.000 I know I thought about it.

02:24:35.000 But where?

02:24:36.000 From where?

02:24:36.000 From what?

02:24:37.000 Yeah, like what is that coming from?

02:24:39.000 What is creativity?

02:24:40.000 What is that coming from?

02:24:41.000 It's a gift.

02:24:42.000 And that's one of the things about pot and one of the things about booze and all the different ways that I achieve different states of mind.

02:24:50.000 They help me get out of my own way.

02:24:52.000 So I could find these things better.

02:24:55.000 That's really what it is.

02:24:56.000 It's not as much of an escape from reality.

02:24:59.000 It's an escape from me.

02:25:02.000 From your thoughts?

02:25:03.000 Yes, from me, from my bullshit, so that I can find these thoughts better, so that I can go on stage, and then my reward is this strange feeling that you get when you know everyone's laughing.

02:25:15.000 This is wild, but the better I get at it, the less I enjoy it in the moment, because I'm not thinking, this is great, I'm killing.

02:25:24.000 I am just staying on point.

02:25:27.000 You ever say something where you're just laughing at your own joke?

02:25:29.000 Yeah, for sure.

02:25:30.000 Because things come up that I don't know that I'm going to say.

02:25:33.000 And then I say it and then I start laughing.

02:25:36.000 But it has to be organic.

02:25:37.000 I'm not going to fake laugh on stage, but I will laugh on stage.

02:25:42.000 My goal is always to just hit that frequency.

02:25:47.000 The goal is to hit that frequency where people are laughing and say it with the right economy of words and the right order and find the best way to get it into people's heads.

02:25:59.000 And that's the crazy thing is the better you get at it, the more effect it has on people, but the less effect it has on me.

02:26:08.000 I'll do an arena, and I'll crush, and I'll get a standing ovation in front of an arena, and I barely feel it.

02:26:17.000 I barely feel it like me, like I just did something.

02:26:20.000 I'm like a passenger on a ride.

02:26:22.000 You're like a passenger.

02:26:24.000 Yeah, that's what it feels like.

02:26:25.000 I mean, the better I get at it, the more I feel like a pastor.

02:26:29.000 But conversely, if I fuck up, I feel like I fucked up.

02:26:35.000 If I screw something up, if I mess up a bit, if I do something, the pain is on me, 100%.

02:26:41.000 So the pleasure...

02:26:42.000 Kind of dissipates.

02:26:44.000 Or it's more of an internal pleasure.

02:26:46.000 The pleasure's not from what they're giving back.

02:26:49.000 It's confirmation that I'm doing the right thing.

02:26:51.000 That's what it is.

02:26:52.000 It's like everybody's happy.

02:26:53.000 I'm happy that you're happy.

02:26:55.000 And it's a genuine feeling of appreciation.

02:26:56.000 It's like that concept of the warrior just doing his duty.

02:26:59.000 Yes.

02:27:00.000 I'm just doing it.

02:27:01.000 This is what I do.

02:27:02.000 Now, the Bhagavad Gita, this is the thing that I wanted to talk to you about.

02:27:06.000 When we're talking about the Vedas, when we're talking about all the ancient texts, you think that all that stuff is real.

02:27:14.000 Could be real.

02:27:15.000 Could be real.

02:27:16.000 But you were saying it's real.

02:27:17.000 That shit's all real.

02:27:19.000 That's my sort of hashtag, this is all real.

02:27:22.000 It's because when you stumble upon this...

02:27:25.000 I was like, man, this is all real.

02:27:28.000 Because being a rational thinker, I'm always holding back some reservation for like, this can't all be real.

02:27:34.000 But things always just show up.

02:27:37.000 I was like, damn, that's so real.

02:27:39.000 Can I tell you this crazy one?

02:27:40.000 Sure.

02:27:42.000 I don't want to tell too much about the details because I'm going to keep it private.

02:27:48.000 And we're only doing it to 200 million people.

02:27:53.000 I had a person, an astrologer at my teacher training.

02:27:58.000 And I was training people to be teachers.

02:28:00.000 And one of the ladies was from a very wealthy family.

02:28:02.000 She was older than me.

02:28:03.000 Her kids went to school together.

02:28:06.000 And...

02:28:09.000 He did this interesting – astrology did this interesting class where he did this class on karma where he shows how karma is actually scientific and predictable.

02:28:17.000 So everyone would have to give their – like I said earlier, longitude, latitude, date and time of birth.

02:28:22.000 I was born on January 11th, 3.30 a.m.

02:28:25.000 1966 and you'd have to give that all in.

02:28:28.000 So he doesn't know anybody and he's calling – okay, who was born on 1983, February 6th?

02:28:34.000 He called the person forward and they said – And he wouldn't do their whole chart, but he'd show some big hiccup in their chart.

02:28:41.000 And he'd say, it seems like in October you experience great loss.

02:28:46.000 And the person would be like, oh my God, my father died in October.

02:28:50.000 And every person he was calling up, he would just read the hiccup.

02:28:53.000 So one particular lady, she said, that was so good.

02:28:57.000 Can you do my entire chart?

02:28:59.000 So he had it done.

02:29:01.000 Now this lady, I knew her.

02:29:02.000 She grew up With somebody world famous.

02:29:06.000 I won't mention who it is, but it's something, a household name.

02:29:09.000 And they were best friends.

02:29:10.000 And she grew up in a very wealthy family.

02:29:13.000 But as she got older, she just became a simple artist.

02:29:17.000 But that famous person was always in her life.

02:29:19.000 And then that person died a tragic death.

02:29:23.000 And so she never had much after that financially.

02:29:28.000 So I think?

02:29:39.000 They were going to put out a special issue and they found that she had all these intimate photos of this person.

02:29:44.000 So they offered her a massive amount of money for these photos.

02:29:48.000 So I know the story and I'm standing there with the astrologer and the astrologer is saying, okay, it seems like in July you're going to have more money than you've ever had in your life.

02:30:00.000 And she was just like, she looks at me and we look at each other like, oh my God.

02:30:04.000 And She told him the whole story.

02:30:07.000 She said, yeah.

02:30:08.000 And in July, they're cutting me the check.

02:30:10.000 In July, how did you know that?

02:30:12.000 And the astrologer very humbly just goes, it's been known since your birth.

02:30:19.000 So this is like the ultimate version of determinism, right?

02:30:23.000 Yes and no.

02:30:25.000 Use that analogy.

02:30:27.000 It's more cosmic.

02:30:27.000 Well, use that analogy of the plane.

02:30:30.000 There is a determinism, but there's also individual free will, which can sometimes affect.

02:30:37.000 Sometimes you're going to just get what you get, but how I react to what I get, that's going to create a whole new set of karma for me.

02:30:43.000 Right?

02:30:44.000 Yeah.

02:30:45.000 How you react to what you get is definitely, yeah.

02:30:48.000 We're all going to get some thing.

02:30:49.000 Yeah.

02:30:50.000 And by me associating with people who are connected, by being associating with people who are a little bit more in tune, then when something happens to me, some great life reversal, some incredible loss, some chronic disease,

02:31:05.000 whatever, I might react to it in a different way.

02:31:08.000 And that's going to create a whole new pathway for me.

02:31:11.000 Yeah.

02:31:12.000 Well, depending upon your actions, you react to things differently depending upon your physical state.

02:31:18.000 And that's one of the things that yoga really helps.

02:31:20.000 One of the ways that yoga helps your karma is yoga relaxes you to consequences and to things that happen.

02:31:29.000 Like, I remember I was driving on the highway.

02:31:35.000 And there was this kid behind me.

02:31:37.000 He's an illegal alien.

02:31:39.000 And he was on his phone.

02:31:41.000 And he hit the brakes too late and he slammed into my Porsche.

02:31:44.000 I have a rare Porsche.

02:31:46.000 It's a very nice car.

02:31:48.000 And he fucked up my car.

02:31:49.000 And I got out and he didn't have a license.

02:31:53.000 Or insurance.

02:31:54.000 He had insurance, actually.

02:31:55.000 I didn't think he did, but I took down his information.

02:31:58.000 I took a photo of his insurance card, and I told him, I said, you should get out of here, man.

02:32:04.000 Like, you're going to get arrested.

02:32:06.000 Like, you slammed into me.

02:32:08.000 You don't have a license.

02:32:09.000 You're not even supposed to be driving.

02:32:10.000 They're going to take your car.

02:32:11.000 His car was fucked up.

02:32:12.000 My car actually drove.

02:32:13.000 I drove it to the comedy store.

02:32:15.000 But I remember the way I reacted to him, because I had done yoga three days in a row.

02:32:20.000 It was cool and calm.

02:32:21.000 Yeah, I was happy I was okay, because he slammed into me, man.

02:32:24.000 Bang!

02:32:25.000 Like that fight story I told.

02:32:26.000 I wasn't angry.

02:32:27.000 Yeah.

02:32:28.000 It changes how you react.

02:32:29.000 First of all, it changes how you react in the moment when you're doing the asana class.

02:32:34.000 Yeah.

02:32:34.000 It has a secondary effect, like you just said.

02:32:37.000 And the third way it affects you is at the time of death.

02:32:41.000 The idea...

02:32:42.000 I've actually had almost a near-death experience with this, too, where you are focused...

02:32:52.000 In the same way you're not angry, you're not freaking out, you become incredibly focused as if I'm about to leave my body.

02:33:00.000 And you can say it, once I was attacked.

02:33:05.000 And I had probably the most spiritual experience in my life.

02:33:10.000 And it was...

02:33:11.000 How were you attacked?

02:33:12.000 It's such a story, but it's...

02:33:17.000 I was at a show.

02:33:19.000 The time of my life when I was monks.

02:33:21.000 We were all monks.

02:33:23.000 And we were traveling and we played in sort of a ghetto part of Buffalo.

02:33:28.000 At a big show.

02:33:31.000 Materially speaking, it was great.

02:33:32.000 We were big.

02:33:33.000 People loved us.

02:33:34.000 We sold merchandise.

02:33:35.000 And which band was this?

02:33:36.000 This was Shelter.

02:33:37.000 It's my next band.

02:33:39.000 And...

02:33:40.000 After the show, it was about 2 in the morning, and everybody's getting out of the club, and I'm in the alley getting interviewed for some magazine, and our van is parked.

02:33:52.000 You could drive the car in the van in the club, and all the doors and windows are open, and our guys were unloading all the gear, and basically only a few people left in the club breaking down the club, and I was outside getting interviewed.

02:34:04.000 And all of a sudden, this car pulls up with these massive...

02:34:11.000 Dudes who weren't from the punk scene.

02:34:13.000 They looked like just sort of ghetto dudes.

02:34:15.000 And they were ripped and they were big.

02:34:17.000 And they just grabbed one of the younger kids.

02:34:19.000 I mean, our shows, everyone was 17, 19, 20. They grabbed one kid and just beat the living crap out of them.

02:34:27.000 And I was like, ugh.

02:34:29.000 I'm getting interviewed, so it's sort of awkward.

02:34:31.000 And it's happening about 50 yards away from me.

02:34:33.000 Random act of violence.

02:34:35.000 Didn't talk to him first.

02:34:36.000 Didn't talk to him.

02:34:37.000 Picked him up, threw him down, beat him, and then went to another kid.

02:34:41.000 And did that.

02:34:42.000 By the time they got to the third kid, everybody just started running for their life.

02:34:49.000 You know, you don't think of these things in times of great fear and anxiety.

02:34:54.000 Why don't you do this?

02:34:55.000 Why don't you do that?

02:34:57.000 All I did was I ran back in the club to get my band.

02:35:00.000 I said, you guys, we got to get out of here.

02:35:02.000 There's a bunch of crazy guys outside.

02:35:04.000 And all my roadies...

02:35:06.000 We're all monks, by the way.

02:35:07.000 But all the guys who were my roadies said, we can't go anywhere.

02:35:10.000 Like, the equipment's half in the car.

02:35:12.000 The t-shirts aren't loaded.

02:35:14.000 And all of a sudden, the bad guys, their car drives into the club and parks like a T blocking our van so we couldn't get out of the club any longer.

02:35:26.000 And they get out of the car.

02:35:27.000 And there's not that many people.

02:35:28.000 There's a couple bands and sound men and stuff around the club.

02:35:31.000 And the biggest guy gets out and he grabs a gun.

02:35:35.000 And he just goes in a really serious and unemotional way.

02:35:40.000 I've got a gun.

02:35:42.000 And I'm going to kill everyone tonight.

02:35:46.000 And it was one of these like eerie, sort of like eerie organ music he could hear.

02:35:53.000 And I was like, it just felt like, oh, this is the day.

02:35:57.000 You know the day you always talk about, that death day, where you don't expect it and you expect it and you get the ace of spades?

02:36:04.000 That's your day now.

02:36:05.000 And I was like, oh shit.

02:36:08.000 And I was the older, you know, devotee, Krishna devotee.

02:36:13.000 We are Krishna devotee monks or bhakti yoga monks.

02:36:17.000 And so all the other guys in the band came up to me, what are we going to do?

02:36:20.000 What are we going to do?

02:36:20.000 Now, they weren't right near us at the time.

02:36:23.000 They were like, they were literally going around and beating people up.

02:36:27.000 And all the other monks came up to me, you know, Ragu, what are we going to do?

02:36:32.000 And I had already sort of given up on escaping or anything.

02:36:36.000 I just looked...

02:36:37.000 I don't know where I got this from because I'm definitely not an elevated soul.

02:36:44.000 But I said, we're going to die tonight.

02:36:47.000 And so we're going to chant.

02:36:49.000 And I went into the...

02:36:51.000 Jesus Christ.

02:36:52.000 I know!

02:36:52.000 Why wouldn't you just run?

02:36:53.000 You know what?

02:36:54.000 In retrospect, I don't know.

02:36:55.000 But let me circle back with this.

02:36:58.000 I grabbed the drum out.

02:37:00.000 I play this Indian drum.

02:37:01.000 And...

02:37:02.000 And we all started chanting these mantras to Nishringadev, who's an avatar of Vishnu.

02:37:08.000 You usually chant for a type of protection, but we all started really focusing and chanting this mantra.

02:37:14.000 It's an unbelievable story, but it's all true.

02:37:18.000 And as they were beating up people, they finally came to us.

02:37:22.000 And all my guys ran for their life.

02:37:24.000 Some guys were on end of the van, in the van, above the van.

02:37:27.000 And I'm surrounded by this gang.

02:37:30.000 And the biggest guy just grabs the gun and he goes to me, do you want some?

02:37:37.000 I was like, it's a freaking trick question.

02:37:40.000 What am I supposed to say here?

02:37:42.000 And so I just, you know, by the way, I didn't look like a monk.

02:37:46.000 I had jeans on or I didn't, it's not like let's beat up monk day.

02:37:49.000 It was just a random act of violence.

02:37:51.000 And so I said, I just put my hands like in a namaste and said, Hare Krishna.

02:37:59.000 I'm a devotee of the Lord Krishna and I have no idea why you are angry.

02:38:06.000 And then for the first time in my life, I felt completely helpless.

02:38:12.000 I was just like repeatedly beaten and just punched.

02:38:18.000 And it's just one of those things.

02:38:20.000 It's not like you can even fight back.

02:38:22.000 You are just getting pounded.

02:38:25.000 But what happened was every time I got punched, I chanted a mantra.

02:38:30.000 So it was sort of like Vishnu, Narayan, Chaitanya, Krishna, Govinda, Gopal.

02:38:36.000 Every time I chanted to the point where I was like, oh, this is amazing.

02:38:40.000 I'm actually chanting.

02:38:42.000 I was actually stepping outside myself saying, I'm actually in meditation on sacred names.

02:38:48.000 And then all of a sudden my head was down and I looked behind me and there was these three girls coming to protect me and they had baseball bats.

02:38:57.000 And then I realized, no they're not.

02:39:00.000 They're the girlfriends of these guys.

02:39:02.000 And then I started getting hit by a baseball bat.

02:39:06.000 Unbelievable!

02:39:07.000 Three times in the head, one on the shoulder and two in the legs.

02:39:12.000 And this is a random thing.

02:39:15.000 There's no reason for them to hit you.

02:39:16.000 As far as I know, it was random.

02:39:19.000 I didn't know them.

02:39:20.000 They didn't know me.

02:39:21.000 They weren't from that scene.

02:39:22.000 Our show was in a ghetto.

02:39:24.000 There's always a cause of something, but I have no idea what the cause was.

02:39:31.000 But miraculously, and you read these stories in the Mahabharata, in the Ramayana, all these epics of India, the great sage leaves his body, he calls Lord Krishna's chariot in front of him, then he chants these mantras, and I'm thinking, oh my god, I'm chanting these mantras at the time of death.

02:39:46.000 I'm chanting at the time of death.

02:39:49.000 This is the perfection of my life!

02:39:51.000 That was what was going through my head.

02:39:53.000 I kid you not.

02:39:54.000 And I was like outside of my body and I wasn't fearful.

02:39:57.000 And then all of a sudden, to wrap up the story, everything stopped.

02:40:02.000 And I didn't really know what happened, but what was happening was all the guys in the band jumped in our car, our van, and plowed through their car and took off.

02:40:12.000 And I can't remember how, but I ended up in the street, in some ghetto street, carrying this Indian clay drum.

02:40:20.000 I look like, ever see that movie Carrie?

02:40:22.000 The girl is covered in blood.

02:40:25.000 I was covered in blood from my head all the way down, all over the drum, and I'm walking in the streets trying to flag down a car.

02:40:32.000 The cars would slow down, see me, and then speed away because I looked like a zombie or something.

02:40:38.000 And then I realized, oh man, something...

02:40:40.000 And you know, you're running sort of high on adrenaline.

02:40:43.000 I remember being very lucid.

02:40:45.000 And I went over to some light I saw.

02:40:49.000 It looked like a garage where they fix cars or house buses or something.

02:40:52.000 And it was open.

02:40:54.000 And there was a man in a booth.

02:40:55.000 And I said, sir, you have to call the police.

02:40:57.000 Because I thought my friends now were getting beat up or killed or whatever.

02:41:02.000 And I said, you have to call the police.

02:41:04.000 My friends are in trouble.

02:41:05.000 And the guy literally looked at me and just said...

02:41:08.000 I'm busy.

02:41:11.000 And I said, listen, you got to call the police right now.

02:41:16.000 And if you don't mind, I'm just going to hide in this booth because I think these guys might come back and kill me.

02:41:22.000 And so I'm kneeling down in this dirty garage at two in the morning.

02:41:28.000 And the first thing in my mind is no one knows where I am.

02:41:32.000 My mother doesn't know where I am.

02:41:33.000 Friends don't know where I am.

02:41:35.000 My band members don't know where I am.

02:41:37.000 They could be getting killed.

02:41:39.000 And everything was so good today.

02:41:41.000 Like, I had a great day.

02:41:43.000 And now it's over, like a dream.

02:41:45.000 And I even have these lyrics that were like, this world's like a dream.

02:41:48.000 It's not what it seems.

02:41:50.000 We think it's solid, but it fades.

02:41:52.000 I was like, I even...

02:41:53.000 My self-talk became a prayer.

02:41:56.000 And I started saying, I really wasn't expecting to die tonight.

02:42:03.000 But that's what the dream is.

02:42:05.000 It seems real and now it's over.

02:42:08.000 And I started to think like, oh my god.

02:42:12.000 I was sort of like in a state of like samadhi when I was getting beat up.

02:42:16.000 I was focused.

02:42:17.000 I was connected.

02:42:18.000 And I was chanting at that time.

02:42:21.000 I said, but now, maybe my, if I got, I'm just trying to think my, you know, Boy Scout first aid is like, I might have a concussion.

02:42:30.000 My brain's going to swell.

02:42:31.000 I'm going to fall asleep.

02:42:32.000 And then I won't be in meditation.

02:42:35.000 And I started saying, I said, I said, I started praying sincerely, Krishna, I wasn't expecting to die tonight.

02:42:46.000 But you were so kind, considering I'm not evolved, to enter my lips so I could just chant.

02:42:54.000 So please don't let me die with a concussion.

02:42:57.000 If you want to take me, please take me right now.

02:43:00.000 And with all sincerity, I started chanting these prayers that I had memorized, these very beautiful prayers from an ancient book.

02:43:07.000 But there were prayers.

02:43:08.000 I focused a picture of Krishna in my mind, and I started chanting these prayers.

02:43:15.000 And then, unfortunately, I lived.

02:43:18.000 Unfortunately.

02:43:19.000 That's ridiculous.

02:43:20.000 That's ridiculous.

02:43:21.000 Meaning, that's how I would want to die.

02:43:27.000 So there was no book, there's no teacher, there's no pilgrimage, there was no...

02:43:31.000 that taught me more about my spiritual path than that beat-down day.

02:43:37.000 Because I felt like...

02:43:38.000 You were as close to dying as you can get.

02:43:40.000 As so close to dying, but I felt like...

02:43:42.000 And you had accepted it.

02:43:43.000 And I had been taken care of.

02:43:45.000 Like, in that time of great tragedy, I felt connected more than I'd ever been connected.

02:43:50.000 And I wouldn't wish it again.

02:43:53.000 But I'm so happy it happened.

02:43:56.000 We still never got to the Bhagavad Gita.

02:43:59.000 Sorry about that.

02:44:00.000 I want to know why you think that that's real and what you think is going on in those stories.

02:44:09.000 Well, first you've got the dialogue itself, which is cool wisdom.

02:44:18.000 For all people.

02:44:20.000 Yeah, and some of it is like hyper bizarre, like what Oppenheimer quoted at the detonation of the atomic bomb.

02:44:26.000 Right.

02:44:26.000 I am become death to destroy all worlds.

02:44:31.000 That's the Sanskrit.

02:44:32.000 How does it say it?

02:44:33.000 Is that why?

02:44:36.000 Time I am the great destroyer and I've come to destroy all worlds.

02:44:41.000 So that's the actual translation.

02:44:43.000 That's the actual translation in English.

02:44:46.000 Because his translation, Oppenheimer's, was, I am become death.

02:44:50.000 Is that because of an issue with the translation between Hindu and English?

02:44:57.000 It's just different people translate it, slightly different.

02:44:59.000 But it's similar, meaning in that particular section that you pulled out that was Krishna explaining like, God is beautiful.

02:45:10.000 God is charming.

02:45:11.000 God is your best friend.

02:45:12.000 He's also death personified.

02:45:14.000 So he's saying in that particular place, I'm actually also the destroyer of all the worlds.

02:45:20.000 When we think of...

02:45:23.000 The yogis explain that God is everything.

02:45:28.000 Both the beauty and the destruction as well.

02:45:31.000 And so Krishna is just sharing his attributes and in that particular chapter, chapter 11, the Muslim is...

02:45:39.000 Where do you think all these stories come from?

02:45:43.000 What do you think the origin of the Bhagavad Gita, of the Mahabharata, of all the ancient texts, what do you think the origin was?

02:45:52.000 What was the What was the motivation to put this stuff down?

02:45:58.000 What was the original concepts that led them to write this?

02:46:05.000 And where did it all come from?

02:46:06.000 There has to be an origin of these wisdoms, right?

02:46:10.000 What do you think that is?

02:46:16.000 To even answer the question, I have to take myself out of ragu and just answer like a yoga teacher.

02:46:22.000 Okay.

02:46:22.000 Because to answer of what do you think, it's one thing you're sort of trained not to do as far as what is your personal opinion.

02:46:31.000 I can give you my personal opinion, but I have to separate it from what the stories themselves say.

02:46:35.000 Okay.

02:46:35.000 Well, give me your personal opinion.

02:46:36.000 My personal opinion is...

02:46:39.000 We're good to go.

02:47:03.000 See, we have a tendency to think we're at the pinnacle of evolution, but the Vedic teachings is that as we go on in this age, we get more and more disconnected.

02:47:12.000 There was a time where architecture was more evolved, where the sciences were more evolved.

02:47:18.000 Wait a minute, stop.

02:47:19.000 The sciences were more evolved?

02:47:21.000 The sciences, like, for example, the building of these Vimanas, which when we read them now, we just think, that's mythological.

02:47:28.000 Even weaponry.

02:47:32.000 Weaponry, they say, were done with sound.

02:47:35.000 If you study, there's one book called The Donner Way.

02:47:37.000 Okay, but do you think this is real?

02:47:39.000 Do I think it's real?

02:47:39.000 I think it could be.

02:47:40.000 I don't think it's definite.

02:47:41.000 I definitely don't know.

02:47:42.000 So you think at one point in time, human beings had Vimanas, and they flew around the sky, and then they had weapons that used sound?

02:47:48.000 Could.

02:47:49.000 Why not?

02:47:51.000 There's no evidence.

02:47:53.000 Archaeological evidence that there was a flying craft or that there was ever any technology that allowed people to leave gravity.

02:48:01.000 Yeah.

02:48:02.000 Sometimes there may not be evidence.

02:48:04.000 Just like there's – let me show you – what was the guy's name?

02:48:06.000 Hill?

02:48:09.000 Barney Hill.

02:48:10.000 What's your evidence?

02:48:10.000 You could just say, well, it's my own experience.

02:48:12.000 Well, I mean, he's just laying – that's a totally different thing.

02:48:15.000 He's just relaying his personal experience.

02:48:18.000 He could have had some sort of a psychotic break.

02:48:20.000 He could have had – I mean, it could have been mass psychosis with him and his – I mean, with two people.

02:48:26.000 Group psychosis with him and his wife.

02:48:28.000 I can say that there are things that make no sense.

02:48:34.000 Yeah.

02:48:59.000 It made no real sense.

02:49:00.000 But over time I realized actually that helps in this particular way.

02:49:02.000 But it achieves a state.

02:49:03.000 A state of consciousness.

02:49:05.000 We've known that forever.

02:49:06.000 That meditation in general achieves certain states of consciousness and you can actually, with fMRI, you can actually monitor the changes in the way the brain is...

02:49:16.000 See, this is what I like about you.

02:49:17.000 You're one of those guys.

02:49:18.000 You get into these very interesting, like...

02:49:22.000 Subtle sciences and then you find hard evidence for these things and just hearing that thing with James Wilk and breaking all these things down.

02:49:29.000 I'm more of a simpler guy.

02:49:32.000 I find people where I trust the way they live and they've applied stuff and walked the – It's more like I can tell time, but I don't know how to take apart a clock and put it back together.

02:49:42.000 No, I think exactly the same way.

02:49:44.000 I'm fascinated by watches.

02:49:45.000 Yeah.

02:49:46.000 But then you see all the gears behind a watch, like a self-winding watch, and you're like, I don't know what the fuck is happening here.

02:49:54.000 I'm sure I can find it out eventually.

02:49:56.000 I'm like that with a lot of things, and I'm always impressed when you dig into it with people like this.

02:50:01.000 But truthfully, if you want to know the honest truth, I was like, oh man, I hope Joe doesn't dig into it with me because I'm not that kind of hard science guy.

02:50:09.000 You don't have to be.

02:50:10.000 You don't have to be.

02:50:11.000 I'm concerned with you as a human being.

02:50:15.000 That's why I asked you very specifically, what do you think?

02:50:19.000 Right.

02:50:20.000 Well, I can say the stuff that you liked about me fighting...

02:50:23.000 Was endurance, flexibility.

02:50:26.000 I give all the credit to yoga.

02:50:29.000 You did at the time, too.

02:50:30.000 I've told many people that you had crazy cardio.

02:50:34.000 And your cardio was...

02:50:35.000 You never did cardio.

02:50:36.000 You just did breathing exercises.

02:50:37.000 Never did cardio.

02:50:38.000 Just sat down.

02:50:39.000 You always did great cardio.

02:50:40.000 You always led really good endurance.

02:50:43.000 And my cardio was even better.

02:50:46.000 I remember being at the bomb squad once on day 17 of a 21-day fast.

02:50:51.000 Wow.

02:50:52.000 Day 17. And I remember fighting...

02:50:54.000 I can't remember his name.

02:50:55.000 He's a cool guy.

02:50:56.000 He's like, what?

02:50:57.000 And you know how jujitsu class ends when we're all tanked and we're all like...

02:51:00.000 And I just kept on going.

02:51:02.000 And he's like, man, what is up with you?

02:51:04.000 I was like, I don't know.

02:51:05.000 I haven't eaten solid food in 17 days.

02:51:07.000 So it's not like I'm a genius.

02:51:10.000 Yeah.

02:51:10.000 It's just that these are sort of like yoga, fasting, deep breathing.

02:51:15.000 I've just been doing them.

02:51:16.000 And I'm sure there's people that can give you a modern take on what the benefits are.

02:51:21.000 Yeah, but that's not what I'm asking you.

02:51:22.000 What I'm asking is why you believe the Bhagavad Gita is real.

02:51:26.000 Sure.

02:51:26.000 So my point is there's reasonable amounts of faith in these other things that I've applied that have made me take a next step.

02:51:33.000 So whether I believe it's real, the truths I can extract from it are real.

02:51:37.000 Whether the war actually happened, there's a leap of faith.

02:51:41.000 The benefits of following those scriptures you apply and you feel those benefits.

02:51:47.000 So that's enough.

02:51:49.000 That's enough to make me move forward towards this.

02:51:52.000 Just for example, the idea of faith.

02:51:54.000 Because especially in America, we don't like the concept of blind faith.

02:51:57.000 But if I saw you walking in downtown – let's take it the other way.

02:52:02.000 You saw me – you're driving your Porsche and you saw me walking in Manhattan.

02:52:07.000 And you say, hey, Raghu, how do you get to Times Square?

02:52:10.000 And I say – so the first step is I could lie to you.

02:52:15.000 People lie all the time when you ask them for directions.

02:52:17.000 But you have some reasonable faith.

02:52:19.000 I know him.

02:52:20.000 He's a friend.

02:52:21.000 Why would he give me bad directions?

02:52:22.000 So there's a reasonable amount of faith.

02:52:23.000 But even still, people get into their egos and they just want to be the knower of directions.

02:52:30.000 But I say you go up to 14th Street and you're going to see a McDonald's, you take a right.

02:52:34.000 Then you're going to go down all the way to...

02:52:38.000 Whatever.

02:52:39.000 I can't remember Manhattan anymore.

02:52:40.000 Union Square and take a left and go up third.

02:52:42.000 And then at Union Square, you're going to see a park.

02:52:45.000 At that park, you take a hard left.

02:52:47.000 So, again, you have some type of extended faith towards me.

02:52:51.000 Not blind faith.

02:52:53.000 But you'd go up to 14th Street and there's that McDonald's.

02:52:55.000 As you go to McDonald's or that next signpost, you realize...

02:52:59.000 Okay, maybe he does know where he's going.

02:53:01.000 Then you go farther, there's Union Square.

02:53:04.000 Okay, I think he actually knows what's going on.

02:53:06.000 And all of a sudden you see Times Square in the distance.

02:53:10.000 So faith isn't just like, I believe.

02:53:12.000 And if anyone was to say, I believe this, I believe in these Vimanas, I believe in mantras, I'd start to question them.

02:53:20.000 But it happens with small degrees of things being just shown to you.

02:53:28.000 That you want to take, all right, what's the next step here?

02:53:30.000 What do they say about this?

02:53:32.000 What do they say about that?

02:53:33.000 And then you apply and see, well, does that work with me?

02:53:36.000 And like I said, sometimes things didn't make sense.

02:53:40.000 I remember when I first met monks and they said a question about, or not even monks, but people were just like following very strict with their sexuality, even in family.

02:53:55.000 And the guy said, I don't have sex.

02:53:58.000 I was 17. And I was like, you don't have sex with your wife?

02:54:00.000 Are you crazy?

02:54:02.000 He's like, no, we do other things.

02:54:05.000 And I just couldn't understand that as a 17-year-old boy or 18-year-old boy.

02:54:10.000 I couldn't understand why would you be with a person if not for that.

02:54:13.000 What was his answer?

02:54:13.000 What was their answer?

02:54:15.000 Because they said, we're practicing detachment.

02:54:17.000 We're practicing going internal to find our pleasure.

02:54:20.000 And he said, I said, what do you do for fun?

02:54:24.000 And he goes, let me go for a drive.

02:54:27.000 I was like, you go for a drive?

02:54:29.000 Are you crazy?

02:54:30.000 But it was where this person was on his path of really controlling the senses and finding his pleasure internally.

02:54:40.000 At different, at time in my life, it made no sense whatsoever.

02:54:44.000 Maybe he really didn't like having sex with his wife.

02:54:46.000 Or that!

02:54:46.000 He was looking for some sort of an excuse.

02:54:48.000 Or maybe there was...

02:54:49.000 We're going internal, baby.

02:54:50.000 She's like, what?

02:54:51.000 What's happening?

02:54:52.000 Maybe there was trauma.

02:54:53.000 We don't know the whole story.

02:54:55.000 I see what you're saying, though.

02:54:57.000 Applying this stuff...

02:54:59.000 Whether or not you break it down scientifically and objectively and try to analyze each and every word and whatever the translation is, you could actually apply those truths, air quotes, to your life and have real benefits.

02:55:13.000 Yeah.

02:55:14.000 Yeah.

02:55:15.000 Yeah.

02:55:18.000 And other things are just...

02:55:21.000 Does it make a difference if Vimanas exist or not?

02:55:24.000 No, it makes no difference in my practical life.

02:55:26.000 Could they exist?

02:55:27.000 Sure.

02:55:27.000 It could...

02:55:29.000 All these, yeah, it could answer a lot.

02:55:33.000 I think a lot of these things we've talked about, like life on other planets and aliens, they all are very much explained.

02:55:39.000 Or here's another good one.

02:55:41.000 What do these spiritual paths have in common?

02:55:44.000 We train ourselves to find the differences in all of them.

02:55:47.000 And the Vedic teachings say, don't you understand?

02:55:50.000 You should be able to walk into a mosque, into a church, into a synagogue and say, how nice.

02:55:54.000 These people are trying to connect.

02:55:57.000 Not that we got to win these people over to our team.

02:56:00.000 Right.

02:56:00.000 Because they're all an illusion and they're all going to hell forever.

02:56:03.000 Right.

02:56:04.000 Everyone's on a type of path, and I appreciate them trying to surrender.

02:56:07.000 And the only thing that's going to get in their way, because people say things like this all the time, it's religion that caused all the problems in this world.

02:56:13.000 And it's not religion, it's the ego that goes with joining a particular church, synagogue, ashram, etc., that we have it our way.

02:56:22.000 And everybody else, they're a problem, and we've got to fix it.

02:56:27.000 That's what gets in the way.

02:56:28.000 Because you could say materialism causes lots of problems as well in the world.

02:56:33.000 So I don't think it's...

02:56:34.000 The ego's sneaky.

02:56:36.000 It'll sneak into your diet.

02:56:37.000 It'll sneak into your God.

02:56:39.000 It'll sneak in.

02:56:40.000 And that's why there's an appreciation instead of a condemnation of people that are different than us.

02:56:50.000 Let's wrap it up right there.

02:56:52.000 Those three hours, man.

02:56:53.000 Oh, really?

02:56:54.000 Yeah.

02:56:54.000 Isn't that crazy?

02:56:55.000 That is crazy.

02:56:56.000 Time flies.

02:56:57.000 I felt like we just started, man.

02:56:58.000 We kind of did.

02:56:59.000 I hope that it wasn't boring.

02:57:00.000 It was great.

02:57:02.000 That's it, everybody.

02:57:04.000 Thank you, and Hare Krishna.

02:57:06.000 Goodbye.

02:57:08.000 Thanks, man.

02:57:09.000 Thanks, brother.

02:57:11.000 You're doing great stuff, man.

02:57:12.000 That was fun.

The Joe Rogan Experience - February 21, 2020

Joe Rogan Experience #1430 - Raghunath Cappo

Episode Stats

Length

Words per Minute

Word Count

Sentence Count

Misogynist Sentences

Summary

Transcript