Stay Free - Russel Brand - Jack Kornfield (Morality, Spirituality & AI)

00:00:00.000 Hello there, you Awakening Wonders!

00:00:01.000 Thank you so much for joining me for Stay Free with Russell Brand.

00:00:05.000 We've got so many fantastic subjects to discuss with you and a glorious guest.

00:00:10.000 We're going to talk about Trump, how he says he would end the war in 24 hours.

00:00:14.000 Off YouTube, because you might be watching us on YouTube now, you might be one of our 6.52 million Awakening Wonders that are tired of the mainstream news, that are tired of establishment power, that are tired of being lied to, And believe we can create something new and wonderful and for the first 15 minutes we will be with you.

00:00:31.000 But then we're going to migrate like a glorious miasma, like a sweet phantom, over to the home of free speech that I dare not mention.

00:00:40.000 Not because it's like Voldemort or Wicked and stuff, but case the algorithms against it.

00:00:46.000 Because guess what Tucker revealed?

00:00:48.000 He never gave himself so much as a snip-snap.

00:00:50.000 Tucker revealed he never gave himself so much as a jib-jab.

00:00:53.000 Tucker revealed, didn't he?

00:00:54.000 Allegedly.

00:00:55.000 It's not allegedly because he revealed it.

00:00:58.000 Learn what allegedly means.

00:00:59.000 I know what it means.

00:01:00.000 It means controversial.

00:01:03.000 Don't it?

00:01:03.000 Same as controversial.

00:01:06.000 It means getting in trouble with YouTube.

00:01:08.000 Not with that little guy.

00:01:09.000 That's my little, that stops me getting in any trouble that does.

00:01:14.000 If the WHO didn't interfere with us communicating openly on YouTube, this is meant to be a public platform, but we'll get to the bottom of all that along with so many subjects.

00:01:25.000 And we'll be talking about the morality that undergirds behavior reporting and systemic governance with Jack Kornfield, a world teacher.

00:01:34.000 We'll be talking about moral perspectives on AI, on Tucker's revelation?

00:01:40.000 Does he have the bodily autonomy to make such a claim?

00:01:42.000 Does he have a responsibility as a role model and as a public figure?

00:01:46.000 Is there a leadership crisis?

00:01:48.000 What does he think about Trump's stand on war?

00:01:51.000 Get your questions in now.

00:01:53.000 You could join us.

00:01:53.000 If you're on Rumble, right?

00:01:55.000 See that red button on the bottom of your screen?

00:01:56.000 See it?

00:01:57.000 See it if you're watching us on Rubble.

00:01:58.000 Press it.

00:01:59.000 Press down on it.

00:02:00.000 Press down on it hard, baby. 0.97

00:02:02.000 Like, for example, a nipple. 0.94

00:02:03.000 Because Jim Earthsea, one of our local community members, says, I wonder if we'll see Russ's nips today. 0.96

00:02:09.000 I wonder indeed, Jim Earthsea.

00:02:12.000 I wonder indeed.

00:02:13.000 There's a chance.

00:02:14.000 There's a very high chance.

00:02:15.000 Yes, smash that like button, says someone else.

00:02:17.000 Gareth's shirt is lovely, says Georgie Gal.

00:02:20.000 Hannah Sharpe, fripples! 1.00

00:02:21.000 Show them, Russell!

00:02:23.000 Oh no you didn't!

00:02:24.000 Oh no you didn't!

00:02:25.000 You didn't just objectify me! 0.98

00:02:27.000 I'll pull shut my lilac cardigan so hard!

00:02:30.000 Also, on Here's the News, we'll be analysing that moment when Tucker took down Pence.

00:02:36.000 And look at all the new, emergent, independent voices in media spaces.

00:02:41.000 45% of Americans, Gareth Roy, no less, say they would consider voting for a third party candidate.

00:02:46.000 Does it mean that it's fracturing?

00:02:48.000 Is the system falling apart?

00:02:50.000 Are we in a new Rubicon?

00:02:53.000 Are systems tumbling and crumbling?

00:02:55.000 Let us know!

00:02:56.000 Join us on Locals, join the chat.

00:02:57.000 Plus, you know how we believe in freedom of speech.

00:03:00.000 We're going to be bringing you some sweet, sweet free speech, along with our caffeine.

00:03:05.000 Because directly after this, guess who I'm talking to?

00:03:07.000 Go on.

00:03:09.000 They don't really call him the governator.

00:03:11.000 That was Schwarzenegger, wasn't it?

00:03:13.000 But this is a new governator on The Santas I'm talking to.

00:03:16.000 He's written this book.

00:03:17.000 I'll be talking to him a little bit later.

00:03:18.000 That's not on this show.

00:03:19.000 We'll be broadcasting that later in the week.

00:03:22.000 Join us in our Locals community.

00:03:23.000 Shall we have a look at this first story?

00:03:25.000 How exactly does Donald Trump, among all of his claims, say that he's going to end war in 24 hours?

00:03:31.000 We've also got the results of a poll that we sent you.

00:03:33.000 Post the poll in this chat as well over on Locals now so they can join in in case they haven't done it yet.

00:03:37.000 OK, let's have a look at Trump saying that he would end war in just a day.

00:03:42.000 He's like David Bowie.

00:03:43.000 He's a hero, but not just for one day.

00:03:45.000 He can end a war in just one day.

00:03:46.000 Join us on Rumble if you're watching us elsewhere.

00:03:47.000 Let's have a look at this news story.

00:03:49.000 You said you could end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.

00:03:52.000 Yes, I could.

00:03:52.000 How would you do that?

00:03:54.000 I know Zelensky very well.

00:03:56.000 I felt he was very honourable because when they asked him about the perfect phone call that I made, he said it was indeed perfect.

00:04:02.000 He said it was... He didn't even know what they were talking about.

00:04:05.000 He could have grammed... I don't know what you like about Trump, but he does mediate everything through his ego.

00:04:10.000 Yeah.

00:04:10.000 Like if someone says something that's nice about him, he likes that.

00:04:14.000 Yeah, the perfect phone call.

00:04:15.000 Perfect phone call.

00:04:17.000 Hello?

00:04:18.000 Oh, no, sorry, you go first.

00:04:19.000 Sorry, no, sorry, I was going to say, oh, hi, hello, I'm just driving.

00:04:21.000 Sorry.

00:04:22.000 Oh, no, it's going from the headphones to the car Bluetooth.

00:04:25.000 None of that!

00:04:26.000 Not with Trump.

00:04:27.000 Straight in there.

00:04:28.000 I just like the idea that Zelensky, after talking to Trump, you know, when the Russian invasion was mooted and all these things, that there would have been a call between them.

00:04:38.000 But Zelensky got off the phone and he went, you know what?

00:04:41.000 That was the perfect phone call.

00:04:42.000 How do you even analyse that?

00:04:44.000 What is the metric for evaluating the perfect phone call?

00:04:47.000 Like it's an ice dance that you could hold up a tent to.

00:04:50.000 Oh, I felt threatened.

00:04:51.000 Well, that's not going to be enough for Putin to stop bombing.

00:04:53.000 No, no, no.

00:04:54.000 No, I'm not saying that.

00:04:55.000 What I'm saying is that I know Zelensky very well and I know Putin very well.

00:04:59.000 So like the idea that knowing people well is the way to solve these problems because actually what Trump suggests strategically and tactically is saying to Putin we would give Ukraine so many weapons that they would win this war.

00:05:12.000 So in a sense he's just saying he would amplify what's happening.

00:05:15.000 So what do you think about that guys?

00:05:16.000 Particularly those of you that love Trump.

00:05:18.000 Because it's interesting isn't it because we're now living in a time where there are emergent independent voices and in a sense you can say Trump was the harbinger of that.

00:05:26.000 Whether you like Trump or not there's no doubt that he was a berserker in the system, a bull in the china shop. 0.81

00:05:32.000 He is not the preferred candidate of the establishment.

00:05:34.000 I think it's safe to say that now and perhaps in his wake we have the emergence of figures like RFK Friend of the show, if you've not donated to the fund for me to do pull-ups against RFK, for God's sake donate now.

00:05:47.000 Let's post the link to that in the description because, not in the description, in the chat on locals, because baby, I am gonna pull him up so hard.

00:05:57.000 I am ready to pull up.

00:05:58.000 I'm telling you.

00:05:59.000 Perfect pull up.

00:05:59.000 The perfect pull up I'm going to do.

00:06:01.000 Perfect.

00:06:01.000 Look at the form.

00:06:02.000 All the way down.

00:06:03.000 Full extension.

00:06:04.000 All the way up.

00:06:05.000 Chest out.

00:06:05.000 Chin above.

00:06:06.000 That's the kind of pull up competition that I'm interested in.

00:06:09.000 So let's see how Trump actually would end war in 24 hours.

00:06:15.000 And I had a good relationship, very good, with both of them.

00:06:19.000 I would tell Zelensky, no more.

00:06:22.000 You've got to make a deal.

00:06:23.000 I would tell Putin, if you don't make a deal, we're going to give them a lot.

00:06:26.000 We're going to give them more than they ever got if we have to.

00:06:29.000 It's good that he sort of publicly tells us as well exactly what the strategy is.

00:06:33.000 Zelensky, no more.

00:06:35.000 Putin, more.

00:06:36.000 He goes from diplomacy to the complete opposite of diplomacy in about three seconds.

00:06:41.000 It's a strange tactic and strategy.

00:06:43.000 In a sense, Security is the perfect indication of the times that we live in.

00:06:49.000 The old systems are dying.

00:06:51.000 We're becoming weary of the rhetoric of systemic power.

00:06:56.000 The US are pressuring the Ukraine to push harder in the counter-offensive.

00:07:00.000 Gareth, you had a point to make on this story.

00:07:01.000 No, I just think it's amazing that this is going on, that the US government and the military are getting frustrated with Ukraine for how the counter-offensive is going, despite Mark Milley saying that the counter-offensive is not a failure, which is already going quite far, isn't it?

00:07:16.000 It's not a failure in my view, I think it's way too early to say that kind of thing.

00:07:19.000 I think there's a lot of fighting left to do, and I'll stay with what we've said before, this is going to be a long and hard bloody battle.

00:07:27.000 Give war a chance.

00:07:28.000 For God's sake, let's really give this war a chance.

00:07:31.000 Also, the whole thing was proposed as aid, but there's not even a war anyway.

00:07:36.000 So this war that's not happening anyway, and certainly not a proxy war, they're now disappointed with the results of it.

00:07:42.000 If it was like famine aid, you wouldn't go, oh, we're not giving them any more famine aid.

00:07:46.000 They're still bloody hungry.

00:07:47.000 Look at them.

00:07:48.000 We've sent over all of this flour.

00:07:50.000 They're still skinny as rakes.

00:07:51.000 It's meant to not be a proxy war.

00:07:53.000 So you should have no skin in the game.

00:07:55.000 It should be like, we've given you you the aid. What's the problem?

00:07:57.000 Look how that's happened, hasn't it? It's crept in, week by week by week, this is how

00:08:01.000 it gets to it. The start is, this is not our war, it's not American troops, we're just

00:08:06.000 providing aid exactly as you say. And then the creep comes to the point where you've

00:08:09.000 got the government saying, we're angry about how slow this is and how badly that you're

00:08:14.000 doing and that this is going to be a long hard battle.

00:08:17.000 Starting to look like a proxy war now.

00:08:18.000 No wonder they require absolute control over media institutions, and in particular social media.

00:08:25.000 You know that federal judge passed a law saying that your free speech had been impeached by Biden administration actions, that true information had been censored, in particular during the pandemic period.

00:08:37.000 And the federal judge said it had to stop, that the Biden administration could only interact with social media platforms if it were matters of criminality, Well, that has been overturned.

00:08:52.000 The Biden administration will be allowed to continue to collude with social media, continue to demand they censor, even as new legislation is being passed to permit it in your country, the United States, in Canada, in Australia, in New Zealand, in our country, the UK and across the EU.

00:09:08.000 Of course, they have to amplify their message.

00:09:12.000 But there is a requirement for censorship because without censorship we will openly communicate, and of course there are bigoted people in the world, there are people saying hateful things, I wish there weren't, but there are.

00:09:22.000 But the biggest threat is our open communication.

00:09:26.000 Not our bigotry, not our potential hatred towards one another, but the fact that we can collude, cooperate, present new alternatives.

00:09:35.000 Let me know in the chat right now, press the red button, join us on Locals, and let me know what you think about this.

00:09:41.000 The Biden administration overturned a rule.

00:09:43.000 What's the point in having a ruling if they can instantly overturn it?

00:09:46.000 It's not overturned.

00:09:47.000 So they went to the Court of Appeals, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, and it's been temporarily suspended.

00:09:53.000 So all hope is not lost.

00:09:54.000 It's been suspended for now.

00:09:55.000 But they're going to continue right now to do what they were doing, what they were told immediately to stop doing.

00:10:00.000 Yeah.

00:10:00.000 So, once again, there's a legislative quagmire that can be fired up that's anti-democratic, anti-judicial, which reveals precisely what we continually tell us and what we continually tell you and what you continually tell us.

00:10:13.000 These institutions are failing, that they're not fit for purpose.

00:10:17.000 Remember, we're going to leave you in a second, we'll be exclusively on Rumble to talk about Tucker's admission.

00:10:22.000 Acknowledgement that he has taken no shots.

00:10:25.000 Oh, you're surprised by that?

00:10:26.000 Let me know in the chat how many shots you had.

00:10:28.000 Let me know in the chat what you think about that.

00:10:30.000 Is he allowed to do that?

00:10:31.000 Is that even possible?

00:10:32.000 Obviously we can't talk about that openly on YouTube because where do YouTube get their community guidelines?

00:10:37.000 From the WHO.

00:10:38.000 Where does the WHO get its fundings?

00:10:40.000 What's his biggest funder?

00:10:41.000 Some of the funding of the WHO comes directly from you, of course.

00:10:44.000 Remember when you voted for that?

00:10:45.000 Of course you didn't.

00:10:46.000 But, significantly, the funding of the WHO comes from, well, let me know in the comments.

00:10:51.000 Jill Bates, exactly.

00:10:52.000 J. Gwynne Wilde.

00:10:54.000 That's right, we're going to send you a t-shirt saying you are free.

00:10:58.000 Free, sweetly free.

00:11:00.000 Shall we have a look at Donald Trump's reaction to the January 6th there?

00:11:05.000 The number one thing that bothers Trump about potentially being arrested over the events related to January the 6th is that he received the letter on a Sunday.

00:11:15.000 Let's have a look at him on Fox News.

00:11:17.000 And you released on Truth Social earlier today that they now, that you are a target of this January 6th grand jury.

00:11:29.000 My first question to you is, it doesn't seem to bother you like I think it would bother so many other people.

00:11:36.000 What is it about you that it doesn't?

00:11:39.000 No, it bothers me.

00:11:40.000 It bothers me for everybody in this incredible sold-out audience.

00:11:46.000 He's brilliant.

00:11:46.000 He's like a WWF president.

00:11:49.000 He's like a wrestling president.

00:11:51.000 He's pitching.

00:11:52.000 It's P.T.

00:11:53.000 Barnum.

00:11:54.000 It's extraordinary, actually, telling you while it's happening that it's a sold-out audience.

00:11:59.000 Yeah, it's so skillful.

00:12:00.000 the way he does it. But the issue with Trump is that is it just that? Is it all just rhetoric?

00:12:06.000 And maybe that's enough, but maybe it's not. You know, the position on lethal aid to Ukraine

00:12:12.000 is exactly that, that there is an issue there. When his strategy goes from, you know, it's

00:12:18.000 about diplomacy and peace talks to I'd just send Ukraine loads of weaponry, because Trump

00:12:23.000 sent loads of weapons to Ukraine in the first place. You know, he sent like $47 million

00:12:30.000 of weapons in the first place. So you've got to have, I guess you've got to have something

00:12:33.000 to also back that up. It can't just be the rhetoric, which I admit is very funny and

00:12:37.000 skillful. He's also saying that he would end that war in 24 hours. And maybe these are

00:12:43.000 Oracle tricks that they perhaps wouldn't send any more weapons after all.

00:12:46.000 What do you guys think?

00:12:47.000 Let me know in the chat.

00:12:48.000 We'll be talking to Jack Kornfield in a minute.

00:12:50.000 Jack Kornfield is a world teacher, a fantastic spiritual teacher about the morality behind

00:12:55.000 these kinds of positions.

00:12:57.000 And where are we?

00:12:59.000 Where do we stand now where Noam Chomsky and Donald Trump have the same political perspective,

00:13:04.000 where Cornel West and Tucker Carlson have the same political perspective?

00:13:08.000 Where it's taking increasingly peripheral figures to point out that there should be an alternative to ongoing war.

00:13:15.000 That the establishment, whether it's Mike Pence or Joe Biden, are advocating for forever wars.

00:13:21.000 That it takes now people from outside the establishment.

00:13:23.000 And do you even agree with that analysis?

00:13:25.000 Is Trump outside the establishment?

00:13:26.000 Let me know.

00:13:27.000 Let me know.

00:13:29.000 I got the letter on Sunday night.

00:13:31.000 Think of it.

00:13:32.000 I don't think they've ever sent a letter on Sunday night.

00:13:34.000 And they're in a rush because they want to interfere.

00:13:36.000 It's interference with the election.

00:13:38.000 It's election interference.

00:13:40.000 Never been done like this in the history of our country and it's a disgrace.

00:13:44.000 What's happening to our country, whether it's the borders or the elections or kinds of things like this where the DOJ has become a weapon for the Democrats.

00:13:53.000 The DOJ is a weapon for the Democrats.

00:13:57.000 Difficult to query that analysis when there is the temporary suspension of verdicts that had been reached by legitimate judicial figures, allowing the Biden administration to continue to censor.

00:14:10.000 Astonishing.

00:14:11.000 If you're watching this on YouTube right now, click the link on your description.

00:14:14.000 We're heading over to Rumble to talk about... Did you see this?

00:14:17.000 Did you see Tucker talking about He's zero jabs.

00:14:20.000 What I like about that chat most of all... See you later, YouTube.

00:14:22.000 Click the link.

00:14:23.000 Join us over there.

00:14:24.000 Join us over there.

00:14:24.000 And if you're watching us on Rumble, click the red button right now and join us in the chat.

00:14:29.000 What I like about this is in his chat with who I can only assume is a delightful old gentleman, in the chat he sort of says, how many jabs did you have?

00:14:37.000 And that fellow went, "Well, how many jabs did you have?"

00:14:39.000 Which shows, like, that's real playground negotiation tactics.

00:14:43.000 Let's have a little look at this clip.

00:14:45.000 And once more, it's another example of how it's independent, now independent,

00:14:49.000 media figures like Tucker Carlson, who are able to handle the national

00:14:52.000 and, indeed, international conversation a lot more deftly than supposed political figures.

00:14:58.000 Remember when we showed you yesterday Mike Pence talking about how he would double down on the militarisation of Ukraine, continue to perpetuate this war mentality.

00:15:09.000 It was Tucker that points out, well hang on a minute,

00:15:11.000 have you not looked around American cities at the moment?

00:15:13.000 Yeah, a lot of people are saying, Tucker for president, or Davros 200 actually.

00:15:17.000 But I get a general impression that what your appetite is for now

00:15:20.000 is anti-establishment political figures because the establishment itself is the problem,

00:15:25.000 not the minor differences between establishment entities.

00:15:29.000 Would you agree with that analysis generally?

00:15:30.000 Let's have a look at Tucker Carlson's stance on the jabs there.

00:15:34.000 One of the powers that government did usurp over the past several years

00:15:38.000 is the right to decide what medicine you take in the form of COVID mandates.

00:15:45.000 How did you feel about that and how many COVID shots did you take and how do you feel about it now in retrospect?

00:15:51.000 How many COVID shots did you take?

00:15:53.000 Zero.

00:15:57.000 Oh, Tucker, going in hard with a zero.

00:16:00.000 Now, what I know from when Tucker Carlson joined us on this show is he is able to align his easy, convivial manner, his fluidity and eloquence as a communicator with authenticity.

00:16:16.000 He feels like when you're speaking with him, whether it's on camera or off, you feel like you're dealing with a connected person who you may not agree with on everything, but you can speak with in good faith.

00:16:27.000 That's why I'm sort of astonished by people that say that Tucker's a white supremacist and that kind of thing, because it just doesn't hold up in person.

00:16:38.000 And particularly something like this now.

00:16:39.000 Is this the first public figure you've seen say zero shots?

00:16:43.000 Maybe so.

00:16:44.000 I also think he's in that amazing position at the moment.

00:16:46.000 Obviously he's a highly skilled broadcaster, but now that he's left Fox and has no ties to the mainstream at all, or getting kind of told what he can and can't say, he's able to point out, he's in this incredible position of basically just pointing out hypocrisy.

00:17:02.000 And so when he's asked by Asa Hutchinson, Like, how many did you take?

00:17:06.000 He can say, I didn't take any shots because he knows from the Republican position and all these Republican candidates that he's interviewed is that they live in hypocrisy, whether that's the war or COVID.

00:17:17.000 Again, coming back to Trump, you know, again, I don't think there's another figure in politics who could weather the storm of the lockdowns that Trump imposed, the way in which he took great pride in those In the vaccines you know I don't think anyone else could kind of still come through that with the fan base that he's got when there's so many things that you could say his party did at that time and their position on war that just feels very hypocritical.

00:17:43.000 Certainly he's granted incredible grace by the surrounding environment of ongoing hypocrisy a lot of people in the chat asking did that politician ever answer the question do you feel increasingly now But we're approaching a point where you don't want to be governed people that even look like that.

00:18:02.000 A kind of sort of drabness, the hollowed-out, pallid complexion of these cookie-cutter, off-the-conveyor-belt, political figures who, from either side of the aisle, parrot the same talking points, support the same ideas, went to the same schools, are funded in the same way.

00:18:22.000 Isn't there a kind of appetite now for raw rhetoric?

00:18:27.000 Let's have a look as well, just based on that issue.

00:18:29.000 Tucker's vaccine revelation, we asked you.

00:18:31.000 Does it make you like him more, less, or just the same?

00:18:35.000 65% liked him more, 33% of you already liked him, less 2%, 98% of you found this made you warm to Tucker a little more.

00:18:45.000 Let's have a look at the rest of that clip.

00:18:48.000 But I think it's fair and I can see that you look at the zero.

00:18:52.000 Is it like they're still applauding him saying zero?

00:18:56.000 That's the reaction.

00:18:57.000 I asked you that question.

00:19:00.000 Take that to mean like this is everybody supporting let's not get vaccines.

00:19:03.000 That's everyone supporting authenticity, open discourse, clear communication, because we live in a time of obfuscation and deception.

00:19:13.000 Have you seen all these stories about Joe Biden?

00:19:16.000 People saying, oh, Joe Biden, he's foul mouthed and filthy tempered in public.

00:19:21.000 He's being abusive to his staff while making declarations in public that anyone that's rude in his team will be out on their ear immediately.

00:19:30.000 You don't even know for sure whether or not this is a tactic to make Joe Biden seem more dynamic.

00:19:36.000 We live almost entirely in a spectacle.

00:19:39.000 Integrity and authenticity are becoming the currency of our time.

00:19:44.000 I'd say I'd rather deal with people that I disagree with but trust that they're telling the truth than people that parrot the points of the contemporary ideology and will parrot other points when they come into fashion.

00:19:58.000 And I don't think, honestly, you should be asking people about their medical care, but that became a matter of public policy.

00:20:05.000 And I do think that the whole country ought to pause and assess, like, what did we just go through?

00:20:09.000 How do we feel about it now?

00:20:10.000 And so it's a very straightforward question.

00:20:12.000 Authenticity and integrity fundamentally are spiritual matters.

00:20:17.000 We've Living, I believe, in a kind of spiritual vacuum.

00:20:21.000 We're living in a time where trust in all of our institutions is waning.

00:20:25.000 People don't trust the government anymore.

00:20:27.000 People don't trust the mainstream media.

00:20:30.000 Faith, even in God, in parts of the country.

00:20:33.000 Remember, we talked to you at length about 50% of Americans no longer identify as Christians.

00:20:39.000 This is a time of crisis.

00:20:41.000 I think what people crave more than anything is integrity.

00:20:46.000 We've got some fantastic content coming up for you over the course of the week, but it's time now for me to interview my guest.

00:20:52.000 Yeah, I would love to interview my guest now because, yeah, look at the time.

00:20:58.000 This is Jack Kornfeld, who is a Buddhist monk, a best-selling author, a world-renowned spiritual teacher.

00:21:05.000 Jack, thank you so much for joining me on Stay Free with Russell Brand.

00:21:07.000 Thank you, Russell.

00:21:09.000 I wanted to start by talking about some of the subjects we've already discussed in this episode.

00:21:14.000 Donald Trump is almost the very definition of a divisive figure.

00:21:18.000 In some areas this man is regarded as the embodiment of anti-establishment force.

00:21:25.000 He's for many of our viewers their The only opportunity we're going to have to stand up against hypocrisy and corruption within the establishment.

00:21:35.000 Notable that he is one of the few voices within the mainstream that is advocating for peace at this time.

00:21:42.000 How do you, from the perspective of a spiritualist, a man who is devout and dedicated to spirituality, Ethically deal with the subject of Donald Trump and what he represents.

00:21:54.000 How do you deal with the subject of militarism and forever wars?

00:21:59.000 What do you feel it tells us when you have figures like Donald Trump and Noam Chomsky saying the same things about war, Cornel West and RFK saying the same thing about war and yet the establishment still advocating for ongoing wars if it's a duty, a responsibility and the only moral thing to do?

00:22:16.000 Well, Russell, you've got the establishment on one side, and you've got the anti-establishment on the other side.

00:22:22.000 Let me say two things to start with.

00:22:25.000 First, no amount of technology, of nanotechnology, AI, biotechnology, war technology, is going to stop continuing warfare, nor business as usual, because the source of warfare is the human heart.

00:22:42.000 And we can get better weapons.

00:22:45.000 We can elect other people.

00:22:47.000 But if people are still divisive in their heart and not connected in any way, don't have a society that represents and fosters care, then we get what you talked about.

00:22:58.000 You talked about it on the playground.

00:23:00.000 When kids are, you know, hitting each other with blocks, you say, use your words.

00:23:05.000 You actually teach people that there's another way to be.

00:23:10.000 And we have a society that's tremendously divisive, and it's not going to be changed unless also people change inside, which is what I've learned as a Buddhist monk, that in fact, if you want the world to be more peaceful, you also have to step out of the... stop the war inside yourself.

00:23:31.000 Otherwise, you could have establishment and anti-establishment, and it just carries on.

00:23:37.000 Yes, it seems increasingly plain to me that the prima materia of our reality is consciousness itself and the external world, an expression of some ulterior force that is privately accessible to all of us through the subjective experience.

00:23:52.000 And perhaps in this spectacular age, and I use that word most literally, Jack, this thirst and hunger for integrity and authenticity comes from Our shared realisation that what we're being presented, whether it's from a Republican perspective, or a Democrat perspective, or from within the mainstream media, or by our judiciary, or from within the corporatist, globalist world and its evident influence within media spaces, is a lack of integrity and authenticity.

00:24:23.000 That's why a figure like Tucker Carlson, I believe, who came on our show and was absolutely fantastic, He and I had sort of a real connection, and have a real connection.

00:24:33.000 I would say that whilst there are areas of, you know, policy and social matters where he and I would disagree, what I'd accept is that he's a person who comes from a place of integrity and authenticity.

00:24:46.000 What do you think of this modern currency of integrity and authenticity?

00:24:50.000 And do you feel that it's something that's lacking in public discourse, and in particular in political discourse?

00:24:57.000 Of course there's something lacking, partly because we live in an addictive society in which the best contribution you can make, you know, is to continue to consume.

00:25:08.000 The best person in the society is neither dead nor alive, but more like a zombie and doesn't want to stand up and say, this is what matters to me, whether it's eating carcinogenic food or polluting the environment and so forth.

00:25:22.000 So we're missing that because we're being trained In some way, almost as if the society itself is an addict.

00:25:32.000 And then secondly, when I was living in the monastery during the time, one of the times of war in Southeast Asia, and there was a firefight near the monastery, and the monastery was a zone of peace.

00:25:45.000 In the morning, I went out with an old monk, and there were some helicopters dropping canister bombs where the so-called terrorists were living.

00:25:55.000 And, you know, the firefight was close enough you could see the flashes at night.

00:25:59.000 And I said, oh, the military is bombing those terrorists, you know, that we saw fighting last night.

00:26:07.000 And the monk said, oh, they don't live there.

00:26:08.000 They're in caves down that way, further down the ridge.

00:26:10.000 I said, well, why are they bombing there?

00:26:12.000 And he said, well, If they killed them all, then no one would continue to give them all these nice helicopters and weapons.

00:26:20.000 And you could feel that underneath the war was also this huge economic engine.

00:26:27.000 The U.S.

00:26:28.000 is a warlike nation, and there's this tremendous emphasis on keeping war going.

00:26:35.000 We have to teach our children to look honestly and say, all right, what are the values you want to live?

00:26:42.000 If you want integrity, do you want to live with continuing warfare?

00:26:46.000 Or is there an alternative to it?

00:26:49.000 Do you want to live with continuing consumer addiction?

00:26:52.000 Or is there some way you can find a connection to each other that's caring and in yourself?

00:26:58.000 And that's the kind of thing that's needed in the society as much as anything.

00:27:04.000 There is a requirement for that, but we live also during a time of approaching immersive censorship.

00:27:11.000 It seems to me that there are genuine globalist forces that are trying to slowly, softly, and maybe not so

00:27:19.000 slowly or softly, introduce social credit score systems, introduce control of digital currency,

00:27:28.000 maintain control through censorship, a time absolutely lacking in integrity and authenticity.

00:27:37.000 Whilst I recognize that an inner personal revolution is the most important thing that any of us can do.

00:27:44.000 And it's very empowering to hear that.

00:27:47.000 Because some of the subjects we talk about on the show, I think people feel like, what am I supposed to do about--

00:27:53.000 NATO and the WHO and the WEF and the military-industrial complex and these centralised media institutions that lie.

00:28:03.000 The funding of both political parties comes from the same sources.

00:28:07.000 How can I change that?

00:28:09.000 But what is deeply empowering is the fact that all of us, through the private alter within us, do have access to a deep force, can cultivate a different mentality, do have access to a power that actually is the only thing that can meaningfully alter reality.

00:28:27.000 Nevertheless, Jack, there are, I would say, accumulating forces of opposition, not least through technology.

00:28:37.000 And I understand that you've been communicating a lot with Sam Altman about the potential destructive power of AI, which of course could be utilized like any tool for good.

00:28:48.000 But I suppose the fear at the moment is that AI could wreak economic havoc could annihilate a lot of jobs, could be used to impose

00:28:55.000 further control, could be used to divide people further. What are some of the topics

00:29:00.000 and subjects you're discussing with Sam Altman and what is coming out of those

00:29:05.000 conversations?

00:29:07.000 I'll answer that briefly and then I would throw a question your way.

00:29:10.000 The question, and the leaders of AI don't know how to do it, is how do you build in honesty, integrity, and ethical values within a computer?

00:29:23.000 All systems and with artificial intelligence.

00:29:27.000 And I think it all needs to be slowed down, which is what Sam also agreed to in some way until that can be established.

00:29:35.000 I had a conversation with Charlie Oppenheimer, who's the grandson of Robert J. Oppenheimer.

00:29:42.000 There's a film that's just coming out.

00:29:44.000 And in 1945, Oppenheimer suggested that there be an international group that hold the Nuclear explosive power of the bomb rather than any particular country And there was a two-year period when the US was the only holder of nuclear power And then we said no we're gonna we're gonna run the world with our nuclear power and the nuclear arms race started The same thing is happening with AI right now And it's possible to pause and say let's collaborate and do this together rather than make a AI

00:30:20.000 Artificial intelligence, global war of whose AI is more powerful than whose.

00:30:28.000 The question for us is, do we continue down the path of conflict with one another?

00:30:35.000 Or what are you helping?

00:30:37.000 You know, you pointed out, Russell, you point out how things are messed up and the establishment, this and that.

00:30:45.000 What's the solution?

00:30:46.000 It's not just individualism, is it?

00:30:49.000 I mean, we need So how do you how do you create a wise society that's not just individualistic and where people are responsible and ethical caring for the community as a whole?

00:31:02.000 I feel that individualism has perhaps reached its apex and perhaps in the reification of identity that is enshrined in identity politics which for me holds many truths We ought be free to become who we truly are and nobody should impede the self-expression of individuals.

00:31:26.000 Our freedom is perhaps one of the greatest principles around which we can organise our lives.

00:31:32.000 But there is more to my personal reality than what I want and what I don't want.

00:31:37.000 And as an addict, I've fallen into the trap of treating my own preferences and aversions

00:31:43.000 like a kind of inner dogma imposed by instinct, impulse, and cultural conditioning.

00:31:50.000 What I suggest is that our systems and institutions need a radical re-evaluation of their ethics,

00:31:58.000 that it seems to be, to me, that our media and our systems of governance promote the ugliest aspects of our nature.

00:32:07.000 They promote desire.

00:32:09.000 They sustain fear.

00:32:11.000 Powerful forces that are very, very difficult to overcome and impossible to overcome without a spiritual experience.

00:32:19.000 simply the realization that the inner life is the real world and the outer phenomena

00:32:24.000 is on some level a deep expression of this inward experience.

00:32:28.000 It takes a great deal of discipline and surrender to access this point.

00:32:33.000 The only way for us to proceed at this time, I believe, is to acknowledge what is truly

00:32:39.000 happening.

00:32:41.000 Decentralization and devolution are making themselves felt through the technological advances

00:32:47.000 of the last few years.

00:32:48.000 It is no longer necessary to have centralized institutions of finance, capital and power.

00:32:55.000 We have real fascism now, if you take Mussolini's definition that fascism is the reconstituting

00:33:03.000 of private power and state power into one oppressive fist.

00:33:08.000 We stand on the brink, I believe, not of an Orwellian dystopia, but of a Huxleyan dystopia,

00:33:14.000 high on SOMA we lay as passive blobs in our cells, our energy harnessed, our consciousness

00:33:22.000 directed towards the lower and basest aspects, most base aspects of our nature.

00:33:28.000 An individual awakening is not a luxury, it is a necessity.

00:33:33.000 When people ask what can I do, what I respond is the thing you can do is the most important

00:33:38.000 thing available, personally awaken.

00:33:41.000 What concomitant with this is the necessity to break down and attack these institutions

00:33:46.000 of corruption, to replace centralized power wherever possible with localized power, democratic

00:33:54.000 There is a fusion to be had between the apparently opposing ideas of libertarianism, which is

00:34:00.000 generally associated with the right, anarchism, which is usually seen as being to the left

00:34:04.000 of the leftist most politics, and recognizing that when we have individual freedom meshed

00:34:09.000 with community duty, we have the possibility to build new societies.

00:34:15.000 But that is not going to be possible without a significant spiritual awakening at the level

00:34:20.000 of the individual.

00:34:21.000 I believe that there will be a tipping point and I think that we can approach it through spiritual practice and a kind of unity against central corruption.

00:34:31.000 That's what we're trying to convey on this show, Jack.

00:34:34.000 And that's what I want to talk to you about.

00:34:36.000 And that's why you're here.

00:34:37.000 If you have questions for Jack in the chat, join us, press the red button, join us over on Locals and speak at That team stay free so that I find your questions in there and guys out there bring the questions for Jack in, proper questions.

00:34:50.000 Jack, what do you think about my little diatribe there?

00:34:53.000 I loved your diatribe, and I want to say to people that we can always start again, that we can always begin again.

00:35:02.000 It's one of the great spiritual truths.

00:35:04.000 If you listen to Lehmann Gbowee and those who won the Nobel Peace Prize in Liberia, where she said, Liberia used to be known for its child soldiers, And now it's known for its women leaders.

00:35:20.000 That revolution is that combination of inner revolution to realize that you can step out of your own fears, you can step out of your own addiction.

00:35:31.000 James Baldwin put it this way, he said, I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hate and ignorance so stubbornly is because they sense that once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with their own pain and fear.

00:35:45.000 And if we can honor that we're human and we can actually stand up to that, we can look in our own hearts and say, yes, we have our measure of pain.

00:35:54.000 Yes, we have our fear.

00:35:56.000 And there's something bigger that we can be a part of, which includes then not only the inner freedom, but the sense of connection with others, not based on fear, but based on That's beautiful, that James Baldwin quote.

00:36:12.000 Let's find that and let's post that when we are sharing this conversation with Jack.

00:36:17.000 We've got some lovely questions for you.

00:36:20.000 Let me just find them, Jack.

00:36:22.000 Loads of questions flooded in just then.

00:36:26.000 Excuse me, because they're sometimes difficult to locate.

00:36:31.000 So you guys could write them down for me in there if you don't mind.

00:36:35.000 Easier for me to locate them.

00:36:37.000 Ah, here we go.

00:36:38.000 Imagination.

00:36:39.000 How do we reduce dependence on the state and the system, Jack?

00:36:43.000 That is one of the questions that's come from.

00:36:46.000 How do we reduce this dependence people are asking for?

00:36:48.000 And GELD says simply, you look like my dad, Jack.

00:36:52.000 That's what GELD has to offer.

00:36:54.000 And how do we reduce dependence on the state and the system?

00:36:58.000 Well, I look like somebody's dad anyway.

00:37:01.000 You know, that's partly the question of empowerment and trust, that if we actually start to build within our communities, that there's something about both the global system that we have to pay attention to and step out of in some way.

00:37:15.000 But we also need to rebuild at the very simplest level.

00:37:19.000 How do I live?

00:37:21.000 In the environment I'm in, with the neighbors that I care about, one of the best things of what happened in the pandemic is that people at the beginning started to care about each other for a time.

00:37:33.000 And there was a kind of cheering for that.

00:37:35.000 People, you know, on the balconies in Italy singing to one another in the evening.

00:37:40.000 And you realize part of what's missing is that deep sense of community.

00:37:44.000 And we've been swayed by the media, We've been swayed by the consumerism of the society to say, this is going to make you happy and it doesn't.

00:37:54.000 Go for a walk in nature.

00:37:57.000 Go spend some time with the trees and the wood and the Community of nature that you're a part of.

00:38:05.000 Connect with those around you.

00:38:08.000 Quiet your own mind and tend your heart and then stand up and we get overwhelmed.

00:38:13.000 Here's what you can trust.

00:38:14.000 You can't fix the whole system as an individual.

00:38:17.000 That would be hubris.

00:38:19.000 But you can make a difference.

00:38:21.000 You can reach out and mend and connect and start to build a web of connection from goodwill in your community with others.

00:38:29.000 And that's partly the real revolution of changing how we live with each other.

00:38:34.000 Very beautiful answer and it's reassuring for me because I have a lot of conversations, I know you do Jack, I know that you communicate openly, that you have an ongoing communication and you're continually teaching and involved in discourse with other great thinkers and like very recently on here we had the survivalist and leader of the global scout movement and former SAS soldier Bear Grylls on here and he's Saying almost the same things as you.

00:39:01.000 He's not quoting James Baldwin, but he's saying get out in nature, experience nature, find connections in community.

00:39:07.000 We have a saying in the 12 Step community, look for the similarities, not for the differences. 0.98

00:39:13.000 I think that what our culture continually invites us to do is to focus on the differences and not the similarities.

00:39:19.000 Question now from our community here in Locals, and if you want to join us on Locals, press the red button at the bottom of your screen now.

00:39:26.000 No Dugganoku asks, Jack, how do you keep in touch with our beloved Ram Dass after his passing and what in Ram Dass' teaching could help us now?

00:39:38.000 So Ram Dass was a good friend.

00:39:40.000 And the thing is, we keep in touch with each other when we're alive and after that.

00:39:45.000 So I can get quiet in meditation.

00:39:47.000 And maybe it's just imagination.

00:39:49.000 I'm not going to try to sell you some philosophy.

00:39:51.000 But I can hear Ram Dass' voice saying, yeah, you're upset about that.

00:39:56.000 But who we are underneath all that is bigger.

00:39:59.000 And you know that, and I do too, Russell, that it's really the play of consciousness and the state of the heart.

00:40:06.000 And when we tune in and ask ourselves, as Ram Dass would, what's your highest intention?

00:40:13.000 What's your best intention?

00:40:14.000 That begins to guide your activity.

00:40:17.000 But it has to be courageous and fearless.

00:40:20.000 I was working at a retreat with some other great Teachers for young men coming out of street gangs in Los Angeles and Oakland and Chicago.

00:40:31.000 And I was working with a great Latino poet and a mythologist.

00:40:36.000 And they're sitting there with their hoods up and their hats on backwards saying like, yeah, man, you're going to give me a poem.

00:40:42.000 You're going to teach meditation.

00:40:43.000 I'm on the street.

00:40:44.000 People got nine millimeters.

00:40:45.000 You've got to give me something better than that.

00:40:48.000 And so we said, listen, first take a few breaths.

00:40:51.000 And before we can start, we lit a candle and put it on the table.

00:40:55.000 Go out in the parking lot and bring in a stone for every young person you know who's been killed or died.

00:41:02.000 Drug overdose, you know, gang conflicts.

00:41:07.000 These kids came in with their hands full of stones.

00:41:10.000 No young person should know that many dead people.

00:41:13.000 And they'd put it next to the candle and say, this is for RJ, this is for Tito, this is for homegirl.

00:41:20.000 And the pile grew.

00:41:22.000 And when they sat back down, the hoods came off and the hats came off.

00:41:26.000 And it's like, OK, we're going to get real here.

00:41:29.000 We're actually going to talk about what we're living and not just in the cycle of violence.

00:41:34.000 What do we care about?

00:41:35.000 And you could feel when they saw that circle of stones that they actually cared about each other.

00:41:42.000 And it began an entirely different conversation.

00:41:45.000 But it means a kind of courage that's not just the outer courage, Russell.

00:41:50.000 But it's really the courage of heart to be able to see the suffering that you talk about and to say, I will not contribute to that divisiveness.

00:42:00.000 I'm going to listen in a different way and stand up for what really matters and connect not only inner freedom, but that community around me in a different way, a heartful way.

00:42:11.000 So maybe Ram Dass is speaking through me in that regard.

00:42:15.000 It is an astonishing paradox that the seemingly insignificant gesture of personal awakening can have such a profound effect.

00:42:24.000 But under investigation, if we acknowledge that individual change collectively undertaken means that reality is entirely altered, that's a very beautiful anecdote.

00:42:36.000 And I'd like to add to it this question from Judy Denmark, how Our individual awakening will not affect Biden and Putin or those who hold the nuclear codes.

00:42:44.000 How do we control them?

00:42:44.000 But already Jack has offered us this.

00:42:47.000 Our individual awakening is what we have to offer.

00:42:51.000 It will change reality.

00:42:52.000 In a sense, I think we trap ourselves in a sort of cycle of impotence by refusing to acknowledge and embrace our personal power.

00:42:59.000 How useful it is for us to say, oh well, there's nothing we can do.

00:43:04.000 What if Malcolm X or Gandhi had taken such a position?

00:43:07.000 And as Jack has already said in one of his previous answers, it would be hubristic to think that any individual can make a difference.

00:43:13.000 And even some of the most great leaders, Martin Luther King, have always acknowledged that it is as one of many.

00:43:20.000 that we are powerful. Of course this is the perpetual dynamic that needs to be retained.

00:43:26.000 How can a small establishment elite dominate an entire planet? Only by creating fracture,

00:43:33.000 impotence and despair among that population. Jack, thank you so much for joining us today.

00:43:40.000 And the belief that you can't make a difference.

00:43:44.000 And actually, each person who's listening, and this is what you're trying to say right now, Russell, that each person who listens actually has the power to act from a kind of inner freedom and well-being and to contribute.

00:43:57.000 And that's what will, in the end, it's going to be us together that will make the change.

00:44:02.000 Thank you, Russell.

00:44:13.000 Switch on.

Stay Free - Russel Brand - July 19, 2023

Jack Kornfield (Morality, Spirituality & AI)

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