Awakening the Mind with Peter Radcliffe

0:01Light that spark fire nation JLD here and welcome to entrepreneurs on fire the only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we'll be breaking down Awakening the Mind. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought to Peter Ratcliffe into EO Fire Studios, a meditation teacher and personal transformation coach. Peter has spent 30 years practicing and teaching, including time as an ordained monk. Today, we'll be talking about tranquility, why it's important, the benefits, what's wrong with the way most people practice, the key ingredients, and oh, so much more. and a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Peter and our sponsors.

0:38Fire Nation, you have a book inside you and it's time to share your message with the world. That's why I created Author 100, a 100-day program where I will personally guide you one-on-one to create, write, publish, and market your book. If you want daily guidance and mentorship from me, JLD, then head over to author100.com to sign up for a free call with me to chat about the details. Peter, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, Fire Nation, good to be here. And I love your questions, John. They're so get people thinking.

1:21And it's true that most people strive in this world for success and I used to be an NLP trainer and I would teach people the ways to be the best person that they could be so whatever you wanted you could have through just replicating the habits of successful people around you but you know you had a sting in the tail as people tried to be the best they could be it accentuated something which we all know of as our ego and as ego gets bigger it takes a lot of energy to maintain and i realized some years ago in trying to maintain my own ego that it was pulling a lot of energy away from what i really wanted which is just to be happy i thought that being the best i could be and being a great trainer and a great teacher was what i wanted but in maintaining that i had to keep up this ego and so i realized that letting go of ego is where tranquility and happiness reside and you can be just as effective in the world without an ego as with an ego.

2:50And that is my definition of success. And therefore, that's what I think is what a lot of people would disagree with. They think they need to be the best that they can be. And I'm like, no, just do the best that you can do. Well, listen, Fire Nation, we brought Peter on because we're going to talk about a lot of awesome things, including awakening the mind. And I want to start by talking about tranquility. Why, Peter? Why is tranquility so important? Everyone agrees that it's a fairly high stress world that we live in. And I think the majority of people are looking for tranquility because of this high level of energy output and high level of stress that we're under, all the difficulties that are going on in the world.

3:41So that's definitely a big reason why tranquility is important. But you know, John, there's another reason which is, I think, probably more important. And that is, in doing transformational work on yourself to truly make the mind happy, we need to see the patterns in our mind that we're running that are keeping us from that happiness. So maybe it is identifying that, hey, we've got a big ego that we're trying to, you know, keep up with these junders, or maybe I've got this attitude that I must be successful, or I must be this, or maybe I've got fear patterns running in our mind. and so in order to get rid of those patterns the first thing we need to do is to be able to see them and tranquility is that tool is you cannot see the own patterns you cannot see your patterns of your mind until you're in a state where you're calm tranquil and you're able to just sit with those patterns and watch them arise from the beginning so that really to me is that the key importance of tranquility.

4:57And you've talked about some of the benefits already, but let's dive even deeper into the benefits of tranquility. Break those down. The first thing is that tranquility helps not only in the identification, but just even the healing process. Now we know, you know, for the process of healing the body, calmness is really important. We can't We can't let the body heal while we're going at 100 miles an hour. But it's not just the body. It's on all levels. So the emotions. Tranquility needs to come into play, you know, to sort of heal the emotions. And the mind. If we have mental issues, then tranquility and calmness is important to that.

5:46And finally, also spirituality. So I see those four layers, the body, the emotions, the mind and spirituality is kind of encompassing the whole of the being. And it's actually calmness, which helps all of those. And tranquility also, in my opinion, is the basis for genuine happiness. Now, we've all met people with a sort of a state of excited, manic happiness. but we also identify that happiness for those people is fairly fickle. It's there one minute and gone the next. And truly happy people tend to be more calm and calmness leads into a state of this sort of more genuine, ongoing background happiness, sort of baseline happiness, you might say.

6:41And so for me, tranquility really is a master key to transforming all of those things. Peter, I love to learn from people who are the best, who are doing it at a high level. So what are you specifically doing right now when it comes to tranquility? 2 ,500 years or more, more than that. You know, there's been this practice in the East called meditation. It's been going strong for, you know, for so long. There's got to be something to it. So obviously, meditation is a key part of that practice. But it's got to overflow into sort of an attitude. so I do practice every day I practice probably twice a day one of those practices I tend to meditate for 45 minutes or an hour and then I'll practice at a shorter time at another point in the day and my key practice now is as you can imagine after many years I've pretty got the knack of meditating pretty well.

7:56So the real practice for me now is to overflow that 24 hours a day. So can I maintain that state of awareness and that state of tranquility in everything I do, even as I'm talking to you, John, can I maintain that sort of background awareness and tranquility, you know, whatever I'm doing. So that's what I do pretty much every day, all day as I'm going about my life and hoping to make some change in other people's lives too. I love that. And there's a quote that I kind of want your feedback on. To me, it really just hit home and it really helps me when it comes to tranquility. Like I have a 14 month old son right now.

8:40So listen, I'm enjoying my time with this guy. I mean, Bo is the coolest, but there's sometimes where he's screaming, He's fussy. He's whining. I mean, he's a baby. He's a, you know, this is what's going to happen. And when that happens, I say this quote to myself. And it just kind of really helps me in the moment, which is, in the future, you'll be nostalgic for this moment. And I love that quote because it makes me realize that there's going to be a time where like Bo's like getting on a bus and going to school. I'm going to be like, oh my God, like remember when I was able to hold him in my arms?

9:15I mean, yes, he was crying, but it was such a cool experience. And I miss that. I'm nostalgic for that. What are your thoughts on that kind of mindset? I love the quote. And in my teachings, I will often approach people who are highly stressed. It's like, I've got a chattering mind. My mind won't shut up. Can you help me? Yes, come to retreat. And they learn to meditate. and they learn to drop into a state of awareness where they become the observer and that creates a certain detachment from their stress and they say they feel so much better. And I say keep going. And you know what happens to that observation attitude over time?

10:04it actually transforms into a state of love for whatever it is that you're observing. So at first, there's a sense of detachment and that gives people relief. But over time, that sort of detached attitude, and this sort of sounds a bit counterintuitive, but eventually you start admiring and feeling a sense of meaning for, and well you have a sense of love for all of those around you so what you're doing when you're saying you know one day i'm going to be nostalgic for this moment is you're remembering in that moment that there's also in your mind a sense of great love for your child which is obviously natural but we forget it in that moment when that child is screaming and that love is taking you to a place you know which is almost beyond tranquility it's actually connecting you into a state where you are you know a sense of connection with the universe and your child is just a manifestation of the universe really and that connection of love and that is naturally tranquil So great saints from Rumi and many, many others have said love is the way.

11:32And it's very, very true is that is a way to tranquility, almost beyond tranquility, you could say. Fire Nation, we're going to talk about the key ingredients and so much more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, you have a book inside you right now. But it's not always about our desire to write a book. Sometimes it's about knowing which steps to take and when to take them to make it happen. If you know you have a book inside of you but aren't sure where to start, then I have an exciting opportunity for you. It's called Author 100. Author 100 is a program I personally crafted to help you one-on-one every step of the way, from drafting to writing to publishing and even marketing your book.

12:17When you join the Author 100 program, you'll have access to me, JLD, for 100 days. We'll have weekly one-on-one calls, plus you'll get daily guidance from me whenever you have questions or hit a roadblock. Over the past 12 years, I've self-published five books, including one of the top five publishing campaigns of all time on Kickstarter, the Freedom Journal. I've also traditionally published with HarperCollins, so I know a lot about the book publishing world and where most authors go wrong. I created Author 100 to share my experience and the lessons I've learned along the way, and I can't wait to share it with you.

12:52If you're interested in learning more, head over to author100.com and sign up for a free call with me. That's author100.com. Peter, we're back and we've talked a lot today about the right way to practice tranquility. What's the wrong way? I mean, you see this with individuals. So share, what is the wrong way that most people practice tranquility? Well, John, this is a huge epiphany for me that I realized I was the person that was practicing the wrong way for like maybe 20, 25 years. And I see people that, you know, are a hundred percent genuine in their wish to sort of quieten down their mind and get over their chattering mind.

13:43And I asked them, you know, what have they done and often they've tried a little bit of meditation practice but we particularly we as westerners i think it's very much a western trait we take what works in life or what we're taught works in life and we apply it to meditation and what we know works is first of all we have to be smart about this we have to be intelligent we have to approach this with you know a good logical mind we've got to apply effort because nothing comes without effort and we've got to really sort of concentrate and knuckle down. And so it's quite natural that as we use that, as I said, particularly Westerners with a lot of the problems in our life, we use that for meditation too, and that's what I did.

14:30I really forced my mind to become quiet, like just shut up and really concentrated on whatever it was, your breath or a candle or whatever to try to get the mind to go quiet. There's only one small problem with it. After 25 years or so, it just really wasn't working very well. So I had an epiphany while I was taught by very good teachers, and one teacher in particular showed me another way, and that is that there are two ways of knowing in the mind. The first is through this concentrated high attention way. And the other way is to bringing a whole separate part of the mind, which we're not used to in the West, called awareness.

15:22So at all times, we are aware. And we can sort of rest in that awareness by opening up awareness and not using our attention to hone in on anything. So when we're relaxed, we tend to go into this awareness. But what we don't realize is actually a different part of the mind. It actually can be seen these days on brain scans that when people are in this mode, they're using a wholly different part of their brain than when they're in concentration mode. And it's learning to step into that part of the mind, the awareness part of the mind, which brought a whole new dimension of tranquility, happiness to my practice.

16:14And that's my main focus of teaching these days because it's that one step which people get wrong over and over again. And it's that one, yeah, I want to say small step, but it takes people quite a while to get used to it and step into it. It can take a little while, but it's that one step which is transformative into most people's practice and their ability to find tranquility in life. So I teased this a little bit before the break and you dabbled around this a little bit just now as well. But let's really go over the key ingredients that people need for tranquility. We, first of all, need access, of course, to good teachings.

16:58It's like I struggled for 25 years partly because of my bias as a Westerner. I was an engineer, so I was good with my brain. I, you know, like A leads to B leads to C. I like logic. But partly because that's the way the teachings came across being taught by other Westerners on how to do it. So first and foremost, we do need really good methodologies. And there's good, you know, if you Google how to do something on the Internet, you'll get 100 different methodologies for whatever it is, including meditation, probably especially meditation. And that's a good thing. I love the fact that there are lots of teachers and lots of ways to do things.

17:49but it does have a bit of a sting in the tail in that how do you know you're on the right one so finding that right way for you finding a way that works is important so getting a good a good uh good teachings works now the second which i'm sure your audience is familiar with john is the importance of a mentor and it doesn't have to be the best of the best just someone who's where you kind of want to go a few steps ahead of you so to be able to talk about those teachings with a mentor and flesh them out so that they become more solid and more personal for you is really really important so just as you would have a mentor for everything else you do need some sort of a teacher or a mentor to lead you through and then And the third ingredient is support.

18:51Again, I'm sure you've quoted many times Zig Ziglar, you know, you're the average of the five people you most hang out with, people like that. You need those people that are equally as passionate as you and interested in you in going where you want to go. So there's nothing new here, but it's just still worth reiterating because over and over again, we find, you know, we've got really good teachings, but we're missing our community or something like that. So it's those three things which I think are the key ingredients that one needs in order to move forward. And then the final one might be a sense of adventure and curiosity in order that you don't get stuck on one particular path.

19:37You've always got to be looking out to see if there's something else which suits you better at your stage of development. Peter, we've talked about so much today, why tranquility is important, the benefits, the ingredients, the wrong way to do it, the right way to do it. What is the one thing you want to leave with Fire Nation today about tranquility? I think the one thing is that it comes naturally when we're in a high state of stress that we need tranquility. and we seek tranquility and often we find people that can help us to get over the stresses and the difficulties that we have come across in life what i find uh let's say a little sad actually is people when they get through that difficult period and they say look i've just gained so much and I've learned so much, tend to drop the pursuit of further tranquility and drop back into old habits and then often repeat the cycle.

20:56So one of the reasons that I've sort of moved into a different direction of teaching people is I recognize that, you know, in my meditation retreats and my classes and my beginners classes is that people get a lot of benefit and then two years later I ring them up or one year later and say how's the medication going and they're like you know what I did it for six months and then I just I don't know why I stopped but I stopped and now I'm just as stressed as ever I must get back into it and it's a cycle so I want to leave Fire Nation with the idea is if you find a good thing and it's working for you, don't give up.

21:42Pursue it to the end because if you can get your mind, you know, really tranquil, so it's tranquil 24 hours a day, the amount of happiness that comes into life is just unbelievable. It's just phenomenal at, you know, how peaceful life can be, even when, you know, your young child is screaming at you and things are going wrong and left, right and center, you know, you can still feel that base of happiness just in the background there. So yeah, don't give up. When you find a good thing, stick to it. Peter, if Fire Nation wants to connect with you, wants to learn more from what you have going on, what is your call to action today?

22:25My company I called Skillful Mind because mind is about developing in a skillful way. so uh s-k-i-l-l-f-u-l-m-i-n-d dot net and uh you can find me there and i'm always happy to reach out to fellow passionate meditators uh that are you know keen to ask any questions so that's where you can find me fire nation you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with you've been hanging out with pr and jld today so keep up the heat and for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Peter in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And Peter, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today.

23:11For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you so much, John. All the best. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Peter for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, what can 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs teach you? How about how to achieve financial freedom and fulfillment? My first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, is a revolutionary 17-step roadmap that will lead you to the lifestyle you've been dreaming about. This book took me 10 years of accumulating the genius of the world's top entrepreneurs, and you can get it all in one place when you visit UncommonSuccessBook.com.

23:51I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Fire Nation, you have a book inside you, and it's time to share your message with the world. That's why I created Author 100, a 100-day program where I will personally guide you one-on-one to create, write, publish, and market your book. If you want daily guidance and mentorship from me, JLD, then head over to author100.com to sign up for a free call with me to chat about the details.