Turn Your Pain Into Power, Not Poison | Sadhguru

23:30Lewis Howes:A cosmic identity. Yes, he has to take that. What does that look like? So if I'm a child, and you're teaching me this… One thing is there is a mantra which says that, that he has to say it again and again. He has to look at the sky and say it, he look at the earth and say it, look at the air and say it, look at the fire and say it, all the elements of water and say it, because these are all the composition of the cosmos. You look at empty space and say it, you look at water and say it, you look at fire and say it, you look at the earth and say it, so that you understand your identity is limitless.

24:06Why this is being done is… Why this is being done is education is seen as an empowerment. You should not empower a person who has a limited identity because he will cause havoc. I'll take the worst example which will get me into trouble. Sure. See, everybody talks about… you're not even supposed to mention this name, Adolf Hitler. Uh-huh. Well, many people have been there who caused enormous pain to other human beings. But I don't think anybody managed to organize it, mechanize it, and really deliver it like a factory of misery, like this man did, all right? It's a factory.

24:47Lewis Howes:Yeah. Literally a factory of misery, manufacturing misery, properly organized. But do you think there aren't thousands or hundreds and thousands of people with the same mindset in the world? Absolutely. They are. Only thing is they're not empowered like him. Competence is the only thing that's lacking. Tyranny is there in people's mind. They're as much tyrants as Adolf Hitler. You may find them in a school teacher, you may find them in your parents, you may find them all around you in your neighborhood, only fortunately they're not as potent as that man. That man is super competent, that is what the problem.

25:25So right now, human competence becomes a terrible problem simply because you have a limited identity. So you invest your identity in a family You invest your identity in a community Race, religion, nationality

25:41Lewis Howes:Your relationships Tell me in the name of nations In the name of race In the name of religions In the name of communities How much How many terrible things have we done in this world? It's still happening today No, the most terrible Leave what's happening today Just look back in the last 100 years All for someone's identity, pride, country, city, state, religion, all these things. Just take 20th century. One century past, 21st century is just progressing now. 20th century, take it in the name of race. What all have we done to each other? In the name of religion, what all have we done to each other?

26:20In the name of nationality, what all have we done to each other? Just look back and see. We have literally killed half the world's population in 20th century.

26:28Lewis Howes:Because of identity. Yes. of a philosophy, of an ideology, people have killed, all right? Right. So, limited identity and empowerment is a disaster. But we are continuously cultivating this all the time. So, I said family is crime because family is the first identity that you take. After that comes community. After that comes maybe race or religion or nationality. Right now, nationality is reasonably the largest identity you're taking. Within this nation, it looks nice that you're committed as an American to the well-being of America. But just see who is fighting who in this world. A good Indian is fighting a good Pakistan.

27:13A good Hindu is fighting a good Muslim. A good American fighting just about anybody.

27:23Because you never fought a war here, you go out and fight all over the world, all right? Well, you will find reasons as to why you fought that war and the heroic nature of it. I know people who lost their lives believing that they're doing the best thing in their life, yes. But I want you to know that man that you think is horrible, that terrorist, that miscreant, that militant or whatever you want to call him, that guy also, like a suicide bomber… See, anybody, for every human being or even for an ant, its life is precious. You try to catch him, see, he'll do everything possible to save his life.

28:00Mm-hmm. So, somebody to throw away their life like this, obviously, what they believe in means much more than their life. Crazy. Right? Yeah. It's not crazy. See, if they do it your way, you… it's heroic. If they do it their way, it's crazy. I'm not trying to support terrorism or something. I'm just telling you, it's limited identity. Genocides have been committed because of limited identity. Nations have been raised down because of limited identity. Evil things we have done to each other on individual level, simply because of limited identity. So this is what yoga means. Yoga means union. That means you consciously obliterated the boundaries of your individual nature and your experience of life expanded.

28:46Once you sit here and you experience everything around you as a part of yourself, after that you do not need any morality, you do not need any commandments, thou shall not cut that tree, thou shall not kill this man, thou shall not rob this. This is meaningless to you when you have experienced something as a part of yourself. So, the entire system of yoga, when I say yoga, I mean yoga, all right? Not the yoga that's happening in Los Angeles studios. I have nothing against them. But I'm saying we've reduced it to something just one aspect. To build an identity around. Yes. Twisting and turning your body, it's good for you.

29:24You'll become flexible and maybe healthy. That's good for you. But I want you to understand. Would you not wish that Adolf Hitler was a sick man instead of a healthy man? I would not wish that. I wish he was a healthy man.

29:37Lewis Howes:I would wish he was a healthy man. He was healthy. That's the problem I'm saying. You wish he was a sick man? Yeah, wouldn't you be happy if you got cancer at 25 and you wouldn't kill all these people, wouldn't set up this factory? Yeah, I wish they wouldn't have died. So I'm saying health becomes a curse, competence becomes a curse, intelligence becomes a curse. Why? Because you have limited identity. It's in that context I said family is crime. Family is a wonderful place where people are supporting each other. Like you said, is it not important if you create a world where everybody is supporting each other to do their best?

30:16Well, that's happening in the family. That's the most beautiful aspect of the family. But why is it only limited to those four people or five people or whatever?

30:26Lewis Howes:What should families start to reconsider about their unity, their connection? How could they expand it to something greater than just the family of four or six in this home living this way? I don't know if you've heard even political leaders in India, for example, wherever our Prime Minister goes to United Nations, he will say, Vasudeva ka kutumbakam. This means, the world is my family. It's a chant that always he says is, the world is our family. Because this has to be inculcated from childhood, that your identity is not about a few people who are born around you or a couple of people who bore you, your identity is the air that you breathe, is your identity, is your life.

31:14So if you identify with the air that you breathe, what is it that's not you and what is it that's you? Everything's you. Yes. If everything is you, your intelligence is a boon, your competence is a boon. Is a what? Your intelligence, your competence, your capabilities, everything is a gift to the world. Right. But if your identity is small, all the wonderful things that human being has becomes a curse. See, right now, our intelligence, so much science, technology we developed. But the cutting edge of science and technology always goes into military equipment, isn't it? First, at least. Many of these things will never come to you on the street.

31:56It's always there, all right? Only when every other nation has, maybe then it'll come to you. Till then, it's just kept there. So, our intelligence is going into destructive force. Why? Limited identity. But right now, can I just open up the borders of this nation and say, I love everybody? We are not there. We are not there. The world is not there. We cannot do that. All right? We still need nationality. We still need all these things. But we can hold it little lightly. We don't have to hold it like it is absolute. It is not absolute. It's something that we have done. Our idea of family is our making.

32:33Our idea of community is our making. Our idea of race, religion, everything is our making. Our idea of nationality is our making. So don't treat it like it's an absolute. What would

32:45Lewis Howes:happen if we opened up every border in every country? That would be possible only if there was no economic disparity. If there was no economic disparity, there were no national boundaries about two centuries ago people could walk wherever they want there were no visas and passports anywhere because economically reasonably everybody was in the what about race though would people be you know well India India is a classic example if you if you travel from north to south every 50 kilometers people will look different they dress different they talk different and they eat different every few kilometers you will see people are different and we have no problem.

33:28That's how it would have been. Only because you protected yourself for too long, now race seems to be one big issue.

33:37Lewis Howes:But the money disparity, you think, is the challenge? It is the economic disparity, which is difficult to handle. Right now, if you take away the boundaries of this country, maybe half the world will be right here in the United States. And that will not be a solution because you will become poor. Right. Okay? The United States will be poverty ridden if that happens. But if you totally wall yourself out, then also you will become poor in a different way. So this has to be… First thing is if your identity is a little flexible, you will do things judiciously as it's necessary for the situation. An appropriate action.

34:19Our actions are never, ever absolute. Our actions are just about being appropriate to the situations in which we exist. Yeah.

34:28Lewis Howes:If there are some parents watching or listening, and they're like, wow, this is very eye-opening. I've never thought of it this way. They've always raised their kids a certain way. Their kids are between… This word. This is a word that I hear very often in the United States. We don't hear this in India. I was raised this way. Yeah. People say, I was raised Catholic, I was raised Jewish, I was raised Baptist, I was raised this way. See, you don't raise human beings, you only raise cattle. A human being is a possibility that needs to be nurtured, not raised in a particular way. So, you are raising people in a certain way because you are already committed to something that you think is absolute.

35:12Nothing is absolute. Life is a possibility. Will you allow your children to explore that possibility? Or do you want to make them like concrete blocks, that they come out in a particular shape, raised in a certain way? No, this is not the way to handle humanity.

35:30Lewis Howes:So, say these parents are hearing this and they want to nurture their children in a different way. Yes, the first thing they must do is… But they've been taught something their whole lives. They can do their prayers as they know it, but let them know that it's not absolute. They can sing their national anthem with pride, wonderful. Let them know it's not absolute. Let them also teach them two lines of global anthem, if not cosmic anthem, one global anthem which includes every life's well-being. Every child should sing this in every school. A global anthem? Yes, we need to make a global anthem.

36:07Yeah. I'm singing Indian anthem with great fervor, and you're singing American anthem. What does it mean? Next moment we get an opportunity, we're going to pull out each other's eyeballs. Right. Yes. Yeah. Not because you're bad or I'm bad, because I'm Indian and you're American, all right? Right.

36:28Lewis Howes:It's a global anthem. We need a global anthem for sure. today technology has many ways made national boundaries meaningless. All right? People are sitting in India and working in America right now. Whole lot of people. Sitting in India and walking in America? Working in America. Working, oh yeah. Here's the order. Yeah, they're getting paid, yeah. You pick up a phone, the Indian guy is practicing American accent and he's speaking from Bangalore. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. So, when national boundaries, borders have become so porous, it's time to work towards that. It's not… see, tomorrow morning if you open up all the borders, there'll be disaster.

37:11Yeah. We must know these things we made at certain times for certain conveniences. It is not absolute. The lines that we have drawn on this planet are not absolute. We just made it for certain convenience. Yeah. It's time to relax it. See, one great example that's happened in the world is Europe. They fought as bitterly as they fought World War I, World War II. Did anybody think Germany and France will share open borders? Hello? In 1944, would you believe that? No. See, today they have open borders. I don't see this as a... a geopolitical whatever. In a way, it's an evolution of human consciousness itself.

38:01They might have done it for economic reasons, political reasons, but still there is human consciousness involved in this because that's not easy after fighting such bitter wars when that generation is still alive. You opened your borders to each other, trusted each other. It's not a small thing to do. We need to make that happen in the world everywhere. But for this, we need a reasonable level of economic parity. Otherwise, you cannot do it.

38:28Lewis Howes:Can't do it. One of the things I feel very grateful for in my childhood, my father, we didn't have a lot of money growing up to travel to other places outside of Ohio. But I had seven exchange students from around the world live with us for six months at a time, from Brazil and Japan and Germany and France and Philippines. Nobody came from India. No one from India. See, otherwise they would have taken you back. Yes, exactly. But I felt very fortunate as a five-year-old until I was about 12, having these cultures come and learn the language, learn the food, learn about their beliefs. Because you see, when you live just in a limited atmosphere, you don't know how horribly prejudiced you become.

39:09You never realize that. You think you're doing fine. You become horribly prejudiced. I'm sure even Adolf Hitler is thinking he's fine. He thinks he's fine. That's why he's doing what he's doing. Right. I'm saying the extreme example. Right. Even he thinks he's doing fine. Right. Only the wrong thing he did was he lost the war. If he had won the war, whole world would have said what he's done is fine. Right.

39:39Lewis Howes:Please know that. It's a horrific thing. Do you think someone who's doing that feels a sense of guilt? No. No, no. Like when they're taking another life and they're seeing someone in pain. See, every nation is taking somebody else's life. Isn't it? Every nation? Yes, every nation is, isn't it? But I mean an individual, one person. See, nation means it's individuals who act on the ground, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's an American pilot who drops the bomb. It's an American sniper who pulls the trigger, all right. But he believes he's doing it for the country. Right. So he won't feel any guilt. Even the terrorist who is right now, which we think is absolutely unreasonable and insane, that guy thinks he's doing the right thing.

40:27He's doing God's work, not a simple thing. He feels great pride in what he's doing. So, this is why I'm saying it's a limited identity. It is not that somebody is bad, somebody is good. The moment you have limited identity, you are a crime. It's just that whether your crime is recognized in the law as a crime or not is a subjective thing. But you are a crime. Right now I sit here, my identity is with myself. I'm interested in the well-being of this. I don't care a damn what happens to this. So this is a crime. I may not shoot you with a gun, but I'm committing a crime because I don't care what happens to you.

41:07The moment in some way you forsake your humanity, I don't care, means I have forsaken my humanity. It is a crime. Will I cause enormous damage or small damage? Simply depends on how competent I am.

41:26Competency becomes a curse.

41:28Lewis Howes:The more competent you are, the more you can hurt and harm. Your intelligence and competence instead of being a solution becomes a problem. Isn't that what is happening in the world today?

42:06Lewis Howes:That's S-N-H-U dot E-D-U slash greatness. Get your home ready inside and out with Lowe's July 4th Deals event. Save up to 45 % off select major appliances, plus up to an additional 25 % off when bundling select major appliances. And save$80 on a select Charboil Performance Series gas grill, now$299. shop lowe's july 4th deals event vowed through july 8th while supplies last selection varies by location see lowe's.com for more details so where does karma fit in around people that are acting to harm or to not support someone else's well-being or the things around them How does karma fit in? See, all your identity is only from your memory, isn't it?

43:05How are you an American? You remember that you were born in America. Yes. Suppose I erase your memory. Are you American?

43:12Lewis Howes:Suppose what? I erase your memory. Am I an American? Yeah. I don't know. No. So how does your family identity come? How do your racial identity come? Everything is by memory, isn't it? Yeah. Now, karma means this accumulated massive amount of memory. Now, will you stand above that? This is the stage for our life. This karmic background is like a platform. If you create enough surface tension in this, you can stand on it and do your fresh act today. But if your feet sink into it like quicksands, then you are just a victim of your memory. Right now, the person that you think is a racist is a victim of his memory.

43:57Right. The person that you think is a terrorist is a victim of his memory. The person who is a suicide bomber is a victim of his memory because he remembers what has been taught to him. All right? If he loses his memory, he's a fine guy.

44:11Lewis Howes:Right, right, right. Yes. So right now you don't have to lose your memory. Where is your memory? Your memory is in your body. And what you call as your mind, which is all one. Yes. All right? This is hardware, that is software. Sure, sure. So, this software, you wrote it unconsciously through various incidents, experiences, your own perception according to your intelligence. You wrote your own kind of software unconsciously. It's written by you, but unconsciously. There have been cases where people have sleepwalked and committed a murder. Even the judiciary thinks that is not worth punishing. They don't punish them, even though they committed murder, sleepwalking.

44:56As far as the act is concerned, somebody died, they lost their life, not a small thing. But this man was sleeping. So that man doesn't get punishment because he was sleepwalking. All right? He could have even killed himself in a sleepwalking. It's possible. Right. But instead, he killed somebody else. So essentially, you're unconscious, so you're not punishable because you're less than a child, I'm saying. But the important thing is to become conscious. Where is your memory? It's in the body, it's in the mind. If you create a little distance between you and your body, between you and your mind, this is the end of your karma.

45:40Lewis Howes:The end of your karma? Yes. The karmic influence, I mean to say. Karma is still there. Yes. Karma is the richness of your life. Okay? If you have no karma, you will be a bimbo. Right. All right? There is karma. There's… the more rich and vibrant the karma is, the better. Only thing is, is it your platform to dance upon or is it a quicksand that sucks you in? Hmm. Most human beings right now are only suffering their memory, isn't it? Yeah. This moment they're not suffering. What happened yesterday, they're suffering. What happened 10 days ago, they're suffering. Why? What happened 25 years ago, they're still suffering.

46:19Lewis Howes:When they hold on to the thought, the memory. See, it is not their choice. To think about the thought. They don't have to. They're identified with the situations in which they were. Now it makes them suffer. Today we know that a whole lot of diseases that people are suffering are psychosomatic. It does not mean they're always thinking about it. But it's working. The memory is working. depending on how strongly you're identified. Let's say you're strongly identified with your family structure. Now, something happened in your family, which is not pleasant, something very unpleasant happened, let's say.

46:56Now, you don't have to everyday think about it. Slowly your face will become like this. A lot of people, just see. Because the memory is working from inside, it doesn't even ask your permission. It doesn't ask your permission, should I come or go? It just works on every cell in your body. Slowly you lose your vibrancy. What was a vibrant, exuberant person slowly becomes like. This has happened to more than seventy-five percent of the population. Right. When they were five, six years of age, how joyful and exuberant lives they were. By the time they're thirty, they're like this. What is their problem?

47:33What is their problem? Is somebody poking them? No, because their karma is overtaking them. So the entire process of this book is step-by-step way of standing above your karma on the richness of your memory Because you can convert this memory into manure and you can blossom upon that Because what happened yesterday you cannot change What is happening today you can only experience What is tomorrow you have to create

48:03Lewis Howes:When you have, I mean you've experienced some bad things in the past, right? Some harmful things, some challenges, pain, you've felt these things, right? No. In the past? People try to do lots of bad things and they're still doing lots of them. Every day a whole bunch of people abuse me. People that I've never met, they have enormous hatred for me. Because, you know, like today what I've said, a whole lot of people will hate me for this, do you know? Yeah. Because their identities are shaken. They have created false sense of identity upon which they are standing, shaking. They know if this is gone, they have nothing to live for.

48:46They need to understand there is a life beyond identities. Identities are created for purpose of action in a given situation. It is none of our identities… identities are absolute. See, first of all, we need to understand before you and me came here, countless number of people walked this planet. Where are they? All topsoil, part of the manure in this garden. Yes or no?

49:09Lewis Howes:Yes. You and me, what will we be in hundred years time? Same thing. Same thing, unless your friends fear, you may raise from the dead and bury real deep, so that no roots can get to you. Right. I'm saying... So, we are just a small pop-up in time, but we are thinking too much of ourselves. Yeah. because we attach too much self-significance to ourselves. Because of that, our identities have risen beyond absurd limitations. Can identities be good at all? Can having an identity be good? Without identity, you cannot function in the world. Right now, this is me, that's you. If this identity is not there, if you ask me a question, I will look like this.

49:57What's the point of that? No activity is possible without identity. The important thing is to… it's like wearing your clothes. Right now these are my clothes. See, I wear loose clothes. Yeah. So that always you're aware this is my clothing, this is not me. Suppose I wear skin-tight nylon clothes. After some time I don't know which is my clothing, which is my skin. So, that's all the thing is. Do you have a space between you and what you have created or are you stuck with it? That's the important thing. If you are stuck with it, you will do crazy things, thinking you are doing good things.

50:32Lewis Howes:If you're held on to the identity, if you're attached to it. Ah, it will wrap you up. Once you create it and leave it, it will just wrap you up unless you're conscious. Sure. So if you can… see, this is the entire inner engineering process we are offering, it's just this. If you do this practice, which we call as Shambhavi, if you sit here, your body is here, your mind is out there, what is you is elsewhere. Once there is a little space between you and your body, between you and your mind, this is it. One thing is there's no suffering within you anymore, because suffering happens only two ways, physical suffering, mental suffering.

51:14Do you know any other kind of suffering? Once there is a... Once there is a little distance, this is the end of suffering. And above all, this is the end of all identity.

51:23Lewis Howes:And how do you distance the suffering? You don't distance the suffering. You distance yourself from your own body and your mind. This is what the practice is about. How to distance means this. See, right now there are life energies. See, when you were a five-year-old child, how much were you identified with your body?

51:45Lewis Howes:I'm trying to remember a five-year-old child.

51:50Lewis Howes:How much do I identify as my body? I think I was probably exploring my body, trying to run around. Not at five, you were not exploring any body. My body? I think I was like running and jumping and I was like being active. That's it. You were using it, but you were not identifying it. Because every day it's changing. You can't even identify with it. Right. All right? Yes. Your identity with the body got strengthened when you became an adolescent. Okay. That is when, when hormones started poisoning your mind, when your hormones hijacked your intelligence, suddenly you lost your sense of who you are.

52:24Otherwise, you as a life were far more exuberant than your body can ever be. You still know? Yes. When a child laughs, when a child jumps, when a child does these things, I'm still like this. I'm saying you will see body is just a thing to use. He is not that. That's not the prime thing. The same was true with your intellect and your mind also, isn't it, when you were a child? So now…

52:50Lewis Howes:You're curious, you're exploring, you're… Yes, because it was changing and growing. You're questioning everything. You… not that you consciously realize, but you know this is not it, because your exuberance is beyond that. If you keep your exuberance of life like that today, very clearly you know what is you, what is your body, what is your mind. When I say what is you, let us not give a definition to that, but your body we can define. It's a defined physical form. So we can define this. How did this happen? Just the food that you've eaten, isn't it? It's a heap of food. Right. What you call as my mind is a heap of impressions.

53:33What you gather, whatever you gather can be yours, but can never ever be you, isn't it?

53:40Lewis Howes:Hmm. What you gather means... Right now, this cup... It's yours, but it's not you. Yes. Your thoughts are yours, but they're not you. They're not you. Because yesterday you had one kind of thought, today you have another, tomorrow you may have different thoughts. Does a collection of your thoughts make up you? No. What makes up you? Why are you asking me? See, this is the problem. You want to get life into a definition. You can only define that which has distinct physical boundaries. Anything which doesn't have a physical boundary, you cannot define that, isn't it? It's boundless. Don't go there.

54:26That is also a definition because that's just a word. Okay. All right? All right, boundless is a good word, but still it is just a word. People think boundless means, oh, maybe like that. Boundary means like this. No, no, that is also a boundary, isn't it?

54:42Lewis Howes:Sure, yeah. When you are a child, maybe this house compound was your world. Today your world might have expanded, but still it's a boundary. Right. Larger boundary, but still it's a boundary. But there is something naturally within every human being that the moment you realize you're restricted by a boundary, you want to go beyond that. Whoever you are right now, you want to be something more. Don't touch this. Okay, I want to touch. No, no, I'm not talking about that. See, whoever you are right now, you want to be something more. If that something more happens tomorrow, you want to be something more.

55:18Why is that? That's what I'm saying. This is an innate longing within the human being, because there is something within you which is not physical in nature. It doesn't like boundaries. Till you experience that, you will think you… by shopping, you will expand your boundaries, by ambition, you will expand your boundaries, by conquest, you will expand your boundaries. See, always a human being is seeing how to be something more. If it finds a very basic physical expression, we call this sexuality. What sexuality means is something that is not you, you're trying to experience as it a part of yourself.

55:57It works for a few moments. Then anyway, two people are separate. If it happens mentally, it is called ambition, conquest, or simply shopping. Different people do it different ways. If it happens on an emotional level, we call it love. What love means is somebody who is not you, you want to experience them as a part of yourself. But if you do it consciously, we call it yoga, that if you do it successfully, it's called yoga. Yoga does not mean twisting and turning, yoga means union. That means you consciously obliterated the boundaries of your individuality so that you experience the union with everything.

56:39This is not an idea, this is not a philosophy. This is the nature of the existence. Most people get it only when you bury them, unfortunately.

56:48Lewis Howes:Really? When you bury them, they understand they're part of the earth, right? Right. That also they won't understand because today they're burying them in a concrete box. Right. They're creating a boundary around them. Yes, that's the worst thing to do. At least when you die, you should become part of the earth. Right. Why is it so hard for people to feel that type of love, that unity love, the conscious love, in a relationship, an intimate relationship? See, this is because they're interested in the fruit, not in the root. The fruit, not the root. Yes. What's the root? See, right now, you want to experience love.

57:26So what will we do? Like people are going about chanting this mantra, I love you, you love me, you love me, I love you, throughout the day. Because you know, if you don't say it for two days, it may go away. Love does not happen because you say it. Love does not happen because you're attracted to somebody. Yes, you may feel it at certain moments. When you like something, you may also begin to love it, all right? Essentially, love means sweetness of your emotion.

57:55Lewis Howes:Sweetness of your emotions. Yes. When you have very sweet emotions, that's called love, isn't it? If I have nasty emotions, that's called hate, that's called whatever. So, sweetness of your emotion, why is it that you have tied it to something that you like to eat? I love ice cream, I love this man or woman, I love this, I love that, I love car, I love Ford, I love a Chevy. You know, people are talking this everywhere, all right? So, or I love God, that's the safest thing to do. Because you can always claim God loves you. But if you claim this person loves me, tomorrow the guy when it goes away, you can't say anything.

58:39But this is a safe thing to do, all right? People have found various ways. I am not saying there's anything wrong with that. It's okay. You use whatever means you want to feel the sweetness of your emotion. But you must understand, it's the sweetness of your emotion. I'm asking you, what happens within you? Why is it determined by somebody else? what happens within you if it's determined by somebody else this is the worst form of slavery isn't it

59:07Lewis Howes:when love is determined by someone else not only love your happiness your joy your peacefulness your love anything that happens within you when your inner experience is determined by something or somebody that is the worst form of slavery yeah but we are a free country

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1:01:03Lewis Howes:So use Empower and get good at money so you can be a little bad. Join their 20 million customers today at Empower.com. Not an Empower client, paid, or sponsored. When people are in a relationship and there seems to be a wave of joy and love and acceptance, and then other days, maybe it's anger or resentment or frustration, how do we move out of that and more into acceptance and conscious love as opposed to control or manipulation or, well, you need to do this to make me happy? How do we expand beyond that? First of all, you must decide. Is your life in pursuit of happiness or is it an expression of joy?

1:01:54Lewis Howes:Is it in the pursuit of happiness or expression of joy? Tell me in your life, when you're expressing your joy, was that the best moment? Or when you're pursuing happiness, was that the best moment? The joy. Yes. So why is it that you have not done that? Because you still believe there is joy in this tree and you can squeeze it out. There is joy in this man or woman that you can squeeze it out, you wring them. And then you expect relationship will be great. It will not be you wringing them out so that juice of joy will come to you or love will come to you. No, love is not something that you do.

1:02:30Love is something that you can become, it's your quality. If your mind is in a certain way, it's joyful. If your emotions are in a certain way, it's loving. This is the quality of sweetness of body. If your body becomes sweet and pleasant, it's called health and pleasure. If your mind becomes very pleasant, it's called peacefulness and joyfulness. If your emotions become pleasant, it's called love and compassion. If your very life energy becomes pleasant, it is called blissfulness and ecstasy. Only if your surroundings become pleasant, it's called success. only to achieve success. You need competence.

1:03:13You need cooperation. You need help from other people. All right? Because without all of them cooperating, there will be no success. Right now, these guys must cooperate. Otherwise, this shoot is not going to go well. All right? But even if these guys don't shoot well, we can still be joyful. They cannot stop us.

1:03:34Lewis Howes:No, we can be joyful, yeah. Yes, they cannot stop us. But for the should to go well, you… they need to cooperate. If they don't cooperate, the situation will not go well. For the success of this situation, you need the cooperation of all these people. But for my body, for my mind, for my emotion and my energies to feel pleasant, I don't need anybody's cooperation. This is 100 % my business. So, right now, to experience love within you, you're asking somebody to be in a certain way. Oh, all the best. You're going to have a trip. Is that why you think most marriages go through divorce? Because it's more of needing the other person to support you in feeling a certain way?

1:04:21See.

1:04:26Suppose you cannot walk without a crutch. Crutch, you know? Without a crutch, you cannot walk. Right. Then next moment you go to… go and say to somebody, some pretty woman, I cannot live without you.

1:04:45Between the crutch and her, what is the difference, I'm asking? One is a physical crutch, another is an emotional and psychological crutch, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. So essentially, you have crippled yourself. This life is a complete life by itself. If this is a complete life, it's joyful, loving, wonderful by its own nature. Now, when it's feeling so wonderful, it may want to share this wonderfulness with people around. You can share this with thousands of people, but you also want a more intimate sharing to happen. For that you need one person. So if it's about you expressing your joy and love to somebody and you find that person, you think that person is going to run away from you?

1:05:30No. No, you want to squeeze them for love and joy. Initially they drip, afterwards sometime they're dry.

1:05:37Lewis Howes:Yeah. Yeah. Because you squeal them too much. Yeah.

1:05:44Lewis Howes:For the people watching or listening who might be saying, you know what? I've struggled in my relationships. I don't have financial abundance. I'm struggling financially. I'm out of shape. I'm struggling in my health and wellness. and they're wondering how they can use karma in a sense to support them to create more abundance, financial abundance, spiritual abundance, relationship abundance, health and well-being. Or maybe they've been thinking, well, maybe karma's been against me in that way of thinking. How can they start to think differently to apply these principles? You're setting up all the wrong goals.

1:06:30Lewis Howes:What should the goals be? Simply this. See, right now, if you... instead of philosophizing, reading scriptures, reading self-help books, all this, just pay attention to the trees around here. What are they doing? Being. Be... No, no, no, no, no. They have no capability to be. They're not called beings, only you call being... human being you are. They're not. That's just a tree. It's a wonderful tree. What is it doing? Beneath the ground, it's fighting. All right. What is it fighting for? Is this maple tree trying to produce apples? No. No. It is just trying to be the best possible maple tree it can be.

1:07:16It is not trying to produce apples. Definitely, I don't see any coconuts up there. All right? This is all. As a human being, you must see how this life can blossom into its fullest. If it blossoms to its fullest, somebody may become rich with money, for somebody may become intelligent, somebody may become knowledgeable, somebody may become loving, somebody may become an artist, somebody may just wander. But a fully blossomed human being is a joy to see no matter what the hell they're doing or what they're not doing, whichever way they're an asset to whole humanity. Instead of doing that, you want, for example, you said abundance in economic terms.

1:08:01What is your idea of abundance in economic terms? Jeff Bezos, is it?

1:08:05Lewis Howes:Me personally, that's not it. But you mean, having enough to be able to do what you want, not feeling like you're a slave to paying your bills or things like that. No, no, I'm not insulting anybody. I'm just saying right now, everybody's saying is the richest man in the world or whatever. So what is your idea of abundance? $200 billion of personal wealth? Am I asking? Are you up to it? $200 billion for me? Yeah, yeah. Why not? That's not my definition of abundance. But that is... What is it? $2 billion?

1:08:39Lewis Howes:Probably, I mean, probably over... I guess it depends on what age I am. Tell me if you're present. If I'm 10 years old, it's like$100 ,000. I'm rich, you know. My present? I mean, I feel pretty abundant financially. But I mean, you're asking for a specific number. No, no. I'm asking for a number, not because I want to find out your number. I'm asking because these numbers are bloody meaningless. They're all socially relevant, not relevant to you. And anyway, talking about karma, Right now, let's say you are the guy who has$200 billion. Yes. It's only in your memory. If I erase your memory, your money is gone.

1:09:21Hello? Yeah. It's gone, isn't it? Well, it's in your bank account. It is in the account, but if you've forgotten what?

1:09:29Lewis Howes:Yeah, if you've forgotten the code or you've forgotten the access, then it's gone. A whole lot of people buried their treasure all over the bloody world. Right, right. And somebody else found it a thousand years later. It's true. A lot of people have lost all their Bitcoin and they can't get access to it. Yeah. Yeah. So all these issues are there, but the important thing is, why do you want affluence? Let me put the word abundance as affluence. An individual person wants affluence. A society wants affluence. A nation wants affluence. Everybody is striving for that. Why? Because initially it means a choice of nourishment.

1:10:05A choice of nourishment. Yes. If you have money, you can eat what you want. Initially, that's the goal. Yes. If it goes beyond that, after you eat everything you want to eat, next thing is a choice of lifestyle. Yes. Now, for example, United States of America has the highest choice of nourishment choices, highest level of nourishment choices, highest level of lifestyle choices. All right. But you're spending 3.25 trillion on health care. Right. Oh, wonderful. That's big… that is larger than India's economy. Really? For 1.4 billion people, we don't have a three-point… three-and-a-quarter trillion dollar economy.

1:10:46Lewis Howes:Wow. All right? So, what is the abundance you're seeking? You… you want to destroy the planet. That's what you're saying.

1:10:58Lewis Howes:How do I say for me? I'm saying for people watching… No, no, I'm saying the thing that you're thinking is because you're in California, your idea of abundance is here. If you're in Timbuktu, your idea of abundance would be this, all right? Of course. So I'm saying do not think in terms of abundance. Think in terms of a fulfillment of life. If you are a fulfilled life according to your competence, according to your capability, according to the times in which you live, you will do the appropriate thing. Right now in the… in pursuit of abundance, people are doing vulgar things. Two people are living in a fifty-bedroom house.

1:11:38What's the point of this? You… can you sleep in fifty different places?

1:11:46Yeah. You can have everything that you can use well. But the important thing is, are you making arrangements of home, automobile, this, that, everything as a means to act in the world or as a means to enhance yourself. This you must decide. This is why I said the car advertisements are all talking about the leather, about the paneling, about this. Why? Because this is a way of enhancing yourself. Your car is little shinier than your neighbor's car, and you are supposed to be better. I'm saying nothing makes you better, all right? Nothing makes you better. The only thing is, everything that you can be within yourself, are you or are you not?

1:12:28That's all. In our lives, if we do not do what we cannot do, there's no issue. If we do not do what we can do, we are a disaster. So, I'm saying, at least are you as joyful as you were when you were five years of age? At thirty-five, forty, if you're not as joyful and as exuberant as a five-year-old boy or girl that you were, obviously you're a disaster because you're not even square one. That was square one of your life and nothing was in your control, all right? You're not even in square one, you sunk deeper. That's a disastrous life.

1:13:05Lewis Howes:So we shouldn't be thinking abundance in finance or this or that. No, those things will happen according to times, isn't it? Yeah. See, if you and me were here 10 ,000 years ago, I would definitely find an Indian cave because there are many. I don't know if you would have found one. Ohio has caves. Yes, it does. You wouldn't have come to California. You would have found a big cave in Ohio or gone to neighboring state of Kentucky and found a really massive cave out there. I've been visiting all these caves. So, what would be your idea of abundance at that time? I'm asking. Yeah. So I'm saying do not think of abundance, because the moment you thought like that, that is what destroyed this planet massively.

1:13:50And now you are saying you want to be eco-friendly by driving an electric car. No, no. It is because fundamentally wrong thinking has come. Life has become about something else. Something else around you enhances you. No. The only way to enhance yourself is to bring this to its full blossoming of what it can be. At its fullest, best what it can be. What I am at my fullest, am I better than you? No, I'm just different. This tree, is it better than that tree? No. This is one way, that's another way. And that's why the world is so beautiful. If there was one more guy just like you in your house, could you live there?

1:14:29Lewis Howes:No. No. If there were 7 billion people just like you, could you live in this world? You would commit suicide, believe me. So how does someone know what their full potential is, of who they can truly be. See, if you don't fix yourself with limited identities, if you do not compare yourself with anything, if you explore and… See, if you want this tree to grow to its fullest thing, that's why I said not the fruit, root. If you count the fruits, maybe that tree is bearing more fruit than this one. That's not the point. You nurture the root. The fullest possible nurture if you give to the root. what it has to become, it'll become.

1:15:09A blade of grass cannot become a tree. But is it not wonderful?

1:15:14Lewis Howes:Yeah. Is it not wonderful? You may step on it. Yes. But is it not wonderful? Yeah. You mostly have the garden for grass, not for trees, actually. Right. So how do we nurture our inner roots and not focus on the fruit? See, as there is a science and technology technology to create the situations that we want in external situations. There is a whole science and technology to create inner situations the way we want. If you want to be nurtured, the first and foremost thing is just look back and see, has there been 124 hours in your life or many people that you know in your life, 124 hours that they passed without anxiety, without fear, without being agitated, nothing.

1:16:01Simply at ease, 24 hours. 24 hours if you come to ease, believe me, your ability to use your mind and body may go up 100 % in 24 hours. Just ease. This has not come to people, they're not even at ease. People ask me, Sadhguru, how are you like this? I say, I'm like, I'm talking to a crowd of 100 ,000. The way I would talk to somebody, they came and asked me something, I'm in the bathroom, I have to peep out of that and speak. Just like that, I'm speaking to hundred thousand people on stage with the same ease and with the same… not being concerned about what somebody thinks about me, what happens.

1:16:43That's not the point. What I see as truth, I speak. You like it, you don't like it, you realize it, you don't realize it, that's left to you. But you will get it someday. If you… If you heard the words, not today, maybe on your deathbed you will get it, but that's a wasted time. If you get it today, it would be wonderful. Today, if you understood, sitting here, this body is just a piece of the planet that I've picked up. This is not really me. It's for me to use it right now. It's wonderful, okay? This human body is the finest mechanism on the planet. It's given to me as a gift. I must keep it well, but it's not me.

1:17:21It's something that I picked it up from the planet. If I understand this now, I will live a very sensible life. If you get it from the maggots, what to do? Some realization happened, at least for the maggots.

1:17:36Lewis Howes:Yeah. It's good. Yeah. Do you have any personal fears? What do you mean by that? Do you have any fears of anything in your life? Are you afraid? Do you remember the last time you had fear? How old were you? I know fear only from other people's experiences. See, it's not about whether I have fear or not. I made myself like this. Only what I want happens within me. What I want may not always happen around me, but within me, only what I want happens. Because this is my space, it must happen my way. Why should it happen your way or somebody else's way? The same goes for you, isn't it? What is within you must happen 100 % your way.

1:18:23No other way.

1:18:25Lewis Howes:When you see chaos around you, in whatever way that might be. Oh, I'm seeing it all the time. What's your initial response inside to whatever? Someone screaming at you or something unjust or some pain happening around you or whether it's attacking you or not. How do you internally respond or what do you say or what you're come from in that moment to stay grounded, to stay peaceful, joyful, in a moment of pain? I will act as it's needed. That's all. I will not do anything other than that. If it needs action, I'll perform that action. If it's not necessary, I'll walk away from that. It depends what kind of situation it is.

1:19:08And I'm facing such things all the time. All the time. Yeah. Don't think I'm always celebrating. There are millions of people who celebrate me as a very... in a very fond manner, that I'm very dear to them, though they have not seen me. There are also quite a number of people who simply hate me, endemic hatred towards me, though they have not seen me, simply because they're all invested in something. An identity. If you something, whatever it is, they call it nationality, they call it religion, they call it caste, creed, race, whatever. The moment you say something that threatens that identity, they will hate you.

1:19:54Lewis Howes:What is hate saying about the person who's hating something? It empowers them. It empowers them? Yes. Hate is far more empowering in terms of propelling you into action than love. When people are loving, they hesitate. They hesitate. But when they hate somebody, they go all out. What does the hate do to someone who is creating the hate? A little acid. But, you know, California acid is popular. Right. Right. And do you have any big dreams? Do you think about your dreams of the future? or is it more just you're here in this moment, you're here to show up the most joyful way you can? No. See, this whole thing about being in the moment is just a mixed-up idea.

1:20:50See, what this means is right now, the way it is understood in this part of the world, the way it's understood is being in the moment means don't think about the past, don't think about the future. Essentially, they're saying, do not use your cerebral capability. a human being is endowed with a phenomenal cerebral capability, which no other creature on this planet has. In that department, we are number one on the planet, isn't it? Yeah. So right now, because people do not know how to use it, and they're torturing themselves with their cerebral capability, they're poking themselves with their sharp intellect.

1:21:28Because of that, somebody is saying, don't think about the past, don't think about the future, just be in this moment. If you're drinking water, just drink water. If you're talking, just talk. Don't do anything. If this is just saying, why don't you become an amoeba once again? An amoeba also has a brain, small brain, that's all. No problems. Amoeba need not pray. Amoeba need not meditate. Amoeba need not think how to be peaceful, very peaceful and fine. All right? So even now for the human beings, if you remove half their brain, they will all be peaceful. Essentially, their problem is they don't know how to handle their own intelligence.

1:22:11So either you come up with philosophies like this, or you soak your brains half in alcohol, or drug it, do something, eat too much so that it won't work. All you're trying to do is somehow dull the brain. I'm saying this evolutionary process took millions of years to give you the cerebral capability. And now you don't know how to handle it, how sad is that? That's a miserable thing that you're doing, because no other creature has the cerebral capability that human being has. So essentially we are thinking intelligence is a curse. I told you already, it's a curse. If you have limited identity, intelligence is a curse, not just for you, for everybody around you.

1:22:59See, somebody who is very sharp But evil thoughts And they're doing things You wish he was brainless Yes So this is simply because of this You don't know how to handle your intelligence for well-being You tell me, in your experience Is intelligence a solution or a problem?

1:23:20Lewis Howes:It depends on how it's being used No, no, that's not the point Is intelligence a solution or a problem?

1:23:29Essentially.

1:23:30Lewis Howes:I feel like it's a solution. It is an absolute solution. But people are making a problem out of a solution. Right. Right now, people are making a huge problem out of a solution. You think we evolve like this to create problems? We evolve like this to sort out everything that other creatures cannot sort out, isn't it? Right. But we are not able to sort out anything simply because we're crippling ourselves with this kind of things. So the most important thing is you have an intelligence for you don't have a stable enough platform. That is a fundamental problem. If you do not create a stable chemistry, stable energy system, stable physical body, your intelligence is the worst curse you have.

1:24:14The sharper it is, the more you will hurt yourself. So this is your inability to handle it. For this, there are various reasons, because people are being raised like cattle. All right? Not nurtured. Not nurtured. I don't say everybody, but unfortunately, that's a majority. Right. The ultimate cookout starts with the ultimate ingredients. At Whole Foods Market, no antibiotics ever. Burgers and kebabs are prepped and ready to throw on the grill. Fire up a juicy ribeye. Grab creamy potato salad and savory flatbreads from the prepared foods department and round it all out with 365 brand condiments, chips and dips at everyday low prices.

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1:25:06Lewis Howes:Stand still, not a chance. You're a lifelong learner who's come this far. Now we're here to help you keep going further. Capella University, what can't you do? Visit capella.edu to learn more. We've got many more questions, but I want to finish with two final questions. Two is not considered final. Only when you come to one, you say it's final. Two additional questions. Before I ask those questions, very grateful for your time. Thank you for showing up the way you do and for educating an uneducated human being on all these things. I appreciate it. You're grabbing the title from me. This book is really inspiring.

1:25:46Lewis Howes:You shared some of these things that we talked about today that are in the book and the first chapter I read. A lot of these concepts I heard here. I know there's a lot more to go into. So make sure you guys get the book. Very inspiring. I recommend you get three to five copies. Give them to friends if you want your friends to also have expanded identities and not be limited in that thinking. So get Karma, A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny. Extremely inspiring. Also check out innerengineering.com for more, lots of courses, books, programs, everything there. I'm going to have to come to Tennessee someday.

1:26:21Lewis Howes:You should come. And check it out. So I want to go there. Don't come there to check it out. It's already well checked out by me. Come there to experience it. Come there to experience it and make use of it. I will use it. I will use it. Checking out. I've done all the checking out and saw that all the problems are removed. It's all working. Well, I want to acknowledge you before I ask these two final questions or two additional questions. I want to acknowledge you for being in a journey with all of us. I think the fact that you have learned so much and you want to show up every day and teach and you want to show up and create content and offer solutions through whatever means necessary, whether it's books, courses, videos, TikTok, things you're not even a part of that you're aware that are impacting the world.

1:27:06Lewis Howes:I'm just appreciative and acknowledge you're showing up. No, all this effort is to... because I want to live in a joyful, loving, exuberant world. Yeah. So, I'm just trying to set that atmosphere for myself. Of course. Yeah. All right. So, this is not a service, this is not a mission. This is just as simple, like a dog comes, if it wants to sit down, rearranges the rug and sits down, you know. Yeah. I'm just trying to rearrange humanity so that I can live among joyful, exuberant, loving human beings. I love it. Don't you want to? Absolutely. Yes. Amen. So as a part of this, we are working towards creating a conscious planet.

1:27:46Louis, you must be part of that in some way. I'm trying to put together all the influencers in the world to come together, own this process, and create a conscious world. Because that's the only thing that's lacking. Never before in the history of humanity, any generation had these kind of conveniences, these kind of comforts, these kind of wonderful things that we have today. Never before human survival was better organized than it is today. If we don't do it now, when? Many great beings have come on this planet, but when they spoke, hardly 10 people could hear.

1:28:24Lewis Howes:It's true. Today, we can sit here and talk to the entire world. When we have this, if we do not transform the world into a more loving, joyful, exuberant humanity, it simply means we don't care. I don't want to go as that. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful way of being. This question I asked you last time, but you didn't really answer it, so I'm going to ask it again. Really? Yeah, it's okay. This is called the three truths. And maybe you don't have an answer, and that's fine. It's called the three truths. It's a hypothetical question. So I'd like you to imagine you get to live as long as you want to live in this physical body on this earth.

1:29:01Lewis Howes:But then one day you got to go. And you got to take all your work with you. All your content. Why would I want to take it? It's a hypothetical. It's a hypothetical. You don't, you don't, you're not going to take it, but it has to go somewhere. No one has access to it anymore. So it's got to go somewhere else. But we don't have access to your information, your content, your books. All of it's gone. For whatever reason. I've already taken care of. It's a hypothetical, right? So imagine that you only get to share three final things that we would have. Three final lessons that this is all we would have to remember you by.

1:29:36Lewis Howes:Your information. I call three truths. What would be your three truths for the world? Oh, only three. Maybe that's why you didn't answer last time. Everybody just shut up, look and listen. Yeah. Really look. Right now people are not looking. If they look, they are making their conclusions based on their identities. They're not hearing anything. They're making their conclusions. Just shut up. Look and listen. Life is all there. Yeah. That's one. That's all. That's three. Shut up is one. Shut up is one. Look and listen. Three. I love it. If you do this, everything that I'm speaking will be naturally yours.

1:30:24Yeah. This is all I did. I just shut up, looked at everything absolutely, investing my whole life energy in my look and investing my whole life energy in listening, and that's all I know. Yeah. And whatever I know, you will know if you just learn to look and listen, but first you must shut up. Shut up means not just outside, inside.

1:30:50Lewis Howes:Is that a good teaching? That's great. I love it. It's perfect. Final question. Now this is my final question. What's your definition of greatness? What is my definition of greatness? If it can be defined, it's not great enough for me.

1:31:11As I said, definition means it has clear boundaries. Well, if you can be here without any sense of boundary, that's greatness.

1:31:22Lewis Howes:There you go. Thank you so much, Sadhguru. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's a pleasure talking to you. Pleasure. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad-free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well.

1:31:57Lewis Howes:Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.

1:32:45Lewis Howes:www.taboola.com Go to realize.com slash podcast. Breathe in. Feel the sense of calm that comes from having up to$300 in overdraft protection with GoToBank. Now. Did you say$300? Yes. Now, back to our breathing. So if I overspend my balance, GoToBank has my back up to$300. Yes. Can we breathe out now? Less worries, more zen. With over$300 in overdraft protection. Tap to open an account today. Eligible direct deposits and opt-in required for overdraft protection. Fees, terms, and conditions apply.