Episode 98 | Jeff Ananda Kamen | Connection, Caring, Compassion and Stillness

(1) Episode 98 | Jeff Ananda Kamen | Connection, Caring, Compassion and Stillness - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNH-SQjRu_U

Transcript:
(00:05) so I wanted to start off by asking you about this big move that's coming up to Vietnam I mean it's huge you've been at yogaville for a while now and the plan is to move to Vietnam in in a few months for for what a year or so I'll be there for two years two years one of my kids is a new American diplomat and she's invited me to go with her actually invited me and my wife so this is pretty wonderful going to Vietnam for two years yeah so how are you feeling about that moderately terrified longest flight I've
(00:41) ever been on uh was 15 hours this is 19 hours and my body was only 25 years younger back then I hear the 19-hour flight is quick sensation but other than that I'm just thrilled do you find yourself having expectations for what this experience of trying to like imagine like what is my life gonna be like living in Vietnam for two years well I'll tell you this it can't be much more of a shock for me than living in the south in the United States I'm a New Yorker a chicagoan a San Francisco guy a Los Angeles resident a
(01:18) London resident a Paris resident a television resident yogaville ten years ago you told me that I was going to spend a decade in Central Virginia where there's nothing remotely nearby except an interesting correction of cows which I thought were large dogs when I got here I would have said you're nuts so do you find that you know your experiences of the past you know a few of them that you just mentioned that they support you in what's coming into the future like they they give you some confidence in regard to whatever you're going to
(01:58) face actually undermine my confidence entirely when I was invited to a local community meeting here in support of yogaville's relationship with the surrounding Community I had my teeth gritted we walked in was the middle of the coldest part of the winter there was snow and ice everywhere looked into the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall and I was expecting essentially a resurrection of the White Citizens Council but that's because I was stuck in 1966 and it was 2014.
(02:32) instead what I saw were black and white business owners sitting side by side having a great old time so I owned the problem I was the one who was stuck that's why I said it was such a huge shock me the previous time that I was in Dixie I was being beaten by the Ku Klux Klan while covering a night voter in discretion March in a hellhole called Grenada Mississippi did you actually get beaten oh yeah by the KKK matter of fact oh yeah who would lie about a thing like that well Donald Trump no uh I uh no it was a very wonderful congressman from
(03:06) New York George Santos I'm not Afflicted to that particular dilemma no what uh as a matter of fact the photograph of me being beaten was made by the same brilliant young Associated Press photographer who won the Pulitzer Prize that year for a photograph that he made series of photographs he made earlier that same year of civil rights figure James Meredith being shot by a psycho-racist named Aubrey James Marbell but this is much of a yoga conversation it's just why for me I swore that I was never going back to Dixie except to
(03:36) cover a story and made sure I got out in the next plane so now I live here and I love it all right so let's let's shift to yoga yeah I wanted to ask if you could share a bit about your relationship with yoga hmm integral yoga has become my life in so many ways I arrived at the ashram almost 10 years ago badly broken in Body Mind and Spirit and yogaville said essentially oh yeah another one and in the space oh about six months the ashram shaved 100 pounds off my body restored my physical mental and spiritual health
(04:16) and opened my heart in ways of work to me almost unimaginable at least at that time and you know got married here married a long time integral yoga teacher who began teaching interval yoga in the 1970s much younger woman she's 77 I'm about to be 80. how did you choose to take the leap and come to yogaville to begin with I'm sure that wasn't an easy decision to make oh it was only barely irrational I had been told by my Physicians that I was approaching death because of multiple maladies including not getting
(04:53) more than three hours sleep a night for more than a year which is pretty much the entry to Oregon breakdown and I was sitting in front of my computer wondering what was going to happen to me for the rest of my life if I was going to have a rest of my life and I heard this sound in the back of my head and I couldn't figure out what it was it sounded like um and I thought what in the world wait a minute I last heard that when I was making that documentary film on yoga in 1973 in New York who was the subject that was probably
(05:32) such a demanded I don't know how he's doing and of course I typed his name into Google and the great teacher had left his body but he had yogaville which he had told me at the time back in 1973 was his dream was somewhere publicly in Central Virginia he had done it was in Washington DC the other vote was only three or four hours away I called the yoga bill phone number spoke with a wonderful young woman who kept saying to me now you know sir this is not a medical facility because I was being very very open with her as to what
(06:05) I was doing to it she said we have it's not MediCal but we do have a lot of Peace here and we have a special I can give you five days for the price of three that's exactly what she said and I left I said I'll take 10. she said we don't do that come for five see how it goes we'll talk about six years later the wonderful yogaville staffer who met my training that night at Charlottesville Amtrak took me aside and told me this story he said he didn't have a very detailed description of the person he was to pick
(06:41) up at the Amtrak he wasn't sure who would be until he saw this fat guy almost fall off the train onto the bike one he figured that must be my guy that was me and what he said was while we were driving to the ashram the hour or so from the train station he was afraid that I might be the first person that he picked up at the bus terminal and the airport or train station who would be dead in his car that's how bad it was so naturally I live in gratitude was given a whole life which I didn't are going to happen
(07:27) what do you think led to you being in that kind of shape to begin with I think probably like most people who have had full exciting wonderful careers and whatever that might have been mine was journalism and broadcast journalism especially the moment comes in a lot of people's lives not just mine when suddenly your employer says by the way you're done we're done we've been sold to another company and they don't want you around you make too much money go away I was sure I was going to get hired by
(08:00) somebody else guaranteed after about seven months eight months of looking for work and not getting hired my wholesale concept crumbled um an entrepreneurial ego boosting to tell the story but I'll finish it quickly I stopped sleeping I stopped taking care of my body when I stopped taking care of everything and I was fully falling apart I had great health insurance so I had lots of really expensive doctors and aggregate view was that I was dying and I needed to do something but they didn't have a pill for me or a piece of
(08:42) surgery and then I sat in front of the computer then heard the Sounders won't be such an Honda champion [Music] and I wound up coming home all I can think of is it this may sound a bit woo-woo but perhaps during my whole one hour of face to face with him for that interview which became a prime time special he must have somehow put a an Emergency Beacon inside of me so that I was ever in really bad trouble I would think to call yogaville an emergency Beacon I like that so was what happened there uh an issue of identity
(09:28) would you say that your identity your self-worth was wrapped up very intimately with your career and when that fell away the some sort of depression happened as a result that's that's a really good description I mean Avi look how many of these podcasts have you done we're about at 100 now that's wonderful now just imagine I had done probably five or six thousand on camera appearances over my career so much of my identity was wrapped up in the notion that I was Jeff came a news anchor Jeff came and
(10:04) correspondent Jeff came and producer Jeff came and come with something else instead of just me so when all of that came crumbling down and was not being rebuilt it took me down with it now that's nobody's fault but mine well I don't know if I don't know if you need to take the responsibility for that because to me it seems like a cultural issue you know it's not just it's not just you right and I'm sure that you're witnessing I'm sure you're witnessing you know this happened for people all
(10:38) the time right like whatever our name is this you know and I'm wondering if that's really what the yoga is about is allowing that to fall away if you can right and shortly after I arrived at the ashram all broken within a couple of days I was invited to participate in an orientation conversation a briefing for visitors guests because that's all I wanted and they're about I guess seven or eight of us in the room they sat us down brilliant lovely woman named Cedar Rose did the whole presentation she said now
(11:18) I'd like to play a short video for you and about halfway through the interview I came mostly awake then it was all over and she thanked everybody and I just sat there and she said um sure you've got any additional questions and I said we could play the video back one more time and she said sure why when she got to a chocolate she said wait a minute and she stopped it isn't that your voice I said um yeah you guys made a small mistake it says from CBS documentary it's a single error it's from a PBS
(11:57) document that's mine and of course she lit up because it was not just some broken stranger this was a broken stranger with a long time connection to the guru and his work and in short order relatively speaking not only did the astronomy stormy the health but let me go back to work doing one of the things that I love to do is just tell stories about yoga and I made a bunch of documentaries about yoga great yoga teachers how yoga girl works what it's like to come here and it's part of my gratitude practice
(12:35) every time I reach for the camera it's about gratitude how could I not be endlessly grateful for being handed at so far an additional decade of life hmm it's interesting you know I think maybe a typical Viewpoint would look at your your career the length of your life and the all the things you've done you know to name a few you know time with Martin Luther King Jr the Dalai Lama um if you want an Emmy you were one of the founders of all things considered you know very influential in the Civil Rights Movement these things you know
(13:21) and then you found yoga you know and your way to yogaville and that's what I hear you expressing the most amount of gratitude for I mean maybe it's the whole thing I'm sure it's the whole thing well sure but only being in yoga build gave me the perspective through meditation through contemplation through my more than one thousand walks on the Lotus Road here did I have an opportunity to really see the very wide angle view of this privileged life that I've LED I for goodness sake just imagine you walk
(13:57) into a room and you see somebody who seems to be strangling the U.S senator whose office is there and then while you're making pictures you realize it's not somebody strangling it's senator being given a blessing scarf by his Holiness of Dalai Lama in those days you only had 36 exposures of film and when the camera was empty it went by that time his Holiness had grabbed Senator Patrick Lahey a very large guy and he can't be placed him into an armchair because he's not close to his Holiness can
(14:31) really Bliss you out if you're open to it and then he turned toward me ran toward me grabbed me by both ears shook me like a toy put his nose against mine and went ha get him and I found the chair next to Senator Leahy lowered myself into it and Senator Patrick Lee he was got a voice like this big guy turns to me and he says oh Jeff you're here to yeah so those things happened in my life those things happen in my life and crazy things there was a helicopter that was hijacked no no awful details and I got there with my camera crew just as
(15:17) the first unit of police were coming in and the cops raced into this elevator right behind us and as we're racing up to the with the roof for the panhand building which isn't building in Manhattan as the helicopters come in and I say to the highest ranking of the cops who's a kid you encounter than me I grabbed my other arm I said how are you doing and he said give me how am I doing I'm the guy responsible for response to this what am I going to do and I grabbed him those hands on the shoulder and I
(15:44) said fear not the Lord is with you hmm I had no idea and he listened to me and he said yeah yeah the doors open and he yells for the other cops with him follow me he runs to the helicopter Dives in grabs the hijacker of the helicopter throws the guy on the ground handcuffs him and after all this is done and other cops take this crazy guy away he says to me who the hell are you and I said well look at the microphone it says WC you know the station's not working for he said no no man who are you and I just laughed and I said I have no
(16:19) idea [Laughter] but yoga answered the question um what is the answer I'm present hmm I'm right here right now I've always been an intervener all my life I kept in the way I [Music] two years ago I was visiting one of my kids in DC on the DC Metro and I see at the other end of the car which is not regarding that you filled up with people in that 20 people I see a fight about to take place between two people different races different genders with very large people and it can feel blows are about to come and I fellow
(17:10) from the other end of the car stop it now I have no idea and they stopped then the train made a stop and one of them stepped on and all that terrifying energy left the clock and I got off two steps not two stops later and ran them their way but those kinds of things that happened to me in my life over and over again I have no idea why but I know one thing I'm here in a way it seems that this is kind of the opposite of what you were speaking about before in terms of you know the depression that you went through when
(17:54) you lost your your job and all of that you know taking my Persona my identity very very seriously and on the other side of that is being a conduit and realizing that something else is and and really around loneliness I think too right what I've experienced is you know the most challenging aspect of in life is when I feel alone you know separate uh different sure but you know the moments that you've described you know that the moment with that police officer of you know fear not the Lord is with you right and he felt the truth of it
(18:36) and you felt the truth of it because it came through you and if and is that what yoga is about is feeling that the truth of his that we're we're not alone that there's something else inside of us that is divine no question don't tell anyone else though between you and me here's another one 1966.
(19:03) Dr King is in Mississippi leading a huge March I'm down there covering it by myself everybody else is down there with teams of reporters I'm down here by myself so I would on a number of occasions get lost I have to go find the March after grabbing a bite to eat somewhere and I think I can see the March off in the distance somewhere it's something so it's it's almost like a big park to me you see I'm such a city guy I didn't cry me I was in the Park it's a farm so I start bending my way my tape
(19:33) recorder in my hand over this Parkland which is farmland and I make a turn and there's this small farmhouse like local centers maybe an art form not very small and what I see just blows my mind there's this really old God must put in 40 because I was 22 and all those people would hold him and now that are almost idiots almost astonishing to look back at it and this old white guy's got a gun in his hand five inch barrel 38 caliber revolver and he's pointing it and I'm following the direction of the gun and there are these
(20:07) two young African-American men they're wearing What's called the Civil Rights Movement uniform chino pants white business shirt folded up to the Elbow those were Dr King's guys most of these were Divinity students college students smart capable people to astonish and courage and they're standing there each of them is holding two metal buckets and I'm hearing him say it ugly things that these young men and one of them saying sir we were looking for the owner we wanted to buy water so we could bring them over to the people in
(20:40) the March who are really urgently needing water and he is mumbling something and I'm coming into his field of view and I know that that's a dangerous moment with somebody with a gun in their hand who may be frightened and it's like he's putting the skin out of his mind and forgive me I didn't hardly fake it so nice and it was good enough at the moment I said sir can I help you and he turned to me he said ah I wanna I wanna I want these these I don't use the word to use off my property and I said how would it be if I
(21:17) walked them right off now and he said I'd be most appreciative of that so I walk over to the Civil Rights workers and I say you too follow me off the property we get out of the guy's point of view you can't see we've made a turn on the highway with the marches and we embrace because we had just avoided that or who knows maybe all three of us and and terrible trauma for that old man what do that I have no idea I didn't think it through there was not a moment of evaluation it was another moment when
(21:53) I became a conduit for higher energy and I'm so grateful for those moments it seems like that there's a theme here in terms of the the life raft is sent to you in the moments when you are the most desperate you don't know what to do you know like The Logical mind maybe doesn't know what to do and naturally you open up to an answer that seemingly wasn't there I like that but I think it's so much quicker than that it's not as though I thought oh what do I do it wasn't even that there was
(22:32) here's the program and you're doing it I don't know where this stuff comes from I mean Devin other moments like that just astonishing yes I mean liberating my network it should only be half as good as your book okay so I'm I'm curious about our past and especially you know someone who has as Rich of a past as as you do you know what do you feel is a healthy relationship with our pasts you're saying p-a-t-h right or pass what are you saying p-a-s-dr pass oh what's a healthy relationship well for
(23:28) me it's gratitude gratitude is the Divine sorter for me whatever else is going on no matter what I'm going through if I have a benefit of having a Moment of clarity I return to gratitude my wife and I have this deal I'm married a really well you know it really wise deep proof not the exact opposite of a human being and when I'm off when I'm somehow drawn back to pre-yogreville neurosis all she has to say to me is hey do mantra and right stop whatever I'm doing and um never takes more than five or six
(24:14) specifications for me to become centered again what again that is right I'm up I'm also wondering so you know it seems that it's possible to kind of get trapped in the past when I spend time I'm actually going through my own journal my old journals you know that started at the end of elementary school for me and wow all these things that I don't even remember happening you know and and I get the sense and even probably I didn't re I haven't read them until now because I don't think I was
(24:56) um able to not get trapped again in like my identity the things that have happened um but but now maybe it's just giving me some some perspective but that's what I'm wondering about is you know can like you said can I have gratitude for all the variety of experiences that I have been through yeah but at the same time not lose the opportunity of being right here right now oh no exactly right forgive me oh no right now exactly right sounds like the most astonishing twist around let me rephrase I concur I had that experience
(25:35) myself and I my guess is that anybody who meditates for more than 60 seconds a day has access to that knowledge for me the past has never been a trap except when everything that I was doing in my life that had been supportive of the best of me I thought at the time crumbled could that happen to me again I I guess one of the advantages of being this freaking old is that I have a couple of nice small tensions and the stress to make a living isn't in there and I no longer feel quite so pressed to impress others with my identity and
(26:17) we'll be right back after these messages are they I don't need to do that yeah not so much speaking of the past I'm wondering how did you get into journaling to be in with no no never journaling Journal journalism sorry yeah because I just was talking about Journal anyway the difference of course is huge in journaling we're exploring ourselves I didn't I was interested in the outside world I didn't even think that there was anything remotely interesting inside of me that took a long time and so I
(26:49) discovered I was the most fascinating subject on earth oh God did I say that all right I'm the son of an engineer author um who was stricken by polio which disabled him from the waist down for the rest of his life when he was 33 and I was eight it took him a year to be well enough to move from the hospital in Chicago back home to New York and when he did that I was assigned the job of working behind him while he was working at his braces and crushes so that should he fall backward I could stop that so that he would not strike
(27:32) his skull and die ever since that moment I have felt responsible for everybody I'm only realizing that this year astonishing sense of feeling responsible for every about everything now the fact that that has not made me completely insane is a tribute to yoga because I only discovered that consciously while I was here but it uh it's very shaping it's very formative to be a nine-year-old to be given that assignment and then when you leave the space of the home and you go out in the rest of the world and everybody who seems remotely
(28:20) disabled do you think there's no responsibility it can make them quite other centers rather than oneself so I I didn't understand that a whole chuckabi was looking within for a long time until finally the fog got scraped up oh wait a minute log base what is that all right they're good right so you know I I was introduced to yoga in 1972 by my first wife we were together for 18 years but she quickly quickly was reading the Tibetan book of The Liberation to write the Book of the Dead and got it and I thought she was nuts
(29:00) she was not the crazy it was me everybody called her angel because that was her nature and they called me if they wanted the story covered so you're saying your relationship with with your father yeah LED you into journalism yes and it absolutely did um because by the time I was 12 I was editing his books and it turned out that I had a voice that was somehow okay for radio by the time I was 16 I was uh on the air on small radio stations in New York state every now and then [Music] and by the time I was 18 a bit more about my 19
(29:52) I was a correspondent for radio Press International New York and the United Nations I was still penciling in my Mustang [Laughter] but do you remember what that like that how did had you come to be on on the radio to begin with like it was it uh an inspiration something that you heard all of that I mean I I grew up in the era of Edward R Morrow and for the audience that doesn't know the name it's worth the time on Google Edward R Murrow m-u-r-r-o-w you won't regret the time you spend on it but he essentially invented American
(30:28) broadcast journalism Amanda astonishing genius courage dignity and with fabulous pipes and that guy spoke people listened and in my family when this tomorrow was on the radio everybody was silenced I wanted to be one of those guys but when he had something to say people silence themselves or others I love that I used to have finished my anchoring at Channel 11 New York on Saturday night and Sunday night get out of my suit get the makeup off put on a twin leather jacket a T-shirt and sunglasses and go out in the street and before you
(31:14) get the Grand Central Station to go home to Connecticut I would be nailed by three or four people who wanted to talk about stories that they'd seen me do two days before a month six months before I liked having that sense of importance in people's lives and I felt terribly responsible about it I still do you still feel that responsibility sure not just as I know you do when you know them push the button to record your podcast you have an obligation to whoever is watching it or listening to it you take it seriously yeah fun
(31:47) but you always know that you've been invited inside of people's heads that comes with responsibility I wonder what is like right relationship with service I mean I think that's what we're we're talking about a little bit you know you you experienced that in a very serious way in an early age and almost I mean is it an addiction even to consider service or responsibility in the in that way it's pretty strong right I don't know if that's the appropriate word but predictions what's so full of wretched
(32:23) negatives yeah what's a better word how about it's filled with Rewards incentives yeah yeah they're healthy they're healthy the whole notion of service I mean it's it's it's like Grace itself when you really enter Grace service and services Grace it fills you with light it fills you with gratitude at least that's my experience one of the jobs I've loved the most at the ashram is being the front desk receptionist the first contact with strangers or guests who you know have a
(32:59) reservation they come in and who do they encounter with you well what are you going to do what's the energy going to offer if you're conscious and careful and focused about being present you want that moment to be memorable for them because you're representing the entire Institution it may only last 10 seconds or it could be minutes depending on what they need to know and if they need guidance but for me it many sense I can talk about such no it took me back to the sense of responsibility for when somebody threw
(33:32) acute I mean I was live on the air to millions of people it's the same it's one person or it's a million people it's about making a connection to other humans that's the thing I crave most of my life connectivity I love it and yoga gives me a shot to Max that out but you were eluding before to maybe a dark side to this to the responsibility to the service to the child yeah oh sure that's a tough one taking on too much yeah but then again you think about refugees and you know six-year-olds being in
(34:16) charge of the whole family because Mom and Dad have just been killed and there's a four-year-old and a five-year-old and that six-year-old takes care of the other kids so compared to that where did I go through nothing it was big in my life but so what move on be present in now and you know that's that's also Grace and we understand that we can actually we then Focus move forward and enjoy being fully present all kinds of gifts to them they just come to us from a fully questions before this podcast interview with you I
(34:52) was at a local supermarket at Food Lion and I witnessed one kindness after another across racial lines completely destroying all the worst fears that a lot of people have about how things are going in America today at least where I was at this supermarket in Central Virginia which is frankly it uh it's a place that is politically so red that I think that if the Republicans were to nominate a rabid golden retriever it would win over the Democrat no matter whoever that was nevertheless day-to-day kindness fun people singing
(35:31) songs of each other for laughs but it looked almost as though um I think your film was being made about how kind people can be to each other day to day absent drama absent people meticulously driving them against one another sweet sweet experience curious what's your take on the state of the media and the emphasis that it tends to give right I'm not focusing on the things that you're that you're just talking about on all the kindness they did today the progression that's happening right the majority of the
(36:08) media seems to be fair Fairly negative is that okay or do you see an issue with that it's always bothered me that my most memorable reporting according to most people anyway was about the worst calamities but let's not forget that we are we are creatures not just the fact that we're all Native Stardust the same Stardust but we are also descendants uh early humans who if they were not acutely attuned to negatives they'll be killed in the moment that sounded in the brush what is that I think I'll just ignore it and then
(36:49) you're eaten by an animal or somebody else who wants what you have in your tape will come behind you and kill you so you had to be genetically attuned to the negative that's still in US let's face it the Earth is roughly 3 billion years old so it's cold and human beings would honor for what a couple of hundred thousand years couple million half a million we're still newbies the planet is still new relatively so we're still connected to those early humans in lots of ways if there was a loud noise behind you
(37:29) right now despite the fact that I'm honest with you part of me would be wondering what that might be even though you and I live in yogerville in a place of breathtakingly sweet absence I would still wonder what that was what was that sound sure of course of course there's reasons no question let me ask you that let me respond to your question about the how media plays things so what the point I want to make forgive my beings to circulating here on the the central notion long before there was this nightmare
(38:11) on the internet of science that allowed people's fears to be meticulously managed and Amplified because it was good for business yeah long before we had that we had the time Beloit newspapers so by the time television news came along the praise if it bleeds it leads was an accurate description at least of local news it's what people wanted to hear about and see them only recently in the last I'd say 20 years has the notion of positive news been Central in a lot of different markets do you know by the way that you can
(39:01) click on a weekly BBC Radio program um which is called positive okay all the good stuff that's happening around the world and it's inspiring because in my experience as a journalist in some of the worst places and some of the ugliest moments most people have met have been kind acid here and compassionate to this stranger walking into their space while they're having one of the worst moments of their lives they're automatic natural kindness embrace me and that's what I wind up all the time here
(39:41) with our neighbors in Central Virginia Grace Joy Beauty kindness is that spending some time every day in meditation consciously grateful for whatever comes my way has Amplified my capacity to receive love and maybe to give it but who knows it does seem that there's this maybe for lack of a better word inner battle between different you know focuses of awareness where do I put my attention and you know I think about that line you know if it if it bleeds it leads and I wonder you know does it have to be that way you know especially in relation to
(40:30) business okay these businesses they're interested in capturing people's attention and making money like that that's their goal and they've come to this conclusion that uh people are going to be more engaged hooked by the negative but I wonder if that's true I think about I mean what you're saying and you've reminded me one of my favorite uh memories that I have with my mother is that when I was probably only seven or eight she uh read to me this book called random acts of kindness
(41:05) and even at such a young age I was so into it right it was so interesting that hooked me hearing these stories about strangers doing amazing things for each other I have kids who do that all the time that's their orientation that's their orientation the school the schools where they went did a lot of that um my uh my oldest kid is a brilliant singer-songwriter at Yogi um whose conscious caring kindness is almost overwhelming and she found some of that in her mother who as I said her nickname was Angel for
(41:48) a reason and then she Amplified it because she met great teachers who also offered love kindness without asking for anything in exchange that's what she does I'm so proud of those kids yeah I hear you talk about them a lot and I can I can feel it and they're they're inspiring you right every day someone who might be interested in um taking a journey on the yoga path or deepening their practice any recommendations advice you would have for someone who wants to Explore Yoga further I have distilled it all down into my own
(42:42) brilliance humility kindness service laughter patience and never ever give up your own personal power enhance it illuminated being in the presence of great teachers what a blessing but know that it's on you pilot your own Journey navigate your own way wonderful to do that and you'll pick up so many great brothers and sisters along the way because those of us who are consciously on the path of yoga or Buddhism or you name it genuine spiritual Journeys we have so much in common it doesn't matter what we look like it doesn't
(43:40) matter what our gender is we understand what it's about is here and taking this you know ruining that and acting on that so much for my 27 cents worth of wood which is one quarter of 108. you really haven't distilled it down you're ready for that one absolutely not this is because I'm paying attention to you and drawing on your loving energy which sets me free in this space that's that's what you're talking how we can that's Community that's connection we feed off of each other
(44:19) amazing I'm really glad that you brought up one word because I have spoken to you about this before and I want to speak to you about that now and that is humility and you you've also given me a great gift and making me aware presencing me to the Trap of false humility and the difference between false humility and genuine humility yeah you're gonna meet a lot of people in your life we all do who do this and what they're really thinking is or uh how do I get what that guy's got or I hope this will get me in
(44:58) and arriving at the genuine stuff takes time for a lot of people and that's all right that's where patience comes in there's this sweet notion of fake it till you make it that's fine fine but at some point you can look back and say oh I've arrived I can step back in I also have this uh maybe a strange view of realization I think a lot of us are already there but we're so idealized that it's got to be out there somewhere no it's in here it's connection it's caring it's compassionate
(45:39) and the Stillness yeah there's the glue can you describe the the genuine humility a little bit more what it what is that and why is it so important genuine humility allows us to see ourselves clarity and is a pathway to so much of the good stuff that we've all crave the connection the empathy as opposed to the fake stuff which is supposed to be helping us toward that anyway but it's like the thin candy shell around the chocolate it's kind of melt not in your hand letting your head so don't brush it let it come naturally
(46:45) open your hands and bending your head doesn't necessarily mean you're humble may just mean you're looking for a motor spive Envy and it's like getting through the moment and that's all I do but be patient and be compassionate to yourself it's the toughest land or the cultured demands that we learn how to be empathetic toward others but almost gives us no teaching about pointing that instrument inside us if we have compassion for ourselves it makes the real thing toward others so much more reasonable to do more
(47:23) hmm more rapidly deployed when needed because it comes from the natural space is that answering your question or have I run around the block with it yeah I mean the compassion too is strong inside of me right now realizing the the importance I'm wondering is that something that you feel you've made progress on yourself your ability to show yourself compassion you and I share uh a number of teachers one of them took me aside about seven years ago and he said listen don't do this false humble stuff it deserves everybody around you and you
(48:07) so watch it and I almost resisted until I realized no the guys onto something I better check myself out it's a huge help I'd utter his name but he'd be embarrassed so I won't because he's genuinely humble um seems like there's you know two important factors happening simultaneously one is just an overwhelming gratitude for this experience of of being alive and what it what a gift it is and holding that in one hand and in the other hand also acknowledging that this life stuff is really challenging in many districts
(48:57) yeah I'm not suggesting for a second that being consciously grateful is an easy thing for people who are having to pursue a job a family difficult relationships and issues of self-concept which is a very common set of experiences I always thought that the notion of coral and retirement the golden years was a lot of marketing but I would argue that for me my retirement such as it is I'm still writing and making documentary films and photography but having to chase a buck not having to do that thank you God
(49:41) and after my union and Social Security thank you thank you yeah and and all those years of having to chase that and and feel that pressure right that all that's a gift too because it allows you to appreciate it now which is the greatest thing to to Value the freedom that you're experiencing it presently no question about it um the day-to-day stuff especially people in their 20s and 30s who are young family people and I don't care what the family is like whether it's straight or gay it doesn't
(50:20) matter all those pressures to create and maintain something that's beautiful and satisfying and even admired by others that's tough that's tough and if I could wave a magic Bond I would insert an instantaneous empathy Drive in everybody and is that what really active Avi you would have a dramatic diminishment and the number of acts of violence around the world would probably drop by about I don't know 95 percent when I was the young reporter in Chicago I received a phone call from the warden of Cook County Jail which was a terrible
(51:09) place he said leave your tape recorder in the car this is off the Record stop Jack Johnson's been gone for a long time so it's okay to tell the story he said I've been listening to you on the radio I think you're trying hard but I don't think you know much about some things when I say I'm 22 years old how could I know much about anything he then took me on a personal tour through the prison I couldn't wait to get out it was terrifying people reaching through their bars wanting to just grab me
(51:41) and he took me back into his office he said so how are you and I said I'm shaking like a leaf he said good it proves you're alive and human now let me tell you something I just took you down murderer as well of all those guys are here because they killed somebody if I could go back in their pants somehow magically erase the the physical and emotional abuse that was done to them when they were little kids by that empty person think about that as you go out and cover the screen again that was a radical point of view back
(52:16) then nobody's born criminal North it's statistically insignificant except for those poor people who have encountered me we are uh we're malleable we're we're children who play who holds us how in what direction my poor mom wanted a little girl she had ten miscarriages in me when my dad got home from his job installing radar and sonar and U.
(52:57) S Navy ships in the middle of World War II I was a baby in the basket and he found his wonderful young life uh happily folding beautiful little garments and he said what are they she said oh I brought them to the baby aren't they beautiful he said they look like dresses she said well they are and he said are they dresses for boy babies and she said well no but I thought he looks so cute and keep in mind this is a much less enlightened time about gender and my dad said please pick them all up and come with me and he took her out of
(53:35) the apartment in the incinerator and had to throw them all down your incinerator he said to her and let's understand something he wanted a little girl I know you got a man shot keep it straight and by the time I was 17 my mother had done her best to convince me that I was fragile and fail and I need to be a fearful beautiful and as fast as I could I got out of here got a job began living my own life and pursued every opportunity to find living models of a totally different kind of maleness and they were rescue workers
(54:21) and cops and firefighters who daily routinely offered their own lives in the defense of others or rescue others and that was the kind of spiritual core that I wanted myself though I wouldn't have identified that as a spiritual world it is it is you know it's always came to the United States trained several different categories of elite Indian police officers in yoga because as he said to me in the documentary film he said a police officer should be a safely fellow because of all the stressors that will
(55:01) come at him in a moment's notice and he has conscious in her life that will guide him in those worships it's a better place but that's right that's what the message was and all that clicked together with my teenage understanding intuitive understanding of my identification with Rescuers and who knew that I spent the rest of my life but from time to time emulating that role um thank you so much it's been a blessing to be with you Abby it always is I'm gonna miss you but you're gone I really am
(55:47) be seeing you many times catch you Saturday all right