บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ Why Chasing Happiness Leads to Suffering | Armin Shafee

00:04:09.120 I was going to document every day after closing down all my businesses and starting something new. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:13.919 And and I and I would say, and taking possession of my mind, outwinning the devil. 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:15.520 And I did it really well. 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:23.199 I even have a whole video on YouTube on the 29 lessons I learned in the in 30 days of outwinning the devil, because those are the first 30 days of documenting. 00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:25.519 It was actually like 45 lessons, but I condensed it. 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:34.079 And uh by day 34, I had this huge kind of epiphany as I was sitting there in contemplation recording day 34. 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:40.879 And it was at the end, it was unplanned, it was in the flow, and I hit this like huge some scar. 00:04:41.360 --> 00:04:45.680 Some scars are like balls of undigested emotion energy stuck in the body. 00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:54.959 But it's directly correlated to your past, things that are controlling you, that are uh essentially keeping you locked, like tied up instead of liberated and free. 00:04:55.439 --> 00:05:03.920 I hit this big whale and I realized why I was doing everything I've been doing for the last 10 years, and and why I thought it was so important and why I needed it. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:10.480 And I was filling this specific void and I just saw it for the first time and I let it go. 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:13.680 The moment I did, I felt this release come through my body. 00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:21.759 And then after that, I just I would get up and I'd be like, day 35 of journey to 100 million and taking possession of my mind, but it felt weird. 00:05:21.839 --> 00:05:24.560 I'm like, I don't I don't think it matters, I don't care anymore. 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:26.160 Why don't why a hundred million? 00:05:26.639 --> 00:05:28.800 Take possession of one mind, I already have it. 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:32.879 By day 51, it completely changed. 00:05:33.279 --> 00:05:36.800 If you actually listen to that recording, which none of these are published, by the way. 00:05:36.959 --> 00:05:38.800 If you listen to it, I actually say, you know what? 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:42.399 This is officially day one of my surrender experiment. 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:45.759 That was actually the day I I really owned it. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:47.519 And ever since then it's been that. 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:53.839 And we met, I think, originally didn't, if I remember correctly, at the beginning of this. 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:57.199 I don't know what day, fairly at the beginning, yeah? 00:05:57.519 --> 00:06:02.319 I I came and spoke at your event in Colombia. 00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:04.959 I think I was on like day eighty. 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:06.639 I was in the eighty day eighty, okay. 00:06:06.879 --> 00:06:19.519 So I was maybe two or three weeks after that moment where I changed the purpose of the documentation, but also it was around a

lot of the mystical things started happening in my life. 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:22.160 The moment I started really surrendering and letting go of ego. 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:25.920 And by the way, it's you don't let go of ego, you just purify. 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:26.959 That's a better way to put it. 00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:28.000 It doesn't ever leave. 00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:30.480 Like as long as we're ourself, we have ego. 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:33.600 Yeah, but my ego was just consumed by the past. 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:37.439 Instead of being a servant to me, it was my master because master was at home. 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:40.240 And so that awakening kind of changed the power dynamic. 00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:42.160 I'm like, oh yeah, I'm the one in charge. 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:43.920 Ego is just my my servant. 00:06:44.079 --> 00:06:46.319 It's a great servant, but it's a shitty master. 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:50.399 So by the time I came to speak at your event, I think I was in my 70s or 80s. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:52.879 And I remember I came there to talk about Think and Grow Rich. 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:53.120 Yeah. 00:06:53.279 --> 00:06:56.319 Which was the last talk I ever did for Think and Grow Rich. 00:06:56.560 --> 00:06:57.199 Yeah, was it? 00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:05.519 Because right in the midst of it, weeks before I came to your event, I had this incredible meditative experience and I had this kind of like download. 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:13.600 I thought I was making it all up, but I had this like kriya given to me, this kind of um sadhana, this practice that gave me this mystical experience. 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:18.560 And I have this light open up at the top of my eyes, my eyes closed, and I was like, what was that? 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:20.720 And I immediately was indoctrinated. 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:24.160 I was being, you know, called into doing more inward spiritual mystical work. 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:33.600 By the time I came to speak to you guys about thinking garage, halfway through the talk, I've just I felt far more compelled to talk about what was true for me, not what I've done for years. 00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:43.360 Instead of telling people how to be successful, I wanted to tell people what surrender the power of surrender is and how, yeah, you can use your mind to conceive and believe and achieve anything you set your mind to. 00:07:43.439 --> 00:07:50.000 I mean, if you're listening to this, you're probably one of the people that knows you have the power to create anything you want, you have the power to create reality. 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:58.240 But my my fascinating question that follows that is how do you know what reality to create? 00:07:59.279 --> 00:08:07.279 And that became what uh made me far more uh uh fascinated and infatuated to know than to just keep creating realities. 00:08:08.240 --> 00:08:10.000 And that's where surrender comes in. 00:08:10.240 --> 00:08:12.639 It's aligning with what's meant for you. 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:19.920 And the best way to say it is stop chasing and creating what you think you want and make space to see what already wants you. 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:23.199 And I think that's just a far more interesting way to live. 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:33.200 And what my uh direct and personal experience in my life has been is that life ends up unfolding in ways you could have never designed on your own. 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:49.440 And so from the limited egoic perspective, what you think would make you happy, it's not even the fingernail of I think what God and life would itself show you what you can have and be and do if you didn't create an agenda, but you learned how to surrender. 00:08:49.679 --> 00:08:50.399 It's amazing. 00:08:50.720 --> 00:09:01.919 So I want to share the story of us meeting because I think this is uh a really cool story for one, and also captures what the surrender experience is, right? 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:05.600 Because surrender experience, when you hear that, is like, what is what does that actually mean, right? 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:07.519 I'm sure a lot of people think that. 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:25.120 So my side of the story was I have a friend, we both have a mutual friend, Icon, and icon contacts me and he's like, Hey, there's this guy that uh I just sold a ticket to to one of my events. 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:25.919 Do you remember this? 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:26.720 Yeah, I do. 00:09:27.039 --> 00:09:32.000 So what happened is he was selling tickets to his event, and his event was in the States. 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:38.000 And so I don't know how he connected with you, but he got on the phone with you and is like, Hey, I want to, I want you to come to the event. 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:39.200 It's a thousand dollars. 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:46.240 And you're like, Well, the only thing is I can't go to the event because I can't go to the states or whatever the situation was. 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:48.159 Um, but you were like, you know what? 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:49.759 I'll buy a ticket anyways. 00:09:50.080 --> 00:09:59.440 And so you you bought a ticket to his event, and then Icon was like, Wow, I've never had someone buy a ticket to an event who can't go uh to the event. 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:00.480 This is like very weird. 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:02.000 Like, hey, what can I do for you? 00:10:02.080 --> 00:10:02.960 I want to help you now. 00:10:03.039 --> 00:10:04.000 Like, this is amazing. 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:14.559 And it and you you shared with him, from my recall of the story, I want to speak more, like I want to have more uh speaking engagements and opportunities to speak in front of audiences, right? 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:19.440 And so he's like, I know the guy for you, and that's where I came in and you and he connected us. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:28.159 Yeah, and then from that, you were in I think Mexico at the time, yeah, and you flew all the

way to Colombia, yeah, spoke at our event. 00:10:28.240 --> 00:10:30.399 So this is around day 80, 70, 80. 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:38.720 And um, from there you extended your trip as many people do, but you had so many people reaching out to you, and then just kind of full picture contacts. 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:42.000 This was, I mean, this was almost uh two years ago. 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:58.480 I mean, if you count the days, I mean, I don't know what that adds up to, but since then, you've spoken at other events uh of ours, you've done advisorship, and you're also mentoring people inside of the entrepreneur, the entrepreneur entrepreneurs house uh community. 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:01.440 And uh you provided a ton of value, provided a ton of value to me. 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:05.440 We actually just got back from Joe Dispenza in Cancun, which is awesome. 00:11:05.679 --> 00:11:06.399 An experience. 00:11:06.559 --> 00:11:17.279 And uh, and yeah, it's it's it's looking back and also sharing the story and thinking about it's pretty crazy to how all those, like you said, things happened that you didn't even wouldn't imagine. 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:21.279 Like who thought that you buying a ticket would lead you to Columbia and speaking at events? 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:37.120 Yeah, like I I mean I have a lot to thank you for because you're one beautiful element and variable in the grand unfolding of the life I live now that I constantly remind myself I did not seek, manifest, or ask for. 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:57.120 And that led to me meeting my soulmate, me having incredible mystical and awakening experiences, me coming to Columbia, me having a whole new life of friends, me experiencing things I didn't know I was capable of doing, like all of it kind of really started, dude, with us. 00:11:57.679 --> 00:12:02.159 And to our good friend Icon, the that that moment was very peculiar to me. 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:11.200 And this is a great example, by the way, of how ego will constantly sway you and deceive you into thinking something is not right or is not good. 00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:20.240 But if you surrender, if you challenge that ego and do the opposite of what it's thinking, it's trying to tell you is what you should do, you'll find yourself actually on a path that you're meant for. 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:26.080 For example, at the time he icon reached out to me because he wanted to give me coaching advice on my YouTube video. 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:28.720 Because he's, I mean, he's good at what he does in content creation. 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:31.919 And of course, that was a little, that was a little interesting for my ego. 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:35.279 Cause I'm like, well, it's the first video I put out, it was kind of a sensitive thing for me. 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:37.120 I was deep in this experiment. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:41.679 And so I'm like, I saw my ego go, coach me. 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:44.000 And I said, Oh, you're bothered. 00:12:44.320 --> 00:12:45.679 We're gonna get on this call. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:48.480 And that was the beginning of how I would out with the devil. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:54.000 Because every time that voice came in my head, the devil inside, who by the way is the wrong voice and the right voice. 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:54.960 It's both the voices. 00:12:55.039 --> 00:13:01.519 Some people think the angel is the good side in like the movie, and the devil's the bad side, and you're like, which one's God, which one's truth? 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:03.759 They're both the devil, both of them. 00:13:03.840 --> 00:13:09.039 They'll con that voice constantly change, switches sides just to keep persuading you and distracting you from your own self. 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:09.840 Who's the self? 00:13:09.919 --> 00:13:11.360 The head in between, man. 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:18.799 The presence, the awareness that you are, not the voice that keeps yakking, uh, you know, uh dragging you from one end to the other. 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:22.000 So I saw it didn't really like the idea of being coached. 00:13:22.159 --> 00:13:23.519 So I'm like, let's do it. 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:33.600 And I got on, I would feel these things in my body, where you know, the ego's like trying to control you in your life, trying to tell you who to love, who not to love, what to do, what not to do, how to live, how not to live. 00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:35.200 It's trying to tell you who you are. 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:42.320 And the ego can tell you who you've been, it could tell you who you can be, it could tell you who you should be, it could tell you who you should have been, but it can never tell you who you are. 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:45.360 That was the first realization I had in my journey. 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:47.919 So I got on the call with him and he said, Give me advice. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:49.120 And I'm like, all right, bro, thank you. 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:51.120 And like, I didn't, I don't even remember the advice. 00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:57.200 I just remember loving the feeling of discomfort of my ego not liking this and me being there in surrender to say, listening. 00:13:57.360 --> 00:13:59.519 And I just let my ego to the side. 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:00.559 I'm like, thank you, bro. 00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:02.879 Thank you for doing this and you know, giving me feedback. 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:03.600 He's like, Yeah, bro. 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:05.679 And also I wanted to let you know about this event coming up. 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:08.080 And I'm like, Oh, so now my ego hits the second one. 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:09.759 I knew it, there's something off here. 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:10.720 He wants to sell me something. 00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:12.240 So my ego's coming in the whole time. 00:14:12.639 --> 00:14:14.159 Yeah, you should have listened to me, Armin. 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:17.120 And now I'm listening to him, and I'm like, sure, bro,

tell me about it. 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:19.679 Now, this whole time at the time, I just closed down my businesses. 00:14:19.759 --> 00:14:24.480 The most financially responsible thing was to not spend any money, especially on things I don't need to spend money on. 00:14:24.639 --> 00:14:24.799 Okay. 00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:27.679 So at that time, obviously, I'm thinking he's trying to sell me a ticket. 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:30.399 My ego's coming in, going, dude, we're not spending any money. 00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:31.279 Screw this guy. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:33.200 He also was assuming you asked for advice. 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:37.120 Like, all this, like all this toxic fucking this this energy in my head. 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:40.559 I realized I had to find that guy inside that was just living as me. 00:14:40.639 --> 00:14:43.840 And now as we're just watching him, like, I'm not, you're not me. 00:14:43.919 --> 00:14:44.399 I'm not you. 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:45.759 Like, who are you? 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:48.480 So he finished doing the pitch, and it was a good pitch. 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:50.879 And he goes, Yeah, it's a thousand bucks for the event. 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:53.200 And I looked at him, I said, Where is it? 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:54.320 He goes, In in the States. 00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:55.120 I go, when is it? 00:14:55.200 --> 00:14:56.960 He's like, then I'm like, all right, awesome. 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:01.200 And he didn't know at the time I can't enter, I can't go to the states, you know. 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:02.480 I overstayed last time. 00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:04.480 And I'm like, How much is the ticket? 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:05.600 He goes, a thousand bucks. 00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:08.720 And I'm like, dude, that's a stupid decision. 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:10.399 I'm like, oh, you don't like it? 00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:12.639 I looked right in my ego's eyes. 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:13.519 I'm like, you don't like this? 00:15:13.759 --> 00:15:14.080 Great. 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:18.000 Or we're gonna surrender that preference of you controlling this moment. 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:20.080 And I said, Cool, bro, send me the link. 00:15:20.159 --> 00:15:24.799 And I literally bought on the spot with like whatever money I had left from the businesses I closed. 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:28.879 And people always think I started my surrender with a bank full of cash. 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:30.879 No, that's not an excuse. 00:15:31.039 --> 00:15:31.519 I didn't. 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:33.039 I started with a bank full of faith. 00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:33.519 That's it. 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:39.120 Just knowing that I want to see what it's like, especially I wanted to face the fear of money again. 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:41.279 Because it's been so long, I've been rich for so long. 00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:43.360 I'm like, why am I so afraid to not be? 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:45.600 So I pay him the money, he goes, Thanks, bro. 00:15:45.679 --> 00:15:46.320 Here's the event stuff. 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:47.600 I'm like, oh, I don't need it. 00:15:47.840 --> 00:15:48.639 He's like, why? 00:15:48.720 --> 00:15:49.919 I'm like, I can't make it. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:50.720 He goes, Why not? 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:51.840 But I can't come to the States. 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:53.840 He goes, Why would you buy a ticket? 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:58.240 And I literally just looked at him and I said, Because I want to support your dream, dude. 00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:01.759 And he's like, bro, I've never had anything like this happen. 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:11.759 He goes, Well, since you're the kind, he this is exactly the words he says, Since you're the kind of guy that does things on the spot to help people, I'm gonna be the kind of person that does something on the spot to help you. 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:12.799 Yeah, he goes, What do you need? 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:16.639 And at this time, remember, I'm sort of you go out and I don't want to like, I'm like, I don't need anything. 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:22.240 And I go, Well, I'm kind of doing this experiment, and it'd be nice to have more opportunities to share my story. 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:24.480 And he goes, I know just the guy. 00:16:24.799 --> 00:16:26.080 And he puts us at a group chat. 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:29.519 Now, at the time, you were talking to your ex-girlfriend at the time about Think and Grow Rich. 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:29.840 Yes. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:33.519 And he goes, Hey man, I just met the vice president of Think and Grow Rich. 00:16:33.919 --> 00:16:36.480 And he'd look at it somewhere to speak, and you're like synchronicity. 00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:36.799 Yes. 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:38.000 So that's how it all started. 00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:50.720 And it was so interesting because I wanted to define that moment because that's the direct beginning version of surrender, which is voice in your head, ego keeps fighting things, and you say yes when it says no, or you say no when it says yes. 00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:53.279 And my whole life unfolded, dude. 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:54.799 I mean, that's so amazing. 00:16:54.879 --> 00:16:55.360 Yeah, dude. 00:16:55.519 --> 00:16:56.639 That's such a great story. 00:16:56.879 --> 00:16:57.679 I love that story. 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:02.080 And now so it's been, you know, I forget what you said, 600 something days. 00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:04.000 680 days coming up 700, yeah. 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:05.680 680 days. 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:11.200 I'm sure there's been so many of those types of moments along this journey. 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:12.480 What has that been like? 00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:21.759 How so from that point on we met, how has that evolved in the the the I guess the next 600 days? 00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:24.799 I know that's uh that's a lot of time in there in between. 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:25.279 Yeah. 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:27.519

Eventually I'm gonna turn this all into a book. 00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:42.559 So I've already gone through versions of how I can organize the book, and the best so far I got is day zero to 30 was me being under another illusion of my ego that I need to become something, improve something. 00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:48.799 Day 30 to 50 was the release and awakening of like, oh, I don't need to do that. 00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:51.920 And I let's explore what it's like to not chase something. 00:17:52.079 --> 00:17:55.039 But day 50 to 100, things got real mystical. 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:56.559 That's when I met you, came here. 00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:58.400 And then when I came here, that two weeks I was here, dude. 00:17:58.480 --> 00:17:59.759 I was supposed to be here for like four days. 00:18:00.079 --> 00:18:01.599 I extended it by two weeks. 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:07.519 And I had almost every day someone asking me out to dinner from that event because they had life advice to ask me. 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:16.079 And I'm like, I was like at the time trying to put together uh, I just put together like a sales school, and I was like trying to do a whole new venture, and I thought this is the line, it's my new purpose, and all this stuff. 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:16.960 I was convinced myself. 00:18:17.039 --> 00:18:19.279 I spent eight months building up the launch. 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:25.200 I launched it, we did almost a hundred thousand dollars in like 60 days, and I shut it all down right away because I'm like, I'm gonna learn my lesson this time. 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:26.000 It doesn't feel aligned. 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:26.720 Why am I gonna do this? 00:18:26.799 --> 00:18:27.440 To prove what? 00:18:27.599 --> 00:18:28.559 I don't care if it makes money. 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:30.000 My but the voice came and tried to convince me. 00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:37.119 I'm like, no, I'm not, I'm not again portraying my soul just to prove something and find out at the end it's an emptiness again. 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:46.240 So I was here and I didn't realize, and all these people are sitting down with me, and I would never have expected feeling like I'm on a spiritual missionary trip because that's what it felt like, dude. 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:50.319 I was sitting there every day, people were like, I'm being sued, or I'm suing someone, this thing happened to me. 00:18:50.480 --> 00:18:51.200 Like, what should I do? 00:18:51.359 --> 00:18:54.400 And I'm like, I'm like, I did a talk on thinking grow rich. 00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:56.880 Like, what does this have to do with anything? 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:00.400 But I realized that after when I came back, because that was an initiation for me. 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:04.160 I started to also feel way too much energy in my body. 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:06.960 My channels were opened up, my heart was widely open. 00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:11.279 I felt like I was drunk in love with God and love, and and it

was like people were feeling the energy. 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:14.240 So I was kind of working as a vessel most of the time in those meetings. 00:19:14.319 --> 00:19:20.799 I felt like I was pushed to the side, and I was like me, the Armin, was just being used as a vessel. 00:19:20.880 --> 00:19:22.880 Like I was, I was kind of a participant there. 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:25.119 But that was a very mystical journey. 00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:26.640 That was day 50 to 100. 00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:31.839 Then 100 to 200 became really weirdly mystical. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:35.039 I really sat with a lot of darkness in me, led a lot of shadow work. 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:36.319 I wanted to face it with love. 00:19:36.400 --> 00:19:37.440 I wanted to see what it is. 00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:45.359 I wanted to, I call my darkness exploration phase, where I went deep into all my indulgences, but with awareness, indulging with awareness. 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:47.519 And that was like a lot of insights around that. 00:19:47.599 --> 00:19:51.359 I mean, I went borderline psychosis, crazy, you know, I touched all those things. 00:19:51.599 --> 00:20:06.799 Day 200 to 365, like the last kind of three-month sprint or four-month sprint, was a lot of inner child work, lots of like letting go of every possible belief or pressure I felt like was running my life. 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:10.160 And then I got really into bachata at the end, which was very unexpected. 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:12.720 And I mastered it and I it was incredible. 00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:21.359 And I ended, believe it or not, I ended day 365 on the same day of the first day of my 10-day Vipassana silent meditation retreat. 00:20:21.599 --> 00:20:22.720 Literally fell on the day. 00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:24.240 April 8th, it finished. 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:27.839 April 9th was the first day of meditating 10 hours a day for 10 days straight. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:28.960 And I thought it was perfect. 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:31.039 So I was in Mexico for this retreat. 00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:38.640 I'm like, I just spent 365 days every day using my mind, contemplating, meditating, um, and selflessly serving. 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:41.759 And now I'm gonna go into nothingness for 10 days. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:44.000 And that was the beginning of year two. 00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:50.400 I'm gonna ask before we go to year two, how was the how was that your first time doing a 10 day? 00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:57.279 Yeah, it was my first time being in an organized, like silent meditation, uh, especially a Buddhism because Vipasan is Buddhist. 00:20:57.440 --> 00:20:57.839 Yeah. 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:02.799 Um, yeah, I'd done something similar on my own in the beginning, which is the beginning of my awakening, awakening. 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:04.319 And what was that like for you? 00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:05.519 How was this yeah? 00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:08.000 Super, super difficult in the beginning. 00:21:08.160 --> 00:21:14.079 I realized I went out of 10 days of sprinting, doing bachata, like indulging in bachata and feeling the highest level of joy. 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:16.400 Like if I died in that moment, I would have been a happy guy. 00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:21.759 Like my soul would have been crying in joy because it felt so good to just dance and fluently in bachata. 00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:25.680 I loved it, and it was healing my relationship to women, to feminine, to sensuality. 00:21:25.759 --> 00:21:27.680 It was a great practice. 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:34.000 Um, I went from 10 days of doing that every day, 10 dances a night, because that was my gamification to like get really good at it. 00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:36.640 And and I went into sitting for 10 days doing nothing. 00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:38.880 So the first couple of days, I was tired. 00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:40.319 That's that's for sure. 00:21:40.559 --> 00:21:44.240 Um, and I was quite literally fantasizing bachata. 00:21:44.400 --> 00:21:51.279 I mean, it's it sounds dumb, but the first two, three days, I was playing bachata music perfectly in my mind and practicing that's so funny. 00:21:51.519 --> 00:22:01.839 Um, and and then around day four or five, my mind started to like, you know, I that those attachments kind of dissolved, and then I started to realize I Three different rooms my mind goes through. 00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:04.400 And I realized this is how it's been kind of most of my life. 00:22:04.559 --> 00:22:07.440 And the three rooms were fear, sex, and work. 00:22:07.759 --> 00:22:26.799 And so it would go between these rooms where it would try to distract me and pull my awareness into that sensational room by either freaking me the hell out with the most craziest, fearful scenarios of like people coming and like killing everyone in the room, um, or like gangs coming and like you know, shooting up like the the instructor. 00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:29.839 Like I just had the wildest fear-driven scenarios. 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:33.839 And I'm like, there's a lot of fear in my subconscious mind just popping up, popping its head up. 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:35.839 The moment I'm still for hours and hours. 00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:36.160 Yeah. 00:22:36.319 --> 00:22:44.400 And then it was sex, you know, it was it was specifically like a lot of uh remembering sexual encounters, but also thinking of people at the retreat. 00:22:44.480 --> 00:22:46.720 Then I'm like, oh, that person had a really nice smile. 00:22:46.880 --> 00:22:49.359 She was cute, and I just couldn't get her out of my head for two days. 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:51.200 And it was just like, Am I really this attached? 00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:52.240 I don't even know the person. 00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:54.240 So that was a lot, a lot of sex energy. 00:22:54.319 --> 00:22:55.119 And the last one was work. 00:22:55.200 --> 00:23:03.039 I mean, the amount of courses and events and businesses I built in my mind

within a couple of days was like, I would have been a billionaire if I acted. 00:23:03.519 --> 00:23:04.960 There was like so many courses. 00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:07.039 I'm like, now I know I'm so clear. 00:23:07.119 --> 00:23:09.440 Like I had moments where I was like, this is a great retreat. 00:23:09.519 --> 00:23:10.559 Let's let's leave now. 00:23:10.720 --> 00:23:11.440 Let's leave now. 00:23:11.519 --> 00:23:13.119 Let's like go home now and act on this. 00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:14.960 This is this is the future of the business. 00:23:15.039 --> 00:23:17.599 Like, let's go back, build a community, and build a course and do this funnel. 00:23:18.240 --> 00:23:24.799 And it was just like, and I would have to feel all that sense stimulus in the mind, and then just go right back to breathe. 00:23:24.960 --> 00:23:29.440 Yeah, feel the body, feel every sensation across your leg. 00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:31.839 And it's like, but but look at all this purpose. 00:23:31.920 --> 00:23:32.640 I'm so clear now. 00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:34.319 It's like, feel your left toe. 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:36.960 Like, you know, it's just it was just an anchor. 00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:42.240 Day six, five, six is when I started to really like the veil got dissolved. 00:23:42.480 --> 00:23:45.200 And at that point, I was like, it was like day five to eight. 00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:47.839 I was experiencing euphoric like presence. 00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:52.480 Like, I mean, during the breaks, I had a full-on engagement with a fly. 00:23:52.559 --> 00:24:03.039 And it was one of my favorite experiences because I remember sitting there, my mind was so clear, so empty, so still that I can connect energetically to this little fly. 00:24:03.119 --> 00:24:05.359 I'm like, that's a conscious fly, like that's a soul right there. 00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:06.880 And it was like cleaning its little hands. 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:08.079 You know what that's a stake? 00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:08.400 Yeah. 00:24:08.559 --> 00:24:09.200 You ever look at them? 00:24:09.279 --> 00:24:12.000 They like they they like fix their hair or whatever. 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:16.319 And I remember just sitting with one, I'm like feeling so much love for this being. 00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:18.480 And it was just it was amazing, dude. 00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:21.200 It was like I felt connected to everything, I didn't feel separate. 00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:25.039 By the last days, I mean, I was kind of sad we were gonna leave. 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:27.440 But in the beginning, I was like, let's go now, and now let's go. 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:29.839 And there are people leaving, you know, people will leave in the middle of it. 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:33.359 Yeah, I remember one guy specifically, he looked at me, he like looked for a sign of life. 00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:40.079 And I, you know, we can't talk to each other or look at each other, but I looked at him for a moment and he was looking for any expression to like feel human again. 00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:43.359 And I just looked and I looked away, and I feel like that's why he left the next day. 00:24:43.599 --> 00:24:44.880 But you know, it was it was tough. 00:24:44.960 --> 00:24:49.039 But by the end of it, there's definitely something that happened. 00:24:49.279 --> 00:24:54.880 My my attachment, my grand attachment to meaning disappeared. 00:24:55.279 --> 00:24:57.200 The meaning, all the meanings I put on things. 00:24:57.279 --> 00:24:58.079 I would judge all the people. 00:24:58.160 --> 00:24:59.839 I would call, I had nicknames for everyone. 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:02.559 Oh, there's Grumpy, or there's the one who's always moving. 00:25:02.640 --> 00:25:06.640 That's the one who coughs in the middle and doesn't give a shit about what anyone thinks and disrupts everyone's meditation. 00:25:06.720 --> 00:25:08.000 I had a judgment for everyone. 00:25:08.079 --> 00:25:09.839 Yeah, I had a nickname for everyone. 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:11.680 I was walking around thinking I know everything. 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:12.400 I had meanings. 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:14.240 I'm like, yeah, I'm just I'm on with God here. 00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:15.119 I've already meditated. 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:17.039 All of that disappeared by the end of it. 00:25:17.119 --> 00:25:19.279 It was just like nothing left, no identity. 00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:23.440 And that's when I had the deepest meditation where I felt my hands dissolve. 00:25:23.599 --> 00:25:25.519 My body was like not there. 00:25:25.680 --> 00:25:30.400 And then I'm like, whoa, what's left if I can't feel my own body? 00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:32.240 So I'm not the body, obviously. 00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:35.920 And then I my mind became more clear to see I'm not this mind either. 00:25:36.160 --> 00:25:41.440 So how is it that I'm here, but somehow I'm here and I'm not this body or this mind thinking about this body? 00:25:41.599 --> 00:25:43.119 Well, there's a paradox. 00:25:43.519 --> 00:25:46.559 So it was really, it was not what I expected. 00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:47.519 I wasn't ready. 00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:55.680 And afterwards, I actually had a like post retreat depression in a way, because I came out and there's no meaning left to life for me. 00:25:55.920 --> 00:25:58.559 And it took me a week to kind of integrate the wisdom of that. 00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:04.079 And the wisdom was that life itself is still there, but my attachment to it is gone. 00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:08.960 And I used to think my attachment is life, and that was a very deep realization. 00:26:09.359 --> 00:26:15.359 So even my attachment to God and all like what I made God to be for myself, and I would sit there and I love you, God. 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:19.279 All of that dissolved, and I felt like even when I tried to come do it again, I couldn't. 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:21.279 Like this is not it's an illusion. 00:26:21.839 --> 00:26:29.039 But God didn't

disappear, my attachment to God disappeared, and that was a very clear veil that I got removed. 00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:33.839 Life actually started breathing for me because I stopped making everything have to mean something. 00:26:34.160 --> 00:26:35.519 You just take it as it is. 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:39.839 You can almost say that deepened my understanding and living in surrender even more. 00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:42.319 It's a good finale to the 365 days. 00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:49.680 It is, it's perfectly timed, and that's a very intense 10 days. 00:26:50.079 --> 00:26:51.200 Yeah, it was. 00:26:51.359 --> 00:26:53.039 You've done something similar, haven't you? 00:26:53.279 --> 00:26:54.000 Yes, recently. 00:26:54.240 --> 00:26:55.680 What was your experience like? 00:26:56.240 --> 00:26:58.079 Uh well, somewhat similar. 00:26:58.160 --> 00:27:02.480 I had the three same buckets of three different buckets, you could say. 00:27:02.559 --> 00:27:06.640 I like how you kind of uh phrased it, where my mind kept going. 00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:10.559 Mine was also business and sex, like sexual fantasies. 00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:29.359 Um, but my third one uh was agitation, like just being agitated, like being annoyed and being like, yeah, like uh, you know, there is uh the girl there was, you know, so part of it there's an hour where they do a lesson basically. 00:27:29.599 --> 00:27:37.039 And they would rot they rotated in this one male, fem, female, male, female, like two different people each night, so or every other night rather. 00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:46.720 And the the girl who was teaching, she had this word she kept saying, like she'd she would be teaching, she'd be like, You have to open your heart, you see. 00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:51.839 And if you do that, you'll be happier, you see. 00:27:52.079 --> 00:28:05.119 And then and she kept saying, You see, like every every other word, and it was like so many times, and man, I was like so, and this is just one example, but I was like so pissed off and so annoyed. 00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:17.200 I'm like, I have to sit here and listen to this person keep saying, like, I just it was it was challenging, very annoying, but it was a very like I'm grateful for the experience I would do it again. 00:28:17.359 --> 00:28:18.480 I don't know, would you do it again? 00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:23.839 I would I would, and and it's interesting because at first I went and I was asking the instruction, I'm like, what about God? 00:28:24.079 --> 00:28:25.119 What about love? 00:28:25.279 --> 00:28:26.079 What about breathing? 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:29.680 What do I and they're like, just sit down and observe yourself? 00:28:29.839 --> 00:28:32.319 And I'm like, but what do I do with that observation? 00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:33.680 Just sit down and observe yourself. 00:28:33.759 --> 00:28:35.680 And by day three, I was kind of getting annoying. 00:28:35.759 --> 00:28:39.200 And I was like trying to understand it all my

butt, what is this what samadhi is? 00:28:39.440 --> 00:28:41.440 You know, all my spiritual intellect was coming in. 00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:43.680 She just looked at me, she goes, How about this? 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:47.200 Put God aside, whether it's God or no, God doesn't matter. 00:28:47.359 --> 00:28:50.160 Just treat this as a mind purification process. 00:28:50.319 --> 00:28:51.839 I said, Oh, I could do that. 00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:52.640 Purify my mind. 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:53.839 Yeah, there's a lot of things I gotta purify. 00:28:54.079 --> 00:28:55.680 And this was during the retreat, like you talked to him. 00:28:55.839 --> 00:28:58.640 Because you know, you have like five minutes to ask the instructor question at lunch. 00:28:58.880 --> 00:28:59.119 That's okay. 00:28:59.279 --> 00:28:59.920 That's all we had. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:01.119 We don't talk to anyone else. 00:29:01.359 --> 00:29:10.400 So that actually helped me a lot because I I disased, I I'd separated this being a spiritual practice, and I just made it like a as like a physical fitness for the mind. 00:29:10.480 --> 00:29:14.000 Like I'm like, let me purify my mind, let me meet my mind and purify it. 00:29:14.240 --> 00:29:17.039 And sure enough, there's a lot of purification that needed to be done. 00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:17.759 Look at this. 00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:18.480 I had the same thing. 00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:23.839 The audio of the guy who would, you know, the teacher who would guide us through, he sounded like a frog. 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:26.000 Like it was so hard to listen to him. 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:27.200 I was so pissed half the time. 00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:32.400 It's just like, I feel yeah. 00:29:33.119 --> 00:29:34.000 I'm like, oh my god. 00:29:34.240 --> 00:29:35.359 You can't do anything, dude. 00:29:35.440 --> 00:29:35.759 You can't. 00:29:35.839 --> 00:29:41.920 So I'm sitting there, and then some guy sneezing or or sniffing, and the sniff feels like a mountain of noise. 00:29:42.079 --> 00:29:46.640 When you're that still, feels like your whole nervous system gets choked. 00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:51.680 So 100% that that it's not easy, but it's necessary. 00:29:51.839 --> 00:29:53.039 You really meet your mind. 00:29:53.200 --> 00:29:54.240 Yeah, you do. 00:29:54.480 --> 00:29:58.240 Yeah, I'm like if people are like, I'm spiritual, like Greg, go sit for 10 days in silence. 00:29:58.319 --> 00:30:06.640 Yeah, I mean, you're gonna you're gonna find out what spiritual is, you're gonna find out what your mind is, you're gonna find out what awareness is and stillness is. 00:30:06.720 --> 00:30:08.319 I mean, that's that's the real test. 00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:19.440 I think it's one of the best things you can do with the with a good foundation and a good support and like integration and before and after to really get to know yourself and your mind. 00:30:19.599 --> 00:30:19.920 Yeah. 00:30:20.160 --> 00:30:31.359 It's it's not I mean, it's it's getting to know like you just get this uh uh acute awareness of where your thought energy is being pulled. 00:30:31.680 --> 00:30:32.079 Yeah. 00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:35.279 Like that is because we have so many thoughts every day, right? 00:30:35.440 --> 00:30:38.160 And and that is really gonna highlight it because that's all you can do. 00:30:38.319 --> 00:30:41.599 Yeah, and it really shows you your relationship to impulse. 00:30:42.400 --> 00:30:50.960 Because everything the mind does is an impulse, it's just like this compulsive reaction to everything, which is what we learned at the retreat. 00:30:51.119 --> 00:30:55.279 That it's just every time the mind hits some type of sensational stimulus, it reacts. 00:30:55.440 --> 00:30:58.960 And then when it reacts, it determines what it is and if it likes it or not. 00:30:59.200 --> 00:31:04.319 And you just you really meet your relationship to that mind and the impulses that come out of you. 00:31:04.559 --> 00:31:08.640 My favorite moments though is um when you become really still and you keep doing it deeper. 00:31:08.720 --> 00:31:18.720 Like I don't know if it was day six, seven, or eight, but I start having very vivid, like like real life, like I'm there, flashbacks of memories during the meditations, yeah. 00:31:18.799 --> 00:31:21.920 Yeah, and and I was reliving these memories as a child. 00:31:22.079 --> 00:31:26.720 I the most random ones, but vivid, like 4K, I'm right there, it's happening again. 00:31:27.119 --> 00:31:28.880 And I was watching my past. 00:31:29.200 --> 00:31:31.119 And that's actually part of the retreat. 00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:37.680 Um, I love the metaphor they kind of use, which is like when you don't feed the body food, it has to burn something. 00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:43.039 So it burns the fat of the body, the stored fat in the body, instead of giving it new food to burn. 00:31:43.200 --> 00:31:44.480 The mind works the same way. 00:31:44.640 --> 00:31:51.680 Whereas if you don't give it new reactions to generate, to work off of, it starts to burn through your past reactions, which is your memories. 00:31:51.839 --> 00:31:52.160 Interesting. 00:31:52.319 --> 00:32:03.440 And that's actually the process of liberation that the Buddha was teaching, which is to keep holding awareness over every reaction in the mind presently, and then it stops reacting in the mind in the present moment and it starts working backwards. 00:32:03.599 --> 00:32:06.400 So it's like fasting, it's like intermittent fasting for the mind. 00:32:06.799 --> 00:32:11.279 You're burning through all the things in your past that are still holding on to you, and then you're freeing yourself. 00:32:11.359 --> 00:32:14.400 And I mean the Buddha did it through his whole life and then every life before that. 00:32:14.640 --> 00:32:17.279 You can imagine that's how he realized there's multiple lives. 00:32:17.440 --> 00:32:20.640 Because he sat so still, he just kept seeing memories of lives he

never realized. 00:32:20.799 --> 00:32:24.240 He remembered he lived, but he was seeing them like I lived this, I remember this now. 00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:25.200 But it's pretty cool. 00:32:25.279 --> 00:32:26.559 That really fascinated me. 00:32:26.720 --> 00:32:29.839 That's what continues my practice now, actually, with uh the stillness. 00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:35.599 Why I promote more stillness than just meditation, because a lot of people think meditation is doing things with your mind, but it's not. 00:32:35.759 --> 00:32:38.319 True meditation is losing your mind, not using it. 00:32:38.880 --> 00:32:44.559 Um so and stillness is that it's just holding awareness without any response. 00:32:44.799 --> 00:32:52.799 Eventually, you start seeing in your mind and burns through all those stored memories and some scaras that are kind of stuck on you, holding you down. 00:32:53.039 --> 00:32:56.079 Did you find after the retreat that you had better impulse control? 00:32:56.319 --> 00:32:57.839 The word control is a funny thing for me. 00:32:58.000 --> 00:32:59.599 My relationship to it has changed. 00:32:59.839 --> 00:33:03.039 I understand what it means, but it's not exactly true. 00:33:03.279 --> 00:33:09.759 A controlled self itself is kind of an illusion, but I understand how we use it in this context. 00:33:09.839 --> 00:33:11.920 Like if you define impulse control, right? 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:15.920 An impulse is something that's happening through you, mind as a reaction to everything. 00:33:17.119 --> 00:33:27.039 Control, what we would call impulse control, is the experience of having the power to not be taken by the reaction, right? 00:33:28.319 --> 00:33:38.880 But it wouldn't be actually completely accurate to say that you are controlling an impulse because you don't let it take you over. 00:33:39.359 --> 00:33:48.160 It's more that you were aware of an impulse and also aware that it's not you while also being aware that you don't have to act on the impulse. 00:33:48.559 --> 00:33:52.000 So it's not a control, it's more of an impulse freedom. 00:33:52.160 --> 00:33:55.279 It's like a freedom from impulse as opposed to a control of it. 00:33:56.480 --> 00:34:07.680 It's and it's and it's paradoxical because by resisting an impulse of the mind, if the mind is resisting something and you're resisting it, there's a paradox of resistance, but somehow in the midst of that, you feel free. 00:34:08.079 --> 00:34:09.119 It doesn't make any sense. 00:34:09.199 --> 00:34:11.280 I think the intellect can't follow through with this. 00:34:11.440 --> 00:34:16.079 But my answer to was I more was I better with impulse control? 00:34:16.159 --> 00:34:19.280 It's my answer is I was just far more presently aware. 00:34:19.840 --> 00:34:25.119 And because I was, it was so easy to watch and observe my mind react to everything. 00:34:25.280 --> 00:34:35.119 Yeah, and I simultaneously feeling I don't have to be the action of the like my mind could react,

but I didn't need to. 00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:35.599 Right. 00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:39.920 So I would literally see my mind in a conversation, for example, here's a good practice. 00:34:40.159 --> 00:34:49.039 Someone's arguing with you or saying something to you, and you, if you don't actually speak, react to the person telling you things, you'll see your mind doing it. 00:34:49.199 --> 00:34:59.119 Like you'll imagine yourself doing it, and you could watch your mind reacting to the person having a full conversation while you're watching the person talking, and both things are happening simultaneously. 00:34:59.199 --> 00:35:00.559 Somehow you're the awareness of both. 00:35:00.639 --> 00:35:07.039 And so you're not letting that thought, that reaction come through you and act out is what we call impulse control. 00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:08.880 But it's not, it's more like awareness. 00:35:09.039 --> 00:35:09.599 Yeah. 00:35:09.920 --> 00:35:14.320 So would you say you became more of a meta observer of yourself? 00:35:14.480 --> 00:35:20.159 Well, I like the word meta because it's like you're taking yourself out of your mind, is kind of how I see it, right? 00:35:20.239 --> 00:35:25.199 Because a lot of people think that they are what they think, like yeah, that that's them. 00:35:25.840 --> 00:35:34.559 So, did you have an experience where you felt your awareness became like you became seated kind of almost above your yourself, your body, your mind? 00:35:34.960 --> 00:35:37.039 So this is a great question. 00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:47.679 How I've experienced it, and like you know, my intellect is so like it wants to get the word, but you can't, you can't describe these indescribable things, but you some of you experience. 00:35:47.840 --> 00:35:52.400 But the closest I've got to is I don't feel like I'm above myself, I feel like I'm behind myself. 00:35:52.960 --> 00:35:57.199 And it's almost like the ego is a stage, and I'm behind the curtains now. 00:35:57.360 --> 00:36:08.320 And the more I spend time behind the curtains, watching the ego on the stage from behind, doing its thing for others, I start to realize that even the backstage is a stage where I'm being an awareness. 00:36:08.480 --> 00:36:10.400 So I go behind that stage. 00:36:10.800 --> 00:36:16.880 And now I'm behind the backstage of the stage, and I'm just watching myself, watching myself. 00:36:17.039 --> 00:36:22.320 Another way to put it is I meditate on the meditator or I'm thinking on the thinker. 00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:26.960 And and somehow it's like it's all inwardly behind. 00:36:27.360 --> 00:36:34.960 I mean, the best, you know, funny enough, the best description of this is like in the Ant-Man movie in the quantum realm. 00:36:35.119 --> 00:36:38.480 You know, they they they go smaller inward into reality. 00:36:38.559 --> 00:36:43.119 They don't go somewhere else, they go downward, inward, like inside. 00:36:43.360 --> 00:36:54.960 And I feel like that's the best way I've experienced um awareness to be is it it's more of an inward unfolding, like you keep peeling back and you go in in in, and it's like it's kind of behind, but not really. 00:36:55.039 --> 00:37:01.599 It's not like dimensional in 3D, it's more like it's going into nowhere, but that nowhere is behind the whole screen of everywhere. 00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:13.039 You know, it's it's kind of like you're the sky, and everything happening is weather changing, but you're the whole sky containing it all, right? 00:37:13.920 --> 00:37:15.519 Yeah, that's a good way to put it. 00:37:15.920 --> 00:37:23.039 I definitely had that experience, or somewhat to that experience, you could say, of that awareness, that meta-awareness, I like to call it. 00:37:23.280 --> 00:37:24.239 That's a good name for it. 00:37:24.400 --> 00:37:30.559 Yeah, it's like super consciousness, it's like beyond just consciousness, it's your super, it's like your super solars. 00:37:30.719 --> 00:37:33.360 A lot of people have names for it, but yeah, it is. 00:37:33.440 --> 00:37:35.039 It's like awareness of awareness. 00:37:35.920 --> 00:37:39.840 You know, even the awareness is being something, and there's something behind it. 00:37:40.320 --> 00:37:46.800 My favorite way is how Rupert Spira talks about it, it's that consciousness is like a screen, like a TV screen. 00:37:47.920 --> 00:37:51.039 It it's it doesn't know it's a screen, but it's the screen. 00:37:51.280 --> 00:37:56.320 And then what's playing on the screen is the mind's outplay of the ego. 00:37:56.960 --> 00:38:05.039 And the awareness for consciousness is just the screen, and whatever's playing on it, it like the character in the screen doesn't know it's on a screen, right? 00:38:05.199 --> 00:38:08.639 It thinks it's in a neighborhood on the street, and that's ego. 00:38:08.960 --> 00:38:18.239 But if you like zoom out, or you know, like I don't know how to call it, you you don't go up, you don't go out, you kind of just emerge. 00:38:18.400 --> 00:38:25.519 You could almost say emerge out, you dissolve it, but it's really a dissolving process, it's not like a becoming thing, it's an unbecoming. 00:38:25.679 --> 00:38:29.440 Yeah, then you realize I'm just the screen that the character's playing on. 00:38:29.599 --> 00:38:30.960 You're looking what do you do with that? 00:38:31.119 --> 00:38:32.320 Well, I'm just the screen. 00:38:32.400 --> 00:38:36.639 There's it's just a platform where things are consciously happening. 00:38:36.880 --> 00:38:38.480 The best word is awareness, right? 00:38:38.559 --> 00:38:40.559 Because it's like the nose. 00:38:40.960 --> 00:38:43.840 Like the nose is in your sight all the time. 00:38:43.920 --> 00:38:50.719 Like if you look down, you could see your nose, but you're never aware that you're no, you're not thinking about your nose until you are. 00:38:50.960 --> 00:38:51.599 Yeah. 00:38:51.920 --> 00:38:53.119 Now you're thinking about your nose. 00:38:53.280 --> 00:38:56.079 Yeah,

now I am, and now I should just look at it. 00:38:56.400 --> 00:39:04.000 So, okay, so that that was the end of your first first year of uh the surrender project, is what you call it. 00:39:04.159 --> 00:39:04.960 That was a good detour. 00:39:05.280 --> 00:39:05.760 It was. 00:39:05.920 --> 00:39:21.199 Uh and by the way, before we close that chapter in transition, would you I know I know I certainly would, at least I know the answer to if someone asked me, would you recommend that people do this? 00:39:21.920 --> 00:39:24.000 And if so, why and why? 00:39:24.159 --> 00:39:25.679 And if and and if not, why? 00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:27.679 Like some people silent meditation retreats? 00:39:27.840 --> 00:39:30.159 Yeah, like a 10-day silent retreat, for example. 00:39:30.559 --> 00:39:41.760 If you want to directly meet and face your mind and know its nature, this is the exact thing this does for you. 00:39:42.639 --> 00:39:55.039 And if you truly want to feel free from the compulsions of the mind, of every thought, every belief, every emotion, every habit, this is the place you do that. 00:39:55.119 --> 00:39:58.639 It's a purification, you know, like a boxing ring. 00:39:59.039 --> 00:40:01.840 You watch the mind fight and you observe. 00:40:02.480 --> 00:40:11.840 It's it's probably the fastest form I've ever seen of like you're kind of living like a monk for those 10 days. 00:40:11.920 --> 00:40:12.880 That's that's the whole point of it. 00:40:12.960 --> 00:40:17.119 You know, they're feeding you, they're taking care of it, uh, your accommodations. 00:40:17.280 --> 00:40:17.760 You don't pay. 00:40:17.840 --> 00:40:18.159 I don't know. 00:40:18.239 --> 00:40:21.199 I mean, I donated, but you don't even have to pay for a vipassana, which is crazy. 00:40:21.360 --> 00:40:25.360 But you go there and like you just sit with your mind, not even yourself. 00:40:25.519 --> 00:40:29.760 I mean, it's yourself, but then you go, my mind, look at the nature of this mind. 00:40:30.639 --> 00:40:42.159 So, yes, if you want to purify your mind, like I'm I'm sure people can go there with addictions or alcoholism or you know, depression, like meet that, observe it, and let it dissolve. 00:40:42.400 --> 00:40:44.159 I think it's it's very difficult. 00:40:44.400 --> 00:40:46.719 But here's an encouragement, here's an encouraging fact for you. 00:40:46.880 --> 00:40:53.199 I was a meditator when I went in, and I constantly thought about okay, now this is enough, five days in, it's good, let's leave now. 00:40:53.440 --> 00:40:54.960 And I it got really tempting. 00:40:55.039 --> 00:41:07.599 And there were people sitting next to me that had never meditated in their life and they were like in their 40s or 50s, or they were like a father of three or a mother, and like they had whole lives and they never done this, never anything like this, and they sat through the whole 10 days. 00:41:07.679 --> 00:41:09.280 That humbled me real quick. 00:41:09.519 --> 00:41:13.440

So, if you know, if anyone could really do it, but you gotta will through it. 00:41:13.599 --> 00:41:20.320 If you also want to see the power of your will, this is a perfect place to test it because it really is will to just stay there. 00:41:20.559 --> 00:41:21.840 It's very challenging, yeah. 00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:31.280 Especially for entrepreneurs, which I'm sure a lot of the audience watching is it's like, man, the challenge of not doing anything. 00:41:31.519 --> 00:41:34.320 Like for most people, they dream about not having to do anything. 00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:39.280 Yeah, but as an entrepreneur, you're like, Man, how like I need to get out of here. 00:41:39.360 --> 00:41:40.719 I gotta be, I gotta do something. 00:41:40.880 --> 00:41:42.559 Yeah, at least that was my experience. 00:41:42.639 --> 00:41:52.159 So yeah, I feel like a lot of people define freedom as only doing what you want, but real freedom as being able to do nothing and still feeling peace. 00:41:52.480 --> 00:41:54.480 Be happy with your own company. 00:41:54.719 --> 00:41:57.199 Well, I have a I have an interesting relationship between happiness and peace. 00:41:57.519 --> 00:41:58.880 Well, let's talk, let's talk about it. 00:41:59.039 --> 00:42:05.760 You know, I think um I think happiness and a lot of people use the word happiness. 00:42:05.840 --> 00:42:06.559 Yeah, right. 00:42:06.880 --> 00:42:08.880 So what what is happiness to you? 00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:10.320 So here's the thing. 00:42:10.480 --> 00:42:15.440 So a lot of like um spiritual teachers, you know, they talk about happiness. 00:42:15.519 --> 00:42:18.320 You know, I'm pretty sure in Buddhism they literally talk about happiness. 00:42:18.559 --> 00:42:22.800 The way I think spiritual teachers talk about happiness is what I'm defining as peace. 00:42:22.960 --> 00:42:29.840 Um, because that's that's become a more clear as an entrepreneur myself and as running companies with all these employees and clients. 00:42:29.920 --> 00:42:36.480 Like I've been in that kind of the grid of egoic self-actualization and becoming and manifesting. 00:42:36.719 --> 00:42:40.400 I found that I was happy, but not at peace. 00:42:40.639 --> 00:42:46.639 And it's funny because it was on this particular week where I was giving away all my time just meeting people, and I had like 30 plus one-on-ones. 00:42:46.880 --> 00:42:53.360 I was just calling them peace of mind calls, helping my friend's company out because they're having a lot of market issues and volatility and they're investors. 00:42:53.519 --> 00:43:01.039 So I said, hey, let me just do these calls to everyone, maybe help them stabilize all their fears and emotions in their mind to create some equanimity because I was living in total peace at the time. 00:43:01.280 --> 00:43:04.400 And I got on these calls and I would, I didn't have an agenda. 00:43:04.480 --> 00:43:06.159 I just would go on and be like, So what's going on? 00:43:06.239 --> 00:43:09.519 And they

would just open up and say things, and all I would do is ask them to define stuff. 00:43:09.840 --> 00:43:13.840 Most of the time, what people were feeling stressed about, they couldn't even define correctly. 00:43:13.920 --> 00:43:15.280 Like they didn't even know what it was. 00:43:15.360 --> 00:43:16.079 They were just feeling it. 00:43:16.159 --> 00:43:17.039 I'm like, isn't it interesting? 00:43:17.119 --> 00:43:19.440 You're like suffering on this thing, but you don't even know what it is. 00:43:19.679 --> 00:43:27.679 And I asked the same question all 30 plus investors, and it became the main question I always asked every time I talk to someone for for the first time. 00:43:28.079 --> 00:43:32.159 I would say, Well, are you uh are you at peace? 00:43:33.599 --> 00:43:40.719 And like it was almost like every person knew that that that they're not, and they knew what that was. 00:43:40.880 --> 00:43:41.840 When I said, Are you at peace? 00:43:41.920 --> 00:43:44.000 They're like, No, but like, but you're grateful for your life. 00:43:44.079 --> 00:43:45.119 Yeah, I am very grateful. 00:43:45.519 --> 00:43:47.199 Okay, you're happy with things. 00:43:47.280 --> 00:43:47.920 Yeah, I am happy. 00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:50.159 Life is really good right now, but you're not at peace. 00:43:50.239 --> 00:43:50.960 No, I'm not at peace. 00:43:51.039 --> 00:43:59.519 And it really intrigued me why so many people unanimously knew that they could be happy but not at peace, they could be grateful but not at peace, they can be excited. 00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:01.039 Their life, but not at peace. 00:44:01.119 --> 00:44:03.440 So I started to really wonder what is peace then? 00:44:03.679 --> 00:44:05.679 Because everyone knows there's a difference. 00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:09.280 And I started to kind of try to explain to them from the place that I was. 00:44:09.360 --> 00:44:11.519 I was in this really beautiful present place. 00:44:11.679 --> 00:44:15.760 I was experiencing peace every day, and I wasn't chasing happiness anymore. 00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:19.760 And the best way I started to describe it was I said, happiness is like an itch. 00:44:20.480 --> 00:44:24.480 If you have an itch, first thing you want impulsively do is scratch it. 00:44:24.639 --> 00:44:25.760 Now you scratch that itch. 00:44:25.920 --> 00:44:27.039 Oh, what does it feel? 00:44:27.119 --> 00:44:28.800 What's the first emotion you feel? 00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:30.800 Relief. 00:44:31.360 --> 00:44:36.880 Immediately it became clear to me that happiness is just relieving yourself of something bothering you. 00:44:37.039 --> 00:44:43.679 And I looked at that, I'm like, man, this seems so true for me in all the years I spent chasing things because something bothered me. 00:44:44.320 --> 00:44:46.639 I wanted it and it was really irritating to not have it. 00:44:46.719 --> 00:44:48.400 Or I was like, it was itching for me. 00:44:48.559 --> 00:44:52.079 And when I get it, I scratch, I have that 15 seconds of, oh, yeah, I did it. 00:44:52.159 --> 00:44:53.199 I won a million dollars. 00:44:53.280 --> 00:44:54.079 You know, I did it. 00:44:54.159 --> 00:44:54.719 I got the award. 00:44:54.800 --> 00:44:55.280 I got the girl. 00:44:55.360 --> 00:44:57.039 I got that, whatever it was. 00:44:57.599 --> 00:44:59.199 And then it would fade. 00:44:59.760 --> 00:45:02.800 And the worst thing about itches is that it doesn't end there, does it? 00:45:02.960 --> 00:45:07.119 You scratch one, you feel good, but then a couple more itches pop up, doesn't it? 00:45:07.199 --> 00:45:08.320 And now you're scratching everything. 00:45:08.400 --> 00:45:12.719 And the more you scratch, the more you itch, and the more you scratch it, the more you itch and it multiplies. 00:45:12.800 --> 00:45:18.639 Now, if you cross the street and you saw me on the sheet sitting like this, like that, would you think I'm a really healthy, happy guy? 00:45:18.880 --> 00:45:20.719 No, you would think I'm sick. 00:45:21.199 --> 00:45:27.679 But that's how we're spiritually living, sick, scratching every itch that comes up. 00:45:27.920 --> 00:45:30.880 Because if we don't, we're feeling we're suffering. 00:45:31.280 --> 00:45:35.119 Now, if you don't believe me, next time you have an itch, try not to scratch it. 00:45:35.599 --> 00:45:36.559 Just watch it. 00:45:36.719 --> 00:45:41.519 It's gonna be very hard because everything is screaming, scratch this itch, it's gonna feel so good. 00:45:41.679 --> 00:45:43.679 And that's all the itches that run our lives. 00:45:43.840 --> 00:45:50.800 I I need to hit the, I need to get the award, I need to hit that revenue stream, we gotta hit the next thing, I gotta get that girl, I got, I gotta lose this much body fat percentage. 00:45:50.880 --> 00:45:52.559 It's like all this itching. 00:45:52.800 --> 00:45:55.679 And you think this is this key to feeling complete inside. 00:45:55.840 --> 00:46:00.960 But every time you itch, the fine print that it doesn't tell you is that more itches come. 00:46:01.119 --> 00:46:03.360 So you just become the sick person scratching yourself. 00:46:03.519 --> 00:46:08.400 And my and my favorite way to put it is like if you sit at the dinner table and you really got to piss. 00:46:08.480 --> 00:46:12.559 Now you're sitting with your friends or family or whatever it is, and you're trying to eat your dinner, but you really gotta pee. 00:46:12.639 --> 00:46:13.920 Can you focus on eating your dinner? 00:46:14.400 --> 00:46:19.440 No, you're fantasizing about a toilet, but you're sitting there, you're trying, you're trying to eat. 00:46:19.599 --> 00:46:20.079 You can't. 00:46:20.239 --> 00:46:25.039 So even if your favorite meal's in front of you, you can't even enjoy it in the present moment if you really got to take a piss. 00:46:25.199 --> 00:46:32.079 So you run to the washroom and relieve yourself, and just like that, we kind of piss our life away, constantly catching the next itch. 00:46:32.320

--> 00:46:33.840 And peace is nothing like that. 00:46:34.079 --> 00:46:38.880 So let me ask, yeah, how do you stop scratching the itch? 00:46:39.599 --> 00:46:42.719 And should you stop, I mean, should you stop scratching the itch? 00:46:42.800 --> 00:46:44.159 And how do you obtain peace? 00:46:44.400 --> 00:46:45.119 Well, let me okay. 00:46:45.199 --> 00:46:46.559 So this is a great question. 00:46:46.800 --> 00:46:47.920 Should we stop scratching? 00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:54.880 Because a lot of people, there's this whole industry is built around convincing you scratching your itches is the purpose of life. 00:46:55.199 --> 00:47:03.039 Whole world is designed from the moment he comes in to tell you, to convince you, life is about maximizing pleasure, comfort, and convenience. 00:47:03.280 --> 00:47:08.400 It's about becoming the most, having more, being better, better version of myself. 00:47:08.559 --> 00:47:09.920 All of these are illusions. 00:47:10.639 --> 00:47:14.239 All of these are subtle lies against your true nature. 00:47:14.639 --> 00:47:19.519 True nature meaning you're starting from completion, you're not incomplete and need to do something to complete yourself. 00:47:20.239 --> 00:47:22.480 So should you stop scratching itches? 00:47:22.719 --> 00:47:24.320 Wow, let me ask you. 00:47:24.800 --> 00:47:26.320 You've tried it your whole life. 00:47:27.280 --> 00:47:28.000 Where'd it get you? 00:47:28.239 --> 00:47:30.800 Now some people go, Oh, I'm actually really happy with your life. 00:47:30.960 --> 00:47:31.679 Are you at peace? 00:47:34.159 --> 00:47:34.800 Are you? 00:47:35.760 --> 00:47:36.639 Only you can know. 00:47:37.039 --> 00:47:40.320 Do you know if you're at peace or are you just happy with your life? 00:47:40.559 --> 00:47:41.760 You know how many people I meet? 00:47:41.920 --> 00:47:44.480 They're very happy on paper, very grateful. 00:47:44.719 --> 00:47:46.320 They do all the stuff, positive stuff. 00:47:46.639 --> 00:47:55.440 But when the curtains close at night and they're sleeping in bed, or silence comes into their day for five minutes, in that silence they're restless. 00:47:56.400 --> 00:47:57.440 Something's off. 00:47:57.760 --> 00:47:59.840 There's always this subtle feeling something's missing. 00:48:00.480 --> 00:48:02.159 Also, that's not peace. 00:48:02.559 --> 00:48:04.159 Peace is a feeling of completion. 00:48:04.800 --> 00:48:06.719 Just being nothing. 00:48:06.880 --> 00:48:09.679 That's what you experience in the retreat when you eventually surrender. 00:48:10.239 --> 00:48:12.079 So should you stop scratching? 00:48:12.239 --> 00:48:17.119 I was sitting in a sauna with one of your events with this really interesting guy next to me. 00:48:17.199 --> 00:48:20.239 And he had just made, I don't know, 100, 200 grand in his month or whatever. 00:48:20.320 --> 00:48:21.039 I remember those days. 00:48:21.119 --> 00:48:21.599 It was fun. 00:48:21.840 --> 00:48:24.320 So, you know, I have all these

like, I feel like everyone's a mirror to me. 00:48:24.480 --> 00:48:27.360 And I'm sitting with them, and he goes, He goes, Yeah, we just did this or scaling. 00:48:27.440 --> 00:48:28.559 I'm like, I'm happy for you, bro. 00:48:28.719 --> 00:48:29.519 I just met the guy. 00:48:29.599 --> 00:48:30.480 And he goes, What do you do? 00:48:30.559 --> 00:48:33.119 I'm like, Oh, I help people with uh finding peace. 00:48:33.360 --> 00:48:35.599 You're like, you know, I'm at peace, I'm just surrendering in my life. 00:48:35.760 --> 00:48:37.760 He goes, Oh, peace, I don't need that. 00:48:38.320 --> 00:48:39.280 I'm like, interesting. 00:48:39.360 --> 00:48:41.840 I've never had someone tell me they don't need peace. 00:48:42.159 --> 00:48:43.519 I said, Why not? 00:48:43.679 --> 00:48:46.719 And he goes, Well, I don't I don't want to relax. 00:48:46.960 --> 00:48:47.920 I like my drive. 00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:49.199 I want to be motivated. 00:48:49.440 --> 00:48:52.719 I feel like peace would get in the way of that, would take my drive away. 00:48:52.880 --> 00:48:54.559 And I said, interesting. 00:48:54.800 --> 00:48:56.960 So you think peace is relaxation. 00:48:57.280 --> 00:49:01.440 You think peace is slowing down, you think peace is doing nothing with your life. 00:49:01.760 --> 00:49:03.840 I'm like, well, let me ask you a question. 00:49:04.239 --> 00:49:14.320 If you if something happened in your life and it was really bothering you, your stomach's churning and your mind is absorbed from this issue in your life, could you accomplish finishing your dinner? 00:49:14.480 --> 00:49:17.280 If you have no peace, take your appetite away. 00:49:17.360 --> 00:49:18.639 Can you finish your dinner? 00:49:18.880 --> 00:49:20.480 He goes, Well, no, it'd be very hard. 00:49:20.639 --> 00:49:23.840 I go, so you can't even achieve finishing your dinner without peace. 00:49:24.320 --> 00:49:26.639 How are you achieving anything in your life without peace? 00:49:26.880 --> 00:49:29.519 Imagine what you could achieve if you were at peace. 00:49:29.679 --> 00:49:31.440 You can't even finish dinner without it. 00:49:31.599 --> 00:49:33.679 So to me, peace is the starting point. 00:49:33.840 --> 00:49:44.000 And I think a lot of people think they have to, you know, sacrifice everything or whatever to get or become someone to get somewhere before they can enjoy what they think is peace. 00:49:44.159 --> 00:49:46.239 And this is completely reversed. 00:49:46.480 --> 00:49:57.679 This keeps you into a this puts you on a life of chasing things to feel whole, making you deeply insecure, giving you an inferiority complex where you can't be around people and feel equal. 00:49:57.840 --> 00:50:02.159 So you look up to people, you look down to people, everything is pressure or stress. 00:50:02.320 --> 00:50:04.480 You'll have moments of gratitude, fawn, whatever. 00:50:04.559 --> 00:50:06.239 Those are called distractions. 00:50:06.480 --> 00:50:09.920 But the moment there's no distraction, you got to just be with yourself in your life. 00:50:10.159 --> 00:50:15.920 You will deeply feel lost, disconnected, uncertain, uncomfortable, restless. 00:50:16.079 --> 00:50:16.960 That's in the soul. 00:50:17.199 --> 00:50:20.000 Soul is telling you the truth, the mind has been distracting you. 00:50:20.239 --> 00:50:23.440 So should you stop scratching itches? 00:50:23.760 --> 00:50:31.280 I mean, if you want to live your own life, you can't really say you are until you stop compulsively chasing every itch to scratch. 00:50:31.599 --> 00:50:32.639 Because who's to say? 00:50:32.800 --> 00:50:33.840 Whose itch is that? 00:50:33.920 --> 00:50:34.719 Who put that there? 00:50:34.880 --> 00:50:35.920 Is it really yours? 00:50:36.159 --> 00:50:42.239 You can't even trust if your desires are true, are coming from a true place until you stop your mind. 00:50:42.480 --> 00:50:46.559 And if you can't stop your mind or slow it, then you really don't know who's living your life. 00:50:46.639 --> 00:50:49.840 And that's at least a that's at least a fair observation to make. 00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:52.320 I'm not even saying you're not, but consider that. 00:50:52.800 --> 00:50:54.400 That's what I had to do. 00:50:54.719 --> 00:50:58.159 I was 10 years of tracing and I was good at doing it. 00:50:58.239 --> 00:51:00.400 But then I first day 34. 00:51:00.559 --> 00:51:02.079 Why am I doing all this? 00:51:02.400 --> 00:51:07.840 So the first time I saw the impulse on my desires weren't coming from a place of completion or peace or truth. 00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:10.960 It was coming from a place of lack, fear, incompletion. 00:51:11.199 --> 00:51:15.199 The lie that something's wrong with me, so I need to do something to fix it. 00:51:15.360 --> 00:51:17.920 And everything became an outlet for that. 00:51:18.159 --> 00:51:20.960 And deeply, what really drove me was loneliness. 00:51:21.280 --> 00:51:27.199 I think a lot of people, if they really just stop and be with themselves, they realize they just feel deeply lonely. 00:51:27.280 --> 00:51:36.880 And they think more success, more sex, more drug, more rewards, more reputation, more everything, better everything is going to make them feel less lonely. 00:51:36.960 --> 00:51:42.079 But the more they itch, the more they scratch the itch, the itchier they become, the lonelier they feel. 00:51:42.159 --> 00:51:43.280 That was the paradox, dude. 00:51:43.360 --> 00:51:48.320 The more successful I became in my last life, the more distant I felt from everyone. 00:51:48.800 --> 00:51:50.079 It was all worse. 00:51:50.400 --> 00:51:52.880 I didn't get the actual feeling I wanted. 00:51:53.679 --> 00:51:56.639 So, yes, I'm a living example. 00:51:56.800 --> 00:52:04.719 If you stop scratching your itches, then life will start to unfold in such a beautiful way, better than you could ever imagine. 00:52:04.960 --> 00:52:06.400 But you have to have patience. 00:52:06.639 --> 00:52:08.800 And

now, how do you stop scratching the itches? 00:52:09.039 --> 00:52:09.920 What is peace? 00:52:10.159 --> 00:52:17.760 Peace is either having no itches, or even better, having an itch and not needing to scratch it. 00:52:18.239 --> 00:52:24.159 Now you go, well, that sounds like being lengthy, having motivations and not acting on them, doing nothing. 00:52:24.400 --> 00:52:27.840 First of all, my challenge to everyone is try to do nothing. 00:52:28.159 --> 00:52:30.000 It might be the hardest thing to do. 00:52:30.239 --> 00:52:32.159 I mean, you know this and I know this. 00:52:32.639 --> 00:52:37.039 So not doing is the wisest, the most difficult doing there is. 00:52:37.360 --> 00:52:44.639 If you can't get yourself to not do, to inact, to be a non-doer, that alone would breach enlightenment for you in the moment. 00:52:44.880 --> 00:52:46.880 But try to do that, you can't even do that. 00:52:47.280 --> 00:52:57.599 Now, you have all these impulses coming up, and if you can be free of, I don't need to have them, to feel anything or get anywhere, you are in power of your own mind. 00:52:57.760 --> 00:52:59.360 You are present in the moment. 00:52:59.599 --> 00:53:01.840 You are in your own hands. 00:53:02.079 --> 00:53:07.280 If every impulse takes you and convinces you you need it, then you're you're not yourself. 00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:08.639 You're not for yourself. 00:53:08.800 --> 00:53:14.239 So my favorite way to put peace is peace is not about doing nothing, being nothing, or having nothing. 00:53:14.320 --> 00:53:15.440 It's not about living less. 00:53:15.519 --> 00:53:16.960 It's about living fully. 00:53:17.119 --> 00:53:22.960 It's about being fully engaged with your life, but with no interference, no stress, no suffering, no attachment. 00:53:23.199 --> 00:53:25.599 Peace is about not letting anything own you. 00:53:25.840 --> 00:53:38.400 And so the main message I keep sharing with all my friends who are in business or in entrepreneurship or our investor, whatever they're doing, is prioritize peace because peace is without peace, you have nothing. 00:53:39.440 --> 00:53:41.119 You have without peace, you have nothing. 00:53:41.280 --> 00:53:42.400 You're not living your life. 00:53:42.559 --> 00:53:43.440 Your mind is in yours. 00:53:43.519 --> 00:53:45.679 You're easy to manipulate or influenced. 00:53:45.920 --> 00:53:49.599 But to be a presence, you need to be at peace. 00:53:49.840 --> 00:53:54.400 Peace is like a sign that God is in you, that you're you're awake. 00:53:54.639 --> 00:53:59.840 My favorite metaphor is if you look at a distance in the distance on a mountain, you see smoke rising. 00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:01.760 What do you immediately know is there? 00:54:02.079 --> 00:54:02.480 Fire. 00:54:02.719 --> 00:54:02.960 Fire. 00:54:03.440 --> 00:54:06.079 So smoke is the sign that fire is there. 00:54:06.400 --> 00:54:09.199 Same way peace is the sign that God is there. 00:54:10.559 --> 00:54:13.519 Peace is the smoke

that shows you there's God in someone. 00:54:13.599 --> 00:54:17.119 There's God in everyone, but that they're awake, they're connected, they're conscious, they're there. 00:54:17.360 --> 00:54:18.800 They're not living in sleep. 00:54:19.119 --> 00:54:25.519 You reach that by stopping itching, stopping the itch, or stopping itching the itch. 00:54:25.760 --> 00:54:26.000 Yeah. 00:54:26.239 --> 00:54:29.920 So how you actually do this is by slowing down the mind. 00:54:30.079 --> 00:54:33.920 And the three S's, this is what I call my surrender experiment for me. 00:54:34.159 --> 00:54:39.199 Surrender is how you stop the itches from running your life. 00:54:39.360 --> 00:54:43.280 And surrender is broken into three S's for me, the way my journey unfolded. 00:54:43.360 --> 00:54:52.000 The first is self-study, it's developing the skill of self-awareness to catch patterns, catch every belief, thought, emotion, which is what I've been doing every day and documenting. 00:54:52.480 --> 00:54:54.239 So that's awareness itself. 00:54:54.480 --> 00:54:55.760 The second one is stillness. 00:54:55.840 --> 00:54:59.679 And I didn't say meditation, I say stillness because meditation is a path to stillness. 00:55:00.079 --> 00:55:07.599 A lot of people think meditation is sitting down with visualization or to focus on something, uh, on a picture of what they want or to hear a beautiful noise. 00:55:07.679 --> 00:55:10.480 No, it's about, it's not about using your mind, it's about losing your mind. 00:55:10.639 --> 00:55:11.920 It's how you go beyond the mind. 00:55:12.079 --> 00:55:17.280 So stillness is kind is quite literally this the state of God, of consciousness. 00:55:17.519 --> 00:55:24.960 I I from a really cool quote from a movie that I love is a fast mind is crazy, delusion. 00:55:25.280 --> 00:55:29.679 Slow mind is wise, but a stopped mind is God. 00:55:30.159 --> 00:55:38.480 So the slower you can make your mind to stillness, the closer you return back to truth of your own nature, of your own conscious nature. 00:55:38.639 --> 00:55:39.760 So stillness is that. 00:55:39.840 --> 00:55:46.480 That's where you start creating a gap between you and that mind, all the movement of the mind, because stillness is the opposing energy of the mind. 00:55:46.639 --> 00:55:48.960 So mind always has to be moving, has to be doing something. 00:55:49.119 --> 00:55:50.559 Stillness becomes awareness. 00:55:50.639 --> 00:55:53.440 And the last one is selfless service or selfless action. 00:55:53.840 --> 00:55:57.840 I experienced it as you could do selfless action right in the beginning to start challenging your ego. 00:55:57.920 --> 00:55:59.039 It's a lot of things I did. 00:55:59.199 --> 00:56:06.559 But I feel like when you start to do all these three three things in tandem perfectly, it's like a trinity, it has a very powerful effect when all three are happening at the same time. 00:56:06.719 --> 00:56:20.960 You're practicing stillness every day, you're watching yourself and self-inquiring, introspecting, and you're selflessly acting, which means every chance you get to go out of your way to do something that you don't get a gain from, you don't like, you don't want to do, and you, or better it, you do it for somebody you don't like. 00:56:21.199 --> 00:56:31.440 Every time your ego is, oh, and you're like, I'm gonna do it anyways, those three things start to create kind of a momentum of awakening, a momentum of peace coming through. 00:56:31.599 --> 00:56:36.000 And peace is less about something you do, it's more about more of what you don't do. 00:56:36.159 --> 00:56:39.760 I like to think that spirituality isn't an addition game, it's a subtraction game. 00:56:40.320 --> 00:56:44.960 So it's not about adding more to yourself and adding more practices or adding more beliefs or adding more anything. 00:56:45.039 --> 00:56:46.719 It's about removing everything you're not. 00:56:46.880 --> 00:56:53.039 And what's left is going to be the fragrance of peace because you're in presence in truth. 00:56:53.280 --> 00:56:55.280 You're in your original nature. 00:56:56.960 --> 00:57:02.079 I have a good metaphor for this to know the difference between playing the game of life, between happiness and peace. 00:57:02.320 --> 00:57:05.039 Playing the game of life, it's like playing a game of golf. 00:57:05.119 --> 00:57:09.199 Let's say we're playing a game of golf, and and I go, hey, let's play this game. 00:57:09.440 --> 00:57:11.039 Um, and uh let's play. 00:57:11.280 --> 00:57:13.199 No worries, you're good, I'm good, whatever. 00:57:13.440 --> 00:57:16.000 If uh if you win, good job. 00:57:16.159 --> 00:57:18.159 If you lose, we're gonna kill you at the end. 00:57:18.239 --> 00:57:18.559 Let's start. 00:57:18.639 --> 00:57:20.320 And you go, well, hold on a second. 00:57:20.480 --> 00:57:21.119 What do you mean? 00:57:21.199 --> 00:57:21.840 Let's start. 00:57:22.000 --> 00:57:23.440 And you go, well, not a big deal. 00:57:23.519 --> 00:57:24.719 Just don't lose. 00:57:25.039 --> 00:57:26.880 Now, how do you think you're gonna play that game? 00:57:27.840 --> 00:57:28.159 Stressed. 00:57:28.400 --> 00:57:28.719 Stressed. 00:57:28.800 --> 00:57:30.800 Now, a lot of people go, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make sure I win. 00:57:30.880 --> 00:57:34.239 I'm like, yeah, you're gonna think you're gonna, you're gonna be really focused on I can't lose. 00:57:34.400 --> 00:57:38.079 But all the I can't lose pressure is gonna put you in a state of fear. 00:57:38.239 --> 00:57:41.199 Now you're scared because you're dreading the outcome. 00:57:41.440 --> 00:57:42.480 You're dreading the outcome. 00:57:42.559 --> 00:57:44.800 You're telling yourself, I can't let anything but this happen. 00:57:44.960 --> 00:57:45.599 I have to win. 00:57:45.760 --> 00:57:47.360 So you're gonna play extremely bad. 00:57:47.440 --> 00:57:52.079 Now, you know, golf is a great example because golf is a game of relaxation and peace, and it's

about mind. 00:57:52.239 --> 00:57:58.719 So you can't let every small little thing get to you, or else your tense, your shoulders tense up, and then that one little inch of a tense makes you miss the ball. 00:57:58.880 --> 00:58:02.719 So it's all about it's a perfect game for knowing how your mind is reflecting in the body. 00:58:02.960 --> 00:58:08.000 Now, let's say we play the game and I go, hey man, let's play a game of golf. 00:58:08.159 --> 00:58:10.000 If you win, you get$100,000. 00:58:10.239 --> 00:58:10.880 I'm gonna pay you. 00:58:10.960 --> 00:58:12.800 If you lose, you lose, it's not a big deal. 00:58:13.119 --> 00:58:13.840 Actually, you know what? 00:58:14.000 --> 00:58:16.079 Better yet, I'll just give you the$100,000 right now. 00:58:16.559 --> 00:58:17.440 Just for playing. 00:58:17.679 --> 00:58:18.159 Really? 00:58:18.320 --> 00:58:19.039 Yeah, man. 00:58:19.199 --> 00:58:21.360 If you win or you lose, here's a hundred thousand dollars. 00:58:21.599 --> 00:58:22.320 Just thanks for being here. 00:58:22.400 --> 00:58:22.880 Let's go play. 00:58:22.960 --> 00:58:24.079 Now, how do you think you'll play? 00:58:24.239 --> 00:58:24.480 Yeah. 00:58:24.639 --> 00:58:25.280 I said amazing. 00:58:25.360 --> 00:58:26.000 I play amazing. 00:58:26.239 --> 00:58:26.800 Amazing, right? 00:58:26.880 --> 00:58:30.559 Here's what the chronic doer most entrepreneurs archetypes are gonna say. 00:58:30.719 --> 00:58:32.079 I want to play as good. 00:58:32.320 --> 00:58:33.599 Because I'll be lazy. 00:58:33.760 --> 00:58:36.320 I'm not motivated, I wouldn't care. 00:58:36.639 --> 00:58:44.320 This is the this is a good sign that you're running off scarcity energy because you think peacefulness won't bring the best out of you. 00:58:44.559 --> 00:58:49.679 But if you play, the real truth is not only are you gonna play good, you're gonna play better than you've ever played. 00:58:49.760 --> 00:58:50.159 Why? 00:58:50.400 --> 00:58:54.960 Because not only is there no stress at all to the outcome, you don't care, but you feel like you already won. 00:58:55.039 --> 00:58:56.880 You got the prize in the beginning as you started. 00:58:56.960 --> 00:59:00.800 So you're gonna start trying things you've never tried and playing it away you've never tried. 00:59:01.039 --> 00:59:02.079 There's just no fear. 00:59:02.159 --> 00:59:08.800 So you start to express yourself, you start to create and act from a place of total freedom because you're at total peace. 00:59:09.039 --> 00:59:15.360 The best way to explain this is I had a third grade teacher that changed my life. 00:59:15.679 --> 00:59:20.400 I remember every class I went to in uh elementary school, I was terrible at. 00:59:20.559 --> 00:59:27.440 People said I had like I was mentally disordered, they put me in ESL class, so they thought I had some type of mental disorder because I couldn't speak English. 00:59:27.599 --> 00:59:29.840 I was slower, I was eight-ishy, whatever it was. 00:59:29.920 --> 00:59:32.480 But this one class, dude, I got like A's only. 00:59:32.559 --> 00:59:34.639 Every other class was like C's, B's, D's. 00:59:34.880 --> 00:59:36.960 This one class, only one thing was different. 00:59:37.039 --> 00:59:41.840 When I walked in on day one, the teacher, Miss, I think it was like Miss Kumar or Umari or something. 00:59:42.000 --> 00:59:43.039 I still remember it, man. 00:59:43.199 --> 00:59:46.239 She comes in and goes, everyone in this class starts with an A. 00:59:47.519 --> 00:59:50.559 And I'm like, I've never had an A plus. 00:59:51.199 --> 00:59:52.400 I have an A plus right now. 00:59:52.559 --> 00:59:54.079 And she goes, Yeah, everyone has an A plus. 00:59:54.239 --> 00:59:56.159 All you gotta do is work to keep it there. 00:59:56.639 --> 00:59:59.119 And it was a complete reverse of everything else. 00:59:59.280 --> 01:00:00.559 Everyone else is your shit. 01:00:00.639 --> 01:00:02.480 You got to get, you gotta earn A plus. 01:00:02.960 --> 01:00:05.039 What she taught me, I did, I did really good in that class. 01:00:05.119 --> 01:00:15.119 What she taught me stuck me for the rest of my life, which is if I start at 100%, I won't have a feeling of lack or incompletion or fear in why I'm doing it. 01:00:15.280 --> 01:00:18.559 So if you start as a winner, you play the game as a winner. 01:00:18.800 --> 01:00:21.840 But most people start as a loser trying to win. 01:00:22.159 --> 01:00:25.119 If you start as a loser, you play as a loser trying to win. 01:00:25.280 --> 01:00:25.599 Yeah. 01:00:25.840 --> 01:00:27.679 And the key is to start as a winner. 01:00:27.840 --> 01:00:30.800 And that's what playing a game of golf with peace is like. 01:00:30.880 --> 01:00:32.559 That's what playing business with peace is like. 01:00:32.639 --> 01:00:46.159 When you start with peace by resisting all the impulses, temptations, and illusions and itches of the mind for happiness and excitement and drive and motor and all this shit that you told yourself is actually what's better for you, you're gonna see the real powers and peace. 01:00:46.400 --> 01:00:48.639 A peaceful mind is the most productive mind. 01:00:48.800 --> 01:00:50.719 You're not at peace, you can't finish your dinner. 01:00:50.880 --> 01:00:52.800 You're not at peace, you can't even make a to-do list. 01:00:52.880 --> 01:00:55.920 You're not at peace, you can't even do a meeting without your mind being in 15 places. 01:00:56.079 --> 01:00:57.039 Don't kid yourself. 01:00:57.199 --> 01:00:59.599 Everybody knows if you're not at peace, you can't produce. 01:00:59.760 --> 01:01:02.880 But the best production comes from a peaceful mind because it's a clear mind. 01:01:03.119 --> 01:01:07.360 And this is the whole backwards thing I think entrepreneurs have gone, me being one of them in the past. 01:01:07.440 --> 01:01:11.440 And this is the main thing I want to help people kind of unveil the distortion around. 01:01:11.599 --> 01:01:16.960 Because it's it's like a

culture of hustle and a culture of ego and a culture of earn the your worthiness. 01:01:17.039 --> 01:01:18.320 And it's just bullshit. 01:01:18.559 --> 01:01:21.280 You operate from there, it's only going to make the whole deeper. 01:01:21.360 --> 01:01:23.119 You're never gonna actually feel the completion. 01:01:23.440 --> 01:01:29.280 And it more closer to home for me is it's a direct line attack on your original nature on God in you. 01:01:29.440 --> 01:01:31.440 Because God in you is that you're one with everything. 01:01:31.599 --> 01:01:32.400 You're already complete. 01:01:32.480 --> 01:01:33.920 There is nothing you need to do. 01:01:34.079 --> 01:01:37.360 Therefore, the ego says, I need, but the soul says, I am. 01:01:37.920 --> 01:01:44.079 And when you operate from I am and not I need, you start become the presence, you start becoming the presence that walks in a room. 01:01:44.320 --> 01:01:51.119 You don't look down to people, you don't look up to people, you look at everyone eye level as God would, equal, one with the other person. 01:01:51.360 --> 01:01:53.119 And people gravitate towards you. 01:01:53.280 --> 01:02:01.599 And just like dating or anything in life and around social life, when you don't need anyone's attention, validation, or approval, everyone wonders who you are. 01:02:01.760 --> 01:02:02.719 They gravitate towards you. 01:02:02.800 --> 01:02:04.400 When you don't need things come to you. 01:02:04.559 --> 01:02:10.719 This is living in a state of peace, living in a state of completion and living in a state of abundance. 01:02:10.880 --> 01:02:18.079 And so when you're when you're radiating your true nature, you don't need to sit down and manifest something specific. 01:02:18.320 --> 01:02:22.960 The thing that's meant for you shows up, and I promise you it's better than whatever you could have thought about. 01:02:24.400 --> 01:02:37.760 So, what what about the person that's sitting here and saying or thinking, Armin, that sounds great, but I still want to do all this, be successful, but I also want to be peaceful. 01:02:38.000 --> 01:02:38.480 Yeah. 01:02:39.280 --> 01:02:42.239 And I would say there's still something you're not getting. 01:02:43.440 --> 01:02:52.239 Peace and surrender is living completely, fully involved in life and not being attached to any outcomes. 01:02:53.360 --> 01:02:56.480 It's not about doing nothing, it's about letting nothing own you. 01:02:57.119 --> 01:03:02.559 So you walk right back into that meeting, but you don't change what you're doing, you change where you're doing it from. 01:03:03.440 --> 01:03:05.280 It's like a good example is this. 01:03:05.440 --> 01:03:08.480 People think uh that surrender peace changes your life. 01:03:08.559 --> 01:03:11.119 I mean it does, but in ways you can't understand right now. 01:03:11.280 --> 01:03:14.079 It will like break open your life and blossom it. 01:03:14.400 --> 01:03:23.440 But people think they gotta lose things or they gotta be

less of what they are, in a sense, sure, but less of what you're not, not what you are, which is all the stress. 01:03:23.679 --> 01:03:25.920 The perfect example is look at sex. 01:03:26.480 --> 01:03:27.920 Sex is an action, right? 01:03:28.159 --> 01:03:39.920 You can have sex with someone you just met and have a one-night stand, and you could do it from the place of just wanting to get it off, have a little fun. 01:03:40.400 --> 01:03:48.320 And they have an orgasm, you have an orgasm, it's you don't know each other, ends the next day you you don't, you know, you go your separate ways. 01:03:48.719 --> 01:03:51.119 Sex like that would leave you empty, right? 01:03:51.199 --> 01:04:02.000 There's just a short-lived little moment of why you did it, or you could be in love with someone and you know you want to have kids with them, and you can go in and do the same activity, same action, which is sex, and create life. 01:04:02.239 --> 01:04:06.400 Quite literally, be God as an expression of creating life. 01:04:06.800 --> 01:04:14.800 So the same action, one is a sacred, magical, supernatural act, and the other one is an empty, shallow, pleasure-seeking moment. 01:04:15.039 --> 01:04:22.559 So it's not that the things you do in your life change when you start living at peace from peace and surrender, it's that where you're doing it from changes. 01:04:22.960 --> 01:04:39.280 So now the question becomes are you doing business from a place of ego, attachment, fear, convictions that are false, beliefs that aren't true, or are you doing it from a place of alignment, truth, love? 01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:40.960 Now, this is a tough one. 01:04:41.119 --> 01:04:44.000 Ego's very, very, it's a brilliant, you know, actor. 01:04:44.159 --> 01:04:44.960 It could change form. 01:04:45.440 --> 01:04:47.039 I dealt with mine directly. 01:04:47.519 --> 01:04:49.840 And it could change and go, of course I'm doing it for love. 01:04:49.920 --> 01:04:50.639 I love this. 01:04:51.199 --> 01:04:51.760 Yeah, okay. 01:04:51.920 --> 01:04:52.719 Are you at peace? 01:04:52.880 --> 01:04:54.159 No, not at peace. 01:04:54.880 --> 01:04:59.039 So peace is the only sign that you're in truth. 01:04:59.360 --> 01:05:03.679 It's the smoke to the fire and you can feel it off someone's energy. 01:05:04.000 --> 01:05:09.119 It's not something they could tell you about, it's not something they can convince you or themselves of. 01:05:09.199 --> 01:05:10.559 It's something that they just are. 01:05:11.119 --> 01:05:12.960 It's a sign of I'm awake. 01:05:13.119 --> 01:05:14.400 Nothing owns me. 01:05:15.360 --> 01:05:20.159 So if you really do this right, you're gonna be working harder. 01:05:20.480 --> 01:05:24.079 I mean, when I started surrendering, my my calendar got packed. 01:05:24.400 --> 01:05:27.039 I was just being of service, I was being used as a vessel. 01:05:27.280 --> 01:05:34.960 And it was every moment was love because the more I served selflessly, the more my love multiplied inside me, the more my connection to life and God multiplied. 01:05:35.119 --> 01:05:40.800 But when I did it from ego every time, it felt a little bit more of a gap between me and life and connection and God. 01:05:41.199 --> 01:05:44.239 And so you can only know, I can't tell you, you can't tell them. 01:05:44.400 --> 01:05:48.639 Only you can know sitting there, am I doing this from a place of peace or not? 01:05:48.800 --> 01:05:52.960 And if you have to ask and you kind of got to think through it, it's not peace. 01:05:53.360 --> 01:05:55.039 You either know it or it's like pregnancy. 01:05:55.119 --> 01:05:58.639 You're either pregnant or you're not, you know, like you just say and you're like, oh yeah, I am. 01:05:58.719 --> 01:05:59.360 I'm at peace. 01:06:00.559 --> 01:06:01.840 So it's a tough thing. 01:06:01.920 --> 01:06:04.000 It's a slippery mind, this game. 01:06:04.159 --> 01:06:10.079 Um, but there are real signs, and that's the whole three S's I talk about and the discerning from truth and ego. 01:06:10.320 --> 01:06:11.760 It takes a lot of practice. 01:06:11.840 --> 01:06:16.960 You got to take all the time away from all the illusions of the mind and all the itches and put it into inward. 01:06:17.039 --> 01:06:22.559 It's like uh if you're an entrepreneur, my favorite way to put it is like you have all this drive and will to like achieve things. 01:06:22.639 --> 01:06:27.360 Well, take all the energy that goes into external validation, external achievements, and turn it inward. 01:06:27.599 --> 01:06:31.599 Don't try to build a bigger business, try to become more still. 01:06:31.760 --> 01:06:36.320 It's the same kind of energy you got to go inward and challenge yourself, but can you be more still? 01:06:36.719 --> 01:06:48.480 Instead of proving that you can make more money than the next person or you can build a business to a certain thing, or you can get that relationship or whatever it is, or build that body, turn out all that inwards, knowing that all these are just itches, that none of them are going to complete you. 01:06:48.639 --> 01:06:50.320 Go inward and go, how still can I become? 01:06:50.480 --> 01:06:52.400 How much can I dissolve this ego? 01:06:52.800 --> 01:06:54.639 How quiet can I make my mind? 01:06:54.880 --> 01:06:56.559 All that same energy, go inward. 01:06:56.719 --> 01:06:59.920 When you do that, the fruits are far different than the outside. 01:07:00.159 --> 01:07:01.760 The outside is always a show. 01:07:01.920 --> 01:07:05.440 Everyone else will tell you it's great, but inside you don't feel that great. 01:07:05.599 --> 01:07:08.880 But when you go inward, everyone else might just feel you're a little different. 01:07:08.960 --> 01:07:10.480 I'm like, dude, you're at PC good. 01:07:10.559 --> 01:07:13.599 Some people might even think you're lazy because you're moving slower than them. 01:07:13.760 --> 01:07:17.760 But the joke on them is a slower mind is a faster outcome.

01:07:18.000 --> 01:07:20.559 When you slow down the mind, you speed up life. 01:07:20.800 --> 01:07:23.440 And a fast mind breaks everything. 01:07:23.679 --> 01:07:31.440 That's why I can't work with anyone where I see their mind isn't stable, it's not slowed down, they're not present because they can only produce more illusion because they're in illusion. 01:07:31.599 --> 01:07:36.880 Only a person who's in presence, you kind of know when you meet someone, you do business with them, it's very different energy. 01:07:37.039 --> 01:07:39.280 Total alignment, everything feels joyful and fun. 01:07:39.440 --> 01:07:42.079 Everything feels like two little kids playing in the playground together. 01:07:42.239 --> 01:07:44.239 It's just all clear, it all makes sense. 01:07:44.480 --> 01:07:46.079 There's no forged or pressure. 01:07:46.320 --> 01:07:47.519 Same thing with relationships. 01:07:47.599 --> 01:07:57.840 I mean, the kind of stuff I'm saying will end some relationships and might start some new ones because the things we're measuring our decisions by mostly are coming from an compulsive egoic mind. 01:07:57.920 --> 01:08:00.000 And that's why it doesn't feel like it really fits. 01:08:00.239 --> 01:08:02.159 It's like putting on a suit, it looks good. 01:08:02.320 --> 01:08:04.639 Everyone's complimenting you, but it doesn't fit right. 01:08:04.719 --> 01:08:06.000 And it's kind of uncomfortable. 01:08:06.159 --> 01:08:08.960 But you keep wearing it because everyone's saying it looks so good. 01:08:09.039 --> 01:08:13.599 And then you start feeling guilty, like I shouldn't not feel good if it looks good, and everyone thinks I should be happy. 01:08:13.679 --> 01:08:17.119 So you have all this pressure of, well, I can't show anyone this this is uncomfortable to wear. 01:08:17.199 --> 01:08:18.239 And that's what the ego is like. 01:08:18.319 --> 01:08:23.119 It's like putting on this uniform that doesn't fit, isn't you, but you feel a friend you can't take it off. 01:08:23.439 --> 01:08:26.800 But once you take it off, you become your real self. 01:08:27.039 --> 01:08:27.600 Yeah, man. 01:08:27.680 --> 01:08:37.439 You you return home to truth, to what you are outside the illusions, and then you get to see other people playing in their illusions, and you look at them and go, ah, that looks like fun. 01:08:37.600 --> 01:08:43.359 One of my favorite responses is when people tell me anything, and I'm like, sounds like a lot of fun. 01:08:43.600 --> 01:08:47.840 And it could be like my ego have a lot of judgments about it, like, oh, this person's deep in this or deep in that. 01:08:47.920 --> 01:08:50.079 I'm like, you're on a fun journey right now. 01:08:50.239 --> 01:08:56.000 Because I just realized it's all that we're on different journeys, different masks we're wearing, different uniforms. 01:08:56.479 --> 01:09:02.720 But peace, man, peace is the the indicator, and peace is presence and and and presence is power. 01:09:02.960 --> 01:09:05.279 And so peace lives in the eternal now. 01:09:05.359 --> 01:09:09.520 So if you're in the eternal now and out of the mind, you start to operate from peace. 01:09:09.760 --> 01:09:10.720 And that's a skill. 01:09:10.880 --> 01:09:14.399 It is a skill you got to concentrate the mind on, but it's your true nature. 01:09:14.720 --> 01:09:15.600 Peace is key. 01:09:15.760 --> 01:09:16.079 Yeah. 01:09:16.319 --> 01:09:23.439 Is there anything that you would add someone listening that is on this journey or wants to be on the journey that you've been on? 01:09:23.920 --> 01:09:31.600 Any advice or maybe insight, uh, guidance that you could share and peace to someone? 01:09:32.159 --> 01:09:34.880 Peace is not something that you find. 01:09:38.319 --> 01:09:40.479 It's not something you achieve. 01:09:44.319 --> 01:09:50.640 It's something you realize as what you already were. 01:09:55.760 --> 01:09:59.680 And it's gonna feel like waking up from a dream that felt so real. 01:10:04.000 --> 01:10:19.199 That the moment you wake up, you have this relief, this kind of funny joyful moment of realizing oh, it was just a dream, and now I'm awake. 01:10:19.520 --> 01:10:22.880 All of a sudden, and where can people uh find you? 01:10:23.359 --> 01:10:26.239 Someone wants to reach out, be in touch, maybe work with you. 01:10:26.479 --> 01:10:26.960 Yeah. 01:10:27.199 --> 01:10:29.439 I have uh my Instagram is the most active. 01:10:29.520 --> 01:10:34.479 Uh it's the Armin Shafi, A-R-M-I-N-S-H-A-F-E-E. 01:10:34.800 --> 01:10:48.720 And then I have a free surrender school, you know, about and uh you do weekly calls in there, weekly meditations, tons of courses, which is really just me teaching live in real time all the lessons and realizations I learned along the journey of the documenting every day. 01:10:48.880 --> 01:10:52.079 Um, and then we have other cool things that happen there too, like group healings. 01:10:52.319 --> 01:10:55.119 Now I do that and um in conscious conversation. 01:10:55.199 --> 01:11:06.560 So that's that's the community where like everyone that's on the same journey gets to walk it together so you don't feel crazy, so you don't feel like you're uh you know all alone and you're not. 01:11:06.640 --> 01:11:14.960 There's a lot of people having the same kind of awakenings, so you could do it with other people, and it makes it a lot easier to go through the uncertain phases of the journey. 01:11:15.199 --> 01:11:15.680 Amazing. 01:11:15.840 --> 01:11:17.439 Well, Armin, thank you so much. 01:11:17.600 --> 01:11:24.960 It's been an honor getting to know you and yeah, I'm excited to see what continues to unfold in the journey together. 01:11:25.279 --> 01:11:25.920 Same brother. 01:11:26.000 --> 01:11:27.359 Thanks for uh getting me on here. 01:11:27.439 --> 01:11:29.680 It's uh been a pleasure having this conversation. 01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:30.880 Thank you so much.