The Rich Roll Podcast - The Seed Of Infinity: Guru Singh On Consciousness

Episode Date: September 19, 2019

Newly rebranded from Guru Corner to Guru Multiverse — because after all the infinite has no sharp edges — today marks yet another deep dive with Guru Singh, my treasured friend and favorite wizard of all things mystical. For those newer to the show, imagine a modern-day Gandalf who rocks like Hendrix while dropping pearls of wisdom that beautifully fuse Eastern mysticism with Western pragmatism. A celebrated third-generation Sikh yogi, master spiritual teacher, author, and family man, for the past 40 years Guru Singh has been studying and teaching Kundalini Yoga. He is the author of several books, a powerful lecturer, and behind-the-scenes guide to many a luminary, including Fortune 500 CEOs, athletes, and artists. A peer of rock legends like Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead, Guru Singh is also a talented musician who began his recording career on Warner Bros’ Reprise label in the 1960s. When he isn’t recording tracks with people like Seal, he’s bringing down the house on the daily at Yoga West, his Los Angeles home base. Marking his 7th appearance on the show, today’s discourse is an adventure into the very nature of consciousness. It’s vast potential. And the potency it contains to both create and destroy. Because everything that exists in the physical realm is but a manifestation of consciousness, it is this unseen force that is the truth of reality itself. Born as a seed, with the same potential to flower and proliferate. Serving as an ethereal bookend to my recent and more scientific exploration of this subject with Annaka Harris (RRP #460), this discussion explores the spiritual nature, limitless mystery and interconnected design of that which defines everything. Consciousness — human, botanical, animal, elemental and universal. But more than anything, infinite. In addition, we take the liberty of pulling on a few tangential threads, including the power of journaling, the explosion of cancel culture, the importance of maintaining a strong center point, and the transformative power of focusing on human commonalities over the differences that divide us. As always, Guru Singh takes us out with a song, so make sure to stick around to the end. You can watch it all go down on YouTube. Enjoy! Peace + Plants, Rich

Consciousness is a seed, a seed of infinity, a non-identified seed, no specific identity, but it's the vast potential that's the same as in a seed. Two oak acorns, right, two oak seeds. You put one in a forest that's very crowded and it will grow in a particular way to accommodate the crowd. That same seed, put it into a forest that is actually quite sparse and it will grow to extend itself into the sparse nature of the forest. Now, one is not wrong, one is not right. They're both what they are. This is, in fact, what we're moving towards. The more we will understand, the more we study consciousness,

the more that we're going to be able to get along. That's Guru Singh, and this is The Rich Roll Podcast. The Rich Roll Podcast. Hey everybody, how you guys doing? What's the word? Are you good? What's happening? My name is Rich Roll.

I'm your host. This is Rich Roll. I'm your host. This is my podcast. So today marks yet another deep dive with Guru Singh, my favorite wizard of all things mystical. And it's newly rebranded from Guru Corner to what we're now calling Guru Multiverse. Why are we doing this? Because, my friends, the infinite has no sharp edges, just pure expansiveness. The good guru has paid many a visit to this show. I believe this is his seventh appearance, if I'm not mistaken. But briefly, for those newer to what we do here, Guru Singh is, in addition to a good friend, a celebrated master spiritual teacher, author, musician, father, gift to humanity, who has been teaching and studying kundalini yoga for the better part of the past 40 years. As I think you gather at this point, I really enjoy tapping into his wisdom and experience

and awareness on the regular. And today's discourse, aptly dubbed the seed of infinity, is basically an adventure into the nature of consciousness and its vast potential, our vast potential. And perhaps this serves as a bit of an ethereal bookend to my recent and more scientific exploration of this subject with Annika Harris. We're brought to you today by recovery.com. I've been in recovery for a long time. It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety. And it all began with treatment and experience that I had that quite literally saved my life.

And in the many years since, I've in turn helped many suffering addicts and their loved ones find treatment. And with that, I know all too well just how confusing and how overwhelming and how challenging it can be to find the right place and the right level of care, especially because, unfortunately, not all treatment resources adhere to ethical practices.

It's a real problem. A problem I'm now happy and proud to share has been solved by the people at recovery.com, who created an online support portal designed to guide, to support, and empower you to find the ideal level of care tailored to your personal needs. They've partnered with the best global behavioral health providers to cover the full spectrum of behavioral health disorders, including substance use disorders, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, gambling addictions, and more. Navigating their site is simple. Search by insurance coverage, location, treatment type, you name it. Plus, you can read reviews from former patients to help you decide. Whether you're a busy exec, a parent of a struggling teen, or battling addiction yourself, I feel you. I empathize with you. I really do. And they have treatment options for you.

Life in recovery is wonderful, and recovery.com is your partner in starting that journey. When you or a loved one need help, go to recovery.com and take the first step towards recovery. To find the best treatment option for you or a loved one, again, go to recovery.com. We're brought to you today by recovery.com. I've been in recovery for a long time. It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety. And it all began with treatment and experience that I had that quite literally saved my life. And in the many years since, I've in turn helped many suffering addicts and their loved ones find treatment. And with that, I know all too well just how confusing and how overwhelming and how challenging it can be to find the right place and the right level of care.

Especially because, unfortunately, not all treatment resources adhere to ethical practices. It's a real problem, a problem I'm now happy and proud to share has been solved by the people at recovery.com, who created an online support portal designed to guide, to support, and empower you to find the ideal level of care tailored to your personal needs. They've partnered with the best global behavioral health providers to cover the full spectrum of behavioral health disorders, including substance use disorders, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, gambling addictions, and more. Navigating their site is simple. Search by insurance coverage, location, treatment type, you name it. Plus, you can read

reviews from former patients to help you decide. Whether you're a busy exec, a parent of a struggling teen, or battling addiction yourself, I feel you. I empathize with you. I really do. And they have treatment options for you. Life in recovery is wonderful and recovery.com is your partner in starting that journey. When you or a loved one need help, go to recovery.com and take the first step towards recovery. To find the best treatment option for you or a loved one, again, go to recovery.com. dot com. Okay. Guru Singh, the seed of infinity,

the multiverse. In this discussion, we converse about the vast, nuanced, mysterious, interconnected nature of consciousness, both human and universal. In addition, we touch on several tangents, including the power of journaling, cancel culture,

and the importance of maintaining a strong center point and focusing on our commonalities as human beings. As always, stick around to the end for Guru Singh to take us out with a beautiful song. And with that, I once again give you my friend, Guru Singh. And with that, I once again give you my friend, Guru Singh. Ask me any question. You need your cheat sheet. I just had to remember what the two titles were. And then you can just riff.

I know. I don't have to worry about you. It's a jazz composition. It's not classical orchestral. I get it. Believe me. Well, here we are. It's not classical orchestral. I get it. Believe me. Well, here we are. We're in the now. Guru Corner resumes.

It's more like, I feel like Guru Corner is the incorrect designation for this. It should be like Guru Universe. Or at least Guru Multiverse. Yeah. At least Guru Circle. Yeah, that would be no corners yeah no hard no hard edges yeah yeah just vastness yeah because you know as we know the word guru is the goo is the darkness and the roo is the light and so guru means means the light that comes out of darkness, which means the something that comes out of nothing. How do you shoulder that responsibility of harboring that moniker

guru? A lot of people bristle at that. I know. We're actually creating an app and we thought, okay, it could be called Guru. Then we thought, oh, that might be good for some, but not for all. And so we're kind of playing. And then we thought, we'll call it Frog, just because it has no meaning, except that, you know, frogs represent transformation from one way of breathing to another way of breathing. We all know your affinity for frogs. We do. And because when I was a little child, because of my larger eyes, my nickname was Frog. It started out as kind of a bullying thing, hey, Froggy, you know, but it turned out I embraced it and it was fun.

So now we're kind of feeling the name of Guru Frog. It kind of takes the frog and puts the guru in and it takes the edge off of guru. Right. Yeah. You're sort of playing with it and not taking it too seriously. Which is exactly what we're talking about today, and that is the seed of infinity as opposed to the vastness of infinity. So break that down for me a little bit. within a seed is the plant, but within the plant are multiple seeds and within the multiple seeds are their plants. So all of that is registered within the seed. That's one of the reasons why

they always talk about, you know, the universe within the mustard seed. And so within every seed is not only infinity going forward, but it's also infinity going backward because of all the seeds that it took to create that seed. And there's no necessary point of beginning. Yeah, it's ultimate potential looking forward, and it's ultimate legacy from whence it was created. Yeah. And the seed is made up of the heart, which is all of the possibility, and the shell, which is all of the protection. And if you look around your life, you'll notice that some people live in the seed and some people live in the shell. And those that live in the shell are more attuned to being protected. And those that live in the seed are more in tune to being projected out into what they can do. And a lot of times people will have big plans. You have big plans.

I have big plans. A lot of people have big plans. But then the moment they begin to launch those big plans, they go into shell mode, which means that they're trying to protect the aspects of their big plan. But what we have to recognize is, and the Buddha called this the middle path, if we walk kind of in the center of those two extremes on the spectrum,

we'll be able to protect what we need to at moments that we need to, and we'll be able to project out there at other times. So I like to think of breath as being that igniter of the seed. You as a triathlete, as an extreme athlete, have such a strong relationship with your breath. I mean, I'm sure that there's certain times that there's only two things happening, and one's the movement and the breathing. Well, it's interesting to kind of track the science that's coming out now around breath and the importance of breath. It's something that we really don't put much mindfulness into. We just, yeah, we breathe and what's the big deal? What's the difference between breathing and paying attention to the breath? And in that is its own seed, its own multiverse of potentiality.

Exactly. But what I was thinking about when you were talking was a different way of looking at it, or perhaps an analogous view, which is the outer coating of the seed, the protective shell, The outer coating of the seed, the protective shell, feels like how we imagine the self or being other than or being separate from. And the seed within it is the dissolution of the self and the acknowledgement or the greater awareness of the oneness that we share. That's why I love these sessions because I'm sitting here listening and I'm going, is this me talking back to me? And then you're listening and you're going, is this me talking back to me? It's just me spending all this time with you. It's washing over me. Yes. The potentiality of that centerpiece is the disillusion of the restrictions of identity. I'm sure that when the old proverbial hit the wall, when in your extreme events you actually get that burst of something that comes from somewhere.

It's a reduction of that identity, the identity of I'm exhausted. I think that whether it's through extreme athletic endeavors or meditation or an ayahuasca trip, these are all vehicles for, or breath, they're all vehicles for tapping into the truth, which is the illusion of the self and otherness and connecting with not just your own consciousness, but the greater consciousness that permeates all. And so when you tap into that extra reservoir of energy, for me, that comes with the breaking down of the mental barriers that I construct that separate me from the everything. And I think that can be achieved through breath and through meditation, and these are all things that you've had experience with.

But the recognition, the awareness, the knowledge, the understanding that consciousness is not something that resides within our brain or between our ears, but it's something that is, you know, a force that extends through all matter in various forms. And we tend to restrict our understanding of consciousness to the human experience, but it's a vastly broader reality that I think now we're starting to kind of grapple with and try to understand. I don't know that we ever will, but I'm interested in kind of where your thinking is with that. Well, yeah, we are beginning to grapple with it in large numbers. In the past, oftentimes what would happen is that a person would have an awakening, and then around that person would form a large movement. And these individuals

would become icons of the movement. And then with the normal forces of ownership, so to speak, those icons of a movement would become exclusive, unattainable, capacities unachievable. What's happening now, and this is why your podcast is so important and also so popular, what's happening now is that everybody that is at that level of awareness, where they're starting to experience consciousness rather than just their individuation, they're realizing that there's a calling inside, there's a purpose inside, and it's not restricted to a religious dogma. It's not restricted to any single form of spiritual dogma either. It's just this relationship, very much like the difference

between your laptop when it's just within itself, which is its identity, and the laptop when it actually has access to Wi-Fi. And then from Wi-Fi, it has access to the World Wide Web, as they call it, right? Yeah, there's a great democratization of ideas and states of awareness that's happening right now as a direct result of the internet, which comes with all of its baggage and problems, of course. But it's a way, it's a means, it's an avenue for transcending the perils

of human-crafted institutions that inevitably devolve or, you know, sort of find themselves, you know, fallible because of the humans that created them and ultimately corrupted and elitist and exclusionary. Or the humans that interpreted the creation, right? Or the humans that interpreted the creation, right? Yeah, and if we can remove those walls and make ideas freely available, what is the need for the four walls of the institution? And also think about the I am. The I am is the attitude of every great master. the attitude of every great master. You know, I am. In that awakening, they recognize that they are the infinity.

So that's the I am. Well, the difference between today and days gone by is in days gone by, the attitude was, oh, he is. But now in today's world, the attitude is attitude is oh he's showing me that i am and that's that's a key because what we need is millions tens of millions of messiahs and prophets, all resonating with love and purity and clarity so that no one individual can be taken down. The problem with that is that humans being tribal by nature like to gravitate to certain silos. And we're kind of hardwired to identify a leader among us and divest ourselves of our power to be subsumed by someone that we perceive as more than or better than or higher than.

Listening to you, I just thought, well, then I'm an electrician. Because if it's hardwired, babe, I'm the electrician that goes around and cuts the wires. Because I'm here to stir the pot. You're here to stir the pot. And what you just said is important. Because as we stir the pot, it's important for us to recognize what's in the pot. And if what's in the pot is the hard wiring of tribal nature, then that's what we have to address. And we have to figure out some way of addressing it without attacking it. Yeah. attacking it. Yeah. Yeah. As I sort of canvas, you know, I'm a student of internet culture and the ecosystems that kind of take place online. And what I see is not really a war, but this

kind of competition of ideas that takes place that is empowering people. But at the same time, there's a counterforce pushing back, which is it's separating people by driving them into various tribes and triggering that innate thing that we have inside of us as humans to identify ourselves by way of our tribe and as separate from whatever other tribe that's purporting another idea. So with this freedom of idea exchange also comes this countervailing force of increased and intensified tribal cultures. And for us who are recognizing it for what it is, we're a little bit like the supervisor in a daycare center. Now, the kids are into it, you know, and they're into the fact that

so-and-so, I better not use a name because somebody out there listening is going to feel personal about it, but so-and-so took the shovel, and there was only one shovel, right? And so as supervisors, we either have to provide more shovels or show how you can scoop the sand with your hands and do all kinds of different things because we're the ones that are watching with an awareness that is not more special, not more important, but more progressed so that we can watch the fact that, okay, this has caused a fracturing of

the unity and they're starting to tribalize around this particular issue. and they're starting to tribalize around this particular issue. A very wise man once said it's called an elevated paradox when you have these polarizing ideas that to take part of one and part of another is the compromise. But then everyone feels satisfied and dissatisfied. But if you take a third position that actually uses all of both, because it is a conflict,

and in a conflict, there's tremendous energy, it's called the elevated paradox. And so you take that paradoxical perspective, which is elevated from both of these forces, and all of a sudden, no one feels like they gave anything up. Everyone feels like they gained something. Now, I'm not saying that's easy, but that's our task in the world.

And knowing that a seed has infinity within it, that infinity also means that the seed of each moment has the ability to go for identity, which is that tribal orientation, but it also has the ability to go to the dissolving of the barriers, right? The barrier around, the shell around, the husk around, whatever it is. And I find that people that are focusing on the differences are focusing on the shell. People that are focusing on the sameness or the commonness are focusing on the seed. And if we get, if we entrain more people to focus on the seed that they have brought to this planet,

then we'll find out, you know, let's continue the metaphor. to focus on the seed that they have brought to this planet, then we'll find out, you know, let's continue the metaphor, we'll find out how that garden looks with all of these seeds growing. I look around our garden and there's weeds growing, you know. And when I go to pull them out or cut them, they look up at me and they say things like, you know, I mean, obviously I'm speaking in metaphor here, but, you know, they say things like, so, Guru Singh, who identified that as a plant that you want to keep and me as a seed that you want to take out? And that's something that we have to be able to do with the ideas that are tribalizing people is to show how they all fit in the same garden. So how do we do that? By listening and by entertaining our unknowing capacities. The capacities for us to step into, like you and I, we sit down,

capacities for us to step into, like you and I, we sit down, we're not reading off of teleprompters, we're basically reflecting off of each other's ideas. And like you said a moment ago, when you were talking, I was thinking, that's how we do it. We do it by allowing ourself to become moldable while still maintaining a center point, not that we're just being able to be dispersed across the universe, but that center point is the center point perhaps of commonality or the center point of harmony or what have you. I love this idea of the seed holding the potential energy

for an infinite number of possibilities and choices and identities and future outcomes. And when you kind of take a step back from that and really think about what a seed is, it is made up of atoms that are stardust that date back to the big bang we're all comprised of of you know these elemental materials that are ageless and timeless and part wave and part matter in in in a myriad of ways that we're only beginning to understand and perhaps may never truly understand. And the more we can telescope out from what I have to do tomorrow and that guy I have to call back and the email that I didn't return and the text message that you sent me that went unresponded to for two weeks or whatever, I find not only beautiful mystery, but also comfort in that.

And that allows me to eradicate the walls that separate myself from somebody else who is walking around with a very different worldview that I have. Have you come across those individuals that will ask you, what's the difference between this and that, right? Because that's how they can identify things is by differentiation. And my response to those people is, okay, well, let me talk about the commonality. Because if somebody wants to know about Judaism and Christianity and Islam and Buddhism andism, and Hinduism, they'll want to know, okay, what are the differences between them? And in that way, they can make clear identities. What about if we were to just focus on what's the sameness? What's the threads that are common to them all? And I think that training children at a very early age not to be differentiators,

but to be unifiers, would be a step. Because this thing isn't going to happen in the next 10 years. Yeah, I think that there is or was or is an evolutionary advantage to the human brain's predisposition for categorization, right? Like we're very good at drawing distinctions. And for a number of reasons, I would imagine, that allowed us to survive and thrive. Like, there's something about that predisposition to categorize and differentiate that allows us to make sense of a world so that we can procreate, you know, and not get killed by a predator or something like

that. So, when you say training, I think that's very true. I think we have to override that predisposition to broaden our conscious awareness to understand like, oh, this is what my brain does. This is what I am hardwired to do. But in order to truly thrive, we have to override that programming to develop a broader awareness. But we don't necessarily have to anymore draw these hard lines and these categories in order to live in the world. There's an evolutionary shift. Charles Darwin described it quite perfectly in what you were just illustrating, and that was the survival of the fittest. Because life was a competition, and that was the survival of the fittest. Because life was a competition,

you were defining your territory, you were defining your identity. Now, with this many people on this small of a planet, because we're reducing the resources faster than they're being reproduced, it's no longer the survival of the fittest, but it's the survival of those who fit together. And we've seen it in a lot of the other animal worlds, the horses, the cows, the elephants, the giraffes, etc. is that they're coming together to work for and with each other is more important now than going it alone.

important now than going it alone. There are those in our societies that are still believing and promoting the idea of go it alone, do it your way, stand your ground, all of these ways. This is old school. It's also an illusion. Yes. But it was an illusion, as you described a moment ago, that got us to this point that allowed us to live beyond the threats of the saber-toothed tiger and what have you. But now it's about fitting together, not being the most fit. Mm-hmm. Yeah. This nation was founded on that ideal, self-sufficiency, pursuit of your dreams, and the idea of individual liberty. It's all about supporting the individual to do their thing and go it alone is kind of packed into that idea. into that idea. But when you look at the most successful species, they are the most intertwined and interdependent with the ecosystems that support them. And these things all work in harmony, and they've been around a lot longer than we have. And we don't live symbiotically on this planet.

We're living in a very unsustainable way. And unless we find a way to create equanimity and symbiosis with every living entity that we share this planet with, I don't see us finding a successful solution for long-term survival of the human race. Exactly. We do not survive much, if at all, past this century as a human species if we don't dramatically change. And what we're experiencing in amongst the seeds of infinity is those seeds that just want to maintain their individual identity, which means that they're pulling their shell around themselves. So you see it in nationalism. You see it in, you know, there is no such thing as race, but to use the expression, you see it in racism.

You see it in the gender differentiation. You see it in the restrictive nature of how religious orders are so far behind the real consciousness of what needs to be in life, where we're starting to welcome a variety and a diversity into this world. What you were just saying there is that as we who are the observers of what is taking place under the pressures of today's world, where resources are dwindling and survival is tentative, we're the ones that have to be the supervisors. I look at the earth as a daycare center. that have to be the supervisors. I look at the earth as a daycare center. You know, it's like got a lot of little kids that are all in adult bodies, but they're just children

fighting over scraps of land, you know, fighting over titles and importances. And we have to come into that daycare center and not attack, but provide this commonality. Because once everybody starts to get their fundamental needs met, which is happiness and true nutrition, plant-based, no more blood-based nutrition, right?

Because blood-based makes us aggressive, makes us feel like we've been attacked because we're tasting blood. But plant-based and the attitude of really creating what you used a word a moment ago, the equanimity, the equality of us all. And then be able to stand up in the midst of that equality and demonstrate that there are some ways in which it can be done more readily. Mm-hmm. So walk me through the process of deconstructing these false identities that we've created so that we can step into this higher awareness?

Well, I would hesitate to even imply, although I know it's true, that they're false identities. Because the moment I would imply that it's a false identity, I'd have to deal with somebody who's claiming otherwise. Right. All right. How about incomplete then? Or neutered? Right. What I would really become more inclined toward is the Pied Piper routine which is to take the seeds of my infinity and take the breath that I can use to invoke those seeds and identify some of its projection with each moment with with each day, with each week, etc. And I would begin to build an alternative reality, closer aligned with the unity and the lack of differentiation.

And then I would work to stimulate it to the point where it's successful in the eyes of those who have three-dimensional thinking, four-dimensional thinking, time is money. of creating this alternate illusion that, and it might not be the ultimate illusion, it might be just an alternate illusion, but it would be attractive like the Pied Piper. You know, they would see success. They would see that all of their needs can be met under this condition. In the past, what spiritual leaders would do is that

they would go and renounce the world and go off and live with nothing. That's not attractive today. Nobody is going to say, well, I guess the road to peace is to all give up everything. And that's nonsense. So let's create an alternative reality in which we're living in harmony, we're living in unity, but we're also living successfully. That's a big task. The renunciant aspect of that aside, that seems to be, what you're saying seems to be rooted in that traditional idea of Buddhism, where the best way to change the world is to is to change yourself right it starts with that like fertilize that seed within so that it can blossom and thrive i was hoping you'd come back yeah i'm bringing i always bring it back the seed metaphor and that you know in the way that you described it as the Pied Piper, you become an example for a different way to live.

And by thriving in the world, not outside of the world, in that alternate paradigm, that you become a magnet or a lightning rod for others that are starting to vibrate on your frequency. Yeah. And one of the things that I use and I teach is that our body parts have chemistry. And that chemistry, when it's secreted into the bloodstream is called peptides and hormones. And every part of our body has not a unique, but has a rather individual angle of the chemistry. And some parts of our body, when they get stimulated and secrete into the bloodstream, they'll make us more defensive. Defensiveness is not a bad thing if it's used in the proper amounts. What it actually does is it gives us the ability to see differentiations that are important, like where's the edge of the cliff

when you're running along a mountain trail? Where's the center line when you're driving along a highway? And so those differentiations are important. There are parts in our body that actually give us a lot of commonality. A lot of those body parts are attached to the breathing process. The diaphragm, for one, process. The diaphragm, for one, is a major component of inspiration. As a matter of fact, the word inspire means to take a breath. So this diaphragm, if it becomes loose and pliable, almost, it's the largest muscle in our body. If it becomes loose and pliable, then it starts to secrete the peptides of inspiration. When you're inspired, you're friendlier, you're more loving, you're more caring, you're more willing to share.

And so people that have deep breathing attitudes, right? When you come off a run and you've been breathing diaphragmatically, you're not thinking, who is that jerk? You know, you're coming off and you're feeling like you're kind of like one with everyone. You know, somebody gives you a foil blanket, another one gives you a hug. You don't care who it is hugging you. You're kind of like one with everyone. But that's because you're in deep inspiration. There are other parts in our body, for example, the heart is cour in French, right? So it's courage. But it's also will, you know, they say the willingness, the one who had more heart in the event. And it's also hope. So you have hope, will, and courage in the heart. So if you get your heart uptake, the rate increased, now you're pumping more hope, will, and courage into your system.

If you're breathing deeply, you've got more inspiration. And the polarity to that is that languishing in indolence, which really starts to shut down everything. And then there is no commonality. So you look at the Western lifestyle. You look at the industrial lifestyle. The industrial lifestyle is all about the coziest mattress, the coziest chair, the coziest car seat, the coziest. Everything is about your docile form, being comfortable in that idle state. What about if we just ever so slightly were to generate popular events that increase the use of these body parts

that would create commonality. So everybody needs to breathe and exercise. Everybody needs to breathe, exercise, and eat a plant-based diet. There we go. We're done. Our work here is done. We have spoken.

I was telling you before the podcast, we recently returned from Italy. I love those pictures of you guys at that super long table. Oh, it was beautiful. Oh. We had such a good group this year. And one of the things that we do every time is we take the group through holotropic breathing. Oh. Not on the first day,

like it's after we've all kind of connected and we've been doing yoga and we've been trail running and we've been eating, we've become a congealed unit at this point and there's an intimacy amongst this unit. And then Julie takes this group through a pretty intense holotropic breathing exercise, which is something a lot of these people had never done before. And almost unanimously, everybody has some form of transcendent psychedelic experience as a result.

The DMT in the brain. It is crazy. Yeah. Literally by just, by virtue of nothing other than an intense breathing exercise, people are transported to dimensions beyond anything I could have imagined. And then we sit around and share our experiences. And it is just wild what people, like people that are not, you know, these are not necessarily people that are showing up at Yoga West to hear the sermons of Guru Singh. These are, you know, military personnel, corporate

executives, people that, for whom this is a unique and brand new experience with which they don't have previous experience. And they're talking about, I became an eagle and I was soaring over a valley and I was visited upon by very elaborate narratives. Yeah. And for them, it was visceral and real. And this is breath. It is freely available to all of us. And what I see in that is that to bring it back to the seed, that there is an infinite number of potential realities and experiences that are available to all of us with a little bit of training and guidance. So as those electricians wandering amongst the tribal nature of human beings, cutting the hard wires that tend us toward tribalism,

those are the experiences that become unique and common simultaneously. Because when you sit around and have those sharings, and here's a military guy, career military man talking about being- I can't believe I'm saying this, but I became a buffalo. Exactly. It gives everyone else the permission to explain their experience. Yeah. And when you have the permission, the self-inaugurated permission to explain your experience, you start to realize that you're actually having more experience than you're even explaining to yourself.

And that you are, by expressing it to others, by sharing it with others, you're getting more of a handle on what it is that you've just gone through. That's why journaling is also really a key. Verbal journaling and also just writing it into a stationary book. Yeah, I mean, for me, it's instructive

in the sense that it demonstrates unequivocally to me that consciousness is so much more vast and nuanced and complicated and mysterious than the human experience of our daily lives. And I'm reading this book right now called Conscious by Annika Harris. You would love this book. She's coming in next week for the podcast. And this is a very evidence-based analysis or primer on the nature of consciousness. Evidence-based, I love that.

From the perspective of, from like a neurological perspective, less mystical, from like a neurological perspective, less mystical, but nonetheless fascinating. And she really tries to get at the root of what exactly consciousness is. And she deconstructs and analyzes the various theories that are out there. And the conclusion is really, A, we don't really understand it.

B, it's not necessarily localized in the human mind. And it's not limited to human beings or even sentient animals. And she goes into this elaborate description of the plant kingdom and, as we know, the way that trees communicate with each other and the symbiosis with the mycelium and everything that takes place for, you know, these forests to exist the way that they do. Exactly. that consciousness is in everything, even inanimate matter. Bingo. And it goes down to the subatomic level of what's actually happening and how little we understand and how dangerous it is for the scientific community

to actually embrace this idea because it is so mind-blowing, but it's utterly fascinating. And it left me with this sense that we may never understand consciousness, but that consciousness is not a localized thing that exists within our bodies, but is something far more vast and interconnected. Consciousness is a seed, a seed of infinity, a non-identified seed, right?

No specific identity, but it's the vast potential that's the same as in a seed. Because two oak acorns, right? Two oak seeds. You put one in a forest that's very crowded, and it will grow in a particular way to accommodate the crowd. That same seed, put it into a forest that is actually quite sparse, and it will grow to extend itself into the sparse nature of the forest. Same seed, same programming. Two people tuned into consciousness. One with a genetic history of crowding. Another with a genetic history of, you know, only one child,

only, you know, one child, only one child, only one child. And you end up with using the same infinite source of nutrient, these two different expressions, right? Now, one is not wrong, one is not right. They're both what they are. This is in fact what we're moving towards. The more we will understand, the more we study consciousness, the more that we're going to be able to get along. Because we're going to, like you were saying a moment ago, recognize that it's non-local. So how do I call it mine?

How do I say my higher consciousness? Maybe it's just higher consciousness. Maybe it's just higher consciousness. Maybe it's just the reverberations. Think of the Buddha when he was sitting by the river and he said, if I focus on the part of the river that is right here, then I'm focusing on that which is always the same. This part of the river, always the same. But if I focus on the fact that I am

the river, then I'm at my destination simultaneously that I'm at my source. And that is literally what consciousness is. Consciousness is at the destination and also at the source. And who knows, maybe those are both the same place. Yeah. I'm trying to wrap my head around that right now. Because you think of a river, right? The river is going down the mountain. The river is complete. If you're an individual bubble on that river, you're making the journey down that which is already complete. And so in our psyche, you were talking a moment ago about dealing with our daily routines as opposed to expanding into our consciousness and our conscious awareness. When we expand into our conscious awareness, we're the whole river or we're a larger portion of the river.

And when we're just focusing on our individual daily routines, we're that bubble that's bouncing down and going over the rapids and getting swept up and et cetera. I think that's most of us, most of the time, myself included. I would think that that is most everybody by design, most of the time, yourself excluded. You are just more aware of when you get sucked into that trap. And so it registers very distinctly for you, but there's no way that you are of that nature by nature. You wouldn't be doing these podcasts. You wouldn't be living where you live. You wouldn't be doing what you do. But for me, I mean, that is my default. And yes, maybe I have moments of awareness where I can step outside of that or at least recognize. Is that what you are?

Just a moment of awareness? Isn't that all any of us are? That's the seed. It's so difficult, though. It is like it's a difficult though it is it is a like it's a practice right you have these moments of broader awareness and then you then lapse back into the daily routine where you're caught up in whatever's going on in your visionary your auditory field or whatever it is and you have to keep like in the same way with meditation you have to keep returning to the breath or whatever modality that you use for that. For me,

awareness is the same thing. I have to constantly remind myself and I will go through tremendously extended periods of time without that awareness before I have to remember and bring myself back to that broader awareness. And I look at it like, how can I live in that space? And I just push the envelope out a little bit further. And why is it so difficult? Like, why am I so predisposed to get caught up in the minutiae or replaying some narrative in my head about what happened yesterday or the fear and anxiety I have about what's happening tomorrow, why can't I exist extemporaneously, like in that space of oneness? When you think of our theme of today and that within the seed is infinity, that within the seed is infinity,

then that means that within that seed is the fixation on minutia, as well as the vast awareness of the commonality, of the oneness. And so they're all happening simultaneously. Our parasympathetic nervous system and our sympathetic nervous system will differentiate between them. And so our sympathetic nervous system can be turned over to our parasympathetic nervous system by using more of our diaphragm, by literally when we feel ourself being drawn in to that sort of that, you know, that worrisome state,

we do something, a daily practice. It's like when you feel like, let's say you're kayaking and you feel that your boat is being swept down into a channel that you definitely have not had good experiences with. So then you guide it by putting in an alternative force. Same thing holds true for our daily lives. When we're aware, most people get swept into these moments of fixation on minutia and complaining and problem-sol et cetera, et cetera.

Most people get swept into those things unconsciously. You get swept into them consciously. You're aware that you're going in. Not always, but go ahead. But you eventually do discover. And then you know that you have some tools at your disposal to work your way out of it. After you've said a few, you know, a few complaints, that's what is, you know, you walk through a smoke-filled room,

you're going to smell like a cigar smoker when you come out of that room. And you're going to have it in your hair and you're going to have it on your clothes and you're going to have it in your lungs. So you got to go through a cleansing process. And it's just the have it in your hair, and you're going to have it on your clothes, and you're going to have it in your lungs. So you got to go through a cleansing process. And it's just the same way in the world at large, because there are so many mental constructs. They're driving down the road in their car. They're cutting you off. They're trying to gain a three-second advantage in a line of cars.

They're doing it all the time. The majority of those people are doing it because they're born to do it. You're doing it or you're getting caught in it because you're born to observe it. And there's a difference between the born to do it and the born to observe it. And then the next step after being born to observe it is observing it and finding an alternative to it. And that's, I will say that's one of the reasons why you interview so many profoundly wonderful human beings is that it's in part you giving this gift to the world, which it truly is. I have people all over the world say, hey, the reason I came to your class is because I'm a big podcast fan of Rich Roll.

And it happens every single day all over the world. And you're also doing it for your own elevation. And that's what makes it so real, that it doesn't feel like a performance when people are watching these podcasts it feels like it's you're real you're into it for real and you're trying to discover for real and that gives them the opportunity to do the same by looking through from the outside or listening through from the outside yeah Yeah, well, I appreciate that. I mean, I definitely only have people on that I want to learn from.

And I try to maintain my teachability and I have an openness to wanting to improve and learn. And so the experience is very much selfish in that regard. But the gift is that I get to be selfless and giving it to the world, which is kind of works out for everybody, I guess. It does. But what I heard in what you just said is a couple things. I mean, first of all, the observer aspect of what you just spoke to just reaffirms or reminds me how important it is to be discerning about the environment that you choose. And I think that being consciously aware of that is freely available to all of us. How can

you be more mindful about the company that you keep and the communities that you navigate and immerse yourself in, in the sense that that acorn is going to grow one way in one environment and a different way in a different one, and you want to be in the environment that's going to promote you to thrive, I think is super important. And the other thing is what I find myself doing is harboring judgments about these different states of consciousness. judgments about these different states of consciousness. More specifically, if I catch myself lapsing into a lack of awareness or getting caught up in the wave of whatever's just happening in my moments, getting distracted by rehashing something that happened in the past or what's going to be happening in the future. And then I have that moment of reckoning and I step outside of it.

Then I judge myself for having that harshly. And then I reward myself for being in a different state of consciousness, which then makes me feel or is the kind, the trap in that is that then you feel superior. And neither of these judgments are true or warranted, right? So, for me, the exercise is just as much about trying to reserve judgment on these various states, because I think that a higher state of consciousness is transcending those instincts to categorize or qualify one state as being better than the other. But that's very difficult. Like that's a mental trap that's very challenging for me to transcend. I'm really clear on what you're describing because the nature of judge is uncommon to almost everyone that uses it. There's a common expression now where people will say,

I'm not judging you, I'm just observing you, right? And this is what I'm observing. And that's pushing on a truth, which is, let me observe the fact that you tend to pick your nose in public. I'm not talking about you. By the way, I'm not talking about Rich. I've done that, though, but go ahead.

Yeah, me too. But I observe that you pick your nose in public, whoever the you is. And then if I reserve that that's bad, then I'm not judging, I'm observing, I'm witnessing. There's an article that I just read the other day that married couples, whether they're same sex or heterosexual, it doesn't matter, partnerships who allow themselves to fart and burp freely in front of each other are mentally healthier. Now that makes total sense because you're not feeling like you're going to be judged by a very natural event. The gases come, let it out. Don't hold it in. And so if we were to come to the place where we're able to witness, not like, oh, I didn't see that. But no, we're able to witness it.

We're able to feel it. We're able to hear it. We're able to see it. And then not apply the judgment to it of that's wrong or that's right. Because the judgment is the the brain in the head which is two-dimensional always looking at right wrong good bad yes no and just go that okay every moment is a seed and every seed is infinity and if i were in that same situation i might have done it differently but who's to say that my way is better? And I go through that all the time because I am always

deconstructing, just like you are, the tendency, which is the tendency to judge. And, you know, I was speaking with, you know, some great masters over time. By the way, me too. I'm a constant student as well as a constant teacher. You know. I don't feel that any road is done. And so in learning from the great masters, you will find that as you've done yourself, we find that they go through the same thing. They just have their own flavor of going through it. Yeah. I think when you can connect with that, it allows for grace. And relaxation.

To be more gentle with not just yourself. Well, the more gentle you can be with yourself, then you become more empathetic and gentle with others. What is it they say? And then before you know it, you're farting in front of your spouse. Right. And what is it they say? The asshole in your life? and what is it they say?

You know, the asshole in your life? Have pity on that person because you're only experiencing about one-tenth of their bitterness or their offensiveness. They're experiencing the full throw. You know, that when you experience someone that is quite a jerk, be compassionate because they're experiencing it ten many-fold times over. in that kind of scenario is wholly dependent upon how much I've been practicing mindfulness and meditation.

Because I get that extra pause where I have then a choice and enough awareness to choose how to best react or respond. But if I'm not taking care of myself, that button gets pushed and I'm right in that paradigm where I'm just throwing it, I just react. And of course that never works out well. Especially for those of us that are born to be more of a leader. You know, people can get away with peeing and pooping anywhere

when they're very, very young. And thinking of age in terms of evolutionary capacities, those of us that are of mastery quality, we have a much narrower field through which we can act and not react. And we will get a very strong, what is it John Lennon talked about, instant karma going to get you? Well, if you just went off on somebody at the airport and somebody was taking a little iPhone video of you and that goes up on the internet. That would go viral. You're done.

I'm done, man. It's over. I'm toast. Yeah. Cancel culture. Cancel. On Guru Singh. Rich Roll is not interviewing that guy again.

Yeah, it's funny. And that's an interesting kind of cultural thing that we're experiencing right now. Our lack of empathy and this knee-jerk reaction to pile onto people who make a mistake or do something reprehensible and our inability to find the nuance in these things. And that's not to say that people aren't doing horrible things and there should be repercussions for that, but I'm dismayed by the furiosity with which- Good word. People get piled on. I like that word, furiosity.

Yeah. It serves some kind of deep-seated emotional need that humans have that I think we trick ourselves into thinking, make us feel better, but I'm not so sure that's the result. Well, isn't there that old saying that to have the tallest building in town, you can either destroy all the other buildings or you can build the tallest building. And oftentimes to feel, as you say, that sense of importance. We need to destroy someone.

It's actually a carnivorous attitude. It's actually the carnivores are the ones who are territorial. No herbivore is territorial. And the carnivores are not only territorial, but they're more aggressive. And that blood in the teeth, between the teeth and the gum, there's those very sensitive nerves that when they get the blood forced in there they feel like they're in battle and when they're in battle they need to they need to fight for their life

and that's a little bit of what's happening today even amongst people who have been off you know flesh foods and um for a very blood foods you know for a very long time, it's still in their DNA because the generations that built their body is still vibrating in a carnivorous way. The epigenetics. The epigenetics. The whole thing. Yeah. All right.

Well, we have to wrap up this edition of Guru Circle. Circle or multiverse? Well, if there's only two of us sitting here i don't know how we make a circle but we'll do it i know um i have a feeling that we're going to be talking again soon i have that same feeling um but why don't you take us out with uh a little music yay you want to do that yeah so i put this, which is a leg warmer. You know, a dancer's leg warmer so that I don't chew up my guitar with my bangles. And somebody once said, so what are those chords? And I answered, have no idea.

I am who I am, that is that I am who you are, looking back You are who I am, can you imagine that? There's only one, that's a fact And then in Sanskrit it goes Hummy hum, to me too Hami ham tu mi tu Waheguru Hami ham tu mi tu Waheguru

I am who I am that is that I am who you are looking back You are who I am can you imagine that? There's only one and that's a fact Love you, my friend.

Love you. to be continued very soon thank you peace plants i don't know about you but i always feel better after spending time with Guru Singh. I hope you guys enjoyed it as well. Please hit him up on the socials and let him know how this one landed for you. You can find him on Instagram at GuruSinghYogi, on Twitter at GuruSingh, and you can learn even more at GuruSingh.com. And as always, check out the show notes on the episode page on my website to immerse yourself in his world with tons of links and resources to extend your experience beyond the earbuds. Last chance for tickets for my live

show in Los Angeles at the Wilshire Ebell Theater on September 27th with Paul Hawken. It's going to be amazing. We also have special appearances by a couple other folks that I'm going to keep under wraps. To grab your tickets, click on the Appearances tab on my website or on the posts that are pinned to the top of my Facebook and Twitter accounts. And while we're at it, I'd like to add that you can still be among the first people to enjoy Julie's totally mind-blowing plant-based cheeses. We talked about that in my recent episode with her. To learn more about that world, go to srimu.com, S-R-I-M-U cheeses. We talked about that in my recent episode with her. To learn more about that

world, go to srimu.com, S-R-I-M-U.com. If you'd like to support the work we do here on the show, subscribe, rate, and comment on the podcast, on Apple Podcasts. That really helps new people discover the show, and we love that. So do that if you've been sitting on it. Tell your friends about your favorite episode. Share it on social media on your favorite account. Subscribe to my YouTube channel, Spotify, Google Podcasts, wherever you listen to this or watch it. And you can also support the show on Patreon at richroll.com forward slash donate. I want to thank everybody who helped put on the show today.

Jason Camiolo for audio engineering, production, show notes, and interstitial music. Blake Curtis for additional duties on audio engineering, as well as Margot Lubin. Those two together, the dynamic duo, they create the video version of the podcast, which you can find on YouTube. Jessica Miranda for her graphics. Allie Rogers for portraits. DK David Kahn

for advertiser relationships and theme music. As always, I am Alemah. Appreciate the love, you guys. I will see you back here in a couple of days with the great Layla Ali. Here's a clip to take you out. You're not gonna wanna miss this one. So until then, peace, plants, namaste.

I always was a fighter. Like I said, for some reason, I always wanted to fight and prove that I was strong. This confidence that I have that I wish I could put it in a bottle is something I was born with. But I wish that for everyone that they had enough self-love because I think that's what it really comes down to is confidence starts with self-love.

And you have to love yourself enough to know that you're not going to be perfect. You're going to make mistakes and that's okay. Like I was just saying a few minutes ago, my father being as amazing as he is, he wasn't nowhere near perfect. So as a kid, I watched that. I saw his mistakes. I know all the things about him that are like, what?

Crazy, you know, but he still is this amazing human being. So I'm like, if he's not perfect, nobody is. You know what I mean? So first you just have to know that because most people are afraid to go after the things they really want to do, to say the things they really want to feel, to really find their purpose because they're afraid of screwing up. You know, they're afraid of what people are going to say. And it's like, when you don't have that feeling, the possibilities are limitless. Thank you.