Eastern Philosophy: From Confucius to Yogananda

1. Eastern Philosophy 2 Promo: research is showing that people around the world are experiencing higher and higher levels of anxiety, worry, fear and depression. Medical science and psychiatrists have been working hard to try to solve this problem, to no avail. And so I think it's time for us to look into the past and look insistent different knowledge traditions to help us live more well balanced life or meaningful life and have a more happiest well, the this force. We're going to look at full solvable traditions of the East and what they haven't teach us about life. So we're gonna look at the teachings of Confucius, you manana, Chris temerity and many other so called stages or gobies or philosophers and see what is it that makes people consider them to be some of the wisest souls who ever lived and how we use these teachings to improve our lives right now, in the 21st century, if you just said you have two lives, 2nd 1 begins and you realize you only have one. Hopefully, my course will help to sugar a feeling in you that you will wake up to your second life and start living for purpose, for meaning and we're happiness. And the SAGES that we will study in the course have a lot to say about how to do this. So I hope you join the course and get a lot out of it, and you 2. Lesson 1 Intro to Eastern Philosophy 2: well in the course. Eastern philosophy. From Confucius to Yoga Nonda. This is my second course on Eastern philosophy as a lot of positive feedback from the 1st 1 people. So they want even more content. And there's just so much to cover in a course on philosophy as vast as new cover the whole time Eastern region of the world. All these different cultures and different countries have slightly different backgrounds and different history and everything like that. So I left out Confucius almost completely from my first course Asian philosophy, which of course is difficult to do, since so much of Asian and Eastern culture is based on Confucius is ideas. So this course I focus on Confucius, and we learned about a lot of other Indian philosophers such as Swami Vivekananda, who was made very famous by Steve Jobs. He had a turban on his book, Autobiography of a Yogi on his iPhone died. It was the only book that he had and yoga. Nana became a big ambassador for for yoga in the West, so he brought a lot of these ideas initially over in the early 19 hundreds, 19 twenties to the western and a huge, huge impact on introducing it. Teoh America and Europe and places like that. So this course were to cover a lot of ground. We're gonna cover Confucius. We're gonna cover all these different fingers and what they had to teach. It's my approach to teaching. Philosophy is I don't want to use a lot of jargon. I don't want it to be something that is super boring and theoretical and follows a lot of most villages. Ums and logic, puzzles and Aristotelian sort of things. I wanted to be something that is applicable. Seven is practical fact practical that will help us in our everyday lives. That's one of the reasons why I'm drawn Eastern philosophy in general. Buddhism, Hinduism, alyssum These are very practical philosophies. I mean their religions in one sense. But their philosophies in another sense, they're teaching that are supposed to make us happier, healthier, better human. These and it's not that Western philosophy doesn't necessarily also do that. I just find Eastern philosophy in particular to be very, very useful in our everyday lives. And an interesting thing I talked about throughout the course is that there's a lot of parallels between Eastern philosophy or Eastern religion and Western philosophies and religions as well. I want to be very interesting with two modes of thought over. Laugh as it were. It kind of tells you that there must be something there with people from different times in history, different parts of the world. People who are considered to be the wisest, greatest teachers are basically telling us some of the same things. I think there must be something to it in that case, right? So one of the things that the Confucius says that it is better to like one small candle than curse the darkness. This is a really from later quote that you probably heard it many generations off from different people. I think it's interesting that futures maybe he was the 1st 1 than that, said this. Basically light your candle in the darkness. Don't be worried that you can't change the whole world. You can't stop All these evil things were happening. It's better that complaining. You're saying all this too much. You know evil in the world. I can't do anything just like candle. Instead of complaining instead of cursing the darkness, at least you can do a little bit of good in one small part of the world. So that's one of the Confucius is a coaster like I'm going to be using a lot of quotes throughout the course. I think it's very efficient. Boils down what a lot of these teachers thought. A lot of the stuff they taught. Instead of reading their five page treaties on some idea, we can just look at small bits, the most concise parts of what they taught. I think quotations give us a lot of the meat of these philosophies, and we can cover a lot more ground by looking at it from this plan. You I study philosophy at university, but most of my reading and my learning has been as an adult reading philosophy every day, Western philosophy, Eastern philosophy, studying all the religions. And one thing that I know turns people off from philosophy is anything. It's complicated or it's boring and things like that. So I don't use a lot of jargon. I'm trying to get as much out of these teachings and these philosophers as I can, so I just kind of have a brief over a year about Eastern philosophy, and it's interesting that most of it originated a long, long time ago. The 5th 6th century BC or the common era or before Christ on Confucianism. Buddhism, the advent of Hinduism as we know it today. All right. At the same time, fifth and sixth century BC, also interesting Sufi ism and the Muslim religion actually get much, much later. A lot of people don't realize that it was like six and seventh centuries when you had a Sufi Muslim tradition on you had Mohamed doing his teachings and founding that much, much later. So Eastern religion is very old, and it's interesting that across China and India they were not sharing that distribution ism and bruising did not Iraq with each other. They were separate, but they have a lot of really similar insights and similar teachings. Now you could chop it up to half that, having similar cultures. But I think it's very interesting that places that are far away stretching back in the far lane of each other, and in some cases it in time to came to a lot of similar conclusions. Yoga isn't so much a religion, you know, like Buddhism is. Yoga was more of ah spiritually system That sort of encapsulates the ancient Indian culture . And it goes all the way back to this Vedic period in the 1500. You see all of the 600 BC. This was one of these books to these writings followed, vetoes were written, and a lot of the yoga philosophy has come from that. I'm going too much into the history. So I get out. I want to be too dry and boring, but it is pretty interesting to see the origin to some of these philosophies. And so later on something that we're going to study in the course They jolly he translated and made popular a lot of the information in the vetoes and then even later than jolly, someone named Swami Vivekananda, who has a big section in the scores. He once again popularizes old idea. So had his different teachers bringing these old teachings back, getting again throughout time and imports. We find that in 21st century there more relevant than ever in our stressful fast baselines is all philosophies and ways of thinking are very, very useful, and they can help us learn Teoh be healthier and Palmer, and ultimately have happier lives. So just a brief. We're gonna look at yoga in general. It's not a religion. A lot of people, of course, think of yoga is just being. The body move is the postures and the exercise, which has become very, very popular these days. In the West of exercise, that's only one side of elegance. Only one aspect of yoga and originally yoga was seen as a exercise that was useful because allowed him will sit longer and meditation. So you really get a yoga. You would be comfortable to meditate. Maybe all day law. Otherwise really uncomfortable. You just sit once spot in one position for all this, that's actually a reason why you already started. It was a way for you to be able to meditate better and longer, and so this section we'll look at yoga. We're looking at the Jolly who had a huge influence on taking the yoga, and he does, and turning it into something is that akin to religion? Something was very popular. This was even a couple 1000 years ago, $1000 really old and then later on has been reintroduced over and over again. So some religion, but it's really, really inclusively to Hinduism and Indian culture in general. A lot of times people think of yoga, everything of Hinduism and vice versa. But they're not the same things. New Ism is a religion, but they have a lot of similarities. Look, just and Confucius, of course, he originated in China. But Confucianism still drive culture throughout Asia, and I know that if you're a generation American or something, let's get this you first. You might be thinking of, well, actually, all closed differently. I personally I live. You know, I know that the Vietnamese culture not only is different giants culture or Japanese culture , but it's even from some of the other cultures in Southeast Asia. However, Confucianism has had a huge impact on all Asia. It was considered to be China is considered to be a cultural harf, as we say historical dialect, and it influenced all of the smaller countries around it. And so Confucius justice major figure a lot of the the aspects aside, failed the patriarchal nature of side you that favorite males that goes all electric futures. A lot of me formality and Nevison ritual because not Confucius steps on your family being the primary union of society. Of blues aside, that's confusion, confusion, idea. So Confucius was an ancient Chinese teacher scholar, but his impact has still being fell throughout Asia today. Krishnamurti is a really interesting character because he was basically hailed as this. The next coming used divine spiritual leader of this set in India. And you had this church face that he was chosen to be the leader while he was a child up, just similar from how the dollar lawman has chosen to be the leader. They choose a baby, they say is the incarnation of the past, the only long. But it's interesting because he rejected that as you got older, you jump in his position, he renounced it. He renounced all property and everything, and he would ended up rejecting all authority and all conformity, basically, as a form of enslavement. So Christian marriage is really interesting, is very different than a lot of other thinkers and philosophers, but he still came out of the Indian tradition. He still has a lot of sort of yoga slash in newest ideas, I think, and so he's really interesting to study. So if you've never heard of Christian charity has a lot of people haven't. He's got a lot Teoh, a lot of stuff that will give us a lot of food for thought. Let's say OK, so we're looking at the economic. Already mentioned is kind of the guy who brought cuts and jollies writings, translations of the vetoes back. He was around in the 18th century, so much more recent. Krishnamurti was he died in 1984 or something like that. So he was active during the early and mid part of the 20th century. Looking on, it was 18th century. He popularized yoga and made $10 writings well known. He has a lot of really good quotes and things that he said, and I finally would look at Swami Vivekananda, who wrote the famous book Is Our Dimension. The Autobiography of a Yogi, and he popularized yoga and in Judaism in the last time Time and it was considered to be it was very, very little known. It was presented to be some some weird, you know, barbaric religion or something. He came to the U. S. And was very popular. He was a big hit, became famous, and he spread these ideas a lot. And then later on, I think you pave the way for people from the night fiction sixties and teaches then and influence our culture even more there as I have, according from Patan. Dolly, he said in mind, Free from all disturbances is your so very simple definition. Basically, whatever frees your mind from the services, whatever gives you peace, that's your so course meditation has a huge part to play in your gut. Do you think of yoga as being one part body, one part mind and we're gonna look at that. And that's sect when yoga is and what it isn't in the next lesson. 3. Lesson 2 What is Yoga: So I found this definition of yoga, which I really like, already mentioned. It is not a religion is a science, a science of well being signs and youthfulness sides of integrating body, mind and soul. I would like definitions of what? Govs. So it's kind of Ah, spirituals system as you will, and part of it is the postures of the exercise of being held me being fit and helping you be calm and meditate through this very rigorous sort of exercise. And a part of it is meditation, being able to sit for a long time and still your mind still, your body, that it still another part of it is the philosophy of Gilda being home in peaceful doing things throughout your life in a way that of slow, that bring peace to yourself, being peace to people around, being pieces aside and treat animals with peace and dignity, much everyone you interact with. So yoga is ah is a way of life, basically doesn't have a god that says you have to do this or that. It's not a religion, but it done tells very nicely with Hinduism, which of course, makes sense because people came out of India, and so again, a lot of people they think of you ever think of exercise, and that is only one aspect of it. That's why the spirit and Teachers Yoga teaches, recalled Guilties, because they're supposed to be gurus or mentors for you, and part of it might be the posturing and the and the exercises, and it may not. It may simply the teachings about how to be peaceful and happy, and then we'll just start depend on the bureau, a teacher that was talking about So we get enough to get into a lot of jargon. But the more bodily aspect of you over the physical aspect is called half a yoga, and then the stuff that more land mine all Rhonda, because you can look that stuff up. You want more details about it on your own, and I want to focus on what we get out of the philosophy of yogurt for ourselves. We comply directly their lives. Right now, Teoh help our day to day living in to be better to help us, you will stress, help us feel calmer and help us be at peace, and it's really chaotic a time of living in 21st century. So spirituals system involves meditation, and a lot of it is to ride from putting jollies, sutras and the Vidas. Like all of the 1500 BC, As I mentioned, a lot of the stuff that the girls were teaching and have been written about yoga are derived, and John Siege is a hero, which again are based on the years there's a very very old bosses to mix. Emphasize. How interesting is that in the 21st century, with all our technology and all of our religions and complex society that these old old philosophies are so palatable and are so useful Now we're going back to something that people were learning 2,503,000 years ago. I just think it's moving cool. So again, I was one of end this this lesson with the definition of yoga mine free from all the services. What does that mean? That means you're not worried about money. That means you're not worried about your health. That basically means you're not stressed out at all. That maybe a piping for most of us. Maybe it will never achieve total freedom for all disturbances, but you know, that's kind of like a goal of yoga through meditation through exercise that is yoga. Training your minds slowly, someone with Buddhism, which I covered in detail, and two other forces so focused on Buddhism in this course much I'm gonna talk about it because it's related to the Eastern philosophies. Live in tow, yoga and Hinduism. But I covered that detail on a whole course on Buddhism and in my first Eastern philosophy for some kind of leaving Buddhism mostly out the ways in years. But in general, if we can achieve peace, you know, inner peace, whatever that means to you, that's the goal of over to live a life that is in harmony with herself, your environment. Whether you're you know, a mother and a father or met, maybe you are the boss in a company may be your employees. Whatever the situation is going to be in farming in vows with our environment and the way to achieve that balance is what your race is all about. It's about thinking deeply while going inward. It's about a spiritual journey that lead to call this lead to peace because you're calmed. I mean nothing can disturb you. You know, you don't let things bother you. You kind of, you know, don't sweat the small stuff I've had have been put one time that you want to cultivate effortless unconcerned. It's not that you don't care. It's because we care so much about our well being and happiness that we don't let things disturb us. We care so much that we choose not to let every little detail life bother us. Okay, we get a ticket, it's $100. Okay, so I just pay it or not. Whatever. Someone's yelling at me in my Boston like the way I did my work. It's fine. Can't do anything about it, right? Except the things I cannot change changes the change of things that I can't. We have to cultivate this attitude of being at peace with everything. It's still try to change things in the world. You still be ambitious if you want to, but the whole point is the goal is peace. And that's the whole that. It kind of adds clarity to all the cities of life. Is this career gonna add to my stress and and well and you know, being unhealthy or is gonna add to my well being and add to my happiness if our animals only to make money. But the way in which you go about doing that calls us to be unhealthy or always be stressed out. Well, then, that definitely would go against you know, the notion of notions of yoga and stuff like that. So what I end this lecture with this clear idea in mind what is mine free from all the service. And just imagine if you could achieve that through practice of meditation, through teachings of all of these great cruise great teachers that we learned about in this course to basically learn how to let go. So you don't Don't worry about what other people think about you. Don't worry about your really go to worry about your health because these things actually good for your health, but also because worrying actually this kind of productive worrying actually makes you sick and so we can learn how to not worry, which, of course, is a skill. It has to be learned. We grow up learning to worry about everything for you, but your Griggs worry about being accepted by having friends be successful worry about your future career worry where we grow up learning at a worry and what yoga and other Eastern philosophies telling us is actually as backwards. We should be learning how to not worry and not be afraid. And even though there are real circumstances, their life, that, you know, of course we need to make sure that we care about. We have to be able to pay our bills, going to take care of our Allen to take care of ourselves. Worrying doesn't help, and stress doesn't actually help, and so that's what yoga is all about. 4. Lesson 3 The Yoga of Patanjali: So in this lesson, we're gonna look at some of the teachings of putting Jolly, since he was so influential in terms of breeding yogurt to the masses, some of things that he said, and what he has a key just so. One thing, he said, was that the cause of suffering is that the unbounded cells overshadowed by the world. So what does that mean? This is really someone. What Buddhists at Buddha said that suffering is due to attachment, were attached to things were attached to outcomes. And then we suffer if we lose the things that were attached to whether it be money or relationships or what having well, Pottenger only is saying something similar. Usually say that when you know society, when the nature of reality the world would you live but it over. Shadows are wonderful, beautiful Selves, and it causes suffering. For most of us, we are overshadowed by we live in a world where you know what people do in closes, us people will say and think influences us. We care so much about people's opinions. If you work in a company, you have to care about your callings, that painting to care about people, your family's opinions, healthy, how they talk to you and basically what's in your environment, right? It overshadows who you are. This is like a lot of the symbols of Eastern philosophy, you know, maybe like a Yoda. In Star Wars, for example, they are all about solitude and about, you know, unlearning which you have learned not letting the world affecting influence. You. This is kind of confusing because, of course, not all of us are going to live in a monastery, become monks. We have to interact with the world. And this is why it's so challenging. How do we find a balance? How do we find a place within ourselves where we can go on your career's going toe work? We can raise your lives the way that we old let the world over overshadow us of a shadow are unbound itself. A spot on Jolly is putting it and be a peace but not retreating. Pulling from society Think that's really the trick here, and that's where Eastern lost it would be so useful for us, is not retreating from my everyday life that retreat from our responsibilities and escaping , but learning how to go inward, living out of strength in our core and strengthen themselves so that we are not overrun five in chaos of society or by negativity in the environment. You know, all the stuff on the news is negative. Everything is going on in politics. Negative. It's really hard to be overwhelmed by that. And that's what these anti teachers are telling us something. 3000 years ago it was the same. They have wars and they had poverty and famine. And they had all kinds of horrible stuff going on, even more so than now, right? It was worse back then. But the lessons of philosophy are the same happened. We need peace happen. We'd be happy despite, you know, the world and all the intensity, sometimes negative things that happened. So once we've identified that testing the problem now we can start to look at ways happened . We solve that problem. And so to punt on Jolly and a lot of these guys, Of course, yoga is the answer to that, he says. You know, how do we reach peace? Peace could be reached through meditation on the knowledge which dreams get this kind of interesting thing was genes give peace can also be reached through concentration on that which is dearest to the hearts. So this first part of knowledge was dreams. Give, that's kind of confusing to us, That kind of selling some sort of Native American indigenous person idea. We have dreams, and then we think about those dreams. What kind of knowledge is that? Give us so that we should say that that but the second part piece can also be read through concentration upon that which is dearest to the heart. The way I interpret this is that you know, when you're always aware of as you go through your day to day life, what you love, what you want, who you are when you want to be, however, me to find, you know that which is dearest to the heart. It makes our decisions much more clear. You know, should I take this job or not? Should live in this city or this place or not. Should I go into this relationship with this person or not? Choose these people as my friends or not, because there's a lot of clarity and helps us to make good decisions that are gonna lead to us being happier, healthier and, of course, the end goal. You're going to be peaceful, have a line that is at peace, a line that is home. So I really like that peace can also be reached through concentration. On that, just tears, not when you know what you love, and we know what you want to be starts to provide clarity about your decisions. Another thing he said, is that yoga means still is in the mind and freedom from oscillations and various mental processes. This is really somewhere the first thing that he said. But he's kind of put it in a slightly different way. Still this of the mind freedom from oscillation of various mental processes. And just think about that in contrast to a modern culture, only modern culture in the West of modern culture. All around the world, we're living very fast paced, mostly stressed out lives. You think about it are days get up work were about money. We're about doing a job without losing our jobs, and we're living a 1,000,000,000 text life, so we're always overthinking things were constantly analyzing things and while we may have both, an unexamined life is not worth living, meaning that, you know, analyzing your life is good. We should be doing that. But basically the problem we have right now is that we're constant, overthinking everything, constantly worrying about everything. That was an anxiety in the West, especially whole time highs. Suicide rates are all time highs and all kinds of problem. It was a huge opiate epidemic going on. We're addicted drugs at all time, high levels. I think it's amazing. We're also living in a time of record after its. In other words, we're living in a time of greatest prosperity, literally in the history of the world. And yet we're not happier than they used to give you the facts. The opposite. That's really interesting and jolly excuse me. Teaching some yoga are saying well that the issue here is that we need to learn how calm mind. Imagine if you were free from anxiety, worry, and you can have had a still home mindful inner peace. A lot of people in the first time you hear this, they say, Well, that's simply not reality. I got bills to pay. I've got kids toe, you know, put school and all of the things. Of course, that's true. And that has always been true. That doesn't mean that you have to be frank. It doesn't mean yours is having Zion. You know, still, you work hard, focus on everything you do in your life. But the point is, there are ways to yoga is other techniques to meditation to learn and be calm amidst the activity. You calm when you're busy to calm of all your responsibilities, and you'll actually help you manage all those responsibilities. It will help you achieve success. It doesn't help anybody to be stressed out and worried all the time. So that's what yoga is. And that's what yoga seeks to teach. And the next lesson we're gonna look at some or of puffin jollies specific teaching. 5. Lesson 4 Patanjali's Teachings: Okay, so now we just established that yoga is the calmness of the mind. That's one definition of you that's part and jolly definition of yoga. But how do we do it? So he gives you just one way here, he says, undisturbed columns of mine is attained by cultivating friendliness toward the happy compassion for the unhappy delight in the virtuous and indifference towards the wicked here . So he's basically grouping manning four different grooves or different categories. You got happy. Of course. We should be friendly with happy people. That's great. Help us be happy to compassionately unhappy. A lot of people are unhappy. You meet up compassion for them, whether that means just fueling or helping them actively or whatever. Hell romantic us that we should have compassion just for our own humanity. You know, it helps you be happy, but you care. One of the people you care about the down from you care about those less fortunate than you . It makes you happy. And when you help them make you happy as well, and then be delightful light in the bridge west. When you see people doing good things, that should make us happy as Well, I would like this last one to like, he says, indifference for the wicked indifference that that's kind of a controversial thing to say because I mean, how can you be indifferent towards, like Hitler having being different towards people, committing crimes against humanity, this stuff. But just imagine if all of the people in Germany doing at this time, if they were different, they wouldn't have allowed Hitler to stir them up into a frenzy and be so angry, angry at the West angry Atif, You know all the outside forces that they're blaming for their bad economy or the blame for losing over one or whatever it was that it was statement round everybody up and allowed them to go on to commit such atrocities. Indifference towards a wicked people saw Hitler, and they were like, Okay, he just some clown and nobody followed him that everything wouldn't have happened. But instead they didn't have a difference. They went along with it and they went wild, and I just won a sweat interpretation. But I think that's a pretty good way looking things. There's people out there in the world, Dad, Dad things, and we try to fight them on, we could actively gives them. But it also intends a sucker set, doesn't it? If you get involved in like Paul, Thanks, for example, in your constant fighting against people you disagree with, you let it disturbs you. It disturbs you that causes anxiety and stress, and it creates feelings of hatred with me, right? Right now, there's a lot of controversy going on in American politics and American, and there seems Seymour or vitriol every passing year way have Republicans, Democrats. One side thinks the other side and amount think it helps. Anybody does it to just constantly be, uh, vilifying the other side. I think if we see someone being evil or bad or wicked, this idea of putting jollies and being different and it takes away their power and we just don't really care, you know, they're gonna kind of flame out. Um, I don't know. It's controversial because we also can't let them commit atrocities. Can people go around killing each other doing bad things, but in terms of our own inner peace, So what we're talking about here, we need to have some level indifference. Just ignore them. Basically, they don't exist unless we focus on the good things in life, we focus something something is happening that are other lifting and instead actively fighting. Give everything that we see that is negative, which pulls us down with pulls us into that negative energy. We just basically are indifferent to it. We don't give it the power of a reaction. So as as you know, practical as that is, I think it's it's edifying Teoh to think about that approach I like. I like how Johnny puts that. Of course, with all these things go spend time reflecting on it and don't just accept it. But what I'm thinking about what it's all about, you know, you just ideas from teachers ever considered to be some of the greater teachers, some of the best gurus throughout time. That's why I've chosen their clothes, chosen their ideas. But as you know, reflect on that and feel, think out, feels you So Swami Vivekananda is someone that we're gonna stay. You got a whole this whole section in this course, but he's the one of them Internet earlier, who was responsible for reviving jollies writings from about 2000 years ago and then bringing them to the masses and what was for him, Modern day in the 18 century, and Gandhi and other people came later. They hadn't read a lot of difficulty hours worse and staying, so he is very influential. One thing, he said. That thing is interesting. He talks about, you know, strength and you know how to be successful in life. So I get a little different approach on yoga. But it's really applicable, I think, to the 21st century West especially, he says. Take up one idea. I got one idea of your life. Think of a dream of it, live on that idea. But the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea and just the every other ideal. This is the way to success, I think is a really interesting because one time Warren Buffet that there was Investor and Bill Gates, which has been world. They were asked to write down and did write down one word about what leads to success one trader, one word that is most responsible for success in my dedication. Of course, they were talking about career success or successful business or whatever, but it is a bold word on the same work, and they wrote down the words focus. That's basically what Vatican on staying here. Do you want to be successful out? Whatever Whatever is talking about doesn't to be created could be the family into your health or well being. He just be successful as a human being. General, he's saying, Focus on that one idea one idea and just completely focus on, I mean, eventually you if you wanted to be a professional actor or musician, which you know is dream of many, many people and considered to be out of the reach of most people. If you focus on nothing but that one thing for years and years and years and all you did was think about it and try to do it, you probably be successful at it. It stopped. Well, suppose don't do that. We can't stick it out. Thinking thin give up eventually. But I think a lot of wisdom in this notion that you are totally steadfast on achieving something for lack of a better word, right on being someone or achieving something, just focusing on one thing nonstop. You can probably do it, and you know we only get one life to live. You have one shot. We have one chance to be a human being that we know right, and so we shouldn't waste it. And so I like what you say, saying, basically, is that focus completely on some some worthy old somewhere? The idea and you're almost certain to succeed if you stick it out on a similar toe, that that same vein? This is my favorite quote of job, he said, When you were inspired by some great purpose, so extraordinary. Project all your thoughts. Break your bones. Your mind transcends limitations. Your conscious expands in every direction. You find yourself and great new and wonderful world I love. It's because it's very inspirational. And it's telling us, you know, if you have some being in your life, some purpose, whether it be raising your family or whether he's launching a company or whether it means saving starving Children in Africa, it doesn't matter what your purpose is, But when you're inspired by something something that you consider to be a great purpose or extraordinary project, it lifts you up right of thoughts. They break their bonds. Your mind transcended the normal limitations, maybe of society, or that we set on ourselves and your consciousness expands and you feel amazing because you have some great purpose. This is described by a lot of religious people, the past feeling that they found God or gods on the side. What is people that have become really successful in the arts or in sports or anything? They talk about the flow. They feel talk about being in the zone, or they just talk about, you know, that just amazing feeling of accomplishing something, que there still motivating, and especially at a time today we're living in a dark world with war always on the horizon and politics being so nasty and policies and the ride is that I already mentioned. I think it's important now more than ever, have some purpose, whether that purposes just maybe just being good at your job and enjoying your job or having a great relationship with having a great family, isn't it to be some huge, huge project, he says, inspired by some great purpose of extraordinary project. In my case, I consider my great purpose. Um, partially you need teaching, but I think my good purposes just trying to raise really wonderful kids. I've got two kids, have a family, and so that's very inspirational when I want to take that purpose seriously. And hopefully that will inspire me. Teoh, enjoy all the benefits I thought, breaking their bonds and transcend invitations. I know that it definitely advising work hard and definitely keeps me motivated. So whatever that is for you think is important. Find something, find something that you could be passion. I know a lot of people don't have that. Like, I'm not really sure what I'm good at. I've always just sort of work to make a buck to survive, But we all need something where human beings believe to live. Once told me something to care about it, like you are My biggest movies and maybe love is love. So how do you have? It Doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter what is all that matters. You know something that Dr something motivates you. And then you shouldn't feel bad or guilty loving that thing. You know, our society makes us feel guilty. If we are certain types of people, if you don't have a doctor, lawyer, engineer or window aspire to be well or we don't work really hard at our job in overall different and the old saying to thy own self be true to know that itself. Those words come to mind here. It's like we need to have some great purpose to make us feel alive. And it doesn't matter what that great purpose is it to find it for yourself. And I think that's the key idea here, here. So that's that's all we're gonna do on Upton. Generally, for now, we're gonna mention it a little bit later when we go through American on this stuff because they're so inextricably linked together, the next lesson were stopped looking at the huge giant of Eastern philosophy that is Confucius, okay? 6. Lesson 5 Who was Confucius: already introduced Confucius a little bit. He was a teacher scholar. He was a government advisor. He became very famous and very, very intellectual, especially in the later part of his life. He had a very long life, and he served a few different Chinese government regimes back in the sixth century BC and his teachings. Over time they spread all around to different parts of Asia. And it kind of morphed, you know, adapted to the particular culture in that country. But even today, a lot of the core aspects of society throughout Asian countries. And I know I didn't use it ball by here that, you know, Japan and China are different Korea and you know, different Indonesia and Singapore and Israel. Different places, however they do share certain, just like in the West, Europe and North America. We have a lot of things that we share in common a basic sort of world. You know, Democratic ideas like that. A lot of Asia is, at least in some part based on Confucian ideas. And a big part of Confucius was closing in the family, focusing on ritual clothes and rites of passage, and he was very, very hierarchical. The reason that Asia is really focused on having hierarchies based on age or based on other things like men are still considered to be sort of better than women. In many ways, where you have a problem in China when they had one child policy people Rex and throwing away female babies, which is just goes without saying was ridiculous. But it's because they have a patriarchal society, and that goes back to Confucius, the emphasis on the hierarchy and things like that. He emphasized structure. Yeah, he emphasized society meeting to be organized and very cohesive. And you recognize the family is being the most important node in side, especially back then in his life. But he said a lot of other things besides that. He was a teacher, and he has a lot to say about education and a lot to say just about human nature and general. So we're gonna look at some of his insights here. One thing he said was that the man whose mountain because by carrying away small stones this may be used what was most famous close and I think that is, you know, it's it's profound because a lot of us would look at some giant task may be going back to school, or maybe starting a company or something wanted to achieve in our life. And we just think, man, it's been taking years. It's not worth the effort or it's too hard. But just remember that everything starts with a single step. You know, we take one step in that direction and we do one thing at a time, and eventually you know, you can move a mountain bike carrying one stone at a time. Very simple idea, but I think it's very powerful to if you believe in it. I mean, look at something like Jeff Facials and Amazon. In the 19 nineties, he left his hedge fund job get a really, really good job financed and you used credit cards, and he worked out of his parent's basement to launch the online bookstore. Back then, that was Amazon. But even back then you had this huge vision of becoming what the company is today's giant demon of a company that is dominating all different aspects of different industries and making billions and billions of dollars every year. It started small, but in this huge vision and he actually achieved it because he believed in it and has started taking steps to do that. So that's a really useful thing to keep in mind, He said that roads remained your journey's not destinations, and I think this is useful because it kind of goes against what we seem to believe in the West, which is all that matter are results. So we have to have a goals, gonna hit those goals and then when I finished college and get a good job on our entire, I'm gonna be happy, are always putting her happy and sort of off into the distance off in the future. Once I achieved this, then I'll be I'll be there, have made. But a lot of these teachers of this Confucius, they seem to be telling us the same thing here that you know, it's all about the journey is about the process, developed learning. We should be enjoying the process we should be enjoying. Learning process should be enjoying the experience as we go through life. I hear a lot of people the West, especially a lot of women, a lament getting older, you know, they said, Oh, getting another year older and interesting in the East. And why live in Vietnam? They looked at that way at all. They're really proud to the old days. It means I've got more experience. And since this side over here is hierarchical, tend to get more respect people as they get older, they're glad they're getting over, even though it means we're getting closer to death, they're glad they're getting older. It gone farther on the journey. And if you enjoy the journey, you know again it goes back to what gold elevators have. A calm mind. There's no reason worrying about getting old. You're gonna get elicit no matter what happens, right? So why worry about it? Doesn't make any sense, obviously something it's easy to say, difficult to do. But if you're actually focus on, do you actually focused on reducing your anxiety, stress and worry? And you do things like meditated or even just thinking about stuff like doing. By taking this course, it will help you get there. And as the quote of the last slide said, You know, we move a mountain by carrying with one stone at a time. It's the same thing with learning how to calm your mind and how to be happy. You you see the road map, you see the process, you learn about it, and then you start taking steps in that direction and eventually get there. And that's how it works. But we should be enjoying the journey. It's not just the end goal of getting peaceful, you know it's the whole process. He says a superior man is modest in his speech but exceeds in his actions well, how different is that? Some people that you know, right? A lot of us in the West we have brash your arrogance. We talk a big game. We don't necessarily back it up with words. A wise man is modest. White man is humble. Let your actions speak for themselves. People will see what you are by what you do. And really, we shouldn't kill. Think about it so much anyway. But paradoxically, you care and you want to be seen a certain way. You know, being humble is a way to get there. If you actually are really good at your job or you actually are really good person that's going to come out, you're actually people are going to see if we don't need to post. You know, we don't need to say how good we are things we don't need. People todo show them. They will see that they don't see. It doesn't matter because we know we know for ourselves over a good person or a successful person or whatever. And if we don't know, then that's why we're taking this course. And that's why we need to be cultivating our own confidence in our inner palm, lowering anxiety, little restaurants and being is a confident, happy person. We don't need a reason to be happening. We don't need a reason to be confident. I think a lot of times our Western culture, it sort of suddenly and not so suddenly tells us you need to be successful in business in order to be happy, and you should successfully in career. You should be well educated. You should have degrees in order to be happy or whatever. You should have a perfect body in order to be happy, like you look like a model like on the magazine cover order. Happy as ridiculous. It goes directly against everything that the Eastern philosophers and the gurus throughout time have been telling us his exact opposite. Actually, you shouldn't have any reason. You're a human being. You should be happy. You know, it's interesting that indigenous people that we look at is being, you know, primitive barberry. They tend to have a society that are much more in line with nature, and people seem to be much happier because they live in their tribe at multiple generations , people's or each other than it. Together. We don't have any fancy health care. They don't have any fans technology, and yet they seem to be much happier. Or at least they seem to be with a still existed were, like them allow much after living that natural existence, and we are today and are super complex, so called sophisticated water society. But it's a good one that always keep in mind and in the world in which we live somebody. It's hard to be modest and humble and exceeded our actions because we're so used to being around people that boasts or trying to prove ourselves everyone you have to prove ourselves or Boston or higher. But to prove ourselves to, you know, are our attention made, whether it's a our future husband or wife always trying to prove ourselves. We're like in this culture where they should look us one look good. I try and prove ourselves on our resumes, Right? But we don't want to let go and let our ourselves speak for itself that our actions speak for itself. We'll be happier and hurt. Possibly you'll end up getting better results by doing that. He also said it does not matter how slowly you goes on when you stop. And so this is the sort of the tortoise and the hare analogy right when he said this a long time. Include tortoise in the hair of metaphor became popular and also like the way that they were having We can put this one time. He said, I walk slowly, but I never walk backwards. And I think that the light of wisdom in this because if you our constant moving toward the goal or moving in one direction in your life that you want to go in, you're gonna have obstacles you're gonna have maybe plateaus costing, going in that direction, you know, for that destination eventually gonna get there. But if you try to rush, we try to go at a breakneck speed. Oftentimes you woke up there. You will burn out, create too many obstacles by going too fast, and is a lot of wisdom. Go slow. You enjoy your life or going slow. They gonna now years like investing people that push their money too fast and our greedy. They want to get rich fast. They end up losing money, usually because you can't force that kind of thing. Sometimes the best thing to do it comes investing important. Warren Buffett, the greatest investor in history and many others is You have to be patient. You've got to make wise display and choices about where you put your capital and again to be patient. And over time it's pretty easy to build wealth. But if you try to rush, it's not. And so it seems a lot of wisdom in this idea that going slowly but not stopping it will get you where you want to go in the end, almost with certainty, which is force the goal nothing when anger rises, think of the consequences. This goes back Teoh Eastern idea that we should need to control our thoughts that we wanna have inner calm when I want something. Does you? If you allow it to make him angry, even if your anger seems justified You actually punishing yourself. You're punishing yourself by letting that person affect, you know, if someone says something mean to you and you let it ruin your day, you've given that person a lot of power over you, haven't you? You've let that influence human. You feel angry when you feel bad. Now it's affecting her Health increases the cortisol in your body, right, which is a stress hormone and actually can lead to things like cancer. So this is not like just some sort of like a esoteric abstract conversation. When it comes that our emotions and things like feeling, anger or feeling stressed or feeling anxiety, they have an actual physical results on our bodies. They lead to disease and lead that things like cancer and so learning to control anger and learning to be non reactive. This is sort of very eastern. Way of thinking is do wonders for your health. And so I like the way Confucius puts this think of the consequences of being angry doesn't mean that we have to accept what someone does to us if it's something that bad, but letting them influence is the biggest. Mad is giving them a lot of power and it's really hard. It's the hardness want to do like I bet kids given toddler and you're trying to teach them to be good, and sometimes they act out little behave the way we want them to write. It's hard not to be stressed out or be angry or lose patients, which is why we have to practice. It's why we have to learn about it was what we're doing in this course with practice it, we have to meditate. You have to burn how to be calm. And then when someone cuts stopping traffic or when our kid talks back to us or when something happens, work well, like instead of being angry instead of being mad, we just remain call, you don't react, and then we can actually considered what to do about it if anything. But before you get anger, think about the results you might. You might help somebody. You might escalate into a conflict because my get into a fight. It might just be the feeling of wanting avenge that hurts you and that the extra stress on you So the consequences for anger are pretty detrimental. And if we could learn how to control it, obviously that would be a good thing to do. OK. And the next lesson we're going to focus on the spread of Confucianism and studying mawr of his ideas. 7. Lesson 6 The Teachings of Confucius: So I talked about how Confucius and sort of spread from China throughout Asia and some form all East Asians. Sidings are confusion. I live in Vietnam and so I experiences every day, very hierarchical, especially among the older people who grew up when things were more or old school more traditional. They're very serious off IRA. Even the languages the link doesn't have even evolved so that they have different pronouns , depending on who you're addressing. So if you're speaking of someone's older than you, use a different problem. They were speaking of someone was a male over female use a different point of enough to do not respect. So the language has a respect mechanism built into its and this goes back to Confucius and the way he had such an influence on Chinese society and his followers, right? It wasn't just one life. It was always followers and people that taught what he taught after him. That led to this huge ripple effect throughout Asia. But it's very exciting for me to see this day to day in my life in Vietnam and similar all throughout Asia. So I want start this lesson with a quote similar Is that how we finished the last one? He said. Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. It's the same thing as him saying, Think of the consequences of anger, just looking health. Things escalate in the military when we have to countries that are threatening each other. Also, you have these two egos, maybe you leaders of the countries exchanging words. And then before you know it, you got a war and thousands or hundreds of thousands of people are getting killed. It's just insane when you think about it just crazy. All the world fighting over something so stupid, it means over nothing, basically, and so nobody benefits. But you want to prevent on. Somebody have to dig two graves because you're gonna be hurt just as much as a person getting revenge. Whether it's something petty, like an argument, or whether it's, you know, a war between nations, there's wisdom and not reacting and not being angry and not getting back at somebody just let it go. If you learn to let things go, you know, don't sweat the small stuff and everything. Small stuff that may sound like claptrap, you know, to some of us. But these ideas are powerful, and Confucius is a well respected historical figure for a reason. You know, his ideas were powerful and they could be applied to our lives. And their simple like this, like this stuff, is not hard to understand, but it's hard to even it. It's hard to control your anger. It's hard, not want to get revenge on someone who's wrong. You may be wrong, your Children or someone you love, right? If someone's done something is something that you love. Then maybe you're gonna hate them even more, even want to get back at the needed more. But we don't realize that we hurt ourselves when we want to hurt someone else. We have violent thoughts that gets someone else or angry or hurting ourselves because we're feeling strong negative emotions, especially at least that actions like actual violence. Course what we know we can go to prison on. Maybe you regret what we did for the rest of our lives, so it's very restful toe try to cool today within ourselves, a level of peace that doesn't allow us to react with anger and vitriol and violence, and in some cases, of course. Definitely easier. Seven done. But at least having this is a goal we can work towards getting there. He also said, to see the right and not to do with his cowardice. So you know, if we know what is right and wrong, we know what we should do and then we don't do anything about it. I mean, why not? Why did we not act? Maybe it's laziness. Maybe it's cowardice. But if everybody acted when they saw something that was wrong in the world, then yeah, the world, probably a much better place. Something that's interesting is kind of contradicts what we learned earlier from Jolly, who said that, you know, having difference towards the wicked. So I'll let you guys work that out on a Rome. There's a lot of contradictions and philosophy, and religion is love paradox. But I think that is useful toe to listen to both points of view anyway because, you know, we all need to wrestle with these ideas, have been ourselves and think about that. It's not about saying okay if you just said this therefore is true or parts and John said there was true. I mean we should be thinking about these things ourselves. We're human beings with brains, just like they are. They have teachings that could be useful for us. But also what they're also saying to us is that we should trust in ourselves, and that's one of the main points of all. The spiritual we use throughout time, especially in the East, is that we need to have faith in ourselves and believe in ourselves. And so we reject something that you know, Confucius Airport in Jolly or anybody else said, We have the right to do so It's just like we don't have. You know, we don't have a reason to be happy. We also don't need to believe in something just because some authority figure or some wise person said it, you know, we can choose what to believe ourselves. He also that real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. And this is really interesting because a lot of things we don't know what we don't know, right, and use another business analogy about a business back up. A lot of reading about investing stuff have offices, analogies, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger again Two of the richest men in the world to the most successful because people in the world they friend alive or success investing to sticking with really, really simple ideas that they understand that didn't invest in the tech companies in the 19 nineties, during the big tech bubble because they said, Well, we don't know much about technology and, you know, you know, they see all these other people making more money than them during this period of time. It's the rule doesn't make sense to us to invest in something we don't know. They knew the extent of their ignorance, and therefore they avoided the folly that everyone else made by investing in companies that having a bubble pop and then everyone lost. Their shorts have been lost. So is money, and we're loving. Try Munger. They didn't get so rich because necessarily that they're geniuses, but they recognized their limitations. You know, they're good at a certain thing, so they do the thing that we're good at. It's the same with us in life. You know, when your strengths weaknesses are. You know, we know that self you can choose things in your life that would make you happy. That will maybe lead to less suffering that will lead to fewer mistakes. You know, your judgment will get better because at the end of the day, all wisdom is I mean, all philosophy is is building our judgment, so that would make decisions that are good for our health that are good for a happy. So they're good for the health of happiest people around us, and they're good for the health and happiness of society. Right? So when you know your limitations, you know your weaknesses, then you can act. According you get avoidance archetypes of jobs. You can avoid certain kinds of people. You can only do things that you like, You know, over time, as you get better at doing that, well, then you're gonna become a happier and happier person and be more at peace. And this is something that I don't focus on too much of the West knowing extended riff ignorance. Also, we're focusing just on like cheating, more learning, more, being more being better, being Richard. It's all the activity in action, but sometimes we need to do the opposite. We need to think about the value of non action or being less active right or thinking about what we don't know and how could benefit us to do that. So I got some good food for thought there. And in the next one, we're gonna continue looking at some final thoughts on confusion, Confucius and his teachings. 8. Lesson7 Applying Confucianism to Your Life: Confucius said. Wherever you go, go all your heart. I really like the school because it was similar to what all the Buddhist and other philosophers throughout time saying which is always to live in the present moment. Pass is gone, so don't worry about it. The future hasn't come yet, so don't worry about it. We are happy when we were living in the present, were focused on the task at hand. And when you're focused on the task at hand is nothing to worry about. There's nothing to worry about. The future. We're always find the present moment, right? I mean, maybe you were sick or we're going through something difficult. It may seem to the present moment is not okay. But if you're going through that, just go through that, go that one thing and then, you know, worry about the next thing with the next thing happens. So I think it's a similar idea. Wherever you go, go oil your heart totaling present, totally committed emotionally what it is you're doing to the people you're talking to and to the place that you are. It's another really simple idea that could have a big difference. Our satisfaction and our happiness. And if you can't find it in yourself to go, you know, places with all your heart, so to speak, that maybe we need to be choosing different things to do with the time. Different places to go as it worked. Maybe we're not happy. Me that examined the work we're doing or the friends we have the place for living and make a change. You know, we are not powerless that our lives we have the freedom of choice. Even if you live in North Korea, you still have choice. People have escaped from North Korea. There's, you know, the old Patrick Henry saying Give me freedom or give me liberty or give me death. I mean, would be better to live as a slave, basically North Korea, or to be getting me. I'm not sure, but the point is, you know we have a choice. And if you you can't go wherever it is you you are in your life with all your heart. Something needs to change so that you could do this. You're never gonna be happy until you can commit 100% of yourself to your life, you know, and Obviously, a lot of people cannot do that right now, having all the problems that I mentioned previously in the world, and we've had these problems throughout history. They're never gonna go away completely. But what the wise of the past and the present are here to tell us is that we do have the power to change, and there are ways of thinking was being lead to happiness and you can live in. I mean, that's what sports is all about. You learn this stuff. It's not something that every single one of us can do. Every single one of us could do this stuff, and so that same bang, he said. By three methods. We may learn wisdom on reflection, which is the novelist by imitation, which is the easiest by experience, which is the nearest so obviously, if we can learn by copying others, that's actually the best, because it's the easiest right, and we see someone wise living a certain way, and they say that's a good example And we do that. A lot of thought involved that we can look at the examples of the wise and we could live like that, but we do it was by our own reflection, he says. That's a notice, because I don't think because you know that it's original. We're choosing this life, you know, or this is way of being based on our own. Free access is our own decision I want to be. So that's that's reflection, right, as she calls at the novelist, that, of course, experience to be the bidders because usually we would become wise because in the states that we make way, make mistakes, we learn we learn from those mistakes. And that's how people learn in business that some people learning relationships. That's how people learning all aspects of our lives is interesting because basically taught in school, not mistakes. You make mistakes. You were great. But real life is not like that at all. You make the states and you're gonna feel some pain. There's gonna be some consequence. But then you live from the consequence. So obviously you know, if you learn by copying other people that are wiser, happy do that. If you can learn just by your own reflection, do that. And if you have to, you know, masters origin, just go out there and blunder and Hopefully you will learn from experience, but they kind of insightful toe. Look at the different ways in which we become wise. Because, you know, when I was in society, we don't learn wisdom. We don't have classroom lost in school. I studied philosophy in university and it was elective. You know, they took or a lot of it will never study it. And of course, you don't need to study it necessarily in school. But this is something that is focused on from a young age. You know? What are ethics? What is virtue? What does it mean? Good human? How would we be happy and lives happen? We need wise live. If we actually focus on that, more of us will learn the our society. You lot different, right? This simple thing. Three ways of learning wisdom. You know, I didn't need to stick about this kind of thing until I was an adult. Which seems crazy because Children should be thinking on this stuff. What does it mean to be wise? What does it mean to be good, you know, And it just blows me away that we don't study this stuff in school. But you ain't were studying it now and hopefully you guys are finding everything in this course useful. And I think this is a really useful cool right here. Nothing you said is that like is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. I think this is really true. I think in modern in life we make our life so complicated by wanting so much, it's goes directly. Its eastern philosophy goes against Buddhism, Hinduism and yoga. The fact that we are really we all want to have a big house in those cars we already successful have also money. We don't have nice clothes. We all you know, all these things that make life complicated because it's hard to have all these days. It's hard toe, be fit, healthy and the rich and successful and have enemies. What happened? You do that happen. We have a lot of stuff and of course, we see on TV and receive advertising's all day long about. People seem to have a lot of stuff and we feel guilty if we don't and so our societies really created to make us feel dissatisfied. Everything about a society makes us feel dissatisfied. We always want more. We always need something, something else. The grass is always greener on the other side, but with the philosophers annual Confucius to say that could like a simple I mean, there's nothing that we really lack, inherently. If all we need to be happy, for example, his food, water and shelter is some companionship writes from friends or family. That's pretty much attainable by anybody. I mean, if you live in America, we even have, you know, we get food stamps and welfare and all things like that, something no one should be living on the street. Most people that end up homeless. It was not my choice. It will have something to do with drugs or something like that. But it's the most part. We live happy lives if we just simplify our lives. And that's what all months and SAGES and philosophers throughout time, in all different learning traditions, that's basically what they say. I mean, why is it that the Dalai Lama, who you used to be the head of state of Tibet, and he could easily have as many resource is once it was very simple life? I mean, he does have like a compound just living in India and everything, but it's still pretty much, you know, you get to travel around and just teaching us. He's in his eighties now, and he works are a lot of these teachers and philosophers. It's the same. They very, very modest life because they realized, well, I don't think you have. Being super poor is necessary is not going. You have to eat it. That's not the point. The point is that life is simple, you know, find something that you like to do for work. Find someone that you can love on and be happy with. Maybe that just means friendships and was like You have food, water, shelter. Everything should be fine for some reason. Tell us, humans are greedy and lazy and we want war. We're not satisfied. And even people who become billionaires you know they don't necessarily happened. Used to be Benjamin Franklin says Money has never made me happy. No bullet instead of filling a vacuum to create one, and that's easy for someone who's rich to say. And some of us who made poor may think he's if you say you had a struggle. The thing is, you know I don't A lot of poor people back of us, and they are some of the worst managers of money ever like. One of the reasons that they're poor is not because they don't make enough money. In many cases, I see they spend too much on you wanna have a nicer cars and trucks? They have spent a lot of their flat screen TVs just spend too much money. I mean, we learned that life can be lived simply, and maybe the happiest life is a simpler one. And some saying like this makes a lot of sense to us. So again, simple ideas. But if you can integrate them in your life, they will begin to make a difference. You gotta learn to not care what other people think. So you gotta learn to like, over radio and let go of people's perceptions and just, you know, live your life over. You want to be happy and everything was lying. Okay, that's enough. Full of Confucius. We're going to next look, a Krishnamurti. Very, very interesting character appointment. Different. A lot of other guys we're gonna be looking at in this course. So that's what we'll start on next 9. Lesson 8 Krishnamurti the Non Conformist: Krishnamurti was a really interesting figure. He was groomed from a very young age to be this spiritual leader of this theosophy society . So called it was really influential at the time. That early 20th century religious group and it was it was a spiritual religious group, that sort of mix of Hinduism and Indian philosophy. And he was someone that was prophesied to be the next leader sent from God or something along those lines. And once he came age and it was about it is time to take the Mantle's organization. He has already become quite mature, spiritually expendable, entire life. Like I said, the group is positioned doing a lot of introspection and meditation and thinking, and he decided that you know what? You didn't believe in the organization. He didn't believe in any type of authority, organization or religion because, as we learn over the next two lessons, didn't believe it, any type of obedience to any kind of authority at all, he believed he had come to the that only authority is ourselves and that we should trust it . Our own insights through our own introspection, their own thoughts and going and were similar to many of the teachers of the past. So you pretty much he renounced all of his position of robbing the organization. And there was a lot of property in the organization, have been granted huge amounts of land for churches and having donated tons of money, wealthy patrons and stuff. And it was his to control. Since he was the leader of the organization. You've given that mantle. He could have been very, very wealthy, actually, even though the ownership of all those assets with the name of the organization he controllable. But he said no one wanted. That's not Ah, what this is all about. And I don't believe in this. And so I think that's really interesting that even at a young age decided to reject all, uh, authority, all conformity as some form of slavery and was even going to renounce all that well, he lived throughout the rest of his life. I'm not totally for very few, if not, you know, no possessions, no properties. He lived a very what I would just say this, uh, symbol life in terms of material possessions, as you know, makes sense most. This virtual teachers throughout time said living a simple life, not having a lot of possessions and, uh, these two more happiness and less stress. And, you know, you actually become half years individual by having a lot of money by having one things. And so he lived. He lived out, and so the rest of his life. He was a lobster and a writer and a teacher, and he just traveled the world and gave talks. And it's interesting because even though he said he didn't believe in it forward again, believing, following anybody even told people as he was teaching you say you don't listen to me that you should definitely be suspicious. What I'm saying any authority speaker, so believe in them. You know, you find something useful. You find something true that I'm saying great. And that's why I know you're speaking. I believe the things I'm saying mostly spoke against authority against religion and against many things. And so it's really interesting figure he's a little bit different in a lot of other philosophers wasn't like advocating anything. One thing this is with he's basement saying order to be happy in order to be free, kind of have to reject all different types of authority and conformity and be yourself basically. And so go through some of those boats explain. It's more clarity on what he believed and look for. My favorite goes with him Is that the one that says is no measure of healthy, well adjusted family states? Sigh. I think he said this. He wasn't talking about the Western society. I think he was talking about modern society in general, and we could spend a long time talking about what I consider to be sick. But he's looking our wars looking our consumerism. If you look at the rates of depression and anxiety and unhappiness, rather our society in America and this is a huge problem in Americans by the back. So Paul, richest nation on earth. However you measure that, um, you know, he said, it is no measure of health. Well, just profoundly sick society. So, in other words, a lot of people that feel really good about society or that fit into a very well, even though society considers them to be healthy, considers to be socially well adjusted. As you say, it doesn't mean they are, and some people that might be considered weird or crazy because we don't follow mainstream society. Maybe we're actually the healthier ones, and I think it's really good. Good thing to think about really good to ponder. And a lot of this stuff really definitely challenge. Your beliefs will view and make you think a lot, which I think is really useful. So Krishnamurti Iwas, a Indian philosopher in the early 20th century. He had met Gandhi. He had met some of the other religious leaders at the time, and but he didn't belong to any group or any heritage and consider himself to be a Hindu or any religion. So makes it really interesting and useful, bigger, too study. Another thing, he said, is that nature is busy creating absolutely unique individuals, right, All of us, a totally different and we all know that we all know we have to get a unique personalities . We're always talking about this right rolling in the snow flakes. Well, why is it that the culture has invented a single goal to which almost conform, he says. This is grow test and if you think about it makes a lot of sense, Why is it that you know we only have a handful of jobs that we can choose and only a one or two different sort of schedules that we can have. Records work 9 to 5 money from Friday in two weeks off a year. I'm usually a harbinger. A lot of things are silent, working schedules and the way our schools are run the way we are expected to be paid. It's really arbitrary if you think about it. And why should we accept that? You know, maybe we fits us and we're happy and it's fine. But it's really weird if you think about the fact that you know we're all evolved to be different. Unique, live, different lives get society wants fittest into, you know, a handful, if not one specific hold. And so no wonder there's so much anxiety and suffering. We don't feel like we fit in to our culture. What do you do? You can either force yourself fit to be unhappy, or you could accept you don't and then being outcasts of the ostracised. And so it is difficult, and this is where velocity can really help us to learn about ourselves, we learn that it's okay to be different to having confidence to be yourself and to live the life you want, despite what your teachers or parents or others, and the culture is saying that we should be doing, I think is really useful as a Christian refugees who type of philosophy in a slap, you await and say, Wake up, think, think for yourself and you know it doesn't matter what the leaders are, politicians say, doesn't matter what you say. Think for yourself and be who you want to be, and so it's kind of like it in your face or philosopher of someone considered to be quite radical. But, uh, spiritual leaders throughout time have been extended it by their culture to be radical, right? Jesus was very radical. Buddha would've is considered to be very radical to the Hindu caste of the time, and so Krishnamurti is no exception there. A couple other things said that there is an art of seeing because they are without naming, helping claw, and it never words without thinking, interfering with perception. Another thing you said in a later slide believe dubbed tells with this is that on the highest warm intelligence bm to observe without judging and this is something really hard for us to you because we grow up in our culture the way we learn. Learn first of label things. We have learned how to identify things, and they were taught toe value with judgment analyzed. That's very useful when it comes to, you know, having a job and money or being a student of being teacher. We need to do that. But then when it comes to living our life well, being happy and having wisdom a lot of times those judgments, the categorization of things is what least unhappiness and anxiety, Because why can't you just let these abuse er wanted to judge everything? And so I think it's really saying Here is a part of seeing is accepting, you know, and so that's a useful thing to think about. Another thing, he says that education in the true sense is helping individuals be mature and free flower really in love and goodness. That is what we should be interested in, and not in shaping the child recording some interesting pattern, and anything about that's interesting. Just look at the way that our education produces individuals that if it's successful, maybe well suited Teoh a job in our so called modern economy in our capitalist society, where we can earn a living in pair bills, all that seems incredibly important. But what is the cost? We don't educate the hearts of our Children. We don't grow up learning the value, honesty and good news and focus on even just things like health and nutrition. And, well, we were pretty much leaving that stuff almost entirely out of school. We may have one or two nutrition classes that we have to take. You were there, I remember in middle school, in the eighth grade health class, maybe in high school, one class. And it's not very deep, just some basic things that you may have been on, even remember anything from it all. And we don't have any philosophy classes. We don't want anything about for sure that thinks at all until college. If we choose to take a class in college a lot people don't take any classes, and then they never read on on their own about the stuff you do. So do you think about anything about the way that we teach our kids? It's kind of crazy. Why don't we educate people to become mature and free and independent to flower in love and goodness. We don't do that. I think sometimes the church can do that. I think a lot of my Christian friends back in the U. S. They consider the community they have fellowship in their church. I think it's done well. That would be a role that the church place. But you know, of course, a lot of times organized religion can actually end up through the office. It was kind of a controversial being to go into there, but it's interesting when you think about things like education and things in our society from the way that Krishnamurti is approaching it, you know, without making any assumptions without just accepting it. It's kind of weird how we, our top and our system that we haven't changed in literally decades, which was designed for an industrial economic society to produce people that go work in factories, will go work for organizations and basically be so much, you know, a cog in a wheel. In many ways, it does not produce happy, healthy, freethinking individuals, which, of course, is a great irony, especially like in America, where the whole idea of the founding of our country was supposed to be about freedom and independence and freethinkers the founding Fathers with three fingers. But a couple 100 years later, you know, we're not living in a place that actually promotes free things want anymore in my but Christian Birdie would definitely agree with that as well. So Christopher, it'll definitely think. And so you know, I want you guys to ponder what he's saying. Maybe you totally disagree with his conclusions, but at the very least it will challenge your mind to think about all the assumptions and things that we maybe have just accepted about thinking throughout our lives, about our cultures. That's who he was that the kind of guy he waas and he spoke in lecture and grow all the way until he died at an old age is around nine, when the finally passed away was acting his entire life. And so the next one. We're looking for his teaching way we can apply 10. Lesson 9 Krishnamurti's Teachings: so another thing that customer, he said, was that when you were listening to somebody completely tentatively, then you are listening not only with words, but you're also listening to the feeling of what is being conveyed, the whole of it, no part of it. I think this is actually a profound thing because we listen to people that are talking to us, whether it be professionally or our friends and family were usually not really listening. 100% of our being are used to this thing, ready for our chins up. We want to talk. We're getting ready to say what we want to say. But if you're just open and not thinking about what you're gonna say next, just really listening, you just listen to what I said. Listen to the feeling behind it that'll make you have better relationships. It will make you become a better person to make you happier and connecting people more. But we don't usually do that and force this is another thing that isn't exactly taught in school talk. You know the value of listening well, which is another thing that our societies are ignores and our schooling is purely academic . we look a scholarship and how much you know in terms of information and we dough holds evade anything else in the minds of our Children. May be in the past week did a better job of this. But now, in the world of high stakes test and only looking at test scores compared to other countries and getting ready to go to college and taking exams, it seems to be just falling by the wayside. If it was ever a fire in to begin with, So we have something that's interesting we're thinking about, he said. The constant assertion of belief is an indication of here, and it's really interesting if someone's defending their position, right were defending our beliefs. So I was explaining ourselves. I mean, why do we need to do that if we really believe something more really confident about our world, you or how you feel? We don't really need to defend ourselves but were actually afraid that maybe we will be judged. Or maybe we're afraid that we don't actually believe what we thought we did, and so we just defended, like with our ego. But if someone disagrees with less, it's buying who cares. We don't need to defend ourselves all the time. And so I think it's just a insightful thing to say if you're actually saying this is what I believe this weapon with this weapon defending and pushing it I think it is showing some insecurity, and if your security believe so, you wouldn't need to do that. And I think you see this a lot with the religious people because you know, they have a lot to defend their. They're basing their beliefs on something that was told to them of something that's in a holy book, and so it doesn't get any room for change or doubt. And so if you want to hold up that well, view everything that you think you get emotionally out of your religion, you have to defend it. But what you're defending is this something that you're afraid news. And so I think that's something that's pretty interesting and definitely work thinking about another thing you say here, which goes back Teoh something that Buddhism, Hinduism and 1000 a lot of those philosophies emphasized a lot is not action. The active, not doing of the act of not wanting how, how joyful it could be, which is the exact opposite of what we do in the West, which is essentially he acted be a positive fire, money and fire. Things do things. Is that where the artists and they're not doing things, not reacting to people in situations, etcetera, etcetera. So he says that there was a great happiness and not wanting not being something and not going somewhere. Why do we always have to be doing the active being? We live in this 21st century world. We have absolutely astounding technological technological advancements. I'm gonna talk to my parents who were in their sixties now, you know, they couldn't literally couldn't have imagined the stuff we have now. The iPhones and the social networks and the entertainment and now about the driver's cars have over and we have All these things is accelerating, accelerating. You know, we should enjoy it. We should enjoy the ride was being enjoying our line instead. What are we doing? Actually working ourselves to death were working mawr than almost at any point in the last 100 150 years since he had avenue, the just a revolution were working Mawr and Maura thinking there's so sicker and sicker, despite the fact that we are richer, materially speaking than ever before. And so you think that's kind of crazy? And so there's a lot of wisdom and, you know, lowering our decides on expectations, just relaxing. Enjoy your life. You enjoy your job. Enjoy your day today. You don't think you have to be some great person. Be some great thing right way. Riel associate our cells with our jobs, right? I'm a doctor, a teacher. I'm a lawyer and the Coniston identity and our society. That's really important. But sometimes it's nice to not have to be anything and just be a person. You know, Just be happy and not needing to go on vacation, not needing to go somewhere special, not needing to eat something special. Not you need to have something special. I just be yourself, you know. And a lot of stress could be sort of taken away, washed away with this mentality. So I think that's a pretty useful insight right there. It could be nice to not have to always be pushing ourselves so hard to be doing things. Just give yourself a break, you know, he says, We're so clever with words, and we think that my offering explanations were solved a problem. But another thing he says that's not on the slide is that when you understand a problem deeply enough, the solution presents itself automatically because the solution will come in house of Understanding. Problem of what we do is we can analyze things and explain things way explaining, explaining, and does that mean that you solve the problem in many cases doesn't just explain things. We analyzed it, but we don't actually have a solution. So that's an interesting thing, Teoh think about we're so good with language, Us humans that, you know, we think that our solutions gonna come out of talking and writing about things. Sometimes they come out of no UN action already come at it. Doing certain things were changing something. Not for more words, he says. He only learned you give your whole being to something, and I think he means there is going to get to commit toe learning something, especially if you look at school again. A lot of kids are in school and since it's compulsory, you have to be there. You're forced to learn you're not really learned that much indication, only absorbing that much because they're being forced to do it. Lot of times we don't like certain classes. Maybe we don't like school at all. And so how much are we really going to learn how to really gonna get out of that experience ? Of course we have to go because in a lot of society it's compulsory, literally illegal, not to be in school until a certain age. But is that the best way to raise human beings? I mean, think about Native Americans, other indigenous people. What? Baylor When they were kids, they learned how to hunt and fish, maybe how to build some faces, GPS. There's other lodgings. They learn how to be a member of the tribe, which is basically a big extended family. The window life. And we learned about morality ethics within the tribe, and that's a sign. But now we have this extremely complex society, something that we consider to be sophisticated. And yet, despite all of our sophistication, maybe we're not actually learned much about how to be good humans. How to be good people. A lot of Mr are confused about our lives unhappy about our lives stuck and in just this work in a world where all we needed to get up working a job we don't like, and then we go home and retired and we're not doing very well. It's that recently came out that said, 85% of people in the United States don't like a jobs. That's a pretty crazy statistic. 85% of people in nicely don't like their jobs, that millions and millions and millions of people, the vast majority of people. If that statistic is actually true, you could look it up and try to find your own. But I recently read that in Oracle, even if it's not even 85% even if it's just half, that's pretty amazing. When you think about half of the people in the country, and probably more than that in the country and the world are not happy, delivered a and so I think this leads to it being necessary for us to really re examine our lives in our society. I think we really want to live this way. Why don't we so unhappy and so it just goes back to this course and value of philosophy and specifically, Eastern philosophy. And this stuff is old mills, in some cases thousands of years old, and it's more relevant than ever. And if we can think about it and find some ways to apply some of these ideas to our lives, I think will be a lot happier. Old, lower our stress when we worry less and you can go with the flow and that's what it's all about. The next lesson. We're gonna look at a few more of Christian minorities. 11. Lesson 10 Applying Krishnamurti's Teachings: Here's another quote by Christian radio that shows how much he didn't like a 40 he says. In obedience, there's always fear and fear darkens the mind. And so, of course, you know when we have Children, they need to follow somewhere directions. They don't hurt themselves. So they learned. So they become, uh, you know, independent adults that sort of some degree. You know, Children need to obey us. But as we get older, especially, I think this becomes or as you over become, work in a minute and have the ability to make decisions, we should no longer be having to obey others. I don't think it's very healthy for us. And yet we have to obey the law. We have to obey our boss at work. We have to obey maybe our spouse and depending on our relationship. And the thing is about obeying things is that it is not something that we want to do. Then there's spherical because reason, well, bays up. We're worried about some thing to do consequences, right? Worried about what's going to happen to us. But when you obey this fear and when you're afraid, it darkens the mind. As Yoda says the star was you Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate, leaks the dark side. And that's what Eastern possibly all about. It's about our motion. And if you're in your poor but you're happy, that's probably better than being rich. And I'm happy is we're gonna see in a later lecture. One thing that you learn on the famously said is that being rich and unhappy is like being in a link surrounding water and dying of thirst. Right. And maybe in real life, it's not a mutually exclusive decision. Or, in other words, it's not like you have to be rigid, unhappy or and happy, all the kinds of combinations between this really happy, rich people and has really visible poor people, too. But the point is that it's all about our emotions about what's happening inside of us. And so Krishnamurti here just saying that you have to pay especially a lot of strict rules . Then there's not about I'm gonna be Fear involved in fear darkens online and it makes you Saturday press and so you see that a lot of them or authoritarian societies, the ultimate example would be more Korea right after a baby's really, really, really rich laws. It's horrible place to be. And then on the opposite side you have the fear countries in America. We've always considered ourselves to be one of the freest countries in the world. I think it's wrong because it seems like we're having one more bureaucracy and more moral laws. It more and more of an enforcement of increasing number of laws than ever before. And due to that, we're seeing a lot more unrest for seeing a lot more unhappiness and maybe fear a Z just energy with observed. So I think that's a very interesting inside of his. And as already mentioned before, he said, the ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence. I'm not going to re explain that now. I think my sister, that's a really interesting thing to think about another thing, he says. It was a really like because I'm a teacher and I looked learning Is that the whole of life From the moment you are born to the moment you die is a process of learning a lot of us in the West and probably everywhere we think of school, something that you finished. You know, around the age of 20 or whatever. After I finished university, maybe you go on this, um, even higher education. You specialize in some profession, and then our educations kind of done right. It's a formal education of that. Our jobs to go work, make money, even raise a family and retire. That's we Do we do it a little time to mindlessly without thinking. Well, why should I want to retire? And why should we be following his prescribe system? If you love when you do, you love learning. When she wanted to do it all the way until the end of your life, what would you want to stop? What do you do? What you stop. You just sit around your house, watch movies, maybe even a couple hobbies. Do that every day. A lot of famous philosophers and thinkers throughout time have learned new things in their old age because they realized that the life continues. It's not going to stop. At age 55 to 5. You retire, you're probably gonna get bored. And a lot of people do come out call ups and this sort of, uh, dying a slow, boring death. Is it'll saying to say that said, It's better wear out into must out which we spend it. You stay active and eventually just tire out. Then you do nothing. Um, Albert Einstein famously played the violin. Increasingly, if you got alerting, you learn more about music. Same thing with the Socrates and Plato Baylor musical instruments and dancing there in their old age of world. Love it. Who's famous for being on the richest man in the world? An investor? He's really business philosopher. If you need anything, he writes, he's She stopped very deeply about many things related to business and not related Teoh business And one of the reason that he's still doing what he does full time at the age of 86 or 87 whichever his changes now because he loves it and it's his art form. He loves investing, and so he's probably going to get all the way until the dots. His business partner, Charlie Munger, 93 or 94 years old, and he's still active and attending board meetings and running the business because they're still learning human. They in their eighties and nineties, we're still learning. Why shouldn't stop. It doesn't really make any sense. It's pretty arbitrary thing that we sort of fabricated In last. 100 200 years, ever since the Adam the Industrial Revolution, people started to go to work for factories and had a 18 or 10 hour or some big 12 hour day . Of course, you're gonna want to retire and stop doing that kind of work is going to exhausting. And so we figure. Okay, here's the deal you were for 20 or 30 years and you're done. Get a pension and he retired. That's a a new line idea in human history before Industrial Revolution, you know, farmers or were hunter gatherers or we live in in a tribe like I mentioned before as an indigenous person and like this, continue you learn until you were dead. You live your life until you're old. It is stop. And so it's an interesting thing to think about and also, I think, makes life really enjoyable to always learn something, as if his heart following learning something in our homes, our existence is made up with work and having to put food on the table and having Teoh make money and part of the solutions that I think is to pull were in your teens with a simpler life, so you don't have to work as much. You don't have to make this much money. You don't need to have two or three bars or really big house or all the implants. Isn't Gannon's that think of a lot of our resource is, and a lot of the reason that we do that is because society is organized all the advertising it makes us crave more on war stuff. No matter what the average American lives in a house or apartment. That is two time to side of someone in the 19 fifties. We have war cars. We have war plans of war stuff. You're not for Phil. We still are becoming more and more unhealthy and impressed as we become more, more absolute. Think about that. It makes no sense. But if you live a simpler life, which is what these teachers are telling us and you know you live a life that is baseball, Ron goodness on a more on inner an inner life based on learning things and loving people around you, life is pretty simple. Is Confucius said. Well, it's pretty simple, but we make it complicated. Society makes it complicated, but it's not. It doesn't have to be. So that's what a lot of food for thought there, and I'll leave you with one last thing. That was a pretty challenging idea before we move on to the next philosopher in the course . One thing that Kristen Richards said just a year or two before he passed away. When I was last talks and gave, someone asked him, You know, what is your secret secret? You were happiness or why you you live such a a good life and and you know it was assumed Invest that he doesn't have a lot of stress or whatever. He's been a spiritual teachers entire life, he said. No. Five secrets This I don't care what happens. Meaning I just let everything go, you know, just live my life Day to day does that Teaching gets purpose, these books at his teachings, and that's what he wants to do that so he's chosen to be, and then whatever happens, happens and planets is a pretty extreme situations. I mean, you get cancer. Well, you could do about it. It happens. Why worry about it? Did you get in a car wreck? Or maybe you're gonna get into a a plane crash and die in the future? Well, that's gonna happen. Why worry about it? It doesn't help. Don't worry about anything. Doesn't help to think about the future. Constantly worry about what might happen. I think it gets more complicated when you're like me and you have a family and your Children forced. You care a lot of like Children. Ultimately, you can protect them all the time. Either you're gonna have kids. You kind of have to accept the idea that sometimes it might be accident. Something could happen, but it doesn't help the worry about it. So as you get further long and your spiritual growth in your practice of hopefully becoming wiser, human being who has a better judgment, better decision making abilities, I think one of the things that it seems that all of the teachers from the East and west be telling us is learn to let go and had to learn to go with the flow and let things be as they are. It doesn't mean that you don't have goals, you live your life in a way that you choose and that nothing matters at all, but at the higher levels and become someone like Christian Bertie. I think that they finally come to conclusion that he's got the late goal, everything and not worry about it, and everything's gonna be OK. The end. That's what Krishnamurti said, and it's certainly something was thinking about. 12. Lesson 11 Who Was Vivekananda: Now we come. Teoh Swami Vivekananda, who was interesting figure. He was around. As I mentioned earlier in the 18th century. He revived out on jollies sutras his writings, which also were largely based on ancient Vedic texts in India. And I can honestly to emphasize strength, things that help people overcome challenges in life. And, as with all the rest of these teachers, a lot of positive psychology when it really comes down to it. And I wanted to start off with something he said here that we haven't gone into a lot. But some of these other thinkers, which is that he said they alone live, live for others. Another very basic idea, I think one week and to forget in our busy day today live that if you think about the happiest person you know, think about their relationships and their day to day life. I mean, I want you right now. I think we're the happiest person. You know the person. It seems to be the happiest. They probably are someone who has a lot of deep relationships and has a lot of people take care of whether that means their family. Whether that means in their their role in their job or whatever it is they do with their lives. I think the happiest people, it's pretty obvious. The more you think about it are the ones that live for others. They're there to do things for other people because humans and science backs this up. We are extremely social animals, and when you were isolated, it's one of the main causes of depression. People isolate themselves, and this is another sort of paradox, because a lot of the spiritual teachers also say he's solitude. To become wise and to reflect me. To go out on your own is one of the reasons, while of months and and others live in monasteries and inclusion. But I think I think training is seclusion and a monitor that I think that's supposed to be , you know, a chance for you to develop and chance for you to reflect. Every got more like training, but at the end of the day, last person is going to go live in once the rest of the people and do some good right? Jesus said. Follow me. He went around doing miracles or wherever it is that he did in his life wherever you want to believe about his story. Buddha taught for his whole entire life Christian charity. He rejected all of the authorities and organisations in his life. But, he went on, People try to help other people reach realizations and top of the rest of his life. I know some of the happiest people in my life are very, very committed to their families or to their jobs and in their jobs have usually pretty social roles. So for some people were contributing that others something we're extroverted that than others doesn't mean you have to be like a social butterfly. But I think it's pretty interesting that most spiritual teachers from all different walks of life for all the traditions they say you should live for. Other people live for a cost. And if you go, you know you're probably missing out on a big part of life. And if you're listening to this right now and you don't have a big part of your life that is committed to helping others, and some for whatever that form is for you, then maybe it's an opportunity. Teoh make some changes. He said that everything that is good from others, but bring it in and you're only a resort. Mint did not become others. And this is incitement to Because even like right now, I'm going to take these courses or we read books were listening to ideas from other people , but we need to be our own person to And so, by all means, we should be learning from everyone else. But we should be ingesting it and wrestling with the ideas themselves. How do we feel about it? What is our intuition? Tell us what we think about it, you know, and a lot of times as we have seen this force a lot of the teachings of these different people they contradict each other or their paradoxical. And so you might think, Well, what the heck, This is confusing. What should I believe that? Well, I think that you should believe whatever feels right to you and something you want to reject outright some things, maybe even kind of twist or or mixed with some other ideas and make it your own. And that's what Vivekananda is staying here. Things a useful inside because it could be confusing when we are reading all kinds of stuff from different teachers, different philosophies, different religions. And it's hard to know what to believe sometimes. Another thing he said is based the Bruce. That is a lesson for all life face the terrible face of boldly like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them. So I guess that shows you his his, uh, culture living in 18th century India. The way to face the monkeys was not be afraid, just like in the state of nature. Did you want to look down and get big, not back up? But you know, this is just a motivational thing in life. We only get one chance, and it helps to be bold. There's a saying in the universe favours the brave university with the bowl. Boldness has power, and a lot of times people will help you. A service tasks will materialize when you make bold decisions and take rifts. I know that's been true for my life. Not that I have extraordinary courage or anything at all, but I know that when I take risks, things didn't work out well because the risks are usually based on something that I wanted based on a tuition things that I actually chose it for myself. Despite what others have said. I chose to leave the US you not many years ago and end up being the best he's ever made. I chose to change my career 12 times, and those decisions were pretty risky. At the time. I I wasn't facing any brutes, as this quote says, but I think it just means you gotta face reality. You gotta face your fears. And if you can cultivate courage for lack of a better word, cultivate the ability to take risks when you're scared or when things may not work out well , I think it builds a lot of character and it will help you with the long run. It will help you over time to be able to face things down in the face, our chips to face challenges. And it's like a muscle. You know, all this stuff needs to be practiced. It needs to be exercise that needs to be used. But as I've said before, since we don't learn this stuff in school usually get to learn from the school hard knocks , right, learning from experience. But through these teachings through our own reflections and thinking. Maybe we could develop some of these characteristics about having to go through hard experiences in life. And so I think that's something we could take out a difficult on this pope there, he says. If you dare declare that you are free free, you are this moment. Did you say you are bound? Allen will remain. This goes back to something that has been said by teachers throughout time. You know, Arnold, life is what we make it. If you say that you can't change your circumstances where you can't succeed in whatever it is you want dio when you can't. But if you really believe you decide that you could do something, you start changing your behaviour. You start acting as if you could do it. You start taking actions that lead whatever that thing is. What successful people throughout time have said Well, actually successful. I'm not talking about material success or career success, although that might be part of it. It means just being successful, two human being living a life is worth living being happy and think about that because it must be some reason that they're all saying this. Even Henry four, you know, said Thank you. Can't think can't. Either way you're right. There's truth in that. And so you gotta find a way to see that truth so you can believe it because it's very powerful. I don't think I think is really powerful of different on the set. I think I already mentioned earlier in the course, but it's such a good one. I want to go over it again. Take up one idea. Make up what idea your life. Think of it. Dream of it. Live on that idea. Let the brain muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea and just leave every other ideal. Oh, this is the way to success. I think that's true. And anything like that we want, which may not even be, may not know what we want in terms of like our job or have some dreamlike well, don't have a dream. But one thing you might want is just freedom from something like a crappy job or freedom economically from our circumstances. And so maybe our dream is just simply have more freedom or independence from some circumstance that we want to get out of that, so that could be your dreams. Do you think about one idea If you're born and difficult circumstances may be in the inner city and the ghetto, you've got no education, and you got no opportunities that you can see well, neither in a position to focus. How can I get myself out of this situation? Take up that one idea and it's focus every moment of your life, unchanging it and you you will, because the world would get out of your way when everything you do is pushing in one direction, whether you want to call the law of attraction or whatever else. When you are really focused on something, there's a lot of energy that your mind produces that leads to your actions, and he will be successful. At least that's what women on this saying. That's what these other teachers have said through throughout time, and that has been my experience as well. And so I think that that's a pretty a profound statement. I like the way that he puts it, and the next lesson of Baltimore Viggen Ondas Most insightful teachings 13. Lesson 12 Vivekananda's Teachings: I'm this quote from the vic Nona's. Well, he says, Do not wait for anybody or anything. Do whatever you can build your home on. None. Basically, what he's saying here is be proactive with your life, whether that means again in your career or some change you want to make. A lot of times people have excuses, right? We say, Well, it's not the right time. It's not the right time with that because I have kids because I don't have any money or because I need to finish school or yada yada Yada is always something, but in that time it never comes right. It's someday, someday in the future. I will do that thing where I will start that journey. But as many teachers besides have said, you need to act now. We don't know how long I'm gonna live for We could die in a car crash or get a disease tomorrow. And so there's something you want. There's something you want to change. Just do it. Just do it now, right? Like the Nike slogan. Just do it, Build your hopes on. You don't need a reason to be happy. You don't need a reason to go for it in your life, with their means of starting a business or going back to school or moving to a new place. Just do it. You don't anyone's permission. I think a big part of our societies were afraid of criticism. Were afraid of what people think of us will be afraid. We're afraid of failure. But what does it mean if we fail at this thing that we tried to do, What successful people were the 1st 1 to tell you that they fail over and over and over again? It's normal, and Michael Jordan is that commercial resetting I failed over and over my life best. 1,000,000,000 shots were all staying lost. 11 games. That's why you succeed, because he just continues. He's persistent and he just takes action. Michael Jordan got cut famously from his high school basketball team, and we're a lot of people look with status, Okay, I'm gonna make it next year. And he worked hard on everybody else and the rest is history. And this is the same thing for lots of entrepreneurs. Assessment business people, when they tell their stories, you know, they were turned down over and over again for jobs or for the record companies or ladies or whatever. Whatever it is, they were told. No. Or people said that you shouldn't do that. You can't do that. You're not be successful. In some cases, I know in Jennifer Lopez is case. She was told that she should give up and stop a lot of people after she was already famous . Jewelry successful and people will still tell, you know, because people want to cast their doubts on to you. The world wants to pull you down, just the nature of our society. Unfortunately, people want to see you fail because they consider themselves to be feathers, so they don't think they can do it. And so they say that you can't do it, but we don't need any reason. Do you go for it and try and do things in their lives? And this is why it's a good idea to have to use the deathbed exercise, which is one of the things that I teach in my other eastern philosophy course, which was something that the Greek Stoics talked about as well as the ancient Buddhist philosophers on the death of exercise is when you think about your life on your deathbed. I look back on it, look back on the risk you take and you look back on the way you live and think, What would you regret? What would you want to change on your deathbed? Everything's really clear, because now there's nothing else to lose. You're about to lose everything. And so it becomes really clear what you shouldn't shouldn't have done. And everybody says some simple things they said, which I wouldn't have worked so much. I wish I would have more spending retirement by loved ones. I wish I would have taken more risks. These things come up over and over and over again because they realized on your deathbed with things that we were afraid of, life or petty there were minuscule, were afraid of losing money. I could make it again. Who cares? It's your dream to do something about money and cost suspended, go into debt, whatever. That's one example right, but were afraid toe ask for someone's hand in marriage were afraid to put ourselves out there. Most of your rejected. But when you're about to die, what is? What is rejection? Who cares? Is a matter of people so you can put those perspectives know that feeling of being in your death. But into the present moment, you realize that you don't need to wait for anybody or anything used to do whatever you can build your whole on building reason. And so that's why I like American honesty. Think is a very inspirational motivational, a little bit less sort of passive than some of the Christian Pretty is basically saying this project, you know, and, you know, be happy no matter what. He's more talking about how we can achieve things which was interesting to listen to both of them, he said. You have the girl from the inside out. None can teach. None can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul. This flies in the face of a lot of were raised to believe in the West, especially right who, my toe believe my own conclusion to my company's that here's we should be reading and listening to the stages and I'm running. That's for doing right now with someone from the past whose hailed it as a great teacher telling you, Actually, you don't even need me you don't need this course. You don't need those books you don't need a teacher. We need to do is have faith in yourself and learn how to use your mind. You need to learn how to believe in your own conclusions. We've had thoughts of these great people before. A lot of us have the same ideas in the same thought. We don't put our faith. You don't believe in ourselves. We don't believe in ourselves enough. If we read in the book, we believe in it because that persons in authority. But if we just think of it on our own, we don't believe in school line you get rid about were thinking each of us is a human being . All of us are born equal. And just because some of us have more university degrees or diplomas or achieve certain things in a job in a career, that doesn't mean that they're more qualified to do anything in terms of decisions of your own life. And so I like how he talks about believing yourself, which is basically what to say, he says, Be here are always say, I have no fear. So again, he's emphasizing. Have encouraged in life, it's very valuable to learn how to take risks and not worry so much about consequences. I mean, we want, think icon interests, right? We don't want a blunder and do stupid things. But even if everyone's will do something that stupid and we pay a price for, you know we're gonna learn, feel experiences, at least me you will know that we try. At least you know that we went out there and try it. It's like a teddy. Roosevelt gave this man in the arena speech. You look it up. It's really interesting he talks about, You know, it's not the critic who counts, not the man went out of a strongman has stumbled, were falling. It's the man in the arena who has, you know, sweat, blood and soil. And he leased. If he fails, he tried. And sometimes we have Teoh, you know we have to be our own here on story, and I think that that's ah useful thing to think about, he says. Purity, patience and perseverance of the three essential to success and above all, love. So, of course, loves it is important. We only need to explain that whole thing but again was over over. Didn't teachers focusing on patience and perseverance, patience and perseverance. If you're willing to wait for things and you're willing to persevere and be persistent, you can pretty much achieving in. Do you want your life? Just a little supposed. Were impatient we want right now. We'll be rich right now. We want to have a successful career right now We don't want to wait 5 10 or 20 years. All right, We think we'll life inshore as there were several. We could die tomorrow, so how can I mean patient? But if you want to achieve anything of substance or become a person of substance takes time . And that's why the idea that you focus on the journey of process instead of the destination is so useful what was in the process, enjoy the process. Then you're gonna be happy. Why you're doing it. You're also going to achieve the things that you set out to achieve. But these are the types of carry trades that I need to cultivate in order to do it again. They're not the ones. I don't think that our modern society emphasises too much anymore. If they ever did very much in the first place. We need to go back. Teoh thinking more about these basic principles of hard work. Perseverance Just being good. Use the word purity here. Do you get person You shouldn't have to be treating or, you know, screw people over to get ahead. That shouldn't be the way things are you doing. You pay a price, even if you can think of some people that become successful or rich but tricky others or cheating others. There there is. Spiegel Stool is no way. Those people are happy. They're harming themselves, but harming others. And so they're gonna be one of those people that are very wealthy and happy. That's the natural result of those behaviors and those character traits if they haven't been taught to live any other way. So significant, honest teachings are really good. Teoh motivate us to become something more on the lives to achieve more lives. Whether that means successfully in our career or does the human being. He has a lot to say about being a strong person 14. Lesson 13 Applying Vivekananda's Teachings: Vivekananda says, Do not hate anybody because that hatred which comes out from you must in the long run come back. If you love that, love will come back to you. Clean the circle. So this is just the standard karma argument. Whatever energy you put out into the universe is gonna come back to, you know, whether you believe literally that waiting treat people or the things that you do in your life, we're gonna come back to you because of some sort of karmic energy. It just common sense that you are really nice and gentle and generous people. They're going to react that same way with you. It just makes sense. And it doesn't seem like there's no guarantee that's gonna happen, but it just natural people will care about. You care about that. People will want to help you If you want to help them. It's a natural result. As a life becomes easier, you make friends easier. Your business thrives because people want toe shop in your store or buying their product or service. Everything becomes easier. And when you hate somebody, that's gonna come back to you to behave in such a way that makes people not want to be your friend. Not one of my things from you not want to help you. And so it's a really simple idea, cause and effect Karma. But do we actually live our lives this way? We actually believe in this. Maybe we haven't even started off this very much, if ever. And so, uh, he brings back to some some basic truths that we can start putting these back into our lives. You know, maybe we will have most people in society. I have anxiety. It will be depressed or be stressed out if you just live symbol good life. Be nice to others. Let herself be kind. Don't be greedy, you know, Don't don't wish for wealth. Don't don't whole for success in terms of money, it's obvious that we don't need food, water and shelter. It goes without saying that we need to be ableto pay our bills. But if we want toe be happy and healthy, we need to reject a lot of that super is and we need to reject a lot of the enemy agreed And the anxiety come from modern society. And one of the things that will help us along the way is just to learn. Don't hate anyone, no matter what they've done because I mean, think about the Dalai Lama or Jesus or Buddha. They don't hate. They wouldn't hate people. They don't have the capacity in them because they realize that when you hate someone, you just heard yourself. Obviously, it's challenging right. It would be challenging. Have someone do something very, very hurtful to you and not be angry or not hate them, Which is why it takes practice just like learning a musical instrument or learning how to be good a spore or whatever this status practice you have tow. Learn about it, think about it, to meditate on it, and then you have to apply it to your life, and over time you will get good at it. Over time you will react less and anger and less the way that the rest of society acts basically, and life become simpler and you'll become happy. That's what these guys are saying, and I think that is true. You just think the whole responsibility on your own shoulders and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. So you say no don't make excuses. You could say, Well, look at that person. Get an easy life. He had everything given to them. I've just been unlucky and, you know, it may be true Asian example before Maybe you're born in the year city in your or that you know, of advantages in life. Well, complaining about it's not been changing. Feeling bad about yourself. Having self pity is not going to help Nothing that's gonna help take responsibility for where you're at in your life right now and believe that you have a power. If you are proactive, if you believe in yourself, change your circumstances. If you believe that all the spirits of teachers throughout the east as well as the West throughout time is that a common theme here, which is that our lives, what we make them, You know what you think is what you can create, I thought were indeed your thoughts mental your actions, your actions become habits. You have asleep your destiny, and you have to be responsible and to be responsible and believe that you are responsible for your actions and for your like can't blame people, even if it seems like something happened to you. If you look at it deeply, you'll probably realize that your current situation is accumulation of lots and lots of your decisions financially with your job relationships. Everything is based on lots and lots of decisions you made or the course of your like. Once you think responsibility, though, then you own your life and you are in control. And you that means that you can change it to. If you're responsible from we've done in the past, then you can also have the power to change it. So I think that's a pretty freeing idea, he says. Medication means the mind has turned back upon itself. The bind stops all the thought. Waves in the world stops, but your consciousness expands everything. You meditate. You will keep your growth, which is an interesting way to put it. But I mean, there's been a lot of written over the last couple decades. About meditation is now being accepted as a mainstream of medical practice by doctors. Teoh reduce stress and reasonable beings. Ondas. It's interesting throughout time, especially in the East, Meditation has been an obvious way to improve yourself, to improve your well being, to become wiser become healthier, and this description of it, I think, is pretty interesting. Mind turns back on itself going inward, you're going inward. And once you learn that, do it well, your mind becomes calm, the world stops, but that makes your consciousness expand. It makes you non react information passes, it makes you call and your non reactive and passive and call. You're not gonna get angry easily. You're not envious. Easily. Be jealous people easily gonna feel good because the natural state of a human being is to be happy. Think about when you're a baby. When you're a little kid, before you learn, You know this was right and this was wrong or that you shouldn't do that. You shouldn't do that. When you're a little kid, you just happy just want play. There's nothing in you that is angry until you learn to be angry. But your baby, you just laugh and giggle on cried because you know you're hungry and your sleep your stuff , but your natural state of human beings. When we're not thinking about everything that we have to do, all the responsibilities over fears is to be happy. I think meditation brings you back to that state. That state of everything is just fine. You reason with being things aren't fine is because of all the negativity around us that things that were consuming in the media and the people in the energy around This meditation takes you out of that and allows you to go back to the beginning to your natural state. And it helps you to continue to grow and the modern world where we have so much stuff going on. It's a very, very powerful tool, one that probably all Western practice. So that's that's it for Vivekananda. And next we're going to look at I call the ultimate ultimate, Yogi told me Guru who waas swarming union on the 15. Lesson 14 Who Was Yogananda: So you been on a Waas Really interesting character for many reasons. One is that Steve Jobs famously read his book Autobiography of a Yogi was the only book apparently on his iPad or was I own when he passed away seven years ago from cancer, and he was also largely responsible, or bringing Eastern philosophy, bringing Hinduism and yoga from India to the West and really making a popular in the 19 twenties time period. And so he uses a big figure. And we had a really traditional sort of upbringing, usually poor India. He rejected school. He has dreams whole life. You wanted to be a spiritual master that lead a spiritual life. It was searching for his guru in India has this idea angina. And so this is this group disciple relationship and then eventually the disciples, because the master and so no been on that kind of became too old to me, kill me and became very prolific and just like Krishnamurti, he spoke and wrote and taught until his death and famously died while giving a speech. Me, he predicted it would happen, he said, You know, my time is almost up and he collapsed in his speech, and the doctor said he had a heart attack, but he was basically saying that he's going to leave this earth on that day. And so I guess it looks like he chose to die, basically had control over his his bodily functions, which is interesting because a lot of ancient yogis is a lot of scientific evidence now coming up that a lot of the claim that they can control their body temperature, they control their heartbeat and other things. It's true there are people that have abilities Teoh to do that. So it's pretty interesting. Anyway, we're not gonna focus on that aspect of yoga in this class. We're looking at how we can apply the teachings to our life so that weekend, have a better life. And so this first go to something that again, teachers throughout time have said, basically, you need toe live in the present moment, you know, since forget the past, it's gone from your domain. But the future is beyond reach. Control of president There's supremely well, now this is the way of the wives. It's a simple idea. Probably everyone that's listening to this right now already has read. This already knows this may be a minority, deeply believes that's still how well do you practice this? How often do you worry about the future? How often do you think about the past in a way that maybe he's a little bit, you know, um, reptile? Probably a lot, because it's hard not to. But with practice with meditation, we can learn to be in the president or you don't worry about the future. You realize life is always fine because all of the work we have to do right away that's responsible is that we have. But we just do it day, one day at a time, one minute at a time. Just do whatever it is that you were passed with right now and know that everything's gonna work out. I mean, Jesus said this in the Bible as well. Don't worry about the future. Worry about rebound today. It's also been putting down. We're gonna meet the future with the same tools with which we need the president, so there's no worry. There's no use in worried about future. It's is something that again takes practice 1st 0 to learn into that, he said. The same to the center who never gave up, basically saying again that you just persistent with your practice, trying to become a better person, trying to get a happier person, just eight and day out, work on it. Then eventually, if you don't stop, you will become a saint. And that's how everyone that's absolutely beginning with its how Jesus became to use. That's all that she just got. Time off level, rapid practice it. It's something that you can learn just like any other skill, which is something that we don't learn in our society anymore. It's not emphasizing way. Besides economics, we emphasize a job skill that helps us to produce something that makes money so that we can feed yourself. That's all our education does. Basically, at this point on, we do have the arts in school, but they're becoming de emphasized more more of a year. Even Recess City cut down more where every year the academics, academics being in the name of getting job getting job, being the name of production for corporation. That's what our education system does now, and so we need to get back Teoh focusing on these ideas. It's spiritually lobbying basically, that's what we have right now, he says. It is spiritual. Poverty, not material, lack the lies at the core of all human suffering. If that's true, what a world we're living in in modern times when we are richer than ever before. But perhaps spiritually or than ever before, it's amazing that after 202 100 years or whatever of the industrial revolution of this expansion of the economy, of having amazing medical technology, right, a lot of disease have been wiped out. So course he was suffering has gone down in many, many ways and the convenience of our technology. It has become amazing, but spiritually, psychologically were suffered. We are published somehow. We have not kept up spiritually. You have not kept up with our technology, right? And I said something to this effect as well. You know, our technology is far surpassed our humanity. And if all of us accepted that and realized that we probably change our behavior, we probably change our beliefs. We probably change how we interacted with each other right now in the US, where I'm from, the political situation is horrible. I mean, people just argue, fight constantly, defend their chanted enter their, you know, whether they're have a kind of Republican like enemies for enemies of each other. And it's just so immature, really. If you think about it for a minute, it just ridiculous that we can't even talk to each other and be nice to each other about things. It's pretty funny. It's that way. But experiencing poverty that is causing stuff. It's not material. Last time I looked in you and used to one of the ports mention the whole world. And yet that's kind of like the spirituals Senator that wants where people go to get peace , to go there. That's where the teachers are. That's where the viewers are. That's where a lot of the Ashrams and monasteries are. And so people go on the poorest place in the world to become spiritually rich. So that's a pretty good metaphor thing for the situation in the world right now. This is a photo of you in on that, uh, in his older years, he said, Be honest with yourself. The world of men is not honest with you. The world loves hypocrisy, but when you're honest with yourself, you find the road inner peace. So I think it's being just stripping away or that security is being okay with who you are. I mean, all the way being okay with your flaws, your insecurities and just accepting it. This is kind of like what some of the other guys are saying. It's like a Christian America. You said he's like, You know, you don't believe in anything outside yourself at all and it just on himself. If you're honest with you, are you want to be you? Don't worry. A little think about you. You start on the road inner peace to become happy because he realizes nothing that you really have to do is be other than who you are, er, to be happy. But again, it goes back to society, saying, No, you need to be successful in this way. You have this type of a role in the disciple job used to do a B. C. You have this type of house you to have this type of education and so forth way can't get those things or we try our to fit into something doesn't actually fittest. It leads to suffering these depression in the anxiety that you haven't society by these teachers are telling us something very simple. Bu Bir. Some completely I think I get It's a simple idea, I think way. Don't take it, foreigner. We have to be ourselves the point where we don't care what anyone thinks about us, and we don't care if what we're doing is totally seem insane compared to our our society, the average person, society. If we're being ourselves, we're gonna be happy and we're gonna feel good about it. Maybe that means we need to. We need to go somewhere else and that personally. So that is why I choose to live in Vietnam as an expat. I feel all this pressure on interview certain way I could be myself. That's just me, the relative in situations. Not everyone needs to move to a different place. But whatever it is that allows us to be ourselves, I think we'll lead to a lot more inner peace and happiness. That's what building on the top and next lesson we're gonna go through some or applications of you've been on this teacher 16. Lesson 15 Ambassador of Yoga: Arana said. When you worry there's a static coming for your mind. Radio God song is a song. Calmness. Nervousness is a static Wholeness is the voice of God speaking to you, the radio of your soul. There's a really interesting way toe put it, but again emphasizing once again there's no reason to worry. There's no reason for fear in our life. It always helps to be all, especially if you're going through a stressful situation or a chaotic situation like being home gives you power. It helps you more than that. It's good for your health and lead to long term happiness and well being something. And once again we don't learn in school. You know, maybe this stuff. If you're lucky, you learn from your parents or other mentors that you may have. In some cases, we do learn these things, but from the system society in general. Obviously, most people don't something simple, like learning to be calm really goes against everything in society. Think about it. We are We are living in an aggressive society. The solution is to fight wars or to take down the competition and capitalism to compete right. You gotta take market share from other companies. We gotta take that job from the other interviewees. It's all about aggression. It's hard to make home, but it seems like all we're doing is fighting for something all of the time. But ironically, I guess I should say, paradoxically, I'm gonna end up more of the things that you want your life if you let him come to you naturally and it's your call just in the way seems to work. And this is what the Dairy said earlier. This is the following year when I was young, he said. Possession of material riches without inner peace is like dying. There's all beating in a lake. It was my favorite quotes of his, and you see a lot of people that maybe they wouldn't consider themselves to be rich people very close to me who have whatever something like one or $2 million in assets. And they are really worried about money. They don't consider themselves to be rich. They feel like they're never gonna retire. They don't feeling it's enough. They don't feel like it's enough to maintain their standard of living. And there is the problem. They have to have a really high standard of living but most people world and considered to be like, well, thing they considered to be middle class and not to be that high standard of living. It just goes to show you how much focus on material possessions. Many other people would be very happy to retire with a fraction of that same amount of money and have lunch, less anxiety and worry fears. And so it's very interesting how much we are trained, think and used materialistic chairs, he says. The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success. Probably heard something like this a lot from other self help books and different things. We're gonna get a simple idea, but I think it's true when we go through hardships, we have challenges. That's when we grow. I mean, we have that old saying that everyone needs to hear builds character, right? Our parents also that builds character. It's true. Going through hardships builds, character, forced, you become stronger. You have to learn how to overcome adversity and learning how to overcome adversity in all of its different forms, whether it means illness, whether it was losing your job other than to really got break up relationship, whatever it is that you know our so called failures, that's what we become strong just to be flexible and she deserves to overcome, You know, emotionally, things that were are grappling with feeling like a failing or feeling that we're not good enough. A lot of this stuff is just It's emotional, basically right, these air feelings being overcome, you feel invincible and, like you can accomplish anything. Chances are you're gonna be able to, but they don't feel that way. You don't have the motivation. You don't believe yourself. You're not even gonna try. And so a lot of the stuff you learn from philosophy you learn through the spiritual teachers. A lot of it is like motivational in nature because it's just showing you that we could have everything we want. Our lives be everything you want to be. It's just it's internal. It's mostly is how you how you feel when you leave, and I think very useful to approach anything that happens to your life in your life. That's a native at an opportunity against something that it's not easy to do, but with practice, we can learn how to do it. I look at everything that happens in my life about how you do as an opportunity to grow into her. And, you know, I've never had to deal with anything, believe, stream, like losing a child, losing his fouls or anything like that. A. So I think my country is really, really challenging things in our lives. It takes a high level practice. It takes a higher level of spiritual maturity or wherever you want to say. But like practicing on the smaller, uh, challenge that we have, it gives us the ability to overcome the larger challenges. It's against practice, something that we have to constantly working on, and then over time, we get stronger and we become more successful in our lives, he says. Those persons who have perceptive eyes enjoy beauty everywhere, and this is something that bullets throughout time have said, You know, universe in the integrative sand. If you learn how to perceive beauty, you could enjoy every moment of your life. You can see beauty and fruit. You food, the beauty, beauty, every tree and every blade of grass. But we've become so accustomed to everything. Just think about you know that house that you that you move into the levels of beautiful house so excited toe live here as an example, and then after you've been in there for a few months, it's just normal. You're used to it and does it with that great job or that new person in your relationship. We're always excited at first, and there's some reason to get custom to things in our lives. And then they become mundane. They become bored. It's how someone like my friends I was talking about get used to the fact that they've got a couple $1,000,000 taking poor. It's because they're used to that level of affluence were used to have in your life, So we need to learn how to see things a new every day. This has also been called having beginner's mind on the experts mind. There are a few possibilities because you think you know everything but beginner's mind. There are unlimited number. You just you just playing the child. Just enjoy your life. It's same thing when it comes to your perception of things, you know, you start in the relationship. Think of it as being the 1st 1 we've ever had. You start a new job thinking, being think it just be the 1st 1 you've ever had trying to think of. Everything isn't being constantly new. And then life will always be interesting. It'll always be fun. But what happens to us since we're not taught this, we have no idea how to go about this because we have experiences in life. Maybe they read for some negative beliefs. We have some challenge against partnerships. We start to put it self pity game. You start to think of you lucky. You know something. Everything is his home drunk. And there were a whole Her life becomes monotonous. Well, it's up to you to shake yourself out of them and not have to rouse yourself. You gotta learn to see with new eyes. Gotta find a way. And that's what the spiritual teachers are telling us. They're saying if you have the perception, every day could be beautiful. Every moment could be wonderful. This is the way to do it. I can I can point the way I can show you how. But it's up to you, old. Ultimately, everything is up to you. The tools are meditation, reflection, solitude, having gratitude. All these things that we're talking about in the course used the tools, the things that we're looking to cultivate, these feelings, these characteristics within yourself. But you have to want it. You have to start doing it, and you have to get rid of the excuses. There's no more of always be about a hard life. If you that's the belief that you have well, that's the belief that's going to drive. All of you are considered. You're never gonna change. But if you can learn how to see things differently, then you can start to change things. And so I think that's that's one of you insightful things that we could learn from these guys. Another thing he said, was those of them passionately, that he just had a love and those who love passionately, You just have to live. And so at Southern Paradox, a lot of people perceived like months and other spiritual gurus is being very dispassionate , boring figures they live somewhere than Monastery seems like a pretty stale, boring life. They have a passion, but the opposite is actually true. The reason they're willing to go and work so hard on a spirituality is because they are extraordinarily passionate about life. They want to live in national life. They don't want to just live some my offenses automatic, given to the work every day. Do what you've been told him, Teoh. Get your house for a white picket fence and your dog and your Corvette, and you're gonna be happy. And then 20 years later, you wake up with all those things and you're miserable. Well, that's confusing everything that I thought I was supposed to do. I'm not happy because that's not the road to happiness. That's not the road that leads to well being in these two piece the role. At least two piece is an inward road. It's self to self driven road, and you have Teoh go through it. You have to walk the path by yourself and a lot of passion and learning how to live. Turning out to love. Those things are the focus of your life. Rather than mining, careered blah, blah, blah, and you're going to you're going to achieve these states way. Don't focus on that. We don't focus on the right things. We focused on the wrong things and then we wonder why we're not still and were not happy. Economics and materialism and money are an important part of life. Obviously, we need them, right? That's obviously it goes without saying, but we over emphasize them to such a degree that we literally make ourselves sick. And then we're confused about what? And that's one thing that I take out of the teachings of the East end of all of these philosophers is to point out that fact, that flaw in our modern culture in modern way of life. And then, once you recognize it, then you start making changes, and Jurgen on that is a particularly disciple person that comes toe pointing that stuff else. And when you go through one more lesson on the teaching job in on Evan, call it a day. 17. Lesson 16 Applying Yogananda's Teachings: I really like this quote. You've been on a so simple and it's so helpful, he says. Be a simple as you could be. You will be astonished to see how uncomplicated and happy your life can become. Be simple. This is 100 different throw was saying and Waldon with this experiment, living in holding on for a year or two. Whatever it waas having a simple life, it frees up her mind. It reduces your cognitive load is another way to put it. This is the reason why people like Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg and others brought Obama famously wear the same clothes every single day. It's a trivial things in our lives. We don't need to spend our time thinking about it. Doesn't matter that were wearing supports. You're fashion girl or something like that. But the idea being that when you focus on land, what's important life is very simple. And, as he puts it, you'd be surprised to be astonished how happy your life could become simple, by the way that you make your living simple by your daily routine, simplify your life to the point where it's natural and easy doesn't mean that you can't be ambitious. It doesn't mean that you can achieve in just the first objection I usually get when talking about this stuff with my friends in the West America, they say It kind of sounds like you're sort of given up on life, not trying to achieve anything. That's not what they're saying at all. I think the goal here is happiness. This is the way to achieve Happiest. The point is that we need to look at our priorities in terms of what do we want to achieve if the only form achievement is material wealth? Well, then, yeah, this is not going to get you there, necessarily, way learned from the trial and error of our society from the experience of our society over the last 200 years that it doesn't work. For most people, getting material possessions is not lead happiness For most people, this is the fact at this point. Obviously, the solution is not to be poor. That's not the solution here. Solution is that we're focusing on the wrong things and many cases as we as we learn from Vatican, Onda and others, is actually you folks on the right things You can also become very, very wealthy and successful, but euphemistically as well. It just It's different for everyone. You know, something like Warren Buffett. His destiny was to become welcome because his passion was to analyze businesses and to invest in stock market. So he's naturally well, other people, artists and teachers. I'm a teacher. I'm never gonna become very wealthy battle and need to be. I want to be happy. And so I need food, water and shelter. I need to have enough for retirement. You know, the basic things and I'm focusing on other things I want will be. I want peace. And so that's why focus off. That's why I teach classes on Eastern Lost Me. I also have business classes because I teach business is one of my mean subjects. But the point here is that everyone has to live their own life. You gotta find what is suitable for you. And so success. I think when I mean all these gurus and all their teaching successes giving for everyone and you didn't decide when means for you. But when you live, simply choose something one or two things you want in your life and then the rest will fall into place way. Make these waking cultic and so I think it's a really profound statement right there, he says. I will make up my mind to be happy within myself right now. Where I am today again, such a simple idea, something listening to this. And I think that's over the simple. But how can I do that? You just do it. You just decided he happened. Success close from happy people. It's not that success makes people happy, You said having people become successful, we haven't backwards. We think once I have A B and C wasn't achieved that ban, I will be happy. But actually in order to have energy to go out there and achieve and live your life with passion, you have to have happiness. You have to feel this energy first, and so in the West we haven't backwards. We need to have these emotions with us before we're going to achieve things rather than the other way around. I think that's another good application of yoga. Nona's teaching this is nothing is impossible unless you think it is just get again yet again. Hearing the same principle now being said by literally thousands of teachers throughout history. Successful modern people, spiritual gurus, monks, yogis. It's all about what you believe. Although you please, you believe in yourself. If you believe in who you want to be, well, nothing and stop you. It may take a while and make take time, right? Rome wasn't built in a day. People don't become doctors, you know. One year, whatever it is that you want to be or whatever it is you want to do with your life, it's going to take time. He's got to accept that, but doesn't mean that's impossible. But where you're starting from down. I mean, just look at people who have no arms and the legs that become the state champion wrestlers with no arms and the legs. Think about people like Helen Keller that we're blind and deaf. And she became a world renowned author and public speaker using, you know, sign language and everything. I mean, people have to come overcome amazing obstacles sometimes and yes, I had help. Mostly, it was just their belief that they could do something. You look at those situations and then look at yourself, most of listening. That's probably having super intense disability like that. We can overcome pretty much all the obstacles in our lives. The idea is that you have toe first believe you could do it. And they continue to believe that over time. And it's all about your beliefs. And so, you know, take some time to think about that. And the next lesson burrito, wrap it for us, kind of do an overview. And then hopefully you guys can go and start meditating and start applying these teachings to your life right away because it doesn't take anything other than you to decide. But you want to be happier and better you start to do so. 18. Lesson 17 Eastern Philosophy 2 Conclusion: I hope you guys all enjoying the course. Oh, well, you guys leave a better life. And in the day Eastern lost feeling all philosophy is there and help us live with more purpose. Happier anymore. Phil and B'more Peaceful inter call have inner peace. That's what all about. If you can find a way to feel, call to feel peaceful, will happen and feel undisturbed in your mind less That's the goal and Eastern philosophy, perhaps more than any other traditions of thought and probably help you get there. So I heard you guys to think deeply on everything that we govern force to do more research about all these and other philosophers. There are literally hundreds and thousands. I can only select a few of the war, well known and one of that, I thought were the most useful to us breathe course on the Eastern philosophy of sampling from some different traditions in China, India and elsewhere, and so do your research and continue to go inward and meditate, and under everything that these guys have said everything they have to teach us. I know that it's helped me profoundly in my life. B'more in peace be happier and it's helped me make decisions and have better judgment. When it came toe really big changes in my life. I think about what the greatest teachers throughout history have to say. It provides a lot of clarity and a lot of perspective on our day to day lives, and mostly what I think it does for us is it helps us to see a trivial Most of our worries are you. At the end of the day, we only have one life. As Confucius said, we have two lives. The 2nd 1 starts when you realize you only have one and so on to that and meditate on that . And I hope that some way this course help sir, as a catalyst for you to make positive changes in your life.