Invisible and Visible Love with Yung Pueblo | 107

[music] You really have to understand that like, your love is very real in the invisible sense and it's obviously very real in the invisible sense. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. This is synchronicity. [music] [music] Welcome to episode 107. I've made a decision, by the way. I was thinking about this and I just remembered it as I hit record. I'm not going to do the Welcome to episode X, X, X anymore.

Triple X. That would be a different show. I'm not going to do that anymore because this, come on. Like if I do like a thousand of these, I'm going to say that every single time you know what episode it is. It's in sequence of the other ones. This one's the one before 106. Nope. Wrong. After 106 before 108. So not doing that anymore. Welcome to synchronicity. That's what I'm going to say now. Oh, welcome to synchronicity. My guest this week is Diego, young Pueblo, Diego. You may remember from an earlier episode such a brilliant and lucid and clear mind. That's really all I could say. He was a part of this well-being in the modern age event that we just had in the city.

New York say it eh? And man, he stood out just on his panel for being such a deep and profound and touching and moving speaker. And what a great writer he is. You can find him on Instagram. We talk about it a little bit in the previous episode and this episode. I remember I was introduced to him and you know, it was an Instagram poet and I'm like an Instagram poet. That sounds stupid. That sounds like something I am never going to be interested in. Lo and behold, I go and check his stuff out. And in very few words, he is able to communicate very powerful wisdom, concepts, whatever you want to call them, ideas, things that have weight to them.

And I find I'm the type of person who likes a good quote or two or three and I respect the people and souls who have been able to continuously deliver those nuggets of wisdom that resonate with us, you know, but I pick other people's stuff. Maybe I have those thoughts in my head and maybe sometimes they inadvertently come out in this podcast. But for the most part, I'm not regularly dishing out the wisdom. Diego is. So being able to know someone like that and speak to them about that process and how it evolves is just a real treat for me. And I think you'll enjoy listening to it. He is a new book, his first book, he self published this thing, which is fucking awesome and really hard.

It's out November 9th. It's called inward and I really, really, really think you should check it out. I know I will be I'm going to see if I can get a copy or two from him for maybe a giveaway or something through this because he seems like he would be amenable to that. But really go and check his stuff out on Instagram, young Pueblo, just an amazing person. That's really all I can say to that. I want to thank everyone who continues to support this show. I really just I'm overwhelmed with gratitude, enjoy every time I get a response or an email from you guys, you know, review or rating. I know it seems silly.

I used to think it was just an ego stroking maneuver, but it really does serve as validation whenever someone, you know, writes something nice or says that I've helped them or they like this or like that person or they found out about this person. That really just it's it's a good validator that this stuff is actually doing things for people. So thank you for listening along. I have music on the docket that is going to be coming out for those on the Patreon subscription level. You're getting various songs and intros as the months come out, but I am really devoting and ramping up the energy I'm putting towards that stuff.

I've actually truth been told I've been doing something I don't typically do because I'm cocky son of a bitch sometimes, but I'm investing in some learning skills for software and just general understanding of tools that I've been using for decades, but really not thinking I'm too smart and too cool for school and don't need to revisit some of the basic templates or workflow things of how to use this stuff. I've been doing that for the past two weeks, so I haven't been getting a ton of music done, but every day I am focusing in on it, and I'm really excited to share some of the fruits of those labors of me investing that time and I think you guys are going to like it.

So yeah, that's going to be coming out and EP, I promise it, I'm not lying about it. That's it going to try to keep these intros as short as possible because I know we want to get to this episode, go check out Diego Young Pueblo on Instagram, his new book is out November 9th. It's going to be amazing. He is also doing you'll hear at the end of the episode a live book event at Deepak home vase in New York City right in Union Square. One of my favorite places really cool stuff some very cool gunnishes there. Go check that out if you can links to everything you would need to know about Diego on this episode page episode nope, I'm going to try that one again episode page go check it out.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for being awesome. Have a good one without further ado. Here is Diego AKA Young Pueblo. Thanks man. Thanks for doing this again. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much for having me again. It's a lot of the last one was just so fun and so fantastic. Highly memorable that I was like, if I get another chance to speak to Noah, I'm definitely trying to do it. Well, hopefully we can keep this a pretty regular thing. I know we're talking just before about the live events and you as a speaker and getting better at it and just enjoying the process and growing into it.

I think something I can say is these podcasts certainly they've gotten me better at listening, which is, I've never been a bad speaker, but listening has been a key thing for me to learn. And I think that is actually weirdly, even if you're up on stage talking for an hour, like you said, being able to kind of listen both audibly with your ears and then kind of intuitively is just such an important skill. So yeah, man. I was, that used to be a terrible listener when I was younger and it took me like three years of like really intentional growth in my listening to be just, you know, at least a little bit better than I was before and really, it's really a big, big part of leadership too.

Like if you really want to be a leader, like you have to be a good listener. Yeah, it's critical. I was with a previous guest of this show, David Nick Turn up at Omega, just at a lunch. And he gave me, you know, various pieces of advice because he's someone who has walked a similar path in terms of being a musician and deeply steeped and I'm not that I am, but he was deeply steeped and took him trunk buzz, Shambhala tradition. And he let he said one thing that really just stuck with me is like you have to learn how to listen. Like, and it wasn't like, there was like some, he wasn't specifically speaking about like one aspect of anything we were discussing, but it was just something, it was like, yeah, that's really, that's really fucking true.

Well, speaking of listening, I mean, like we mentioned also before we started recording that we have no shortage of things to speak about. I know with things, you know, are contoured up in my mind when I think of that. But what, what do you think about when you think there's so many things to speak about? Oh my goodness, I mean, on the personal level and the collective level, I mean, there's just so much happening in the world and a lot of, you know, real, real, tangible material physical misery that's happening to a lot of people and, you know, with the events in Mexico and Puerto Rico, the things that happen in the islands and with the hurricanes and then this recent shooting, I mean, just a lot of people are just feeling so much.

And you know, it got me thinking a lot, there's one thing that I've been noticing over the past like two, three years, just how, you know, over this time where social media has really sort of claimed its place in the world and how it's almost like, you know, social media sort of takes the pulse of the world. And when these events happen, you know, which events actually get a lot of time in the media and which don't. And then, you know, the immediate like sort of imposition of how we're supposed to feel and how we're supposed to react situations. So what it's sort of what I've taken to myself from like my own personal practice is to just slow down is like whenever something huge happens, it like first it's like don't just like immediately start just responding the way everyone sort of wants you and expects you to respond.

And that's just like take a moment because a lot of these things are just so heavy and so big, you know, like the shooting, I think, you know, it was a horrible thing that happened, you know, absolutely tragic, but then the immediate responses afterwards and just seeing like how everyone was, you know, responding to it. I was like, okay, let me just like really sort of settle into like what I would want to say if at all because there's just so many tragedies are constantly happening. And it ended up just making me think a lot about unconditional love and selective love. And you know, and meta, then you know, the meta practice in general, just like giving your love to all beings.

And you know, I was thinking like, man, should I continue just sending love to all beings and should I just like focus it to people who were harmed in Las Vegas and then it was just really, you know, for me personally was like, oh, okay, like this is good. I'm thinking about this, but it's challenging. And I really came forward just being like, okay, I should definitely focus energy there, but I should absolutely always continue sending love to all beings as much as I can, you know, yeah. And I think this is kind of, and I don't mean this to sound kind of like morose or kind of grim, but this can be the practical functionality of these very acute examples of suffering in the world.

And I also know exactly what you're talking about in terms of the reactivity. And I think a lot of people in the world, I've probably almost everyone has some element of reactivity in them, you know, not taking that pause and being able to respond exactly. And I noticed what a lot of people probably noticed. I consider myself a progressive minded liberal person. I'm not a gun enthusiast. I'm not someone who, you know, thinks people should have automatic weaponry. That said, to immediately launch into the debate about guns, I'm not saying that we shouldn't have that debate. I'm not saying that I'm not a Republican trying to, you know, who's in the NRA's pocket saying let's never talk about this because I'm paid not to talk about it.

I'm saying let's have these intelligent debates about these things, but to immediately cast the finger right away is just such an unproductive thing, not even from like getting an issue solved or coming up with solutions just from a personal like that's not doing you any favors right there. That's not going to you're not going to be the magic person who changes, you know, it's like thinking you're the magic person who has like the secret combination of words that solves the Middle East crisis like no, unfortunately, we're not how it works. So I do know you're speaking about with this reactivity.

And again, I mean, taking that beat, I wouldn't say I've been able to cultivate it that well, but I've noticed when I can do that how much smoother things seem to go. So yeah, I mean, that's, that's, it's interesting though that these events really do bring up these questions of like, where do I send my love to? Where do I send, you know, my, my meta to? And I'm glad that you came to the conclusion that it was still to everyone. Right. Absolutely. And, you know, it's interesting because, you know, it's pretty obvious, like obvious the things that have the potential and have the power to take lives away shouldn't be highly accessible.

Right. Like guns shouldn't just be like all over America and people shouldn't have like crazy access to them. And there obviously should be some sort of policy changes, but my thing is like, you know, we point, we point our attention towards one direction, but then we literally turn our whole bodies to that one direction and then we can't see everything else that's going on around us. Right. And then to me, it's like, okay, well, you know, yeah, like so many people got hurt there, but then we're over there still in the Middle East, like still dropping bombs, you know, still, like, whether it's a Democrat or a Republican, there's still this like massive carnage that's happening on a daily level that our media sort of like doesn't really try to focus on that much so that we can sort of just kind of turn a blind eye towards it.

And to me, it's like, well, if our police are causing so many killings and they have weapons and our military is causing so much harm, you know, right? And if you even think about the numbers of like something that just blows my mind, like I think after 9/11, how many people died, you know, in Iraq alone, you know, it's somewhere upwards of like half a million people because we entered that country and started bombing and started trying to do a regime change and, you know, just do this whole like nation building. And it just did not work and it caused so much carnage. And, you know, that huge number will ignore, but then this small number causes everyone to do this ripple effect.

But obviously both hurt and like one's not more important than the other, but one should not be ignored. And to me, it's like, wow, it's like, you know, where should I, you know, am I really, is my love really completely unconditional? Like obviously that's a very high state of being. I should aim for that, but if I'm willing to pay attention to this and like post about this, but then when all these people who don't look like me or on the other side of the boat, you know, when they're getting hurt, I'm just going to ignore it. And it's still in relation to like our guns, you know, like our governmental, governmentally issued guns, you know, it's like, ah, there's something, there's something extra there that we need to continue sort of delving into pulling on and really, you know, what's really going to save the world is like unselective love, unconditional love.

So simple, so simple. I mean, I agree. And I think it also is interesting. I mean, now at least at this point in history, at this time, we have the ability to look beyond what our traditional sources of information were. So we at least have the ability to peek behind, even if we're getting a completely distorted and skewed perspective through our, you know, colored lens, you know, still, we have the ability to do that. So that's super helpful. But I know what you mean. I mean, I typically, the way I consume most of my news, and I really just do not use social media to get my news at the anymore.

Sometimes on Twitter, I'll see a few things, but I go through Apple news and my sources are completely biased. Like the most neutral thing I'm reading about is the AP. You know what I mean? And that's pretty neutral, but still it's a very selected, selective, you know, filter. Still comes from a really Western land. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. And I think there's, there's a level here that's not to say like we have to find the perfect, we need to be the most clear figure out the truth of everything. No. Because that becomes increasingly hard. But the question is, is are we getting into a rational states of mind or emotional states of mind because of what we're being fed and are we not even questioning that at any place?

I mean, I was going to ask you, you know, the earthquake in Mexico, my sister knows some people. Do you know people who are personally affected? I know people that were personally affected in Puerto Rico. Right. So I have like family members or sort of like people who are, you know, long time friends of our family who are considered family members and close friends who have families there. And, you know, just like, you know, no one passed away, but there was absolutely a lot of devastation. Yeah. And real, real lives being affected, not just for the short term, but the long term. And you know, like, like I said before, there's not like, I can't say that this misery is more important than that misery.

You know, misery is misery. Like it causes suffering and it's, it's, it's hard. It's difficult to live with, but it's just, um, I don't know, it's just, it's, but it's just been such an interesting time. But yeah. Yeah. So there's a difficult, it brings up these difficult questions. And I mean, like, I, I constantly bring up, you know, the other things that are going on that aren't even natural, like natural disasters, we would hope that the response would be is this could happen to anyone. It could happen to any of us. It's our natural duty to help people, manly disasters, like wars and genocides, um, also should be relatively simple to be like, no, but are clearly more complex in that.

Like the Rohingya situation, you know, like this is something that's, this is like a genocide is going on. And it's made even more complex that the, the person who's in charge of Myanmar, she's a Nobel Peace Prize winner, but she's in a very uncomfortable position of actually watching a genocide happen in her country from a Buddhist majority. It's bizarre. So I guess when you look at the scope of all of this really quite acute suffering and these flare ups, whether it's by storms or earthquakes or, you know, when the max of violence seemingly, like what, what impression are you left with in terms of some action that we can take as individuals to kind of, you know, give us some perspective that's not a going to just to press the shit of us and make us not helpful at all, not that we can't feel the sorrow and suffering.

Right. But just not going to make us useful. Like what are you kind of circling around and also being totally aware that you're figuring this out too. You're in the middle of it. When you talk about Puerto Rico here, like, you know, I don't think you have all the answers, but I know you're a smart guy. Yeah. I mean, what it really makes me sort of fall back on is just like two simple things is understanding that love is active, you know, that love isn't just something like, yes, the actual sending of medicine, literally sending your love, sending your positive thinking towards the world, towards all beings, towards individuals or particular situations is actually very effective.

So there's a lot of people being like, oh, like, you know, don't just pray, like, make social change. It's like, no, you should do both, like your, your, your prayers and your meta and just the energy that you send out is actually very real, though you cannot visually see it. You have to understand that at the invisible level, humanity is literally, we all swim in an ocean and every time one of us moves, we create waves and these waves actually ripple out and affect the rest of the entire ocean. Everyone is that that's in there with us. So you really have to understand that, like, your love is very real in the invisible sense and it's obviously very real in the visible sense, like we should, like if we have the means, we should donate, if we have the means, we should volunteer and if we have the strength, like we should organize and we should be part of social movements that sort of try to remedy these issues and try to really sort of, you know, reorganize humanity in a way where we don't suffer each other, you know, we don't cause each other pain and harm systemically, because there's a lot of things that need to be reorganized about humanity as a whole for us to really, you know, not just live more efficiently, but live more humanely equitably and, you know, just in a manner that's much more respectful towards life.

But the other thing that makes me really think about is stillness and mental purity, you know, because I really feel that stillness itself is a function of mental purity and the more that we're able to really purify our minds as individuals, the more powerful our minds become and the more information that we can sort of like interact with and try to digest and just sort of turn around in our mind to be able to get a clearer picture because that's a tough thing is like everything is subjective and there are so many perspectives and one of the things that the Buddha would always say is that the point of enlightenment in reaching these higher levels of mind is to be able to take in many more perspectives at once and so to be able to, you know, sort of, if you have a practice, you know, fall back on it and just like, you know, really take it seriously, meditate more if you need to and you'll be able to, you know, with a calmer mind, you produce much greater actions and much, you're much more creative about what you decide to do, and that's a very helpful because it almost seems like when these big flare-ups happen, like you said, you know, the amount of actions that we could take seem very limited, but that's absolutely an illusion, you know, it's sort of like it's what is like, you know, accepted by society that what we can do but there's actually always so much more at hand, it's just a matter of like courage and honesty and, you know, us coming up with these more creative solutions but if the mind is clear, if the mind can become more still, we have so much more access to what's really out there, what's inside of us and what we can really do.

Yeah, no, I mean, stillness, it teaches us the ability and the power to actually like, take wise and write action, it's hard, it's hard, it's not that you can't, I've stumbled into right action by accident before, it's just that it's much easier if you have that space that we typically speak about and however you cultivate that is, is truthfully a matter of personal preference and, you know, type, but however you do that, it really does just give you that, that, that ability to kind of look at things. I also something you struck me, struck me that you said, which I absolutely believe, but it's that thoughts and prayers do have weight to them, they do have energy and substance behind them and they're not just these ethereal kind of ghost-like things that some people believe in, but they're not really real and I know that I also see something else happens and this is, this is when you realize society is getting pretty complex and fractured is when amongst your own, I mean, it was so easy in the 90s to be like, I'm a Democrat, I'm a Republican, you know what I mean, like you kind of knew what that meant, you know, in reality, the funny thing is, is obviously what we thought those things meant, like they didn't mean those things, we just identified with some certain issues and said that's how it worked. Now, it's very difficult to kind of pin yourself down persona-wise on where you fit in. That said, energetically, I feel like a lot of people can be dismissive on the left or the progressive side of these kind of more, I don't even want to say woo, I don't think it's woo, I think there's scientific validity behind these things, the consciousness and thoughts carry energy to them.

If you really, if you really understood physics and you were really serious about quantum mechanics, then you would understand that this stuff is very real. Right, and that a lot of people don't take it that far, you know? Yeah, and it is really interesting and my friend Michael Phillip from Third Eye Drops was shared a video with me about emergence theory the other day, which I hadn't heard of, but essentially a group of scientists. My take on it was it's a group of scientists in California, really reputable and smart people basically trying to prove that God exists, like going through painstaking efforts to not call it God. It's the funniest thing I've ever seen. They're like, we made these eight dimensional crystals and we've created protection and 40 reality and then made that in three to reality and we saw these patterns and it's consciousness and they have these eight modalities that kind of like fit together. And they're basically just saying that there is a collective consciousness. We pretty much sure we've identified it, but we don't want to call it God. It was hilarious. But yeah, I mean, this stuff isn't just kind of like wishful thinking, naval gazing. Hey, man, there's energy behind everything.

It's like, well, that hippie who's maybe taken a bunch of acid actually was in touch with something and maybe use a bad way of communicating, but it's true. And I think that's powerful because if we're going to accept that that's true, that some active component of our consciousness is able to impact reality just by us thinking or summoning that state of mind that really puts the whole kind of 3D reality on its head, you know what I mean? Then everything we're doing. And I wonder like, I'm sure in your your meditative states and your reflection on this stuff, you've come to these very interesting things that a lot of us do, whether it's by meditation, psychedelics, whatever it is, where you're like, Oh my God, every single thought that I have at every single second impacts my reality all of the time. And that can be a cataclysmic thought, you know, and it quite often is, but then you begin to process that, okay, I don't have to think about that all of the time. What, what was that like for I mean, I'm sure you've encountered these kind of mental kind of arm wrestling we do with ourselves like, how do you kind of, how do you process that I always like to talk about these things, but also keep an eye towards integration in terms of like, Hey, I got to walk through the world and be a normal person. How do you reconcile kind of these deeper levels of awareness that you've encountered with your regular life? Quote unquote.

Oh my God, that's the best question. A few things come to mind. I mean, one is a buddy of mine who is a really serious meditator. He wrote something the other day that made me laugh so much. He said, it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye and it's just a letter I, you know, and it's so true because like one thing that I've been noticing personally, it's just how much of my personal misery is directly connected to my idea of what my identity is. Literally, literally, like what makes Diego Diego is causing so much problems for Diego. And like, of course, you know, um, like that, like for me and my, like, what I've meditated, like I've been meditating the pasta and the ass top ass and like, uh, and this technique has, you know, the more I practice it, the more I've learned so much through it. And one thing that's become very evident is that, you know, the conception of I, me and my is absolutely an illusion. Um, the doctrine of anada of, of no self is um, it's powerful and it's highly liberating, but you know, obviously for conventional purposes, like I'm still Diego, like I'm, you know, to like make, you know, to make the world much more easier and everything. I'm going to, I'm not going to like make any special rules about like, Oh, you know, I'm not here and I don't exist. It's like, no, like, you know, when I go into these deep states and I'm meditating, it becomes obvious and becomes clear, but for everyday use, yes, of course, like I will use I in my sentences and you know, I will it continue, you know, acting like other regular people so I can be part of the world. Um, but it's just really interesting because the deeper we go, you know, the, um, the illusions reveal themselves and you just start sort of when you swim in yourself, very with like dedication and you really start just turning inward, you know, you come to these points where there is no certainty about anything, you know, and I love, there's this one poem.

I forget if it was Hafiz or roomy. I mean, one of them, I think it was Hafiz, but wrote about how he said something like, love has taught me so much that I can't even believe like, you know, the word God does no justice. The word soul does no justice. Like, you know, there's so much more than these words. And it's actually really true. Like, I think when we use terms like God's soul, you know, they create automatically, this is sort of the ego and the mind coming to trying to come to terms with these ideas and sort of wrap, wrap literally wrap itself around these ideas and immediately limits them because there's so much bigger and actually so much more profound than what our minds can comprehend. And I really agree with Judo Krishnamurti that, you know, truth exists beyond thought, you know, it's literally like you can't think your way to truth. And I think that's, you know, it's one of the funny things about science itself when it's always like trying to reach ultimate truth and it's like, you know, thinking so hard to get there, but really requires that sort of the stillness that we mentioned earlier, you know, like, because that's another thing that Judo says is in total silence, the mind comes upon the eternal. And, you know, it's powerful because like you don't you don't need total complete silence to be able to, like, start freeing yourself to start actually releasing the burdens that clog up the mind, but to really reach these ultimate states where you're really witnessing truth. And I do believe that's absolutely possible. But it does require a lot of power. You know, it's literally like trying to stop a train. And you're just making your mind stronger and stronger and stronger and eventually you won't be able to. But, you know, it's, it's tough because at the same time, like we live in this interesting world, but it's totally, it's not even real.

I know. There's the, there's, I was saying this to you. Who was I mentioned? I don't remember who I was mentioning it to, but there's this famous, you know, Marpa, I think it was Marpa who was a busy, you know, he was the Tibetan scholar and saint. And he believed it was him. He was it to Lopa who someone basically his son died and there he was grieving. And like someone else said to him, it's like, you know, it's an illusion. And he said, yeah, but this is the greatest illusion of them all, which is the point isn't that like, yeah, it's an illusion. It doesn't matter. That's not the point of this being illusory. It's that it's not as substantial and real as we like to believe it. And in, in a way, and the kind of counter to that is like our dreams and our other states of consciousness are far more real than we give them credit for there, at least equally as real as this reality.

So it's like there's very interesting thing. And I know you're talking about with the words. I, I remember when I was in a very prolonged high state of consciousness, wouldn't say the purest, but definitely like I was up there for a long time and I could empirically test things. I came, most of the things I was saying, you know, in, in this reality to people where words are useless, like it is actually we've come to like they're useless, like they're pretty and they're beautiful, but they actually do no justice to conveying what can experientially, you know, like even now using words, it's hard to convey. It's a, it's a catch 22. I love that you're the one who's bringing this up because you are probably one of the best writer. Yeah, like it's amazing. Right. Like, and I, and I mean this seriously for people who don't know. Yeah, it's great because like the truth is, is like, I, I remember, I think it was saw who told me about you. And he's like, yeah, my friend Diego, he's an Instagram poet. I think I mentioned this year before. And I was like, Instagram poet. I'm like, Oh, what the fuck is an Instagram part? Like that was my initial reaction. I didn't know.

I was like, I was like, God, what could this possibly mean? And I was like, Oh, shit. And I remember reading, I'm like, Oh my God, like this is, this is amazing stuff. And you've just now completed a book and it's coming out next month in November. And I bring it up because you use very few words, almost like the minimum amount that one needs to use can be very powerful energies behind them. My wife Alexis, who also wouldn't be the type who's, you know, saying they're reading an Instagram poet, she is constantly be like, did you see that? Did you, did you read that? I'm like, yeah, I did. It's fucking awesome. So how do you reconcile that? You know, what do you like? How do you, how are you such an amazing writer and conveyor of energies through words, but also recognizing their limitations? It's a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Well, I think it's, well, well, one thanks. Thanks for the kind words. I mean, I think it's awesome that your, that your wife appreciates it too. She was really cool. I didn't get a chance to say hi at the event at the Whitmer event, but, but, you know, it's funny. So one thing I always tell people is that you, I sort of, I do feel like I have a little bit of a mission. Like I, I want people to understand like two simple things that are also gigantic. I mean, one of them being that you can actually heal yourself like literally in a very real way, you can heal yourself. And in the second being that when you heal yourself, you heal the world. So it's tough because, so I went into this whole writing thing knowing that, you know, what I understand right now, there is some value to it, but it will change because I'm not perfect. My understandings are not perfect. And I'm, you know, I'm still highly imperfect. So I'm still growing and learning and everything. But I really felt that, you know, just having sort of showing people the understandings that I was going through and just some little bits of my story and everything would be helpful to people. And thus far, you know, it has been, it's been really cool watching people interact with the work and everything. And, and, but yeah, I mean, it's, you know, I really, I tell people like, if you really want truth and you really want freedom, you know, people ask me like, Oh, what should I do? Like, how do I let go? And, you know, literally want me to tell them how to let go? And I'm like, well, what you have to do is you have to find a practice. And this is the funny thing, because I always kind of throw it back to them. I'm like, you have to find something that works for you. You have to find something that meets you where you're at with that is challenging, but it's not overwhelming. That's like my line. I'm always telling people like, yeah, you have to find some sort of practice that will make you interact with yourself in, in as deep away as possible that you can handle without freaking yourself out or anything like that. But, you know, and that can be through like meditation or like, you know, a serious practice of yoga, saanas or, you know, there's just so many like, even like therapeutic practices like that, um, a psychologist will give us or, you know, there's just tons of things out there right now. Energy healing is like, there's, there's tons, tons, you know, like you were mentioning even psychedelics, like there's so much modalities. Yeah. Right. That you can use to just like interact with yourself and actually start building these experiences that will give you freedom because, you know, real freedom is experiential. Like you have to feel it has to be like wisdom isn't passed through verbally. Like it literally has to be felt and experienced directly. And so it's funny because I'm like, like, you know, people tell me they learn so much from what I'm writing.

And I think that's awesome. But my real hope is not even really for you to learn, but for you to get like, for it to peak your interest enough and inspire you enough for you to like delve into doing your own work because like you're not really going to learn too much from what I'm saying. Like it's going to give you an idea of reminders, their reminders. Yeah, exactly. And, you know, and, but they, they're all, they will always be like reminders until you actually feel it inside yourself and it becomes real wisdom. That's a part of you. That's a lot of people. Yeah. You know, so, um, but I honestly like, dude, I don't, I don't know anything. Like I, you know, people tell me like, Oh, you're a great writer.

And I'm like, I guess, but I don't even exist. Like, I really, no, no, and I get that. I totally get it. What I mean, and we'll just, we'll just circumvent the eye there and just say that what you're able to do with your writing is serve as a conduit to people to either get interested, peak their interest in something that they really haven't thought about before, haven't focused on, or for those of us who really, uh, you know, have been to these places and put in at least the modicum of the work, it resonates with us because it's like, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, oh, yeah. Like, oh, shit. Okay. Now I remember. And that's something that can come from anything, right? It can come from anything, which is what's so beautiful about this world is that can literally come from any direction, right? And that's so fucking cool. Um, I had, oh, and the other thing, this is what I wanted to mention. You know, when people, when you say what you do when people come to you and they say like, what can I do to get, let me point this out because this is something we spoke a little bit about on my panel at this event. And I think it's something that's always worth bringing up. I think if you go to someone and you say like, how do I get enlightened? How do I heal myself completely or any of these big fucking things that we're looking for? How do I, how do I not be afraid at this? Or how do I overcome this? And someone's got a quick answer for you. Like, Oh, yeah, just hold your nose like this, breathe five times, do that for two years and you're going to be good. Like run the fucking other direction. Like that's not good advice. It may even work.

That's not my point. It's that that isn't to assume that there's some general template that you can follow and all of your woes will be gone. It's not right. So the mark of a good, maybe not even teacher isn't the right word, but someone who's going to, going to serve you well, because they've served themselves well, at least in certain ways, is someone who's going to say exactly what you said, which is find something that works for you that you can keep doing experiment as long as you need to until you find that thing with the caveat that don't just do that as your practice, your practice shouldn't be sampling.

You shouldn't just be a sampler all of the time. It's fun to do eventually. You eventually got to pick something. And even if you might need to do one thing for 10 years, you might need to change it later on. It's definitely like, yeah. This is another fucking great thing that you're talking about, because this is something I've thrown around. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this. I had a great conversation with Lama Somo about this, a great Tibetan teacher, a Western woman, and she basically, I was saying, I like a lot of different stuff. I'm interested in a lot of different things. She's like, yeah, it's many paths of the mountain, but you actually have to pick a path. The reason that's so valid isn't to force those of us who maybe don't want to be forced into a box to pick something because you have to. It's because if you do pick a path and you spend enough time with it, then let's say you jump onto another path of 10 years, what you will ultimately realize is all of the paths are actually talking about the same exact thing. But to make enough progress to get to those points, you have to spend some real time and effort with them. That's why it's this very weird pick a path, but yeah, get enough knowledge that you can synthesize them. So, yeah, man, I just love these conversations.

That's funny. You got to be careful, though, because Westerners are super non-committal, so you know how much we don't like commitment. But no, I absolutely agree. I think something that we have to understand about these different spiritual practices and sort of any type of anything that really brings this inward is what we're really doing is we're cultivating different aspects of virtuous character. So, you're not really, you know, different techniques will sort of focus on different areas of the mind, and they'll give you different things. But ultimately, there's like a set of things that we're trying to develop, like we're developing our compassion, our love, our equanimity, you know, our mental calmness, and you can go down this list, right? But if you have something that's really sort of, and this is what this is where the tricky gray area is, you need to make sure you're not just working on the conscious level, you have to be self-conscious, because that's where the real nitty gritty, that's where all the muck is, that you need to clear out, you know, literally the ego sort of flows around like a cloud around your consciousness and all of your habits and your patterns and your pains and your traumas, they're all the ego itself. So, as, you know, when you find a practice that's really just taking away these chunks of ego and allowing the light of consciousness to really seep through and you're, you know, that you're starting to have that natural emergence of love and compassion that's really growing inside you, then the work is really happening and you really are, in fact, healing yourself. So, it's one thing to, you know, a lot of people will, and I think it's really important, you know, the first step is always like honesty and courage. So, a lot of people will take that as like journaling or, you know, like running in a much more intentional way or, you know, like just doing physical things with their body or their minds, you know, but then eventually you want to really fall back and actually, you know, plant yourself firmly on a technique. And I love, you know, something that S. N. Glenka says, and he says it, you know, he really means it. It's like, you know, whether you do vipassana and you do attend a course and it's not for you, great, but find something that's for you and keep doing it because if you keep doing it, you will receive the benefit, you know, you will receive, you will start developing your qualities of virtuous character that you need for your ultimate liberation, you know, and it might not be in this life or, you know, in the next one or however many you actually believe in, but, you know, if you keep working at it, you'll get there, but I think there's so much value. And, you know, I think it's interesting because we're, especially here in New York City, we're so used to, you know, everyone's just sampling like crazy, like people love appetite, you know, that they're just really trying to take a little bit of everything.

And so I almost feel like the, like I'm really committed to this path of apostana because it's given me so many huge, like undeniable benefits and I've seen so much growth in myself that to like stop and start doing other things will just be foolish on my part, like I really want to see this through. So it feels a little weird when, you know, people invite me to different places or, and then there's like a special meditation and I'm just like, you know, I will close my eyes with everybody, but I'm not, I'm not really following your instructions, I'm just meditating of apostana and like, you know, doing like the thing that I've been taught to do for my own well-being.

Right. And, you know, and I definitely encourage you, you know, if you haven't quite found your thing yet, you know, your intuition will really tell you like, this is it. You know, this is where you should stick around, but obviously keep searching, but there's definitely something out there for you. No, there was one thing I wanted to go back to that's popping into my mind. So when we were talking about the world being an illusion, right? So I really fundamentally believe, you know, um, so I, I studied with, um, with this, uh, Harvard, um, astrophysicist, his name is Rudy Shields, and he would always talk about consciousness collapsing the wave function and how that really sort of crystallizes the things that we, um, see as like matter and real. Um, but even though, you know, all of these things that we sort of interact with, you know, we literally all of us collectively, all of, all of humanity's living in the stream, we have to understand that our spiritual practices and our lineages, if you look at all of them, you know, like really collectively, they all will tell you they're not like, oh, do whatever you want, just be me. You know, and like, you could just be as rude as you want. It's like not at all. If you really look at them, um, and the serious ones that have lasted for thousands of years, you know, compassion and like giving, you know, some compassion is a huge piece like loving kindness and, you know, literally giving like donating and supporting the material welfare of other beings is hugely important. So that goes to tell you that though this may be an illusion, it is an illusion that should be respected, you know, like the harm, the harm that we acquire through living this crazy dream that we're all in, you know, that's real harm. That's like real stuff that you have to overcome that, you know, that that we should do our individual and collective work to do a lot of healing because, you know, we've gone through so much, so much patriarchy, racism, the damage that capitalism has caused us, like how much it has made greed into this massive, you know, literally the thing that's running the world is greed. And so we all have to do so much healing around this. And like, though, yeah, absolutely, it's not fundamentally real. Um, but it should be respected and which, you know, and I feel like that's the real sign is like when we look at these traditions, they're like, you should be compassionate. This is what you should be practicing. Right. It should be giving to each other. You should be practicing that because especially in my tradition, you know, there's, um, they would call them the 10 perfections. And we literally have to make be like, particularly your like loving kindness and your, your giving, you have to just give so, so, so much, you know, that you eventually really fundamentally understand what giving is and what loving kindness is that you can really take yourself to the next level and for the benefit of all beings.

Yes, I know. And I think I actually even asked just, I just want to take a second and say, totally fucking agree. Like, that's a really, really important thing that this isn't some illusory world that means nothing, nothing leading us to a nihilistic kind of point of view. It's that this is a more illusory reality that gives us an opportunity to cultivate or reveal skills and abilities that will serve us in other places as well. And that that that I totally get. And it reminds me, I lost my train of thought. I asked Sharon something who also studied with Goenka about, I'm trying to remember what I asked her related to what you just said, but it'll come back to me later. Um, stuff happens. Uh, yeah, go on another train of thought and then I'm sure it'll immediately pop in my head, I'll remember it and then bring it up after you're done.

Um, I think, well, yeah, I think I wanted to comment more about, um, the writing, you know, like I have just played for the people who, who are listening because I always like to share these podcasts with, um, the people in my, in my audience who support me and I love them. You know, I'm so grateful for their support. But as you notice, you know, my writing is super minimalistic and I've just sort of kind of come into this style because I've noticed from the texts that really inspire me. Um, and I, I, when people ask me, you know, what I read and whatnot, I like to read things that are at least 2000 years old. Like that's my feeling, especially when it comes to spiritual things. Like, you know, I've never, I've never like, um, never read at Cartoli or like anything, you know, these more modern day spiritual people have a lot of respect for him.

Of course, done a lot of great things. But, um, but, you know, when you read the Damapata, you read the Bhagavad Gita or you read, um, things that are like these, like, you know, the Hwa Hu Ching by Lao Tzu or the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, you know, they're, they're such powerful texts. And what you notice is that, um, they're so, they're so current and short and they just give it to you. You know, they're not really worrying. There's no fluff. There's just like, right, you know, this is how it is, you know, and, and I feel like, um, it's inspired my writing so much. And I feel like, you know, like, of course, my writing isn't, isn't perfect or anything like that. And I don't think of myself on the level of these, you know, great sages or anything like that. But I think there's a power in simplicity that, um, like writers in particular and just like where contemporary humanity is right now has sort of forgotten because we like everything to be like so fluffy and big and tiny and like so wordy. And I'm just like, let's just cut it down to the bare men, you know, like, because one is like our attention spans are so bad that, you know, you want to try to give someone something that will actually stay with them throughout the day. And then they could actually use for their own personal reflection. So that's one thing that I'm really excited about. My book is like, you know, it's set up in that same manner. Like the majority of it are these very small pieces and then mixed around these pieces. So it's a flow of poems and quotes. And then, um, I think about like some like 20 or 20 or so essays that are, you know, divided across the book that go into these topics much more deeply so that there's no real confusion. And, um, and it's fun because like when I brought actually brought one of the proof copies to the, yeah, yeah, I saw it that we and it was funny because when SOP grabbed it, he immediately just did exactly what I wanted people to do. And I had not given told him to do this at all, but he just opened it up to a random page, read two pieces. And he was like, Oh, he was like, okay. And just closed it. And like, you know, he was almost like, he got his like message for the day. And some, yeah, you know, what's the name of the book? The book is inward, inward. Oh, man. Dude, who's your publisher? So I actually did it on my own man. I had some publisher to reach out very kind. But, you know, I let them know that I really wanted to fly on my own for this one. Um, I've seen a lot of other, other really great writers just have a lot of success, you know, totally developing their book by themselves, you know, from the content to the art. And I really wanted to give it a shot on my own and just, I didn't, you know, because the things that I was sort of writing were so personal, you know, I've learned so much through meditating that it just felt weird to like, even interact with editors that weren't necessarily on the same thing, you know, on the wavelength, whatnot. So I definitely had people edit like I've had close friends and my wife who also meditates. Um, you know, we've, we've hit it hard with editing, but, but, but, um, you know, the real juice of it is there, you know, no one has really tried to change what I'm trying to say. They're just trying to help me make sure that I'm saying it clearly. And then there's no errors as opposed to like, you know, I'm sure there are fantastic editors out there, like professionals, but, um, but for this one, I really just felt like, let me just give this a shot on my own and see how it goes. Because, you know, so far it's really been on my own and it's so fun. So dude, that is so fucking cool. Um, what, how, how was the process of doing this all yourself or with your, your internal team there?

Was it stressful? Yeah. I mean, it was definitely really hard. Yeah. Yeah. That at times it definitely felt like a really like herculean effort. Like I'm just like picking up this, just, I don't know. I've never really thought of myself as an artist and then I'm really coming to terms with that now. I'm like, okay, dude, you're, you're an artist, like you're a writer. You're trying to like figure out how to like communicate things through, through, you know, to people with like different needs. So, you know, you're an artist, but like thinking of this book in that manner and also like poetically and, and then just like even like bringing it all together, like having to choose because like I write, I write a lot and I put so many different things out there. So having to pick from all of them to like put the best ones up and then give it some type of flow, which was difficult in and of itself. And there were definitely moments where, you know, I had read the book like, you know, the 18th time and I'm just like, oh my goodness, like, you know, it's, it's tough to just like read the same thing over and over, but it's funny because it's actually given me ideas for like new writings and like other things that I'm like working on right now, but it's definitely pretty hard. It made, um, it really showed me how deep my craving is. It really showed me like how, um, how I really have to, one thing that's, that's really important to me right now is not making my personal value dependent on the things that I, or create, you know, because that, that's something that society and capitalism itself has really taught us is like, your value is dependent on the things that you produce. And that's not true at all. Like, we have to understand as human beings that we are innately valuable the moment that we are born. Like, you know, if there's, there's nothing about what we do or whether it's good or bad, that makes us less valuable. But, um, I've been realizing that I'm just like, she's like, you know, it's tough because like, when I do a good job, then yeah, if you're good, yeah, I know how it goes. This is a lesson that I think in, I mean, I really do believe we get the lessons. I know this could just be a clever narrative in some people's minds that I'm telling myself, but I really think we get the lessons we need most. And I think the people who have really come to terms with that are value isn't represented, represented in numbers or revenue or income or social media followers. Weirdly, actually reap the most rewards, not like I'm saying everyone with the most follows on the Kim Kardashian is a realized being. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is is that if you can really kind of come to terms with that, it's easier to develop that kind of equanimity when good, easy come, easy go. And that will always be tested. But I think if you kind of are aware of that going in, no matter what the results are, your expectations will be in line with what happens. And that's, that's a hard space to get into. That said, my hunch is you're going to be okay, my friend. I think I think the work that's been put in is certainly going to speak for itself. And I'd also be concerned when I would be concerned is if you told me, no, it was Breeze. Super easy to do. No problem. I'll be like, either this guy is a Savant and like the, I mean, you are a Savant. This guy's like a super next level enlightened genius master who can do everything effortlessly or it sounds like a project that was stressful, hard, really tested you. And those are the projects that I think are the most rewarding typically in my experience. So dude, I'm really excited to read it. Thank you so much for coming on again, man. I would love to make this a somewhat regular thing because I think these conversations are always some of the best that I have in any aspect of life. So yeah, man. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It was really fun. Those who might not have heard it before comes out November 9th and will be available through Amazon. And also, if you're in New York City, I'm having a book launch event on November 9th at ABC Home at Deepak Home Base. And yeah, if you're, if you're around, you're going to say what, what date on the 9th you're saying? On the on the 9th, the evening of the 9th, doors open at 630 and the event starts at seven. I've been there many times. It's a great space. I'm going to make it. Yeah, I'm going to say that right now. It's on recorded. I have to do it now. Awesome, dude. Obviously, we'll speak before then and anything I can do to help you out with that, please let me know. But really just always a pleasure speaking to you, man. Thank you so much. Likewise, I much love to your family on my behalf.

Haha, same, same to you. [Music] [Music] Look at things to say. You've never felt this way. Well, look at things to do. Let me dream of you. [Music] [Music] [Music] Thank you for listening to that episode with Diego aka Young Pueblo. Go check him out on Instagram. Go check out his book in ward November 9th, 2017 is a release date. If you're in New York City, Deepak home base, there is an event taking place. I'm sure you can find the details. But if you can't sync podcast.com, S-Y-N-C, podcast.com, all the information you need is there. Thank you to Patrick Nemchik on Patreon for supporting this show every week to get it out. Much appreciated.

If you'd like to become a patron on Patreon and get the music that you hear on this show, you can do that. I'm also going to be doing live hangouts when I can. You know, if you're listening at this point, maybe you're somewhat pot committed to this show. Let's give a big congratulations to my wife Alexis, who was starting a new job in a couple weeks. What does that mean for this show? Really not much, except I am turning into Mr. Mom. I will be taking care of our son most days, which means I'll still have time to get these episodes out. But it's going to be a different experience. So stay tuned for that adventure. Maybe I'll have Eli on one of these episodes soon. Have an awesome time and I will see you next time.