The Bearded Mystic's Oneness Conversations with Stay Spiritual

This comprehensive discussion weaves personal narratives, philosophical insights, and practical advice on integrating spirituality into every aspect of life. James and Justin from the  @stayspiritual   YouTube channel, along with Rahul, delve into the origins of spiritual journeys, highlighting the influence of personal challenges, such as coping with loss, and the nuanced understanding of spirituality beyond traditional practices. Emphasizing the importance of balance, consciousness, and the unexpected places one can find spiritual growth, from video games to children's literature, the conversation underscores the value of experience over theoretical knowledge. It articulately presents the notion that spirituality permeates all facets of life, advocating for a balanced engagement with spiritual practices and daily activities, and offers resource recommendations for those on their spiritual quests. The dialogue presents a compelling narrative on finding spirituality in everything around us and maintaining mindfulness throughout life's experiences.

00:00 Welcome to the Oneness Conversations
00:37 The Origins of Stay Spiritual YouTube Channel
02:30 The Journey from Twitch to YouTube
03:36 A Turning Point and Personal Challenges
08:13 Exploring the Depths of Spirituality
12:19 Influential Spiritual Teachers and Traditions
17:40 Navigating the Guru Landscape and Audience Reactions
35:34 Dealing with Criticism and Skepticism on YouTube
44:36 Personal Spiritual Practices and Rituals
47:24 Exploring Personal Growth and Experimentation
49:10 Venturing into Vegetarianism and Its Insights
50:27 The Power of Imagination and Visualization
56:50 Navigating Spirituality in Everyday Life
57:04 The Value of Diverse Experiences and Unplugging
01:09:31 Recommendations for Spiritual Exploration
01:22:30 Staying Grounded in Spirituality During Challenges

Learn more about James and Justin on their channel  @stayspiritual

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Transcript

Rahul N Singh: 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Bearded Mystic's Oneness Conversations. I'm joined here today by James and Justin from the Stay Spiritual YouTube channel. They're well known for their reaction videos and mostly spiritual videos and even their interviews that they've had with other spiritual people and I've had the pleasure of participating in that so I can tell you they're good and so we're reversing the roles a little here where I will be asking them both questions so welcome to the show and good to

James & Justin: 0:34

Hey, thanks for having us, Rahul. It's great to be here.

Rahul N Singh: 0:37

you. So my first question is what inspired you to start the Stay Spiritual YouTube channel?

James & Justin: 0:47

Do you want to go first, or? Well, I think you should go first. Since I opened my mouth, I'll go first. Um, I think, uh, we're kind of like minded. We're brothers, so. And, uh, like, we live close to each other. So, we were constantly getting together with our families and stuff like that on weekends. And we would like to talk about philosophical subjects, deep subjects and stuff like that. Um, and I don't know, it kind of, we kind of naturally fell into it. It wasn't like a plan. It didn't start off like a, we're going to start a YouTube channel. It didn't start like that. We, we were talking about kind of like spiritual practices and stuff like that. And I started, he was meditating actually. And then I started meditating and then we would talk about it. And actually without him even knowing it, I was like, I want to do something. I want to like, And so I started something on Twitch where I was just like talking rubbish into a, into a mic to myself, pretty much, no one was watching, it was live, and I was just gonna like, I'm just gonna meditate in front of a camera and see what happens, and then I think after like 16 episodes, I don't even know how you found out, Use like you're doing something online or something like that, or you came over and then I was like, well, come over and we'll talk. And so we talked to ourselves for like probably the first, you know, 30 episodes. Uh, it was so funny. We would hold up pieces of paper. Oh, terrible. It was pretty funny. Uh, and, uh, with like a picture of like, you know, a mystical person on it or something, we'd be like, talk about it. And yeah, yeah. And, uh, pretty lo fi. Yeah. We just like to talk about, uh, you know, Deep subjects and spiritual principles and practices. What works for us and what other people believe and stuff like that. Just the stuff that we were kind of into. Um, and then we, we transferred from Twitch cause we started on Twitch and then we just took all our content, put it on YouTube and then it was YouTube from there on in. Um, that probably happened at right, like episode 35 or something like that. And then we just went with YouTube pretty much the whole way. Yeah, in the beginning, we would go live on Twitch and we would be talking to the people that were watching. Like the one person Yeah. Maybe do a, yeah. Um, but it was fun, you know, we, and we were getting something out of it. And I don't know, the first time I came over, I was like, it sunk in like what it kind of could be. So it's pretty funny to watch that first episode where I was a guest and I'm like, looking at the cameras, I'm like, this could be We could do something here, you know. Um, but we would, we would actually meditate in front of the camera those first episodes. I was pretty out of shape to be doing that. We'd do like 20 minutes. We'd just sit in front of a camera and be like, come on, join us. One person who's watching and we'd do that. And, uh, yeah, it just kind of grew from there.

Rahul N Singh: 3:36

And then when did the reaction videos come in?

James & Justin: 3:40

Well, you take this part because there was a, there was a turning point in our channel's history. Right. So we were, um, I don't know if we'd reacted really to anything yet. Uh, we had had some guests and we had a, a big guest setup that we were all excited about. And before the interview started, they were like, look, we can do the interview or we can give you a little bit of advice. And so we were like, all right, let's take the advice. And they gave us some, we're grateful, very grateful. And I just want to be careful not to. I don't want to say who it is just for privacy reasons, but, uh, they, you know, they were successful and they told us some of the things we could do differently. And we, we didn't do the interview with them. We just gave our thanks to them and stayed in contact with them. And then, uh, we retooled the whole show. We shut down for four months. We shut down for four months. A lot happened in that four months. Yeah. Um, that maybe you can, I don't know if you want to go into or not, but, uh, well, you know, maybe things, you know, happen for a reason, right? Like, we, we needed some time off at the time. We had gone for probably like a year and a half straight, like, and we were kind of getting frustrated at this point, because it felt like, uh, things weren't growing, we weren't getting, like, the audience that we, like, we Things weren't happening. And then that, that, uh, conversation, like he was so gung-ho. He was like, yes, I knew. It was like, he was like, it's time to do this. And I was like, sad . for some reason I was like, I was all depressed about it. Um, but uh, but I was like, okay, you know, I shut down. But you know what, it was actually needed because our mother at the time, uh, she was very late in kind of, uh, her ca her cancer at the time. And this actually allowed for us more time to be with her and spend. So that was kind of, and like, it was only about two months into that, that she passed. And so, you know, not doing the channel and not having that stuff, you know, we couldn't have done the channel. We would have been wrecks, you know, like it was, so we needed the time off. Uh, and it, that was like a growing experience going through that whole time. Like, I needed to be, like, alone. Like, everyone handles death differently, right? And you know, like I needed alone. So like I spent four months down here in the basement make building this room because I was because I was and but it was uh, Therapeutical for me because I had time to just be with myself. No one was bugging me Hammer, hammering away at nails and doing drywall. And sometimes I would come over and distract him. But it was like, it was like a, I don't know what you call it. Maybe a monastic practice or something. Cause everyone was sort of in isolation. It was coming off the tail of COVID and then it was just sort of grieving and building a studio at the same time. And then came out and re showed up on the scene. And that's kind of where we went from there.

Rahul N Singh: 6:34

That's very impressive. And, and it came at a point where, you know, you're in kind of, you're actually dealing with what really tests someone's spirituality. The grieving process, I think there's no bigger test than having to deal with a loved one's demise and to come out of it, and nobody would guess, I mean, I wouldn't have guessed that that happened to you guys, I mean, you're so happy and cheerful, and I think that's the meditation practice you've done before, I think all that on Twitch, it proved you for that moment, like it made you ready for that moment,

James & Justin: 7:14

To be honest, you know, I per, I can't speak for him, but I found during that time it was hard. It was harder to meditate during that time. Cause it's so, cause you're really with yourself at that time. Right. And like, you've got all this, you know, coming at you about, you know, you know, you're going to miss her and she's going to be gone. And like, cause we knew, like the writing was on the wall. We knew it was, it was time. She was going to pass. And, and it was just like facing that was, was tough, like at that, at that time. And so meditating is hard, so it was like I took on a new form of meditating by swinging a hammer. It was like, it was just a, but yeah, it was just interesting time. Yeah. Interesting how that all came together.

Rahul N Singh: 7:58

Yeah. Well, in a beautiful way, I would say you so that's very interesting. And whoever gave you the advice also, that obviously has proven to be fruitful. that's really good. How would you both define spirituality and what does it mean to you both on a personal level? Obviously there's one thing that we show maybe on screen. There's a certain persona that's shown there, but personally in our daily lives, how have you, allowed yourself to remain spiritual? Staying spiritual?

James & Justin: 8:35

Yeah. Ha ha. Um, well, I think, uh, uh, people have asked us this before and I feel like this is something like an understanding that is continually evolving in my life. The, this understanding of spirituality and it's multifaceted. So maybe a few things that I could pick from it. One thing that really stuck with me was an interview that we had recently when someone we were talking to, uh, said that it was kind of like this act of surrender for them. And I've really felt like that spirituality feels like the practice of surrender almost, to this reality in the life and the control that we try so hard to, uh, you know, will our realities in a certain direction and letting go of that almost. Um, which is, it's a daily battle. It's something that I go through every, every day. But it's, uh, become more apparent to me that that is definitely one of the facets. And then another one, it's like the act of practice of trying to connect with the reality itself also is like, know, where do you fit into all this? whether it's the physical or, you know, the, the, the unseen. What is my role in all this? Where do I fit into this? And, and. How do I play into this? I don't know. What about you? Uh, well, the first episode I was ever on at the end, just like as a cheeky line, I said, stay spiritual, like stay classy, like Ron Burgundy or something. the channel used to be called Coral Living. Yeah. Yeah. And then I, I kept saying that every time I was a guest on the show. And, but in terms of spirituality, that's. It's kind of a tough answer for me because like, what is spirituality? I was thinking about it before we even started. And I, and the best answer I could sort of come up with is we cover a lot of different religions and a lot of different belief systems here. And I guess one word that kind of keeps showing up in religion and all these things is the idea of spirituality. It's almost like a, It's almost like something that finds its way through all these, whatever you believe, you're practicing spirituality. And so to me, I feel like it's a good fit. You know, what is spirituality? It's more of a question than it is, an answer almost for me. Like, yeah, we're, we're, we're staying spiritual because it seems to be laced through everything we do. So I, I know that's not quite a solid answer, but I'm not sure. I'm like James. I'm kind of still, you know, Figuring out what spirituality is, you know,

Rahul N Singh: 11:12

Yeah, and

James & Justin: 11:13

that way, whatever it

Rahul N Singh: 11:14

no, no. And I think you're kind of right. think the moment you define spirituality, it then stops being what it is. Uh, what we do is we have, uh, we, we conceptualize it and then it becomes another belief system, which could become limiting. Uh, so I think having the open field, uh, is kind of better than, you know, keeping closed.

James & Justin: 11:42

It's almost like the, like the show could be called stay enlightened, you know, like who knows what that is, know? Uh, but nevertheless, it's a reoccurring theme and it's, it means something it's we're trying to do

Rahul N Singh: 11:56

Well, you know, the Advaita Vedantins will agree with you if you say stay enlightened, because Adi Shankara Ji said we're all enlightened. And, uh, um, so, um, that's really cool. So, that's a perfect segue, because you've obviously I've done a lot of reaction videos to different belief systems, different spiritual teachers. So are there any specific, uh, spiritual teachers or traditions, you know, have had a real significant impact on your life and even on the channel? If you wanna talk about both actually on the channel and in your life.

James & Justin: 12:34

Uh, well, yeah, for, for sure. Uh, it is pro kind of probably been a progression, you know, my whole life I feel like I've been involved in some type of spirituality. We were raised in the, in the church growing up, right? So we, you know, we read the Bible, we prayed, you know, we were, and we had a, like a five day a week kind of a church practice. Like we were at church all the time. We were one of those very involved families. Um, because we lived in a small town and I guess there wasn't much to do, but like that definitely had an impact on our, our, our lives. And I, you know, I don't want to give it too much of a hard time because I think that there's, there's some, some tough stuff that came with that, but there was also some good stuff and a lot of learning through, you know, kind of finding my own way. And then I feel like, uh, in my life, I probably. Like, uh, as I left my family and be, and started my own family, um, I probably went into kind of some type of a neutral state where it was like, I really wasn't, didn't have my mind on spiritual things. It was more about just like getting the family up and running. And then as that kind of stabilized and there was more time to think, I started to entertain New ideas like non duality. But at the time I probably would have said, still up until even my, maybe my mid thirties, I would have said, I'm, I'm a Christian. Um, but then, uh, after, but then I started studying other fields of philosophy., Constructs of like, uh, consciousness evolution, like spiral dynamics was a big one that had a kind of a big influence on my life, helping to see kind of where I was at, in, in my evolution and then like figuring that out. And then, you know, I started watching Alan Watts and Terence McKenna and listening to people that I would never listen to before because I was in an isolated bubble. Like as a Christian. I didn't, I don't, I didn't realize until after kind of like exiting out of that, how much of a bubble I was in. I was in a very isolated bubble, like, uh, and not, not that I only went to Christian venues, but it was like I had this invisible barrier over me that didn't let new ideas permeate. Um, and I don't, I don't know how maybe, maybe it was Justin here kind of being able, like he would come to the table with new ideas. And because he was my brother, it felt safe to kind of entertain them maybe. And then, uh, I would, you know, think about them and question them and be like, Oh, okay, that, you know, that's different. You know, it made me feel a little bit uncomfortable, but then, uh, the more I spent with it and, and questioned and did stuff like that, I was able to kind of get out of that bubble and opened me up to a whole new world of ideas and concepts and beliefs and. Kind of very liberating, actually. I think maturity played a bit of a role because, you know, it seemed like there were many times when I was growing up where in the middle of the party, I'd be like trying to have some deep discussion about things, you know, and I guess I was just happy because sort of for me, how it worked is it started off in self help. I was looking into different people talking about self help and then I found a guy that was breaking off from that and getting into deeper subjects and then metaphysics and I would come and do my thing and rant and James was actually receptive to what I was saying and then one person became sort of like two two similar minded people and to answer your question about who is a teacher that I revere I kind of take the position of trying to have many wise counsels. There's a lot of people I like. The people you mentioned, you know, Alan Watts, and even obscure stuff, sort of like Terence McKenna, some of the things he said, and I take everything with a grain of salt. I'm not like a devotee of anyone in particular, cause I like a lot of the stuff Osho says. He's one of my favorite, you know, uh, Rajneesh and, and, uh, just lately I've, I've been learning a little bit more about Ram Dass and even learning about Neem Kroli Baba, you know, there's not much. teachings out there to actually get. I think there's some audio clips of him saying Ram, Ram and stuff like that. But I exposed myself even to that. I'll listen to that for a little bit because he was such a significant figure, you know, like there's something to that guy. And I just watch even the videos of how he moved and what he was about and stories people had about him. But yeah, uh, you know, Sadhguru, there's like so many good people. And without being off the rails devotee to any one person, I try to take everything. All those wise people say, and then just turn it into something new. I like the idea of alchemy. Taking all these things. I love the idea of piecing together seemingly unrelated things, even. And, you know, and then maybe that's what turns into spirituality itself.

Rahul N Singh: 17:39

Wonderful. So you mentioned Osho, what kind of reaction do you get from your audience with him? Uh, because it's a very mixed crowd, I think.

James & Justin: 17:49

Yeah, a lot of controversy. But it's, it's weird because people tend to stick to their guys. That's what we've noticed. Like, like if say we do a reaction on Islam and it's like all Islam straight down the board. When we do something to Hinduism, it's like every now and then one guy will jump over to like, Throw a, you know, try and start a fight. And I, usually I delete it because I don't want, it's not what I'm looking for. But for the most part, people kind of stick into their lanes. But I have noticed recently, which I'm excited about is people from other faiths starting to watch the other content that we're doing and being respectful and kind of like, you know, still sharing their own, you know, like, like I feel this way about it. But I see what they're saying and that, that is one of the goals here. It's one of the things I love is being other people, being able to see other people's perspectives and just, you know,

Rahul N Singh: 18:52

Yeah. that's good, man. Uh, because I've, whenever, you know, you speak to some, speak to someone about someone, so I would say divisive as Osho, because for some reason he, Tick people whatever reason,

James & Justin: 19:08

Yeah.

Rahul N Singh: 19:09

if actually people listen to his message, I don't, he was a huge influence on me in the sense of getting me out of the confusion from the spirituality that we followed as kids and also what we learned at school through the Bible, it, you know, the gods kind of meshed up and got, got me confused and Osho was a great tool to just deprogram And and, uh, I, and I think like now I never listened to Osho, but I would never say, um, I think you kind of, you kind of grow out of him in a way, but I think that his, his whole purpose.

James & Justin: 19:51

see exactly what you're saying. And the interesting thing is like in the Bible, there's a, there's a story where. God uses a donkey to convey as a message like a prophet, you know, and the, and when people would analyze that when I was growing up, they'd be like, see, like God can speak through anything. And I, I tend to see it that way. You know, I, I'm not hook, line, and sinker with everything. Anybody says really. know, Osho has said some controversial things, but I like the idea of shaking things up, you know. There's even lifestyle choices that he criticizes that, like, I don't have any plans on not engaging in. Like, you know, he was, you know, he was a very controversial figure, but I think part of what he was trying to do was to get you to think a little more deeply about what you're doing. know, why are you, why are you living in this lifestyle? Why have you chosen to live this way, you know? All right. I just think that that's, if you take it with a grain of salt, it can be helpful.

Rahul N Singh: 20:46

Yeah. One of my uncles, he was he took sannyas, I think, under Osho. Uh, he definitely was a follower, devotee. And, uh, I would say whenever I sat next to him, I literally felt like I was sitting next to the ocean of awareness.

James & Justin: 21:06

Wow. awesome.

Rahul N Singh: 21:07

and it, and that for me, I was like, no matter what people may say about Osho, but I just got to experience someone who was a devotee and, and, And he just emanated that energy. I don't care what people think. He transformed someone I know. Um, personally, you know, it's a kind of, I know that he was a bit more kinder to the Indians, uh, in terms of what they could do, like they could just do meditation. I think with the foreigners, he used to say, you know, they need to do therapy and meditation. Um, although I think now he'll probably say everyone needs to do therapy and meditation, if he was alive Um, but the other thing about Osho was he was very critical about, you know, A lot of gurus. And I think today with the kind of, there is a massive guru market, no matter what people may view, but I do question how many of them would have stayed in business. If Osho was still alive.

James & Justin: 22:05

Right. Right. I always find that bizarre, because I've noticed this a couple of times is Gurus criticizing other gurus or something. I'm like, what is that about? it's not, I don't even think it's just him that I've seen that before. I'm like, that's an interesting little feature, you know? I don't know what that reveals. You know, that some of these guys saying wise things, doing helpful stuff, but every now and then it's almost like there's a guru competition or I like, I want to see you all get together. I know. Let's have a conference. Have a deep Yeah.

Rahul N Singh: 22:38

Yeah. Um,

James & Justin: 22:39

love to see Sadhguru, you know, talking to some other contemporary guru, like on the stage. I think he's probably done stuff like that. Maybe he's talked to, um, what's his name? I can't remember his name. Scientist, spiritual scientific guy. Yeah.

Rahul N Singh: 22:54

I don't think he's, um, I wonder if he's done it with Deepak Chopra.

James & Justin: 23:00

That's who I'm thinking

Rahul N Singh: 23:01

but I don't

James & Justin: 23:02

I don't know.

Rahul N Singh: 23:02

I know Swami Sivapriyananda Ji's chatted to Deepak Chopra.

James & Justin: 23:07

Yeah, Maybe I'm just thinking that because Deepak Chopra kind of does the circuit. He's he's talked to a lot of different

Rahul N Singh: 23:12

yeah, but he's also, uh, someone who would probably be like, oh yeah, I don't really want to associate with this person. I think he's one of those as well, but very cautious yeah, I don't think Satguru ever has. And I think there's a good reason why, um,

James & Justin: 23:28

He'll do Joe Rogan,

Rahul N Singh: 23:30

yeah, and there's a big reason, and I think it's because he says he's never read scripture. Now, if you're going to speak to another guru who's read scripture, they could put you on the spot. And that,

James & Justin: 23:40

Yeah.

Rahul N Singh: 23:40

you know, I think better off with the celebrities, to be fair.

James & Justin: 23:44

I know. And I've seen things get like, cause he does, I guess, or at one point did a lot of what looked like college venues sometimes it would get a little heated, you know, or somebody would be passionate in the audience. Which is interesting to see like, you know, sometimes when you see gurus or masters or whatever, they're in an isolated environment. It's like easy enough when you're not challenged. So it is cool to see somebody challenged

Rahul N Singh: 24:09

yeah, I agree, I agree. I know that. So I've done some rather, I'd say they're negative reactions of Satguru and to be fair, his, I'm going to call them fans, because that's what they call themselves. Um, they're the most toxic ones I've faced.

James & Justin: 24:31

Yeah, really? He's got a mass following. has like a, he's got some hardcore following. Like, is he's like, I don't know. I get the impression that like out of the gurus, is he like the biggest of the

Rahul N Singh: 24:43

Right now, I would say he's definitely the biggest, um, Yeah, I would say he is the biggest. In fact, there is a bit of guru competition going on now, like, you know, he does the Mahashivratri events where he does it like for 12 hours.

James & Justin: 25:00

Yes, in front of the giant head in the back, Shiva head in the background. It looks cool. does look

Rahul N Singh: 25:07

I think is his face without the beard, in my opinion, uh, that's my opinion. Um, but yeah, he, he, he's in competition with, um, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar the art of living guy. So it's like, it's just really funny that I think they're both were in competition with each other, uh, and they both

James & Justin: 25:30

on, assemble like the Avengers.

Rahul N Singh: 25:34

it's a civil

James & Justin: 25:35

Gurus assemble! Blow a conch shell.

Rahul N Singh: 25:40

so, yeah, it's really, it's really good fun, um, seeing when they do give pot shots to each other, I think it's kind of fun, like, J Krishnamurthy used to do it to Osho, Osho used to do it to him, but I know that if they ever met, They would have been cool.

James & Justin: 25:57

It has to be. If they're that wise, it's got to be like, all right, come on. You know, I'm still sort of thinking about your uncle there that what you said, I hope it's okay if it, if this goes either way, you know, uh, just inquiry wise. Yeah. Um, but I'm, I'm taken aback by the idea of being around somebody that Literally emanates some kind of a presence because I've heard odd things, you know, I've heard remarks like, oh, so and so was so intelligent being in the room with them. You could sense their intelligence or, you know, so and so is so full of love, you know, like love is like pouring out of them. It's a, you just want to be in their presence and near them. And I'm not sure exactly I've ever experienced anything quite like that, you know?

Rahul N Singh: 26:44

my question, I'll ask the question back. Have you ever been, um, in the company of any gurus at all? Like in physical, real life type of thing?

James & Justin: 26:55

The closest thing was a Vipassana retreat that I went to. But to be honest, I was probably more creeped out than I was, like, attracted by it. But I'm just being honest. It uh, yeah, yeah. And I'm not even saying anything bad about it. I'd say, like, if people want to go and do that thing, go do that thing. But There's there's not my cup of tea. There's some temples nearby that we've like my wife has just pointed out to me And she's like well you could go get there's some places I'd like to go to get an experience that because I've literally heard it said as advice like go find an enlightened being and be Around them. Yeah So it's that's it interests me that whole idea, you

Rahul N Singh: 27:36

Yeah. I mean, whenever I've been, so, um, Like with my own guru, he's the Nirankari Babaji and now even his daughter now, who's the head of the spiritual organization, they do carry this energy of love and it's very, it's very hard to explain, like when you're in their presence, you, um, not only do you feel an expansion, but you feel like You can literally feel love vibrating in the air. It's just, it's crazy. And you can feel grace, you can, like, it becomes very tangible. And it's unexplainable in terms of how that even happens around people like them. Yeah.

James & Justin: 28:18

a vibe, right? Like, you know, sometimes when you run into somebody that's given off bad vibes even, or, you know, and then I'm just imagining it taken to the degree you're talking about and it's, it's super fascinating, you

Rahul N Singh: 28:30

And when, uh, and recently when I met, um, Swami Sarvapriyananda in Atlanta, when he came for a retreat, even then, like he carried this energy, a very humble energy and again, very giving and you could see it in, in him.

James & Justin: 28:47

Pretty hard to deny, I imagine, like, okay, that's, this is the real stuff, you know. But I think about, you know, it's interesting because there's people that you can tell are sort of trying to, trying to give off that vibe with lots of gestures of, you know, mystical gestures. And then there's the real deal. And then you look at footage of somebody like Osho, who almost seems not very compassion through camera. He just seems like very calm and still almost like he's not moving sometimes. Um, but people are seem like they're gravitating towards him and they, people that have been around him talk about his presence. and so, yeah. Yeah. I just to re reiterate, I have not yet been around something that significant where I would walk away and be like, I feel like I'm, you know, I'm, I'm in a different state from being around that person. Yeah. I harnessed a new energy by being around you. Yeah. Yeah. You're like your uncle or whatever.

Rahul N Singh: 29:43

And so I had a conflict when it came to Sadhguru. So I met him twice. I went to,

James & Justin: 29:51

Oh, really? You've seen a lot of people,

Rahul N Singh: 29:53

in London, I met him. We met him twice. Once, uh, I was on my own, then once with my wife and he, first time, You know, he was trying to make it big at that time. So it felt genuine, like he did really good meditation. It was all about, you know, being meditative. Then the second time, it felt like it was a show. It's just, and it was like, it was a 180. And, and then it

James & Justin: 30:28

wonder if that's, I wonder if that has something to do with the fact that Satguru is like such, so in the world, you know. He, a lot of the stuff he's doing is great, you know, like it looks like he's even terraformed some areas and You know, raised this, the, the level of different communities he's been a part of, which is amazing, but that's a lot of interface with the public, whereas some, some of these other people seem to be like, you know, have all this time in silence and, you know, cultivating that consciousness. Well, the bigger you get, I don't know, the bigger you get, the more, the bigger the schedule gets, the bigger, the more handlers, the more handlers you have. And then. You've got a Sheila and Osho going on because you got people like you. It's true, but it's a balance, right? Yeah, so Sadhguru is on top of it, and he's he's in the world. He might be more worldly I mean, I've even noticed myself during times where I've been able to Get a little hermetic and go off on my own and meditate It's like I can I can get to a place where I feel pretty blissful. But then you go out into the world and the world's the world, you know You There's footage from that Osho documentary where the prosecutor is like, didn't have the same impression. Wasn't like, you know, oh, his love was radiating off. He was like, that was pure evil I was in the room with. He was, I was creeped out by whatever that was. So it brings to mind, you know, perspective on things, you know, where you're, what eyes are looking at what, you know, and how that plays a

Rahul N Singh: 31:57

The second time around, I was really looking forward to it because, you know, one, you know, I have my wife next to me, I was like, you know, this is Sadhguru, you know, we see him on YouTube all the time and, um,

James & Justin: 32:07

awesome.

Rahul N Singh: 32:08

And then when it just turned out to be a flop, it was like, Whoa, um, uh, at first you don't want to believe it either. That's the other thing, because , there's him, uh, I'm trying to think if there's anyone, there's, I don't know if you ever checked them out, the Radhaswamis, he does a lot of Q and A's now, after COVID, he put on YouTube, a lot of his, uh, Q and A's. They're pretty good. He does a bit of it in Punjabi and Hindi, and English. And, we met him and he has a presence as well. I don't know whether it's the thing with the big beards or, you know, or what it is, man. But like, um, they, they do carry, um, a lot of good energy, but those are the only teachers I've kind of met. So far, but yes, regardless of whether one has been a negative experience, there's been positives with all of them. The main important thing, but yeah, I would advise man, like definitely.

James & Justin: 33:04

I definitely want to. I like, I would love to do it with James and, and, uh, you know, go meet one of these people. Um, it sounds interesting, but I like that you said, you know, even in joking, you said you got the long beard. There's a lot going into it. Like when you look into something like a practice like mentalism or hypnotism or something like that, there's so much priming that goes on and I, I can't not pay attention to that. So if I go into a room and it smells sweet due to incense being burned and there's, there's spiritual music being played and I got to get in a lineup and he's elevated, you know, even when we're growing up in church, we're looking up at the preacher. You know, that's already communicating something on the subconscious, you know, which is why I say sometimes to people look into, look into, um, hypnotism, you know, study what hypnotism is all about, because you'll start looking at advertising differently, you'll start looking at all the things you take for granted that are coming in there, carefully designed to capture your attention in specific ways, you know, and if there's a big setup, and you know, I'm, I'm, I'm in some level, my consciousness is, So this guy has been influenced greatly by something. Nevertheless, I still want to meet somebody like that. Uh, and I'm going to heed what you said. Take it a little more seriously.

Rahul N Singh: 34:21

just give a bit of, um, a logistical side about the stage being higher. Like I've asked that question as well. I asked it personally my guru, like, why is your stage so high? Um, and he says, it's according to the crowd. If I know there's going to be a hundred thousand people, I need to be higher so they can see me. Um, otherwise,

James & Justin: 34:40

I'm not criticizing it. I, it does make perfect logistical sense, but nevertheless, it's still, you know, if I'm looking up at a guy and there's a big bright cross behind him and he's, You know, speaking down to me,

Rahul N Singh: 34:52

yeah.

James & Justin: 34:52

figure, it's whether I like it or not. I'm kind of like

Rahul N Singh: 34:57

But you should have that discernment. I think it's very important to have that discernment,

James & Justin: 35:02

Right.

Rahul N Singh: 35:02

That's what Sri Krishna guided Arjuna to have, and I think it's what we should all have. Um, yeah, so that's

James & Justin: 35:11

Does it matter if you, you know, like you're looking up to them and then you meet them and you're like, I'm taller than this guy. Maybe I should be giving him advice. No, I'm just

Rahul N Singh: 35:19

I've never had that problem, I'm quite short, so

James & Justin: 35:23

Right. So that's what I'm saying. I could get confused if I was up on stage and somebody met me and they're like, wait a sec, you know, let me tuffle this guy's hair.

Rahul N Singh: 35:33

That's really funny. So this is, uh, that we kind of talked about this in terms of skepticism about gurus, but one thing, I would like to, and I think you've kind of honed in on it, but I'd like to elaborate a bit more, like how do you handle the skepticism, uh, or criticism about spirituality or any of the beliefs that you talk about that you react to, both from kind of within your own community of stay spiritual, and then even outside of it, Cause you kind of know who's regular to your channel, right? So you know them as your community, then you have the odd person that's probably checked it and they come in with a, like a nasty comment or a lovely comment. I mean, bird

James & Justin: 36:18

it was so disturbing in the beginning, first couple of nasty ones, we were like, what are we gonna do? And then you kind of build up a thick skin. But it was so funny how like the first ones, you know, yeah. I don't know, someone had left a comment recently and it was because we had I think We've done, we've done a few Muslim reactions and we then we, we did one on a kind of new age video that, uh, library of Toth one, which is, and they were like, Hey, you're so gentle and easy on, on the, you know, the library of Toth one. Mm. And, and I feel like you're so critical when you do like a say one on Islam or something like that. Yeah. And I said, look, I said, you know, well listen, we listen. I'll listen to any comment. I'll be like, Hey, I'll, like, I'll think about what you've what you've said, you know, I'm, and I'm not going to get all defensive. I'll think about what you said. Um, and, and, and I even actually said thank you for actually watching a video outside of your, you know, your, your Muslim train of, of, uh, of thought. But like, uh, I tried to be open to be wrong about the, about certain things. I am where, I'm at where I'm at. I've just, I like, and, and I try to keep the door always open to to being able to see something that I haven't been able to see before. Yeah, I, I, I hold my beliefs loosely. Yeah, like I have beliefs, I have things that, you know, and, and morals and, and things that I, Believe in and follow, but I, I'm not, I don't think, I don't know if I'm absolute about anything. Right. It's one thing to take, you know, kind of constructive criticism. It's another thing to be like pigeon held into what somebody's saying you should think. Yeah. Um, and I agree with your take on it. You know, it's some of the first videos we did were wild, you know. One of the things I like about this, and you know, you kind of have to cultivate a little bit of bravery for is, They're watching us develop too. You know, they're watching us as we learn and we grow and just some embarrassing stuff that I've, you know, rants I wish I wasn't so harsh about, you know, and then coming to the, you know, in your question of like, how do, how do you take where people are at? It's like, I'm gonna tie this all together, but there's sort of an interesting story. I don't know how true it is, but it's this idea that if a one monkey on an island full of monkeys, one picks up a A piece of fruit and washes it in the ocean, all of a sudden, like magic, all the other monkeys start doing the same behavior, you know, emblematic of like a, a hive mind type thing. In some sense, I'm so impressed at, at people's coming to their own conclusions on their own path. Like we disengage for a while and then we, then they're coming to the same realizations I'm coming to. And I'm like, Oh, I'm not that special. A lot of people are realizing this. I wonder if there's an awakening going on. And in another sense, I get frustrated at stuff. That I wish was different, you know, um, so, so yeah, I'm, sometimes I'm impressed at people's ability to accept, but. Taking in constructive criticism, it's yeah, you take it and you go, okay, like sometimes the comments are, are funny even, you know? Oh yeah. Remember when our mic, our mic was off. It was funny. It was like, it sounds like you guys are in a bathroom or something that. It was like, we were like, we like fixed our audio the next day. It was like, but yeah, you know, that was good. Criticism, even though we were like, Oh God, I'm glad he was so harsh with us because we fixed things. I would just hope that they would keep watching and see as things gentle up, you know, like it's at some point you reach, you come to the conclusion, like, what would I rather do? Yell my opinion at people or see that everything's, I'm in the process too, man. I don't know. I could change my mind. What am I going to be passionate one day? And just like. You know, change my mind. That is what happens. It changed my mind about some things. And you must know, like being on YouTube, you have to have a little bit of a backbone to be able to take some of the criticism that comes, like, and I, like, I would go to other people's channels to read their comment sections. And I'm like, I don't trust any comment section that is all like, great, you're amazing, fantastic, super awesome. Like, I'm like, okay, come on now. It's like, like you never get like any criticism ever. Like I try to leave the, I try to leave the criticism sometimes. Like if it's not too harsh, like if they're just being, you know, because I don't want to be deleting everyone's comments. Okay, yeah, maybe I do need to work on that. Maybe I do need to change that or be more open minded to, to, to something. Yeah.

Rahul N Singh: 40:51

That's interesting. Uh, and I do agree. Like when you, like, I've got a lot of, especially the Neo Advaita stuff that I did reactions to, man, I got so much hate from their, like, I don't know where they come from, like their guy who they must've been following, must've told them just bombard this channel and, they would just, um, yeah, they were just, uh, really like just. Write a lot of bad stuff and they'd be like, you know, you don't know non duality and I'm like, or, you know, you're too, uh, you're too much, you're too, too much with the words and I'm like, okay, so what was the person who you was listening to? They were speaking for an hour. Was that not words? Um, that is, it's really interesting. Um, but yeah, the fact,

James & Justin: 41:44

aspect.

Rahul N Singh: 41:44

but the fact that you got a backbone to take it, you do need that with YouTube and you kind

James & Justin: 41:50

and it grows it grows over time, right? Because you know what? It's good that the channel kind of grows at a certain pace because you kind of build with it, right? Like you wouldn't I don't know if you you would even be able to take it if you went from like 100 subscribers to 100, 000 subscribers tomorrow with that influx of people you know, that'd be hard because like I said in the early days was like it'd be like one mean comment and we'd be like Oh but do we have to change something? You And it was like, now we kind of like, we like, we work with it, you know, as it comes, right. And I think there's something to be said about not facing the comments when you're not in a good headspace to do it, because sometimes the weirdest thing will bother you, you know, know what I mean? Like you'd be like, what the, I'm all paranoid from that weird comment that zeroed in on something. Um, but at the same time, there are times where I think about Joe Rogan's advice. He's like, don't look at the comments, you know, there's a time to not look at it, I think.

Rahul N Singh: 42:46

Yes. I do this thing of, just checking them once a week. So I just check and then respond to anyone that I want to but I take my time. I don't like to react straight away to something. Unless it's positive, then it's very easy to give a

James & Justin: 43:04

Thumbs up. I don't want to hear the good ones sometimes. James will be like, we got a really good comment. I'm like, don't tell me. I don't want to get an ego.

Rahul N Singh: 43:15

then with the bad ones, I'm like, let me just wait because maybe, uh, you know, if I say anything, it'd be harsh. So when it's a week later, I'm normally really sarky. back. I just don't take him seriously. And then I think that pause helps me and it allows you to be a bit more disconnected from your video as well, uh, which important because yes, you put a lot of time and effort into it, but at the same time, That's not your baby anymore. It's YouTube's baby. And, yeah,

James & Justin: 43:53

here because I usually handle a lot of the comments. Yeah. Yeah.

Rahul N Singh: 43:57

and that's something that I got from Cal Newport he, he's into the whole deep work, slow productivity type of thing. And I'm like, okay, that's a good way to not get my mind messed up about it. And constantly checking. Cause, uh, I found myself doing that as well. So I'm like, let me get out of that headspace and focus on more interesting stuff and

James & Justin: 44:21

Let me go read somebody else's bad

Rahul N Singh: 44:23

let me, let what they've done there. So yeah, that's cool. I'd like to know if you have any kind of like favorite spiritual practices or rituals that you may do,

James & Justin: 44:36

Uh, well, for me, I'm, I'm, mine would probably be considered boring, but meditation is probably my biggest, that depth, that changed my life in a certain, in a, like, if you really think about it, for me, it was, that was a big stepping zone. Although over the years, like I went from, there was a guy that I was a following and he suggested that like, you know, you got to do it every day. You know, for like the rest of your life or something like that. And so, and I was like on that train. I did like, I think I did like a year and a half where I didn't, I didn't miss a day. And I committed to 20 minutes, 20 minutes, at least 20 minutes a day, every day for about a year and a half. But then I also, as I was listening to other spiritual teachers, they were like saying that, you know, you don't want it to become that now meditation rules you like, and so now I kind of, you know, I do it less now, but I use it as I need it, you know. More for me, it's like I wake up in the morning, a lot of mornings I wake up and I'll just, I'll do it 20 minutes right there. I'll sit up in my bed, put the pillow behind me and I'll just sit there for, and that's kind of how I start my day. Some days, not every day. Um, or sometimes, sometimes I do it in this room. But meditation has been, I've noticed how it's helped me. How it's calmed me down. And I was in a tough spot at that time. Like, work wise, I was feeling very anxious. Just with my career and stuff. And it really cooled me down. Like, it simmered me down. I like what you said about don't let the meditation turn into something that rules you. Which is almost comical. I had a counselor slash therapist person literally laugh out loud one time when I said, like I was trying to find healthy ways of chilling out and I was, I got Zen gardens. I was like, I'm like addicted to Zen gardens now. And he was like, that's so ridiculous. Like, but anything can become something like that can become like something that you feel you, it becomes an ought, like I ought to, I have to. Um,

Rahul N Singh: 46:41

Mm

James & Justin: 46:42

That's weird. Anything, like, like you said, weird things can become spiritual practices. This might sound weird. Editing my videos. It is the, it is the thing that I am by myself. Everything goes off during that process for about an hour. When I do every video, I sit down and the mechanics flow. I go into like a flow state where it's like, and I just, for that time there, I'm off. Yeah, that's, to me, that's a meditation. Flow states, even flow states can be powerful. I, I know somebody that takes that stuff very seriously. Um, and the means by which they enter into their flow states is unconventional. But, um, and I've done weird, weird stuff. I'm not like, sometimes I'm on like, sometimes, like, uh, Yeah, they talk about like on Joe Rogan, they always talk about like going on like the, you know, it's sober October and they don't like touch anything for like a month. For me, like I did like a bunch of years in a row where it was like I did like eight months off of like, you know, no booze or anything like, and then like 10 months and then like, and just like staying away and fasting, intermittent fasting. I've tried, you know, jogging, getting up at four in the morning for two months straight, like weird stuff. I'd like to, I kind of like to do that type of thing. Um, to just rock, rock what I'm doing to kind of shake me out of just the mundane of the same repetitive thing constantly over and over again. Be a bit, I think I would be an advocate of being sort of experimenting if you can, you know. There's something to be said, to be said about devotion alone, you know. You, oh, I think it was you actually opened my mind a little bit to that, like the significance of devotion itself. But in conjunction with that, I like the idea of being a bit of an experimenter. You know, there are times where I'm consistent with the meditation. There's times where I do a lot in a short period of time and see what that yields. Um, practicing things that I don't even fully, you know, know everything about. You know, like I might read a little bit about even something as obscure as witchcraft. And to dabble a little bit and see what the fruits of that are. And then, and then, uh, something that I know, you know, like if I heard of speaking in tongues, I might like try to do that or do oms, you know, saying oms or, you know, recitations and all these different things, try it and see the effect it has. Um, I think that that's one of the things I'd be an advocate of. Other than that, um, out of nowhere recently, I started being a vegetarian. And people are like, well, why are you doing this? And I'm like, I don't even really know, maybe just to see what will happen. It gets talked about an awful lot. And that has yielded its own insights of what happens when you just change your diet to, to something. You know, that gets often discussed in some of these things. And I try not, I try not to be like, I try not to take a road of like, I'm going to do this thing and I'll never do it again. And I'll never do just, we, we are pretty like, where it's like, I'm just doing it. I'll just, we'll see what happens. Yeah. Just like, instead of putting all that pressure, like this has to now become something that you got to do for the rest of your life or getting really, You know, just be moralistic about it like everyone else should be doing, you know, you know, now you've just handcuffed yourself. Now you're strapped to that thing for the rest of your life, you know, just, you know, what, what, what are you feeling? What, what are you trying? That's our approach anyway. Yeah, that's at least, yeah, I mean, it's each their own. I understand there is value in like, I picked this one thing and I did it my entire life. Fasting, to me, fasting can be like a pretty spiritual thing. Practice, you know, uh, you can, you can glean some insights from fasting. Actually a big one that I, I'd like to mention a little bit about is I think there's a lot to be said about imagination, you know, because sometimes you'll, everybody talks about things and people will go off about certain experiences and I'm like, well, I'm, I couldn't just objectively say I'm having some awakening experience right now, but I will go inward. Like. In an allotted time, like, you know, with reverence and be like, what would it be like? And I'll try to get a sense of that. And I'll use mental imagery. It's pretty remarkable what the mind can do. You know, like there's been times where if I was ill, I will do practices like invent practices. Like I'm going to imagine healing moving through my body. So it's a mixture of visualization. It's not guided by anyone. It's just a mishmash of things I've picked up. And all I can say is sometimes the results can be pretty remarkable. You know, you can step out of a long meditation or whatever you call it, visualization session, and be in a pretty, pretty good state, you know, and then you're like, man, I wish more people use their imagination for positive things, you know, rather than unconsciously and just telling yourself negative things, consciously tell yourself beautiful things and nice things. And, uh, and then all of a sudden, some of the things you might have a proclivity to do unconsciously, like addictions and stuff like that, would be, you're less apt to compulsively jump to something like that. You're like, I've got a lot of power in my mind here. If I can carve out some time to go inward and, you know, And I'm the master of my domain. I can think whatever I want here. I can even imagine I'm doing the thing that I'm abstaining from and see what happens. It's, I don't know if that's profane or, you know, probably not something that somebody's got a severe problem with, but it's just meant to, to reflect. What I'm trying to reflect is the power of the mind. you, if you just don't, write it off as, ah, it's not real. It's just in my mind. It's, there couldn't be any reality to this. It's like your imagination is pretty darn powerful, you know,

Rahul N Singh: 52:36

Yes.

James & Justin: 52:38

that's my

Rahul N Singh: 52:38

Ah, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. An amazing answer, by the way, from both of you, because one, I think rituals are very necessary to have, and then at the same time being spontaneous with practices. I liked what you said about imagination, I, I don't know if I want to talk about this, I could get in trouble, but I'm going to do it. Kind of be vague, but you're kind of going to get what I mean. There was a time when my dad was going through some rough, a rough patch and like in his health. And, uh, I had read the Guru Gita, which is a text, it's a Shaivite text. So from Lord Shiva's, kind of, uh, domain, I would say and they tell you about how to do like, uh, they say, you know, say your guru's name and do the mantra that your guru has given you. And whatever negative things have been going on with that person that you're praying for, or for yourself, it's going to go back to the person who's giving off, you know, black magic or negative energy or whatever. And, you know, One day my dad had this kind of episode and, you know, I sat down, we did this prayer, and then lo and behold, I find out that the other person suddenly has the same problems that my dad had. I'm like how is this even possible? And this has been twice when this has happened and the results are crazy. Um, and I know it's pretty dark stuff, but like, there's a certain, Like you're talking about like frequencies that we probably don't see, I probably don't, uh, I don't talk about it much because obviously it's not, um, important in Advaita Vedanta, but when it comes to like practical life, uh, yeah, what would you do in that situation? Um, not that I wanted to harm the other person, So yeah, it's just crazy. Again, the power of the mind, yeah, it's there. Like you have to be I think even like to sit down and meditate. I mean, one, you also have to then be detached from any practice that you have. Right. Because as you said, brilliantly, if you say that this is the only thing you're going to do, you're going to be like, kind of stuck it for the rest of your life. So that detachment is really necessary. I love that, man. I really do. yeah. Anything more you wanted to add?

James & Justin: 55:16

Oh, I just, yeah, I'm jiving with what you're saying. And that's, you know, that's like a paranormal event that you described there. And, you know, I think, I guess some of the influence of like being in the Christian church and learning about the character of Christ. You know, I was thinking recently about the turning water into wine thing. And backing off of what I was saying about the power of the mind, I'm like, you know, If you really got a handle on this, like, transmogrification process, this alchemy process, it might be to you that water is wine might as well, you know, nothing is beheld into being any one way because I can, with my mind, do all kinds of things, you know. And the power of, uh, the manifestation power of the mind, right? It's interesting when you mentioned the process that happened and it's like, There's a reality to that. There's a reality to some of the dark stuff that goes on. And then again, I think about what Christ's approach to that might be because he said, you know, pray for your enemies. And so that's another spontaneous thing you might decide one day is rather than stewing in this person that offended me or something like that. What if I literally, I hope that they get what they want out of their thing. I hope everybody's heart's desire is met because I don't know. I, you know, all this stuff is very subjective. What I think is good might be wrong for somebody else, you know. And so just, you know, going through all this stuff through the course, through the course of your life, you know, using your mind to its full potential.

Rahul N Singh: 56:47

Yeah. It's, it's really amazing stuff. So this is a good one actually for you guys, because I love the whole stay spiritual thing. So how do you navigate the intersection? between spirituality and everyday life.

James & Justin: 57:04

what? That's a, that's a, that's an interesting one that you bring up because we, it's been a little bit of a tumultuous month with us. We've been mulling over basically since the last time we talked to you, even. It's hilarious, you um, cause, uh, I don't know if it was on or after we were kind of talking about honesty and like, It had mostly to do with, like, our development, where we are consciously, and And like, you know, and we were kind of being hard on ourselves about where, you know, we are and it is tough when you watch consume the amount of content that we do and then you go out into the, to the real world when you're brought down to reality really quick, you're brought back down to reality really, really quick. Um, and, uh, you know, there is a little, you have to be able to like, it's, it can be tough some days dealing with that. It's like, well, I'm back at my job and I'm handling, you know, You know, it's like there's not spiritual tasks. It's like there's overarching lessons that happen for a period of time. Recently it was like, there was all these lessons that had to do with truth. Cause yeah, the last time we spoke, we, me and you were kind of riffing on, on truth and the significance of it. And then behold, the month following it, it was like all these lessons, you know, challenges to, to this concept. Prior to that, I feel like I was, I was challenging with the notion of arrogance. It was like an overarching theme. You're gonna learn a little bit about what's going on with that and so that followed for a while But to answer your question a little more directly, you know in terms of like how does it coincide with your day to day life spirituality? There's been times where if I'm consuming a certain kind of Information might be spiritual might be sort of pseudo spiritual Things can line up and then life can almost take on a almost like a spooky effect. You get bizarre synchronicities. You know, we may have talked about this last time like well, that's so crazy. Right as I was thinking about that I just so happened to pass by a sign on the road. That was like the thing I was thinking and You start to feel sort of guided by life. That's an event that can happen. So in one sense, it's like Depending on where you're at consciously and spiritually, everything in the world reflects, has a lesson in it, and is reflecting, you know, it's all one big process and development. One mind. Um, and then in another sense, like I agree with James, sometimes it just takes you right down to reality. Sometimes it just take you down to, I'm offended now. I can't like, I was so high and mighty, you know, walking around, probably offending people like Marie Antoinette, but here's another thing. And I think, you know, let, let everybody eat cake. Here's, I think here's a good, here's something that I think some, some people might miss and you know, you can take it or leave it in terms of like it's usefulness. There's no like force that says you have to be like ultra spiritual at all times. You need to like, I'm actually an advocate, sometimes you need to unplug and just go be regular. Go be just regular. Because you need a break. You don't need to watch one more spiritual video. You need to like, just go play Monopoly or something. I'll go on five ayahuasca retreats. Dude, go play basketball with your friends. What are you doing? Because spirituality is not going anywhere. And you can come back and grow at your own pace, man. Yeah, I agree no it's like It, it's, it's just there. It's like, so yeah, that's all I wanted to say. And 'cause some people feel like that, it's like the persona almost that they gotta keep up. They gotta like, no, just like, take a break, come back. Mm-Hmm., you know?

Rahul N Singh: 1:00:59

I, I, I, vibe with that

James & Justin: 1:01:03

yeah, me too. Yeah. It's almost like, uh, sometimes it seems like the, your consciousness is, is oscillating, you know, there's, I can't speak for everybody here, but sometimes it feels like, man, I. You know, I feel a little more spiritually in tune. I feel like my, my consciousness is a little bit more just higher in consideration of all things, you know, higher in empathy, my, you know, things feel open. I feel in the, in the way. And then other times it's like, you know, you get a sense of closing in, you know, a narrowing of everything and, you know, yeah, a little more grounded in the earth, dealing with more earthly things. And I completely agree with your advice there that. Don't feel bad for being like, okay, I'm not doing one more lecture on consciousness and You know, space cadetting myself to a zombie. It can be good having your consciousness grow and expand, but it can also be painful and challenging all at the same time, living in a world that, you know, may not be growing at the same rate. You, something, a light bulb goes on that you now become aware of something that everyone else ain't aware of, and now you're in it and you're like, oh no! And now you gotta like, it's gonna take like, it might take a few months to figure out how you're gonna like, resolve that. And like, and, and, uh, you know, just to, so that, you know, you feel more at peace with yourself because you didn't know you were, you weren't conscious, you weren't awake. You woke up in that space, you know, like, I'm here now. You know, like, you know, you're on the Viking ship. You're like, I don't wanna be a Viking anymore. I don't want a pillage.

Rahul N Singh: 1:02:41

nah. I kind of, um, I do agree with that too, because I kind of like the mundane stuff sometimes, you know, um, you know, I, I think it's important to have a break at some point and everyone does have a break. Uh, the idea that even I, I truly believe even monks have a break. Um, I don't think they can be monks for 365 days a year, 24 seven. There has to be downtime. And, uh, I think, I think you may even see videos of like monks playing football or soccer as it's

James & Justin: 1:03:19

yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rahul N Singh: 1:03:20

yeah, yeah. And we're playing basketball. I think, yeah, you have to kind of, um, what appears to be non spiritual actually can be spiritual. If you're in the right mindset, so it doesn't matter if you don't see it as a spiritual thing, it can still have a spiritual effect.

James & Justin: 1:03:41

I loved that part in the interview you had with Yam where he talks about video games. And like an epiphany or an insight he got playing video games. I was like, yes, for sure, I think that you could be receptive to what you can learn. You know, even in moments like that.

Rahul N Singh: 1:03:58

Uh,

James & Justin: 1:03:59

It's all good,

Rahul N Singh: 1:04:00

like people get, like really, I don't know if I mentioned it with you guys, but like when people say, Oh, what kind of, what music are you listening to? And I'd be like, Oh, Eminem. And they'd be like, what? You? listen to Eminem? I'm like, yeah, why can't I listen to Eminem? Like, is is there something wrong with that and yeah, people just get super surprised that they think, Oh, I'm only going to be listening to like, Kirtan or Bhajans and Aum and yeah, like,

James & Justin: 1:04:29

sign maturity to me. It's like, Eminem might be your favorite version of a very specific thing that does exist. I mean, it's God ordained. It's not like it has not had the ability to exist in reality. It's there to observe. there to, however you take it, you know. Um, I think that that's a sign of maturity. I think that earlier on in your walk, you might be like, Oh, I got to abstain from all this stuff. It's I got to stay on the path, but you know, later down the road, you might, you might be like, I can, you know, I can, I can not be tarnished by everything that comes my way. You know, I don't need to be policing every single thing. This is a diverse world and there's lessons in all kinds of different shapes and forms.

Rahul N Singh: 1:05:13

Yeah, like, I love watching cinema watching movies in general, you know, and I know there's some gurus that will say, oh, you know, you shouldn't watch films and cinema, whatever, but I do, I actually like being immersed, um, and sometimes I like to watch the deep stuff like Christopher Nolan's movies, but then I'd also like to watch, I don't know,

James & Justin: 1:05:39

silly.

Rahul N Singh: 1:05:40

I don't

James & Justin: 1:05:41

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Rahul N Singh: 1:05:46

I just, I don't mind, you know, like, I

James & Justin: 1:05:49

Same here. Yeah, it's, it's funny because you've got to imagine, yeah, like some of these people where you only get one version of them, you only get the version of them where they're, you know, they just came out of like, okay, I've been in silence. I'm perfect. right, wheel me out. And I'm going to be hyper spiritual. It's like, yeah, right. Yeah, right. Like you didn't get diarrhea last from chimichangas. right. Like you don't, Listen to Metallica, you know, and not that I'm not that I would balk at somebody if their advice was you should unplug from all these worldly things. I think that that can be advice. You know, I've known people that are immersed in dark content and I'm like, Get some good going. You know, you've got, you can, we know you can handle death and gore and violence. Can you even handle sweetness and gentleness? And it's like, oh, come on, man. You know, you're not very balanced then.

Rahul N Singh: 1:06:46

Yeah, yeah, no, um, I totally agree.

James & Justin: 1:06:50

I think we're on the same page here.

Rahul N Singh: 1:06:52

yeah, we are. I mean, I think, I think for me, it's because I don't divorce everyday life with spirituality. So I think, I refuse to separate them. Uh, so what, yeah, someone from the outside might be like, well, he ain't that spiritual, you know, the so called bearded mystic, look at him, you know, watching, uh, I don't know, I'm trying to think of some movie. Like a scary movie. Do you remember a scary movie? Like, that's so slapstick.

James & Justin: 1:07:24

Oh yeah, yeah.

Rahul N Singh: 1:07:25

I look at him watching a scary movie. Who does he think he is? And, um, that's me. I mean,

James & Justin: 1:07:33

And I even laughed. I even laughed at it.

Rahul N Singh: 1:07:35

Yeah, Um,

James & Justin: 1:07:37

tiny hand.

Rahul N Singh: 1:07:38

Yeah. Oh, that's hilarious. Uh, yeah, like, I just think it's really normal to do that. And you always find, even in comedy, there'll always be one thing. Which is actually pretty spiritual, you'll find that one thing, like even with my little one, I sometimes put on Tom and Jerry for him, although he's only six months, he's starting to grasp certain things now, um, but like even watching that, I'm like, oh yeah, that's teaching, um, that's teaching us a lesson, that be nice to everyone really, uh, yeah,

James & Justin: 1:08:18

Right. It depends on the interpretation of it. And if you're exemplifying somebody that would come to that conclusion, I think that that's going to rub off and it's totally likely. And I very much agree that there can be messages found in anything. It's like, man, if all the content and all the writings in the world were poof and vanished, we would find new ways of cultivating wisdom from what is around us. Um, and it can be found in anything. I've talked about, you know, like I had realizations watching Seinfeld for Pete's sake about being an authentic person. You know, what the, what that could be. It's, it probably depends on just how, the level of consciousness you're applying to whatever you're doing. You know, if you're mindlessly gobbling something up, it might have a negative effect on you. If you're, if you're practicing some consciousness, you know, awareness, then, you know, You'll be able to cultivate something from anything, I believe. You'll be able to pull something from anything.

Rahul N Singh: 1:09:18

yes, I totally agree. I totally agree. Um, so this is, uh, an interesting one as well. Like, uh, I don't know how much you do this, but it's good to know. Would you like to recommend like any books, podcasts, or any other resources for someone who's looking to kind of get introduced with spirituality, and not necessarily deepen it, we don't need to go that deep yet, but like, just introducing, because I can tell you, that's sometimes the most difficult thing to find, the best introduction.

James & Justin: 1:09:52

I, I guess I would just sort of say sort of similar to what we were just talking about in terms of finding inspiration and finding guidance from literally anything, like I happened to cross a YouTube video recently of a guy that sort of reminded me of my dad. And he was just sort of like a. A quaint little guy that was showing his book collection and he pulled out Tom Bombadil, which is like a side character from the Lord of the Rings. And there was poetry in this like, you know, not advanced, not spiritual, just a work of fiction. He was reading some poetry and there was something sort of just spiritual about it. So I, and it reminded me of something my dad might like. So I got it for him for his birthday with like a little book to write his insights in. All of that to me could be Practices in, you know, inquire, self inquiry and, you know, self realization and spiritual, spirituality in general. Like, what I'm saying is I literally think it could come from a Berenstain Bears book. Like a children's book might give you some insight. A pop song could give you some insight. It, it, it really depends. Like, so to pick a specific, like, book that I returned to over and over again, I don't know. I don't have a specific thing. Sometimes I'll pick up the Bhagavad Gita and flip through it a little bit. Sometimes I'll pick up the Bible or look up a digital version of, of any kind of spiritual text, you know, like just literally Google it on my phone. Why do I got to hold the book and look at scriptures? You know, the content that I consume on YouTube even, it's like a lot of spiritual talks, and I can do other things while I'm listening to It. I can go for a walk, I can sit, sometimes I'll close, I'll cover my ears and my eyes, and just listen to what the teacher is saying. So, just many different avenues for the truth to come in, and I don't, I don't discriminate from anything as necessarily more valid than the next You know, but at the same time, I, that means I take reverently what I am listening to and what I am exposing myself to because it's all significant. There's all a reality to it. But I don't consider one book necessarily more holy than the next. I see it for what it is. Who wrote this? You know, oh, kings wrote this. Who wrote this? You know, devotees of this person wrote this. And I just try to think of it in that, those terms, you know, like in as much context as I possibly can. And then in a sort of non dual way, like, you know, if the universe is communicating to me here, it, it's, it's going to come in from all sorts of sources in all kinds of different ways.

Rahul N Singh: 1:12:28

Hmm.

James & Justin: 1:12:29

That's, that's the best I could do for that. I think it's, it's a tough one, uh, because everyone's unique. They got their own, uh, experience in front of them. And I can only speak from where I came from. And at the time what I was going through. I was coming out of Christianity, and for someone who is closed minded, a guy like Joe Rogan opened my mind to being open minded.

Rahul N Singh: 1:12:56

Hmm. Mm

James & Justin: 1:12:58

who is trying to transcend his Christianity, a guy like Aaron Abke's podcast helped me feel safe. Uh, like learning that there was something outside of Christianity and the parts that you could kind of take and understanding Jesus from a different type of a perspective, which kind of brought safety there. For a guy who needed some personal development in his life, there's a, uh, like a, a guy who I can't believe isn't more popular, but I, maybe I guess I kind of get it, but Leo Gura. I don't know if you've ever heard of him. He's like a, he's a spiritual psychonaut now, but he's been off for like a year and a half. He left into the wilderness somewhere, but his podcast was very transformative in my Uh, it's called actualized. org on, uh, his videos. And, uh, He's like, he can be a little much if you start midway in his journey, it's going to be too much, I think. So you got to like, I went back and watched from the beginning when he was just into personal development, followed the journey the whole way down. Um, but I'll, um, some of his videos changed my life. Like, like I've watched them multiple times over and over again. Um, Uh, and he's controversial because of the psychedelics thing that, that, that, that he did. Uh, a lot of people don't know how to take, how to take that. Um, so it was like, uh, I, for me, a holistic approach was needed. I needed to see different perspectives from people coming from different areas, and they all had their own little lesson to, to, to teach me. Some person might need to sit under one guru. For and just wholeness so it's not for me to say that I'm just can only give you you ask the question these those are the People that helped me but between the two of us. We've consumed some like there's like literally like the power of now Yeah, radical honesty Sorry

Rahul N Singh: 1:15:04

Tolle.

James & Justin: 1:15:05

Yeah, yeah, like a lot of the classics, you know what I mean? The things that are on people's reading lists that you should read, a lot of those things, I'm just trying to look back to see some of them that are there. I got my, my Spiral Dynamics book back there. That's a big one. That actually, for people, like, who are thinking about spirituality or getting into it, go study, I'm like, go study some Spiral Dynamics. That, like, will help you understand the world and people. Way better. The Alchemist. Have you ever heard of the book The Alchemist? My wife got the graphic novel version of that given to her as a gift. Like, it's like a comic book of that story, The Alchemist. And the person that gave it to her was like, I don't know, people say this has got like the secret of life in it. Here you go. And I read it and I was like, that was pretty profound, but it wasn't even in, its, it was in comic book form. You know, there's something about that. I just, you know, we could, we could list off books and books, right? Yeah. You know, Ralph Wal Emerson, myself right now, uh, the book of Not Knowing By Yeah. Uh, Peter Ralston. That's another good, good one. Non-dual book. The Art of War. The War of Art, yeah. You know, like there's a, there's a bunch of books and a lot of them I listen to on audio book too, you know? Yeah. Many of 'em were, were listened to. Yeah. I listen to audio books. When I'm in my car, I'm probably like outing myself, but I like, I listen to tons of like YouTube videos, but I just listen to the audio. I don't need to see the video. Yeah. I can just look up something that's in cycles, calls, notes, let it play. People that do reviews of stuff even, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like, you're like, ah, I've heard good things about this book. What does this giant video essay have to say about it? And it's Mm-Hmm. It's got everything. It's a good day to be alive. You know, like it's a good time to consume information.

Rahul N Singh: 1:16:52

yes, yes,

James & Justin: 1:16:53

wondering what the limits of that will be one day, you know, like, all right, we've, we've jammed a lot into our minds here, but we also didn't, we did a reaction. I think it might have been a Sadhguru reaction where he was talking about that's part of the dangers almost with some of our youth is the fact that they're getting all this knowledge without any experience added on top of it. And so it's like, I don't know, it's dulling them down. For some reason, I don't know. Well, it's it there's a difference. There is a difference between practical knowledge and theoretical, you know, information. It's like they think they know everything because they've consumed so much knowledge and by the age of 20 already. It's like they've, they've been able to acquire so much knowledge that Usually took a lot longer to acquire in such a short amount of time. And then it's just like, what a weird thing. Right. You know, it's like, Hey, remember to go do stuff too. Like, yeah.

Rahul N Singh: 1:17:47

that's interesting. Yeah, that's quite true, um, yeah, while it's good that everything is at your fingertips, but at the same time, You know, you kind of need experience to back that up. And like, for me, it was, I always find that whenever I read something, it's more or less giving me the language that explains my experiences. Like when I read the Upanishads for the first time, I was like, Oh my, this is what I'm experiencing. This is what I can feel. And, um, and it just helped me have the language.

James & Justin: 1:18:21

The Power of now, like the time I tried getting through the power of now, I was like, what the heck is this guy talking about? And it's actually been a while. I could use to go back to that. Um, I think I've got some of Byron Katie's audio books. I don't know if you know who that

Rahul N Singh: 1:18:36

The Secret Lady,

James & Justin: 1:18:39

I don't know if she, I don't know if she talks about the secret. She's Byron Katie. She was just, her story is just, she was a woman that was kind of having a difficult life and had an awakening experience and then sort of had to restart from there. But the way she approached life following that, you know, put her in a position to be of a lot of help to people. And so interesting perspective on things. It's almost like she had a reset. It's almost like she went back to like not having all the things that a typical person with an I, we project onto reality with our self bias and everything like that. She came as an adult woman. She had like the mind of a child then re, re learned what everything was. But you know, it gave her this sort of innocent, insightful perspective on life. person. So many, literally so many.

Rahul N Singh: 1:19:28

yeah, I mean, that's true, there's a lot of them, but I think, yeah, the classics are really good, like, uh, The Power of Now, I think that's a really good one, uh, The Alchemist, The Prophet by, uh, Khalil Gibran,

James & Justin: 1:19:42

I was going to mention it, but I couldn't remember the guy's name, and I didn't know if it would be too obscure of a thing. The Prophet, what did you say his name

Rahul N Singh: 1:19:50

Gibran,

James & Justin: 1:19:52

Yeah, I have that, and that's another one I pick up sometimes, and you can flip to any page, and it's something mind blowingly profound in middle

Rahul N Singh: 1:19:59

yeah. Um, his stuff is really good. Um, and then

James & Justin: 1:20:06

was that guy? Who was that guy? Where did he go?

Rahul N Singh: 1:20:08

he was, I think he was Persian. I think he was Persian, if I'm not wrong. he did a lot of, in fact, some of it's like, uh. I forgot the name of some of the books that he did that were kind of just as equally as profound as the prophet. But yeah, in terms of accessibility, the prophet is brilliant.

James & Justin: 1:20:32

It's like poetry, it's poems and there's short stories in there. I got to bring that over to show you one time. I think it was at the top of Osho's reading list when somebody asked

Rahul N Singh: 1:20:44

Yeah. The books, uh, he had like, I think a hundred books I loved or something like that, I he had a series like that. Yeah.

James & Justin: 1:20:51

I could, I, I was like, I got, I'm looking for something to do. And I, by chance, that up and I was like, no way that weird book. My, my wife bought it one day and she was like, I don't know, this looks like something you'd be into.

Rahul N Singh: 1:21:01

Oh, wow.

James & Justin: 1:21:02

And, and it was that very strange, but cool book. It's, uh, yeah, going to have to read more about

Rahul N Singh: 1:21:09

Yeah. I mean, to be fair, when you read the prophet, it's like, um, I know it's kind it's weird, but that's how kind of like a teacher really enters your life. Like the way he like it's an ordinary person and yet there's something extraordinary about them.

James & Justin: 1:21:28

I think we, I think me and my wife sort of like, she, I think she got it at Costco. And came home with this like

Rahul N Singh: 1:21:34

Of all places. Yeah. That's

James & Justin: 1:21:36

right. And we came home and we were reading through it. We were like, what is this? And I think we tried to Google who it was. And yeah, it was like a regular guy or something that, uh, that, uh, like, as far as I know, didn't have a, like a following or something that. He was just seemed like a very interesting

Rahul N Singh: 1:21:54

author. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, he didn't see himself as anything spiritual, um, in that sense, like a teacher, but yeah, his books have been, uh, inspirational. Um, I'll have the final question. I know we've kind of ran out of time, but I just want to ask one more is, um,

James & Justin: 1:22:17

as usual. Every time.

Rahul N Singh: 1:22:22

Yeah, considering from our last conversation that you, and you, um, alluded to it today as well. How do you stay grounded and connected to spirituality during challenging times? And you know, you mentioned this month has been, that month's been pretty challenging,

James & Justin: 1:22:41

That's the hardest time, obviously, like, you know, when the challenges come to, but I actually I'm just gonna say my thing first, and I guess I'll hear what you have to say, but Um, I feel like I've finally sort of started to get some ground in that is to when a challenge comes and the tendency is to either get anxiety ridden or frustrated to actually be able to stop and be like, wait a sec here, you know, disengage here. Let's take a bigger perspective of what's going on here. That's probably embarrassingly recent that I've actually got some ground there. You know, but in that moment, yeah, applying some of the spiritual stuff, things that I've learned in terms of, you know, cognitive thinking, like, let me just sort my thoughts out a little differently here, take the pressure off, you know, rather than behaving unconsciously. Literally just being like, okay, normal me would unconsciously stomp mutter things to myself or who knows what, go towards some, you know, Self soothing behavior that's maybe not even in my best interest, but instead of doing all that, detach a little bit, relinquish that tight grip on life, and apply some consciousness that for sure I find that that has become more common as of, you know, just maybe the last year, couple of years even. You know, it's, it's finally started to like pay off in that way, which is an important way for it to pay off because that's when it, when all this stuff matters is not when you're basking in Shangri La, but when, when stuff hits the, when the rubber meets the road. Yeah. Um, I think, I don't know, maybe one thing that I've learned is that to not squander the good times. When things are good, that's the time to be on your spiritual game, because when things get bad, you kind of, uh, the autopilot kind of kicks in and you just, you're reactive more than like, I'm thinking about everything. So, depending on how well you were during the good times is probably going to reflect how good you do in the bad times. Bad times. Definitely. And I, I'm curious to know what you think about this, cause this is an odd one. In the same way as not being so reactive during troubles that come, not being reactive during good times, actually, like literally being like, okay, there's an opportunity here for me to be swept away and all like, you know, make my wax wings and fly towards the sun instead of doing that and plummeting afterwards, like staying grounded and be like, I don't need to get lost on a feet of fancy here. I can keep some equanimity or whatever the word is, you know, you know what I'm saying with that?

Rahul N Singh: 1:25:28

I'll meet you. As in a day is, um, I heard this saying before that, you know, good karma or bad karma. Good karma may be like a golden walking stick, and bad karma may be just like a standard wooden walking stick. Both are walking sticks. And therefore, let go of both, uh, don't stick, don't allow any of them to get to you, uh, because you can have, yeah, with, oh, I do good karma, yeah, I, I do this, I, you know, I am feeding the poor, I'm going to the homeless out, you don't need, you know,

James & Justin: 1:26:08

Right. But, but that's an advanced lesson. I don't even know how you're supposed to convey that. The idea of, um, seeing just as what you said, seeing them both as walking sticks, a way to move forward. And, uh, that's a hard sell to actually communicate to someone. I don't let myself get too, too lost in hedonism. And I don't let myself get too in despair when hard times come. I That's kind of a, I feel like in our culture where everything's so sensationalized, that's a hard sell, but it's like Well, what else is there? You know, you know, at least be curious as to what is there beyond satisfying your your flesh and you know wallowing in turmoil like that what would in third option be residing in what you know, I think and I just think that that's sort of a profound vein of thought to go down know

Rahul N Singh: 1:27:04

yeah. And that's the way it is, um, but yeah, uh, I think, I think personally, you both have done a great job in, uh, as I've said, always in terms of reaction videos, they're always like kind of on point, I think, uh, well, they kind of match with the way I would see it as well, so it's never like, oh, I disagree with them, it's like, most of the time, I'm like, yeah, I think all the time, I'm like, yeah, it's, That's how I would see this, um, and I think not only is your channel very effective, but even when it comes to like today in this conversation, I've literally felt like you both are literally grounded and connected in spirituality, whether someone will view something as spiritual, that's, that's their interpretation, but, I really felt that in this conversation and I've learned a lot, some things I'm going to go back and think about actually, um, from this conversation. So I truly appreciate the time, that you've given me here. Before we go, although I'll link everything in the video description, but how can people connect with you and and yeah, and stay in touch with you. Most importantly, stay in touch.

James & Justin: 1:28:21

Thanks so much for those kind words and right back at you, like, yeah, this is always great. Yeah, I love the, always love these conversations. Right now, our, our main, uh, the way, the main way to get a hold of us is just to on our YouTube channel. You can leave comments, our emails on the YouTube channel if you need to. Email us or, uh, you know, cause some people do, they have suggestions and stuff. They like to email us. Um, but yeah, YouTube right now is mostly where we're at. We do have a TikTok, but maybe in the future we'll be expanding to some of those, to more platforms and stuff. It's just time, you know, uh, We're, we're busy guys, family lives, and all the other stuff that's going on. Um, but yeah, that's, uh, the best way to get ahold of us is just through the YouTube channel. And we love to have you come check us out. Yeah.

Rahul N Singh: 1:29:15

Thank you for being here and we'll see you soon. Take care. Namaste.