Transcription
Hello and greetings. This is the first edition of an "on-line" video that is done with one person for an hour. So, you're probably familiar with on-line formats; you've seen them before, but this is something I've wanted to do for a long time, and well, today I finally found a way. With a dear friend, for an hour, about private matters, about personal issues, about life experience, and if any guidance is within my power, I'll offer it, and we'll talk about all these matters. Today on the line is Ghazal. Hi, dear. Hi. How are you? Good, good, thank God. First, I tell all friends that we haven't spoken yet. I have no idea what you're going to talk about. I don't know what your question is, and this actually—the way it happened—I very briefly posted a link on Instagram, and you were the first person to click on that link, and well, I'm glad I'm speaking with you. Whenever you're ready, start and let's go to the topic you want to discuss. It's an honor for me too, really, to be speaking, and I strongly believe that for your opportunities you have to run, and I ran. [Laughter] Well, Hossein dear, first of all, let me say that I started meditation with you, and it was after my first breakup, when losing that person—because it ended very hard for me—I started returning, actually, to spirituality, and I am very, very grateful in my life in general, and because of that, they say "grateful"—"grateful land" if I'm not mistaken, I don't have a drum to hit, but I personally see within myself that I am going to be very successful in life, whether in social media, financially, or in the other paths of my life, and I am sure of this matter. I can't explain why, I just know that I am sure, and the numbers I see for myself financially—numbers that for some might be astronomical—but for me they are very achievable, actually, and there are times when I can very beautifully—maybe I haven't said it in Persian—quantum leap and reach what I want, and my brain becomes completely tuned to actually receive it, and I see this in my physical life. For example, there was a week when I suddenly positioned myself to receive, and I made several thousand dollars, and then I disconnect, and then I don't know how to reconnect, and this is really bothering me. I've figured out some things about where the disconnection lies. For example, when I drank alcohol—I'm 26 years old—I would disconnect, and I started drinking at 18, from 2019, that is, from age 19? I saw my disconnection, completely quit alcohol at 19, and when I say completely quit, I mean not even a champagne, a shot, a drop of alcohol since then. Then again, after I broke up and before getting to know you, I started smoking, and now I'm probably going to confess this, but on social media I also became known as a girl who smokes and sings, because I am a singer, and I also put aside smoking because of this disconnection I felt, but still this disconnection happens to me. That is, one week I am exactly that Ghazal I want to be, I see my higher self and get close to it, and then I disconnect, and I don't even know why I disconnect, and I don't know how to return; it's as if that connection has become a miracle for me, but I want to, I want to be able to regain control of that connection. That is a very, very beautiful question, and I'm glad we're starting with this topic. If I want to give another name to this disconnection or cutting off, I believe in something, and that is alignment. When I am in alignment with the genuine flow of my life, with the beautiful and divine flow within me, good things happen to me, and when I am not, good things drift away from me. My feeling is that when I am in my rightness, when I am in my integrity—today we'll talk a bit about integrity—when I am in alignment, when I am in harmony with my genuine flow—everyone's genuine flow is something different—when I step out of my genuine flow, I completely feel it, how the world shows me that you're going down a dirt road. For me, the example is: when you're on an asphalt road, your car goes smoothly and comfortably, no problems at all. As soon as you leave the path and go onto dirt, bumps start, shaking starts, collisions start, your tire goes flat, a thousand kinds of trouble, expenses, and headaches arise. Why? Not because the road was bad, and not because you are a bad person, and not because you are unlucky; you just left the path of your elevation, the path of your essence. The few things you mentioned are very precise and correct. Alcohol is definitely one of them; it ruins your energy, takes you off your path, darkens you. We are not meant to consume alcohol; our body is not made for this, and alcohol is one of the most important tools of social control by governments, by media, by entertainment, by the Matrix. Actually, alcohol belongs to the Matrix. Alcohol is one of the tools for keeping people down and small. I, as someone who was involved with it, am saying it is one of the most destructive things we can do to ourselves. Now some people want to say, "Well, a glass of wine, a glass of wine for Passover is fine." I have a problem with that; I don't care. If you want to have a glass of wine with your meal, that's your decision. I'm telling the truth. The truth is, we were not designed to drink alcohol. We were not designed to smoke. We were not designed to lie. One of the places where you easily step off the path of elevation is through tiny, tiny lies, little lies—maybe we don't even call them lies: exaggeration, a bit of faking, a bit of playing with numbers, showing yourself a little better, a little fancier, a little more spiritual. One of the places where we easily step off our genuine path is exactly here, in the truth. Your truth. Look, the genuine path is the same as true reality. It's the way things are, and the way you are meant to be. Anything that is a lie is not this. Anything that is from the realm of lies, from unreality. What is a lie? Something that has no reality, something that is not truth. Well, anything in your behavior, speech, actions, anything in your thoughts that is not from the realm of reality takes you off the path. Well, there are plenty of things that take us off the path. Another one is spending time with useless people. Another one is spending time with people who are not good for me, who don't help me, who are not on the path I want to be on. Our heart is crystal. Our mind is glass. Crystal is transparent. It itself [snoring sound] has no color. It takes on the color of its surroundings. If around you are people who are womanizers, playboys, who go to weird parties—it's not that they are bad, please be careful—let's not enter into any moral valuation, like if someone drinks alcohol they are a bad person. Please, let's not go into that space of forbidding wrong and enjoining right and all that nonsense; it's none of our business. Everyone does what they do. I know for myself what my reality is. Well, another thing that causes us to leave the path is this, and in various ways we can leave the path. One of the most important for me is being busy, being busy, constantly having my mind occupied, distancing myself from time with myself, from solitude, from silence, from nature. These take me down. I know myself. You know yourself. See what works for you. Maybe nature works for one person, maybe playing football for another. The important thing is to return to what is good for you, to return to what reminds you of your essence. Well, so these are plenty of examples. Now let me give a few more: watching too much TV and media, random Instagram with people you shouldn't be with, and these can easily enter the realm of good and bad, ugly and sinful and reward, all that nonsense which is useless. They are all of the nature of shame, and we run from that. We are not at all seeking to say that if you do this, it's a sin. It is absolutely not a sin. It just has results that are not desirable for you. That simple. If you like the results, do it. If you like being out of alignment, do it. If you like your car going on dirt, please be on dirt. Well, there are plenty of examples for it; I won't give more examples now, but if you want to talk more about any of them, we will. So this is the way you fall out of it, and there is a point where I have a slight angle with your statement, and I'd like to talk about it a bit more. And that is that you view the reward in financial matters and the aspect—as you say—financial side of the story: if I am in alignment, my finances flow in, I receive reward, I get a prize, and if I am out of alignment, suddenly I lose money, for example. This is a bit far from reality. Many times you lose money, but it has nothing to do with alignment, and many times you gain money, and it's exactly the opposite of alignment. Well, my guess is that you yourself know what kind it is for you; you're not speaking generally. So I want you to clarify this a bit. Do you understand what I mean here? A little—do you mean that money can come through a bad way and completely take your life out of alignment? Exactly. From grace—my point actually is that sometimes we think that God plays with us with money like a grumpy father: if you are a good girl, I give you this money, I give you this business, and if you are a bad girl, I take your money away, I don't let you buy a car, I don't let you use your phone, for example. God doesn't do that. We do that. We play these games. Alignment is a bit deeper. Let me tell you this way. Look, you have a genuine path. On that path there is growth for you, there is blessing for you, and there is—let me use the best word we can for it—prosperity. Let's replace money with prosperity. What is prosperity in English? Prosperity. Prosperity is in your health, in the quality of your time, in the quality of your relationships around you, in the quality of your connection with yourself and your God. Sometimes you lose money, your car breaks down, you have to spend a lot, an accident happens, you have to pay a huge compensation. That doesn't mean you have left your path. But if you only look at the material side, sometimes you receive signals incorrectly. Maybe somewhere you are going to lose a large amount of money, and that is good for you, but you interpret it as, "Oh no, I'm off my path." I want this [clears throat] clarity to happen. The only determining factor is whether you are on the path or not, just the energy of your existence. Look, when you lie to someone, how do you become unsettled? You get disturbed, agitated. How then a thousand other thoughts come to you? That is being outside of alignment. That is being outside of the genuine path. That is when you close your eyes, are you relaxed in your body like this? Have you seen some people are not calm; they have tics, they fidget. If you put them down for a minute, they start touching their ears, pulling their hair, messing with their hair, biting their lips, playing with their nails. These are all signs that they are not calm inside. A person who is calm inside can show calmness from their body as well; it is completely visible. Well, so remove the matter from the financial and numerical state and bring it toward: what is my feeling? Do I have prosperity in my life or not? Is my state like a healthy car going on the road, or not? Is it or isn't it? Well, and then let me give one more short point. There is a book called "Integrity" by Martha Beck. Please read this book; it helps a lot, a very good book. And in that book, very briefly, it tells you: the story is about integrity. What does integrity mean? It means being in working order, meaning doing the right thing. An airplane is an amazing machine. It takes off from London, reaches San Francisco—amazing. 300, 400 people in it are watching movies and eating, and it arrives safely. How is this possible? How? It is possible because all its parts are doing what they are supposed to do. It has integrity. The system works; it has integrity, it works correctly. The parts are correctly performing their roles. Therefore, the whole reaches San Francisco. Now, what about an airplane that is not integral? I hear what? An airplane with a loose wing, an engine sputtering, fuel not reaching, navigation broken—it crashes. It crashes. In life, exactly this: either we reach that place that is beautifully designed for us, all the way in peace and silence, we sit, the AC is on, the lights are dim, total peace, one is watching a movie, one is meditating, one is sleeping in tranquility—either we reach there, or we crash. And the determining factor of whether we reach or not is how much our parts are doing their job correctly. Now what does that mean? Look, in the whole set, it can be said "whole" — W-H-O-L-E — you are whole. Well, any action that takes you out of being whole is called "unwhole." Because integrity is unwhole. What does that mean? We call it bad, unholy, sin, evil—no, no, none of these. It just takes you out of wholeness. What is wholeness? It means I have 7 chakras. Each of these 7 chakras is in its place doing its correct job. I have love in my heart. My expression is honest. There is no lie in my speech. I have constructive thoughts. The energy of self-confidence is in my third chakra, in my solar plexus. My sexual energy, my feelings—all of them are in their place doing their correct job. Does that mean you have to put sex aside forever? No. Does that mean you have to be with only one person for the rest of your life? No. It means that when a situation comes up for you, for example, you have a not-so-appropriate sexual relationship with someone. Well, your heart knows, it tells you what the right thing is. Your higher awareness knows, it tells you what the right thing is. But your second chakra, which is your sexual energy, wants something else. You do that, you step out of wholeness. The seven systems are no longer stacked on each other, not working beautifully; they go out of balance, out of balance. It is not bad, it is not a sin. It just has results, and those results are not desirable for us. By God, this helps a lot. Mister, if you want to smoke, drink, go and do this and that, do whatever your heart desires, do it. Just know that these actions have results that you probably won't like. Now the question is: knowing that you don't like these results, do you still want to do this action or not? If yes, please go do it. If it's okay with you that your energy is low, that you have fogginess, lack of clarity, that you have fog in your mind, that your speech—words that do not come from the heart of a right-acting person—that there is lie and hypocrisy in your words, if you have no problem with these, do whatever you want. But know that those actions are not free and clear. That party you go to, you drink, smoke, sleep with someone, listen to pointless music, and put yourself in that energy afterwards. You come home, don't think the party is over and gone. The results of those decisions come with you. That marriage you stayed in for no reason—its results come with you. Wherever you do the right action, your system becomes integrated. Wherever you do the wrong action—wrong meaning what? An action that is not in alignment with your authenticity. Again, I love to remind that this right and wrong is not about ethics. Now, my friend, tell me a bit, say what you received from what I just said, and then which direction do you want to go regarding your specific question? It's interesting what you said to me, because I had categorized what I wanted to talk about in order to make the best use of the time given to me, and one of the categories I wanted to talk about was actually food noise, which I always have. I have a lot of problems with weight and healthy living, a lot of problems. I mean, 24 hours a day I'm thinking about food, to the point that at a weight of 55 kg I put myself on diet pills, on GLP-1, while my weight is not at all a weight that needs to be on medication, just to empty my mind. And if I could reach a point where I know, "Okay, the result of this pizza that I'm craving right now—if I eat it right now, what result will it give?" That food noise would completely disappear, because... But while I didn't talk about food like this at all, where I want to go now with our conversation is that I now understand what causes disconnection. Now—dict—a small parenthesis about food: don't say "I have a problem with food," don't think about it, don't talk about it—neither with yourself (since talking to yourself is thinking) nor with others. And don't start any topic about this as a serious matter and think about it. Obsession is created this way. I am obsessed; now I am completely obsessed—this is how obsession starts. Someone whose weight is normal—of course, I think later—at all, consider 5 kilos up or down, whatever it is. 35 kilos less? For me, what matters is that your mind is at peace, not that your weight is right. Because if your weight is that weight you think, your mind, since it has practiced obsession, will find something else to latch onto. Now why is my hair this way? When should I go get my eyebrows and beard done? Do my nails, put gel, go get a protest? Get fillers, do something? If the mind practices obsession, it will take us down. I'm very glad we reached this point, because it's a very fruitful place for discussion. Do you want to talk more about it? Let me say a bit, then I'll hear from you. Perfect. As someone who has a problem with weight, don't introduce yourself anymore. As someone who has an issue with food, don't introduce yourself. Turn your relationship with food, with blessing, with nutrition into a friendly relationship. And mindfully, whatever you want—if you want to sit and eat pizza, eat pizza mindfully. If you want to sit and drink alcohol, the same words we said before, drink alcohol mindfully. Don't turn it into something like, "Oh, I don't know what I'm doing, it just happens, it's out of my control, suddenly I start eating a whole cake." If you eat that whole cake mindfully, the next time you'll eat half, the next time a quarter, the last time you won't eat it, done. But if you eat it mindlessly and then suppress yourself, then reproach yourself, then feel shame, feel bad, "Why do I have a problem with food? Why can't I solve this? I meditate so much," turn food into a very trivial matter, something that is not worth thinking about at all. If your mind goes towards that—it's a habit. You're used to thinking about yourself this way, that you have a problem with food. For some it's their height, for some it's their money, for some it's their appearance. Everyone finds something to latch onto. Don't be a hook. Don't let a character be built for you, or build a character for yourself as someone who has such a problem. Ghazal, you are actually saying what I've wanted to say for years, and I'm saying it now. I hope to be heard. I tell this to everyone, and they understand it. You actually have no character. That's a very upsetting statement, but if you open it up a little, you'll realize. You have no predetermined character. You are not a flower that has dried up and gone out. You are a flower that is fresh until the end of your life and is malleable. How do you shape it? You, every moment, with your thoughts, your behavior, and your actions? That's it. Every moment, your thoughts, your behavior, your speech are shaping this flower. Why am I still thinking like I did 5 years ago? Because you are still giving yourself the same shape. Why am I still the same shape? The same shy character I had in high school—why do I still have it? You, who say "I haven't become," you, who say "I am fresh and malleable," why? So I still have the same character because the same thoughts are still shaping your character, shaping the flower. Like a separate lump—put your finger somewhere, it goes in, you push it out from the other side. Ah, so this "fresh"—I just need to stop thinking that I have a problem with food. I don't accept it. Food is my friend, from pizza to lentil soup, it's my friend. No food is my enemy. None of them have power over me. I have no, say, complicated feeling towards food. Very simple. A simple relationship. How do you do this? When the thought comes to you, relax your body. When it comes to you, relax your face. When it comes to you, tell yourself: I have exactly everything I need at every moment. I have no need for this pizza, for this thing I'm thinking about, and I have no problem with food. I am provided for, just as all the fish in the ocean have their food and eat just enough. No deer is overweight, no whale has body dysmorphia, no bird is worried about its next meal. No eagle sits thinking about what it's going to eat in two days. Every moment, as soon as you feel hunger, there is something healthy; you eat it. If you are present in your body, you experience true hunger. If you are present with food, you eat enough, nourish yourself, feed yourself, nurture yourself with food, instead of turning it into a corner of your character. Don't do this. You have no character. Not an artist, not lazy, not smart, not—no—not incapable, not, say, people-pleaser. Who are people-pleasers? Those who every day reinforce their people-pleasing thoughts, speak people-pleasing words, do people-pleasing actions. If they didn't do those actions, they wouldn't exist. Who are lazy people? Those who do lazy actions. Show me a lazy person. I'll tell them: from today, I kill you—from today, live the way non-lazy people live. Well, then you are no longer lazy. That's it. But we say to ourselves, and when we say it, we think we are just stating what is. Every time you say "I have a problem with food," throw away your pills, change your entire character in this regard, change your entire view of this matter. I no longer have a problem with my weight. Those who have scales at home—it's a problem for me, because why is it important how many kilos? Eat healthy. If it's one kilo more, don't get upset. If it's 5 kilos less, don't be happy. It doesn't matter. What matters is that your heart is at peace, your mind is at peace. When you create this state, food falls into its place. It becomes something for nurturing your body. Your body needs fuel for living, and part of that fuel is provided through food. A large part is provided through being in nature and being under the sun. A large part is created through exercise and movement. A part—do people all eat the same amount? No. Some people eat three times as much as normal, and they don't show any energy, don't exercise. Some people—by God, we should go see those who work in monasteries. From morning to night they are sweeping the yard, carrying water, bringing it down from the mountain, going to the spring, cleaning the room, meditating 4 hours a day, going to class, exercising, and they eat a bowl of lentil soup. How? Because the only way you receive energy is not through food. The sun is energy. Presence is energy. Then it's important not to have energy leakage. It's important that energy is not wasted. If you eat a kebab and then sit and gossip and backbite, that energy that was supposed to be absorbed by your body gets absorbed by gossip. Instead, if you ate a bowl of lentil soup and then sat in peace—what I do: every meal, whether it's the most beautiful meal at the best restaurant (I usually don't go to such places) or a simple bowl of lentil soup at home, before eating I sit in silence for 3-4 minutes, look at the food, give thanks: "Thank God, each one of these lentils, each one of this wheat that has taken shape, is Your blessing, Your grace. God knows how many hundreds of people worked so that from the wheat field it goes to the mill, becomes flour, becomes bread, goes to the shop, is baked, comes here, reaches my table—amazing. Thank God." You look at the food, see, eliminate greed. Greed is when I sit and immediately start stuffing. You command your mind: "Wait, wait." Well, because I like the discussion to be comprehensive, and because you yourself brought up this topic, I wanted to talk a bit about food, and now I'd like to hear from you about this same topic if you have something to tell me. Yes, I am very okay. My brain is 10% about the next, 90% about food. Why? Lie. I have a state called—we call it here "binge eating," and it's like this: I start and eat so much that it counts as self-harm, because when I get nervous—and I really hope no one experiences this—but when I get nervous, I eat so much that the inside of my mouth gets sores and bleeds. To that extent, I harm myself with salt and vinegar chips, with—I don't know—cheese puffs, anything in the fridge. And what I did was selfishness; I was so selfish that my whole family is not allowed to have certain things in the house: chips, chocolate, now anything that is bad—well, as you say, we don't have good and bad, anything that is, for example, sugar. But well, sometimes it gets out of hand again, and the only way I could partially control it was to fast. Now for 3 years I've been fasting, meaning I set my eating window from 12 to 8 PM, so at least after 8 PM, "Ghazal, there is no food." And this way, my brain no longer thinks about it; it only thinks about food from 12 to 8. But for example, today—and I am very skilled at calorie counting; I've been counting calories for 5 years. I know, I understand. Many people tell me this. I've been counting calories for 5 years, every single calorie, and the calories I eat are not few; alhamdulillah, I eat 1800 calories. But for example, another thing I could do to allow myself some leniency was to say: okay, if you want pizza, put it within those 1800 calories. That is, I eat pizza in a way that, okay, my daily protein intake is enough, and I stay at 1800 calories. My father is going through the roof. Honestly, respect for your effort. Sorry, if I were in your place, I would change my process and my view towards this matter. You're tormenting yourself, dear heart. You are 26 years old; this is absolutely not the place for such things. Calorie counting is the paternalistic game of Americans and Canadians to sell us a thousand damn devices and finally their useless pills. Don't do this. You yourself say at the beginning: "I want to achieve great success in my life." Suppose you become that top singer you want to be and make the millions of dollars you wanted to make. What if you're not happy? What if you still don't feel the joy and delight of life? What good will those things do you? The whole story was for us to have a good time. The whole story was for us to live with comfort, with peace, with a happy heart, not to suffer. Well, what you're doing is—my sincere advice to you is this: look, generally there are several methods for quitting habits. One is that I voluntarily and forcibly start doing certain things. For example, someone wants to quit smoking: "I won't buy cigarettes anymore, I won't see my smoking friends anymore." You can do all those things. Maybe your problem with smoking will be solved for a while, but either smoking returns, or you replace it with vaping, or you replace it with alcohol, or you replace it with Instagram. I'm not dealing with the action itself. I deal with the energy that does that action. The energy of that kind of eating is just one thing: the energy of not being in peace. You are—it's actually called stress eating. You are eating with stress. Stress—what is stress? What is stress? Not reaching your desires? Very good. I know what I've set. Very good. If I tell you that there is no such thing as reaching? There's nothing. There is no "place" at all. When you get there, you'll see that "there" doesn't exist. As someone said, "That place doesn't exist." When you reach it, you see that here is still there. You are living your dreams right now. You have everything right now. But for a day that might want to be bigger than today, I am ruining today with purging, or with smoking, or with alcohol, or with porn, or with Instagram, or with some other damn poison. You are already exactly—the point of enlightenment is that all the inner and spiritual work we do is not supposed to bring us one step closer to somewhere; it is supposed to bring us right here where we are. If the book "The Power of Now" by Tolle were here, it would say "be here now." When we say "here," what does it mean? Here, at this point, behind this desk, on this chair. This "here" is not the "here" of the cosmos, of the universe, of nature, of this life. Be here. Here is where? One day maybe a beautiful event somewhere—I want to hold a concert. If after the concert you came down and then started drinking alcohol and hated your life, what then? Aren't there many examples? If I were you, obsession—I'm very glad to be speaking with you because you speak very honestly, and you are very intelligent. You are a very smart girl. Congratulations. Thank you. Put your goal, instead of becoming a singer, on becoming happy, on being calm. My goal is to be able to enjoy my 3 days of life, to bring joy to the people around me, so that from me being with them, they can catch a whiff of God, and they too remember that you can smile this easily, you can sit this peacefully, you can just be. Practice being. Practice existence. Because we all talk, but when it comes to action, we behave strangely. We meditate to make ourselves stronger, to reach that place we must reach. No, laugh. Meditate to be here now. Meditate so that this second of your life does not get lost, does not go to waste, so that this second of your life does not become a tool for reaching something impressive, somewhere that is not even clear what it is. Nothing is waiting for you. Everything is right here. And if it's not here, it's nowhere else. You have to find it here. In the middle of your overeating is your path of growth, not on the concert stage. Your path passes right through your issues. Okay, work with your stress. What is stress? It means I have thoughts that are not reality. The book "Conversations with God" says: fear and worry are all that you are not. We are outside reality. Outside alignment. Outside harmony. Let me tell you: if you go this way, using meditation to manifest money, and you sign a $100 million contract, you will still be miserable. Don't let meditation become a tool for manifesting things that your mind wants. Let meditation become a tool for freeing yourself from the mind. What? Oh, oh, this just ruined everything, because I am—manifestation is wrong. Manifestation in the way most people do it—that "I have powers, my Kundalini awakening, so that afterwards I can go manifest a mansion for myself, manifest $100 million"—you are still ambitious. So what good did your awakening do? See, this is a very good discussion. Eckhart Tolle, when someone asked him: "Is it true that if I meditate, I can manifest whatever I want in this world?" He said: "Yes, but when you manifest, be careful to manifest real things, not artificial things, not stupid success."
Don't manifest reputation, don't manifest power, don't manifest a boyfriend, don't manifest love, manifest peace, manifest calm, manifest joy, manifest a smile from a state of calm, a night of peaceful sleep, manifest it. A body where, in the peace of your body's particles, they sparkle, vibration, vibration of peace, I send that, not that a house—well, any thief and scoundrel can go buy a mansion in Toronto, may I sacrifice myself for them, all those gentlemen scammers of the Islamic Republic are there buying houses for themselves, and no one, all of them, with cars of I don't know a hundred thousand dollars, go and come, and pour it at their feet like that. Well, that's not happiness, that's misery. Your money becomes one of your problems. Do you want this? Your money becomes—look, money has a soul. If your money doesn't have a soul, it's dead once in your life, and until the end of your life, like—excuse me—a mule, we have to carry this money all the way to the grave. Then, when we die and fall into the grave, those leftovers come and start eating that money that we ourselves carried until the end of our lives. Money must be alive. Let it be three thousand dollars, let it be full of abundance, let it be love, let it be a smile, let it be peace, let it be excitement, let it be laughter, let it be a piece of bread we eat together. Money has a soul. If you don't attain its soul, its soul is that radiance. The number of money doesn't matter. Its soul matters. Does your money have a soul or not? If it doesn't, you are creating trouble for yourself. Right now, at this age, at this goodness you have, pass through this, get past this. I don't want money. I want a blessed life. It's true that I have been conditioned to think these two are synonymous. They are not, they are not. A blessed life is a blessed life, and money is money. These two are not synonymous; they are not antonyms either. You can have both, but if you have a choice, choose the first one. Okay, I, to the extent that I—okay, even when I manifest, when I meditate—excuse me—for example, it's possible that I might need to do a love meditation or a peace meditation, but I don't allow myself that; I only do manifestation meditation. Maybe your path is that, to get what you want, you will understand this later. I hope we understand it sooner, and I feel there is a reason we are having this conversation right now. I also have a reason; it's as simple as this: get off the devil's donkey. That beautiful phrase in Persian: "get off the devil's donkey." In search of what? In search of money. Money is what? What if you had money but no love? What if you had money but no peace? What if you had money and were like all those miserable billionaires? We don't have enough of that in this world—successful, miserable people. I want you to become a manifestation of the beauty and face of God on earth. Not that everyone who sees you sees the glitter of jewels and Gucci bags and I don't know, some damn belt and snake venom, and you become a symbol of materialism and a symbol of the world's problems. You should be a manifestation of God. Someone sees you and says, "It's like I've seen a tree, like I've seen a mountain," says, "Ah, how [clears throat] one can be beautiful, how one can be calm, how one can be light." Have you seen some people? They move like feathers, they move with the wind. Some people, with their nights and tables and necklaces and clinks and watches and so on—you are actually praying against yourself. If you attain it, that's just the beginning of your misery. If you don't attain it—I really, on one hand, want you to attain it so you realize there's nothing there; on the other hand, I feel sorry because all this energy, all this manifestation—manifestation is no joke. You are manifesting something real. Manifest saying, "God, make it so that my eyes are content, that I am not after money," not "make it so that if I am after money, I attain the money." Let me tell you this: Marcus Aurelius, who is not a spiritual person at all—Marcus Aurelius was the emperor of Rome and one of the most insightful, smartest, and most beautiful people in history. He says, "God, there are two kinds of people, two kinds of men exist. One, when he sees a beautiful girl, says, 'God, make it so that I attain her and sleep with her.' That is the first kind of man. The second kind of man is someone who, when he sees that beautiful girl, says, 'God, make it so that I don't want to sleep with her.' This second kind is who I want to become. So that when you see a Lamborghini passing by, when you see someone wearing a shawl and a cloak, even if it's given to me for free, I won't take it for God's sake. I won't take it because it's not my wings, it's not my burden, it's not my state, it's not my business." And look, if that first man sleeps with that girl, well, the next day he sees another girl on the same street and has the same feeling, the same trouble. This game has no end. Again he has to desire, again he has to struggle, again he has to manifest to reach these girls. But the second man is done; he has moved on, he has become grateful. Ah, because I no longer want it; the collar of greed, avarice, wanting, and lust is no longer around my neck. Ah, I am relieved. Not that you attain what you want, but you reach a point where you want what you already have. The very thing that is. Ah, thank God. Oh, I have everything. That's why there are two kinds of spiritual people in the world now. Forget the non-spiritual people. Two kinds. One group of spiritual people—please, if you haven't listened to anything, listen to this verse with your heart and soul. The first group [clears throat]—listen, thank you, dear heart, I'm grateful; I know you're listening. The first group are those who use spirituality, meditation, and inner work to improve their lives. The second group use their lives to improve their inner work. If you've understood this, you've won. I don't want you to use meditation to make your life better, to reach the things you want. Use your life to make your meditation better. Use your daily life experiences, this overeating, that swallowing of money, that dream of becoming a singer, to deepen your deep connection. "God, what am I really after? God, what is good for me? Do I know what's good for me? No, You do. Whatever You know is for my good. Give me what is good for me." Use your life to make your inner work richer. Well, I've said all this, friends. I'd like to hear from you, see which direction you want to go. There isn't much time left, but really, it's amazing. I didn't understand how time passed; it's been 50 minutes. But I really ask you—you are at a very valuable age, you are in a very good place, and from here, you can either go toward the world and reach many things, all meaningless, or you can go toward God, reach some things, and everything there gives color, radiance, flavor, and taste—the taste of God. Right now, envision yourself at a crossroads. "I want to go toward the world," and if you look honestly, your mind says, "Yes, sir, yes, you say you don't want it, but I do. I want a Lamborghini. What's it to you? I know I'll be happy with a Lamborghini." Unfortunately, these kinds of people have to spend 30 years of their time, maybe reach a Lamborghini, and that too in installments, with debt and trouble and entanglements to sit in it, and then realize that it's just garbage. I really ask you to look at it this way. It's something designed for people who think like this. "What is a Fendi bag?" It's something designed, made—a Fendi bag that isn't worth $3,000. Now, I don't even know the names; I really don't know what a Fendi bag is. Okay, a good Fendi—yes, you're right. You're saying it's $3,000? Yes, it is. Well, a Fendi that isn't worth $3,000—everyone knows this. Or Fendi is designed for those who want to show, "We have $34,000 and we can spend $3,000 on a bag." Those kinds of people create a fake value, an artificial value, and place it on something that has no intrinsic value, and then make it a symbol to show their wealth to others. Well, you understand. [Sniff] But here there's a small gap. Let me say this gap: I'm not after that big money for Fendi and Lamborghini; I'm after something else. I am an entrepreneur at the age of 26, and I have helped over 30, 35 Iranians find jobs. The blessing this has brought into my life has been tremendous. My father is also an entrepreneur who has given jobs to over 300 Iranians. I want to reach that big money because I want to expand this blessing very, very, very widely. The only reason I want to reach that money is so that I can give without worrying about myself. But right now, I contribute a lot to charity. For example, if I earn $2,000, I spend $100 on charity, but it puts hardship on myself. I want to not think about it. I want to have a company, a brand, so that when someone comes—and I know that if I give $6,000 a month to this person, their mind is at ease, blessing comes into their life—I won't worry about myself being stuck in my car payment when I give $6,000 to someone. That's why I want to become a billionaire, because I know I can bring blessing. Why? Because I have brought blessing into people's lives. My friends, those who found jobs through me, have told me this. Ghazal, I have a friend here who even buys food from his mother for himself. He says, "Ghazal, every time you place an order, blessing comes into my business. Seven people order after you, even though I haven't advertised on social media or anything." And I want that to reach a very large scale. That is my true dream. Very well, why do you want to help people? Because of the very good feeling it gives me. This is very selfish. Yes, it is. It's true; it's not because of my feeling? I don't care about others. Look, I can tell you why you buy a Lamborghini—because it gives you a good feeling. Why do you help people? Because it's just a refined version of the same selfishness. That's right, I can't deny this. I can't. We use people to give ourselves a good feeling. That is true, and that's not the best help. Your best help is to be the healthiest, happiest, and most authentic version of yourself. If a fig tree looks and says, "The figs are small; people don't want figs." Who buys figs? "Sir, make jam—nobody eats figs. People like coconuts, give coconuts." Why? Because it gives people a better feeling. Because people become happy. People come, they eat coconuts. That's not your business. Maybe you are a fig tree, but you give coconuts. But you can only know that if you are a coconut tree. How can you know? You have to walk in the direction of your authenticity. Then people are helped, not because you help them. I have never helped anyone. People are helped through my words, my work—the work I loved to do. People are helped. Someone came and took it. I don't even know that person who is listening. Who is listening? I put out my podcast—what do I know—thousands listen. I don't know them. They are helped through the work that I would have done anyway. I don't help anyone. I have no intention of helping anyone. If people are helped, it's their soul; if they are not, it's also their soul. It has nothing to do with me. My point to you, this is a very important point: you will be abundant and you will help abundantly, and remember that your best help only happens when you are the healthiest, simplest, and most authentic version of yourself. Let me put it this way: it's attained through meditation, through everything, through a life lived in alignment with authenticity, through honesty, through doing the right thing. Sir, as long as there is trouble, I cannot create peace for others. If you want to serve people—excuse me, I'm being very direct with you—your stress issue: sit honestly and look at it, write it, go deep, see what it is that "I cannot stop." If you do that work on yourself, you will help more people than if you become a billionaire and then have a giving hand. Look, the best help you can give is to be the healthiest, happiest, most beautiful, and kindest possible version of yourself. That is a great help to the world. You are helping everyone with this—everyone, including yourself. Why? Because there are other people. And then let me tell you something. You think, for example, if you donate $5 million annually or give $30 million to someone, it's much better than that $100 you are giving now? No, it's not about the amount. It's about the energy, about the state, about the blessing. Now, the story—the story of Jesus. I don't have anything to do with it, but it's a beautiful story. Jesus was coming into a city. All the wealthy people of the city came and threw their money at Jesus' feet, saying, "Come, I don't know, money, gold, this wealth for you, this treasure for you, this precious goblet for you." At the end of the line, at the far corner, an old woman was standing. She had a lamp with a little oil in it. She said, "I only have this. This oil in my lamp is for you." Jesus said, "This is more valuable than all my offerings." This is the highest blessing, the highest wealth. That money is just money; this has the energy of God in it. God is not showy. God does not need to show off by giving $5 million. Ah, I understand. God is a feeling. Go after that feeling. And then my question—look. Now we want to make a full circle. You tell me that you want to feel good from helping people. My point is: feel good. If you want, then help people. But first, create that good feeling for yourself. A feeling of abundance, a feeling of possession, a feeling of happiness. Sir, if I help people right now—for example, I bought a dowry for a bride. Very good. Right now, one of the things I am doing is that there are some people in Iran in prison over the recent incident; they don't have bail. Sir, someone's bail is 3 billion [tomans]. He doesn't have it. He's in prison. He has two kids. I want him to come out. Well, what is my job? My job is to look and see how I can connect the dots, and I am doing that. And I already feel good doing that work because I am taking steps in that direction. Because I am taking steps in that direction. And God sees this, and God, in a strange and wonderful way, helps that person come out. You go after that feeling that you think helping people gives you. Go after that feeling that you think buying a dowry for a newlywed girl gives you. Have that feeling now. That feeling is a feeling of abundance, a feeling of connection with those around you. And then look how constructive this perspective is. Because otherwise, you won't have that feeling until you do that work—ah, why? Have this feeling right now that "I, with this good girl, the money is money." You can pray for people. It's not ineffective. You sit, truly, with heartfelt sorrow and grief—not grief and worry—but truly feel empathy, your good prayer for those whose children are in prison: "God, this very night, in Your holy name, may they return to their wives' arms. This very night. What am I? Do it. Use me. Do it. What am I? Am I the one to free people? What am I? I myself am trapped. Or show me, show me how. Or You do it." And let me tell you something: we are always a little after the glitter and glamour of things. If someone tells you, "Ghazal, maybe—excuse me, I'm saying it this way; maybe your intention is not that at all—but I say, Ghazal, maybe you are not meant to help people in this way. Maybe you are destined to become a lady [sniff] who later, for example, gets married and gives birth to a child, and that child is going to change the world. You are just meant to be a very kind mother. No one will know your name at the end of your life. What if that is your role? I'm not saying it is. I want to show you how much we are caught up in that glitter, that I am the one helping, that I am doing this work, that I get the good feeling from it. While maybe I am not meant to have any of those feelings. And let me tell you something: the greatest people who wanted to help in the world were Hitler and the Islamic Republic, and thousands and thousands of people like them who wanted to [clears throat] help. They all wanted to help. They all wanted to make the world a better place. This perspective, God, from within, from this intention, such issues arise—pain—because when you look, you see the energy behind it has a bit of ego in it. Let's be honest, there's a bit of ego in it. They don't have a feeling of pleasure, but when you look honestly, you see a little "I am helping, I am doing it." If you empty yourself of self, help happens in the most beautiful way. I do everything I can to make that help happen. I work on it. The same, the same. And I am truly amazed by your honesty. I admire you and congratulate you. At this age, you have reached where you have. You have a very bright path ahead. In this conversation, you had a lot of courage to be the first to have these talks, and I am very happy that it started with you. And know that these talks, by their nature, are a bit, a little, without ceremony. So if I said something somewhere that was a bit harsh or had sharp edges, forgive me. But no, I have no problem at all. I really congratulate you, you who have become worthy of congratulations, for where you've arrived, for the direction you're going, for everything you want—I hope you reach it. I hope the things you want are things that are real, have substance, are deep, and are things you truly want, not things you think you want. Oh, I also hope so, truly, my dear heart. I adore you. Thank you for your time. It is there. In the end, do you want to say something, have advice for someone? Do you want to say, "Guys, take their manifestation more seriously, don't take their inner work more seriously, journal"—what has helped you a lot? A small piece of advice? Well, I say I have seen the power of manifestation with my own eyes. And it only happens for me when I write it down. And when I journal, I write beautifully. Okay: "I woke up at seven in the morning, just did such and such, I don't know, did such and such exercise." And I visualize that superior Ghazal very, very precisely. And sometimes, for those who journal, go back and read your journals. For example, I sat down and read my journal from 2018, when I was in Iran. And I am living that page now. And sometimes we forget that we are living it, and we keep saying, "Why haven't I arrived? Why haven't I arrived? Why haven't I arrived?" And I was very [clears throat] questioning myself: why am I ungrateful? Why am I not thankful? Because you don't remind yourselves. And sometimes go back and look. Really. And this is what I, as someone with very, very little experience in meditation, journaling, and manifestation, wanted to say. And truly, you are a very great coach. Seriously. You have changed my life. Thank you. Love you, my dear. Thank you for the beautiful message you had for the kids. I am very happy for you. I hope it was useful for you, and for those watching—until the next line. Goodbye, my dear. Thank you. Goodbye.