Discover how mindfulness, compassion, and spiritual growth can reshape your life.
In today’s fast-paced world, finding peace and meaning can feel elusive. This episode dives into the incredible story of Earle Birney, a meditation teacher and spiritual guide, who found enlightenment in the most unexpected place. Learn how his journey from rebellion to reflection offers lessons for anyone seeking balance, clarity, and purpose in life.
In this episode:
- Uncover the transformative power of retreat and meditation, and why they’re essential in today’s noisy world.
- Learn practical tips to train your mind for focus, joy, and resilience.
- Explore how mindfulness and compassion can lead to personal and collective healing.
Press play now to discover how meditation can empower you to live with love, grace, and a deeper connection to yourself and others.
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𝗞𝗘𝗬 𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗦 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗜𝗠𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗠𝗣𝗦
01:31 - Discovering Spiritual Growth in the Most Unexpected Place
03:42 - Breaking Free From the Mold: Life Beyond Societal Expectations
07:47 - The Turning Point: From Prison to Mindfulness
09:36 - The Three-Year, Three-Month, and Three-Day Retreat
17:36 - The Power of Silence: Starting Small Before Going Big
24:32 - Why Meditation Should Be Joyful, Not Frustrating
29:08 - Practical Tips for Focused Meditation: The Art of Single-Pointed Concentration
36:21 - Balancing Left and Right Brain in Meditation
36:55 - Walking Through Life With Love and Grace
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𝗠𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗤𝗨𝗢𝗧𝗘
"Be less selfish, not so worried about me, me, me, me, me, me, me. Stop hurting people with your selfishness."
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𝗩𝗔𝗟𝗨𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗖𝗘𝗦
Website - https://www.yogastudiesinstitute.org/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mynamoisearle/
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Want to be a guest on Personal Development Mastery?
Send Agi Keramidas a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/personaldevelopmentmastery
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Personal development inspiration, insights, and actions to implement for living with purpose.
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Personal development insights and actionable inspiration to implement for self-mastery, living authentically, finding your purpose, cultivating emotional intelligence, building confidence, and overcoming procrastination through healthy habits, meditation, mindset shifts, spirituality, clarity, and discovering your passion.
Join our free community "Mastery Seekers Tribe":
https://masteryseekerstribe.com
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note that while an effort is made to provide an accurate transcription, errors and omissions may be present. No part of this transcription can be referenced or reproduced without permission.
Agi Keramidas 0:00
In this episode 466, you will discover how a journey from maximum security prison to a three year silent meditation retreat unlocked purpose through freedom inner peace and self mastery. Welcome to personal development mastery, the podcast that helps intelligent, busy professionals develop self mastery and discover their calling so you can thrive in a fulfilling, purposeful life. I'm your host. Agi Keramidas, by listening to this episode, you're going to understand how meditation can help unlock deeper levels of self awareness and reshape your mindset. You will also discover the life changing impact of silent retreats and what it takes to commit to deep meditation practices. Before we get started, I have a quick favor to ask, if you like this podcast, can you think of someone else you know who might find it useful and share it with them? Not only will this help the podcast grow, but you will be adding value to people you care about. Thank you. Now let's dive into the conversation.
Agi Keramidas 1:26
Today, it is my real pleasure to speak with Earle Birney. Earle, you are a dedicated meditation teacher and spiritual guide with over 27 years of experience and one of the core curriculum developers for the yoga Studies Institute, your journey began in an unexpected place, a maximum security prison in New Zealand, where you discovered the transformative power of Yoga and meditation, your profound commitment then to spiritual growth led you to complete an extraordinary three year, three month and three day silent meditation retreat, and you are passionate about making complex spiritual teachings accessible and practical for everyday life, helping people cultivate mindfulness, ethical living and a deeper understanding of reality. Welcome to the show. I'm delighted to have this conversation with you today.
Earle Birney 2:34
Cool, looking forward to it. Thanks for sharing the time
Agi Keramidas 2:37
you know your story, even the little things that I hinted are truly fascinated, and I will ask you in a moment, the main things I would like to explore in this conversation is meditation, mindfulness, spirituality. Meditation is probably the, let's say, the words that would dominate what I would like to discuss, mainly, I would like to hear a little bit about from your side, this story of you know, I understand that you decided to travel the world and not set like most people do, and then somehow you ended up in prison, and that led you to today's spiritual path. So I would like to hear that story so we can get a bit of understanding of where Earle is coming from. Yeah,
Earle Birney 3:35
you know, I think growing up, I had a in my mind there was all you know as a teenager, what, what's life all about? You know, what's the meaning of life? And I didn't, I didn't seem to be finding it in, you know, observing what my parents did, or grandparents did, or my culture was doing so much as far as feeling this pressure of, you know, here's your here's your life, go to high school, go to university, work 50 weeks a year for the rest of your life. Have a house, have a kid, you know, have a mortgage, and it, you know, it was a simplistic view, but it didn't fit and and it just didn't, I don't know, it's like, God, there's got to be more to that than for me. You know, like my grandfather worked at a mill. He painted at a mill for 50 years, from, you know, high school to retirement, and he, you know, in his way, had a beautiful life, but I knew that that's just not gonna work for me. And so it was kind of this quest of freedom. I really valued my time as a commodity that I would never be able to replace. How can I maximize my time? Because, you. My life can't be about work. That part was clear, and I didn't really have an answer for what it was about that. And in fact, my answer was, it's not really about anything. It's about having fun. That was kind of my worldview at the time. Was
Agi Keramidas 5:14
as many at this this age. Yes, I would. I certainly was also in my early 20s, Fauci and late years,
Earle Birney 5:25
there was a, you know, I was kind of into this turn on tune in drop out culture that was experimenting with alternative states of consciousness through through drugs or through drinking. And, you know, part of that, I think, was healthy and intriguing and interesting and productive, and most of it wasn't. But, you know, I was navigating, and I and I just I was about to finish university, and I just left. I had four months left. I took out a student loan, I got a ticket around the world, and I I left. I didn't want to finish. And that next step didn't make sense to me, so I was looking for what that next step was. You know, I was traveling around and selling drugs to to maximize my time. Really, it wasn't much more than that. I wasn't trying to make a ton of money. Or, yeah, sharing the story the other day that, you know, as I remember picking apples up by Brisbane. And you know, we spent 10 days picking apples, 10 hours day, lots of hard work, driving the tractor around, you know, hauling, hauling the apples around. End of 10 days, everyone got paid out. And I just remember selling, I was selling LSD at the time, you know, making more money in half an hour than I did in 10 days. And just, that's it. I'm done. It's just not a good trade. My time is worth more to me than that. And, yeah, so one thing led to another. I ended up in New Zealand and got sold to somebody that sold to the cops, that sold me out and, and then suddenly this search of freedom, ended up in prison, and being very aware of the irony of that, and and having that same intrigue of, well, where's this going to go? Clearly, wasn't what I wanted to be doing, horrible to put my parents through. But, you know, it wasn't a lot of fear. It wasn't a lot of it was, it was like, Okay, well, what's what's up, what's next? And it led to a slow burn towards some spiritual practices. Was
Agi Keramidas 7:49
there a turning point, any clear point that you realized something that you didn't really know before?
Earle Birney 7:57
More gradual slowed me down. It slowed me down enough in my life that, you know, the first year was a lot of anger, a lot of fun, a lot of not super productive, you know, a waste of time on the whole. It was my big sense, but also meeting fascinating people and new cultures and but then I slowly got more, you know, I found some people that were studying Tibetan Buddhism, or one guy. I found some buddy that was teaching yoga. So very slowly, gradually, some of those doors started to open. Mainly, me and me and one other inmate, we rode away for a group of courses from the Asian classics Institute. And they sent in, you know, those old audio cassettes, packages of audio cassettes, and we started studying a kind of a formal course in Tibetan Buddhism. That was really the thing that I stuck with that for many years.
Agi Keramidas 9:12
Thank you for sharing your story in such a way. I will bring it directly now, I think to the topic of meditation, which is something that you have, let's say, had done quite a lot, and of course, I'm referring to that period of, you know, the three years, three months and three days. So let me. Let me start with, with that. Why did you do that that extreme in length period? And I'm also curious, why this specific amount with the three, three and three, does that represent something? But I'm. Interested to find your internal, you know, motivation for embarking on something
Earle Birney 10:07
like this. Yeah, yeah. So it's quite extreme, isn't it?
Agi Keramidas 10:13
I mean, I did a 10 day meditation, and most every person, and most people tell me, Wow, you're I don't think I could ever do that so, and that was only 10 days.
Earle Birney 10:25
In a lot of ways, I think 10 days is harder.
Agi Keramidas 10:29
You think so in some
Earle Birney 10:31
ways, yeah, well, I mean, I feel very lucky to have been able to take three years out and to spend that time, but it's, you know, you really drop everything to do a three year retreat, and you cut all ties in a way that you're not able to do in a 10 day retreat. So the mind is still very engaged in the world in ways, you know, 10 days we would get in, and there's a few days to kind of let go of all of the rush of getting into retreat. And then there's a some time of, hopefully, some peace and some depth. And then the last few days are, you know, thinking about coming out again. And so 10 days, in some ways, it's beautiful. It's got its own unique challenges. Whereas, you know, as we extend our retreat time to a month or three months. For me, three years like that, there's more of a letting go that allows us to really enter into that experience in a different way. Certainly three year retreat, it's like that. So, you know, I had helped start a we had called it a Buddhist university retreat center, unaccredited University, and we did a seven year advanced program studying Tibetan, Buddhism, meditation, yoga, yoga philosophy, Sanskrit, Tibetan, you know, all sorts of coaching, all sorts of different subjects. And at the end of that seven years, you know, really, which was 15 years, it was, you know, I felt like I'd done University. I had done, you know, my master's program and, and there's a tradition in Tibetan Buddhism to do long retreat, three years, three months, three days? Why that number? My understanding is they don't really have weeks, so there's no three weeks. I don't know if that's true. If you add up three to three months three days, it doesn't really come to a obvious number as to why. So I never heard a good explanation. But it is certainly an amount of time that, you know, you really can let go of step back from the world to a, you know, we're so caught up in the world of journeying externally, you know, different countries or different experiences, different cultural experiences, this outward, outward, outward nature of our lives. And to have that opportunity to go that deeply inward, or to so intimately, get to know one spot, never really leaving one spot for three years. It's a whole new magical exploration that. You know why, I think you know the why was, I had studied a bunch of philosophy and a bunch of theories, and I wanted to, wanted to meditate on them and see if I could internally realize them like I knew at that point. For me, happiness wasn't going to be the right collection of money and job and partner and these external puzzle pieces of if I could just get this piece and this piece and this piece and this piece, I'll be able to put them all together into this picture. That's happiness like that, that illusion had been popped and so, you know, what's left is there? You know, it's not a giving up on an idea of happiness, but having to, well, let's look for it inside. You know, it's not a rejection of of work, it's not a rejection of relationship, it's not a rejection of money. But it's a rejection that those things are the be all and end all and Okay, well, you know, is there something that I can tap into that allows me to find happiness in all of those things? Because up until that point, and I think we see that, you know, the those things aren't automatically going to spell happiness. So what's missing? You know, what's the missing piece? Is it that happiness just isn't really sustainably attainable? You know, that's one possible answer. That's just kind of the nature of being human, the human Mix. Experience is one of satisfaction, dissatisfaction. That's a, I think that's a pretty reasonable answer in conclusion. But maybe there is, you know, you get into these stories, life stories of saints, and I know, you know, I saw on your website, you know, a bunch of really cool quotes from great thinkers. And can we be inspired by people that maybe seem to have claimed to Fauci Yeah, yeah, you can attain these states of happiness that had last and persist. So, yeah, that was, I think that was it.
Agi Keramidas 15:41
If you enjoy this episode, can you think of one person that would find it useful and share it with them? I'd really appreciate it, and you will also be adding value to people you care about. Thank you. And now let's get back to the episode, because you mentioned the quotes, and I think it was the Buddha that said that, and I'll probably paraphrase it, I don't remember it exactly, that the desire to attain the unattainable and to avoid the unavoidable is the source of all human suffering. And I think this is this came to my mind when one realizes what is the the two the unattainable and the unavoidable? That he refers to. El, I want to ask you, because I know you are obviously a big proponent of the silent meditation retreats. I want to ask, let's say, someone listening right now, one of our mastery seekers that see or he they do meditate, the practice meditation, however, they have never done a silent retreat like a three day or a 10 day, Like the one that I did. What would you tell them as perhaps something for them to consider it, or if they're already considering to nudge them to do it? Yeah,
Earle Birney 17:13
yeah. I think the best thing everyone can do is just drop out and go right into three year retreat. I
Agi Keramidas 17:25
it's very easy practice
Earle Birney 17:27
jump in. You know, it's the opposite. I think that retreat ideally stems from a daily practice or a consistent practice we have that's throughout the week, and that that to do retreat without some sort of, I say, daily practice, but weekly practice, consistent practice, that is then going to inform retreat. So that's the first step. The second step, I think, would be like, you know, we're trying to steal our life back, I think, from these, from this technology that is so all encompassing, and so maybe one of those first steps is to create a lifestyle that's a little, you know, I had a beautiful teacher. His name was Lama Maru. Passed a couple years ago, and he was like, just turn it off. You want? He's like, girl, you want some spiritual advice, turn it off. You know, come home and turn off your Spotify and turn off your Netflix and turn off your phone and turn off your turn things off and be okay with silence, because we have this thing of, there's a discomfort in silence, and we fill that space with noise. And to start if we value that state of mind, and if we and if we notice the kind of for me, like the neurosis of that's created by this addiction to this technology, this lifestyle, that we have, this very beautiful, you know, powerful, amazing, addicting, all encompassing, that's disturbing my mind. You know, really, that I think a lot of people feel like a level of anxiety and stress that's not optimal. So how do I how do I do about that? So you know, if that is a goal or a core value, then to start to develop a daily practice or a weekly practice, start to just turn things off a little bit. I used to take a half day once a month, and technology free, focus a little bit more on my practice, you know, more reading, more at sitting, and then it kind of we can build up a little bit into maybe three day retreat, or like you're talking to the 10 day vipassana retreat is awesome. To to kind of value that as a component of a healthy lifestyle, which is really, I think, becoming very apparent in our culture, where where meditation and retreat are are infiltrating education and the corporate environment, and retreat is becoming a part of our culture, again, that you know, had has been lost, and so, you know, valuing that time, which means we might have a little bit less vacation time, or it means we might have to give up a little bit of, I don't know, second job, Unless, you know, I don't know, like there's, if it's a core value, if it's something, we're going to have to kind of create space for that in life. And then I think, you know, for me, there's a goal to have a retreat or two every year, and to bake that into I want to have some vacation. I want to be able to go home and see my family, and I do want to take time out to have retreat and to recharge retreat and recharge, to go forward like that. That kind of has been my experience with with retreat. Is it it that's just been hugely beneficial in my life. And then the last thing I would say is, you know, finding a good teacher. I think meditation, we have this feeling that if we it's just sitting you know, my partner was she just called it, sit down, shut up. It's like, oh, you're gonna go sit down, shut up. It's like, Yeah, I'm gonna go sit down, shut up. That's what she called it. I think we kind of think that, yes, that I just, I think there's a lot of room for good instruction, and there's not a lot of it out there. There's a feeling like, why do we need to strive to be better at meditation? It should be like the one thing that we don't have to have all of that pressure to get better at, or, you know, I'm just want to sit down and relax, and I want to sit down and enjoy a moment of nature. I don't want to, you know, what more to it is than that, and just shut things out. And I think that's very beautiful, and people connect in that way and connect to the divine in that way. I think that's a part of meditation that's great. And there's a whole nother aspect where we really can train the mind. And I think that needs some good instruction. Retreat needs instruction. Retreat is a skill. And, you know, I help a lot of people get into retreat. How to Prepare for retreat, what to how to be in retreat, what to do in retreat, and then how to come out of retreat. And so I there's a couple ideas. That's a good, that's a good,
Agi Keramidas 22:54
that's great. No, thank you very much. They were very useful. And I wrote down something that you said that we are we have developed to discomfort and silent. And I think many will resonate with that. And you said that we tend to feel it with with noise. And when you think about it, sometimes it's really noise, rather than even if you put on the music, if it is not like the proper music, in the end, you are in the proper mood. It's probably more noise than from this point of view. So that's a great point that I got. There was one other thing that you mentioned now toward the end, I wanted to ask your thoughts about this. And it was something like around the lines of improving the meditation or getting better at it, this notion that, you know, I've been meditating for years and nothing is happening. I have not felt the connection with the universe or whatever. Tell me your thoughts about this concept of the progress in meditation.
Earle Birney 24:08
Yeah, I think about it a lot, and sometimes I try to keep my opinions to myself, because they're kind of strong. But since you asked
Agi Keramidas 24:21
the strong opinion
Earle Birney 24:25
people can use meditation for 1000 reasons, and, and that's amazing, and that's great, and to take benefit from it. And, and I think that, you know, we can use meditation to develop more compassion in our heart. We can use meditation just to relax body scan, you know, progressive relaxation to help us sleep like there's a million reasons to and techniques I'm my meditation has. Has always been mainly about developing single point of concentration and to focus the mind and all of the beautiful benefits that bring and from that stability of mind, I think that all of our other forms of meditation can be a lot more powerful and just our our general spill that out into a billion benefits in the world. So to me, there's a component of meditating that's about training the mind. And, you know, I follow a paradigm that was presented by a guy named kamalasila 1000 years ago, that was built on a sangha 1500 years ago. It's like, you know, there's nine stages of meditation that the mind, every mind goes through, and there's very common problems that we all have along those along that path, there's very common solutions to those problems. There's very appropriate techniques to use at each stage. So there's a map, you know? And it's like, if I want to drive, I don't know from I'll use my city, from New York to Atlanta, you know, I need a map. I need to go south, not north, yes. And I can't just get in the car and drive. And sometimes I think we think that in meditation, I'll just get better just by doing it more. And I think it's often the opposite. I know for me, I developed a lot of bad habits in meditation, like trying to meditate too long and quickly training my mind to just be tired. And that was to me, I would start, I got to a point where I'd sit down and meditate, and quickly had developed the habit of dullness, which can feel good, can be relaxing, but it's not what it's not what I wanted for my practice. Yes, having a good meditation teacher that was like, what's going on? Did you get enough sleep? Yeah, I got tons of sleep. Well, you're just sleeping in your meditation, you know, and making me stand up, you know, I'm the guy standing up in the back of class to try to get rid of those bad habits. So I think that we can have a map of, you know, common problems and common, you know, problem number one that we all face, waking up in the morning, I don't want to do this, you know, I don't want to meditate today, and and that being an impediment to our progress in meditation. And so how do we develop a consistent meditation practice? So, like, so like that, like we can, and then that spills out into, you know, increasing the power of our our mindfulness and and the capacity to be aware of what's going on in my mind, so that I can get out of those negative thought cycles and get out of those funk I'm just like, I'm ruminating on the same garbage all the time, and having that space to read, the space and capacity to redirect my mind into a response of compassion, or to a response of thinking about things that are more productive, or to just spacing out less and be more productive in my workplace, or being able to have a conversation with somebody and not be so busy thinking about work or what I want to say that I can actually connect more effectively to the people that I'm trying to connect with, and that's all tied into the capacity to train the mind.
Agi Keramidas 28:38
I actually this is what I wanted to ask you, because you said about repeatedly the phrase training the mind, and you mentioned the single point of concentration. So my question is, is there any practical tips that one can use to train the mind toward that single point of concentration, like focusing, perhaps on the breath or the touch of the breath or something else. How can you give me something practical? Let's see as much as we can discuss about practical and meditation in the same sentence. Yeah, no,
Earle Birney 29:17
I totally think we can. There's 1000 tips, and I think understanding that map is and having a technique to follow has been so helpful for me, because I didn't have that for years. And, like I said, just kind of got a bunch of bad habits and kind of wasted my time. And again, like I'm being very goal oriented about a thing that a lot of people don't want to be goal oriented about. And that's, that's fine. You know, tons of benefits, and people, God bless however people want to live their life fully support that if we want to meditate, to train the mind and to make the mind more controllable, happier for. Productive, efficient, stronger, yeah, I think, you know, a couple of really quick things. I think I thought meditation was about putting our attention on an object, like the sensation of breath at the tip of the nose, and then excluding everything. And I think that's a really common mistake, where we're just trying to grab something and focus on it, exclude everything else, hold that object. Try harder, focus more. And if we try harder and focus more, the mind will be able to hold on to that object in a single pointed way. And I just don't think it works, right? I think that it has to be more expansive. I think there's an idea we can put our attention on an object like a spotlight, and that's an important aspect of how we can hold on to an object. And then there's another aspect of expansiveness that allows us to keep the mind energized for one by allowing more input and sensation and awareness of their environment as we're holding on to that object that keeps the mind bright and vivid and awake. So that was the first thing that popped into my head when you asked second thing is, I think that we meditate and we lose, and it's like, oh my god, I just spaced out for five minutes. I suck at this. I'm so bad at this. It's so hard. And we've just done the exact opposite. We're just throwing the ball for the dog, and the ball due to the dog dutifully brought it back, and then we're just, like, scolding the dog, you know, we want the mind to wake up and realize we're the mind is we're mind wandering. And that moment of waking up like, if we could appreciate that moment and be like, Oh my god, this is amazing, the qualities of being present in the present moment, and the qualities of being awake here and now, and to appreciate that capacity, the mind that just woke up and and positively reinforced that through some sort of good job, nice you did what I mind you did what I want you to do. And then with that joyfulness, come back to the object, reset the intention, and then start that process over. And I think that meditation has to be for us to sustain a long term practice. It has to be joyful. And I think that's partly why this idea of progress kind of can feel frustrating, or people are kind of have a version to it of but I think if we can be successful, and if we can get the mind to be this is something I want to do. I feel successful. I feel good. I'm getting the benefits out of it. It's a huge step in in having a consistent meditation experience.
Agi Keramidas 33:02
Thank you. I You said about you want, we wanted to be joyful, and it's so true. And you know, from my personal experience, the more I focus on a specific outcome that I want, and I mean generally, now, the less joyful I become, so the less I focus on the outcome, and I focus on the process. And you know, the enjoyment of the process, it could be the actual moments of the time of meditation or any other process. So when I am when there is less attachment to the outcome, I'm having more joy. I'm having more fun. I enjoyed. So that's a, just a side note that came up. And you know, there was something that you said that is very I found it very interesting as a concept, when you were saying that the economic mistake that people do when meditating is that they focus on the nose, for example, or the tip of the nose, or the breathing, and trying To exclude everything else. Because, in a way, it makes sense. If you want to focus on one thing, you have to it kind of logically makes sense. But you said that it is very useful to know that this is not the way to do it, and when that is happening, it's maybe an indication to change it into some different way. Yeah, I hope it makes sense what I wanted to say. It was kind of my own, you know, reflection on something that you said, also because I have found myself. I. Knew what you meant when you cement when you talked about excluding everything else, I knew what you meant. That's why, yeah, yeah. It
Earle Birney 35:10
was a Yeah. It was a hard lesson for me, and at a great lesson to to learn that it just doesn't work. There's not a, yeah, yeah. I think that there's a, it's half the story. We do need to put our attention, you know, on that object and keep it there and have that spotlight experience, but then to alternate that, or include that with a more flood light type experience
Agi Keramidas 35:38
as much. Yes, that's a very, very nice analogy. Yes, you put it Yes.
Earle Birney 35:46
And some recent, some recent research I ran into talk about which I'm really interested is talking about how that also can be related to left brain and right brain, and how we perceive our world, and how our left brain and right brain allow for those two different experiences. One much more exclusive, analytical, analyzing, discrete, one more contextual, broad, expansive, so fascinating opportunities to kind of combine methodologies and ways of thinking about things,
Agi Keramidas 36:19
beautiful. So sadly, we'll have to start wrapping this conversation up, which thank you so much for this conversation. Where, where do you want to direct the listener who wants to find out more about meditation and what you teach and your Sure?
Earle Birney 36:39
Yeah, I think the best way for me is Instagram. So my handle is my Namo is Earl, some comedian show grab. My Name Is Earl, as their they got there first. So I use the Sanskrit. My Mammo. Namo is named in Sanskrit. My Namo is Earl. And then from there, you know, I I post about where I'm teaching or what's going on. That's one way I do content creation for the yoga Studies Institute. And we have, we have ongoing courses. There's a, there is a course on meditation on our platform, and ongoing teachings and weekly meditation practice that we do English and Russian on Wednesdays right now. So that's a great time. A really great community, people that are, you know, into having community to progress in this thing called meditation and share ideas and experiences. Very beautiful. And then the last is organization called Three Jewels in New York. It's a yoga meditation studio that offers a lot of daily meditation yoga classes, retreats, teacher trainings, yoga teacher training, meditation teacher training, lot of very great teachers, and I teach twice a week on their platform and and that idea, specifically of training in shamatha or Singaporean concentration, and anyone can reach out to me directly, you know, it's if I love to talk to people about getting into retreat and helping people, you know, mentoring people one on one, and
Agi Keramidas 38:15
you have a very soothing and warming energy that comes. I mean, you are in New York, I am in London, and I can still feel it. So thank you. I have two final quick questions, which I always ask, and my first one is, what does personal development mean to you?
Earle Birney 38:39
Oh, walking through life with love and grace that jumped into my mind. Let's go with that
Agi Keramidas 38:47
nice and hypothetically, if you could go back in time and meet your 18 year old self, what's one, one piece of advice you would give him that would be interesting?
Earle Birney 38:59
Yeah, there's a lot I don't want to say half of them, though, I would try to encourage my 18 year old self to be less selfish, not so worried about me, me, me, me, me, me, me, and to take care of the people around me a little bit better. Yeah, be less selfish. Stop hurting people with your selfishness. And
Agi Keramidas 39:30
I want to thank you so much for this, this conversation. I enjoyed it, and there were so many fascinating topics. I want to wish you all the very best with carrying on your work and with, of course, with your personal life. I will leave it to you for your final parting wisdom to the listener, to the mastery seeker, listening now so. Sure.
Earle Birney 40:01
First, you know, really appreciate the time we got to spend together, and really enjoyed the conversation. It went so quick. You know, I was just reflecting on my own words. Of those words being to my 18 year old self, and I wonder if they've changed at all, you know, like, if that's the advice I would give myself today, also, you know, to continue to to combine those two sentiments, to work on, you know, my own selfishness and and to continue my path of walking through the world with love and grace and to to value those things. You know, the we just had an election. And the number one concern for people both sides, is economy, and that's important. You know, people having, having a good economy is important, but if, maybe, if we valued also walking through the world with love and grace, and working on her, yes, working on myself to be a little less selfish and and concerned more about other people in addition to me, me, me, there's if I can, if I can, Be more gentle, compassionate, loving, assertive, productive, human than
Earle Birney 41:21
us. Awesome
Earle Birney 41:25
economy is important. Can we? Can we add to that with a more humanistic approach as well?
Agi Keramidas 41:35
I hope you found this episode enlightening. If you want to continue the journey further. Join us in our free community, mastery seekers tribe. It is a space to move from inspiration to implementation, from knowledge to action. If you're not already a member, you are invited go to mastery seekerstribe.com, and until next time, stand out, don't fit in.