In this candid, open-hearted conversation, former world heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson asks Sadhguru some penetrating questions about various aspects of human experience. Topics covered include understanding fear, cultivating joy, and recognizing the roles that imagination and memory play in human suffering. Full of lively exchanges, wit, and humor, this conversation has something for everyone.
In a moment of powerful vulnerability, the former champ asks Sadhguru about the nature of fear, saying: “All my life, I thought I was this tough guy… and I do all this stuff all my life because I’m afraid, and if you tell me what I’m afraid of, I can’t even tell you what. Why am I afraid? I’m successful and, you know, I had some hard times but I came back; but why am I afraid?”
Sadhguru responds, “We need to understand this. This has been usually misinterpreted and… misunderstood on various dimensions. Whether it’s fear, or love, or anger, or joy, we need to understand, it’s not about something; it’s by itself. It is not that there must be something that you must be afraid of. It is not that there must be somebody that you are in love with. It is not that you are happy about something, or miserable about something – you can be simply miserable. Or you can be simply happy. You can simply sit here just by yourself and be very loving. You can sit here and be terrified about nothing, because human experience is not created from outside; human experience is happening from within.”
“So, what happens from within may sometimes find outside stimulus. But you can work it even without external stimulus. All of you are experts, aren’t you? Without any external stimulus you can create pain, you can create joy, you can create misery, you can create anger, love, fear – whatever you want; because the seat of experience is within you. Only thing is, you’re not sitting there; you’re crawling around it. You’re supposed to be sitting there, on the seat. If you are sitting on the seat of your experience, you would decide what should be the nature of your experience. Right now, because you’re crawling around, something happens accidentally, we find an excuse: “It’s because of this guy I’m suffering!” Even if he’s not there, we would find somebody else. If that guy is not there, we’ll find somebody else; if that is not there, we will find something else.”
“So, this is not about something; this is about… that you have not taken charge of the seat of your experience, that’s all. You just need an excuse, and the world will, of course… the world is quite enthusiastic about providing you the excuse. It will. They will provide lots of excuses. But believe me, if you were alone in the desert, you would still go through all these things, without anybody around you, without any threat to your life. Yes, or no? So, this is the fundamental flaw with life: instead of fixing myself, I want to fix the whole world. Well, do what you want, you can’t even fix one more person absolutely in your life. 100% – did you get anybody ever just the way you want, 100%? Did you? Even, they’re telling me, even robotic machines have their own characteristics, they do their own thing. Even if you have a dog, these days they do their own thing.”
“Yes, because you couldn’t fix anybody, that’s why you try to settle with a dog, but even that guy does his own thing. You can never fix anything outside of you 100%. If at all, if you’re looking for that kind of success – 100% – you can only try with this guy. [Referring to oneself] Try anybody else, you will fail. Yes, or no? Hello? Try anybody, you will definitely fail. There’s only one: this one [Referring to oneself] you could do him 100% the way you want. If you manage this one the way you want, where is the question of fear, suffering, misery, all this?”
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