Tony Samara - 'The Human Heart Is The Hero' - Interview by Renate McNay

welcome to conscious TV my name is Aaron McNee and my guest today is tony samara hello - hello i have books here from tony one is called deeper than words from the heart and shaman's wisdom and they are all wonderful books and I really enjoyed reading them tony is a Shaymin a healer and the spiritual teacher and he was here with us before unconscious TV and we covered then his spiritual journey today we talk more about other experiences he had about life and about his work so Tony I'd like to start with your initiation into shamanism yes which I found fascinating when I read that because you had to go and I think every Shaymin in his initiation had to has to go through a death so dying and being reborn and I would like to know how was this experience and I think you had to take what you tell us well to start with you know shamanism is such a wide perspective of different teachings so it's quite specific the way I worked was quite specific to South America where I spent a lot of time but shamanism in general is healing so it's the knowledge of how to do this firstly with aspects of yourself and your immediate community and then how to apply that knowledge in a wider perspective so I worked with South American shamans I think you where northern parents yeah northern Peru and on the border to Brazil and I worked in that specific culture which is wonderful because it's a mixture of native South American culture with the influence of the West because of course South America has been colonized and for hundreds of years now so the European perspective of the world is also present in the native culture so basically I didn't know anything because I'm not from South America but I had a strong connection to the people and nature you know to the forests to the Amazon forests and just a feeling of the place spoke deeply to my heart so you know I went there not to study shamanism or to do anything specific I went there as a marine biologist to work to help save the environment basically so that was my you have a fascination with nature totally yeah and that was my you know initial reason for being there after a while I understood that as everyone understands that you know whatever your passion is it's also your path so and you have to go deeper it's not enough just to save the world you have to also look at what is creating the disharmony in the world within yourself so that is you have to save yourself exactly exactly and that is what a death rebirth experience is the death is basically the death of what the ego or the mind believes to be important and the rebirth is being born again into the wider perspective of reality you know what it is to be a human being but not focused on yourself but focused as part of nature as part of the wholeness that is nature and that was my experience in a personal sense it was very painful because I think every human being likes to hold on to little pictures about themselves and what they believe to be true and what they feel and what they think and to let go of all those things sounds easy but what forced you to let go well there was no there was no choice really because what you live with real people yeah um you have to be real and Native people you know they they live in a very simple quite real environment and they have to be themselves they can't be something else because that's a way to survive from the rainforest and you know I realized that I needed to communicate my depth to the people and not just I'm here to save the rainforest or I'm here to help you you know I had to see the deeper perspective of why am I here in the middle of the rainforest it's not even the place I was born or grew up in what brought me here and I understood and also it was explained to me that I'm there in the rainforest I feel like I'm there today to help come to some sort of understanding about myself rather than try to save the people and the understanding was you know how can I bring that native knowledge that I could see and I could feel and to the perspective of the Western world so I had to experience that within myself you know to let go of the social ideas and to the projections that I had and to the belief systems and addictions to fear you know that is one big thing that Western people yeah you know don't understand but we live in a very fear-based culture you know where we are conflicting with the laws of nature all the time to support the idea of who we are within that little context of the Western culture and I believe that we're much more yeah and I needed to see that so you had to let go of your survivor fear survival fear and the fear of opening up and being intimate with nature and being close to the forces of nature without you know hiding behind a mask and you know people when they go into a rain forest where there is all sorts of creatures and dangerous real dangerous you know no silence and there's no spoiling it's so noisy musically noisy cannot escape the noise exactly I mean every animal is singing a song every insect is alive with energy and even the feeling of nature is alive with such ecstatic energy it's difficult to hide behind your mind pictures you know to to be partaking in what's going on you need to be real you need to be open and in the beginning that was very difficult for me because I love nature and I studied nature but I was not able to approach it in the way that native people showed to be so easy and so beautiful to lead you know how they walked how they related to everything around them I just couldn't do that within myself in a real sense I could pretend that I was you know whoever in harmony with nature but the reality was I was looking out do you know is there a snake is there scorpions is there are this is there that you know because you know that's what the mine does it's afraid of anything that it doesn't understand or can't control and you can't control nature I saw a few years ago and movie I don't know if you saw it it was called emerald forest and it was about a family an American family they moved of it but he was transferred to Brazil to the rainforest to build I think it's called dam holy water del and they had a little boy and they're the tribes in in the in the rainforest we're observing what they were doing and they felt so sorry for this little boy so they kidnapped him because they thought he needs to grow up in nature so they kidnapped him and he grew up in nature and there was this scene where the boy was about 12 years old and he had to go through and initiation and he had to dive down into into a pool of into the pond and get something into all kinds of things and but was so touching for me was the mother I mean the adopted mother stood there and said to him I will never see my little boy again mm-hmm which meant you are not allowed to come back as a boy you're only allowed to come back into this tribe as a grown-up yes and I think when we are missing something like that in our culture totally totally I believe that we act as children yeah not spoil children towards nature and towards just the beauty of living and I think that's what tribal people have that they haven't lost and that is what we can learn from how to look at rituals and initiations in a way where they are useful and sacred and create a possibility for us to move beyond certain limitations into a new perspective and that is what initiation is and as you say you know we can grow into being fully part of the community whichever community we live in and be productive and useful and part of that joy rather than you know always wanting to take everything away from nature so that we support our selfish needs that sounds like a very interesting though yes if you haven't seen it yes if I probably would like it so um you have such a passion I mean comes across in your book for for true nature you know in its in the aspect of life and Mother Earth and also the spiritual rhymes and how can you just tell us I don't remember now if how much you said in the first interview how you come to realize through nature but what woke you up yes and I think nature is something that we you know all love and feel at home and relate to in a way that is universal and I think that's a beautiful thing because it takes us beyond our differences do you know when anyone looks at a sunset or looks at a beautiful ocean or mountains you know we feel a connection to the world that is very difficult to you know say I'm this way and that it's it's just universal so I feel that is something that children love you know they love nature and it's a pity in the Western world that we are so far removed from the natural laws of nature and how to do things in harmony with nature so for me that my teaching is to bring that important realm into spirituality because it is part of spirituality you know when when you let go of the way the mind controls perspectives and the way the mind likes to see things then we become more natural we become ourselves and when we become more natural we're much more able to understand how nature is a teacher you know every aspect of nature brings some sort of quality that can be part of who you are and this is for me you know a very very important part of the teaching and especially in children I think you had a grandmother who was teaching it sure was then - exactly I had the same grandmother exactly and that is this is the reason why I have the love for nature because from a very early age I was shown in a real sense the value of nature and how to go back to nature when things were disharmonious within me so this is always what I did you know if there was a conflict in the family or if there was something that created disharmony around me I would always go to nature sit under a tree or I just lie in the garden or do something where you know that harmony in nature created a more balanced perspective about the whole thing for me just being present to nature and my grandmother was definitely you know the main influence to allow me to understand that not only do you have to relax in nature and come back to harmony with yourself in nature but also that you can be active in utilizing the natural forces in nature to heal and to change aspects that we believe that we can only do by ourselves and this is what I was taught in the Amazon forest I was taught how to use natural remedies to cleanse the body and how to let go of certain blocks in in the body for example fear that somehow pollutes the liver or perhaps you know toxins that hold you so tightly together that you you feel that you're caged in through the toxins of pain or suffering or whatever it is and and that there are natural remedies that you can use that help to release this physical remedies but also energetic remedies and we know this you know if if you're feeling stressed sore all you have to do is walk somewhere where there is more oxygen or ions in the air and your whole brain has the possibility to relax and be more focused and more productive so nature is very useful on many levels I remember often visiting my grandmother and she would had a half on every shelf she would have these paper sheets with all these different helps and she would talk to them and then later she had on her table yeah and then used them and make tea and yeah concussions and all kinds of things later she had this this this the kitchen table and there were some plants on it and then she had to take pills for her heart she was very old and then she would take a pill and then she would give the plant the same pin well and you would say what's good for me it's also good for them they love the attention I guess even were not so much about the toxins operative of the field well it was very sweet I understand and I know you can talk to the plants to you you I mean it's called a Kirov's you can sing the song death of the mother earth or you hear yes it's a song so I understand your grandmother because I believe everything has a signature which is an essence a movement of energy which is sound in the end and you can replicate every aspect of nature through creating a sound such as for example in India they have the sound of on which I believe to be the beginning of creation or the manifestation of creation every aspect of nature has that power so you can utilize those signatures to connect to the essence of plants or the essence of a mountain or the Stars and you can bring that quality into healing so if you are sick for example with say heart disease like you're saying your grandmother and you can connect to that signature that allows the heart to find the power of healing through the plants or through aspects of nature and I think this is even used in homeopathy word you know somehow the vibration observance right that is some help exactly and you know it's yeah it's easy you know it's not very but then Tony I mean there are certain illnesses which start in the mind so and in my own experience and I've worked for many years as a healer unless something shifted in the mind you can heal the body in the moment but it's coming out somewhere else or it's coming back at the same place so something is a is the herb or the plant able to shift the very thing in the mind or what do you do to help people wake up because I know your message is your travel around in the world and your passion is to wake people up lift up to who they are exactly know that everything is one yes yeah that's a very important question because it takes us beyond the mundaneness of you know I'm sick and I want to get better yes why are you sick you know what is causing the disharmony yeah and most people don't want to know why they just want to get better and carry on doing whatever they are doing that created perhaps the illness in the first place so I would say that if someone is ready to go to that depth and change their life transform their life of course there are natural remedies out there that can help and this you know for example the Native Americans have used herbs such as sage which is considered very sacred in India also there are herbs that people don't know really what they are the soma for example is written in the letters and you know that are sacred that I believe helped to transform consciousness which is the core of my work really in the end how to change the mind that's created that picture of disharmony that in the end has influenced the physical body to create disease yeah because everything begins in light sure that you know every thought that you have create some sort of disharmony which has to go somewhere and of course it goes to the physical body or to the way you feel or any way you relate to your soul mentally and so I believe that meditation in essence is the way forward that is how to understand the mind and how to understand to let go of those perspectives that are creating disharmony and actually it's quite a joyous thing do you know when you let go of things that make you unhappy because you know very useful that is meditation there are plants that help meditation that is meditation exactly meant for me that is meditation to let go of everything that veils your joy and your spontaneous presence to this moment so you're not talking about sitting down in meditation well you can sit down in meditation if that's very comfortable but what can be more that's interesting because you also see something to change a habit we have to meditate for 120 days that changes the whole physiology of the body so tell me more about that okay so I mean the thing with Western perspectives is that we want things to happen immediately we you know we want to sit and meditate for 20 minutes and then if it doesn't work we say okay you know meditation maybe I stopped meditating and it doesn't really work for me but habits as we know you know take a long time to change anyone who's been addicted to cigarettes or alcohol or and are suffering or suffering exactly to their own mental picture knows that you have to be quite disciplined on some level and practice that clarity for a little while so that everything is let go of so that you let go of not just the mental picture but also the physical structure that holds on to that mental picture for example if we have fear you know it's not just an idea fear lives in the body lives in your emotions lives in the nervous system and how do you let go of it without continuously reminding yourself of what is real and meditation you know some people are lucky some people will meditate for 20 minutes and have an enlightening experience and be free but you know that's not very common that's what this thing some people just have an experience to be free but then it's creeping Horak exactly it's actually if it's then what happens often the ego takes hold of text perience and sees it as very important and then focuses on that rather than you know expressing that beauty in the body in the way you relate to nature and the way you relate to people and yourself and this is why I think any habit requires a long time to to transform and that is a joy so actually when you are practicing meditation with that intention to let go of something you're not counting the days you know not thinking okay I've got 80 more days to go you understand that yeah you're getting closer and closer so your heart feels more and joy more celebration that you're getting closer to something that is so beautiful that you know it becomes timeless your journey becomes you know a whole movement of meditation and then in the end after 120 days you know you don't realize but so how how does it look practically Tony okay let's say let's take a habit yeah yeah a visible habit you know there's so many habits which are running through us which are not visibly they are ugly so let's take like like an addiction to suffering or an addiction or whatever fear fear is a great one yes okay so how do you how do you resolve it on a practical level okay so the first step would be to understand that you have fear to be conscious okay you know I have whatever personality situations that create Who I am but I also have something that I don't really like inside of me and that is fear yeah which usually it becomes unconscious or you know subconscious it's hidden behind what is obvious when we focus on that it comes up to the surface you know it shows itself and one thing which is very common is that we say oh we don't want that so we try to find other things enlightenment or freedom or whatever idea people have that moves us away from that nasty feeling they experience so I would say when you open up and say okay I want to embrace fear from that perspective of freedom I don't want to run away from it then you're becoming more conscious that is the first step to meditation consciousness and you know when you are conscious that you have to work with fear you're also conscious of the aspects of fear that need to be let go of so for example if you're afraid of expressing your love to someone which you know obviously is very much part of fear you know okay I'm not going to fall into the old habit of playing a game or projecting or hiding behind a mask I can show my love more clearly because I can see what fear is and I can see how it controls me I don't want to be controlled by that subconscious force anymore I want to be real I want to be myself when you do that nature this is why nature is important for me and also the universal aspect of nature the Stars the galaxies are naturally aligned to be more real and when you are getting more into that space of realness then nature supports your journey and you feel that you're not alone and the movement from the unconscious primitive mind of survival transcends itself and becomes much more I don't know really what the word is but much more enlightened you know this is the word that people use and it doesn't irritate if I don't like it because it creates that sense of you know enlightened not enlightened but you know more free to explore itself in a real sense and and show love and then you can begin to be more like a spontaneous child in and show who you are to the person and usually we realize that what we're afraid of aspects of ourselves not the love that where we think will hurt us or whatever reasons we had to justify that fear yeah and you know when we see when we begin to see things as they really are that love is actually a beautiful feeling and the more we showed to the world the more we show to our partner and/or children the more that reflects back not just from the family or from your partner but also from the universe there is a synchronicity that happens which supports your journey everything becomes more beautiful more real this is what I found to be in South America people are so real that in those dangerous very difficult places and the Amazon forest is not you know paradises people think it is it's real you know it has many aspects to it there is a support that only happens to native people because they are they have let go of those fears and I feel that in our Western culture today we have to let go of those fears to transform that culture of aggression the culture of war the culture where we're constantly looking at what is important and best for us and ignoring you know the common good and and the beauty that can be shared with everyone in this world this is why we're here yeah well it brings up a question in me of what freedom is because what you consider the people in South America free I mean they probably have other limitations but it's freedom for you how do you experience freedom because know the freedom is is not only being able to deal with snakes or sounds or whatever freedom is because I much much more it is it is so I think you know in the end I don't try to put my perspective onto people's you know belief systems or religious and ideals yeah I think freedom in the end is something that you know from your heart Kabir and Rumi the famous poets speak about this when your heart is able to just celebrate being alive and seeing the value in everything in that moment of aliveness now different people will you know measure that sense of freedom according to where they are at you know for some people freedom may mean you know just to be free of disease because that is physical disease you have cancer and you know that's what you want to be free of yeah maybe when you're free of the disease you realize wow that was a journey maybe I want to be free of the suffering that my mind is creating but not everyone understands that perspective until they go through certain experiences in life and this is why we're here on earth you know to develop and to change our perspective and I feel today more than ever more and more people are ready to transform the core the essence which is the Maya I call the Maya meaning the illusion yet the line creates and I think freedom then is obvious you know it's like Buddha experience you know if if you're attached to the negative perspectives of the mind fear worry stress then you're not free if you like all those aspects go then there is a freedom that can't be spoken about because if as soon as you start speaking about that freedom you're placing some perspective onto that freedom that limits the freedom because it's a human perspective and this is why for example in Sufism and in the mystical traditions of the Middle East people don't like to put names to the divine you know like they reflect aspects of the divine as important but they don't actually say the divine is this and that is the ultimate because in the end when you are in the space of freedom then you don't need to you know say I'm here look you know this is where I'm at because you know then you are in the middle of something that is so beyond understanding you can only express it in your attributes like Mother Teresa or Gandhi where your actions speak louder than your words and for me you know freedom goes beyond words this is why I wrote the book you know beyond words because there's no word to explain even freedom in a way in to freedom is when you know the self is not there anymore or not dominant you know with its noise and and but you know here we go in the moments we face in the west of we are all hit by this enlightenment Park everybody is on this journey towards somewhere somewhere where they feel more happier and blissful and just talking to you and reading your books is made me actually realize to a much greater depth we have to take nature with us into the picture which hardly any of you know I had so many interviews but not many people talk about that aspect is yes and so that's one thing the beauty how you bring those two together and yes and your teaching in that but then the question which arises is isn't what we see a reflection of our mind of course so then we are not focusing and saving the planet of course this is what I realized I had such an idea I need to save the rainforest but actually you're saving the rail rainforest or saving whatever the planet saving whatever your passion is by being yeah and that is mystery of the alchemical process you know it's not out there you don't need anything specific that you you have to do I mean you do and need to do things I'm not saying you know you just sit down and do nothing but it has it must come from a different perspective of I need to go to that place and do this to save the rainforest so I realized that my journey to many places not just the rainforest to the Zen Buddhist monastery and to the many parts of India and around the world where I met wise people in the end was just an invitation to reflect back in this moment the reality that I was needing to understand so you know your question is how you know to change that perspective and you know if you want to save the rainforest how can you do it from the perspective of freedom I think you know that is impossible to answer because when you are free yeah everything that you do then channels that universal beautiful love that is nature and you become so powerful you know not from an ego sense but you become so powerful in your actions that you influence much more than is possible from the perspective where you want to conflict with certain situations so that you can change what is happening around you so this is why Mother Teresa for example you know she or she did was some very simple beautiful actions with people she didn't sit back and do nothing her karma yoga so to speak or her selfless service was real yeah but it came from the perspective that is so much more powerful it's a free perspective you know and I believe it was it she was basically you become a tool exactly exactly the universe exactly through nature or the absolute exactly do totally change yeah under channel that beauty and love which then allows for miracles to happen and I think we need a miracle in this world today that would you know where we're facing so many interesting challenges and the miracle doesn't have to come from one person or one perspective I think it's a group consciousness where as humanity we realize that together from that perspective where we are able to channel love when we're able to channel what is in essence so beautiful and so good everything changes we just we create a quantum leap into a perspective that we can't even see from where we're at in this moment and this happens you know to everyone you know you can imagine you know when you're a teenager and you see the world in one way and you know everything is so intense and powerful and you see things in that teenage way which is beautiful and then look at how life changes you know as you have experiences and you adapt and change to whatever life is teaching you see everything changes everything is impermanent and in the end we have that experience but in people want to hold on to one perspective and if we are just free enough to let go of the old and invite the new and the new is you know that perspective of freedom then as you as you mentioned earlier how difficult it is it is to change a habit it is and in particular this whole survivors every I mean so many people out there in the moment because of the situation running on their survivor tree of surviving yes how can you tell them to let go how can you tell them how do you do that what do you teach Tony yeah how do you make keep it up I tell them come and experience meditation you know because the first step is consciousness come and sit in a space where the chaotic mind and the chaotic situation that you're seeing on TV or reading on the news just takes a back seat somewhere or just you let it go for a little while and observe what it's like to sink into a different reality you know you cannot explain you cannot force people to see this you can only allow that experience to happen so this is why for me meditation is so essential it's so simple you know it is simply an a technique of focus where you focus on something that allows the mind not to drift off here and there and everywhere into all the worries stresses addictions but you know the mind likes to go to to control it and to stop it and just see that there is something beyond that struggle that can allow for freedom now I can't put that in words that's why it's an experience this is why I say you need to sit and meditate for 120 days you know it's not enough for 20 minutes one day to experiment to see if it works or not because the deeper you go it's like a dream you know the deeper you go into the dream the more sense it makes and when you sit and meditate you find quietness you find stillness inside of yourself and behind that stillness in that stillness there are some perspectives that you can explore and you know for some people they're lucky you know it happens immediately they just say wow I understand for other people it takes a little while you know like cigarette smoking you know for some people they can stop smoking cigarettes in two days others there is a bit more of a struggle doesn't mean the ones who take a bit longer you know are more backward or you know somehow less developed or less conscious just means they have more to learn and it's more exciting so the journey if continue it for four hundred and twenty days becomes more interesting because you begin to see much more than just I need to stop smoking and this meditation is something that people have practiced throughout the ages and there is no time in the world today because you know I see even coming here to the studios you know people on traveling the underground and on the train you know there's so fast there is no time to search you are running around the planet I was trying to make VP I wake up are you coming down I am I am that's a I do my meditation not actually traveling I still do travel I travel in here to London but you know I think people the internet and TV you know and media is such a wonderful tool and for me that becomes an easier way to reach more people and I think that people listen and hear and feel the importance of such in technology today you know on YouTube there are so many wonderful videos and conscious TV you know it's it's much more normal you know it's a much more real thing and don't you think there is also an energy which is supporting that exactly exactly and on many levels you know I I hear that you know peace for example you know in the old days it was all about traveling and speaking and dialoguing with one another but now the media can play a role that is amazing you know if conscious you know not all media is you know aware to do that and can help change situations before they develop into conflict and you know that is my deeper intention today it's you know how to bring more harmony to the world to the maximum amount of people without you know having to do so many things as I used to do in the past like you say travel every week to one place yeah and then to another place and I believe that you know there is an energy that is supporting that transformation people are looking today and searching and more actively for something that they know but quite don't quite understand and I think the media is the way forward so I focus much more on the internet I still work with people of course yet also traveling you know it's difficult because you know I don't want to just support people for a few moments you know one day workshop or a satsang you know somewhere I want to support people in a way that is more continuous and it's impossible for me to be in all those places at the same time on this physical level so you know it's important then to utilize technology so this is what I'm doing and I think many people are doing this you know consciously and it's a wonderful thing like the work that you're doing you know you're bringing a different perspective to the world you know into people watching from wherever and how to practice that in their daily life and that is important for me you know people don't have to go to India or South America to find something you know it just switched to computer you know you you you have mentioned in your book the longest journey we have to make is from our head to our heart that is it is I what helped you to drop into your heart I think and this sounds funny I think suffering I agree suffering is just here to help of our heart yeah I always had this feeling yeah and you know that I say that just because you know some people may be watching say oh it's easy for you Tony or it's easy for all those people who have the time to meditate or have the time and knowledge to practice certain techniques to to get to more a more free space but actually suffering when when embraced you know from a conscious perspective and we're all conscious you know we just don't know when engaged and worked with from that perspective I feel invites you to be more human you know and this is what I like about people like Mother Teresa or the Dalai Lama that they're so human it shows you know and you don't have to call them enlightened because just what they are you know shows that they're free you know then I think without suffering you know it's difficult to see how to be human you know and this is why we're here you know to embrace things from such a beautiful perspective no matter what the situation is it makes us unique you know conscious human beings are amazingly powerful and I think you know everyone can be conscious simply by embracing everything that they are not hiding not running away or trying to live up to some sort of perspective that is alien to who you are but just being yourself and that is that is coming back to the heart you know my children they're themselves I remember a story I was reading in one of Tyler Lamas books many years ago in order for him to open his heart and find compassion he went to Hiroshima degree with the suffering well and death helped open his heart and brought him to compassion well yeah I agree was it your own suffering which helped you well it wasn't quite my own suffering I grew up in Egypt and in places where suffering through poverty was much more obvious yeah and I asked myself you know why do people have to suffer in this way you know why I began to question everything really what is the meaning of life why is there this pain and suffering you know for me life was quite easy yeah because I I had everything but I I wasn't happy with just you know the selfish selfish satisfaction of needs I wanted to understand how to make a difference to those people that were right next to me you know and I think that opened my perspective in a way that just remained forever as a core part of me you know not just to focus on me but how how to make a difference in the world and I didn't know you know as a child but it's part of my personality you know to to understand how to alleviate suffering and like the Dali Lama when you see it and you you're open to it and you understand it and you understand that you know it's not enough to buy a new car or to do whatever to feel happy you know there is much more to life you mentioned we need a mirror of you before which is true and you say the heart is the heart is what makes a human being a hero and I think we need heroes definitely and I totally agree that we are all heroes in Vienna just don't know if you just don't know it and they have to embrace that action you know and it's such an amazing gift to be alive today in this world no matter what it is going through and you know just by being a life present to all that is going on that's a heroic journey in itself right because there are lots of scary things going off for sure for young people for everyone yeah and also in yourself scary feelings and the fear and just to embrace everything as nature exactly the harrowing exact and it's possible it's but do you know somebody no it's good to it not possible everyone can do it yes is if you put your mind to it and that is through meditation through focus so that you don't get caught by the games that the mind plays so another thing I want to ask you which I found really interesting is you say breathing correctly is saying yes to life and therefore becoming free in our body and I'm very interested in that because I reading a lot about the nervous system in the moment and how to bring peace into the body you know I can experience stillness up here and drop into these voids and you know into into silence but you know in my daily life I experience my body's just reacting to certain things yes how how do I find please not only up here but also up here and it's not enough understanding it here yeah I need to go through an experience yeah the body is a mirror you know I see when you go to the supermarket and there is that Friday stress where everyone is rushing around even if you're at peace you know you pick up yes things and this is my native people and people who live in more natural beautiful surrounds and say that you know it's madness to be in in the world today and the body is definitely influenced by such and just the technology and the stress of you know radiation and noise and pollution and whatever you know creates a reaction in the body which I believe moves us away from that inner stillness or inner balance and that is why I focus on the body as being the temple you know the structure that maintains the possibility for stillness in the mind and in the emotions and how to transform that that is through the breath you know we know yeah because you also say that you can see in the way we breathe our our limitations I develop it's an ally because you know the breath is the closest reflection to the state of the physical body you know if you're stressed you breathe quickly if you're relaxed or dreaming or in a state of consciousness where you're happy you know your breath reflects that yeah so if you're conscious and if you're able to work with the breath to relax the breath to a state of harmony then the body takes that as the real reference rather than the pollution or the noise or the stresses outside and that becomes like a mantra you know that you focus on all the time whenever you feel there is disharmony in the body so you know one thing that I teach and I hope people can teach this at school and you know in in hospitals and in places where you know people are dealing with much more physical stress than then is normal you know just breathe in take a deep breath in the diaphragm you know relax the diaphragm and breathe out and take a moment just to since what it's like to let go of the physical stress notice how your shoulders relaxed so you breathing deep breath here deep breath deep breath relaxing the diaphragm and then breathe out out and when you breathe out notice how your whole body just relaxes and that state of relaxation is essential for the quality of health that the body needs to be free you know you can't say oh yes I'm free and then you have your body you know all tight and stressed because of whatever is around you know you have to be able to reflect that in a more conscious way and I believe the breath to be essential this is why in yoga there is pranayama which is the science of breath but there is no need to go so deeply into breathing it's a simple matter of letting go of stresses when you do that I think your body relaxes and comes back to a state which is much more joyous you know it's much more easy to feel happiness when you're relaxed than when you're stressed and I think this is something that anyone can do and not whatever and I forget I forget the breathing because it's something so like I forget that my heart is pumping it's something so so normal exactly yeah and you know of course you it's a it another habit the way we breathe and to change this habit do we have to go through a period another no to change that habit the problem is that in the West we're so much in the mind that is where the energy is we have to back down to the body so the breathing is a reminder for the body to be part of what's going on you know your life to be alive you know and this is why native people you know when they see Western people walking you say my gosh you know where are they would you planet are they on because they're not here on earth because do another way better walking is not grounded and you know when you breathe in that deep relaxed way you know you realize I have a body I can interact with my body in a way that is not just reflecting the stress I can show the world that I'm happy you know like your partner you know if you're if your body's relaxed you can embrace them with that joy and relaxed body they feel it and you feel the connection to the physical realm because we are manifested here on this physical realm we have to ground ourselves here and I feel the breath is the first step to to remember the body and I think when you remember the body several times oh yeah I've got my hands oh yeah I've got my feet and I'm walking on the ground you know it becomes more than automatic response to how you experience the world you slowly ground yourself in a way that it is not normal in the West this is why in Zen Buddhism part of the meditations are called walking meditations when you listen to a rhythm that can be the rhythm of the mantra that you're chanting or an external rhythm and you walk in a way where consciousness is manifested through your action in your physical action the way you touch the earth where you show your body to the world and I think this is very important this is you know a matter of practice and more practice that easier kids so Tony do you have your own practice you do on a daily basis or of course I think everyone has their own practice and so I never said you know this is the way you know you have to do this and you have to do it like this everyone is unique every human being has a personality has a perspective has such a wonderful way of learning there is you shouldn't push it aside and then say no this is not right and this is the right way to do things but for me meditation which is in a much wider perspective just relating to the harmony of life rather than the distractions of the mind can be put into practice into real practice so perhaps saying to yourself every three hours I'll take two minutes just to breathe and to look at the world from a different perspective you know you have to remind as you said in the beginning you know yeah if you forget you have to have reminders and the reminder can be you just saying to yourself I need disciplines of this means I need to remind myself in the morning and the evening to sit in meditation but then that sitting becomes the meditation that carries on in you know your daily experience and even in your sleep you know if you meditate for 20 minutes before falling asleep you know the mantra that you repeat or the focus on some beautiful aspect such as poetry or a beautiful quality of the heart is carried deeper into your sleep and also in the morning if you wake up and you meditate then you start the day with a different perspective which you know goes beyond just the 20 minutes of meditation that you have as your practice so you know this is what I like to do I like to bring spirituality into life the way you relate to people the way you say hello to someone that you don't know you know your acts of kindness to everyone and your just your relationship to everything becomes a spiritual work so if you're Christian if you're Muslim if you're Buddhist you can continue your practice but then the quality the heart needs to be very much the most important aspect of that press practice and for me you know I find it very useful to repeat beautiful mantras sacred sounds you know if you're a Hindu you can practice for example the sound of on and I usually say to people why not try whoo which is hu and it'll fit i softly Sarkar it's a Sufi sound a Middle Eastern sound and but it can be anything it could be light which in Aramaic is nor you know and they won't nor you know and we can say you know light light light so that every situation that the mind think thinks all that is worrying or limiting or dark or negative you know has another force that you can look reference to which is light or um which is the creation of life or if you're Christian you can you know chance something from the Christian tradition if you're Muslim you can charge something from the Muslim tradition it's up to each person in the end it is like Kabir says you know there are many ways but in you know there is only one real way and that is the way of the heart and I think if you are truly real and you're you know coming back to your heart then it doesn't matter what the practice is you know it's your action that counts yeah it's beautiful I'm just looking at the clock I think we have to finish I wanted to talk with you about children and we might do another interview on that if you know my dog okay yeah I had to do that it's such a big subject that is a bearing what it is yeah but also the light for it and why it was lovely to talk to you Tony and mmm-hmm to have you back in your busy schedule and I show you books again but um so deeper than that and those books in those books you find Tony's teaching from now the village now and from the heart and if you would like to know more about his journey to become a shaman this is a fascinating one shaman's wisdom okay well thank you for watching conscious TV and thank you Tony drink with us and I will see you again soon goodbye you hello my name is Tony Samara to show you a very practical breathing meditation that I find very essential in today's busy busy world take a moment to just sit down relax your body relax your shoulders make sure that you're completely free of whatever worries or thinking's that occupy the mind and come back to the breath take a deep breath experiment with breathing in deeply into your belly relaxing the diaphragm more breath more breath and then relax and as you let go of the breath feel how the mind and all the energy of your body moves to a deeper state of consciousness as you breathe out let go of everything feel how the face and the neck and the shoulders and the body just sink into a more beautiful more tranquil space know that your body is relaxed you can breathe even more take another deep breath a happy joyous breath where everything feels much more beautiful much more harmonious much more clear as you breathe out notice how your mind and the energy of your body with your out breath goes deeper and deeper to a space where you gently discover a sense of tranquility sense of stillness a sense of peace and embrace that from a perspective of joy perspective of yes this is now part of who I am the sense of relaxation the sense of beauty the sense of harmony is now manifested in my body and continue to breathe in and out in this beautiful way as long as you feel comfortable and perhaps carrying on that intention throughout the day and every time you find yourself lost in the stresses and the actions of the mundaneness coming back to that tranquility slowly when you're ready coming back thank you

Channel: conscioustv

Views: 224,256

Keywords: Tony Samara, Shamanism (Religion), The Human Heart Is The Hero, Shaman: Shamanism

Id: XOuUfevUHRI

Length: 62min 50sec (3770 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 26 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/SibcyRoad]

I've seen a couple of her videos. I hope she catches on that people love her voice and she pulls a Lita and makes guided meditations and stuff. Her voice is on par with Litas if anyone's is.

[u/Upsidedwn7]

Wow haha great triggers! But man it’s almost painful to listen to these people talk about literally nothing and say gibberish and a collage of random “spiritual sounding” words lmao. I have to just ignore what they’re talking about and focus on the asmr lol

[u/SassySweatpants]

I love how the woman softens the German accent slightly. The mans whispery voice compliments her soft accent.