Zen Garden Full Interview With Tu Lam | THE UNSEEN INTERVIEW

when you Garden if you're in total focus of everything that's going on then you're in total mindfulness of the beauty that you're creating because if you wish the world to be a peaceful place and you really want this world to be a piece of place then you need to be extremely dangerous it's better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener at War a quote that really has had a huge impact on me knowing that you have an ability to be able to do something but maybe you don't need to do it is an extremely powerful tool that I have taken into my own life but somebody who embodies that is tulam founder and CEO of ronin tactics tulam is the embodiment of this quote and today I am with tulam talking about his zen garden and the contrast between the two and why it's so important to have both today's video was made possible with Mulligan rivers.com where you can get the ironically named not a journal which is a no [ __ ] approach to journaling a journal I designed six years ago and it helped me so much in life that I decided to release it to the world and we can't thank you guys enough for the success of this and your feedback we're really excited to be getting so much love from this so thank you to everybody the link in the descriptions where you can get them where all the profits go back into creating this content but before that this video here talks about one side of the vicious powerful Warrior and the other side of the Tranquil peaceful mindset and how both of these things can live in harmony together this is tulam Founders CEO of ronin tactics talking about his zen garden let's jump into the video okay too we'll just start the story of the Desert Rose well you know um about six months ago I went back to Fayetteville North Carolina my hometown and I was giving a speech to the newly graduated Special Forces class I was invited back by the Special Forces regiment and a huge honor you know a huge honor and during this visit you know um two foes was that I got to visit my mother my beautiful beautiful mother um my mother you know she she possessed strength you know um truly the spirit of a tiger and she taught me what it mean to live a strong life you know she um she had these desert roses in my grandmother's home these desert roses were in my when my grandmother was still alive handed down to my mother and my mother knew that I love um gosh I love plants I love flowers and the reason why is because you know when I was growing up um I was very defiant you know I was very uh I always questioned my mother and she loved it because my punishment was uh yard work all right and my mother had the most beautiful yard because I kept on getting in trouble right that's what happens with your heart hit but my mother uh knew how to cultivate me you know and in time I tell you I love gardening and it's within Samurai culture you know to Garden but when my mother you know taught me gardening and Landscaping she has a beautiful Japanese backyard um but the thing was he grew in me so much that when I was deployed overseas that you know we in in some of saddam's palaces you know in Iraq we would manicure the lawn you know beautiful lawn and I would grow flowers you know in in a war zone and it's because of my mother it reminds me how beautiful my mother is and when I came home I was looking at this beautiful desert rose in my uh grandmother's home and my mother told me the story behind her and then she cut the branches off it was so beautiful it was blooming she cut the branches off and she pulled it off and then she wrapped it up you know she wrapped it up and then uh she said I want you to take this home you know and um now it's blooming it's spring so the desert rose is blooming and what a beautiful flower because you know it blooms these uh these Rose these desert roses and it's so beautiful and what I love about the desert rose is you know this beautiful flower is able to withstand you know the hardships um of the desert so beautiful Desert Rose from my mother in terms of gardening and maintaining the garden you have your own zen garden and I'd love to know what that means to you and how people could create a place like that for themselves as well you know the the samurai in its MRI culture it's about having a Zen Garden right because you know a warrior and you know Samurai is diverse in education diverse in the the abilities to be a warrior the weapon handling skills the taxes the strategy but also you know we we like to balance ourselves with um poetry with art and gardening is is one of the things to me what gardening brings is Zen right brings Beauty in this world don't you wish to leave what is beautiful you know don't don't you want to come in this world and leave this world leaving something that's beautiful you know and that's what to me guarding is is to be an artist you know Landscaping to be an artist to see what is not even there right and then to sculpt it out of the dirt to build this beautiful landscape that you could sit in and feel presentness and joy right in accomplishments so what Landscaping brings me is just that it's a Pride right pride in your your artistry and for me Landscaping and gardening it's the twofold ways of a samurai balance violence or what is beautiful and gardening too to me it brings me to a state of zazen you know the state of presentness when you Garden if you're in total focus of everything that's going on then you're in total mindfulness of the beauty that you're creating so that's what guarding does right it creates Beauty and you're so mindful of this beauty and you're creating what is art and you're giving that to the world creating more Beauty in the world right so gardening is a way or culture you think about even in the Spartan culture you know the night culture into the samurai culture you know they talk about farmers you know so when when um Warriors in the past will fight past Wars they'll come back and they'll Farm because one of the healing process I feel is that we connect with the Earth we connect with the universe and and guarding allows us to do that so in in your zen garden there are the Ripples and you have your own philosophy around that and I'd love to hear that you know in my zen garden in a Japanese Zen Rock Garden you know you have your different sizes of rocks your different textures of rocks you know and for me when I design it the bigger rocks was what I perceive as land and at the inner rocks that I could mode was what I perceive as water you see so when I draw my water it depends on my mood right and if you look at my garden in any Japanese garden you'll see a structure and then you'll see a ripple around that structure so to me what it means is in one lifetime in one lifetime we're given one life in this universe how many people can you touch how much ripple effect can you cause on this world to affect the others and help out others right so in my zen garden I have the ripples around the structures the Arts the plants the rocks and it reminds me when I meditate the ripple effect each human being each person affects others in the ripple effect the ripple effect can allow us to to live in a in a kinder in a kind of world in terms of I don't know if it has any carryover um so you'll be able to tell me but we spoke about as well the well it does have a carry over the flow you know we've got the the stones that represent the water and it flows through the garden um and it we speak about brutally and the word flow comes up all the time I'd love to just hear your opinions on that well to me gardening is expression of oneself and you know in taoism is to live in harmony with the universe so in my art I expressed that through my gardening to flow with the universe and to flow with the universe is to take the elements of earth water when right ground and fire and then you you implement all these into the Japanese garden right so for me to flow of things is just that it is it's the flow it's like you know we're we are an entity that's flowing through this universe and if you go against the universe if you go against the flow of the universe then the universe will punish you back in karma right if you flow with the energy of the universe right let's just say the energy the universe is to be kind to others show gratitude and then you you flow with the universe and you say [ __ ] you man I hate this I well you're going to live in a life of suffering because you're going against the flow so in Japanese gardening it illustrates that the flow and the harmony with nature and Creation in the universe you know so when you sit in this place first is your art right but when you sit in this place you should feel all all of the elements in one place another thing I think we're doing a breakdown of the garden at this point but you've got the the yin and the Yang and it's one of the things that really interests me about the way you lead your life is the you have this brutality almost the way that you you perform these these moves and these um the the gun movements it's it's it's so violent and brutal and then you have this piece on the other side and how how do how do you find balance and how how can somebody find balance in that you know there's old Chinese story of a master and a student the master walks the student through this Garden it's a beautiful garden you know the student looks at the master as the master says what a beautiful morning to the student what a beautiful morning and the student looks at him puzzled and say master you talk about beauty you talk about beauty and you talk about being kind and compassionate but yet you teach us you teach us all the ways of violence the master Smiles at the student and he kneels now and he plucks this beautiful flower he reminds the student that it's better to be a warrior in the garden and then a gardener at War so it's just that you know in my experience in the Special Forces is always the innocent it's always innocent always the innocent that gets oppressed to get enslaved is always the innocent to die always Anderson see because you're untrained you're a gardener in war you have no skills it's better to be trained and not use it right and to be in war or in conflict and not even be trained can you imagine your family put down on their knees and you have no ability to stop are you reconciled the two is if you wish the world to be a peaceful place you really want this world to be a peace of place then you need to be extremely dangerous you have to be extremely dangerous but you live with a code instead of morals values like Samurai like Spartan like the knights you know and it's all written in history so how do I reconcile it to you I understand what it takes to be in peace and I know what it takes to maintain peace and that comes with a unique skill set a dedication to life purpose so that's how I reconciled it too so is it with teachings um of well we're talking about the gardens and the elements is there um teachings and philosophies around elements wind Earth fire water is the teachings around that you have your Samurai teachings you know in the teachings of Irene Musashi breaks it down into the elements but he breaks it down into combat you know water in his eyes is to be fluid in tactics right to be able to form what to train the environment the people the situation the Special Forces we had to do that but to me water means something else in my life water is to be fluid right is to be able to change with the seasons what work for you in this life right as a 20 year old may not work for you when you're 40 years old trying to find peace what worked for you in their 40s may not work for your 20s because you need an element of fire I understand fire is what drives us fire in combat I I call is fires to meet your enemies without fear and that comes with a mindset right that comes with a set of skills and that comes with purpose and that comes with all these little well all these virtues so in the teachings of Bushido Miyamoto Masashi and ishiru he broke it down into the five elements fire fire to meet your enemies without fear as a warrior I had to meet my enemies about fear but in my eyes in your eyes in in a regular civilian Side Fire man fires passion fires is drive it's discipline does fire right in today's society you know and you can take a samurai teaching and apply it to your life you understand water you know Miyamoto Musashi even in the Special Forces to be fluid to to blend in with the environment to form with the environment the tactics the people the situation but in in that's in war into teachings of War but in the teachings of Life Waters fluidity is to not crystallize a belief it's to be formless in your mind in your art right and then when when in in the teachings the issue rule is to be intelligent to look at the data to predict the enemy to understand their tactics right Sanju talks about understand your enemies that's that's that's what it is but in my eyes in in in today's worlds it's the in population when is is to know who you are to know who you are and to know where you need to go and be able to draw the intelligence to map out a route from A to B right like a road like a navigation to map it out in your life so when it's just that to be able to see what could not be seen you know Musashi which the hardest for me well then you had ground right so ground element is to ground yourself in teachings to educate yourself they summarize the two-fold ways of Penn and sword education the final element was the hardest for me it was void emptiness you know and I I used to think boy it is like you when you lose somebody and you can never put it back you know that empty space but no it goes deeper than that void if you want to perceive what is you must die to everything of yesterday teaching is a used to rule the thing is when you were raised everybody would tell you what your narrative is don't do that that's stupid you're not going to make money that's stupid you shouldn't do that you're gonna fail you're a dumb kid nobody likes you you understand that's other people's narrative so in order to perceive what is you must die to everything and yes say in order to perceive what is is what is actual truth what is actual truth was here before our time as human beings the land the Stars the Moon Heaven God all these things were here before us and then as human beings we put a narrative on it a day that's given to us a day is only a day but then we put a title on it it's a bad day it's a good day it's a long day it's not true so in order for you to perceive what is you must die to your narrative because that narrative that you made for yourself is somebody else's narrative that you adapted therefore you're living your own lives therefore you're not living truth so in order for you to perceive what is you must die to everything of yesterday it goes so deep so deep can you imagine all your trauma oh all this all the times that you put a name on it can you imagine you tell yourself it's a lie and you inject the word a positivity into your day it's a bad [ __ ] day this is a lie it's not a bad day the day is a day that's which actual truth but as a human being I have control over how I feel about this day and I will inject today is a beautiful day that's my narrative you see you must die to everything yesterday so yeah it kind of answers the next question I'm going to ask but I'll ask anyway because it's something we spoke about when you're at that stage which you've said you you were there at one point as well where during the anger even rage phase of the the other side of trauma like in for me when I've been there it's felt like I've wanted revenge and it's it's been a that will almost create a fire for me like that that was that fire energy for me that motivated me but um how do you ever commit how do you get to the other side of that that that rage you have to you know I talk about the dragon the koi fish going up to Enlightenment you know you know what that means you change your life with the renewing of one's mind it's your choice you can continue to go and and somebody says something about you and you get angry you're drinking their poison they're not even around you you know let's just say you work really hard on this project in this video and you're really proud of it and then somebody looks at it and say it looks like [ __ ] they had nothing to do with it that's their narrative has something to do with you so the thing is let's just say somebody insults you and you get very angry what's that have to do with you see the thing is that we live life with expectations and that's driven off ego you know why ego let's let's just talk about that if if somebody insults you why are you you don't even know them why would you get angry ego he's such a powerful thing and that's tied to hate that's tied to Greed that's that's tied to all your sufferings you must die to your ego and it takes work so when somebody makes you angry and you go around in your office and you're spreading your little rumors and your little Narrative of what you think it is it's not even true but you're going around you're spreading this do you feel better do you feel better you don't even feel better you you linger that on to the night because you're drinking your own poison he's not even round and then a week from then you're still thinking about the same [ __ ] so you're suffering for no reason due to your own self you don't stop hate right with more hate you change that by changing the elements and and the strongest power look man I I I've been around the world right and I've been in some of the worst places the strongest power I ever seen was love so embrace the positive energy and don't let negative people negative [ __ ] get in your way because it has nothing to do with you control your emotions and in doing so You Free Yourself from your own sufferings uh something uh an old basketball coach of mine used to say was a it was don't let the monkey get out of the box it was about it was it was very he was quite a wise man but it was about making sure that that anger and that that uncontrollableness stayed within that body you don't allow so you and you just talked about controlling your emotions I mean what kind of practices can we can we do to achieve that state of being where we we don't react first you've got to ask yourself who are you who do you want to be you want to let that bother you who do you want to be in life right and let's just say you make a choice like you know I really don't want to be this person anymore that's a c for change and then you need to say to yourself This what's important in your life being happy is that important so being happy is important and why are you taking that negative shift from other people right it has nothing to do with you see and that's the thing it goes back to the same [ __ ] it's like you can't let it go because your ego you can't let it go because you keep on talking about you can't let it go because you let it manifest in your brain because you don't have any ability to control it right that's why meditation and that's why mindfulness and that's why it's all that's so powerful because you realize that when other people are cruel to you it doesn't affect you like it it doesn't it has nothing to do with me that's your problem has nothing to do with me and and I tell you I feel remorse because they must be hurting that much inside or they're going to lash out like that right so the thing is like when you work on yourself then you'll be more compassionate and you look at things different and that's what I mean it's like fluidity in life what works for you in your 20s may not work for you in your 30s you have to change and renew your mind and that goes with who you want to be in life it starts with that question who do I want to be and if I want to be a better person why why reflect on this negative negative thing to change your mindset how do you distinguish between because I I I like what you said there but I creep into the idea of almost suppressing it's suppressing emotions around around trauma how do you not allow it to be suppressing trauma but also letting it go oh man I suppressed trauma all my life let me tell you how the mind works you know the analytical Minds not even developed analytical mind is what's right and wrong you know deciding what's right and wrong the analytical mind is the narrative on how you process things that's not even develop into your seven or eight you know up in Sudan there's no analytical mind what is you see goes straight into your subconscious your database your history your subconscious 95 percent you know and as I I raise you know I I suppress it all I suppressed everything and and in the end when you suppress everything it stays within you those voices will get louder you can't suppress it the voice would get louder and the older you get the louder those voices get so the thing is you have to change the way you look at things and you have to apply discipline you have to understand neuroscience and how things work you have to understand that we're programmed with uh 200 000 plus years brain same Hardware and what you can you're going to expect the externals to change for you how ignorant how egotistical right to have expectations on other people or expectational things outside your control and then getting upset because it didn't happen your way well that's because that's a piss-poor mindset to have you know so it begins with you again who do you want to be can we just go into a little bit more expansion on Bruce Lee and and his influence on yourself wow you know what I want to say about Bruce Lee was that you know my mother gave me these four cassette tapes right and you know the uh I put the the first tape in was the art of budo that's what drew me to the samurai culture but the other three tastes of Bruce Lee you know in Bruce Lee what amazing human being not just in martial arts right not only his skills but man what an amazing person as a human being he bridged the gap between east to west by educating the West on Eastern philosophies uh you know albism allows you Confucianism you know educated the world on Chinese culture martial arts right and what he did was not only he made you know being Asian cool right back then because look back then was very racist and I'd say hey man back when I first came to America there was no Asian role models we were hated on I was the face of unpopular War spit it on you know no no no um No Remorse no respect for our culture Bruce Lee made it cool so you know my mother she would take us to the local library and you know looking at Bruce Lee well I looked at things deeper why does he say where he says why so deep in philosophy and well I think what made Bruce Lee so amazing to me as an artist is that he was able to take all these philosophies from all these teachers in the past philosophers you know dating back to 500 BC he takes all this Musashi even teachings and gave it to the world so beautiful so beautiful that he influenced me so much Bruce Lee took his Fame he stardom and he made an impact his message was equality to treat somebody equal in a time where people segregate you know they they they spit on other people's face because of our differences especially talk about where we have two hands and two legs and one head we're all in the same children of God on the same universe Bruce Lee affected me so much that his Ripple touched me in that Ripple led me to 27 countries and some Special Forces Green Beret my martial arts was formed this because of Bruce Lee I live my life like water because of Bruce Lee I fought for the people because Bruce Lee talked about equality you see and I still do today I fight for the people so Bruce Lee what amazing human being in his Ripple touch me as he touched the world and because this Ripple touched me I went to 27 countries fighting freeing thousands From Slavery oppression so from one man he touched thousands when an amazing Spirit knew amazing soul Bruce Lee you'll riffle you know Bruce Lee's done and and we spoke a little bit there about the ripple effect that you've had where does that spread to after that like where do those ripples those people you've affected did they they'd have a ripple that spreads out even further Gary you know you expect one person they they want to change they're gonna they're gonna work on themselves you know look Confucius said if you want the world be a better place it starts with you and if I touch somebody then they can reflect on themselves and if they want to make themselves better then they then they make themselves better and then they can help somebody else and that rip will affect somebody else and that Ripper would touch somebody else so the thing is just that is that for me I realized at a young age because Bruce Lee affected me he touched me he touched me about equality and the thing is when I started traveling you know 27 countries in fighting for the Press every every life every life every Community every country every person ripples ripples into the next you say one life you free one person from enslavement it ripples through generations and in time in time that we live this way what we have a better world thank you so much I'm so happy to close it there because when it's cold [Laughter] but two uh Mulligan Brothers is uh uh motto like the thing that we live by is Inspire change and for us that is about touching I know we said the other day that that was it came from a two-pack quote uh to spark the mind that changes the world and it is just about that ripple effect and uh I'm so I I I I love your analogy on it and uh I hope that people watch this understand that they have a splash to make and that will Ripple out as well to other people so thank you so much for all your time um and yeah let's go thank you so much again to two we have some great projects coming out with tulam I'm going to link all his stuff down below uh for me this balance of this powerful strong uh vicious side and this peaceful mindful uh empathetic side is such a such a difficult thing to conceptualize but it is something that I'm so enamored by it's something that I want to be able to hold in my own life to have that vicious powerful side for business and filmmaking and Entrepreneurship is so crucial to be able to be cut throat to be able to make those deals to be able to you know do whatever it takes but also to be able to have compassion understanding peace tranquility and find yourself somewhere in the middle of these two things is an art form and to be able to speak to two and learn lessons from him is a blessing and it's why I we we get on so well with the warrior monks and the Master shihang Yi and Shifu yanely and and all these people who find that balance I strive to find that balance too in my own world so I cannot thank these guys enough I enjoy these conversations so much today's video was made possible by Mulligan rivers.com where you can get them not a journal a journal that I designed over six years ago now which is a no [ __ ] approach to journaling basically journaling doesn't need to be difficult on one side you've got the list against a thorn you've got the notes and you reinforce your goal for the week the month of the year every single day so you know what you're working towards thank you so much for watching have a blessed and productive day and go follow me on Instagram I'll see you in the next one peace

Channel: Mulligan Brothers Interviews

Views: 13,441

Keywords: Mulliganbrothers, mulligan brothers, motivational videos, motivation, motivational speech

Id: 81GRpUjjlHs

Length: 36min 51sec (2211 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 02 2022