 Welcome to Holistic Wellness Revealed. I'm Letitia Sharp and I'm your host today when we talk about love and how it can bring kindness, generosity and compassion into our lives. Welcoming today, Dr. Zeo Okogiri. He's an author of an amazing book which I can't wait to share with you, a teacher of meditation and also a creator of founder of support kindness. Hi, Zeo. Good morning. How are you? Good morning. How are you? I'm wonderful. Thank you so much for taking the time today to come and talk about our favorite subject ever, love. Thank you. I made the title of this show All We Need Is Love because through the millennia, we have had stories and songs and poems and movies and plays all written about love. And yeah, it just really feels like this is the main essence that is what we're all made of. And I know that you have a mission about love and I'd love if you could share a little bit about that mission with us. Well, thank you. You know, for a very long time, I've been involved in learning about kindness, teaching kindness and compassion and traveling to different countries to gain more awareness, more knowledge about this subject of love and why it is so important for us to learn how to love. In fact, it got to a point where I just got the realization that life is really about learning how to love. And it disguises itself in different ways and we face different problems and crises and so on. But it's really an opportunity to learn how to love. Yeah. Yes, exactly. And so, I mean, that really rings true for me because... And once we share each of our unique essence of love, then that's what opens up gateways. That's what opens doors. That's where the magic happens. And I know that you share your special individual essence of love around the world on your journeys and you just did a huge journey this last year, didn't you? I think, how many countries did you...? Eight countries. Eight countries in a month? In a month, yes. We went to a kindest retreat in Nepal. We began in Kathmandu, which is a couple of Nepal. And then from Kathmandu, we went to Lumbini. Lumbini is where Buddha was born. So we actually went to this, how do you want to say, temple or monastery. It's the exact location where Buddha was born. And it's the representation of the body tree, where Buddha gained his enlightenment. So we were able to go there and actually go inside this building, this white building. And there's a demarcated area that is, say, this is the exact spot where Buddha was born. So it was really, it was inspiring to be there and to have this experience and to talk with the monks. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. So was there anyone that you could speak to about the energy that this place holds? Well, there was this monk. His job was to look after the body tree. So he was rather a very serious monk. He didn't smile much, so I went to him and I said, what is this all about? And while he's lighting the candles and incense, he began to explain to me the merit of the body tree and why it is so important for him to be the guardian of this tree. And he gave me a brief history of it and you can really see how devoted he was. This was his job and he was there to educate all the visitors to this wonderful place. That's beautiful. And I mean, isn't that part of what we're talking about? The love. I mean, he had this love for the tree. He had a love for his guardianship to this space and the energy of this space. That's beautiful. And you saw about what the tree represents. What the tree represents because the tree represents this knowledge which this great man, the Buddha, has been able to cultivate and then spread all over the whole world. And he has seen himself spreading different ways. When he goes to China, it is modified into Shang Buddhism and they can understand it because it has an affinity with their own culture and it goes to Japan. It's molded into Zen Buddhism in a way that they can be able to embrace it and it travels all over the whole world and people are learning. It becomes a way of life to alleviate the consciousness of the people. So this is what that tree represents and he knows the value of it and he takes great pride in being the guardian of that tree. And isn't it experiences like this that helps to fuel and feed this journey of yours because your mission is to travel the world and share the gift of love and I mean, it's experiences like this that fuel that and feed you and nourish you in your essence. Yes. You know, when you travel the world, one of the immediate effects of it is that it begins to break down the walls of fear because already we have so much fear built up about other people that we don't know. We tend to be afraid of what we don't know and sometimes we are so used to our own culture, our own lifestyle that we develop ethnocentricity or ethnocentrism, the idea that our way of life is superior or better than the way of life of other people but travel breaks all that down because as you go and see different ways in which people live, you begin to appreciate and accept their own way of living and you begin to understand what is behind this culture, this exquisite exotic cultures of the world. When you get to understand what is behind them, you say, ah, this is the most interesting, you know? So many things that we take for granted in the developed world. Let's even talk about social security that you work for a long time and then you begin to get the benefits when you're much older. Well, there are cultures that are designed for people to take titles over their lifetime. Let's say from the age of 18 or 19, you begin to take titles in the village. So you will pay money, there'll be festivities, there'll be gifts that you give, yams, rice, goat, cow and every year you're doing this and everyone who has already done these titles benefit from all the gifts that you be given. You see that? So over a long period of time, when you get to be an older person, then all the young people who are doing all these titles are now taking care of you. You see? So on this topic, you say, well, why are they doing these titles for? But then when you understand what is behind you, you say, wow, this is exquisite. You see? And it all pays forward, yeah. What pays forward indeed, yeah. Yeah, it's amazing, it's amazing. So, and I really like what you said about fear and fear pushes that love out. And I noticed that whenever I'm in fear of anything, it's usually self-derived. It's usually comes from within me. It's not because I'm actually in danger. And it's harder to be in a place of love. And that's why I feel like self-love is such a huge component to being able to share love. Yeah, I was speaking to a group not long ago and it's exactly what we're talking about, taking care of yourself. And I said many of you came from abroad all over the world and you had been in the airplane many times. And each time you fly in the airplane, there's always the safety announcement that you hear. If there's a loss of cabin pressure and you see the oxygen mask drop, make sure you put your mask on yourself first before you begin to help anyone else, you see? And that is exactly what we need to do in life. We need to take care of ourselves. If you don't take care of yourself, it will be difficult for you to take care of other people. So you need to have self-compassion, self-love as you put it earlier. It's a part of kindness, kindness to yourself and kindness to other people. So the cultivation of kindness has been at the core of my journey and of my teaching because I heard it from belief that if kindness is accepted and practiced around the globe, everyone will benefit. You see? Absolutely. We're doing it for ourselves. Absolutely. And so it does, it generates this self-compassion, this kindness and patience and unconditional love even. And I know for the longest time, I always thought and felt like unconditional love was out. Like I had to have unconditional love for other people, but it wasn't until I finally started practicing unconditional love for myself that I truly felt love. Yeah, yeah, because there's a lot of things that we have, a lot of fears, a lot of discomfort that we have within us. Wish we are not aware of and situations is pose us to ourselves. When you take a travel to Tibet, travel to Nepal, to India and other places, you get to learn about yourself because now you are dealing with brand new people. It's almost like starting a brand new life when you travel to a foreign country. It's like starting a brand new life for whatever period of time that you're going to be there. You're surrounded by brand new people that you've never made before. You're surrounded by new buildings, new trees, everything is brand new. And sometimes the language is brand new. You don't understand what they're saying. So this activates all your faculties because now you have to survive. And now you notice every little thing. We live in the beautiful island of Hawaii. And when you first came to Hawaii, you couldn't get enough of it. You notice every little thing. The ocean, the beaches, the beautiful trees. But after you've been here for a while, you cannot get used to it, you see? So when you go to a new place, all your faculties are activated. So this is a reduction of anxiety and you forget wherever you came from for a little bit and just deal with the present environment. So these are the gifts of being able to do retreats as we do every year, going to different country fair retreat and getting to learn about yourself, getting to break down your fears. I was telling you earlier that I was in Saudi Arabia for the first time in my whole life. And I had avoided the Middle East, obviously because of what we hear in the news, there's always problems in the Middle East. So many people avoid going to the Middle East because of the media. And everything will be fed. So for the first time, I ventured to go to Saudi Arabia to visit Mekha, the bird place and the major area for the Islam religion, the Islam tradition. So I went there and when I was at the airport, I had bought some gifts. I was also going to Africa to see my family. So I had bought some gifts, some cell phones and so on. And they were in my luggage. So when they run my luggage through the X-ray and they found it, they say, well, I'm sorry, you cannot take this into Mekha. I said, well, what do we do? They say you have to pay tax on them before you can take them in. And the tax was like $700. I said, but these are not for sale. These are just gifts to my family. They said, well, in that case, you can leave it at the airport and on your way out, you can take them with you. I said, that sounds fine. So when I'm dealing with the custom officer, he's writing down all the different phones and so on. And then he looks at me, say, what brings you to Saudi Arabia? And I said, I'm going to Medina and I'm going to Mekha and from Mekha to Medina. And he got so excited. He got to exist in Masala Medina. Blessings of God be with you. So he comes up, he gives me a hug. He kisses me on both cheeks. I'm like, whoa, this is unbelievable. So he was just so joyous that the love of God has brought me to Saudi Arabia. And I'm going for the first time to a partake with hundreds of thousands of people in this great ceremony that is called AMRA, that draws from all over the world. So, and before I left him, he said, do you manifest your story with you? I said, go ahead, tell me your story. He said, Allah is really great. And of course, Allah is God, the name of God for Islam. So he says, can I share a story with you? So I said, yes, go ahead. He said that, Allah is really wonderful. And he began to tell me about a time in his life when he was really done on his luck. And he said, you know, he got to the point where I can't even feed my family anymore. I have children, I have a wife, and I didn't know what to do. And he says, with the last money in his pocket, he decided to go to Maker and pray about it. So he went to Maker and he went to the mosque. And by the way, the mosque is so huge, it has a capacity for 2.5 million people. I mean, it's the biggest household worship I have ever been to. So he's nailed with everyone else and began to pray to Allah, to God, to help him remedy this situation. And on his way out, leaving the mosque at the gate, guess who we met? He met the king of Saudi Arabia. And to make it long story short, the king reached into his pocket and gave him an equivalent of $30,000. Oh, my God. So he looked at me and said, is that fast enough, my friend? Is that fast enough? Oh, my gosh. That's incredible. So love is all we really need. No, it's what I call the relentless generosity of God, the relentless generosity of the spirit. Spirit is always there, 24, 7, to take care of us. And love, I mean, it doesn't always look pretty either. I mean, love, everybody has this idea that love is gentle and kind and pretty and soft. And sometimes love can, it can hurt. But if you check in with your heart and you feel what you're learning and how you're growing, if you really breathe into the love of it all, you find it, you find it. It doesn't have to be pretty. It doesn't have to be groomed or manicured. It's just love is raw and it's the magic that's created from it. You are quite correct that love is not always so loving, so pretty, so kind. Sometimes it comes in ways that are really harsh. It's really hard for us to deal with them. And although we might not see it at the time, but in every situation, there's always an element of love in it. If we look from a detached angle, we can see the element of love embedded in every situation. Every situation is an opportunity for us to love, for us to learn more about love. How are we going to deal with it and be able to come out from the other side after we've been polished? See, this is what life is about. Everyone has to go through this journey of being polished, being go through the journey of refinement. So when you look back 10 years ago, 20 years ago, you cannot believe how much you have grown as a person, as a soul. So this is what life is about. And the cultivation of love requires dedication. Some of us go through it through meditation. We meditate for many, many years relentlessly. It's not easy to sit quietly and tap into that in what space and become aware of who you are and keep doing it on a daily basis. It's like going to the gym. You don't get any, you don't see any changes in one week when you first start. You don't see any changes. Maybe you have some muscles, but over 10 years, my God, you look at your body, some believable. But on the spiritual side, you don't see, nobody, you don't show off your spiritual awareness or you cannot see it. It's all within. Right. But the benefit can be felt by others. Just your presence, people can feel it. People can feel the vibration, the energy that you emit. And this energy changes your environment anywhere you are. And when you travel to other countries as I travel to Tibet, India, Nepal, the treatment that I'm given is almost like they've been expecting me for years. And finally, I arrived, you see. Because when I go to these places, I have nothing but love in my heart when I go to these places. I'm not there to change anybody. I'm not there to change the culture. I don't have any complaints. I'm just there to partake in their existence. So, and people can feel that, people can feel it and they embrace you because they know from heart to heart, you're one. Right. And this is love. Sorry, go ahead. And this love, the cultivation of love, it doesn't matter what tradition that you belong to, what religious tradition. Whether you're a Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or anything else in between, when you cultivate love, love is love. It doesn't matter where you got it from. The vibration of love is love across all borders. Yeah. Yes. It is the one thing that we are all made of. I mentioned that in the beginning and it's, we all have it. We all hold it. And it does transcend all other rubbish. Anything else that might show up. And let's talk about really quick. I know that you said, okay, so you meditate for years. I want to give our viewers a way to be able to start practicing bringing love into their daily experience. And there's the self love which can be practiced through the hue. There's random acts of kindness. There's the practice of walking while feeling yourself completely an embodiment of love and noticing the changes around you and being in love with everything that you see. And I really feel like, can you talk a little bit about any of those three or all of those three in the time that we have left so that our viewers have something to be able to take with them on their journey and their own love path and practice? Well, like you said, there are many different types of meditation. You have mindfulness meditation. You have mantra meditation. You have silent meditation, movement meditation. There's so many types. The key is to find one that resonates with you. You have to find one that resonates with you. And when you practice, you have to be consistent. I cannot overemphasize that consistency. It's key no matter what I give to you to practice. If you like it, you have to do it every single day for life. You see, that's what it takes to gain the benefits of meditation. So for example, you can do a silent meditation and it's just closing your eyes and just washing yourself with intake, outtake. Just washing yourself with. And if you're the beginner, when you're in silence, one minute can seem like an hour. So for the beginner, I always encourage you to just do it for five minutes. Now, another meditation practice that is very effective is mantra meditation. Many of you have heard about the om, mantra, om. But some may not have heard of the hue mantra, the inner light and sound meditation. This is one that really will galvanize your heart, open the heart to unconditional love. It doesn't happen overnight, it takes time. But then it begins to refine you inwardly and the light comes in. How do you do it? You simply sit down, find a space where you will not be disturbed. You can chant inwardly or you can chant outwardly. When there's no one around or if you're with friends and you want to chant together, of course you chant outwardly. So how do you do it? You sit quietly by yourself. You put your attention at the center in between your eyebrow. This has many names, some people call it the seat of soul. And it's really a point that provides stability and grounded for you. So you put your attention gently there, you close your eyes, and you begin to chant this word H-U, hue. And it goes like this, hue. So you chant the hue gently to yourself for about 20 minutes. You can stop by just doing it for five or 10 minutes in the beginning. And as you have more, when you become more used to it, then you can chant for a longer time. And you can feel this beautiful vibration that comes to you. And if we are out of time, maybe next time we can talk about more meditation practices if you like. Oh, I would love that. We are so close to time. I do want to be sure to give our viewers a chance to know about the book that you wrote. You can never go wrong by being kind. And I've read this book, there's some great stories in here, so inspirational, and ways also to have examples of being able to practice those random acts of kindness that all come from a place of love and share love. And when we're sharing love, then it creates that and it brings it back. That energy is just, it's circular. And the vibration just raises and raises and raises up. So I am really grateful for you to be on the show with us today and for actually just even knowing you in this life because I know that you've really helped me in my practices with you and my awareness with opening to being able to express love in my life and with my loved ones and in nature, everything. So Dr. Zeal, thank you so, so very much. I wish we had more time. I have so much more to tell you and to share, but in another time. Yes, we have to have you back on to talk about your foundation. Okay, sounds good. Yes. Thank you so much. Mahalo. Mahalo, have a great day. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.