Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - 74: Russell Simmons, Philanthropist, Entrepreneur, Author and Activist

Episode Date: April 26, 2017

Def Jam music label founder Russell Simmons had his first experience with stillness at a yoga class -- which he admits he took because girls were there. “I went to class because of a lot of hot chicks. It's true,” Simmons says in our interview. Simmons, who practices and teaches Transcendental Meditation, has worked to bring meditation to schools to help lower their violence levels and increase students’ learning abilities. He explains why being a vegan has dramatically changed his health for the better and what his relationship with President Donald Trump is like today. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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I'm Dan Harris. Hey, hey, welcome to a special edition of the 10% happier podcast. We got a big get this time. Russell Simmons, the philanthropist, entrepreneur, and activist. Did I get all the titles in there? I have a lot of shit to be on one time. That's good. Thank you.

And also, author of such books as Super Rich's success through stillness and a happy vegan. So you were, you initially really burst onto the scene as somebody who was a hip hop guy, but you've really evolved into things like yoga and meditation and veganism. How did that happen in the first place and how does it go down with your core audience? Well, yoga is a popular American. I mean, the Austin of Prague, the physical practice of yoga is a popular American. I mean, the Austin practice, the physical practice, the yoga is very popular. You know, there's a new hit record, all my girls do yoga. I saw that at Coachella, but I don't think there's any separation between music artists.

Music artists always operates from the inside out, especially to writers. These poets, they operate from an inside, and that's where we're all seeking, like music, not a yoga, this yoga of sound. It brings you to presence, and all of us are seeking, every single one of us is seeking the same thing, a comfortable seat, or a happy seat, and that comes from a quiet mind. Yoga is the science of quieting the mind. Anyone knows a little bit about it, Know that it goes right along with any artistry because artists have to operate from a quiet mind. They have to use

seconds of presence because no creativity ever happens unless the mind is still. And so they go hand in hand, I think. I read in your book, I think success through stillness that you initially got into yoga because There were girls there. Yeah I mean It's funny because I'm my first teacher teaches for me now at tantras Tantras is a school of yoga science that I built in L.A.

I might dead by the so house building actually a very trendy place 9200 sunset the tantras school T.A.N. T.R. IS. Yes, so actually a very trendy place, 9200 sunset, the Tantra School. T-A-N-T-R-I-S. Yes. So, yeah, I went to class because a lot of hot chicks is true. And my first teacher, Steve Ross, teaches there now. And Steve Ross would say that was Buddha's last struggle. He said, everything else, I asked him,

my sophomore, yeah, I've been practicing for 24 years. So I said, Steve, you know, I practice every day and I feel like, you know, you feel enlightened after a while. You come out of class, you feel present and awake and all the things they talk about in the scripture, you feel that you are living in and body and that thing. And you said, but Steve, you know, the girl in front of me, man, I still couldn't help,

I couldn't keep my eye off her. Like, that's the last struggle, he said. And I got it. I was like, really? He's like, her. Like that's the last struggle he said. And I got it. I was like, really? He's like, yeah. So it's okay. But I went because of the girls. It's true.

I long story to get back to, yeah, I went, there was so many girls. Back then, no guys practiced yoga. So this is 24 years ago. Yeah, no guys would have. What happened that got you into meditation? Well, it's an extension. You know, you start to practice yoga and this teacher, Steve,

Ross, slipped me a copy of the yoga sutras, which is that science book, a 6,000 years old or so, no one knows for sure. So book with threads that promote happiness. Yoga is a science of happiness as well. A quiet mind is bliss, a noisy mind is sickness and sadness. That is not only in that scripture, but that's reality, right? A totally still mind than a corpse in a sunset are both beautiful. A noisy mind and everything makes you sick and sad. So these extremes are real. And so I dealt, I took yoga,

it just got me from moving meditation to sitting meditation, to reading scripture and realizing that whatever is in that book resonated with me, as it would resonate with anybody, because what's in that scripture and what's in all of them, the sciences of religion, are things that are etched inside us. So where we to know ourselves, we could write scripture. We could tell us what all the things that promote happiness and well-being were because inside us there's that instruction. So the kind of meditation you gravitate toward is called transcendental meditation where you get a mantra that you repeat silently in your

hands. Yes. And they tell you to do 20 minutes twice a day. I do. You do it. I do. Yeah, 20 minutes twice a day. But what I teach in the Tantra School is a mantra-based meditation, but only difference, I think, besides the fact that Yogi's practice, the physical asana, yoga, so they can sit comfortably without affliction. The TM people say, sit however you want, because they're dealing with Americans who have to sit however they can, but this idea of sitting straight, to string pulling you up, that's a yogic kind of instruction. So that, and also we do a collective mantra. We give away a mantra, rum.

I have an app. Meditation made simple and we give away the same mantra, rum. So the tantrous form of meditation is with a collective mantra. And it's about sitting erect like yogis do. And a lot of the instructional stuff is based and stuff I learned from Nama Harishi. Who is the founder of TM?

That's right. Or is the inspiration for TM? Did they view you as a competitor now that you're giving away a mantra because most people pay for their mantra? I paid a lot of money for my mantra. Yeah, but you're given this collective mantra out there. I mean, it was a different, I mean, the difference is the money doesn't go to TM. Well, the TM, they should get money. I'm happy to pay them their foundation because I work with them in the schools in the hood in Chicago at the most violent schools. We're turning around the level of

violence goes down dramatically. The kids ability to learn goes up dramatically. So there's a lot of benefits to giving meditation to schools and the David Lynch Foundation is giving tons, says no cursing. Yeah's going to eventually going to have to beat me. I just should tell the listeners that there's a glass wall right here with the control room on the other side of the studio in which Russell and I are sitting right now. They just put up a sign that said, live, no cursing.

Live on Facebook though. Yes, except for we're owned by a little company called Disney and so we have our own story. They shouldn't stop eating animals, everybody on a planet. Stop causing the worst comic disaster. I think that's why meditation is important. So that we can make choices informed by the spirit. And when a rabbiotic monk or a mom pre-stale you to do things,

you can assess for yourself whether it's the proper instruction. For instance, a Christian who reads dominion over the animals and still takes part in the abuse of 20 billion animals, the abuse of 20 billion animals every year, only to cause tremendous sickness and destruction of the planet. It seems that that is a tremendous no-no. A Christian shouldn't need animals,

not in the current, the way that we do it now, and we shouldn't be part of that. So, in your temple, the idea of eating steak, for instance, if you eat beef, and you've heard this probably, if you eat it as a 30-a-protein, it's like 20 cigarettes a day. You don't wanna give your kids 20 cigarettes a day. So, what they tell you is not the norm, You don't want to give your kids 20 cigarettes a day. So what

they tell you is not the norm. Like don't curse. You think about whether it really is causing a harm, you're causing when you go along with the program, going along with the program. A lot of people are, for instance, on top of all of that, the non vegan take up 400 times more space on this plant than I do. 400 times more space on this planet that's really under complete stress. What do you think vegan, you've really taken this on as an activist struggle veganism? Why do you think it hasn't caught on in a bigger way? I mean, I know it is growing.

Well, it's growing very quickly and I think the new products are coming. But it's also, you have to realize that the worst, those terrible threat we're facing, beside for nuclear threat, which you see now, it's all over the news, right, the threats that people, but besides for that, there must be factory farming, huh? What causes more harm than factory farming? What stops more people?

Well, it's interlinked. What's more people? What's more people? What's the plant more than the cow's gas. Well, I was just gonna say it's interlinked with climate change, which I would argue was the existential risk along with news. Yeah, all of it. But people still do it like it's normal and it is normal.

So I don't know, I think everybody should meditate and come up with better answers. We'll arrive at some of the same decisions, like we should not be part of this factory farming industry. We'll arrive at some of the same decisions. Like we should not be part of this factory farming industry. We should not. You know, and along with all the other industries that are destroying the planet and poisoning the people and poisoning the minds of the people. But but specifically the factory farming industry and what it's doing, you can't even buy the stuff that we sell here in America. See, I didn't curse. You can't even buy the stuff that we sell here in America.

It's that in curse. You can't buy it. You said stuff. Yeah, right. You can't buy the chicken, with the antibiotics, I'm sorry, the growth hormones, the steroids, the pro-Zach, that's all in the chicken. That's illegal in South Africa. There was a riot there recently over that, trying to sell American chicken. You can't sell it in Russia, you can't sell it in China. over that, trying to sell American chicken. You can't sell it in Russia, you can't sell it in China. No where in Europe can you sell American factory farm meat because it's poison, but America sells it to you. So it seems counterintuitive, you tell me I can't curse,

and yet you feed this poison to the children and destroy the planet doing it and cause sickness and cancer and all just everything. And also the comic disaster, most of you people listening can't choke a chicken yet you can be involved in slaughter and the horrible abuse. A choking a chicken would be the greatest fate you'd have. As opposed to the way the chickens are treated in that planet. So I've struggled with this personally because I think on the merits,

the argument for veganism is unimpeachable. The animal cruelty argument alone, never mind the environmental argument. I have no, I cannot muster any factual arguments against it. Except, you know, my wife's not a vegan, we got a two year old. The norm, yes, it's the norm. We meditate, we bowl out a Shavasana every yoga practice

and we say, born again. Leave what's not serving you on the mat. Leave the animal product. Make a choice. There's so many, they have a new P-protein burger. Oh my God, it's that whole foods in the meat section by a company called Beyond Meat. And the Beyond Burger is phenomenal. There's another one in the Impossible Burger. It's not out yet,, and Beyond Burgers phenomenal.

There's another one in the Impossible Burgers, not out yet, so but Beyond Burger is available. No one tells a difference. It bleeds, it's everything else, but only doesn't give you cholesterol, but cancer. And all the other stuff, they come from eating the animal pride, so all the cancer, right? And the sickness that comes from eating the animals,

not in the pea protein burger. We were talking before we went on the cancer, right? And the sickness that comes from eating the animals, not in the pea protein burger. We were talking before when on the air that you're 59. Yeah. You do not look 59. And I am. I believe you. I believe you, but you're great. And you think a lot of this has to do with not only the yoga

and meditation, but also the vegan diet. Plus. You all would you eat a piece of you, at least. I mean, if you just all what you eat for a little while, over a period of time, you're absolutely what you eat. In other words, you change your diet to take animal product out. One day, there'll be no animal product in you, right?

Soon. And that is important. Who wants to have that suffering, that sickness, that poison in them, for what reason? There's nothing good. People drink milk and they think they're getting calcium, but in fact, destroys the calcium in your body, right? You know that, right?

Destroy the calcium. I haven't researched it to the extent you have. No, well, it destroys the calcium in the body. It breaks down. The calcium breaks down, trying to get the calcium out of the milk. And that's a fact. But yet we're still told it's a food group. We have to, I think as individuals, we have to make better choices or choices that are

informed through not only our meditation, but a little bit of research because things are coming out all the time, right? And as many companies who are exploiting you are looking to keep shifting the information back to a good argument, which there isn't. And as you just suggested, there's no argument that promotes eating animals. Let me ask you a quick question about meditation. It's not gonna give my opinion a little bit here,

but I've been in the meditation world in one way or another for Maybe eight years and it's my view just based on what I've seen with my own two eyes that largely speaking Meditation is kind of Stuck in this world of upper middle class white people. Why do you think that is and what can be done about it? Well, let me say about your view about meditation that might be partly true, but about the vegan diet, African Americans, 6% vegan when the rest of America is 1% or two. Interesting.

What would you have? And the reason it wasn't cultural because there's a culture west Indian communities and that have affected the mindset of African Americans. Also, the sickness and the disease that come from the animal product is more prevalent in the African American community. And so when they have a hint of what they could be doing from cultural elements in the community, they use that and they make choices. So a percentage of people, rather than the diabetes and the cancer and the things that

they're relative to have or that they're fighting today, they do something to combat it. And that's one of the things that are prescribed more often in that community than the rest of mainstream America. Interesting fact. And now about the meditation, we're putting it in schools everywhere. In the hood, in Chicago, and Chicago is my greatest I think accomplishment. We got in Oakland in schools in LA and in you know in New York some schools, but really having it spread into places where needed we needed to most. And I've been to many

prisons and taught children in prison and adults in prison how to meditate and they're really easy. You know what I had the problem was the Goldman Sachs people, they can't sit still. Well, they've already learned a lot of the habits. You know, of, well, your nickname as a kid was rush. Because you had these habits too. That's right. I mean, I still carry a lot of it. I mean, I'm not enlightened.

I struggle all the time, but I, you know, I know better. It's just some extent. You know, I mean, you knew better. You do better 100% of the time. But you know, I know better. It's just some extent. You know, I mean, you knew better. You do better 100% of the time. But you know better instinctively. You agree that what Scripture tells you is true, that what you're promised in these Scriptures that you believe when you read,

that if you follow these instructions, and sometimes it takes a little bit of restriction, but if you follow these instructions, you'll be happier. And all of us are seeking the same thing to be happy, right? To all the time, it'd be great, right? So yoga, meditation, all these tools are way out of the suffering. Life is short, and it's full of a lot of interesting questions. What does happiness really mean?

How do I get the most out of my time, your honor, and what really is the best cereal? These are the questions I seek to resolve on my weekly podcast, Life is Short, with Justin Long. If you're looking for the answer to deep philosophical questions like, what is the meaning of life? I can't really help you, but I do believe that we really enrich our experience here by learning from others, and that's why in each episode I like to talk with actors, musicians, artists, scientists, and many more types of people about how they get the most out of life. We explore how they felt during the highs and sometimes more importantly, the lows of

their careers. We discuss how they've been able to stay happy during some of the harder times. But if I'm being honest, it's mostly just fun chats between friends about the important stuff. Like, if you had a sandwich named after you, what would be on it? Follow life is short, wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen to ad free on the Amazon music or wonder. You remain a man from what I can tell of real ambition.

You got a lot of stuff going on on many fronts, a personal philanthropic business, activist does. How does and you wrote a book called Success Through Stillness? A personal philanthropic business activist. Does, and you wrote a book called Success Through Stillness. So how does meditation and yoga help with actually handling business? Well, you wanna operate from a place of needing nothing. My book Super Rich is in some ways a prosperity book,

but Super Rich is that state of needing nothing and a state of yoga. Luxmi, the goddess who is a deity that we use to teach about the self in our tantra school, Luxmi is seen giving diamonds and everything out of shooting out of her arms, my hands. But at the feet she's piled up with riches because good givers are great getters to operate from a space of giving Jesus taught two sermons, one to his disciples, give without expectation. They had to pay the Romans the taxes on time but they had faith and they did it and then he taught two the masses, give and good givers a great getters. So they gave and they were focused on their giving enough so that they had to money to pay

to Romans their taxes. The disciples never worried because they had more money to pay to Romans more taxes. And the reason that this phenomenon exists, because if you are present and awake and if you work and if your work is not full of worry and anxiety, then you present and you can only do good work when you're here. Your mind in the future and in the past separates you from good work. And almost in a light and state of fully present, just giving without any expectation piles up the riches at your feet.

So I say that to people who worry about holding on to stuff, give and be a good getter because of it. But if you're a young person who's ambitious trying to come up in the world and you don't have much because you're just starting out, the idea of giving sounds counterintuitive and maybe even dangerous. You've got to give what you want to receive If you want money got to give money You got to give something that makes money to get money You have to give what you want in every case

you know That's our reality You know, it is a cycle of giving and that we're born into giving and receiving is a cycle You can't get without giving and you can't give without getting. That cycle is continuous. Where do we begin? We begin giving. If you have no job, you go to the store and you go out front to store and you can't get into buy sh** because you got no money. You start sweeping in front of the store. If you don't give any money, the next guy says, come sweep my store. Then you go inside and you give you you start to show them how to arrange the shelves better. You study

they have craft and you go to register you put the rubber bed around the money for the first time. He said that's neat. And he manages to store and you run Walmart. I mean I don't know what is whatever it is. You ascend by giving and that's just the law. In every scripture taught by every prophet, over and over again, the same lesson. And so I'm saying this lesson, not because I know it. So that I'm so clear about it. It's that I have faith in it, enough faith to share it. And I do it as much as I'm capable.

And the more capable I get, the better off I am. And the more I give, the more I get. You were talking earlier about how well-preserved you are at 59. You said, if you looked at pictures in me 35 years ago, I looked like I was almost about to die. So what was going on in your life? Well, I didn't have the same lifestyle. I mean, I didn't practice yoga twice a day,

or meditate twice a day. I didn't drink a bunch of green juice, you know, eat that. I ate animal product. I did a lot of stuff that was, you know, hurtful to me, including I did drugs. It was a time when people did drugs. Yeah, one of the drugs I mentioned was angel dust. Angel dust, I thought a lot of that shit.

It was not very good. But, you know, you have to learn to love yourself enough to take care of yourself. And you do sometimes if you're lucky, get a chance to change your life. What about the people you were running with back then? Are they still around? All some are dead, some are in jail, and some survived, mostly dead and in jail. So I'm very lucky.

And it may all have started with wanting to be around good looking women and that got you into yoga class. I did go to class because I tell you that already. Yeah, yeah. A lot of girls have been with the same kids. Could have been what saved you in some way. Yeah, I guess. So quickly before I let you go, one of the other things you talk about in success through stillness is the value of failure. What do you mean by that? Well, I define in this failure only for the people who are reading a book, experiences.

You learn through struggle, you never evolved through ease. And so what you learn in any experience helps you to provide context and direction to what you want to do. In other words, if you want to build something and you don't get it right the first time, you learn a lot about how to get it right in that experience. And so you all, you learn what, you know, doesn't work at the very least. So you learn from experiences like that on tough experiences. Failures are funny because you can't fail until you quit. So if you're still doing it, you didn't fail. You just learned something. That's good for me to hear, because I got a lot of things that I worry about failing at all the time.

And there was, I forgot one thing I do wanna ask you about, was pointed out to me by one of my producers that another of your books do you, 12 laws to access the power in you to achieve happiness and success. Actually, how long title, right? Hey, well, I got nothing wrong with, I've got no beast with long subtitles

I included one of my own book But you had a forward by Donald Trump. I he followed two books divine so he wrote for my um life story Which I wrote 20 years ago and then he followed it for this book do you which I vote? I don't know how many years ago probably ten what's your relationship with him now? What do you think of how he's doing his president? Well, you know, I've written about this extensively What's your relationship with him now? What do you think of how he's doing his president? Well, you know, I've written about this extensively. I like him as a friend. I don't like him as a president.

I don't like the choice he's made. I like the people he's chosen and to put in different positions. I don't like the agenda to empower the rich and cut off access to services to the poor. I don't like the war mongering. I don't like the treatment of the environment, hiring a person doesn't believe in protecting the environment in a critical time. It could be on his watch that we, a scientist, discovers that there's no way around us all dying. That this planet could die and it could be a scientist could tell us that during his tenure, while he's continuing to destroy the planet or allowing people new access to harmful activities that they

were denied in the recent past, to go backwards on the environment. Horrible. Are you guys still doing that? The belief system, law and order, putting more people in jail when we have already the worst criminal justice system. A lot of what he's saying is so hurtful. It's unbelievable that Americans support it. Are you still in touch with them?

I haven't spoken to him in a while. I spoke to him. His head of HUD recently about stuff that we could do in the projects to help people. And it was through his office, but I had not spoken to him personally since he ran, and I said, I'd rather Kim Kardashian be present. He didn't like that. And then like it much. But so we were friends for a very long time.

Yeah, so the guy that you were friends with, do you reckon is the, is he different now? I get along with pretty much everybody. I wrote something about O'Reilly that wasn't so heavy. Everybody was writing such mean stuff a lot of progressives. I remember him and his daughter. His daughter was a progressive and he was open-minded to let her talk about things that I know he didn't believe with me and we sat there. He's a nice enough guy for the most part. So I felt bad for his daughter I wrote.

So I said to hell with him and everybody, I mean people were very angry. I get along with Roger Ails. I got along with Rupert Murdock. Don't know him as well in New Roger or, I get along with everybody. I forgot the question. I mean, what's the question?

Just curious to see what you know if you if the guy you were Oh the Trump yeah, no, yeah, hit my point. Yes Donald It was fine. He's a good friend. It's very nice. He's very supportive of me in many ways and very nice to my family. He would fly Revan Run down to Mar-a-Lago every weekend I went with him. I don't know how many weekends, but he would fly Revan Run every weekend and his family to Mar- Mar-a-Lago every weekend. I went with him, I don't know how many weekends, but he would fly Revan Run every weekend. And his family to Mar-a-Lago on his plane, and he was just very nice.

But his belief system is not one that I, for the most part, almost anything he says, I don't agree with. Before we close, just run down, because people after having listened to this, are going to want to know where to find more about you. What, where should, where do you send people to learn more about you, check out the things you're, you're up to? Well, I want people to go to my new yoga studio. I know it's only in LA right now, Tantras.

It's a school of yoga science. And what I want is for yoga to change just enough, the Austin practice should include some yoga. People should learn this compassionate practice so that it could be more than just a physical practice. And that's what we teach at the Tantra School in LA. But I also want them, I don't know, learn to meditate. You can go, we have an app, meditation made simple, you can get it free. And I just want people to be more compassionate, more loving.

I want them to be vegans. So I say happy vegans is a simple book, but you know, I give away the money for these books. So it's not for my charity, for my money, but it's just people should be vegan. They should not. An individual should not take up 500 times more place, or at least 400 to 500 times more space on this plant than I do. It shouldn't. So they can cause themselves sickness and destroy the plant and so people can starve because it takes up all the natural resources and destroying the plant.

Not only what's usable, but the ozone layer and global warming is also a direct result of the animal product. We should stop. We should think about what that means. We don't want to die. At 60, I don't want to get cancer. A lot of my friends have cancer. The ones that didn't die, many of them are getting cancer. It's from their diet.

Russell Simmons, thank you very much. Thank you. It's my pleasure. Okay, there's another edition of the 10% Happier Podcast. If you liked it, please make sure to subscribe, rate us, and if you want to suggest topics we should cover or guess we should bring in, hit me up on Twitter at Dan B. Harris. I also want to thank Hardly the people who produced this podcast and really do pretty much all the work. Lauren, Efron, Josh Kohan, Sarah Amos, Andrew Calp, Steve Jones, and the head of ABC News

Digital Dance Silver. I'll talk to you next Wednesday. Hey, hey, prime members. You can listen to 10% happier early and add free on Amazon music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early in Add Free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts. Before you go, do us a solid and tell us all about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. you