Oprah sits down with media mogul turned spiritual seeker Russell Simmons, who shares the secret to his success: meditation in the season finale of “Super Soul Sunday” this coming Sunday, June 15.
Known as the godfather of hip hop and the co-founder of Def Jam Records, Russell shares how we can all live calmer, healthier and more mindful lives through the practice of meditation in this week’s episode. They also discuss his new book, “Success Through Stillness, The Simplest Path To Meditation.”
Here are some of the highlights.
EXCERPT: Russell Simmons on what his daughters have taught him
OPRAH: What is it that they’ve most taught you? What have your daughters most taught you?
RUSSELL: Oh, my God. They teach me humility. Every day teach me everything. They’re such beautiful little minds, you know, and I learn so much from them. I learned about purpose with them. You know, there’s nothing — before you have children, there isn’t nothing you would lay your life down for. You say it. And I think almost any parent feels that. I don’t think I’m unique when I say that.
OPRAH: Right.
RUSSELL: You learn unconditional love, you know, in a way that you can learn it but — you know, and you can practice it and you can read about it and you can write — write about it. But to really feel it fully, you have to have a child, I think.
EXCERPT: Russell Simmons discusses the reason behind his first yoga class
OPRAH: But as you say here, you went to your first yoga class because you were looking for women.
RUSSELL: Absolutely. It was like no guys in yoga.
OPRAH: (Laughter.)
RUSSELL: None. It was like the whole room full of girls. 60 girls.
OPRAH: Wow.
RUSSELL: 20 years ago.
OPRAH: Really.
RUSSELL: Yes. Yeah.
OPRAH: So you went for –
RUSSELL: The girls.
OPRAH: The girls.
RUSSELL: Right.
OPRAH: But were you hooked after the first class?
RUSSELL: The first class I came out I was so high. I was sitting there like wow. And I thought because it was so much relief I thought maybe I won’t be good at work. If I keep doing this I’m gonna lose all my money.
OPRAH: (Laughter.)
OPRAH: Why? Because it made you so calm? It made you feel –
RUSSELL: I forgot that — I didn’t know then. What I know now is only in the present. So all the creativity came from seconds and flashes of presence. So the more you can expound on that, you can do twice as much in half the time now. So I take time every single day to meditate twice and go to yoga. I go to a hot yoga class or a yoga class every single day. I like a lot of people, I love to be in a room because it’s a moving prayer. So I like to share my prayer.
EXCERPT: Russell Simmons: “If God Were the Ocean, You’d Be a Cup of God”
OPRAH: So when did you first recognize for yourself your connection to something bigger? I mean, we were walking in talking about dinner on the ground and church. So were you brought up religious?
RUSSELL: No. My brother’s a preacher.
OPRAH: Yeah.
RUSSELL: And my father, you know, is religious enough. But we were never really brought up very religious. I think this idea of a God consciousness really, to me, means everything. This idea of being connected. The yogis refer to it as the Atman. The idea of that if God were the ocean, you’d be a cup of God.
OPRAH: Yeah.
RUSSELL: You’d be a piece of this big –
OPRAH: That’s how I describe it, too.
RUSSELL: Yeah?
OPRAH: Yeah.
RUSSELL: You go to the ocean, you are –
OPRAH: You take that cup. Take that cup and scoop up the water from the ocean.
RUSSELL: And –
OPRAH: And that’s what we are.
RUSSELL: That’s right. We are a cup of God.
OPRAH: A cup of God.
RUSSELL: A big collective. Everything is related and connected, all the species and everything, you know, is one living, breathing God and more and more we’re learning that we are connected.
OPRAH: Yeah. A cup of God. People can get that. A cup of God.
RUSSELL: Yeah.
OPRAH: Yeah.
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