CHOICES (Episode #11) – Danny Kuptzov

Danny Kuptzov: Russian-Israeli sage shares some deep insights about living free.

Danny has my highest respect as one of the few people I know who genuinely practices accessing a different spiritual plane, even amidst the busy chaos of modern life. Danny spends much of his time hand-crafting percussion instruments that are carefully tuned to resemble stringed instruments. In recent months, he has taken up gardening, and starts every day by, as he calls it, “sitting quietly.” An avid surfer, skydiver and spear fisherman, Danny can hold his breath, submerged, for nearly seven minutes and has free dived to depths where light cannot penetrate.

In the summer of 2016, for mine and my wife’s wedding party on the beach, Danny made fresh ceviche with fish he had thoughtfully caught that morning as he free-dived from his kayak in the Mediterranean.

Six months later, in the winter of 2017, Danny took my wife and I on a free-diving trip in the Red Sea, where we spent three nights sleeping in a hut on the top of the mountains adjacent to the sea. Both of these experiences are indicative of how Danny lives his life: Listening carefully to the rhythms of the natural world, learning its vibrations and finding contentment in the elusive stillness that exists between “discipline and surrender.”

Where many of my previous guests are “successful” because they have achieved and accomplished and experienced so many things, Danny sets a new standard. His success, as I see it, lies in his desire to slow down, to be still, and to trust that everything he needs is already within his grasp. In this conversation, Danny’s quiet wisdom shines bright. He talks about the power of meditation, the generosity of giving someone or something your attention, and the creative power of our words. An involved father of a nine-year old daughter, Danny speaks some deep truths to the missing elements of our modern education curriculum. In that vein, Danny also shares what he believes are the most important values to teach our children.

As a small confession, but also a testament to Danny’s desire to serve his fellow man, we recorded this conversation under tighter time constraints than either of us would have preferred. But alas, I was soon to be departing Israel, and Danny jumped through hoops in the final days to make sure that his wisdom could be shared and contemplated by you.

A few days later, Danny sent me a text with a bulleted list, a summary of sorts, that he wanted to impart upon me as his friend. I’ll share it now, both as a teaser of things to come in this episode, but also as a summary that Danny intended it to be, for any of you who later want to go back and listen merely to the summary to stir your thinking.

Here’s his list:

• invest your time to set intention regularly.
• in difficult situations, always choose the solution that is hardest emotionally.
• trust your intuition at all times, it will never let you down.
• avoid any ideology or dogma
• practice self skepticism (pyrrhonism).
• education and growth are not something you can finish
• practice attention (the highest form of generosity); it naturally leads to a meditative mind set
• learn to distinguish direct experience from indirect
• practice visualizing
• practice continuous breathing; this alone will enormously expand your life experience
• address toxicity.
• take great care of your body
• stay playful
• please don’t waste
• you don’t learn anything until you apply it
• sing as much as you can
• practice suspending judgement
• practice your internal smile and use it when things get tough; if you smile, nothing bad will ever happen to you