How to Find Inner Balance and Peace: A Conversation with Alonzo King

Michael Rivo: Welcome back to Blazing Trails, I'm Michael Rivo from Salesforce Studios. Welcome back to Blazing Trails, I'm your host, Michael Rivo from Salesforce Studios and I'm here with Rachel Levin. We're the team that brings you Blazing Trails.

Rachel Levin: Good to be here, Michael, thanks for having me.

Michael Rivo: Well, Rachel, it's our last episode of 2020.

Rachel Levin: I know, I can't believe it, wow.

Michael Rivo: We started this show in January before the pandemic started with the idea of taking some of the great talks that we have at Dreamforce every year and bringing those to a larger audience. It's grown into this incredible program and thank you to everybody who subscribed and to all of our listeners for joining us on this journey. And today we're going to hear one of the best sessions from our B- Well Together series. And this is the series that we've done, it's focused on holistic wellness, that we've been running really since the beginning of the pandemic. So Rachel, tell me about who we'll be hearing from today.

Rachel Levin: Well, Michael, today, we're going to be hearing from Alonzo King, he's the founder and choreographer of the LINES Ballet Company that's based right here in San Francisco. You may be familiar with his work.

Michael Rivo: Mm-hmm(affirmative).

Rachel Levin: Yeah, and you know what? This talk really surprised me because he's someone that takes us on this philosophical and emotional journey as well, and talks about the importance of maintaining and finding your inner balance and peace and taking advantage of these still moments that a lot of us have experienced right now. Everyone has always said at one point in their life," Oh, if only the world would stop," and for a lot of us, it really did this year.

Michael Rivo: Yeah.

Rachel Levin: And he takes this philosophical approach about what is there in that stillness? How can we grow? What's the inner journey that we can do at this time?

Michael Rivo: Yeah, and how to think about this time as an opportunity to do that.

Rachel Levin: That's right.

Michael Rivo: And really there are so few opportunities to do that. So we hope you enjoy the conversation today with Alonzo and Salesforce's Jody Kohner, Executive Vice President of Global Enablement, and for more B- Well Together goodness, head over to sfdc. co/ wellbeing, that's sfdc. co/ wellbeing, and download our Wellness Playbook created in partnership with Thrive Global and tune into some other great sessions there with Deepak Chopra, Megan Rapinoe, Arianna Huffington, and more. So let's dive in. Here's Jody Kohner in conversation with Alonzo King.

Jody Kohner: Hello, welcome back to another fantastic edition of B- Well Together. We are going to inspire you today. We are going to put a spring in your step today because we have the incomparable Alonzo King. He's a world- renowned choreographer, and also the son of civil rights activists Slater King and Valencia King Nelson. This is a really big deal. For those of you who are not familiar with Alonzo's work, he completed his formal training in New York City, where he also performed with the Dance Theater of Harlem, amongst other dance companies, and he founded LINES Ballet almost 40 years ago, which is incredible because he clearly founded this at like two years old. He also is recipient of numerous awards, including the National Endowment for the Arts Choreographic Fellowship and the Kennedy Center Master of Choreography. His choreography is basically in the repertoire of more notable dance companies than we could possibly have time to list. And so today he is going to share with us how to remain peaceful in the midst of activity and the importance of being really centered when you're being bombarded with responsibilities that are just coming at you with hyper speeds, which is like our whole existence right now. So this is going to be a really great conversation. Also, really thrilled that Lola Banjo is making a return visit with us. Lola of course, is our Global Events Chair for BOLDforce and she's going to be helping us out with the question and answer at the end. So to get us to get really feeling the Alonzo spirit, we're going to start with a video so we can really take this all in and then he's going to speak to us. Wow, so beautiful. Thank you so much for being with us this morning, Alonzo.

Alonzo King: Thank you, Jody. And thank you for your beautiful and fun introduction.

Jody Kohner: So tell us about you. Tell us about what you're thinking about these days. Tell us about how you're approaching all of this chaos in your life.

Alonzo King: I think the instant stock of everything that created this wide- open vacuum is shocking, devastating, but also fertile with opportunity because we have the ability right now with undistracted focus, to look internally at ourselves and visualize what is and what isn't working. We have this pause where we can stop the Willy- nilly going along with the flow to say," Wait a minute, this is a pivotal moment and I want some self- examination so I can decide, how do I want to live this life, what do I want to bring to it, how do I visualize the ending in terms of expansion or growth and what are my gifts to the world before I depart?" So it brings up the serious primordial questions that have stymied human beings since the beginning of time. Who am I? Why am I here? Because you have the presence of anything could happen and that brings a vibrancy and also a pause to life. And that opportunity, Jody, to say," I'm going to examine myself," is one of the richest places for expansion. It's introspection, just like so many people are introspecting right now. Am I a racist? Do I have a trace of that in me? Let me get educated in certain ways. Let me read this and read that. And so in that same manner of introspection, it should continue with everyone all over the world. Am I selfish? Am I greedy? The things that I dislike in other human beings, is there a trace of that inside of me? Let me introspect and remove it so that I can contribute something positive to this world. It's interesting that we think that our thoughts are these little individual things that are separate from other people, but thoughts are universally connected and we plug into them whether they be negative or positive. And so if our thoughts are negative, we're adding to the bonfire, we're adding to the malaise. And so this period to actually examine your thoughts, thoughts that when you were super busy, you wouldn't have the opportunity to examine them because you're in a rush. You're taking care of your kids, you have deadlines, you have projects, and so you're in the constant whir. And when you have the time to say," No, let me really introspect and see what I ignored that maybe subconscious." And so with quiet time and with really quiet interiorization, you're able to see enemies and friends and you want to build up the internal friends and diminish the enemies. And I say that because we're really at war inside of ourselves and that war is reflected outside of ourselves. And so the internal war has to be abated, it has to be neutralized, it has to be healed, it has to be stopped, and that means any contradictions. I always love to think of it as a painting in the process. What is unnecessary here? What is blocking the light? How can I make this clearer? And so as we're working on the masterpieces of our own lives, because that is the greatest art, the art of living, there has to be extraction just like in all building and making. That's what we humans do, we're makers and builders, and the best making and doing and building is with art. And I like to think of art as knowledge. In its lowest form or its baseline form, it's the knowledge of how things are done. In its highest form, it is the merging of the individual into the universal. And so that idea earlier about expansion that never, ever wants to stop.

Jody Kohner: Okay. You just blew my mind there for a minute. I'm trying to process that idea of art being the individuals into the universal.

Alonzo King: Yes.

Jody Kohner: And so when I'm thinking about where we're at right now and this inner war that we're going through, I'm curious about the journey maybe, and the sustainability, and the endurance maybe, would be another way to look at it. Because it's gotten so complex with one crisis upon another, one internal war after another, right? And that initial vacuum that you spoke of that left us all with that space, and that time, it feels like all of that space has been filled with so much conflict that it's just exhausting. And you know, when I think of going to fight a battle and I think of my individual contributions to something more universal, I feel like I'm running out of steam. And I'm curious how you think about that when you're creating this beautiful art. And when there is a tremendous amount of physical endurance that is needed, and there is a much deeper amount of emotional and mental investments, to be able to realize that potential. I'm curious about how these waves are impacting you and how you coach and teach and mentor people to be able to go the distance when we don't know how long this is going to be going on.

Alonzo King: Or what new may come along after.

Jody Kohner: Or what new or how it's going to get even more complicated from where we sit today.

Alonzo King: Yeah. Well, the challenge is we have to change, that is clear. Go back to normal and particularly business as normal with Agra farming, the way we treat animals, what we're doing to the planet, the way we treat human beings, that cannot return again. I think addressing what you just brought up Jody is that there is a place where you are exhausted and there is also another place where you can be refueled. Because if you are a giver, you have to also go to the well to replenish yourself. And the most revivifying ever new constant wellspring of renewal is internal. In dance training, we talk about the center, the place where you're really centered and it's a place that's close in the spine and the idea is if you're in a merry- go- round, but if you're in the very center, you're solid, you're fixed. If you're on the periphery and it speeds up very fast, you're thrown off completely, so it's that centering place. And so I think there's a problem with how we identify ourselves. That's a really big deal because what you identify with you eventually become and most of us, to be blatantly honest, have been fooled into thinking that we are humans with limitations and frailties, but in reality, we are immortals playing the role of mortals and we have to reclaim our identity.

Jody Kohner: How do you think about your identity?

Alonzo King: I think of my identity as consciousness. Yogananda talks about when someone is asleep, I mean knocked out, unconscious asleep, a drool hanging from their mouth, that when they wake up, they're aware of whether they slept well or not. And so that means that that awareness is always there, 24/ 7, that witness is always present. And that is closer to what we are instead of the normal identities of race, sex, age, location, blah, blah, blah. Those layers have to be peeled off when we present the question to ourselves," Who am I? No, who am I really?" Pass every one of those and it comes back to consciousness. We are a triumvirate of body, mind, and soul. The body has to be kept healthy with foods that have electricity in them, with foods that are living. There are foods that are innovating to the body, there are foods that poison the body, that make you drop in energy. The mind also needs expansion. It needs to be exercised, it needs to plummet into a depth that's larger than the ego mind. And the soul? The disease of the soul is when there's ignorance of anything except the senses. And that soul awareness is when there is a quietness and a stillness internally where you are not disturbed, it's like going to sleep but staying alert. So you're cutting off your sense telephones, of sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing. Those are cut off and you go into a quiet place where you're able to receive more information, where there is expansion, where you can make decisions quicker, where the clarity is apparent because you're not clumsily in the way. And that awareness is closer to what we really are.

Jody Kohner: And how much time would you say that in all of the things that you do and you manage, what percentage of your time would you say that you spend in that place of clarity? Is this a meditation practice in the morning? Is this a place that you try to bring yourself back to all the time throughout the day?

Alonzo King: The Rishis of ancient India, they discovered how we enter the body and how we, through those psychophysiological Chakras return back to bliss. Most human beings, well not most, all of us, we are looking to escape pain and suffering and find some kind of joy that never goes stale. And that edict right there makes us make all our choices that either this is going to diminish or prevent suffering and this is going to bring me joy. We all have that in common. We realize, or those of us who have acquired things, realize that there is a concentration and a willpower to make things happen. But once you have those things, once those things are in your hands, they're in your possession, they pale because they don't satisfy. Something is always missing. And so to stop chasing the carrot in front of you, you say," Wait a minute, there's something internal that is much more satisfying because it's closer to what we are."

Jody Kohner: [crosstalk 00:17: 33 ].

Alonzo King: Matter cannot satisfy spirit and our soul nature, matter can't feed it. And so people have doubt about the interior world or a world that is beyond the senses that they have to be Lewis and Clark about it. They have to go on the expedition, they have to determine is this true or not? But not to passively just dismiss it, no, we all are on the heroic journey of self- discovery. And the great minds, the mental giants and spiritual giants of millennia have said," You are souls. You have an ego nature and you have a soul nature. We are souls playing roles, and those roles have been interchanging for incarnations. And there is a time to go home. And home is internal." When people are in trouble, when there's tragedy, when there's a storm, what do people want? They want to get home? If home is to take care of the kids, that means what? Peace, because if my kids are in trouble, I have no peace. And so the real internal home is inside. Let's say something happens, there's a tragedy, you are looking to the person who is calm, who is making decisions, who is not wrapped up in emotion and is inutile, they can't do anything, they're not helpful. This is the person who has stepped away for a moment so that their vision is expanded and they can do what is required to remedy the situation to the best of their ability. That's what we want to be in life. We want to be able to help our fellow beings. We want to be able to love our fellow beings. When you are feeling compassion, you dropped your self- identity and you are feeling for someone else. And right at that moment, you're expanded, you're expansive. The moment you see someone suffering and you identify, which is what happened with George Floyd, your expansion opens right away. And the other part of it is it's hurting you so you want it to stop. And so what we were saying earlier, this thing of identification, it has to travel from me to we to oneness. That's the evolutional chart, from me to we to oneness. First, it's all ego, me, me, what I want, what I want, and then with expansion, it's the family, it's others, and often the family can be us four and no more and so that's still too tight. And then with more expansion, it is oneness where I identify with the mountain, the ocean, the animals, the spring, the air. It is oneness that no one is a stranger, it's an impossibility for anyone to be an alien, that magnanimity of identification. And so to take it even deeper, Jody, I would say that our inner life is our real life. And from that place, we can be in the external, as long as we're poised in the internal. We can go into all kinds of activity, but if we're thrown off the internal and there is no peace, then there's madness.

Jody Kohner: Okay, I could listen to you for days on end. You are amazing. You are such a joy, thank you so much. Lola, I want to make sure that we get a chance to bring your voice into this conversation and any questions that you or our audience may have.

Lola Banjo: Yeah absolutely, Jody, I was just about to say, I could listen to you all day as well. I mean, you have such great wisdom and great insights. I learned a lot from what you were talking about, like how this is truly a time for self- reflection and I particularly hung on one thing that you said, and you said," What you identify, what you become," that is so true. And I just want to say, thank you on behalf of BOLDforce, our Black ERG at Salesforce for being a part of this and of course having me be a part of this conversation with you. We honor you, we respect you, and just celebrate your legacy. You're amazing and you're a trailblazer. I had a couple of questions, but I think we're only going to have time for one, maybe I'll just wrap up [crosstalk 00:22:17].

Jody Kohner: crosstalk Or we can maybe get two.

Alonzo King: Go for it.

Lola Banjo: You mentioned a couple of things already actually. You mentioned staying calm in the face of crisis. I mean, we've all gone through tremendous crises recently, especially everything that happened with COVID and all the racial tension that's happened in this country, so we'd love to learn from you how you've managed to really stay calm. I think you've answered some of it, but for us that are listening for everyone that's active in the conversation, what kind of advice would you give us in terms of how to navigate those conversations where emotions are flared and there is a lot of tension, how do you navigate that and manage to stay calm? And the second question is coming from a civil rights family, how have you managed to infuse the lessons that you've learned into your work and also how you're approaching the current situation?

Alonzo King: I think that if we are in conversation with people and there is a lot of emotion, we have to listen. If we think of the national body, it has wounds that we've ignored, huge life- threatening wounds to everyone. In every ways, what was done to the Native American and the enslaved African was enormous in terms of damage, and so to ignore it, to not go to the doctor, to not say," Hey, there's some bleeding here and this wound is so deep and we've ignored it for so long," that is perilous. And so in our world family, we have to take time to say," You know what, we're moving into a higher age and this antiquated harming evil, it cannot go with us, it's not going to work." The velocity is changing and we're moving into a higher age. It's inevitable that one day all physical problems will be healed. Science is going there, it's inevitable. The major ones will be psychological. And thinking of that progression, I go back to the first point that outer space is not the final frontier, it is inner space.

Lola Banjo: Amen.

Alonzo King: And so if I can get to the place where I see someone as my relative, that this person is my relative, regardless of how they look and regardless of how they behave. And so love is the answer, not sentimental Hallmark card love, but the real, the love of billions of mothers, that kind. That's the only thing that can heal because laws don't work. We have laws galore and we will have more and of course, they can, with litigation, we work with the laws, but it's hearts that have to change and that is self- work. And so we go back again to what trace of poison do I have in myself? If I recognize it in someone else and so the mirror of my mind, is there a trace of bad and me? And if there is, I need to eradicate it. And that is helping the world. There's one less scoundrel.

Lola Banjo: And the power of evicting the scoundrel within is quite profound.

Alonzo King: That's right.

Lola Banjo: [crosstalk 00:26: 10 ].

Jody Kohner: Oh, Alonzo, I thank you for being here. You're just a tremendous human being and we are all better for this time with you and I do hope you will join us again soon. This has been wonderful.

Alonzo King: Thank you for having me. We're all tremendous and that's what people have to realize.

Jody Kohner: Yes, you know what, that's it! Everyone, you are all tremendous.

Alonzo King: It's true.

Jody Kohner: This is it, this is how we're all here together. This is what this journey is all about.

Alonzo King: And people who haven't realized that they are tremendous, they don't know themselves yet, but we are all tremendous.

Jody Kohner: This is so great. Oh my God, maybe I should just skip out on my next meetings and just hang out with you. All right, listen, thank you so much for being with us, Alonzo.

Alonzo King: [crosstalk 00:26:52].

Jody Kohner: Thank you to our audience for taking time to hear this important conversation. I hope you are as moved and inspired as Lola and I are. Be happy, be healthy, and be well.

Michael Rivo: That was Alonzo King in conversation with Salesforce's Jody Kohner and you're listening to Blazing Trails. Well, what a fitting way to wrap up the year, by taking a moment to pause and reflect on who we are and who we want to be. Thank you to the B- Well Together team for this interview and for these last episodes of the year on Blazing Trails. And thank you to everyone at Salesforce who helps make Blazing Trails possible. And most of all, thank you for listening. I'm Michael Rivo from Salesforce Studios wishing you a healthy and happy new year. And if you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Blazing Trails on your favorite podcast app. We'll be back next year with more great conversations.