Latest / Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor / Life lessons from a 35th Generation Shaolin Monk, Master Shi Heng Yi

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Life lessons from a 35th Generation Shaolin Monk, Master Shi Heng Yi · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, today we're going to do something different. We're
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: actually going to run a podcast back and it's an
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: old podcast, and it actually came to my mind because
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I came across a clip on YouTube of Master She
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Heng Yee, who I had interviewed oh a couple of
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: years ago now and he has turned into a sensation.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: He has half a million YouTube followers now and around
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a million Instagram followers. He is a thirty fifth generation
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Shaolin Monk and since twenty ten he's been running the
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Shaolin Temple in Europe. And in this podcast, which I
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: just listened to again the other day, and it's a cracker,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: and we just talked about a whole heap of life
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: lessons from the Shaolin way. I think you'll really enjoy this,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: even if you did hear it the first time, and
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: if you didn't get in petreat Master she Hang Yee.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Mind, Body Brain Project podcast.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Hello Paul Nice, and thank you for the invitation.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: You're most welcome, and it's a real honor to have
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: a Sharon Monk on the podcast, and not only a
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Sharon Monk, but a thirty fifth generation Shaolin Monk. So
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: can you explain how that lineage system works of generations
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: of shaolin monks.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: So if you look at the way how we are
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: talking to each other, let's say, or how students relate
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: to me and how I relate to my students, we
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: talk in terms of a family system. So stifu or
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: shiffho means you're the teacher or you're the father, and
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: we may be not related to my students in terms
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: of the same blood, sharing the same blood, but it's
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: about sharing the same heritage and sharing the same art
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: and culture. And this means every time when a student
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: who was staying a very very long time with his
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: shiffu also enters into the lineage and takes over the obligation,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: for example, to teach and also have his own students afterwards,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: this is the moment where you are actually entering into
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: this system, so you become the next generation, in the
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: moment where you have children, where.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: You have students, where you have students exactly.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: So, and yeah, that's actually quite the system how it is.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: M's that's very interesting. So thirty five generations, that's gotta
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: be more probably five hundred years maybe something like that.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Well, actually, the funny part is we are counting at
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: the moment, it's the thirty fifth generation in my case,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: but we are already at the thirty sixth or thirty
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: seventh generation in some cases. But if you would actually
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: count back and go back in time, you would realize
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: that thirty six generations of thirty seven actually is not
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: even enough to return back to the source, which is
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: like one thousand, five hundred years ago where the monastery
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: was founded, okay. And the reason for that is that
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: the counting of the lineages started much much later, yes,
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: and it simply was introduced in order to get some
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: type of structure right into into the system.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, So the first children didn't count, yes, but they
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: technically exactly yes. Yeah, yeah, Okay, that's great. So tell
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: me how do you how do you actually become a
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: shaolin master? And what is your training like, how long
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: does it take, what does the typical days training look like?
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: And just talk as to that process a bit. Okay.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: So in my case, I grew up in Germany, but
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: in a very very early age, with the age of four,
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: my father actually decided for me that I need to
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: join some just martial arts school.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: So that means besides the fact of going to school.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: The only thing that I spent my time in was
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: for very very long time and many years, just the practice.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: And I was interested also in seeing all the movies,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: and I had different idols m and I don't know
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: if it was a character trade that time, but I
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: saw something any type of movements that I like, and
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: so I spent all my training time and tried to
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: copy them until I was able to also do the
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: different types of moves or whatever it was. So the
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: initial beginning for me was mostly related really to the
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: physical practice and just copy the movements and become flexible
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: with the body, become strong with the body. And yes,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: this type of training I had for many many years,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: and just later on when I started to get a
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: little bit older, this was the time when I got
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: introduced also into the philosophy and into all the different
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: backgrounds that go along or go together with the Shaolin
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: martial arts. And this actually was the moment where I
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: met the first Shaolin monks that came from the song
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Shan Shaolin Temple in China. Okay, So I started to
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: practice Shaolin kung fu with another master with an early
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: age already, but the first contact with the Shaolin monk.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: That was when I was around like twelve years fourteen years.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Old, okay, And what martial arts did you do before that?
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: What was the first martial arts you did?
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: It was called Shaolin Green Dragon kung fu, so it
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: was also a schoolIn style, but not the same direction
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: like I practiced it today.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: It has the same origins, but it is not the
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: traditional shaolin training that you have nowadays, and which is
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: the most famous.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: And so how long did you train under the Shaolin
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: kung fu under your master? How long did that process
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: go for?
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  Speaker 2: So with my first teacher, I trained around eighteen years
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: and after the first eighteen years, in between I met
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: the Showlin monks, okay, and under their guidance, then I
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: also spent the other almost twenty years.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, oh wow.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: So I always stayed within the field of shaolin mainly,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: but in between I had many excursions also watching into
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: other systems, because I just think it's important to not
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: be too fixed on one system. So you think that
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: yours is the best of anything. There is simply no
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: best system. It is just there are many systems which
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: have advantages and disadvantages, and I think it's just good
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: to observe and also.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Learn from others.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: But Maine, my main road was always the showling.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Way, showing way. Okay, so they I actually did one
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: of your online You've got a lot of stuff that's
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: online that's really quite cool. And I did one of
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: your your chie gong and movements. I think it was
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: a twenty minute session. So can you talk a little
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: bit about chi gong and chi? Initially, so it's a
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: it's a hard concept for a lot of Westerners to
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: get their head around, but I know that chi is
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: very important in Chinese culture and Chinese medicine, and particularly
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: in Daoist medicine. Can you talk first of all about
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: what chi is and then what is chigung?
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: I think slowly it's getting even to me the understanding
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: why it's always set in the Chinese culture to not
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: try and define that word chi.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Ah.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: So, but anyway, I think the.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: This is the question you always get asked that says
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: that's the you shouldn't ask us.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: But I really think the advantage right now also in
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: our conversation and the possibilities that we have nowadays, is
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: that you have people that on the one side grow
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: up with a very very strong influence from Asian culture,
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: but at the same time also have a good understanding
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: how in the Western the mentality is yes, And let's
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: just assume that the chi is necessary for anything in
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: this world to manifest, to form. Everything that has a
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: form needs a certain amount of GI. Everything that is
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: functioning needs chi. Everything that is alive is the expression
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: of a type of GI. Sometimes we say when you
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: are very very vital, when your body, your expression, your
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: life is full of energy, is very vibrant. Then we
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: also say this person has a lot of cheap, but
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: also somebody who is like very weak physically weak mentally,
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: maybe very depressed and locked. Such a person, we say
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: not necessarily has less cheap, but it seems like it's
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: not vibrant, it's locked or it is locked. When we
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: talk about cheap, it expresses at something. It can express
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: at something very vibrant, something very alive. But at the
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: same time it can also express itself like not expressible.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: It's too weak to express, it's.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Not coming out. Okay.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: Other traditions maybe say, yeah, this person has that special aura.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: He enters the room and you can feel something about him.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: How do we know or that there is something like
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: this cheek because it is expressing as something. For example,
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: this chigong practice, the twenty minutes that you were following,
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: what's the purpose of this This chiegong exercise has different
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: postures that you're taking in. Yeah, it has different postures
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: the bardawe gin in that case, this chigong routine has
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: eight different postures if you take it seriously, each of
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: these postures has a different way of how it is
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: expressing its power. The first exercise, for example, is called
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: lifting or supporting the sky or lifting up the sky.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Just imagine you put your hands up, but you do
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: not have the intention that you are lifting anything. So
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: that means your arms are up. But it's different if
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: your arms are up and you have the feeling or
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: you are creating inside yourself. Now there is something heavy
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: above you that you need to support, so your body
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: serves like a pillar. So when you know that your
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: body serves like a pillar and above you is something
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: very very heavy, then the alignment of your skeleton matters.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah right, Yeah, the alignment or the muscles that you
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: are accessing matters. And if you have a good feeling
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  Speaker 2: for your body. What martial artists normally do. Everybody who
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: practice martial art for a long time. Something that he
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: gets is a very good understanding and awareness normally for
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: their own body. So that means you have a good feeling.
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  Speaker 2: How do I need to align my skeleton, which muscles
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: do I need to engage in order to not waste energy,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: but at the same time to serve as a very
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: very strong pillar in case the sky would be really
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: heavy and pushing on top of you. So there is
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: a difference between just holding up the hands and having
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: the intention also on the mind to support the sky.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: And in this case, in that exercise, I assume that
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: sky would be heavy. Yeah, so this is why I'm
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: going into the position align myself structurally and also intentionally
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: in order to create that one posture which would give
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: me the most feeling of having the power to support
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: this sky now. And so this is what the chigong
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: practice is teaching you, and what you are learning, you
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: are becoming more sensitive for what is happening within yourself
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: regardless of what you're doing. So chigong is not about fighting, Yeah,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: it's about understanding your biological functions and mechanisms inside of
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: you while you are practicing anything.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: And it's interesting you said that I used to do
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: tai chi when I was in Scotland, I had a
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: teacher of tai chi. I used to go to the
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: classes and it took a while to get the feeling
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: of the movements. But then when you started to feel
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the movements, you could you could feel that they were
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: both both more and more intentional, more difficult, but also
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: more energizing as well. And I noticed at the end
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: of the class and when I started to get that
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: little bit of feeling that that I felt like I
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: had used up a lot more energy but also gained
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: a lot more energy and felt much more refreshed. And
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: so yes, it's it is really about that connection with
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the energy and the energy slow.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Isn't it exactly? But also nowadays the chigung is an
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: aspect of the physical development. Put it simple. That's why
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: in the shouting temple there is no really that differentiation
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: between on the one side to practice chigong and on
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: the other side to practice come fu. Right, It's just
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: it's somehow just turned out to be separated like this
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: in nowadays world. So there are chigon classes and there
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: are kung fu classes. Yeah, but the thing is you
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: cannot practice kung fu without having internal energetic aspects. The
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: difference is only you don't know about them because you
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: don't pay attention to them. But it doesn't matter if
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: you are lifting something, if you are punching, if you're pulling,
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: if you're pushing, there is something energetically also happening inside
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: of you. The question is only are you able with
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: your full awareness to know what's going on inside of
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: their And in the moment you're able to tap deeper
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: inside and know what's going on, you can control yourself
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: better and ultimately also increase the effectiveness of whatever exercises
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: we are doing.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's why when you say shallon masters, they
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: do what seems to us normal people to be incredible
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: fates because it is that deep connection with the movement.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Is that correct?
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Yes, It's also the ability to be focused and concentrated.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: If you know where your energy is going, you can
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: just direct it wherever you need it. And just as
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: simple examples, very famous are the breaking of the sticks
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: for example, in a way, what matters in the moment
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: of impact is the point of impact. So there is
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: just one place or one area where that stick or
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: that brick is going to get in contact with the body.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: And it's important that at this place nothing harmful starts
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: to penetrate through the body. So you need a shield.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: You need a shield exactly at this place, right, So,
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: and how do you create this shield with the power,
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: with the focus, and with the concentration that in the
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: moment of impact, all of your available energies that you
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: were able to control inside of yourself is directed towards
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: this point. This is one method for.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Example, Okay, And and that whole idea of being focused
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: and connected. It's not just in the physical movements within
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: the martial art and the Charlain traditions. It really spills
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: over into your life into mental states as well. So
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: I've heard you talk about the five mental states that
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: hold us back? And can can you talk a little
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: bit about that for the listeners? What are these five
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: mental states that hold us back? And what can we
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: do to fight them?
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: I really really like the similarly between the way how
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: a martial artist is training and the way how a
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: martial artist, if he's able to integrate his virtues into
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: the normal life, can benefit from this. What I mean
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: by that is there is no martial arts skill that
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: we are able to develop if you would not put
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: any type of effort into your training. In order to
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: get some martial arts skills, you need to suffer. You
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: need to go through some suffering. You need to sweat,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: You need to push yourself. You need to know or
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: explore the limits of your own body and also the
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: limits of your own mind. Because many times we think
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: I cannot make any more push ups, but somebody is
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: going to be there to motivate you, and he's squeezing
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: out the last five push ups still out from you.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: And this is the reason why next week we are
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: becoming better and are able to deliver more push ups
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: because we break that limitation we had on ourselves before.
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: So in order to become better, in order to bring
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: out more about ourself, there is something about breaking limits
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: and breaking above things that was holding us back before. Yeah,
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: and when we switch now from the martial arts into
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: let's say just our mental states, then it's just the
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: question what is it that nowadays is able to hold
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: me back? What is it that is limiting me in
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: the way? How I sink mm hmm. And this is
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: what the five mental states or the five hindrances that
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: I was talking before are about. There are five states
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: of the mind simplified. There are more, but the five
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: are very simplistically expressed in this way, which can make
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: it very hard for you to to see where you're standing.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: M Yeah.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: One of the states is, for example, when your complete
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: day is filled with with sensory desire. So that means
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: you're always looking for something that is giving you positive,
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: a positive feeling. You can always chase something with the
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: eyes because you like the beauty of the eyes. You
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: always like to eat something great, so you you are
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: following the taste with the smelling, the hearing with the feeling.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: It's the same. So your mind all day long is
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: chasing over something over a desire, over a desire which
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: derives from your sensory gates. Yes, in the moment you
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: are running after these things, we say you're off track.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: You're off track because you cannot concentrate anymore on the
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: essential part. You cannot remain calm. That is the problem, okay,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: because you're running after something that gives you positive feeling
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: all the.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Time, and that feeling is an external feeling. It's an
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: external input, right, rather than internal.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, especially that it is triggered from external stimulis and
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: I really think if somebody wants to hear more about
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: those five hindrances, you will surely find them. But what
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: I really want to now put the emphasis on is
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: sometimes people misunderstand and think that monks or masters or
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: people that live inside a monastery don't have a happy life,
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: are not able to express themselves or are enjoying their lifetime.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: I really think it's very, very, very hard to find
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: any person in this world who is so perfect to
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: not have any type of influence from those five hindrances.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you say they're pretty universal.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: They are pretty universal. Everybody has them to a certain extent.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: This all is not about right, and it's not about wrong.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: It is just about everything that you do with your
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: mind in this world has a consequence. If you can
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: live with a consequence, then do it. If you like
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: to follow your eyes and your senses, if you like
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: to live a life full of external sense stimulus, then
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: do it. It's not a problem. But this way of
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: living a life has a consequence, and you, because you
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: live this life, you will need to bear with those consequences.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: And we have eight billion people in this world. We
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: cannot all live the same life based on the same ideology.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: The only thing that I'm always trying to encourage people
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: is to say, you want a result in the martial art,
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: there is the price you pay for it.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, do the work.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Do the work. Yeah, you want to live this type
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: of life. It also means there's something you will sacrifice
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: for this. So and this is the way how we
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: see or I see the world. It's cause and consequence.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: So that means what I what my input into life is.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: I'm going to get a result from this. I wake
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: up with the with the mind based on ill will,
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: on bad thoughts all day long. I'm going to get
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: results from this. I wake up every day and my
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: mind is lazy. I don't want to move. My mind
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: doesn't want to move. I don't want to think about
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: something complicated. Also, you're going to get the consequence from this.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: And this is what those five mental states are about.
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: They are just telling you be careful that there are
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: states of the mind. When you have them for a
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: too long time, they going to bring consequences that when
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: you think about these consequences, you will maybe understand for yourself. Okay,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: on the long term, I don't want to live with
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: these consequences.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, so it's about reaping what you saw. Yes, So,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: charl and monks and look, martial artists in general are
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: very much on a path of self mastery. So so
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: what would be your advice to people who want to
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: get into that self mastery because we know from from
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: lots of different research actually that that people who pursue
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: self mastery and tend to to have a life of
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: more contentment. I'm not going to say happiness, because happiness
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: is this thing that you know, the Stoic philosophers, the
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: ancient Growths, Greeks and Roman philosophers said that that happiness
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: is full of gold, that the person who chases happiness
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: is a fool. I think more more contentment, satisfaction. What
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: the ancient Greeks called you de ammonia. I'm sure there's
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: a there's a similar word in Chinese. But what would
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: you think are some of the important steps on a
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: path to self mastering?
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: A great part of this is in your hands. So already,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: when you have the feeling that your emotional states, or
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: your quality of life, or your contentment or satisfaction about
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: life at the moment is too much outsourced or is
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: too much related to anything which is not in your hands.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: That's the first step to just start and realize, to
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: return back and do not outsource this satisfaction, this happiness,
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: this contentment. Don't make the way how you feel too
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: much dependent on how these external stimulus are. And why
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: is that Because there is there are situations, and there
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: are persons, and there there are possibilities where you can
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: do something about changing them or changing the situation, but
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: very often and more likely you cannot, because how the
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: world is going right now, it's not just about you.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Hmm. Absolutely, you were not the.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Source why the world is the way how it is.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: It's eight billion people have influence in how this world is. Yeah,
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: the natural constellation of the stars is the reason why
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: the world is the way how it is right now.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: So it doesn't make sense to outsource this inner state
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: of satisfaction to something that anyway, on the large scale,
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: you cannot control. The first step is realize what is
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: in your hands and what is definitely not in your hands.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: So that's step number one. Then step number two is
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: that very helpful inside and why I think for some
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: dedicated martial art practitioners it's more easy to get this point.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: Is the part about the discipline. I mean, if we
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: talk about discipline, a monastery pretty much is an example
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: for this discipline. But you have to say that in
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: the very beginnings we talked about external discipline because inside
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: the monastery, when you're young, you don't want to wake
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: up at the hours you should wake up. It is,
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: you don't want to make all the time so much
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: training that you're supposed to do the training. So that
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: means there's always somebody who is taking care of that discipline,
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: that you keep the discipline, and that sometimes can also
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: mean it's the stick that keeps the discipline. Yes, so
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: this is what we call it's external discipline. But no
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: matter what, if you are inside of such an external
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: discipline for a long time, two years, three years, it
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: will slowly start that you do it by yourself.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: That's interesting, right, That is that they development because a
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: lot of people and they talk about how this person
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: is so disciplined, that that person is so disciplined. I
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: would love to be as disciplined, but they're not realizing
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: that that person was probably exposed to discipline. I mean,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: I'm Mexic ex military, and there was a lot of
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: external discipline that went on. But there's a lot of
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: people who are military individuals or martial artists who learn
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: that discipline, as you said, being exposed to it and
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: being externally regulated. After a while, you develop your own
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: internal discipline. And that's I think something that a lot
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: of people don't realize is that discipline is something that
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: doesn't often come natural and that has to be learned
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: over a period of time. It has to be expressed
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: over a period of time in order to strengthen, and
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: we actually know there are certain regions of the brain
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: that if you are every time you're being disciplined, you're
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: actually strengthening those regions. So and hence to your point
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: of the monastery, it's external for a couple of years,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: and then it becomes internalized. It's something that we can
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: all learn. I think it's something that a lot of
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: people don't talk about when they talk about behavior change.
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: They talk about all of these life hacks, but you
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: don't hear discipline mentioned a lot. And I think it's
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: pretty critical, right because you're exposed to the same temptations
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: as many of us, but it's the discipline that can
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: often be the discerning factor between which way your life
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: goes isn't it.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, And I mean there is a reason why
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: there is this saying you need to practice anything for
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: at least one hundred days.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, So that's is that the shaolin thinking in terms
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: of having this is.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: One saying, right idea. It is just you need to
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: repeat something very very often. You need to program yourself.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: Our body is running on the software and this software
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: is filled with some information and in order that this
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: software really starts to change, you need repetition.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: M hm.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: The repetition makes the system change, and say, makes you
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: reconnect whatever is able to reconnect. And this is exactly
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: how you said it before. That that's the reason why
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: we need repetition. And you sometimes need to be exposed
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: to some conditions in order that you develop the right mechanism.
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: And now together with that second step of cultivating your discipline.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: I love that expression, cultivating your discipline. It's a beautiful
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: expression actually, because that that's what it is. Really. It
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: sums it up, doesn't it.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: Yes, there are also people who have talent. Talent means
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: that your understanding of the subject in the beginning is
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: much quicker. You are able to apply what you what
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: you know much quicker. But ultimately, even if you are talented,
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: I don't think the talent shows it's only about talent,
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: but also the willingness on the other side to put
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: the work into it, to find this right combination. And
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: so that means there's something internal about this about this person,
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: something that he already carries inside of him. But now
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: you also need the external way. How is he expressing
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: this in this world. So the internal gift and the
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: external expression, those two together, this is what makes that
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: person stand out in the crowd nowadays and becomes something
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: and express something very very specialtely, this is the same
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: like chigong and kung fu. Something internal something external. You
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: need both and also right now, yes you need discipline,
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: but now you also need to express this discipline. So
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: you are using your will power, You are using the
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: steadiness and ability to focus in order to now also
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: take the same challenges as other people in this world
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: are taking. It's just that you face the challenge, but
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: you have discipline. That's why you don't give up even
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: if you fail in that challenge. This is the only difference. Yeah,
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: but we also it doesn't mean that in the monastery
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: or any martial artists or whatsoever, does not face challenges
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: just because he has discipline. No, he has many ups
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: and downs, he has many failures. But because of this discipline,
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: all these failures is not the end.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: I think it's an old Chinese saying, is that fall
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: down seven times, get up? Yet? Yes?
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: So?
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: And in the and in the shawling way that there
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: is a very strong connection between physical fitness and spiritual development.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: Can you just talk about those links for a little bit.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: So the root of shoolin arts, I would say, is
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: derived from the insight into how the things are. Meaning
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: the martial arts is only one way how you were
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: able to put all the theory, all that knowledge, that
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: wisdom which comes from so called charm Buddhism or zen
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: Buddhism into ways of daily practice. It's really about this.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: To control the body is good. Controlling the body is
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: already a good sign that there is something that you
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: have under control. But if you would be able to
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: control your mind as much as you are able to
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: control the body, then we are regarding this in our
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: tradition as the ultimate and the highest ability of yourself,
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: the highest skill in order to create and have influence
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: in your life quality. Because it's the mind. It is
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: your thoughts that can bring you from one second from
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: paradise into hell. Or for me personally, I have to speak.
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: This is what I'm looking for, the power of the mind.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: This is what I think is sustainable when you are
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: still young. And maybe I can consider myself still young
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: with thirty eight. But one day the power of the
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: body is gonna vanish. That cannot change. It is just
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: gonna happen. But I don't think the power of the
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: mind can cease so easily. This is maybe personal belief,
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: but this is my interpretation and my ambition. Why I
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: we got this way of life, to combine spirituality on
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: the one side, the hard external martial art training on
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: the other side. Why I think it's very, very beneficial.
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: In terms of the mind and thinking about the mind
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: and controlling the mind being key. You're not alone. And
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher. You
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: may have heard of him, but he said that we
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: have power over our mind, not outside events. Realize this
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: and you will find strength. Right. And Epictetus is another
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: Stoic philosopher, and he said, and you can make my
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: leg lam and you will imprison my leg, but you
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: will never be able to imprison my mind. And so
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: there's I think the Stoics are very aligned with that,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: that that Challlin tradition around that it's really the key
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: is that part over the mind. It's just in Shallin.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: And my understanding from this conversation is that that the
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: physical training and the martial arts is a way to
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: condition yourself to have power over your mind. Is is
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: that correct? It's like a kind of a gateway. Yes.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: I think if you would point it down at one
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: center skill mm hmm, then it's exacut it is. It's
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: all about increasing your awareness of your own mind also
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: the ability to adjust your own mind. And therefore we
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: need to use different methods because maybe when we talk
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: about it, or I talk about it, for me it
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: is normal that I say, I can see the thoughts
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: that are arising. But I don't think it's something normal.
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: I think sometimes it's just like I have the sort
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: and that's it. There's nothing I can do about it.
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: But it's not like this. And why we have so
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: called sitting practices meditative practices, because if you are sitting
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: physically for half an hour or one hour or even
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: for five minutes, you really try as good as you can.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: Sit down and don't move. Don't move the body, not
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: even the eyebrow, nothing, just don't move. So what you
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: want is the body becomes still. When the body becomes
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: still and you are not itching somewhere or scratching somewhere,
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: then it means the more you practice, the more you
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: will realize if your mind actually is still or not.
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: Because all the time, right now, if right now in
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: our rooms the wind would be blowing, we can feel
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: the wind on the skin because we are distracted by
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: our sense sensation. So if we're able to for a
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: moment shut down the senses, then all your awareness, all
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: your consciousness, is able to be put upon your mind,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: and then you can see if your mind is still
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: or not. Then it's really like entering into another world.
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: And the more you practice is the more then you
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: will really realize. I think my mind was still all
• 41:50
  Speaker 2: the time, but there is so much turbulence. And this
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: is the way why there is this sitting practice for
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: what this is one of the reasons, this is the
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: benefit why it's worse to sometimes try this out. What
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: you think today is normal. You just do the right practices,
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: and you will realize that the way how somebody has
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: lived his life was the unnormal way. Normal is something different.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: It's interesting you talk about the mind and that observation.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: I remember that I was in Cambodia, maybe twenty five
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: years ago, right, and I was traveling, and I went
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: to a monastery and there was a female monk who
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: was there, who had been and they're meditating for a month.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: And I asked her for a little bit of advice,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: and she laughed, and then she said to me, the
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: first step is to be the watcher of your own mind.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: Yes, but now also for example, now you see these
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: are topics. It's really nice to talk all the time
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: about it. So if you imagine, it would be possible
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: to have just a round of lots of philosophers and
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: keep talking about the power of the mind and this
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: and that and how the philosophers in the past already
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: knew it. So it's easy to get lost in these topics.
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, it's the doing, the art of the doing, isn't it.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: And that's now why we know it's possible.
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: But now how to do it?
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: And this is again where the martial arts, the schoolIn
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: kung Fu the shaolin chigo starts to enter because now
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: there's a practical way. Okay, if I want to now
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: gain this idea of the power of the mind, start
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: to observe the mind, how do I do it? And
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: one of these schoolIn methods is practicing of the martial arts,
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: practicing of the chiego, practicing of Chinese calligraphy, these different
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: type of things. Having the various types of tea ceremonies.
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, these are all expressions where you were able to
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: have some some object, let's say, to place the mind.
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: One and then from from this point start to work.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: Mm hmm. They're there there. There are ideal examples of
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: mindfulness practice that to do them properly, you need to
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: be completely focused. Your attention needs to be on the
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: on the act, or the ceremony or the practice itself.
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: Right, Yes, exactly. For example, I'm sure that you also
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: had some tea ceremonies already in the past.
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: Maybe, yes, And those.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: Tea masters sometimes say or they say, you can see
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: all answers of life within that tea ceremony. Yeah, And
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: for example, what do they mean with this at the end,
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: what you have, the expression that you have is the
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: taste of the tea on your tongue. And now we
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: just take this example and try to return back and
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: where is this taste coming from? And there it starts
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: somewhere there was a plant was growing. Somebody plucked that plant,
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: rolled it, or took the tea leaves, stored it somewhere
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: for sometimes thirty years. Afterwards, shipped it to Germany, or
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: shipped it to the UK, or shipped it to the USA.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: Somebody bought the tea. Now has to cook the water
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: to the right temperature, put the water into the bowl
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: for the right amount of time, and afterwards you're able
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: to taste and drink that tea. If just one thing
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: along this line would change, the taste of the tea
• 46:17
  Speaker 2: that you were able to taste would change. And again,
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: what we have here is what you feel on the
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: tongue right now. It's like it's the consequence, it's the effect.
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: But this effect has a long history. And the question
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: is are you able to follow back and trace back
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: this history. And if you can trace it back on
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: the tee, and now you just put it back and
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: try to trace back yourself. Where do my habits come from,
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: Where do my ideas come from? Where do the paths
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: on my body that are hurting right now, where is
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: it coming from? Then you find a great path, a
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: great key already some answers that you might have towards
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: this life.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: So that that whole introspection. And it's interesting, you said.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: As you started saying, I started smiling because I talk
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: a lot about gratitude, and I say to people, you know,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: you can be grateful for a cup of coffee, and
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: and and maybe you're grateful that the barrista who made
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: the coffee put the attention in it. But then you
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: need to think about the farmer in Columbia who maybe
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: put his life savings into growing the coffee, and the
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: people who picked the coffee, then the trucks that took it,
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: and then the planes that that flew you. And actually, wow,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: how do we get a plane? Somebody had to create
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: an engine, so they had to design the plan. You know,
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: all of those complex equations, all of this stuff that
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: goes into and you can really go very deeply down
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: a path if you become focused on mind, feeling curious
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: about it.
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: Right, yes, and along this way, just how you explain
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: also where does this coffee come from? What is happening?
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: Is you start to see the connection, the connection of
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: the presence of the present with the past, and also
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: the connection then between the present and the future. Yeah,
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: and also between yourself and the coffee, and then also
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: yourself and the farmer of the coffee. So the principle
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: that starts to happen along this way is connectivity. Happens
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: the farmer on the other side of the world does
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: have an influence on your life. Yeah, but this is
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: something you don't realize or maybe you don't want to
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: realize in today's world.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: Mutely, we've got to wind up in a few minutes.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: But I just wanted to get your thoughts on happiness.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: And we said earlier there's many people in our societies
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: that chasing happiness. And what is your opinion on how
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: we can foster happiness or contentment or flourishing well being,
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: whatever you want to say, and what would be your
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: parting advice to the listeners.
• 49:41
  Speaker 2: Okay, happiness I think already has a very strong connotation
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: in nowadays world. That's why I don't want to use
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: the word happiness. Imbalance, not knowing whether life goes up
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: or life goes down, whether you succeed, or whether you fail,
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: whether you're going to stay alive or whether you die.
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: This is an issue all humans have that there is
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: this instability which is always fluctuating, seemingly between two extremes.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: Let's say either you're successful or you're failing. When you're
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: moving towards success, you're in a specific state. When you're
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: moving towards failure, you are in another state. Neither of
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: those states is what I think will give you peace
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: of mind. So the aim or the advice for me
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: and for others would be try to find that state
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: of the mind that is free from fluctuation. M and
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: this state free from fluctuation, free from movement. Maybe you
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: can call it stillness, and that stillness, maybe you can
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: call it there is nothing, or you can call it actually,
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: there's everything already. I don't know if I would express
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: this state as happiness or as contentment, or just as peace.
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: It's peace. Walk through this life peacefully. You meet other people,
• 51:39
  Speaker 2: meet them with peace. You face different challenges, face that
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: challenge with peace. It doesn't matter what you are facing
• 51:49
  Speaker 2: in this world, it's always better to face it with peace.
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: Peace inside of yourself. This is what you can do.
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: You are sick, still you're in peace. You just won
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: the lottery. Still stay in peace, because if you win
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: the lottery and you are not staying in peace, then
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: most probably you are somewhere in the state of euphoria.
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: But in ephoria, you spend too much money, you're going
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: to waste.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: You come crashing down pretty quick. Right, No, that's great,
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: it's great advice. So so thank you, mister uh master
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: she hanged Ye. Sorry for my pronunciation of your name,
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: But this has been this has been awesome. It's been
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: a really interesting conversation into the mind and the practices
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: of a shoolin monk. And I think there is there
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: is something in this for for everybody, but for people
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: who who have enjoyed what you said and who want
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: to find out more. And I know you've got an
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: incredible wealth of stuff that's online. Where can people go
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: to find out more about your course? I know you
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: also run retreats, So when we eventually open up from COVID,
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: you know, how can I find more about you and
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: what you do?
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: So the monastery where I'm located at is the Shouting
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: Temple Europe, and I think it's really really easy if
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: you just search for this monastery and on the other side,
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: if you just link my name Hilhani, you also find
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: access to all the different varieties that we are offering.
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: And on the one side, because of the restrictions, we
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: also started to offer free online trainings. So for everybody
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: who wants to have a peek in what type of
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: practices these are, feel free to join. And besides that,
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: all the information I think is available and you can
• 53:52
  Speaker 2: just link it somewhere at your podcast.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I will put all the links in the podcast,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: and I really encourage people. You do have an incredible
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: amount of of of free online resources, so so for that,
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: I thank you on behalf of all of the listeners
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: and anybody who has has gained benefit from from doing
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: and some of your practices.
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: H