The School of Greatness - 5 Ways To Self-Mastery & Manifesting Your Dream Future w/ Shaolin Master Shi Heng Yi EP 1418

Episode Date: April 5, 2023

https://lewishowes.com/mindset - Order a copy of my new book The Greatness Mindset today!Shi Heng Yi is the headmaster of the Shaolin Temple Europe . In this function he is responsible for the mental and physical development and training of the novices, disciples and master students of the monastery in Otterberg / Germany. Despite it’s traditional history of over 1528 years since the establishment of the famous Shaolin Temple in China, less is being known about the underlying aspects of psychological and mental practices that go along with the hardship of physically demanding training and conditioning, known as Shaolin Kung Fu. His goal and endeavor is not only to explain and convey theoretical principles in an understandable way, but above all to make this knowledge practical and tangible for our contemporary modern world. Being a martial artist for more then 36 years, Master Shi Heng Yi has spend decades of practice and research in the field of Shaolin Kung Fu and Qi Gong. He has an academic background and does not consider himself as a Monk. His strength is the ability to combine his knowledge with ancient Shaolin methods to unlock the potential that lies in the unification of body and mind aspects.He's released a 12 Month Self-Master course that's now available - https://www.shihengyi.online/self-mastery-trainingIn this episode you will learn,How to take control of negative emotionsThe benefits of breathwork in high stress situationsHow to visualize the future of your dreamsFor more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1418

I firmly believe that taking charge of your mindset allows you to be in the driver's seat of your life and unlock your potential. And that's why I'm thrilled to share that my new book is out right now. It's called The Greatness Mindset. In it, you'll learn how to build a plan for greatness through powerful exercises and toolkits designed to propel your life forward. This is the book that I wish I had 20 years ago. It's everything I've learned in the last decade with the research and the science to help you unlock your mind. Make sure to go to lewishouse.com slash 2023mindset

to pick up your copy of my book, The Greatness Mindset, today. Ill will is a state of the mind. Doesn't matter if it's towards yourself, towards another person, towards your colleagues, it's always the same ill will is a state of the mind doesn't matter if it's towards yourself towards another person towards your colleagues it's always the same ill will it is something inside of you which if you don't pay attention to is going to be a hindrance a long way welcome to the school of greatness my name is lewis howes a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. I'm so excited that you're here because I feel like the modern world is lacking self-discipline,

self-knowledge, and they're lacking connection to their authentic selves as human beings. And I've been there in my life where I've lacked these things as well. And it's a constant process of learning, staying accountable and disciplined to these teachings that you have. So I'm very excited that you're here. And I want to make this a very special, long format episode in the interview. And I want to ask you first about the five hindrances that you've talked about online before. These hindrances that hold people back from mastering themselves and their inner world. I'm curious if you can talked about online before, these hindrances that hold people back from mastering themselves and their inner world. I'm curious if you can talk about what those five are first.

So, when it comes to developing something about yourself, it doesn't matter what it is. If it is just following up in becoming great in any type of sport, or even if you want to build up like a small community or something for yourself. It's about if you want to go somewhere, if you have a goal and want to go somewhere. Along this way, you will meet different type of hindrances that we call, that will sometimes make it difficult for you to, let's say, reach the goal where you would like to go, and to very easily explain it.

One way, for example, is if you are too easily being caught by positive emotions. Which type of positive emotions? All types that is raising something inside of you that you are relating to that feels really good now, but it takes you out of your ordinary. So that means you have a goal on the mind what you want to achieve. You start walking, you start doing your jobs and your obligations, but along this way you are meeting a distraction which is giving you a lot of positive emotions.

Because you are in that average state of the mind, that overall, let's say, normal state of the mind. Now, if it takes you out of the average of being positive, it's very easy for us that we get attached to these type of feelings. So what it ultimately means, you're going to lose track of your goal because you would prefer right now to spend more time with all of these things that give you positive emotions. Can you give an example of one of these positive emotions or a situation that someone might have? Positive emotions, for example, let's take a very nice one, fame. Yes, you have a goal in the mind what you want to achieve, but along this way you feel there is that

word of fame. And so what does it mean? It means you are getting the views, you are getting the sight of different people, and now you are encountering something that you haven't planned about it before. But now that you meet it, and now that you feel it, that it's this type of fame that you could get from the people, well now the question still is if you can stick to your initial plan or not. Or is the fame going to move in front of all of this?

And it's not your mission anymore that was important to you but now suddenly you are replacing your initial goal with something that gave you positive emotions along this way. Right, so the positive emotion is that the first thing that could be a hindrance for you? I definitely think it is something that you need to consider as a human if you walk through this lifetime, I want to build something which is out of the ordinary. You are 100% going to meet various positive emotions. And one of them is just that example that I brought right now. But it can also be very simple things that your eyes are catching the attraction too quickly about things that look beautiful

about things around you that taste too great that smell too good So that means it's very easy especially nowadays with all of the advertising being around To lose your awareness in the outside distractions, let's call it like this. So I think, is this what you call sensual desire? Is this like having too much sensual desire, these positive emotions around the senses that could distract you.

For example, and why is it called sensory desires? Because those desires are based on our five senses, for example. Because just think about it in very simple terms, everything in this world where you say, I like it or I dislike it. Those things happen only on five different levels. Either you see something that you start to judge, you smell something that you start to judge, you taste something, you hear something, or you feel something. So it's the five senses actually that are building the bridge between what we regard as the outside impacts and what you internally are then afterwards reacting to. And this is not to say that sensory desire is good or bad. It's really important to understand I that sensory desire is good or bad.

It's really important to understand. I'm not talking about good or bad. I'm talking about if you have a specific goal on your mind, there are things that can happen to you which will be useful to have, and there are other things that are going to hinder you along this way. Hindrances, yeah. Hindrances. And so right now it's not about good or bad, it's about a hindrance. If you have a goal, just take care that these things are existing, the positive emotions, just like the negative emotions.

Negative emotions meaning you have a goal, you are already preparing yourself to go there, but now things are becoming difficult. Your daily schedule is not going according to plan how you wrote it down in your schedule. Things are coming in that you didn't expect. Because you didn't expect it and maybe are not prepared for it, it can easily happen that you are getting stressed out by so many different impacts. So that means there are now events coming along this way that are giving you, that are raising negative emotions inside of you. emotions inside of you. And so what does it also mean? It means that the chances at these type of mental states, it's easy right now to find an argument and give up and stop the journey. And this is exactly, it's the five hindrances of the mind. What I'm talking about is mental states.

Beware of your mental state. Now sometimes in different traditions, you hear it already, we have the body and the mind. Sometimes you also have traditions where we talk about the body, your thoughts and your emotions. So now you suddenly have three areas. You can make as many areas as you would like because these are just concepts. They are there to help us humans just get into the right direction that you can work with. And now the reason why very often we are only in our tradition say there's the body and the mind and are not separating anymore into the feelings is simply because of this. Feeling and mindset.

Mental state and the way how you feel. I think they are very, very close related to each other. And what you can try to just observe about yourself is the feeling, no matter what it is, very, very often is just the postponed, let's say, the postponed reaction of what way before that was already implemented inside or cultivated inside the mind. Can you give an example of that? Yes. You go to any type of meeting where you have persons that you maybe meet for the first time. Just choose any of them.

Before you talk to this person, sit somewhere in the corner, always observe the person and pay attention to everything that you can criticize. So that means consciously educate the mind to always find the mistakes in that person. Look how he dresses. Look how he's walking. It's sloppy of this. Look how he's talking. Look how he's behaving. And just make this, project this idea always over and over again towards this person.

A judgment. A judgment. Before you even go to that person. So before that, just use it as an experiment. And then, after some time, really go to that person, even without talking to him or her, and just feel. What is it, what type of feeling do you have when you are standing now next to this person? And it is my belief that you can either choose how you judge the people. You can continuously

pre-condition your mind that your feelings are going to follow in this direction. Or you pre-condition your mind in general towards people around you, towards this world in a completely different way as well. In an empowering way, a positive way, a way that supports you in building a relationship or a connection, right? For example, so what I'm saying is the way how you feel, meeting people, getting into a situation and then saying, see, I told you it's going to be like this.

No, it's like this because you before that decided already it's going to be like this. Right. It's interesting because when I meet people, like for today, when you were coming here, I just said to myself, I'm excited to connect with you. I'm excited to learn. I'm excited to learn about your lifestyle and your lessons.

And that excitement, when you walked in, I was excited. And I enforced that belief of thinking, that prejudgment of excitement to learn. So hopefully you felt that excitement, right? judgment of excitement to learn. So hopefully you felt that excitement, right? As opposed to, who is this guy, you know, this Shaolin master and what does he know? And, you know, I didn't come in with that belief system. Is that correct? Yes. Thank you very much. Yeah. So that's a, that's a good example. So I love this feeling and mindset conversation. Which influences the other? Is it the thinking that influences the feelings or the feelings which reinforce and influence the thinking? I'm sure that this could definitely lead to any type of scientific discussion.

to any type of scientific discussion. What I'm saying is the easiest way to test for yourself without trying out too much, reading too much, is just like this. Next time you go into this situation or you have a feeling coming up inside of you, no matter which one it is, just ask yourself where is the root of that feeling right now? Could it be that the way how you feel right now in regards to that situation? What is your

relation? What did you thought about this type of situation, let's say weeks before, months before, in the past? When was the last time you had such a type of situation is it the first time you go into this situation and actually you just heard from your friends from your parents from your teacher this type of situations exists and then you need to be careful of this and that so where So where is that feeling rooted in? And this you can do with many, many things. And what we call in our language or in what we are doing nowadays, this idea of why is it called self-mastering? idea of why is it called self-mastering? Because it is something you need to discover about yourself. It is not something other people are going to discover about you.

It is you take the time and watch yourself. This is the path to go. Sometimes we call it also This is the path to go. Sometimes we call it also turn the view inwards. Because you see there's this nice picture, there's always something goes wrong, and then it's always easy to say, yes, because of you, you, and you. It's always easy, that one.

The hard part in this world is this one. It's the hard part, and it is the one that opens the greatest doors. I'm curious. What have you been looking inward at yourself over the last few months that you've been able to see in a different perspective that is opening up for you personally? Whether as a master teacher or as a human being or a friend see in a different perspective that is opening up for you personally? Whether as a master teacher or as a human being or a friend or what are you seeing and

learning about yourself at this season of life? It's not just in the last month, let's say. I do think that it is a progress. The general idea is that from time to time, it absolutely makes sense to take that conscious decision. Okay, I have a family, I have friends, I need to take care of them, I need to take care also of my job. So that means you're investing a lot of your lifetime trying to support, trying to build up, trying to establish something, let's say, outside of you. At the same time, what we then have is that teaching of yin and yang. Everybody knows that symbol. What does it mean? Inside and outside, up and down, black and white, hot and cold, success and failure, outside, inside, belong together.

And so besides the time that you spend outwardly oriented, I think it is normal and it's necessary. I think there is no choice to decide from time to time for yourself that you take your personal breakout, your personal time out. You can take care, of course, but you also need to take care of yourself in the first place. So reason for that until I come back to the question. You're responsible for your team.

You're responsible for your employees. you're responsible for your employees, you're responsible for your family, you're responsible for your children. Responsibility, what is it essentially? Is it the way how you behave? Or is the behavior which comes out of a responsible feeling what we're talking about? So that means, how can you be responsible for something around you if inside of yourself, your body, in the world of your feelings,

you don't know how does responsibility feel? So that means we're talking about it's a feeling, just like you love the world. How can you love the world if inside of you you do not carry the feeling of love? Why is it important to respect your parents? To be thankful and grateful towards your parents? Because if the people that granted you this life right now, you are not even grateful for. To who else you want to be grateful in this world then? Interesting. And these, let's say, feelings that I mentioned, sometimes we also call them, these are qualities of the heart. Because the heart, we know it's like,

it goes very deep. Yes, because it's related to how you feel. So the point is, So the point is, whatever you would like to express into the outside world, number one is you need to have it. So this is the baseline. This is the main idea. So if you want to express love to the outside world, you must have love within you. Yes. But if you have anger within you, it's going to be hard to express it to your friends, your family, or the world. Yes, but that's way easier because anger is something people are sure how this anger feels nowadays. With the other attributes, they're not so easy

because anger from its quality, it's a quality that naturally starts to separate things. Actions out of anger, thoughts out of anger. What is their nature? The nature is you are separating stuff. You're protecting yourself, is that right? Yes. Loving is not the way of separating. Loving if you carry love inside, you always, let's say, understand you, me, in a way, we

come from different mothers, we come from different areas, but there's still something that's connecting us. And so that means even if you have been mean to me, acting out of love or acting out of the feeling, no matter matter what still we are connected is different and so this is what i regard as being really important to cultivate first of all before we let's say do two two big stuff on the outside world And this is the point where it comes back again to this personal retreat, to the time where you watch inside yourself.

What do you have inside of yourself? What is your, yeah, take off your clothes, take off the jewelry, take off the tattoos you have on the body, look into the mirror and then just see who is standing there. If you take off everything that, let's say, artificially came on top of your being, take everything away and then what is it that you see in the mirror?

Do you see there is the loving heart inside? There is the strength or the willpower inside this body. There is the discipline inside this body. There is a loyal person standing. There is pride inside of this. And these are all things, how do I put my pride here on the table? How do I put my discipline here on the table? This is the area now where we talk about these are things they are just don't belong to the world of forms. Nevertheless, these are things that make the human being like human. And this is the special part that meanwhile there are just methods where such attributes, such virtues can be developed. Right. One of the other things you talked about that I've seen you talk about online

about mastering the inner self and the things that hold people back is ill will. And I think, you know, it's like if you look in the mirror and you say, oh, there's anger inside of me, there's judgment inside of me. Is that also associated with ill will?

Is it towards yourself, towards others, to the world? What does that mean, ill will? To the mental state. Whatever triggers it is pretty irrelevant. It's sometimes also, just think about it. When we were young and we didn't get what we wanted, we became angry. As a teenager, somebody took something away from you, you got angry. Nowadays, 21st century,

somebody takes something away from you, you're angry. The reasons why this anger came up always different. But anger is always the same. The anger you feel today is the same anger that you felt when you were in young ages. So that means there might be the feeling that outside circumstances are triggering something inside of you. Yes, it's triggering something, but what eventually comes up is what you have not been able to adjust in the proper way yet. And the same is like ill will. Ill will is a state of the mind. It's not just, doesn't matter if it's towards yourself, towards another person, towards an animal, towards your colleagues. It's always the same ill will.

It is something inside of you, which if you don't pay attention to, is going to be a hindrance along your way of walking. How do we heal or integrate ill will so that it's no longer inside of us? How do we reevaluate it, mend it, heal it, go beyond it? Go beyond it, I think, is the more proper expression because this is now really playing with the words, but it's still important because we don't try to get rid of all of these things you don't want to get rid of the body that it's never going to be inside of your body anymore you don't want to get rid of your jealousy when it comes up you don't want to

get rid of the joy that you feel you don't want to get rid of your feelings you want to get rid of the joy that you feel. You don't want to get rid of your feelings. You want to have a very great variety of different feelings that you can tap into. The only thing which makes the difference is if you are tapping into this world of feelings consciously or if that world of feelings is just unconsciously imploding inside of you. This makes the difference. And so to overcome it means to realize it is there. Now like sometimes what to do? You need to find something, a state of your, the state of level on which you are coordinating. Which means you have to stand above you. Learn to get into a perspective where you are standing above you, which means this is not about you at the moment.

This is not about you. Stand above it. It is about you see, okay, you see that person at the moment has an issue. How would you, as somebody watching at you, help him? How would you coach, guide, teach? How would you coach yourself, guide yourself to the better version? And this is what it only means to sometimes de-identify yourself with this one. If you are caught inside here, I think it becomes difficult. There's some neuroscience that talks about that. We're really good at being a negative or a critical coach to ourselves and putting ourselves down in those situations, as opposed

to stepping aside and coaching from a different perspective to ourselves. And there's neuroscience that backs the importance of that as a tool to go beyond it as well. So I think it's really important. How often do you feel these emotions or feelings of ill will, anger, jealousy, frustration? How often do you feel them and how do you teach or coach yourself beyond them? If I want to, I can tap inside of it right away and my whole day is filled with it. No matter where I watch around on the street,

there's no problem at all for me to generate the feeling that ill will starts to dominate. Really? Yes. At any moment you could go there? Yes. Yeah. It's just then I asked, but then I just asked, this feeling that you are in, does it feel good?

No. You know? And then the point is just like I said, it doesn't even feel good to be in it. So if we would say ill will, if at least it would give you something by staying inside that state of the mind, at least then I would understand. But if you watch at it, there is nothing positive, zero. watch at it there is nothing positive zero there is no benefit to yourself and there is especially no benefit to the people around you that this ill will is going to cause so that means what is the first thing that i do when i realize let's say i have this feeling first of all i need to know from what does it come what is it at moment that triggers it so i try to identify very quickly what is at the moment the source that is triggering it

what is usually the source for you in a situation that triggers ill will is it injustice is it someone treating someone poorly is it someone with a lot of money that triggers you? Like, what's the root trigger? Actually, this is now the question where, for example, I say it's so super helpful if you already have, let's say, some type of concept, some type of teachings. They tell you already where it let's say, some type of concept, some type of teachings, they tell you already where it comes from, very simply. And this ill will, to a hundred percent, in all its different variations that it comes in this world, mainly from three reasons.

Oh, what are these? Either from greed, greed of not getting more than you want, hate or jealousy of not getting what you want. And sometimes it's called, let's say, ignorance or not knowing. Greed, hate, ignorance and especially ill will easily falls into one of these categories or sometimes a combination of these things. So ill will can be, why does he get it i deserve it why you deserve it because you think about yourself you are the more hard-working person in this room so what is that combination in that combination it is like there's unfairness from your subjective view unfair unfairness, jealousy, no respect towards yourself,

which then also can maybe mean a low level of self-esteem, self-confidence, a lack of it. So it's very often like a variety of these attributes, I think. Yeah. But ultimately broken down. I think that's it. Greed, hate, not knowing. When does ill will enter your emotions for you personally? Like what is it that you see where you feel it for a moment?

Obviously, it sounds like you know how to catch it and go beyond it pretty quickly. But when it happens to you, what do you struggle with? I would say when it is like a very subjective, I have to say, because this is the reason why I always catch myself back and why then afterwards it's not so bad anymore. But subjective unfairness unfairness unfairness in the fairness in the world or is it some like a jealousy unfairness like oh they have something

no it's not that about they have something it's about they project something upon you not knowing the full truth. Ah, so unfairness towards you. For example. Gotcha, yeah. Maybe someone's judging you or has an opinion or criticism that they don't have the full story or the wisdom or the... They don't know you. Yes.

Right. And so when that happens, when you feel judged or criticized or there's an unfairness about you personally. They don't know better. How do you not let it ruin your day or stay in the emotions of anger or frustration or unfairness? How do you go beyond it personally? I breathe in deeply and I breathe out. And this sounds super ridiculous. But if you really ask me how do I cope with such situation, this is meanwhile what I do.

I am very aware that I have it right now and I combine my breath, meaning something is getting out of me, together with my deep intention and with my deep connection of the mind together with the breath, first of all, they don't know better. If they would have more information available, they would maybe see me differently. And together with that physical aspect, this is what I do. This is the first and it's like a valve.

Before you start imploding, before something starts to rise too much and the pressure builds up, first of all, get rid of that steam, get rid of that air out. And that's why it sounds very ridiculous sometimes to really say, just breathe out. But it's not about the breath only. It's about how serious are you living different type of teachings and methods. And if you are able to learn to combine the breath with an intention, work with intention more consciously, then I think it's very, very possible

to get into an area where breath becomes everything to you. Yeah. I'm a big believer in breathing, meditation strategies, whatever meditation and breathing strategies work for you. But having some type of breathing practice where you slow down the breath, I feel like benefits all human beings. And there's lots of different strategies and styles of breathing.

But I think focusing on the intention and the breathing combined, like you said, is extremely powerful. I'm curious if someone is feeling anger, unfairness, or any emotion around ill will about something that's happened to them and they feel this is unfair and they have this anger or defensiveness. You talked about the breathing. What is the intention that they can think of during those moments, 60 seconds, 10 minutes, however long it takes, to go beyond it? What is the intentional thought while they're in that, it's stressful, the heart is pounding, I don't like this, I want to break free of this. What can they think or say internally along with the breath to help them go beyond? This is sometimes what people then refer to as a mantra can be helpful. So especially in such moments,

you have something you always tell to yourself, continuously repeat. And now these can be different things. If you merge together the thought, they don't know better. Together with the cultivation of a heart quality of compassion inside of you, then I think even this thought together with that heart quality and the breath has a very powerful impact. And this is why initially I said about there are hard qualities.

Hard qualities. Hard qualities, yes. So that means this is why it's helpful to really from time to time make clear to yourself again. So the greatest love you have ever felt in this lifetime, how did it feel? How does it feel? So if somebody would ask you nowadays, so when was the moment you really felt love?

Well, first of all, you can't make it on the go. Second of all, even probably people nowadays are ashamed of even getting into this state of being while other peoples are watching around. This is why you need to do these practices alone, where nobody is watching you and where are you sure? You are only with yourself. And there what you do, you start to travel.

You travel into the world of your memories and you travel into everything that you are still able to recall in your mind that has happened in the past. When somebody hugged you, your father, your mother, your grandfather, your first girlfriend, your first boyfriend, it doesn't matter. Recall the situation where you think this was the greatest feeling I have ever felt when I hear about that word love. So then at least in the 21st century you are at least recalling it again and now know maybe how it feels. And after you have this feeling, now you ask yourself if something like this is existing. And you would have the chance that the people in this world can choose in which state of being would you yourself

personally would like to live and what would you wish the others to live in? I think you will only, if you're intelligent, will only come up with one answer, which is for all of them. And this is the reason why out of that loving feeling arises then what we call compassion, which means I know how great this feeling is. So that's why maybe I know in which direction I would like to guide my life to finally have this feeling, let's say, more in my life.

And now you walk around and then you see people that are obviously sad, that are obviously having issues day in, day out, and busy with their mind, and you see how they are suffering. And because you see it and now have this direct comparison to yourself this is why it becomes so much easier now that you are not going to act anymore out of ill will so the ill will is only there because you are not at that level yet where you can stand above it. Easily said. Yeah.

Feel the love and the compassion for yourself and others at the same time. It's really hard to do though, right? When you feel like someone is against you, attacking you, hurting you, hurting someone you care about, saying mean things about you, nasty lies about you, judging you. It's hard to have the feeling of love and compassion in those moments because you feel like this is unfair. This is not right. This is not just. Why don't they just stop it? Yes, exactly. In that moment. That's why if you feel like moments are too overwhelming for you, number one is get out of the situation. If we get into a big argument right now and you feel like, no, this is too overwhelming, I would now really start, get out of the room. Number one.

So something very practical. Yes. If something is too overwhelming, then we say, get distance, first of all. Get distance. Now, this is a nice part, for example, that our abbot, for example, in the monastery also teaches us. He always said, you need to be able to adjust room and time. You need to be able to learn and adjust space and time. It sounds very philosophical.

But space and time means, if we are in an argument, a big one, I want space first of all, so that means I have distance to observe, that is the space, and I want time because time lets me think more clearly if I'm not under pressure. If you have someone that you really don't like, then vice versa, you also know exactly what to do then. If he's a friend, he or she is a friend, you always give room and time. If you want to make enemies, you steal room and space. You don't let them move and you don't give them time to react.

This is how you treat enemies. You pressure them. You pressure them. You lock them in. You confine them. Because this is what it is. What arises out of that situation if you put people under pressure is something that is overwhelming them. And overwhelming means your emotions are not under your own control, which makes you vulnerable.

That is like the point behind this. So another thing to just keep in mind no matter what type of emotion it is that we are sometimes feeling is you don't take decisions while you are emotional. Next one. Don't make decisions while you're emotional. and you know I understand sometimes people in certain areas fast paced areas where like time is money

I don't have time to think about and so meanwhile we really have this culture where like somebody walks in gives me a question and expects the answer right away and I'm always asking myself, why can't you just to some questions just say, let me think about it.

I'm going to come back to it tomorrow. So that means sometimes there are questions you are being asked by people where you feel it puts you under pressure but maybe think about it why do you want to answer it right away what's the point to give the answer right away if some especially if it's an important answer i personally would prefer if i would come up to you with a really important question i would even prefer for you to tell me okay that is something i cannot just decide on the spot let me think about it and tomorrow we're

going to talk about it right and then also for me i have no problem to say okay let's talk tomorrow and this is also something where nowadays it's yeah a lot of pressure is coming from, from these type of things. That unconsciously you just give answers for the sake of giving answers, whereas it would be better to just wait. Wait on it, yeah. Think about it. Speaking of, you mentioned enemies for a second ago. for a second ago. What is the Shaolin philosophy around enemies when you're not in an actual physical war, when you're not in combat, when you're not fighting for your life, but there is a potential enemy psychologically, business, relationship, whatever, family, friend, who's feeling like an enemy. What is the

philosophy of the Shaolin way on how to approach an enemy when it's not a physical attack? If we are really not talking about physical attack, then I think it's very easily expressed that we are right now in the field of Buddhist teachings or of Chan or Zen teachings, which means it is about the mind. We are only talking right now about psychological aspects. And every confrontation that you are feeling inside the mind, for me personally, what it means is if something is resonating and is still triggering me mentally and therefore also emotionally, the only thing it means is that is one of the next areas I need to learn to adjust. This is my initial, I don't need to learn to adjust. This is my initial, I don't know what else to say.

That's the lesson. It's more adjusting within you, not them. No, no. The reason why they are there is to show you your weakness. What was your biggest weakness that you had to overcome as you started to grow up, you know, studying martial arts, living in the modern world and then becoming, you know, a teacher, a student in the temple? What was the biggest inner enemy that you faced and overcame or you're still in the practice of overcoming? It seriously is still the five hindrances because it is just something common.

Yeah. So for example, one of the next hindrances is laziness. Yes. Very easily. The lack of energy, meaning you have great ideas you have great plans all of this but the spark to put you under fire is just not there why do so many people lack the spark to act to launch to build momentum to be consistent why do so many people lack that energy desire and stay lazy or dull i think it's a combination of the way of life people have lived before and the lack of vision what lies in front of them so both of these things you know So what I mean by that is,

not always it's just like, let's say, the physical appearance of that laziness, of that dullness, of that heaviness. It's apparent. But why is it there? And this has so many different variations now when you look into the past. It can really be because of the food that you're eating because the lack of movement that you're having because of your habits whatever type of habits it is that caused you to now end up in

that body which is at the moment pretty inefficient yes to generate fire. I have to say, sometimes in my spare time, I like to build engines. Really? I build engines. I build race engines. And there, for me, if I look at it, I really like that similarity. You want that engine to perform well. One of the things that then normally needs to be optimized is, number one, airflow, the intake, and then also the amount of the air that gets in there, the quality of it.

That's why on the engine we filter it. But now it comes to us. What are you breathing in? How is it with your lung capacity? How much of your lung capacity are you able to really use? How clean are you inside of it? Because what is it eventually that with that oxygen that we are taking in, what is it that you are burning and try to make into energy? There are a lot of things that you can eat and try to burn, but the quality of this energy is very little.

There is other food, they have a very, very high amount of energy once you burn them. So that means, of course, these things, the diet has an effect also on the dullness of the body. This is the one thing. And now looking into the future, well, if you are expecting fast results, this is you know looking out into the world what comes fast goes fast and especially something that is changing the status quo of your life your lifestyle's say, something that is changing it too quickly. It is like, let's just say, at the moment I visit you, I see you like this. In one month, I come back and you might have 30 kilograms more on muscles. I know whatever you did it was not good. It was too fast. Because all these quick changes, also when we look outside sometimes, I mean

let's just take the earthquake or the tsunamis or a lightning strike, anything like this, the natural forces, they don't tell you one month before that they are coming. The problem is when they come, they very often have this destructive character. Not always, but often. And when it comes now to creating our way of life, when it comes to the transformation of ourselves, at least in my worldview, I take this into consideration, meaning I don't even expect myself to make huge jumps quickly. Because I just feel like, okay, that might just not be sustainable. That might not just be something that is helpful on the long run. something that is helpful on the long run.

And therefore, to take pressure away from you, make small steps. And this is what I mean by how far is your view on your future vision of what you want to achieve there. How far should we be thinking out in terms of our vision or our mission? Is it based on the season of life we're in? You know, if we're 18 years old and we're going to school, we should just be thinking out, you know, the next four years or should we be thinking out five, 10, 20

years? Because so much can change so quickly in life and situations. Okay. I can only talk about myself. Yes. And I have to say, I'm a dreamer. Yeah. Yeah, I'm a dreamer and a visionist. A visionary, probably. I don't know how you call it. Visionary.

Visionary. My way of seeing this world where I am embedding in is super huge. That's why, of course, you can always say, yeah, but this is just your imagination. Yes, which is your most powerful source. Your ability to put something into your own mind where nobody else has impact on. And only you know that day in, day out,

you just still walk this path and feel for yourself how it's getting real because it's unbroken, because there's nobody who can interfere. It's all small things. Because there's nobody who can interfere. It's all small things. And probably I can just say that maybe to try it out, okay? Of course, you should not like dream too big, which is like unrealistic, let's say like this. Of course not.

But the vision that there is something you can bring out about yourself that this world has not seen yet, this is something which is quite appealing to me. And it's therefore also something that I also, let's say, continuously practice and keep on the mind. And now comes the but. Whatever vision and dream you have upon yourself, that you are projecting upon yourself,

I do think that you need to have at the same time a commitment. think that you need to have at the same time a commitment? And first of all, for example, the commitment and what are you going to do with that identity of yours if you're going to get there? So you mean a commitment of like the daily actions you're going to take that you're committed to or once you're there, what are you going to do with it the commitment now very clearly you are creating because you want to help to serve yes to help others yes you are not creating any identity of yours in order to harm because i think if this is what your initial intention is,

then I think the penalty will come. What if your intention is to only serve yourself? Is to look good, to make money for you, to get famous for you, to buy things for you because you want to be successful. But you're not including doing it in the service of other people as well. What happens when it's only about me? You might reach it in this lifetime. But if you bring this one to an end, or if you continuously go there,

not in my vision, not only in this lifetime, you're going to be lonely. You're going to have everything you want. You're going to have everything that blinks. You have all the reputation. It's all great. Everything you ever dreamt of, you have it. What you don't have is something that gives you real stability, something that gives you real value in this life. What is that? I think it is something that can't be taken off from you. I think it is the connection to other fellows. It's a connection to people, to humans, to animals, to this world, and ultimately the connection of this life.

And what happens with this person if he only lives this way of life? He's going to repeat himself. Why repeat? Or what do I mean by repeating? Now I jump a little bit, but sometimes this life seems to me it's like a video game. And if you're at level one and continuously fail at level one, you're never going to move up to level two and get into touch with the next challenges of life. So if somebody is still stuck on the material level

of wanting this and that, so really materialistic. This is really the basic plane. This is a very, very basic plane. This is like level one. Sometimes it's necessary. You need to have it first. And then your relationship towards these things starts to shift. And suddenly you find yourself that now it's not these things anymore that start to matter to you.

Now suddenly, since you're in level two, now you're starting to ask yourself, okay, now it's not material things anymore, but I love my wife, I love my husband, I love my children, I love my dog, I love the jobs, I love my wife. I love my husband. I love my children. I love my dog. I love the jobs. I love my employees. But they are getting sick. They are starting to die away. This is now starting in level two to trouble you. time figure out a way how do you walk through this lifetime figuring out these challenges of life that our ancestors lost people our future generations are going to lose beloved people it's nothing new how do you learn despite the fact of that is existing how can you still find something about yourself to still keep going stay strong and still keep going and supporting and helping despite of these things and then maybe level two you manage to find a way for yourself.

And then you're going to be exposed to the next type of challenges that this life is giving to you. So what I'm talking about is that I'm not sure if life is getting easier. I just think that you are becoming more mature. You are becoming more skillful in order to tackle the challenges of life. I think this is what

ultimately for me at least, seems to me like this. Yeah, it's learning to become a better leader for yourself. It's developing these skills, overcoming the challenges so that, I think I heard you say, like life doesn't get easier, you just get stronger. And you can manage it with more peace and grace as these challenges and pains come to you, right?

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