Shaolin Master REVEALS How To Achieve Mental & Physical Resilience | Shi Heng Yi

What is the intention and the process before punching when you know you need more than just physical mass to break through what you're punching? What does that process look like? Sometimes it's about giving and sometimes it's about taking. This is the balance. Sometimes you need to give, sometimes you need to take. And so that means the training is also in a way built up exactly like this. You have, of course, training methods in order for you to practice your body mechanics, your mind, in order to express, to give. But at the same time, you also need for it that it is like complete, a complete system. You also need all of these methods where you are learning to take. It's not about you now giving something, it's about you getting the impact. What does that look like to receive something before the punch? That is like typically what we regard as its so-called hardening training. So hardening training, which means all the areas that are vulnerable on your body, there are ways to develop it that at least they are not so easily to be penetrated. Right, not as weak anymore. Not as weak anymore. Of course, it all has a certain limit, but the limits can be quite high. What are the places on the body that are most vulnerable that you train to harden and strengthen? I think as a martial artist, especially all of the areas of your limbs that normally have the first contact with your counterpart. The shin. Which means it's the forearm below, the forearm on top. In our case, it's the wrist. And that wrist is, look at your wrist. If you bend it, man, look at that. That's hardened. So it's the forearms. It's the elbows. Sometimes it's for the shoulder. Then it's the knees, of course. It's the shin bones. And it is the chest. But this is not to give. It is for you to take. Because sometimes people punch still on the chest. So how do you harden all these places? Is it just a matter of striking repeatedly until you break something? Like right before breaking it? Or just hardening it little by little and going stronger? So now it really comes into a whole. And this is the nice part. Why still after 35 years, I'm still like diving even into this area and why the Shaolin arts for me is just giving me so many answers. Because, for example, the way how this way of hardening was taught to me follows a very specific structure. And this structure, for example, is called, you start with the wooden level. Afterwards, you still have four other elements which are in the Chinese traditional medicine or the traditional Chinese medicine or in the field of Chinese ancient knowledge. We have not just yin and yang. We have also the five transformation phases. Wood, fire, metal, earth and water. So I said number one is wooden level. You want to develop something about yourself, you start with wood. Now why wood? Because many people misconfuse, for example, now if we talk about those five transformation phases, they often, let's say, think about the real element, meaning the piece of wood, the fire that's burning. But if you go another step beyond it, we talk about the qualities of these elements. And what do you have in wood, for example? Wood means it is still on the verge of growing. So that means inside of wood, you still have uprising, we call it energy. Because the wood, it's still in the process of developing something. It's growing. It's growing. And this is why sometimes we also say, yeah, this is where you start the day. Because sleeping is for us wintertime. You're stagnating. You're inside of yourself. Everything is calm. Everything is quiet. Wintertime. No birds outside. Not many people outside. It's cold. You are at retreat. And after winter comes spring. So spring and wintertime, how do they differ? For example, just by the feeling of you standing in front of your house, standing there in wintertime, and then comparing it just to the feeling, now spring is there. The grass already started slowly growing. The birds maybe already start singing. More people come out of the house, a little bit more smiling than usual. So you feel something is rising. And it is this type of energy, this type of feeling that we need to get used in our body first. Because we want to develop something. I want something inside of me to develop. Because you just touch. It's not just that it looks like this, but you can feel underneath it that the structure has changed of all of it. So that means you want to develop something. I feel weak compared to this. And this is why you need proper methods. Repetition is key. Knowing the right methods. And at the same time, also important, even if it's not well known, it's important to have not just the methods and internal knowledge about these things, but at the same time, I can also only say you need medicine. What type of medicine? Medicine. What type? One that helps you recover quicker than other things. Because if you are starting to do something like this, to grow something about yourself beyond normal abilities, that means you also need a regeneration which is beyond natural. And therefore you need some supportive medicine. What type of medicines are used? Very often it is herbs. It is a mixture of herbs. Like that you drink with a tea at night or you eat? Internal medicine is mostly taken just with a glass of warm water. Internal medicine and external medicine is one that you are treating all the injuries that you have after your training. And this type of training also is not just a one-time practice. It is something you do on a regular basis. And back to the question, what do I prepare when we go into a confrontation? On that day, I prepare nothing anymore. I hope that I have prepared in the previous years just good enough to just face you however you are. Because to change something on the day, that's why sometimes people say you just fight how you train or you train how you fight. That's the thing. It's not just like you reinvent yourself on the day where you have a competition. No. On the day of the competition, what you can do is just put and express what you have. If you didn't have it on that day, it's not going to come because you do something about it on that day. And so there also goes now this idea about we don't know what this lifetime is going to throw at us. It's going to what type of challenges we're going to face. But therefore, it's always nice. And me personally, it also gives me a good sense of being prepared if I just know that I went through a lot of things already where sometimes you ask, but why do you do it? How often will it happen in lifetime? It doesn't matter. Even if it happens one time, I'm better be prepared. This is what I prefer. You've been training for essentially 35 years of your life in some different form, whether it be physical training, mental training, emotional training. But specifically for the last 15 years, you've really been having a disciplined life at the temple. And you've been practicing martial arts, I don't know, is it five days a week or seven days a week, physically, mentally, emotionally in that discipline and in that practice. The fourth hindrance that you talked about that I've seen is restlessness. Can you talk about what is restlessness? And do you ever face it yourself in this practice and in this discipline? So restlessness, there is a nice picture you can always think about. We say it's the monkey mind. Monkey mind meaning there's always one, you're jumping from one sword to another, from one branch to another. What it means is that you are maybe having contact with a lot of branches, but it's very difficult to really focus and concentrate on one thing specifically. Now, why would I say that it is important to learn and concentrate on one thing specifically? Because this is the pure expression of what the Buddhist teaching or also the Shaolin teachings are about. You can spend your time traveling this whole world, always visiting different lakes and oceans. But the way how you are visiting them is you drive on the coastline of it, watch over it, say, okay, that's the ocean, and then you keep on driving to the next one. Which means what you do is you keep traveling the world, watching at the surface of each of these lakes and oceans. I do think that if you just stay with the Pacific Ocean and start diving down into it, you will never ever again need to visit another lake or ocean in order to make discoveries. The point is that it is about going deeper. Going deeper means it is going to give you an insight. What is Buddhist teaching about? To give you insights into what? Sometimes into your body, sometimes into your mind. So what's the problem with the restlessness? You don't gain insight because the monkey all the time is jumping too much and staying too much on that surface area. Now translated, it just means that on an average day, whatever job you are doing, you do it under your possible potential. Also, what it means is you can't really embrace what you actually have there. It's like you are at work, you are supposed to concentrate and work, write down your emails, but all the time you're already jumping around, making plans for the weekend, who to call or that you are hungry or that you are thirsty, what movie to watch. This is how you behave when you're at work. Then afterwards you drive home and maybe the family is waiting for you. It's a good example, but the children or your wife or your husband want to spend time with you, but they can see very clearly your body is there, your mind is not there. You're not present. You're just not present. Then sometimes the question is, why do you have a wife and a husband if you don't pay them the necessary respect and attention that they, let's say, deserve or also towards your children? If it's a conscious decision why you don't pay attention to them, well, there's something different. Then it's really the question, why do you have one family then? But that restlessness can also mean it happens unconsciously. Maybe for you, yourself, you don't realize it, but people around you, they realize very quickly if you are with them or not. I just think that this is hindering you. Now, in that picture of reaching that mountain or reaching that goal, it's hindering you because whatever you do, you don't do it properly. You jump from one to another. You maybe have touched many different surfaces, but none of them, you don't really have an insight into them. You've been delving deep into it. The fifth one you talk about, hindrance that holds people back, is skeptical doubt. What is skeptical doubt and why do we have it? Why do we have it? I don't know. I really don't know. What it means, therefore, or what it still means is you need to trust in what you do. Once you have put something into your mind, don't let anyone else stop it anymore. Now, I have to be careful how I say this. Of course, sometimes you can say, yeah, but come on, this is now a really, really stupid idea. It's really stupid. Obviously stupid, but what I'm talking about is that if you continuously develop yourself, educate yourself, train yourself, seriously observe yourself, try to be honest with yourself, listen to the opinions of other people, and after all of this, you finally come up with a plan. This one now, don't doubt anymore. The plan that before that you have well thought of, that you have taken time to establish it, where you spent weeks and months of figuring out should you really do it, it is this type of plan where skeptical doubt is not necessary. You don't need it anymore. No. If you are still in the field or in that area of you are unsure, don't start the journey. If you're still in the field of, ah, that mountain is so high, do you really think I can reach the top? But it looks dangerous. If you're still in that state, don't even start. That this evaluation of your risks and should you and your benefits and all of this, you make that before. You make that in the moment where you still have time and space to look for yourself. Is it really what you want? And make a plan. This is what's happening in those we call it 99, 99% you stay calm, you stay relaxed, spend 99% of your lifetime relaxed. But that 1% is the other way. 99% I'm a very peaceful person, very peaceful. I'm a very easygoing person, I think. And as long as I stay in the 99%, it stays like this. But if somebody forces you into the 1%, then at least it is my attitude, which is like this. 1% is 1%. Inside the 1%, there is no compromise of jumping back into the 99% anymore. That's why the 99% is so big. Because you have time to really think about what are you willing to do? What are you willing to sacrifice? What is it worth for you fighting for? This is the 99%. And the 1%, there is the no compromise. You decide, you walk the path, then here we go. And this is what I relate to personally, to this idea of that skeptical doubt. You shouldn't have it anymore. Once you're clear, once you've got the game plan, once you've assessed the risks, all that stuff. You have this four-step method you call RAIN, to help you clear your mind and overcome these hindrances. Can you share what this four-step method is? For example, once you know or have understood about yourself what type of mental states these hindrances, for example, represent, the way how we just try to explain to them. Every time one of these mental states pops up into your mind, which means positive emotion, negative emotion, ill will, you feel depressed, you feel weak, you feel that lack of power, you have this restlessness inside of you, or you have, what was the last one? The skeptical doubt. Or the skeptical doubt coming up. So, most important is you need to realize it. Realize that it is just there. Sometimes you realize it, sometimes you recognize it. This is the idea why it's a very, very nice simile to remember those four methods later on, what we regard as RAIN. R-A-I-N. We are at the moment with the R, meaning you recognize and you realize that apparently at this moment in time, you are finding yourself in one of these mental states which are representing hindrances. Now, the next step, what are you doing after you have recognized that you are in it, now starts the point where it becomes very helpful if we start to analyze. Analyzing, meaning you do everything that is in your possibilities to just ask questions about why did it come up, what did it trigger, when did it exactly come up, how actually did this feeling in the first place get into yourself, when was, for example, the first time that you realized that you are having this type of mental state. So, what analyzing means is you try to look into your past also. Is it something related to the education of your parents? Is it something related to an idea that you caught up from, I don't know, from where? Analyzing means that you make an investigation. Investigation means this time you go deeper. This is where we are at the I already. The third one, yeah. I is investigation. A, I'm sorry, I said... Analyze? Analyze, no. It's accept. It's accept, sorry. You're good. Accept it. Accept it, acknowledge it. The difference is when you acknowledge something and accept something, it is that you're not pushing it away. You're not resisting it. You're not resisting it. And the reason for that is as long as something is not accepted or not acknowledged, it can't be changed because it is still outside of you. So, if I have a mental state, anything like this, and I say, yes, it's there, but I want to have it gone, then what you're trying to do in this approach is you're separating. You're trying to separate it. But this is not the way this method is expressing. This method tells you it is there. Why is it there? It's because something inside of you already is resonating with it. So, it's a matter of you. It's your business. So, now what you're doing is I accept the business. I take it. I understand, okay, it's my business. That is the acknowledgement, the acceptance that you are saying, okay, I'm going to take care of it. This is like that A part, why it is important. If you reject it, if you don't embrace it, it can't be changed. And then now in the third step, now comes the investigation. This is where you ask the questions. So, that means where you try to find out more. You want to become familiar. You want to take that feeling into your family. Make him become part of you and make him become a friend of you. Understanding it is a part of you, but maybe it's just a misunderstanding of the way how you saw it before. This is like the investigation of asking questions, finding out more about it. Where does it come from? Who implemented it into your way of seeing the world? And ultimately, the last step after this type of process is what we call non-identification. Now, non-identification is quite similar to what I tried to express before, that you sometimes need to stand above you and see from that perspective, how can you support yourself, how can you support that person to get into the next development stage, for example. This is one type of non-identification. But at the same time, it also means nothing stays as it is. Nothing stays as it is. Just as sometimes things are so overwhelming entering into your life, it can happen the other way around as well. And I mean, you just need to, everybody just look back into your personal life. How many bad moments did you have in the past? How many times did you suffer in the past? How often we were already thinking like, this is the end of the world, girlfriend left you, boyfriend left you, different occasions. But none of them stayed. That is also the other truth behind it. And the great part, like I also said already in our conversation, is the way how you are able to use either the imagination or just the abilities of the mind. Because you can turn it both ways. Either you see it as, why did it come so suddenly? Or you see the opposite. It's going to leave. I mean, that's the other side. Of course, in this world we are living that we humans and the society, I think, is more easily being torn towards the positive or towards a very certain side, let's say. But this is because of, I think, the developments of our 21st century, where there are certain values being propagated. There is no propaganda in learn how to be poor, learn how to deal with failure, learn how to not be successful, learn how to accept the way how you are, not how to make yourself more beautiful and try to stay beautiful. There is a different agenda going on in the 21st century. And based on that, I do think that the mindset also has shifted, therefore, in trying to fulfill the expectations of what is present in our nowadays world. But it's your personal decision. It's really important for me to really say this again and again. I'm not here to judge whether something is good or whether something is bad. But I'm just saying that if you have placed something upon your mind that right now you are trying with your lifetime to make it become real, but this is what you are trying to put into this life. It's not even an idea that comes from you. I just want to express that I think it can go very wrong to one day find out that you have lived a life and invested your lifetime following up on a vision, on an expectation or anything like this, which first of all was never something initially coming from yourself. And afterwards, even if you followed up on it and achieved it, afterwards realize it doesn't give you what you were looking for in this lifetime. 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.