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