Freedom Doesn’t Mean Doing Whatever You Want - Shaolin Monk Shi Heng Yi

Where did the mustache go? You grew a mustache for a while and it's it's been banished. It is true. I um I rarely had a mustache. It's just that time when I appeared somewhere still having quite something on there. I just felt like okay, let nature do its course and see how it feels. Okay. Yes. But I do feel like like this is is maybe at the moment is more proper. Okay. Okay. What do you mean when you talk about selfmastery? What are you referring to? No, literally let's talk about a little bit in the modern language. Maybe we are getting into some type of position and then we are supposed to manage people. But I do think in order to manage people, it makes sense to actually know how to manage yourself in the first place. And this idea of we talk about mastering kung fu, mastering any type of art, mastering any type of sport even. But prior to that, I do think you carry yourself along throughout this lifetime since the beginning. And there are so many areas about ourself, let's say body related or also mentally or emotionally related that I just feel like many people haven't gotten to the point yet to really understand that just like we train our muscles and go to the gym to achieve something, there are also areas about us, human beings, let's say, that also need to be trained. And all of this taken together I refer to as selfmastery because no matter uh you might change your job one day you might change the location where you're living the surrounding is going to change the people that you are dealing with is going to change but there's always one one thing that always remains the same um which is you always carry yourself along the way. So you can't escape yourself. You can't escape your your dark sides. You can't escape your pain and your suffering and everything that in a way is triggering you also. And this is where I feel like to have this let's say concept at the moment to really invest time in bringing out understanding yourself better and then build yourself up in all layers that nowadays we can dive into. What are the areas that you think people are neglecting the most when it comes to their selfmastery? Let's start simple off. I I think everybody knows the story of Frankenstein. Yes. So meaning you literally put together everything that is physical, everything that is biological, you glue it all together. But that body still doesn't come alive. So I think in the story of the Frankenstein, there is still one missing element which sometimes you could refer to as electricity or the spark or the fire. And this in the ancient traditions if I read them and in my interpretation for for the sake of understanding I would say it is the mind. This is why in ancient traditions you often times have body and mind. So already by just looking at ancient traditions what are they observing? What are we made out of? Body and mind. And so I think about myself, okay, good. We do know nowadays all the possibilities of training the body, but what is it actually how to train the mind? And how can you understand what do you mean by training the mind? And therefore it's like really simply speaking you know we have arrived at the point in our society people have become aware that your diet does have an effect on your overall well-being. So you buy the most biological uh food you invest a lot of time maybe only buying the best quality vegetables. Some people decide they only go vegan. So your diet matters. What you give your body to eat matters. And I do think in the same way are you also paying so much attention and emphasis in actually paying attention. What is it that we are on a daily basis giving our mind to eat? So what type of thoughts are you aware of that let's say pop up right away when you wake up in the morning? What is it you're nourishing? Are you nourishing right from the beginning competitive thoughts? Are you nourishing right from the beginning of waking up like you need to do? There's always something to do. So and and these things I do believe they matter because they also play into ultimately what is what is it that you are carrying along this world and in your daily life. You carry the quality of the body and you carry the quality of your mind and both of them taken together is what makes you literally you in this earth at least. We don't get to choose the things that we think. We can't necessarily predict the next thought that's going to come careening into our brain. So what do you mean when you talk about how we uh feed and focus on uh what's inside of our minds given that sometimes much of the time our minds are outside of our control. Okay. So I'm very surprised and I'm very very thankful for you asking this question. But now that you are asking this question then let's go a little bit deeper into what let's say somewhere along the line I I felt like it makes sense. Yeah I can only share what my observation is. So number one is I do like ancient traditions because I do believe that all the cultures in the past, all traditions in the past, they carry something which maybe is not understandable right away, but they carry some very very valuable knowledge. And one of these knowledges is the saying that we are not the body and we are not the mind. This is one of these sakes. Now we are not the body. We are not the mind. It doesn't fit so good. It's not easily understandable in the society that we are living right now where everybody actually is identified so much with the creation of this and the creation of the identity that you want to express in this world. But let's go into some type of thinking experiment. If literally what I refer to as I if I would be my buddy, I I would simply take the decision right now. Buddy, just stop aging. I don't want you to age anymore. I don't want you to feel pain. I don't want my body to tell me that I'm hungry right now. Just stop the just stop the hunger. So raising this question, I feel like I can't I cannot tell my body what to do literally. So this body somehow has his own cycle and his own intelligence that my body is going through. Okay, this is now the bunny and just as you said literally it is impossible to predict what is going to be the next thought that's going to pop up in my mind. But if I would be my mind, how come I cannot have an influence in what I am thinking next? So leading again to this idea, mind and body both of them apparently have another own cycle of what they are following. What's the conclusion? The conclusion is that nevertheless body and mind that we carry along this lifetime right now can be and are conditioned. They carry some type of information. Simply said, I didn't choose literally to have this nose on my face. I didn't choose my eye color. I I didn't choose the features that I carry in this lifetime right now. So there is information that is being transferred from generations in the past that in a way represent themsself right now in the body that we carry. Yeah, you might call it it is embedded in the DNA or it is embedded in any type of biological or physical information. So if this is staying true right now for the body, could it also be that everything that pops up in our mind also carries some information that has been passed on prior for us being even conscious about it. Yes. And the answer for me is definitely I do think it is like this that modern science if people um relate to this more for example opens the field of epigenetics. Yeah, this is exactly what what this field is about. And taking all of this into consideration right now. It still means okay. But what literally is then the eye? If I am not the body, if I am not the mind, what is the eye? Yes. So and this is the essential question that Buddhism, Zen Buddhism and many mystic cultures are like trying to figure out. This is where when you go on YouTube and you just put in who am I, what am I, where do I come from, you find plenty of that stuff. Yes. Okay. And it is a very very it's a very very interesting question. And why? Because this answer of what is it that you are identifying yourself with also gives you the answer how do I reduce the suffering of this lifetime. That is essentially what all of this is about. How so? How so? If I could live a life, if I could live a life full of pleasure, full of enjoyable moments, no pain, no suffering, I would wish for eternal life for sure because it is the greatest thing that actually can happen to you. You're spending this life on earth and the only thing that you have is a pleasant life. So what more do you want? But the reality is not like that. The reality is we have pleasant moments. We have joyful moments, we have healthy moments, we have enriching moments, but at the same time we're also facing something where where we could absolutely live without it if we would have the choice. The fact of losing people, the fact of being betrayed, the fact of being judged, being insulted, being discriminated, being hurt, many ways, many ways that do not feel pleasant. So and there is the question isn't there a way how to find a proper perspective upon life to to understand what is it that I am embedded in in order to still try my best and reduce the amount of unpleasant or suffering what we re refer to it. This is the whole idea about it. So also meaning because I I do think it's a very very valid question. If somebody is watching this episode and he's just happy, he has a perfect life. He is happy. There is nothing he's asking for. He's simply fulfilled. There is really no reason to continue listen to this to this conversation. But I do think that either it hasn't been like this all the time. That person first of all went through some type of development or process or the winning streak is going to end at some point. So, it's interesting thinking about how lots of the work that we do is able to take place when times are good but is needed most when times are bad. that if you are trying to develop a meditation practice, if you're trying to become more aware of your thoughts, if you're trying to become more peaceful while you're in the middle of some catastrophe or challenge that's going on in your life, uh you're you're playing on hard mode there. But when things are good, by design, you don't want to spend so much time having to prepare for when times are bad because you think, well, everything's going great. I don't need to I don't need to do that. And uh yeah, increasingly when it comes to a a mindfulness practice or journaling, gratitude, breath work, anything that sort of steals your resolve, uh I think the best time to do it is when you don't need it because it allows you to be prepared for the times when you do. Yes. And I mean nowadays if you want to calm your mind, the first practice that is being recommended to you is like meditation practices. Most probably. Yes. You know, if if you come for example to any type of retreat place, to a temple, to a secluded place, somewhere in the nature, somewhere in the forest, and you spend some time there, and by by nature already, let's say, it's very calm. The surrounding is very calm. It definitely helps for you to calm your mind and to start developing how does it feel to be peaceful. But the reality at the same time is also that from all the people living nowadays in this world, the majority of all of us will never be able to even spend any time at such secluded places. Their reality takes place in the cities, takes place at work, takes place in partially the modern world that is very fastpaced and and and crowded, let's say. But it's exactly in these places where this peace and this calm would be the most beneficial. Because if anywhere in the forest nothing is going on, you don't necessarily need to practice too much to be peaceful and calm. It is in the moment where you have so much external stimulus that are triggering you. This is then the moment in order to really bring out the quality of your meditative practices. Yes. And this is why like you know on the one side I receive plenty plenty of of critics in terms also of how come I give so much podcast and interviews and and bring all of these things outside the walls of let's say prayer of our temple. Mhm. Maybe I'm jumping a little bit, but overall I do think that we humans are made to live in a community or in a society. We cannot just live by ourself. So this is the reason why I do feel like when I know that there is something valuable to know, something helpful and you don't even have to spend any money on it because it's simply just I tell you what it is and you practice it and that's it and it's going to benefit your life. I do feel like it should go out there in the world. very very simply said regardless of whether it's what's the origin or if there is a tradition behind it or not. So it's functional first of all. It doesn't cost anything. It's functional and it's beneficial. And this is the reason why um yeah why I do like to put these things out. I'd always assumed that monks were sort of born into this life. I don't know where I thought they came from, but I didn't realize that people could have backgrounds like yours. You had a bunch of degrees, an MBA, and then gave that up to focus on this new life. Why leave all of that stuff behind? So, and this is also a very very interesting topic. So I grew up here in Germany and as you said went like the system of academic education doing university and at some point I consciously took this decision that I actually want to want to dedicate my life to something that for me internally felt it gives me purpose. Yeah. meaning I didn't want to sell any product I cannot stand behind and I cannot offer any type of service that I'm myself not good in and by that time where I took this decision I was spending many many years since the age of four practicing what nowadays you know as Chinese kung fu or Shaolin kung fu and it helped me going through all this academic make education under the pressure of my parents under the pressure of the society in a way to prove yourself that you are worth something. My valve of balancing all of these energies has always been the physical practice or the training. So this was the initial point where I said okay let's try to emphasize a little bit this idea. You use physical methods with the right mindset in order to benefit your overall 24hour day. And this was the moment where the Shaolin Temple Europe as it is known today was built but completely free of you don't have to be a monk you don't have to live inside the monastery but there are certain things to pay attention on because I didn't grow up as a monk so how can I promote for the people you all have to become monks no the special thing is that I just grew grew up like many people in this world like in both worlds. At some point I just consciously decided ah there is a link that we can use. If it feels like something's missing from life in the way that it seems like it was for you, why should people begin? If your life is fine, if your life is fine, then most probably you also don't have questions. But I do believe let's say either the longer you live this life or the more you start observing actually the patterns of this life at some point questions will come up and if a person doesn't ask the question he also cannot receive the answer and for me it literally was like this that I would consider myself also belonging to the category of like achieving achieving achieving and doing and being a workaholic and controlling things and uh yeah and overachieving. But at some point after achieving many of these different areas, I still was left there with with the question. Was that it? Was that now the sense of my life? And because it was I felt like it was like not enough or I was missing out on something because it was just too too simple. It was too too shallow for me. I couldn't imagine that like attaining degrees or attaining whatever you like material wise are looking for that this is going to be the purpose of your life. So going to work every day in order just to buy something that eventually you come to the conclusion you won't take it with you anyway. Yeah. So we came without it and we're going to go without it. And that was then the question. Okay. So what is literally the the the sense of all of this you know and this is where yeah I do think it is a personal journey but slowly I start to understand just more and more things by just observing what I'm all the time surrounded with and what is it it is pattern. This is now where it's maybe becoming interesting and where people can maybe start to relate to. You know, on the one side, everybody, what is it we we truly feel like wanting or maybe not, but freedom, not being restricted. I want to be free. Freedom on the one side but then what is it that is not granting you freedom? The opposite I would say it is structure and pattern because if there is a structure if there is a pattern what does it mean? It means you do not have the freedom to decide what you want to do. So it sounds like at the moment that freedom is on the one side and pattern and structure is on the other side. So now the fact is like this like I just said before in regards to the body and in regards to the mind our body already is following a certain pattern his own biological pattern. Our mind and therefore also our behavior is also following certain patterns. Talking about this pattern also meaning just look at a very simple pattern that also appears in all of our lives and probably in the lives of our children. There comes the point they start to want something. So it could have been at some point we wanted to have the first mobile phone that came out at the time where mobile phones are just not existing yet. And so the first Nokia came out. We wanted to have it. After some time we got it. But then came the next development, the smartphone. We wanted to have it and we got it. And no matter what it is, there is always something that we want. We're going to get it if we work hard enough for it. But then also something something always the same starts to hit in. Whatever was there that you wanted at some point after a day, after a week, after a month, it was forgotten. It didn't play a role even anymore in your life. especially if it is some type of material attainment. So the question is should I spend my whole life now just following this pattern working for something that I put in my mind that I want achieving it and then realizing at some point h lifetime is gone and the pleasure and the enjoyment of what I try to attain there actually isn't also really sustainable. And already this type of pattern to observe it can break a cycle. It can break the cycle of you or anyone running after things unconsciously because you are caught inside a pattern which at some point is just very very senseless. I think that is a cycle that people are very familiar with. I want a thing. Yes. I work to achieve a thing. I get the thing. Maybe there's some restbite from wanting for a little while. Maybe there isn't. I want another thing and the cycle just repeats. How do you come to think about interrupting that this sort of permanent loop of want, pursue, achieve, want? Again, when you yourself are caught in the pattern and you are being identified by this pattern, you cannot escape it. If you are identified with this pattern, you cannot escape it. So this is now where it helps this ancient saying before you are not the body and you are not the mind. So even if you just take this as a concept right now then it means from time to time try to just let's say jump out of yourself and just observe yourself just imagine it is a movie this is the movie character and I'm jumping out and I'm watching the movie of this one and from this perspective suddenly I see something differently. I can see it from a wider perspective because I'm not caught inside my own patterns anymore. But suddenly I begin to see the patterns of this character. So whether you believe in this now or not, it's just about a mind experiment. Just use it as a game if you like. Just go out and watch yourself. Watch your life unfolding and then this is the beginning where you actually see patterns where you see behavior that is repeating well some patterns are useful some patterns are not useful and step by step. Number one is becoming aware. First of all, what type of patterns are you able to realize and see inside your own life? I think this is where it starts. The awareness and ability to observe yourself. And there you see the awareness to observe yourself. awareness, mindfulness and be conscious about yourself. This is why meditation practice for what? To become more aware. Mindfulness practices. Why? to become mindful, to become conscious because this is the beginning in order to break the cycle of this conditioned being of the conditioned identity and uh just one more thing maybe in this case to uh to add people maybe also confuse I'm saying don't have goals and don't work for something you really wish for. I didn't say that because I still do it. I do have I do have visions and I do have wishes sometimes. But those are very conscious wishes meanwhile. So literally when my mind is flooded with so many possibilities, I just have become more conscious in really deciding in what do I really want to invest my lifetime? Is it worth it to attain it that I'm working for right now? And if I still come to the conclusion, yes, even though this lifetime is limited, but to experience whatever it is, yes, it's worth it. I'm going to go for it. Well, then then do it. The only thing I I try to really prevent people from doing is unconsciously following structures and patterns and cycles in the imagination is going to give them something that they're longing for, but it won't. You said that you're someone who likes to chase improvement, wants to achieve things even if they're very well designed, if they're very intentional. How do you come to think about balancing a desire for self-improvement with self-love? A lot of the time the need for self-improvement comes with a side order of disdain for yourself until you achieve that thing. And that I think is also another cycle that people go through as opposed to trying to achieve something externally trying to reach something whether it's a new job title, a new um qualification, a a streak on their med even a streak on their meditation, right? You're doing something to improve yourself and there is a lack of self-love until you've achieved it. And if you fail at that thing, then there is a lack of self-love that comes along with it. And then you have regret as well about having not been able to achieve the thing that you said you were going to in the promises that you made. Yes. Very very nice. Why would I in the first place go into action at all? So why would I go into doing something? So well because apparently something is lacking. I would say it's like this. Why would I set a goal? because I assume that when I reach the goal, it's going to give me something that in the moment where I'm setting the goal, I don't have. So this is why doing or going into action or achieving something comes into play. Why would I need to achieve something if in this very moment I don't feel like I'm missing anything? That there needs something to be achieved. So this is where on the one side we have this area of doing achieving going into action and the other part is everything is good as it is. There is nothing to achieve. I am I am self fulfilled. I'm selfsatisfied. I am being So we have being and we have doing. So and this is for me literally how do I find this balance between being and doing? Because now of course some people say yeah if all the time I would be just satisfied with being well then nothing would be done in this world in a way nothing would happen. So how do I feed my children? How do I pay my bills? So of course it is it is not realistic to just stay in this state of being. But at the same time if you constantly doing doing and go into action. The result of this is what we described before. You run after things you achieve it. But instead of even holding on a moment and enjoy your achievement, be proud of you of what you have achieved. Remain a moment in this feeling of yes, it feels good. Yeah. The problem is that we already put the next goal and start running again. So one is just leading to the fact of you never stand still. You don't find your peace. There is no peace. And the other thing is you have peace but you have no progress. So, and this I do think is something that we as humans need to or not need to, but I do think it's very natural to balance out exactly those two areas and be very aware. You're not supposed to do nothing. But you are also not supposed to run and run and run and never arrive. Both of them are like pointless. And I do think this is the balance. How do you advise people to deal with regret? A lot of the time we look back at decisions that we could have made. If only I'd realized that the balance between being and doing, I'd come to earlier. I'd not done that MBA that I didn't need to. If I'd found meditation sooner in my life, if I'd let go of that partner and moved on to the one that was supposed to be for me, people can be very captured, I think. And that's a different type of cycle that we get stuck into. One where we're ruminating about the past. What's your perspective on regret? Okay. I'm trying to not get too philosophical about these things. If I wished I wished that I would have lived this life and I just have joyful and pleasant moments. No regret, no sorrow, no fear, nothing of that. The reality is is not like that. The reality is that every human being at some point is facing all of this. But I used to think I would never arrive or be at the place where I am right now with without all the things that happened in the past because at some point the sorrow or even the regrets they have been so painful in a way that I was left only with like two choices. Number one, you learn from what went wrong. And number two, and this is the I do think is a very hard part. It's the part of learning to let go by forgiving. Forgiving two two areas. In case somebody is involved, you for you forgive the one that is involved. But foremost you forgive this one, you know. So it's we always think about how should we forgive like other people which is already very hard but it's even harder to sometimes forgive yourself. But um you can't you can't move into the future. You cannot move on if you still carry old baggage uh inside of you. Yeah. And this is where I feel like it must be learned. Yeah. Maybe people take it as normal to live a life and keep regret and keep frustration and keep all these things inside of them and not heal it, not let it out, not express it, not learn a way to get rid of it. Yeah. But at the same time I also believe this is the reason why people suffer from so many different type of diseases at the same time because there is some type of I call it now in in my terminology there is energy locked inside of you that wants to be expressed. Yeah. But you suppress it. And this is why it has to find a way to uh to to make itself hurt which can be a sickness which can be cancer which can be all type of mental diseases that nowadays I think this society has a lot of it. Yes. And um the letting go part that is the letting go part. Where does discipline and focus come from? That seems to be a huge part of your life of Shaolin philosophy as well. Where do you come to think about the origins of discipline and focus and how you build it? So we talked before about the area of progress meaning setting goals, achieving something, doing something. The quickest way, meaning to not waste lifetime, is when you really set up a schedule and just do the work. Free from how you feel. Because also feelings sometimes you wake up one day you feel this way you wake up the next day you feel another way and it's just not helpful to base your structure or your goal on how you feel. So and this is where I think where for example discipline meaning you stick to what you put there on paper. You take your time, you make the plan, and unless you really are sick or have some type of um of of of of higher excuse, you just you just do what you have committed to. So, and this struggling of there are still so many distractions every day coming up. No, but you stick to the plan. You stick to your plan. This is what I feel like is a part of discipline to do what you have committed yourself to. It's the one area. And at the same time, discipline also meaning you don't do the things you already know are not good for you. So discipline is not just about the active part of doing something. It also relates to the the passive part of leaving the things out of your life where you already know is not going to help you. Both of these areas is let's say discipline. Focus for me is the ability the ability to mobilize your energy. Energy maybe doesn't tell anything to the people. your intention, your mind, your awareness. So let's say uh I need to do some some type of work. I need to I need to write the email. Simple. The quickest way and most accurate way to write this email is if you are completely with complete your awareness. You are focused in writing this email right now. You don't look at the mobile phone at the same time. You don't listen to music. You don't watch another television show on the screen. You don't eat something at the same time. Your focus is on that one task because your focus is on that one task. This is why everything that you are made out of can flow into whatever you are creating there. Yes. So you you don't do like the bench press and do and do something for the legs at the same time. It doesn't make sense. And so to mobilize energy means to know exactly where am I focusing my attention and therefore where attention goes there the energy flows. Yes. So this is what focus means for me. If you want to create something, it's better to know where does your attention go. How different is the texture of your mind now after all of this time in contemplation, in releasing, in mindfulness, in physical practice. You know, as somebody that didn't come into this world completely untrained, it's not like you'd never seen any of this sort of insight before. You were probably practicing chiong, taichi, stuff like that, maybe a little bit beforehand. But I'm interested as someone who is a sort of normal level of of mindfully aware. Um I I don't even know if you can remember what it was like to have that mind previously or if it feels like an ancient history. I would probably say you know it's not that you are like walking this path and then you are like becoming superhuman or anything like this. It is very very simple. you you just become less compulsive and less reactive to whatever is going on in this world because this is where I felt like at some point I don't want this anymore. I don't want to to be driven by what is going on out there in the world. I don't want to be driven by what is happening out there where I feel like I have no influence on. It can be the decision of the governments. It can be the decision of whatever is being propagated in in this world which is ultimately affecting me and I just didn't feel like I want to be dependent on external circumstances because this just doesn't feel like my life is in my hands. So, how can it be that that people around me, circumstances around me that I literally have really no influence on? How can it be that all of this is influencing my life to such an extent that it makes me suffer? That it is frustrating me that I feel depressed about it, that I feel angry about it, that I feel sad about it. At some point I just felt like it's very unstable and so I started to ask myself how come that um that I cannot manage myself better in a better way and this is where now all this so-called inner work starts to take place where the self mass takes place. You are not trying to solve the issues of your government. You are not trying to solve the problems of your neighbor. The first thing you try to solve is everything that is able to trigger you to not be at ease with with how this life is. So, and so what is the ultimate outcome of starting to invest some time in yourself? I would say you are getting more at ease regardless of what is happening on the outside. So it doesn't mean you are becoming more ignorant to it. That is also a misconception. Yeah. It is just the fact that the world around you, everything is like still in turmoil and everything is still burning. But because you are at ease because you have become more stable at loo at least in this burning surrounding, you can now still be the guide to help the people out of the house. Because if you lose your temper and if you are getting stressed when the house is burning, who's going to guide the way? So and this is how I felt my life was also slowly slowly developing in the sense that if I really feel like I would like to contribute something to this world to this society then it can only be done if I'm already at ease and with peace inside of myself that then I can carry out in the What it is strange to think about how much noise gets created by people panicking and sort of gripping and flapping at their unprocessed issues. You know, you're hearing people speak, but what's actually coming out of their mouth is not what they necessarily even mean to say. It's some strange secret code that their body or the way that they've dealt with their past traumas or the way that they've absorbed society's desires for them to follow. Uh, it's very odd how a lot, maybe most, maybe nearly all, of what people are actually doing is not saying what they mean to say. It's saying they're they're being puppeted by their own mind. They're being puppeted by their own past in that way. And uh I think trying to quiet that is not just a gift that you can give yourself, but it's probably a gift that you can give the rest of the world as well because they don't need to put up with what it is that you're talking about that isn't what you meant to talk about. So primarily my work let's say for the past 13 14 years you know if you look for example on everything that primarily was was shared with the world mostly I just try to encourage people do something with your body just do something with your body whether it's chiong whether it's some stretching exercises whether it's kung fu whether is Tai Chi. So it was something physical in the first place. But the whole idea was not only to make the people move. This was just like the beginning. But what we need is awareness. What we need is awareness. So if you're already not aware of of this body, it becomes even more difficult to be aware of what goes on in your mind. What type of traumas do you carry inside of you? If you're not even aware of your own body, something physical, something that you have every day in front of the mirror, how can you become aware of something that is so deeply rooted inside of you that you just can't even see it so easily? So the whole idea of emphasizing physicality, I would say, is the first step to begin the path of becoming aware. With this awareness now the journey hasn't ended. The journey has just begun because it's this awareness now that we need to use and actually start now looking inside ourself. Yeah. But exactly in the areas that for many many years maybe were hidden there consciously hidden or sometimes unconsciously hidden areas that we ran away from that we hide it that we write it that we somehow started to cover up because in the past they caused us too much pain too much irritation. But I do think that at the same time that there is no other way um to really clean yourself up. Yeah, there is no other way to clean yourself up than really looking at all the stuff that's hidden inside of you. I didn't want to say but sometimes there's a sometimes there's a lot of it. Yeah. And I don't have to make uh a you know h how do I know? Because I know because I had to do it myself. So it is uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable to at some point start to realize what type of stuff, dark stuff, negative stuff have you yourself, me, myself done in this lifetime. But only after you really see it and you recognize that it was wrong, after you repent, then comes the freedom. Where does the bravery come from to face that? It's going to be scary. It's going to be painful. How should people think about the courage that they need to to face it? I think that there are many ways how you can let's say motivate yourself to walk this path. So why would I face the dark side of myself knowing already that it's going to be painful? Why would I do that? So there are many ways me from the part from the area of the martial arts I just know every time I suffered in the training afterwards something really good came out of it. Yeah. Same as like every time you face a challenge that was really really difficult for you but you still pushed it through somehow. You still like were patient and persevered and were consistent and still tried. And this type of challenge for me was a was a way bigger victory than anything that was easily attained. So literally saying nothing easy no nothing sustainable and worse while in this lifetime comes from something that's easily attained and in the same way I do regard it with all the areas now where we go into facing yourself so you know it's the what I'm saying it's the same that you find plenty of videos right Now, no. Face your shadow. Face the dark side. Look at your demons. It's all that. And I I I can only say that from the way of how I grew up and after like 38 years right now being on this way. Yes. Yes, I do think that's the way. Shungi, ladies and gentlemen, where should people go? They're going to want to keep up to date with the things that you're doing, what you've got going on. Where do you want to send them on the internet? Well, I do think the easiest easiest thing, Chris, would be just add something in the description and if people feel somehow resonating with some of the ideas, you know, everybody is free to to just see whatever is available right now. I think there is plenty of information already. Yes. And like I said, if you don't ask the question, the answer cannot come. But I do think that at some point we all going to face the same steps in our development. And if the question doesn't come now, just know the answer is already out there. I appreciate you very much. Thank you for today. Congratulations. You made it to the end of the episode. And if you want more, well, why don't you press right here? Come on. [Music]