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Lewis HowesThe Ancient Science of Manifestation: How Clearing Your Mind Unlocks Your Reality | Shi Heng Yi
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EVERY SPOKEN WORD
50 min read · 9,775 words- 0:00 – 1:01
Intro
- SYShi Heng Yi
Learn how to deal with failure. Learn how to not be successful. There's a different agenda going on in the 21st century. It's not even an idea that comes from you. People are repeating the same mistakes over and over again because they haven't failed enough yet-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... in order to make the next step.
- LHLewis Howes
A 35th generation Shaolin master who's been practicing kung fu since the age of four, founded a Shaolin temple in Europe, Shi Heng Yi.
- SYShi Heng Yi
You come to this world as a empty cup.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Your parents put their drop, teachers put their knowledge inside of you, the government, the schools, your friends, all of that stuff inside there, it's not coming from you. Learn to empty the cup.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Then you will realize who you really are, what your essence is.
- LHLewis Howes
Why do you think most people fail to manifest what they want? Is it because they don't have the discipline, the willpower, the consistency?
- SYShi Heng Yi
Because
- 1:01 – 9:13
The 4-Step RAIN Method
- SYShi Heng Yi
...
- LHLewis Howes
You have this 4-step method you call RAIN to help you clear your mind and overcome these hindrances. Uh, can you share what this 4-step method is?
- SYShi Heng Yi
So for example, once you are ... once you know or have understood about yourself what type of mental states these hindrances, for example, represent, yeah, 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, um, uh, what, what was the last one?
- LHLewis Howes
Uh, the skeptical doubt.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Ah.
- LHLewis Howes
Yes.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Or you, or the skeptical doubt coming up. So most important is you need to realize it. Realize-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... that it is just there. Sometimes you realize it, sometimes you recognize it.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yeah? This is the idea why it's a very, very nice, uh, simile to remember those four methods-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... later on what we regard as RAIN, yeah?
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
R-A-I-N. And 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.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Okay. 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. And analyzing meaning you do everything that is in your possibilities to just ask questions about why did it come up.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
What, 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. Yeah?
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
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? So analyzing means that you make an investigation.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yeah? Investigation means this time you go deeper.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
This is where we are at the I already.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm. Oh.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yeah?
- LHLewis Howes
The third one, yeah.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yeah. I is investigation. A, I'm sorry, I said, uh ...
- LHLewis Howes
Analyze?
- 9:13 – 11:45
Rejecting Modern Mindsets
- SYShi Heng Yi
But this is because of, uh, I think the developments of our 21st century, where there are certain values being propagated.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
There is no propaganda in learn how to be poor.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
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.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
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 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 what you're trying to put into this life is not even an idea that comes from you.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
I just, uh, 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.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
- SYShi Heng Yi
And that's just how it is.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah. This has been about the, the five hi- hindrances that hold people back from mastering their inner selves and really feeling more abundance, peace, love and joy. Um, I'm loving everything we're
- 11:45 – 20:24
The Heaven, Man, Earth Concept
- LHLewis Howes
talking about. And I wanna ask you now, I wanna transition into a new topic about how to manifest your dream future, and how you think we can step into this. If someone has a vision, a dream that they wanna manifest something, where do you think we should begin in this process of ... dreaming and manifesting the future. And I know you've talked about, uh, Heaven, Man, Earth concept that has helped you manifest a vision. Is this something that we should think about? And if so, what's this concept? Can you explain it?
- SYShi Heng Yi
Mm-hmm. So this sentence, Heaven, Man, Earth, heaven above us, man in the center, earth below us. It's just expressing from the same, let's say, family of teaching, the same that also we find in the area of the yin and yang symbol. It's just a little bit more detailed, meaning there is something inside of us humans which we say has some heavenly connection. At the same time, there is something about us humans which has a very, uh, strong foundation rooted in the earth.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So let's start with the earthly aspects about ourself. So earth means for me, first of all, I can see it. Uh, if I fly on a plane, no matter where, if I look down, I know where to look to see the earth.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] Right.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So what does it mean? It means there is something to see. Our whole world is based on seeing. What is it that you can see? You can only see something that has a shape. Something without a shape, you can't see. But talking about you can see it, talking about it has a shape, what is the nature of a shape? The nature of a shape is separating.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
It's separating what is inside the shape and what is outside of the shape. It is separating.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So one quality of the earth is it's based already from the, let's say, from the natural side based upon separation, based upon this is life and this is death. This is growth and this is decay. And now our body, our physical body, how come when we were born we maybe had our, like, three kilograms, four kilograms baby, and now look at how huge we have become. Not me, you.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SYShi Heng Yi
[laughs] Look how much, like, we have, we have grown.
- LHLewis Howes
Yes.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So where all of this come from-
- LHLewis Howes
Right
- SYShi Heng Yi
... very, very easily said, from the food, from the nutrition, from everything that we have taken and give our body to eat or to drink. Even if it is meanwhile some products, uh, are created in a laboratory, but even the resources for that, ultimately everything comes just from the earth.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So if you now just follow up on that thought, our body is created upon, let's say, individual aspects from this earth that by nature already are limited in a way, limiting inside and outside. So limiting, that means our body automatically is limited. It is what we call nowadays-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... lifetime. So simply said. Sorry for the long explanation.
- LHLewis Howes
Sure.
- SYShi Heng Yi
But that is what it means for me. It is no doubt about it. I don't need to philosophy around it.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
I can see it. This is out of question. It's gonna go. That is the earth part about ourself. At the same time, giving me insights. You wanna change something about that, what is it to take care of? Everything that comes from the earth-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... very easily. Which means food, drinks, the breath probably.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah, yeah.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yeah, so that is, like, how I would use now this concept to, in my daily life, to just understand, okay, this body comes from there. So the better the quality of the ingredients I put into this, the more quality this can generate. That is the earth aspect. And in comparison now to that earth, we have that heaven aspect. Heaven aspect called like this because looking up into the sky, it's really difficult to tell where does the sky end, meaning heaven stands for something which is borderless. There are no borders in the sky. And so what is it inside of us humans that I think we have something similar like this? That is, for me, the way of how you are able to use your mind.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Because sometimes you can use the mind and create something you have never seen in this world. You're creating something in the mind. You have never seen it in person. Why? Because it's not existing yet, yet you can see it here. This can mean a fear also, a fear what's gonna happen tomorrow, a fear what will happen to my children if I will not be able to take care of them anymore. So there is something you're projecting already that is not- ... here yet
- 20:24 – 27:00
Turning Ideas into Form
- SYShi Heng Yi
But along this plan, along this way of, let's say, trying to make it become real, this can also mean you need to find more and more ways. How does something so fine, like your thoughts, start to shape into a form? So it is about find ways to give it expression.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm. Can you explain?
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yes. Write it down on paper-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... is one way of giving thoughts an expression.
- LHLewis Howes
Speaking about it.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Speaking it out to your friends, more people know about it. Writing it onto your fridge. Something where the thought starts to enter into your physical world. This is the small steps that just support you on this mission. These are small things. The next step would be whatever you would like to achieve there, what skills are necessary?
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Do you have the skills? Now, a little bit more, a little bit more nicely drawn. It means you wanna go on a mission, but at the moment you don't know yet in which direction you have to move. So that means the first thing in order for you to answer this question, which direction to move, is you need to know your location. And this now translated into, "So what is it I'm supposed to do?" Who are you at the moment? What your, what are your abilities at this very moment? What do you have available time-wise? Uh, financial-wise. It doesn't matter. What, in which situation are you right now? So we need to see, where is our actual location?
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So, and from there now, it starts, at least now you have a hint. If you want to go there, but at the moment you don't know yet, where are you located? If you're located here, you know you need to walk here, east. If you are located here, it's not east, because then you're gonna make a long way.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SYShi Heng Yi
So that it really depends on-
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah
- SYShi Heng Yi
... where are you located, and this is why it's from person to person, it's different, and I cannot always tell to the same person, "So you wanna go there? Go east. You wanna go there, too? You also go east." No, because they are not starting from the same position.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Some people have already some education and some experience previously that will immensely help them to already, like, start from a different, uh, point.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So, but where have we been? Skills. And now this is the part we are also, uh, jumping back into what is Shaolin also known for. Known for abilities of the practitioners which are normally above average human abilities. Yeah, and this doesn't come because, um, we bought it somewhere.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] You practice it.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yes, but there is a very specific type now of practice, and this is maybe also interesting, what actually is that original meaning of, uh, s- uh, David Carradine, kung fu? Kung fu. This kung fu. Kung fu meaning it's attaining a skill-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... through hard work.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
That is important. Attaining a skill through hard work. Why is only this one what we call kung fu? Because this kung fu is not about fighting at the moment. It is about something that you have, for example, also developed. You also have kung fu. It is something that you have, you can do, you got. And if somebody else in this room would like to have the same ability like you, he cannot buy it. Um, he cannot just, like, wish to have it. There's only one way how a person would ever get to the same skillset like you have. He needs to go through the same-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... training, effort, sweating, suffering-
- LHLewis Howes
Consistently, yeah
- SYShi Heng Yi
... like you.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- 27:00 – 31:34
Why Manifestations Fail
- LHLewis Howes
the willpower, the consistency? Is it 'cause they're not strong enough or willing to develop the strength? Why do they fail at manifesting?
- SYShi Heng Yi
I think it is a question of time.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
In my world, people are repeating the same mistakes over and over again because they haven't overcome them yet.
- LHLewis Howes
They're still at level one.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yeah, indeed.
- LHLewis Howes
They keep failing at level one.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yes.
- LHLewis Howes
They haven't o- they haven't beaten that level yet.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yes.
- LHLewis Howes
Mastered a level.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yes. But it's out of question for me that they will. Why is that? Because you can touch three times on the hot heat plate, and it hurts three times. You touch the fourth time, it still hurts. Fifth time, still hurts. There will come the day.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] They say, "Uh, no more." [laughs]
- SYShi Heng Yi
[laughs] Now, no more.
- LHLewis Howes
No more, yeah. It might take a while.
- SYShi Heng Yi
You know when I express it maybe, like, in a, in a funny way, but-
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] It's true, though
- SYShi Heng Yi
... it is even said like this in the teachings, yeah? You cannot teach someone who is not willing to be taught.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Don't waste your time on people or to teach people that are not having the willingness to learn. Don't waste. This is also the reason why this, what I try to present right now, we don't have missionaries going out, like, saying, "Look, we have the answers to your problems." We don't do that stuff. Why?
- LHLewis Howes
Because if people aren't receptive to it, it's not gonna work.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Exactly. If people are becoming ready, how, how do they know they become ready?
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
It's because they start to ask different questions.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SYShi Heng Yi
And once you start to ask the questions, sooner or later in this lifetime ... Let's just say, what happens after death? Let's just assume this one. This question only we can ask. People that are right now starving in the world, they are not asking what happens after death. People that are feeling too good, they're also not coming up with this type of question. So that means whoever is asking this question already is at a certain level in his life, in his development of the mind. Yeah? And, and this is, like, why I appreciate this type of teaching so much because for every person, there is the right time. There's nothing to hurry.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
There's nothing to worry.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
It's in each individual hands. So why do they fail at the moment? I could say because they haven't failed enough yet-
- 31:34 – 38:16
Overcoming Recurring Life Lessons
- LHLewis Howes
I'm curious, in your life, where's the lesson that you feel like you haven't fully learned yet, that you keep touching the hot plate just a little bit? Is there any area that still causes pain or that still you haven't...?
- SYShi Heng Yi
Something I, let's say, observed about myself also in the way how I grew up, and also, like, afterwards now watching what type of, let's say, uh, hobbies I spent my time in. There is something I witnessed about myself, which is always I cannot leave the things as they are.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SYShi Heng Yi
I always have the urge to optimize.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yeah? So that means optimize the bike-
- LHLewis Howes
Uh-huh
- SYShi Heng Yi
... optimize the car, optimize the engine, optimize myself, optimize the body, optimize the mind, optimize the life.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So at the moment, my biggest journey-
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SYShi Heng Yi
... have I still have to say is really-
- LHLewis Howes
Yes
- SYShi Heng Yi
... yeah, at the end, these are all just, like, optimize... Th- this life itself is for me the, uh, the area to just discover. Yeah. So-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... the, the thing is I don't know where this journey is going. Uh, yeah, and this is maybe something also-
- LHLewis Howes
So you don't have to always optimize is what you're saying?
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yes, maybe-
- LHLewis Howes
You can just let it be and just experience it and just-
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yes
- LHLewis Howes
... sit with it.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yes.
- LHLewis Howes
Inefficient-
- SYShi Heng Yi
The ba- the balance of it
- LHLewis Howes
... inefficient sometimes, yeah.
- SYShi Heng Yi
To find that balance.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah, okay.
- SYShi Heng Yi
You know, many years now already I have spent in optimizing, thriving for goals, also like-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... also like training-wise, yeah? So people always may be misconfuse a li- uh, misconfuse a little bit. So how could I have, uh, reached all these graduations, for example, or reach any type of position-
- 38:16 – 43:00
Finding Drive & Affirmations
- SYShi Heng Yi
for whatever you want to develop yourself in, you need to connect it with a personal affirmation. That is something that, that fuels it. This is what fuels actions. Yeah, just similar, like I say before, in the kung fu training, for example. You are learning techniques. You are learning body mechanics. Yeah, but that is something you learn on the outside. It's the form. It's the shape that you are supposed to take in while you make, let's say, this movement. You need it, yes, but there is something more that [clears throat] you need. You need something that is going to fuel that movement.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
You need something that fills up that form. So, and now just to, to explain to you, you have no real drive to fight. You don't wanna win. You don't care. You know how to do it, uh, against somebody who needs to do it because it's about an existential question, no matter what type, okay? There is a different spirit behind it if you meet those two people.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Somebody who has nothing to lose and puts everything on one card because you have no choice. Either you make it now, or yeah, or your family suffer. You fight differently.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So that means it's not always the technique, the form that you see on the outside that is so impactful. What is it that fuels your actions, your daily actions? What fuels when you walk to the office prepared to do the work? What fuels you to invite other people? Waking up every day, even if it's hard, even sometimes you're sick, you still go to the office and do the work. And that fuel, I think, is very, very essential.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
And yes, and I can only imagine, even if maybe you don't call it like this or people are not officially expressing it like this, I cannot imagine there is one person existing in this world who in some way has achieved something without an affirmation.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
I think it doesn't exist.
- LHLewis Howes
Wow. What's your affirmation?
- SYShi Heng Yi
I think we are all connected.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
On the one side, I really love this life.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs]
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yeah, so as long as I can, I would like to experience the variety of everything that is existing here.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
But at the same time, I also see it as part of my obligation that if I have a possibility to do something that supports other people along the way, this is what I do.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SYShi Heng Yi
I just think this is, this is what you do in a family.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm. I'm curious about your thoughts on the actions people should take in order to manifest. And it seems to me like there, that the world, there's a lot of weakness in the world. People don't have, in general, a lot of people don't have the discipline, the actions that create good habits that support them in being consistent, you know, having the right thoughts, the right actions, all those things. And I, and I wanted to ask you about how can we... You know, you train the body, right? You're training the limbs, the weaknesses. You're, you're, you're callusing the bones and all these things to take on more force, more stress. How do we harden- ... certain things in us, but al- while also keeping our hearts open, loving, compassionate, giving. How do we do both in this process?
- SYShi Heng Yi
Always [clears throat] when there is something consisting of two aspects, at least, or both, like you mentioned-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... the answer's always balance.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So, so now the practical
- 43:00 – 46:06
Physical Vitality Habits
- SYShi Heng Yi
ways what I would suggest, okay? You need a healthy body. You need a healthy body. That means choose any type of physical activity. It really doesn't matter.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
It only matters that you understand all your wishes, all your dreams, all the goals that you are putting to yourself what you want to achieve in this lifetimes, they all are not going to matter anymore if your body is not gonna be on the earth-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... to witness these things.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] Right. You gotta take care of it.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yes, simply said. But what we're talking about right now, greatness means you want to bring something out of yourself-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... which is not average.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
This is not what the mess is able to do. If the, if it is something that the messes are not able to do, which means your body, yourself, the way how you're thinking, the way how you're training can't be average.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So in our field, keep the body not just healthy, but watch out for methods to make your body really performant. Performant for that specific area where you maybe later want to find yourself in.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Because let's just say, yeah, if I wanna become a truck driver, I could never do it because my mind and my body probably is just not made for so long distances and this type of concentration which is needed.
- LHLewis Howes
Right. Wow.
- SYShi Heng Yi
You know? So I have definitely a lot of respect of all the truck drivers, but I can feel it is something I couldn't do. There is a performance necessary in these type of areas that I have not developed in myself. It's like I can also watch back in my past, I, uh, I had a lot of ill will when it came to running around the-
- LHLewis Howes
The track [laughs]
- SYShi Heng Yi
... the, the, the track, yeah. Sprinting, never a problem. I enjoyed.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah, but long distances.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yes.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So that means short burst of energy, a lot of energy in a short period. This is what I really feel like what that body is made for.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
But long distance, which is draining, this is draining me.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yeah. So but we were at the body-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... which means just physicality, activity, vitality, yoga, many things you can do.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- 46:06 – 50:40
Finding Mentors & Guidance
- LHLewis Howes
how do we learn to overcome the things that we, that we doubt about ourselves and gain more confidence, not just in the material skill acquiring world, but in the spiritual world? How do we gain more confidence?
- SYShi Heng Yi
Here I think we're entering [clears throat] into an area that for me personally matters a lot. Why I think, look, um, it seems like at the moment, 21st century, everything is about everybody can do what he wants. We are free to express. There's no hierarchy, 'cause we're all humans. There's no hierarchy between all of us. Seeing as a human being, there is no hierarchy, I agree. But if you want to learn something, there is a hierarchy, and the hierarchy is there are people who already possess what you want to learn-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... and there are people who don't possess what is possible to be learned. So if I want to develop myself and I want to learn something, attain a skill, at the moment I would just look out in the world, first of all, to see who possesses that skill. Because it might be that you think about something, but there's nobody else in the world who, who at the moment possesses it, so it may be it's a little bit unrealistic that it even exists. But if you want to have something, first of all, look for the places or the persons that have it.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Very easily. And very often that means you are meeting in our tradition now, you are meeting masters. You are meeting a person who has already mastered a certain ability because you see it and then you say, "Yes, he has it." And then the next question is: How does now either the knowledge or the skill is being transmitted, how does it come to you now? And like I said, from my tradition, there's only one way. You need to get into a student-master relationship.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
A master-student relationship. And a master-student relationship, there is no democracy [laughs]
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SYShi Heng Yi
All right.
- LHLewis Howes
What the master says, you do. [laughs]
- SYShi Heng Yi
And I do think that in the field of where we are talking right now as well, sometimes you need a mentor.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Sometimes you need to surround yourself with people [clears throat] that are already standing at a certain point where you maybe would like to go to. These are the people with experience. These are the people that walked the path already that you right now would like to walk.
- LHLewis Howes
Right.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So I think there is a difference in a way of how then you talk to these people, how then you also see yourself in regards to these people. And this is what opens up doors, which means you are regarding yourself as a student.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
This is what it means in our tradition. If you think you are equal to the rest of the world, you are equal, this is a type of wrong pride, I have to say.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Because it absolutely stops you from further development-
- LHLewis Howes
Right
- SYShi Heng Yi
... and learning really what you would like to learn. So getting surrounded, searching for people that are already in that area where you would like to move to is also one of the next steps, for example, I would look for.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SYShi Heng Yi
So it is about with what type of people are you surrounded, one side. How are you taking care of your body, other side. So now, taking care of the mind,
- 50:40 – 52:53
Balancing Focus & Openness
- SYShi Heng Yi
how do you do this? In order to know what is important to you, it's necessary to also know unimportant things.
- LHLewis Howes
Unimportant things.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Unimportant things.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
It's not necessary from seven days a week to only do important things, because ultimately importance is a question which is also very subjective.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yeah. Importance for this life, nothing is too important. Yeah? What I mean is you need balance. You consciously sometimes need to do something where you really feel this is really unimportant.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] Yeah, just doing whatever.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yeah.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Because it keeps something inside of you open.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
If you only do the important things, only be focused, you can only be focused because there's another state inside of you-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... which is bo- you're open-minded. You're open-minded. You are, um, you're able to receive.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Focus, there is no receiving anymore. There is al- there, there's already that guided intention of yours. So switching the states of mind, putting yourself consciously into different states of mind, I think this belongs to the category of mind development.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
And there are different ways how you can put this into practice, and I can now maybe share the way what we use-
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah
- SYShi Heng Yi
... in the monastery.
- LHLewis Howes
Please.
- SYShi Heng Yi
I think it is super helpful if you are learning to work in cycles.
- LHLewis Howes
Cycles.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Cycles. So for example, when it
- 52:53 – 1:03:02
Practicing Skills in Cycles
- SYShi Heng Yi
comes to you need a new skill, you want to develop something, you, you need to learn how to program, you need to learn how to use a new software program, you need to learn accounting. I don't know, you need to learn to do the webpage. Something about you need to, you want to develop something new about you. I think the most effective way is to cut off yourself for a certain period of time and do nothing else in between-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... for that period, for that cycle.
- LHLewis Howes
Can you give me an example?
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yes. Now, this is really simple example, but it, uh, involves something more. If you want to change something about the appearance of your skin, you're not satisfied with your skin. So the good message is it probably is the quickest to, to do something about it. The quickest, why? Because it, because it lies right on the surface.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm. Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Because it's right on the outside of the body, so it's easily treatable. So which means do a seven-day treatment where you take care of the body. Seven days long, go into the sauna, cream yourself.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
What? Seven days. After seven days, I'm sure if you do it, it looks different. Now we go a layer deeper. You want to change something about your muscles. The muscles are lying underneath the skin, meaning not so easy accessible anymore, which automatically means the cycle needs to become longer.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Seven days muscle training No, it's not gonna be enough. So let's say 30 days. Yes? Maybe not visibly, but feelable, definitely Yeah Go even more deeper into the area of your tendons, your sinews, your fascia, 30 days is not enough. Because this is changing a very ... This is going even deeper- Mm-hmm ... into your system- Mm ... trying to change something there. So the cycles become longer. Right. So the deeper within the field of martial arts we get into our body, until the bone, the longer these cycles become that you need to dedicate your time in practicing. Mm-hmm. And similar, I would say, it is like now when it comes to the training of skills that modern people nowadays want to develop, you need to ask yourself, how much of a, of a software hack is it- Mm-hmm ... that you're trying to put upon yourself? How deep is it embedded? The deeper it is, the more time those cycles need, the more often you need to repeat those cycles. But the main point is that I don't think it is sensible and a good method within a 30-day month to, like, spread it apart. Mm. To have too many things at the same time. Here, you make that skill. Here, you make that. Yeah. Here, you make another one. I think it's not effective. Go all in on one thing for a cycle. Yes. Now maybe, of course, people say, "Yeah, but I can't concentrate on one." Well, concentrate on three. Better on three than on 10. Right. [laughs] Yeah. Yeah. This is the main point what I mean. Sure. Because it's not just physically that we are transforming. It is, it is mental changes, it is emotional changes- Mm ... it is physical changes, and they just don't go so quickly- Right ... if you jump too much. Right. Right. And also, they don't penetrate deep enough. They don't penetrate deep enough for you to have a lasting impression- Mm-hmm ... of what it is that you're trying to develop there. Yeah. Which means also before when we said mind training or how do I react to, to ill will towards other people, I s- talked about the heart qualities. Heart qualities, you make one a week, which means, let's just say we take the heart quality of, uh, gratefulness just as an example. Mm-hmm. Gratefulness means you go to your closed room, you close your eyes. If you want, you put some music on, but normally you better try without music. And then you recall all the moments in your lifetime where you think gratefulness was apparent in those, these moments, the gratefulness that you felt. Because, you know, uh, like, yeah, Lewis, so thank you very much for this interview and for that cup of water. [laughs] You know? This is like talking. Mm-hmm. Gratefulness has never been about talking. Mm. Either you have it or you don't have it. It's feeling it, experiencing gratitude. Yes. Yeah. So this is why in order to get to that feeling again, every human had it in his lifetime, just sometimes it has been too much in the past and it has been forgotten. Yeah. That's why we need to dig it out, and therefore recall the moments where you think, "Yes, towards that person, I really felt that gratefulness." Then, then it's like a small flame pops up, and you ... There it is. It's not clear defined yet, but you feel there is something. And now, for example, what we use is you breathe into the feeling and try use also, like, your mind- Mm-hmm ... to make that grow. Right. Okay? Maybe it's a little bit more feelable. It feels maybe strange to many people, but since you are asking me, how do the ancient traditions look like, what are the methods, this is the way how we do it. Mm-hmm. Okay? You realize there's something, you want it to grow, means you need to put energy into it. Mm-hmm. How do you put energy into it? By using your intention in going there. Mm-hmm. And so like this, on day one, it becomes like a small pellet- Right ... of gratefulness, of ... Yeah, that you feel. But now you stay one week long. On the second day, it's already easier to identify, there it is already. And you stay one week long cultivating, cultivating it until it's very easy for you now to identify, especially to identify if people who, who apparently seem to be grateful towards you, if they really are. Mm-hmm. Because the good part is that now that you know how it feels, you just ... You, you don't only know it how it feels inside of you, but you can detect it- Mm. Mm ... in other people. Yeah. This is that special part why, um, why all this development always starts with yourself. Because I know how my body is aligned. I know how your body is aligned. Because I know the weak points of my body. I know the weak points of your body. And this is that idea that sometimes you can't change people around you. You can't look into the heads of other people. But what you can do at all times every day is to do something about what is in your own hands, yourself. This is why this idea of turn the finger around, do something about yourself, develop yourself, invest in yourself.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
You grow as a human being, you grow in skills, all of these things, they will naturally just follow because in the moment where you are starting to express something that people nowadays are not seeing often anymore, you just become the magnet. This is how it is. Why? Because people are, are used already to average. Every day-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... they see average. Yeah, but now they start to see something different.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
They start to see somebody, another attitude towards life. And so this feels, I think, very like a magnet.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
And so all of this, you don't even need to probably go there. It's gonna come to you.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm. Everything you wanna create starts to come to you.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Only if you work on yourself.
- LHLewis Howes
Yeah. How often do you embody gratitude and practice it on a daily basis? Are you-
- SYShi Heng Yi
We have therefore our ceremonies, for example. Yes. Our ceremonies in the monastery, which always evening time, 9:00, and there we have parts of this type of cultivation integrated in the ceremony.
- LHLewis Howes
Really?
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yes.
- LHLewis Howes
Do you think we can manifest
- 1:03:02 – 1:05:07
Cultivating Genuine Gratitude
- LHLewis Howes
a beautiful life without gratitude?
- SYShi Heng Yi
No. No. It might feel like it, it might seem like it, but ultimately, no way.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm. Gratitude, it's the key to abundance. It's the key to m- to being a magnet, to drawing in the things you truly want, that create a beautiful life. I've got a few final questions for you. This has been, um, fascinating. Uh, before I ask those questions, I wanna make sure people, uh, follow you online 'cause your content is amazing. Uh, you also have a 12-month course, a program that people can follow if they want more of this mental training, the philosophies that you've provided, the things that you've learned and that you teach to others. It'll help people in their life improve their life.
- SYShi Heng Yi
But also physical a lot, yeah?
- LHLewis Howes
Physical stuff as well in there. Um, so they can get this 12-month course at shihengyi.online for all the information there, plus in- information about the temple, the practices, the teaching, your work, uh, speaking and other things as you do some speaking. I'm not sure how much you'll be doing in the future, but every now and then you'll be doing some. Also, people need to follow you on social media, Instagram, @shihengyi.online, uh, for that. And if you look up shihengyitemple.europe on Facebook, you'll see it there as well. And, um, if they look up your name, they'll see lots of great content, lots of great TED Talks you've done, videos. We'll have a lot of this linked up in the show notes, but I just wanted to say I'm grateful for you for being here, and I've got a couple of final questions. I have so many more things I wanna ask you, but you'll have to come back on another time. Save your voice for the next time. But this is a question I ask everyone towards the end of my conversations. It's a hypothetical question. So imagine you live as long as you wanna live in this physical three-dimensional space-time reality.
- 1:05:07 – 1:13:41
3 Final Truths & Greatness
- LHLewis Howes
Uh, I think I heard you say 108. Is that... 100 and-
- SYShi Heng Yi
108, yeah
- LHLewis Howes
108? Sounds good, right? Yeah. So imagine you're 108, right, and you get to live the life you envision. Everything you wanna do, it happens. You create it, you overcome, you learn, you master all these different areas of life, and you serve and impact the world through your teachings. But for whatever reason, in this hypothetical scenario, at 108 years old, um, you have to take all of your content and message with you. So this conversation goes to the next place. All the TED Talks, all the interviews you've ever done, for whatever reason, they're not here in this physical world anymore. Hypothetical scenario. But you get to leave behind three lessons with the world, three lessons from all of your teachings and all your learnings, and this is, for whatever reason, all you could share, these truths that I like to say. What would be those three truths for you if you could only share three?
- SYShi Heng Yi
You know that this is a really [laughs] super hard question, yeah?
- LHLewis Howes
I know. I gotta get you to think a little harder, you know?
- SYShi Heng Yi
Okay. Sounds super funny, especially if I'm not gonna talk about it.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
But one message is just a flower. If you want a flower in a pot, doesn't matter. The first message, one, I don't even need to speak about it. It's just a flower in the pot. That's number one.
- LHLewis Howes
What does that mean, flower in a pot?
- SYShi Heng Yi
It means everything. There is a history behind it. The future of that flower in a way is in your hand. The care is-
- LHLewis Howes
Mm
- SYShi Heng Yi
... integrated The nature is integrated, no words to be spoken. Sometimes you don't need to speak about it. It's feelable what needs to be done.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm. Okay.
- SYShi Heng Yi
You know? So this is one message, let's say.
- LHLewis Howes
Okay.
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yeah
- LHLewis Howes
That's number one. Number two?
- SYShi Heng Yi
Keep community.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm.
- SYShi Heng Yi
It's not necessary to always be right. It's more important to also have backup if you're not right. That feels better.
- LHLewis Howes
Mm-hmm. And the third?
- SYShi Heng Yi
[laughs] Sorry.
- LHLewis Howes
[laughs] I gotta challenge you, you know? I gotta-
- SYShi Heng Yi
Yeah, no, you, you do already
- LHLewis Howes
... I gotta challenge you. [laughs]
- SYShi Heng Yi
You do already. Number three is, it's repeating.
- LHLewis Howes
It's repeating.
- SYShi Heng Yi
It's repeating.
- LHLewis Howes
Everything?
- SYShi Heng Yi
Just as I said it.
Episode duration: 1:13:41
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Transcript of episode 9UuW6GKEGI4
