Shaolin Monk's Routine For Self-Mastery: Stop Laziness, End Stress & Find Purpose | Shi Heng Yi

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 0:00 Master Shi Heng Yi, what do you mean when you say the words self-mastery? But also why is it so important?

Shi Heng Yi 0:11 Okay. So just taking apart first of all this word master, what does it mean? For me, it always refers to a person who in a very particular field, whatever that field is, simply has, um, a quite high skillset. Either skillset or also, like, a lot of experience in that field. So it means if there is something that you want to receive, it must come from somebody who already has spent some lifetime or has some type of access to knowledge that you until now don't have. It doesn't mean, like, a master or a teacher is more worth in, when it comes to being a human being than the student. So now, self-mastery at the same time means it is something related to each individual. It, it's a personal matter. Self-mastery meaning you have taken the decision that you want to commit part of your lifetime in developing something that makes you as a human being become more unique, become more powerful, become more experienced, and this is what I refer to as self-mastery. It is everyone needs to look into their own life and start perfecting their own life. It's not about perfecting something that is related to another person, which is not in our hands. Self-mastery meaning you understand that your lifetime on this earth is limited, and therefore you want to spend it as, um, as useful as possible in order to develop your character, to develop your own health, to develop your own emotional state to such an extent that you feel happy about this lifetime. That's what self-mastery means. Mastering your own life. That's what it means.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 2:32 Thank you. When I reflect on what you have just said about self-mastery, I wonder if for some people there's a slight contradiction there, and I guess why this question comes up for me is because I see today many people are getting confused because I believe they have an overreliance on experts. So there's nothing wrong with experts, but I'll give you a very practical example where I could talk to somebody on this podcast today who is expressing that in their view, this diet is the best diet for human health, and a week after, I could be talking to another expert with the same qualifications but who has a different perspective. And what often happens these days, I feel, is that people have outsourced their own inner expertise onto other people, and I feel we all need more self-mastery. Many of my patients do. I, of course, am always trying to cultivate my self-mastery, but I wonder if you can help us unpick that potential dilemma, please.

Shi Heng Yi 3:48 Okay. So let's just assume you are interested in the field of martial arts and your own, your, your only intention right now is, "I want to learn how to throw a hard and efficient punch." That's it. So I can go to a Kung Fu master, and he's gonna show me his way of moving. He's gonna tell me, uh, what other aspects or areas of the body you are supposed to move. He's gonna show you and maybe teach you his methodology, his experience in how to develop throwing a hard punch. Then you go to a karate master, and you ask the same. Then you go to a TaeKwonDo master and ask the same, and then you go to a Muay Thai fighter and ask him the same, and afterwards you go to an MMM, uh, MMA fighter and ask him the same. So chances are very high on the one side you get five different approaches, and now what my suggestion is, five different approaches means it worked probably for them. It worked for their life in what they have been doing. But for me, I'm trying to understand what is the similarities that I find in all five of them. So it's really like the mathematics. We're looking for the common, how we call it? The common denominator.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 5:18 Yeah.

Shi Heng Yi 5:19 So what is the same about the five perspective? I take into my life, and now I'm adding it up by my own training.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 5:27 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 5:27 By trying it out and getting my insights of what is working for me. And at the same time, you also maybe start to get an understanding why in the first place five different people have these similarities and why some of these areas are also different. So it never means that is also a way of thinking. Just because there are five perspective, uh, perspectives doesn't mean four of them are wrong. It just means it works for a specific area. But your life right now- The country you're living in-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 6:08 Mm-hmm

Shi Heng Yi 6:09 ... the food that is available in your supermarket, in your, in your city, the amount of daylight and night, and, and all of this is all different for you in your surrounding, and that's why that is diff- uh, this individual area that needs to be adapted. So taking in experience, advice, and perspective from other people is the first way to go because otherwise you would have to, uh, rediscover everything from scratch. That doesn't make sense.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 6:43 Mm.

Shi Heng Yi 6:43 Yeah, this is the reason why we have seniors, we have elders, we have generations, ancestors before us. They already did a lot of this research.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 6:54 Yeah.

Shi Heng Yi 6:54 So it doesn't make sense to reinvent the, the wheel over and over again. But to make it really practical and 100% functional for your life, I think this is the part where now it goes into the ability of observing yourself, observing your own life, and actually with the mind, going into yourself and asking what is there that I can maybe still improvise in what I have heard already.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 7:33 What are some of your favorite practices that enable your students or the wider public to do that self-investigation and go inward to learn?

Shi Heng Yi 7:48 Okay. Something that is really useful for the beginning. It can be the simple realization when I wake up in the morning, and then I s- in the moment, I, like, start to open my eyes. In the moment all the five senses start to become active. I wake up and, and automatically my awareness is being driven outwards. I'm looking for something outside of me to look at. I'm noticing all the sounds that are around me. I'm noticing all the smell that is around me, outside of me. Yeah? I'm, I'm taking care of what I feel, let's say, on my skin. So all the sensations of my body in the moment you are awake, your awareness is being drawn outwards. It's a natural process. It's naturally happening. The first realization is that there's also another area of watching, but not watching something outside of you. It's watching what goes on inside of the body. So literally meaning sometimes trying to figure out if you can watch inside yourself and let's say, then feel what are the areas of the body are you made out of. Meaning the skeleton, the bones, the muscles, the tendons, the organs. So then think what goes on inside of yourself. The same effect listening. Not listening to what, what is, like, around you in terms of, uh, of sound, but listening inside of you. What signals is your body, yourself, what can you, what, what can you identify listening inside of yourself? So the point is, there are two way w- where your awareness can, can spread to. Either you're losing your awareness with outside circumstances, or you can sometimes just catch back your awareness and bring it back to you, which is literally then sometimes called... Well, that is mindful. You are mindful about what's going on about yourself. And this is the very, very first step of being able to differentiate there is something that lies outside of you, obviously, but there's also another area, another perspective how you can walk through the day but still have your awareness with yourself. It doesn't mean one or the other is better. We need both. We live in both worlds. But it's the first realization that to have proper adjustment-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 10:57 Mm

Shi Heng Yi 10:58 ... to really know which buttons do I have to turn or do I have to push in order to, to, let's say, improve my, my, my wellbeing, to improve my life, I think you need to know and have a picture of all areas that make our life, that make our existence the way as it is. And this means it's a big part of who are you. Who are you? What are you?

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 11:34 For people who have never, ever had a regular practice of self-awareness, so for people who are very much used to getting up and consuming from the outside, everything is external, the news, the social media, the online world, their emails, their work, whatever it might be, and they're saying, "Okay, I understand. I need to now start cultivating a bit of self-awareness by putting my attention inwards-" Would you say that first thing in the morning is one of the best times in the day to do it, or can it be done at any time of the day?

Shi Heng Yi 12:20 It can be done any time of the day, but my suggestion still is early in the morning, just out of this fact. So the earlier the morning, the less people in your city are awake. The earlier in the morning, the less emails, the less phone calls, the less messages you're, you're, you're receiving. And so it's also very-- it, it makes it much easier, let's say, if you wake up a little bit earlier knowing there is nobody who's gonna call you. There's nobody who's gonna ask you for something-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 12:55 Mm-hmm

Shi Heng Yi 12:56 ... because nobody's awake. And so it already makes it w-way easier for yourself to just focus right now, okay? These twenty minutes or these fifteen minutes in the morning, everybody is still sleeping. This is the time that now I'm dedicating purely on myself. So therefore, I would say regardless of what type of exercises, what type of, um, of awareness-enhancing exercise it is, it can be reading exercise, it can be sitting meditation, it can be the combination of meditative practices combined with movement and breathing, which is like what nowadays people know as Qigong. Yeah? So any type of these methods is perfectly fine. But the main point is that in the moment you are starting these practices, your mindset also must fit. And that means you must really tell to yourself, "This is my time now." There is-- Turn off the phone. Don't look on the phone, anything like this. Have this feeling, "This is my dedicated fifteen minutes."

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 14:20 Yeah.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 14:21 Many people, of course, these days struggle with motivation and discipline, and what you have just recommended, on the surface at least, is actually quite simple. For the first fifteen minutes of the day, dedicate yourself to yourself. Don't open the phone. Don't look online. Do some form of internal practice, whatever that might be for you. Yet they still struggle. Why is it that you think people are unable to sit with themselves for the first fifteen to twenty minutes each day?

Shi Heng Yi 15:03 One of these-- One of the reasons is because of conditioning. Yeah, so here in Germany, we have a saying that if you would, like, translate it, it means we are habitual beings. The human is a habitual being, which means all of the habits. It's because you are from birth on, there are habits that each human being have. Having habits by itself is not a bad thing, which means let's just take brushing the teeth. Yeah. We don't have to be super mindful and conscious about brushing the teeth. It has become a habit.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 15:42 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 15:42 So where does a habit help us? It helps us to take away the-- to, to take away our thinking capacity to do, like, basic things. So I, I don't need to think about, okay, teeth, uh, the, the, the brush up, down, up, down. No, it has become a habit. So in this term or in, in this example, habits can be something useful. The question is on what are these habits that we have, uh, based upon, and what are the consequences of that habitual behavior? So which means if laziness has become one of your habits, it's not useful. Okay? So at the end of the day, we are all conditioned by something, conditioned by what our parents taught us, conditioned, conditioned by what our friends told us, conditioned by the advertising, conditioned by many, many external sources. Now, the question is when you see and you look into your own life, look at your own character, look at who you are, figure out first of all if you can identify the patterns that your life is based upon. What type of pattern, what type of, uh, behavior, what type of habits do you have, and which of them are driving you in a good way, and which of them are standing along your path of further developing?

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 17:28 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 17:28 So, but that means this is one big reason why it's difficult, I think, for many people nowadays to suddenly put something into, into action, which they, by thinking about it, they know it would be better for me. But they cannot do it at the moment because there are other habits that have already entered into their lifetime so strongly that first of all, we need to get rid of the old habit. Yeah. And there is that saying, in order for something new to come, something old must go. Okay? So the laziness must go. And the practice comes in, and this is then where life, your body, your mind start to just simply start to adapt itself and build new habits, but more healthy habits.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 18:29 For many people, it's the start of the day and the end of the day where they have an element of control over their time. Many people in the middle of the day, they feel they have lots of obligations, things to do, work errands to run, whatever that might be. So I'm, I'm hearing you're saying in the f- you know, first thing in the morning, some dedicated time for meditation, breathwork, introspection, whatever it might be, can be incredibly helpful. How do you feel about behaviors that people should be doing lasting at night, for example? Do you have certain routines that you would recommend people think about adopting lasting in the evening before they retire to bed?

Shi Heng Yi 19:15 Something that you can do in the evening is just be grateful for what happened during the day, regardless of how hard the day was, regardless of which challenges you had to face during the day. It is just a very helpful practice to never forget and be grateful about your possibility, first of all, to just experience all of this. I know it's for some people very, very hard maybe to understand that if the day was, like, really challenging, how can you still be grateful in the evening before you go to bed? Well, but that's exactly the point, because if you don't do it, you're gonna go to bed with a quite different state of the mind, which is not gonna help you for the next day, and which is also not gonna help you for the future time to come. So because the day is about to end, it's good to still have some type of practice. That's what, what I call it. It's a practice of gratitude. Be thankful, be grateful for what happened on that day, regardless if it was a hard day or not, because this is now where it comes to, like I said, habits, conditioning yourself, and the way how to sometimes make your life a little bit lighter.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 20:55 Why is it that you feel gratitude is so important?

Shi Heng Yi 21:03 Because you are elsewise missing a big part of, of the purpose of why you're here, a big part of the-- your sense of life. Uh, let's say like this. We can complain about all type of things the whole day long, but what helps me to realize sometimes is we can complain. We can complain, and we can experience in the first place because we are somehow alive, because we have come into existence already. There are other-- Well, I don't know how to say it now. It sounds strange, but there are other beings maybe, they don't even have a body. Th-they have never come alive. They have never been born. They cannot even complain. So you have been given this gift of being able to walk on this earth right now.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 22:11 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 22:12 So having the existence right now, being able to live this life right now already, that is quite a big, big gift. Don't take it for granted.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 22:24 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 22:25 It's, it's not good to take your lifetime for granted, even if you have difficult time, of course.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 22:36 At the Shaolin Temple Europe, many people are coming from all over the world for these 12-month programs where they can live and train with you. I'm really interested as to what kinds of people are turning up there. Are they generally people who are coming from, let's say, the Western world who have become lost? Maybe they've suffered with depression. Maybe they're looking for a way out of a previous chaotic existence. Or d-do they come for a whole variety of different reasons?

Shi Heng Yi 23:11 There is no category of any, uh, of any type of people that does not come. So which means all type of people are meanwhile really, uh, coming. So it's very difficult to say who specifically, meaning are they looking for healing? Are they looking for treatment? Are they coming because they want to test themselves? The only thing that right now comes to my mind, what they all have in common is they are searching, but I don't know for what. People are searching for different or for different things in their lifetime. People can come out of physical reasons to change something or to improve something about their, their physical body. And other people also come because they have mental, um, challenges, or they have maybe also emotional challenges. And I think this is the great-- this is that great variety. It's why I also think that nowadays, um, these type of holistic approaches have become, let's say, so, so famous because you cannot fix your life based on one method only. So when we talk about, "I wanna spend my lifetime that has been given to me on this earth in the best way possible," then this means your body must be healthy, your mind must be healthy, your emotional state must be healthy. And this is where I think that all these holistic approaches, uh, make so much sense and where people are also starting to realize, yes, it's like it, it couldn't be another way.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 25:20 If I reflect on why or one of the reasons why I think many people are struggling these days, I, I often think that we have too much choice these days. We think that choice is freedom. But by having limitless choice, I can do all of these different workouts, all of these movements, all of these different practices. I could follow all of these different experts. I often feel that that leads to a, a kind of stagnation, and people procrastinate because they can't choose which one to do. I know I've fallen into that trap in the past. And really, the truth as I see it is that many of these different practices can work. You just need to choose and commit. Now, I would imagine, and perhaps you could elaborate on this for me, when people come to the Shaolin Temple Europe, there must be certain practices and rituals and restrictions that are put onto people whilst they are living there. Do you feel that those restrictions are difficult for people, or do you feel that those restrictions actually help cultivate that inner freedom?

Shi Heng Yi 26:45 Okay. So in the moment you are arriving here in our monastery, first of all, you will realize there is no mobile connection. Second thing you will realize is there is not much talking allowed, actually. The third thing you realize is we have a very strict daily structure, which means we have specific eating time. So that means eleven o'clock is breakfast, uh, one PM we have lunch, and six PM we have dinner. In between, we have also training sessions, which are also scheduled every day, Monday till Friday. So what I mean is, when you are coming here, you are directly being confronted with a lot of restrictions, meaning, I mean, we live in the twenty-first century, so the possibilities have never been so, so huge. Like right now, you know, you can communicate easily with any part of the world. If you have some financial possibilities, you can travel with the airplane anywhere in the world almost at any time of the day. So that means there is a type of freedom of actually you can do what you want, more or less, okay? But now there are people coming to this monastery knowing that when they are staying there, they are being confronted with a lot of restrictions. You cannot eat when you are hungry. There are three times a day we have eating time. If you are hungry in between, you have to wait. You just have to get over it and wait until the next eating time comes. Even if you stay awake until early in the morning, next day, six o'clock is the wake up time, regardless of what you did the day before. So that means this confrontation with a lot of restrictions, meaning it's not about what you want. It's about what the structure, that external structure of the monastery, let's say, is asking from you. And now why are we doing this? So it feels almost similar, like you're in jail. Yeah? You're putting yourself into jail with a lot of restrictions. Because the more time you spend in- inside this type of structure, the more easier it is to actually sooner or later also actually give up what is restricting you. Because it is not the external circumstances that make your heart, uh, that makes your life so difficult. It is something inside of you that is building up the, that, that is building up the challenges and the difficulty of what you are mirroring into all of these external circumstances. So what we want, why we have this hard structure is because it is one method in order to pickle out the real freedom of yourself. The freedom that regardless of how the external circumstances are inside of you, this is where the freedom must come.

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Shi Heng Yi 32:09 Let me put it, let me put it a little bit more with another example. The more my freedom, or let's say also happiness. Yeah. Happiness or freedom. If my happiness and if my freedom has conditions, it is not free. So I am happy because I have a job. I'm happy because I have a relationship. I'm happy because, uh, I have a lot of money on my bank account. I'm happy because the sun is shining. But all of these things, ultimately, they are not in your hands, because if your employer fires you, you don't have the, the finance anymore, and you don't have the job. And if your girlfriend leaves you or your partner leaves you, you also don't have, like, um, a relationship anymore. And if the weather starts to change, you also don't have sunshine anymore. So what happens in that moment when these things fall away? Then automatically, apparently your happiness that was related to it would also fall away. And this is a type of, of, of basing your life quality on something which by nature already does not make sense, because it never stays sunny. It's not happening. It doesn't make sense to place your well-being on something that is eternally changing. So, and, and what does it mean? It means that at least in our tradition, I can only talk about what our emphasis is, okay? Whether it's left or it's right, in a way, you are fine with the left way and you are fine with the right way. What we would like to develop is if you go left, anyway, since you decided already, you put all your commitment, you put all your energy into the left way without crying about the middle way and the right way. If you go the ... If you take the, the right way, you should also be able to 100% commit to the right way. But it doesn't make sense to still carry the, the, the suffering and the regret of what everything you, you did not do in your lifetime.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 34:57 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 34:59 That doesn't make sense because you can't change it anymore. And this is the point where sometimes to give yourself no choice.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 35:12 Yeah.

Shi Heng Yi 35:14 No choice, because if you have no choice, this is like what one of my masters also used to teach us and used to tell us, and it makes perfectly sense. If you have no choice, there is no other way than putting everything that you can do, all your energy into this path.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 35:38 Hmm. It makes me think of where we started this conversation talking about self-mastery. The only thing we can ever master is ourselves, and if we're dependent on those externalities, those externalities are always gonna change. And so many of us are reliant on our job, on the car that we drive, on our status, on the weather, whatever it might be, in order to feel good. When everything is going just the way we want it to go, we feel good, and when something changes, as it always does, we then feel low and depressed, and we struggle. I love the way you talk about that. I love the fact- That you talk about this idea of restriction is a way of helping people get rid of those externalities. I mean, for someone who's, who's listening, Master, and is thinking, "Look, I am someone who's dependent on these things for my wellbeing, how can I start developing that inner self-awareness and that inner reliance as opposed to the external reliance without coming to your temple for 12 months?" You know, what are some of the ways that they can start to do that?

Shi Heng Yi 37:09 Now, uh, prior to answering this question, one very, very important thing. I am not saying people should get rid of all of the things that brings them joy and happiness.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 37:25 Mm.

Shi Heng Yi 37:25 This is not what I said. If you like to be in a relationship, what I'm saying is enjoy it even more, as long as it is there. If you like to dress nicely, if you like to have nice watches, if you like to collect cars, build cars, drive cars, do it as long as you can, even with more joy. But don't take it as granted. But at the same time, I'm, I'm saying, don't attach to these things. Okay? So this is the, this is the first message whi- which I sometimes really need to, uh, recorrect. I'm not saying that you need to sell everything, get rid of everything, no. It's just, don't get attached to it, but while you are having these things in your life, it means ... I mean, you have worked for it. Nobody, nobody has a, let's say, has an expensive car if n- if not somehow he didn't work for it. So that means, of course, he deserve to have this ability to drive that car. But don't limit yourself to that car. Don't attach yourself to that car. Right now, you have this great chance in experiencing all of this. So experience to the fullest, but in the moment it's gone, and which is going to happen sooner or later, it's going to happen. Learn at the same time to not get attached to it. This is the whole process.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 39:15 Mm.

Shi Heng Yi 39:16 Yeah. We humans are finding ourself in this lifetime. It's a constant up and down of having and losing, of rising and falling. This is what makes, like, human life human life. We just look outside. That, that is the structure of our world. The sun rises, the sun sets. The day comes, the night arises. Okay? We are inhaling, we are exhaling. The heart is sucking, the heart is pumping. This is, this is human life. Okay?

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 39:52 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 39:54 And so it means there are areas where we are having something, but we also gonna lose it, and this, this type of pattern, I think it makes sense to embed this a little bit into your reality. So, and maybe along this way, sooner or later you will start to realize that this type of pattern of up and down, in and out, left and right, having and losing, success and failure, maybe you will realize that this type of pattern is found from birth to death.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 40:40 Yeah.

Shi Heng Yi 40:40 And if then the question arises, is that all? Is this now life? The constant change of left and right, up and down. Well, if this question starts to come, then there are other perspectives, then there are other possibilities that maybe for you can start to open up. See? And this is the point where now in the ancient traditions, sometimes in the Buddhist teachings, it is said, "Don't live in the extremes. Don't live in the extreme high, don't live in the extreme low." So not here and not here. Buddhism, in a way, is called the middle way.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 41:27 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 41:29 The Tao is teachings known for the yin and yang symbol. So what's the emphasis on yin and yang? Of understanding that there is a pattern also, and also that yin and yang, they both are dependent on each other. And what's the point of understanding this? Because it gives you a better understanding that there is something else which we call harmony, which we call peace, which we call balance. So there is nothing which is fluctuating so much anymore.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 42:13 Mm.

Shi Heng Yi 42:13 Because this fluctuation of life has become, I don't know. I have seen it too often, and it's disturbing after some time. It's exciting in the beginning, but after some time it's just like the same pattern comes over and over again.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 42:31 Mm.

Shi Heng Yi 42:32 And then it just doesn't make sense anymore. So I started to look for an alternative way how to cope with- This way of life. And I always return back to balance, harmony, peace, stability, something that cannot be shaken. And this can only be found in something-- I, I make it super simple now. It is something mind-related. It cannot be physically related. It cannot be matter related. It is mind related. Discovering yourself, this is where it's related to.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 43:16 Yeah. Thank you. Over the past few years, as I think about the variety of human behaviors, I've come to the realization that it's very rarely the behavior, it's the energy behind the behavior that's actually most important. So for example, you mentioned the person who might have worked hard and bought themselves a fancy, expensive car. As you have pointed out, it's not about not having that. If you're in a position where you have access to that, it's not attaching to that. So if you like driving that car, and you think that car says something about who you are, and if that car was taken away from you, you would be depressed, well, then you may have an over-reliance, a dependency that's gonna cause problems. But if you can enjoy driving that car, but you're not attached to it, you can take it or leave it, then it's the same behavior with a different energy. I think that's what you're getting at, and it also makes me think of, um, I think I read about the Roman Emperor Seneca, who was born to wealth, had money, he had power. But my understanding is that from time to time, he would wear simple clothes. He would go out into the villages and eat very simply, bread, water. He would sleep on the streets, I believe, to teach himself that, "Yeah, I am fine without the riches, without the prestige, without the status, without the money." How can you make this really practical for someone? If someone's listening and goes, "I understand what you're saying, Master, but I am attached to those things. I think if I lost my job or my car, I would really, really struggle," how do you help them start thinking about changing their relationship with these externalities?

Shi Heng Yi 45:37 Okay. So let's put it like this. If somebody is caught into this type of bubble of what is surrounding him, sometimes it's necessary to maybe do the travel to another area of the world, spend some time over there, and free yourself from the surroundings that you have known for such a long time. Because this type of encountering different civilization, different culture, different ways of living, different ways of behavior, well, it can also be something that actually opens your eyes-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 46:18 Mm-hmm

Shi Heng Yi 46:18 ... and, and literally you're facing it right away that, um, everything that you have lived so far, it's not necessary. There are many different ways of living on this earth.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 46:34 Yeah.

Shi Heng Yi 46:34 Okay? And, and this is what I mean, yeah. So we all, everyone, including me in a way, we all live in a bubble.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 46:44 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 46:45 Yeah? My bubble is the martial art bubble, the Shaolin bubble, okay, the wisdom bubble, maybe like this. Other people, they live in a career bubble. Okay? Other people, they live in the music business bubble. Other people live in the celebrity status bubble. These are all bubbles, meaning somehow we all have created it, uh, with our own energy, partially with also what we wanted from our life to be. So we started creating a bubble and a life actually around us, which is not a bad thing, but ask yourself, what would happen if the bubble bursts? And then you realize that you're still part of everything. When the bubble bursts, you are still part of everything. It's just that for right now you have become too hardline about your own bubble. But whatever you have created there, it's not of substance. So therefore, jumping from one bubble to another, traveling, meeting different people, meeting different culture, this is like what you actively can do to sometimes start realizing that if eight billion people are living on this earth, that there are at least eight billion bubbles.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 48:29 Yeah.

Shi Heng Yi 48:31 Okay? But none of these bubbles is the truth. They all can only exist because there's something bigger. And this you realize when the bubble bursts.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 48:50 I spoke to a monk from a different tradition on this podcast a few months ago, Geelong Tukten. He became a monk after he had a period of burnout. So he w- he became an actor. He went to New York. He was partying hard. He was enjoying the life in New York, and he had extreme burnout. He had to stop doing everything. That led to him seeking a new way, and he joined a monastery and has become a monk for, I think, over thirty years now. So I guess my first question to you relating to that is, did you have some form of life experience where things were not going so well that led you to believe that becoming a Shaolin monk was the way forward? And I guess a wider point, which I guess you've touched on already, but it's, it's more-- I'm interested, you know, the people who come to study with you, although we can't say all of them, have many of them had these real pain points in their life which has led them to go, "Look, maybe there's another way. Maybe there's something else I need to learn in order to grow and move forward."

Shi Heng Yi 50:17 Okay. So with the age of four, I started what nowadays is known as Kung Fu, okay? That's Shaolin Kung Fu in one of the very specific styles of Shaolin Green Dragon. I make it short. Starting with the age of four until now, I'm forty, thirty-six years long, I have always stayed along this path of martial arts. In the martial art field, when you want to learn something, very often what you are learning are so-called forms. They are like choreographies of fighting. So it's possible to actually learn form after form after form after form. So now the problem for me was one day that actually there are so many forms existing in this world that it is impossible that you would ever be able to learn all the forms. And now let me make the jump back to, like, how you can also understand it. Uh, we have quite a few big oceans here on the Earth, and quite a lot of, uh, a lot of lakes also on this Earth. It's-- it, it doesn't make sense for me to travel from one ocean to the other, standing at the coast, looking at the ocean, and just say, "Oh, these are nice waves." And then you continue, go to the next ocean, look on its surface and say, "Oh, these are also nice waves." So what I'm saying is, you don't have to travel all the oceans of the world in order to get some real answer and some real depth, and this is what it is. If you just pick out one single ocean, you start with the surface, and then you are spending your life diving deeper into that ocean. I think you will discover so many different answer and mysteries and things inside that one single ocean that one lifetime is also not enough to discover all of this.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 52:51 Yeah.

Shi Heng Yi 52:52 So that means there is a difference between looking for quantity or staying with something and looking for depth. So going deeper into one thing.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 53:08 [gentle music] So many patients tell me that life just feels like a blur because of the pressures that so many of us face. The busyness, the overwhelm, the endless to-do list. I've heard it time and time again. Why haven't things changed? Why can't I bring these healthy habits into my life and make them stick? I've been a medical doctor for over two decades, and I have to say one of the most transformative practices I have ever seen is the practice of journaling, because it breaks the loop. We have these unconscious patterns, these subconscious patterns running our lives. We don't realize how many anxieties and worries and concerns we have whirring around, and journaling is a very simple way to get the stuff out of your brain. You get it down to paper, and you see it, and that does something really, really powerful. When does the new diet that you were following fall by the wayside? When does the new healthy habit that you were sticking to start to fall off track? That's the self-awareness that journaling is gonna give you. When people ask the right questions, they get the right answers, and those right answers allow them to change their life. Take up journaling today and watch your life start to change.

Shi Heng Yi 54:28 Okay. Now, all of this also came, came now in along this way of martial art, the way of how I trained myself into my life. So I said, "Okay, I have stud-- I, I have finished my studies now. I have practiced several styles of martial arts right now." So I could see already the possibilities in this world are huge, but I then just said, "Okay," but no matter what I, what, what this body, no matter where this body is going in this world, it's always going to be the same mind that travels there. It's always me who goes there. So my interest began. I wanna actually know what the, so what is it that makes me, me? You know? And that was the part where then together with the practice of the Shaolin Kung Fu, also I got interested in what nowadays is known as Chan Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, or the Buddhist teachings, uh, as such, because this is what the Buddhist teachings is, uh, is, is aiming at, in giving you a way how to start what, what you maybe nowadays call as discovering yourself.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 56:01 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 56:01 Discovering the essence of yourself in order to make the best of your lifetime. That's, that's the-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 56:09 Mm

Shi Heng Yi 56:09 ... final point anyway. So what is it that since 10 years now I'm starting to spread out in the world? Don't waste your lifetime, and adjust everything that's possible inside of your life, that you make the best out of it. That's it. Finished. Yeah. It's not about punching, it's not about kicking, it's not about anything super, um, super complicated. It is about that our lifetime is limited, and I think for right now, it's the best thing to appreciate what we have, and adjust everything that is in our hands to make this lifetime pleasant for yourself, and also for people around you. That is the, that is the mission. And then just one more point, but I, because I have to say it, because you just mentioned that, um, I decided to be a Shaolin monk. Um, I usually don't like to call myself like this, because depending on tradition-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 57:21 Mm

Shi Heng Yi 57:21 ... you might have another, um, another idea of what a monk is.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 57:28 Mm.

Shi Heng Yi 57:29 When it comes now to Shaolin, you have so-called warrior monks, you have so-called spiritual monks, but I normally do not like to call myself monk. I live a very spiritual and mind-based life from time to time. But at the same time, I'm very much engaged also-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 57:47 Mm

Shi Heng Yi 57:48 ... in all other aspects of the world. So-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 57:51 Yeah

Shi Heng Yi 57:51 ... I just don't want to confuse the people.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 57:53 Thank you.

Shi Heng Yi 57:54 Yeah.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 57:55 You've been spreading this wisdom throughout the world for a number of years now. What are some of the key messages that are resonating with people, and what are some of the key messages would you say that people are pushing back on a little bit and going, "No, that's not quite right"?

Shi Heng Yi 58:15 Um, I honestly don't know. Yeah. Because also, these are not my teachings. I speak about them. It's, it's like, you know, the scientists when they look with the, with the space web telescope into, into our universe. Yeah. It's getting bigger and bigger with no end, including the black holes, including the fact that infinity is somehow out there, meaning everything must be out there already. There, there is nothing I can create which, which not would be already existing, elsewise it would not infinite. So that means from time to time on this Earth, I think there are just people coming who speak out what is there all the time.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 59:13 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 59:13 It's not their teaching. They just receive it out of whatever reason, and then are able to spread it out.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 59:21 Yeah.

Shi Heng Yi 59:22 And, and in a way, this is what I think, um, why I, I, w- why I say this is not my teaching, because I am really, it's, it's hard to imagine, but I am just coming from the field-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 59:35 Yeah

Shi Heng Yi 59:35 ... of martial art, yeah. I make my pushups, I make my punches, I make my strikes, I make my forms, I make my breathing exercise. And from time to time then if somebody asks me a question, then sometimes something wise comes out. [laughs]

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 59:53 It's-

Shi Heng Yi 59:54 [laughs]

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 59:54 ... th-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 59:54 this is a really interesting point for me, because I do feel if we think about attachments, I think many people these days are attached to ideas, and are overly attached with the idea that, "This is my idea." Well, it's kind of like, well, no, none of us came out of our mother's womb full of all these ideas. We have absorbed ideas and books and teachings from everything we've consumed, and all we can ever do is just put things across in the way that we see them. Early on in this conversation you said that when people come to the temple, there is a certain structure, and you mentioned eating times, that there are three eating times a day. If you are hungry at other times, you said they just have to get over it, and I guess make peace with that. The way you said it was really interesting to me, because to some people that may be interpreted- As uncompassionate. I, I'm certainly not saying that myself. I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here. Many people are struggling with addictions these days, even low-grade addictions like sugar, social media, online shopping. They're addicted to distraction, and they'll often say, "Yeah, but I, I had the urge to do that thing, so I had to do it." But you're showing through the rules at the temple that, yeah, you've got the urge to eat. Well, now's not eating time, so you just gotta suck it up and wait. And I almost feel that that kind of message is very much needed in a, in a very compassionate way, but I think often we're seeing these days, particularly in a country like the UK or America, it's deemed as being overly harsh. Could you explain it in a little bit more depth from your perspective? Because I don't feel any part of it was harsh or uncompassionate, but I think this, this realization that we can feel things, we can have a craving, but we don't have to act on it, I think for many people these days, that's a, a revolutionary idea.

Shi Heng Yi 1:02:20 Mm. For example, uh, maybe you know that movie Kung Fu Panda. Yeah? So there already they use the title of or the name of Shifu. This how, for example, when people come over to our, to our monastery, how they relate to either me or the other teachers or the other masters in the temple. Literally translated, Shifu means teacher or father. So, and this is now the important part. This hierarchy is that we have the highest father of the temple, which sometimes called the grandfather. Then we have the father under it, and after the father come the son and the daughters. So ... And now I jump, jump back into my real family life, meaning when I grew up, of course I had a father and I had a mother, both of them, but quite differently in the way of how my relation to them was. Because if I made something wrong, it was I was afraid of the father, normally not the mother too much. Yeah? So if there was something about I wanna make it right, then it was also like in order to show my father that I can do it right. So my father is the one who gave me uncomfortable times, who sometimes gave me challenges to just, uh, let me figure out the way how to do it. If I needed some, some type of love or some type of, of, um, of cuddling, yeah, okay, then you go to the mother 'cause she has probably that loving energy to calm you down a little bit more. So, and in the same way now, it is here with us when it comes to learning something. If people come to me, even if sometime I speak very wise and I speak very calm or I speak very gentle, I don't know, whatever, but when it come to teaching, I am not there to make people feel comfortable. I'm not there to give you a comfortable time when you are coming to the temple. In my vision it is I give you what you need in order to grow, in order to expand beyond what you know about yourself. I wanna display the limits in your current life right now. So which means if you have problems sticking to three times eating per day, well, then it could even happen we're gonna limit it to two times eating per day-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:05:23 [laughs]

Shi Heng Yi 1:05:24 ... until you are faced so much with that own limitation of yours that you start to break free from it. So this is where the harshness sometimes is misunderstood. Why am I harsh? Why are we harsh? Why is the teaching harsh? Because elsewise, um, it's difficult sometimes to get through the learning.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:05:50 Mm. The restriction-

Shi Heng Yi 1:05:54 Yes

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:05:54 ... gives the freedom, right?

Shi Heng Yi 1:05:57 It's very nice that you say this because one very, very famous saying inside the Shaolin teachings is, "Without restriction, there is no growth." That's what we say.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:06:11 And that's the issue, right? That's ... If we really think about that, many of us are living in a world where there is no restriction. We can do whatever we want, whenever we want. As the world, as many countries are becoming more secular, these kind of practices that I guess for many years were there within religions, again, I'm not saying pro-religion or anti-religion. There's pros and cons of everything in the world, but I think a lot of these major religions had a framework for living. They had a structure. They had guidelines which people followed, and I feel strongly that as we've lost that, as we can do anything seven days a week, whenever we want ... You know, as a kid, the shops were closed on Sundays. Just one small example, but you knew you had to get your shopping done- On the Saturday, so you had food for the Sunday. It's a very small thing, but I feel there's a generation growing up now who don't know about any form of restriction. And then, Master, and I'd really be interested in your perspective on this. You say that if someone is struggling to only eat three times a day, you might prescribe them only eating two times a day to really help them maybe reset their relationship between their hunger and their food and, and their actions. Fasting is a practice that many religions, many spiritual, um, teachers have spoken about for many years. And one thing I've noticed in my public-facing life, largely on this podcast, I've noticed that whenever I bring up fasting, it seems to result in a very divisive response. Some people love it as an idea. Some people really push back and go, "Fasting is dangerous." Very polarizing, extreme views. I always try and do it with compassion and say, "Look, not everything is for everyone," but clearly for some people, fasting is a life-changing practice. For other people, let's say with eating disorders, for example, it may not be the best practice at that particular point in their life. But I guess this really speaks to what you're talking about, this restriction. Why do you think a practice like fasting, which has been there for thousands of years in all kinds of different cultures and religions, why do you think that it's become so divisive in the twenty-first century?

Shi Heng Yi 1:09:04 I don't know why it has become so divisive, but I'm happy to share just some of my perspective when it comes to fasting. I mean, let, let's put it like this. When we came to this world from our mother's womb, yeah, may- we, we had that type of size, yeah? Maybe three kilograms, four gr-- kilograms, something like this. Meanwhile, after many years, I mean, you are sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety kilograms of additional mass, of additional mass of your bones, mass of your muscles, mass of your meat. So number one question is: Where does all this additional mass in the last years and decades come from? Well, I think it comes from all the type of nutrition and food that you have, uh, digested, that you have taken into your body. So number one is there is, of course, this connection between what you eat and how the health also of your body displays. So this is one connection, which I absolutely think it is there. So first of all, paying attention to what is it exactly that you're putting inside of yourself. That is, like, number one step. Which then automatically means it makes sense to take care of your diet. Mm? So taking care of the diet or understanding that diet matters is the first step. So now the second one. Why does fasting is something that I also regard as being something practical? Because it solves two problems. One of them is you have some time or your body has time to actually cleanse itself. This is number one. So physically meaning you are cleaning yourself because there is no intake. There's no unnecessary intake, which is, like, um, disturbing your organism, and you're giving your body also at the same time the ability right now to, to get a cleanup.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:11:28 Mm.

Shi Heng Yi 1:11:30 This number one. And number two is you also practice your mindset and see for yourself how much attached are you actually to all the type of food-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:11:41 Yeah

Shi Heng Yi 1:11:41 ... that you are used to. So it very, very clearly displays how much your attachment is even to the food. So which means we don't even need to talk about being attached to the car, being attached to the relationship. Well, even being attached to the food.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:11:59 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 1:12:00 Being attached to the music you are listening to or whatsoever. Doesn't matter what it is, but it's the same attachment. It's the same attachment. So therefore, this is the second reason why, like, practicing. I mean, this fasting, it might not be directly for one week, but, like, just even one day, uh, is a starting point. From one day to two days to three days to a week. The main point is to actually figure out for yourself how much and to what are you attached in your lifetime, and everything you are attached to is what makes you heavy.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:12:50 Everything you're attached to is what makes you heavy.

Shi Heng Yi 1:12:54 Makes you heavy, meaning, uh, makes you become unmovable. You can't move. You cannot proceed. You are stuck somehow. If you are, if you are stuck, you can't move. The problem is the whole universe and this life is about moving on. And the best way how to continuously move on is to not have too many attachments in your lifetime. Everybody has different attachments. It's always the same structure. The more you are attached, the more difficult it is to move on. That is the general pattern.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:13:40 Many spiritual leaders talk very much about the importance of the mind, a clear mind, being able to stay in the present. You also share teachings related to that subject matter. But one thing that I've noticed with you is that as well as paying attention to the mind, you pay a lot of attention to your body as well. I've seen some of your videos online. You are very strong. You have a lean physique. Your posture is something that really stands out to me. It's very grounded. It's very straight. It's very commanding. It fascinates me that because not all spiritual leaders pay as much attention to their body as they do to their mind, whereas you appear to be someone who does. And I wonder if you could explain why you feel that the body is also important where we can all agree that the mind clearly is.

Shi Heng Yi 1:14:53 Okay. Well, first of all, thank you very much for, for this particular question because it's an important one. So to, to say it very, very clear, the main essence, the main essence of our lifetime, what will give us the freedom, it's mind-related. So power of the mind, in my opinion, is the essence. It is the mind that is in the focal of all development. Now comes the but. This type of realization cannot come in the beginning. It cannot come in the beginning in the world that is all the time based on looks, attraction of the eye, physicality, which means our world, the Earth itself, everything beautiful in this world. What is beautiful about it? It is beautiful because it looks beautiful. So we are, as humans, we are focused on look. This is what is attractive to us, what we can see. This is what matter. Okay? So that's why I say, okay, the world of forms is important. What I do with my body, what I do with my shape, how I take care of the matter that I have in my lifetime, to take care of this matters 100%. But it is only as the bridge to the mind. Very important. Because I make it simple. This body, no matter how, how fit, no matter how well-trained, one day is gonna go back to the Earth. No matter how much you have been taking care of this body, it's gonna leave you. Therefore, I think the main emphasis is in figuring out what is there about yourself, even beyond the body.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:17:29 So why is it then that you do take care of your body?

Shi Heng Yi 1:17:36 Because it's, uh ... Let's put it simple like this. You know? So that means on the one side you do something which maybe even is fun for some people. You practice like the Kung Fu, yeah. You making the choreography. On the one side, it's fun. At the same time, you feel it's good for the body. It's good for your health. You make the breathing exercises where you feel, oh, it also has an effect actually on the way of how my, how the energy level is that-

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:18:07 Mm

Shi Heng Yi 1:18:07 ... I have access to. So there are many, many different advantages of having a healthy body. But with this healthy body now, it is way more important to then one day find the, find that switch in also figuring out what is there even beyond that body.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:18:35 Mm.

Shi Heng Yi 1:18:38 Because this is the essence of what the Zen teachings, of what the Chan teachings are about. This is what the meditation is about, the, the teachings of the Buddha, what it is about. Discovering who you really are, this is the way how to, how to end all the suffering.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:19:02 And I guess for some people, they find that physicality, let's say a runner going for long runs, it helps them tune into the mind. It helps them realize, I guess, how frail they are. It helps them realize what happens in their mind when they're facing discomfort and struggle. So I guess for many people, the way to the mind- ... is often through the body

Shi Heng Yi 1:19:29 Yes. This is exactly that approach. We are living in the world right now which is so much the younger generations. They are so much already focused on they look outwards. They look at forms. They look at shapes. So how to bring some spirituality, how to bring some deeper thoughts into these type of minds?

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:19:56 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 1:19:56 Well, you have to go into their worlds. We have to go into their areas where they are anyway finding themself. Looking good, being in a good physique, taking care of shape, taking care of form.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:20:13 Mm.

Shi Heng Yi 1:20:15 But just as a bridge, and then it's up to them to decide if you want to continue farther or not, but the world of forms is always limited.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:20:30 To make sure you're taking action after watching this video, I've created a free breathing guide that's gonna help you reduce stress, calm your mind, and boost your energy. In this guide, I share with you six really simple breathing practices that work immediately. Even just one minute a day will start to make a big difference. To receive your free guide, all you have to do is click on the link in the description box below.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:20:58 One of the most powerful things, to me at least, that I heard you say recently is that we should not harm others with our words, but also we should not harm others with our thoughts. That's something I've been thinking about a lot over the past few days. I think many people hearing that will immediately go, "Yeah, I get it with words. You know, be kind, be compassionate with how you talk to other people." But the fact that you go one step beyond that to say, "Don't harm people with your thoughts," to me that's really, really interesting. Perhaps you could elaborate on why you think that is so important.

Shi Heng Yi 1:21:49 Let's just take it as a conceptual idea, okay? I'm not saying it's the truth, but it is something to think about. There is the saying that watch your thought because your thoughts are forming your words. Be careful about your words because your words are shaping your actions. Be care of what type of actions you're doing because they are shaping your habits. Be careful about what type of habits you have because they are shaping your character. Be careful what type of character you are cultivating because it shapes your destiny. Okay? So what I'm saying is that there is a chain, a chain of cause and effect. Your thoughts affecting the words, the words affecting your actions, the actions affecting all the way down until your character, until what you are going to encounter in the future described before as destiny. So, and this is the reason why everything that in this world has taken form, everything. L- let's put it simple. There, there was a time on this earth where we didn't have any rockets flying. There was no rocket, okay? But meanwhile, you can see technology has went on. We have rockets flying and landing. So the question is how can something like a rocket come to the Earth? H- how did it happen? So there must be a person who somehow saw something in his mind, but he saw something ... How can he see something that he never saw before because it was not there? And this is the powerful part about, about the mind. Our mind can see things that are not even existing yet on this Earth. This is the power of the mind.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:24:20 Mm-hmm.

Shi Heng Yi 1:24:21 And, and the first thing to, let's say, bringing from the world of thought something into this world, this is done by the word.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:24:36 Mm.

Shi Heng Yi 1:24:36 Then by maybe writing them down, then by visualizing it, and afterwards by constructing it, and then it starts to take form. But the beginning of every form comes from an ar- area which is formless, the mind. It's already when you look at the person, what is your mind connection to the person? What inside of you, without speaking, what is your energy inside towards a person? So, and this is the important part.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:25:18 If someone is listening to you and thinking, "Okay, I understand the theory there, but in real life for me, I- ... struggle with this. I have colleagues at work who really irritate me, and I think they're lazy, and they don't do their job properly. And so I am left having to do more because they're not pulling their weight. I understand, Master, what you're saying. I should not harm those people with my words or my thoughts. I can just about hold it in and not say it with my words, but I'm being consumed by negative thoughts about that other person. Where might you suggest that they start?

Shi Heng Yi 1:26:07 Okay. This type of question, this type of, of setup right now, at the end is going to boil down to how important is your life to you. So, which means if you are willing to wake up already in the morning and have these negative thoughts affecting your day, then going into work, dealing again with all the mind conflicts that you have, go home in the evening still thinking about what happened during, during the day, and continue like this for weeks and months and years, and there will always be some, some non-satisfaction about the way of how you are living. This is one type of choice. So you stay in the situation where you are right now. Because trying to change other people, at least for me, is, is no way. It, it's not working.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:27:16 Mm.

Shi Heng Yi 1:27:18 So I wouldn't even, let's say, invest time in trying to change other people. So the first idea would be, are you able to stay in that situation imagining that all of the colleagues out there, they would never change? Are you still able to figure out a way for yourself to stay still remaining in a state of the mind that is not destroying your health? If you say, "It's impossible, I am too much attached to the surrounding, to what the other people do or don't do," then there's only one way. Either you're gonna stay in that situation and take all the health issues that were gonna come on the long term, or you are setting your priority and say, "No, this is my life. This is not the way how I, like, imagine my life to be, waking up and going to bed with, like, negative thoughts or unhealthy thoughts," and then you must change your surrounding. That's it. There is no, there is no alternative to these two things. Taking into consideration that we cannot change other people and cannot change the outside circumstances. So either you change yourself or you change the surrounding and the environment that you are placed upon. But now comes the problem. If you think you just say, "Okay, then I'm leaving this company and I'm moving to the next one," you're gonna vi- you're gonna meet the same problem.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:29:04 Yeah.

Shi Heng Yi 1:29:07 Why? Because it's not the problem of the people. It's the problem because something inside of you is not able yet to solve this challenge. And this is where, again, it's about self-mastery.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:29:29 Yeah.

Shi Heng Yi 1:29:31 Meaning everything that you feel is a challenge to you, ask yourself what is it inside of yourself that is causing this conflict, that is causing this challenge for you, and solve it inside of you. This is where to look at. And in the moment this happens, well, something, something very valuable has been developed there. It's not an easy way. It's not a most common way that people do. But it is the way that for many, many centuries and, and millennia, different traditions have embedded in their way of being, and yeah.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:30:21 Yeah. I, I love that. And if I could just share in my own life, I would say what you just said there at the end, that's been the biggest change for me over the past five to 10 years. It's this understanding, this deep understanding that it's all internal. The world is gonna do what the world is gonna do. It's my reaction, my interpretation to the world that determines its outcome on me. And once you get that and you live like that, you access a kind of freedom that you didn't know existed. Because until you get that, you are living in a world where you think that the way you feel is down to externalities. It's other people, their behavior, their actions. Once they change, I'll be fine. And then you realize, wow, I could be waiting a very long time for that. The only thing I have agency over is myself, my inner being, my inner thoughts. So I, I just wanna echo what you said there. I- I love it. It's something that I have cultivated as a practice in my own life with incredible benefits, and I'm delighted that you are sharing that message with the world.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:31:43 To finish off a quite wonderful conversation, certainly for me, I'd just love to ask you, for that person who is really struggling in their life, and there's something that they heard from you, they thought, "Yeah, I can make a change. I can transform myself. I don't wanna live life the way I'm leading it today," but they don't know where to start. I wonder if you could provide some final words of inspiration for them, please.

Shi Heng Yi 1:32:21 It's not gonna be words of wisdom. It's gonna be action. Sometimes we are just thinking too much. We are thinking too much, okay? But remaining where you are and just thinking, thinking, thinking all the time is not gonna make it better. So my very first suggestion would be put in a new structure of the day. This can mean already you wake up 10 minutes, 15 minutes earlier than you usually do, and in these 10 or 15 minutes, you put in any type of practice. It doesn't matter if you go on YouTube and just, for example, look for, look for my name. You'll find so many free practices to just join in. So this is again something where I say it's very, very helpful to just put in directly some practice, some action, some doing, except for just dwelling thoughts in the mind, looking for the proper way of how to now start the transformation. The transformation already happens in the moment your daily structure starts to look different. And now the question is, with what do you fill up this additional space that you have created? Well, and this is now the point of put the physical exercises in, because it is going to be the bridge to everything that will follow afterwards. That would be my advice.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:34:04 Master Shi Heng Yi, thank you for coming on my podcast. I've really, really enjoyed our conversation.

Shi Heng Yi 1:34:12 Once again, thank you also very much, and maybe one day we will talk to each other again.

Dr. Rangan Chatterjee 1:34:19 I hope so. If you enjoyed that conversation, then I think you are really going to enjoy this one that I've picked out especially. I wanna share with you five strategies that I have seen transform the lives of my patients. It's gonna help you with your health, your happiness, and the quality of your relationships