Când nu mai alergi, începi să trăiești | BOABE DE CUNOAȘTERE | cu Shifu Zuan
A podcast interview with Shifu Zuan exploring how to live from the heart rather than only the intellect. Core themes: discipline as one virtue among many, control versus alignment (do/let-go yin-yang), distinguishing intellect/thinking from the broader mind, natural intelligence (skill beyond calculation), attachment and letting go, and the primacy of embodied practice and right guidance for lasting change.
Chapters
Ask yourself, what are you truly looking for? And most people, they are superficial. They want something outside. Money, power, success. Yeah, conflict.
It happens often.
But nowadays we admire what we actually. What we don't really need. We admire people who suffer.
What does it truly mean to. To leave with an open heart? Let's start here.
Because you're lacking, you're craving, you're searching, seeking for attention. You're seeking, searching for emotions, for the feeling that someone is seeing you. Deep inside of you, there's something. There's the true answer. The heart is more. Something like the center of your spirit. It is what and who you truly are. Whenever you're imbalanced, you are suffering.
So balance is not static.
No, balance is not static. Nothing in life, nothing in existence is static. You say you don't have time. It's a lie. You just did not create the space.
What does it mean, like to find your purpose?
It is not something you find outside. It is something already inside of you. Foreign.
Instagram she pay tick tock. Autumn Dwarn exterior. Rapida she display. The inner mapping inside. Yeah, that sounds great.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for coming to this podcast. And thank you for continuing this discussion about finding the purpose and, I don't know, finding the meaning in our very busy life. And with Shihang Yi, we spoke about discipline, about control of the mind, about the power of the habits. And you have another approach, a different approach because you speak about the heart. What does it truly mean to live with an open heart? Let's start here.
Okay. First of all, thank you very much for inviting. I'm very glad to be here. And about she, Hang Yi and me, we don't really do something different. We actually do exactly the same. We just come from a different direction. So because we have so many different kinds of people, we also need to have different kinds of methods, different kinds of ways to enter ourselves. What we actually want to do is to try to understand ourselves, to get to the heart. So before we start to get to the question, I would like to break something down. One is control, the other one is discipline, and the other one is mind. So discipline Regards discipline. Last time you maybe heard something about discipline. Discipline is very important. Without discipline and you cannot get up, you cannot get out of your bed, you cannot start, you cannot finish your project. You cannot get to where you want to get. It doesn't matter where you want to get. So discipline is fundamental, but discipline is only one component. In our temple. Discipline is one out of many, many virtues. Besides patience, respect, simplicity, equanimity and so on and so on and so on. So there are many, many so called virtues. Only if all virtues are cultivated, we can grow in a balanced way, in a complete way if we have only one component only discipline. Yeah, it is like imagine you're working with the body. It is like you go to the gym, you train and you train only one arm. You train, whatever you do, you train only one arm. Your arm will definitely become very, very strong. But it's just a matter of time until you get problems here, there and so on. Maybe the back. You train a six pack every day. Good. The muscle grows, you get your six pack, but afterwards you get back problems because of imbalance. So our approach is always holistic virtues. Discipline is only one.
Can you train these virtues? I mean, if you don't have the discipline, you can train it.
Yes, definitely. So what we do is to train these virtues and more important, the completeness of these virtues. So discipline. The second one I heard was, what was it? Control and mind. Second is control. So regards controlling is also very often misunderstood in what we do, we do not control. Yeah, we align. This would be the better word. Sometimes we might say we control. Yeah, but we mean we align. It's like you put your body, you put your mind, you put yourself into a certain position, into certain alignment. This is one part, this is the Yang part, the doing part. And the other part, the yin part is now you let go. If you only control or you control, you will cause stiffness. Imagine you punch. If you try to control your punch, you tensing up and now you go forward, you will have a lot of power, but you also create a lot of tensions because your muscles are contracted. The so called we call qi, Qi, the energy, the blood vessels, everything inside is now closed. That's not the correct way of practicing. Everything should flow. So that means there is if you're to lose, also not the way. So there has to be some kind of shape, some kind of form. But within that form there's an openness, there's the yin aspect. And this is another thing, very, very important, very often misunderstood. Why? Because people see only one thing, not seeing the whole thing. Not holistic. So everything that comes from our tradition, everything that we practice in the temple, it doesn't matter. Tai Chi, qigong, everything that comes from the east is always a holistic approach. Last one was the habits.
Like yeah, we talk about the discipline, the control of the mind and the alignment and the good habits that in the end brings you this freedom of living.
Yes, one More thing the mind. Yeah, mind very often also misunderstanding or misconception because now there's people that we are overloaded, we are over flooded through YouTube videos, talks and so on. So we get so many informations. So when we do not meditate, really asking ourselves, what does mind actually mean? We think mind very often is the intellect. We think mind. People say, ah, my heart is telling me this, but my mind is telling me that when people talk about the mind nowadays, they are putting their hands up here, my mind. But the mind is not an organ. The mind is not the brain. That's a totally wrong, it's a misunderstanding. The mind is not the thinking. Thinking is something that's part of the mind. So thinking, feeling, spirit, everything. The way how you perceive the world and the way how you perceive life, that is mind at the end, it cannot be explained really in words, but it can be somehow described that you can get to the right feeling of it or something like that.
Yeah. You know, when I think about the mind and the heart, because like this is the topic that we're gonna jump in. I feel like the mind is the place where I plan the future, I analyze the past and I think what are the next steps I have to do? And if I do that too often, I'm feeling like I'm not living here. Even if in my free time, like let's say when I work, I think about what I'm going to do in the weekend. Like I'm dreaming about going with the bike around the lake and yesterday was the weekend and I was going with the bike around the lake and I was thinking about this podcast, about the work again, and I just said, wait, what? Like I'm just keep living in the future with my mind and I just have to calm down and feel what I'm doing, you know, and this is like the separation, like the entry level of feeling it. Like I feel like the mind is the future and I keep thinking about that. But if I don't come down to the heart, I will not. I think like I'm missing my life. It's like going in the future and I live in the future without leaving this moment. Like feeling the moment that I sit here and talk with you, you know?
Yes. Yeah.
And how, how can, like, how can we find this balance? Because I feel like I cannot live just in the heart. I feel like I need to plan things in the mind, but possible to combine them, like to plan and in the same way to feel what you're doing now in the heart.
Yes, definitely. So what you just described is the word mind and the word heart. You see, as the mind, as the intellect. The intellect is a part of us. It's like the thinking and the planning part of us. That's the intellect. In Chinese or in Eastern wisdom or Eastern tradition, the mind is not the intellect. It's everything. Everything the way how you perceive life. So the other one that you describe here, the mind we call intellect, the other one you described here is not the heart. This is your feelings. Feelings is emotion. Emotion, feeling. Now you feel like this, then you feel like that. Then you feel like this, then you feel like that. That's emotion and emotions. Feelings is like wetter. It comes and it goes. It is not stable. It is not static. The heart that we are talking about in our tradition is something different. The heart, chin is more. Something like. It's the mind, the way how you perceive the world, the way how you perceive and the center of your spirit. Something like this. It is what and who you truly are. Something deep inside. So if we go back into something maybe more simple, it's intellect and feeling, intellect and feeling. If intellect and feeling, let's say, is two part, it's separated from each other. And this is already where the drama begins. Separation. So what you think and what you feel is in conflict. It is not together. I think I want to eat an apple, but I feel I want to eat a tomato. I don't know where to. I think I should quit. I should take. Do the project. But what you feel is I should take a break. Yeah. Conflict.
It happens often. And it's not apple and tomato. It's actually, I know I have to eat a salad, but I feel I need to. I want to eat a hamburger, you know? Yes. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I. I know I need to go to work. I feel like I want to sleep.
Yeah.
And is it. I mean, is it a natural break? Is it okay to have it? Or how can we. How can we combine those two? So I. So I. So I would know what I have to do and feel it in the same way.
Okay, how to combine those two? Those two, they are already one. Everything inside of you is already one. This is the first very important thing to understand. It is just blocked. You imagine water running through, and we are building dams to separate so the water cannot flow the same in the body. Your body. If you're loose, you're open, the muscles are not tensed, you're relaxed. Your body is already one. One river, one ocean. But now when I start to do strange movements or Practice train only one part I start to separate, my muscles start to tense, the joints start to lock, and so on. This is regards the body, but exactly the same we do within ourselves. So first understanding is we are already one. Second one. We started now to block ourselves by building in blockages, dams. Why did we build them in? Is because simply of life. The way how we grow up, the way how we trained ourselves. We are collecting this karma and placing it in our body. Or it got placed into us karma, let's say you may be better understand as patterns certain ways of thinking, certain ways of feeling. Now what to do in order to get back to this fullness, to this oneness, to this one connection of yourself between thinking and feeling, between the whole body being opened. The fullness, feeling complete, is to open up, to open up. So the way how we do is to open up. To open up means now to release these blockages. You still train, you still practice, but the direction of where you go is you practice in order to open up. So in the teachings of the Buddha, it's all about releasing. Not all about, but a lot about releasing, letting go. Why is it so much about letting go of attachments, of this and that? Because when you let go, you start to become open again, become natural again. Natural. This is the aspect of or the way how we describe it through Taoism, it's about coming back to naturalness. How to come back to naturalness through simplicity. Why can we not be so simple? If it's so simple, why can we not be just, Just open? Because we are educated in the west, in the modern life, we are trained, we are conditioned to go forward, forward, not to stay here, not to sometimes even let go of things. We are trained, conditioned to go forward, to do more, to train more.
Is it wrong to feel that way? Because this is one of the things I'm thinking about lately, about the amount of work we do every day. And let's say I'm going to speak about myself.
Yes, please.
Like, I work a lot, but I.
Love it a lot.
It is true that even though I work a lot, I feel in a way that I can do more and that I'm not doing enough. But I find the time to do more and I love it, I enjoy it. So I feel that I sort of found my passion and it looks like fire. I mean, I love to go forward, to do more, to make more podcasts, more shows, to write things, to discover more. And I also see that there is much more to read, to watch on YouTube, more to know so is this something that can harm me, or is it something wrong about me? Because I see a lot of other materials that say, look, you don't have to hurry. You need to be still, you need to be calm, you need to let go. But I don't feel like letting go. Yeah, I mean, I want more. And I don't speak about material things. I mean, I'm not running for money or stuff like that. I love them, but I don't necessarily think about that. But I need more. Like in my career, I feel I can do more. Is it something wrong here? Or can you practice this stillness and let go of things and still go do them?
First of all, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts and your feelings. To be so opened. This is a great example. More and more people, I hope more and more people are learning this, to open and share what you think, what you feel, and so on. The more we talk, and the more clear we talk, the more we can understand each other. So first of all, more money, more can buy this and that. More security, feeling more safe, and so on. More podcasts, more videos, reading, more books, more knowledge.
Yeah, yeah, that sounds great.
More training, more exercising. Not four hours, not two hours in the gym, not four hours in the gym or in the temple. In our ways, kung fu, not 10 hours of training, not 24 hours, 26 hours without sleeping. Not 4 hours of work. 8 hours, 10 hours until the next day without sleeping. More work, more training, more outcome. Yeah, correct. The more you do, the more will come out. But the more you do, the more goes out or comes in, the more also goes out. So first, understanding Taoism. Taoism, Yin and Yang. Life takes place between heaven and earth. Life takes place between man and woman. Life takes place between inhale and exhale. Life takes place simply, we say between yin and Yang. Life does not take place between Yin. Life is not all about men. But somehow in this noisy world, we live in a young society, and in a young world, life is not about more and more food. More food, you go to buffet. Wow. More options, more food, more eating. The more you eat, the more energy you have. Life is not about to eat. Eat more and more energy. There's a certain amount that you should eat. Every day is different, every moment is different, and then it's enough. If you now start to eat more than that, you get problems, stomach problems, organ problems, health issues, the blood vessels, everything. So life is not about more. This is a very basic, fundamental understanding, very important. If we don't understand, then we use, for example, Discipline to keep on going more and more and more. Like I told you before, doctor, it's discipline. But there are also other virtues, like patience and many others, only all together they can allow us to see the holistic approach. So life again is not about more. Life is also not about stillness and do nothing and just less, less, less, less, and be still. Life is not about less, less, less, less money, less food, no food. It's not about more. It's not about less. It is about balance. When you eat, think of eating. You eat. If you eat the perfect amount, your body will tell you what that is. Every moment is different. You feel very good. You don't feel hungry and starving anymore. And you don't feel too full that afterwards you cannot walk, cannot sit, cannot think the same as regards your work or whatever you do. There's a certain amount, and when it's enough, it's enough. Finish. If you can maintain the state of balance, you are in the state of fullness. You can say we are in state of Tai Chi. You are in a state of fullness. You feel complete. Every time you are in that state, everything is fine, everything is perfect. Every time you are out of balance, you are imbalance. Every time you eat more or you not eating too much, you work too much or not too much, you are imbalanced. Whenever you are imbalanced, you are suffering. So how to not to suffer? A very simple, as a practitioner, Taoist approach is instead of thinking too much, just maintain balance in every single moment and every single thing that you do. How to maintain balance is you need to have the wisdom of the heart. You need to have that sensing of something very deep inside your intuition that can feel you eat. You eat and you eat. You don't. I cannot stop. You don't have that sense. Practice in order to feel. Are you eating? Now is the perfect moment to finish. Stop the rest, please. Take away.
Is it okay to still feel the hunger when you stop? I mean, how can you control them? Because if we just stay in the eating example, that means that you eat, you have the wisdom of the heart. You feel it's the time to stop, but you're still hungry and you make an effort to ignore the hunger. Or how do you do that? Because we can also, yeah, we can talk about the attachment. And it's like in the medicine. In the medicine, we have a problem because we wait for the disease to come and then we treat the symptoms. We don't have the cure for a lot of diseases like hypertension, diabetes and so on. So disease is coming and we treat the symptoms, we don't solve the cause. So if people will apply what you say, like let's say if I will apply what you say. If I will say, okay, this is my work, this is enough. I need the balance. I will force to resolve the symptoms. But the cause is that I feel that something is missing, you know, I need more work because I feel that that work is missing, that podcast is missing, that knowledge is missing, and I need to feel that void that never is, never is, never felt enough, you know? So I think that more work may be a symptom and the cause if the feeling of something is missing, the hunger. So is it okay to have this feeling? Can you solve it? Or you just have to control it?
Okay. One is about attachment. This leads us into the topic of attachment and understanding what attachment is. The other one, before we move to attachment, it is talking, teaching, doesn't matter podcast or going around, being in retreats, workshops, sometimes alone, sometimes with my older kung fu brother, she Hang Yi. I always experience and see the same thing, which is too complicated. Things got already to a point where the intellect is already too big. The intellect is too big, too big in terms of it became now the king. The leader of your life is the intellect. And this should never be. When it gets to that point, we almost already lost. The intellect should be always serving, being the servant of our consciousness, of our heart, however you want to call it. This is the first thing too complicated means like you are trying now to calculate. You're trying to analyze, analyze and calculate how to solve the problem, how to do this and that, how to cook, how to drive the car. Imagine, let's take the example of the car is you're trying to park. There's like one car in the front and then one car in the back. There's like a parking slot. And now you're trying to park in the car. If you now try to calculate, okay, exactly when I get to this point of the car, I will turn this one a little bit, 40°, 45. Then I move this, and then I switch to that gear while I push the gas. And the brake has to be is so complicated because there are so unlimited factors in there that you need to include in order to get the perfect parking move. So what is the other one? If it's so complicated, but if we don't analyze, we don't calculate, how can we park in there? Perfectly very simple. The more you practice, the more you cultivate something. Let's call it today, because of AI, A lot of artificial intelligence. The more the artificial intelligence arises, the more also should be the ni arise. The ni is the natural intelligence. Everyone has a natural intelligence. It's like parking. You know exactly how it is. When you drive the car for man, for example, that example, you park and you just have this feeling. Actually, it's not even a feeling. You're just like focused and you go, perfect. Oh, how did you do that? How did you calculate it to get into? You did not. You were just so opened and focused and relaxed at the same time. And that's why your natural intelligence was active. When your wife, your husband, your friend, your neighbor, your boss, your colleague, whoever is asking you a question, or when someone is texting you something and you give the perfect answer, or sometimes you don't know what to say, but sometimes you do exactly the perfect. How you were not thinking, you were not calculating or analyzing. You were in your natural intelligence. Sometimes you're cooking and then someone. You put the plate on, and then someone is like, wow, perfect. All five elements perfectly in harmony. How did you do that? Five star Michelin cook. If you ask him, he will not say, okay, first you calculate this, and then in that moment when the temperature is no. There is something about structure, yes, but at the end, it's the natural intelligence that the cook, the one who's driving the car, the musician and all of us are using. Everyone has that natural intelligence. But the more we train or we are caught in the intellect more, in thinking, analyzing, calculating, we will block our ni, our natural intelligence. Because we are now here in this time, 20, 25, AI, the more you use AI, AI is not good. It can be very beneficial for us. But if you use AI all the time, so for, for example, whatever it is, you will lose ni. So you should sometimes start to do things by yourself. If you use, for example, AI to drive the car into the perfect parking slot, into parking, if you drive by yourself, you maintain these qualities. And what we do in our temple, tai chi, kung fu, qigong, meditation, all of these arts, they are meant to train and maintain and even cultivate this natural intelligence within us. This is one. The other one is attachment. So we are working, we are doing, we are this and that, but what many. So we are attached to that. We are attached to certain habits, certain ways of what we do, how we do, and so on. Attachment, attachment, how to release or let go. Even we know it's not good. First see attachment not as something wrong. Let's say, for example, you are attached to a person you cannot let go. You always want to go to that person, even if it's not healthy, or to these places. So first, don't see these things as something negative, bad or wrong. So I tell you it's not wrong. Because if you see it as something wrong and feel it as something wrong, you will just jump back in the intellect and trying to fix it. Fixing yourself, causing again. Then to fix others, which is again force, force, forceful. The world has enough force. Especially it's a young world. We don't need more Yang to balance. We need Yin. That's clear about these attachments. It's don't see it as something wrong, as something bad. See it simply as energy. It's a form of energy. When you're angry. I shouldn't be angry. When you're sad. Why am I sad? Just see it as a form of energy. The energy goes down. Then there's something, the energy goes up. See it as energy, not as your enemy. Very important. Second, when you see it as energy, not as your enemy. Now is to understand why am I attached to it? Let's say you are attached to working, working. Keep on going more and more and more. Now ask yourself what is deep inside yourself? What is the true, the real reason why I want to work? Why I want to work? What is the real reason? Not the superficial reason. The superficial reason is. Yeah, Because I want to help people. I want to help people. I want to make the world a better place. That's superficial. Deep inside of you, there's the true answer, the complete answer, which is you want to solve something within yourself. You feel not enough. You may be even running away from certain feelings. You're hiding in work or hiding somewhere. What is the real reason why you're attached to that person? Yeah, because I love her so much. Him, her, doesn't matter. It. No. The real reason may be something totally different. Because you're lacking, you're craving. You're searching, seeking for attention. You're seeking, searching for emotions, for the feeling that someone is seeing you. Why are you searching, seeking? Because you didn't have enough. You want to eat this and that. But why you really want? Because you're hungry. So it's very important to so about stillness, silence, practice. It's not about to be ah, soft silence, so often misunderstood. It's about to cultivate a certain. Or to dive back into a certain state of emptiness. And in that state of calm, like you said before, and empty. You can see everything, the whole picture. The holistic approach. It's so empty. Like you go into your house and you start to run from the living room into the kitchen. And then before you go out, you maybe go also to the bathroom, to whatever you do and so on. But if you just come into your house, you walk in very slow and then you stay standing in the middle of your house or your apartment just for a minute, maybe two minutes. And you look around left, right back. Now do you start to see these little details? Ah, that's the cup that I bought last year in. Wow. That's a blanket my friend gave me. Wow. And so on and so on. You start to see and feel naturally the little details. And then you see, oh, there is this dirt. Where does that. Ah, that comes from yesterday when I was eating and I dropped whatever it is. So we can only see what is there. The little details, the subtle things. If we calm down, we stop for a while. The less you have in your apartment, in your house, the easier it is to see. So you maybe just come into your house, your partner, and you just hold standing for 10 seconds. And there's only one cup and there's only one chair in it. Very minimalistic. So finish, you see. But our life is not like that. Most people life, Bucharest, Romania, fast capital life is. We are filled. The apartment, the house, it filled with a lot of stuff from clothes, this and that is full. So the more objects you have, the more. The more time it takes to truly see the little, little details and objects in there. Same regards your life. You understand. It's an example to understand something inside the mind space. If you want to see and find something, discover, explore something inside of you, you need to space. The more filled your space is because you have family, you have children, you have work, maybe you have two jobs. Yeah. Then you have. I don't know, maybe someone in your family is sick. So many things, so many obligations and responsibilities. That means the more yin you need, the more yin, the more calm down, the more. Yes, exhale. In order to balance. If you already yin, if you have already you live somewhere in the mountains, everything quiet, everything fine. Then you might need Yang Yang go do wake up. Discipline. But for the world you are living in, in my opinion, you need the opposite. It's based not on what I think it's based on the law of nature. Simply, it's about. Like we talked before about balance. Return back to balance means to return back to naturalness.
I have a few questions now.
Yeah, please. And I know with which one I have time.
First of all, you talk about balance and a friend of mine told me like a theory about balance and harmony.
Okay.
And I, I kind of feel to be more in the favor of harmony and not balance. Because when you talk about balance. Yeah. You think, you think about the scale and you have equal amount of. Or in order to have balance, you need equal amount on each side, right?
Yeah.
But we are all different. Maybe we don't need exactly balance, but we need the harmony. And maybe I don't need the balance between professional life and personal life, but maybe I find the harmony when I have more professional and less personal life. Or maybe other people find harmony when they have more of a personal life and less of professional life. Can this be, I mean, can. Can this fit more people instead of just finding a balance? Because I. I kind of feel anxious when I think about balance. I feel I need to give up on something.
So sometimes you need to give up something and sometimes you have to do something. But let's talk about giving up something. So there is this fear of losing something. Yeah. Let go. Give up. Because every time you give up something, it doesn't matter what it is. When you give up something, it always means you open up a door. In order, we say in our tradition, in our philosophies, in our temple, we say in order for something new to come, something old must go. Yeah, in order. Furniture, house, apartment. If you want new furniture, a new couch, a new kitchen, the old kitchen must go. We need to create space. If there's no space, you just overload it. So this is very basic understanding means like the way how we think is, ah, one kitchen. Now I want another kitchen and keep the old kitchen next to it. No. Maybe in the basement? No. Then the basement is full. So create space. It is very natural. Everything in nature, it comes and it goes. It comes and it goes. Like the clouds, like the weather, like the trees. The plant is coming, it's growing, and then it goes, it dies. Everything comes and it goes. And the same way we should live our life. You might be have a. Clothes. You have some clothes. After a while, you don't use them really anymore. You want new clothes, Give away the old clothes, get some new. It comes and it goes. That's natural. The natural flow of life can now pass through you. But if you're clinging and holding on to something, you just start to overload yourself. This is one. Next one is balance. Balance is leading to harmony. Balance again, clarification does not mean 50, 50. You can stay on one leg and lifting up the other leg and the arms are like this. And you're in balance.
Yeah.
It does not mean 50 50. It just means balance. Balance is a. Is a state inside of you. It's a state. It is not 50, 50. It is not calculating, analyzing this like that and that like this. This is just some outside structure or some way of thinking inside. Balance is a state. So there can be 70% on one leg and 30% on the other leg, while then again, maybe another regards the arms. There's 70% here and then 30% at the end. It's just that 100% has to be in balance.
So balance is not static.
No, balance is not static. Nothing in life, nothing in existence is static. Nothing. There's nothing. Not this table, not that glass, not this podcast, not you listening to this podcast. And whatever you think later, you listen to the same podcast again. You will think something different, you will feel something different, and you will maybe even look different wearing different clothes. It's another type. There's nothing in existence that is static, that stays. Everything is constantly changing. That's the law of nature, Law of impermanence. In Buddhism, we say impermanence. It's another thing in our temple that we cultivate with our students. To realize first, to recognize. To recognize that there is something like impermanence. If we don't recognize, we don't even know that there is something like impermanence means like everything is constantly changing. We just start to holding on to things. And when now the person, the thing disappears, breaks or whatever, we start to. Why the weather? Ah, sunny weather, summertime. And suddenly the weather starts to change. It starts to rain, it starts to get cold. And ah, why does it rain now? Why is it cold? Why did you leave me? Why did this and that? That is. Buddha would say stupid. So stupid is a modern word. But that's ignorance. Not understanding. Totally not understanding. Understanding what? Understanding reality. Understanding nature. Nature. In terms of how nature works, how does it work? It comes and it goes. It comes and it goes. So the weather now, it's sunny, it's warm, Great, good. Then it starts to rain. Ah, it rains. Beautiful something. No, rain is not beautiful. Who says rain is not beautiful?
The weather anchor. They said the weather is bad today. Who says it's bad? It's just raining. It's beautiful.
Who says it's rain? I'm singing in the rain. Yeah. Wow. And suddenly, wow, rain is so beautiful. I'm singing even in the rain. And then next day, ah, rain. And then we go to our friend, ah, it's raining again. And the friend, yes, it's Raining again. So we transmit. We are not conscious. We start to now about attachment. We start to like something. Attachment. We like something, we are attached to it. Or we don't like something. We are attached because we are attached to not liking something or we ignore. So the Buddha taught us like, I simplify now. If simplifying your language, you didn't speak like, like, don't like and ignorance. The weather. I like the weather. Wow, I really like it. Attached, I don't like that weather. Attached, ignorance, I don't care. Also attached in three ways. It's not working. You will suffer in life. Now this is the example of the weather. Now it's the same regards. Everything that happens in your life, everything. Food, I like, I don't like. That's what you feel. Or I don't care. Same suffering. That's the nature. You will suffer a person. I don't like that person. I like that person. Then the person is gone. Or I don't care about these people. Same in all three options. Ways it will lead to suffering. Suffering is already programmed. So none of these is an option for us. We train ourselves to be different. Different in which way? To become natural. When the weather is the weather. When it's warm, it's warm and we enjoy with bliss. Just like when the weather is cold, hot. It doesn't matter how we enjoy, enjoy, not enjoy. In terms of wow, it's bliss. It's a certain not feeling. It's a state of bliss, a state of complete fullness. And that complete state of fullness arises or naturally is when you are empty. Think of so this is what we do when we practice. So at the end, all, everything. The answer will be practice. Practice means now we practice Tai chi, kung fu, boxing, running, meditation, slow walking, meditation, fast running. It doesn't matter. We practice every time we practice or why we practice. Practice is the answer. Because when we practice, you forget yourself. You forget yourself. You forget your personality, you forget the past, the future, your achievements, even your name. You think you're running in the beginning. Oh, okay. So tired. But you keep on running, running. Keep on going at a certain state. If you run in the right way and you're really into the running, you're really into your movement, you're really into your dancing, you really go into the music. You forget everything. You're in a complete state of fullness. You are in the present moment, in the here and now, fully. And in that present moment, in that, in the here and now, you are sometimes. I heard you're in the zone you're in the zone now you're in the zone and in the zone, or in that state of being completely in the here and now, there's only one thing involved, which is bliss. Pure bliss. Bliss, not a feeling. You're not running and then you're in the zone and you are now, wow. No, you're just there. And so being empty, being in the zone, being full, being complete, does not mean to be dead. It does not mean you're like doing nothing in your debt. Totally wrong misunderstanding because of people not practicing and not making these experiences and so they cannot know how it feels. Go running, go dancing, go whatever you do, experience these states, go meditation, tai chi, qigong, whatever you do. If you don't know, how come we show you, or go find someone who is showing you. So in that state, it's not you are not doing anything, you are running in that moment. You are boxing, you are maybe cooking, you play music. You are in the zone. And the same way we can live our life, you are working, you are talking to people, you are doing whatever your job is, but you're fully here and now in the present moment. And that's why you enjoy so much the moment. You're in a complete state of bliss. This is what we say sometimes we say being in the here and now, being in the present moment. So many different wordings, ways to say it. But the most important as a teacher is to transmit or to lead, guiding the student that he can feel the right state. And this is only possible if we have right guidance. And that guidance has to see the whole picture. That's another thing that I want to share. It's very important to me, especially nowadays. We are all so connected through Outside Connected, Facebook, YouTube, podcasts and so on. So connected, but at the same time, so disconnected. Outside connected, but inside not connected. So what would I like to share is there's so much knowledge. You know, in the past, the masters in the different arts, doesn't matter, the great masters in China, they kept things secret, they didn't tell the student some techniques, because what? Because they want to keep it for themselves. I hear that so often, martial artist practitioners talking because they want to keep it for themselves. Yes, definitely, that also existed. But mainly good masters, good teachers, they don't tell you something, keep it hiding it from you, or don't tell because they want to prevent for you to misunderstand things because you are not ready for it. And the same thing nowadays, you have access to all the knowledge. Yeah, all kinds of practices in regards of meditation, how to open up the spirit, how to this, how to, yeah, do incredible, fascinating and crazy things. But these fascinating, crazy and incredible things are maybe not meant to be for you here right now. Maybe for you is now first to learn ABCD basics, fundamentals. What is he talking about? I try to give you one more example. The example of a gym. People can go to the gym, they can go for training, exercising only exercise only. Watching videos and podcasts, only practicing qigong, Tai chi does not mean it will. It is good. It does not mean you will become healthy. You can destroy your knees, you can go to the gym and create more back pain, shoulder pain and so on. You can destroy your body. Only going to the gym does not mean it's good. Going to the gym and knowing exactly what to do. Start first, maybe with a warm up, open the joint, warm up and so on. And then afterwards, go to train this part, then train that part. Because if you train in that order, your body can grow in a balanced way. If not, you will cause suffering, pain, health issues. So. But you don't know these things. In the beginning, people go to the gym, they go to training, they try to do things by themselves. Exploring, discover by themselves. Teaching themselves. Yeah, teaching themselves, mastering themselves. In my opinion, especially in this fast life. No, you need guidance. You need guidance and. Right, guidance. Because you are overloaded. You have so many misunderstandings, misconceptions. So it means you need a personal trainer. Yeah, someone in the beginning who is telling you how things work, what to take care of, how to warm up and what to. Not to do. Yeah, not to go and lift up in the beginning 200 kilos, but you think 200 kilos more is more. No, the personal trainer, because he is trained, educated, he made all of these experiences like a professional. He knows, he sees the holistic approach of it. He will guide you. And after maybe a month, less or maybe longer, you can do it by yourself. Same regards. All of this, all of the informations that you receive here at the end, I want to lead it into whatever you hear, take it with you. But at the end, practice. And when you practice, find guidance. Find someone who is giving you first is taking a look on you. Because like you said, doctor, everyone is different. You cannot say, for you it's this and for all of you, it's discipline or it's patient or it's stillness. The teacher, the personal training, the master has to take a look on you, has to see you and know. Ah, okay, for you, go running for you, sit, calm down, you're too active. And then next week we go running or boxing for you, kung fu for you may be qigong, and so on and so on. Without guidance, especially nowadays, almost impossible. The guidance. The master will guide you, will help you to get to a certain stage, and then the rest is on you. The rest is now. The master is now activating your inner master, your inner guide. Once that inner guide, that inner master is activated, now it's up to you. You have everything, all the important things that you need to know. Now it's up to you. And this is what we call in our temple, self mastery, True self mastery. Self mastery starts first with self discovery. Self discovery can only start or begin if we have someone who is showing us how to discover. It's like you're a doctor, you're a doctor. Now there are also people, they just take a knife and they start to do it. No, you need to study. There are so many things that you need to know. And then you become a doctor. And now you are teaching other people, explaining them how things work and how things not work. If they will try to do by themselves, maybe it works. Maybe if they're very conscious, very ni, Naturally intelligent, but, you know, mostly, no, it's not going to work. We need you as a doctor to tell them. We need me as a master, Hang Yi as masters, and many other. We need teachers, fathers and mothers who can show us the path, who can guide us, especially nowadays. And that's why I'm so glad, so happy to see that there's so many masters, so many teachers, so many people doing great podcasts and sharing all of that knowledge, making these things accessible. This is the first time actually in our history that that's possible, that someone is. We come here, we talk about these things. In the past, maybe you had to travel very, very far into other countries, and you maybe didn't have the chance for that. Now you just click and there it is. But the same way, click, there it is. Ah, but you can also click, there it is. And you get more confused, more confused because you click. Now you listen to that, then click. You listen to that and then click. And then which one now? Discipline or patience? Should I now go for running and boxing or should I meditate? How do. No guidance. Shufu, Hangi and me, we are very lucky. We had great guidance. Masters above us, their masters. These masters, they had masters again. And they had masters again and again and again and again. So we need fathers and mothers. We need someone above us that is guiding us. And that's Why? I like to say not just find guidance, I say find right guidance.
How can we make sure we find the right guidance and where to find the guidance?
I mean, yes, very great.
Probably there's not enough Shaolin masters for everyone. But if I think of it that way, we have a lot of priests and people find guidance in the church and in the priest and especially in like, let's say it, we have some like very open priests that can just guide you in your problem without taking you every time into the church, you know. So yeah, where can we find the right guidance?
If you are in traditional teaching or following like a teaching that is based on Eastern wisdom, like with us, for example, in our temple, it is always holistic. Yeah. The master, the teacher is always taking a look on you. Not just your movements, the movements, the left, right yin and yang, the energies, the qi, these are just tools. Also asking how is it with your parents, the relation with your parents, what do you work, where do you work, how's the weather there, what are you eating and so on. Is seeing you as a complete being, including all factors. That's different. Maybe nowadays, like you talked about it before with we are treating the symptoms, not not finding the root. Why? Because we live in a fast paced life, in a noisy and fast life. There's no time now to sit down and practice with me for a week. Yeah, yeah. Or longer. Or even for half year, or for a year or regularly. Because there is no time. We are looking for fast solutions. But these fast solutions, they are just temporary. You're listening to a podcast, you're listening to them and it helps you, it moves you to something, to the next level somehow. But if you really take a closer look, most people still not arrived. Yes, for sure. It's a process and it takes time, it's a development. But mainly I see that still not arrived because they don't get the core of it. They jumping from one topic to another topic, then from that topic, it's a mixed. It's like you're cooking and you mix up all kinds of ingredients. Yeah. Sometimes it tastes good, sometimes it tastes terrible. But at the end you will always have food. You will always have something coming out and you can eat and it's okay, sometimes not. How does it look like? Right, guidance again. We live in a young world, a forward world, a doing world. In Taoism we have something is called Wu wei. Wu wei is. It means effortless action or non action. It means to love without controlling, to move, to act without forcing. You're still energetic but you don't have attachment, wanting, no force. So Wu Wei is another basic or fundamental how we should move in life. So to come back forcing, doing. Let's take a look from the perspective of Wu Wei, how does it not look like? How does right guidance not look like? Yeah, this is based on you. What do you want if you're seeking for guidance? My students who come to me, they come also for Tai chi, for qigong and kung fu, but they're not coming for this. Most students, they're coming because they want to arrive in life. They're looking for peace, clarity, emptiness, fullness, something like this. So these qualities if the teacher has that he can transmit to the student. If you're looking for, let's say, power, like power, someone who has a lot of power or someone who has a lot of money. If you're looking for this, then find someone who has money, not people who are talking about money. Find someone who has money, who has power or whatever it is. And then you will get, you will get the skill that the person has. But take a closer look. There are some skills that you want, but what is it that you truly want in life? Maybe you get these skills, you get what you wanted, but you also. But you actually don't get what you truly want. Means you don't get peace, you don't get clarity, you don't get balance, you don't get arriving in life. How do I know? You take a look at the person. For example, people don't come to me. So students or people who are looking for power in terms of physical, external power in the temple, they don't come to me because I don't have that. Like the external physical power, I have internal powers in terms of knowing to a certain basic good degree. That's why I can be a teacher. Something about the chi, some internal, that's why they come. So what is the skill that you're looking for, is where you should look for. So what is right guidance for you is based on what you want, what you need, what you want. And most people, they are superficial. They want something outside. Money, power, strength, something like that, success. And then they get all of this. And then they become. Maybe you become super rich, you become super famous, you become a rock star, whatever it is, but you still suffer. No peace, no clarity. Yeah, the emotions all messed up. So right, guidance. From my perspective, in our tradition is someone who has certain virtues, embodied virtues embodied to a degree that you don't have. Someone who has certain, not only one virtue, but many virtues. Many different virtues. You're looking for equanimity. Find someone who has equanimity. You're looking for someone who has peace. Find the guidance who has peace. You take a look, you see a person who is like angry, sad all the time. You won't get peace there. You see a person who's talking bad about others or negatively who's judging. Yeah, well, Mahayana Buddhism, no. Or Tai Chi, you don't need that. Or Kung Fu. No. Who needs it? You only need this and that. Or you talk bad about, negatively, about other countries, other people. You are judging. So if you're judging means, or the person is judging, filled with expectations, how it should be, not be. It means the person cannot have equanimity or has it, but not strongly enough. So if you want equanimity, you want peace, you want clarity, and so on. All these virtues or these energies, these skills that the Buddha, the Buddha represented, then find Buddhas, find the people who have this. But nowadays, we. We admire what we actually, what we don't really need. We admire people who suffer very often. Rock star. Wow. I want to be a rock star too. But if you see behind the scenes suffering, we take a look on top. I want to be a top manager as well. Get up there. Da da, da, da da. Wow, we admire them. But if you look behind the scenes very often, not always, but very often suffering. Family life, social life, this and that, suffering hard, not open, closed, but reach. Definitely something outside. We admire these people. People get from one position into the next position. We how to say you lift up, they get to the next position. Who gets the next position? The one who has the strongest push, who has the strongest force. Because that one will move the company to the next level to earn, to get more money and so on. We are not taking the person who has balance. We are taking the person and lift them up and admire who has most Yang energy, the most chi, not the one who has the balanced qi. And this is something. Yeah. Not healthy. If we would take the people and put them into position who have balanced qi, we create a balanced company. We create a balanced project, balanced life. If you put the ones with the most chi up there, then we get more and more Qi. More and more qi. You will work without sleeping. You will work. You cannot stop because you have overheating. Yang Qi. We call your system is too much up here. Here. That's why the overthinking comes. The young society, the young world, and the young world within yourself. Everything is too much up. Yeah. Because we don't have the basic understandings that life is not about more. More Chi Better. No, less Chi or Qi? Less. No, balanced Qi. Balance. Yeah, balance. If we have balanced Qi, then also life balanced. So this is. If you're looking, seeking, trying to find right guidance, take a look. Take a closer look. Before you try to find right guidance, ask yourself, what are you truly looking for? Something superficial or something deep that will move your life into truly being happy, fulfilled. Peace. Finally, peace. And arriving in life. Everyone can choose for themselves. Yeah. So that means we cannot force anyone. We are so different. And everyone is on different levels of consciousness. Me, for example, my Hang Yi shufu, other Hang Li Shufu in our temple, we have reached because we practice certain degrees, certain levels of consciousness. So we are more interested now in different things like peace, clarity, balance and so on. Still power. But before, when we were younger, when I was younger, I was not interested in that. I want power, I want to run, I want to boxing, I want to be cool.
What do you mean younger? How younger?
Teenager, let's say teenager. Okay, yeah, let's say teenager life. Teenager life. And a little bit afterwards, what I wanted was something more superficial, something more outside. You maybe want to look good.
Yeah.
You maybe want to be successful. Something simply outside. Yeah, less inside. And then you experience all of this. And the more you experience all of this, after a while you see, wait, it's all just the same over and over again. And then, because you made the experience always the same, you will naturally look, seeking for something deeper. Because it's boring to you. In the beginning. You like. Let's talk about men and women. You like a certain type of man. He should look like this strong muscle, big, and have a big car and a big house and successful, stable in life. Or maybe a woman. A woman should be like this. Beautiful, long hair, wearing that type of clothes and being very soft, cooking for you, and so on and so on. You're looking for a woman, a man, something, a job, doesn't matter, something outside. But now, Romania, Bucharest as well. I walked to the streets. I came here first time over 10 years ago with Hang Yi. And we come every year again. And I'm always happy to see and be here. Bucharest. Timmy, Shoala, Cluj. Maybe one day I will move here. Depends. Yeah, depends. Really. I can see, really Romanian people. You progress so fast. I remember over 10 years I came here. The people, how they looked at me. What I felt was totally different than today. Every year I can see that change. It is progressing. It's changing. It's Development. It's working. And I see now people, yes, we are still a little bit superficial and this and that. We like money, we like this and that. But something has shifted. Something opened and something now is asking. I can see it in the eyes, in the energy field. Something is asking for more than just like this or like, wow, why? Because you experienced that over so many decades and you're already getting bored of that. Same like all other countries and cultures. It's a process, a development. It's like you're eating, you're always, wow, it's so tasty. Tasty. After a while you will ask, okay, isn't there more? And you're looking for something deeper, deeper connections.
And you see that in Romanian people.
Yes, I can see that. Deeper connections, deeper feelings. Not just also talking about feelings. Yeah, I feel this, I feel that. Okay, but real deep human connections. Something really deep that is beyond even feelings, beyond emotions. Something that is, yeah, very powerful, that has deep spirit, you know, And I can definitely see that because naturally, all cultures, but especially also the Romanian culture, you have this. Yeah, you have this deep spirit. It is just. It's not fully open, not everywhere. But before it was more closed. Every year I come, it opens up more and more. The spirit, we call it in our temple, Shaolin spirit. Because we belong to the Shaolin tradition. No one must need to become Shaolin. Everyone has spirit. Everyone. You have your own spirit. And every spirit is powerful. It is just about to unleash or to open and to find your spirit. The wisdom inside of you, the wisdom of the heart can only if you open up, can only come if you maybe once a while, take off your mask, your makeup, your achievements. Stop talking who you are, what you have achieved and how strong you are. Just talk about how you feel. Yeah. Show who you truly are and you will meet people, you will attract people who show how they truly are. True connection happens. Deep connection happens. Wear a mask. You will attract and meet people. That's the law of nature, who wear mask. And so connections will stay superficial.
You know, you. I mean, so far I understand that we need guidance and we need to find guidance seeking what we truly need. And we find somebody that has those inside virtues and we follow those that guidance. But still, you said at the beginning about the natural intelligence. Yeah, that's a chef, a big like three star Michelin restaurant chef. He doesn't have a type. He just feels that you said about the parking, that we don't calculate stuff. But the truth is that at the beginning we have those Recipes, you know, like when you go to the driving school, there actually is this recycle. Like you go until the car is in that angle and you turn 45 degrees and you park and you practice that until you find that. I don't say that intelligence. And you don't need to calculate anymore. The, the Michelin star, the Michelin restaurant chef, he started with recipes. He was like 200 grams of rice, 200 grams of chicken. So you start with the recipe and you practice it until you fill it. Can you give us a recipe for that? Before everyone finds like a guidance, like a true guidance in somebody. Can you just share a recipe? We can start practice now to find this wisdom of the heart before I.
Give you the recipe or the recipe, the tool. You said we need to go to driver license school in order to learn how to drive the car. Same as the cook. You need to learn like this and that and so on. Yes, that's true. Yeah. But if you go, for example, to Laos. Laos. My mother, half Chinese, half Lao, my both parents, they grow up in Laos. So the way how we learn driving the car or the motorbike actually is the father takes you, you may be four or five years old, and put you in the front, take your little hands, put it, and then you start to drive together with the father. When your arms become a little bit, your body a bit more stable, he will let go of one hand. Later on, he will let go of two hands. So this is a natural and direct way. Without thinking how to do it, to learn it. You think of the cook or you think of not the five star Michelin cook, but you think of grandmother in the village, maybe Romanian grandmother in the village, cooking. Same. Perfect. Wow. Some same. Did he really? Did she really? Yeah, maybe from her grandmother and so on. But there was like more a natural approach and the same way it can be for us, like more and more natural. This is very important. Yeah, very important also to understand. So we no need to necessarily do something in order to get somewhere, and we need to do something in order to get somewhere. And the thing is just now you learn how to drive the car, and when you learn how to drive the car, it's like alignment. You just learn the forms. Once you have the forms, you let go of the forms. Like Buddhism. In the beginning we study Buddhism, but later on, forget Buddhism. It's just nature. Because same the Buddha. The Buddha did not study Buddhism. Makes no sense. Yeah, he discovered actually something that he called now, or we call Buddhism. It's like mathematics. Who invented Mathematics or who invented music? No one. We just discovered mathematics, we just discovered music. Exactly. The same is with all of these things that are happening within us. It is not necessarily something that we need to do, but something that we discover. We can only discover if we start a journey. What kind of a journey? A journey into oneself. A journey into oneself, not a journey out of oneself. The podcast is helping you, listening to this and that and so on, but it's still all outside talking to a friend about emotion. Okay, great helping you. But at the end you still need to go inside. So discovering, exploring and transforming oneself requires to go inside into oneself. Please don't forget. Especially nowadays in this fast paced and noisy world. Don't get distracted and pulled outside. Go outside, learn, study, listen, podcast masters, friends. But then afterwards take it and go back inside. So journey into oneself is very important.
You need like a special place or a time for that to travel into yourself.
Yes. You need the space and you need the time. If you say you don't have time, it's a lie. You just did not create the space. Why don't you create? Ah, because my family. Because my job. No, because of Wrong view. In Buddhism, the Eightfold Path, the first of them is Right View. Right View means you see how the things truly are. The holistic, you know, it doesn't matter. Yeah, there's the job, there's the family, but now is the time. Enough is enough. Now is the time to go inside. Right view. Now is the time to go back, taking care of something outside. Right view. Ah, now is the moment to go back inside. Right View is the first of the first noble truth of the Eightfold Path in Buddhism. And it's very important. Right view cannot be calculated, cannot be analyzed. Right View is based on wisdom. Wisdom, Wisdom of the heart, we call it. Or simply let's take heart out to simplify its wisdom. Right view is pure wisdom. Pure wisdom is something that you cannot calculate, you cannot analyze, you cannot do, you can only undo. So wisdom arises within you or passes through you. Very often people mix up or they mix up or they misunderstand. Wisdom is not cleverness or smartness. Smartness is ah, if I do this, then I get this, and if I get this, then I get to there. If I take that project, I do this, I get more money. Okay, Then with the money I can create that finish. That's the end of the way. How you think so limited, so short of weeding. That's not wisdom. That is cleverness or smartness. Cleverness and smartness can Be okay, I do this, then I do that. And then afterwards go here and then here, and then this, this, and then that. And I put this all together and then it's like. That's cleverness. Cleverness or smartness has limitations because the intellect has limitations. But pure consciousness, pure consciousness. Wisdom is unlimited. You can see not 1, 2, 3, 4, 4. You see all points, all points, all possibilities that exist. Why can you see all? Because there is no you. Because you are empty. Because you are not looking, you are just there. And because you see all points, all possible possibilities in which your life could go, you choose the one that leads you into harmony, into a peaceful life and a happy life. But if you're just clever and smart, you see the possibilities, some possibilities, and you choose the one that is what you think it's best for you. At the end, maybe it goes well, maybe it goes not well. At the end, you will not arrive. Because arriving means to truly understand. We are already here. So how to do all of this? Can you give me a practical advice? Can I do something? So we practice Tai chi, we practice qigong, we practice Kung fu boxing. So many different forms in our temple. You no need to do this. You can create your own. Maybe you play music, maybe you like dancing, maybe you like, I don't know. Whatever it is, it is about the state of the mind that you're moving yourself in. What is that state? Like I explained before, when you run the zero point, that's the state. The more you train that state and in that state, it becomes your foundation, your home. The less you are in that state, it becomes something you're going in. Once a while you're like, wow. Yeah, and you're just here. But 90% you're out. It should be the other way around. Seven days a week. Yeah, maybe two days a week. Okay, you can be out. But five days a week you are home. You are in the here and now, in the present moment. But yeah, fast paced modern life, it's the other way around. We are working five days, we are running from A to B. We are out. And on the weekend we come home Saturday. It takes time to calm down. And maybe on Sunday. Ah, it's so beautiful. Great. That's not balanced. That's not balanced. So how is the feeling? Or what is it? All the practices that we do and then you can also do or find is to release or to let go. The illusion of the ego. I still have this character Som Pet. Or in that case now Shufusuan. And it's Helping me, it is serving. But I'm not caught in that same. Whoever you are, doctor, professor, worker, whatever you work, wherever, whatever you work, you're not identified and caught with yourself. This is what it means when we say, yeah, you are not caught or clinching or being caught in the ego. So when the illusion of the I and the illusion of the you, I and you, me and you, when the illusion of that softens. Softens, yeah, then the heart, the wisdom of the heart, and the heart will start to bloom. It will start to come out in tenderness. It's so simple. And what to do, how to do it, at the end, it will all come back to practice. There's no one pill when you have headache that I can give you and then it goes away. But yes, there is one pill that I can give you and then the headache will disappear, but it will come again because the cause is something different. So if you're asking me now, can you give me the pill to release my headache? I can give you an exercise, for example, To inhale and exhale, to feel your body, your breath, the present moment. But it is helpful. But again, the cause, the root, is not solved. It will help you temporarily and it will calm you down. And you need this calmness in order to continue working. But it is not the final solution or the solution itself. It is just a tool, an instrument that helps you.
So yeah, we have to practice whatever we practice and to be in that zone, not just one hour a week, but more often. And about the practicing of this, about the Shaolin practice, another question we have in our audience on the first podcast, is, is Shaolin practice meant only for men or is there a place for women? Can a woman follow this path of self discovery in a Shaolin temple?
Definitely yes. In our temple we have different programs. We are adapted to modern life, especially in the West. Our temple is located in Germany, southwest of Germany, Shaolin Tempe, Europe, Hidden midden, in the Middle east of the forest. And men are welcome. And women are also welcome. Everyone is welcome. Children are welcome, young people welcome. Older people are welcome. We have practices for everyone. Fast, slow, more quiet, more active, everything. We adapted. So it's like Eastern wisdom in modern life, you can say, but traditionally, only men. A temple, only men. Another temple, only woman. Nuns, for example. Nuns in a temple, dedicating their life for the path of spiritual and Buddhism. We are no nuns and no monks. We are a temple. The temple has masters, practitioners, students, all types of practitioners. And masters are welcome. In our temple. We are very open. But we have something is called discipleship. So if young people want to, after, for example, they finish school, they say, I look at this world and I see there is no real purpose in that. I want to find my real purpose. And I see if I go deeply inside, starting that journey into myself at the temple, I might find that. So we have groups of young people, boys coming living with us. The discipleship takes one year. So they stay with us one year. If you pass one year and you like it, living with us, training with us, following our rules, you can continue another year if you like it. And if we like you, yeah, if you pass that two years, you go into another year. So it's like a program until after a while you can become a teacher and then educated. After another while, you can even become a master. So there are different paths that we offer for people, especially for young people. We have this discipleship to give young people a perspective. I can see many young people nowadays, they don't have perspectives, even not young, older people too. And these young peoples, we need to take care more of them, give them purpose and allow them to find purpose and discover themselves and taking care, because they are the future. If we take care well of them and they become masters, guides, they can guide us afterwards, we send them out into the world and they do basically, after the discipleship, teacher, master, become like what Hang Yi and me are doing right now, traveling around the world, doing podcasts, teaching people, sharing all of that knowledge and wisdom.
What does it mean, like to find your purpose and how does it feel like? Is it like power and fire? Or is it like stillness and calmness? Or is it a balance between those two?
Finding, knowing your purpose or finding your purpose, you know, that's the purpose. It's not the job that you have that you say, ah, I found my job that I love. That's a passion. Yeah. I found now Tai Chi, for example, for me, in my life, I found my teacher, I found my practice, I found Tai Chi. This is my purpose. No, it's not my purpose. It is part of my life purpose. But it's a passion. And so we have different passions, we have different little purposes and so on. All together, all together it makes the purpose of your life. How do you know you have found the purpose in your life? You know, what do you mean? How do you, you know, it is so clear. It's not a feeling, it is knowing. Knowing is not thinking. So whatever I'm going to say, trying to explain to you, you cannot think it as long as you Think, ah, that's my purpose. No, it's a clear. It is something that is very clear. It cannot be explained in words. It's like something like simply how it is. It is knowing. It's based on the wisdom of the heart, on wisdom. So these levels that we are now going into, you dive into levels where we cannot talk about it anymore. In terms of the more we talk about it, the more I going to confuse you. But you can experience. So the way how you can get there is to experience. It's the same way like we talk about love. What is true love? What is my purpose, purpose of life, what is happiness? What is love? Cannot. Yeah, we can talk about. And then we get closer and closer to certain feelings of what love might be is and what it not is. So we take this out and listen in. But at the end, love, consciousness, purpose and so on, it's already there. It is not something you find outside. It is something already inside of you.
But for you, was it a moment you found that you could feel your purpose, that you was having your purpose? Was it a moment in time?
No, it's not. You wake up and then suddenly, that's my purpose, not to wake up. That's love.
Was it built in time? I mean, do you remember a moment when you were searching for a purpose and was not like, was confused and then another moment you, you felt that. Yeah, you have your purpose.
Very good, very nice. Thank you. Thank you. I was not searching. I was not searching. And I think this is one of the main things why I found purpose or the way of what I found and what I know, knowing, wisdom and so on is because I was not searching. I was. So I did what I did and I moved on. Still for sure, here and there, push and pull and yin and yang, ups and downs. But I didn't have this craving for searching and trying to find something. Why? Because the way how I grow up is I felt good. I was like a positive child, playing a lot, making a lot of jokes. And I felt if I compare, very often people say, for example, they have fear or they don't feel enough. This is dependent on our past. If we don't feel enough, we have fear. And we have a lot of are difficulties in life suffering through all of these difficulties. Naturally we will try to look for solutions because our nature is we don't want to suffer. So we're looking for solutions. We're looking for someone, something that is helping us. Maybe a teaching, maybe Buddhism, maybe it's a woman that I have to Talk to a man I have to talk to. Maybe I have to read a book. So we are searching. Yeah. I was never searching. And maybe because of that, maybe because I was not searching so hard, I was finding it or I found it. Why? Because it's already here. If we are too much searching, wanting, we will go out too much, we will look. Where is it? Who I have to talk to? What do I have to learn and understand? What do I have to do? So we are going more out, we are more in the doing again. But it's already here. Yeah. So it's not about doing and it's also not about not doing. Everyone is different. Some people need to do more, some people need to do more. But all the doing at the end, whatever you're trying to learn, to understand, to practice from kung fu, Tai chi, Buddhism or any other, at the end, it's all just meant to go here, go there, go there, go there, and at the end just come back here. So some people, if it's your karma, is to go, go, walk to get here, why to go? Because here you learn something and now you release something. Ah, you become more open, you understand something, it leads you to here. Now here you learn something else, you become more. At the end, it doesn't matter, it's here. So we cannot say it's already here. And now all you need to do is just here. For some it's working. For me it did. But because I didn't have so much difficulties in this life and in the past life and. Or I had these difficulties, this is how it is. And I already went that path or some of us went that path. That's why we have that wisdom. If we did not make these experiences, we don't know. We come to this life, we come to here and everything is strange to us. So for some people, yes, we need to go more out in order to come back. For others is we need to go more inside and just remember again and rediscover. Ah, that's it. There it is. So simple.
So there's nothing wrong in searching outside. You're just on the path of coming back. You know, there's mathematics, I don't know how it's called in English, but in Romania it's trigonometria. Trigonometria. And there is this circle when you start from 0 and you go to 2p and 2p is equal to 0, it's in the same place.
Correct.
So you go from the zero and you go in for searching for a lot of Things on your path to coming to 2p, which is the peak and is equal to zero. It's in the same place. You come back in the same place. So, you know, in ds. I mean, what I feel like after talking to you, I feel that probably some of us, we need to search more inside and not outside. I still think we need more podcasts with you maybe, maybe a series. Because literally I have all of these unanswered questions and all of your answers just made me think of 10 more questions. So maybe we have to make a series sometime. Maybe I'm going to visit you on the temple and we record lesson there. But in the end, for the people that are looking, and I feel like the young generation, they. They feel that they kind of cannot find their path. You know, they cannot find the direction because there are so many things like exactly one podcast says go and look for, for. For the purpose. Another podcast says don't look for the purpose. Then they see a lot of like, they see other. They need money. They see all of the other people on the Internet that make really easy money. They. They go, they go to take a job and they make less money. So they feel lost. What if they are looking now? What would be your simple advice? Where to start? How to. Which is just the next step. What is just the next step for somebody that is just. That is not finding his direction in life.
So we talked a lot. We talked a lot about this, about that. So many different topics. We trained different parts of the body. The arm, maybe the shoulder, maybe like you said, there are many, many more parts of the body. You cannot train the body and transform from one day to the next and then you complete first. Transformation is a process. Transformation is a process. Means you develop every day a little bit more. The more you practice, the more you develop. But remember, enough is enough. Practice enough. Not too much, not too less. Continue the next day. Transformation is a process. Don't force yourself too much. Next thing is for the young generations and for us, we talked about many, many topics. It doesn't matter. Young man, woman, old. At the end you still need a personal trainer. At the end it means you still need guid. Okay, because we talked now about the different body parts and how and what it is good for. But we didn't. We still don't have the guidance. You still need guidance. Same as the young generations we talked about is they need a father, they need a mother, they need parents who teach them, who teach them what virtues are, what respect is. Yeah. What patience is, what discipline means. What this and that means. Yeah, and so on. What wisdom is, what cleverness is, what smart. We need parents that teach us. Now, the thing is, our parents, maybe some of our parents nowadays, because they're so busy, we're trying to bring you food into the house and pay the bills, they don't have time for that. And maybe even their parents, they didn't have time for that to teach them and so on. Somehow the knowledge or the wisdom got lost somewhere. So how to bring it back? So there has to be someone or there has to be people who now remind these parents, the adults. Yeah, the adults, the parents, the older ones, of all of these virtues, of all of that wisdom to remind you it's already inside of you. No need to learn too much, just to remember. And that needs guidance. It's the responsibility of the older ones, the adults, the younger gener, the younger generations, you know, they all. Yes, the younger generations are the way, how they are, because the older generations didn't teach them the right way, didn't educate, didn't take care of them. So it's in our responsibility, the older ones, to take care of the younger ones. Stop blaming the younger generations. And the younger generations stop blaming the older generations. Because the older generation, the younger generation, my father, my mother, they always tell me this and that. They have no idea how the world functions nowadays and start to understand. Yes, because your father, your mother, is coming from a totally different time, had a different past. Growing up in Romania, do you know how Romania you live now? In this life, right now, modern life in Bucha. But do you know how it was here, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago? This is the life. If you take a look, maybe go on Google, watch something about history and see how your parents grew up, then you will understand why they are the way, how they are. That's why he. She talking like this. That's why the masters, the teachers, the parents are like that at the end. Yes, it might be not the right approach, but their intention. Remember, this is another of the Eightfold path in Buddhism. The intention is always a good one. They have right intention, they just maybe don't have right view, need right guidance. Every time I come and teach Romanian people, they are very dedicated, very committed, very different. When I go to other countries where I feel, oh yeah, you show me maybe a little bit of yours, and next week I go there, they appreciate it way more. And this is something I love about Romanian culture, Romanian people and coming here. That's why I'm thinking about where can.
We find like your next workshops, is there like a website where people can visit no matter when they watch the. The podcast? So we can. We can put the website.
So for now, we don't have that. Okay. But we are currently building on something.
Okay, good. So when you have that, we're gonna. We're gonna publish it in the description of the video.
Yes. For now we have Shaolin Temple Europe, our homepage, our main temple, the homepage. And then we have side projects. Okay. We have also side projects. That means, for example, journey into Oneself is another webpage and another side project where we are focusing on retreats and workshops outside the temple. Okay, good. So there's something inside the temple, and there are things happening outside the temple. For the things inside the temple, you go to that page, and for the other ones, you go there. But there's more coming. We are currently building, building on that. So, yeah, younger generation talking a lot. Older generations practice. At the end, it all comes back to the same. We need to find right guidance. And we need to. Which will lead us to start to practice. Practice is the answer. Thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking. Watching is a tool. It is something that leads you to the practice. If you have only the talking, but without the practice, without going inside, transformation will not happen. It will be just an accumulation accumulating more and more of knowledge. More knowledge, more smart, more clever, but also overloaded, confuses you. Or how to not to find right guidance. So, yes, maybe next year, dependent also on invitations and our schedule. Maybe if there's a request from Romania or Bucharest for more teachings, I will be very open to offer with my team. More. Yeah. More chances, more opportunities to learn. Yeah.
This is great. And yeah, thank you so much for taking your time and bringing some wisdom here at the podcast.
Yes, thank you too. Maybe one last thing that I would like to. Yeah. Every time Hang Yi Shufu, Hang Yi and me come here. There is. I want to say, there's something. Yeah, there's something about Romania. We travel a lot. But there's something. Every time I see, when I walk along the street, every city, Timisoara, Cluj, Buk, all different. But there's something you have all in common. There's like something ancient in your soil. Something also something very powerful in the people. The people very powerful. And something sacred. Even we don't talk. Yesterday I walked the street, I see the people. We don't talk. But there's something we have similar. I can see this mainly mostly in Asian culture. Something like sacred in that silence. And within every single person, within everyone in here, there's like a deep wisdom, and there's something very deep. Now the question is how to unfold or how to open that. I know like we talked before, that this land, this country, has known hardship, the past, the history, but it has also known beauty. In order to open and to find that beauty is all about you. To take your mask down and to open up the heart, the wisdom of the heart, or take heart away. To find inner wisdom. Inner wisdom by opening up. Yeah.
That's so, so beautiful hearing that about Romanian people.
Yes, it's true.
So thank you so much.
Honest.
Yeah. Thank you again for. For taking your time and coming here to the podcast and having this talk. Probably just the. The first one in cities that will come next. Yeah. And probably we're gonna see you again at the the Inner Mapping Inside. Yeah. So I want to thank the Inner Mapping Insight for. For bringing you to. To. To the podcast and. Yeah, thank you so much. I'm going to switch to Romania now for public.
Yes.
Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming. Inside. The inner mapping inside. Educative. She mutsumesk. She know. Ciao pekurant.
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