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Master Shun Hung Yee? That's fine thank you very much. How are you my brother? Good. Good to see you. This is the kind of conversations I love about life, about just so many different topics and I've watched some of your stuff where it's very enlightening, it's very fresh. A lot of people can resonate with it, especially today's society where a lot of people do struggle. But before we get into everything, first and foremost I just want to thank you for coming on the show but always like to go back to the start with my guests. Get a bit of understanding about you. Where do you grow up and how it all began? Yes. So I grow up in Germany, was also born in Germany, but in early ages already. So when I was like four years old my father he decided I am supposed to learn some martial arts. So this is where he put me into a Shaolin school where I started getting in touch the first time with what we nowadays know as Shaolin Kung Fu. And on the way of growing up meaning also going through the German school system, also studying, doing all of these things. But my passion has always been doing something with the body. So which means I didn't really like to study too much books or anything. I prefer to spend my time outside. And I have to say that it has always followed me, meaning having this let's say normal way of life going to school, learning. But all the rest of my spare time I spent actually doing martial arts, more precisely like Chinese Kung Fu. And it is following me now since 36 years this year. And in the very beginning I was also not interested in the philosophical sides of all of these teachings because you know when you do martial arts it's more about the skills that you are developing and also the physical abilities that you are developing. Yes, so physical abilities meaning your rate of flexibility, your rate of strength, your speed. So there are many different categories on our body that we can develop. This was my primary let's say focus. But along the way of always staying with this type of practice I also realized that the state of mind, the way how when you walk out on the street, when you're surrounded by a huge crowd or when some stressful situations come up, it's also changing something about yourself on the inside. So and this was the point where I also realized let's say that the way how I let's say perceived the things around me was thanks to all the physical practices that I did before. And what we nowadays let's say from the modern science know is that there are so called psychosomatic issues, psychosomatic problems, meaning the way if you have a trauma, if you are cultivating something inside of yourself. You keep it for a too long time, you suppress it, you suppress your emotions, you suppress your feelings. All of this can lead to the fact that maybe your physical body is starting to show some signs of conflict, some signs of sickness, or some signs of not feeling well. And so the key point and why I'm also trying now since almost 10 years or even longer, what I try to bring a little bit out to the people is that idea in the moment where we take more care, more conscious care of our own body. We can at the same time simultaneously also access what we humans nowadays call our mind, our thoughts, our emotions, our feeling, meaning this inside world. Inside world meaning it is right now even if you're sitting right opposite of me, I can see your body, I can see the reactions of your body, all of this. What I cannot see is what is going on in your inside world right now. In turn though. Why do you think so many people are struggling because they don't look after themselves? Because you know the Western society, especially Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales, there's a lot of drinks, there's a lot of drugs, there's a lot of overindulging in food, a lot of toxic stuff. I was part of that for many, many years. Thankfully I'm free of it. I still overeat sometimes, which I know is a poison. Why do you think as a human being we know it's wrong but yet we still do it? Okay, on the one side I think it is culturally related. So of course depending on in which nation, in which country we are growing up, of course you are influenced by the way how our parents are teaching us, by the kindergarten, by the teachers, by the government, all of this of course is influencing us. Just along this journey, along yourself as a human walking this way, the question is if you are sometimes starting to actually observe yourself. Observing yourself means that in our tradition we say there are no coincidences. In our tradition what we in the traditional language speak about is it's called karma. Many people maybe heard this word already but karma just means if you want one day to have an orange tree somewhere in the past you must plant the seed for that orange tree to grow. If you want an apple tree you need to plant the apple seed. In this world it just doesn't happen that we are planting apple seed and get orange tree. This is not happening. So that also means now in regards to us humans if right now 2023 I'm unhappy with many circumstances in my life with my body with my habits that I have. It's not coming from nowhere. It's not coming from coincidence. It is coming from all of the things that I have done in the past. So the first observation is first of all to just look at yourself sometimes and take this status quo. How do I feel right now? Where do you see like your areas where you could still improve yourself and then try to relate this to everything that happened in the past to your behavior in the past to your thinking patterns in the past. And just based on this type of observing yourself taking a moment and watch yourself what are you talking? What are you thinking? What are you saying? How are you behaving? Just based on that normally if you watch carefully enough you will already start to build up a connection between the past and who you are right now. So you start to actually realize that you are exactly where you have to be right now. It couldn't have been different regarding the past that you have. It couldn't be any different. The good news right now is the future is not here yet but what is the logical consequence? Let's say it like this. The past brought you to the present and so all the actions from this day on what you are thinking, what you are saying, what you are doing, the way how you are behaving all of this is going to build up the future version of yourself. So who you are going to be in 2024-25 is all dependent on what from today on you are going to do. And that this type of just observing yourself realizing that there is this connection again places some type of power back into your hands. And now comes the second maybe big area. It is the feeling sometimes that you feel you think that you don't have your life in your hands because there are too many external influences that are like. Let's say influencing us. The decisions of the government, the policies that they are bringing out, the development in the world, the colleagues at the work, everybody, your wife, your husband, whoever, they all influence you. But if that is the case, I would just ask myself the following question. If the way how you feel about yourself walking through daily life, if you are not satisfied with it and you want to change something about it, there are now two ways. Either you take it into your hands or you try to change all these external stimulus, all these external influences to adjust them in such a way that they are going to behave in the way how you expect them to behave. So the colleagues should be exactly how you imagine your colleagues to be. The government should bring out exactly the policies that you want them to bring out. The world is going to develop exactly the way how you imagine it should happen. And now I just ask you which of these two ways, changing yourself or trying to change the outside world, which of these two ways do people think is the more realistic one? Yourself. So that's the bottom line. Very simple. The realization of course it's natural if you don't think about exactly this type of thinking. Of course it's normal that we are being influenced by external things until you realize there is no way that you could change all of this on the outside. Do you feel that being in London and seeing people in such a fast paced life where they've got nine to five job, they've got bills to pay, they've got the noise of the TV, the radio, everything's noisy. Their mind isn't quiet enough to see and calm and make that decision of being in a conscious frame. Do you see this also how fast it is and how people are so just caught up in a life where they feel as if that's all they can do? Yes. Of course it is fast paced. Of course it's not also to say if somebody is satisfied, is happy and has a fulfilling joy in living this way of life, there's no need to change. What we are talking about, what we try to offer is if you have a job, if you have a family, if you have your first car, your second car, if you are able to travel where you would like to travel and still have the feeling something is still missing then it makes sense to start watching, changing your view and let's say focusing on something different. Yes. But looking out in this world we normally say your character derives from all the habits that you have. Because my life is going amazing. I'm not drinking, I'm not taking drugs, I'm not gambling, I'm successful, I just retired my mum where she's now three but I never feel good enough, I always feel as if there's something more missing and it doesn't upset me because I get on with it but I'm conscious of, I don't know if I'm not sure enough gratitude, I don't know if I've become greedy for success and it's good to be successful but everybody's defined success differently but for me it's just there's always an element of something missing, there's always an element of I'm not good enough. What's that feeling? Yes. It's the feeling of lick. So all our actions in the moment we wake up. If we wake up and always have constantly the feeling I am not enough. This episode is sponsored by Fireaway Pizza, the fastest grown pizza company in the UK with over 150 stores. With their fresh quality ingredients and unique pizzas they will have you coming back for more. Use code James20 for 20% off. That's James20 for 20% off. It feels like there's still some hole which always needs to be filled up again. So that's why this world is offering us so many different possibilities, how you can fill up this gap that sometimes you feel about yourself, how you can fill this up. Sometimes you can fill it up with money, sometimes you can fill it up with drugs, sometimes you can fill it up with other substitutes. But where does this feeling come from that you are not enough? The gut. Yes. And how did they get there? I don't know. I think it's just years and years of disconnect. Being in a state of I am good enough. I do affirmations every day. I do a lot of positives but I don't feel as if I'm consistent. I feel as if I'm caught up in a game. I feel I'd like to think I'm in tune with life. If I'd like to think I have good intuition, obviously there's levels to it, especially a master like yourself but I'm not silly either. I know when there's something not right. I know I should be working more but the temptation of overindulging is it's always there and I've found the strength to cut a lot of negatives in my life. I believe the most important one is controlling what you eat and I believe that's the one where I struggle the most and I feel when I eat that's my comfort. That's when it's like pleasure. Well obviously the brain it can be pleasure on the mind but it's a vice that I want to get over and give my best to the world because I know then I can lead a better life for not just myself but the people around me. I'm not sure about the school system here in the UK but at least in Germany when I was going to school it was still like this. First grade until fourth grade is elementary school and then actually already in the fourth grade the classes are being separated based on the grading meaning some are able to go to let's say we call it like let's say gymnasium you know one of them can go there and the other ones need to go to like the I don't know how to call it the average normal schools so there's already some type of separation happening based on the grading the grading based on all the different subjects that nowadays existing but just for example in all of the school system if there would ever if there would be a person a child sitting inside of there who may be in the future would be a person who is able to really really well communicate and doing let's say podcasts like this this is going to be his future profession where is this going to be recognized in the actual school system that is based for example really on the grading of mathematics physics biology sport so what I'm talking about is that in the way how I see the things there are preferred there are preferred selections already taking place very very early in age already in the society where we grow up meaning that this separation is also meaning you are good enough you can proceed you are not so good you go to the lower grading schools so this separation between good and bad already takes place very early in age and this is where I for example think all of this feeling you are never enough comes from because one to four your grades must be good yeah then it's not ending fifth grade until 13th grade your grades must be good because if you want to study something let's say specific your numerous clauses has to be very very good for example even in the university even if you're already going there still there are the good alumnus and they're the ones who passed but with not so good grades so a lot of separation is taking place always somehow displaying you subconsciously you could have been better I was always shit at school yeah so see and and all of this together I think is one reason why it is embedded in the mind especially of the ones here in in western Europe growing up but is that not why the system is there to make people feel like this because you talk about the you look at the schooling system there's not you're not talking about love you're not talking about money management relationships there's very limited exercise cold water fairy pair meditation yoga it's just the system for me is flawed system it's not working people are struggling that an old time high and it comes from birth from the day you're born girls are giving birth on their back artificial lights some are giving vaccines kids are coming out drugged up they're cutting in biblical code which is full of stem cells it's full of nutrients the placenta is full of nutrients and from the day we're born we're given a name a religion a sports team to support this everything is labeled and for me when if you actually go right back to the very start is everything's kind of backwards then do you see how that then affects people later on in years so it's absolutely not my my aim for example to criticize the system or anything like this the only thing I see is the system how it is the system how it was it brings out some consequences one of these consequences is very intensively the feeling of many people not being enough and so if there is a place to change this so how do I get rid of this whole that constantly needs to be filled up that is the main question and there I would say it is the mental is the mental direction is the mental state so where do I need to change it it's in the mind it's in the way how I look at the world if you only look at the world based on the system that you have been raised up now of course you are then part of the system but it's only the system is only one out of many many systems that are existing in this world so starting to expand the mind starting to also look at other people how are they living the life that maybe opens up now suddenly another perspective that oh there is something beyond having good grades there is something more relevant maybe more important more life accepting than running after grades and filling up your life with with more and more burdens that at the end also don't make you feel more free it just makes you feel more heavy because that one system is trying to fill up that hole inside of you always by putting something more on top of you because this is what we're doing in the beginning we don't have money we worked until we have the first amount of money then you have it you spend it whatever you have spend it on it's not enough it was enough for that one day when you spend it there the feeling of fullness or satisfaction was quickly there but it's the same in the beginning it's a golf a Volkswagen then maybe a BMW one day you just keep working no problem it's gonna be a Porsche but it's not gonna end at the Porsche promised either it's gonna be the second Porsche or it's gonna be another car in the beginning it was not even a smartphone it's like the big huge ones meanwhile technology has moved on but it has become normal that we are just simply spending the money on things that I don't know it has become convenient but it's not nowadays it's not even filling up any gap there anymore because in our tradition we think yeah it's the wrong approach how did you get into Buddhism I actually got introduced to what nowadays is known as Buddhism through my martial art teachers because in this tradition where I studied in the Buddhist teachings and the martial arts are very very close related to each other how so yes I told you very much from the beginning that I don't want and that I'm also not going to like display any of these teachings in terms of religious teachings because this is not what it's about for me a very very nice explanation what actually is this Buddhism what is it it's a method that helps you to see the things as they are finished so already hearing that sentence somehow implies yeah so does it mean that we humans don't see the things as they are yes exactly many people don't see the things as they are what does it mean for example this picture that we had before that it's always about up up more it needs to be filled up more yeah it's never enough so you you want something you work for it you get it in the moment you get it you already have the next that you want and it always moves on up this letter you always try to fill it up with something this is also maybe one type of approach that this society this world nowadays also wants to promote to you that it's about having more being more beautiful higher faster harder all of this but when we simply observe how the things are right now yeah it's one p.m. UK looking outside the sun is still shining but in seven hours it's not going to look like this anymore in seven hours something has traumatically changed which meaning the daylight is gone so what we then have is what we call simply night since we are born in this world this has repeated every day sunrise sun goes down so that means there is a up there is a down since we are born we have inhaled 50 percent of our times we have exhaled 50 percent of our times our heart the same sucking the blood pumping the blood also the same meaning always 50 50 always the exchange between left and right up and down bright and dark in and out success and failure it's just that this world is not propagating failure to you it is propagating success to you so our our mind is looking for success starting to believe there's only one way there's only one direction in this life that we live which is about moving upwards but this world is not just about upwards so realizing this really understanding it's not just about up it's not just about taking it's about taking and giving it's about relaxing and doing it's about exchange it's about constant exchange with you your peers with people around you with the world it's about exchange because exchange means there is a change there's constantly happening some transformation and this is what out there this is what everything is built upon what should daily routine lake yes so in the monastery for example there is a very fixed structure which means around six o'clock in summertime waking up seven o'clock then we have so-called meditation practices eight o'clock is breakfast time then nine until eleven we have the first martial art training a two-hour session followed up by two hours of working time which means we are a community on a quite large area where we need to do all different type of work cleaning work kitchen work all of these things office work as well so at one o'clock we have lunch after lunch it's break time until three p.m and three until five p.m another two hours training time then six p.m dinner and seven until nine another evening practice and at nine o'clock normally is our daily ending ceremony and so around 10 o'clock plus minus we're able to go into bed and this type of structure when somebody stays in the monastery is Monday till Saturday 365 days normally throughout the year yeah but meanwhile for example that we are having so many different guests also internationally coming sometimes it changes a little bit but this is normally the main structure and I think also for maybe your audience would be also interesting to think about this type of thought that of course we are in the 21st century and freedom is something important but there are two different types of freedom the freedom that I wake up when I want to that I eat when I want to that I eat what I want to eat that I go to work when I want to go to work so I do the things when I'm in the mood to do them and if I'm not in the mood I don't do them this is also a type of freedom you could say yes that is free this is not the freedom when in our tradition we talk about because this daily structure that I just told you that doesn't sound even like freedom that more sounds like a voluntary prison that you are putting yourself in and in a way this is very right because from morning six o'clock until evening nine p.m there is no space for you yourself to decide what am I supposed to do because the monastery so the community where we are living in we are saying what needs to be done this is one reason when somebody goes into such a community why it's called community work because it's not your personal interest first of all that's in the foreground it is the community that you are that you are working on so what is it you practice number one you practice to be selfless you wake up and the time that you invest is not just about you you are investing the time for the community everything every hour is very strictly planned and in the beginning when people come into this type of structure imagine it's super super difficult for people to cope with this because you feel like oh i'm tired i want to sleep right now yeah but you can't sleep because it's just trading time or actually now i would like to go out with my friends because all my other friends also go out yeah but you can't go out because now it's the evening ceremony and afterwards you go too bad so in the very beginning there are many many conflicts while you stay in the monastery you don't have relationships inside there that's where it comes from that oh these Buddhist rules they are so strict they don't allow anything no it's not they don't allow anything it is you are testing yourself discipline yes you are testing yourself how much control can you have about your own mind because after some time despite this very hard structure suddenly you even with this hard structure you start suddenly to be okay with all of it it's okay for you to wake up at six it's okay for you to do the work the cleaning work it's okay for you that there's training it's okay that there is this type of structure and now the freedom has come because now even if things are put onto you which seem unnatural still inside of you nothing change because inside you already have started to actually accept and adjust it's about you on the inside the freedom is not based on the circumstances the freedom that we want is the one inside here because it's never gonna happen in this world that we as humans are able to go out on the street and decide for yourself with what you want to face out there it's not gonna happen see with so much structure and discipline is there a time to laugh and joke or is it so caught up with doing what you do for discipline and stay on that path or because I love to laugh everything I for me I think fuck it sometimes my laugh kind of gets me through the pain but laughter they say it's a great as fucking medicine but I feel because as a kid as a baby a baby smiles to like 300 400 times a day by the time you're 18 years old you smile less than 10 so something gets took away from that innocence that purity but from your side of things and what you do with the discipline do you have a laugh and make jokes or is it just kind of serious and working internally of course you have moments because it's like a community and community also all in the family sometimes if you have talks with your father they are that serious but it's not the whole time that it's that serious sometimes also with your father with your mother with your brother with your sisters of course there are like also more human elements inside so of course it's happening it's just that the general outline is still there that we say there are a few things about the development of our mind we need to have a guideline where we want to get and that is the one for example that we call we want to develop this discipline because it can happen yes you stay inside these monastic walls under these rules two years three years it's strict it's hard it's not a lot of fun yeah because the fun comes afterwards because afterwards there is not much anymore that can somehow bring you out of balance because this is what what you find when you deal with yourself for a long time you find yourself how do you find yourself where to look for well you need to spend more time with you less with external things do you try and keep a balance then when it's not drink drugs or sex and then depression and then it's like do you is it more balanced for that sort of lifestyle let's say like this on the long term I would say having a balanced life a harmonious life that is the key that is the let's say one of the goals let's call it like this but in order to get there first of all if you want to have a balanced life you need to know what is there that needs to be balanced balanced meaning there's always at least two this and this minimum so to balance out so meaning to put those two in the proper ratio I need to know what is this what is this one here what is that and then I need to understand okay and now what is this and afterwards what does this has to do with that one and then by trying out by then one day you realize ah okay so that means yes of course we want balance but the way to get there the way to achieve to be able to adjust this balance means sometimes we need to go to these let's say to these counterparts yeah that also meaning for example it's extremely difficult to tell a person nowadays listen money is not the most important in the world focus more on relationships focus more on love build up a community go into the nature this is the important part in life I think to this realization only somebody can come who had it already who had the money who has the fame who has the reputation who has the success who had the car maybe whatever first you need to have it to realize that's not it this is where I'm at I fought fame I fought money attention would give me fulfill the pieces put all the glass and broken glass together but it's me it's not made it worse because my family eat well they're doing amazing but I'm at the realization where it's all bullshit it doesn't mean anything because I know internally I feel more alive on top of a mountain cold water therapy and exercise meditation I'll do it from time to time I'm not I'm I know it quines my mind if I do it first thing in the morning but the laziness kicks in where I think I'm free I'll do it at 8am then it becomes 11am and then I'll maybe do it and then I'll I've missed half the day but when you talk about the structure it's kind of made the realization okay because I'm supposed to be exercising with my friend Kami he's up at 6am there's a place called f45 and for the last four or five weeks I was supposed to go I made it once once I went yes so it's made me realize okay and I need to mix a lot of other changes do you ever get angry of course of course these things come up but angriness for example this is just one of the let's say it's just one of the challenges we are going to be put on this challenge I think every human being in this world will get angry in this lifetime and you will also every time you get angry you always have the chance also to see for yourself what does angriness do for you or do against you the same is everybody in this world is going to get jealous sometimes about things sometimes about people we all gonna get jealous we all gonna get angry we all gonna get sad we all gonna get depressed we all gonna get frustrated we all gonna feel joyful we all gonna feel happy the question now is which of all of these different emotions how are you placing them how do you see the connection for yourself with all of these emotions yes and there I can simply say angriness in this world it's just like is burning something that maybe you have collected for a long time in buddhist teaching for example is one saying if you get angry it's like you are lighting a fire and this fire is burning all the wood that you have collected for many many winters this is like you get angry in a relationship in this angriness there is the energy there's the power inside the anger which can bring out words bring out actions and with these actions you can destroy quite a lot of what you have maybe built up for a long time in your relationships in your family with your friends and so therefore we say angriness is a quite powerful it's a quite powerful let's say force and it's necessary that you get a good relationship to it in order to know how to adjust it for yourself how important are words but you speak how important is it the way you talk into the universe I have become very careful when I start speaking out or bringing out words even if these words are only in the mind because once the words are out it's very difficult to somehow take them back it's like for example same like together with the example before be careful if you talk to a friend or anything just one insult just one insult one wrong word in the wrong moment of course you can apologize but it will never take back the spoken word your friend your partner they still remember it's not in your hands anymore so if you don't want that any word from you because you spoke it ever stays remaining in the world you have to be careful what you bring out you know and this is not just now the part where words can fall back to you it is also meaning if you use it in the proper way how you can also shape your own mindset because if you think about I cannot do it when somebody says hey why don't you make the driver license anyway I cannot drive I can't do it I'm scared I'm frustrated I'm too nervous if this is the the words you speak out this is what you sing well this is what's going to happen I think yeah the law of attraction do you believe in energies and frequencies and auras of defense energy it's not I believe in them I know they are there it's just from time to time and in different traditions it's expressed with different words with different terminologies some call it vibration some call it frequency some call it light some call it darkness they fall they all fall in quite the same category meaning yes there is something that needs to be adjusted or something where you need to get in resonance with see the is it a pine cone on top of because I have photos of like Buddhism and I've read a lot of books my mum and my mum's garden it's like all Buddhism statues as the western way we feel as if we're more connected because we have a few statues and stuff but that's the way we are here and see the pine cone is there a little pine cone is that anything to do with the pine new gland in the middle of the brain will they say the pine new gland is a seat of the soul for the third eye how correct is that I cannot prove it to you but my personal opinion is there is a strong connection yes yeah so I mean you look at many different cultures you always find something which is pointing either at the number three either at something which is here so the third eye often sometimes called even in the Buddhist teachings you see there's always that one eye displayed in the Egypt traditions you see the eye of horrors and so there are there are many many many signs let's say that would be too much of a coincidence that I don't believe in in all of these different cultures because even the Egyptian times there's a eye in the pine new gland and it's powerful stuff when you when you go into it and try and understand it more seeing the Buddhist teachings why do you shave the head so first of all nowadays it has just become super practical practical in terms of I wake up in the morning doesn't take like five minutes and I'm out of the bathroom again because more or less I don't need to take care of how which which hairstyle I have for example in the past traditionally wise monasteries were built upon a community meaning there are really many many inhabitants inside the monastery and if everybody would have to take care in the morning about the hygiene first of all it would cost a lot of time yes and second of all it's just very impractical also when we practice the martial arts and for a symbolic meaning like I said before everybody is born with the worldly name but when you enter into the monastic way of life you take the order name and this is also like a symbol cutting off the hair it's like you're leaving the worldly the worldly life behind and start a different way of life yes but nowadays for me it has just become more practical I'm starting to lose my hair anyway so I think I'll be there the next couple of months because the native Americans I used to always feel a connection with them and they used to grow their hair and I think they believed it was connected to the central nervous system where they could don't know if it was they had more heightened of being in danger there was a story of they used to shave hair and grow hair and it was out it was something to do with the war but they had their own beliefs and it was mad how everybody in this world has different beliefs and different opinions and for your own opinion what do you think life is such a deep question and weird question but I've never really I don't ask so many people and I've never all the people I've interviewed I've interviewed people from all walks of life from homeless men to billionaires porn stars killers drug lords inspirational people one thing I figured out is nobody knows what's going on and that's why I always ask that question because I don't know I feel as if everybody gets so the start on this planet pure innocent and then just life just takes them on different directions and I guess that's maybe that's the way it should be but for your own opinion why do you think humans are actually here first of all I think it's a very um personal statement that everybody needs to do for himself meaning also it's similar what's the sense of life you give your life a sense if you before you you start walking through the day with no sense of life the easy thing would be you give your life a sense meaning you give yourself a purpose nobody can tell you hey this is not the sense of life this is not the purpose of life it's not about what other people say it's about what makes you wake up in the morning liking to wake up liking or what is fueling yourself that you wake up what are you looking forward to to do for some people it is I like to express myself on the stage I like to go and and build on my cars I like to express myself in playing the piano some people I like to take care of animals I like to write books in order to share knowledge with the world it's all fine if this is their purpose if this is the mission you have put upon yourself which is fueling you this is one way where I think um it's already better than having no direction but at the same time also like you also said in the beginning everything is white everything is pure and then things become serious this is where also nowadays different um teachings different insights come from calling yeah sometimes it's necessary to bring out the inner child sometimes it's called bring out the joy bring the lightfulness the lightness back yeah why is the lightness gone because it has because life has become too heavy too heavy with possession too heavy with obligations too heavy with responsibilities there are many different things that can make one's life become and feel heavy so you want to become pure again you want to become light again well it's time to cut off some things and not add on the adding on is what this world already is propagating this is what many people are living in the world of adding stuff up why because like we said before we don't feel enough that's why we keep on adding also realizing right now yeah but when will I finally be full never with this approach never because you keep on looking for the answer on the outside but this year we have to change our internal view on the world what do you want to what do you personally want to see in the world what do you think is missing in the world if you could be the creator of this world and you see something is missing right now to make this world the place how you would like to to see it and live in it what would it be more kindness more understanding amongst people good then you're the one who starts with it you are the one who's going to initiate this movement the movement of more kindness towards to people more work for the community more understanding more connection whatever it is you think is missing that's already the next purpose so the next mission of this life maybe or can be it might be your job to create it might be your privilege to create no sometimes nowadays people live this life people have this body people are able to speak people are able to experience but let's say they are still thinking about let's say committing suicide for example happens so you have an existence that has been given to you yet you are not loving this existence you are not appreciating this existence you are the one who would like to end it and then i just remind myself always again how many how many beings are there that are simply not born they wished to be born they wished to have the chance that we have being able to just sit here in this room having a conversation and why can how why can we do this because we have been gifted with the body we have been gifted with the ability that we can develop throughout the lifetime when we grow up so actually what we have this life that has been given to us like the present it's like a gift a gift to cultivate to take as good care with as possible and automatically by thinking like this means you need to love this one you need to like it because this is what carries you on this journey without this one you can't do any of your dreams you cannot fulfill any of your wishes because this is the one who start to manifest it this year or this year is the one who can see the things is what can feel the things but it's not the one this one and this one is not enough to make it become real to make it become real we need action we need the real effort and work that is been done by the human body yes and this is now exactly that relation why this hard and intensive training regimen together with what we call Buddhism why those two merge together so good because in the martial arts it's all about the practice it's about doing you want to do chinese split well it's not enough to dream about it you want to kick high it's not enough to imagine you can kick high you want to kick high there is a step by step instruction how to get there you want to punch hard there's a step by step instruction how to develop it you want to condition your body there's a step by step instruction how to do it you want to have a balanced solid joyful life there's a step by step instruction how to do it this is where martial art and the ideology of living this life how they why they merge so good together because the principles are the same the principles how to develop it is the same this is like that special part why it has always been my emphasis in promoting movement first the usage of the body first yes and actually here in the uk especially here in london i mean you are really lucky because you have you have two of the very very famous Shaolin brothers here in the Shaolin temple uk one of them shifu yanzi and the other one is shifu yanlei they are being regarded by master uncles and they have also been here now since many many years and are exactly trying to also offer this to the people we want to change the mind we want that our life becomes better but how do we do it we need the action we need the practice and that one starts with the body very simple like this how important is it to write things down that you want to improve and you want to change because i was always the last few years that they call it sparing for a reason as if you're putting spells into the universe but if you're writing positivity and writing goals it's 60 or 70 more likely to happen is it that important for the buddhism side of things as well do you believe in writing a powerful tool for making change this might not relate one to one from buddhist traditions so i wouldn't take it from there but to get something from the mind to get to the real world needs manifestation this is what in my terms is called manifestation as long as it's still in the mind it's not manifested it's dream it's a vision that you have but i only i have it if i keep it here you don't even know about it so the first manifestation is i can speak it out so that you hear it so that means already one person knows about my vision but still nothing has happened the second state of manifestation is you put it down on paper so manifestation meaning giving what is in here giving it a form this form can mean words words are a form but it can also mean in written language so write it down it's also a form some people record also one type of manifestation but it's it's better if it's important for you to start with it it's better to just keep it here because in here things change on the paper once it's written down and you don't burn it it stays see for the martial arts side of things do you ever do one-on-one combat yes and how is that for the teachings and love and peace is that for them how does that work with the balance of one-on-one combat do you have that for me i always want to win i will take my kids who go play bowling i don't let them win i know it's bad but i was raised to always trying to win and compete and obviously i know everybody's teachings and beliefs are different but when you do one-on-one combat are you in your mindset out to win or is it friendly or how does it work so when we do friendly sparring of course this is together with the training partners that are also since many years sometimes are already training with yourself if you go to competition sometimes you of course meet people you didn't train before with them but still there are some rules you also have the gloves on you have the protection on but nevertheless putting yourself in such situation is also a challenge that is resembling the things that we meet in normal life you cannot always choose with who you are dealing with so to test yourself if everything that you have learned is still working under pressure means you have to be put under pressure yeah and one of my master uncles that i talked about before he sometimes said told me a very nice story how he sees that how does this combat this fighting this training how to fight how does this help you with this idea of balance and harmony it is because in the in in the training hall in the gym when you do the hard workout when you do the sparring when you know how much you are able to sweat how much pain you can take how much pain you can give because of this experience it makes you feel calm to walk on the street this is why you can stay balanced this is why external stimulus don't shake you off too much because you have already experienced this way how is it when your body and your mind is put between different let's say different extremes or into stressful situations so the reason why to cultivate that strength that discipline is that out here you can relax more you don't need to be afraid walking walking sometimes alone in the dark through certain areas there's no way to stay calm if you don't have some type of confidence inside of yourself and so this is where it comes from yeah we want the harmony we want the balance but how do you get it because you have put yourself before already oftentimes to the test if you have never witnessed felt how is it to face somebody who also like wants to hit you then it's difficult then you can imagine in the mind how it is but imagining is not the same like experiencing it yeah we do boxing back home and sparring and every time i'm scared but every time after that i feel as if i've conquered something i feel there's no feeling in the world that gives me the pleasure of sparring i had a boxing fight two years ago and the kid i was fine it was big it was strong he was a favorite and they were talking about how old i was and how fat i was but what they wouldn't talk about was how fucked up i am on here and i went and ever since i've always i've always done it because the watches and the success and the podcast and the money it doesn't give me the feeling of combat it doesn't give me the feeling of shaking someone's hand and feeling as if i've overcame a fear a fear that i've had for many years i was always loud i was always assuming but that's because i was i was so scared i was so broken i was so much in pain and the more i'm realizing life and try to understand it a bit more i don't know if i'll truly ever have all the answers but we can only try we learn from the mistakes i think some do but life is just a it's an amazing journey as well if we can find that balance see when you're going and you're doing your combat and the feeling after it when when are you at your happiest or is always a state of calm do you ever get urges of happy afterwards you mean like combat or working out or meditation when are you at your most blissful mostly after you know that you have put yourself either your mind or your body through some certain threshold this is where i would say some type of satisfaction starts to rise meaning that some growth is starting to hit in but because you have just challenged yourself before i would in general i would put it into all of these situations which also refers to all different types of conditioning stamina training you can go run for a long time and be happy afterwards so also when you're feeling really really tired so the body must be used then i think it's a good guarantee that the mind will be at ease how important is knowledge reading books and understanding different philosophies and different minds how important is knowledge for i wouldn't say freedom but to to educate the same knowledge is power but how important is that for yourself to be reading and educating us only certain do you only read about both of them or do you read about other things so me personally i mentioned oftentimes already when i grew up i was rarely reading so i read what i had to read when my teacher told me to read something just recently i started let's say if i'm if i'm interested in something then i just do my own research and then start reading about it but ultimately i think this world is not missing knowledge because you just go on our beloved a search engine google you ask google anything he knows everything yeah so it means knowledge is available to everyone the big problem is how do you get knowledge to become practice how do you use the knowledge really and integrate it into into your daily life this is the hard part and therefore in our tradition we say knowledge means nothing without the willingness to put the knowledge into practice this is the difficult part people know drinking too much is not good people know smoking too much is not good people know what is proper to say what is not proper to say people know still in some situations it comes out still people take certain things yeah why is it because the knowledge was just not enough to change this willingness to put it into practice and again we are i always return back because this is the main point it's not the knowledge it's not the theory it's not about what we know what we are supposed to do what we can do what we should do no it's about using the body first of all and express life through your body by movement it's super strange maybe on the one side we talk about sadness all different types of emotions about addictions all of these things yeah and my answer is get to know your body better how important is meditation meditation in terms of calming the mind it's very important because without this calmness of the mind it's very likely that people will take just wrong decisions along this lifetime let's say like this so to put it really simple in this in this bottle right now you see it's like still we have clear water inside which let's say resembles our mind now i can put yellow color in it and then the water will look yellowish i can put dirt in it and shake it and then it's gonna look brownish in all of these cases i can boil the water so with some heat in all of these cases if i would look through it it would be impossible that i see your face clearly so which means every time that my mind has a tint it's boiling it's it's shaking it's wavering there is dirt inside it's impossible to see you clearly i cannot see you clearly so if somebody would ask me so describe me how does uh james look and there's a well he has like yellow eyes yeah well no so what does it mean every time your mind is not calm it's difficult to see how the things are but i need to take a decision so somebody asked me so tell me what should i do should i go left should i go right if your picture is not clear it's difficult to take the right decision and what is it that this meditation practices many times do the meditation practice is what helps you to practice that this calms down if there's dirt inside the dirt will sink down to the floor it maybe is still down here but this one it will be clear again if it was shaky before and you do meditation the shaking becomes less this is what simply said why we call it mind exercising training the mind train the mind to do what to be calm to stay clear and with this clarity now now we take decisions yeah what about silent meditation that's the one i talk about how long have you ever went without speaking normally we have like three day retreats or sometimes seven day retreats and sometimes through some um special ceremonies can be certain days also for example but this silent retreats are normally not a part of the tradition where we come from so i tried it out for myself it also helps to become more sensitive for all other senses that you have and also you learn that getting information is not always necessary to speak what about water fasting 24 hours three days five days where it's just water and cleansing the system do you do that it's not um it's not an integral part within our tradition but we have practitioners and also teachers that do it based on their own um based on their own interests let's say like this what about sun gazing uh also not not really they say the sun's the main energy source where that's where you get your nutrition people i know in india look directly at the sun everything grown from the air fruit and veg is because it's got the sun's energy but it's just i'm just open minded to everything and everybody's and i'm just trying to find a pattern that works for me but i feel as if because i'm in this environment of creating podcasts and content i feel as if i could i struggle to switch off because the technology in my phone is a lot of information there's a lot of i can post something and it makes me feel good even though it's false and i'm aware of this i'm i'm not silly enough to not be aware of it but why do you think we gravitate towards these these this fakery of life and it makes us feel a little bit self-importance for a very short time why do you think it's a human we gravitate towards the external stuff more i think it's based on on the level of your personal development and sooner or later if things repeat often enough always with the same result you will come up with your own conclusions so for me personally i really think this is just also like a challenge a challenge personal challenge for yourself along this journey meaning you asked yourself you already asked the question i cannot answer it to you but i'm very sure the answer is going to come to you yeah what about afterlife it's difficult for me to prove to anyone also i think personal belief personal opinion but like i mentioned before where there's left there's right where there's up there's down where's in is out now is day later we have night and in another 24 hours it's day again meaning for me what goes up goes down and after it goes down it comes up again if i just expand this view on our lifetime which is just a larger cycle then what we maybe call life comes to an end then starts what we nobody knows more or less after life yeah and maybe after life comes life again what sort of nutrition do you have because they talk about the gut brain connection where you get your intuition and your your gut feeling i believe it's all connected but do you see clean nutrition veg do you eat meat what's your nutrition like so our nutrition is mainly plant based but also because we are living in a community and are dependent sometimes also on donations that means we actually use everything sometimes from the supermarkets if they cannot sell it we still take it and use it for our community so we cook and use all of the stuff that is been given to us but mainly we try plant based yes how many people are in your community so we are around 12 to 15 people who constantly live inside our community and on a regular basis we always have like guests coming to visit us yes i'm coming i'm coming brother well then prepare for the training prepare for the suffering i think how could i go could i go and for how long could i go yes so one way how what we normally organize throughout the whole year it's called a monastery on time and monastery on time meaning you are arriving on the monday and you stay inside our community until the saturday and within those six days you also join all the training like i explained to you in the daily structure exactly this daily structure is what people then follow together with us along their one week stay and that also means you have no mobile phone connection you don't have wifey there normally plant-based food a lot of training you also have meditation and you have a few let's say topics about yeah let's say topics that are worth spending some time on from time to time could i do one month sir theoretically it's possible then this means that people are coming to our monastery as so-called disciples but that means they at least stay for one year so for the average um visitor let's say it's normally two two weeks is the maximum amount right now that people are able to stay could without my possibility to make a documentary there there's no filming inside well i think there are already plenty plenty of documentaries and also different insights out on on the social media on youtube everywhere but you know i really think it's important that people start to realize that you have many places in the world that are able to open this door for you it's not just our place you know like i mentioned before here here in the in the uk in london um that's why i oftentimes also love to travel back here just to visit my master uncles the knowledge is here the knowledge is here you don't need to travel anywhere else don't need to travel to china no need to travel to don't need to go far you have the knowledge here you just need to really either find someone who is pushing you to put it into practice or find somebody who can inspire you that you put it yourself into practice but see i believe i have the answers but i don't know i don't know if it's lack of self-respect for myself it's definitely lack of love um because i talk a good game but in other times i talk pure shit see when you go through all this and when did it really sink in that this was your purpose this was you who you wanted to be and fully committed to it was at a certain age or was a certain time in your life or did you always believe it was like a calling there was a time from age four let's say growing up i don't know until when where i actually thought this is my decision i'm taken i want to live this way of life i am taken uh yeah let's say it's my making there was some time when i thought like this meanwhile it has become let's say a mixture some circumstances they had to be like this in order for me to let's say walk this path right now but at the same time i also realized that sometimes there was no choice no there was no choice for me then just ending up where i am right now which means i also of course feel for myself what are the strength i have what is it that i can do and what is it also that i would like to let's say um do with this lifetime and the only thing that for me with everything i can do with the way how i grow up sink makes sense it's just what i'm doing right now do you ever get down or depressed is anybody who work with you and do what you do have a feel down or are you just so conditioned and worked so hard at understanding it and fixing it straight away it has become less i would say it has become less from time to time of course it's still existing but meanwhile it has never taken such an intensity that would bring me off by too long because meanwhile i i think i have a good sense how my energies are let's say established within myself if i feel like the exhaustion is going to come i take proper proper action already and but that also means like very practically sometimes i need to say no also i used to be a person yeah if like if 360 days from one year are already planned the rest of the five days i still want to make full yeah so i couldn't say no let's say because i saw everything as the opportunity as a chance but this is also another way because you always pay with something how does it work with your social media and you're doing big talks and releasing a book how does that work as well because obviously a lot of people think buddhism and the just staying hurts and the meditative and do martial arts but you're out here and is that to promote the message and and find some balance that how does all that work does anybody ever is it frowned upon or is accepted how does it work well james i think you're really lucky because for sure you're going to be one of the last ones this year where i'm still going to have like some talk because i actually decided like half a year before already that i wanted to calm actually down a little bit when it comes to the social media exposure because i have some collaborations before that we did some interviews also did some podcasts that were let's say that were planned what was in a way not planned was the fact that people started then to let's say cut out a section from from your podcast and put their own music under it you know and then upload it through their channel so this led to the fact that now somehow it feels like i'm everywhere yes and it's not exactly what i was looking for it's good to get the message out but it also sometimes can raise the the wrong conclusions that's why i said okay i'm actually thinking to calm down a little bit just make the just make the podcasts and interviews i really want to do i really feel like okay it's worth spending the time there and yes yeah because i love the teachings of buddhism i've always gravitated towards i've also i also like the native americans as well so i don't know if that's a contradiction but i just like the nature belief i like the working within the meditation and connected to the earth and animals i love animals but how because you're doing what you're this conversation mean you're having right now will change lives for the better so there's got to be some element of i don't know i believe you've got to have a purpose in life i believe everybody's got a purpose but it can be darkened down with all the bullshit but do you ever feel like what you're doing is amazing or do you question your life choices no until now i never really questioned anything that i've done in the past meaning there is a few until nothing i would really say i regret this is something that for me and let's say personally i this is important to me that's why i also explained before about uh being clear in the mind when you take decisions because i would never like to be a person one day being a little bit older in age looking back and then starting to regret something so that's why better in these moments i take clear decisions even if sometimes it takes a little bit longer but better i take a clear decision and then i can stand completely behind it even if it goes wrong then it only means i still took my time to think about it it went wrong okay what should what else should i have done in the time it happened it was like this so that means no regrets is something what i think is really important and it's it's also not really that i think it's amazing or or what i'm sharing out it really just started like i said i'm coming from the area of martial arts i'm just practicing martial arts i make my kung fu forms i make the fighting techniques i learned how to use the body this is where i normally come from it's just then one day some people ask me yeah but somehow the way how your punching looks different than the way how other people punching or the way how you move looks different uh how do you move so and then i just try to explain what i feel when i move and there i realized that people start to understand or can put something better into practice when i can sometimes support it with some ideas that i can shape with my words to help them yeah so in the sense of look everything is connected so if you feel like your body your arm your forearm your shoulder your chest if all is connected like one muscle that means try to use the body like one muscle and stop using the body only like with separated muscle groups like just stretching or your your your triceps use the body everything as one unit so and then already starts the way how you move everything moves if one thing moves everything moves the flow people call it differently yes yeah and this is where i realized okay people sometimes need the talking to get to the practice the proper practice and that's the only reason why i started answering so many different questions in the past because i want no problem i can talk to the people i can share out what i know but not for the sake of like still sitting at home and just listening the whole day long i would like that still the practice is in the foreground because the practice is what gives you experience and this experience is what then afterwards we call is able to transform into wisdom how important is failure in life because a lot of people fail and they never go back to trying progress or make changes a lot of people know it's one or two failures and they're done but how important is it for having an enlightened life and learning from it yeah also here i think are two two directions you can have the first failure stay stubborn and then you have the second failure you still stay stubborn you have the third one you can stay stubborn and you will have the 20s failure so this type of keep going don't give up no this is not the proper way you fail you observe why did you fail you try again adjusting the reasons why you failed in the first one if you fail again well of course you can try again but of course with readjusting you never fail the second time because of the same reason like the first time that wouldn't make sense so if you fail then you find the reason why with the second attempt you have readjusted this in this way i think there's only one way that's going to lead to you gonna grow yes that's the one thing what so there's another one well but that still means sometimes you try hard you try hard you try hard you keep on failing even with all the adjustments then there's the second alternative what it could mean it could mean that maybe it is your wish that you want to do this that you want to succeed in it but maybe it's not the wish of the universe let's call like this what about relationships and kids for them the buddhist teachings ideas allowed relationships to have a family or is it just focus on yourself in buddhism itself it's not a problem at all to have a relationship to also have a family and to have children but if you live as a priest inside a monastery at least for the time being in the monastery normally you do not have a family and also not a partner why because let's say like this being inside monastic walls is like you are a little bit let's say cut off actually from all external impulses so nothing from the outside let's say is affecting you too much because we want the people that are inside there to be able all the time the 24 hours every day invested in yourself find out for the time that you stay in the monastery if you stay one year then one year if you stay two years then two years three than three but spend it to find out who and what you are when after one year you say yes i know who i am i know what i can do i have realized something if then you decide you want to go out no problem but this is the whole point before we go out in the world and share something with the world if i want to go out and share peace with the world how can you share something that you don't have how can you teach share something to stay calm if you me i can't stay calm i cannot stay calm but i go out teach people how to stay calm how is that supposed to work if you are not in balance how you want to tell the people to be in balance if you don't know who you are how you want to tell other people who they are the point is you can only give you can only share what you have and this is the time in these closed holy space that you are cultivating for yourself so it's like the investment for yourself for two years three years you want to invest in yourself to get insights about yourself and then you're free to go out in the world and share your insights how important is rest that how many hours of sleeping because you see motivational speakers are telling people to work three days without eating and to be successful but for me it's all bullshit because rest in my own opinion is just as important how important is rest for your opinion and how much rest do you actually get sleep wise it very much depends on my schedule on my schedule because for example that's why actually to be honest that's why i wrote you if we can like meet a little bit earlier because i'm awake right now since three o'clock in the morning coming from germany and then just staying awake to directly come here so this sometimes of course brings me out of balance but therefore i know once i'm back in in the monastery so i take care again that i go into my structure so yes can you sleep with anything it's not so easy because of course our our body adjusts itself so therefore it's also quite interesting our body can learn something and also can unlearn things by making it become a habit so if i want to start conditioning my body to wake up earlier i make it step by step always at the same time i go too bad so that my body starts to remember and sometimes i just even know that even if you don't put up the alarm sometimes automatically right time you're awake and this is how the usage of habit or the usage of conditioning can can be made useful yes for our daily life what's the main teachings for buddhism for people who don't know and people who's maybe going you know what i actually love those beliefs of structure and consistency and trying to calm the mind what's the main teachings for buddhism there is so much information about buddhism out there that if somebody's interested i would really say to just look for what are the buddhist teachings the way how i normally like to share it is first of all you don't need to change anything about what you're believing right now if you are right now christian already is no problem at all you can stay christian and still start learning about okay what are they saying in buddhism and some of the main teachings are for example the so-called the four noble truths this is when you start okay what is buddhism it starts with the four noble truths and just quickly to mention them the first one is the life the existence that we are living is connected with suffering so now you can this is the this is the one of the the core sentences and now you have time to think about the existence the life that we are living in is consisting of suffering if you say no it's not true well then you don't need to follow buddhism then over here already the journey ends life is consisting of suffering if you say okay sometimes i have happy moments sometimes i have sad moments but for sure i have already lost some animals i already lost some family members there was some suffering my girlfriend left me yes i suffered yes okay i can agree suffering exists in this world okay then you can already mark the noble truth number one that's okay seems to be true second truth is this suffering has a reason the reason comes from greed hate or ignorance so the reason why we suffer is either because of greed we want more than we need of hate we get something we don't want to have or ignorance or sometimes called not knowing because we don't know the outcome of our actions out of these three things all the suffering in the world is coming from now to simplify let's say i lost i lost a person that i love let's say then you suffer okay why do you suffer now because you had the connection to what you left but to what you love meaning you want to you want to try to keep something inside of your life that it stays as it is but this is not the nature of things anymore in this complete universe things don't stay as they are so in the moment you want something which is not possible to hold on to the suffering is already like integral part of it now this is like one explanation why we say it's not a problem to have a relationship it's not a problem to have a partner it's not a problem to have a nice car the problem is you get attached to it the attachment is the problem or is the issue that is going to bring you the suffering afterwards so one is greed other one is hate you don't like you don't like the financial department but they keep on coming that also sometimes calls suffering yes but things you cannot change so that means in the moment every time you have any type of aversion any time of hate against something and it still comes this is also like one reason for the suffering yeah and the third one is like the ignorance ignorance meaning sometimes we do actions we don't know what the future will bring but still we do them and then somehow because of the karma because of the consequence it's still going to come back to us causing us some suffering the third noble truth is when the reasons for the suffering end greed hate ignorance when this falls away no more greed no more hate no more ignorance if this falls away the suffering falls away so that means there is an end there is a way how to end the suffering this is the number three and the fourth one is the so-called noble eightfold path it's eight steps eight areas of each human's life to pay attention on and always try to improve these eight areas this is then a step by step instruction how this personal suffering starts to decrease and decrease and this is called like the noble eightfold path this i would say are the main teachings in all buddhist traditions and if people are interested in that they will find plenty of it so really just need to go on youtube or on google for noble truths or noble eightfold paths and you find thousands and thousands of information about it how do you handle death and grief a lot of people i don't think handle it well they can really slip into a big depression for the rest of their life by losing a loved one how do you handle grief and loss of loved ones a very practical way i would say is to manifest a small altar what's that a small normally if you go into i don't know if you go to the cemetery normally you also have like sometimes the stone or with a picture of the beloved one but just something like this is not at the cemetery we have it in our tradition we have it like in on this wall for example it's just a picture of your father a picture of your mother and in front of it like either a candle some flowers next to it and just for example every every year on the day either on the birthday or on the day when uh they were still like here on the earth we just like think about them you invest your lifetime to stand in front of that picture of the beloved one and still try to spend your lifetime on the sword of that person this is the this is the realest thing you can still do to connect even with a person that is not physically here on this world with us anymore that's we have that's why we have these type of altars i cannot stop my beloved one sooner or later from from from passing yeah but i can keep them i can still keep them as a ritual in my daily life when i go on so this is the way while how also for us we can limit a little bit the grief then of course also merge together with the philosophical or yeah with the teachings let's say like this where do you get from going forward with your life and do you plan ahead for the rest of your life for years or days or months how far do you plan ahead so everybody's got visions we get so many thoughts a day 60 000 70 000 whatever it is but how do you plan ahead with your life do you or do you just live in the present moment and now day by day meanwhile for example of course there is a community which oral so started growing so that means there is something to be taken care of so that means meanwhile it's really not just about what you want or not just about what i want meanwhile it's also about people that in a way you are also partly responsible for so no matter what decision we are taken in i always take into consideration what is also connected with my personal decisions so this is what i of course still keep in mind but besides that meanwhile i think i don't plan longer than one year it's just unrealistic for me as i realize in the way of life how the last years started developing to even see half a year in front of me imposters i would have been always wrong let's say like this that's why meanwhile this is not like it's not that i plan something and then i try to make it possible i would rather say right now like this that i'm rather pretty open and aware walking through my day then maybe a message comes in i read the message and i look inside my head do i see that this message this inquiry for example does it have a place in my future can i see the picture of it happening if i say okay why not then it would be possibly something i start to manifest and so i do it yeah if other things i see okay no i don't see this right now then i just don't do it this is more or less right now yeah well not long left me because i know you need some sleep but when when was the last time you cried or do you cry it happens from time to time it has become rare but this is true it has become rare and maybe it's it's maybe hard to say but i think one of the biggest losses so far in my life actually was the loss of my father sorry to hear that yes now there came one i just call it it's not a problem yeah but in in our tradition it's like this when my father he died because of cancer when he was lying there in the bed of course he saw that the family was sad but my father told me yeah while he was lying there if i pass away don't cry he told me don't cry so the reason why is like this the way how we grow up what we learn is and what let's say we believe in even when the body falls away this is not the end let's say people call it the spirit still remains the ghost is still here the soul is still here i don't know what it is but we have also something similar and the problem is when my father passes away and then the family members are standing around the bed crying then the ghost or the soul has difficult times to leave the body because he realizes something is wrong yeah so when the soul sees the family is crying it's difficult for the soul to move on it's difficult for the soul of my father to move on and find the next let's say transformation reincarnation however you call it because i grow up like this because it is the way how i think about energy just transforms energy needs to move on that's why even when my father passed away i did what my father said until today i have not cried about it and yeah so this is yeah my dad died i went fucking nuts if i'm honest i went to drink and drugs and i went crazy i felt my father it breaks my heart because my dad seen me at my worst before he died he seen me as a fuck up he seen me as someone who was so lost and that breaks my heart because everything i do i don't know for that for that emptiness comes because i know he's seen potential i always had potential always was good when i put my mind to something but i never had the consistency or the inner belief to believe but when he passed he never seen me and my greatest and now that i'm doing amazing things i know he would be proud but that sadness kicks in because i think i wish he was here to see me fulfill the potential that he knew that i had and it and that's why i asked the question about grief and pain because if you're not living i'm not saying everybody should live the life of a Buddhist but the beliefs in the meditation and the everything seems to be free flowing i see the struggle of human beings including myself and i just wish i wish that all the pain could go away in the universe but i don't know if we'll ever see it in our lifetime is it just a case of you trying to lead by example and showing people your teachings and beliefs and hopefully will that make sense to me i could do that do you see the suffering all around especially coming to london because i feel it there's a there's a it's not a sticky feeling but there's a feeling of disease there's a feeling of discomfort sometimes and do you feel that in certain settings you go to yes to share to share this type on the one side teachings to share this knowledge to speak about the different cultures yeah where i come from or where other other teachers masters come from this is not about trying to change anybody else's culture or what they believe in it's just about offering a free alternative why is it free because it's just based on the mind because it's based on what you how you look in the world how you what your perspective on the world is this is what all these traditions are offering to you which means you can keep everything that you have until right now learned already you just add up maybe look into a different perspective how else can i look into this world how do other humans in this world realize it and maybe this will help you also to find some ways how some parts of the suffering of the hardships that we have in our daily life how you can still tackle it for yourself this is the main point how i think these teachings should be used it's never about replacing anybody other's culture it is just there are some methods there are some insights when you ask yourself also you will come to the same conclusion doesn't matter if you call it buddhism or not that's why i say buddhism has nothing to do if you believe or not just observe yourself go deep inside yourself and ask yourself this question look out and then you see for yourself when was the last time you witnessed a 24 hour sunshine it's not happening at least not in the uk yeah yes when is your book out i know you have a new book out and it says it's took years in the making is that correct well not really 10 years but in a way i'm it's it has been a burden also to be honest for myself to to finally uh put this book into place because um this year like i said it's 36 years along this way 36 3 and 6 meaning 9 3 plus 6 9 also like sometimes holy numbers in the way in where i come from so it's a very very special year this year for me and yeah so i was happy i put in some work in the last two years to put everything what we talked about today together with the practical exercises from the traditions all of this i tried to really compress it and summarize it in this one book i already had publishers asking me yeah please make a second third one i don't want to make a second or third book it's this one everything i have to say from the last 36 years it's in there but unfortunately first of all it's going to come in german language only but we are working on it and sooner or later it's just a question of time there will be an english version as well so yes yeah good on you brother congratulations just last question for anybody that's in a struggle right now everybody's get different levels of struggle but for anybody who's in a struggle what vase would you have for them i would say no it's it's difficult for me to generalize to be honest but just don't give up just don't give up even if right now it doesn't make sense one day i'm very very sure when you start to see the connections and things fall into place you will maybe also realize that it couldn't have been different even if it's difficult but the only thing that i learned from the martial art practices and also from my own life is giving up was just simply not a question or simply never an option and from many people i've heard these sentences the winners continue where the losers stop people know these type of sentences yes in a way it depends what means for you winner in the way how i look at the world it's about constantly developing yourself not standing still making making a mistake is not a problem making the same mistake without learning from the first one that's a problem but failing the first time and then learning from it not a problem because now you're a little bit more wise and using now this wisdom to integrate into your next decision this is the path of growing this is the path of learning nobody ever told you when you are going to come onto this world that this life first of all is going to be an easy one nobody said that so why why should i be looking for an easy life to come this is also like out of out of the mind already it's one of the things you realize whether you go to train the Shaolin teachings here in london or wherever you go the training is not easy you want to reach something you want to develop something you want to go beyond your limits yes it's painful it needs something about you that you stand above yourself so what can also help is if you are caught inside of yourself sometimes try do some magic jump out of the body and watch yourself who is sitting there and now if you imagine you are the one able to give the power to this person who's sitting there what does he need this you give him and then just keep going would you like to finish up on anything brother no i'm really happy about this conversation and hope that there are a few pieces that maybe your audience finds interesting but besides that i think there's plenty of information out so enough to catch up on yes my brother listen thanks for your time for giving me the opportunity to ask you a few questions i know with all the wisdom and knowledge that you have and just to try and simplify some things for people to understand i know a lot of people struggle and a lot of people want answers and just something to get out of the rut that they're in so hopefully people can take something from this and they can have a more blissful and happier life where they can learn from and grow from all we can do is try but i wish you nothing but the best in life have no doubt we'll stay friends and good luck with the book and hopefully see you again soon thank you gem god bless you my brother thank you