Shaolin Master Shi Heng Yi | Full Interview at TEDxBaiaMare 2022

[Music] Shifu is a great honor to meet you it was wonderful to watch your incredible performance I'm a little disappointed though I must say that there are no fat cholene Masters there are there are there are so then there's hope for me I should uh I'm going to be honest as I sat there in the front row and watch this amazing physical performance and those incredible words of wisdom you know what I thought I thought that uh if I manage to defeat him in battle I can collect those 15 million likes but then I saw you punch those things and I gave up on that all right let's get to the serious question um you are a warrior you're fast you're agile you're dangerous how do you square all that with being peaceful being harmonious and finding uh balance are those two values in contradiction I think it is just a different approach I am very peaceful 99% of time the reason why I can in peace walk up and down the street why I can walk wherever I feel like walking not be afraid not have any type of anxiety not feeling stressed I think one of this piece is because uh on the the one side I know what partially I'm capable of which is in a way giving me that type of peace and you see this I don't know if I'm a warrior this is maybe how other people see me or how other people call me the point is all of all of these practices all of the Kung Fu all of the martial arts I do not have the intention just learn burning all of these things and use it against another human being this is not my intention my intention is not to harm my intention is not to harm especially after you're practicing the martial arts you're having different type of contacts also with other martial artists you know how fragile the human body is it's very fine it's very fragile system yeah and once you know how fragile all of that is you are double so much careful about what you do you are double so much careful about the people in your surrounding and I think this is one of the reasons why on the one side that hardness and that softness they are both the same let's say they're the same attributes that are complimenting each other so this is at least from my perspective how I see the things yes because uh let's put it straight just because somebody is meditating and because of the sitting meditation mainly or of the breathing exercises you're getting into a peaceful state of the mind but then you maybe start walk out somewhere with your family and somebody starts to attack your family what does that peaceful state of you bring you you are peaceful seeing how somebody is attacking your family yeah great I don't think so so therefore maybe we have a little bit different approach and this is also one of the reasons why the Shaolin Temple since 1,500 years is one of a very few Buddhist monasteries that still have the martial arts integrated into the way of living this is not to forget so it's not just a fancy learning the things in order to to show off or in order to make any type of performances no it is a way of life it is you are cultivating Buddhist ethics and moral and you become powerful at the same time and I mention it once again this is just my favorite picture it's like in Star Wars both have the power but they are using it in a different way because they have a different ethical and moral codex behind of them just practicing the martial art just practicing the fighting skills without virtues without a moral or ethical guideline is going to make you a very powerful person but not necessarily a person that you want to let onto Humanity thank you master wonderful words of wisdom the second question is a more technical question um how hard and for how many years did you train to become a Shaolin Master and what was the hardest part the physical training or the mental Soul training nowadays we tend to separate always physical and mental you can't as long as the human is alive both of them are always interacting with each other there are some areas of course that are more have the tendency to tackle the mind and there are other practices and exercises which have more emphasis on developing something on the physical body but ultimately you always need both in the same wavelength also yeah so I would say the hardest part in the beginning at least in the beginning also I I was searching the searching you search you search what should I do with my life is this the right way is that the right way but what if I go there it's the search it's the choice it's this there's so many things that you may be miss out on and the hardest part to finally and eventually just start saying okay forget it that's the way that's it that's it yeah so one time like you put it on the mind and then you go and to continuously stay on this way not leave it I think this is one of the hardest things and it is not just in our culture in Tradition that people know about what is the hardest thing but just think about uh when we talk about commitment so when you get married you also give a commitment you don't need to give a commitment if your marriage will always be wonderful and beautiful you give a commitment because somebody already figured out that during this marriage you're going to go through up and downs and all of the arguments and discussions that follow along with it and in the moment where something like this is coming this is now why you need to keep the commitment but nowadays it's different you even give commitment but yeah so this is is like another aspect how you can really look at the things we think about something we say something different we say something and we do something different so what we can in a way also see just in those three perspectives right now there's no alignment you think about something you say this and you do that so how can the universe know what do you want and so therefore for this is where different type of teachings different type of knowledge comes in uh to just give you a little bity advice try what you s on the mind this is what you speak and what you speak this is what you do and then it makes it easy for the universe now that you are in alignment now it's easy that Things fall into place because it's clear it's a clear way it's a clear statement and so this is something that I maybe regard as being also like helpful that make up your mind to finally make up your mind nowadays we are in this world in the society with a lot of possibilities but as you can see yeah where does it bring you just to have a lot of choice just to have a lot of variety doesn't make the society a better better construct yeah thank you Shu um maybe we need some topics that are like more uplifting because they're very depressive depressed I can do those too is there people depressed well well let me let me ask you this when um do you laugh out loud when you watch fake kung fu movies you wanted to I mean it's it's good yeah but I mean the thing is like this in in the past of course I watched when in my free time I watched kung fu movies and that was my Idols so that means I I looked at all of them and then I said I also one day want to become I also want to become like them they look like they are powerful and they can jump so nice and they can jump so high and they can defend their families and they can defend other people yes and so I had also of course I had an idol and I definitely have to say that yes to have something that guides you is uh half of the way to being lost and not have found a way that's difficult but sometimes it's really just make up your mind and then stay with it so yeah just nowadays I mean I don't know because of the technical and the all the special effects that are sometimes being put into into the movies uh if everything is capable but that normally we find out if we try to repeat the things okay okay um do you think that there's a supreme for form of martial arts um and if you can tell just shortly how what was the need and how did the martial arts began was it a necessity or was an expression of an art form there is no Supreme form of martial art there is just the Supreme state of the Mind whoever practices it is just like you have many different styles of dancing there is no best style of dancing you practice the one that you like and if you have the right mindset you bring the beauty out of the dance and just like this I see it as every type of martial art Des that is existing they all have a very high degree of depth into them when you are diving into it when you are allowing yourself to really investigate and go into this field yeah and this is what we call and study the martial art and in the moment where you as a human being become or get into a state of the Mind where you understand that the learning will never stop 100 Years of Lifetime is too short to learn what the field of martial art is like offering yeah then this is the moment where in our tradition we sometimes say you are getting back to become a student yeah and it's very nice and thank you all very much that you refer to me as Master but let me also explain to you what is this Master title yeah master in English Shu in Chinese shiu always or sometimes translated as teacher or father so shiu is like the father and the father has sons and the father has daughters and this is for example the students that are inside the monastery they call me Shifu and I call them Tudi because they are like my sons and already in this type of way how we are addressing each other we can already see for example how is the relationship between us the relationship is that in a way I am taking care of my sons and daughters so that they learn the proper things that I as a father think it's uh Worth to learn that's the one thing but the second direction is also one day I get old yeah and then it's good to have someone to take care of you and it also means of course your father reaches a certain type of age where he cannot lift the car the lifter heavy things anymore so that doesn't mean he's not the father anymore it just means the power the physical power inside the family starts to change and what the father was doing before now the sons are supposed to do but doesn't mean the father is left worse doesn't mean the father doesn't belong into the family anymore he just is reaching or entering a different sequence of life and this is also something that is expressing in a way what is this uh what is this community about that on the one side involves the Buddhist teaching but on the other side involves the practice of the martial art it is a small world trying to represent the big a small world where you are connected I sometimes had uh or a few a few months or years ago I was talking about the relationship from father to son or from a master student relationship and one statement that I'm still like uh seeing by myself is of course father and mother sometimes make mistakes but there is no point or there is no way to ever disregard them as being your fathers and your mothers because without them you would not be here very easy and this is just out of out of this reason out of this thankfulness of being alive even if father and mother made many mistakes that I do not agree with they didn't so for me they didn't yeah just to say but uh I think other people have other issues but nevertheless sometimes one thing that can help very much is to make things clear again bring the relationship between father and yourself mother and yourself grandfather grandmother and yourself bring this into balance it makes you sleep better one [Applause] day let's take some uh questions from the audience hello um I would like to ask U cifu uh how does one know their own personal practice is on the right track yes thank you for the question um I translate this I translate this into the question how do I find somebody who can teach me something that I want to learn yeah so this personal practice that you have over there from who did you have it who gave it to you because if I want to have something that at the moment I don't have the first thing that I do is I look out who has it who has it who has something that I want so then at least I know okay there is somebody who is representing already something that I would like now we say in our tradition now the second thing that you need to look for is you look at the closest students or the closest persons to that one that you found and see do they have it what he has do the closest students have what that teacher or that instructor have because if they don't have it and I'm talking about uh senior students which means students or people that stay with this teacher or instructor or master or however you call him that stay for him for more than four five 6 years if after 6 years the students still have nothing like what the master has something's wrong something's wrong means either he has the skill but he doesn't want to give it or he has the skill and he doesn't have the ability to give it meaning he's not a good teacher he's a good Master but not a good teacher so in both most of these cases uh you need to look for another person but if you find somebody who has it you know this person is able to transmit it then there's only one thing that you need to do from that moment on follow just take the complete guidance and follow this master until you have it that is the traditional way how to handle it uh [Applause] yeah yes another question over there I would like to ask you what do you think that it's the purpose of the life thank you okay let's so such an easy question you easy seven minutes but actually it is very easy it's very easy you give your life a purpose there is nothing that is going to fly around here and you're going to catch the purpose it's not happening you have been born with the possibility of doing a lot of stuff don't waste your lifetime number one number two do something that is not just benefiting yourself but that is benefiting also on the wider scale people in your surrounding this is was one of the slides that I put up there yeah fulfilling personal desire is of limited value but having a global vision where you are embedded of course inside This Global Vision this is something which is not just going to make you sleep well wake up well there is more that is going to be on your side but at the end of the day you need to give your life a purpose not wait that somebody tells you what is your purpose or not wait it's the same like with the sense of Life there is no sense of life either you give your life a sense or it doesn't have a sense you give purpose and you give sense that's the nice part about this life look at me since I decided I want to become sholing Master boom there I am [Applause] I think we have a question over there I would like to what was your greatest challenge you creest challenge when you first faced and you first contacted the Western culture and and if that was actually a challenge being perfectly honest I grew up really in in two different type of cultures I always had the opportunity to know the Western culture Just As I Grew Up Inside the Family House of my father and my mother and know the Eastern culture as well so therefore for me it was never it was always um complimentary let's say so therefore I never even to be honest I can't answer this question it uh never really bothered me in any any sense yeah I chose this [Applause] okay um I think we have time for one or two more questions we we have the mic someplace I can see the mic where H the AO please hello thank you for the opportunity first of all I don't want to take this in a depressed area as you said before but I want to ask uh how much does the Mind than the thoughts matter in a fight against a disease against a disease disease yes yes sorry this one is a difficult question yeah but nevertheless when I look at the world I don't look at the world what is good and what is bad but what I see is Consequence the way of how my mind let's say is functioning it is based on consequence I see something and I see the consequence of it because this is the relationship between the past the present and the future at the moment you are the way how you are you dress the way how you are you speak the way how you speak why because of your past because of everything that you have done in the past if you went to the English class or you didn't go to the English class say it has an impact on how today your speaking skills are so in the same way who are you going to be in the future this is also the question of how are you living your life from now on until that day of the future comes so what does this explanation mean it means there are no coincidences there is no coincidence if I take a apple seed and I put it in the ground in case that seed was like uh a healthy one you have enough Sun you have enough light you put enough nutrition from that seed will come an apple tree it is impossible that you put the apple seed and you get a orange tree it's not happening this example may be still um easy to understand but now it comes to the sickness that sickness doesn't come by coincidence it comes from something that was manifested in the past and I'm sorry if it sounds very very hard but I do think that the power of the mind and also the power of the Mind from the persons in the surrounding plays a very crucial role to overcome this challenge because this is what it is you are being tested tested once again in having a choice accept the things as they are and figure out out a way to continue or ignore it and start over and over again until the pain and suffering is overcome [Applause] yeah I think we have I think we'll take one more question here yes but please a happy one um a happy question no disease to become a shing Master you have to be Chinese there's your happy question M from [Laughter] us so here comes the point I'm not Chinese my parents grew up no were born in Vietnam but grew up in Laos then as refugees as both people during the war they came to Germany I was born in Germany afterwards because my best friend he's from timisha and I know him since we 4 years old we moved together to Romania and I lived here 5 years wow so [Applause] so the the answer is no you just need to be a proper human being and then the world is open to [Applause] you I think that wraps it up we had the honor to have you thank you once again for blessing us with your wisdom and your skills good it's great to have you [Applause] here

Channel: TEDxBaiaMare

Views: 3,385

Keywords: shaolin, shi heng yi, tedxbaiamare, interview

Id: ECfK-9JBwAw

Length: 30min 50sec (1850 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 08 2023