Shi Heng YI: Test your might! • Shaolin Spirit

(Romanian) Good evening, Baia Mare. (Cheering) (Applause) (English) So the following presentation, this following talk, I would like to thank all my teachers and everyone that have supported and guided me in the past along this very extraordinary journey. So I was very lucky once again being invited to one more TEDx talk. And as the title said: Missing link. All right. So first of all, I was thinking: Missing link for what? So the missing link to have a successful business? The missing link to have a harmonious family life or relationship? Or the missing link for what? But ultimately, in a way, for me, it’s very, very simple because I would just like to invite you into a small journey, into what is it that is going on in my mind when I look at the world or when I look at such a question. So first of all, the future doesn’t matter ... if you are not there. Your business doesn’t matter if you are not there, who can witness the success and the loss of whatever your business is doing there. You cannot enjoy your family if you are not there. So the whole point I would like to point out is apparently there is something about you. And this is the very initial starting point: Own your life. Own your life. If I look right now out in the world and also in the past, what I witness is simply like this: There is the tendency that a lot of things are being outsourced to everybody else, to institutions, to other people, which lie outside of you. Either we look out for somebody able to give us something, or if something is going wrong, we look for someone that we can blame. So it doesn’t matter which direction we go. The point is, you never say: “I was making the mistake. It’s because of me.” Because when you wake up in the morning, and let’s say, it seems like you have a bad day - your colleagues are bad, the day is bad, the traffic is bad, your work is bad - no, nothing of that is bad. It’s your attitude which is bad. I think one of the missing links - one of them, it’s not the only one - is care. Number one is you need to know what is care. Because if you don’t care, you don’t spend time with it. If you don’t care, you don’t have interest to your life. If you don't care about your health, you're not going to be healthy. So one starting point is care. And as you see in this one slide, of course, the care for your family and of course, the care for people that are precious to you and in your surrounding. But you can only care for someone or for something if you know how care feels. You can only love someone if you know how love feels. If you don’t have love inside of you, how can you give it? If you don’t have thankfulness inside of yourself, how can you give it? So everything is starting with yourself: what you want to see in this world, what you want to bring into this world, whatever you think is missing into this world. We are eight billion people, so maybe eight billion people have different ideas what is missing in this world. But the point is: whatever you want to bring in, first of all, show it. First of all, you be the representative of what you think is missing there. If I look on YouTube right now, and I just put in “motivational videos” - there are so many - and I even listen to some of them, because they’re really good, the content is really good. What they talk about, the perspective they are talking from, it's a really, really helpful perspective. But let me ask you something, because you also know these type of videos. From 100 people watching these videos, afterwards how many lives start to change? Well, none is a little bit pessimistic. (Laughter) I would say some. But definitely not in relation to the amount of what is being watched. So what is the problem? Yeah, I think one of the problem is that what is it that is missing in order for all these type of influences and talks, all this type of impacts start to really have an effect on someone. And this is not something which is coming from the Shaolin tradition. Every, every culture knows this already. If you only have theory without the practice, then it’s just book knowledge. Then it's just something that you lay in the couch, you lay in the bed, and then you think about: “Ah, I know it.” Yeah, okay, it’s good that you know it, but there must be a way how are you putting these things into practice. And since this whole day, I think you are listening to many different type of talks, I would like to invite you right now to just see, for example, what type of practice is it when people talk about the Shaolin temple. And then afterwards, if it doesn’t make sense to you, I will try to explain what is happening there. (Exhales) (Inhales) (Exhales) (Inhales) (Exhales) (Inhales) (Exhales) (Inhales) (Exhales) (Inhales) (Exhales) (Inhales) (Exhales) (Inhales) (Exhales) (Inhales) (Exhales) (Inhales) (Inhales) (Stick hitting) (Stick hitting ends) (Exhales) So now the stress is gone. (Exhales) (Inhales) (Exhales) (Applause) Yeah, the point is: There are many traditions in this world. They want us to be peaceful. And yes, peaceful is one of a very high goal. I would also like this world to be peaceful one day. But how are you going to get to that peace is the question - and strengthen yourself? The Shaolin approach is a little bit different. Whoever, later after the show, would like to come and see how hard that stick was, feel free to try out. The point is like this: You start the first one, and then you already know, not a good idea. (Laughter) Your body will directly give you the reaction: “Oh, no!” So what's coming up is pain. And now the question for us: Why we think physical training, physical activity, practice is something that teaches more than just how hard can you punch, how fast can you kick. It’s not about that. I don’t care how hard or how fast somebody can punch, but I care about how is the mindset. What happens if you walk through this lifetime, something unexpected comes, and then there it is: something that we call choice. You have the choice: the suffering comes, and you run away, or the suffering comes, the pain comes, and you face it. And the second approach - this is something what the Shaolin way is representing: We are overcoming the suffering. We are not running away from the suffering. You are overcoming it. You go through it until you have become so strong, your body becomes so strong, your mind has become so strong that it doesn’t matter afterwards anymore. You feel it, but it’s not the same like you felt before. So therefore, how to translate this into our nowadays lifetime? Maybe it means: We need to make us stronger again. That is simply said. This society is too weak. And why? Because of all the technology which is available right now, so you don’t need to use your body anymore. I always think about in the Stone Ages. Do you think somebody in the Stone Ages had depression? Or even a more modern variation: the Spartans. You think they had depression? You know, maybe you are laughing, but all of these groups, they are too busy with their body, they are too busy with activity to be depressed. But nowadays, how does the time look? You can sit if you want from morning till evening, just in front of the screen. And nothing’s going to happen anymore. So this is one reason why, since almost ten years, what our organization and myself are trying to share a little bit into this world, maybe in a more funny and a light version of everything, but what we would like to encourage to people everywhere in the world is get more physicality into your life. Simply said. Not much talking around it. Get more physicality into your life. Yes. So now, I don’t know why I chose this one slide now. But yeah, somebody, when I had my first TEDx talk, he said, “Yeah, you need to be careful or a good way of how to prepare the slides at the end, like the three ways of success or the five whatever.” So at this time I brought you the three Cs of life. (Laughter) Yeah, I mean, of course, in a way it’s funny, but it’s also, like, very nice to remember: Choice. Is it good or is it bad, that choice? Well, it depends what you are choosing. You stand here and now you have choice. No? Then comes the consequence of that. You take another choice. You’re going to feel different, people around you are going to see you differently, and based on that, they see something different in you, which sometimes opens up very different chances and possibilities. The best example is here. I’m not a speaker. I grew up, since the age of four, doing this type of stuff. Yeah. Doing something physical, doing my forms here, doing cool stuff that looks nice. This is where I come from. But along this way of training myself, of knowing myself, of knowing my skeleton, knowing my muscles, knowing my organs, knowing my energies, along this way, sometimes, yeah, some wisdom starts to emanate. And it is my honest belief that this comes because of the practice and not because of reading books or anything like this. So in that sense, once again, thank you very much for this chance, and I’m wishing you all a nice evening. (Applause)