Shi Heng Yi: The Shaolin Shift: This Is It

The sound's true, podcast network.

Just because the mind is saying something doesn't mean it's right,

even when the thought pops up, just because the thought is popping up doesn't mean it's real.

It only becomes more real if you start to nourish that thought now even more.

In this episode of Insights at the Edge, my guest is Master She Hung Ye.

Master She Hung Ye is a 35th generation Shaolin Master and the founder and headmaster

of the Shaolin Temple Europe in Germany. He teaches a blend of traditional kung fu,

Zen Buddhism, and practical wisdom for modern life. I'm really excited to talk with him.

He was born and raised in Germany and is the son of Vietnamese immigrants who left to make

a better path for their children. He started martial arts training at the age of four,

developing a deep understanding of the mind-body connection, and now focuses on making

Shaolin teachings and practices widely accessible. He's the author of the book Shaolin Spirit,

the way to self-mastery. Friends, stay with us.

Master She Hung Ye, welcome!

Yes, dear Mrs. Simmon, thank you very much for this nice introduction. Yes.

Wonderful. New friendship forming right here. Tell me what you mean by self-mastery.

Okay. It literally means to simplify it really, to stop pointing the finger outwards from you

if something in your life is not going in the way of how you imagine things to go.

Taking accountability, taking responsibility, and taking everything back to yourself,

let's call it like this, and work on the things that you really can change,

and at the same time learn to accept what is it that you cannot change, and ultimately that means

to master yourself. That's the only thing that at least in my perspective,

more and more I come up as a conclusion. There is nothing else than what you are doing with yourself,

how you are treating your body, how you are treating your mind, and what is it that you are

cultivating inside of you in terms of expectations, in terms of perspective looking into the world.

So literally it means what I can change about this world, I need to change inside myself,

and this is the reason why self-mastery, it's all about I wouldn't like to call it optimizing

yourself, I actually would rather call it discovering yourself, or finding what actually all the time

has already been there, but we just used to start looking on the outside because from the education

maybe this is what we have learned, that there's always something to look for on the outside of us.

What I really appreciated you saying was mastering and taking responsibility for what we can control,

and then accepting, this is what I heard you say, what we can't accept. What in your life have you

had to accept? I just have to accept this, this is not a place where I can make it different.

I mean especially now that you mentioned, for example, the temple that I built up for many, many years,

and just one of the illusions at some point for me was that I'm doing it out of a noble reason

in order to just share this knowledge for people so that they can also benefit from it

on the one side, physically benefit, and on the other side also mentally benefit.

And so I thought I'm doing something good only, and at some point it became really also

disturbing for me how come that you still no matter what you do, there will always be someone,

there will always be people who will always find a reason in order not to like you or what you

are doing. And this is for example one of the things just to accept the fact that every type of,

however you call it, every type of light always carries a shadow with it. So there's nothing which

is ultimately only positive. You will always face both sides until you may be realize for yourself

and observe they always come in a double pack. Just like I mentioned many times before I do feel like

every success comes because of a lot of failures along the way. And wherever the sun rises here on

this earth, at the same time the sun is going down on another part of the earth. So that means

things are not separate from each other. They sometimes are only very subjective.

Thank you. And I think part of the reason I wanted to focus on this notion of self mastery and the

idea that there are certain things that are outside of our ability to impact that is that I think

sometimes when people hear that idea they think they're going to be in charge all the time of

everything. And then there's disappointment and grief and despair. And I wonder if you could share

how you work with the disappointment or grief or despair when it arises in your experience.

So first of all please let me say this beforehand already. Now in the introduction you said for example

that I'm teaching let's say Zen Buddhism. I really have to correct that and say to myself actually

I'm still on the path or I'm still like if you would like to call it like this,

trying to actually find out, trying to learn to discern what is let's call it, what is real

and what is for example made up. And what has guided me in all these years very very much

is to literally ask myself who is it actually that can grief. Why is it to who does the grief for

example, to who does it, does it appear. And you mentioned the word at the same time now self

just like I said self mastery. Now from my understanding there are two terms that we need to maybe

identify first of all. Number one is when we talk about the self and the second one is when we talk

about the persona or let's call it the role. My assumption right now could be wrong but this is my

assumption is that the majority of people living right now we identify ourselves very very much

with the persona or with the roles that we are playing in this human body form. So that means

an Asian descendant my parents came from Vietnam I was born in Germany I studied this then with

the age of four I started practicing martial arts meanwhile I became somehow the headmaster of

the Shaolin Temple Europe which at the same time also already has been passed on to the next

generation already. So this is for example right now this is the role this is the persona that has

been created throughout the last 38 years. And the interesting thought for me was prior of attaining

any title any position or any role that you are playing the main question for me is who or what

is it actually that is taking these roles. And as an example what do I mean exactly it's literally

when when we say this is my house this is my car this is my job this is my body every time when

you say this is my the question is who is the me. So when I turn this around your body your house

your job this is everything this is all something that belongs to you but who is the you

and turning this around so this is actually the question with what are you identifying yourself

while walking through this lifetime and I just discover in a way for myself if there is somebody

who suffers if there is somebody who can grieve it always is the persona or it is the role that does it.

And yes well first of all thank you for taking us right to the heart of the matter here at the

beginning of our conversation with this inquiry who or what am I and who or what are you when you

sit with that as a meditative question you're not the role what do you come up with.

This is meanwhile meanwhile I have really come to the point and I understand also why in many

ancient traditions it's extremely difficult to talk about it because it is not

understandable because this is so really to make it very clear I don't regard myself awakened

I don't regard myself enlightened nothing like this I just regard myself at the moment still

also figuring out the riddles of this universe if you want to call it like this.

And you know it's like every time we judge every time we discern something we are already finding

ourselves in the realm of separation. So even when I start to describe something it's like by using

my words I'm already separating the wholeness by trying to describe it with a concept which simply

cannot cannot be it let's call it like this and this is why I find it more and more difficult

to really talk about what is it because I also don't want to like misguide people in actually

giving them new concepts because what we are trying to to to point at what we're trying to maybe

you call it rediscover or to find it is nothing that can be put into words it's nothing that can be

put into an idea or a concept and so this is where I also understand why many of the masters in

the past and also recent masters that are teaching me are constantly telling me until you have that

experience fully 100% for yourself and have experienced it for yourself it is extremely misleading

to even try the attempt to talk about it you know and this is right now really the difficulty

when we enter into this realm of spirituality because yeah and what does that spirituality mean

we are dealing with spirit we are dealing with something that is apparently not in the realm of

physicality physicality meaning having a form having something that can be seen having something

that has a shape but spirituality is formless shapeless so there is nothing to even

there's nothing that could even describe it this is what makes it really difficult honestly

to to stay in that realm and and to speak about it well I really appreciate your non-answer

very much I am new to the Shaolin warrior way my exposure to you is my first exposure to this

tradition and there are several things that struck me and I hope well I need to understand this more

and one was the definition of a Shaolin warrior is someone who can fight like a demon but with a heart

of a Buddha and I thought that's really interesting those two things combined having them both

together and that's what I'd like to hear and learn more about to understand that more yes so

there are certainly many different interpretations of exactly this term but I can just share with you

the one how I how I view it for myself regardless of any spirituality that we have in this world

apparently it seems like right now we still have this form we have this body we have it for a

limited lifetime so in my interpretation it's like this even if everything would be spiritual

the fact right now for me is that I still have a very high sensation for my body let's say

and so naturally if I regard this now as a gift that has been given to me a gift for a limited

lifetime so I can walk on this earth carrying this around number one is I need to be able to take care

of this so taking care of this means that I nourish it well maybe I train it well depending of course

what your emphasis and what your own goals maybe are with this body on this on this earth and

speaking purely right now in the field of martial arts because this is one very essential point

inside the Shaolin tradition this is what Shaolin until today is known for

is that the martial art practice is quite a way of life meaning

it follows us throughout our whole life meaning the practice of martial arts so it's purely

physical training in order to strengthen our body in order to get us more flexible get us faster

get us more resilient these are all physical features so but the special thing when we talk about

Shaolin tradition is that it's not actually only about martial arts and physicality the special

thing is that all of this in the past has been developed and also trained primarily inside an

environment that we call a temple so now a temple usually is everything beyond physicality

in a temple you usually regardless of which tradition in a temple you usually find the how

would you say the the spiritual people the ones that are dealing with the mind that ones that

are dealing maybe with what you would call consciousness the ones that would be dealing with something

that through the normal physical world or with our eyes the majority of people do not perceive

and the special thing now about Shaolin again is this combination we have the very very physical

area then at the same time we have the area related to the temple more precisely related to what

nowadays is known as Zen Buddhism and spiritual character and spiritual aspect to all of this so

and to put this now in in context just because you know how to work with your body and just

because your body is able to deliver a lot of performance it doesn't mean you are able to handle

your emotions it doesn't mean you understand what impact the mind has on yourself so this is the

reason why we say we train our body on the one side and we have another area that literally

is training our mind which then is related to our emotional states and therefore also related to the

heart and what is the most peaceful and pleasant state of the heart actually I said it already peaceful

and loving peaceful and loving all and and and compassing which means your heart has the quality

to embrace quite a lot of things if the heart is separated or if the heart is let's say sinking

in terms of separation again we are finding ourselves in the world of separation which means there

is conflict but when we point towards the heart this is also where in many traditions it's related

to the idea of love and love simply spreads everywhere similar like the picture of the sun

doesn't matter who it is the sun shines equally for everyone and this is that inner quality

related to the heart so you can fight and you can defend and you can be in physical conflict

on the one side but the quality that you also possess you can also have or sense that everything

is connected and everything belongs together I'm immensely inspired listening to you speak it's

really beautiful it's like beautiful music I'm going to track back a little bit and when I asked

you this question you said I'm here with this physical body and this body is a gift and the moment

you said that I thought a lot comes after that once you recognize that it's a gift to be here in

a physical body but what about that person who says I feel like it's a prison I feel imprisoned

being here in this body what would you say to somebody who has that kind of response

I can't say that this person said something wrong because in a way you could regard it as this

and the prison for the human being normally is an average of 100 years so there is definitely

because of us possessing now or feeling in trap inside this body this is why it can be

depending on your perspective upon life and also depending on what is it that this body

or this persona went through it can definitely feel like it is a prison so that statement by

itself I would say yes is true but nevertheless now the question is do you just want to accept it

like this and yeah just accept it like this or do you want to find an alternative perspective where

you still keep this how I say keep this inside that you have but still transcend it there are two

aspects if there is physical there is non-physical at the same time if somebody says this body is a prison

which yeah like I said which is true but you can either stay in that mindset or you can

transcend it and still continue while having this body and this is for me the point where all

this ideas or the inquiry to figure out is there something more than what meets the eye this is the

point why it has such a tremendous power to liberate yourself because this is what I would call

the whole purpose in yeah in learning or trying to discover new traditions or trying to decipher

what did the old masters and grand masters and teachers of the past what is it they wanted to

pass on to us the liberation you use this word when you teach sometimes elevation and I thought I

want to understand more what master she hang ye means by elevation and maybe you could talk

about it in the context even that we're describing of how we relate to our hundred years here

elevation

carries a quality when I use it and it is the quality that something is getting lighter

so elevation means something is like starting to float something is starting to move upwards

now in our 3d world when we talk about elevation that means it is something that maybe once was

stuck or is standing right now here but slowly slowly it starts to become lighter so if we use

these terms there are two directions whether something is becoming lighter or something is becoming

more heavy more heavy in terms of this whole life this whole existence feels like a burden to

every day waking up feels like a heaviness to you you're feeling stuck you're feeling

you're moving nowhere you're feeling like life is heavy so we have these two directions and now

one main idea in this lifetime is actually to figure out for yourself

which thoughts and which actions which way of life and which perspective that you can for example take

where is it heading towards what is the result of all of your actions of all of the things that you

are thinking about talking about whether they start to make you become more heavy or they are

starting to elevate you and the extreme of elevation I would say it's extreme lightness

and what is it that is extreme lightness well it's light light in both ways light in terms of

the the shining light or light in terms of there is no substance to it that's why it is

free it is free of matter it is free of anything that that stuck on you meaning it is free of any type

of grasping or holding on to anything this is why things become light in life you know practically

speaking the more you are attached the more people are attached to anything the more heavy they are

because all of the attachment means it it's like you're stuck to something you're stuck to something

that you won't take with you no matter what and this is the reason again why that word elevation

or transcending or lightness or non grasping non attachment how these terms describe a very

similar quality I would say and I just regard after walking through this lifetime so far that

it's an essential part to learn in this lifetime one of the things I'm sensing and I'd

love to know if you think this is true or not or if I'm projecting is that by the way you're answering

my questions I have the sense that you understand suffering that you've touched it you had it in

your life heaviness hard times like you know it it's something that you and that you have found

this way through to find greater lightness and elevation from your own experience and I'd

love to hear more about that and maybe an experience or a time of heaviness and darkness and how

the finding of your way through personally informs now how you teach

so yeah first of all thank you very much for for this acknowledgement

there was a time when I actually wasn't teaching anything to the public yet

but when the time came which was around the year 2011 there was always one guideline that I kept

for myself when it came to sharing something or teaching something which was I can only share I can

only teach if I have it so meaning I cannot pass on any solution to anyone if I haven't

experienced the success let's say of this solution in my own life and that made it actually very

very simple and easy for me in terms of do I normally prepare myself for any interview or

podcast I usually don't prepare myself because I can only or I only answer actually questions where

I I have an answer if you would ask me something I have no experience on I would absolutely

refrain from making something up just to give you an answer so and that meaning or that being set

first of all every human being goes through different types of suffering in this lifetime

and same I would say also goes for me and at some point when some cycles or some patterns start to

always repeat themselves at some point it's also like I'm asking myself

it feels like I have been there already I have been in that cycle of suffering already I know it

from somewhere and just it it just takes sometimes a few cycles a few repetitions until hopefully

that inside pops up there must be a way out of this and this is literally the beginning

of what for many people nowadays I would say is that spiritual search all of the searching for an

answer the searching for an alternative way the search for did I miss something in my life what

is it that I have overseen most of these moments come after a lot of suffering so this is the general

outline how do I view suffering in this lifetime it means you are finding yourself in a state that

very very obviously is very unpleasant to you and if that heaviness becomes just too much

ultimately the little light the little hope or that little faith starts to shine through and

this is where then the search begins and this time of cycles right now I had quite a few of them

in my lifetime and just to show for example that it all goes hand in hand

in 2011 after I finished about how how many years was it I think almost that time it was almost

18 years of academic education in 2011 I started returning back to Germany and then starting to

actually build up what nowadays is known as the Schaul in Temple Europe and of course a lot of

effort a lot of discipline a lot of work went into building up this temple and on the one side

slowly it started to also become successful I would say in a way the temple became

worldwide known the persona let's say that I created became worldwide known but at the same time

also I felt at some point and this was now maybe about three or four years ago I felt like hitting

a some type of a plateau which means I knew already if I would like to make more workshops I could

do it if I would like to make more TV productions I could do it and at the same time having all these

followers and having all the people that are looking up to that persona also made me realize something

they are in resonance with the persona they are in resonance with the character that I have created

let's say in a way in the public space but that also meant that sometimes when I was traveling and

found myself like just at the airport even wearing for example these type of glasses that people

couldn't discern anymore and started to project something into me that I am simply not only it doesn't

mean that the persona of the Schaul in representative that it is fake or that it's unreal no it is the

role it is the persona in order to share with the people the Schaul knowledge that I find useful

for myself but when I talk about myself myself is not Schaul he

Schaul he is one part of me that I embodied in order to be physically strong and at the same time

also to get into touch with the Buddhist teachings this is what Schaul he this persona brought also

into my life let's say and this is already like the the important part to hear out so Schaul

he this is the persona this is the role but everybody walking through this lifetime in different

life circumstances in different environments you usually also have a different role a different

contextual role that you are playing with your parents you will always be the child no matter what

doesn't matter if you're the CEO of a of a big corporation for your parents you'll always be the child

and so this is one area that ultimately led to this feeling of suffering also inside of me the

recognition that people are not seeing me actually for what I am they are seeing me what they are

projecting upon me based on what they have let's say been exposed to and so ultimately what is

this suffering mean it is a it is a crisis of identity let's call it like this of not knowing

who are you actually now what what is this all about and then literally feeling or seeing

how so much of the life is based upon this persona yes but I mean meanwhile maybe through your

research then you also knew and I think this has been the biggest change in my life that I like

became a father in in 2024 and so of course for me it meant the way and the the amount of time and

energy that I invested and nourished this persona master Schaul he it's very natural to me that

I can't keep up anymore in the same amount of how I used to do this in the last 20 or 25 years

so now a lot of my energy a lot of my time and awareness goes into the role of being a father

to my son yes so and this is of course also like a shift of priority you might call it like this

but it is also a shift of identity of course so what I hear you saying is that in releasing

identification with any role and elevating out of taking on other people's projections of the

role or anything like that there's this potential for lightness and what I'd like to hear more about

because you said it actually is a feeling of literal light not the same density in matter

and I'd like to know what that feels like for you if you could describe it like take me into

the light right now with you us together let's go okay staying okay staying in the separate

staying in the world of separation right now could mean that you are very clear for yourself

that you are sitting in the US right now looking at the screen and knowing that there is

Shuhang Yi on the other side of the earth doing something else so there is a very clear separation

you are there and I am here this is the one perspective of how we right now could

could continue with this talk this is the one perspective but the other thing is the if you would actually

just realize or just try that what you are seeing on your screen right now take away that there

is another country take away that this is a technology that somehow is streaming this video

onto your screen the reality of your experience right now is just what is right now in front of your

eyes so you remove the thinking it's just what is there in that very moment right now so

you just realize things but you don't add anything on top of it the the realization of

this is yeah I don't know how else I but this is it now one of my masters he just said

like this he used to say what you are seeing right now even even me being on your podcast right now

this is your dream right now I am appearing in your dream this is all you're doing right now

so similar like you literally appearing right now on on my awareness on my screen this is my dream

but the truth is you are here why I don't know why yes and so this lightness I would say has

two qualities for example there is no past and there is no future this is one of them

you are literally in full acceptance of what you are finding yourself in right now there is no

additional thought of you would like to be anywhere else or things could be different it is the

full acceptance of this is it so no matter how far we have come or you have come in this lifetime

in terms of mental spiritual development it brought you to this moment so that's it right now

this is how the truth and the reality looks like just like this

so there is no comparison between past and future this is the one thing and there is no wishing

that this moment should be different so literally it's very very present your present and

it's just this little this astonishment this curiosity on at the same time of

okay that's it thank you and I'd love to know how that I'm going to call it the Shaolin

perspective shift how that shifting how that comes into play in the physical practices you do if it

does so for example and I have to bring this up you know I've seen you do these videos where you

crush through a brick with your raw bare hand and I don't know if there are other amazing things

like that that you do when you're oh yes oh yes sure I'd be curious what they are but what's going

on in terms are you are you what are you doing internally as you do that act now what is

what was very very helpful and useful for me when it came to the Shaolin practices is

well let me just show you other than maybe it's even more easier to understand

so let's just say my teacher in the past would show me today we are learning a new way of movement

then that movement would be like this

so it's just like you would call it a backfist you know it's a backfist so in the very beginning I would

look at my teacher and look at my master and I would like copy it so I would literally say okay

first I must go in then a little bit up and then out so but after some time when you

when you start to continuously do that one movement all the time you will realize that

it's not thinking anymore it's not thinking about the movement that does the movement

because it starts to become so natural that you even would say that you you are feeling the movement

so it's not that I say okay I'm in out I'm up this is just the beginning

but because of the repetitive movement then something starts to happen where we say the movement

and the body become one if the movement and the body become one that means you become the movement

in the moment where where this like starts to happen you become the movement

this is the moment where you literally forget about yourself where you where you forget about your

body yeah and the interesting part is that this is not just happening in the field of martial arts

or through the practice of the Shaolin arts every time that we are doing something that is always

somehow let's say monotonous I think you would call it yeah it's monotonous

at some point it is so monotonous that you become one with whatever you're doing there

and there is no thinking anymore and this and exactly this part is the very very helpful area

where now somebody is interested in in understanding what is this one becoming one what's the benefit

of becoming one the well the benefit of becoming one is if there's one that means you're not in the

world of two and the world of two is the world of conflict because we have two the world of separation

so and this is the reason why maybe nowadays many people once they start to practice the martial arts

and start to get a little bit this understanding about that the movement that you can do something

and then you become this movement why it really counts the whole nervous system

and gives you a balance for all other areas in your life where people maybe still feel extremely

anxious about or extremely stressed about why because they are trapped in the body

and so learning through movement and this is what what essentially has been the key or the

point that I always try to share with the world using the body to enter and discover a perspective

about yourself which is beyond the body discovering something beyond the body but through the body

that is it but let me ask a very beginner question here which has to do with when pain arises

and you're trying like okay so for example I was reading your book Shaolin spirit

and I thought Tammy try one of the practices and I thought I'll try the horse stance the mob

boo stance I've seen people that I know how to do that let's do that so I'm doing it in about the

you know I'm embarrassingly so not very many minutes of holding it I was like ow this is painful

I want to stop but I said I was going to do it for longer so I'm going to keep going now I want

to stop I wonder what master she hung years going to say to people who start feeling that burning

pain what do I do now number one is this is the right chance to literally challenge yourself

meaning just find out for yourself in a let's say in a playful way how much discipline how much

can you handle your mind because exactly what you have described this is the mind talking

just because the mind is saying something doesn't mean it's right this is also an essential part

to realize just because our mind comes up with whatever ideas throughout the day meaning even when

thought pops up just because the thought is popping up doesn't mean it's real it only becomes more real

if you start to nourish that thought now even more and this marble exercise is for example a very

very good exercise meaning if we would do this practice together and you would stay in the mob

I know what goes on in your mind nevertheless I would try to still encourage you in a in a nice way

for you to actually withstand that with standard temptation of giving up even if it's only two minutes longer

then your mind was running already saying I want to give up

and then you have it right then then you see the truth right in front of your eyes two minutes

ago your mind said I can't do it anymore I need to give up but together with somebody who encouraged

you you still made it two minutes longer so the point is now first of all how much truth

was it that the mind was saying there was no truth to it it is just the question of how much are

you able to withstand the pressure of the mind this is the one area that that can be trained

with this stance so it is a mind practice number one a second area this is now maybe you would

regard it as a physical feet or a physical ability but especially when the size

are starting to burn which happens in the in the marble very often now another thing that we

can practice is to refine ourselves to become more fine for our own body and by doing so releasing

actually the tension that you feel is trapped in your size meaning to practice and to release

tension from your physical body this is also a reason to practice this marble for example

I make it now I exaggerate but if my shoulders if I would like sit like this it's very obvious to

you that my shoulders are tense so you would tell me relax okay so now they are relaxed again

but this type of relaxation or let's better call it this this type of releasing of the shoulders

right now it's very very much on the surface level only so what I'm saying is even if on the

outside it looks like I am released like I am relaxed in a way but the question is internally

even until your organ level how much of this release internal release can you sense actually

inside of your own body and this is what also is being practiced by this marble by the horse stance

for example because the size they are really really tense because of the gravity of the position

the center of gravity of the position but still while standing there we are trying to still release

release the muscles so it is also a type of refining the way how you are sensing your own

physical body refinement on the one side and mind practice on the other side this is all inside this

one practice the marble no when I said to you that I've seen these videos where you've cut through

bricks and I said you know that's just one of the many kind of cool feats you can accomplish and

you said yeah of course you know and I was like okay what are the other ones I it's I can't help

it it's fascinating yes I mean of course all these breaking the bricks and putting the spear on

the throat and all these very highly skilled acrobatics and all these skills this is what

to a big part has made Shaolin also famous in all these in all these decades I would say

because it is very quickly something up they can do something differently so this is like the one

thing it's very attractive to the eye but the other truth is also like this just because something is

attractive doesn't mean it's good yeah just because something is attractive doesn't mean it's functional

just because something is beautiful doesn't mean it's necessarily life benefiting for you

so this is like important maybe to really keep in the mind is just that thanks to all of these

physical skills that in the past all the Shaolin representatives were displaying and sharing

with the world thanks to this I do feel that many people also started to realize

the connection to that other part where actually Shaolin is derived from which we named all the time

as the mind practice or the heart practice or the cultivation of yes the Buddha heart the connected

being the unified being the one the one the one with no separation so this is the value where I would

say why until today it is a very very nice tradition you know that I still feel is for many years

going to benefit many people if you understand it exactly like this it's not just about like how

beautiful things look like because I mean people from the Cirque du Soleil they are also like extremely

skillful or professional dancers they also have beautiful beautiful flowing and skillful movements

yes but that is the thing it's not just about how something looks on the outside it is especially

how does this life feel for you on the inside and that is the area where people are going to move towards

just one final topic I'd love to talk about which has to do with women in the Shaolin tradition

are you do you train female students have you seen female masters work in the tradition I haven't

heard much about this so so first of all in the Shaolin temple Europe where we usually organize

these retreats or workshops the only thing that we are taking care of is that the accommodation is

women only or man only so that means they're separate we don't we don't mix genders as such

but we do not exclude anyone so this path of learning to how do I refine my body how do I learn

more about this tradition it's absolutely free to everyone and traditionally even in China now

there are monasteries and there are also temples where you exclusively have either men which

is the Shaolin temple still and there are also temples where you only have female so probably in

China itself it's handled a little bit more strict still then in other parts of the world because

most of the time regardless which city or which country it is if you see a Shaolin school

or a Shaolin temple normally everybody is welcome equally so there there is no separation as such

anymore okay and it appears from the outside when I think of Shaolin warrior training as it being

very much a sort of young path very I guess I would call it masculine lots of perseverance commitment

strength training repetition and yet I know that there's a balance of Yin and Yang

in the Shaolin way and I wonder if you can speak to what the Yin component is and we'll end with

this part of our conversation yes there I would just say we have two layers one like I said for

that pure martial art area when it's all about the body the physicality this is already something you

could regard as this is very much young driven that very physical area the generation of fire the

generation of doing the building up the attaining something this is that young part but then we also

have the part of let's call it the letting go the releasing not playing rolls and games anymore the

being part the meditative part the inner work this is where I would say this is the Yin part seeing

on a on a big scale so the second layer is that even inside the physical area that I before describe

as outgoing outgoing outgoing but every highly skilled martial artist who practiced this for a long

time they know even this area has also a Yin aspect to it as well there is a lot of internal or inner

work happening simultaneously while on the outside all these physical abilities are being seen or

are being expressed so literally the truth is in a way Yin and Yang they cannot be separated from each

other just sometimes depending on with what type of perspective and I you look at the things you might

not be able to see it but it is it is certainly like this that both are involved I've been speaking with

master she hung ye I hope I get to meet you in person sometime and this is not the only conversation

we will have in the now but that there'll be some future now from future dream where it's a good

dream to be with you that's what I would say it's a very it's a beautiful dream he's the author of

the book Shaolin Spirit the way to self mastery and the founder of the Shaolin Temple Europe

in Germany good luck with being a new dad I'm sure families very lucky to have your full presence

in that good luck with it thank you very much for this very pleasant conversation and sending

all my wishes and best blessings to all of you thank you very much

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