Shi Heng Yi’s speech embodies calm and strength. Watching his Ted talks or his interviews, you see that he emanates both humility and confidence. He speaks slowly, thoughtfully, and deliberately. Balance is a core pursuit of The Mindful Stoic, so I was immediately captivated by Shi Heng Yi because of his aura of balance between hardness and softness. The Shaolin culture to which he belongs is one of warrior monks, which is an interesting challenge to the stereotype of monks who mostly meditate and study. In this article, we’ll share 16 practical lessons from Shi Heng Yi divided into themes of self-mastery and peace. We’ll provide a brief bio and description of the Shaolin tradition. Finally, we’ll leave you with some salient Shi Heng Yi quotes.
Who is Shi Heng Yi?
Shi Heng Yi is the leading headmaster of the Shaolin Temple Europe, which is a Buddhist monastery. His mission is to pass on to others the Shaolin tradition, which is a marriage of martial arts and Buddhist practices. The Shaolin Temple invites disciples to train in these arts. Yi hopes that those who master the Shaolin way will share their knowledge with the people they meet in everyday life, spreading the benefits of Shaolin even further. Shaolin culture is an artful tradition rooted in Buddhism, with flavors of Taoism, Confucianism, and manifestations of martial arts, traditional medicine, and calligraphy. The original Shaolin temple in China is the birthplace of this 1500-year-old physical and spiritual expression of Buddhism.
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Shi Heng Yi on Self-Mastery
- The most powerful knowledge out there is the kind that lets you see for yourself what you are capable of.
- We must examine opposite ends of the spectrum when we seek balance. If we desire comfort we must also know discomfort. If we seek relaxation then we must also understand stress. Knowing both sides draws a complete map with which we can navigate towards balance more capably.
- Discipline is freedom because the quality of our lives can only be determined by our actions. But, these actions cannot be unrestricted. If we begin acting freely simply because we believe in our right to freedom, being unfaithful to those we love, or overindulging in sensory pleasure, then we feed the destructive side of human nature. Structure and restrictions actually foster freedom because they help us realize that happiness comes from within and it is not dependent on anything external.
- Writing your plans, ambitions, and goals is necessary if they are to benefit others. If kept locked away in your mind, others cannot see what you have to offer. Manifest your thoughts on paper. If not for yourself, then do it for others.
- If you cannot handle the little things like writing down your goals on a piece of paper or keeping your living space clean, then you cannot handle the big things. The small things matter.
Shi Heng Yi on success
- When deciding whether to spend energy pursuing something, many of us make this mistake: we don’t contemplate it. Contemplate means to literally sit in silence and think deeply. We must ask ourselves and really visualize the answer to the question Where will this lead me if I begin to invest energy into it? Often, we know how to rank-order priorities and make decisions. But, how often do we truly contemplate our moves before we make them?
- There are two ingredients required to ensure success in all your endeavors. The first is to make your intention to benefit others or improve the world around you, and to never forget this intention. The second is to focus on the process and go about the day-to-day work diligently.
- Directly approaching what you want is the wrong way. If you want freedom, for example, you must explore structure and discipline. If you can find freedom within the discipline then you have found true freedom. To approach what you desire head on is to take a one-sided approach. There are always two sides that make up a whole, and we cannot have one without the other. Relaxation and tension belong together. Success and failure belong together.
Shi Heng Yi on mindfulness
- Cultivating mindful awareness throughout the day lengthens the day. When we’re aware, it’s as if the mental camera takes more pictures. We have richer memories and experiences when we’re aware. One effect of this is that time slows down. Crucially, mindful awareness increases our ability to make adjustments. When our mood begins to turn sour, we recognize it and adjust.
- How can we become more disciplined? It starts with a plan. Write a simple, easy-to-execute plan, and stick to it absolutely. This means commitment, which is critical because the nature of the mind is to wander, to explore variety. The commitment grounds the mind onto a singular point of focus.
- There were times in Chinese history where martial arts were banned. This is because a person who can express themselves both verbally and physically cannot be controlled.
Shi Heng Yi on finding peace
- A warrior monk is both a warrior and a monk. Perhaps they are a warrior at their core, but their external behavior is peaceful. They choose to be peaceful and are skillful at peace, but the ability to protect themselves and their loved ones is always present.
- Being unshakable means being at peace with yourself. More specifically, there is nothing anyone can add nor subtract from you. You are not inflated by compliments nor are you torn down by criticism. When you enter a room, you know what to do, and others can sense this. This is unshakable.
- Yi refers to intense physical exercise as a practice of relaxation. Of course, the exertion itself is not relaxing, but because we face the tension, we can know relaxation more intimately afterwards. Also, Yi believes that intense physical exercise is necessary for a strong mindset. He explains that exercise brings out a fire—our animal instinct. If we sit too much, then the fire may burn, but it will be channeled into your head and manifest itself as negative emotion, such as anger. When the fire manifests itself in the body, we learn about our true nature.
- Rather than having a concrete definition of who you want to become or what you want to achieve, have a direction. Define a direction, a path, and follow it diligently. This is better than a strictly-defined outcome because a direction can lead you to unexpected places whereas a concrete outcome usually leads to disappointment.
Shi Heng Yi on finding the light
- To find light in darkness, we must open our senses. This is because figurative darkness is much like literal darkness; we can’t see. We can’t see a way out. Relying on our eyes in such darkness is not enough. We need to get in touch with our other senses—to really feel things out—to find our path towards the light. Darkness is nothing more than a closed perspective. The practical approach to finding a new perspective is to spend a lot of time outdoors, under sunlight, and increase physical activity.
We hope you enjoyed our interpretation of some of Shi Heng Yi’s most practical lessons. His perspective that we must use hardness to find softness is one that we can all incorporate more into our lives to find not only balance, but also greater understanding about ourselves. It’s funny how some ancient Eastern philosophies, such as Taoism and Buddhism, turn out to be consistent with modern science. Meditation and exercise are two examples of this. There is a mountain of scientific evidence showing that meditation and exercise are essential for mental and physical health. Yi’s emphasis on physical exercise as a means of self-discovery and self-mastery is profound, practical, and accessible to all of us. To learn more about Shi Heng Yi, click here to check out his official website.
We’ll leave you with some quotes from Shi Heng Yi.
Shi Heng Yi quotes
“There are two mistakes along the way to Self-Mastery: Not starting it and not going all the way.”
“Freedom goes hand in hand with your ability to restrict yourself.”
“To regain control, we must train the mind to be more present, to live in the here and now, and to find the answers within ourselves, to perceive every moment as it is, and feel the subtle changes within, to continuously work on it. That is the essential practice.”
“It’s not important what you mean by your words. It’s important how the other person understands what you just said.”
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