When you think of the Shaolin Temple, chances are you may imagine a lonely mountain temple in the remote mountains of China. But when it comes to Master Shi Heng Yi, he is the head master of the Shaolin Temple of Europe, which happens to be located in Germany.

For 11 years, Master Shi Heng Yi has been communicating publicly about the Shaolin lifestyle. Even at a young age, Master Shi Heng Yi was quite introverted. 

Immersed in an intrapersonal investigation into how his thoughts influenced his feelings and vice versa, as well as how his inner experience affected his outer performance, Master Shi Heng Yi recognized the immense potential for outer expression in the world via cultivation of inner awareness.

At an early age, he recognized the importance of mindset and its ability to either empower or dis-empower excellence in personal expression.

As such, he began exploring various philosophical teachings and teachers, but always with the mind of translating that knowledge into measurable physical expression and performance. 

While engaging in vigorous Shaolin martial arts training, Master Shi Heng Yi sought to understand those aspects of his training which were particularly universal in application. In other words, he sought to understand which principles were fundamental to success, regardless of the field of endeavor involved.

He sought to translate the Shaolin ethos in such a way that anyone, including non-martial artists, could easily understand it and find practical inspiration for a more fulfilling, principled life.

He realized that by having an underlying system of values and principles by which one’s life is ordered, those principles and values become the foundation for a deeply fulfilling and meaningful life.

He saw the value of inheriting the wisdom of his forebears and passing it on for the benefit of generations to come. He came to understand that reinventing the wheel, so to speak, was not always necessary, that learning from the wisdom of those who came before was an important aspect of creating a new, stable future.

As such, today he heads the Shaolin Temple of Europe and freely shares his wisdom in order to discover new limits and possibilities in human expression, regardless of whatever sport or endeavor his audience may be engaged in.

The Importance of Self-Knowledge

When Master Shi Heng Yi discovers a new limitation within himself, he uses this knowledge to both inspire himself and his audience to acknowledge those limitations while also aspiring to transform them.

It’s a constant drive, a constant fire, a nourishing fire that inspires new actions, new discoveries, new horizons, regardless of the obstacles.

Self-knowledge is the key. To cultivate self-knowledge, integrating an internal dialogue while engaging in long-term goals is key. 

Setting priorities, planning how your energy is invested, making time for recovery, and recognizing when your current limitations are becoming apparent: all of these elements are things that only you know. Self-knowledge is key. And for self-knowledge to evolve, the integration of a real-time  internal dialogue with mindful recognition is essential.

By internal dialogue, Master Shi Heng Yi does not mean that one is necessarily talking to oneself. Rather, in a genuine internal dialogue, one is profoundly self-aware of how one’s practices and approaches are impacting oneself in real time, thereby entering into a conscious interaction, a dynamic feedback loop of evolving expression.  

This is essentially a quiet, internal practice of keen but unattached observation of the mindset in which one expresses oneself in any endeavor. Insight into oneself results in improved performance and greater realized potential. 

How you go about your day is not necessarily about right or wrong, good or bad, but about consequence. The way you go about things inwardly is what matters. Knowing yourself is the actual goal.

The more your awareness and self-knowledge develop, the more present you become, the more aware you are of your real-time experience to make appropriate adjustments, the more self-realized you become.  

The Isolated Life: The Price of Self-Mastery

Along his journey, Master Shi Heng Yi was inspired to reach more people and share his message of inner harmony with the world. But he realized that the higher he climbed in fame, and the more visible he became in the public eye, the more difficult his life became.

“The higher you climb the mountain, the more difficult it is to breathe.”

In other words, the more people you want to reach, the more difficult life will become. The higher you go up the mountain, the more likely you are to walk alone. Why? Because no one is willing anymore to invest their energy into going higher. 

Mastering anything is always about mastering yourself. If you want to master yourself, you must face yourself, and this can only happen by being alone. 

To be the light, you have to experience the darkness and learn to transform it through awareness, and darkness is always experienced alone.

Darkness is inevitable in this world. In order not to get stuck in the darkness, prepare yourself, have faith, build yourself up. Have a vision for why the breakdown/darkness is active in your life. Understand that the breakdown is here in order for you to resolve it and thereby experience a new breakthrough, to come out on the other side a more evolved and more highly functioning human being. 

Have that vision that everything you are experiencing is teaching you something about yourself so that everything you experience makes you stronger and more enlightened in some way. Everything is essentially serving your evolution, even the darkness, if you let it, if you stop unconsciously reacting to it and allow your inner awareness and wisdom to transform it into a breakthrough.

Making the unconscious conscious, dissipating the darkness with the light of pure awareness: maybe this is our purpose, says Master Shi Heng Yi. Maybe this is why we refer to self-realization and self-mastery as enlightenment. 

No one wants to remain in darkness because it is lonely there. But, as Master Shi Heng Yi states, “You can’t see the proper light if you have never indulged in the very deepest dark times.” 

A great surfer, for example, understands how to yield to the oncoming wave and redirect its immense momentum and potential for destruction in a skillful manner so as to propel himself closer to the shore. He is able to do this precisely because he has experienced the disruptive power of the wave many times before and has dedicated himself to mastering it through skillful awareness and practice.

Everything serves a purpose if we allow it to. And allowing can only be cultivated within each of us individually, alone.