There's something about you which is stronger than the mind. The mind can be your friend and the mind can be your enemy. You worked so hard for it.
Now you have it. Enjoy it. But you can't enjoy it if all the time you think about last week or if you think all the time about what happens in the future.
Enjoying what you have is you arrive exactly where you are right now with what you have. That's it. There is no wishing for something more of the future and there's not wishing for something that wouldn't have happened of the past.
No, you're in the present. That's it. And the more you realize this about yourself, the more you integrate this just into your normal being, then it starts to shift.
Just bring more presence into present. If I observe myself the most of the time, I'm present and I'm realizing when I'm not. When I'm absent, I realize it.
When I'm present, it's my normal state. For other people, maybe it's the other way around. The truth is, you're always present.
You just don't know about it. There's some layer on top of the presence which somehow makes you think you're not in the present. But we're always in the present.
Just the realization that you are is not there because it is overlaid by thoughts. If you take the thoughts away, you will realize oh there it is. One approach that we have at the moment in this world is in order for us to feel full.
We need to attain something. We need to do something. You need to have your diploma.
You need to have your job. You need to have money. You need to have the first car.
You need to have you need. So this approach is about you need it's about doing but the realization that I was just telling you right now that you have yourself is no it's not about doing it's there already it's just covered all the time this time is not about adding something there it's about this here must go and that one must there it is nothing needs to be done it is something we have to undo. This is the eastern approach.
It's the balance. You don't have to throw away everything that you have learned. It's just that there are more perspectives that when you have access to both of these perspectives, just find out for yourself.
Sometimes this makes more sense, sometimes this makes more sense. Well, important part is as long as you have it, you can choose when to use it. But if you don't even have it, you can't use it.
So what does it mean? Whatever there is to learn in this world, it's never wrong to learn it, you never know if you will need it one day. And then it's better to have than to need.
It is one way out of many that are existing. I did talk only about this my whole life because I walked this way. It doesn't mean it's the only way.
It's just because I walked it for so long. It is my understanding of how these practices interfere or are connected with building up a life that you think is worth living. That's it.
What is the Shaolin practices doing for me? Help me build up a life, a quality life. That's it.
But ultimately, it's the mind. You make your body strong. You have movements that on the one side also sometimes are quite aesthetic and it's so nice and whole for me.
There's everything involved. There is diet involved. There is structure involved like when would it be good to wake up?
When is it good to go to sleep and all of these things? So it's a whole nice let's say culture tradition. This is what I find so nice about it that the search is over.
you don't need to search for like here I take this yoga practice and then from here I take the breathing exercises from here and from here I take like the dancing moves and then you have like a mixup menu but mixup menu maybe gives you the feeling of you have some freedom yeah but structure gives you direction you eat at 8:00 then you have training from 9 until 11:00 when you finish the training you're hungry ready, but you need to wait until 1:00. Cannot eat in between. Yeah, but why can I not just go to the kitchen and eat when I'm hungry?
Because this is your mind telling you. But there's something about you which is stronger than the mind. The mind can be your friend and the mind can be your enemy.
And if I'm telling you there are three times per day eating, that's it. In the first weeks still you're thinking about eating, you're hungry, all of this. But at some point you will have accepted it that okay 8:00 1:00 6:00 you're okay.
And what does it mean? Now the real freedom has come. Now you're free because even if you're hungry and you say next food is at 6:00, no problem.
I can wait. It's good. And you're free.
Not free is it's 2:00. I'm already hungry. Four more hours.
I need to eat something. I I cannot wait until 6:00 anymore. This is not free.
This idea of what does freedom mean to you? Does it mean you can go to the kitchen anytime you want? No.
That means you are slave to the mind. Free is no matter what the mind tell you. You can wait.
I can wait. This is where now you see that sometimes it's necessary to have this obvious structure and discipline. But why?
Because it's a helpful way to bring out that type of freedom that we say from our tradition. This is the freedom. It's also not the freedom in terms of you walk through clues.
Yeah. Many beautiful women. But at home you have your own women sitting already.
Now you could say, well, it's a free world. We're all free. So my wife is at home but actually I can still flirt around.
This is a way of where you say well this is freedom. Yeah but where does this type of freedom lead to? It's leading to suffering.
You're causing suffering by behaving this type of free. No. If you have one wife you stay with that one wife.
That's it. And you stay free from suffering. But if somebody is tempted too much, if somebody cannot handle his temptation, he's enslaved by temptation.
And at some point, this type of behavior is not just going to bring suffering to you, it also brings suffering to everyone that you are involved in. This is where I say, what type of freedom are you talking about? And the freedom that eventually is going to get onto the costs or is causing suffering to you and other ones.
This is not the freedom we want. It's the type of freedom that makes us be able to live together in a community way better. This is the way of freedom where I can let you live the life how you like to live it and you let me live my life how I like to live it.
I don't need to tell you your way is wrong. You should live like I do. No, this is not free.
This is limited. This is thinking you have the answers to the questions of the universe. Well, you don't.
Just as like I don't have them. The only thing I'm sharing right now is my observation. I don't say it's right for anyone.
I just say until now everything we talked about it worked for me. If something is useful from what we have talked about and somebody tries it out and then realize hm cool also works for me. I'm really happy about it.
But if somebody says well this is not my way of living. I don't share this opinion. It's not a problem.
What is it in the evening that is sucking energy? Most probably is the mind is the mind activity very much which is sucking a lot of energy. You go to bed, you wake up in the morning but still feel like very tired and not recovered.
It might be the reason that your brain your mind is still too active in the evening. Stop thinking too much of the past. Stop dreaming too much about the future.
Practice yourself. Remain in the present. And this also then translates into your quality of sleep.
Because when you sleep, you sleep. When you eat, you eat. When you talk, you talk.
When you work, you work. But nowadays, people work and they think about eating. People eat and they think about sleeping.
People sleep and they think about working. So there's something not aligned. There is no synchronicity.
You are here, but actually something else is there. This is not how it's supposed to be. Being present means sleep, you sleep, you talk, you talk, you eat, you eat, you walk, you walk, you drive, you drive, you listen, you listen.
This is ultimately where all of this journey goes. And then the amount of sleep is not so important. But the recovery rate is very very different.
I'm happy if I have 7 hours. When I have 7 hours, I'm happier. Yeah.
6 hours is quite limit. So six is really limit. I can maintain even five or 6 hours but after a few days I feel it's not good to continue like this because then you're starting to really burn some energy which you cannot recover anymore.
Very interesting. Now when it comes to that what energy how it is related to diet, breathing and lifestyle the quickest way to change something about the way how you feel during the day or energy state are these three things diet breath work and lifestyle. If you have good nutritious food, if your breathing apparatus is working properly and if your lifestyle let's say waking up at a certain time, going to bed early enough, having enough sleep, if you maintain all of these three things, chances are very very good that your energy level is proper.
If the diet is not good, if your breast is not good, if your lifestyle is not good, still you are alive somehow. But the energy that is now being sucked out from you in order to make you still functioning, it is coming from something that we let's say in the ancient tradition call it comes from your essence. Which means ultimately no good lifestyle, no good food, no good breath, life short.
You die early. Very simple. So that's it.
