André Duqum

the more painful it becomes to not be living from that place because you refer to this distinction between choosing your thoughts or in essence, your thoughts choosing you.

It's like regurgitation of past conditioning and stimulus from our parents and society that keeps on living its own self instead of me living my own free life to choose the path I want to go on.

And I think the more that you become aware

of that, it becomes... I definitely have at different parts of my journey become sort of indignated about that realization and a bit rebellious to the unconscious parts of me.

And I think that's so much seen in the Shaolin spirit as well.

You referred earlier how you very much so use the body to free the mind and the interplay between the two.

And I think...

It's the body is in some circles put so much emphasis on in terms of in the health and wellness space, but not really understanding how energy, body and mind are all connected and interplaying at a deep level.

So thoughts you have on the Shaolin way and spirit.

So one reason why.

From the outside in, people might see from the more commercial perspective of the Shaolin warriors or exuding extreme self-mastery over their physical body, which is one side of things, but you've alluded to throughout and you do through your book and your talks about

It not being just what we do, but the consciousness in which what we do and who we are being while we do what we do in the world.

And I think this kind of gets to the heart of Buddha and the cultivation of the virtues.

Because when you see that everything is infused with the consciousness in which we do it,

then we do turn that gaze inward and examine the motivations and the intentions behind our actions.

We live in a world that is very much so externally outward perceiving from social media and the society lens.

We're very programmed to think of the appearance of a thing and not as much the essence of a thing.

And so as we examine those two sides of the same coin within us and we desire to imbibe more of those virtues which are going to benefit self and others more consistently, I would just love for you to set the stage of what those virtues are.

Give us like a roadmap of what are those qualities that we can continue to develop.

It makes me think of the references you give to Star Wars and the Force, meaning you could come to know who you are, understand the energy that you are, and yet there isn't quite a standard in how it's going to be used.