Sifu Shi Yan Ming is a Shaolin monk who came to the United States in 1992. He was the most skilled and beloved monk who participated in the first-ever demonstration of Shaolin kung fu on American soil.
He toured with his fellow monks, performing before sold-out crowds in several cities.
After the team’s final performance ended in San Francisco, he told his government handlers that we was going outside for a few minutes to snap a few pictures. Once outside he hailed the first taxi he saw – and was G-O-N-E.
He disappeared into the night.
The taxi driver soon realized that his passenger not only didn’t speak a word of English, he also had no idea where he was going. As destiny would have it, the driver took the master to the police, who took him to a Chinese restaurant. From the restaurant the monk contacted a friend in Chinatown, who helped him hide in his home for about a week.
The monk’s next move was a flight to New York City – and from there he worked on getting green card status. Months later he opened his own version of a Shaolin Temple in New York, and from there he altered some of his lifelong, supposedly “spiritual” habits.
First, he no longer practiced celibacy. That’s understandable.
And second, he began to eat beef – a definite no-no for Buddhist monks.
Sifu Shi Yan Ming jokingly refers to beef as “American tofu.”
Don’t you just love the imagery of that?
To the master, every day is Happy New Year.
Life is so good that he wants you to live life with gusto eight days a week; 366 days a year. Yes, you read that correctly.
Having a sense of humor is just as important as having a sense of purpose.
Life is worth living, every minute, every second, of every day.
Just as I’ve been saying for quite some time, Sifu Shi Yan Ming says that meditation is movement. Yes, you can mediate while sitting, but what if you made everything you do part of your on-going daily meditation.
Every exercise you do is performed with awareness of your breathing, your mental images, your self-talk.
Each day you’re looking for the humor within the agony. You’re looking for ways to transcend silly rules and ideas that may have been forced upon you long ago, even from well-meaning adults who were simply following the follower.
Every time I replay the words, “Beef is American tofu,” I laugh. The phrase is absolutely perfect.
It’s so good, in fact, that when I give a video update in the days ahead, on the way I’ve been feeding myself lately, and the incredible results I’ve been getting, I am definitely going to incorporate “American tofu” into the discourse.
At 55 years young, I’m getting younger, despite the white whiskers in my beard.
Eating spongy, estrogenic tofu is definitely not on my menu. You couldn’t pay me enough money to eat it. I prefer beef – and by that, I do not mean the leaner, lower-fat variety.
Give me the fattest of the fat.
Again, I’ll be covering my story very soon. I’ll even refer you to some hot-shot beef-guzzlers who can advise you, if you so choose. I will not be advising. I’ll only be telling my story.
It’ll all be going down on my Furey Faithful member’s site sometime next week. Be there.
Here endeth the lesson,
Matt Furey
Instagram – @mattfureysays
