Shaolin Temple - Kung Fu Fighting!!

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A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away, was the setting for Star Wars....Apologies for this blog entry, I have just watched the pirated version of Episode III here, as almost everything in China that's American intellectual property is a copy.

Two and a half billion years ago, when the earth was still in its infancy, a small mountain range in central China jutted into the sky.....One thousand five hundred years ago, this mountain range became the birthplace of Kung-fu and Zen Buddhism.....The mountain is Song. The temple is Shaolin... Song Mountain is the central mountain of the League of the Five Swords, one of the holy of Daoist Peaks.

The Shaolin Temple of Song is the central Shaolin Temple in China, the one that spread Kung-fu to many parts of the world and the birthplace of 'The Iron Fist' .Currently there are around 70,000 students in Shaolin all dedicated to the art. Wondering around the grounds, it was difficult to miss the army of students from 5 years plus, training hard to become the next generation of Jet Li's and Jackie Chan's who both mastered their trade here, which can be seen in many of their movies.

We were treated to a Shaolin kung fu show. Students form 10 years and older wowed us with their acrobatic, fighting matrix style moves - leaping and fighting through the air with swords, spears and maces.

For hundreds of years since the monks at Shaolin were defenders of emperors and originally developed Kung-fu to protect their temple and to develop both internal and external strength needed as disciplined monks. The Shaolin monks are Jedi, of sorts, except that instead of light sabers, they have swords, spears, their fists, and their feet. Like the Jedi, they also have their minds.

The Zen (Chan) Buddhism that was born here when a monk from India, Bodhidharma, arrived, mixing Buddhism with Taoism and a little Confucianism to create a religion friendly to Chinese culture. Bodhidharma said:

Not relying on the words and letters,
Teachings are transmitted outside the Scriptures;
Pointing directly into one's mind,
One then can see into his own nature and attains Buddhahood.

Bodhidharma also said:

Every path has a beginning and an end.
While it is true that the end of the path may remain a mystery until it is reached,
the beginning must be understood before the journey begins.

I think Bodhidharma might be a reincarnation of Yoda.

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Comments

[Whitney]

Kung Fu!
Ace! you know what now i'm learning Wusu you knwo Wusu it is one of Kung fu maybe i'm not sure..lol i've never been to Shaolin Temple but after saw pics now i 'm thinking i will definitely go there soon...