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PlasticSquirrel
01-15-2001, 07:00 PM
can someone explain a little about zen and it's relationship to shaolin kung fu? thanks.

Chris McKinley
01-16-2001, 01:45 AM
Hi Squirrel,

Zen Buddhism, known as Chan Buddhism in China, has a relationship to Shaolin in that the Shaolin monastery was founded as a Buddhist monastery. Boddhidharma, aka Da Mo, came from India to China to further promote, correct, and enhance the practice of Buddhism in China. According to the generally accepted account, it was he who taught the Shaolin monks the original yogic meditations and movements which became Shaolin's qigongs, from which many martial techniques were derived.

It should also be noted that Shaolin never completely rid itself of the Taoist influences of its original culture. Taoism, which enjoyed a grassroots acceptance in China long before Buddha was a baby, flavored the Buddhism of China, and even resulted in the formation of the Chan sect of Buddhism, which is called Zen in Japanese. Zazen, the famous seated meditation posture for which Zen is so famous, is a direct descendant of Indian yogic practices which predated it by many moons.

Anyhoo, hope I've been of some help on the matter. :)

Chri

o
01-16-2001, 02:27 AM
Bodhidharma (the first chan patriarch of China) had originally just meant to pass down his zen teaching but when he got to Shaolin, he noticed the monks there were too weak. So he taught them the 18 Lohan Hands and Sinew Metamorphisis. The former later became Shaolin Kungfu and the latter qigong. The 3-some training of kungfu, qigong, and zen is very effective because they all complement the others' training. This deals with the jing, the qi, and the shen.

HuangKaiVun
01-26-2001, 05:32 AM
I've tried to write about Shaolin kung fu's relationship to Buddhism before, but I've not been able to successfully do it.

Like many things in life, the best way to find out is to simply practice Shaolin kung fu - the rest comes as a result of training.