The Shaolin Workout by Shi Yan Ming
I just received an uncorrected proof of Yanming's new book, The Shaolin Workout. It's being published by Rodale, a major publisher in the world of health publications. They do the magazines Prevention, Men's Health, Runner's World, Women's Health, Organic Gardening, Backpacker, Best Life, Bicycling and Mountain Bike. Will Yanming be on one of those covers next? Rodale also published several New York Times Bestsellers like Martha Stewart's The Martha Rules, Bill Maher's New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer, as well as The South Beach Diet and The Abs Diet franchises. Most martial arts books are published through small publishers or vanity published. Rodale is a whole new level for a Shaolin book.
The Shaolin Workout is well marketed - just what you might expect from Rodale. It's subtitled "28 Days to Transforming Your Body and Soul the Warrior Way". I haven't had a chance to do more than skim it, but it looks like a general outline of Shaolin basics - mostly stretching and warm ups, basic stances and kicks. The presentation is very clean and professional. It's slated for release on June 2006. It's be hardcover, 7 1/2" x 9 1/8", retailing at $29.95.
Long live the Shaolin Soccer Moms!!!
TaichiMantis, you could start a trend - a massive legions of Shaolin soccer moms. Just imagine. It would be glorious.
Banjos_dad, you shouldn't make the mistake of confusing what individual monks are doing with 'the temple'. Yanming is independant of the temple, as are most of the monks that have immigrated out of China. They all retain ties to the temple and various Shaolin masters in Dengfeng, but they are not 'official' representatives. Shaolin Temple is a huge organization, a tradition with 1500 years of history. Throughout that history, there have always been splinter factions. In short, I doubt that any of the profit from this book will go back to the temple, nor was the temple consulted on it at all. That's why the abbot is trying to trademark the Shaolin 'brand', but at this point, you might as well try to trademark 'zen'.
rickyscaggs, I wouldn't call Shaolin jibengong a crappy workout routine. Quite the opposite. And if all the McDojos started doing it, that would be fantastic. It'd be like all the McDonalds offering choice prime rib.
I've always thought a good Shaolin jibengong program was in order. Guolin's Fundementals of Shaolin is the only one readily available and that doesn't cover a lot of it. Yanming's new book doesn't cover all of it either, but in all fairness, he's writing to a different audience and this is only the first in what could be a potential series. Jibengong is where it's at. That's the foundation. All the forms videos that everyone else put out are useless without basics.
No need to apologize, Banjos_dad...
...and extra kudos for plugging our forum sponsor ;) . Shaolin is seriously complicated, the most complicated manifestation of martial arts in the modern era. Frankly, that's why it interests me so. And I'd be the last person to cap on anyone for 'epic' posts. Maybe a troll post is worthy of some capping, but honest opinions fuel the discussion. After all, isn't discussion exact what the forum here is all about?
Been waiting foryou to chime in on this, richard sloan
You know, personally I've always liked Yanming. He's extremely charismatic, very skilled and a great motivator, which is all you really need from an instructor. And I think his crossover work (for lack of a better term) is extraordinary, which is why I brought up his book here in the first place. But, with all due respect, the family issue is bothersome. Celibacy is not a 'lark' in Chan Buddhism. It's part of the teachings and if you explore those, you can understand the motivations behind them. Surely, there have been those who have broken celibacy vows and there always will be. However, they all fly in the face of doctrine, and that's philosophically very difficult to negotiate. If you discard the doctrines of Chan, you essentially throw the baby out with the bath water, sort of like Victoria's Zen At War. The heart of the celibacy issue, like any issue in Chan, is attachment. You can counter with something like "well, obviously you're attached to the doctrines" but that opens up a whole mess of philosophical baggage.
Anyway, in regards to shaolinboxer's comment, Yanming's new book could never be the Shaolin bible. It's too short. It looks like a fine introduction to Shaolin - very Yanming style with all the "beautiful!" "awesome!" "amitoufo!" and "train harder!" comments that you'd expect from him. I'm curious how that will translate to written word. Knowing Yanming, I can hear him saying that when I read his book, but I'm not sure that others will. We shall see.
it's all about onions & garlic
If it was all about onions and garlic, that would totally bum me out. I've never heard the hungry ghosts thing. My understanding of that prohibition is that it seeks to cut the attachment to foods that are too stimulating. I'm not going to completely disregard that at this point, because my own personal alchemical changes in diet have produced some surprising results, so who knows? Maybe I'll have to give them up someday to reach nirvana. Not today, tho. ;) Clearly, there are effects of what you put into your body. Again, it's all about severing attachment.
It's difficult to follow all the precepts. You must remember that Buddhism was not originally developed for lay people like us. It was developed as a science to harness the mind, strictly for ascetics. So denial of attachments is key. We call them attachments for a reason. Many of them are hard to give up. We all fall from the path sometimes. It's a difficult path. But saying 'others fall from the path' is a weak argument. The pursuit of Chan does not lie in comparison of your personal practice to others. You can certainly make valid claims that others fail at keeping vows and hide those failures, but that skirts the real issue.
Yanming's case raises some interesting questions. His break from the tenets can be intellectualized as revolutionary or ****ed as heresy. It's denial of denials, which could actually work in a recursive philosophical way, although like with any recursive logic, it can get real sticky. Personally, I could beleive everything he says - that he's risen above the attachments of liquor, meat, and sex - if he could also rise above the attachment of being a monk. Do you think he's attached to his monk title? I have the utmost respect for those that have walked away from it. Ironically, that can show more resolve, sort of like in Hesse's Sidhartha.
Like I said earlier, I've always liked Yanming. We had a great relationship in the past, and despite a past professional split, I support him as much as I can support any of the monks. I'm not trying to bash him here at all. There are plenty of others here who would be happy to do that. Quite the opposite, I'm trying to promote his book because I think being published by Rodale is very exciting. At the same time, any mention of Yanming on a Shaolin forum is bound to elicit such a discussion and I'm eager to see how this plays out, especially now with the book imminent.
where does the line get drawn
Quote:
But too many people focus on the hammer and nail and not the house.
You got to focus the hammer on the nail to build a house. I think that's the problem with most people today. They buy prebuilt houses. They don't understand hammer and nail. To me, true Shaolin is all about hammer and nail. But that might be a little too metaphoric and garlic doesn't enter into it. I suppose I could counter your wine anecdote with one of mine after working with drug patients at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, but I think that would take our discussion on a personal level and skirt the basic issue of what it means to be a monk. There's no doubt in my mind that Shi Yanming could do equally good work without the monk title. It shouldn't be about that at all. There's the attachment. The definition of a monk is one of Shaolin's most tricky concepts, mostly because the definition of wuseng is so soft, but also due to the fallout of the CR. You can look at the dictionary definition, but in English, we don't really have terms to address things like wuseng or even fangtuo seng. In English, a monk is just someone who lives at a monastery and is accepted by his monkish brothers.
Buddhism is about extinction. That's the reaal definition of nirvana. I suppose you could say 'sink below' as much as 'rise above' but the bottom line is you got to get past the attachments. The bottom line is you can't take a good dump without first taking a good meal.
I hope my tone is conversation too, Richard. You know me - we're old Shaolin cousins and I'm always a Shaolin devil's advocate to some degree. I respect Yanming and I miss interacting with him. The last time I saw him was when I was with Martha making Shaolin Ulysses. And the last time I spoke to Sophia was years ago, just prior to one of our Shaolin Specials. Was that the 2003? I can't remember exactly, but it's been a long time.