Monk from Brooklyn

[Abstract]

jeeez did any of you read this cat's experience at Shaolin?

lol he got PARLAYED....
what a let down

[David Jamieson]

I think the author has learned one of the greatest lessons he will ever learn on his path to attaining Kungfu.

Both those articles he wrote were A1, excellent and brutally real in the feel when I read them.

To read and see his fantasy of Shaolin turned to dust by bitter reality is something a whole lotta people could do with.

However, for each person, it is different.

Wonderful stuff. Edgy and almost "embarassing".

But in truth, he did get some excellent training methodologies shown and taught to him. Funny thing how that worked out eh?

cheers

[bung bo]

it was a good read. that part where they kept trying to take his pictures from him and wouldn't give him his money and THEN he was yelling at everybody. it must have have been a real letdown to have the people he thought of as friends treat him like that.

[cho]

Man, that (part 1 & 2) was depressing.

[GeneChing]

We try to keep things edgy around here.

We've got a small thread going on this piece down on the Shaolin forum too.

[lkfmdc]

Countries that have been subjected to communist dictatorships seem to develop a very corrupt parrellel political economy, ie rampant local corruption, a culture of bribes, deceipt, etc... seems to be a coping mechanism to survive under such harsh oppression. China is BIG on the list, but so is Russia and former Soviet republics... I had a friend try and get a kidney in China, the stories I could tell you!

[[Censored]]

Where do we read this?

[Salacious Crumb]

http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/

d'oh!

[Abstract]

what's the word? is the Monk from BK telling the truth or nah?

someone in the Shaolin forum said he's calling BS on dude.

if it's true, well, dang, i guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger....but if not, why write something of this nature?? i dunno

[joedoe]

I can believe the story he told, but I felt that he tended to use some fairly emotive language. I understand that he was just trying to convey his own feelings, but it also seemed to colour the story itself and put the other people involved in a pretty bad light. All in all I found it to be a fairly interesting piece though.

[Starchaser107]

My perspective on this article mirrors joedoe's

[T'ai Ji Monkey]

Personally, I liked the article till the last bit about the photos.

From what I have heard and seen in documentaries about the Temple his description about the living and training conditions are pretty accurate.

I can understand somehow that the temple and/or officials is careful of what photos leave and what gets shown outside of China and I feel that Antonios reaction was overblown.
Doing things that he did to his training partner and teachers ....

[joedoe]

My POV is that if you expect a stay at Shaolin to be like a holiday resort then you will be sorely disappointed. If you have spent any time in China (not in the tourist places, but with the people) you would know that conditions are not the best for the average person, and for a group of people who are living a monastic life, you can't expect them to be any better.

[Brad]

Moral of the article is to research where you're going before handing over thousands of dollars to go there Sounds like he got caught up in the mystique of Shaolin Temple and got screwed. Whatever happened to the original school he was intending to train at? I'd have been pretty weary of trusting a monk asking for a bribe and a thieving cab driver. Should've bolted then

[GeneChing]

In China, it's all about your connections or guanxi. Go somewhere without connections and you'll be taken for a chump. Some might say this is fallout from Communism, but in truth, the guanxi system is a long standing tradition in China that goes back to dynastic times. Anyway, going to Shaolin without any connections can be done, but you have to be extra careful.

The first time I went to Shaolin, I went with a tour for a month stint. The tour leader was my guanxi, Matt Polly, who I worte about in our May June 2001 issue (he and I also worte some articles together for other magazines - then he went on to interview Jet Li for Playbow...) Anyways, Matt was well connected and introduced me to a lot of significant people and I was on my way. On that first tour, there was one person who thought Shaolin was going to be like some kind of Club Med vacation. She was mortified to find the truth (mind you, this was '95 and conditions were a lot worse then - A LOT WORSE) and tried to bail out of the tour in the first week, but couldn't afford Matt's fee to take her out. So she stuck it out. She bailed on the training, except for qigong and took to hiking the mountain. In the end, the mountain won her over and she had a good experience. You have to make the best of things.

Anyway, stay tuned to the ezine - since our Shaolin Special 2003 is still on the newsstands, we've been running these first hand accounts of Shaolin - this two-parter by Antonio and another two-parter by John Greenhow - John's experience will offer up another contrasting view of Shaolin and we'll be posting it just before the Thanksgiving. Plus we working on an extra Shaolin surprise from ex-monk Lipeng for that update. This is one of the most amazing things about Shaolin - the true 'zen' part if you will - we each see a different Shaolin. It's like a mirror, or if we heed the sutra of the sixth patriarch, no place for dust...

Stay tuned to the ezine and tell your friends.