What makes you a Shaolin

[David Jamieson]

?

Besides the martial art you practice, what makes you in particular a bonafide shaolin practitioner?

[LFJ]

proper cultivation of spirit is a requirement.

shaolin is first and foremost a buddhist monastery, not a martial arts school.

[David Jamieson]

fair enough.

[sha0lin1]

?

Besides the martial art you practice, what makes you in particular a bonafide shaolin practitioner?

That is a good question. There a thousands of schools out there that claim they are teaching Shaolin Kung Fu. If you say bonafide then that to me would mean the ability to trace your school or styles lineage back to Shaolin Temple. But then again, all of these schools that claim they are teaching Shaolin Kung Fu usually do this. Since record keeping is more of a modern thing this presents some difficulty. Also with the number of times the Shaolin Temple and its Satelites were destroyed and burnt to the ground it presents opportunities for any yahoo out there to make up their own lineage making it very hard to disprove their claims. Shaolin Kung Fu does have its own flavor and if you see similarities between what a school is teaching and the traditional forms that have survived and are being practiced at Shaolin today then that may be an indication that what you are practicing is truly a Shaolin art.

[SimonM]

Zazen meditation?

[Lucas]

iron crotch?

[David Jamieson]

Zazen meditation?

zuò chán. this is key as well as the moving zen which is of course exercises of great variety. I agree.

[David Jamieson]

iron crotch?

a small part, no pun intended. sure, I agree

But this is only one kung and not everyone has it and for sure not everyone wants to practice it. It's become popular though. probably due to Gene's persistance with getting it out there. So to speak.

[jimmi555]

iron crotch?

That is a good one lol very funny

[WinterPalm]

What about tinfoil swords?

[SimonM]

What about tinfoil swords?

Death to tinfoil swords!

[David Jamieson]

so, uh... I had hoped this thread would take a different tack, but, oh well.

[uki]

so, uh... I had hoped this thread would take a different tack, but, oh well.

sometimes the rarest of trees are discovered simply by wandering the little forest.

[Lucas]

for me, personally, in regards to Shaolin martial arts;

I simply refer, say, write, view, etc. myself to be a practitioner of Shaolin arts. Not a Shaolin practitioner.

Im of the opinion that to be a Shaolin practitioner, you must be at Shaolin....well, practicing.

Otherwise you may practice Shaolin arts, maybe even be Buddhist, but that would be like saying you are a cowboy because you ride a horse and wear the hat.

But we all know most real cowboys are dead, and the few left alive could teach anyone a thing or two about what it means to be a cowboy.

Even if you are the best rider and rodeo guy around, wont make you a cowboy, just means your the best at riding a horse.


btw, i dont have a thing for cowboys, it was just the first thing that popped into my head.

[Lucas]

there are some monks out there that have branched out and have schools in other places. a couple in america.

assuming the monks are continuing with all of their practices, and were actually trained at shaolin, i would consider them Shaolin practitioners. But I would consider their students practitioners of Shaolin arts. Unless they are adopting everything that comes with being trained AT Shaolin