to Gene, or any other Songshan Shaolin person...

[PT-Kali]

I've noticed a lot of guys (well, maybe not a lot) who have an "official" Shaolin name. I know Gene does, and I was reading through some old KFM mags last night and noticed an American had an official Shaolin name.

My question is, how do you earn that? Rank? Time training? etc.?

[GeneChing]

Seriously. At this time, there are several governing bodies in the Shaolin area beyond the temple itself. Masters with connections to some of these organizations get some sort of 'official' status through those organizations. Officially speaking, the temple has not actually granted such status to anyone as of this time, but some are clearly closer to gaining that status soon. Many have made claims, some of which are founded in actual recognition from a governing body at Shaolin. Some are outright liars. Apparently the temple is making moves towards controlling the situation, but it's a tough go.

[MasterKiller]

PT,
Are you talking about getting a generation name? Like Shi Blah Blah?

[Shaolinlueb]

Originally posted by GeneChing
Seriously. At this time, there are several governing bodies in the Shaolin area beyond the temple itself. Masters with connections to some of these organizations get some sort of 'official' status through those organizations. Officially speaking, the temple has not actually granted such status to anyone as of this time, but some are clearly closer to gaining that status soon. Many have made claims, some of which are founded in actual recognition from a governing body at Shaolin. Some are outright liars. Apparently the temple is making moves towards controlling the situation, but it's a tough go.

cant they jsut threaten the fakes with their 5 budha palms and then summon sun wukong and he will killn them with his cudgel?

[GeneChing]

They may well get organized enough to start closing down schools at some point. I know that the kendo circles did that. A bunch of kendo masters showed up at the doorstep of an imposter once. That must have been hilarious. Will the monks do that? Maybe someday.

[AshidaKimFan]

sounds interesting...

[PT-Kali]

MK - not sure if it's "generation" names or not...certainly I don't mean titles...I'm talking like Gene Ching is known as Xing Long and another guy named Dieter Wagner is known as Xing Da...I was just curious if there were requirements for these names or does out of the blue the Shifu just calls you "monkey breath" in Chinese and then that's your Shaolin name...

[norther practitioner]

They are deciple names usually...

[blooming lotus]

gene..we all here know you're a disciple..but how did that come about?..and most of know it's only a select few monks' students that get the honour, it sounds silly to say, but what wre the deciding the factors? what led to your bestowment? as in ..what does someone need to do to earn layman discipleship?

[MasterKiller]

PT--
All you need is a monk to accept you as a disciple, and he will give you your new name.

[norther practitioner]

You'll need to take a few buddhist vows to do this (I think), not like a full thing or anything. Doc wrote a bunch up on this on his site (www.russbo.com).. he is Gene's younger kung fu brother.

[blooming lotus]

ok...very cool

cheers

[GeneChing]

ah discipleship. A lot of people want to be a disciple. Discipleship is a lot like marriage, you take vows to commit your lives to each other. All you need is some one to say "I do". It's funny how many people seem to want to be a disciple but don't really seem to care who they are a disciple under. It's like wanting to be married but not caring to who. Or whom. I'm not really sure.

Anyway, discipleship vows are different than marriage vows because it's not a agreement of equality, it's one of parent to child. That's an important consideration. And just like bad marraiges, there are bad discipleships. Some masters are very demanding. Some disciples are just lame. For instance, I know several disciples of my master who just took the vows, but haven't shown any follow through. They don't even know where he is. They don't come to pay respects when he is in town. Lame. Just be sure that if you decide to become a disciple, you should mean it. In discipleship, there is no divorce without dishonor and in accord to filial piety, it's the disciple who is typically at fault.

There are requirements to being a disciple in anything. Shaolin dsiciples get the first part of their name from a generation list. All of us who bear 'xing' are 32nd generation under a 'de' master. The second part is chosen by the master, but it's limited to one character (so it could be "monkey" or "breath" but not "monkey breath"). I know Shi Yanming took on a bunch of disciples at once and gave them all names in order of the heart sutra.