April 2012
52 posts
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“When souls meet each other, what truth they can exchange! It is uttered in...”
– Speech is not as great a help as contact; but the privilege of meeting one another is great. When souls meet, what truth they can exchange! It is uttered in silence, yet surely always reaches its goal. - Bowl of Saki, April 29, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
“Every ailment is nothing but a blockage of Qi.”
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Muffled Voices
Voice 1: You know what? I miss living with my family.
Voice 2: It's just because you're in China, so far away. Once you're back, you'll be grateful you've moved out.
Voice 1: Perhaps I should be moving back in. Besides, I'd like to think I'll be spending a significant amount of time traveling anyway. So what's the point? It'll save me money.
Voice 2: But you love living alone!
Voice 1: There's more privacy, I know.
Voice 2: And you have your small garden, and your apartment is exactly the way you want it. And you've decorated it beautifully in the past few months. Your friends come over and you have fun. When you leave the house, everything remains untouched until you're back.
Voice 1: Yes, untouched.
Voice 2: You sleep deeply. There's no noise.
Voice 1: It wasn't wrong to move out. I needed that.
Voice 2: Precisely!
Voice 1: But what if I don't quite feel I need it any more? It's not that I don't enjoy living alone. It's that I feel I might enjoy more seeing my family every morning and every night in the next few months. Perhaps I can move back, and then out again in another year or so? No?
Voice 2: When we turn around, we don't end up going back to where we started, you know.
Voice 1: Why not, the starting point moves?
Voice 2: It was never stationary to begin with. It moves when you move.
Voice 1: ... *momentarily silent* ... I miss the cats. I miss late night conversations with my mom. Watching Friends or the Big Bang Theory with my sister as we eat pizza in bed. Lord of the Rings marathons. Thinking the same thoughts at the same time. Completing each other's sentences.
Voice 2: This is nostalgia talking. Once you're back, it'll vanish. Besides, you can't recreate that. That point has moved. All points move!
Voice 1: Who's Nostalgia?
Voice 2: That's like a voice. But not really. It's more like an image, an idea, or a memory that provokes a strong feeling.
Voice 1: Nos-tal-gia. Hmmm.
Voice 2: Do you get it now?
Voice 1: I'll retrace my steps.
Voice 2: You can't. It's not the same path. The path changes.
Voice 1: The path and the point change?
Voice 2: One changes because the other does.
Voice 1: Which one changes first?
Voice 2: You don't get it, do you?
Voice 1: ... I miss cuddling with the cats. Smelling their hair, and sneezing. I miss cat hair.
Voice 2: You can't smell, or cuddle, or sneeze for that matter. You have no body. You're an imaginary vibration of imaginary vocal folds inside someone's mind. And maybe that too is imaginary.
Voice 1: I even miss my dad's silence in response to my non-stop chatter.
Voice 2: What's happening to you?
Voice 1: I wonder.
Voice 2: So you've made your peace with all that was bugging you.
Voice 1: *Pause* Let's just say I feel I have a larger capacity for forgiveness.
Voice 2: Interesting. Too much Buddhism permeating these walls if you ask me.
Voice 1: Wait. No, that's not it; it's not a capacity for forgiveness. It's a capacity for not bearing anything that needs forgiving. A Letting-Go.
Voice 1: A Letting-Go?
Voice 2: Yes, indeed, a Letting-Go.
Voice 2: Let's talk about this when you're back home.
Voice 1: I don't mind.
Voice 2: ...
Voice 1: But do you have a theory? I feel you already know what will happen.
Voice 2: Well, yes and no. I'm happy to explain --
Pakinam: Can you both please shut up?! I'm trying to sleep here!
Voice 1 and Voice 2 nod, exchange a few words in whispers, quietly leave the field of no-where and trot back to their caves.
*Yes, there are two now.
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“Sleep is comfortable, but awakening is interesting.”
– Bowl of Saki, April 25, by Hazrat Inayat Khan
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Real Life Friend Requests
While brunching with John in town today in our favorite Gong Pao Chicken place, I received my first real-life “friend request” (as Tobias jokingly called it when he heard the story later). A girl in her twenties placed a piece of paper in front of me, right beside my plate, and hurried off from our table, standing a few steps away from where we sat.
“My name is Meng Qianqian....
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Shaolin camp's new disciple
I was greeted with what I initially regarded as a pleasant surprise this afternoon during lunch: a fresh English-speaking foreigner who has just arrived in Xialong. Tobias, an Austrian, is a tall sturdily-built 21-year-old who intends to spend the next year learning Taolu Kung Fu. Slightly timid, and in the initial phase of panic, he reminded me with myself when I first arrived here.
He looked...
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Watch
This is a five-minute video I compiled; a glimpse into the daily scene in Xialong, essentially a Shaolin temple-run boarding school for Kung Fu, Sanda, Qi Qong and Tai Chi, where I’m spending a few months.
Let me take this chance to apologize for:
a) The quality of the video. My camera is a cheap point-and-shoot.
And I had to downsize the file so I can upload it easily. b) The quality of the...
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Theorizing about hearts
Reading in Buddhist philosophy, and in an attempt to understand Absolute Love and Relative Truth, I’ve come to the idea that perhaps we carry several hearts during our lifetime, and that only few people realize the existence of any number of them.
We have past hearts, that still carry love for those who disappeared from our lives, then there are child hearts, faithful to times past and can...
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“Xialong, the name of my school, means “Little Dragon.” After being...”
– The owner of the school is also the father of Chinese star actor and martial artist Ashton Chen — known by his Buddhist Dharma name Shi Xialong. Chen’s Sifu and master was none other than the current abbot of the Shaolin Temple (impressive, I know!).
Chen started wushu training shortly...
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This graph speaks to me
“It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realized somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them....
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Shaolin Pains
The only thing I seem to be mastering at a very fast pace is how to injure myself; straining my knees, twisting my ankle, over-stretching my legs, pulling muscles, you name it!
We sort of do everything here: running, jumping, squatting, stretching, doing peruettes, “flowing”, skipping, waving arms, and bending spines in all possible directions. I feel I’m learning something...
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“You throw a stone into a deep pond. Splash. The sound is big, and it...”
– Professor Ebisuno, 1Q84.
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Kung Fu Soulwork
In this part of the world, martial arts is more a meditation than a sparring technique, more so in the Shaolin tradition. It’s that central point that connects Heaven and Earth, the spiritual and the material realms, the physical and the meta-physical — which, according to Buddhism, are not separate.
The separation is only a trick of the mind. And the union, in a manner of speaking,...
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Chinese wonders, as per me
1. Squat toilets: Even hotels and touristic areas have those. So no, it’s not just the Egyptian countryside that uses them. The ones in China have an automatic flush though.
2. Split pants: Children, as young as one or two, wear pants with big slits that leave their tiny butts hanging out there, even in cold whether. The wisdom? It’s an alternative to pampers. And no, children...
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WatchI put together some videos from my school’s last tournament in May 2011. A tournament is an inside event, more like a test or a demonstration of the students’ skills. The next one takes place in a little more than two weeks. The first segment of the video shows a fight between Chris, the Aussie student (in red shorts), and a Chinese student, which Chris won. It’s the first round...
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Shaolin Monk Shi Decheng on What Makes a Monk →
“In days of old, graduation from Shaolin Temple required more than just snatching a pebble from the master’s hand. Every Shaolin aspirant had to pass the exit examination - a brutal rite of passage where he had to fight his way through the senior Shaolin monks - known as Dashanmen (literally “fighting mountain gate”) … More”
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Chinese medicine mystery
I’m still trying to wrap my head around Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) ever since I decided to stop Tylenol as it doesn’t seem to be curing my sore throat and fever, and to give TCM a chance. I’ve been advised to take three different types: a powder called “Sangju Ganmao Keli,” a liquid in small vials called “Kangbingdu KouFuye” and capsules called...
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“When a man looks at the ocean, he can only see that part of it which comes...”
– “When we consider the mystics and thinkers who look at life from a spiritual point of view, they all agree, be they Yogis, Sufis, Buddhists, or Christians — it does not matter which. When they arrive at a certain stage of understanding they all agree, they all have the same experiences,...
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The God of Small Things
They say that on the journey you learn skills that you never set out to learn; and that’s exactly what has been happening to me throughout this trip.
For instance, my stay in Dengfeng has so far been a big exercise in mime, and theater acting.
I pulled myself out of bed this morning, after enduring a terrible, restless night thanks to a sudden, and crippling bout of flu that left me...
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The journey so far ...
… The girl in the center of the world says hello.
Here’s what I have posted so far during my first 9 days in mainland China learning the art of Wushu. Still to come are my posts on a day spent at the temple, my brief visit to Ta Gou (the other temple school), how I’m a celebrity in parts of Dengfeng, how my Mandarin teacher doesn’t speak English (and is not really a...
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“Before a foot or hand strikes, comes Breath - Qi which is transferred with blood...”
– Qi (pronounced Chi) is life force, and Qi Gong is a form of tapping into or merging with this life force, the energy binding together all things (For me, this energy is akin to the spirit of God, or God himself).
According to Shaolin tradition, the basic secret of the use of breath —to...
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“After the rain stopped, the school came back to life again. I didn’t...”
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Snakes, Maspero, and Shaolin dreams
Before the awakening comes bad dreams …
It is said that before reaching samadhi —a state of total absorption, transcendence; a spiritual merging with the Divine— Buddha was sent dreams of world destruction, falling stars, collision and loss. In Buddhism dreams are false and illusory; they symbolize the imperfect nature of the senses.
To Buddhists, not unlike to Muslims, our...
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WatchA very insightful 20-minute documentary about Shaolin Kung Fu, and Buddhism zen - with English subtitles.
I’m not sure if I will be blogging long today; I’m worn out, and I think I tore a muscle doing extra morning training with a different, and quite aggressive Sifu, who insisted I continue training with the strained muscle. My main Sifu told me I should rest between training, but...
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“Shaolin tip - Buy yourself a Kung Fu uniform if you ever go to China....”
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WatchWe’re not allowed to film the dress rehearsal of the Shaolin show going to Japan, but here’s a few-seconds-long video of six students from the school’s team prepping backstage.
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From the center of Heaven and Earth (aka Shaolin...
I apologize I temporarily fell off the grid, but yesterday I skipped training and spent the entire day in the Shaolin Temple, hiking for around 8 hours in the surrounding hills, checking out the scenic spots, and snapping pictures. It was a sublime experience; I hiked in strips of land that seemed to be cut out of Middle Earth, saw monks in traditional brown, grey and orange robes, commuting on...
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A Sufi Intermission
There is a poem by the great Persian poet Iraqi in which he tells, ‘When I went to the gate of the divine Beloved and knocked at the door, a voice came and said — Who art thou?’ When he had told, ‘I am so and so’, the answer came, ‘There is no place for anyone else in this abode. Go back to whence thou hast come’. He turned back and then, after a long...
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WatchHere’s a challenge for you: Can you guess the ages of the two boys in this video? They’re from my group. We don’t study this Sanda-style boxing, but the kids in my group are fascinated by it (since the group next to us trains in Sanda), so my Sifu just wanted to let them take a stab at it. As you can see, they were absolutely terrible, too afraid to attack each other and...
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““One must not use his Power for deception of people.
One must not rise...”
– Unfortunately, I was told here that “Buddhology” and Shaolin teachings are taught in Chinese, both in Xiaolong and in Ta Gou, so I have to do my own readings of English translations of Chinese ancient books. This is from “The Secret Methods of Acquiring External and Internal...
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“I just learned that graduates of the Kung Fu schools and academies here in...”
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WatchThis is from my training this afternoon, where my Sifu is doing some commentary on our form performance. I severed from the picture the heads of the students from my group, who’re all sitting, because I thought the background was slightly more interesting.
The floor where we train generally has three beginner groups, but some are more ahead than others. My group is not using any weapons at...
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“What strangely sounded to me, on my first day, like continuous gunfire or...”
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It's all relative
Back home, I would be deeply offended if someone laughed at my sloppiness.
Here, I’m just grateful when that happens. And I laugh along.
My Sifu, not unlike other Kung Fu masters, gives students a good beating when they mess up a form or move. Sometimes, he’d hit them from the back when they’re not even aware he’s right behind them. He’d kick and punch them...
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Bridges make me smile
I managed to do a back-bend yesterday — falling backward and trusting that my hands won’t falter and will meet the ground before my head does. I let myself go, and my hands landed on the floor with a light, gentle thud as my body formed a nice bridge, and no, I didn’t smash my head or injure my spine as I’d imagined I would. I couldn’t get out of it though, by...
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World Knowledge in Dengfeng
“People here are so ignorant of the outside world. They really don’t know anything about the rest of the world, and it doesn’t look like they want to.” said John, the American student who lives in the opposite room from mine, and who’s been training here for over a month. We were discussing how different and unplugged the Chinese in Dengfeng are.
“You know what...
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“It’s amazing what you can accomplish when:
1. You wake up at 5:30 am....”
– Xiaolong, Dengfeng
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They don't sell deodorants in Dengfeng ...
… or bug repellants. I went to town this afternoon to get lunch (for a change), with a student from Hong Kong who speaks English fluently, and she explained to me how the Chinese in this part of the land neither use deodorants or antiperspirant. And believe you me, they could use some of that.
Two of the students here, Chris, the Aussie who’s been here for over a year, and John...
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WatchThis is the first form that I’m learning here at Shaolin Temple School (Xiaolong).
It’s called Xiao Hong Quan 少林小洪拳
It takes around a month to master a form, though it really boils down to how a fast of a learner your are. Some trainees can manage to do several forms a month. Some struggle with a form for several weeks.
I honestly don’t know how long it will take me to do it....
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Breaking through ...
… This morning, at 5:30 am, I killed a bug half as long as my index finger, twice as fast as an Egyptian cockroach, and with many tiny legs sprouting out of it. I slapped it with my shibshib without flinching, or screaming like a schoolgirl as per tradition. What’s happening to me? I guess my mind quickly did the math: The time it will take me to disturb another student, explain in...
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Kung Fu cuteness
I got my first compliment at breakfast today. Usually, I keep a low profile while at the dining halls (there are several of them, all identical, to accommodate the thousands upon thousands of students). Being very aware that I’m alien to all of them, very mechanically I take my food, sit on the farthest end of one of the long tables, eat quietly and then leave without looking up from my...
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