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Shaolin
Chan
Before
trying to understand Shaolin 'Chan', it's of course advisable to read the
history of the Shaolin monastary as well, in order to better understand the
origin and development of the monastary and its religion.
While
already
in the 5th century BC Confucius, Lao Tse, and many other thinkers taught their
teachings, Sakyamuni founded Buddhism in India. This was an answer to the
Brahmanism that was practised by the Indian upper-caste. Buddhism advocated
asceticism, non-violence, and renunciation of the world. Its 'four holy truths'
expounded the view that life is pain. It analyzed the causes of this pain and
provided methods for eliminating this pain. A buddhist believes that everything
has cause and principle. Buddhism delves into such profound problems as insight
into life, retrospection on reason, analysis of conception, and profides
explanation to a myriad things in the universe. More than 400 years after its
birth in India, Buddhism found its way into China, in the first century BC, but
it did not prosper, due to the great cultural differences between the Indian and
the Chinese people.
Click
on the pictures to enlarge...
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