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...That's why he became quickly
disapointed by the lack of comprehension and engagement. He left those
he had met, and settled in a cave on the mountain nearby the Shaolin
temple in the year 527. Having decided to spread the original
teachings of Buddha, he sat down for meditation. He went back every
day to the cave, for nine years, to meditate. The rumor spread that a
monk, immersed in deep meditation, possessed great whisdom. Little by
little people started to visit him.After these nine years Bodidharma entered the Shaolin temple. He saw
that the monks were in a very bad physical state, and that they often
fell asleep during the long hours of meditation. He taught the monks a
series of 18 movements to strengthen the body and for building mental
discipline. Once the body is exclusively focussed towards the
spiritual life, then the practise of contemplation or concentration
can begin.
Legend
says that with the 18 movements, originating from the Indian martial
art called 'Kalari Payat', and containing exercises for breath control
(Qi Gong, or Qi Kung), and others, the origins of what was to become
Shaolin kung fu were founded. Ofcourse long before these movements
martial arts had excisted, but Shaolin would play a very important
role in the development of the martial arts of China, that's why one
often states that with these 18 movements of Bodidharma, kung fu was
born.
During the Tang dynasty (618
- 907), the emperor Li Shimin, known under the posthumous title of
Taizong of the Tang, used the Shaolin monks to eradicate a sedition
attempt. The Shaolin monks bravely completed this mission. As a reward
the emperor allowed the monastary to train 500 warrior monks. He gave
the temple the name 'Shi Yi Tien', meaning 'first temple under the sky'.
In 845, in a time of renewal
of Confucianism, the emperor forbids all foreign religions and
Buddhism does not escape. More then 4600 monastaries and 40,000
temples and altars all over China were destroyed. The Shaolin temple
was abandoned. It was not before the Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644) before
it recovered its prominence. It turned into a resistance force against
the Mandchou invaders. In the middle of the 16th century the monk Chue
Yuan founded, with the help of two experts, a new fighting method, 'the
fist of the five animal forms' (Wu Xing Quan). This method included
the techniques from the tiger, the leopard, the crane, the snake, and
the dragon. They used the original idea of doctor Hua To (190 - 265)
which stated that men have a lot to learn from nature. Thanks to this
new method, Shaolin kung fu, regenerated and codified, became this
sublime fighting art that inspired many legends and whose influence
had spread wide all over Asia...
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