I'm visiting Shaolin this August! Sparring with monks, meeting Yongxin, etc

[Edge]

I love this website very much and am also a supporting member of www.bullshido.net. I would love to contribute pictures of the temple once I return from China at the end of August, but I was hoping you could answer some of my questions concerning Shaolin temple.

You see, I have been fascinated by Martial Arts and Shaolin Gong-Fu my whole life. I have been training for nearly 5 years in a full-contact standup style consisting of kyokushin karate, kickboxing and shaolin gong fu. Recently my Instructor has given me the opportunity to grade for my Black Belt. Him and I are very curious as to whether it is advisable for me to meet with the Abbot of Shaolin or some other Shaolin Master to perform a demonstration for his appraisal. I will only be visiting the temple for one day, because I am visiting China to meet my girlfriend's parents (who live in Beijing). My girlfriend's first language is Mandarin and she will be with me to translate back and forth to make this all possible. I have read your FAQ page thoroughly but here are my questions:

1. Is it advisable to solicit an appraisal from the Abbot or some other master?

2. Do you think he would charge me money for ?

3. Would the monks take offense if I offered to spar (with light contact) one or two of them? Specifically, would they run me through with a sword/spear?

4. I have heard of another man from the West who was designated a GrandMaster of Shaolin Gong-Fu (Steve Demasco) by an Abbot Shi Yongxin. Do you think this was a legitimate designation or merely a publicity stunt?

More details here: http://www.ussd.com/xpage/xpage.asp...intemple2000pg1

5. Finally, I am ONLY concerned with traditional Shaolin and definately NOT contemporary "wushu" (you know, the flashy competition stuff). Should I go directly to the Wu Guan or the Temple itself to find the traditional guys?

Thank you very much for your time!

[Maestro]

so you wanna spar with a shaolin monk huh, you must have some elephant balls...

anyway, a shaolin masters apraisal huh? have you read what li peng had to do just to get the monks to accept him?

i dunno, unless your super karate man i doubt any apraisal they give you will be what your seeking

not trying to put you down or anything but its the truth..you gotta do alot to get those guys attention..

amitabha

[zachsan]

i, for one, would greatly appreciate an appraisal by a shaolin monk, because lately, my own teacher has been running out of new and creative ways of saying "your gongfu is pathetic."

- zach

[Edge]

Originally posted by Maestro
so you wanna spar with a shaolin monk huh, you must have some elephant balls...

anyway, a shaolin masters apraisal huh? have you read what li peng had to do just to get the monks to accept him?

i dunno, unless your super karate man i doubt any apraisal they give you will be what your seeking

not trying to put you down or anything but its the truth..you gotta do alot to get those guys attention..

amitabha

I don't mind if I get my ass whooped, I'm pretty used to it. Not too sure about li peng, I'll have to do a search on him. My teacher says I'm pretty good, but we are pretty curious about what the monks would have to say about our style. I doubt they would pay me much attention if any. My main purpose for visiting for a day is still to see the sights, however, while I'm there it would be pretty cool to at least talk about martial arts and/or exchange some forms. I'm pretty sure that sparring is out of the question, in fact, I'm not even sure if the monks spar each other.

[Edge]

BTW, now that I've spent a few hours reading through the site, I have the answers to most of my questions.

[doc]

1. Is it advisable to solicit an appraisal from the Abbot or some other master?

How much money are you bringing?

2. Do you think he would charge me money for ?

Oops.

3. Would the monks take offense if I offered to spar (with light contact) one or two of them? Specifically, would they run me through with a sword/spear?

They wouldn't take offense. The older generation monks would not bother with such nonsense, however.

4. I have heard of another man from the West who was designated a GrandMaster of Shaolin Gong-Fu (Steve Demasco) by an Abbot Shi Yongxin. Do you think this was a legitimate designation or merely a publicity stunt?

Read the site. Start in the Shaolin Topics, Topic 12, "Trademark of the Shaolin Name". It's a start on your road to enlightenment.

5. Finally, I am ONLY concerned with traditional Shaolin and definately NOT contemporary "wushu" (you know, the flashy competition stuff). Should I go directly to the Wu Guan or the Temple itself to find the traditional guys?

Depends upon who you get. The temple is going to be full of wushu guys, they're younger, and not as experienced in the traditional arts. The older monks are; they tend to run their own schools outside of the temple. Again, read the site. Sorry, there's a lot for you to read; read some of the Journals section (archive and this forum) to get some history, and the Shaolin FAQ, and pertinent parts of the forum and archive.

[Edge]

The older generation monks would not bother with such nonsense, however.

I don't consider sparring to be nonsense, in fact I believe it makes more sense to do forms and spar than to just do forms alone. But this is a topic for another thread.

[arhat]

you have to realise- how many people do you think come to try them...it must get a little bit ridiculous. From their standpoint, what does it do?

That's why it's "nonsense."

elephant balls, lol...

[Edge]

I have no clue how many have offered to spar with them. Does anybody?

I don't know about their standpoint, but from mine well, sparring is very important, it allows you to see how your skills measure up to your opponent. For instance, if it does happen and they mop the floor with me with ease, does my martial training really have any value whatsoever?

[doc]

I think the issue here lies not within the concept that sparring is important, but the understanding, or lack thereof, of what Shaolin gong fu really is.

[Edge]

do the Shaolin monks ever spar each other? if not, why? is it the chan buddhism beliefs?

[zachsan]

there actually is another thread somewhere in this forum on sparring and whether or not it's important.