Kung Fu for fighting; Gong Fu origins

[RJW]

"...disciples of the Shaolin temple who wished to leave had to pass through five tests in order to be permitted departure.
The first was to defeat the Lohan Tang. A Lohan is a kind of bodyguard and the Lohan Tang were the 18 best fighters from the 5 Shaolin Ch'an families. The departing disciple would have to face and defeat each of these 18 fighters.

Upon defeating the Lohan Tang, the departee would then face the Da Mo Yuan. These were four fighting monks charged with protecting the abbot. After defeating the Da Mo Yuan, the departee would face the San Jing Gung. These were three fighting monks chosen to defend the library of manuscripts preserved at Shaolin..."

The wood dummies & the urn are bull****, but how far fetched is the rest? Have the monks ever talked about the testing in the good ol' days?

[zachsan]

well believe it or not, i think we can actually bring this thing full circle and relate it to gongfu. for instance -

you're in a bar. a guy looks at you with that unmistakeable glare, "i'm sad about my life and i'm gonna make you pay for it." then, he gets up and starts walking towards you. now, being a godlike gongfu ninja master, you know you could take this joker without getting out of your seat. but what you don't know is that this guy's a regular, he's got 20 friends seated all around the bar, and he's got a big-ass knife under his jacket.

but the thing is, as i've said before, you're a godlike gongfu ninja master. so you don't need to know about the 20 friends and the butcher knife in the jacket. in fact, everything you need to know is all right there in the guy's stare. you could say to yourself, "i'm not gonna take this at face value, i'm gonna wait to see what this fine young gentleman would like to discuss." but then again, you might get jumped from 20 different directions, and by that time it's too late (even if you are a godlike gongfu ninja master). instead, you calmly pay your tab and walk across the bar to the table where your buddies are sitting.

now i'm not saying that you should skitter across a bar every time a guy looks at you. but there are different ways of looking at people, and part of being a godlike gongfu ninja master is that you can see (and stop) a problem before it becomes a problem.

maybe that's a little too much detail, but my point is that you can't know everything, so you just have to keep your eyes open for the warning signs. and while your knowledge of the history of the world's races might not have as much of an immediate impact on your health, the same principle applies, imho.

- zach

p.s. then again, it's much more sexy to beat up all 21 punks with the spiritual power of your cosmic melanin.

[daodejing]

Maestro, everything's been going great for me, I've been on vacation for the past two weeks and we start a new quarter on monday. With all the shiatsu, acupressure, and tui na I've been learning I think I'm going to get my unemployed ass some work as a massage therapist soon, its a great way to support yourself through school.

My MA training has been going real well too. I've been studying wing chun with a good friend of mine, in addition to training weapons and drunken boxing on my own everyday. I also just get enlisted to help teach a women's self defense course with a friend of mine who invented the system. It's remarkably simple stuff, mostly based on dynamic aikido with hints of bagua and choy li fut. Spent three days last week in the mojave desert and man was that a trip. I highly reccomend anyone who lives near southern california to check out Kelso Dunes at least once in their life. And make sure you climb to the top of the dune and jump down it.

[arhat]

according to Wan Heng...

it was a tea kettle and not a cauldron...I always wanted Uwe to dig up the truth of that.

SYM says it's mostly story with some truth...supposedly SWH's master had the brands and he has a sketch of it...

Get out the SHOVELS...?

Vince you'd get a kick out of the corner of 7th and 34th at around 6PM when the Black Israelites raid Pan Qing Fu's wardrobe and hold court...

[doc]

I've discussed the urn and wooden dummy bull**** at length before. After many discussions with some of the older "Su" generation monks, none of which claimed there was any truth to that nonsense, it was thoroughly elaborated upon and put to rest.

I can't remember where we discussed this before. It might be in the archive. But this is an old issue.

Arhat, where you been bro?

[arhat]

Doc- things are chill...I'm down in Negril and won't be stateside 'til mid april.

I will be out in Vegas early May...so get the nuns tuned up on their hymns...lol...

[Maestro]

hm

black israelites...hmmmmm, think there probably be alot of **** yous going around on my part

just jk

anyhow, arhat..since your back to posting regularly limme ask you somethin, does shi yan ming still teach at the USA ST? or do instructors and stuff teach?

amitabha

[dogchow108]

oh god, here we go...

[arhat]

yup...

...except for when he's rendezvousing with the Halle Bop Chi Masters, he's teaching...I mean, he never stopped teaching. He usually teaches pretty much every level one class, except for a few from time to time during the day, or if he's away like in Vienna...level two he usually does but there will be a couple done by senior students...when he's not directly running the class he'll usually work out in the back or stretch and work with you individually until you get what he told you.