da mo yuan

[daodejing]

Also, how did you handle all the spitting and nose blowing at dinner? He loves mojitos, just so you know. Has an interesting technique as far as consuming them. He will stick his fork into the cup and devour all the mint leaves.

LOL. Monks drinking mojitos? Well at least myself and my host weren't the only people drinking mojitos on thanksgiving night. Personally I prefer to drink all the all the liquid (and if some mint ends up in your mouth, so be it), then fish out any remaining mint leaves with a finger. I have half a mind to try a bit of cilantro with the mint leaves next time we make those.

Sorry I couldn't make it to your place for thanksgiving doc, I hope you had as much fun as we did. Somehow, even though it was a holiday I did end up treating patients with acupressure. Funny how that happens.

[shaolin_disciple_fei_hung]

uwe, when you said in another thread you trained with the da mo yuan, do u mean the one on the picture or the 4?

[arhat]

another water buffalo?

Nice sweep on the hair horns there...and interesting mullet...

Uwe- what do you remember of SWH talking about the brands, if he did? Grey says SWH told him his masters or his master's master had them and he remembers actually seeing them...

P.S. Hope everything is kool and the gang. I have a little project that you might find fascinating- translating some old docs that SYM has...let me know if you're game, they've proven to be exceptionally difficult to get translated, with a lot of 'illegible' or 'unkowns' coming back. I have a feeling they have to do with a lot of obscure Buddhist terminology.

[arhat]

gotta say, very well groomed mullet...and speaking of the mojito technique, it was humorous but not as interesting as watching them eat lobster. never saw anybody take a whole claw in their mouth and chew through the shell. My brother was like, is he eating the shell? I mean, the cracking was unmistakable. Then, about five minutes later, he spit a little flake or two of shell out. I was like, why bother? You've already consumed the entire claw shell.

[RJW]

So the Da Mo Yuan were 4 bodyguard/attendants of the abbot.

The San Jing Gung were 3 monks who protected the library.

The Lohan Tang were 18 monks from the best of the 5 Ch'an families; what special job were they charged with? (& by Ch'an families I'm assuming you mean the 5 animal forms…?)

[arhat]

the 5 Families...

...actually have to do with Ch'an, and have no overt correlation to the five animal forms.

The families are basically different sects or flavors of Ch'an Buddhism. They differ from each other in small details. For instance, the lineage that is most prevalent at the temple today, which most of the monks are part of, dates to Fu Yu. His Ch'an family is the Cao Dong sect. So any monk whose generational name comes from Fu Yu's poem, ie) Su, De, Xing, Yong, Yan, Heng etc... they are all Cao Dong. A monk like Shi Wan Heng is outside of that lineage, in fact he is Lin Ji. So the families are as follows: Cao Dong, Linji, Xui Ting, Yun Men, and Wei Yun.

I'm not sure if they had any formal duties as a group, other than that they were the best in their gong fu, and so were used as a testing agent.

[RJW]

Thanks.

[shaolin_disciple_fei_hung]

A monk like Shi Wan Heng is outside of that lineage, in fact he is Lin Ji. So the families are as follows: Cao Dong, Linji, Xui Ting, Yun Men, and Wei Yun.

arhat, if these generation name count two part + the shi, they are only one monk per generation?

[arhat]

I'm not sure if I understand the question, Fei- but the name has three parts right? The first, so to speak, is really the last name, that's the "Shi." Pronounced 'shur.' That comes from the name Shijiamuni, which is how the Chinese say Shakyamuni, which is Gotoma Siddaartha's sort of nickname- it means "Sage of the Sakyas" Sakyas being his clan name. This is to denote that the disciple or monk is a part of the Buddha's family, so you take his family name when you go through the Gui Yi Fo, Fa, Sen ceremony. Basically it's the Taking Refuge ceremony with some twists to it. Most people refer to Buddha (Fo) Dharma (Fa) and Sandha (Sen) as the Triple Jewels, but Yan Ming described it slightly differently, he said they are those things which you can not give value to. Now the next part of the name, let's say the second part, that is the word that comes from the poem of Fu Yu, which I am sure is somewhere here on the sight, but you could also find it at shaolinwolf or usashaolintemple.com. So each consecutive word of this poem, denotes a different generation. The third part is up to the master- usually they try and choose a word that has significance to you, but it depends. Shi Yan Ming chose to use the same naming convention as the Fu Yu poem, for example, but this time the word set is the Heart Sutra. So if you line up all his disciples in the order of their discipleship, we would all make up a big Heart Sutra.

I'm not sure if this is what you were asking...

[shaolin_disciple_fei_hung]

No this was not what I was asking, but I learned of it.
In shaolin monk generation ... yong yan heng ...
it is compose of three thing, Shi name of generation compose of one word, plus specific name of the guy, but in the generation you talked, it conclude that monk have 4 word in their name: Shi wei yun + name of monk, or was you meaning that the yun is the monk individual name?

[arhat]

ummmm....what?

Originally posted by shaolin_disciple_fei_hung
No this was not what I was asking, but I learned of it.
In shaolin monk generation ... yong yan heng ...
it is compose of three thing, Shi name of generation compose of one word, plus specific name of the guy, but in the generation you talked, it conclude that monk have 4 word in their name: Shi wei yun + name of monk, or was you meaning that the yun is the monk individual name?

Ah...I think I see what you mean....

To clarify, the Five Ch'an families are names given to 5 different Ch'an sects- they don't get put into the naming convention of the monks. It's not "Shi Lin Ji Wan Heng," for example. It's just Shi Wan Heng, but his lineage is in the Lin Ji sect. The only way you would know what their sect is, is well, if you know how to tell. Like, if you are familiar with the Cao Dong Cave Scroll, which is the poem, you'll notice that "Wan" isn't a word in the poem. But he's still a monk from Shaolin. Follow me? Like Shi De Yang, is in the Cao Dong sect, so he is just Shi De Yang, not "Shi Cao Dong De Yang."

[shaolin_disciple_fei_hung]

why is he from this sect
and also, isn't he su xi disciple?

[arhat]

Shi Wan Heng is not Shi Su Xi's disciple...Never heard that before. As far as I know, Su Xi and Wan Heng were contemperaries- they both were among the 13 or 14 monks who can trace their lineage to masters who predated the 1928 Shi You San attack and subsequent fires, and they are both among those responsible for carrying on the traditions of Shaolin Temple during not only the time period after the fires, but also during the Cultural Revolution. Wan Heng is considered to be one of the Four Olds, as is Shi Su Xi, Shi De Chan, Shi Su Yuan. That is one reason why it is such a crying shame that Wan Heng was expelled from the temple. As for why he is Lin Ji, as opposed to anything else- I would imagine because his master was, and so that is the dharma transmission that he is a part of, like Doc, myself, and other disciples are Cao Dong, because we are now members of our master's family. Perhaps SWH just feels like that is the Ch'an flavor that speaks to him the clearest.

[shaolin_disciple_fei_hung]

Shi Wan Heng is not Shi Su Xi's disciple...
SHI DE YANG, not shi wang heng.
haha

[RJW]

Other than the names what differentiates the 5 Ch'an sects? Why do they exist?