Tea is the ordinary matter like dressing and eating each one needs and use. As Buddha dharma that all monastics have Buddhist nature, no high and low, saints and mortals equal and each one can enlighten it. Chan and tea are common while human and Buddha are interlinked. Buddha and dharma are is visible at any time and Chan ceremony can be entered at any moment. As long as people have the heart, be able to enlighten. How to enlighten? Go for tea! (From Words of Chan by Shi Yongxin)
If gongan of Chan Buddhism is compared to beautiful flowers, then making the beautiful flowers grow is unremitting meditation practice of monks. We appreciate flowers, being not only see flowers, but also see branches and leaves that supporting flowers, even roots and soil. Flowers cannot leave branches, leaves and roots. If flowers left them, the former would fade. These gongan is so too and cannot isolate from monks’ daily practice. Only the basic stuff is profound and daily practice is enough or sufficient, meditation practice will be able to blossom and yield fruit. If people couldn’t ensure fundamental daily meditation practice, then a whole life of practice would not be able to blossom too, much less yielding fruit. There is a famous gongan of Chan Buddhism that Buddha picked up the flower with smile. The Buddha picked up a flower by which all people were under a spell but only Buddha is not so. As we read gongan of Chan Buddhism, all stories about gongan are beautiful flowers. Whether we could be under a spell, it lies in ourselves. (From Words of Chan by Shi Yongxin)
Chan practice needs the enlightenment and Shaolin Kungfu also needs enlightenment. At the beginning of practicing Shaolin Kungfu, people is usually in the physical training stage. You will be able to improve Kungfu only with correct methods and hard work. Practicing to a certain extent, you will be beyond the physical training stage and enter upon a new phase. You have to practice with your heart during this period which does not mean practicing carefully and diligently but enlighten yourself by the heart. Becoming a holy one or an ordinary people hinges on this one action. If you can enlighten mental cultivation methods of Chan Wu, then you will attain the supreme realm of Chan Wu; if you does not enlighten it, you will waste your life. Enlightenment or no enlightenment is talent but not destiny. People with sharp root of wisdom enlighten themselves early. However, as long as people with blunt root of wisdom can correct themselves, sooner or later they will attain enlightenment. (From Words of Chan by Shi Yongxin)
The changes of Yin and Yang are the basic ideas of that not only Taoism but also Confucianism and even Buddhism talk about. Certainly as the convenient dharma-gate, Shaolin Kungfu has its own unique feature covering rich and profound Buddhist thought. The supreme state Other martial arts schools seek for is superb, unpredictable and freewheeling but Shaolin Kungfu, integrating Chan into Wu and practice of body and mind, pursues realizing the truth and liberation and achieving dispassion. The heart is free and then what all not afraid. We defy death, not to speak of Kungfu. Thus Shaolin Boxing says: “Practice with external work is about muscles and bones; and internal work is what truly relies on the life and spirit to refuge. Without both sides, it will be the humble level; the unity of both sides will be the supreme realm.” (From Words of Chan by Shi Yongxin)
We should call “Shaolin Kungfu” but rather than “Shaolin Wushu” that I always disagree with this comment. I advocate “Wushu Chan” is to stress this point. The word “Kungfu” is a Buddhist term. The fruit of Chan practice is called “Kungfu”, for example, sitting in meditation and canhuatou (Chinese: 参话头）that we call “making efforts to practice”. The goal of making efforts to practice is to attain Buddhahood, go for sainthood and completely improve human character. Shaolin Temple is the ancestral monastery of Chan sect. Shaolin monks practice Kungfu, which is a cultivation and also called “Chan Wu” or the unity of Chan and Wu. Certainly not all people practicing Shaolin Kungfu are in cultivation or “making efforts to practice”. Even not all Shaolin monks may make efforts to practice when they train Kungfu and the critical point lies in whether people own a heart of Chan cultivation. We can’t require or expect all Kungfu practitioners train Kungfu with an attitude of heart of Chan cultivation. But it is important that the motivation to practice Kungfu has a great deal of influence over the outcome, which is the morality of Kungfu. (From Words of Chan by Shi Yongxin)
Shaolin Kungfu has different characteristics with other schools which is the combination of Chan(meditation) and Wu(martial arts): practice Kungfu with the heart of Chan and take Kungfu practice as one of means of Chan practice. The combination of Chan and Wu is the essence of Shaolin Kungfu practice.
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Shi Yongxin
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