Practicing Kungfu is a profession. Martial arts is the foundation and Kungfu lies in youself. Practicing Kungfu has to be firm or solid: basic skills, sets, attack and defence as well as Kungfu, working steadily. The orderly Kungfu practice can change disorderly. Chan is the root and Kungfu lies in your heart. You must contemplate from your heart. Kungfu can’t be superb until finding your true self. (From Words of Chan by Shi Yongxin)
Some people establish undertakings that are vigorous but may have a sense of emptiness; what some people do is the social edge career but may be very full. Therefore Buddhism thinks that it is not necessary for each one to become a monk and it is also necessary for everyone to have a very good job industry. No matter what you do, this is always a discipline or practice in every industry. That is also both responsibilities and obligations for society. Trying to satisfy people is the very state or the realm towards kindness and ascending. (From Words of Chan)
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)
To meet the need to extensively spread Buddhism, a peculiar style of literature, “Bianwen”, evolved. It actually springs from a style of songs and odes popular in ancient times. Bianwen is the expression of Buddhist scriptures in common words for easily narrating and singing. Various Bianwen discovered inside the Dunhuang Caves are popular literary works whose ease, verve and richness of imagination contributed to the subsequent popular forms of Chinese literature such as Pinghua, novels and plays. Besides, another special style named Recorded Utterance, arose out of the records of conversations and inculcations of the Chan masters. This simple and lively oral style was later followed by the Neo-Confucianist scholars in the Song and Ming Dynasties and many such works were produced. In addition, in the field of Chinese Phonology, a system of phonetic letters known as “Fanqie” developed under the influence of the Sanskrit alphabet. This was popularly used in the old Chinese dictionaries. Generally speaking, the Buddhist manifestations in Chinese literary are varied and colorful.
The Wutai Mountains as the preaching place of Manjusri was recorded in Mahayana Buddhist scriptures, so in ancient times, it was worshipped by quite a few eminent monks from India and Central Asia. There was even an old legend in Nepal saying that the Kathmandu Valley (where the capital of Nepal is located) used to be a large lake. It was Manjusri, after he arrived there from the Wutai Mountains, China, who cleaved apart a mountain, drained off the lake water, and settled down with his followers, thus founding the State of Nepal.
In the monastic community, senior or junior does not refer to older or younger in age, but the number of years since ordination. The title “Thera” (Elder) is conferred on Bhikkhus 10 years after ordination, and “MahaThera” 20 years after ordination. Juniors should salute seniors. Seniors precede juniors while walking along.
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