“gong-fu of the Shaolin school”

Publish Date:2024-10-17

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 The “gong-fu of the Shaolin school” (hereafter, “Shaolin gong-fu”) should be counted one of the most popular and vastly disseminated manifestations of Chinese Buddhism’s traditional culture. Apart from playing the role—which is common to all religions in China—of nurturing and fortifying the ethics of the very social fabric it belongs to, Chinese Buddhism’s traditional culture is capable of refining man’s psyche. “Shaolin gong-fu” which is the creation emerging, in Shaolin Monastery, from the peculiar environment permeated with the tradition of Buddhist culture, is a specific manifestation of the Buddhism’s traditional cultural system which fully embodies the wisdom evinced in the tenets of the Buddhist Chan Order. The said system is usually materialized in the form of “wushu” regularly practiced by the monastery’s corps of gong-fu monks who have an ingrained faith in Druma-Kinnara-raja. Moreover the corps of gong-fu monks is noted for its bravery and sagacity stemming from its firm belief in the Buddhist doctrines of anitya (impermanence) and anatman (no self), on which an ample expatiation is given in the tenets of the Faith of Druma-Kinnara-raja who has been all along worshipped as a Buddhist deity responsible for defending Buddhism. Now common people in other countries than China have also become very familiar with the topic of “Shaolin gong-fu”. That is why “Shaolin gong-fu” can now serve as a catalyst to spark off mutual understanding and dialogues between peoples of different cultural backgrounds. And that is why “Shaolin gong-fu” now can make contribution to world peace and worldwide rapprochement. And it is in this way that “Shaolin gong-fu”, as a prominent manifestation of Buddhist culture, can fully demonstrate the religious philosophy underlying Buddhism.


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