Publish Date:2024-12-29
Shaolin gong-fu, if viewed from the perspective of technicality, is characterized by its competitiveness and militancy. Football game is on that score very similar to Shaolin gong-fu. On this I will elaborate by dwelling on the following three points:
( I ) Although a football game is always permeated with militancy exhibited by players of the rival teams, yet the game proceeds in strict compliance with rules that solemnly pledge to uphold civility and safeguard the safety of all the players involved. And the core of suchlike rules consists in the principle of “all men are born equal”. In a football match even the least incivility invites its due punishment. On this score both football game and Shaolin gong-fu are alike. In ancient China, the original idea that sparked the monks of primordial Shaolin Monastery to create a primitive pugilistic skill for the purpose of protecting the Shaolin monastic property in the way they imagined their monastery’s patron saint would have done, had a calamity befallen the monastery. Later the primitive pugilistic skill evolved with the very long passage of time into an ingredient part of a Buddhist votary’s self-cultivation program. Apart from practicing self-cultivation and performing the duty of protecting the monastic property, monks of Shaolin Monastery have never been, are not, and will never be allowed to use their gong-fu for any other purpose. Those lay people who are familiar with Shaolin Monastery know very well that it is obligatory for all the monks living in Shaolin Monastery to observe the time-honored “Ten Commandments” proclaimed by an abbacy of the monastery many centuries ago. The monastic monkhood prefers to refer to the “Ten Commandments” as “the virtues that make a monk qualify as a Shaolin martial artist”. And the “Ten Commandments” embody compassion and lenience, the two virtues highly valued by all Buddhists.
( II ) So far as members of a football team are concerned, they set particularly great store by esprit de corps and regard it as the core of sportsmanship. They pay close attention to not only division of labor but cooperation and coordination among them. On the other hand, skill and proficiency of an individual football player in a team is strongly emphasized. This is in full agreement with the behavioral norm which a modern society usually expects its members to comply with at different stages of their careers. The entire course of a football match epitomizes the social life in general in the Western World. Therefore watching a football match serves for the Westerners as a classroom where to learn how to behave properly in Western society.
Shaolin gong-fu is a medium through which a Shaolin monk learns how to carry on his self-cultivation program on his own and how to deepen his understanding of the meaning of his own life. In these two respects, a Shaolin gong-fu practitioner differs from an individual football player. But in one respect the two, a Shaolin gong-fu practitioner and an individual football player, are similar, because either has to udergo a long process of training and self-cultivation. Generally speaking, a Shaolin gong-fu practitioner whose ultimate goal is the attainment of enlightenment needs to undergo nine stages of experiencing, training and self-cultivation, and they are:
(1) the 1st stage in which, being maneuvered by karma, a would-be practitioner gets himself to know something about Shaolin Monastery and Shaolin gong-fu.
(2) the 2nd stage in which, being stirred by the verve, enthusiasm, and spirit of dedication evinced by Shaolin gong-fu practitioners, he begins to feel the urge to have himself associated, in one way or another, with Shaolin gong-fu.
(3) the 3rd stage in which, being impelled by the urge mentioned in (2), he begins to reflect on his future and also on how he can have his future associated with Shaolin gong-fu. And in due course he finally makes up his mind that he should go to Shaolin Monastery to learn Shaolin gong-fu. This is now his decision which is also his aspiration.
(4) the 4th stage which sees him become fascinated by Shaolin gong-fu training. Now He not merely likes Shaolin gong-fu but is obsessing about his impending gong-fu training career.
(5) the 5th stage which sees him embark on the awfully arduous career of Shaolin gong-fu training. And now he has to fully prepare himself for the excruciating challenge.
(6) the 6th stage which sees him already acclimatized to the hardship of gong-fu training. Now he has come to an incipient comprehension of the unusually spectacular cultural dimensions of Shaolin gong-fu.
(7) the 7th stage in which, having delved into the cultural background of Shaolin gong-fu and submerged himself, while receiving the gong-fu training, all day long in the atmosphere of Buddhist culture permeating the precincts of Shaolin Monastery, he is able to have his incipient comprehension of the spectacular cultural dimensions of Shaolin gong-fu expanded and matured into his deep faith in Buddhism.
(8) the 8th stage which sees him conscientiously change his attitude to the gong-fu training he is at that time receiving. At the 7th stage and before that stage, his motive for taking up Shaolin gong-fu training was simply mastery of the wonderful gong-fu. But as a result of the development in him, at the end of the 7th stage, of his profound faith in Buddhism, his motive for continuing his gong-fu training is no longer the fulfillment of his desire to master the wonderful Shaolin gong-fu. From this stage onward he engages himself in gong-fu training for the purpose of utilizing it as a means for expediting his self-cultivation program. And indeed he is now able to perceive the profound wisdom of Buddhism as is manifested in Shaolin gong-fu.
(9) The ninth stage in which his understanding of the true nature of human life and his perceptions of the universe continue to deepen as his training in Shaolin gong-fu proceeds to a higher level. He is now able to perceive and experience the truth inherent in sunyata.
( III ) The phenomenon that football, as a sport, enjoys worldwide popularity is indebted to the tremendous global influence exercised by Western cultures, of which football as a sport can be looked upon as a symbol. Indeed it is glaringly undeniable that Western cultures have been making conspicuous contributions to the civilization of mankind and have been highly esteemed by the international community. Shaolin gong-fu stands out as a symbol of traditional Chinese martial-art culture and is in a way similar to football which, as a sport, stands out as a symbol of Western cultures. As a matter of fact, given the contemporary development of international cultural exchanges, Shaolin gong-fu has been, in a sense, playing the role of a leading exponent of traditional Chinese culture and, like football game, enjoys worldwide popularity.
One point needs to be clarified is that Shaolin gong-fu is, in nature, basically different from football. Football, as a sport, is a favorite of the secular life, whereas Shaolin gong-fu is an ingredient of the religious life of a Buddhist votary. As such, Shaolin gong-fu stands for a spiritual dimension and ethical perception that are more sublime. Buddhism is a faith that strives for peace. On this score Buddhism is completely in agreement with one of the kernel values of traditional Chinese culture. And the said kernel value can be epitomized in one sentence which reads: “Peace is what really counts for social life.” As a matter of fact, peace is, in the last analysis, the ultimate objective which, football, as a sport, wants to achieve, because the ideal for football as a sport is the occurrence of a jubilant football match watched by peaceful spectators. When a football match in which two teams, each comprising football players from different ethnic entities, is watched by international spectators, that would really be a wonderful demonstration of global peace.
Shaolin gong-fu, football, traditional Chinese culture, which is represented by Shaolin gong-fu, and Western cultures, which are represented by football, are four elements which are equally conducive to both world peace and worldwide social progress. And they are all ingredients of world civilization which ought to be equally shared by all nations in the world.
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