beforewisdom Posted December 15, 2007 Share Posted December 15, 2007 This Wall Street Journla article has a video with ithttp://tinyurl.com/3x639o The PRC is trying to make Wu Shu ( war art ) into its contribution to the Olympic Games by staging a Wu Shu competition at the same time as the upcoming games in Bejing. The monks of the 1,500 year old Shaolin temple in the PRC, know as some of the best fighters in the country have refused to participate saying they practice Kung Fu ( pronounced "Gung Fu" meaning "achieved effort" ) as a compliment to meditation as a mean of reaching the goal of enlightenment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damdaman Posted December 15, 2007 Share Posted December 15, 2007 Anyone interested in the Shaolin temple and its modern history should pick up the book "American Shaolin" by Matthew Polly. I just finished reading it, and I couldn't put it down. It's written by an American who dropped out of college to go train at the Shaolin temple and eventually befriended many of the monks there. It's very humorous, the author is a great writer, and the cultural insight is astounding. I highly recommend it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beforewisdom Posted December 15, 2007 Author Share Posted December 15, 2007 I've seen youtube clips of the Shaolin monks performing. I really hope that the next time they come to the US I know about it so I can go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyre Posted December 21, 2007 Share Posted December 21, 2007 ConanVegiBarbarian you make a great observation. We have all this talk about health and fitness and then we are a forum about bodybuilding which has little to do with REAL fitness and health. This is a veganbodybuilding forum though so it is part of the deal. Indeed with the idea of competition you kind of lose way of what is actually the point of what you are doing and maybe have a personal agenda within something that has none of it's own. Kind of like having a poetry contest. I have been looking into training at the Yantai Shaolin temple but the tuition and board keeps going up in the thousands, it also looks like they have changed things to accommodate for westerners within the training which sucks because then we work at our pace not theirs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeVegan Posted December 21, 2007 Share Posted December 21, 2007 Some time ago, I was watching a cooking show where the chef traveled around the world to learn about various cuisines. In one episode (the one I actually made it through ) he visited a Shaolin temple, and they appeared to eat nothing but rice, veggies, seitan, and tofu! I was like; "oh yeah, I eat like a Shaolin warrior baby" -Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beforewisdom Posted December 21, 2007 Author Share Posted December 21, 2007 That is decadent. I was a fan of David Karadine's "Kung Fu" series. A few years ago I bought the series on DVD ( it holds up very well over time ). I got the impression that they ate nothing but rice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyre Posted December 21, 2007 Share Posted December 21, 2007 yeah all the people that I talk to that have gone say to buy fruits and veggies at the markets when not training you need the extra energy and it tastes great! Kung Fu was awesome, I loved watching it when I was a wee boy and now as a wee man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyre Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 Yeah that is pretty much what I concentrate on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dontxhide Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 For the past few months I have been trying to keep a schedule where I meditate 15-20 minutes a day. It is so hard to keep this up, but I feel way stressed out when I dont, and feel like Im missing something integral in my life. Im still at the Burmese position, all the others usually hurt my knees too much to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericajones80 Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 That is decadent. I was a fan of David Karadine's "Kung Fu" series. A few years ago I bought the series on DVD ( it holds up very well over time ). I got the impression that they ate nothing but rice I was a big fan of that series as well...good time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dontxhide Posted January 2, 2008 Share Posted January 2, 2008 I used to like it until I found out the Bruce Lee got robbed from the role because of his race. I still like David Carradine though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beforewisdom Posted January 3, 2008 Author Share Posted January 3, 2008 I used to like it until I found out the Bruce Lee got robbed from the role because of his race. I still like David Carradine though! The DVD set for the series comes with a documentary about the series where the producers were interviewed. I got the impression that race wasn't the only card on the table. Lee's high pitched annoying voice was a factor too. If Lee had gotten the role the action scenes would have been orders of magnitude better, but I think the series would have suffered. I just can't see Lee playing the humble Buddhist priest the way Karradine did. I found Karradine to suck in everything else he did and be totally unlike his character. Given that and the aforementioned documentary I think my suspicion is that his memorable character was the result of a lot of coaching from the producer who dreamed up the series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dontxhide Posted January 3, 2008 Share Posted January 3, 2008 Despite the voice, I think he could of played the role. I have a couple DVD's of his movies from his child years, to his teen years, and most of his more popular movies and I believe he was a great actor that could of played almost any role. ~shrugs~ Oh well. No use arguing now. I liked David in Kill Bill. Thats just about all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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