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Dear Shaolin Family,
Following Marcus's very kind post here, I thought I would say a few words about Music and my Shaolin practice, as well as the Scholar ideal in Shaolin.
I have recently completed a music CD - a project I have been working on for some time. It's the result of a lot of work and direct application of our Shaolin training.
I've always had a clear idea of what I wanted to achieve, so I just worked at it slowly and steadily, taking my time. I did many other projects and recordings, gaining skills, confidence, making mistakes, but always keeping this clear direction in mind. When things went seemingly wrong, never mind, I changed my course of action and carried on. When I lost track of my direction, I slowed down, came back on track and carried on - very much like how we approach our training, isn't it?
That is precisely the idea - and that is also why the Scholar project is of such importance.
But let's carry on further:
To the risk of sounding a bit "out there", I've always had an intuitive understanding of how the Chi works in sound and music, even before I started Chi Kung. I realized recently how fantastic it would be to transfer this skill to my Kung Fu, and this is slowly bringing it to a whole new level. I would like to take this opportunity to thank from the heart my Shaolin sister Emiko (who, incidentally, is singing beautifully on one of the tracks on my CD) for her tremendous help in this development.
On the other hand, I was lacking the Warrior skills needed to be able to complete such a project. So this time round I transfered my Kung Fu skills and principles to this, which made the whole process - guess what - simple, direct and fairly effective!
By transferring skills from Music to Chi Kung or from Kung Fu to daily life, I realized that there is actually no difference.
There is no difference in how we train Shaolin and how we lead our life.
There is no difference in our direction in training and our direction in life.
This is why we are not just Warriors!
A Warrior builds skills to fight and conquer, but has no direction.
A Scholar Warrior is awake, sees things clearly, and uses his Warrior skills to lead a rewarding life.
As we train Shaolin regularly, we build consequent power. There quickly comes a stage where that power needs to serve a purpose (other than to fight and conquer), and to find that purpose we need the clarity of a Scholar Warrior. It is not enough to be "just" a Warrior.
Following Marcus's very kind post here, I thought I would say a few words about Music and my Shaolin practice, as well as the Scholar ideal in Shaolin.
I have recently completed a music CD - a project I have been working on for some time. It's the result of a lot of work and direct application of our Shaolin training.
I've always had a clear idea of what I wanted to achieve, so I just worked at it slowly and steadily, taking my time. I did many other projects and recordings, gaining skills, confidence, making mistakes, but always keeping this clear direction in mind. When things went seemingly wrong, never mind, I changed my course of action and carried on. When I lost track of my direction, I slowed down, came back on track and carried on - very much like how we approach our training, isn't it?
That is precisely the idea - and that is also why the Scholar project is of such importance.
But let's carry on further:
To the risk of sounding a bit "out there", I've always had an intuitive understanding of how the Chi works in sound and music, even before I started Chi Kung. I realized recently how fantastic it would be to transfer this skill to my Kung Fu, and this is slowly bringing it to a whole new level. I would like to take this opportunity to thank from the heart my Shaolin sister Emiko (who, incidentally, is singing beautifully on one of the tracks on my CD) for her tremendous help in this development.
On the other hand, I was lacking the Warrior skills needed to be able to complete such a project. So this time round I transfered my Kung Fu skills and principles to this, which made the whole process - guess what - simple, direct and fairly effective!
By transferring skills from Music to Chi Kung or from Kung Fu to daily life, I realized that there is actually no difference.
There is no difference in how we train Shaolin and how we lead our life.
There is no difference in our direction in training and our direction in life.
This is why we are not just Warriors!
A Warrior builds skills to fight and conquer, but has no direction.
A Scholar Warrior is awake, sees things clearly, and uses his Warrior skills to lead a rewarding life.
As we train Shaolin regularly, we build consequent power. There quickly comes a stage where that power needs to serve a purpose (other than to fight and conquer), and to find that purpose we need the clarity of a Scholar Warrior. It is not enough to be "just" a Warrior.
Thank you!
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