Nachgefragt

Der Weg nach Shaolin

When I received the invitation to speak about the Shaolin Temple before the Buddhist Society in Delhi, I immediately knew this would be a special opportunity. Here, in the land from which both Buddha and Bodhidharma originated, to talk about the connection between the Indian martial art of Kalaripayattu and the legendary Chinese monastery, closed a circle. The story I wanted to tell is not only the story of a temple, but the story of a philosophy that travelled from India to China almost 1500 years ago and from there changed the whole world.

First of all, a heartfelt thank you for having me here. When I prepared myself for this talk, I wondered where to begin. Even if the legendary Shaolin Temple was founded by the Indian monk Bodhidharma, its actual history started much earlier. Almost 4000 years ago a group of people from the south of India invented a martial art they called "Kalaripayattu". The actual idea behind it was more than self-defence, which can be seen from the fact that the word "Kalari" means "battlefield". As always since humans have existed, there were differences not only between people but also between different tribes. But Indians even then were wise enough not to waste the lives of thousands of people just to clear out a problem between two folk. So instead of fighting a real war like we know it today, they came up with a very clever solution. Every people involved in the conflict would send its bravest soldier to fight for them. The combat took place in a small, delimited space to prevent any chances to escape the scene, and the winner won for his whole tribe. Till today it remains clearly visible that the world famous martial arts of Shaolin Kung Fu have their origin in the ancient Indian martial art of Kalaripayattu.

Nevertheless, nobody would have even heard the name of "Kalaripayattu" today, hadn't it been for another guy, who was born in the north of India: Siddhartha Gautama. The only son of a king, he spent a youth in luxury. The story goes that when Siddhartha was born, his father was told by an oracle that his son one day would become a great ruler, but only on the condition that he would never come in contact with the suffering of people. Should this ever happen, he would instead change the world. Consequently his father did everything possible to protect his son. But at the age of 28 Gautama had enough. Realising that he was locked up in a golden cage, he set off for four excursions in all cardinal directions. Thus the young prince for the first time in his life saw someone suffering, an old man, a sick person and a corpse. He slowly started to realise that life in general is not as happy as his father wanted him to believe. He left the palace, his wife and his son, whom he had named Rahula, with the strong wish to understand and to overcome the reason for the suffering. Being familiar with the Hindu idea of "Nirvana", he knew that before being released he would need to be reborn again and again until finally his Atman would be reunited with the eternal source of Brahman. But Gautama was eager to find a quicker, more efficient way.

He started to try out different methods, some of them almost ending up with his death, but none of them seemed to help. Neither did he understand the reason why people suffer, nor did he find out how to escape from it. Till one night, when at the age of 29, he sat in deep meditation. Out of a sudden he understood that life itself means suffering. It became clear to him that people suffer because they are greedy. Clearly Siddhartha did not refer to a bigger car or the newest generation telephone. Rather he realised that we suffer because we want things to be differently from what they actually are. We are here, but we want to be there. We get this, but we want that. We are unhappy because we always lay our focus on what we don't have instead of being grateful for what we do have. If we really want to escape suffering, Buddha understood, we need to escape from greed. This is done by accepting things the way they are and by being thankful for whatever you have. This way we will once escape the Samsara, the everlasting cycle of being reborn again and again. Even if Buddha's birthplace Lumbini lies in Nepal today, Buddha can be considered as an Indian. He gained enlightenment in the village of Bodhgaya and spoke to his disciples for the first time near Varanasi.

About a 1000 years later another Indian prince learned about Buddha's ideas. Even if there is no proof that Bodhidharma was a historical person, he must have existed for sure, as a person with this name eventually became known as the founder of Shaolin Temple. Not much is known about his personal life, but it is considered certain that he felt the need to spread Buddhism, which was by then flourishing in India, to neighbouring China. After a long trip and cumbersome journey by boat and by foot, Bodhidharma finally reached Luoyang, China's ancient capital. To his great surprise he stated that Buddhism not only had already arrived, but was doing pretty well. When Bodhidharma met the Chinese emperor, the ruler asked him whether he could take care of an old monastery situated in the holy mountains of Song Shan. The founder of the place had died and the monks were in need of a new abbot. Bodhidharma accepted, but with the fact in mind that one problem remained: not having gained enlightenment himself, how could he guide anyone else on their way? According to the legend, the Indian monk climbed a mountain near the temple, where he settled down in a small cave for a longer meditation. Nine years, as the story goes, he sat motionlessly in this place, just meditating and staring at the wall.

When Bodhidharma came back to the monastery, he had not only gained enlightenment but also discovered two important facts. On the one hand, it had become clear to him that by only sitting and meditating you harm your body. Finding himself in a very bad physical condition after nine years of sitting, he remembered that he was a master in the martial arts of Kalaripayattu. This rediscovery would also help him with another challenge. Shaolin Temple got its name from the fact that it had been erected in the middle of nowhere, protected only by a young wood, which is "Shao lin" in Chinese. Therefore the whole neighbourhood was inhabited by wild animals and dangerous robbers, who were keen to steal the monks' few belongings. By teaching his students to defend themselves against those enemies, Bodhidharma started to pass on his knowledge of martial arts to his disciples. So Shaolin became the first place outside India where the martial arts of Kalaripayattu lived on. But in fact Bodhidharma did not come to bring martial arts to China. In that case Shaolin would have become a famous martial arts school but not a Buddhist monastery. More than that, he came up with a completely new approach to Buddhism, which was originally known as "Chan" in China and became world famous under the Japanese name "Zen".

But what was the idea behind it that made it so revolutionary? In brief, Bodhidharma discovered that our mind and our ability to analyse and overthink things is not as helpful as we believe, but much more a kind of obstacle. We always try to understand things by explaining them rationally, but we do that even there where there is no such thing as a rational explanation. The First Patriarch of Shaolin realised that our mind is more a limitation rather than a help. When I first heard about this concept I was pretty sceptical. How could that be? Isn't our mind what sets us apart from all other creatures? So I kept asking my master: "How can my ability to understand things rationally be a limitation rather than a help?" Master Shi De Cheng asked me to imagine that outside the temple would live an older monk who knows what happens after we die. When my master asked me whether I would want this old monk to share his knowledge with me, I nodded. Of course I wanted. Shi De Cheng smiled and said: "Did you ever think about the fact that even if the old master would be willing to share his entire knowledge with you, it would be of little use for you? Your mind would immediately protest and say, all fine, but how could this old monk know that? You are so sure that nobody can know what happens after death that every insight the master would give you renders worthless."

Being aware of that problem, Bodhidharma taught his monks to forget about rationality and to rather open their minds. Not to judge the moment but to live it. But what does that mean in practice? And most importantly, how can we do that? In fact it is easier than most of us would imagine. The moment you realise that a feeling of anger means that you live in the past and being afraid of something indicates that you live in the future, you've got the key to the solution. A person who lives in the moment will neither be angry because they know that whatever happened cannot be changed anymore. Thus there is no reason for anger because it anyhow does not happen in this very moment. The same is true for fear. We are never afraid of things that happen in the actual moment. Rather, we are afraid of what might happen in an uncertain future. Even if you're afraid of dying, you're not dead, you just fear that something unpleasant might happen. In this regard, the ancient martial art of Kalaripayattu proved helpful, too. With its help the monks learned to totally focus on the current moment. They not only started to imitate their opponents but after a while also monkeys, praying mantises, tigers and even dragons, all with the aim to clear their minds. True imitation, they say in Shaolin, is the best form of meditation. So a Shaolin monk would try to become a dragon with his whole body and with his whole mind. He would try to behave like a dragon and to even think like it, knowing that the moment you succeed in really becoming a dragon, you will be totally detached from all human limitations. Neither would you think about the dinner you are going to have tomorrow nor would you be offended by any injustice that happened to you three days ago. After a while, stopping overthinking and overcoming the mind's limitation by truly living the moment became the core idea of Shaolin.

Over time the monastery attracted more and more new people. But not all of those who joined the growing community were necessarily monks. Even if they were actually united in the search for the purpose of life, they had a broad social background. But Bodhidharma, probably due to his Indian attitude, had decreed that the monastery should be open to everyone. As long as a person would be searching for answers and at the same time be willing to share their knowledge, the founder had determined, they should be welcome. So the monks of Shaolin accepted even soldiers and murderers as new members as long as they were willing to renounce violence and to pass on their often rich knowledge about martial arts. Over the years Shaolin temple became a centre of martial arts. With their knowledge growing, the monks decided to categorise it and set up a library by documenting every single movement of all the martial arts techniques they had collected and developed over time. They ended up with the documentation of more than 300 different fighting styles.

But even if over the centuries the monks perfected their combat techniques and spread them all over the world, their base remained in the small village of Shaolin in the holy mountains of Songshan, halfway between Hong Kong and Beijing. Till today, the birthplace of Chinese martial arts is considered the only Buddhist monastery in the world that produced monks who at the same time were elite fighters.

To be very honest I need to tell you that nowadays the temple of Shaolin is a museum. When I arrived there for the first time in 1996, it was still quite unknown to the rest of the world. Nevertheless, people had started to hear about it because of a famous film called "Shaolin Temple". Even if nobody intended it, this movie was the beginning of the decline of the monastery. A Chinese friend, who had made my stay in Shaolin possible, once told me that he was a child when the film was made in the 1970s. Back then, he recounted, not even a small road connected the temple with the nearby city of Deng Feng, so that the team had to carry their filming equipment by donkey carts through the by then dense woods. But with the huge success of the movie, things changed. The news of the mystical Buddhist temple that had been kept secret for almost 1500 years started to spread. Based on a true story, the film tells the story of a 7th century emperor who was taken hostage by a general who was in command of more than 20,000 soldiers. Seeing no way to escape his desperate situation, the emperor asked for help from the Shaolin temple. After a moment's reflection the abbot took a remarkable decision: he sent out 13 selected monks to free the emperor. To put it in a nutshell, the monks succeeded in their mission and their names remain engraved till today in a stele in the courtyard of the temple. But how did they do it? Knowing that 13 of them would have no chance against an army of 20,000 well armed soldiers, they remembered Bodhidharma's principle of sharing their knowledge with anyone who might be in need of it. So they passed on everything they knew about hand-to-hand combat to everybody who was willing to help. They taught the peasants to transform agricultural tools into deadly weapons and this way developed arms that are in use till today. After they had freed the emperor, the monks of Shaolin were granted permission to maintain a regular army. With up to 1800 fighting monks participating in various battles, Shaolin changed the history not only of China but of the whole world.

Even if I admit that Shaolin is a museum today, my book is not about that. In the end neither Buddha nor Bodhidharma are alive anymore and yet their philosophy still is. In my book I try to explain the ways of thinking developed by Bodhidharma and the monks of Shaolin in more than 1500 years. The reader will get to know the old principles of living in the moment, mindfulness, detachment and many other aspects useful in today's everyday life. But why, I'm often asked, would I call a book about fighting monks "How to win without fighting"? The simple answer is that there is no way to win with a fight. A fighter might win one fight, or even ten or a hundred, but there will always appear new opponents seeking to attack him. A true winner on the other hand has no opponents. When Bodhidharma came from India to spread Buddhism in China, he came as a trained combatant but not with a violent intention. Much more, he knew that he had two wonderful things to share. A philosophy and a martial art, both originating from India, that would finally change the world. Till today the spirit of India lives on in one of the most famous monasteries in the world: in the legendary temple of Shaolin.

Thank you for listening.

Question

Do the monks in Shaolin Monastery still credit India for bringing that knowledge or have they now kind of detached?

Answer

In fact, there is a very strong connection. It was in 2006 when Shaolin monks and Kalaripayattu fighter Sunil Kumar and his team from Calicut did a show together. So they know each other. It's a very strong connection and no Chinese would ever tell you that Buddhism is something that comes from China. They know it is Indian and they know its origins, and it was really nice to see both of them on the same stage. You could see Kalaripayattu on one side and you could see the Shaolin monks on the other side and they became really good friends. It was a friend of mine who initiated this meeting in Austria.

Question

In Shaolin Monastery is there any photograph or image of Bodhidharma at all?

Answer

1500 years ago photography was not invented, so there is no photograph of him. But Bodhidharma is everywhere. Even in the cave where he stayed for so many years staring at the wall, there is a huge statue that is being worshipped all day long. The first thing you see when you come to Shaolin is a huge, ten metres high statue of Bodhidharma, on the very top of the mountain. So yes, Bodhidharma is very present.

Question

Does he look Chinese or does he look from this part of the world?

Answer

To be very honest, I would say that the images of Bodhidharma look less Chinese than those of Buddha. Bodhidharma has a typical European or Indian face.

Question

I'm curious how you began this journey? How did you get interested in all this, your initial stages of your study and all.

Answer

My journey actually began when I was 12 years old. I had joined a youth group at the time and in an interview the group-leader was asked about his life motto. He quoted Buddha, who once said: "Your mind is everything. You are what you think." Being 12 years old at the time, I said, "Ok, but I am what I am! What is the relationship between what I think and what I am?" When I got older I was still fascinated by this idea because I thought if I really am what I think I am, then I can be anyone, I can change what I am, I can change my whole life. So I became fascinated with Buddhism and Asia in general and started studying the martial arts of Shaolin Kung Fu. At that time I had an Austrian master who was one of the very, very few people who were trained in Shaolin in the 1970s. From that moment on I stayed on this path. My first time in Asia was in 1990 and from then on I went back to China, India, Vietnam or some other Asian country at least once a year.

Question

What was your day like in Shaolin?

Answer

The program started at five in the morning. I can still hear Master Shi De Cheng shouting "Run!" That was the first thing we had to do. We would run in the morning, then do Qi Gong, meditate for half an hour, and two hours after getting up we had breakfast. The physical training was the most important part because they wanted us to refrain from thinking too much. They really wanted to get us down on the ground. We did Tai Chi Chuan, we did weapons training. It was very hard physical training and just to answer your question, no, I did not do the monks' programme because I would not have survived it. I was in a really good physical condition but I remember when I was there, there was a member of the German special forces and I saw one of them crying. The training was terrible and the monks looked at us and laughed. All the time it was training, training and many discussions, many questions, always the same questions. That was the way Shaolin worked.

Question

I want to ask whether women were there?

Answer

There used to be a female convent, and they had the same hairstyle as the male monks, so you couldn't really tell the difference. But they were just as fast and dangerous as their male counterparts.

Question

It's famous about the Shaolin Monks that they are literally invincible in unarmed close combat, so with so much fighting prowess, almost violent, how do they keep their minds under control in the sense that they don't give in to that power when they are in a situation which is not very agreeable to them? What is the special thing about the training that keeps them very calm mentally?

Answer

The idea is that you can take control of any situation. Imagine you were fighting or being provoked by a three-year-old child. You probably wouldn't even react as there is no need to feel provoked by a three-year-old child. You only feel provoked when you feel yourself inferior. The moment you know you're in control, you're happy and you say, 'OK, just leave me alone. There is no need to fight.' That is the idea. The moment you're happy with yourself, the moment you know your power, the moment you know there's no reason to fight to prove to somebody that you're better than them, you won't do it. You can be calm because you know that if it happens you will be the stronger one, so there is no need to prove anything.

Question

What is their understanding of adversity, why the need to develop this technique if their belief is that it's futile?

Answer

The answer is simply that you are not alone in this world. The simple fact that you do not want to fight does not mean that others will leave you alone. People have to feel that it's better if they leave you alone, because otherwise you will fight back. That is the way the world works, because that is the way nature works. No animal will ever attack you if it thinks you are stronger. But the moment a dog or a tiger or whatever animal thinks that you are weaker than it, it will attack you. You don't have to fight a tiger, the tiger will win anyway. But you might be able to convince it that you are stronger and then the tiger will go to someone else.

Question

Are we saying that this Kalaripayattu or the martial art was instrumental in spreading Buddhism during that time to other parts of the world and did it play a major role in comparison to other people who wanted to spread Buddhism all across the globe?

Answer

Let's put it this way: I have never heard of Thai monasteries, Tibetan monasteries or any other Buddhist monastery where the monks practise martial arts. Bodhidharma was probably the only martial arts specialist among all the Buddhist monks, so I think Shaolin is very unique in the world. Buddhism is not a religion that somebody would try to spread with violence, because that would probably not work.

Manisha

Thanks Bernard for that very insightful talk. The philosophy that was nurtured over the last 1500 years continues to be very very topical and relevant even today, especially given the rising stress levels all around and individually as well.

Thank you.

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