Health and Fitness

It's not necessary to be a Buddhist to practice Shaolin. But it is necessary to understand why you practice. Martial Arts is not a sport but an art, and like all art, it changes your internal makeup. If it's not working the mind as hard as the body then your training need to be adjusted. Martial Arts is not for the feint hearted because it's not an easy skill to master. I started studying when I was thirteen years old and I'm still a beginner. But one thing I understand is that our training goes through three vital stages. They are similar to traffic lights: red, amber, green. But the green is when we are stationery and can sit peacefully with ourselves because we know ourself. The Three Stages Of Zen Training In Martial Arts 1st Stage: Jian Chi - Never Give Up You need willpower, belief and knowledge of your goal so you don't give up. Having a goal means we know which direction our training is going and we have something to work towards. This helps us to Never Give...

Martial Arts is a way of being in life. It's very difficult in the beginning to make your practice into a habit and even when you've been doing it for many years, there can still be a struggle. But this is good because it shows your practice is constantly challenging you. The key to rising to the challenge is to make a strong commitment to your martial arts practice from the very beginning. This commitment automatically makes you practice, and any thoughts that go against your practice can be more easily dismissed. In order to gain something you have to give up something. For example, you can't eat chocolate cake every day and lose weight. It's true that a martial artist does not have as much "freedom" as a non-martial artist because so much of your time is taken up with the practice. But what exactly is freedom? Martial Arts helps us to be. If you can just be then you don't have so much desire for external things. If you can be, the Buddha says, all of yo...