What is it like working in Shaolin Temple?

I was invited by Brother Fang to talk about my work experience.

In fact, when it comes to work, it is nothing more than going to and from get off work. There are still confusions about progress and retreat, and occasional surprises. Life will continue tomorrow. Perhaps the most different thing is its working place - Shaolin Temple in Songshan, Henan.

To talk about what kind of job this is, I would like to share a recruitment notice first:

Basic information:

Work location: Dengfeng, Henan

Department: Chuiputang

Reporting object: Supervisory Hospital

Salary: higher than the average salary in the same industry;

Benefits: five Insurance and fund, job promotion, skills training, performance bonus, holiday gifts, team dinner;

Job responsibilities:

1. Able to adapt to the changes in spring, summer, autumn and winter and the twenty-four solar terms , and formulate corresponding life strategies;

2. Maintain the balance of body and soul through Zen, martial arts, and medical training;

3. Due to work needs, you may wish to study Confucianism , Buddhism, Taoism, you can withdraw from essays, history, and philosophy;

4. Take regular baths, chant sutras, and burn incense, and wear linen clothes at work;

5. Be able to climb primitive Mountain roads, strong sense of direction, and accept mountain climbing three times a week;

6. Able to identify basic herbs and their growth characteristics;

Job requirements:

1. Born as a human being, one needs to be in awe;

2. Proficient in at least one foreign language;

3. Priority will be given to those who know farming, brewing, tea ceremony and other handicrafts ;

4. Those with expertise in chess, calligraphy and painting will be given priority;

5. Familiar with national religious policies;

6. Those with irregular lifestyles will not be considered ;

Company profile:

Shaoshi Mountain dense forest.

This atypical recruitment notice was written by me when I was looking for a successor after working in Shaolin Temple for two years. It seems like a joke, but it is actually very sincere. Regarding the fundamentals of the work of the Shaolin Temple, this is roughly the case.

In summary, he is responsible for the external cultural communication in Shaolin, responsible for receiving diplomatic missions from different countries, exporting Chinese studies and Shaolin culture, and studying martial arts, meditation and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Many friends often ask me, why go to Shaolin? How can I enter Shaolin? ?

In my personal opinion, many times a job choice itself does not have much meaning. Just like some people rush to investment banks or McKinsey after graduation, or join the Internet BAT, or run to Shenzhen or Silicon Valley to start a business, it is a comprehensive decision. The key is the determination and how you work. Middle extension.

This boy (me) has been preparing for this job for half a year. If all the planning and preparations are included, it will take at least three years. The preparation process was rational, rigorous and monotonous. Relatively speaking, what was more exciting was what kind of life he experienced in the Shaolin Temple during the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter.

The Beginning of Summer is usually around the fifth day of the fifth month of the Gregorian calendar. According to the Book of Changes, May is the day when the wind in the sky is born, and a yin is born. "彖" says: "Ji, when encounters, soft meets strong. . When heaven and earth meet, good things will happen; when you meet Zhongzheng, the world will be prosperous."

The hexagrams talk about the combination of hardness and softness, and everything is promising, just like Shaolin in summer.

This is the busiest time. Under the influence of the "One Belt, One Road" policy, Shaolin has undertaken a series of cultural exchange projects. Various groups such as Vienna, Switzerland, and five North African countries have placed orders to move in. We His job is to formulate and implement systematic martial arts and Chinese studies training.

During the day

I get up at 5 o'clock every morning and start morning exercises with a group of foreigners. After breakfast, we practice together from grappling hands, five-step boxing, to mountain stick and plum blossom single sword. I often tell my friends that martial arts training is extremely difficult, about 2.5 times that of normal military training.

The afternoon is cultural class time. At the Shaolin Cultural Institute to the west of the temple, there are a lot of pens, inks, papers and inkstones in the classroom. Hands of various colors are "flying", but the ink is not dry yet. Zen Doctor The master began to explain meridians, acupuncture points and acupuncture techniques to them again.

I like to stay with the group of African students to experience the primitive vitality. People will laugh together; when one person practices martial arts and roars, others will roar together. This is a very close connection between people, which belongs to the spiritual or higher level.

I remember the night of farewell. , the African group and the Shaolin monks gathered around the bonfire, danced local African dances, and sang ancient songs. Every note and drumbeat came from the beating of life.

Night

However, the most interesting time in Shaolin in summer is night. Meditate first after dinner. The prerequisite for meditation is to let go of all fates and not have a single thought. This is called:

Practice. Practicing the practice of Konghua Wanxing, sitting in the Shuiyue Dojo

Subduing the demon army in the mirror, performing Buddhist rituals in dreams,

This is a lifelong practice of zazen, which is actually a kind of recovery. and healing.

After that, when I feel energetic, I will invite friends with whom I can chat to have tea together. It usually ends like this: on the left side of the tea table are several foreign friends with question marks on their faces and a bunch of questions. On the right, there were three or two old monks laughing and giving pointers. Then we all drank tea and played chess, and I sat in the middle to act as a translator. The beauty of this collision between China and the West every day is self-evident.

Most of the foreigners sitting here are not ordinary tourists. Most of them are special officials from certain government departments in the country, or university professors. The old monks on the right are also quite virtuous. Everyone talks about everything. When the views of Freud, Sartre, Camus, Wilde, Hegel, Rembrandt, Weber, and Woody Allen continue to intersect and collide with the realms of Han Shan, Lao Zhuang, Qian Mu, Cao Xueqin, and Li Yu every night , summer nights become interesting and long. Of course, it is not so noisy every night. Shaolin is a platform or carrier that can constantly attract some traditional cultural artists to gather late at night. , talking with a guqin teacher. Apart from tea and guqin, there were only candles flickering in the silent mountain night.

One night, teacher Cai Zhizhong said: "Zen is not just about that moment. Enlightenment, and life before and after enlightenment. "It hit me in an instant. In the past, I put too much emphasis on the moment of peak, but forgot to think about, what should I do after I get it? What should I do after I am freed? Should I maintain it, or should I let it go slowly? No one has ever thought about these questions. Can't escape.

In fact, just like this job, the author regards it as an adventure and a redefinition of the work framework.

This job requires hard work and dedication. There are also financial rewards. Learning culture, spreading culture, and passing on culture, practicing vegetarianism, practicing calligraphy, practicing martial arts, meditating, and picking herbs, every day of work is a kind of fulfillment in itself. p>

But more importantly, this job is not so linear. There are not many linear promotions and salary increases or buying a house or a car, and there is not much comparison or competition between the same kind. Its peak may depend on everyone. A day depends on each moment. It is non-linear. If you live it well, every day can be the peak.

Winter in Shaolin is very simple, clean and subtle. All you need to do is to study and prepare for the coming year. .

One morning when the mountains were covered by heavy snow and I was bored, I walked to his room in the prison and found him writing calligraphy. So the two of them wrote a few strokes each and then drank tea and chatted. Suddenly there was a loud wind outside the window. , when I walked out, I saw snowflakes falling. The two of them watched like this all morning.

The salt was flying and the butterflies were dancing.

The dowry powder was falling. Dancing butterflies and flying salt.

On another snowy night, it was the time of the battle between Alphago and Li Shishi. Every night, I went to find an old monk who was in the fourth level of Go to review the game.

It was snowing heavily that night, and we returned to the fourth game, with Dai Quan's "Wukong" playing in our ears. It could be said that Li Shishi was losing ground in that game, which was a bit desolate.

Back at the back, the old monk sighed: AlphaGo’s chess has a very deep Zen feel! After saying that, he hesitated to speak, his eyes were red, and the song happened to sing the line "The golden hoop is at the head, and he stopped talking".

As you can imagine, there is no heating in Shaolin. It was so cold that I had to compete with the pines and cypresses to see who would wither first.

The ancients said: The cold frost at the door can wake up the bones, and the remaining light from the window makes it easy to study. Therefore, we do some sorting every winter. Shaolin has three treasures. Here are a brief mention:

Zen

Zen is a very interesting branch of Buddhism. It does not emphasize reciting sutras, meditating, or any form of practice. It emphasizes daily food, clothing, housing, and transportation, epiphany, and life before and after epiphany.

In fact, most of the various schools of Buddhism have the same goal, which is the theory of liberation. In order to achieve liberation, one must go through a long period of practice, be pious and persevere. But Zen Buddhism has always been about enlightening oneself in just a few words, and then achieving liberation.

Shaolin is the ancestral home of Zen Buddhism. There is a cave where Bodhidharma faces the wall, and there is also the Lixue Pavilion where the second ancestor broke his arm to seek Dharma. There is an endless stream of people who come here because of these stories, but what surprises them most is that there are very few large-scale Dharma gatherings here and not much chanting of sutras. Most of the monks were writing, drinking tea, planting fields and raising flowers, and doing some cleaning from time to time. They are also willing to chat, and their two or three sentences can always make people laugh.

Sometimes, laughter is a kind of enlightenment.

Just like the teaching method of Zen Buddhism, it actually explains everything: show people the situation immediately, use the topic to express it, the next sentence is a wake-up call, speak for yourself with posture, and the truth is the opposite.

Mr. Feng Youlan once said that the origin of Zen was from the late Han Dynasty to the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Buddhist monks, as outsiders, often communicated with local Taoist priests. This style of Wei and Jin Dynasties, called "qingtan", Later it evolved into Zen Buddhism. This is a religion that pleases people, such is its kindness.

Hanshan once wrote a poem, which I like very much, so I would like to share it here:

"On the top of the high mountain, you can see the endless surroundings. Sitting quietly, no one knows, and the lonely moon shines on the cold spring. There is no moon in the spring, but the moon is in the blue sky. This song is not Zen."

武

This is a big topic, but it has to be talked about. Because we all have too many misunderstandings about martial arts.

First of all, martial arts is a science, not a sport or sport. It is broad, profound and very particular, and often misses the smallest difference; secondly, the purpose of martial arts is not to fly in the sky or float on the water. , but martial arts - knocking down the enemy immediately (including Tai Chi); finally, the martial arts system originated in the Han Dynasty, and most of its theoretical foundations are traditional Chinese medicine, that is, the meridian theory in the "Huangdi Neijing". The form is routine, which developed in the Tang and Song Dynasties and declined in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

This is a real world. There are countless geniuses and masters who have devoted themselves to martial arts throughout their lives. Even in 2017, there are at least more than a hundred sects and types of boxing still existing in China, whether it is Shaolin Boxing or , Tai Chi, Baji, Bagua, or Yiquan, Rouquan, Xingyi, and Wing Chun. They are spread all over the country, but they are mainly concentrated in Henan, Shanxi, Tianjin, and Hebei.

Any action by a qualified martial artist from any sect would be fatal to ordinary people. This is also an important reason why martial arts must be low-key. In ancient times, martial arts practitioners had to practice at night and in a courtyard with four high walls. This was because they were afraid that others would steal the lessons, because real kung fu was extremely dangerous.

Having said that, it is actually not that mysterious. It means that through a lot of repeated training, you can quickly and effectively attack the most deadly acupuncture points of others. However, it is basically impossible for people who have not practiced to avoid it, and from then on. In a sense, a blow must be fatal, otherwise it means you haven't practiced it well enough. Therefore, a master must be very cautious when accepting apprentices, with bones second and character first. This is another important reason why the martial arts system cannot flourish.

I am a martial arts practitioner in Shaolin. In the summer, I practice more external skills, such as standing stances, stone locks, sandbags, pile driving, and water splashing. For boxing, five-step boxing, seven-star boxing, etc., you basically practice during the day and apply medicine at night; in winter, the main focus is on internal skills, such as I Ching and Marrow Cleansing, which mostly practice qi. Sometimes you can sweat while sitting at night during winter practice. These are all basic skills. You must persist for at least a hundred days before you can get started. It is commonly known as "building a foundation in a hundred days."

Regarding martial arts, in the final analysis, it is still passed down from body to body. Only when you get hands-on can you know the weight and authenticity. If you have friends who are really interested, you can also chat with me privately. In fact, there are not a few people in China who are interested in traditional martial arts. I hereby declare that I am not a martial artist, I am only half a martial arts idiot.

Medicine

There is an old saying in martial arts, "Fist comes from Yi, and reason comes from medicine."

Martial arts has evolved from a kind of fighting to a science, which is inseparable from traditional Chinese medicine. For example, where to hit and how to hit, you need medical guidance; if you are injured during practice or confrontation, you need traditional Chinese medicine to set the bones and heal the injury; some martial arts, such as iron sand palm, must be practiced with ancestral prescriptions, otherwise the more you practice, the more injuries you will get.

This urgent need gave rise to the Shaolin Medical Sect, which takes Chinese medicine as the main body. I just briefly learned acupuncture and pharmacology, and occasionally went to the mountains to collect herbs, mainly for health maintenance in all seasons. Later, relatives and friends got some minor illnesses, and I was very satisfied if they could be treated and nursed back to health easily.

In fact, in the eyes of the monks of Shaolin Temple, Zen, martial arts and medicine are the same concept and are connected. It is said that theory is formed through medicine, martial arts is incorporated into Zen, and Zen is used to practice martial arts. All three are indispensable. After practicing Shaolin boxing for a long time, you will gradually understand how to maintain your health. A wise person will gradually understand a kind of Zen.

These are no jokes.

The above is a summary of my working experience in Shaolin Temple.

Finally, I want to say:

There is a kind of life where you cannot see the past and the future because you live in the depth of the season.

The fruits of winter will be sown in spring. The taste of summer is in the night, in how the night in the fields is vast and long. In autumn, avoid watching wild geese leisurely, make wine, store grain, and collect medicinal herbs. Otherwise, depression and loneliness will easily develop and it will be difficult to survive the winter. Midwinter is a battle. In ancient times, surviving the winter was a matter of life and death. Everything in the world would be killed when it got cold, so the heart should be warm and guided with food and drink. Bathing in the spring, outing and singing, its joy is a gift from winter, making spring lovely.

Some people say that life is elsewhere. I don't agree. Not every moment in life will always be like this. Looking at it sometimes makes you tired. It is better to learn to cherish what you are seeing.

Forget the past and the future, life will be broad, this is our wind.

End.