Zen Shaolin Karate. Nathan Johnson
how to absorb your opponent's force, borrow, and then give it back, the whole process being done instantly by contact reflex while the mind is dispassionately fixed in the meditational state known as samadhi. If you find your body is flowing with the force of an attack, not resisting or blocking, but rerouting it, and if you find calmness amidst physical action, then you will have discovered the watercourse way for yourself. Your own understanding will lead to your own true karate-do.
Gassho
Nathan J. Johnson
Kai San, Zen Shaolin Karate Renmei
The University of Southampton
Chapter One
Philosophy and History
To begin, I will describe the history of karate, from its origins at the Shaolin Temple through to its development in Okinawa and eventual transplantation in Japan. In this chapter, I will also outline the philosophy and theory of the art, which are inseparable from the its physical aspects.
The Shaolin Way
The Shaolin Temple (Shorin-ji in Japanese) stood in a misty, mountainous region in China's Honan Province. The name means "Temple of the Young Trees" and was so-called because of the small trees that surrounded it. Prior to its destruction in 1644 or 1645, an observer could have watched the temple's monks practicing martial arts forms in the early morning light and again at twilight. It was here in this temple that many of the empty-hand fighting arts evolved greatly as they became an extension of Buddhist meditation. The monks began a system of combat training in which they learned how to counter an attack without resistance, conscious thought, or aggression. This was the forerunner of what was later to be called Eighteen Monk Boxing. These techniques were compiled into forms, some of which became popularly known by the Japanese term kata. We are sometimes encouraged to imagine that the empty-hand arts somehow grew from these exercises independent of the rest of Buddhist practice, but if we are to gain any insight into the true value of the empty-hand arts, then a basic understanding of the essential philosophy is required.
Zen is the Japanese translation of the Chinese word Ch'an, which in turn is the Chinese translation of the Indian word dhyana, meaning meditation. According to tradition, its founder and first patriarch, Bodhidharma (Daruma in Japanese), left India and crossed into China, eventually taking up residence in the Shaolin Temple (circa A.D. 528).
The monks practiced seated meditation, living in the moment, and the direct experience of reality. It is said that Bodhidharma often pointed to wild animals or natural beauty to directly convey a teaching without using words. How many of us have not felt a tugging, somewhere deep within, when exposed to an ink drawing of a Zen landscape (or any other art form bearing the hallmark of Zen simplicity)? For many centuries, teachers have used these direct methods to transmit the concepts of Zen, which are always better experienced than discussed. The direct method also reduces the need to engage in endless and often counterproductive intellectual discussion.
What Is Zen (as Related to Karate-do)?
Many people who hear the words Zen meditation have a safe intellectual category for them or assume that they know what meditation is, without even trying it! One common misconception about meditation is that it is sitting down and thinking of nothing. This is completely wrong.
Meditation teaches absolutely focused concentration on one point. The meditator.will swiftly bring the mind back to that point if it wanders. This provides strength and the ability to completely concentrate, born not from struggling, but from letting go, relaxing, and not following casual thoughts. Often an untrained mind lacks discipline in concentration and may retreat into a daydream at an inopportune moment. In fact, the untrained mind will often do anything in order to escape the moment. During our school-days, many of us were reprimanded for lapses in concentration. A standard instruction was "Pay attention!" This is all very well, but for some of us, we might just as well have been told to jump 30 feet into the air. No one ever told us how to pay attention. For some it comes more readily than others, but many of us need to be taught to do it effectively.
To practice Zen is to pay attention. Meditation teaches us to become masters of our thoughts, and not their slaves or victims. During the meditation process, no attempt is made to reject or suppress thoughts. One simply tries to disengage oneself from them, so as not to get caught up in them. Thoughts are simply identified and let go by returning the mind to the point of concentration without punishing oneself.
This is a primary practice of Zen, however, this method still remains subjective, personal, and solitary. The alternative method of Moving Zen, in this case training between pairs, was devised from the brilliant clarity of Zen practice. This practice consisted of 'rolling hands' and 'pushing hands' drills, which are unique forms of contact training. Using these methods, a training partner's movements could be read or felt with the body through arm contact. With the arms acting in the same way as an insect's feelers, the type, direction, and magnitude of a force (be it a push, punch, grab, etc.) could be determined and dealt with instantly and without thinking. In this way, practitioners would be engaged in a kind of two-way meditation.
The Shaolin monks were not intending to fight as such, though their methods were undoubtedly effective. However, their intentions could easily have been misconstrued by lay members of the community, non-Buddhists, or anyone with a wish to fight. To all intents and purposes, this kind of moving meditation between pairs of trainees was never meant to be a way of overcoming anything other than the aspirants' own delusions. Bias, fear, and aggression were left behind as one learned to break free from the trap of self-limitation. By transcending both virtue and vice, one was put in harmony with the great Void.
From the Zen point of view, when aggression and fear arise in the mind and we act upon them, we are being controlled by our emotions and the urge to fight and dominate others will replace the watercourse way. Although Shaolin training began with the programming of prearranged drills, during the more advanced stages of study free practice was used. Experienced monks and nuns must have presented an impressive, even formidable appearance as they neutralized and countered all manner of attacks during their martial arts practice.
In the early Ch'ing dynasty, the empty-hand arts became divorced from their original, underlying philosophy. Shaolin Temple guests, rebels, and refugees from the Manchu armies tried to adapt Shaolin empty-hand arts to mundane utility in warfare. Tales about fighting monks and Buddhist warriors are highly suspicious. A warrior monk, referring to a fighter ordained as a Buddhist cleric, is a contradiction in terms and a violation of office. Any monk bearing arms would be immediately disgracing his vows of ordination and violating the Buddha's noble precepts. Most stories of warrior monks are found in popular Chinese fiction, dealing with the late Ming through the Ch'ing dynasty (1644-1911). They are, in general, tales about marauding rebels dressed as monks. This helps to explain why the Manchus found it necessary to burn the Shaolin Temple, a supposed religious place, to the ground. From a military point of view, the confusion of the times left them with no option.
Later still, corrupted versions of the Shaolin fighting arts filtered down to the common people of China through organizations with political purposes, the forerunners of the triads. By that time, they were inexorably linked with fighting and the formal ties with Zen were all but severed as popular ignorance threw away the wheat and kept the chaff. Street peddler kung fu (a Cantonese name for theatrical empty-hand fighting) became popular as crowds were drawn by its display of elaborate kung fu forms and mock combat. These forms even found their way into Chinese opera and touring theatrical groups. Even so, some of the true forms were passed down. A good guide to these original forms is the previously mentioned Zen hallmark of simplicity. The central philosophy behind these forms is still Zen.
During the last three hundred years, other theoretical elements have been attached to the practice of the fighting arts, but these do not constitute the roots of the practice, and are merely a