128-Start part 5 - Buddhism in daily life

Start part 5


The monk woke me up early, it was still dark, of course I had not
yet gotten used to the place, but Shi Yan Zi was very lenient
with me, he saw that I was not yet "with me". His day began at 5
a.m. for morning prayer, which I did not yet participate in that
day, I had to wake up my limbs first, sleeping in such cold was
most unusual (today I sleep with the window open even in winter,
remember my time in the temple fondly).


There was some kind of breakfast, again the delicious woo long
tea, plus some kind of porridge. The hot tea brought me back to
life, the energy came back into my body, life seemed "good"
again, I suddenly didn't worry so much about my being here.


I got along better and better with my new master thanks to the
translation computer, we slowly got into conversation, so to
speak, short and concise, but clearly understandable, he meant to
me that today would be my first training.


Well, I wanted to go through with it now, that's why I traveled
so far, took a lot on myself, was in a completely foreign
country, not on a package vacation, no, independently and without
a "tour guide" I had come to this moment. I wanted to do like my
great idol Bruce Lee, that's why I came here, I wanted to do the
training of Shaolin, to learn Kung Fu at the source, in the world
famous Shaolin Temple, together with the famous monks. The Rainer
from Stuttgart, here in China, together with the monk Shi Yan Zi.


The master began to show me smaller movements, we practiced first
directly in the monk's hermitage, here it was at least not windy.
I was supposed to copy the movements, over and over again, he
started correcting me, lower in the stance, the hand position
this way or that, the legs, the feet, the pelvis, my head was
buzzing.


The exercises were completely different from the ones I knew from
the German training. The muscles began to burn, the thighs felt
like fire, the master probably noticed that I was getting weaker
and weaker, but was not interested in it at all, his orders still
echo through my head today, he counted off the exercises,
"Yī'èrsānsì" (one, two, three, four), it sounded in the barracks
yard tone through the hermitage.


Again and again the same sequences, the muscles burned even more,
but in the spirit pride arose, I had made it, to the Shaolin
Temple in China, I trained with a real Shaolin monk. What I
didn't know at that time was that in 1989, after a long time, I
was the first foreigner (at least in "Red" China) to be accepted
here, but more about that later and in more detail.


The path became my goal!


He who remains faithful to the holy trail will reach the other
shore.


- Buddha - honorary name of Siddharta Gautama - 560 to 480 before
the year zero





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