Shaolin: Temple of Zen

Bobo and I went to the UVU Woodbury Museum, found inside the University Mall to check out the new exhibit. It was like a window into her culture. We had a great time looking at all the photos of monks while she taught me how to say their names and their fighting styles. She said the most famous is called Tang Lang Quan (Tawng Lawng Chen for those Americans who don't understand Cantonese), or Praying Mantis Fist. I thought that Japanese would guide me through Chinese very well. Although I have had only two years of formal classes, I have tried to keep my memory sharp. Too bad Chinese is hardly anything like Japanese. In fact right now, I think it is worse because I thought it would be similar. Anyways, the Shaolin Temple of Zen was awesome. Bobo made it even better because she had a better grasp on the culture. There are two types of monks: wuseng and wenseng. (woo-sung and wun-sung) One practices medicine and meditation, the other specializes in a certain type of kung fu. They begin at the a very young age and continue until death. We also learned about the history of Shaolin and Kungfu. A man thought in order to live a pure life, one must always keep busy so not to have time for devious things. Like Siddhartha Gautama, he believed in living a simple lifestyle and being very disciplined. He led meditation for hours, but as we all know, when you sit for hours, your muscles begin to discintagrate. So, in order to stay fit but still fit the criteria, he created kungfu. Pretty sweet, huh? Seriously though, if you're in the area, check it out!