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Over 1500 years ago Da Mo (Bodidharma) came from India to bring
Buddhism to China. He found that the monks at Shaolin temple were
very weak in body and spirit so he meditated upon the problem, facing
a wall for nine years. The idea of certain exercises came to him
and this developed into Shaolin Gung fu. This system is steeped
in the tradition and history of Shaolin temple leaving us with a
multi-faceted system of martial arts that has many applications
and levels. Read about Da Mo here...
Shaolin Gung fu includes self defence, physical development, study
of Shaolin medicine, mental and spiritual development. This system
is aimed at not only producing fighters but complete, well rounded
characters, capable of reaching the most advanced levels of Shaolin
Gung fu - Ch’an awareness. This is the spiritual realisation
of truth or being at one with the universe. In fact the original
aims of Shaolin practice are aimed at this ultimate goal.
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Fighting Monks at practise
(detail from mural at Shaloin Temple) |
