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The Fighting Monks
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Book Synopsis The Shaolin Monastery by : Meir Shahar
Download or read book The Shaolin Monastery written by Meir Shahar and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2008-01-10 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This meticulously researched and eminently readable study considers the economic, political, and religious factors that led Shaolin monks to disregard the Buddhist prohibition against violence and instead create fighting techniques that by the 21st century have spread throughout the world.
Download or read book American Shaolin written by Matthew Polly and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-02-01 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bill Bryson meets Bruce Lee in this raucously funny story of one scrawny American’s quest to become a kung fu master at China’s legendary Shaolin Temple. Growing up a ninety-pound weakling tormented by bullies in the schoolyards of Kansas, young Matthew Polly dreamed of one day journeying to the Shaolin Temple in China to become the toughest fighter in the world, like Caine in his favorite 1970s TV series, Kung Fu. While in college, Matthew decided the time had come to pursue this quixotic dream before it was too late. Much to the dismay of his parents, he dropped out of Princeton to spend two years training with the legendary sect of monks who invented kung fu and Zen Buddhism. Expecting to find an isolated citadel populated by supernatural ascetics that he’d seen in countless badly dubbed chop-socky flicks, Matthew instead discovered a tacky tourist trap run by Communist party hacks. But the dedicated monks still trained in the rigorous age-old fighting forms—some even practicing the “iron kung fu” discipline, in which intensive training can make various body parts virtually indestructible (even the crotch). As Matthew grew in his knowledge of China and kung fu skill, he would come to represent the Temple in challenge matches and international competitions, and ultimately the monks would accept their new American initiate as close to one of their own as any Westerner had ever become. Laced with humor and illuminated by cultural insight, American Shaolin is an unforgettable coming-of-age tale of one young man’s journey into the ancient art of kung fu—and a funny and poignant portrait of a rapidly changing China.
Book Synopsis Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949–1603 by : Stephen Turnbull
Download or read book Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949–1603 written by Stephen Turnbull and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-06-20 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the 10th to the mid-17th century, religious organisations played an important part in the social, political and military life in Japan. Known as sohei ('monk warriors') or yamabushi ('mountain warriors'), the warrior monks were anything but peaceful and meditative, and were a formidable enemy, armed with their distinctive, long-bladed naginata. The fortified cathedrals of the Ikko-ikki rivalled Samurai castles, and withstood long sieges. This title follows the daily life, training, motivation and combat experiences of the warrior monks from their first mention in AD 949 through to their suppression by the Shogunate in the years following the Sengoku-jidai period.
Book Synopsis Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains by : Paul Barach
Download or read book Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains written by Paul Barach and published by . This book was released on 2014-11-15 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Age twenty-eight and fed up with the office job he settled for, Paul Barach decided to travel to Japan to follow a vision he had in college: to walk the ancient 750-mile Shikoku pilgrimage trail. Here are some things he did not decide to do: learn Japanese, do any research, road test his hiking shoes, or check if it's the hottest summer in history. And he went anyway, hoping to change his life. Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains is the absurd and dramatic journey of one impulsive American's search for answers on a holy path in an exotic land. Along the pathway connecting 88 Buddhist temples, he'll face arduous mountain climbs, hide from guards in a toilet stall, challenge a priest to a mountaintop karate battle, and other misadventures. He'll also delve into the fascinating legends of this ancient land, including a dragon-fighting holy man, a berserker warrior-priest, haunted temples, and a vendetta-driven ghost that overthrew a dynasty. Told with humor and humility, Fighting Monks and Burning Mountains is a funny, engaging memoir about the consequences of impulsive decisions, and the things you can discover while you're looking for something else. Also that boars are terrifying in person.
Book Synopsis Little Monk and the Mantis by : John Fusco
Download or read book Little Monk and the Mantis written by John Fusco and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Engaging and knowledgeable…brings magical light and clarity to veiled martial arts history. In a cocoon shell, a man 'tis not a mantis til Fusco's faithful rendering of true life hero Wong Long bugs the Shaolin elders into accepting the teachings and virtues of the world's most dynamic insect…the praying mantis.--Dr. Craig D. Reid, Martial Arts Historian"
Book Synopsis Chinese Martial Arts by : Peter A. Lorge
Download or read book Chinese Martial Arts written by Peter A. Lorge and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the global world of the twenty-first century, martial arts are practised for self-defense and sporting purposes only. However, for thousands of years, they were a central feature of military practice in China and essential for the smooth functioning of society. This book, which opens with an intriguing account of the very first female martial artist, charts the history of combat and fighting techniques in China from the Bronze Age to the present. This broad panorama affords fascinating glimpses into the transformation of martial skills, techniques and weaponry against the background of Chinese history, the rise and fall of empires, their governments and their armies. Quotations from literature and poetry, and the stories of individual warriors, infuse the narrative, offering personal reflections on prowess in the battlefield and techniques of engagement. This is an engaging and readable introduction to the authentic history of Chinese martial arts.
Book Synopsis Demons and the Making of the Monk by : David BRAKKE
Download or read book Demons and the Making of the Monk written by David BRAKKE and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this finely written study of demonology and Christian spirituality in fourth- and fifth-century Egypt, David Brakke examines how the conception of the monk as a holy and virtuous being was shaped by the combative encounter with demons. Drawing on biographies of exceptional monks, collections of monastic sayings and stories, letters from ascetic teachers to their disciples, sermons, and community rules, Brakke crafts a compelling picture of the embattled religious celibate.
Book Synopsis A Monk's Guide to Happiness by : Gelong Thubten
Download or read book A Monk's Guide to Happiness written by Gelong Thubten and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2020-08-11 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness for the Modern Day In our never-ending search for happiness we often find ourselves looking to external things for fulfillment, thinking that happiness can be unlocked by buying a bigger house, getting the next promotion, or building a perfect family. In this profound and inspiring book, Gelong Thubten shares a practical and sustainable approach to happiness. Thubten, a Buddhist monk and meditation expert who has worked with everyone from school kids to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Benedict Cumberbatch, explains how meditation and mindfulness can create a direct path to happiness. A Monk’s Guide to Happiness explores the nature of happiness and helps bust the myth that our lives and minds are too busy for meditation. The book can show you how to: - Learn practical methods to help you choose happiness - Develop greater compassion for yourself and others - Learn to meditate in micro-moments during a busy day - Discover that you are naturally ‘hard-wired’ for happiness Reading A Monk’s Guide to Happiness could revolutionize your relationship with your thoughts and emotions, and help you create a life of true happiness and contentment.
Book Synopsis When Buddhists Attack by : Jeffrey Mann
Download or read book When Buddhists Attack written by Jeffrey Mann and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-10 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ING_08 Review quote
Book Synopsis Authentic Shaolin Heritage by : Jin Jing Zhong
Download or read book Authentic Shaolin Heritage written by Jin Jing Zhong and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2006-09-01 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Devoted to the most enigmatic and little-known aspect of training of Shaolin monks. Training methods allow supernatural abilites to develop, far beyond abilities of an ordinary man. The book was writen with the blessing and direct participation of the Head of the Shaolin Monastery Reverend Miao Xing, nicknamed "The Golden Arhat," one of the best Shaolin fighters of all times. These secret practices traditionally called "72 arts of Shaolin" or the essence of the Shaolin Combat Training.
Book Synopsis The Shaolin Monastery by : Meir Shahar
Download or read book The Shaolin Monastery written by Meir Shahar and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2008-01-10 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Written in clear and lucid style and ambitious both in scope and methodology, this book offers a fascinating window into Chinese culture, religion, and history. Ranging from historical and ethnographic documents to a wide variety of literary sources, it weaves them all into a compelling narrative. In this fashion, Shahar is uniquely able to bring together social, historical, and mythological elements, providing a demythologized account of martial Chinese traditions such as Shaolin Boxing. This is sinology at its best."—Bernard Faure, Columbia University "The book clearly belongs in a new group of books challenging conventional understandings of Buddhism and violence. Meir Shahar documents with meticulous accuracy and mellifluous prose the fighting monks of Shaolin monastery in China, who appear first in the Tang dynasty (618–907) and continue to the present. Scholars of Buddhism and Chinese history will learn much from the author's scrupulous analysis of the historical record—particularly the texts on stone steles at the monastery—that documents the monastery's traditions of fighting. Anyone interested in martial arts or Bruce Lee films will find it fascinating to learn about the actual history of the monastery’s fighting techniques. I found the book a powerful and compelling read." —Valerie Hansen, Yale University "Meir Shahar's book will assure that the martial arts of Shaolin take a prominent place in the history of Chinese Buddhism. Shahar has mastered a prodigious amount of secondary scholarship, pored over a wealth of primary documents, and brought a critical rigor to the study of these materials that is unprecedented in any language. Throughout, his analysis is cogent and clear. The result is a delightful tour of one of the most enigmatic and compelling stories of Chinese religion: the emergence and development of martial arts at Shaolin Si. Entertaining as the book is, it delivers as well a meditation on the sources of Chinese religion, and how fiction and scripture, myth and history combine to produce novel traditions. The Shaolin Monastery will appeal not only to scholars of Chinese religion, but to those interested in military history, self-cultivation, martial arts, and popular culture."—John Kieschnick, University of Bristol The Shaolin Monastery charts, for the first time in any language, the history of the Shaolin Temple and the evolution of its world-renowned martial arts. In this meticulously researched and eminently readable study, Meir Shahar considers the economic, political, and religious factors that led Shaolin monks to disregard the Buddhist prohibition against violence and instead create fighting techniques that by the twenty-first century have spread throughout the world. He examines the monks’ relations with successive Chinese regimes, beginning with the assistance they lent to the seventh-century Emperor Li Shimin and culminating more than a millennium later with their complex relations with Qing rulers, who suspected them of rebellion. He reveals the intimate connection between monastic violence and the veneration of the violent divinities of Buddhism and analyzes the Shaolin association of martial discipline and the search for spiritual enlightenment. Shahar’s exploration of the evolution of Shaolin fighting techniques serves as a prism through which to consider martial-art history in general. He correlates the emergence of the famous bare-handed techniques of Taiji Quan, Xingyi Quan, and Shaolin Quan in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the social, political, and religious trends of that age. He then goes on to argue that these techniques were created not only for fighting, but also for religious and therapeutic purposes. Thus his work fills an important gap in the understanding of Chinese religion and medicine as well as the martial arts. The Shaolin Monastery is the most exhaustive study to date on the topic and the most systematic introduction to the history and the religious context of the Chinese martial arts tradition. It will engage those interested in Chinese religion and history and martial arts, illuminating for specialists, martial artists, and general readers alike the history and nature of a martial tradition that continues to grow in popularity in its native land and abroad.
Book Synopsis The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha by : Mikael S. Adolphson
Download or read book The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha written by Mikael S. Adolphson and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2007-02-28 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan’s monastic warriors have fared poorly in comparison to the samurai, both in terms of historical reputation and representations in popular culture. Often maligned and criticized for their involvement in politics and other secular matters, they have been seen as figures separate from the larger military class. However, as Mikael Adolphson reveals in his comprehensive and authoritative examination of the social origins of the monastic forces, political conditions, and warfare practices of the Heian (794–1185) and Kamakura (1185–1333) eras, these "monk-warriors"(sôhei) were in reality inseparable from the warrior class. Their negative image, Adolphson argues, is a construct that grew out of artistic sources critical of the established temples from the fourteenth century on. In deconstructing the sôhei image and looking for clues as to the characteristics, role, and meaning of the monastic forces, The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha highlights the importance of historical circumstances; it also points to the fallacies of allowing later, especially modern, notions of religion to exert undue influence on interpretations of the past. It further suggests that, rather than constituting a separate category of violence, religious violence needs to be understood in its political, social, military, and ideological contexts.
Book Synopsis Secret Shaolin Formulas for the Treatment of External Injury by : Deqian
Download or read book Secret Shaolin Formulas for the Treatment of External Injury written by Deqian and published by Blue Poppy Enterprises, Inc.. This book was released on 1995 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part of the monastic lineage of fall and strike medicine. Presents hundreds of treatments for a wide variety of external or martial arts injuries.
Download or read book Shaolin Tiger written by Sandy Fussell and published by Candlewick Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sensei Ki-Yaga leads the disabled samurai-in-training of the Cockroach Ryu across the Sea of Japan to China, where they study the ways of the Shaolin monks before facing Qing-Shen, a skilled soldier seeking revenge against his former teacher, the Sensei.
Book Synopsis Fire Monks by : Colleen Morton Busch
Download or read book Fire Monks written by Colleen Morton Busch and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-07-07 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "vivid" and "electrifying" true story of how five monks saved the oldest Zen Buddhist monastery in the United States from wildfire (San Francisco Chronicle). When a massive wildfire surrounded Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, five monks risked their lives to save it. A gripping narrative as well as a portrait of the Zen path and the ways of wildfire, Fire Monks reveals what it means to meet a crisis with full presence of mind. Zen master and author of the classic Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi established a monastery at Tassajara Hot Springs in 1967, drawn to the location's beauty, peace, and seclusion. Deep in the wilderness east of Big Sur, the center is connected to the outside world by a single unpaved road. The remoteness that makes it an oasis also makes it particularly vulnerable when disaster strikes. If fire entered the canyon, there would be no escape. More than two thousand wildfires, all started by a single lightning storm, blazed across the state of California in June 2008. With resources stretched thin, firefighters advised residents at Tassajara to evacuate early. Most did. A small crew stayed behind, preparing to protect the monastery when the fire arrived. But nothing could have prepared them for what came next. A treacherous shift in weather conditions prompted a final order to evacuate everyone, including all firefighters. As they caravanned up the road, five senior monks made the risky decision to turn back. Relying on their Zen training, they were able to remain in the moment and do the seemingly impossible-to greet the fire not as an enemy to defeat, but as a friend to guide. Fire Monks pivots on the kind of moment some seek and some run from, when life and death hang in simultaneous view. Novices in fire but experts in readiness, the Tassajara monks summoned both intuition and wisdom to face crisis with startling clarity. The result is a profound lesson in the art of living.
Book Synopsis Adventures of the Mad Monk Ji Gong by : Guo Xiaoting
Download or read book Adventures of the Mad Monk Ji Gong written by Guo Xiaoting and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-26 with total page 732 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Follow the brilliant and hilarious adventures of the Zen Buddhist monk who became one of China's greatest folk heroes! During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), Ji Gong studied at the renowned Ling Yin monastery, nestled in the steep hills above Hangzhou. The Chan (Zen) Buddhist masters of the temple tried to instruct Ji Gong in the spartan practices of their sect, but the young monk, following in the footsteps of other great ne'er-do-wells, distinguished himself mainly by getting expelled. He left the monastery, became a wanderer with hardly a proper piece of clothing to wear, and achieved significant renown--in seedy wine shops and drinking establishments! That could have been where Ji Gong's story ended. But his unorthodox style of Buddhism soon made him a hero for storytellers of his era. Audiences delighted in tales where the mad old monk ignored--or even mocked--authority, defied common sense, and never neglected the wine, yet still managed to save the day. Ji Gong remains popular in China even today, where he regularly appears as the wise drunkard in movies and TV shows. In these 89 stories, you'll read about Ji Gong's rogue's knack for exposing the corrupt and criminal while still pursuing the twin delights of enlightenment and intoxication. This literary classic of a traveling martial arts master will entertain readers of all ages!
Book Synopsis Choy Li Fut Kung Fu by : Doc-Fai Wong
Download or read book Choy Li Fut Kung Fu written by Doc-Fai Wong and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A step-by-step guide to mastering the fighting secrets of Southern China's most powerful style of kung-fu. Illustrated with hundreds of photos, this book will teach you all you need to know about this dynamic art.
