More oh ShaoLin.

From: Alex Ferguson <abf_at_csmail.ucc.ie>
Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 17:20:58 +0100

Simon Phipp:
> It seems a shame that most of the examples of mysticism come from TV shows or
> films.

I'm not at all sure that's true of "most" examples cited in this thread, even acknowledging the now-notorious triumvers of Jedi, kung fu and samurai. But then again, HW does rather belabour the whole "cinematic" metaphor in the first place, so these are in one sense fair game...  

> By the way, the Shaolin traditionally gain their special abilities through
> the development and control of Chi, not through any mystical abilities. As
> far as I know, their main regimen is that of achieving self-control through
> exercise of Chi, martial arts and physical exercise. The fact that they are
> also Buddhists and so are trying to achieve another state of being is
> incidental to their legendary prowess as this training does not give them
> their reputed special abilities.

But not vice versa. The whole _purpose_ of the ShaoLin tradition is to use the latter as a vehicle to get some of the way towards the former. As this rationale has also been explicit in everything I've heard Robin and Greg say about "mystical martial arts" in HW over the last five years, I'm a little at a loss as to why it's suddently an overly subtle point, controversial, or wrong.

Cheers,
Alex.

--__--__--

Powered by hypermail