118-Beginning part 2 - Buddhism in daily life

Beginning part 2

Read part 1 of "Beginning" here click

As I walked through the temple door, I passed the temple guards and the Mile Fo, the happy, fat Buddha.

After that, everything seemed so familiar, the first courtyard lay before me, buildings to the left and right, a staircase in the middle, trees and stelae all around, some older, some newer, the faint smell of garlic over everything.

An endless number of tourists made their way through the complex, always following a tour guide with flags and a megaphone.

Chatter and chatter, as if it were a quiet and tranquil temple, it was as loud as a fairground. There was no sign of the world-famous Shaolin monks, who had probably fled from the tourists, understandable at any rate.

Through another gate, we went easily up the hill into the second courtyard, which was laid out similarly to the first, then followed (again through a door) the third, then the fourth courtyard. Here, in the middle, resided the abbot of Shaolin (but I didn't know that at the time).

Slowly the temple emptied, I got tired, sat down on a bench in a side courtyard, then I saw the first monk coming straight towards me, a real monk, at least dressed like in the films, should it be true, at least the one fighter I wanted to meet, I waved to him friendly, he looked at me, what a wall of wardrobe the man was, wide as high, with the gait of a feline predator.

Friendly he greeted me back. I was a special case in China at that time, apart from me I saw no Europeans, the country was still "Red China", entry was not easy, individual tourism did not (yet) exist. So it was clear that the monk was curious, who was sitting here in "his" temple, how had the person come here, what had probably moved him?

Suddenly it was there again, the fear. What had possessed me to come here, I spoiled little man from the West. I wanted to belong to the hard men, what presumption! I had brought a translation computer with me, on which I painstakingly entered my words (the thing was not yet as comfortable as the models nowadays), but we were able to establish some kind of understanding.

Where am I from, the powerhouse asked. And what's my name? Rainer, from Germany. His name was Shi Yan Zi, the pocket computer announced his words. And Germany is very popular in China, where is my group?

I typed into the computer that I would not have a group. What was I doing here all alone, the now curious monk asked? I wanted to learn Kung Fu here at the source, with the world-famous Shaolin monks, I explained to him.

He looked at me and said nothing for a long time.

What happened then, you can read in one of my next articles.

The path is the goal!

Paradoxical as it may seem, there is a path that can and must be travelled, but there is no traveller. Actions are performed, but there is no doer.

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

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