Chapter 18: The Almost Monk

 The Dad taught The Boy about chivalry.  He taught him about the knights and a round table.  The Dad taught The Boy about the goodness behind that kingdom, the truth encapsulated into Camelot. The Old Man taught The Boy about the Darkness.  He taught The Boy about Merlin and Morgana, the struggles between Light and Darkness, and The Boy absorbed all he could about the lessons that The Dad, and The Old Man shared with him.  In his mind his became both a Warrior of Light and The Encompassor of The Dark.  He wanted to know everything he could about being a Human Being, a Man of Knowledge.  

The Dad had a friend that would visit from time to time.  His friend would walk with The Dad and The Old Man in the fields late at night talking about the acts of a Warrior, being a hunter.  These Hunters stalk Death.  They Hunt and are being Hunted by what The Old Man called The Terrible Other, The Shadow of the Stalker, also coined as The Angel Of Death.  

Very late on an evening The Boy was sleeping in his tent next to Winston, The Dad's Friend tapped on the side of the tent and woke The Boy.  When The Boy climbed out of the tent The Dad's Friend was there waiting for him.  The Boy looked at him, beneath His short black sombrero The Dad's Friend had eyes that were shinning a silver light as terrible as anything The Boy had ever seen.  In a voice that sounded straight from Hell The Dad's Friend spoke, "I See You." Then he ran back into the fields.  The Boy was left sitting in the grass in front of His tent next to Winston.  He was petrified. 

The next morning The Old Man brought him a plate of tortillas, some chicken strips, and a cup of café' mocha, chocolate coffee.  The Boy ate, drank and thought about the past night.  The Old Man just said, "You'll understand someday.  We are the Toltec."  Then he went back into Winston.  

The Boy took a shower and did his chores.  The Dad was waiting for him in the horse stalls.  He had the stalls cleaned already but there was a large metal cauldron full of water sitting in the middle of the stable.  The Dad instructed The Boy to stand low in a Riding Horse and slap the water with first the palm of his hand, then the back of his hand rotating back and forth right to left, left to right and so forth. "Don't stop until I come back for you." The Dad repeated twice, "Savvy?"  Then He walked away. 

The Boy did as he was instructed.  After about an hour his hands began becoming numb.  After two hours the numbness translated into the kind of pain that a person shouldn't feel.  The hands felt like they would melt.  After 4 hours they began feeling like falling stones attached to two tightly wound ropes.  The Boy's hands were becoming weapons. 

The Dad returned just as the sun was falling behind the horizon with a bucket of ice and submerged The Boy's hands into the ice.  The Boy winced in pain, then the pain went away and His hands suddenly felt very good.  The Dad pulled The Boy's hands out of the ice and dried them with a towel.  He showed The Boy his hands, they looked red, but nothing worse for the wear.  They felt powerful.  

Again that night The Dad's Friend showed up at the tent.  This time he shook The Boy's hand and said, "It was very good meeting you.  I See You."  Then he got into his car and drove away down the road to the highway.  The Dad waved at his retreat, and The Old Man was laughing. 

Episodes like these repeated themselves over the course of several years until The Boy voiced His urge to walk to the mountains and live with the Zen Monks there.  The Dad said these words to The Boy, and they changed the course of his life, "It's Easy to be a Holy man sitting in front of a tree alone with no one but the tree and yourself to keep you company, But what of the man who walks amongst the people learning and absorbing everything from life that He can take?  This is the way of The Toltec."

Peace and Balance,

John

Kwai Chang Caine more than holds his own in a bar room showdown

COVID

 

It is a sneaky thing.  This thing that we all call Chinese.  It lays in wait and as you pass by, pounces sinking in its venomous claws.  You have just been attacked by the Sars Corona Virus 19, aka: Covid.  

I joke, I jest, I make fun of things that sometimes are best left alone.  Covid is a serious event.  It has painted the globe in it's vile hues of red and mauve.  I, in my infinite wisdom, figured I was going to get through this pandemic without having acquired an introduction to Covid.  My wisdom, of course, falters and I find myself in the throws of battle with an invisible Dragon.  And how do you kill a dragon? You wrestle the creature to the ground and choke it tightly until all life has slid from within it's core.  When the dragon is dead do not let go until it's mythical body disintegrates and it no longer has a trace of existence in your reality.   

Fortunately old wrestlers like I have the help of modern medical technology.  I was given the magical anti-viral that will help me dispel this beast forever.   Our medical community has become the new Titan, the new champion to protect humanity from our own folly.  Sars Corona Virus 19 is an example of this folly.  It doesn't matter who created it, or where, or why, what matters is that it was done.  After it was spoiled into existence either by greed or sabotage it was released and the dragon found it as a vessel to spread evil across creation. 

My eyes gaze then to the North, to the Mountain called Karuna, to the home of Hunan, the monks of Shaolin.  I look North to the mystical WuDang the home of wizards, and I look North to the center of the sky around which all other stars travel.  I listen carefully, I close my eyes and hear ominously the vibrations that I can feel in my heart.  I hear the Roar so loud that all, and none, are willing to perceive.  The Roar, is the death of Covid 19.  AUM

Peace and Balance,

John

Lohan

 The question has occasionally been asked, "Why, John do you call your routines of practice, Lohan?" Here is a possible answer, you can formulate your own.

A Lohan is an individual who has attained a state of Enlightenment and was a true follower of the Buddha. There is a story that has followed Buddhism from it's inception in Deli to it's eventual home in Sil Lum (Shaolin).  

In it's early beginnings there were 18 of the original monks of the Buddha that deviated from his original teachings and became solitary wanderers of the wilderness.  These were the original 18 Lohan.  The original 18 first enlightened monks of Buddha.  Bodhidharma was one of these monks.  

The story loosely goes that in or about 520 AD Bodhidharma traveled from India south into the regions of south central Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.  At this point he turned north and headed up into the regions of the mountains of China.  Bodhidharma was an aristocrat and physician.  He became a follower of Gautama the Buddha after listening to his liturgy in front of the city wall of Deli, or what would become Deli in India.  It is said that Bodhidharma was instantly struck with enlightenment after hearing the talk and walked away from his material life and became one of the original 18 Lohan. He finely found the Monks in the small forest above the mountains of Shantung in China in the province of Hunan.  

The Monks there called themselves Sil Lum (Shaolin), The Monks of the Small Forest and devoted most of their time to the pursuits of meditation, contemplation, and chanting.  In hoping to attain their own levels of enlightenment.  At this point they were not Buddhist yet.  They were a sect of Cha and Taoism. The birthplace of Zen. 

The monks recognized Bodhidharma as an enlightened one and bestowed upon him the title name, Tamo, Great Teacher, or more specific, "Great Giver of Knowledge." 

Tamo found the Sil Lum in a state of disrepair, and slovenly state of body.  They did not care for themselves only spent time trying to achieve the states of enlightenment that they could not achieve in their present state of being.  Tamo was angry. 

He retreated to a cave that was poised in the mountain above the temple and began meditating.  He thought of himself, he thought of the monks, he thought of the mountain, and he contemplated his cave.  For 9 years Tamo meditated and contemplated his existence and his place in the universe and observed all he could from nature and his surroundings and began creating his original 18 Lohan.  These were 18 exercises designed to strengthen, lengthen, and create levels of awareness and focus.  He then left his cave and presented the Lohan to the monks.  After 9 years he began teaching the monks and 9 years from that time he had his own 18 original students.  This was the birth of the warrior monks of Sil Lum.  

From that point forward when a Monk attains a certain level of expertise and has walked through the room of a thousand tests he can choose to stay in the monetary and become a religious monk or he can travel and become a Lohan, a wandering monk.  One who gains knowledge and experience from the world around him, and teaches that knowledge to those around him.  This is Shaolin. 

To answer the question, Why Lohan?  To pay homage to all Lohan before me, to all the Masters of the arts that have come before, from which I teach my students.

Peace and Balance,

John