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Shaolin Monk Training

Shaolin Monk Training

Shaolin Monk Training

Award winning photographer Tomasz Gudzowaty provides a rare inside look at the martial arts training of Shaolin Monks in his fantastic photo essay “Shaolin Temple“.

In the seventies, the martial art of Kung Fu became a pop-culture phenomenon due to the cult TV series of the same name. The show’s main character, a fugitive monk from the Shaolin monastery, finds himself in the western world. From that time forward, Kung Fu and Shaolin have been associated with that media icon of a warrior-monk of extraordinary ability. But for the Buddhists, Shaolin remains a cradle of one of the most significant forms of the religion called Chan; a discipline that values spiritual self-improvement through meditation over prayers and ceremonies. Introduced in the 5th century AD by the Indian monk Bodhidharma, the principles of contemplation and martial arts, present in the daily life of monks, are regarded as a remedy for physical weakness and indolence. Despite the vicissitudes of history, the monastic tradition survived until Mao’s Cultural Revolution, when the Shaolin temple was officially closed. But the formal organization, with a prior as leader, remained untouched, and in the eighties the temple was re-opened as a training center and tourist attraction. Students of karate, judo, and tai box often refuse to recognize Kung Fu as a martial art due to its theatricality and testing of one’s own resistance instead of the opponent’s. In a way, this is true. Training in Kung Fu is mostly done without an opponent, as it was never meant to kill, and the poetic names of the moves implies that it is more of meditation than a fight. However, the only difference between breaking a clay jug and smashing a human skull with one’s bare hands is consciousness of will.

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How To Information Political

How To Become A Member Of The New Nobility

New Nobility

Even though this essay is satire, it is all too true. The author leaves out one thing that is essential for all of his categories: A blind partisan loyalty to Liberal politics.

If you want to become part of the new nobility that is emerging in the American population, the good news is that it is possible. The bad news is that it is not without cost in time, energy, money and effort.

Here are ways to become a member in the new nobility:

1. Become a police officer. A street level police officer is at the low end of the noble class spectrum. The lower end of a noble class always have greater numbers than the highest ends. Police are treated with deference and have special privileges and immunities that the common folk do not.

2. Become a tenured academic. This group contains a wide range of members of the noble class with the low end being community college professors and the high end being professors at the ivy league universities.

3. Become a lawyer. If you want to understand the privileges and immunities of being a lawyer, just casually mention to a police officer that you are a lawyer. Do the same when you are returning a product that you have had a difficulty with. Judges are a special, higher level member of this group. Tip – some low level judges are not required to have a law degree. This could be a great opportunity.

4. Money. The ability of money to buy entrance into the noble class has a long and honored tradition. In the middle ages, money could buy you a knighthood. Like most things, money can buy you entrance to the new nobility. You will be treated with deference. You will be given special privileges and immunities. You will be accepted into the club. More money equates to higher status. Political contributions are essential. A minimum arbitrary figure would be a net worth of more than 10 million dollars. For the highest levels, the numbers are in the billions.

5. Politicians. Be elected or appointed to office. This group also has a wide range of levels, but even the lowest level of elected official, such as constable, town board member, or even precinct committeeman is treated with deference by law enforcement and others, and has some special privileges. Most are not at the level of a Senator or President, but they are real.

6. Become a member of the media. Members of the media are treated with deference by law enforcement, politicians, and the general public. Experiment by letting people in a restaurant know that you are a member. You will be granted deference. Special privileges are already a matter of law. Entrance to events closed to the public is available to you. This is another opportunity for those with a little talent and an eye to advancing themselves. The media is in turmoil, and there are opportunities in the new media that offer little fiefdoms outside of the larger, main stream media organizations. The possibilities are stratospheric. Who knows? You might found the next Google, Facebook, or Twitter!

7. Combinations of the above. These offer entrance to the highest levels of the new nobility. If you are wealthy, have been elected to high political office, and own media, you are almost certainly in the top levels of the new nobility. See Michael Bloomberg. Note that these attributes tend to reinforce and build on each other. Most high level politicians are wealthy lawyers.

Your entrance to the new nobility will not result in special deference and privileges if you travel incognito. There may be good reason to do so: in the middle ages nobles sometimes did so to gauge the mood of the lower classes and to gain information.

To gain the most from your status, the lower classes have to know that you are a member of the new nobility. An American Bar Association sticker on the car might be appropriate. An official “Press” I.D. does wonders.

A surprising exclusion from the new nobility are military officers. In older nobilities, understanding that political power grows from military power was common, and either military officers were automatic members of the nobility or no one but members of the nobility were allowed to be military officers. This was reflected in the old United States where “Commissioned” officers were made a “gentleman” by an act of Congress.

This is a serious defect in the new nobility. I do not see deference or special privileges granted to military officers (outside of the military) except for those officers that have proven themselves to be astute and politically able, generally (pun intended) those above the General (0-6) level. I would advise the new nobility to revise this defect. It has a direct impact on their chances of maintaining their exalted positions and the long term survival of their class. I doubt that they will heed my advice.

If you are fortunate and skilled enough to become a member of the new nobility, I congratulate you.

Remember me and the felicity of my advice. Favors are always welcome. Perhaps there is a position that needs a well merited appointment.

In the spirit of the esteemed, late Niccolo Machiavelli, I bid you good fortune and good luck!

Note: Very rough estimates of numbers.

The members of the new nobility are a very small slice of America. There are about 900,000 sworn officers at all levels, a few hundred thousand tenured academics, about 1.2 million lawyers, and 500,000 politicians. Roughly 1.5 million Americans have a net worth of over 10 million dollars, but a great many live lives that are essentially incognito, and do not involve themselves in politics. There are About 60,000 “traditional” media professionals, though news bloggers are of an indeterminate number and growing. There is quite a bit of overlap of many of these groups.

*Satire alert

©2013 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

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Amusing

English

English is the most widely used language in the history of our planet. One in every 7 humans can speak it. More than half of the world’s books and 3 quarters of international mail is in English. Of all the languages,it has the largest vocabulary – perhaps as many as 2 MILLION words. Nonetheless, let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?

Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb thru annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preacher praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another?

Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn’t a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.