The relation between practicing Shaolin gong-fu and practicing self-cultivation is a dialectical one

The relation between practicing Shaolin gong-fu and practicing self-cultivation is a dialectical one. In other words, the two—practicing Shaolin gong-fu and practicing self-cultivation—form “a unity of the opposites”. The monkhood of my monastery refers the unity as “gong-fu imbued with Chan”. When the unity is manifested in a practitioner of self-cultivation, he is benefited not only with good health by taking up Shaolin gong-fu training but also with a dharma-gate which is conducive to his execution of self-cultivation. Moreover after a practitioner of self-cultivation has become highly proficient in the Shaolin gong-fu, he can become an abler guard of Shaolin Monastery. It is a popular saying in Shaolin Monastery that “Practicing Shaolin gong-fu can be used as a means to speed up a practitioner’s self-cultivation, whereas Chan can function more perceptibly if its practitioner would at the same time take up Shaolin gong-fu training.” This accounts for the dialectical relation between practicing Shaolin gong-fu and practicing self-cultivation. Neither can leave the other alone. In this way practicing Shaolin gong-fu and practicing self-cultivation reside in a unity. Mobility symbolizes practicing Shaolin gong-fu, whereas immobility symbolizes seated meditation, and the two are dialectically united in a practitioner. Ever since Shaolin Buddhist Monastery was constructed fifteen centuries ago, there has never been even one monk in the monastery who has sidestepped doing seated meditation and applied himself exclusively to practicing Shaolin gong-fu. In the history of Shaolin Monastery did emerge a great number of very famous Shaolin gong-fu masters, but none of them was not an outstanding Chan master. The monastery’s ancient archives are replete with biographies of such celebrated monks. Chan serves to optimize an individual’s psyche, and Shaolin gong-fu serves to optimize an individual’s constitution. Of the two, Chan and Shaolin gong-fu, the former is of primary importance, and the latter is of secondary importance. When the two are incorporated in an optimal unity, the practitioner must be carrying his self-cultivation very successfully.