146-Trips - Buddhism in daily life

Trips

My new life as a "Shaolin monk" began to please me very much, the doubts were gone, yes, I felt "comfortable" in the temple, people began to greet me, the temple guard let me pass without a flinch, through the gate of the monks. My master must have had a conversation with the man at the gate, instructed him to let me in, I was one of them. My Chinese improved, I could speak a few sentences, the local people began to respect me, which was also (and especially) due to the fact that I did not "give in", but obviously "bit my way through" (otherwise I would not have been seen in the temple for so long).

The training was always three days long, then there was a day off. There we did something, went by cab via the nearest city Dengfeng to the provincial capital Zhengzhou, where I could stock up on supplies, we visited a restaurant, I could call home (at that time there were no cell phones, some people don't know that cell phones have only been around for about 20 years).

On the way from the temple to Dengfeng, we passed countless Kung Fu schools that had settled along the road. Only then did I realize how lucky I was to be "in the temple", to have been accepted there. I simply drove past these countless schools on the way here, because I wanted to go to the temple, not to a Kung Fu school. I still didn't realize that the chance to stay in the temple was somewhat smaller than a lottery six, I understood that only later.

On nice days, all schools had students in front of the schools on the training grounds, which were similar to barracks yards made of bare concrete, which could hardly be seen because of the students. All dressed in uniform, sportswear (like school administration) in uniform design, with the logo of the school on the chest, practicing in step, kept in line with barked instructions. If you haven't seen something like this, it's hard to imagine the crowds. Always in groups, an older student as "Vorturner", the master (if he was to be seen at all) on a gallery, from where he could better supervise the countless students.

We quickly passed through Dengfeng, the way to Zhengzhou by cab took about 5 hours (today there is a highway that runs straight through the area; this highway (about 150 km) was built in 3 months, about 10,000 construction workers with thousands of machines pulled the construction through in a short time).

As always: The way is the goal!

It is almost impossible to find an area that I would not have already experienced on my long trip

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

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