Shaolin

In Shaolin now, one of the destinations I was most excited to visit. It has been interesting but we are only here a short time, and arrived today exhausted from the overnight train. The campus brings back memories of Oak Hill Academy, another secluded place where young men play sports in a little mountain village.Our local guide told a story about one of the first monks at the temple, who wanted to study here but was forbidden. I’ll do my best to recall the gist of it:The original master of Shaolin would not accept a monk who badly wanted to study there. The master said the new guy could study when “the snow turned red.”  That night it snowed, and the monk stood outside the temple and chopped off his arm, and walked around 3 times making the snow red, and he became the first student of Shaolin kung-fu. And now when monks at Shaolin greet each other instead of using two hands in prayer position, they only use one.The local guide also told us that a turtle is actually a dragon, but was made ugly because he was not good in a past life. There were other stories also, about the name “zen” Buddhism, and how pagodas only have odd numbered layers.Tomorrow morning if I’m up early maybe I will go up some mountain nearby.Only about 10 nights of the trip left I think. I have not written as much as I’d like, and maybe not taken enough “people” photos but I think its hard without speaking the language. A photo I took in Chengdu of fish went on the washingtonpost website. I sent postcards to everyone in Shanghai and bought a camera bag and two shirts. Want to write more but feeling tired.