Becoming an abbot at the age of 22, earlier than any other monastery head in China, Venerable Master Shi Yongxin has constantly caused people to re-evaluate their traditional notions about Shaolin Buddhist monks with his business-minded transformation of the Shaolin temple and its Martial arts (wugong), and promotion of Buddhism throughout the world over the past two decades. In 1987, former Abbot of the Temple, Venerable Master Shi Xingzheng, passed away. Since then Shi Yongxin, who had joined the temple only six years before, has adopted the long robes and bowl of the venerable abbot, and stepped up to the…

VINAYA

Since the very beginning of Buddhism over 2500 years ago, Buddhist monks and nuns have depended on almsfood. They were, and still are, prohibited from growing their own food, storing their own provisions or cooking their own meals.

Instead, every morning they would make their day's meal out of whatever was freely given to them by lay supporters. Whether it was rich food or coarse food, delicious or awful tasting it was to be accepted with gratitude and eaten regarding it as medicine.

The Buddha laid down several…

Etymological Yoga means union, since the goal of the Yoga is the union of the conscience with the Absolute principle. Yoga has been born like an empirical science, in where certain people have tried to drill the mysteries of the mind, the intellect, the emotions, the suffering and the life. These people have been truely living laboratories that have been ventured in deep waters of the Being.

Yoga has been born not of the speculation, but of thousands of years of experiences that have been talked back by many yogis throughout history. Yoga has its own methods…