Hong’s Stories: Shaolin janitor

Chaos is our fate

Amituofu friends! We stand at the edge of time looking out over the horizon. Through the mist we see shapes coming towards us. When they get close enough that we can make them out we react.

Sometimes we are right on time but often we are behind, and by the time we respond the situation has created another layer of chaos in our life. Until we resolve that chaos it remains on the surface, along with a lifetimes worth of layers upon layers of poorly handled people and situations, layers of chaos, mistrust, unhappiness that my lack of life skill has created.

Every time we put our head down to clean up a mess we look down from the horizon, a janitor in a building that is dilapidated and falling apart. Every leak we fix leads to ten more leaks. This job is our fate.

Sharpening the blade

As often as I can I take this suffering bag of blood and bones to our temple at 102 Allen Street. I open the dragon-handled wood door, walk up the flight of stairs and enter a space that is clean and peaceful. My chaotic mind for a moment comes to rest in a space where the horizon of time has been simplified by routine.

I know at 12 pm or 7 pm class will start. I know that we will get in a line and greet our sifu with “Amituofu!”. I know that he will then send us into two lines to start training. I know that we will start Saijo kicks back and forth three times across the green temple carpet, seated and standing Buddhas watching our every move.

After Saijo comes Gongbu, then Lung Bi Saijo, and on through our half-hour repertoire of the basic Shaolin techniques. Sifu sometimes exhorts us to do an extra pass.

“Uno mas” he yells.

We respond “We love uno mas!” And then reply to ourselves “Especially Shaolin uno mas!”

With each pass my body warms up, muscles loosen, and my mind settles down into a bath of temporary certainty. By the time we are done, my mind feels clean, as if it has been showered.

As the practice sharpens my blade, I respond more skillfully to what comes, and a bit of the chaos subsides.

More chi! Train harder!

Hong of Saint Benjamins

Hong’s Stories are reflections of a Shaolin monk in training