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ENLIGHTENMENT:                  Bootcamps                                            SHAOLIN CHI MANTIS

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Bootcamps of Shaolin Chi Mantis
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Spiritual Bootcamp Shaolin Style
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Zen Bootcamps
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Bootcamp Music
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The Original Spiritual Bootcamp
                       
Shaolin Style
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Bootcamps of Shaolin Chi Mantis

Master Zhen's Cabin in Angeles Forest, CaliforniaSign up now! Buddha Zhen's "LECTURE PAGE" has the details.

Zen is a Universal Mind.

To be Zen you must know what Zen is.

Register now to discover the Zen of Shaolin Zen.

Chinese New Year Bootcamp

Held in late winter each year, these bootcamps focus on the soul, character foundations, and helping you choose the best New Years' Resolutions possible.

More information and prices >>

Autumn Bootcamp

Held on the last Saturday of October each year, this Bootcamp focuses on the afterlife, spirituality, ghosts, and family unity.

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Spiritual Bootcamp Shaolin Style

Angeles Forest Cabin of Buddha ZhenThe Chinese say, "Kung Fu is a way of life." Americans don't understand this meaning by using this translation.

A better translation would be, "Kung Fu is part of your path in life."

A less accurate translation would be, "Kung Fu is part of your daily life." This is misleading because most people are like cattle. If the grass is abundant, they have no thoughts of where they are going next. In Kung Fu, you must pursue wisdom and knowledge constantly and consistent -- even without any need for more knowledge and wisdom. Kung Fu requires that the student be smart enough to pursue Kung Fu, no matter how busy you are, how easily you can afford it, and without "wanting to practice."

WANTING to practice? Want is a desire. If your life desicions are motivated by desires, your life path will change every time a new desire enters your life. Since Buddhism is already teaching us to look past our desires so we can DECIDE WHAT WE WANT, we are still limited by the ability of each person to make a good decision. Face it, if people were good at making decisions -- the world would be a far better place.

Zhen and sonSo how do you get people to make Kung Fu a way of life? I don't know. I still don't know. After 30 years of teaching Kung Fu I can't "make" anyone be a Kung Fu Disciple. Only those who somehow had it in their "heart" already, can become Kung Fu Disciples. Sorry to discourage you, but it's the same for creating a piano disciple. No matter how many students a piano teacher teaches, all but a few will quit. Same in Kung Fu. The statistics may even be identical. The secret ingredient lacking in a couch potato and inherent in a Disciple appears to be that word that Karate schools like to advertise but do not teach: "Self-Discipline."

Oh lower your fists you knuckle-heads. If you are teaching someone to step into a ring and punch and kick his fellow man everyday, then you are expecting him to go practice that whenever he's not in the Karate class. Or, if you are teaching him to not hit other people by teaching him to hit other people... As for the Katas of Karate, they are not only too simple, they are destructive to the student's character. Teaching students to grimace and grunt and yell and tense up -- those are all the things I teach my students not to do.

Of course, Karate schools are much more popular than Kung Fu schools because they are catering to what everyone is already doing, grunting, shouting, and being tense.

Shaolin Kids learn Tai ChiTo be good at any art or martial art you must practice, and then practice, and then practice some more. That may make it seem more insignificant, but it's the opposite. By making Kung Fu "part" of your life, you will constantly keep doing some Kung Fu. Over 10 years of constant practice, perhaps 3 hours of classes plus 3 hours of practice = 6 hours a week = 24 hours a month = 288 hours a year = a good investment of Kung Fu into your yearly life = ready for next year's life demands! (Or 288 hours of grimacing, getting punched, and being tense if you apply Karate self-discipline.)

So Kung Fu and Tai Chi have their greatest benefits by inspiring the student to continue practicing 200 hours per year. A good investment, but not easy to accomplish without a parent saying, "Go practice your piano for one hour!" That's what self-discipline really is: you being your own parent and saying to your self, "Go practice your Kung Fu for an hour."

That's one of my goals in these Bootcamps: to teach people to be "self-disciplined" by getting each person to look at what their self-discipline actually is and how they are already applying it. Then, the student might have a better chance of really discovering and applying self-discipline properly.

Self-discipline means that you can be a Disciple of Yourself. You are your own mother and father. You are also a kid. Everybody is, no matter what age they are. Buddha Zhen at Comics Utah

This means that part of you has to be an obedient kid, another part a disciplining father, and another part a nurturing mother.

Buddhism teaches us that we are born pure and spiritually clean Zen babies.

Let's reawaken the pure spiritual child. Reshape the protective mother inside of you, and set guidelines for your internal father to follow and use to guide your own inner child...

Let's take you apart and put you back together.

Bootcamp registration information >>

Zen Bootcamps

Last Shaolin AbbotZen is Chan is ... sometimes we refer to our seminars as Zen seminars, but they are always Chan seminars.

Zen means to live in harmony with yourself and your surroundings. If any seminar isn't improving your relationship with yourself or your surroundings -- it is wasting your time.

Be anxious to really "look" at yourself. Be anxious to improve whoever you are.

How often do you get a chance to talk, learn, and hang out with a Zen Master?

Ask Buddha Zhen your questions in person...

Bootcamp Music

Buddha Zhen flute in TujungaRecord producer, Richard Del Connor, is converting our analog tape masters to digital music so we can create CDs for sale and class usage.

The original Shaolin Buddhist Bootcamps were paced by 6 one-hour cassettes that had music corresponding to the specific lessons being taught, read, or exercised.

This made it easier for me to spend to much time on one topic and get to the next topic of the seminar. I smile as I think of the monks and nuns I have taught. They have always been my easiest students to teach. Like pouring water into a glass, active Buddhists are excellent students. Hey, I wonder if there are any statistics to prove that Buddhists are smarter than Catholics. Whoops. I hope their isn't an Inquisition in Tujunga!

The Original Spiritual Bootcamp Shaolin Style

Hairy Zen Master
The Buddhism World Conference of 1998 hired me to teach at this event. It was an incredible event. I met so many really nice people. Come to think of it, the only two people out of 2,000 people that seemed to not be friendly with me were a couple of high level Buddhist monks who were evidently threatened by my popularity and student compliments.

That's another reason I like teaching Buddhist Monks. They become so overwhelmed with the business and politics of Buddhism that some of these priests become very normal and competitive again.

I believe competition can be a good thing. We are trying to be better at something than we were yesterday. It's when competition creates "losers" that I discourage competition. When a monk says, "Don't hire Buddha Zhen," just because he's threatened by me, he is creating losers. I lose an opportunity and the monk loses his Buddhist nature. In our PUSH HANDS competitions, during our Tai Chi classes, someone may lose the contest, but our goal is as much to improve the loser to become a winner than to just ignore the loser and honor the victor. That is one of the reasons we don't spar in any of my Tai Chi or Kung Fu classes. My goal is to make every student a winner.

Here are some newspaper clippings about the Buddhism Conference that I created the Shaolin Spiritual Bootcamp for.

My "Lectures" webpage has more information and pricing for my Zen Bootcamps. Registration information >>

 

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