Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Surrealism
I can finally say that I've been to the Shaolin Temple.
We arrived early this morning and walked along the stone path to the main entrance. The skies were completely overcast and it was lightly raining. We stood in four lines facing the main arches while Prof. Mattera and Grand Master DeMasco went inside the Temple and greeted the head abbot. I can only describe the feeling of standing in line at attention as surreal. The masters and higher-ups really drove home the point that we were lined up, and standing on the wet stone of the monk's ancestral home. Standing there will be remembered as one of the most profound moments of my life. The abbot came out and as a group we all kneeled down, opened our palms, and touched our foreheads to the ground in reverence. Various speeches were made and the end result was that all the students present for the ceremony were named the official disciples of the Shaolin as well as ambassadors of the art to the world.
We arrived early this morning and walked along the stone path to the main entrance. The skies were completely overcast and it was lightly raining. We stood in four lines facing the main arches while Prof. Mattera and Grand Master DeMasco went inside the Temple and greeted the head abbot. I can only describe the feeling of standing in line at attention as surreal. The masters and higher-ups really drove home the point that we were lined up, and standing on the wet stone of the monk's ancestral home. Standing there will be remembered as one of the most profound moments of my life. The abbot came out and as a group we all kneeled down, opened our palms, and touched our foreheads to the ground in reverence. Various speeches were made and the end result was that all the students present for the ceremony were named the official disciples of the Shaolin as well as ambassadors of the art to the world.
# posted by Chris/Stewy @ Tuesday, July 04, 2006 
