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The
Legend of Bodhidharma Sometime around 500 A.D., Bodhidharma traveled by ship from southern India to eastern China. He traveled hundreds of miles, crossing the Yangtze River and the Himalayan mountains, eventually finding his way to the ShaoLin temple in the Honan province. When the monks would not admit him, he went to a nearby cave and meditated for 9 years, finally boring a hole in the wall of the cave by the fierceness of his gaze. With this
feat, the monks admitted him to the temple, and he taught
them his direct, meditation-based form of Buddhism, which involved long
hours of sitting still. But he found that the monks were weak, unable
to withstand the pressures of static meditation, so he taught them
breathing exercises and physical techniques which gave rise to ShaoLin
Kung Fu as as we know it today.
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