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ChangingMinds Blog! > Blog Archive > 18-Jan-08

Friday 18-January-08

Looking for God, extremely

There's been a series on TV here recently called 'Extreme Pilgrim', where an Anglican vicar heads East to sample some more esoteric religious systems. It taps into the deep human need to find meaning in life and perhaps some promise of immortality.

In the first episode he travelled to the original Shaolin monastery, the fount of martial arts where the discipline of the body is used as a moving meditation. The reality was something of a disappointment as the place seemed little more than a huge commercial enterprise, with acres of students who came there just to learn kung fu so they could go and be 'Shaolin-trained' bodyguards or whatever. It was hard stuff, none the less, and our hero worked at it until he dropped, but enlightenment did not visit.

He did discover, however, that a monk had left in disgust and set up a small monastery, high in the mountains. So, trekking off, our intrepid vicar found this much simpler haven, where a truer soul of Shaolin seemed to exist. Throwing himself into the gentler but constant practice, he eventually found more than he expected in the moving meditation of the art.

The common theme seems to be repetition and concentration that eventually relaxes and dispenses with all perception of time, from which comes a sense of oneness.

I can understand this. I studied Tai Chi for many years until work overtook it all. Still, I use the movements in walking, sitting and other action and can find harmony in a stroll across town. My wife likewise goes for long walks in the forest with our dogs and finds a similar peace.

Enlightenment, God, or whatever you care to call it, need not live only on mountain tops. As the vicar found, it is really with you all the time. Extreme activities may exhaust external searching and provide a meditative frame but is not the only way. .

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