If you look online for the 7 Wonders of the World, you’ll find that there is a new movement underway to “vote” for the new list of the 7 Wonders of the World.
I guess that means if someone thinks “Bubba’s Bar-B-Q and Beer Joint” is the most wonderful thing they’ve ever had, it might get a vote or two and get on the list.
While I won’t debate over what the “new” 7 Wonders should be, I will throw a vote out for adding an “8th Wonder of the World”…
The Legendary Shaolin Temple and the Warrior Monks of China.
The Head Abbot of the Shaolin Temple and his delegation of Warrior Monks were here last week through this weekend and it was my honor – and pleasure – to work out with them, watch them as they performed their “Shaolin Monks of China” performance, and for one afternoon…be their personal tour guide.
I’ll tell you some of the cool experiences as the tour guide in a later e-mail. Right now, I gotta tell you – when you train with these guys, you really get to see the physical performance of what some of the principles and techniques contained in the Shaolin Secrets Volume I: Shaolin Feats of Martial Arts teach.
Friday morning I watched as one of the seniors Shaolin Monks grabbed several martial artists, started to train them – and demonstrated the principle of hitting with your entire body in such a way that if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes – I wouldn’t have believed it.
This Monk – who might weigh in at 135, maybe 140 pounds, lines up and in a blinding burst of speed, goes through a five movement sequence. He went so fast that I could barely follow, much less the guys who were trying to learn and follow what the Monk had just done.
He showed them again and they began to follow along. After a couple of reps, the Monk noticed the confused look on a couple of faces. I guess he thought that maybe the students didn’t understand what it was they were doing.
The Monk walked up to one of the martial artists – who at 6’1” and about 220 lbs dwarfed the Monk – and in one, fluid motion, blasted him with the same five move sequence.
Only this time it wasn’t a five move sequence, it was a series of deflections, grabs, elbows and strikes that literally broke the bigger guy’s balance, lifted him up onto his toes and knocked him three feet backwards.
All in about two or three seconds. I couldn’t follow how many times he had hit the guy, but I saw an elbow into the jaw and some kind of strike to the groin – he went so fast it was hard to follow.
Amazing doesn’t begin to describe it. To physically see what the principles and techniques from Shaolin Secrets Volume I: Shaolin Feats of Martial Arts looks like when it’s applied on somebody is pure gold.
None of what I saw – or the Shaolin Secrets – would have been possible without the Shaolin Temple of China, which has been training and spreading the martial arts for over fifteen hundred years.
Some people think that ancient buildings or designs ought to be one of the “7 Wonders of the World.”
I think the Shaolin Temple of China – and the Shaolin Secrets, which were recorded and assembled by the Shaolin Temple – should be the “8th Wonder of the World.”
That gets my vote. How about you go and see for yourself and vote by picking up your own copy of the Shaolin Secrets Volume I: Shaolin Feats of Martial Arts at http://www.shaolinsecrets.com.
Best,
William Huff
P.S. – Having the Shaolin Monks visit and get the opportunity to be their guide for an afternoon was a rare gift. I’ve got some great photos and funny stories about that day. Stay tuned for those.