Shaolin Monks?

What exactly do they teach and do? I know nothing about them except that they meditate.

Shaolin Monks?
Shaolin Monks? The shaolin Temple monestary is a Buddhist temple in Northern China that has existed for almost 2000 years. According to tradition, in the 3rd or 4th centtury a Buddhist monk from India, Da Mo also nowna s Boddhidharma, came to the temmple and saw that the long hours of meditation had maed the monks physically weak from the inactivity and that they were unable to even do the normal maintenance on the temple, let alnoe defend it from bandits. He first taught them the movements he had learned during his own training. These exercises were known as the bone washing marrow exercise. It was from these original exercises that the many variants of Shaolin Kung Fu have descended along with the skills that were brought in with those former soldiers and fighters that retired there to live a life of contemplation.





Shaolin Kung fu is comprised of literaly hundreds of styles and hundreds of thousands of techniques that have been prefected over the course of the temples existance. It is one of the few places where the practical combat usages of the techniques have remained undiluted. The Shaolin monks have refined their fighting skills with some of the most rigorous physical trining of any martial atrs system known.





Recently (in the last 20 or 30 years) the temple ahs changed somewhat in that they began to allow people to come for short preiods to study, rather than having to live there to learn. Some people even return year after year to improve their skills and acquire new skills and techniques.
Reply:For more detail, look here:





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaolin





The short answer: The monks are peaceful Buddhists, who dedicate their lives to study and meditation. Because the temple was often invaded, they were forced to learn to defend themselves.
Reply:basiclly what monks really teach is religion?
Reply:Take a look at the Shaolin wikipedia entry. It has some pretty good info.
Reply:They mostly meditate %26amp; train. They can perform feats that, If I didn't see them, I would never believe that human beings could do. They are amazing.
Reply:They are Chan Buddhists and some are associated with Shaolin Kung Fu.
Reply:The Shaolin Monks are Buddhists who learn a variety of things including Buddhist teachings and Shaolin Kung Fu, one of the oldest remaining martial arts. Between 150 and 400 monks live in the Shaolin temple at any time and a small traveling troupe gives demonstrations around the world to raise money to support the temple. From sun up to sun down every day they study, practice, meditate and fine tune their knowledge and abilities. Most people focus on their martial arts training, but really the day in the life of a monk may include painting, reading, writing poetry or songs, playing musical instruments and all sorts of other normal daily activity. Similar to renaissance men in the western world a Shaolin Monk should be a well rounded individual and have a variety of interests and abilities.
Reply:They are people who devote their lives to the teachings of Buddhism. The kung-fu they practice is a by product. They are really men of peace concerned with helping the world.