Don't worry or go to the bathhouse! China-2017. Part 2. The path to yourself.
Our whole life is a path to ourselves.
Whatever we do - get angry or happy, raise children or offend parents, create masterpieces or destroy the environment - we do it to ourselves. For myself and for myself. We do not think about it, but it does not change the essence. And it is not at all necessary to sit in a cave for 9 years and look at the wall. But if you sit and watch, then a special philosophy is born - Zen Buddhism. In Russian it would sound - The path to yourself. And in Chinese - Chan.
I like Zen Buddhism because it is not a religion. Can you imagine? There is a monastery, monks, millions of followers, but there is no religion. Moreover, the founder of Zen Buddhism himself once said very clearly:
"Everything that belongs to the world is an illusion, monasteries and monks are as unreal as you and me. "
In the teachings of Chan, there is no god to be worshiped, no ceremonial rites, no hell, no heaven. Even such a key concept as the soul does not exist.
Ch'an has nothing to do with affirmation or negation. When something is denied, the negation itself already includes the opposite element. The same can be said about the assertion.
"The Zen Teaching is like a window. At first we look at the glass and see only a vague reflection of our own face. But as we learn and our vision becomes clearer, the Teaching becomes clearer. Until finally the glass in the window becomes full transparency. Then we see through it. We see all things. Our true face. "
Have I confused you? )
I'll untangle it now.
In the Songshan Mountains, not far from the city of Luoyang, there is a beautiful and very ancient Shao Lin Monastery. It is called the cradle of martial arts. But in fact, this is the cradle of the teachings of Chan or, as we know better, in Japanese, Zen. Surely you have heard of Kung Fu masters? This is just them. The Shao Lin monks, through meditation and exhausting training, achieve fantastic results in acrobatics, hand-to-hand combat, weapon fights and . . in choreography. The dance of the Shaolin monk is divine despite the fact that they are monks without religion)
Of course, we wanted to see the famous performance of Shaolin monks, but it was impossible to go to Luoyang. Well, if Mohammed does not go to the mountain . . )) Then the mountain sometimes comes by itself)
Now we will leave our suitcases at the hostel and go to where in Beijing you can see the monks of the most famous monastery in the world - Shao Lin. To the Red Theatre,
To get to the Red Theater from the tourist center, where our hostel is located, you need to walk to the Zhushikou metro station, it is located at the end of Qianmen Street, and with a transfer, get to the Tiantan East Gate station, from where you walk again to the theater.
The monks are preparing for the performance.
When I say the word "monks" I have an association with gray-bearded old men in long robes. But these monks turned out to be completely different
In the Red Theater, for 13 years, twice a day, the show "Legend of Kung Fu" has been held; it is better to book tickets in advance - the hall is packed! The show is really great! I have never seen anything like it. This is not a dance in the full sense of the word, but the ballet is present. As well as acrobatics and martial arts. However, this is history. I would even say Drama.
A little boy comes to the monastery not exactly knowing what he wants. His mother, by the way, is also an insecure person) For a while, they both doubt, but then the child is carried away by peers. Years of study go by, the boy is capable and diligent, everything is going well for him. But suddenly, he falls in love. This is where the drama begins. He wants to be with his beloved, but fighting friends cannot allow him such a luxury and interfere with this love with all their might. In the end, the boy becomes not only a Kung Fu master, but also the most important monk.
Actually, that's all.
But the actors are so great, both adults and kids, that even our bodies, exhausted falling asleep in small pauses, rated it as the best show, and we saw a few more of them while traveling around China.
Of course, I couldn’t shoot properly, but someone managed to make a small cut that conveys the essence well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=F2o71sBIYkk
If you are in Beijing, be sure to go to the Red Theater, even if you are not a fan of martial arts. You can't help but like it.
It is very difficult to photograph, but I really want to)
We got to our hotel the same way - by metro, with a change. The subway in Beijing is intuitive, ticket vending machines have an English-language interface, the choice of the station according to the scheme and by name. If one of the foreigners is stupid very clearly, someone will definitely come up and help. The vending machines accept 5 and 10 yuan, it’s written on them, look carefully, maybe it’s yours that accepts other bills) We were sometimes very dumb, not without it, of course) As a result, everything worked out for us, although once we still looked for a cashier and bought tickets in it.
Chenmen Pedestrian Street goes to bed early. We were looking for a place to have dinner for a long time, all the eateries either closed in front of us, or looked unappetizing. In the end, having already turned onto our Dajalan street, we found a small restaurant that let us inside. We cannot say that we liked it very much, but the choice was small.
The menu turned out to be with pictures, we leafed through it back and forth, and ordered our own food. The waitress doesn't speak English, I don't speak Chinese very well. I chose noodles for myself, in the picture it looked like Vietnamese soup, and Nadia ordered a complex: some pieces of food on a plate and cups of broth. The waitress asked several times if we wanted two this and two that, even tried to explain something to us in Chinese and persuaded us to eat Peking duck, but we firmly said no, we have one this and one this. And don't argue! Bring it, I told you!
Some boy brought food, when I went to wash my hands, put everything in the center of the table.
"They brought you food, " Nadya told me when I returned.
I looked with horror at a huge plate of noodles with raw, grated turnips (maybe it was even beets)), poured it with broth from a cup where a chicken foot fell out) Those who were interested in China know that the Chinese are very fond of chicken and duck feet. We knew it. But did not expect to face it so quickly)
In addition to the paw, the broth contained two pieces of a very ancient, almost petrified fish, a few bitter roots and a mushroom.
I eat this soup, and the Chinese look at us. Nadia is sitting, waiting for her order.
They bring a check. We pay. Here's an eclipse, by God. There is no food yet, but we are already paying) In China! )
If you already guessed everything, don't laugh out loud)
“Nadya, ” I tell her, “if they don’t bring you food in Asia for so long, then this may mean that they aren’t going to bring it to you. Need to know!
- Yes, it's not necessary, - Nadia tells me modestly - they are probably cooking.
For another fifteen minutes, I enthusiastically struggle with the chicken foot, carefully chew the turnips and drive the cooled noodles around the plate. Then I resolutely get up and go in search of living people. And I must say that the light in the main hall has already been turned off. Small lamps shine in the area where we sit.
And no one!
Well, not really anyone, someone seems to be a security guard, biting in the darkest place and I find him.
- What is it? - I poke a check at him.
"Noodles, " he replies.
- Okay, noodles, I agree. And this?
-And where is he? ? I want to see him!
"Let's go, " he says and leads me to our table.
-Here's the noodles - points to my giant plate - and here's the broth - to a small cup in which a chicken foot huddles forlornly.
That is, I mixed two dishes and in one throat...
How embarrassing.
You know, if it was still a native person, but we met Nadia at Sheremetyevo airport a day ago. Of course, we had already seen each other in the bathhouse, but this acquaintance could not yet be called close.
"Call the waiter, " I sullenly suggest to the guard.
He looks thoughtfully and heads off into the darkness.
-I'm sorry, Nadya, I start guiltily.
-What are you, don't apologize, I told you myself that this is your food.
Our waitress arrives in pajamas. She stands, rubs her eyes, does not understand at all what we want from her. And we want from her that plate with different food, which is drawn in the menu.
-Where's the plate? We ordered it.
The waitress gestures that the contents of the plate were inside a cup of broth.
I can only imagine how the waitress herself tells this story to her friends))
“Two Laowas came and ordered one broth and one noodle. I tell them, take two servings of noodles and two broth. No, they stand their ground. Greedy - horror, they didn’t take the duck, they want this muck. I explain to them that you will not be able to eat it, especially together. They insist. Well, to hell with you. She brought the order and immediately calculated them, who knows, suddenly they won’t pay later, when they all gobbled up. And most importantly, there are small plates on the tables, especially to divide a large portion, but no, one pulls the basin towards itself and eats it in two throats, and the other looks at her and smiles. Probably on a diet"
Of course, we recalled this story many times and laughed, but then the hungry Nadia was not laughing at all. I tried to feed her Kiev banana and energy bars. Thank God that Nadia has a wonderful character and she did not blame me.
There was also a story about how, before going to bed, in a hostel, I was looking for water to drink a pill and they poured boiling water on me)
-This water is hot! And I'll take some pills!
-She'll cool down- and a sweet smile.
Well, what can you do? )
I tried to speak Chinese with everyone, everyone tried to speak English with me, I washed down the pills with boiling water and went to sleep)
We slept soundly, but quickly. In the morning we had to go to the Great Wall of China.
I hope you will forgive me for using pictures from the Internet) I upload my photos to the album.
Here is the first part
