| It's most important to stay loose and relaxed in | | | | hearts. But if we burden our bodies with tension |
| mind and body. To enjoy your life, you must be | | | | and pain, our minds and hearts can't be cleansed. |
| relaxed. When we were children, our bodies were | | | | Your mind and your heart and your body are |
| loose, relaxed, and flexible. We could do splits, | | | | inseparable.Kung fu is action meditation. The goal |
| flips, jumps, and twists without thinking about it. | | | | of kung fu is to relax your body and your mind, |
| We were pure mind in babies' bodies.But you're | | | | to extend your body and your mind, to cleanse |
| never too old -- we just get too tense, too stiff. | | | | your body and your mind. To be relaxed in your |
| We think too much. One of the most important | | | | body, and relaxed in your life, is how you live fully |
| lessons you can learn doing the Shaolin Workout is | | | | in the present, experiencing this moment, here |
| how to get back that childlike relaxation and | | | | and now.In our modern world, there's another |
| flexibility -- to be at home in your body again. It | | | | benefit to action meditation. We all have lives, |
| makes no difference if you are in your twenties, | | | | jobs, families. We have wonderful things coming |
| fifties, or eighties. Relax. Never feel old. Tell | | | | into our lives every day. Who among us has the |
| yourself you're not getting older every year -- | | | | time to sit and meditate for hours a day, like |
| you're getting younger!Sifu explains that there are | | | | monks in a monastery? As you'll find out, a |
| two kinds of meditation: action meditation and | | | | half-hour of action meditation can be as liberating, |
| no-action meditation. In the West, we're most | | | | for your body and your mind and your heart, as |
| familiar with the no-action kind. We can all form | | | | several hours of no-action meditation.Kung fu and |
| images of Buddhist monks sitting with their legs | | | | martial arts represent a refined form of action |
| crossed and their eyes closed, still and silent, for | | | | meditation. But any exercise program can be a |
| hours and hours, as they strive to achieve | | | | form of action meditation -- running, swimming, |
| enlightenment.The only problem is that too much | | | | playing tennis, riding a bike. In the West, we speak |
| no-action meditation can be as bad for your | | | | of that point in an exercise routine where we "get |
| joints, your back, your neck, as sitting at a | | | | in the zone," where we "release endorphins," |
| computer all day. This is what Da Mo saw | | | | where we achieve "the runner's high." Those are |
| happening to the monks at Shaolin. They spent so | | | | all Western ways of approaching the same |
| much time sitting in meditation that their bodies | | | | concept: action meditation. A relaxed mind in a |
| were as stiff as wooden dolls. He saw that Ba | | | | relaxed body.As you go through your day today, |
| Tuo had not given them the proper tools to | | | | relax. Stay loose. Be flexible in your body and in |
| adapt Buddhism to Chinese life. Why do we | | | | your mind. Enjoy your beautiful life every minute |
| meditate? To cleanse our minds and open our | | | | of the day. |