Shaolin Marrow-cleansing-exercises

Before leaving Shaolin, Bodhidharma speaks to three of his most senior disciples. To the first of them, he says, ‘You have attained my skin.’ To the second, he says, ‘You have attained my bones.’ To the third (Sheng Kuang) he says, ‘You have attained my marrow.’ With this he hands over the traditional robe and bowl of the Buddhist Patriarch to Sheng Kuang and renames him Hui Ko. The speech is metaphorical, and similar symbolism can also be found in the English language: Bodhidharma talks about the difference between gaining a superficial understanding: skin-deep; going deeper: to the bone; and deeper still: to the marrow in the center of the bones. Again, his words should not be taken literally, and Bodhidharma’s famous ‘marrow-cleansing exercises’ simply implies that the exercises work on the whole person, affecting them deeply, to the core.

The stories of Bodhidharma are brief, enigmatic and open to wide interpretation, making him a figure that, even today, has the power to inspire thought and debate as well as action. There were monks at Shaolin before Bodhidharma, and many thousands after him, but Bodhidharma is remembered as the father of the warrior-monk tradition—the original Shaolin monk.

Since his time, the Shaolin temple has survived 1,500 years of war, revolution and, at times, persecution; changing, growing and evolving as it did. In recent years it has become something of a tourist trap where, some argue, there is plenty of Kung Fu but very little Zen to be found. This doesn’t matter. Bodhidharma’s work is done and the true nature of his ‘Way’ has spread far beyond the walls of Shaolin, to countless dojos, dojangs, kwoons and gyms across the globe, where the legend of Bodhidharma continues to have meaning for new generations of martial artists.