JL. Please tell me where and when you were born?
KJ. I was born in 1969
in a small mountainous town named LeH in East Kashmir, on the border of China
and
Tibet, not far from India. The area has a predominantly Lamaist Buddhist population. It was
nominally a dependency of Tibet. After 1531 it was invaded periodically
by Muslims from Kashmir; it was annexed to Kashmir in the mid-19th century.
India has controlled the southern region of Ladakh since 1948, and
Pakistan the northern half. The northeastern portion is now claimed by
China, which in 1962 occupied the area despite Indian opposition.
JL. When and why did you enter the Shaolin monastery in China?
KJ. When I was five, my parents being
Buddhists, took me to the Song Yue Temple; a Shoalin
Temple, in the Songshan Mountains located in Dengfeng County of
Henan Province. Songshan is called the Central Mountain of the Five
Sacred Mountains. The Tower of Songyue Temple is the earliest
Buddhist tower existing in China. It was built in the Northern Wei
Dynasty (520). It has 15 stories and a height of over 40 meters. With
superb craft, it is the oldest polygonal tower in China. It really
is a marvelous piece of architecture and work of art.
My parents were told that there
was a monk who could heal the sick with Qi Qong. They were very
concerned because I had been so sick from an infection in my lungs.
My older siblings both died from a similar disease. I could not
breath and had to sleep sitting upright. It was a long trip from Leh
in
Kashmir.
JL. Please tell me more about your cultural roots and your parents.
KJ. My parents were landowners and my father was Tibetan and married a woman from India,
who was half Dutch, near
a town on the Ganges River. He was formally educated in China and learned
mathematics, astrology, calligraphy and
painting. He had many art books from the West.
My mother used to practice yoga and knew many things, and
who's maiden name I took on as my own, Jagvonjeul, and after
I left the Temple in which I was given a Chinese name meaning little
star. My mother's family were Hindus and were mostly Theravada doctors. They all practiced
yoga; she became a Buddhist before she married my father. I take
after her, looks wise and in many other ways. My father was a Lama
in his youth and was nearly murdered by the Chinese soldiers when they
invaded Tibet and slaughtered many innocent monks and nuns.
They beat him almost to death with clubs and left him on the side of a
mountain, thinking he was dead. He survived by living in a nearby cave
and eating vegetation.
JL. Please tell me about the Shaolin temple.
KJ. The temple did not look like anything in the Bruce
Lee movies or what you would imagine in the West. There were no
blind monks wearing the
traditional yellow robes with the shaved head and the long white beard
who called us grasshopper.
Nobody wore the monk's uniform until around 1980 after the end of the
Chinese Cultural Revolution. The Temple had been destroyed not only by
the Chinese government but also throughout history by many warring
dynasties. Only parts of the foundation and some walls survived.
The Temple now has been largely reconstructed in the last 16 years.
JL. What was that experience like of meeting the head
monk?
KJ. They took me to see the Grandmaster and I was very frightened
and I trembled. I cried and wanted to leave and go back to my
parents and my animals. In Leh there are many exotic birds and snow
leopards and bears .
At that time there hadn't been an abbot in the temple for three hundred
years. We all referred to him as Qi Gong, my Grandmaster; he was my Sifu's Sifu (master's master). It was he who immediately accepted me. I
didn't have to do any Kung Fu, or prove anything to him. He just
took one look at me and he knew.
JL. What do you mean by that. What did he know?
KJ. When you are at a very high spiritual level, you can read
people's faces very naturally and know their spirits immediately.
JL. Please tell me something about the monks that also
practiced there.
KJ. There were only 15 monks at the Temple at the time and I
was one of the youngest studying monks. Most of the other monks were
very old and in their seventies, eighties and even nineties. One was over
a
hundred years and more. His body was still very supple and fit and
he would
practice these special exercises everyday. He taught me very much
about human anatomy, muscles, ligaments. But more importantly,
about meridian channels that pass through your body like streams of
energy. There
was one exercise in particular that he told me he learned in Tibet. He said it
was from a Lama who claimed to have the secrets to the fountain of
youth; "Shangri-La" which may not be a myth, or a place, not on a map anyway.
JL. Five is very young to leave your parents and live with
strangers.
KJ. Yes, five is very young for some people to be away from
their parents, some of the boys did not do so well, but not
everybody is the same. I became used to it after a few months.
My grandmaster, masters, and kung fu masters took care of me like
my parents would have. They were like my mother and father. They loved me very much
and I loved them as well.
JL. What was it like living in a
government opposed environment?
KJ. It was 1974 and not safe to stay at the Temple all the time
because Chairman Mao's Red Guard had absolute power at that time, and
they could do anything they wanted and they carried guns. Our weapons were
our hands and feet and broom sticks which were no match for machine guns.
Therefore none of the monks could live there all the time. The best
defense is to be invisible so many times we lived in the forest
mountains and caves.
JL. Please tell me about the Kung Fu and Qi Gong you learned.
KJ. My masters were Liu Shin Yi and Shen Ping An. They taught
me different styles - kung fu ,qi gong. Also, Tai Chi Chaun like
the forms you know, but our forms were a little different. We practiced
Yi jin jing and Xi sui jing and many mystical forms of cultivating Qi
which I am not at liberty to ever reveal. Like a weapon it can be
used for good or evil and can only be revealed to one person every
generation or so. There are many styles of Qi Qong, thousands.
It is not so much the form that matters but what is in one's heart. One's
bones, heart and other organs have to become hollow and pure for the Qi to
pass through.
I also studied herbal medicine, acupuncture,
meridian exercises, calligraphy, literature, both eastern and western,
mathematics, astrology, art, sculpture... carpentry. Also other esoteric matters
about human psychology and philosophy. They taught me meditation
and many things about Taoism which I loved the most. Chan
derived much from Boddidharma but also the Taoist mystics, internal
alchemists and shamans -- How to live with nature and in
harmony with other people; how to be happy, how to smile and feel alive
every single moment of the day and to be grateful for a simple bowl of
rice.
JL. Can you please elaborate on your mystical practices and the
teachers?
KJ. There were Tibetan monks, Lamas, and also wise men from the
mountains in Mongolia, who would visit, that lived
outside the Temple. At that time because there were no walls, the Temple
was completely open - many people came and went. I lived at the Temple
but all my masters didn't always live with us. I had other masters
outside the Temple that taught me how to read faces and palms, and body
language; even the way someone walks. One can tell much about a persons
head and shoulders, how relaxed they are, if it is held upright, the
curvature of the spine. Many, many things. Look at how animals rest,
sleep. Animals are pure in their nature, there is no affectation.
There was also a Sufi sage who would visit, who had tremendous knowledge
about astronomy, mathematics and science who taught me so much.
JL. What about Zen, when did you first start learning to fight
and meditate?
KJ. I began learning all styles of fighting forms, monkey,
tiger, bear, white crain etc. We call it Chan Buddhism which
I began to practice right away . It's very natural. You
just do it because everyone else is doing it. It's like you live here in
America; you have to speak English and children play on the swings
in the parks and
watch TV. We all practiced meditation and Qi Qong
with the older monks. There were no rules, you just learn everything
naturally. I developed everything early being so young and flexible and
curious. The Chinese say if you are poor, like Shaolin Temple, you
develop everything early.
JL. Were you a good student?
KJ. I began to understand a lot very fast and all the masters recognized
that, but I was also so bad. I was like a little monkey, I always played
tricks on my fellow students . For instance, I would dig a hole in the
ground, put something on top of it and stay and wait for someone to walk
on it and fall in. I even played tricks on my masters. They almost
always knew it was me. If I got caught I would have to do horse stance
until my legs were numb and swollen or I would have to do headstands
until all the blood went to my head and I felt like my eyes were going
to pop out. Or my masters would hit me, which is very normal for China,
not like America or England where you came from..
JL. Well in fact, I was raised by strict Catholic nuns and priests
in the early 60s and they did many of those same things. Please tell me about your philosophy and about competition.
KJ. When I was a boy I was very competitive and never
wanted to loose. My brothers and I would be doing Chin Na or Kung
Fu
and when we would fall down at the same time I always tried to
land on top of them. Even if we were tired after hours and hours
of fighting, I didn't want to stop. Sometimes I went too far and hurt my
brothers and of course they would get mad at me and hurt me back, but
it's always like that when you practice martial arts. They would only be
mad for a short time. Then at some point I realized it was not so
healthy for me or my brothers.
JL. What about your Buddhist practice.
KJ. I met my Buddhism Sifu, Shi Yong Chen, almost
immediately after I entered the Temple but didn't begin seriously
studying with him until I was about 14 or 15. Learning the
sutras was natural and easy because we did that everyday. .
Everybody was praying and you hear it a lot and you learn it. I
understood Chan( Zen) and reached what you call "enlightenment"
in the West. We call it waking up.
JL. Please describe this experience.
KJ. One can only
experience it, not really talk about it. I don't remember it being a sudden moment but it was very
early and I was 15. Things became so clear, everything was deep but simple.
It is like looking at a star in the sky and understanding that you and
the star are one and the same thing. The same with other people or
anything else. Division, separation, is an illusion and in the
mind and a false perception. Action reveals much more
than words ever can. It is like your heart opens up and blossoms like a field of
flowers. It is not as complicated as most people think. One
has to be completely truthful to oneself and others in order to
understand this. Your motivations have to become pure as snow. Like when
fire burns iron until it becomes white with heat.
JL. Please tell me about your daily routine.
KJ. Just like life at the Temple, it sounds like a hard life but it
was so simple. We got up at 4:30 am in the morning and practiced
kung fu, qi gong, stretching and running, jumping, kicking
for two hours. It was not easy at first but you get used to it after the
first few months. At 6:30 am we ate breakfast - mostly steamed tofu
and vegetables. Since I can remember I ate a lot; still eat a lot. I
love American food, McDonalds especially. From 7 to 8am we would
pray, read, practice calligraphy, meditate, or relax. I liked to relax as much as I could and
sometimes pretended to meditate and sleep in full lotus and master would
hit me with a stick. He could tell what I was doing. From 8:00 to
11:30 am we would practice Kung fu again, pray, or study Buddhism, clean the
quarters, or do other work for the Temple. At 11:30 am we ate lunch,
sometimes noodles, rice, mantau.
From noon to 1:00 pm we would relax and I would sleep. From 1
to 5:30 pm we would practice and study literature, math, astronomy, art,
philosophy again, pray, light incense.
From 5:30 to 6:00 pm we would have dinner; noodles, rice, soup. From 6
to 7pm relax. From 7 to 10pm practice, study or pray again. Then
sleep for six and a half hours without stop. I would sleep totally 8
and a half hours per day.
From 10 pm to 1am some brothers walked around the Temple and checked
the incense to make sure it was still burning. From 1 to 4am they switched and
another shift walked around.
JL. Please tell me about your beds and sleeping
accommodations.
KJ. We slept on a piece of pinewood with a bear skin or hand
woven woolen blanket on
it. Sometimes we would use our clothes for a pillow. It was very
comfortable and very good for your back. In America beds are too soft.
That is why I sleep on the floor when I come to stay with you in New
York and in Cape Cod.
There was no electricity at the Temple until 1981 or
'82 and no running water until 1986. Before we got running water we had
to get it from the rivers in the mountains just outside the Temple, or
we collected rainwater or drew it from a well. Some of the monks
were unhappy when they brought in the running water because the Chinese
believe in Feng Shui and digging up the ground and putting pipes
underground is like cutting your veins out. Feng Shui is very important. People in the west have many misconceptions about it. During the
summer we would shower often because the cold water was no problem in
the heat, but in winter sometimes it would be a couple of months between
showers, but we practiced meditation in the snow and by doing so could
generate heat through our inner Qi. We would wash our face and our
underarms but we wouldn't jump completely under the cold water.
Sometimes we would even use our sweat from all the exercise to wash
ourselves.
JL. How did you end up becoming a photographer for the western
magazines?
KJ. One morning a western photographer came and took pictures of me
and some true Sadhus meditating near the Ganges. I was never a
Sadhu but wanted to learn from them like Buddha had before me. I asked to look at his
camera. He showed me
how it worked. He allowed me to take some pictures. The next day he came
back and gave me a 35mm Cannon camera as a gift. Because he loved my pictures
so much. He wrote down his address in New York and asked me to send him
pictures, so I did. Later I discovered my pictures were published in
such magazines as
National Geographic and Travel magazine; also some internet web
sites. It's like the way I met you but in reverse. I was
taking pictures of you meditating Shaolin based Qi Qong in the
West.
JL. What is one of the most important things you learned in those 16
years at the temple and other years traveling as a mendicant and practicing
yoga?
KJ. You have to understand yourself first and see yourself without
false perception. Clear as undisturbed water and love everyone
regardless of race, religion, philosophy, sick or healthy, rich or poor.
Learn to forgive, including yourself. Appreciate everything
we have right now. Now is the important thing, not the past
or the future. Open your mind, but more importantly open your
heart and listen to it's voice in everything you say and do.
Let it guide you, not anyone else. Guru, teacher, political leader.
Believe in yourself, trust yourself fully and have no fear of sickness.
If you are sick, do not think about it and accept your karma with grace
and do not complain. Do not
fear poverty, death or anything else and have courage like the bear or
the tiger. Be as graceful as the white crain and intelligent as
the snake and humble as the lamb. Have a sense of humor as the
monkey and smile and accept whatever comes your way with peace, dignity
and understanding and you will find all the answers to all your
questions.
Amitabha
Special thanks to the
Shaolin Temple, China and US
