Shaolin Kunfu

Wow- I would not want to be in a fight with a Buddhist Monk! We saw an interesting, if not a little commercialized, performance called Shaolin Soul tonight at the Lyceum Theater (which itself is a very grand venue for being built in 1931). For all you karate fans, they were straight from the Shaolin Temple on Song Mountain. Anyhow, they put on some amazing physical displays. Striking a needle through a plane of glass was amazing, to say the least. Of course some of their stretches looked VERY painful. Carolyn grimaced at the child Buddhists doing back flips and landing perfectly upside down… on their head. Then we both grimaced at the display of the monk held up in the air by the tips of 5 spears (and yes, his chest was cut after he was done). But I was really in pain when the monk in a handstand spread his legs into a split formation while one of the other monks broke a wooden rod across his groin area. I think everything after that moment is a little bit of a blur for me…