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The kung fu fighting monks of China's Shaolin Temple are the stuff of
martial legend, renowned for their mixed snapping fighting techniques and
superhuman endurance.
Shaolin monks were China's first special forces.
But in the 21st century, Shaolin's warrior monks are striking out on a
new path in a new world... Enter the Dragon.
*** Yan Ming, a 34th generation fighting monk, the first Shaolin monk
to defect from China, he now lives in New York City.
Following the warrior tradition, Yan Ming has mastered extreme physical
feats enduring in training again to torture, yet while he embraces pain,
his message is peace.
Peace.
Teaching the way of a spiritual warrior to celebrity followers such as
hip hop artist, actors and rappers, Yan Ming is turning an eastern
tradition into a western sensation.
[speaking in foreign language]
You know what that mean, peace, love yo!
He's made kung fu fly on the streets of New York bringing Shaolin to the
west in one giant leap.
New York City... vast living, big business, hard luck.
A make or break town where today's up and coming could be tomorrow's damn it
out.
In such a city, one man has found a path of enlightenment.
He is Shifu *** Yan Ming.
There is something very unique and special about this person, uh, Shifu
*** Yan Ming.
He's a teacher, he's a goofball, he's a child, he's a sage, you know, he's
so many things.
They call me handsome monk, so good looking monk, and drunken monk, and
beautiful monk and take whatever they want to call.
I've seen him break bricks and other stuff, but haven't seen him crack a
nut on his head.
I want to see that, then I'll believe he is mythical.
Yan Ming story is a unique version of the American dream.
Born into a poor family in rural China, Yan Ming entered the Shaolin
temple at the age of five.
Taking the vows of a monk, Yan Ming became an accomplished martial artist
and one of the most legendry warrior monks of the modern era.
In 1992, he became the first martial monk to ever defect from China and
create a Shaolin sensation in the city of New York.
Since setting up his temple in a loft in downtown Manhattan, Yan Ming has
been teaching Buddhism and Shaolin martial arts to New Yorkers.
[speaking in foreign language]
Kung fu students are taught acrobatic kicks and empty hand forms of
fighting.
[speaking in foreign language]
What?
I don't hear you.
He's getting more handsome.
[speaking in foreign language]
I'm teaching my people, we celebrate 365 days, all days Christmas, all days
New Year, because life is so beautiful.
Being a Shaolin monk in Manhattan has attracted plenty of followers.
He has rubbed shoulders with Hollywood elite and some of the best and
brightest in the music world.
Many celebrities call him Shifu to signify he is their master.
Yan Ming has become a fixture on the hip-hop scene, some of them even
labeled him as the hip-hop monk.
Go. Come on, come on.
Faster, faster.
101, 102...
Celebrities often come to train at the USA Shaolin Temple, but they're not
given any special treatment.
Three, four, five--Oh.
Omi to fo.
Omi to fo.
The training I do with Shifu is the hardest workout I've ever done, it's a
hardest workout I ever will do.
I've boxed, I've done some basic kickboxing, I used to do weight
training from the time I was 14 years old.
If I had to box all day, lift weights all day, and practice basic kicks all
day, it wouldn't compare to that first hour training Shaolin.
Kick. Kick. Kick. Kick.
What's it?
Train harder.
Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.
When I started sitting with Yan Ming because it was-- I was doing a movie
called "King of the Jungle" and Rosie Perez said I am taking king fu with
this master from, you know, the Shaolin temple and it was something
really beautiful about it that really struck me and it was still very
physical, I mean still there is a masterful quality to it and so I
started taking classes.
When I first asked Shifu, "Well, how would I begin to train?"
And he says, "No problem. I will show you position, you can hold it, I'll
have you go home and hold that position for 4 hours each day for one
month and you come back and I give you the next one."
I'm like wow.
Man, I've so much respect for his disciples and his students and how
much they do train and wow, how much they've given themselves.
More chi!
Train harder!
More chi!
Train harder!
More!
Chi!
Train!
Harder!
More!
Chi!
Train!
Harder!
More!
Chi!
Train!
Harder!
Shaolin!
Shaolin!
Shaolin!
Yeah.
It doesn't matter if you are a thug or a cop or you work on Wall Street or
what, if you come into that the temple, Shifu, you know, he is in
nurturing kind of spirit, there's nothing judgmental.
Martial arts there's a kind of grace and discipline that isn't just about
like bludgeoning somebody, you know?
To watch Yan Ming do his thing is just, you're like, wow, you just watch
the master.
He was so powerful, so precise.
It's like watching a panther, you know, it is really like watching it
out sort of a powerful cat.
Because there's sort of stealth and precise range of pounce, but there's
no like tension anywhere, you know, in the body is already.
In his homeland, Yan Ming was known as a Shaolin hero.
Having won the Shaolin Championship 3 years in a row, the Chinese Government
declared this kung fu boy wonder a national treasure.
Because of his good looks and razor sharp kung fu, he was chosen to travel
to America as a part of the inaugural Shaolin demonstration team.
Yan Ming became one of the first warrior monks to ever travel to the
United States.
I left China in 1992 to perform in United States.
I believe that was my destiny that brought me here.
It was a destiny that Yan Ming was ready to seize.
On his final day of the tour in the city of San Francisco, he made a
decision that would change his life forever.
After last performance went back to the hotel, I took some newspaper with
me and some pictures and also my passport copy.
And I just walk out of the hotel.
That simple, jumped in a taxi.
That time I didn't speak any English, I used my action language and pointed
deferent way.
I don't know how to talk to you.
You do speak English?
[speaking in foreign language]
The Chinatown?
And taxi driver stopped drive.
Excuse me, sir. Is everything Okay?
Is everything okay, sir?
I don't understand what the passenger is saying.
Excuse me. Sir, do you speak any English?
And police officer came and check out my, you know, my documents, some
pictures, some newspaper and passport copy.
Sir, if you do me a favor, I'm gonna give him back his bag just so you
drive him to Chinatown please, he has money, he has his ID it seems to be
intact, okay.
Thank you, sir.
And I believe police officer said to the taxi driver bring him to
Chinatown, looking for Chinese people.
The driver took Yan Ming to a restaurant in Chinatown, but even then
his troubles weren't over.
[speaking in foreign language]
They spoke to me in Cantonese, I spoke to them in Mandarin, we couldn't
understand each other.
Even we speak like different Chinese, the writing are the same.
We wrote and, you know, oh, I want to use your phone to call my friend who
lives in New York.
They said, "Okay, no problem."
[speaking in foreign language]
Yan Ming's friends organized for him to take refuge in a basement until
arrangements were made for him to travel to New York.
Most dangerous and some monks were angry on me.
I defected, after you know I arrived to New York, the Chinese Government
are finding me.
If I go back I will get in some problem from the government.
Having been granted asylum in the US, Yan Ming wasn't forced to return to
China.
However, many Chinese were outraged at losing their Shaolin superstar.
Some people in China they say, "Shall we kill him? And shall we just take
him out?" You know, just kill him.
As he continued to challenge convention, these threats would come
back to haunt him.
With his star rising in America, *** Yan Ming has found himself coding
controversy.
Seen by many as a rebellious monk, he defected from China in order to teach
martial arts and philosophy in the West.
I miss China in a certain way, but I love United States.
I want to bring the tradition Shaolin temple to the 21st century.
Some brothers tell that they were happy for me.
They say, "You made excellent decision, stay there."
Omi to fo.
Pay $1 today, you pay $5 tomorrow.
The rain is coming, the rain is coming. Hurry, hurry, hurry.
He may now be New York's most famous monk, but 10 years ago not everybody
was ready to embrace Yan Ming's teachings.
Many Chinese-Americans wanted to keep the secrets of Shaolin in China.
One day I just opened temple door and walk in, they, you know, and come
after me so quickly.
I didn't see them, probably over 30 people.
They said to me, "Go back to China and stop teaching Americans."
They wanted to fight with me at that time.
I say who moves first, I'll knock you on the floor first.
I said to them clearly, I decided to stay here, I do exactly what I want to
do.
No one can tell me you shall do this, you shall do that.
I make my own decision, I make my own destiny.
New York City.
Hip-hop is the language of the streets.
From Brooklyn to Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx, hip-hop reflects a
modern urban experience.
Its themes are last place in ancient eastern philosophy would take route.
But Shaolin has great resonance with hip-hop artists such as The Wu-Tang
Clan, notorious East Coast rappers who have embraced the mythology of Shaolin
and give it a new street crave.
Yeah, the Wu-Tang, Shaolin.
Yeah.
Shifu *** Yan Ming, RZA... National Geographic.
You know what I mean.
I want to say shut outs to my baby mamas.
All right, please don't.
That's cool, dude?
Absolutely.
You think that's cool?
I heard about Yan Ming from various friends, you know, the opportunity to
meet him I couldn't wait, you know, what I mean.
And I think actually if my memory says me correctly, I think actually I went
looking for him.
When I heard there was a monk of Shaolin who defected from Shaolin and
started USA Shaolin Temple...
When I finally did meet him at GZA album release party, we've basically
became ***, ***, you know what I mean.
You know, we definitely became brothers on a same path and very dear
friends.
You know what I mean, and he's a first person, you know, that I've called
Shifu and Shifu means master.
The Wu-Tang Clan, they used the martial arts or philosophy in their
hip-hop song.
A lot, you can check out, you know, for me listen their songs, you know,
ha-ha-ha, you know the noise, say omi to fo, the Shaolin, the Wu-Tang and
then they--and I actually appreciate them.
Well, some find it an unlikely pairing, Shaolin has found a new voice
and a new audience to rap and hip-hop.
The RZA, the GZA, Master Killer, yo, checkout, you know what I mean, peace,
love, yo.
You know he just is like a--like a teacher around us.
When he come around, we ask questions, he's like a guidance, like a guidance
counselor also, you know.
Where, you know, you can ask him something pertaining to, you know, how
things should be or how he may see it and he always had like good energy and
good answers for us.
So I would say like a spiritual adviser.
Shaolin was always the place, inside the flex that we were watching it was
always about Shaolin.
Even when we used to watch the kung fu movies on 42nd Street, it was always
about Shaolin, so it was just something that stuck with us at the
time.
The fact that martial arts films were often booked in like sort of ghetto
theatres gave black American culture access to those films earlier than a
wider culture.
But, you know, like a lot of things especially in music black American
culture is sort of ahead of things and then the mainstream catches up to it.
So I think that's partly the connection also to hip-hop and there's
even kung fu film "Shaolin vs. Wu Tang" and, "So you've stolen the
secret of the Wu-Tang sword style. We must retrieve it."
It was like number one, you know, we grew up as rough kids anywhere, I like
to be into wrestling or whatever so anything I did or do fighting we was
looking at, you know, but Shaolin kung fu was like we got it from the home,
we got it from the TV.
We got it from the TV though, you know.
It taught me how to deal with more honor, loyalty, love, revenge.
It just taught me all kind of things.
Wu-tang is a sword style of rhyming, and it's also sword style of kung fu.
You know always say that we're lyrical swordsmen, we have to be lyrically
sharp with the tongue, you know, the tongue is like a sword and when in
motion it produces wind that's like the sword that swinging.
Back in the days when we were young, we were teenagers, we used to travel
throughout the borough we lived in, in the town we used to walk all around
from town to town different neighborhoods, challenging other MCs,
you know challenging the sword play, the word play.
A lot of kung fu movies are like that where they challenge each other,
tournaments is about challenging.
And hip-hop, hip-hop is very much like that.
To be a MC is like to be a samurai, be able to walk up to somebody and
challenge him and battle him.
And feel like you've killed them with your mouth, you know what I mean?
So it's very similar to a martial code, and I think that's why hip-hop
is really-- was able to engulf within and play the part of its own.
But of all the elements of hip-hop, the greatest physical expression of
martial arts can be seen in break dancing or b-boying.
I think we'll give Shaolin a creditability with the hip-hop scene
today, a lot of the moves and things like that that was done in the old
movies was imitated by the break dancers, you know, all the break
dancers did it.
Some would have danced at those old kung fu movies like "Grandmaster of
Kung fu".
He is the grandmaster, there you see, you know, "Grandmaster flash".
So I think, you know, from the vocabulary of it, from, you know, the
action of it, I think hip-hop loves it, it absorbed it, you know what I
mean, and became part of our dance.
[singing]
Washington Square Park on a sunny afternoon, Yan Ming enjoys some New
York street culture.
Its worlds apart from the monastic life he once led in China.
Having once lived in a 1,500 year old monastery, Yan Ming has made a few
lifestyle changes.
Since coming to America, he has adapted a 21st century life in the
west and now has two children with his partner Sophia.
The first time I met Shifu was in February, 1995.
I was just about to turn 30, I was watching kung fu movies with my
girlfriend Maria.
We were watching Jackie Chan movies, Jet Li movies and we came to, you
know, we came to kung fu I think in a very mundane common American way which
was you watch movies and you think, oh, my God, that's amazing, I want to
do that, too.
So we started looking around for schools.
Then we both heard exclusively of each other actually that there was a
Shaolin monk teaching and hearing that a Shaolin monk is teaching is kind of
like hearing that Pavarotti's moved to your neighborhood and he's teaching
opera.
So we said, oh, my God, we have to find this guy.
So then I called the Tai Chi Association of New York or something
and we finally found him.
So I looked at him and he spoke no English and I didn't speak any
Chinese.
I went home that night and I called my parents and I said I met the man I'm
gonna marry today.
I knew, I just, I was never more sure about anything in my life.
And he thought that I was a boy, which actually happens to me all the time
and I didn't even have my head shaved.
I myself didn't know whether or not he could be in a relationship, because as
everybody should you assume that he has taken vow of celibacy.
Yan Ming is unusual and that he hasn't taken vow of celibacy.
This is because he joined the temple at the time of the Cultural Revolution
when the strict monastic order had been abandoned and monks were being
encouraged to marry and assimilate back into society.
Makes me feel it safe and I don't mean in the just a physical sense that, oh,
I can walk down the street and he can kill someone with one touch of his
finger, I don't mean that, I mean emotionally safe and spiritually safe.
His son Jin Long is 5 years old and he's just started training kung fu the
same age Yan Ming was when he began his schooling as a warrior monk.
When I was 5 years old, my parents took me to Shaolin Temple, that's
because when I was 3 years old I almost died.
I was very sick and the doctor couldn't figure out what's wrong with
me.
When my parents just on a way to throw my body out and luckily that
acupuncture doctor and saw my parents were crying.
He asked my parents, "Why are you crying?"
And my parents said, "My child is dead."
And acupuncture doctor said to my parents, "Just let me take a look,
probably I can help him."
And my parents were Buddhists, they believed that Buddha can save my life.
With barely a pulse in his body, the doctors were able to revive Yan Ming
using acupuncture.
So grateful were his parents, they decided to devote his life to Buddha
and entrust him to the Shaolin Temple.
For 1,500 years, the temple has been training its disciples as both monks
and warriors.
Shaolin monks were often attributed with supernatural powers because of
their remarkable kung fu.
They achieve superhuman strength through extreme training where the
body is conditioned to become a lethal weapon capable of inflicting and
withstanding incredible pain.
It's called iron body training.
We train everywhere, every single part of your body, you must have train, you
must have build it and as strong as possible.
I start to train iron body, iron head, iron neck at very early age.
You hang yourself and I used the belt can hold your body up.
And I can hold that 10 minutes, no problem.
And some could just can hold-- can hold just seconds, they had to release
themselves and they choke themselves.
If you want to do it, and difficult things become easy.
If you don't want to do it, the easy things become difficult.
Be able to, you know, to make your fist become like iron, hard as steel.
You have this, you know, punch to a wall, punch to a tree.
And sometimes you say, I don't want do train. Master say, okay, let me see
what are you doing in the training.
Your leg begin shaking that at certain point you get numb and master
seriously slap you and seriously the master Shifu, they'll just slap you,
they'll kick you.
And most of the time they don't want to talk to you, they gave you action
in talking.
For example you keep your arms up, you drop your arm, ***.
I just have smash you, you will understand.
Kung fu is body mind, you know I mean?
What's the use of a strong body with a foolish mind?
What's the use of a good mind in a weak body?
And so each one works up each other out, that was one of the foundation we
uses while demo and to do certain martial arts to the monks because they
would fall to sleep right it was supposed to be meditating or either
have that energy to do sort of things, so you gave them sort of physical
meditation.
You know, I was trying to help their bodies remain strong, so they could
focus on building up their mind and building up their spirit.
Yan Ming is recognized as one of the elite who can demonstrate extreme
physical feats known as hard chi kung.
He has trained his pain threshold to withstand the most brutal of blows.
When I'm doing hard chi kung in my mind, I'm thinking just do it, no
problem.
And I feel very normal when I'm doing hard chi kung to me.
I don't feel the pain because I've trained martial arts over 30 years.
I don't get hurt that's because I know how to use chi to protect myself.
Chi is a life for us, I always think as chi, but you have to know how to
use your chi, how to generate your chi and how to set your chi.
If you know how to express your chi, how to use your chi, you can do
wonderful things.
And take your pain and enjoy the pain.
Remember that, understand that, the pain is the part of our lives.
Still look awesome, yes.
And to take the pain, eat, chew, and swallow, enjoy it.
An eastern philosophy is it does embrace contradictions, it's like you
can't have, you can't enjoy the beauty of the universe without respecting its
cruelty or, you know, you have to know that with happiness is sorrow and pain
and suffering and those, and you can't have one without the other, so you
must embrace them both.
And Shifu kind of just walks that way, he lives that way.
I think hard chi kung is the way to go, yo.
Definitely, definitely turn girls out at parties.
*** Yan Ming came to America as part of the first Shaolin monks tour of the
United States.
His rebellious nature prompted him to strike out on his own and defect from
China.
[speaking in foreign language]
Yan Ming maybe a warrior monk by trade, but it's the spiritual
teachings that have made him a guru to many.
I like talking with him about anything, you know, spiritual things,
philosophical things.
His reality is in his soul and he's centered by, that's why we all are
drawn to him.
His aura is enough to have influence on me even if I'm 3,000 miles away in
Los Angeles.
Life is beautiful, everybody has beautiful life.
Let me tell that everybody has different way to express it.
And that's very important, you know, everybody should understand
themselves.
Just like the Buddha said, there are million different doors, and for
different people to work through their lives, yeah.
Merry Christmas.
But he is amazing to me.
Sometimes I feel, I feel enlightened just standing around near him.
Like other Shaolin monks, Yan Ming practices Chan Buddhism, a philosophy
that teaches enlightenment can be attained through intuitive thought and
self contemplation.
The monk means kochi.
In Chinese kochi means make a wonderful relationship with everybody,
Zhìnéng means intelligent, yeah.
Happiness, wonderful relationship is everything and intelligent, yeah,
that's the kochi means.
The challenge for a modern monk is to live the life of a spiritual warrior
while staying grounded in reality.
You cannot live in the air, you have to plant your foot on the ground,
yeah.
Be yourself.
Shaolin breakfast, very tasty and it gives you a lot of power, check out.
His son Jin Long and daughter Meme are growing up Shaolin style.
Shifu and I think that we share tasks relatively evenly although just by
what every father and every man says nobody is the mother, it's only one
mother, you know.
And, you know, he'll cook breakfast for them and he really is engaged as a
father which I think is really important.
Literally since the day they were born, they'd been at the temple almost
every day.
Jin Long already has it in his body that training and in his mind, and in
the spirit, the training is part of his life, it's part of his soul now.
He feels that he has to train and he misses it when he doesn't.
And I think that's phenomenal for somebody his age, you know, he is
doing at a year before Shifu ever did.
I want to be like my dad.
Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.
More chi.
Train harder.
More chi!
Train harder!
And Meme watches and she doesn't really want to get involved yet, but
she will and she will be a warrior, she'll be a fighter for sure.
Oh, that's so fantastic, wow.
Just split, baby, split up.
Split up, baba.
Hey, split up, split up.
Split up, split up.
When I grow up, I'll be a kung fu master.
You ready? Go.
And it appears other Manhattan parents want to give their kids the edge as
well.
Ready? Go.
Push yourself, everybody.
Understand.
Distant yourself.
Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.
Awesome, fantastic.
Ready. Ready.
I feels that I'm a lot more disciplined and I'm able to go to
school likewise, I'm able to get work done without, you know, day dreaming
or thinking about other things.
And then also I just feel a lot more active and just mentally and
physically I feel a lot better.
I mean, Jet Li is pretty good, but our Shifu is way better.
I mean it's hard to compare because Shifu is a real Shaolin monk and he is
actually gone through all the real martial arts training in the temple
and all the hard work.
Okay, good.
Leg forward.
Okay.
Nice.
Discipline, it's a very important in our lives, understand that, remember
that and don't--
Yeah, Shifu.
Don't forget that.
Omi to fo!
Omi to fo!
Omi to fo!
Omi to fo!
Omi to fo!
Omi to fo!
More chi!
Train harder!
Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.
Great job, everybody.
Awesome!
Hello, New York.
Discipline is one thing, but Yan Ming is also a firm believer in enjoying
life and in a city like New York with friends like Bokeem Woodbine in town,
Saturday night is made for party.
On this avenue, but not this street but a street very much like this one.
I was with me, Shifu and my ex-old lady and we were walking down the
street and she was been a little pain in the butt and I got, I lost my
temper I was the evolved, compassionate human beings you see for
you today and Shifu was cool and he said, "Come on, Bok."
And we went back home and while we were training special-- say, "You know
what, Bok, I don't want you to throw punches in the street."
And since that I never had, awesome.
Awesome.
Baby, I love this town, I love you. I love you all.
Okay!
If you would have told me when I was in high school raising hell if I can
say that, that one day I would be friends with the Shaolin monk I would
have laughed, they've blown smoking in your faces and say, get out of here,
man.
The same could be said of Yan Ming who now enjoys the kind of life that few
monks would ever experience.
Beautiful party.
Shaolin monks have historically followed a less strict code than other
Buddhist monks.
Still people are going to turn their heads when they see a monk drinking
beer or as Yan Ming would call it special water.
Special water for the special life.
Train harder.
Even the fact that he has trained as both the warrior and a holy man is a
paradox.
It's these contradictions compounded by Yan Ming's liberal attitude that
has stirred contention outside of America.
In his homeland, times are changing.
After decades of communist repression, the Shaolin Temple is undergoing a
revival.
And under a new avid, a stricter order has been imposed.
Monks have returned to tradition, but Yan Ming a Shaolin rebel won't bow to
the pressure to conform.
Because I understand myself, I open make mind over my heart to everybody
and be myself.
I don't want to hate anything, I do exactly what I want to do.
I'll be exactly what I want to be.
That's different from other Shaolin Temple monks.
While he is never been excommunicated, Yan Ming no longer complies with the
order of the temple.
He follows his own way.
I feel sad about Shaolin Temple sometimes, you know, because I miss
there a group at the Shaolin Temple, my home, but I understand that other
world belong to me, I belong to other world.
China gave him a legacy, America has given him independence.
The challenge is finding acceptance between both the worlds.
Shifu is definitely a special man in America and I think America and China
should appreciate him and accept him because what he is doing is doing for
the world, he is not doing it for himself, he ain't doing for himself.
He's already cool, he's already straight, you know, what I mean?
He can just go ahead and chill everybody's club, you know, what I
mean, and just forget everybody.
Now, he's out here for the world, you know, that's important.
Thank you.
***-***, I mean Omi to fo.
But his associations continue to provoke criticism even in America.
If somebody comes to him and they have whatever kind of past it is, let's say
it's a gangster, let's say it's somebody from the mafia, you know, and
he is aware that they have this life outside.
Is he supposed to look at them and say and be judge and jury in that way and
say, "You know what, you are not worthy of being having a better life."
I mean, who is allowed to make that kind of a moral judgment.
They want him to be this holy, holy, you know, untouchable and he floats
around on a lotus, you know, on this lotus blossom and he never touches the
ground, he never gets his hands dirty, he never gets his feet dirty, you
know, I mean, he hangs on the studio with these guys until 4 o'clock in the
morning and they do what they do.
And he doesn't have to do what they do, but he is enjoying himself.
It's just a bunch of boars, those people that criticize him.
You know, I guess they are too traditional.
Yeah, yeah, yo, yo, here come, yo, the RZA, the GZA, the Master Killer...
I don't care the people who keep criticizing me, no.
They should criticize themselves.
And I teach to my students won't judge ourselves.
Do you hear me?
Yo.
You hear me now?
I hear you.
You hear me now.
Yeah.
Okay, okay.
All right, all right, so get your voice ready.
Yes.
Okay.
No problem, anytime.
Omi to fo.
[speaking in foreign language]
Yeah, for me to be starting off as a kid in the ghettos of New York and the
projects of Staten Islands without a nickel to catch the bus to go to
school to talk to that avid and to be accepted as a brother...
Man, that's like a dream coming true.
[speaking in foreign langue]
Today is a special day for the temple on Broadway.
For today, a group of New Yorkers will take their vow as disciples of Shifu
*** Yan Ming.
Every year our family is just getting bigger and stronger.
I've moved here to New York 10 years ago.
I'm a computer scientist.
I grew up as a military kid moving all around the world and this has been one
of my dreams.
Currently I'm a banker for major, you know, Fortune 500 company and I've
been studying under Shifu *** Yan Ming for over two and a half years.
[speaking in foreign language]
My name is Abdul, I live in Harlem, I'm a Muslim.
His sayings and his philosophy is not about, you know, what religion you
are, you know, because yes, you're supposed to take the good from good.
I explain to you.
Means fight from now this moment, you'll follow Buddha.
We are Buddhists.
We can go to the church pray.
Don't lengthier your mind.
Buddha is excellent.
God is fantastic.
Jesus grace is so fabulous.
And we will thank them all.
There's no difference.
The terrible things-- no more, throw them away, throw them in the toilet,
flush them, no problem, peace, love.
As you litter and destroy them.
Don't come to, they don't come to anyone.
More than just taking Buddhist vows, these New Yorkers are now taking on
Chinese disciple names to signify their bond with their master.
Your name is Hung Li.
Hung Li.
Hung Li.
Your name is Hung ***, happiness.
Awesome.
Omi to fo.
Omi to fo.
Omi to fo.
Your name is Hung Guang, like a light, Guang means like a bright light, yeah.
Omi to fo.
Omi to fo.
Welcome new disciples.
Then the purification part of the ceremony begins.
Omi to fo. Who's next?
Who's first one?
Omi to fo.
Excited at being an important historical part of the ceremony and
so, it's enormous signifying aspect of new birth, beginning a new and also
what enormous commitment it is to cut your hair as a woman.
More chi!
The most important thing in my life is continue teaching people and continue
helping people.
Fantastic.
Omi to fo. Awesome. Omi to fo.
I want everybody, you know, understand, everybody has a beautiful
life and please 100% honestly express your life and help yourself, help
others, help the world.
This will clean my uniform.
The occasion is celebrated with cake cutting.
[speaking in foreign language]
And like everything Yan Ming does, it's done with suitable flamboyance.
Are you ready?
Yeah.
Awesome.
More chi!
Omi to fo.
Omi to fo.
Awesome.
Yes.
More than 10 years on, the memories of China are still strong, but they have
given rise to a new dream.
My dream is to build a largest Shaolin temple outside New York City which is
well be outside New York.
The nature is the beauty, the beauty is the nature.
The future temple, the new temple would be built in a nature.
I will confine tradition, a new style, I will combine them together.
For Yan Ming, the righteous path has led him to blaze a new trail.
Bringing Shaolin to America, one of the world's youngest nations has the
opportunity to learn from one of the world's most ancient cultures.
Won't do good, don't do bad.
Help yourself, help others, help the world.
And respect yourself.
And the whole world will respect you.
Understand yourself, other people will understand you.
I'm the monk, a handsome monk on earth.
You know what I mean?
You know what I'm saying?
Cheers for a beautiful life.