"Sometimes we must make long literal and figurative journeys only to realize that the thing we're seeking was right in front of us all the time."

Vincent Lynch continues his story. In 1985, with his cameraman and a "Mao to Mozart" assembly of American martial artists, he made a historic visit to his Mecca, the Shaolin temple in Honan. There, practicing a set of taijiquan by himself in the inner courtyards of the temple, he had a revelation.

"As we moved into 1985 another situation developed. We were fortunate enough to have the unique combination of circumstances that came together at a specific point in time. In 1985 the director of the Beijing Wu Shu Team contacted George Xu (Xu Guo Ming) in San Francisco to explore the possibility of assembling a group of American martial artists to visit China to attend and demonstrate at the First International Wu Shu Championships to be held at the city of Xian in central China. In coordination with Brendon Lai of San Francisco, they began contacting martial artists of different disciplines to assemble a team that was representative from the aspects of age, sex, race, type of martial art discipline, and skill level. Their intent was to organize a group that contained some of the most famous martial artists in the United States, as well as normal instructors to participate in a cultural exchange, people to people, with the most famous martial arts of China. They formed U.S.M.A.R.T., the United States Martial Art Representative Team. This was to distinguish it from the USA competition team. I decided to meld all the pre-production work on the Shanghai Masters project into a documentary on this American group. My intention was to make a "Mao to Mozart" of the martial arts. As a result of three primary elements: the invitation of the Beijing Wu Shu Team; Brendon Lai's American contacts, and George Xu's access to the most famous martial artists of China; it is unlikely that this film could be recreated.

Finally in August of 1985, a representative group of American martial artists traveled to the Peoples Republic of China as guests of the Beijing Wu Shu Team, the most prestigious wu shu team in the world. In an effort to promote cultural exchange through the martial arts, under the leadership of team captain, Professor Wally Jay and co-captain Al Dacascos, they traveled to Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, and the Shaolin temple in Honan Province, the original birth place of the martial arts, as emissaries of cultural exchange performing their skills for their hosts and observing demonstrations by the greatest masters living in China. American team member's disciplines ranged from Karate, Jiujitsu, Larn Sou, Northern Praying Mantis, Wun Hop Kuen Do, Capoieria, Chen Taijiquan to Tae Kwon Do. They traveled to the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Xian and the Shaolin Temple .

On their trip, the Americans met with the most famous martial arts masters in China, China's Living Treasures! In addition to the dialog established with these famous masters, they were able to observe the positive health benefits of martial arts that permeate the Chinese people as a whole. They also had the rare honor to exchange and perform with the monks of the Shaolin Temple. In the film the monks perform three sets and also reveal the famous Shaolin Training Hall where monks have practiced for over 1000 years. We were the first western crew ever allowed to record in the training hall. An interesting thing occurred when we entered the training hall. All the batteries in the video cameras went dead. The consumer cameras were history, but we had a professional Betacam setup. My cameraman freaked out and said, "The battery's is reading dead." I asked if the tape was still rolling and he replied, "Yes". I said, "Keep Shooting!" Fortunately our footage turned out fine.

I arrived at the temple at 5:00 am the day of the shoot. The monks had already meditated and had their breakfast. There was one sweeping up in front of the temple. He let me go in. At this time the Shaolin temple was not commercialized as it is now. It was very funky and had only a few street vendors with booths outside that hadn't set up yet. It was pretty much in the state it was during Mao's tenure.

For me going to the Shaolin temple was like a Christian's pilgrimage to Bethlehem or a Muslim to Mecca. I yearned to go to the source of the knowledge I had acquired. This feeling was common among the group. I went into one of he inner courtyards by myself and did a set of Yang taijiquan. I was actually living one of my fantasies. During the routine I had a small satori. I realized that what I was seeking at the temple did not reside there, but rather, it was within me. It may sound corny, but that's what happened. Sometimes we must make long literal and figurative journeys only to realize that the thing we're seeking was right in front of us all the time.

We were treated extremely well by the monks. I think this was in part that Master Xu's Hsing-I master and one of the old resident monks were kung fu brothers. They provided tea for us in one of the private buildings and we were able to discuss the history of the temple through our translator. In the course of the discussion we explained our cultural exchange intention and the team volunteered to demonstrate for the monks. They readily accepted this and said they would also participate. I was blown away. Originally, I thought I would shoot the team on site and have them do voice overs of what it meant for them to be there. The demonstration at the temple on the film was a spontaneous event. As it was later in the morning, the tourists that came that day who formed the "audience" were treated to a rare display of talent. The monks maybe pious, but not without mischief. Master Cho of our team was demonstrating Tae Kwan Do breaking techniques. Instead of using normal bricks the monks substituted special triple kilned bricks, which are extremely dense. Master Cho pointed this out to me before filming. He was a great sport, however, and broke them anyway. At the conclusion of the demo I asked if we could shoot the training hall and Tamo's cave. The cave was out of the question, however, they yielded on the training hall as I described previously. I am grateful to have had my personal and filmmaker experience at the temple before it became totally commercialized like it is today." (By Vincent Lynch. To be continued.)

Read the first installment of Vincent's story:
http://www.energymedicinechicago.com/about/blog/one-hand-china039s-livin...

See more information about his award winning documentary KUNG FU DIPLOMACY:
http://www.onehand.com/pages/volume_01.html