Noel
Shaolin
Ah, the mysterious Jensari. Some have heard of them, less know of them, none can recognize them. But why is this? Perhaps that is one of the motives of the Jensari, to cause confusion, live in obscurity, staying out of the public eye, but still having a great influence on that about them. The unseen warriors, no one realizing that they are the most powerful. Perhaps because no one realizes they are warriors.
To me an ideal Jensari, would not be too far off from what the Shaolin Monks were. And much like how the Shaolin are percieved, they are seen by many as just religious monks, never realizing the history, tradition and practice of the Shaolin. It is a commonly held understanding that Buddhism and certainly Buddhist monks espouse a philosophy of non-violence and non-aggression. This philosophy is certainly in accordance with the practices of the Shaolin monks and it would be incorrect to associate practice and training of Shaolin fighting techniques as acts of aggression. One notices that the Shaolins fight mostly in silence, exhibiting what can be described as "stillness in movement". This "stillness" is a direct result of a serene mind, cultivated through the practice of meditation. The Shaolin monks train in martial arts for several hours everyday.
However, it is the daily practice of seated meditation, which enables the individual monk to sustain a demanding physical regimen. Through a practice known as Ch'an (Chinese for Zen), the monks calm the body and focus the mind to a single collected point in order to attain a mental state known as Samadhi, or complete mental absorption. It is in this quiet yet highly focused state of mind that the monk is able to sustain extreme physical discomfort and pain and enable him to undergo the intense daily training required to achieve and maintain the level of adeptness for which they are so highly praised.
Ta-mo (Bodhidharma) began to notice that the health of his disciples were deteriorating about him. They would fall asleep during sutras and they were not in condition to withstand the vigourous life of living within the temple. To him it was wrong that with all of their mental striving, they were so deficient in health. At that time as well, poor health is a great danger because of great hordes of rebels, looters and such running amuck through the land. Being isolated in the middle of nowhere (a young forest to be exact), the temple was often a target for roving bandits. What a better target, a bunch of monks & nuns who have sworn off violence & the ways of the world? Relying on imperial guards for protection was only as reliable as the next bribe or shift in government opinion. Thus martial arts found yet another reason to be developed within the temple - the monks lived there, so the monks should be the guardians of the temple. And they became the fiercest of fighters. But never carrying a neither a weapon or shield. But the Shaolin knew with the vast powers of the mind, the hands can be wielded as knives, and the arms can become as strong as a shield. In order to simply live, by strengthening their body, defending themselves and to combat injustice, the monks studied the ways of the righteous fist.
Ta-mo helped his fellow monks discover that there are connections between the mind, the spirit, and the body. This is where the Jensari realize the true applications of martial arts and physical training. By being practiced by beings on a spiritual path, it is to subjugate The Self, not others. We must seek to make the ego subservient to ourselves, not vice-versa. So we use physical training to subjugate the body to our will, being that it is the most readily under our conscious control. With this platform in place, we are able to launch an offensive on our own inner demons, our own shortcomings, that manifest from the psychological & spiritual realms of our being. This even became a famous axiom of Mao Tse-Tung when he espoused to the people "Make strong the mind, make savage the body." If we can overcome our Self, to overcome an opponent is easy.