The Martial Arts have origins that date back some 6000 years according to historians, but it was Bodhidharma who brought to China not only Chan, but a new approach to the martial arts.  They were no longer just for self-defense - they encompassed a spiritual regimen, a new form of meditation, that could deliver the practitioner, through disciplined practice, not only to improved health of body, mind, and spirit, but to Nirvana - that state of ego-transcendence that is the first landmark on Chan's mystical journey. 

In this "Ask Sifu" series, I answer many of the questions that beginners have as they begin Chan Quan, the Martial Arts style of the Shaolin monks of Song Shan mountain.  I hope these short essays help illuminate some of the connection between Chan and Martial arts - a connection that has nearly vanished in the West.