Everyone knows that Chinese Shaolin Kung fu is a type of martial art that requires great concentration of the mind and which gives the body great agility and strength. But how many know that the physical  and mental benefits of Chinese Shaolin Kung Fu are only the good side effects of this practice. This practice strengthens the spirit more than the mind and body. In fact Chinese Shaolin Kung Fu has more to do with  spiritual awareness than with physical fitness and mental alertness.

At the Shaolin Monastery in China where this discipline was developed (and it had taken several decades for the monks to develop it), the monks are very choosy about taking the disciples. Sometimes it takes an avid student several years to convince the monks to accept him as a student. And even after that it may be several years of spiritual strengthening before the actual practice is taught.

Now, martial arts classes that are held by the Shaolin Kung Fu School is the only way that one can have a whiff of the Chinese Shaolin Kung Fu. I say a whiff because martial arts classes can teach only a very small portion of Chinese Shaolin Kung Fu. Martial arts classes are useful even if only the physical part of these disciplines is taught because learning them trains the body and mind. Martial arts classes are useful for physical fitness as well as mental alertness.

Also martial arts like Chinese Shaolin Kung Fu are skills that should be used for self -defence and not for violence. Martial art classes are now found everywhere and are popular among the people who wish to learn these skills for physical fitness and   self-defence. After all it is better to be safe physically even if not on a higher spiritual plane like the Buddhist monks of the shaolin Monastery.