The original reason for my coming to this country
Was to transfer the Law in order to save and rescue all the confused beings.
A five-petal flower blooms
And the fruit will come by itself"
Gata composed by DAMO

The study programmes in the Shaolin Daxue Society are successful because they are orthodox and are taught as closely as possible to the way they have been, for over 1500 years. Any of the branches in the education model imply a great responsibility for the person who studies it; the only way to take real advantage of them is through perseverance and humility.

Academic programmes

Xue Yuan - Central Institute

Our centres offer two lines of study, Da Xue for those over 15 years old, and Xiao Xie for people 15 years old or younger. Each programme has different specialisations.

Da Xue (Great Study)

The Great Study is that, which, in the old days, was taught to men in the Imperial College and was proposed to them as a rule of conduct; then as the men deduce their origin from above, there is not one of them who hasn't been gifted with the sense of humanity, justice, the convenience of righteousness and wisdom. However, even though all men have natural dispositions when born, there are those who lack the power or faculty to cultivate them and lead them conveniently. This is why the Great Study is trusted with the mission to instruct in order to develop the faculties in their nature.

Upon reaching 15 years of age, everyone, from the heir of the imperial dignity to the other children of the emperor, the children of the princes, prime ministers, governors of provinces, and wise men of the Empire, and all those children of the general population who stood out because of their talent, would go into the Great School, and were taught the means to penetrate and deepen into the principles of things, of rectifying the movements of their hearts, of correcting and perfecting themselves by themselves and to govern upon other men.

Da Xue has 5 faculties

Martial arts
Meditation
Fine arts
History and philosophy
Traditional medicine

Xia Xue

All the children entered the Little School (Xiao Xue), where they were taught gardening, how to sweep the floors, to answer diligently and respectfully to those who called them and took care of them; to go in and out according to the rules of good behaviour; to welcome guests courteously and fare them well in the same manner. They were also taught the customs of the world and the ceremonies, music, the art of shooting with a bow, driving carriages, reading and arithmetic. Those who studied thus would unavoidably apply to the knowledge of natural dispositions that each of them actually possessed, and the conduct they had to follow. Thus, in the flourishing times of old, the customs were so beautiful and pure in the people that the subsequent centuries could not achieve a greater degree of perfection.

Xiao Xue has three schools

Martial arts
Chinese language
Classic Eastern History and Culture

Meditation classes and Buddhism conferences

Meditation is the fundamental base of every system that aims to develop better human beings, however meditation is but a method used by all cultures to find an intuitive learning and later a state of conscience without binds.

The Shaolin Daxue International Society offers these methods as they have been taught in the places where they originated.

Chan (Zen) meditation
Vypassana meditation
Tantric meditation

Languages

As a basic foundation of respect when an approach to other cultures different from one's own is performed, one of the most important factors to consider is the language from where it originates.

Learning a language is a way to widen our comprehension as well as to open the doors to a more complete cultural exchange.

So, The Shaolin Daxue International Society offers the next language courses:

Mandarin (Chinese)
Japanese
Tibetan
Burma
Hindi
Thai

Most of the best classic texts are still untranslated, so learning all of these languages is a fundamental part to a serious and professional study of the classic eastern cultures.

Periodic activities

Intensive seminars

With the purpose of strengthening the preparation of its members, the Society invites teachers and founders of the system every year for a period of two to three months to carry out seminars and intensive courses of martial, athletic and academic formation. Each seminar has curricular value and the organisations which support the Shaolin Daxue International Society honour them.

Symposia

The Society, en lieu with the International Society for the Study of Ancestral Cultures welcomes everyone in the art and philosophy symposium, where experts in each branch of knowledge deliver speeches about diverse topics of interest such as philosophy, art, and the science of ancestral cultures.

Tournaments

Every martial art has as an end to achieve the greatest artistic expression possible with one's body, so tournaments are in their most natural aspect the gathering and shared learning among a group of martial arts practitioners.

Anyway, it is a martial system and so it is necessary to learn the art of war and combat from its physical application to its application in the ruling of the mind, so the tournaments also imply an opportunity for the participants to improve and self-evaluate their performance and commitment.

The first tournament in the Shaolin Daxue International Society was carried out in 2004, and boasted the participation of three States in the Mexican Republic, as well as guests from Puerto Rico, Spain and Japan, among others. In 2005 there will be an intercampus event which will take place in the Xue Yuan located in China, on the Song Mountain.

Affiliated schools

Several schools have decided to belong to the systems with direct linage from the Eastern masters and so have requested the Shaolin Daxue International Society to be a link between them. Due to this need, the Taiji-Qi gong and Gong fu Shaolin Federations were formed, so the organisms can group together and have direct contact with the monasteries in the East.

These federations have access to the scholarship system and travels to the East organised by the Society, as well as several benefits to strengthen a link between all the martial arts schools in Latin America so as to have international presence to support our talented youngsters in their formation.