How Shaolin Monks Actually Meditate — And How You Can Start Today
Most people find Shaolin through the kicks, the forms, the physical power. That's how it always starts. But spend any real time around a monk and you notice something else — a quality of stillness that doesn't disappear when the movement stops.
That stillness has a name: Chan (禅). It is the original root of what the West later called Zen, and it sits at the centre of everything in Shaolin — the Kung Fu, the Qi Gong, the tea ceremony, the daily routine. You can train for years without ever touching it, or you can begin with it from day one. The monks say it makes everything else stronger.
Shifu Yan Tuo has spent his life studying and teaching this inner path. In his four-session course, The Spiritual Path of Shaolin, he takes you through the practices that most Kung Fu students never find — not because they're secret, but because nobody teaches them.
Course Preview
Before anything else — watch this. It will tell you more about Shifu Yan Tuo's teaching style than any description can.
Who Is Shifu Yan Tuo?
Shifu Yan Tuo is a Shaolin monk and teacher whose practice bridges the physical and the contemplative. Where many instructors focus on forms and fighting, Shifu Yan Tuo teaches the internal dimension of Shaolin — the breath, the energy, the ritual practices that create the mental foundation for everything else.
His four-session course is beginner-friendly but rooted in real lineage. That combination — accessible entry point, authentic source — is exactly what most people searching for Shaolin meditation cannot find.
What the Course Covers
The four sessions build on each other deliberately. Movement first, then energy, then ritual, then stillness. By the end, they form a single system.
Week 1 — Origins of Shaolin & Foundational Movements
The course opens with Wu Bu Quan (五步拳) — the Five Stance Form. It's the first thing Shaolin monks learn, and the reason is not just physical. Each stance is a lesson in how the body and mind interact: how you stand determines how you think; how you breathe determines how you move.
The five stances — Ma Bu (horse), Gong Bu (bow), Pu Bu (crouch), Xie Bu (rest), Xu Bu (empty) — are practiced across the entire Shaolin tradition. Learning them correctly is learning how to be present in a body.
Wu Bu Quan 五步拳 Stance Training Foundations
Week 2 — The Power of Qi Gong
This session introduces two cornerstone practices of Shaolin internal training:
Zhan Zhuang (站桩) — Standing Meditation. You stand still, but nothing about it is passive. Zhan Zhuang teaches alignment, internal balance, and stillness while building a kind of quiet physical strength that conventional exercise never reaches.
Ba Duan Jin (八段锦) — the Eight Brocades. A flowing Qi Gong sequence that opens the body's energy pathways, improves circulation, releases tension from long hours at screens or desks, and restores a quality of sustained calm that is distinct from relaxation.
Shifu Yan Tuo teaches Qi Gong as a complete system of energy cultivation — breath, posture, and awareness working together. It is one of the most effective entry points into genuine Shaolin practice for people who cannot yet train the physical forms.
Zhan Zhuang 站桩 Ba Duan Jin 八段锦 Qi GongThe Qi Gong session alone is worth the course for anyone dealing with stress, shallow breathing, or screen fatigue.
Get Lifetime Access — $149
Week 3 — Tea Ceremony & Meditative Rituals
This is the session that surprises people most. Shaolin monks practice tea — Gong Fu Cha (功夫茶) — as a form of meditation in motion. Slow it down, pay attention, bring full awareness to something ordinary, and that ordinary thing becomes a doorway into stillness.
Shifu Yan Tuo guides you through a tea ritual you can practice at home with nothing but hot water, a cup, and your attention. No special equipment needed. The practice itself is the tool — it clears the mind and anchors awareness in a way that sitting meditation sometimes cannot for beginners.
Tea, breath, and stillness work together to harmonise body and spirit — the same awareness used in Shaolin meditation and Qi Gong, and in Kung Fu forms. — Shifu Yan Tuo, Week 3Gong Fu Cha 功夫茶 Meditative Ritual Daily Practice
Week 4 — Meditation: The Heart of Shaolin Practice
The final session is the one everything builds toward. Shifu Yan Tuo teaches Chan (禅) Buddhist meditation — the practice of stillness, breath, and inner clarity that has guided monks at the Shaolin Temple for over 1,500 years.
What makes this session different from most guided meditation: Shifu approaches it not as a stress management technique but as a complete discipline — one that improves concentration, balances emotions, and deepens every other aspect of Kung Fu and Qi Gong practice. He teaches you how to sit correctly, how to breathe with awareness, and how to quiet the mind using methods from the original Chan tradition that Zen Buddhism grew from.
By the end of the four sessions, the pieces click into place: movement, energy, ritual, and stillness are not separate practices. They are a single system for body and mind.
Chan 禅 Meditation Breath Work Inner ClarityThe Spiritual Path of Shaolin
4 recorded sessions with Shifu Yan Tuo. Chan meditation, Qi Gong, tea ceremony, and Shaolin foundations. Lifetime access — train at your own pace.
Start Your Inner Path — $1494 × 1-hour sessions · Lifetime access · Beginner-friendly
Take It Further
If the Spiritual Path opens something for you and you want to go deeper in the physical practice, the logical next step is Shaolin 100 Foundational Movements — Shifu Yan Jin's complete course covering every basic technique a Kung Fu student must own. Chan practice and jibengong training work together: the stillness from meditation improves your forms; the physical rigour of jibengong makes the stillness feel earned.
For those who want the full immersion — to train in China, a kilometer from the Shaolin Temple — Shaolin Zhong Wu Training Camp is where you bring everything together. Morning Qi Gong, stance training, forms, meditation — the full Shaolin day, lived rather than watched.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Chan meditation and how does it relate to Shaolin?
Chan (禅) is the Buddhist meditation tradition that originated at the Shaolin Temple over 1,500 years ago. It is the direct ancestor of Japanese Zen. Chan meditation is not separate from Shaolin Kung Fu — it is the philosophical and contemplative foundation from which all Shaolin physical practice grows. The Shaolin principle of 禅武合一 (Chán Wǔ Hé Yī) — Chan and martial arts as one — captures this directly: the outer practice and the inner practice are the same practice.
What is Qi Gong and is it different from Kung Fu?
Qi Gong (气功) is the practice of cultivating and regulating the body's internal energy through breath, posture, and awareness. Kung Fu refers to the external martial forms — kicks, strikes, stances, weapons. They are different but complementary: Qi Gong builds the internal foundation that makes Kung Fu effective. Shaolin monks typically practice both. For beginners, Qi Gong is often more accessible than the physical Kung Fu forms and has well-documented benefits for stress, respiratory health, posture, and mental focus.
What is Ba Duan Jin (Eight Brocades)?
Ba Duan Jin (八段锦) — the Eight Brocades — is one of the most widely practised Qi Gong sequences in the Shaolin tradition. It consists of eight flowing movements designed to open the body's energy pathways, improve circulation, strengthen the spine, and release tension. It is beginner-friendly, requires no equipment, and can be practised in a small space. The sequence has been in continuous use for over a thousand years and is increasingly studied in Western clinical settings for its effects on anxiety, sleep, and chronic pain.
What is Zhan Zhuang (standing meditation)?
Zhan Zhuang (站桩) — literally "standing post" — is a practice of sustained standing in a fixed posture, often with arms held in front of the body. Despite its apparent simplicity, it is one of the most demanding internal practices in Chinese martial arts. It builds structural alignment, cultivates internal stillness, and develops a type of rooted physical strength distinct from conventional exercise. Most Shaolin practitioners consider it indispensable. Five to twenty minutes per day produces measurable changes in posture, balance, and mental calm within weeks.
Do I need any prior experience for the Spiritual Path of Shaolin course?
No prior experience is needed. The course is beginner-friendly and structured to take you from zero — through physical foundations, Qi Gong, the tea ceremony, and into Chan meditation — in four sessions. The practices are gentle enough for anyone regardless of fitness level, and each session builds naturally on the one before. What matters is not fitness but willingness to slow down and pay attention.
How is Shaolin meditation different from mindfulness meditation?
Modern mindfulness meditation is largely derived from Vipassana (Theravada Buddhist insight practice). Shaolin Chan meditation comes from a different lineage — the Chinese synthesis of Indian Dhyana practice with Taoist philosophy, developed at the Shaolin Temple. Both cultivate present-moment awareness, but Shaolin Chan is traditionally taught as part of a larger system that includes physical practice, energy cultivation (Qi Gong), and ritual. The tea ceremony, the stances, and the meditation are not separate techniques — they are aspects of a unified practice aimed at harmonising body, breath, and mind.
Ready to begin? The Spiritual Path of Shaolin — $149. Lifetime access.
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