History of Wayist Karman Meditation
Where does Karman Meditation come from and how did it start?
Wayist Karman Meditation is steeped in the history of the East.
It has its roots in first century Gandhara[Gandhara wikipedia], in Wayist and Hindu monasteries of North Eastern India.
During the 3rd - 4th century, an enigmatic monk by the name of Bodhidharma (the founder of Zen and Chen Buddhism) traveled to China where he taught the Shaolin monks the skills of Karman Meditation. Stripped of its religious/spiritual connotations (for reasons of training KungFu fighters), in China it took the name Yijin Jing, which denotes a muscle and tendon strengthening exercise regime. In later years, Wayists could still practice Karman Meditation when religious persecution took place. The adoption of Karman Meditation by Shaolin schools allowed devotees to do their meditations without fear of reprisal from authorities who did not approve of its underlying philosophy.
Tradition has it (that is our way of saying we always believed this but never tried to verify the story because it is of no consequence to us whether it is indeed a verifiable historical fact) that senior monks who labored day and night in cramped drafty places over manuscripts, reproduction of books and teaching initiates, developed this regime to maintain their physical bodies in spite of their otherwise sedentary lifestyle. The exceptional health of aging monks became notable and it did not take long before kings and noblemen requested the services of the holy personal trainers. This proved to be a good source of income for monasteries.
Karman Meditation started with twelve basic movements that are still popular all over the world. Regular practitioners of Karman Meditation sometimes advance to include all three styles, to add additional psychonousomatic (soul, mind and body) benefits.