Originally Posted by
EdenResident
First of all, there's always inconsistencies in Jin Yong novel. In HDSD, Kong Zhi was said to have mastered 11 of the 72 techniques (without any side effects) while in TLBB, mastering of 5 techniques was already considered elite. I doubt Kong Zhi was better than the Xuan-level monks in TLBB.
However, I think what JY was trying to convey was that Shaolin was first and foremost a Buddhist foundation. All those arts and techniques were created by monks who were already enlightened. Therefore, if you're already enlightened and have been able to get rid of (most of) your desires, then you have a very good base to start practicing those skills.
However, once Shaolin became stronger in martial arts, the monks did not follow the old way anymore (ie., enlightenment first then martial arts). More likely, they will try to achieve both at the same time and this causes conflict. How can you get rid of your desire at the same time as you train day and night to increase your inner power? How can you preach the "no-killing
precept at the same time as you train day and night to perfect that move that blasts someone head's off? This inherent conflict only existed for Shaolin monks and not other sects.
All Shaolin monks knew this. Or at least, they were definitely cautioned of it. However, they couldn't help but getting sucked into this conflict once they've made their martial arts progress, which was easier to see than progress in religious studies. So, as they tried to achieve both at the same time (enlightenment and martial arts), the "better" monks prioritized enlightenment first and became better at the end while the "worse" monks favored martial arts and the end result was either they didn't advance far in both, or worse yet, they fire-deviated. This is where Jin Yong is consistent again. In all of his novels, we see that the Shaolin monks with the highest level of martial arts were also the most enlightened ones (Sweepie, Du E, Fang Zheng).
To conclude, Sweepie's point in TLBB was that it's not that practicing 72 techniques or Yijinjing caused side effects but rather, to start practicing those major skills, you need to have the pre-requisite of already being enlightened (ie. like the original monks who created those arts), or at the very least, your Buddhist studies must be ahead of your martial arts studies. Otherwise, your desires or your killer side will consume you.