TRAVERSE CITY — Jim Adkins first became a martial arts student when he was 11, two years after his father had died in a car accident. He told the instructor he wanted to learn to beat people up.
He quickly found out that wasn't going to happen.
Instead, he set out on a path that he's been following for 36 years, working his way up to an eighth-degree black belt in kenpo, a level of karate that he and only two other people in the U.S. have reached.
This summer, Adkins, 47, is planning to go to China to study at a Shaolin temple and could possibly end up as a Shaolin monk.
"Did you ever see David Carradine in 'Kung Fu'?" he asked. "That was a Shaolin temple."
"It was never my intention to become a monk," he said. "I just wanted to humbly follow the path."
The most important thing he's learned along that path, he said, is that it's the right one for him to be on.
He was a singer in a rock 'n' roll band, a stockbrocker for Merrill Lynch, but all the time still teaching martial arts. He now owns White Tiger Martial Arts on East Eighth Street in Traverse City. "My students teach me something every day," he said.
The trip to China is neither the beginning nor the end of his path to becoming a monk, he said, but it does promise to be one of the most distant. He'll travel to Hunan Province and stay there for a month or two, working with the warrior monks and learning more about the Shaolin way of life. He may end up making several return trips and could eventually start a Shaolin temple in Traverse City.
One of his students, Jyl Gaskin, think Adkins will be a great monk, but she's especially excited about the possibility of a temple.
"It will be a home for this type of study," said the Williamsburg resident, 57. "There are a lot of Buddhists in the area. This may give them a focal point. It will be a cultural experience that hasn't been here."
Shaolin is more of a philosophy than a religion, Adkins said. "You want to give back, do no harm." His Southern Baptist grandma told him years ago, "As long as your heart is calm, you're doing the right thing."
Besides his teaching and learning, he's helping start a nonprofit Northern Michigan Cultural Center, not just to help people learn about Asian culture, but about all cultures -- Anishnabe, European, Chinese and American (see sidebar).
His decades as a martial arts student and teacher have kept him calm, fit and philosophical, he said. "I'm probably one of the most patient people you've ever met."
Then he giggles as his phone's ringtone begins playing "Kung Fu Fighting."
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