After viewing the movie, I realized that much of the protagonist's life is similar to mine. He is training hard to become a kung fu master and must practice every single day in order to get better. Like in art school, he takes small steps and improves little by little in order to succeed. His instructors are hard on him and much of the time, he fails or doesn't perform to his potential, which is very true of art school. There are many failed trials before something good can be produced. Art also takes concentration similar to the training in the movie. You must focus on what you are doing and on every individual aspect of your work in order to create something effective.
Perseverance in art means, in my opinion, producing many pieces of art or trying many different things that may not work out every time until something truly amazing comes out of it. Similarly, in the movie, the main character had to try many different times in order to persevere and succeed.
Artists are somewhat like monks in that they must look within themselves to produce good artwork. Most art is drawn from within much like monks are constantly reflecting upon their inner workings and soul in order to live spiritually. All art is conceived through the mind so in a sense, it does become a bit of a spiritual process too.
Art school is like Shaolin temple in the sense that students are trying to better themselves as artists, yet in art school, you are constantly being inspired by others and interacting with others in order to develop better ideas whereas in the temple, progress was entirely dependent on one's self and one's self alone.
The equivalent of eating on top of a log, etc. would probably be working on a project up until the very last minute. You are forced to focus all your energy into getting that task done in time and you just start to crank it out rather mechanically.
Uniformity of mind for an artist has to do with a common thought process that goes through the artist's head whenever they think about a new piece. This similar thought process helps create a method for the artist and helps them to develop their signature style.
Boot camp focuses more on getting your body in shape whereas the chambers focus on both your body and your mind.
Within the art school environment, making and showing art becomes more of a simulation compared to the dog-eat-dog art world outside in the "real world". This is more of a training ground where it's okay to make mistakes in order to learn and grow, but there really isn't much room for that outside of art school.
To challenge the master in art school would probably mean challenging any professor's notions of what is "good" and what is "bad" (or acceptable versus unacceptable). By thinking outside the box and trying to be unique and innovative in everything you do, you can effectively challenge your professors to accommodate their teaching to the advancement of your work.
The protagonist's nunchucks can be compared to times in my art school experience when I am crunched for time or am having a hard time coming up with a good idea and I decide to improvise or just go with whatever comes to me. Sometimes by doing so, I can get better results than if I overthink things.
The 36th chamber could relate to the spreading of artistic knowledge beyond simply artists and educating others on the importance of the artistic world. For me, my 36th chamber would be my family and friends who are not artists. I enjoy showing them my work and explaining things I've learned to get them thinking more about the world as an artistic place.
Once I leave art school, making art will definitely become much more serious and focused for me. I will have to concentrate extra hard on pleasing not only myself but others as well (clients, coworkers, etc.). Art will not be such an introverted thing anymore but rather a process that must be marketed or shown to others in order to be effective.
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