Текст книги "Sensei of Shambala"

“You once said that a Bodhisattva is a human who left Nirvana for the sake of humankind.”

“Certainly. That’s why this is a double temptation for him, because he felt this state of peak of unearthly happiness. You simply can’t imagine yourselves, what kind of a… heroic feat it is to leave Nirvana and to come here. Metaphorically speaking, Bodhisattvas can be compared with those who are the best of the best volunteers that were sent to do the most crucial work.

Bodhisattvas stay here for the sake of people, for the sake of the cultivation of human souls so that these souls can develop and become free, really free. Because our inner nature, our soul, strives for this every moment of life.”

Sensei glanced at his watch and said, “Alright guys, it’s time to start a meditation. Otherwise, we could continue debating until morning.”

I also looked at my watch. Time flew by in this conversation as if it were just one second. There was a strange feeling too, as if time were completely absent, as if it were the moment of eternity, slightly opening the curtain of its mysteries.

We performed the same meditation as last time, cleansing our intentions. I already started to feel more clearly the water streaming over edge of the jug, with some kind of wavy movement. After the training, the Teacher reminded us that we should permanently learn to control our thoughts and fish out negative parasites of consciousness. He also emphasized that we shouldn’t give in to our aggression, if it appears. And the most important thing, we should constantly cultivate in ourselves divine Love by performing the Lotus Flower. Nikolai Andreevich remained in the glade while we said goodbye and went home.

31

I was so amazed by this knowledge that Sensei was so simply and lucidly telling us that I wrote down this whole conversation into my diary, marking out for myself the most important moments: “The sense of human existence is the perfection of the soul!!!” I felt this but wasn’t sure. Now, once again I thought that this was changing everything that I had known up to now and that I considered so valuable and important in life. I looked around and thought: “We really live life entirely for the body. Even at home, whatever you look at, everything exists for the service and satisfaction of the needs of the body. Books are probably the only exception. Of course, Sensei said once that all these attributes of civilization are necessary for us to have more time for the perfection of our souls. But how much among all this unnecessary stuff is completely redundant! And still for us it isn’t enough. We still want more. What for? Why? After all, tomorrow we could die and in that other world they will value what we have cultivated inside us and not how much dust we’ve gathered by the tireless work of our shell, half rotten in the earth.”

I went on to revalue everything, even at school. The girls, as usual, showed off what fashionable rags were bought for them and with evident envy told about what they saw on others. Listening to them, I was surprised with myself, because before I was just the same. I was chasing some kind of illusive fashion that didn’t completely suit me. But my megalomania was increasing, as at that time I had an opportunity to stand out from the crowd. In reality, though, fashionable are only those things that nicely suit a person. Once fashionable clothes, after a momentary presentation, are now hanging as dead weight in my closet. Why does one human need so much stuff? What do I need it for? Maybe somewhere people don’t have anything to wear. In my own class, for example, there are three girls from poor families. Two of them didn’t have fathers because they had died in the mines. And the third one’s father was a drunkard, which is even worse. Why can’t I share all this stuff with them? They need it more than me.

I asked the advice of my mother, although I lied to her a bit, telling her that our school had organized a charity action. But my mother wasn’t against it. We even found shoes for the girls. I gathered all this and then had to solve another problem: how can it be given to them? Putting myself in their place, I considered that the best way would be to ask my class teacher to pass the clothes to them as if from some charitable organization. I suppose that she liked this idea, because in a week the whole school, under the initiative of our teacher, announced a charitable action to benefit children from the city orphanage. Having heard this news, I recalled once again Sensei’s words that one kind thought and one kind deed give birth to a chain reaction of kind thoughts and kind deeds. I thought that if everyone could understand this and did whatever good deeds he could, then perhaps poverty and hunger would disappear in the world. Otherwise, it’s somehow shameful to be called civilized when nearby somebody is starving or extremely needy.

With such thoughts of universal love, brotherhood, and mutual aid, my body was embraced by some kind of stirring quiver. A feeling of light, pleasant pressure began spreading in the area of my solar plexus. Reaching a certain size, it started to radiate waves, which brought consciousness to an even bigger excitement, to an increasing feeling of endless love to the whole world.

32

At the next additional training, we learned the new kata with interest and diligence. The “speedy guys” never ceased to impress us with their mastery. With captivating beauty and thunder-like speed, they sparred with each other. Andrew, observing their movements, complained to the Teacher, “How do they move so quickly? It seems like we do same kata, but no matter how hard I try, I still fall behind. They move practically twice as fast as I. Why?”

“It has to do with balance. This is the trick,” answered Sensei.

“But I keep balance as I was taught earlier with my first steps in karate. In my opinion, I follow all the rules; the center of gravity is distributed as it should be. But it doesn’t work like with them.”

“Because you move the center of gravity while they follow the center of gravity.”

“How is that?” Andrew was surprised.

“Well. In ‘hara,’ or as it’s also known, the point of Dan-Tian, which is located three fingers lower than the navel, is the center of gravity. Remember, one time I told you about this. Everybody is taught to rightly hold it, to step, to move, and so forth. You were told that, for example, a standing man doesn’t fall down until his plumbing line from the center of gravity is located inside a platform limited by the edges of his feet. Walking is a series of falls forward, prevented by timely moving of the supporting leg. Running is a series of jumps from one leg to another with a corresponding shift of weight of the body and the center of gravity. Right? Right… In other words, everyone is teaching the general rules of moving the center of gravity. But that is why they lose in speed. Because in order to increase speed and to teach the body to move, one needs to learn, first of all, to move the center of gravity.”

“Can I learn it, or am I hopeless?” Andrew asked with a smile.

“Only the fools and the lazy fellows are hopeless,” Sensei replied with irony. “Otherwise, everybody can learn it. There is an elementary technique to shift your center of gravity. In other words, it’s almost the same as dynamic meditation. At first, you learn the breathing technique. In any arbitrary movements, when your hands move away from you, inhale. When your hands come towards you, exhale; step forward, inhale; step back, exhale. You exhale into the bottom of the belly, into the ‘hara,’ which is similar to how we exhaled through our hands in meditation. In other words, during the exhale, concentrate your attention and completely concentrate on this point of the belly, as if slightly straining it exactly in the area of ‘hara.’ In the end, you begin to control your derived breathing in this way. And the most important thing is to feel this place, to feel in particular your center of gravity.”

“What kind of movements does one need to perform? Is there any sequence?”

“Any, whatever you want, it doesn’t matter. If you want, warm up or polish kata, or simply walk in circles, or make bows, it doesn’t matter. The important work is done by your thought and concentration. This is the first phase: to find your exact center of gravity and to feel it during movement.

“The second phase is aimed at increasing the point of gravity concentrated in the ‘hara.’ In other words, you mentally send Qi to it. At this point, due to the concentration of energy of air, it spreads and becomes round and dense. And now it turns into a small ball, in the shape of whatever you like or imagine. The important thing is that you almost feel it physically, as if something is there, for example, a big, round ball.

“And the third phase is the most important. With the power of your will, you move this center of gravity, and everything follows it. Wherever you are and whatever you do, you constantly perform this dynamic meditation.”

“Just like the Lotus Flower?” Andrew asked.

“Absolutely right. Just like that. Besides, to practice one meditation doesn’t mean to neglect another. No matter how you move, wherever you go, first, you should move not the body, but your center of gravity with your mind. Later, the body should learn to keep up with it. That is all. Everything is simple.”

Andrew reflected and started to move with his breathing.

“Look here,” Sensei drew his attention, “that’s how you move usually. You first bring forward the shoulder, the leg, the head, and so forth. In other words, at first you bring forward a part of the body before the center of gravity. And now look at the guys. See, they start all movements exactly from the point of ‘hara,’ the bottom of the belly first goes forward, while later the body follows it, no matter how they move around, quickly or slowly.”

“Aha, now it’s clear,” Kostya caught up, carefully listening to the Teacher with us. “We couldn’t understand why your unusual walk differs so much from other people’s.”

Sensei shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile, “It’s a habit.”

Our first attempts ended with loud laughter because everyone tried to learn everything at once. But all that we were able to do was to walk like penguins. That’s why Sensei remarked, “Guys, I told you, you at first need to learn to breathe, to feel you center of gravity and later to move it.”

“But how do they accelerate their movements?” asked Andrew, nodding towards the speedy guys. “Do we need to do something special?”

“Actually, no. You can accelerate just with the exhale, in other words, with the power of your thought pushing forward the center of gravity. You move your hand just by thinking about it. It is the same: you should freely move your center of gravity by mentally sending it an order. And when you learn to move your center of gravity at the speed of thought, you will be able to move as quickly as your physical condition will permit. You’ll only need to have time for your body to catch up with your center of gravity.”

“Great!” pronounced Andrew. “Any sprinter competition can be won in this way.”

“That’s for sure. If this technique were known to sportsmen, they would win the gold at world championships,” Sensei answered half in jest.

“Don’t any of them know about this?”

“Unfortunately, not.”

“I have never heard about this and never even read about this,” Kostya confessed honestly, to our surprise. “Why not?”

“Well, this is a very ancient technique for the development of human abilities and is the secret knowledge of superiors of ancient monasteries. They don’t tell about it even to their disciples and save it for their own use as a peculiar, secret technique. Though, in reality, there is nothing special about it. It’s not even the art. It’s an ordinary technique easily learned by anybody, although it is more effective among others.”

The entire way home, our company was very proud. We were so happy to find out the secrets known only to masters of ancient monasteries. It was much more than we could have hoped to have learned. I was amazed once again by Sensei’s knowledge of ancient techniques. When guessing who he is, I wrote down in my diary that Sensei was probably a talented orientalist, or he knew those regions very well, or he grew up there. Otherwise, how did he receive this knowledge? Mystery gave rise to yet another mystery. Sensei undoubtedly knew a lot, starting with philosophy and finishing with exact sciences. And all that was on a foundation of some kind of unknown science of the fundamental knowledge about human beings, starting with the micro-universe of the endlessly dividing atom and finishing with the invisible soul, or rather with the mystery of its creation. “Who is he?!” I asked myself once again.

33

The next day, I received quite unpleasant news. My mother again fell ill with a sharp, horrible pain in her back. Lately she was greatly nervous because she, as a good specialist, was simply overloaded with work. Moreover, she had to finish the work that had piled up during her absence and they had regular inspections at her workplace. In general, due to sitting for a long time, her back and nerves couldn’t endure such an overload. That day she got up from bed with great difficulty, with horrible, unbearable pain in her waist.

This was, of course, a shock for us. We worried horribly. Each of us tried to help her in his own way. My father started to call all our relatives and consulted about other methods of treatment because my mother didn’t want to undergo surgery. Most likely, she was scared not by the surgery itself, but by the consequences that she had seen and heard from many people while in the neurology ward. My mother didn’t at all like the prospect of becoming disabled for her entire life. But the pain became so strong that she agreed to do anything.

Meanwhile, my father called his direct commander, the general, to obtain leave for the following day. My father was saying that this general was a good man. He, with fatherly concern, took care of and worried about all his subordinates and always helped them and their families as much as he could. This time, he didn’t betray his principles and his deputy officer. The general, having listened to father, advised him to visit a good chiropractor, giving him the corresponding address. Then he asked my father to calm mother down because he had had a similar story when he pulled a muscle in his leg. He received treatment from this chiropractor and was able to move, and after two years, everything was still all right.

After that call, my mum and dad unanimously decided to drive there the next day. I, honestly speaking, was doubtful. In my mind, I simply couldn’t grasp how my mother could be treated just with bare hands if even injections and pills didn’t help her. I decided to treat my mother in my own way, as Sensei had said. He told us that any man can make a matrix of health with the power of his deep, inner Love, if he believes in it very much.

Before going to bed, after all my meditations, I concentrated on an image of health for my mother. I imagined her completely healthy, happy, cheerful, with her beautiful, sweet smile and kind eyes. I silently asked forgiveness from God for all my sins, if I had such in His opinion. I sincerely asked Him to help her, because I greatly love my mother. I was asking so strongly that I shed tears. I wanted so much for mother to recover quickly that after this peculiar meditation, I ran to my parents’ room to see if maybe something had already changed.

My father was working on some papers at his writing table while my mother was already sleeping. Her face was slightly frowning. Her back was probably hurting her, even in her dreams. I came back to my room and thought, “Maybe my power alone is not enough. Of course, I will continue doing this technique to create a matrix of health, but it would be great if Sensei would join this. Then success is guaranteed. He has such spiritual power, such solid inner faith, and such knowledge that can do anything, if he was able to save me from death just with his power of thought. I will need to speak with him at the next training. He is kind; he will help.” With these good thoughts, I fell asleep.

The next day I went to the chiropractor with my mother. The general cared for us and provided us with his black Volga car and personal driver, who knew that place and the roads well. On the way, I imagined how this decrepit (in my imagination) old man, the chiropractor, having looked at mother, would tell her that everything is well with her, that this is a mistake, and she is healthy. Meanwhile I noticed that the driver turned towards the district where we went for spiritual meditations. “Familiar places,” I grinned to myself. “It’s strange that such a remote district is so famous for its people.” And again I concentrated on a desirable result.

We arrived at a private sector. I noticed from afar the house where evidently the chiropractor lived. Or rather, I did not notice the house itself, but rather a huge crowd of people who stood near a small but tidy house. There were a lot of people there. The driver could barely park his car among the multitude of other cars, drawing his professional attention to the many license plates that were not just from different regions, but even from different republics. It so surprised me that this god-forsaken place was so famous.

People stood in line as if a thick wall. It didn’t even help us that we came in a black Volga. No matter how we tried to break through the crowd, we weren’t able to. We had to stand in line like everybody else. My mother, meanwhile, was half-lying in the car. Our number was four hundred seventy-three. But when people found out that my mother had a sharp pain, we were told that the chiropractor takes those with such pain without waiting in line, and that we need to stand in a different line, which was ahead. We hurried to join the out-of-turn people, and there were only fifty of them. My mother was even given a place on the bench by those who at least could stand on their legs. And we began waiting.

I was very surprised by such a large number of people and even got a little flustered. People in line were of different ages, from seniors to young people with children. Ahead there stood a woman with a tiny baby. They said he was only five days old and already had plexitis. His hand didn’t rise because of some kind of pathology during delivery. In general, the public gathered here had various illnesses of the spinal cord that I’d never even heard of before.

A senior lady sitting next to my mother said that the chiropractor takes twenty women, twenty men, and later ten out-of-turn people. The line, she said, wasn’t very long; according to her estimations, we would be taken in only two hours. I thought that in this case I had time to concentrate on my healing meditation for mother. For around ten minutes, I tried to do it. But concentrating wasn’t easy because the crowd was silently buzzing in unceasing conversation, creating an obstructive noise. Unwillingly, I began listening to the conversations.

“We had such a big misfortune, such a grief,” lamented an old woman standing next to a girl around fifteen years old. “It is horrible even to recall. There is nothing more bitter in the world than to have a sick child. My grandchild had a horrible kyphoscoliosis, a real hump. The doctors prophesized that she would be disabled for her entire life. The girl came back from school in tears every day. Though she has a beautiful face, her classmates teased her, calling her a freak. And we went everywhere, showed her to all doctors, and even took her to psychics, but it was all in vain. We were all in despair. One time we just barely managed, God helped us, to pull the girl out of a noose. She was crying about her life, that nobody would ever fall in love with her. She was crying, we were crying, it was a big grief, in a word, I can’t even tell it…”

The woman’s voice trembled and she furtively wiped a rolling tear.

“Don’t cry, grandma,” pleaded her granddaughter. “Everything is already over.”

“Yes… So, I went that… day to the church, prayed to God. And the next morning, I received a fresh newspaper and there was an article about our chiropractor. We, of course, at first doubted whether we should go and entrust our child to just another doctor, because she had already been examined by many specialists. But… all these last events… At the end we decided that if God gives us one more chance, we shouldn’t refuse, because it can’t get any worse…

“We worried when we came to the reception. But the people in line spoke well of him. And when we entered and I saw his eyes, all doubts disappeared for some reason. He has such luminous, blue eyes, such a peace-giving gaze that even a light shone in my heart…”

“Yes,” said another woman. “His eyes are really somehow unusual, so bottomless. As if they know everything, as if he feels your pain.”

“I have also never seen in my life such calm and smart eyes,” added a young woman standing next to her.

The women nodded their heads, agreeing with these opinions.

“And what a pleasant, melodic voice he has, a calm manner of speaking. He speaks so politely with everybody…”

“After speaking with him, my mood always gets better. After all these endured pains, I even want to live.”

“I too have such a feeling.”

“That’s what it means to be a good man.”

Listening to these words, I halted all my fruitless attempts to concentrate and began carefully listening to the conversation.

“That’s what I’m saying,” uttered the old woman. “Something in him was quite unusual, hope-giving. He looked at the girl and said that he will fix her back, but we will have to come here and perform all his recommendations at home. You can’t imagine how his vivifying words affected the girl. We came for treatment a lot, for almost a year, even though we live in another region. Sometimes there was foul weather and it was hard to come, but Anna always insisted on the trip. She became so purposeful that we just rejoiced and crossed ourselves. Every day at home she diligently performed the entire complex of curative gymnastics recommended by the chiropractor. And in a year, there wasn’t a trace left of her hump! You can’t imagine how happy we were. Anna blossomed; so many admirers appeared right away; now they are running after her in crowds… Now we have come for a checkup. Oh! We pray God to give him great health. His golden hands simply performed a miracle!”

“Yes, his hands are really golden,” confirmed another woman around forty years old. “He is a professional in the full sense of the word. Rarely can you find such a specialist who possesses a talent from God and such fine knowledge of medicine… I, for example, suffered from headaches for ten years. I passed through a lot of hospitals with no result: sleepless nights and even loss of consciousness because of the headaches. And two years ago, I’m even afraid to recall those days, I couldn’t walk. You wouldn’t wish this experience to your enemy, this state of confusion and helplessness, and such a strong pain in the waist, in the legs. Again sleepless nights, injections with no result. There were even horrible minutes of despair from pain and suffering. Even though by nature I am a courageous woman and always was a leader, suddenly my entire life stopped, everything froze, I felt only pain and suffering.

“The doctors of course insisted on surgery and were convinced that nothing but surgical intervention would help. But they couldn’t guarantee a full recovery. To put it briefly: disability for life. And then my mother came to me and began telling me about our chiropractor, persuading me to go to visit him. I consulted with my doctors, but they just laughed in my face and said that nobody in the world, even among prominent doctors, could cure a herniated disk or neck in a nonsurgical way. They said, go if you want, but you are going to come back to us. But my mother insisted.

“When I was brought here, I didn’t have hope after the doctors’ verdict. However, surprisingly, after the first seven visits, I started to move one toe and the pain was relieved a little. That’s when I really began to believe in recovery, though the chiropractor even on the very first day said, ‘It’s hard and long, but we will fix it.’ With each day I started to notice small but stable changes for the better. Slowly I began moving without assistance and dressing myself. So, in half a year I returned to a normal human life, and now I’m finishing up treatment. I can’t believe that my horror is over and everything turned out so fortunately. To cure such a serious and terrible disease without surgery is really a miracle!

“When I returned to a normal life, I came to my city and went to show the result to my doctors, who hadn’t believed in the chiropractor. They only shrugged their shoulders. Can you imagine, none of them even asked about how I achieved such results even though all of them once yelled that it would be impossible. Here is this knowledge, just introduce it into medicine. It may help so many people! But no, their pride doesn’t let it… I will be grateful to Igor Mikhailovich to the end of my days for everything that he did with his golden hands! How many people did he put on their feet? When I came here, I saw a lot. People came here with their last hope for recovery. Even those doctors and professors bring their kids and grandchildren here.”

I flinched at the mention of the name of the chiropractor. “Is it really… No way, it can’t be!” I thought, getting lost in guesses. Everything inside of me strained and turned into a listening ear. Then the line buzzed in a new wave.

“Yes, he is a man with a big soul!” said another woman. “People say that his great-grandfather also was a famous chiropractor in the Orlovsk region. They say that he was a man with a gift from God and diagnosed disease unmistakably.”

“Our doctor is also very strong, he looks as if with X-ray. I had a dislocation of the disk and he said right away, ‘six millimeters.’ And later I had films taken, and really, everything coincided.”

“It is because his hands are especially sensitive. I read in the newspaper that he can find a child’s hair, akin to a human nerve, hidden under forty pages of paper. Journalists conducted this experiment. ‘This is the same’ he said, ‘as finding the exact place of the strangulated nerve and releasing it by manipulations of the hands.’”

“Thank God there is such a man. Thanks that He led us to him,” the old woman, who was talking about her granddaughter Anna, crossed herself.

“You know, last year, I had osteochondrosis that he treated,” an old woman with white-grey hair said. “This year, I lifted a heavy weight and again disrupted my back. It was so painful that I could not sleep for two nights. I had a gnawing pain and fainted because of it, as I completely ran out of power. And our chiropractor came up to me in a dream, touched me on the head, and said, ‘Don’t be afraid; now you’ll feel better and tomorrow come to me. Everything will be all right.’ So, what do you think, I stood up in the morning completely different, even the pain slightly let go. Now, I have visited for a third time, and I feel completely revived. Otherwise, I just couldn’t find a place for myself… But what’s strange is that in the dream he had hair down to his shoulders, as an angel, and his eyes were so kind…”

“Yes, he has an unusual hair color, such a blond color is so rare.”

“What would we do without him? Really, probably, God sent us an angel.”

After these words, the very decrepit old woman who, up to this moment, had been dozing on the edge of a bench, unexpectedly squeaked, “Not an angel but an archangel.”

She again submerged into her drowsiness. This unspeakably surprised the whole crowd.

Finally some miner, judging by the black edging around his eyes, said, “I don’t know what kind of angel or archangel he is, but he is a great man! He put me back on my legs, though I don’t believe in God.”

“I also didn’t believe,” remarked a tough old man. “Thirty years I had the Communist Party membership card, and now look…” He pulled out a cross on a string and showed it to the crowd. “I have this cross. All this happened after one case. I will never forget it… That memorable day, I had to go to the shift. While the night before this I had seen our Igor Mikhailovich in my dream who said, ‘Tomorrow come to visit me, don’t go to work. If you go, you won’t come back.’ Well, before that, I was receiving treatment from him, but then I had a break in treatment. I woke up in the morning and my back was hurting. Well, I thought, it probably ached at night; that’s why I dreamt of him. I got ready to go to work, and then I thought, why should I go? I will need to lift heavy weights. How can I do it? My back will collapse. Well, I decided to go to the chiropractor and obtained a leave permit. Can you imagine, that day there was an explosion in the blast furnace and almost my entire brigade perished. If I had been there, because I stand next to the blast furnace hearth, I wouldn’t be here now. So, how can all this be understood by a common mortal? I wanted to talk about this with Igor Mikhailovich, but he put his finger to his lips, hinting at me to keep silent. And that’s all… How can I not start believing in God after this?”

“Oh, you know, a similar incident happened to our neighbor,” said a woman around thirty years old who had joined the conversation. “He, by the way, gave me the address of the chiropractor. He was receiving treatment one day. And last year, our neighbor got into a trouble. Remember, if you are local, that explosion at the mine? He was buried under the support. As he told me, ‘I was lying alone in the darkness, buried by rock. I was terribly afraid of being buried alive. I had already bid farewell to life, to all my relatives. Suddenly I saw before my eyes, as if from the fog, the figure of our chiropractor, who said so calmly with his melodious voice, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. It’s too early for you to die. I will stay with you, until you are saved…”’ And when he came back to consciousness, he said he was already being pulled up by rescuers. He alone survived out of the entire crew. After that case, the man completely changed. He stopped drinking, started to believe in God. His wife and kids can’t stop rejoicing. He became a really nice guy!”