Sensei of Shambala by Anastasia Novykh (poetry books to read txt) 📕

are able to smash all of them with just your legs.”
“Of course, I would…” Andrew started to flare up again.
“You see, it’s your megalomania again. But I teach you to train your body, not to beat up people on the streets. The main sense of the martial arts is completely different, and all these tricks may never be used by you in your life. I hope that they will be never used. Your task is to learn to understand the reason and the effects, the depth and the sense of the situation, and to solve it peacefully.”
“What did you say to them?” Kostya asked.
“It’s very simple. I explained to them that they had children like you and that another group of drunken men like them might bother their children and beat them. I described this case from the human point of view. Notice that their megalomania has not suffered. And what is more important, they left satisfied, with the intention to defend others like you. Every situation like this may be solved much more easily, with peace.”
After a small pause he added, “Every fool can snap and punch… But do not give in to your animal instincts. It’s much more important to be human in any situation, to understand why and by which reason this aggression is caused. And how to solve the dispute in the right way in order to find a friend and not an enemy.”
As we came to the tram stop, Sensei concluded, “Remember that any blow caused by your rage will come back to you at the end.”
We stood in silence and looked ashamedly at Sensei. After making a new appointment, we went home.

13

Almost the whole way home, we were silent. When coming to the center, Andrew, who had sat all this time with a thoughtful air, burst out, “I feel so guilty after Sensei’s speech!”
“Sure,” Kostya agreed. “I’m thinking why did I get involved with those guys? As they say, no wisdom like silence!”
“Don’t worry,” Andrew reassured him. “You see how it turned out. Every cloud has a silver lining… Yeah, Sensei has done a tough brain reboot.”
“It will take a long time to digest it”, I thought. All the way back I was tormenting myself, not with thoughts about the incident but about myself. Something in my ordinary internal state was unusual. But what exactly? I rehashed the conversation with the Teacher over and over again and felt this discomfort and… Stop! It dawned suddenly on me. Of course, it was a new feeling! When this powerful blow shook the huge underwater rock of ignorance and egoism, suddenly a long-forgotten, deep feeling emerged in me. But I could not completely realize it. When it arose to the surface of my mind, I understood what Sensei wanted to say. It happened to me for the first time. I understood clearly his simple truth. It was the real discovery for my internal world. I was so happy to feel it as if I had managed to reconcile with myself.
I came home in an elated mood. It turned out that there was a surprise for me as well.
“We have got good news,” my mother said with her shining, charming smile. “Uncle Victor has called us today from Moscow. He managed to arrange treatment with the best professor from that clinic. So we just have to set up an appointment.”
If I had heard this news before, I would have been extremely happy. But now it struck me that I didn’t really care what was happening to my head on the physical level. The main thing was the feeling I realized in myself. It was some new level of perception that concerned the soul more than the body. But in order not to ruin my parents’ good mood, I spoke out, “That’s great! I had no doubt. It comes easy to uncle Victor with his high standing and connections! He is a nice guy and a real go-getter.”
The whole next day, I pondered this new feeling. I returned to a normal life, so to say, with my body and especially with my soul. And when it was time to go to meditation practice, I couldn’t wait to get there as soon as possible. This time it was I who hurried sluggish Tatyana to pack up her things more quickly.
We came to the tram stop and met the boys there.
“Girls, just imagine,” Kostya said laughing. “Sensei has almost spoiled our Andrew.”
”What happened?” we asked.
Andrew stood, silent but smiling, and Kostya continued with excitement, “After we saw you to the door, we went home. And when we were almost over there, some guys started to bother us. They seemed to feel an urge to light up a cigarette at night. They insisted it was a kickback for twelve years. Andrew was a real gentleman and did his best to explain to them that we don’t smoke and would not recommend it for their own health. Besides, he added that the public health ministry warns that smoking is bad for their health. He concluded that instead of poisoning their lungs with this disgusting thing and hanging around and idling, they should instead go in for sports, for example, Gong-fu. It would be more usefuel for both their souls and their bodies.”
“And?” Tatyana asked impatiently.
“They started to ask for trouble.”
“And Andrew?”
“Just picture it, our Andrew began to deliver a speech about their miserable life, and he said that their words would boomerang against them. I thought that he was lost. But then I saw it was all right.”
“What happened next?”
“What happened next? Tensions were growing. Andrew kept his patience for a while, enduring their insults, but then in order to be more convincing, he whacked them in the face and made a moralizing conclusion, saying, ‘You see, all your bad words boomerang against you with the same force’.”
“How could he blurt it out,” I wondered.
“And what was at the end?” Tatyana asked with a smile. “Any victims?”
“Everything was all right,” Kostya waved his hand. “Ah! I forgot to tell the funniest thing. Later they asked him if they could be his disciples.”
Everybody laughed, but for some reason I was uncomfortable. First, I didn’t expect such a stupid thing from Andrew. And second, I felt sorry for Sensei.
“Yeah, Andrew, you are a pervert,” Tatyana said laughing.
“Right, exactly,” Kostya kidded. “He is a dangerous man, we can even say an old offender. He usually perverts even my great sayings and puts them into the most inconvenient position.”
“Don’t exaggerate telling us about your great sayings,” Andrew teased him. “Our new Socrates, so to say.”
“Why Socrates? There were more famous people in this world…”
This funny dialogue would have continued endlessly but just then our tram came.

14

We left early for the training, and as it turned out, it was not in vain. Andrew tried to bring us to the secret glade, reassuring us that he knew the road. For about half an hour, we strolled about the streets of the village, teasing all the dogs around. Finally, desperately arguing with each other where the turn was, our company came to a small lake.
“You are a dunderhead!” Kostya said. “Where is your glade?”
“Theoretically it should be here,” Andrew shrugged his shoulders.
“Aha, so it was driven by a flood to the other side? Let’s go back.”
On the way back we bumped into Eugene.
“Finally we have found at least one other living soul,” Kostya sighed with relief.
“Have you been lost in our Shanghai?” Eugene poked fun at us.
“Yeah, we relied on the memory of this dunderhead.”
“Where is the glade?” Andrew asked.
“Over there,” Eugene waved his hand in a completely different direction.
“I told you we turned to the wrong way! There was no hillside,” Andrew reproached Kostya.
“And how did you happen to come here?” Tatyana asked Eugene.
“Don’t you know? I can spiritually locate any man, I need only think about it.”
“Don’t joke with us,” Kostya said with a smile. “But really what are you doing here?”
“Do not ask me twice. I live here, l-i-v-e!” Eugene said in a funny way. “I had just left and saw your flock rushing to the lake. I didn’t even have time to open my mouth. Well, I thought, they will figure it out soon and go back. Just so! I saw you coming back five minutes later. I went to the road so that you didn’t take me for a sign-post.”
We beamed with smiles after such a successful meeting and arrived together at the glade. In that secluded nook, created with love by nature, almost everyone was there, including Sensei and Volodya. We loudly joined the others, greeting them. Having noticed that it was again Eugene who brought our company to the place, Sensei asked jokingly, “Has this muddle-head organized an excursion for you again?”
“No, we have a new one now,” Kostya nodded to Andrew. “This one surpassed even Eugene.”
And then Kostya started to tell eloquently about our adventures. He was so carried away by the overall laughter of the crowd, he became so expressive that he blurted out at the end something unnecessary what we had decided to hide from Sensei: “Well, really! Now imagine entrusting him with disciples after that. He will lead them into such a dead end that he will not know how to get out of it.”
“Which disciples?” Sensei caught on the word, although it seemed to me he had not been listening too carefully before.
“Yeah,” Kostya became confused after he realized he had said too much. “There was a story…”
“Which story?” Sensei showed interest.
Kostya could do nothing but reluctantly tell all the facts. Andrew also joined the conversation, making an attempt to justify his behaviour with good intentions. Sensei shook his head after hearing all this baby-talk.
“You see… There is an old very ancient legend: Once upon a time a king had an only son. One day he heard that there was a great martial arts Master who was famous even among kings for his Wisdom. He was said to work wonders because he made an excellent Master from an ordinary village boy in just one year. The king made up his mind to send his son to him.
“One year passed and the king asked, ‘Well, has he grasped the way of the warrior?’
“‘Not yet,’ the Master replied. ‘He is too self-confident and he wastes his time on pride. Come back in five years.’
“In five years, the king asked the Master the same thing.
“‘Not yet. His eyes are still full of hatred, and his energy boils over excessively.’
“Another five years passed. The Master said to the king, ‘Now he is ready. Look at him! He is so strong, as if he were carved from a stone. His spirit is stainless. His internal virtues are full and perfect. His challenge will not be accepted by any warrior, as they would run away in fear just from his glance.’
And the king asked the Master, ‘Why did it take so long with my son? He is much smarter than that village boy.’
“And the Master replied, ‘It is not the mind but the heart is important. If your heart is open and your thoughts are pure, your spirit is stainless. And this is the main thing in the way of the warrior… The village boy came to me with a stainless spirit, and I just had to teach him