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

not to feel pain.”
“Lucky guys who learn in this school,” Ruslan mentioned dreamily.
“They are not so lucky,” Sensei uttered jokingly. “Before they learn something, they get hit in the neck with a stick at least one hundred times.”
At that moment, Yura wanted to say something approving to his friend. But as soon as he opened his mouth and clapped Ruslan on the shoulder, his friend yelled out at the top of his voice, “A-a-a! Don’t exuch my totremities!”
The whole crowd burst out laughing at such a precisely perceived absurdity.
“Well said,” Stas said laughing.
Eugene continued, “Such trainings will inspire people to invent a new language.”
“Aha,” Victor added. “And they will speak with words of unknown letters.”
We walked on, more cheerfully now with a host of new jokes, partially having forgotten about our unfortunate extremities. Just my stomach was jerking from laughter in evident pain convulsions. Andrew spent this time thinking about something and didn’t participate in our mutual conversation. Not paying any attention to our laughter, he asked Sensei, “And this style, the points style that you showed us, is that a style of the Old Lama?”
“Ah, don’t mix up a stone on the road with the Himalayas. In the style of the Old Lama, the art is brought to perfection. There is enough one hand shake or simply a mediator, to do anything you wish to a person.
“Not bad!” Andrew got surprised.
“This is just rubbish. There are more serious things, and maybe someday I will tell you about them.”
When saying goodbyes at the tram stop and shaking everybody’s hands, Sensei suddenly took Kostya aside and started to whisper something to him. We tried our best but were unable to hear anything. When Sensei and his company started to move away down the street, we began to torture Kostya with questions. But he tried his best to laugh off all the attacks and ascribed everything to his personal secrets.
We were silent on the way home. Only Kostya tried to joke and cheer us up. I was deep in thought about my pain. What’s strange, as soon as I started to think about that purposefully, my body began to ache and to hurt with new power. I thought about only one thing - how to get back home faster. Fortunately my house was in the center, five minutes away from the stop.
But having accompanied me home, the guys didn’t hurry to leave. Or to put it more precisely, it was Kostya who was not in a hurry and who burst out with jokes and other funny stories from daily life. I already was shifting from one foot to the other, mechanically smiling and showing with all my appearance that it was time to say goodbye. But Kostya in no way reacted to that and went on with his jokes, only nervously looking at his watch from time to time.
Less than ten minutes into our conversation about nothing, Andrew unexpectedly huddled himself up with wild cry of pain and almost fell on the ground, but he was caught in time by Kostya, who stood close to him. But Kostya himself couldn’t keep balance and fell down on the ground, holding his friend on his body. Frightened, we bent over them trying to help Andrew somehow. Out of fear, I forgot about all my aching muscles. Only Kostya seemed to keep quiet.
“It’s alright, it’s alright, just let him sit down and rub his temples, now it will be over,” he said, raising Andrew.
While we messed around and seated the almost helpless guy, Kostya glanced at the watch and pronounced thoughtfully, “Exactly as Sensei said… What power!”
We looked at him puzzled.
“What did you say?”
“I will explain it later,” Kostya pronounced quickly and started to help intensively rub Andrew’s temples.
Gradually, Andrew’s color began to return to normal. The yellow-blue spots disappeared, and his cheeks became slightly red. His breath became natural. In about a minute, which for us lasted for eternity, Andrew recovered more or less. Grabbing his head, he mumbled in confusion, “I don’t understand what the matter is… That has never happened to me before… Maybe I overtrained or something is wrong with my body… Well, but I’m still young.”
Kostya grinned shaking his head, “Wow! Sensei foretold even these words …So, have you come back to life, fellow?”
“Which words?” We didn’t understand.
But Kostya was entirely absorbed in the conversation with Andrew. “Sensei told me to ask whether you liked what happened to you?”
“What?!” Andrew looked surprisingly at Kostya.
“I say, did you like this fall?”
When Andrew grasped these words, he became furious and was covered with red spots out of rage, “Did I like it! Go to hell! If you were dashed against the asphalt like me, would you like it?!”
“Oh!” Kostya uttered with smile. “If he’s cursing like mad, then for sure he came back to life.” And then he added, “Why are you boiling and puffing like a teakettle? Cool down. This wasn’t a simple fall, but a punishment from Sensei for your thoughts.”
“What?!” Andrew got even more astonished.
This time I got boiled up, “What do you mean, a punishment?! How could he treat the guy in this way? He just decided to make a helpless creature out of him. What does Sensei do? How can he be good, if he is doing such things? He drones on about love thy neighbor, while he acts like that!” I recalled a couple of cases with demonstrations of strikes during trainings – they were harsh, ruthless, and rude towards a sparring-partner. Immediately a wave of despair and anger covered me.
Andrew continued, “What?! Punishment by Sensei for my thoughts?! For which thoughts? Are you crazy? And it means you knew all this time and said nothing to me? What a friend, damn it. And I was puzzled why he was cracking jokes here looking at his watch. Just so he could relate Sensei’s words on time. So, have you told? Enjoyed the spectacle enough, you idiot?!”
Now it was Kostya’s turn to blush, “You are stupid! Sensei asked me to stay close to you so that you wouldn’t break your empty blockhead against the asphalt. And then, if you were able to listen, I had to tell you these words.”
Andrew was taken aback as if doused with a bucket of cold water. We stared at each other. The conversation came to a strained pause. We also stood bewildered by such a turn of events.
“And what did Sensei ask you to tell me?” Andrew asked, still irritated, but already more self-retained.
“Sensei asked me to tell you that even a thought is material and that one should not use the art against people.”
“What does this have to do with the art? Which thought? What do you mean?!” Andrew was dumbfounded.
“You must know which thought. You were thinking over something the whole way, not me.”
“When?!” He was surprised even more. “Well I, I , I,… in the tram I was scrolling in my mind the whole training from beginning to end,” Andrew said, full of indignation.
“I am not speaking about the tram. When we walked with Sensei, what were you thinking the whole way over?”
Andrew frowned, intensively trying to recall that stretch of time.
“Well, we were laughing and telling jokes…”
“That was us, and you?”
“And I…And I… What was I thinking about? Hmm…”
After a time of concentrated thinking Andrew spoke out, amazed, “Shoot! Is it possible that it was for…”
He stopped in the middle of the sentence and his indignation quickly changed to reflection on some shocking discovery. This event intrigued us even more and our curiosity brimmed over.
“What for? What for?” We threw questions at Andrew.
At first, he tried to get rid of our intrusive questions, but he confessed, “Well, it’s an old story… I found some freaks who beat me up hard five years ago. Do you remember, Kostya, those lanky fellows?”
“Ah, those whom you swore to revenge all your life.”
“Well, that’s an exaggeration.”
“Your words,” Kostya said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Well, yes, mine. But let’s say it this way, those guys were the reason to start my intensive karate trainings… So… When I was walking that time… I was thinking over…”
Andrew got somewhat embarrassed, hanging his head. Evidently, it was not easy for him to confess it. But plucking up his courage, he continued, “In general, I thought… that with the help of this art… they can’t hide anywhere… from my… revenge.”
After his words, silence fell. Kostya said with a sigh, “Yes, well… You see, it’s your own fault, you dream about God knows what, and I turn out to be guilty.”
“Are these also the words of Sensei?” Slava hemmed, trying to joke.
Kostya looked at him in such a way, that Slava at once was confused.
“And now imagine,” Kostya continued addressing Andrew, “how shocked those lanky fellows would be. Because they are ordinary people, with their own merits and demerits, just like us. But you are at least somehow prepared mentally, or rather you know about this power. And they?... Even if one of them survived after such a fright, just imagine what would happen to them later. Each of them would have thought that he was sick with epilepsy… You felt unpleasant, and how would they have felt? Sensei asked me to remind you that any blow caused by your rage will come back to you in the end… And something else, ‘You should not wish bad to other people, even in your thoughts. Because with the power of your thought, you are setting a trap for yourself, for your body and mind. And the more you think about it, the stronger it keeps you, the tighter its loop becomes. The only way out is to become a friend to your enemy and to forgive his deeds because you are also imperfect.”
Pondering a little more, Kostya added, “Well, I don’t think I forgot anything to say… That’s all, now you can be free.”
“In what sense free?” Andrew didn’t understand. “Does Sensei drive me out?”
“Well, he told me nothing about that… It’s me who lets you go.”
“Ah,” Andrew drawled with a smile and started to get up from the ground with Kostya. “And why have you fallen?”
“Why? You shouldn’t be so fat and heavy. I’m not Rambo to catch such a bull!”
We laughed and said good-bye to each other, in a cheerful mood. I was very happy that everything ended so happily. In my soul there was another revolution of feelings. And really, whose fault is it that there is so much evil around us? We are guilty ourselves. Because we don’t control our desires. And then we just get what we deserve. And then we yell and rebel, but what for? We should think more often about good things and be good to people, and maybe the world around us will change. At least in our mind. And our mind is our real world… If I had realized that earlier, I wouldn’t be paying now for my egocentrism and megalomania with my own health and life… Oh! If only I had known it before, I would have been more confident in tomorrow. But since I’m doomed to such a destiny, at least I will try to live this time with dignity, as a human… Sensei was right when he said once, ‘The quality of instants lived by you in this life are much more important than senseless years of existence. How you lived, and not how many years you lived, is important.’
Yes, we are responsible for all that we think and do. Why was I angry with