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

a human can achieve anything if the goal is clearly defined. Now let’s proceed to the practical part.”
We lined up, and the Teacher showed us the breathing exercises for ‘stuck hands.’ After individual demonstrations of the techniques by Sensei, almost everybody in a few seconds landed on his back hearing the laughter of his friends, who found themselves in the same position a few minutes later. More serious fighters, using the wrong techniques, were flying away as many as three to four meters. Most interesting is that during the first ten minutes we laughed, but after twenty minutes we were rising up slowly, groaning. After half an hour of more engaged, serious work, we completely concentrated on the movement and accuracy of our performance. Nobody wanted to be seen as a clown by excessively falling.
The speedy guys, including Stas and Eugene, worked especially beautifully. Evidently they had practiced this art for a long time. Their completely nonrecurring, improvised movements were similar to a grandiose dance, full of unpredictable and at the same time rational movements. And if one of them made a mistake, then immediately he flew far away, knocking down a lot of people on the way. In order not to harm other people, these guys were moved to the end of the hall, almost to the exit. But even here, Eugene and Stas surpassed themselves. Working at sparring, Eugene for one second got distracted by the opening door and right away received a powerful blow from Stas, which not only threw him into that unfortunate door, but also placed him before the exit on his knees. At that time, an imposing man of indefinable age, with a stately face similar to that of Ramses, entered the hall. Some kind of fine eastern aroma wafted from him. He was dressed in a stylish coat under which an expensive suit could be seen. “Ramses” looked at Eugene with surprise. But Eugene quickly composed himself and, touching the floor with his forehead, ritually uttered, “Oh, we welcome you, great Zhan Wu, the most desirable guest of our tribe!”
Eugene quickly jumped back on his feet and, bowing to the gentleman one more time like a fighter, turned around and went toward Stas, who could hardly control his laughter.
Sensei, with a smile, came up and greeted the man.
“For how long did he practice this form of greeting?” asked “Ramses” with a strong accent, in broken Russian.
“Don’t get mad at him. He is young and always confused.”
“Ramses” was surprised even more and asked with a slight resentment in his voice, “Do I really look Chinese?”
“No, of course, but…,” Sensei continued in some unusual language.
“Ramses” laughed and added something in reply. Speaking in this melodious and very pleasant language, they went into the private room for coaches. I noticed that the guest walked the same way as Sensei.
As soon as the doors shut behind them, Stas couldn’t keep it in and laughed aloud, immediately receiving in return a punch from Eugene. Having fallen with a rumble on the benches, he couldn’t stand up for five whole minutes, rolling from his laughter attack. They might have kept laughing like that until the end of training, but the senior sempai, who was responsible for discipline in Sensei’s absence, showed them a fist, and the guys quickly hushed up and got back to work.
I was bursting with curiosity to find out who that mysterious guest was. But my attempts to ask the senior guys weren’t successful. They let me know that they don’t interfere in Sensei’s business.
In thirty minutes, closer to the end of training, “Ramses” and Sensei came out of the room, confirming something on the way with a smile. They bid farewell as old, good friends, warmly shaking each other’s hands. After the departure of the mysterious guest, Sensei, with the same ease, switched back to Russian and, as if nothing had happened, started explaining the guys’ mistakes he’d seen. His mood was clearly raised.
At home I wrote down, as always, the most interesting things in my diary. The visit of this unusual foreigner raised in me many unanswered questions. I decided to leave this mystery to an undetermined later. As Sensei would say, ”There is nothing mysterious on Earth that one day won’t be revealed.” With such an optimistic forecast of the future, I continued to be an observer.

36

At spiritual lessons, we polished old meditations. Everything was as usual, except that Nikolai Andreevich was absent for almost a week, which was unusual for him. At last our psychologist appeared in full health and high spirits. He came before the beginning of the training when our merry party was standing in the glade with Sensei, Eugene, and Stas. Nikolai Andreevich's eyes shone with extreme pleasure and delight.
Having greeted everybody quickly, he addressed Sensei and began telling him excitedly, “We finally finished the experiment, everything proved to be true. The results are simply tremendous… This technique of altered state of consciousness that you gave, in fact, it radically changes the picture of our world, the whole conception of our existence… But I will now tell you everything in detail...”
Our guys looked in wide-eyed astonishment at the unusually excited behavior of Nikolai Andreevich. Sensei listened to him attentively while smoking a cigarette.
“…In my opinion, I picked a more or less suitable candidate. One guy, a full-fledged alcoholic, was treated at our clinic. Two years of boarding school was his entire education. He grew up in an orphanage, one of those post-war orphans. Army, then a coal mine, and hopeless alcoholism, that was his life. But when I brought him into the altered state of consciousness, he told me such unusual things. He was also speaking some old Russian language, and all my colleagues who were present during the experiment were just shocked by his answers. We recorded all that he was saying and brought it to a professor, a historian, a great expert in this area. The result surpassed all our expectations. Even the professor was surprised. It appeared that this alcoholic spoke the language of the Drevlian people, who the professor told us were an ancient east Slavic tribe. Our subject regaled us with amazing details and household trifles of the seventh century. Many of them coincided with data from archaeological excavations, but some are still unknown to science. He also mentioned some geographic district and the river Sluch where he said he used to live. And finally he told us about some big conflict with someone from the Dregovich tribe. All this coincides with amazing accuracy with the available data… You can't even imagine what a great achievement in science it is! But it is necessary to confirm these data some more times for the validity of the experiment. We need to prove it scientifically. Look, I have picked up one more candidate…”
“Wait, wait, we agreed that I would give you an opportunity, and you would try. That's all,” Sensei said firmly.
“Just try to understand me. This is so valuable for the world of science…”
“I understand everything,” Sensei said calmly. “However, we did not talk about the world of science but about you. You wanted to be sure, and now you are sure. It's not the right time for the world of science yet.”
Nikolai Andreevich became silent, got calm and uttered, “Sorry… But the experiment was really tremendous. I was such a zealous atheist, but now… It really proves… Why do I say all this, it completely changes most everything.”
“That's good. The main thing is that you understood it.”
“Understood?! You are putting it too mildly… It is a complete revolution in my consciousness, it is a significant revolution of mind. Indeed, I'm not only convinced of the veracity of your words, but I also believe in you with all my heart and soul!”
Sensei smiled and said thoughtfully, “I have heard this before… Ah, yes… exactly. Peter spoke to Jesus the same way before he renounced Him three times.”
Nikolai Andreevich insistently tried to make Sensei change his mind, convincing him with the help of forcible arguments. Sensei only smiled silently, and then changed the topic of conversation to meditation.

37

Spiritual lessons gradually became more and more important to me. Being so simple and accessible at the same time, they gradually changed my vision of the world. Some new feelings grew inside of me. I started to perceive everything in another way as if I had opened the other side of reality for myself.
Even nature, the air that I never noticed before, turned into a special material substance that I felt as light pressure from all directions whatever I did. This feeling was somewhat similar to the sensation of water elasticity when you dive into it. But in the case of the air, everything was much easier. Nature around me became brighter, colors became richer as if an invisible dust veil had been removed from my eyes.
Spring was storming outside. It animated the grey space of cities with its fresh, salad greenery. The world of nature existed according to its own cycle as if wishing to show greatness and independence from the tiny creatures occupying it. This living creature had its own secret of life and death, which was carefully protected during its long existence.
The time spent in trainings and conversations with Sensei flew by so quickly that imperceptibly I came up to the point of final examinations. To tell the truth, I didn’t want to spend any precious time on them even though I had realized that examinations and further studies were not trifles, they were necessary. As Sensei used to say, a human should constantly develop his intellect and enlarge his mind, meaning he should expand his knowledge everywhere and in everything wherever it is possible, to strive for the knowledge of science. Because the mature human comes to God through knowledge, namely the knowledge of himself and the world around him.
At spiritual and common trainings, Sensei continued to surprise us with his personal examples, with the breadth and depth of his knowledge. During common trainings, he mostly taught those skills that our brain perceived easily, as they say, without any shock. There were strikes, techniques from different styles, health-improving gymnastics, which were demonstrated by his narrations from the various points of view: medical, strategic, and philosophical. At the additional trainings, we were lucky to contemplate his mysterious demonstrations to a greater extent when most people were leaving. But once there was an incident.
During one of the trainings when most people were practicing strikes in pairs, Sensei was standing right next to us, showing Andrew a difficult strike with a hook. It is necessary to note that that day the Teacher was a bit thoughtful, absorbed in his ideas. Unexpectedly he stopped his movement and turned back, abruptly peering worriedly into the opposite side of the hall. Volodya and Victor were sparring there, but their sparring was a little bit strange. Volodya conducted an aggressive and rigid attack. He attacked his sparring-partner dexterously and quickly with his hands and legs. Meanwhile Victor was somehow perplexed and hardly had time to fend off missing strikes. Sensei sharply clapped his hands, shouting “Yame!” or “Stop!” But Volodya was obviously captured by the passion of sparring and did not hear him, though the rest of the crowd turned to Sensei at this call. And then something happened.
Sharply waving his hand, Sensei made a movement in the air simulating a blow. At the same instant, Volodya flew aside with such a force and along such a trajectory as if Sensei stood near him and not near us. We were all astonished by what we had seen. Silence was established in the hall. The Teacher had interfered right in time. If Volodya had hit