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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 even their disciples about it 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 re
latives 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 principals and didn’t ditch 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, internal 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 internal 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 due to some kind of pathology of 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 misfortune, such 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 had 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 help 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, such grief, in a word, 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 came to the reception. But the people in line spoke well of him. And when we entered and I saw his eyes, all doubts dissolved 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,” pronounced a young woman standing next to her.

  The women nodded their heads, agreeing with the 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, even I 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,” pronounced 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 fiancés appeared right away; now they are running after her in crowds... Now we have come for a check-up. Oh! We pray God to give him great health. His golden hands simply created 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 on 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 ent
ire 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!”

  Meanwhile, the line moved ahead. In front of the crowd someone came out in a white smock. I was so surprised that my bag almost slipped out of my hands.

  “Sensei,” I silently whispered, but in the next instant yelled at top of my voice, “Sens…oops, Igor Mikhailovich!!!”

  Sensei turned around and, on seeing me, gave a sign to come up. I barely squeezed through the crowd. My heart was beating fast in my chest. Having greeted me, he asked, “Why are you here? What happened?”

  “Well, my mother has problems with her back…”

  We moved off to a corner, where Igor Mikhailovich lit a cigarette.

  “My father’s general gave us this address,” I let out all the ’state secrets’ in a single breath. “He even gave us his Volga.”

  Sensei glanced at the cars.

  “Ah, Alexander Vasilievich. How’s he doing?”

  “Well, as he said to my dad, he has had no problems with motion for two years.”

  “Alright. And what happened to your mother?”

  I began telling everything in detail, actively gesticulating with my hands from excitement. Having listened to me, Sensei pronounced, “Alright, take your mum and follow me.”

  I ran up to my mum with joy and said that Igor Mikhailovich will take us out of order. My mother was happy, of course, but she was very surprised. She got up with difficulty, and we returned with her to the chiropractor.

  “This is my Sensei, Igor Mikhailovich,” I introduced him to my mother with indescribable pride.

  We walked deep into the house, filled with people waiting. In the waiting room stood a trestle-bed, and in the corner there was a small icon with a lit lamp. I helped mother undress to the waist and lie down on the trestle-bed. Walking out of the room, I saw how Igor Mikhailovich inclined above mother’s back, palpating her vertebrae with his hands. Already behind the curtain in the neighboring room, I heard Sensei’s voice, “Yes, you know, here is a serious problem, a dorsolateral prolapse up to seven millimeters in segment L4-L5 that’s causing stenosis of the intervertebral foramen. As a consequence, it leads to a compression of the spinal root.”

  “Can you explain it more simply?”

  “Simply saying, it’s a disk herniation. As a result of the destruction of the disk, its sequestrum, in other words, small pieces of this disk, dropped into the spinal canal towards the spinal foramen and are pushing on the spinal root. That’s what caused these pains… This, of course, is a serious problem, but curable.”

  Behind the thick curtain, I heard a light crackling of vertebrae and a few unusual claps. In a few minutes, Sensei called me so that I could help my mother get dressed. Having agreed on the next visit, we bid farewell and slowly walked towards the car.

  “How are you?” I asked my mother.

  “It’s all right,” she replied.

  When we were driving home, the entire way I couldn’t calm down, thinking about Sensei. I considered him everything: physicist, chemist, philosopher, historian, orientalist, physiologist. But an ordinary chiropractor, that was too much! Well, not ordinary, but pretty famous… And still, with his inconceivable potential of knowledge, with his phenomenal abilities and, in the end, with such unusually pure human morals, he could become a prominent scientist, politician, or whoever, moving up the ranks of society with his level of knowledge. But what is he spending his potential on?! If it weren’t for how he helped my mother, my mind would have kept rebelling longer.

  Driving out of this god-forsaken place by back roads, we drove past a shabby, half tumbledown church, evidently built before the revolution. My thoughts switched to thinking about the eternal, about God, about faith, about the Great. And suddenly a thought flashed across my mind, “Sensei really helps people! With his hands he cures thousands of bodies tormented by pain, thousands of souls seized by sorrow, restoring people’s health, faith, and joy of life… God, that’s how all the Great acted! Each of them went to people with an open soul and performed good deeds. Sensei one time mentioned about… Can it be that he…? Oho!”

  I feverishly began remembering all the moments, supporting my guesses. After coming back home, I reread in my diary everything concerning Sensei’s personality. Yes, the fact that he is a chiropractor supplemented the main missing link in my logical chain in proving it to my own mind. “It is most important that he cures the bodies and souls of different people. Consequently, speaking with such a huge number of people, each of them with his concrete destiny, problem, and pain, he knows much better than all politicians the intentions of the common people, their attitude towards life, as well as their spiritual level of development. It’s not possible to imagine any better profession for the earthly life of a Bodhisattva.” These discoveries caused a wave of small ants on my skin while my solar plexus began tickling with its spiral waves.

  As soon as my agitated thoughts began to calm down, my common sense hurried to take up the vacant place. On the other hand, I thought, “Why did I exalt him so much? Maybe all this is just my imagination. I got tired, worried too much, had heard in line the different conversations, and have made hasty, fantastic conclusions. Alright, he helps people, he has a talent for this and abilities, so what? Simply, he is a good professional, as that woman from the line said. That is all. By appearance he is a common man, with a common face that looks like all other human faces. His appearance does not differ from others. He is the same like everybody…”

  And here I noticed that the deeper I developed my common sense theory, the more something bad appeared in me, some kind of anger or something, some kind of dark envy that Sensei possessed such talent and abilities and I didn’t. And here, my thoughts became so dark that I even got scared of myself, “Stop, stop, stop! Who is creating a tempest in a teapot? Comrades, it isn’t me! Can the soul really think so badly? No. It is kind by itself. Where did all this filth come from? It is not my opinion. Some kind of fixed ideas, thoughts which impudently keep coming back again and again, and they awaken in me anger and hate… These are the instincts of the animal nature!” And here I completely got angry with myself and thought, “I am fed up with them! For how long can I keep being a dumb, stubborn beast?! I’ve had enough, simply had enough. If I continue like that my whole life will pass in evil intentions and vanity…”

  Then I was visited by another thought, “Maybe because of our blown-up egocentrism, we don’t notice what wonderful chances destiny grants us. And for the soul, wandering through the centuries in darkness, maybe, such a chance occurs only once in a thousand years. Who knows what we don’t see because of our envy and anger. God, why are we so blind? Why do we start really valuing something only when we lose it? Why do we praise the Great only after their death?”

  Christ was crucified because of somebody’s blown-up megalomania and our gregarious egocentrism. And what a great man He was, how many good deeds for human souls He could’ve done. If He were alive and people opened up their hearts at least a little, maybe human civilization would’ve made such a jump in its evolution that we, their descendants, would already live in a real, united, free society, without borders and government, without violence and terror, in a world of harmony. But no, even during the life of Jesus few people really valued Him. But the majority, probably, were envious of Him, gloated and upbraided Him with their animal vanity, with rottenness, with hate and indifference. But after His death everybody started to believe in him right away!

  Just take our contemporaries, the prominent individuals. When are they all being acknowledged? In general, after death. It is only after their deaths that people speak well about them, even those who, during their life, did many mean things. However, these people are probably glad in their private thoughts that their rival has died. That’s authentic animal nature.

  When will we finally wake up, when will we be thinking with our sou
ls and not our bodies? Because then the whole world will change and will become completely different! I just want to yell this to the entire world. But what for?! I shouldn’t yell but instead do something and change myself and not permit these parasites to enter into my consciousness or mind. Yes, if only this could be understood by the majority of people then, maybe, we could all learn together to value and respect those geniuses who are so rarely sent by nature to the world! As one great classic stated, “Mother Nature, if you didn’t send such people to the world, the field of life would’ve died.”

  34

  The next day, during our trip to the spiritual training, I was telling the guys the entire way my great news that our Sensei is the famous chiropractor and what I had heard and seen while visiting him. For them it was also a big surprise. In our secret glade, almost everybody had already gathered. Sensei, having greeted us, politely asked me how my mother was doing.

  “Thank you, a little better. She has strong pains still, of course. But at least she slept calmly last night.”

  “This is good. That’s all right, she will slowly recover her health.”

  I didn’t have a slight doubt about this. For the most part, I was very happy that everything turned out exactly this way. I could not wish a better doctor for my beloved mother. Now my soul was calm.

  “And you know,” I continued, “I was so surprised to have seen you. I thought that chiropractic was only practiced by dilapidated old men and women.”

  “Many people think this way.”

  “Why is that so?”

  “Because in chiropractic, real knowledge and experience comes with years, and that’s why most of us are older.”

  I noticed that none of the senior guys, including Nikolai Andreevich, was at all surprised by the word “chiropractor.” They had probably known about this for a long time.

  “Tell me,” I continued, looking with admiration into his eyes, “Can spinal diseases be cured with the help of faith?”

  “Faith is capable of moving mountains, not just curing spinal problems. But few people have true faith.”

  “Why?”

  “Doubts gnaw, our animal nature suppresses. That’s why it is very hard for a human to acquire true faith. But for a soul dominating in the mind, it is very simple.”

  “If a human simply blindly believes in his recovery or in the recovery of those close to him, will treatment be faster?”

  “Of course. And not just faster, but a lot lighter and more efficient.”

  “I apologize,” Nikolai Andreevich joined the conversation. “I have long wanted to ask you, why exactly did you choose this profession?”

  “Well, what can I say?” answered Sensei. “Just like any man, when I needed to choose a profession, I began to think. You will agree with me, what can be better in the world than to restore people’s health, and what can be more complex in a body than the spinal cord, perhaps only the brain… What is the spinal cord? Take a look at a picture of its nerve plexuses - it is a real tree of life that goes with its top to the brain and is connected with roots to every organ of the human body. Figuratively speaking, this tree of life nourishes the entire body with health. And if, God forbid, it has some kind of disorder, this immediately affects the work of organs and the entire body as a whole. Because practically more than ninety percent of all diseases appear as a result of the malfunctioning of the spinal cord, from the most insignificant to those that are fatal. Almost everybody has problems with his spine during his life... The spinal cord, for today, remains the mystery of mysteries in science. And it is, just like the brain, insufficiently explored.”

  “In general, yes,” pronounced Nikolai Andreevich. “Honestly saying, I never thought about this... But since it’s such an important and complex organ in the body, one needs to posses considerable knowledge to treat it.”

  “That is indeed so. The spine is a very interesting, perfect biomechanical structure. Its treatment is a great responsibility because a doctor has to precisely diagnose the patient, considering information, age, weight, and a whole range of various factors, and then make the right decision and calculate the corresponding power and dose of impact because this is a sort of microsurgery, only without opening. The revitalization in the process of exploitation should be also taken into account. Chiropractic is a very serious profession. One needs to thoroughly know everything: biomechanics, anatomy, pathology, genesis, morphogenesis, physics, and chemistry of the cell. To put it briefly, one should perfectly know vertebrology.”

  “What?” Ruslan asked. “What is this for… ‘brology’?”

  “Not ‘brology,’ but ‘vertebrology,’” Sensei answered with a smile. “It is the science of the spinal column, which includes all those sciences plus specific knowledge about the spinal cord.”

  “What kind of specific knowledge?” Nikolai Andreevich got interested.

  “You also need to know the details and techniques of different manual ways of treating vertebral pathologies, osteopathy, chiropractic, and so forth. In other words, it’s necessary to know the experiences of previous generations in the area of chiropractic because it is a pretty ancient and interesting profession.” Sensei added, “And, of course, it means communication with a large number of different people.”

  I don’t know about the others, but I clearly understood that Sensei’s last words were the main reason for choosing his profession. I was absolutely sure about it.

  Meanwhile, Sensei changed the subject of our conversation to meditations. We started discussing our home results and then tried to work intensively on ourselves, approaching with tiny steps our far-away cherished goal: to become human.

  35

  I noticed that the days started flying by, as if in one instant. I felt that I did not have enough time for everything. I even stopped visiting a few hobby groups so that at least, somehow, I could manage to do everything. Our exercises and trainings continued to gladden me with their novelty and uniqueness. At one of the trainings, Sensei began explaining a new subject.

  “Today we’ll study and, as usual, partially will learn the style of Tai Qi Quan, considered to be from the soft style of Wushu. This style originated in one of the most famous monasteries of China, located in the Wudangshan mountains. It is noteworthy that the local mountains used to be called the Mountains of Great Stillness. But then a man, whose name was Zhen Wu, flew to heaven having reached Dao (which in Daoism is considered to be the internal divine power and primordial substance that created everything in the Universe). The mountains were renamed in his honor.

  “According to one of the legends, a monk named Zhan Sanfeng lived in that monastery in the twelfth century. One day, hearing an odd sound in the yard, he looked out of the window. The monk saw a crow sitting on the tree and a snake on the ground, both looking at each other. Each time, as soon as crow flew out of the tree to attack the snake, the snake would quickly turn its head and would curve in such a way that the crow wouldn’t be able to peck it. While observing them, Zhan had an insight: an opponent can be defeated by dodging attacks.

  “According to another legend, he received this wise hint from Zhan Wu in a dream. As the proverb says, ‘A saint said, a wise man understood.’ Having perceived the main principle of martial art, Zhan Sanfeng, after many years of training, developed the soft style, which received the name Supreme Ultimate (Tai Qi Quan). To translate it literally, ‘tai’ means supreme, ‘qi’ means ultimate, and ‘quan’ means fist.

  “According to another version, the development of this style is ascribed to another Zhan Sanfeng from Wudang who lived in the fourteenth century, a disciple of the famous master Ho Lung (Fiery Dragon). Of course, there are other legendary versions of the origin of this style. Bur the main principle of Tai Qi Quan didn’t change and is stated in the following principles: Statics begets dynamics; the pliable overcomes the rigid; the slow defeats the fast; the short defeats the long. In other words, for example, you should respond to the sharp attacking movement of your opponent wit
h soft pliancy, in this way amortizing the strike by letting it pass into emptiness. As a result, the opponent loses balance. And then a few grams are enough to overcome the power of a ton. The ancient writings of the masters of Tai Qi Quan say about this style, ‘Little movements lead to big changes. The pliable overcomes the rigid: make use of power of your opponent; attack suddenly, affecting points.’

  “Tai Qi Quan is similar to a smooth dance. At the highest level of mastery of this style, there are no fixed movements or complexes, only the major principles remain. The body moves as if on its own, performing in dynamic meditation an undefined peculiar dance.

  “But to reach something big, one needs to start with something small. That’s why we’ll start with the simplest exercise, pushing hands. It is done in pairs. Here, it is necessary to slightly touch with the hands, softly, taking turns to push each other, for the beginners under the known trajectory of movement, and for the more experienced, arbitrarily. This exercise develops reaction to the actions of the opponent by foreseeing his intentions. In other words, by ‘listening’ to where he wants to move, you should attempt to trick him by breaking free from his ‘stuck’ hands. With the inaccurate movement of your opponent, for example, if he moves roughly or loses balance, you, with a light push, can cast him to the ground. Movements should be relaxed, but the consciousness stays vigilant. Also I’ll show you the corresponding complex of breathing.

  “These and the following exercises can be used as health-improving gymnastics. Especially for medical goals, Tai Qi Quan is helpful to people who are in a constant nervous stress because these smooth movements with even speed align potentials in the cerebral cortex, protecting it from overload. Moreover, the concentration of thought on movements distracts man from everyday problems, restoring his nervous system. And, of course, gymnastics trains all joints and ligaments. It is helpful for everybody. So, coming back home, you can show it to your mums and dads, grandmas and grandpas, so that they will never be sick.

  “I want to draw your particular attention to the fact that the ancient masters of the Tai Qi Quan gymnastics insistently demanded from their disciples ’purification, stillness, absence of wrong actions, preservation of purity of heart, restraint in their desires.’ In this way, a human not only will defeat his diseases but also will destroy his ego, thus clearing a path to the perfection of the spirit. They were strongly convinced that Heaven sees the ’de’ (spirituality, love) of man and that, based on his ‘de,’ he gets a reward. The wisdom of the masters that reached us from the depths of centuries is relevant today. Each one of us can use this knowledge to the maximum, and not just for self-defense, but also for the opening of his own internal world, for the perception of the mysteries of nature and the universe. You always need to remember that 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 e
ducation. 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 him one more time, Victor would have been in trouble. Writhing in pain, poor Victor tried to restore his breath by a special technique used after dangerous strikes, which Sensei gave us once at additional lessons. Meanwhile Volodya, having flown about five meters head over heels, also tried to reestablish himself after his unexpected flight. He was strenuously rubbing the place that Sensei's blow would have struck if he had been standing next to Volodya.

  Everything happened in a split second in the presence of everyone in the group. Though I saw it with my own eyes, I could not believe it even though my mind was used to such surprises from Sensei. In a minute, the crowd burst out with emotions. Andrew pulled Eugene by a sleeve, without taking his eyes from Volodya, “Hey, what was that?”

  Eugene was probably in shock too, “Wait, my spirit trembles in me from a queer vision.”

  Meantime the Teacher’s face changed, as though he was annoyed with himself for this negligence. Coming up to Volodya, he made a number of gestures above his body. He was scolding him quickly, obviously indignant at the attack. Volodya answered something, shrugging his shoulders and bashfully hiding his eyes. The crowd was riled up based on what they had seen. Sensei was bombarded with questions that he was reluctant to answer.

  “What kind of a blow was that?” The guys asked eagerly.

  “Well, how can I say it,” the Teacher said with a sigh. “It is connected with the mental energy of a person. It isn't anything worth your attention. It is only one of the steps of spiritual development in the martial arts.”

  “So we can learn it, can’t we?”

  “Certainly, maybe you can if you are patient.”

  Sensei quickly continued the interrupted lesson, hushing up this incident as it seemed to me. At the end of the training, the majority of people present had increased adrenaline in their blood and corresponding optimistic forecasts concerning the future.

  Unlike the others, our company silently observed the agitation because we were sure that at additional trainings Sensei would not avoid our direct questions.

  Befor
e the additional training, the Teacher’s mood improved a little bit, and his good mood was a good sign. The senior guys hastened to take advantage of it. During the additional training, they tortured Sensei with inquiries to “contemplate personally” something like that. At the beginning, Sensei laughed the matter off but then he agreed under their pressure to show us the so-called ‘saving screen.’ He told us first to find some objects for ourselves.

  We ran to the room used for sports stock and armed ourselves with what we could find there. The guys grabbed poles and basketball balls. Andrew even took his nunchaku. I thought for a long time about what to choose. Finally I decided to take a tennis ball, as I thought that if Sensei failed and the object hit him it would not hurt him. But Sensei had never made any mistake in his actions before, which inspired special respect for his abilities.

  When we had armed ourselves, Sensei stood 7 or 8 meters away from us. Concentrating, he lifted his hands forward and placed them slightly to his sides. In turn, we started to throw various objects at him as hard as we could. It was fantastic but no matter how hard we tried, all objects simply missed Sensei, changing the trajectory of their flight in the distance of half a meter from his palms. Victor, Stas, and Volodya decided to challenge Sensei by throwing the objects at him from behind. But Sensei didn't even change his position, he only opened his hands wider to the sides. To put it briefly, we experimented a lot, but all the objects missed Sensei.

  I didn’t understand whether all of us became cross-eyed or there really was some invisible powerful wall around him. My mind resisted the last reason and was indignant in trying to prove that it could not be. This conclusion forced me to try throwing the tennis ball again and again. Now I was throwing it without any pity into this invisible wall to be convinced for a second that an obstacle really existed there. I think all other guys also had similar feelings because their passion gradually changed into confusion.

  In my opinion, again Sensei began to turn from a normal person into a supernatural creature. My head really started to go crazy from all this improbable plausibility. Meanwhile Sensei had removed the screen and began to explain the principle of its action, in this way bringing the logical work of our consciousness to a normal, natural rhythm. Then I noticed that while listening to Sensei, some signs of envy (the animal essence) began to slip into my head again. First it happened accidentally, and then they got stronger and stronger. Then some doubts rose in my head, although Sensei explained everything in a simple and understandable way based on what we had just seen with our own eyes.

  I caught myself on the idea that while listening to Sensei talk about spiritual opportunities, I was thinking dirty thoughts with the inflated mania of my own egocentrism. “Wow!” I thought. “With such an underlying basis of egoism, all valuable knowledge will pass by my ears. My mind will choose out of Sensei’s words only those ones that are necessary for the animal nature instead of the spiritual one. That means I will never succeed… So I need to concentrate on good… This knowledge is necessary for me only for good purposes, for learning my essence. I do not want to cause any harm. Let all people live in peace and love. I do not wish anyone evil and do not envy them. All of them are good and worthy in their lives. The main thing for me is perfection of my soul.” Adjusting myself in this way, I began to listen to Sensei more attentively. The conversation had already moved on to creating blows in the distance.

  “…this blow is very powerful,” Sensei said. “Mental forces of the person are involved in it.”

  “How is the blow itself committed at such a distance?” Stas asked.

  “Basically, distance is an illusion. Therefore in your understanding it acts like the projection of a blow. In fact, there is another type of physics in which space and time are compressed. Therefore a person who delivers such a blow, like a person who really receives it, feels direct physical contact.”

  “Does this knowledge come from ‘Belyao Dzy’?” asked Victor.

  “Yes. This is a special technique of Lotus from the art of the ‘Punishing Sword of Shambala.’ People of Shambala knew and still know this art… Once a very long time ago, Masters of Lotus came out to our world rather frequently. They perfectly knew not only the Old Lama style, but also knew the Art of the Punishing Sword. Such a Master could gain a victory over an entire army. Until now in the East there are legends about warriors who appeared from nowhere and returned to nowhere. But in the area where they stopped, they enjoyed great honor and respect among the local population because better protection for the peaceful inhabitants could not be found. These Masters possessed an energy power much more serious than any modern weapon. For people who don’t have knowledge of this art to receive such a destroying blow from nowhere is more than awful.

  “Time passed, and the necessity of such Masters’ arriving disappeared. But certainly it does not mean that the art of the Punishing Sword vanished. In the gate of Shambala there is a specially trained person who carries out decisions made by the council of Bodhisattvas. If you remember once I told you that Shambala will never allow somebody to capture the whole world or to use spiritual knowledge to harm mankind. So this Master realizes such decisions without leaving his cell. For this purpose, it is enough for him to be in a special state of consciousness and to wave the ‘Petal of Lotus,’ a special ritual sword somewhat similar to a short Turkish saber. The name of the art of the Punishing Sword of Shambala appeared because of the sword.

  “Evidence of this Master’s activity can occasionally be found in the modern world. Mysterious deaths still remain a secret not only to pathologists. For example, in the process of an autopsy, it was discovered that the heart was cut precisely into halves as if a sharp object had been used, but the skin and nearby organs were not injured. Or there were ‘inexplicable’ cases where in the presence of numerous guards a body was cut into pieces as though from a sword and the clothes were undamaged. It doesn't matter how thoroughly a guilty person had been protected by the newest technology or the whole army, he isn’t able to evade this penalty. It is an original cause of fear before Shambala for all tyrants. Therefore people searched and continue searching for contact with it because they know, no matter how powerful and authoritative they are, they are powerless before Shambala.”

  Sensei broke off, and it seemed to me that his words still echoed in my ears. All the guys stood in thoughtfulness perhaps because, like me, they were also shocked by everything they heard. Nobody dared to break the silence, hoping that the Teacher would add something else to this extraordinary information. At last, Volodya lost his patience and spoke in a bass, “This Master of the Punishing Sword probably has a force similar to atomic energy if distance does not matter for his blows.”

  “Atomic energy in comparison with this force is only a children's toy. Mankind is far from knowing its real abilities and real forces because of the prevalence of the animal nature.”

  38

  After such a training, our emotions concerning the things we had heard and seen stormed for more than a day. Thoughts about our abilities did not give us a moment's peace. We wished to reach everything at once. So for the next few days, this optimistic mood came out in assiduous trainings of body and mind. When it came time for the next spiritual lessons, we simply showered Sensei with different questions. Looking at all our excitement, the Teacher said:

  “Guys, this distant blow, all the effects of Qi energy, and all those ‘miracles’ that I show you, all of them are trifles not worthy of real attention. True force lies in the soul. This is what is necessary to develop; learn and admire it. Divine love of the soul combined with the mind of the person is a true miracle. All that you saw is only a side-effect of different levels of spiritual development. It is nonsense, you should not pay attention to it.”

  “But why is it nonsense?” Nikolai Andreevich said. “In fact, miracles generate belief.”

  “Yes, they do. Miracles generate belief. But let's understand what kind of belief. What happens to a person when he sees mir
acles, that is, those phenomena that are inexplicable for his brain? First of all, it powerfully shakes his mind. The mind simply begins to go beyond the limits as it does not have the proper information to explain the given phenomenon. Our brain has amazing mechanisms of self-preservation and self-defense, the protective factor of our brain, so its compensatory functions are immediately activated. Using the language of physiology, zones of the brain and groups of nervous cells can't join in mental activity to their fullest extent. And there is an important point. If the animal nature prevails in person, this person internally starts to ignore the existence of such a phenomenon. He shifts the blame for everything to the unreality of an event, to trickery, or he obtains a desire to learn all these unknown things for the sake of his own mercenary interests of megalomania satisfaction.

  “The person who has balanced these two natures begins to go from one extreme to another. It means that today he blindly trusts all this, but tomorrow he starts to doubt, and the day after tomorrow he starts to doubt his doubts again, and so on. To put it briefly, there is an active struggle between the two natures in the field of his mind.

  “Inside a person whose spiritual nature prevails on the basis of belief grows the spirit of research into the given phenomenon, grows the knowledge of his own abilities and the secrets of nature for the sake of this process of knowledge, for the sake of perfection of the soul. His initial fear of the mystery of the phenomenon is muffled and, during the process of learning, it completely disappears and transforms blind belief into knowledge, that is, into true belief.

  “In fact, guys, why do you think I show you all this? I do it to observe your thoughts, the level of your animal nature in relation to the spiritual one. The most important question is, why do I spend so much time explaining each phenomenon? I try to give your mind a hint to put away your complex of material life. I try to make you think about the eternal secrets of nature, about your obscure soul, about God. In fact, the more you learn yourselves, the closer you are to God, to those eternal, unshakeable, and everlasting things.

  “What is your physical life compared to the Universe? It's nothing. In comparison with the Universe and planets, a human practically does not exist. His life is an unreal reality, just an instant in one of God’s thoughts…”

  “How can it be?” Eugene did not understand.

  “Well, someday I shall explain it to you in detail… Your bodies exist in a closed time cycle where you, that means your soul, have all the conditions for absolute maturation. You need to realize it with the help of your mind and join your soul in common aspirations to cognize it. Then your life will acquire true sense. Because it is your ripened soul, not those ashes of material bodies changed during development, that is valuable for God, for the Universe as a whole…

  “So, true belief arises from knowledge. And knowledge comes through a word, through belief of your mind in the reality of the occurring phenomenon. Miracles, in fact, are only one kind of testing of the internal level of individual development. This method of testing was used in their terrestrial practice by those who possessed factual knowledge of the science of Belyao Dzy. We have a unique person in Satya Sai Baba, who decided to turn people to God with the help of the permanent demonstration of real miracles.”

  Nikolai Andreevich thought a little, “It's a familiar name… Was it he who was shown on TV rubbing Gorbachev’s head with his foot?

  “Right!” Sensei grinned.

  “He was called an incarnation of God on Earth… an Avatar.”

  “Avatara” Sensei corrected. “But generally ‘avatara’ is translated from Sanskrit as ‘fall’ or ‘descent’.”

  “Yes, Avatara. They said Avatara takes a human body to lift the development of the person a step higher, to bring him into a new century.”

  “Absolutely right. He likes to say, ‘If you want to rescue a drowning man, you need to jump into water, that is to be incarnated.’”.

  “What kind of man is he?” our company asked with curiosity.

  “Well, Sai Baba is a great soul. And as human civilization is now at the point of global changes in reassessing its spiritual level of development and the events following these changes, Satya Sai Baba decided to make his contribution. He was going to surprise the world with miracles. Satya Sai Baba was preparing for this mission for a long time, he was developing the theory of the influence of miracles on the spiritual development of people. First, he predicted in the Upanishads his threefold incarnation in the epoch of technics. And then when time came he began to check this theory in practice. So he reincarnated to Sai Baba in the village of Shirdi in 1872 in India. All his life he performed miracles, read thoughts, could overcome distances, take any material form, and so forth. He died in 1918, having informed everyone before his death that he would come back to Earth again in eight years in the south of India.

  “And so it happened. Satya Sai Baba was born in 1926 in Puttaparthi, a small remote village in the south of India. In 1940, he was proclaimed Avatar. And he performs miracles up to now. When time comes for him to leave, he will reincarnate again as Prema Sai. He has already predicted not only the exact date and the place of the following incarnation, between the cities of Bangalore and Mysore, but also the names of his future parents.”

  “They say on TV that he can levitate, simultaneously appear in different places, and, what is most interesting, he can materialize an enormous quantity of anything you like from a diamond to cookies, is it true? They say he just pulls them out of the air. Or is this merely gossip?” Nikolai Andreevich asked.

  “No. It is really so.”

  “But it is unreal!”

  “It is absolutely real. But his main mistake lies in demonstrating miracles, things that are still mysterious for mankind. Those who saw his miracles are surprised and start to think them over, and those who did not see just laugh at him and consider all this to be a trick. The latter unfortunately belong to the majority. But he certainly carries out his mission honestly, and I wish he could help as many people as possible at least wake up. Nevertheless, the true enlightenment of the soul comes through a word.”

  “Is he a real God?” Ruslan asked.

  “You know, people ask him this question quite often. The answer is simple enough and true. As Satya Sai Baba used to say, ’You are God too. The only difference between me and you is that I know that I am God and you do not know it.’”

  39

  At the next training, the sports hall was so overcrowded that there was not an inch of room. Judging from the places the beginners came from, the news about energy blow had probably spread through several cities. We had never trained in such a mess. Andrew and Kostya began to express their indignation about this crowd of people that suddenly overflowed ‘their’ sports hall. But the senior sempai quickly put the guys down, having reminded them that recently they were exactly the same beginners in a crowd and no one objected to their practicing here. He also reproached them with words of the Teacher, that you should respect another person’s aspiration for knowledge instead of immediately attacking him with bayonets of your own egocentrism. After that the guys were ashamed, kept silent, and did not utter any evil word during the entire training. As for Andrew, he decided to rehabilitate himself somehow in the eyes of the senior sempai and even diligently began to help the beginners master movements that were new for them.

  While people were practicing the techniques during the optional program, a man asked Sensei to meet him outside. At this time, Tatyana and I were next to the open door, as it was very stuffy in the sports hall even with the open windows. Three humble men, one of them under fifty and the other two under thirty, had politely knocked on the open door, drawing our attention. As we appeared to be standing nearer than the others, they also politely inquired about the name of our Teacher and the possibility of talking to him. Of course, we did what they asked. When Sensei came up, they started to talk to him about something.

  Аt first, I did not pay attention to the conversation, f
ulfilling my task. But the words I could hear raised my curiosity more and more. These men appeared to be representatives of some religious sect that had recently grown in our city like mushrooms after rain. Obviously, having seen the number of young people training in the sports hall, they suggested Sensei and his pupils to visit their meeting that day in a cinema hall. A free presentation of a film about Jesus Christ was to take place there. Sensei politely thanked them for the invitation without promising anything concrete. But their leader, the elder one, who turned out to be their minister, began to ask Sensei leading questions about his knowledge of Jesus and his attitude to His teachings.

  Sensei started off answering politely and laconically, letting him know that the training wasn’t over. But the minister was not in a hurry to part with Sensei. Every short answer of Sensei met an extremely verbose explanation of the advantages of their church and their ‘true view of the teachings of Christ. Within ten minutes, the conversation had tired Sensei because he started to break all their seducing reasons down to ashes with precise arguments, quoting dates, figures, and events which, apparently, were unknown even to the minister. By this time, our curious company had left the sports hall to listen what was going on. Eugene and Stas followed us. Then came Ruslan and Yura, who were standing not far from the door.

  “…Wouldn’t you like to live eternally in paradise on Earth, in the kingdom of God?” the minister uttered in a pacifying voice.

  “Eternally, on Earth, in paradise?!” grinned Sensei.

  “Do not hasten to reject eternal life as an unrealizable dream,” the minister interrupted him. “Pay attention to how your body is created. In fact, you practically know nothing about it. Everything in it has been conceived with the utmost detail. We have hearing, sight, taste, the sense of smell and touch. There are so many things in the world that bring pleasure due to our sense organs: tasty food, pleasant friendly relations, picturesque landscapes, and so on. We can enjoy this all due to our amazing brain. Do you know that our brain is perfect and it surpasses any computer, any supercomputer?! And do you really think that our Creator wants you to die and to lose all this? It is logical to conclude that He wishes eternal life for His righteous men, doesn’t He?”

  “Happy and eternal life on Earth in a body?! Do you think at all when you are speaking to people?” the Teacher said. “What kind of eternal paradise can there be in a body? Any body as any biological structure demands your constant attention. It wants to eat, it is sick, it is tired, it wants pleasure. And you call this matter a paradise and dream of living with its biological needs eternally?! For sure it is an eternal hell instead of paradise!”

  “Then if you think so, why did God create the human body?”

  “God created the human body as the most convenient form and protection for the maturation of a still weak soul. Even the Bible you hold in your hands says, ’And the Lord God created a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and a man became a living soul.’”

  “Right, but the true sense of these words is a bit different,” the minister spoke instructively. “The authors of the Bible, when using the word ‘spirit’ in this context, did not mean an intangible soul that continues to live after death.”

  “Really?!” Sensei was surprised. “How do you know the true sense of these words? Do you know it from the literature and instructions that the leaders of your sect present and put into your heads in ready-made form? Did you think it over yourself? Do you know your leaders personally, do you know their inner world? Did you reflect on why do they need all of this, in fact, this unlimited power over you? For them and their special agents…”

  As Sensei spoke, the minister’s nostrils dilated more and more.

  “Let’s not speaking about it further,” he sharply interrupted Sensei. Having come round, he softly added, “We say that, according to the interpretation of the Bible, the spirit is a vital force. When a person dies, this vital force ceases to support the life in cells of his body, just as a light becomes dim when you switch off the electricity. When the vital force ceases to support the human body, the person - the soul - dies. It is written in Ecclesiastes 12:1,7; in Psalm…”

  “It is written in Ecclesiastes 12:1, ‘Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.’ These words do not even relate to the topic of our conversation. And Ecclesiastes 12:7 only proves what I have already told you, ‘Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it,” Sensei quoted by heart. “If you read ancient scriptures of different religions, you will see that the same eternal truth about the development of the soul in a body, about its numerous reincarnations in achievement of perfection, can be traced everywhere. Read something besides the Bible; for example, the most ancient sacred book of Hinduism, Veda, from the end of the second or beginning of the first millennium B.C.; or one of its commentaries, the Upanishads, which are the basis of all the orthodox religious and philosophical systems of India; or the Buddhist canon Tripitaka; the sacred book of Islam, the Koran, written around 650 A.D.; the sacred book of Shintoism, Nihonshoki, from 720 A.D.; or the book of wisdom Zhuangzi, the treatise of Laozi Daodejin, the works of Confucius from the 6th to 5th centuries B.C. You will see in all these works a single grain of wisdom that was given in different times by different people for different levels of human formation.”

  “All religions of the world are from Satan, therefore they are not even worthy of our attention,” the minister said with a hint of rage in his voice. “Satan influences political forces and promotes religions in which people without knowing it worship him instead of God. Only our belief is the true belief. It is the only path to the salvation of mankind.”

  “Well, every religion and sect considers their belief to be true, otherwise they would not create a separate organization for themselves. But don’t you think that it looks slightly egocentric on the part of religious leaders? In fact, they get their knowledge from the same books and simply transform this information according to their level of moral perception and their vision of the world.

  “Your idea that all religions of the world are from Satan is absolutely wrong. Yes, religions were created on the basis of teachings of great people by others who simply used their point of view and benefited from it. From the time immemorial, religion has been a powerful political lever in the world, and consequently it has rendered a huge influence on the consciousness of a crowd. Each religion has its own exaggerations, complications, and even wrong views. But for many centuries, the relations between God and mankind were conducted basically through religion. Though world religions have greatly complicated the knowledge given to people for salvation of their souls, nevertheless all of them were based on it. In the past, it was only through religion that people could revive a belief in themselves, a blind belief but sincere, and they could slightly improve their souls. During those dark times when the consciousness of our society stood at an absolute low, religion was the only engine in the progress of mankind.”

  “Isn't it the same now?” one of young novices of the minister asked with interest.

  “Now the time of blind belief has passed. The time of global changes has come. And the basis of future progress in knowledge of God is the science.”

  “But how can it be science if it officially rejects God?” the novice asked in surprise.

  “Science is only partly understood by mankind. If science still cannot explain the original source of the electromagnetic field, what can be said about it? Its current level can be compared to the stage of development of a one-year-old child who crawls in the space limited by his parents so as not to injure himself and learns the world through toys that are given to him. But it does not mean at all that he does not have any prospect of growth and true comprehension of the present values of the world.”

  “An interesting definition. Who are these parents in
your opinion?” a young interlocutor got interested.

  “Everyone has got the Father, God. But beside the parent, there are also tutors who look after children and give them these toys.”

  “This is even more interesting… Who are these tutors?”

  “These creatures are known by different names. In Christianity, they are called angels, archangels who are next to God and take care of people. In the East, they are perceived more realistically and are called Bodhisattvas from Shambala…”

  “My brother, you are falling into heresy!” the minister cried angrily at his novice. Addressing to Sensei, he threateningly added, “You are a deeply stray person. You are absolutely wrong. People can not transform the world nor aspire to learn about God through science. Science is the intrigue of the Devil, who convinces people by his discoveries that God does not exist. Satan covered the world with a net of technologies to catch people, to dull minds with TV and devilish literature and to make a person worship only him as today he is the Prince of this world. Only the word of God written down in the only sacred book, the Bible, is true and right. And only through it you can learn God…”

  “Yes, in your instructed interpretation,” Sensei grinned. “How can science come from the Devil?! You are fooling people's heads with this nonsense. The Devil can't give anything to people at all. Who is God, and who is the Devil? The Devil is nothing more than the animal nature that is a part of each person, generating negative ideas. Even the translation of a word ‘satan’ comes from Hebrew, where originally this word meant ‘counteracting’. The manifestation of the Devil is just what we notice in ourselves, in our bad thoughts. It simply seems to us that we are good. But in fact, look how many times a day in actions and thoughts we awake in ourselves the animal nature, that is, we appeal to the Devil, not to God. How many times a day we cherish vanity and flesh in our thoughts.”

  “The Devil is not in thoughts, it is an awful creature, a beast…”

  “A creature? People defaced him and presented him as a beast, having made a scapegoat out of him. People are afraid of his attack from the outside. But he is inside of us, he is our integral part. He strikes a blow where it is not expected, that is from our thoughts. To defeat the Devil does not mean to renounce everything in the world. To defeat the Devil means to defeat your negative thoughts, to put things in order in your mind. As ancient people said, the biggest achievement that every person can reach working on himself is to kill a dragon inside. Have you heard such an expression, ‘Know yourself and you will know the whole world’? All outstanding people came to comprehend God through cognition of themselves. God is an omnipresent substance existing everywhere. God is an almighty, united, reasonable force. Everything that is given by God is given for the good of mankind. Why, for example, are science and technologies given? They are given to people for collecting information for communication, for exchanging experiences without difficulties. They are given for the constant development of a person and saving time for every possible versatile cognition of the secrets of nature. All this will inevitably result in comprehension of God and the real fact of His existence.

  “And what do you do? You limit the consciousness of people: do not read this, do not do this, do not go there, do not engage yourself with it. People, do not make trouble! Do not follow your mercenary ambitions. You impede the development of human souls, you are throwing them again into the hell of reincarnation.”

  “Reincarnation does not exist in nature!” the minister exclaimed in a rage.

  “Brother, brother, calm down,” the novice hastened to interfere in the conversation. “You said yourself that anger is evil.”

  The minister hissed at him but nevertheless pulled himself together and continued the conversation, “It is necessary for you to read the Bible more and to clear your mind of sinful thoughts because you are a terrible person. Come to us and repent because Satan has seized your mind. We shall teach you the true understanding of God, we shall teach you how to save your soul.”

  With those last words, Sensei's face changed, and he said calmly, articulating each word, “Explain to me how a man drowning in a bog can save a man standing on the bank of the river?”

  But the minister grasped only the first word, ‘explain,’ and for the next several minutes he tried to ‘teach’ Sensei with his admonitions, quoting different chapters from the Bible.

  “… and if you will take it as a rule to attend our meetings, it will be the most powerful protection against demon attacks. You will apply pieces of advice that are given at meetings, and it will help you to be saved from Gehenna. Be sure that God will completely compensate everything you will sacrifice for the sake of worshiping Him. It is written in Malachi 3:10. For the time of the Armageddon will come soon and will destroy the sinful of mankind. Only the righteous people will remain alive in the world. We should wait with obedience and humility for the day when the Lord Jesus Christ will take measures against Satan and his adherents. It is written in Revelation 20:1-3. And when the last fight of God with Devil begins…”

  “Not only did you not listen to everything I told you, you do not even think about what you say. Just ponder a little, how can the Devil fight with God? How can you say that? God is almighty, the Devil is nothing in comparison with him. Everything, every person, including Lucifer, serves God. People have just ennobled the power of Lucifer to have someone to blame for their stupidity. Lucifer, like any other angel, just serves God executing only His will…”

  These words got the minister so mad that he did not even give Sensei an opportunity to finish his speech and screamed in fury, “When Satan comes, you will be his left hand!”

  Turning his back sharply, he went away. The second novice quickly followed the tutor, but the first novice who asked questions loitered a little, obviously wishing to hear the end of Sensei's story. But the second novice called him, and he followed them.

  Meanwhile, Eugene could hardly help laughing. He said with obvious pleasure, addressing our crowd, “Yes, yes, have you heard what a clever person has said? Remember what I told you!”

  Now we also could not help laughing together with the senior guys, recollecting cheerfully Eugene's joke during our first visit to the glade. Laughing, our crowd went to the sports hall.

  Sensei thought a bit and said half in jest, half seriously, “Why exactly the left hand? Is the Devil really left-handed? I didn’t notice that.”

  Our young company looked at Sensei in surprise. The senior guys burst out laughing again, supplementing this juicy detail with different jokes. We quickly returned to our interrupted exercises. After that we trained without incident.

  40

  After the additional training, as usual we left together, and we saw the novice who had taken part in the conversation between Sensei and the minister. He stood near the club. Having noticed Sensei among us, he came up to him and inquired politely, “Excuse me, have you got a minute?”

  “Yes, I am listening to you,” Sensei said calmly.

  “The matter is that our conversation was interrupted… And I did not have time to ask you some questions that are of great importance for me. You have rather an unusual world outlook, at least I have not heard anything like that. And I feel that your words are not groundless, as they coincide to some degree with my concept of essence of things. If it will not bother you, could you answer some questions?”

  “Yes, of course,” Sensei responded with the same politeness.

  These words encouraged the novice. He grew bolder and said, “What is the true belief, the way to God in your understanding?”

  “The true belief is knowledge. Certainly, there are a lot of ways to God, but you can wind along the pass repeatedly or you can go straight. A direct way to God is a way through knowledge and love.”

  “How is this knowledge expressed?”

  “It is expressed through versatile cognition of the world in its various aspects: beginning from microlife to the macroexistence of space systems; through cog
nition of yourself both as a biological and spiritual structure and accordingly the essence of things around you. Certainly, to learn everything is impossible, but you should aspire to it. A human should constantly grow in his knowledge, he should develop his intellect. The most valuable way is the cognition of God through your mind when true knowledge, overcoming the animal nature, opens the gate of the subconscious with the help of the key of love. It is an eternal unshakable truth that has always existed in the days of all highly developed human civilizations ever existing on the Earth.”

  “Sorry, I have not understood everything. Could you explain it in a little bit more detail?”

  “In general, it means complete maturation of the human soul, a full victory over the material essence, that is, over the Devil. In Christianity and in Islam it is called enlightenment, holiness which leads to paradise after death. In Buddhism, it is called awakening and coming out of a chain of reincarnations into nirvana, and so on. Actually everything is much simpler.

  “I shall try to explain it to you in general. Figuratively speaking, it looks like this. We think that we are that very mind which sees, hears, thinks, and analyzes. But actually it is only a small part our consciousness. Let us name it Something. This small Something floats on a surface of an ocean. The ocean is our subconscious where all our genetic memory is stored in various depths, conditioned and unconditioned reflexes, that is, all our stored experience. But all this concerns our material essence. This is our animal nature. Underneath the subconscious at the bottom of the ocean, there is some kind of a gateway. Behind this gateway there is a soul, a little part of God. This is our spiritual nature. This is what we actually are and what we very occasionally feel in ourselves. The soul regenerates during reincarnation, it gradually ripens through knowledge and love from our mortal Something as far as Something is connected to the soul. But the problem is that this Something is also connected with the ocean. Moreover, from the outside it is more subject to the influence of the ocean. It is thrown constantly here and there with waves that are various thoughts, emotions, desires, and so on. Sometimes it is so overflowing that Something loses its touch with the soul and then, after a storm, tries again to grasp it. But when this Something becomes stronger in aspiring to reach the soul, without paying any attention to the storms of the ocean, and it pushes through the thickness of the waters into the bottom, having given up fear, then it finally reaches this gateway. With the help of a key of love, it opens this gate, joining the soul. Only then will a human understand who he really is. He fully realizes freedom, eternity and God. Only then is the soul free to go to nirvana, paradise, that is, into the world where only love reigns.

  “So it turns out that this Something that is our consciousness determines the destiny of our soul, doesn’t it?”

  “Absolutely right. Everything depends on our choice and on our aspirations.”

  The novice thought a little and then said quietly to himself, “So real paradise is not in the body.”

  “The body will never give you paradise, as the body is an eternal worry, an eternal problem. Paradise can be reached only through the connection of the soul with God.”

  “You said that very rarely do we feel ourselves being real, those who we actually are, our soul. How is this divine presence felt? Is it possible to understand with the help of these sensations what paradise is?”

  “Only the human who looks at the world through a prism of love can understand divine presence. And to understand what paradise is… Well, for you to have a slight notion of it… If you choose the happiest moment in your life when your true love comes, when your life storms with waves of happiness and all-embracing joy, all these sensations will be equivalent to a small divine droplet of love scattered on you. But when a human enters nirvana, paradise, that moment when the soul joins God, figuratively speaking, is the same as if a human swims like a dolphin in the ocean of this infinite divine love. It is impossible to describe with words the fullness of these sensations, just as it is impossible to imagine it in full scope. Unfortunately, the human mind is limited, but in this limitation lies its beauty. Here, in a limited mind, an endless love should be developed.”

  “Yes, everything is so simple and clear… You said that it is possible to reach the gateway through love and knowledge. In fact, people became saints in different times. It was through love, of course. What should we do with knowledge? In those times, people did not have all the information we do now.”

  “People even now have too little information. But the matter is that when a human reaches this gateway, any knowledge becomes accessible to him with the help of it. There are no restrictions there.”

  “I thought that if I limited my consciousness the way it was told to us in my sect, I shall come to God.”

  “Well, first, when you are limiting your consciousness with blind belief, you need incredible efforts to resist the attacks of your animal nature. Why? Because blind belief gives the animal nature freedom of actions. At any moment, it can overflow your mind with unexpected doubts, and your belief will fail like a house made of cards. But if your belief is based on the strong foundation of knowledge, which allows you to prove to your mind in a well-reasoned and thorough way the real fact of the existence of God and by that to bring your animal nature in the corner and to leash it there, then you will receive real freedom and will be able to come to God.

  “Second, Jesus never limited His pupils as your religious sect does. Your leaders try to build a small empire of authority based on the teachings. They force you to kiss their hands, to bow down in front of them. Who are they? Even Jesus, in spite of the fact that He was a Great Soul, was always a friend to the apostles, and if you remember this story, He even washed their feet. He did not bring people the enthrallment of a crowd but mostly the freedom of personal choice. He gave people a precept of love, this very key to the gateway. Recall His words, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, and with your entire mind.’ In this way, he showed that high morality, soul, and reason are the three components for maturation of a soul and its union with God. This was told by prophets of all teachings, for there is a sole source of knowledge. Let's choose Mohammed as an example…”

  “Mohammed? Do you think his religion brings us closer to God?”

  “Religion is created by people, but Mohammed preached the teachings. His true teaching is based on the same knowledge that Christ gave us.”

  “It can not be true!”

  “Why can it not be? Do you know anything about Mohammed?”

  “I don't know about him, but I have met in person his fanatic, violent followers when I worked as a journalist in Afghanistan. Believe me, it left in my soul bad memories. I saw what Islam is.”

  “You did not see Islam, you saw how the teaching of Mohammed was transformed by mercenary politicians. You can find fanatic believers in every religion. Is it possible to judge the teachings looking only at those people? Blind and furious fanaticism is the worst sign of any religion, the worst distortion of any teaching inasmuch as it completely awakens a person’s animal nature, covered by a shield of good intentions. It is a manifestation of politics, a longing for world domination that is inherent in the ruling clique of each religion. Study the teachings of prophets yourself, did they call for it? All of them called for the spiritual development of a human. They called for the whole world to be united in sole love for God, suppressing in ourselves our animal nature, a devil, call it as you wish. A human, being in God, can not do evil things.

  “Mohammed was a very unique person. I advise you to read about his life simply from a human position, without bias and conventionalities. Beginning in childhood, he aspired to self-cognition, and first he was guided by natural human desires. He was a poor boy, an orphan, a usual shepherd. When Mohammed was young, he thought that if he became rich he will fully understand himself. At the age of twelve, he began to work as a caravan escort. Along one of his routes he met a wise man who gave him a grain of knowledge and
trained him to meditate; as a result, it radically changed his destiny. Mohammed began with his spiritual practices in order to understand the essence of God.

  “In a while, his early dream came true. A successful marriage to a notable woman made him rich. Mohammed understood, though, that richness was not the thing to which his soul aspired. He started to search for this something in authority, but couldn’t find it there either. This fact drove him to search inside himself, inside his human essence. Mohammed often spent long hours at night in meditations, and finally they brought him to enlightenment. He understood the sense of internal essence, the sense of existence of all mankind as a whole, he found God - "al-illah" – which means “worthy worshiping,” and due to that his soul woke up, having opened a source of true knowledge. Then, as the legend says, he received revelations from above, from archangel Gabriel or, as he is still called in the East, archangel Jibril. Mohammed not only received revelations from him but also became his favorite pupil. Gabriel told him sacrament of the teaching and the secret knowledge. In order to show the truth and the depth of knowledge of this teaching, he moved Mohammed in space and time, into the city of Jerusalem, where he arranged a meeting with Bodhisattva Issa and his enlightened pupils Abraham and Moses. Through these travels in time, Gabriel showed him the elusiveness and frailty of the material world in comparison with true knowledge and showed that only God has real force and is worthy of worshiping. All this knowledge sown in his strong soul bore rich fruits. The worthy pupil justified Gabriel’s hopes. At that stage, Mohammed had done for mankind more good than anybody else could have done.”

  “But what about Jesus??

  “Make no mistake, Jesus was a Bodhisattva, which means he was already born as God. But Mohammed was a person who managed to awaken the divine essence in himself. So when archangel Gabriel felt that Mohammed was prepared enough, he said to him, ‘Now you should go to the world and bring this knowledge to other people.’. Mohammed answered, ’How can I explain to people in words the ideas that I learnt from you in spirit?’ ’Go and tell them that there is one God and He lights everything up like the sun with His Divine Love. I am like the Moon in the night of human life, I am reflecting the light of God and light the way in the darkness of consciousness. You are a guiding star showing the way to divine light.’

  “Inspired by this conversation with Gabriel, Mohammed left the cave in which he meditated, and the first thing he saw was a breathtaking view of nature. In the huge evening sky, a young crescent shone dazzlingly, and a bright star glowed next to it. In that same instant, he had an insight and understood how to express this teaching to people. He understood that God is love, that God is a permanent action. God does not speak with words, He communicates with people through mediators, archangels, who bring His will to the consciousness of people. But a human himself is free to choose whether to understand God through his soul or not.”

  “What did Mohammed do? Did he give people belief?”

  “Mohammed gave people not only belief, but also knowledge. Unfortunately for 600 years, people have falsified the teaching of Christ, having transformed it into religion. But Mohammed tried to bring people the lost knowledge in his renewed teaching. He told people everything he knew himself without concealing anything. Moreover, if you read history books, what kind of state was Arabia in before the year 610 when Mohammed began to preach? The country was in a general chaos of various idolatry and because of its leaders there often rose enmity between Arabian tribes. Mohammed did a great deed. He united militant people, Arabs, into a general brotherhood and in belief in the One worthy of worshiping. He told the truth about God, about things that Jesus taught: that God is eternal, omniscient, and almighty; that all people are equal before Him. He spoke about the immortality of the soul, about reincarnation (the resurrection of the dead), about judgment, about punishment beyond the grave for those who create evil in this world, about the necessity to establish justice, mercy, and moral duties in relations between people. Due to his wisdom, Mohammed managed to lead Arabs out of their deepest ignorance and political chaos and to show them the way to civilized cultural growth and prosperity.”

  “Perhaps it was really so. But what should we do with the ‘sacred war against the unfaithful’? In fact, Muslim people claim that Mohammed himself preached it.”

  “During those dark times, Mohammed had to deal with wild tribes that understood only force. The word ‘moslem’ comes from a word ‘muslim’ which means ‘obedient,’ that is, obedient to Mohammed but not ‘faithful.’ This meaning, the word ‘moslem’ got much later. So, in those days, devoted people were those who were obedient to the Prophet and who followed him, spreading the teaching to other territories of Arabia to transform the chaos there into order. Unfaithful people were people who were not following his teaching. Mohammed was not only a great prophet, but he was also an ingenious commander and a wise politician. It was not easy to calm down the passion of wild militant tribes. Besides, Mohammed had to declare ‘sacred war’ against those religious priests who usurped authority and who were not interested in the unification of Arabs nor in worshiping their Gods. He struggled against those who had mercenary purposes, deceived people with the help of their belief, and corrupted human souls. In these actions, he is similar to Christ. So, the Prophet struggled for the same purity of belief, as Jesus did, for worshiping the Holy One, for direct spiritual connection of each person with God.”

  “Well, let's admit that time was dark and tribes were wild,” the novice pressed Sensei. “But now so many years have passed and still a strange ‘sacred war’ is being conducted. If God is the only one, why does the war still continue? How can you understand a person who winds explosives around his body and voluntarily goes into a crowd of peaceful inhabitants for death in the name of God, carrying away lives of other people with him?”

  Sensei explained, “Because instead of the teaching that was given by the Prophet, the Muslim got religion, the leaders of which are more interested in mercenary purposes, personal well-being, and political influence in the world than in the souls of individual Muslims. They convince him that after his ’pious’ action, his soul will get to Mohammed, to paradise. In fact, it will not get there, as the way to God is closed to everyone who creates evil. And this Muslim will be reincarnated repeatedly and again pass through all terrestrial circles of hell to make his soul as clean as it was before the creation of evil by this person. These deceived people are victims of religion. But the real guilty people are those who distorted the true teaching. This is the victory of the Devil over any religion.”

  “I heard that in the Koran there are some ‘suras’ that reject your words.”

  “In the Koran?” Sensei asked incredulously. “Do you know that the Koran was written after death of the Great Prophet? The adopted son of Mohammed, Zaid Ibn Thabit, collected all records of his sermons and, pay attention, he made an edition of the Koran in 651. Mohammed himself preached only orally. Sketchy records of his sermons and lessons were made by his first followers who partly remembered and partly wrote down the words of Mohammed. But even despite further additions to the Koran during the creation of religion, the knowledge that was truly given to Mohammed from the archangel Gabriel is still there. Now scientists are simply struck by the fact that while deciphering some ‘original parts’ of the Koran, they find real scientific knowledge…”

  At that moment, Tatyana jabbed me in the side and whispered that she ought to call her parents so they didn’t worry. I looked at my watch and realized that we should have been home already. We apologized and ran into the club where the nearest phone was located. After our long and persistent knocking, at last the door was opened by an old watchman with sleepy eyes. He had probably already begun to carry out his professional duties. Having scolded us a little because strangers were hanging around and he had not gotten any rest, he nevertheless allowed us to make a call. While Tatyana was speaking to her parents, I had time to jot down in my diary some of Sensei’s words. Having in
formed our parents that we would be late, we hastened to the exit to join our company. When we came out, Sensei was still addressing the novice.

  “You refer to the Bible with too much prejudice, as if it is a primary source. I understand that you were taught this way in your sect. But you are a journalist, you should be much more curious than ordinary people. The Bible, like the Koran or the Tripitaka, was written by followers. Moreover, these books went through numerous changes, meaning they already reflected religious points of view instead of the initial teaching that was given by the Great. To focus your attention, I repeat that literally for 600 years the teaching of Christ was greatly distorted and it was necessary to give a new teaching to Mohammed; it was the same, however, as Christ taught. But later this teaching was also transformed into religion by people who left only its form but changed its contents.”

  “But the Bible and the New Testament in particular were written from the words of Jesus by his followers.”

  “If you had had an opportunity to hear the teaching from Jesus Himself and to compare it to the one that you can read now in the Bible, you would find huge blanks and the absence of much knowledge,” Sensei said with bitterness in his voice. “You assert that it was written by His followers, but you don’t even wonder how. They were not the first followers, they were followers of followers. The teaching of Jesus was preached orally for a long period of time. Then lists of sayings of Jesus started to appear. One of the most ancient fragments from the Gospel according to St. John is dated 125 A.D., and the earliest and the most complete manuscript is dated to 200 A.D. You can imagine how the oral sermons could be mangled in two hundred years. One person understood in one way, another person did not understand, the next one concealed something, and so on. Moreover, in 325 the first Nicene ecumenical council, under the direction of the emperor Constantine, selected and canonized the four Gospels included in the New Testament out of numerous versions, with the purpose of strengthening the Church and personal authority. Exactly at that time, the teaching of Christ was completely altered, and a powerful lever of authority for managing crowds was made from it. Exactly at that Council, the orthodox point of view on corporeal revival was authorized under pressure of the emperor Constantine. All otherwise-minded Christians and the supporters of spiritual revival were declared heretics, and subsequently they were pursued and slaughtered all over the Empire, even though early Christians professed the ideology of reincarnation. Mention of it can be found in the Bible. As a result, a natural question arises: why were authorities so afraid of it? Why did Constantine finally alter the teaching, having transformed it into religion? What was the reason behind that? Because the teaching gave people knowledge that released them from their fear of existence in our frail world. Knowledge brought people true freedom and the awakening of their souls. They were not afraid of death, they knew about reincarnation, about things beyond the border. And the most important thing is that they realized there was only God above them instead of any emperor or bishop. But it was terribly frightening for politicians and churchmen to lose their authority, for they were more absorbed by their material interests. The teaching of Jesus, which should have made people free, was transformed into religion and knocked into people's heads on penalty of death. Expansion of Christianity succeeded through violence, crusades were arranged, and so on.

  “Besides, the Bible was rewritten by hand many times by different people, up to 1455 when Gutenberg's Bible was printed. Division of the text into chapters was first made in the 13th century by cardinal Stephen Lengton. The division of chapters into verses and their numeration was made by a Parisian publisher, Robert Stefan, who published the complete text of the Bible in 1553 for the first time. I won’t even mention the fact that in the modern world, for example, the Catholic church considers itself authorized not only to interpret the Bible according to their opinion, but also to supplement it.

  “Despite all of these corrections and distortions, the genius of Jesus lies in the fact that some of His knowledge, due to the initial duality of its sense, could reach descendants. That is why up to now the Bible awakens interest in the teaching of Christ in people. Because of the interpretation of this knowledge ‘in its own way,’ Christianity has never been united and at all times existed as many churches, branches, and sects struggling among themselves.”

  The novice thought a little and then asked, “Which expressions of Jesus do you think were kept in their dual sense?”

  “Let's take even His most widespread expression frequently used in your sect, ‘For where two or three are assembled in my name, there am I in the midst of them.’ It is not plurality of people as your minister asserts. It is the integrity of one individual, where the soul, reason, and consciousness are gathered for the single purpose of understanding God. Or here are other words of Christ, which religious leaders use for attraction to their sect, ’No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ Jesus meant an individual choice of sense of life: either a human aspires to God, to freedom, or he aspires to mammon, that is, to riches, to the material world. Everything is very simple.”

  “It seems to be interpreted the same way in our sect.”

  “Yes, but under the aspiration to God, your religious leaders drum into your head that only through visiting their sect and studying their program can a person surely come to God. Actually, a person can come to God if he changes himself inside and if he grows an internal love and strengthens his belief with knowledge.

  “Or, for example, Jesus said, ’So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many are called, but few chosen.’ Life is given for us to grow spiritually. During it you can make a step forward, that is, to progress, or you can make a step back, to regress. Jesus said that if today God has made you a freer person and if He has enabled you to pay more attention to Him, it means that in the previous lives you deserved it. If you used this life for the regression of your soul, then in the next life He will put you in a more difficult condition for you to realize it. Any person inside, if he concentrates on his deep sensations, can feel the experience of previous lives.”

  “You said that in the Bible there are still some mentions of reincarnation. Which ones?”

  “For example, if you remember in the Gospel according to St. John, there is an episode about Nikodemus, one of the university teachers, who secretly came at night to ask Jesus questions. So, Nikodemus asks Jesus, ’How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?’ Jesus answered, ’Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ Besides, there are also such words as, ‘In my Father's house are many mansions,’ meaning there is a plurality of existence of worlds.

  “Christ told his pupils about the law of reincarnation, allowing them to understand that the soul regenerates for high-grade maturation. He talked about how to save the soul and how to reach the Kingdom of God, how to understand eternal life. He also said that the more spiritually advanced a person becomes, the harder the trial of the resisting animal nature or devil.”

  “Yes, judging by the Gospel, even Jesus was subject to attacks from the Devil. I always thought, why? How can it be if He were the Son of God?” the novice asked.

  “Of course, Jesus was the Son of God,” Sensei replied. “He was a strong soul. But He also named Himself the Son of Earth as the Great Soul of Him was embodied in the ordinary body of a human. The animal nature is inherent in a human body. The animal nature is its integral part. Therefore even Jesus, being Bodhisattva, was subject to ‘temptation’ of the animal nature of His flesh, of His negative thoughts. He felt the same pain, the same feelings as an ordinary person. So Issa was in the same conditions. And for Him it was a thousand times more difficult than for any of you. Because
He knew freedom, He knew God.“ It seemed to me that Sensei said these words with an unbearable nostalgia in his voice. The expression of his face changed as he continued, “And here, carrying out this mission, He finds himself in a human body with all its problems, with all these thoughts and emotions. With all the animal nature He had to put in a corner, in the depth of His consciousness, which always has to be kept like a barking dog on a leash. And your minister still says that it is paradise?!” Sensei exclaimed, “If that isn’t hell, I don’t know what is!”

  After these words, Sensei paused and lit a cigarette.

  “But does the Gospel only mention one episode of Christ’s personal struggle with the Devil when He was in the desert? In fact, if Christ was put in the same condition as people were and the Devil is negative thoughts, it means that these thoughts should have been in Him all His life.”

  “Absolutely right. But Christ was the Great Soul full of the force of love, therefore He kept all these negative thoughts in Himself under strict control. The moment mentioned in the Gospel was His fight in His mind to consolidate the authority of His soul above his body. It was His personal Armageddon, which everyone is obliged to pass when they are born into a body. Bodhisattva unfortunately is not an exception. Why did He fast for forty days and nights? Because it takes about this long for the body to be exhausted, to become weak, for the animal nature to finally surrender. Jesus opened Himself spiritually to let His soul completely occupy His consciousness. But animal thoughts of the body constantly tempted Him, trying to win authority over the mind. They spoke in a hungry body, ‘If thou art the son of God, command that these stones be made bread.’ His thoughts answered on behalf of his soul, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.’ In this way, He emphasized His strength of mind, the essence of a real human, that is, of His soul. Negative thoughts chased Him again, ‘…If thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall uphold thee, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.’ Jesus answered Himself, ‘…It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,’ thus showing His resistance of Spirit and control over crazy thoughts of the body. When thoughts of the animal nature tempted Him to own all empires of the world trying to wake in Him the main trump card, hunger for world authority begotten by insatiable megalomania, Jesus rejected them also by saying, ’And to Him alone shalt thou render worship.’ Issa won this Armageddon with honor. He defeated His negative flesh thoughts with the power of His Spirit, with the force of immense love for God. The Soul of Bodhisattva was completely awakened in Him and He found himself. After that, Jesus began to carry out His mission, using in full all His knowledge and the force of immense divine love. That is why He created miracles by His belief. He cured sick people, revived the dead. As for this divine force, there are no barriers either on the Earth or in space.

  “In general, during His life, Jesus had a clear, concrete division of thoughts of the soul and ‘straddled’ thoughts of the body. Take the time He prayed in the garden of Gethsemane before Judas's treachery. His Soul left his body, and the body exclaimed, ’O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.’ The body was addressing the Soul as if the Soul of Jesus was part of God and had His force.

  “Or here is another episode when Jesus was already hanging on the cross. He suffered greatly, He felt all the pain of a body with His Soul. Issa abandoned His body. When His Soul left the body, His mind cried, ’Ili, Ili! Lama savahfani?’ That means, ’My God, My God! Why did you leave me?’ It clearly shows how strongly Issa as the Great Soul not only owned His body but also reigned over His mind.

  The novice was silent for a bit and then asked, “Tell me please, for a long time I have being tormented by this question, whether it is true or not that we are initially guilty?”

  “The human is initially free, and there is no sin in his deeds. In fact, what is a sin? A sin is something that oppresses us inside at the level of the subconscious, it is something that separates us from God and makes us feeling afraid and guilty. So it is a natural consequence of an action of your mind after breaching universal moral laws and values. This is a sin. These laws are the code of your honor, your conscience. And if you have broken it yourself, you should become better and more pure in thoughts and deeds.

  “Your religious leaders constantly drum to your heads that you are a slave of God and that you are initially guilty. Why? Because they profit if a person supports them financially, paying off ‘sins’ that he didn’t commit. This is a certain psychological trick for a crowd. If you make a person believe that he is guilty, initially guilty, fear begins to grow in him. Your religious leaders use this artificially created fear for absolving your sins immediately, of course until next time.

  “But a human inherently is not a slave of God; he is a son of God. A Father cannot hate His son, He can only love him. For God is love, and love can not have any fear. God gave people freedom of choice, and this is His most valuable gift to people as to His children.”

  “What about the legend that the Serpent brought harm to people?”

  “This information was greatly distorted. The original legend is as follows. When God created a Human, that is a soul, He admired His creation, for it had been created in the image and likeness of Him. A human at that time was not in a body or in the world as some religions assert now…”

  “Why wasn’t he in a body if he was created in the image and likeness of Him?”

  “How can you think that God is a constant material personality, that is, someone embodied like you and me and at the same time omnipresent?”

  “Well, other religions also say it.”

  “What religions?! Study this question more closely. All world religions say that God is the only One, He is omnipresent. God is similar, how can I explain it, to energy, to a magnetic or any other field. This is a single field in which everything exists. God is the mighty energy of thought, which creates everything and appears to be everywhere. But He is not a person with a beard sitting on a throne, nothing of that kind, although if He wishes He can be temporarily embodied in a Human. God created us in His image and likeness, those of us who are inside of these bodies. A particle of Him, the soul, lives in each of us. Human ’paradise’ was in heaven, as Jesus used to say.

  “So, the Essence created by God was of a divine nature, that is, the soul. It did not know bad things, it knew only good things because it inherited divine love. It is natural that this Essence had great abilities and no barriers. Besides God, these Essences were also loved by Lucifier, angel of Light, who is the right hand of God. And he said to God, ’These Essences do not understand how much you love them because they know only good.’ And Lucifer began to assert the individuality of the human, his position as a free Essence for cognition. He wanted humans to truly love God instead of simply existing in front of God as a plant pleasing His eyes. God ordered Lucifer, ’If you love them as much as I do, teach them this.’ God settled people on the Earth, which was specially created for humankind, with seas, land, plants, and different animals. Lucifer created a human body in which God placed a soul, giving birth to two natures: the spiritual and the animal. The power of mind was given by God to humans as the Children of God. The mind became a battlefield where the thoughts of both natures fought, which proves the creation of humans by God and Lucifer together. It also shows that Lucifer was and remains the right hand of God as he actively participated in the creation of humankind and actively participates in the education of the soul. Thus, Lucifer enabled people to understand and to learn perfectly what is good and what is bad. God gave people freedom of choice between these two natures. Since then, Lucifer has taken care of people.”

  “Why does Lucifer call himself the Legion?”

  “It is because he acts through thoughts of our animal nature. As a rule, there are legions of these thoug
hts. Watch yourself because it may seem that you think only your own thoughts. But try to keep this thought in your mind for even ten minutes, and you will be surprised how many different unnecessary thoughts appear in your head. This is a legion. Therefore, figuratively speaking, Lucifer is always present in us, checking our confidence, the strength of our love for God.

  “The power of thought given to us by God is huge; this force is called belief. The human who believes can really work wonders. The proof of this is not only in Jesus but also in many of His followers and followers of other great ones who worked and continue working wonders up to now. But the problem is that it does not depend what someone believes in, this force can be used for both good and evil. The result depends on the side your consciousness is inclined to take. If you are inclined to evil in your thoughts, that is, your material, animal essence gnaws at you, then a great number of problems appear in your life. They appear all the time and everywhere – at work, in private life, in your family, and so on. These problems gnaw at you because evil thoughts take the force of your belief and try to lead you away from thoughts about God in every possible way. If you turn your consciousness to good thoughts, the bad thoughts lose this force, become weak, and after that we can completely control them. With the constant support of positive thoughts in our consciousness, the course of our life will become more even. The most important thing is that a human develops himself spiritually and recognizes the force of love.”

  “Do evil thoughts completely disappear then?” the novice questioned.

  “No, they always exist in you,” Sensei explained, “but they do not have enough strength to affect you. Figuratively speaking, evil thoughts are waiting for an opportunity when you weaken your control so that they can take away your force of belief again. This sharp-sighted guard of the animal nature lives in your body as an integral part. As long as the soul is in a body, these tests of your patience will never stop. But when the soul completely ripens and leaves the cycle of reincarnation, Lucifer is also sincerely glad for it just as a strict and wise teacher can be glad for his pupil because the soul has passed all tests with honor and joined God in its true Love. God is a parent. He is always glad to see the successes of His child.

  “So, our life is like school for the soul. Each embodied person experiences his personal Armageddon, taking as part of his winnings either good or evil thoughts. Therefore the knowledge given to people can lead either to freedom or to slavery. But no one prevents us from our free choice, neither God nor the Devil. If we choose God, we strive towards God; if we choose the Devil, we strive towards the Devil. That means that we pave our road to paradise or nirvana or we throw ourselves to the hell of reincarnation.”

  “If a human does not have original sin, then why is the death of Christ an expiation for human sins?”

  “Just think thoroughly about this sentence. What kind of an expiation can it be? If it were in fact true, if only Christ took our sins, then whatever sins we commit now are already forgiven. Is that really so?! All this is nonsense. Each human himself is responsible for his sins before God.

  “The death of Christ has been made the greatest secret, and religious leaders still argue about it. Why did He let them crucify Him? Jesus was the Son of God, He was able to destroy the whole planet, not just a group of miserable people, as the force of God was given to Him. People wanted it to happen when they crucified him. They said, if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. But Christ was not tempted, He allowed them to crucify His body. Why? Because the whole purpose of Christ’s coming was both to give people his teaching but also to give people a choice. Jesus agreed to these tortures in order to show the will of God, the essence of which is freedom of human choice: either decide to turn to God or decide to remain in the darkness of thoughts of his animal nature. Christ brought this freedom of choice to people. This is the greatest deed that was hidden from the majority of people and it is the biggest sin of Christianity as a whole. For both before Him and after Him, people worked wonders and preached about the One above. But people remember only the crucifixion of Jesus, and the second half of His life in the East when He preached, worked wonders, and cured sick people is partly lost in time. In various sources of ancient times, for example in the Bhavishya Mahapuran written in Sanskrit, there were only a few mentions of Him and of the prophet Issa.”

  “Did Jesus remain alive in the world?” The novice was sincerely surprised.

  “Certainly. Due to the efforts of Pontius Pilate, the body of Christ remained alive and Jesus had to return to His body. For, as a Bodhisattva being born into a body, He should be in it to his last breath.”

  “Due to the efforts of Pontius Pilate?!” The novice was even more surprised.

  “Yes. Actually, Pontius Pilate understood who Christ was. That is why he received freedom, the release from reincarnation, from Jesus. His name was engraved in the history of mankind.”

  “Sounds interesting. When did he understand that Jesus was God?”

  “When he met Jesus, moreover when he realized who was standing in front of him, Pilate tried to save Issa in every possible way, convincing Him to run away, warning Him that the crowd would kill Him. But Jesus refused, saying that if it was His fate for His body to be lost, then it should happen so and people should make their choice. Pilate even tried to convince the crowd that Jesus was innocent, for them to release Him, as there was such a tradition in honor of a great holiday. But people demanded to see Christ crucified and killed. It was their choice.

  “However, Pontius Pilate did everything his own way. As Bodhisattva, it would be much easier for Christ to finish His mission this way in a human body. Because of love, Pilate tried to serve God according to his own understanding and saved the body of Christ, thinking it was Christ himself although there was no Jesus there anymore. When He was on the cross, He abandoned His body in order not to be tempted by painful torments. But the body still remained alive.”

  “How could the body remain alive if it is written in the Bible that ‘One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith out came blood and water’?”

  “The reason is that it was specially performed for the public by Pontius Pilate’s men. This blow was struck by one of Pilate’s best soldiers very professionally. He hit between the 5th and 6th ribs on the right side of the body, to the left and upwards, creating the illusion that he had punctured His heart. But actually, no vital organs were hurt. The body was unconscious but still alive. This is one of the important facts confirming the participation of Pilate in saving Jesus. It was done to assure the crowd that Christ had died. The shins of the other two crucified but still alive criminals were broken on purpose. In this way, they could not stand on their feet and died painfully by suffocation.

  “Moreover in those days the crucified were not allowed to be buried in separate tombs or to be given to their relatives for burial. They were thrown into paupers' grave. The body of Jesus, again according to the order of Pontius Pilate, was taken off the cross and carried to a cave. For almost two days, the body of Jesus was looked after, treated, and constantly smeared with herbal potions for bringing it to consciousness. To say it in modern language, they tried to reanimate him.

  “But as a matter of fact, the prophecy of Jesus ran that He will revive from the dead and will appear shining on the third day. So Jesus should have come on the third day not in flesh but in the Spirit of God to dispel all doubts that He was sent from God. But Pontius Pilate and his supporters did not let the body of Christ die. Christ was forced to come into a body.

  “In his understanding, Pilate certainly saved Christ. That is why Jesus appreciated his deed and released him from a chain of reincarnations. Pilate was the first who talked to Christ after His revival.”

  “Well, that is not known for sure.”

  “It is known. Even up to now, there are some mentions of it. Someone keeps them carefully so as not to shake his authority, but everything is in vain and he will pay for it. So when
Jesus regained consciousness, Pontius Pilate talked to Him and begged Jesus to leave the country because the persecutions of the priests in power could begin again. Pilate asked Him, ‘Take pity upon me, do not go out to the people.’ Jesus answered that He would execute the request of Pilate but that He would leave only after He saw His pupils. And He stuck to His word. As the main mission was finished, Issa left. He went to the East with His mother and one of His pupils. Jesus lived more than a hundred years and was buried in the city of Shrinagar, the capital of Kashimir, where He settled down in His last years. This picturesque place is located between two lakes at the foot of the Himalayas. His tomb is located in a crypt of the tomb Rozabal, which means ‘the tomb of the prophet.’”

  “Maybe that really happened. But it is impossible to prove that there are remains of Jesus’ body in that tomb.”

  “Why is it impossible? It can be proved. There are some traces of the crucifixion left. In particular, scratches on the bones of the hands, on the feet, and even traces from a spear on the ribs. Moreover, He has a badly healed fracture in the distal half of the right tibial diaphysis.”

  “A fracture? Was His leg broken during the execution?”

  “Oh, there is no connection to the execution. It happened much later when Christ was rather old. That is why I draw your attention to the fact that the fracture is specific, it is badly knit. It proves that Issa lived until His old age.”

  “What about the idea that Jesus rose into the sky in a body?”

  “Obviously such an insertion was necessary for someone to make in order to strengthen his flock’s belief in the material nature. And in general, you should read the Bible more attentively: out of four Gospels, only two of them mention the Ascension. It the Gospels according to St. Matthew and St. John, they write about Jesus’ meeting with His pupils on a mountain. And in the Gospels according to St. John, it is even written that, after this meeting, Jesus left with His favorite pupil. There are numerous mentions of Issa staying in the East after His crucifixion. This information is kept not only in the East, but also in the Vatican library.

  “Let’s say you are right. But if that happened in bad times, then why not tell people the truth now, if you say that there are numerous mentions of Jesus staying in the East and these documents confirm it. The time has completely changed.”

  “Time has changed, but people strive for authority just as they did thousands of years ago. Can you imagine what it would mean for the top religious leaders to tell people the truth and show the world the historical documents they hide so carefully? It would be a great catastrophe for them! It would undermine all the foundations of their religion, would shake belief of the novices and their huge flock, and consequently would undermine their authority. Nobody will ever do it. But a human who is in a constant search of knowledge without doubt will come sooner or later across these texts.”

  “In general, you may be right,” the novice said thoughtfully. “To tell the truth, I had some doubts concerning the Ascension, but about Pontius Pilate… who would have thought it!”

  “Yes, Pontius Pilate deserved the favor of God for his love, but he certainly did more harm than good to Issa,” Sensei said deep in thought. “He doomed Him to more than eighty years of wandering in a body. But obviously that was the payment of Christ for the salvation of Pilate.”

  A short silence reigned, with each participant of this conversation plunged into his thoughts. We also stood silently, not daring to interrupt such a fascinating conversation.

  “I wonder,” the novice started talking again, “why did Jesus come to the Jews but not to any other nation? Were the people chosen by God? It is written everywhere in the Bible that beginning with Abraham God calls them His favorite people.”

  “You see, God has no distinctions of nationalities, color of skin, and so on, as all people are children of God. God loves them all equally. But when one of your children falls ill, you give all your attention and love to this sick child so that he recovers more quickly. The same is true with God. Recall the words of Jesus, ‘They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are sick.’”

  “Is the number of His pupils somehow connected to mysticism or numerology? In fact, there were twelve of them and Jesus turns out to be the thirteenth?”

  “No, there is no mysticism in it. He simply searched among people for pupils with more or less ripened souls. He was lucky to find at least twelve individuals among those people, but one of them betrayed Him.”

  The novice grinned, “Yes, if you follow the words of Jesus in the Bible then you are right, a sick person needs a doctor, not a healthy one. Though today, it seems to me that the whole planet needs a doctor and not just this nation.”

  “Absolutely right. Just look at what is going on in our country – materialism has been cultivated for more than seventy years. The slightest freedom of choice appeared and people plunged into various religions like fishes as their spiritual nature also needs to develop. Just look how many new sects, branches, and religions appeared and began to prosper at once.

  “In our country, that’s understandable. But take a look at what is going on around the world. Everywhere there is a splash of various religions. People are tossed from one to another. It seems like they like it. Everywhere they are treated well, everywhere they are smiled at, politely spoken to. But the soul rejects their teachings because it needs real knowledge, because it wants Freedom, while sects and religions are too limited. They give more food to the mind than to the soul. The souls feel that under this trumpery, this externally ‘authentic’ shell, the fruit itself is rotten. That’s why the soul trembles, while man is tossing in search of wholly ripe fruit.”

  “I’m sorry, but you mentioned that time is beginning to shrink. What do you mean by that?”

  “It was predicted by the ancients,” Sensei explained, “and even Jesus said that, ‘And except those days should be shortened, there would no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.’ That is, when mankind as a whole faces the key choice or, as it is said in eschatology, when they stand on the threshold of divine justice, one of the main attributes of this time will be its compression. Basically, nothing will radically change. As the clock showed 24 hours per day, it will continue showing it. The calendar will remain as it is, and there will still be 365 days per year. But inside of the soul, something will start to tremble and the human will feel this shortage of time. He will notice that time runs faster; a day flies by as if an instant, a month flies by as if a week, years fly by as if months. Time will become more compressed and dense. It is a certain signal, a sign for the soul.”

  “Yes,” the interlocutor said thoughtfully, “perhaps the predictions of the prophets are beginning to come true. But this is a prediction of the Second Advent. Is this time really coming? How can I find out that Christ has come? Do you remember that when Jesus came for the first time, nobody believed for a long time that He was truly the Son of God. And now just look, many people name themselves Christs or say that they were sent by Christ as the Comforter. On the one hand, all of them say it is true according to the Bible, but on the other hand there is no trust in them. How can one tell the true Christ from the false Savior?”

  “It is extremely easy. In fact, the Bible says that Jesus resurrected the dead and that it was enough for a sick person just to touch His clothes to recover. Judging from this, I think the most appropriate thing would be to use the Zen practice. For this purpose, it is enough to take a big and firm stick and to hit with all your force the one who names himself Christ. If the stick blossoms after that, it will mean that it was Christ. If that does not happen, it will mean that he was only an adventurer. In that case, it would be nice to hit him one more time so that he does not take other people's glory again.”

  We stood silently for some seconds and thought over the words we had heard. First, the novice took it seriously. But when he got the sense of these words, he burst out laughing with all his heart, and t
he crowd laughed as well.

  “Perhaps that is the most effective method,” he said with a smile. “But seriously?”

  “To put it seriously, you should not wait for Jesus to come as a human, for He will come as the Son of God into people's souls. And He will reign one thousand years as the King sitting on a throne of not only our souls but also our minds. Recall His words in the Gospel according to St. John, ‘God is a Spirit’; ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father, but by me’; ‘And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and will be in you’; ‘At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.’”

  The novice was silent for a while and then asked, “I wonder whether there will be an end to the world? Recently, the most different dates began to appear in newspapers. Our sect, as I understand, tries to match this date with predictions of various astrologists pointing to the date of the parade of the planets. So, I wonder when the Apocalypse will come, when will we appear before the justice of God at last?”

  “You know, for two thousand years people have been waiting for the Armageddon and the Second Advent of Christ. Almost all religions are based on this idea that as soon as tomorrow the world will end and those who are not in their rows will all die in Gehenna. What I can tell you about this? Each human in his life experiences his personal Armageddon, but not everyone wins it and not even everyone understands that he faces this Armageddon. Therefore, you should not be afraid of the Apocalypse that will come for everybody, for it is easier to die all together. The main thing is to win your personal Armageddon and not to appear in that crowd.”

  “That's right! I myself thought that we should do something now because it is unknown what will happen tomorrow. To tell the truth, the words you have spoken have somehow relieved my soul. This absolute uncertainty, all these horror stories are already getting on my nerves. But yet, I do not understand what religion you profess?”

  “I do not profess and do not belong to any religion. I belong only to God,” Sensei replied simply.

  After that, the conversation turned to more frank topics concerning the novice personally. I had the impression that the guy talked with Sensei as if they were alone in the universe. He told Sensei more and more about himself, about his life, as though there was no silent crowd, as though it had dissolved in the night. It seemed to me that both interlocutors were two tired wanderers who met by chance under a star's infinity. They were mutually absorbed in this conversation about the eternal, about the essence of things, as if all restrictions of space and time had disappeared.

  “…It’s so amazing. You know, recently, for some reason, I was unlucky in finding a good spiritual guide. Either I was not satisfied with their answers, or they were not satisfied with my questions. During our constant disputes we, as they say, beat the air, milled the wind, spending our time in vain. But the things you say… I simply catch myself on the thought that I can not argue with you because it coincides with my internal conception of the world. It would be an honor for me to have such a Teacher if, of course, the Teacher considers it worthy to have such a disciple.”

  “I would advise you to search for a teacher neither in me nor in anybody else. It is not because you are an unworthy disciple but because you yourself have much more of it. I see a spark in you. I would advise you to study everything yourself. Study sacred books of various religions and make for yourself a collective image of such ideas: who God is, what truth, belief, and miracles are and so on. Because if there were only one unique holy religion then all other people could not be saved and there would be no other miracles. But miracles of belief happen in other religions too. Moreover, if you have an opportunity, study psychology, biology, anatomy, morphology. It is also necessary to study astronomy, quantum physics, chemistry… In general, broaden your knowledge in the field of exact sciences as much as you can. I am sure that you will begin to understand what I want to tell you. Now you simply feel it, but then you will begin to understand. When you begin to understand it, you begin to understand God. And the best Teacher is God.”

  That evening we got home on the last tram. It was already late, after midnight, but I simply could not fall asleep as I was completely shocked at this conversation with Sensei. My diary, as my best friend and silent interlocutor, took all the outpouring of my soul. Our dialogue of thoughts and writing continued until the morning. Only when the sun rose in the sky and the world began to wake up slightly, only then did the bed, which had been missing me for a long time, embrace my body with its soft coverlets. Thank God it was Sunday, that is, a national day off.

  41

  Time flew by quickly. The stressful time of final examinations began. People were a clot of nerves and sweat. Strange enough, but during this last year of my school life, I began to take this intense process more easily. After everything I had experienced, examinations seemed to be only an ordinary check of my knowledge but not a hard trial of destiny as many of my schoolmates considered them to be. When all this was over, when at last the long-awaited graduation party came, for a long time I still could not believe that my life goes on and that all this is not a dream.

  Meeting at dawn with all our classmates in a picturesque place in the country, we started talking about professions we were going to choose. Many dreamt of becoming doctors, lawyers, economists, and businessmen. And when I was asked about it, I sincerely answered, “I want to become human.”

  Of course, my classmates did not understand the sense of these words to the fullest extent, but many of them became more serious and thoughtful. Indeed, we stood at the beginning of our independent way of life, at the moment of our personal choice for our destiny. It was still up in the air how our destiny would change our lives. Looking closely at the destinies of different people who have already lived already the greater part of their lives, it is possible to see that the net of their vital roads and footpaths sooner or later merge into one road, that is, an attempt to become human. For, as Sensei once said, it’s the true sense of our lives.

  42

  Because of a graduation party, unfortunately I had to miss a spiritual training. The next day, I phoned Tatyana, and she told me some very pleasant news. It appeared that Sensei was planning a week-long holiday, and the guys persuaded him to travel to the seaside with them. Even Nikolai Andreevich decided to use his days off from work, which he was saving for such a rare occasion of a round-the-clock dialogue with Sensei.

  “I said that you would go too,” Tatyana said over the phone.

  “That’s great, you’re a real friend! For sure, I won’t miss it.”

  We decided to go in three cars: Sensei’s Zhiguli, Nikolai Andreevich’s Volga, and Andrew’s old Zaporozhets that he had borrowed from his grandfather. All necessary things were found collectively. Volodya promised to get tents. Stas and Eugene turned out to be passionate scuba divers and provided a supply of all fishing accessories, including an inflatable rubber dinghy. Tatyana and I took responsibility for the dishes, and Kostya was responsible for well water supply.

  43

  At the appointed day at five o'clock in the morning, rattling with our bowls and spoons, Tatyana and I crept along the silent streets. We came to a place of general meeting. Ruslan and Yura were already there. Then came Stas and Eugene. They told us that Sensei would be an hour late because he had worked until morning. The guys said that usually he does not stop until he has seen the last patient. The endless queue at his door finally stopped growing at almost two o'clock in the morning. Obviously, people found out that the chiropractor was leaving for a week, so they came in droves. By five o'clock in the morning, Sensei had finally finished his reception.

  A bit later, Andrew and Slava arrived in his grandfather's jalopy, which seemed to be as old as Andrew's grandfather himself. But Tatyan
a and I were happy to go even by such means of transportation. When you are in a good company, a Zaporozhets isn’t any worse than a Mercedes. We began to put things into the steel car top carrier, having filled a trunk with our luggage almost to the top.

  “Well, Kostya will have to put his bag next to him,” Andrew said in a bossy way, barely able to close the trunk.

  But when Kostya arrived, Andrew's jaw drooped. Kostya's luggage arrived by Volga together with a fully loaded trailer. As we helped unload these endless bags and sacks, Andrew almost lost his gift of speech. Helplessly waving his hands, he blew up at last:

  “You are out of your mind! It looks like you are going to the North Pole. We are going for a week, and just the food you brought will be enough for three years! Moreover, these huge flasks filled with water! Sensei told you to take one, not four. Why not bring a tank!”

  “To tell the truth, I wanted but I could not. There was no suitable transport,” Kostya answered with a smile, nodding at his father's Volga.

  “You're nuts! Just tell me, where can I fit all this? What do you want me to do with these barrels?! Unless we attach them to the Zaporozhets instead of wheels?!”

  “But Nikolai Andreevich seemed to promise he’d take something in his trailer.”

  “That's it, he only ‘seemed to promise.’”

  “OK, don't lose your cool, we’ll think of something.”

  For good fifteen minutes, Andrew indignantly circled the huge heap of Kostya's treasure. But Kostya only laughed the matter off, saying, “I will see how your Excellency will thank my Majesty for unforgettable comfort at the seaside.”

  While Andrew broke out in the next fountain of emotions, Tatyana asked Kostya, “Really, why did you pack so much?”

  “Well, why not enjoy ourselves? I tried hard, not for myself but for everybody,” the ‘philosopher’ said cunningly. “In general, all this is only ashes and vanity.” Taking her gently around the waist, Kostya pensively said, “Of all, thy charming lips are most precious for me.”

  “Oh, you,” Tatyana gently pushed him away and burst out with laughter.

  Kostya made a suffering face and said with pathos, “Ah, pride of heart costs many torments!” Looking sideways at Tatyana, he added, “I have so hardly pulled my bowstring, / That I am afraid my bow will be broken!”

  “He will not get away from me. I shall make it difficult for him,” Andrew casually said loudly, continuing to mutter to himself.

  All of us roared with laughter as Sensei, Volodya, and Victor drove up. Looking at the huge heap of things, Sensei asked in confusion, “Guys, are you going to the North Pole?”

  All our company burst out laughing again, but Andrew, having found an accomplice in Sensei, started to complain.

  At last Nikolai Andreevich arrived with the long-awaited trailer. But it appeared that the trailer was too small for all of Kostya's goods. Somehow we pushed things into three cars and began to ram our bodies inside. Slava sat in Sensei's car. Tatyana and I placed ourselves among the bags on the back seat of the Zaporozhets. And Kostya as the most guilty person got a vacant seat. It was in front, near Andrew, on a sitting which was not only non-standard, very low, but it also rocked here and there being fastened with only one screw. So Kostya, because of his height, felt all the charm of the three-hour trip in the Zaporozhets. But the never-ending humor of our guys smoothed all discomfort with friendly, cheerful laughter.

  Our Zaporozhets rumbled ahead of the whole column. Andrew tried to squeeze all possible force out of it by pressing the gas pedal. Sensei and the senior guys followed us, keeping a distance. Nikolai Andreevich, being loaded up to the top, slowly drove somewhere behind Sensei. It was not enough for Andrew to head the line, so he made up his mind to show us that that Zaporozhets was the coolest car on the road. He began to overtake one car after another, speeding and throwing his chest out with pride. Kostya crossed himself for fun at these maneuvers, clutched at the front panel, and started to pray about the salvation of all drivers suffering from such an inveterate driver of this jalopy.

  We rushed forward a little bit. On the way we saw a small roadside market. In the distance, Tatyana saw strawberries in baskets on the ground and shouted to the guys through the noise of the roaring engine to stop the car. When we stopped at last, Kostya gave a sigh of relief trying to get out, as he said, from this tin in which he doubled himself up like a mackerel. To let us get out, Kostya had to drag out his armchair again. The whole market observed this comedy. Moreover when Kostya at last slammed the door, a mirror fell off of it. Andrew yelled at him as though he had ruined the most sacred thing, “Master's fist should strike your body and his leg should strike your muzzle! Who on earth slams a door like this?! For three days, I have been collecting this car from pieces. It is a valuable antique! You should treat it gently, like a woman…”

  And there was more of a lecture on this topic. The guys dispersed in the market choosing berries. I remained near the Zaporozhets waiting for others. Sensei with the guys drove up, but when they got out of the car, something strange happened.

  One woman, wearing a black kerchief, about forty-five years old, stood without any interest with her goods. Her eyes were red from tears. Having noticed Sensei, she hastily stepped over her berries, practically scattering them all over the ground with this motion. Having run up to Sensei, she fell down at his feet and began to implore him, lamenting in tears, “I beg you, Gabriel, take care of my sonny. How shall I live without him now?! Please, Gabriel, take me to him. I do not want this thrice cursed life any more, I do not want it! My God, have mercy on me, let me go to my sonny…”

  I was standing very close by and saw how Sensei’s eyes changed. Some shine appeared in them, or more correctly, some soft, tender light that changed Sensei’s features. At this moment I felt that my lotus flower began to vibrate intensively. And this pulse force came not from my thoughts but, as it seemed to me, it came from Sensei. He bent over the woman, raising her.

  “Rise, woman,” he told her in a very calm, quiet voice.

  It seemed to me that his voice became somewhat unusual. The woman rose a little but did not stand up from her knees, continuing to beg him, but this time it was more quietly, looking directly in his eyes. Sensei tenderly put his hand on her head and said, “Do not worry, woman. Everything is fine with your Nikolai. He is a pious man. He has already been taken care of.”

  The woman stretched her hands to him. Her eyes were lit with some sparkle of hope, but her face became stiffened in a single impulse of begging, “Let me, Gabriel, let me go to him…”

  Such words of despair made me shiver. At this moment, Sensei’s face was covered with a light haze, and his face became even nicer because of it. My lotus flower pulsed even more.

  “Everyone has his own time. You still need to take care of Ksyusha. You will be a guest at her wedding, you will await her firstborn, you will nurse him for a week. And on the ninth day, you will go to your Nikolai to tell him what a fine grandson he has got,” Sensei said calmly.

  With each word of Sensei, the eyes of the woman became lighter and kinder. Teardrops of joy began to shine on her face. The woman broke into a smile. Not knowing how to express her gratitude, she began to fall down to his feet again. Sensei tried to raise her up from the ground. Then some old women who traded next to her ran up, lifted her from the ground, took her arms, and led her to the village saying, “Hush, Mashenka, dear, let's go, let's go home…”

  The woman went quietly, with her face touched, whispering something to herself and constantly crossing herself. Other old women began to collect her scattered goods. All these events happened within one minute.

  At this time, Nikolai Andreevich drove up. Having come up hastily to our motionless company with Yura and Ruslan, he inquired what had happened.

  “Some old bag freaked out,” Eugene said, as he was standing far from the Teacher. “She fell to Sensei's feet, all in tears, asked something.”

  Sensei silently lit a cigarett
e, after everything that had happened. When Nikolai Andreevich began to ask, he changed the topic to usual things, having answered shortly, “Yes, things happen in life. A woman is in sorrow.”

  “I see… And why did you stop here? We did not plan it.” Nikolai Andreevich asked Kostya.

  “Well, we wanted to buy some strawberries.”

  Our company walked once again around the market with Sensei. Having chosen ripe berries, Sensei bought a big basket for all of us. Another old woman, packing strawberries into three packets, tenderly spoke to us.

  “You, children, do not take offence. Not even a month has passed since the woman’s son Nikolai died in a crash. He was her only son, her hope and support. Her husband died a long time ago… And such sorrow again. He, her sonny, was so young. A little daughter of his remained, Oksana, she is five. Masha's destiny is a heavy one. She brought up her son almost alone, and now she has to support her granddaughter together with her daughter-in-law. I don’t understand what happened to her. She has absolutely lost her head from sorrow.”

  “Yes,” Nikolai Andreevich agreed with sympathy. ”Stress can cause even worse mental disorders. I remember there was one case…”

  Having listened to eloquent examples from his practice, my consciousness calmed down a little. “Well,” I thought, “it’s no wonder she rushed to the very first man.”

  As we drove, the guys cheerfully chattered about their matters while eating ripe strawberries. During Kostya’s latest joke, it suddenly dawned on me. At this moment, I precisely recalled that woman’s babbling and Sensei’s answers. “Stop! She didn’t mention the name of her son, and moreover she did not say the name of her granddaughter. But Sensei precisely named Nikolai and Ksyusha. I nearly choked on a strawberry because of this discovery. I did not want to eat it any more. Recalling Sensei’s face, my lotus started to vibrate again, distributing pleasant sensations all over my body. I physically felt the presence of Sensei nearby. More accurately, I did not feel Sensei himself, but I felt the force that came from him at that moment. And I felt so nice and cozy, as if someone had wrapped me up with soft petals. In this state of bliss I dozed off.

  44

  I woke up because someone was shaking me by my shoulder.

  “Wake up, sleepyhead, we’re almost there,” Tatyana said.

  At the next stop, we limbered up our numb legs. The air smelt of sea and freshness. While Andrew, Victor, and Volodya tried to repair the pinging engine of the Zaporozhets, we had a snack in the nearest outdoor cafe.

  In half an hour, our motorcade was at the resort area, where people with beautiful chocolate color bodies lounged around in a carefree way in their bathing suits. Sensei's car headed our column. Andrew could not concentrate on the road as he was trying to look around but not break any traffic laws.

  Passing by one of boarding houses, Eugene pointed out to us a billboard he saw from the window. There was written in huge, bold type, “A well-known sensitive of international class, chiropractor, fortune teller, magician, and wizard Vitaliy Yakovlevich… carries out medical and recovery sessions. Sessions beginning at 20.00 daily.”

  “Who is he?” Tatyana and I asked the guys.

  “I don’t know,” Kostya shrugged his shoulders.

  “Look, isn't it that the "Neanderthal man," the one who hung spoons on himself? Do you remember?!”

  “Yeh, that odd fellow?! Maybe. If I'm not mistaken he was also Vitaliy Yakovlevich. What did he call himself… the Pantocrator of Space and the whole Earth…”

  The guys began to noisy recall that case, laughing at the tricks of this ‘deity-tramp.’

  Meanwhile having crossed the resort area, we drove to a peninsula that measured about 12 kilometers. It was necessary here to have a car in order to get to a secluded place and camp as we wanted. It seemed the local authorities didn’t want any more adventurers in the neighborhood, as a huge pipe was laid across the only road. Right there in the bushes, though, the guys found two extremely wide boards, which were left by caring drivers. After placing the boards on the pipe, our drivers rolled the cars to the closed side of the road like professional stuntmen. Only Nikolai Andreevich's trailer made them sweat.

  Having reached one of the most beautiful nooks of nature, we chose a place that was not too spoilt by campers. Having collected all the garbage left by careless tourists, we burnt it and began to set up camp. Sensei again appeared to be a talented and skilled leader. He took into consideration all trifles of camp arrangement, even a possible storm. All the guys were busy and enthusiastically helped Sensei and each other. All Kostya's things turned out to be really useful, having transformed our camp into a cozy, comfortable mini-town. Kostya did not miss any opportunity to emphasize this fact, reminding us that Andrew was a sadist and tortured him the whole way in the electric chair. Tatyana and I arranged a kitchen. The guys put up a special tent for food and gave us a kerosene camp stove for cooking.

  Life in our camp started at full speed. After lunch, we bathed in the sea like dolphins and warmed our bones on hot sand with great pleasure. The senior guys floated in the sea in an inflatable rubber dinghy. Nikolai Andreevich read a book and Sensei dozed in the shadow of an umbrella, having covered himself with a towel. We decided to play cards. Kostya tried to count cards, but it was practically impossible as there were too many of us and we played with two stacks of cards. At his next failure, Kostya started to count card combinations in his head according to his special arithmetic system. While doing one of these odd calculations, he raised his eyebrows as if surprised and asked, “Sensei, what is the largest prime number you can think of?”

  Sensei answered without opening his eyes, “In short or in full?”

  “In short, of course.”

  “2 to the 13,466,917th minus 1,” Sensei said simply, as though the question was about a usual multiplication table. “This number can be divided only by 1 or itself. I think that is the largest prime number that I am capable of counting in my head.”

  Kostya turned to his side in surprise. Then he started to calculate something energetically again. Sensei, having opened his eyes, added, “If you want to calculate my IQ, you are wasting your time; it is much lower than yours.”

  After saying these words, Sensei turned to the other side and plunged into somnolence again. Kostya was slightly shocked, “Say! Sensei is cool! How did he know about IQ? I just thought it.”

  “Yeah,” said Andrew, “this question remained a sweet dream in his memory until it turned into a rotten one waiting for the answer.”

  The guys laughed, having won again.

  In the evening, Sensei failed to meet our expectations that he would tell us something unforgettable, sitting at the fire beneath the stars. Right after dinner, Sensei went to sleep, probably because his accumulated weariness had affected him. And we sat at the fire for a long time, laughing light-heartedly and telling each other different stories from our lives.

  45

  In the morning, I woke around seven o'clock because somewhere nearby seagulls shouted disgustingly. I heard the guys’ conversation of the guys, as they had left their tent upon hearing the noise.

  Stas said to Eugene in a sleepy voice, “It's so early, but Sensei is already fishing. I wonder what he is going to catch from the seacoast, moreover with a fishing rod. Let’s go and check.”

  My curiosity became much stronger than sweet dreaming. I hastened to get out of my tent. Sensei peacefully sat on a folding chair with a fishing rod in his hands. Nearby stood a three-liter jar half filled with water. A few seagulls ran around him shouting indignantly. When we came up, the seagulls flew up and hung in the air near Sensei, examining us from above with curiosity.

  “Sensei are you fattening up the seagulls?” Stas grinned, looking at the empty jar.

  “Not exactly. They are teaching me how to catch fish,” Sensei answered without any shadow of confusion.

  We took it as a joke and laughed.

  “Why didn't you wake us earlier? We could have b
rought a fishing net …”

  “Oh, forget about the fishing net. I just wanted some fish soup.”

  Just for fun, Eugene demonstratively glanced into the empty jar, turning it around in the light, and said with humor, “Yes, the soup will be rich with such fish.”

  At this moment, the seagull that flew above us dropped a small fish, which fell right next to Sensei’s feet. Everybody laughed.

  “Look, Sensei! There's a fish for you,” Eugene said with humor, putting it into the jar of water.

  Volodya and Victor arrived and asked, “What's going on?”

  “You see, Sensei with his fishing rod made even the seagulls feel pity,” Eugene said. “They were already tired of watching this empty jar.”

  We laughed loudly again. Sensei said smiling, “Alright, those who laugh most at me will scale the fish for the fish soup and for the grill, too.”

  We roared with laughter, imaging cutting this tiny fish while a big crowd waited for it. Sensei laughed at us, and then said, “Well, you storytellers, pull this out…”

  He pointed to a thick fishing line that was fastened with one end to the leg of a chair, while the other end was deep in the water. The guys started to pull. We were shocked when we found a pair of sturgeons about 4 kilos each and about 8 huge flatfishes. Everyone exchanged glances in bewilderment and asked almost in unison, “All this with just a fishing rod?!”

  Sensei smiled. “Of course, there was no fishing rod. I just got up a bit earlier and saw that some fishermen had come in from a fish-factory to check their nets. So I thought, by the time I get there, they’ll be coming back. So I went and bought some fish. Sitting with a fishing rod was a complete waste of time,” the Teacher complained with regret.

  As we carried the fish to scale them, Eugene told Stas half in jest, “Yeah, sure he went. The only way to the fish factory is seven kilometers on foot.”

  “But maybe he went by car,” I suggested my version.

  “No, he didn’t. First, it is next to our tent, we would have heard everything. And second, there are no traces on the sand.”

  While the other guys woke up, this story acquired many more mysterious details. Sensei’s mood was excellent that day. After a light breakfast, he wanted to jog to the end of the peninsula. We left Kostya and Tatyana as volunteers on duty, and in order not to want for dinner, Nikolai Andreevich was also left in the camp.

  On our way, we stopped a couple times to do warm-ups with intensive muscle loading. Training in nature, and with such a beautiful background, couldn't be compared with a stuffy gym. Here, as they say, the soul and the body merged in a single impulse.

  Having almost reached the end, we saw a real colony of seagulls. Our company kept to the coast so as not to disturb their calm. Nevertheless, many seagulls persistently shouted and whirled above us trying to frighten unexpected visitors off their nests.

  After a while, the most beautiful view, skillfully created by nature, opened up to us. At the end of the peninsula, waves met as correct rhombuses in a single chain off the distant coast. Outlines of their wavy edges were emphasized with white sea foam. All this magnificence was supplemented with an unusual play of various color scales of sea water from light turquoise to dark blue. The amazing blueness of the sky with only one whitish cloudlet created a unique masterpiece of this grandiose view.

  Sensei gave us fifteen minutes to rest, but he and Volodya sat down in a lotus pose at the edge of the coastline. Some of us, including me, hastened to follow his example, placing ourselves beside them. An easy breeze blew. Coastal waves created a melodious noise, which was supplemented with the calls of seagulls reaching from a distance. Either because of contemplation of this divine beauty or because of Sensei’s presence, my lotus flower began to increase its activity, distributing pleasant flows all over my body. For a short period of time, such an unusual feeling appeared in me as if I were dissolved in all this surrounding beauty and became an integral part. The sensation was almost instantaneous, but it was unforgettably tremendous. Sensei interrupted this state of bliss when he announced, "Let's return."

  The sun was already burning. Sensei told us that, to make our way easier, we should run waist-deep in water. It appeared to be incredibly difficult. Volodya and Sensei rushed forward like two torpedoes overtaking each other. Thanks to their competition, our company could cheat a little: someone ran knee-deep and someone ran ankle-deep in water. But when we finally got to camp, only the cheaters, me among them, sprawled out in weakness on the sand. Sensei and Volodya continued to radiate their inflammatory optimism, which seemed to come from nowhere. After this marathon running, they suggested to the crowd that we play water polo. To our great surprise, the senior guys agreed with pleasure. But other ailing bodies dragged themselves along to help with cooking lunch.

  Being busy with cooking, I observed Sensei. He laughed, was naughty, and rushed with a ball like all other guys. He was absolutely the same as others, a young, strong, funny, and healthy guy. On the one hand he was an ordinary person... But everybody who was present saw in him something special, some charm, found some features that attracted them by simplicity and at the same time by their refinement. His soul was like a many-sided diamond that each of us admired at his own angle of sight, at his own angle of refraction of internal light. But in fact, nobody could penetrate him up to the end, nobody could understand who he actually was.

  When the guys, at last, calmed down at the hottest part of the day, our camp fell into a profound sleep. I woke up at about four o'clock, and I awakened Tatyana to help me cook something tasty for our big group. When we got out of the tent, I saw Sensei sitting on the sand with Nikolai Andreevich, talking about something. Sensei was explaining something, making three little hills from sand. After their conversation, Nikolai Andreevich and Sensei stood up and slowly walked in our direction. The first hill suddenly began to move and a pigeon, having appeared from nowhere, flew out of it. I gave a start from the unexpectedness of the action. I couldn't believe my eyes. Tatyana dropped a potato and opened her mouth with surprise. Then the second hill began to move, and a pigeon again flew out of it. Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich only turned back carelessly, continuing the conversation, not even confused. The third hill began to move, and a sparrow jumped out of it. Everything grew cold with fear inside of me. The sparrow did not fly away as the pigeons did, it jumped following Sensei. Having run forward towards him, it rumpled its feathers, spread its wings wide apart, and began to twitter loudly as if being indignant over something. Sensei stopped, observing the desperate twittering of this ruffled sparrow, and then spoke to it with a smile, “Well, let it be according to your wish.”

  After saying these words, he bent down and put some sand on the sparrow, making a hill a bit higher than the first one. I stood up with curiosity. But the following moment finally nailed me down to a chair. As soon as Sensei turned away, the hill began to move and a black kite of an impressive size flew out of it. It immediately flew away to the peninsula.

  “Where are my thanks?” Sensei asked in surprise and made a helpless gesture, following the kite with his eyes. “Oh, whatever…”

  Sensei hopelessly waved his hand and went to his tent for cigarettes. Tatyana and I sat numb with fear. When Nikolai Andreevich and Sensei were moving away to the beach, I heard the following words, “So was it an illusion of my thoughts?” Nikolai Andreevich asked calmly, as if the question was about ordinary things.

  “No. This time it was materialization of my thoughts.”

  “Why did my attempts end only with hallucinations?”

  “Because you had doubts. For materialization, purity of belief is necessary. It is very hard to achieve, for the slightest doubt will destroy everything…”

  A gust of wind carried away Sensei’s words so far that I couldn't hear them. I wanted so much to go after him and to listen to such an interesting conversation. But at that moment Tatyana came out of her state of shock, broke out in endless impressions, and poured them onto my poor pu
zzled head.

  46

  As the day drew on, one of the senior guys suggested we organize an evening of entertainment and comedy. It was suggested we go and take a look at a medical and curing session of the great magician and wizard who was giving his first session that day. To get there, though, it was necessary to trek eight kilometers on foot. Only a half of our group, including Sensei and Nikolai Andreevich, decided to go. I didn't want to miss anything interesting for myself or for my diary, which was already full of unusual records, even though it was only the second day at the seaside.

  By eight o'clock in the evening, we occupied seats in a summer cinema where about seventy people had already gathered. A young woman with a three-year-old boy sat near Nikolai Andreevich. Other children rushed around the rows and noisily chased each other. But this child quietly sat in his mother’s lap. I gave him a piece of candy, but it turned out that the child did not see it. His mother said that her son had congenital blindness. Nikolai Andreevich started talking to her, finding out some professional information. Soon the woman had confessed the whole story of her life. It appeared that this boy also would not talk after a trauma he experienced at the age of two. Other than him, the woman had a older son and a daughter who were quite normal children. Nikolai Andreevich sympathized with her and began to write down the addresses and surnames of the best experts in this area of medicine. The woman was glad and joked that in any case she had not come to the session in vain.

  At this time Vitaliy Yakovlevich went out to the stage. We could hardly keep ourselves from laughter, as it really was that magician and wizard with spoons on his belly, with whom we had the ‘great honor’ to get acquainted in autumn. Now he looked much more decent. His face was smoothly shaved, and his hair was accurately cut. He wore a clean summer suit. Despite this significant transformation in his appearance, his haughty look and manners remained the same.

  Having come out to the stage, Vitaliy Yakovlevich gazed at the crowd with his ‘magic sight’ and began his lecture. For a good forty minutes, he told almost the same story as the first time in the sports hall, with the only difference that now he did not stick spoons to himself and his speech was full of different obscure esoteric and medical terms. Confirmatively waving his hands, he went about the stage and threw out his chest proudly. At last, having finished talking, he invited to the stage those people who suffered diseases on his list.

  It seemed to me that he had listed almost all diseases from the medical encyclopedia we had at home, and even in the same alphabetical order.

  About fifteen people came up to the stage. Someone said that he had heart disease, someone said that his stomach hurt, another one complained about high blood pressure, and some old woman said that trophic ulcers on her legs suppurated. Our woman with the child also went up. Nikolai Andreevich commented that people in sorrow are ready to believe any nonsense hoping for something.

  When all interested people had gathered on the stage, Vitaliy Yakovlevich began to wave his hands strenuously from above and to talk of some ‘space-fluid’ character. To my great surprise, again I felt my lotus flower begin to strongly vibrate. I looked at the stage and could not believe that all this delirium of Vitaliy Yakovlevich could really cause in me this tidal wave. Having concentrated, I felt that all this vibration proceeded not from the stage but from somewhere behind and to the right. It was even more strange, as Sensei sat behind and to the left of me. I looked back, but Sensei wasn't at his seat. Then I looked back to the other side, where the source was according to my sensations. Far away in the corner, at the very end of the empty rows, I saw Sensei. He was sitting and peering with concentration at people who were near the stage. Every second I felt the stream grow in its force. Waves of pleasant sensations were already spilling about my body. But the stream still grew.

  In the verbal outpouring of Vitaliy Yakovlevich came a certain pause. At this moment, the blind kid said “Mum!” – not loudly, but distinctly. The woman broke into tears, tightly embracing her son. She drew general attention. And then complete pandemonium began. A woman said that her headache eased, a man said that his stomach stopped aching. But the old woman with the squeaky voice shouted the most that her trophic ulcers began to dry up before her eyes. Not trusting herself, she tried to show them to anyone who would look. Many people in the hall also got up from their places and ran to the stage. Even Vitaliy Yakovlevich himself was taken aback from gratitude, from requests for help for people and their relatives from all directions. Meanwhile, Sensei came back to his place in the hall.

  The young mother pressed the child to her breast and sobbed violently but could not get out of the crowd, as the usual crush began and nobody paid attention to her. Nikolai Andreevich hurried to help her. We got the woman out of the cinema and into the fresh air, sitting her down on a bench. Nikolai Andreevich began to calm her down. The kid sat next to her and, hearing the crying of his mother, began to pull his face with his own impressions. Sensei sat down, squatting opposite him, and tenderly stroked his head, saying something silently to himself. The child calmed down and began listening. Then he began to blink quickly with his long eyelashes. The kid then looked purposefully at the watch that gleamed on Sensei’s arm as he stroked him. The boy, having caught Sensei’s hand, seized the watch, trying to pull it off. He looked into Sensei’s eyes and gave a short but meaningful enough command, “Give!”

  The kid's mother fainted from everything she had seen. While Nikolai Andreevich and the guys tried to bring her around, Sensei took off his watch and gave it to the kid, saying with a smile, “Here, kid, keep it to remember.”

  The kid, smiling happily, began to play with it, examining and shaking it. When the woman came to, she still could not believe that her son had recovered his sight. She gave him everything that was in her handbag, and the kid examined everything with real pleasure, turning the objects into improvised toys. When she was convinced in his newfound sight, the woman grabbed her son in joy, thanked Nikolai Andreevich and all of us for the help, and ran to her building to tell her husband about this piece of news.

  On our way back to camp, Nikolai Andreevich was still surprised.

  “How could this Vitaliy Yakovlevich, with his chattering, wake in people so much belief that he could achieve such therapeutic effects?! In fact, I saw with my own eyes that the boy was blind. The others could be fake. But it's hard to grasp this case!”

  I looked at Sensei. I was curious what he would say. But Sensei only said, half in jest, “You probably listened inattentively to his lecture. Next time, you should take a notebook with you.”

  On our way, we gathered dry wood for our evening fire. The senior guys picked up some half rotten wooden column that had once served as a pylon for electric lines. In general, judging by Sensei’s excellent mood and the gathered stock of firewood, the night promised to be long and unforgettable.

  47

  On the road to our camp, the Teacher and Nikolai Andreevich started an interesting conversation. Our psychologist, being impressed by everything that happened, asked Sensei, “Well, adults with the help of suggestions under therapeutic influence can partly ease the process of disease. But children?! At such an age they practically do not understand what is said to them. In this case, though, the result is visible. Even I do not understand how it could happen. In fact, this three-year-old blind child began to see; so, as it turns out, we should logically admit the fact of treatment from a distance.”

  “The whole history of mankind, if we read it attentively, is full of such facts,” Sensei said with a smile.

  “Yes, but to read and to see are two completely different things! If it is really so, then I don’t understand anything at all.”

  “It’s not difficult to understand if you have the whole conception of the world and a human body as it actually is.”

  “And what is a human body?”

  “The human body as well as all other matters is just emptiness. It is an illusion created by the thought of God.” r />
  “So you want to say that this tree and I are basically identical because we are emptiness?” Nikolai Andreevich asked half in jest, passing by a big tree.

  “Basically, yes.” Sensei grinned and added in a more serious way, “Your matter is generated by one and the same initial energy, but modified and transformed into different wave conditions. Here is the difference in material features. What does a human body consist of? A body, as you know, consists of a system of organs, organs consist of tissues, tissues consist of groups of cells. Cells consist of basic chemical elements. And the greatest part of a body, about 98% of it, is made up of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen, and 2% are other chemical elements.”

  “I don’t understand how that’s possible?” These words accidentally escaped my lips.

  “How it’s possible? For example, for 50 kg of your weight, the scheme of division in you will be the following,” Sensei looked a few seconds at my body as though estimating something, and then said, “Oxygen in different isotope conditions is 30.481 kg, isotopes of carbon are 11.537 kg, isotopes of hydrogen are 5.01 kg, and isotopes of nitrogen are 1.35 kg. That is 48.378 kg in total. Well, I shall not mention all other elements, as their weight goes in grams. In general, only 1.622 kg of the weight remains for them… To be more exact and add everything that is not digested: the remains of ice-cream, sweets, and a drink that have not yet completed a chemical reaction in your body… in total, the weight of your body will make 50 kg and 625 grams.”

  I was simply struck with such high-speed calculations of my body according to just one glance. I had never thought about the structure of my matter. Meanwhile, Sensei continued to address Nikolai Andreevich, “What are our chemical elements? These molecules make up our cells and exist according to their biophysical laws. Notice that there is emptiness around molecules. Let's go deeper. Molecules consist of atoms, and between them again there is emptiness. Atoms consist of a nucleus and electrons rotating around them, and between them there is emptiness. The nucleus of an atom again consists of elementary particles – protons and neutrons – with the same inherent emptiness between them. We shall notice that variations of any chemical element differ in the number of neutrons in an atomic nucleus so it has a feature of isotopy. Protons and neutrons which form the nucleus of an atom also consist of smaller particles. So look, each time when physicists make the next step, they open a new level of knowledge, removing their relative borders to the horizon of infinite knowledge. Simply, as soon as it was possible for a human to improve a microscope, he learnt the nature of a microcosm. I shall not continue mentioning what is divided into what, but finally division comes to an end, to absolute emptiness out of which everything arises. It exists everywhere, both in a microcosm and in a macrocosm. That is pure energy which is called ‘energy Po,’ consisting of a sole field of interaction of all kinds of energies and therefore the matter arising from it. So it is said that God is omnipresent. The pulses of energy Po generate the waves that change the curvature of material space and time. That is, in the depth of its essence, all matter is a set of certain kind of waves and exists according to laws of the wave nature.”

  “It is something brand new,” Nikolai Andreevich said thoughtfully.

  “By no means,” the Teacher objected. “I'd better say these are well forgotten old things. The fact that matter is a generation of great emptiness, ‘dao’, was known to Indian philosophers more than four thousand years ago and to Chinese wise men about two thousand years ago. Just read their treatises. They visually represented absolute emptiness as the smooth surface of a lake in the absence of wind. The particle of matter arising from emptiness is compared with the occurrence of ripples on the smooth surface of the lake with a gust of wind.”

  “What then is the wind?” Nikolai Andreevich inquired.

  “The wind in this case is a divine essence, it is the thought of God with the help of which He creates and destroys everything. Our soul is also a part of this mighty force that can operate the initial energy Po. Therefore, if a human recognizes his soul with his consciousness and merges them into a single unit, his abilities will become unlimited as well as his knowledge.”

  “Nevertheless it is new for me,” the ‘Common Sense’ of our company said with a smile.

  At this time we arrived back to a camp. The guys who had stayed in the camp were already greedily eating sturgeon barbecue, which they cooked for our arrival and which had almost entirely been eaten. We shared our impressions about the events we witnessed and had a good dinner in the open air. Then we sat near the fire and were looking forward to the forthcoming conversation.

  Nikolai Andreevich hurried to come back to the topic that was consuming all his thoughts, “So it turns out that all the world is nothing more than an illusion?”

  “That's right.”

  “But why can we feel everything so realistically, we can touch, try, that is, to be convinced, using our organs of sense that, for example, this stick is a stick, instead of emptiness and illusion.”

  “Because our brain, since birth, is adjusted to the frequency of perception of this reality. But it does not mean that its abilities are limited to this frequency. Different programs are put into it. If we change the frequency of perception, all the world around us will also change.”

  “How is it possible?” Nikolai Andreevich did not understand.

  “Very simply. Let's examine what our brain is. Basically, the central nervous system is a special device for transmitting and receiving waves of various ranges with corresponding frequency characteristics. As you know, the major elements of the structurally functional organization of the brain are neurons and glia cells, out of which the central nervous system is built. The neuron has an ability that distinguishes it from other cells. It can generate a potential of action and transfer this potential across large distances. This special cell represents itself as a complex device with several conditions (rest and a number of conditions of excitation on various frequencies). This fact essentially increases its information capacity. The information on stimulus is coded by a nervous cell as the frequency of potential of the action, which is average for a short time interval. So, as a whole, the work of our brain is the work of an information managing device in which language is the frequency. Therefore, the conscious and subconscious processes of mind occur at the frequency of a neuron's discharge. When changing the condition of consciousness, for example, during meditations and spiritual practices, the frequency of pulses changes, and it also entails changes of the molecular structure of the body as a whole. That is, a person adjusts to a completely different frequency of reality and consequently perceives this world only as the lowest illusion. There is such an expression, ’When a wise man was asked what life is, he answered, “A laughing-stock for those who have tried it.”’ And it is a completely fair answer.

  “A person who is stuck in the matter, a person with too many hang-ups in the material world of thoughts, is very limited in his perception. Think for yourself. He receives information about the world around him through his brain, which since his birth has a certain frequency of perception, which is peculiar to the animal nature. Therefore this brain, as any other animal brain, perceives information through its organs of sense. And though a person is surrounded by a whole ocean of electromagnetic vibrations, frequencies of the most various types and parameters, he perceives only a tiny part of all this variety. Basic information goes through his visual channel, but only the visible part of the spectrum, electromagnetic waves with a length from 400 to 700 nanometers. Everything that lies outside of this spectrum a person does not see, so reality is based on the limits of this range and does not find any reflection in his brain. The same concerns sound, which a person hears in a range from 20 hertz up to 18 kilohertz.

  “Why have meditations and spiritual practice always been given to mankind? Why were they never secret? Because they opened a completely different real world of God to people and, as a result, a new step towards the
maturation of the soul.

  “So a human is a very interesting creature. He is born an animal, but in the course of his life the power of thought can transform him into a Creature close to God. The most amazing thing is that freedom of choice in his individual development is given to him… The power of thought is really a unique creation of God. There is such an ancient expression written in Sanskrit, ‘The god sleeps in minerals, / Wakes up in plants, / Moves in animals / And… thinks in a human.’”

  “What is the origin of a nervous pulse? Is it the birth of thought?” Nikolai Andreevich inquired.

  “The same as energy Po. It is an original pulse.”

  “But if energy Po is a divine energy and at the same time the reason that all thoughts appear, then what should we do with bad thoughts that come from the animal nature?”

  “Who told you that these thoughts don't have one root? A birth of thoughts that takes its origin from the animal nature is managed by Lucifier, the most true and devoted servant of God. Due to these thoughts, he also pushes you to various tests of your true belief. He tempts you into evil for you to learn good. But you are free in your choice, I emphasize once again, you are free! You can apprehend these thoughts as a call for action or reject them and turn to good thoughts coming from your soul. That is, what kind of thoughts you apprehend, what your observer, your consciousness, will choose, that is what you actually are.”

  “What is a soul? Is it energy, too?” Victor asked.

  “Yes. It is divine energy, it is a part of God in ourselves. The most important thing is, the reason we have all these regenerations, the reason that bad things happen, the reason we have problems is because we are in a material body that we depend on 99.9% of the time. But if we release ourselves from it, even just a hundredth part, and plunge into the soul, we will get infinity and omnipotence. The main thing is to break through the internal guard of the gate of our soul. In the soul is hidden the true power, the power of love, which creates everything, which is capable of ruling the energy Po. All main energies are based on it because in the real world there is only love. Evil exists only in the illusory human world for the understanding of an immature soul. Therefore it is very important to generate in ourselves a constant frequency of the energy of love and good, instead of a difference of vibrations.”

  “It sounds interesting,” Nikolai Andreevich said thoughtfully. “So, a human, on the whole, is a creature with a wave nature.”

  “Absolutely right, both spiritually and physically.”

  “How do you mean physically?” Victor asked.

  “Well, in the human body, there is an informational network that, together with nervous, blood, and endocrine systems, coordinates physiological processes. A person is, so to say, pierced from the inside with wave flows by which important information is transferred with the help of bioradiation in a microwave range. All this, naturally, is connected to the magnetic field of the Earth, with space radiation and so on... But the point is that informational function for the body is fulfilled only by weak fields. Otherwise cells launch a mechanism of self-protection and do not perceive this information.”

  “What fields are inherent in our body?” Kostya inquired.

  “There are plenty of them. For example, electromagnetic radiation of different ranges, an electric field, a magnetic one… Acoustic radiation, that is, various sounds that come from a body. Chemical discharge or chemical field, and many, many others, which there's no need to mention now.”

  “I ask,” Kostya continued, “because I have recently read a book about the art of prophecy using the ground. It is called… geomancy. In short, it was practiced in ancient India, China, Egypt. It is mentioned that there is a certain field from which a person can gain information about the future. They say that ancient prophesiers entered a special state by getting this knowledge.”

  “It is really so. This field still exists. Its information was used and is still used. There are certain techniques that allow a person to reach this state of consciousness. But usual people who are engaged in hard brainwork are also capable of spontaneously entering this state of consciousness, as a rule, either while sleeping or in a state of deep concentration when their brain is switched off from extraneous thoughts. The present information is true only concerning the past or the present, and it also concerns exact sciences. Concerning the future, for example, of mankind as a whole or of any separate concrete person, it is unstable because the future depends on an individual or collective choice of people.”

  “How can that be?”

  “Very easily. If, for example, a person changes internally then, according to his choice, his entire life changes from that point and into the future. These are laws of nature. A change in the frequency of perception adjusts a person to a completely new wave, that is to another reality. The same concerns mankind as a whole. If mankind’s attitude to life, its balance between the spiritual and the animal natures, changes, then correspondingly the general frequency of energy changes, and therefore its future also changes. So both a person and mankind as a whole, by personal choices, predetermine the possible future on a daily basis.

  “Then how do the prophesiers predict the future?”

  “If you noticed, the great prophesiers made their predictions ciphered, with double meaning. Many of them were mistaken, many did not mention significant events because the future is changeable and exists in time and space in a multitude of variants. Prophets could be adjusted to the frequency of the wave that carried the given information. But they got data only from that reality into which they could penetrate.”

  “What about a personal prediction?”

  “Predictions for an individual are based on the wave that his consciousness is on at the present moment. If a person does not change inside radically, the predictions will come true, as it is programmed in this wave.”

  We sat at the fire, listening to the Sensei’s amazing story. Bright stars had shone in the sky for a long time, and the sea melodiously caressed our ears with an easy rustle of waves harmoniously filling the pauses. A set of lights from a big steamship appeared in the distance.

  “Wow, what a beauty!” Ruslan exclaimed upon seeing it. “Look, it's so huge. I imagine that we could go for a voyage on it with every comfort.”

  Everybody turned to that side.

  “Well, well. Everyone tells a story, but a sick person tells about his pills,” Eugene remarked mockingly. “Go on, with every comfort. The Titanic was even huger, God rest their souls.”

  “I was just...” Ruslan started to justify himself, followed by everybody's laughter.

  “You know, not all the details about the Titanic are clear.” Nikolai Andreevich said. “I read that on board the Titanic there was a sarcophagus with a well-kept body of an Egyptian priestess and prophetess who lived during of the reign of pharaoh Amenhotep. They say that the mummy had a fatal reputation. It was excavated in 1895 and from 1896 until 1900 everyone who participated in the excavation died. Only Lord Kannervil, who was heading the project, escaped alive. So the Lord brought this mummy on board the Titanic, planning to display the body of the prophetess at the exposition of archeological finds in Los Angeles. The most interesting thing was that the mummy was placed not in the hold but in a cabin, near the captain's bridge, as it was more convenient for passengers to look at it. In the official investigation, the reason for the collision with an iceberg was called ’bad navigation.’ How do you like such coincidences?”

  “That's all nonsense,” Sensei said lighting a cigarette, “The most surprising fact is that people were warned about the wreck of the Titanic sixteen years before the accident happened.”

  “What do you mean?” Stas inquired.

  “I mean that Morgan Robertson's book "Futility" was published in 1896 in England. In this book, the wreck of a huge passenger steamship by the name of Titan was described in detail. It precisely specified the time, the place, and the reason for the wreck, that is, in 1912, in the Atl
antic ocean, on its way from England to America, on a cold April night, the ship collides with a huge iceberg, and people die. Moreover, Robertson even gave the exact number of passengers – two thousand people – that corresponded to the number on the Titanic. He also listed all parameters and characteristics of the ship, which also coincide with the characteristics of the Titanic. There was little discrepancy. For example, he described the length of the ship as 243 m, and the Titanic was 268 m in length. The displacement was 70 thousand tons, and the real ship had 66 thousand tons. The speed at the moment of collision was 25 knots, and in reality it was 22 knots. All other details, four pipes, three screws, and so on, everything was predicted… If only people were a bit more clever, so many people would not have died.”

  “Yes, I recall that I also read about this phenomenal prediction,” Nikolai Andreevich said. “But wait, he was a science-fiction writer, and in addition to that, nobody knew him. His book wasn't published again. How could people have known? If only he had written that it would really happen some day, if he had named it a prophecy, I think, people would have paid attention to it. But he said his novel was science fiction.”

  “You know what the issue is. A person receives pure knowledge. But to save himself from the inquisition of fools, he calls these books science fiction. It was science fiction for clever people, for those who can understand it. After things happen, everybody starts to understand it, even the fools. But a clever person could have understood even then and taken a grain of truth out of this so-called science fiction.”

  “To put it simply, you mean to say that a clever person, having read this book, would never have booked a ticket on the Titanic.”

  “Absolutely right… And it doesn’t just concern this book. Just read science fiction. All science fiction is divided into clever science fiction and into fairy tales for adults, but it is embarrassing to call it a fairy tale, so they write ‘science fiction.’ Writers of clever science fiction simply download the information from time levels of various realities. They download the future, which can come true with the right combination of certain wave conditions. They receive knowledge and describe it. This, in turn, psychologically prepares a clever person who has read this book for forthcoming events. It forms skills of multidimensional thinking, allowing them to orient themselves in the quickly changing conditions of life. All this not only expands a person’s adaptable range in preparing his consciousness for a qualitatively new step in perception of the world around us, but also creates preconditions for the internal change of a person himself, simply speaking, to transition to another wave of a new reality.

  “Just recall books by H.G. Wells, who correctly determined and prepared mankind for future scientific and technical progress. Or recall Jules Verne, who predicted many openings and inventions that subsequently came true. Or, in particular, take Alexei Tolstoi's book, “The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin”, written in 1925-1926 in which the laser is actually predicted. The first laser wasn’t invented until 1960. And take Aleksandr Beljaev's books! For example, his novel “Star KEC” written in 1936 practically carried real prophecies about the ways of astronautics. There are many such examples… And how many grains of truth are reflected in the books of writers like Ivan Efremov, Isaac Azimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Alexander Kazantsev, Stanislaw Lem… There are many talented people to prepare a clever reader for forthcoming events. But they have to write their books in the genre of science fiction because the clever one will understand it anyway, but the fool will not take offence.”

  Nikolai Andreevich grinned. “You know, to be fair, I also treated science fiction with much prejudice, reading it as you have said like a fairy tale for adults. But once I read a note in a magazine that John F. Kennedy, when he was president, invited several science fiction writers into his ‘brain trust’ for forecasting possible developments of the future. It was also mentioned there that a hobby of some talented, world-renowned scientists was reading science fiction. Many scientific terms have even come to us from science fiction. To tell the truth, it surprised me.”

  “It is a normal situation. You see, when a person reads a book he starts to live as though in its world, that is, he begins to adjust himself to the same frequency of perception as the author. Here the reader can face a surprising phenomenon, a kind of burst of brain activity. Call it what you will: generating ideas, inspiration of the subconscious, as you wish. But this burst is mostly a short-term transition to the corresponding frequency of perception of this book, which is fixed in our memory. Corresponding ideas are then born on the basis of available personal knowledge and experience. Therefore, many talented scientists, politicians, and ordinary people who aspire to understand themselves and the world around them get ideas, and the future opens right from books, including science fiction, from this unique database of non-realized realities. It can emerge in memory in any form and at any time – right at the moment of reading, or in a dream, or suddenly dawning upon you later.”

  We were silent for a little while. The fire quietly crackled as the branches in it burned. Its flame bewitched and fascinated us with its mysterious living beauty and bright range of light play. We could stay there for eternity listening to Sensei’s unimaginably interesting stories in the open air in this finest nook of nature where, it seemed, even stars came down from heaven to hear our conversation better.

  “I wonder whether there are prophetic dreams?” Nikolai Andreevich started talking again. “Or is it just the work of the mind in forecasting further events?”

  “Prophetic dreams certainly exist. If a person has enough personal spiritual power or if he is tied to someone with the force of love, his brain can spontaneously adapt to that frequency that coincides with future events. He then receives these data in a dream, in a straight way, escaping analysis. But later, giving out these data, his mind participates in direct processing of the information. Therefore we can see events not in their pure state but in their interpreted version on the basis of our emotions, experiences, former impressions, images, and so on.”

  “You know, I had a prophetic dream once,” Stas started to tell about his life experience.

  For a long time we talked about different strange things in this world and its surprising cases. We recalled stories connected with it and listened to the simple and, at the same time, unusual narrations of Sensei about the mysterious human mind and its unlimited abilities. Only at daybreak did we finally go to bed.

  48

  Strangely enough, either because I had heard so many things at once or because of some other reason, that morning I had an unusual dream. It was bright and emotional. The most important thing was that I had never had such a dream before. I felt as though my consciousness floated above the ground, observing from a height everything that occurred in the world. At first, everything was silent and quiet. But then I felt myself somehow uneasy and frightened, as if I expected something. I noticed a bright red star that descended from the tops of high, snow-white mountains in the East. This star began to come nearer and quickly grew in size. A transparent train followed it. The closer it came to me, the more space this train covered, changing the world and making its outlines blurred and translucent. When I looked more closely, I saw that everything that was captured by the train boiled as if nature rose against human civilization, growing in its force. Volcanoes blew up and shook the Earth with their rumble. Enormous waves arose in the middle of oceans, and these waves quickly moved to megacities. Fires stormed there, where there was no water. Winds twisted huge tornados, destroying everything in their path. It was as if nature had brought down to mankind all the negative force that was produced by people during the entirety of civilization. I became frightened and closed my eyes. When I opened them, I saw myself standing in the middle of an amazingly magnificent field with different beautiful flowers. The star was still approaching and changing the space behind itself. I looked back. Behind me were cities full of people who didn’t expect anything. This severe force ap
proached to them.

  When the star approached very close, I made out that it was a Horseman. His attire and amour were made of pure gold, which brightly gleamed and shone like red fire. Even his horse was covered with a horse cloth made from fine plates of pure gold. The dazzling clothes completely hid the Horseman, leaving uncovered only his eyes. In his hand he held a spear. At the end of the spear there was a flag with the image of a bud of a lotus inside, in the middle of which was a pyramid, an eye, and also some hieroglyphs and pictures. The Horseman rushed with his horse across a huge field of beautiful flowers.

  Suddenly, at full tilt, the Red Horseman sharply pulled the reins to stop the horse. I saw his gaze, which seemed extremely familiar to me. The Horseman’s attention was caught by a modest forget-me-not with five sky-blue petals. He dismounted from the horse and bent over the flower, as if examining and admiring it. As soon as the Horseman dismounted, all the element forces started to cease and calm down. Only an easy echo of this huge force, which moved after the warrior, came to the cities. For me it was a riddle – why was such a mighty Horseman stopped by this ordinary-looking flower? In fact, there was a whole field of the biggest, most beautiful flowers around him. Why did he stop for a long time?

  Even when I woke up, the feeling of reality of this dream did not abandon me. These two questions were precisely engraved in my memory. Certainly I had had dreams before, but I had never had a dream so real, so full of sensations and emotions. The most important thing was that in the dream everything was absolutely clear, I had a real sense of all those events, I knew that it was very important. But when I woke up, I could not recall in any way what it meant and how I should understand it. There were only bright emotional impressions left and these two questions, which simply cycled in my memory.

  This dream really intrigued me with its singularity. First, I thought that my brain had just shown me yesterday's information in this way. But nobody had mentioned the things in my dream in such detail. It puzzled me a little.

  I chose a moment when all the guys ran to swim and came up to Sensei. He was standing in shoal water, gradually getting used to the water temperature. Taking advantage of his solitude, I began to tell him my strange dream, complaining that I could not recall its sense at all. I only remembered that it was very important for me. Contrary to my expectations that he would fully decode this dream from physiological and philosophical points of view, Sensei only smiled and, looking at me somehow mysteriously, said, “The time will come, and you will know everything.”

  APHORISMS OF SENSEI

  1. Life is unpredictable, and anything might happen in it, even the most unbelievable, what you yourself can’t imagine.

  2. A young body doesn’t mean the age of the soul at all.

  3. All great things are ridiculously simple, but it takes a lot of hard work to master them.

  4. The human is an intelligent creature. His main force of action lies in his thoughts.

  5. It is important to have a great desire, and opportunities will come.

  6. For every Vijai there is a Rajah.

  7. Fear begotten by imagination sees danger even where there is no danger at all.

  8. With healthy thoughts, there will be a sound mind, and with a sound mind, there will be a sound body.

  9. Any blow caused by your rage will come back to you in the end.

  10. The potential of a human is limited only by his imagination.

  11. You should not wish ill for other people, even in your thoughts. With the power of your thought, you are setting a trap for yourself, for your body and mind. The more you think about it, the stronger it keeps you, the tighter its loop becomes.

  12. Become a friend to your enemy and forgive his deeds, for you are also imperfect.

  13. Life is too short, and you should progress in glorifying your spiritual nature.

  14. You should always improve yourself, for each minute of your life is precious. You should use it as a divine gift for perfection of your soul.

  15. If you want to make God laugh, tell Him about your plans.

  16. There are no accidents. An accident is only a natural consequence of our uncontrollable thoughts.

  17. The quality of the instants you live are much more important than senseless years of existence.

  18. Wisdom is a virtue of the soul and not of age.

  19. Any action is first of all generated by our begotten thought.

  20. The force of the word revives the force of thought, and the force of thought generates action.

  21. The one who does good deeds with good thoughts has no need to be sad about something missed, for he gets much more force for finding his soul than if he does nothing.

  22. Fantasy is only an unrealized reality.

  23. True, real belief arises from knowledge, and knowledge comes through a word, through persuasion of your mind in the validity of an occurring phenomenon.

  24. You should respect another person’s aspiration to knowledge instead of attacking him with bayonets of your own egocentrism.

  25. To learn everything is impossible, but you should aspire to it.

  26. The most valuable way of understanding God with your mind is when true knowledge overcomes the animal nature and opens the gate of the subconscious with the help of the key of love.

  27. A fool will be given his due for understanding; for the clever one, it is silly not to understand.

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