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