Like "jedi" skills for a 12 year old

[barrys]

I had a great day today with my son Callum and a couple of his friends. We were attending a "Way of the Apache Warrior" day for teenagers. It is run by a friend of mine, Rob, who teaches them things like fire-making with a bow drill, wide angle vision, stalking, "the art of invisibility" etc. and everyone has a great time.

Rob talked to the kids about the things he was showing them being a gateway to skills they could only guess at. A couple of them were joking and said "What like the force and jedi skills".

During the morning they were learning how to walk along small tree trunks - starting forwards, then backwards, eventually blindfold. One of Callum's friends fell heavily from a beam about two feet in the air. His ankle and foot were hurt and he couldn't walk. He was hobbling around for a few minutes and looked like it was the end of his day. I took his sock and boot off, opened a point in his foot, directed chi at a couple of injured places in his foot and gently "stroked" the blockage out. I could really sense it.

As I was doing it the young man's eyes got bigger and bigger. He looked at me and said "What are you doing to inside my foot? Is this what Rob means?". Within a minute he put his boot on and was balancing on the beam again.

Unbelievable . Thank you Sifu. Without your patience I would never had developed the confidence to do this.

With metta,

Barry

[Jeffrey Segal]

That's lovely, Barry

[Andrew]

The force is with you always

[eddiel]

Great story Barry. I love the boys reaction; "What are you doing inside my foot?"

Eddie

[Andrew R]

Awesome.

[Josh]

An excellent and inspiring story, Sihing; thanks for sharing! Great for the "force" skills, and also a possible linguistic breakthrough....this may be the first time in the history of the English language that the phrase "What are you doing inside my foot?" has been uttered!

All my best,
Josh

[Ray]

Awesome, Sihing.

Thanks for sharing.

[AColarusso]

Dear Barry Siheng,

Coming from you, for me it´s not a surprise. I keep remembering, with a WAOW expression on my face, the demostration done by you in Malasia.

Also Dear Siheng,

I will like to know the meaning of Metta that you always include at the end of your posts, can you be so kind to share here with us?.

[barrys]

Anthony,

One translation of metta is "loving kindness". With all of these things they are qualities or states rather than the words themselves. For me, it is something important to cultivate.

To share, a simple way I use of reflecting on this is the following:

May I be free of enmity and danger, May I be free of physical suffering, May I be free of mental suffering, May I take care of myself happily.

Then extend this to someone you care about, then someone you are neutral about, then someone you have difficulty with, eventually to all beings. A lovely formulation I heard for the "all beings" was:

In the north direction, in the east direction, in the south direction, in the west direction, above and below, as far up as the highest realms of existence, as far down as the lowest realms of existence ...

When I first heard these phrases they really sang in me. Of course, they are just words. But for me, the saying of them and noticing what arises helps.

If others know more about this practice maybe they could share in a new thread. A metta thread would be good to start .

All the best,

Barry

[AColarusso]

Thank you Siheng, I appreciate your loving kindness.

[barrys]

And of course, even before meditation on this, its best to start with practising it in my every day life to the best of my ability .

That can be tough with a 14 year old daughter shouting at me or someone in a group doing the same .

Barry

[drunken boxer]

Thats brilliant Barry! So great for the kids too - to see some real jedi powers! I know how much I loved the Jedi when I was a kid.

I also think its great what your friend is doing, I would loved to go on a "Way of the Apache Warrior" course when I was a kid... in fact, never mind when I was a kid... whats the maximum age requirement?

My dad, uncles and neighbours used to take me and my friends out to the outdoors to build fires, build shelters, make bows and arrows and all that stuff when we were kids, its some of my happiest memories. Its good that these kids are getting the same.

[Zach]

Excellent!

Sihing Barry,

That's terrific. A fine testament to our art, and a good program, too.

I wanted to add that my seven year old really responds well to Chi Kung.
He can cure himself of a belly ache by a few sets of Lifting the Sky.
And yesterday he told me that the pain from a nasty cat scratch went away
when he thought of his dantien. I never suggested either method as a technique...
it just came from him.

Kids are so open. They're inspiring.

My best,

Zach

[parrapiti]

Dear Brother!

Thanks for sharing and thanks for sharing!

Looking forward to seeing you soon again!

Your brother,

Piti

[Luo Lang]

Thanks for sharing!