Nice, Jeff! I like that a lot. Helps me!
There is a great story, a true story, in the biography of Joseph L. Greenstein, aka "The Mighty Atom", a vaudville strongman who through mystical meditation (Kabbalah--he was an orthodox Jew), a kind of Japanese qigong he learned in a juijitsu school in Japan (he was still on a wrestling circuit in these early days in the 1910's), and breathing and mind discipline practices he learned as a young man, became almost a superhuman. He could literally bend steel with his bare hands and bite chains and nails and break them with his teeth! His hair could not be cut with regular scissors. THe book was written by the writer/producer Ed Spielman (he produced and wrote the TV show KUNG FU, among others. The book is unfortunately out of print and goes for big books from booksellers. Great, inspiring book though!).
He was born a premature baby in the 1890's. The doctors told his parents that he would die soon. He did survive, but only as a very sickly child and in his teens, it was clear that he would not live much longer. His father died from the same genetic asthma condition in his 30's.
He met a a circus wrestler, Champion Volanko, who took him under his wing and began to train him.
The first day, he made him get up before dawn, in the cold of a Russian winter, in the snow and began to teach him how to "breathe". How to really use breathing to strengthen his entire system. VOlanko himself was told that he would die as a child, but learned breathing and the power of the mind and became a kind of "superhuman".
Little Joseph could barely get the breath in his lungs, but finally he did a few of the breaths "correctly", expanding his arms as he inhaled and bringing them together as he exhaled (what does that sound like?
) filling his lungs with air and his body with energy.
Volanko said, "Good!"
Little Joseph (he was called the Mighty Atom, because he was 5 feet tall), asked, "How long do I have to do this?"
Volanko answered:
"For the rest of your life, little one."Well, he did do this for the rest of his life. Among other qigong practices (although he did not call them that). He lived to be in his 80's, still bending steel bars on his chest, breaking iron horseshoes with his bare hands and biting chains with his teeth in the 1970's when Ed Spielman saw him at a martial arts exhibition in Madison Square Garden in NYC and then was inspired to write his life story. His disciple Larry "Slim the Hammer Man" Farman, is still alive living in Pennsylvania, still doing leverage lifting of 25 and 30lb hammers and axes over his head by the ends of the handles in his 70's.
So, Jeff is right. This is not about 3 months or 3 years. This is about the rest of our lives. However,I am sure it is helping you heal and it will help more. Just keep adding the little drops of blue ink.
And at a certain point, you will find that you will indeed feel better and want to help others with this wonderful treasure.
Thanks, Jeff.
I recently saw a short video about beginning yoga describing the benefit of continued practice. It gave the example of a glass filled with water. Then it showed a dropper filled with blue ink dropping a single drop of the ink into the glass, no difference in the color of the water. Then it showed what the glass looked like after a week and then a month and then a year. By that time the water was pretty blue.
This shows how in our early effort we don't or hardly see any changes, then after a short while we begin to see a slight change then after we a see real changes etc.. This example can be used for almost anything, like qigong.
My advice for those who begin qigong, yoga, exercise whatever it is, that it's not a means to an end, it is now a part of your daily life forever.
