LITMIR.BIZ

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this would be familiar to you,” Iziro replied. “And to apply it most effectively, you’ll need the next lesson.”

      “I’ve trained not only my body but also my mind… You’ve heard my story,” Rein argued.

      “Then your mind was trained by your teachers long ago. Remember when was the last time you seriously did it yourself, unlike training your body?” Iziro said, looking at Rein’s muscles.

      “Alright… maybe not for a while,” Rein admitted.

      “Repeat after me,” Iziro said.

      “Hmm… okay.”

      “This dance is a set of movements used for attack and evasion in most possible situations, and this dance is not the only one.”

      “It looks strange,” Rein said. “I feel even stranger doing it.”

      “Don’t you see the resemblance between what I did in battle before and this dance?” Iziro asked.

      “It looked different back then!” Rein retorted.

      Then Iziro turned to Rein and, dancing, slowly began moving towards him.

      “What are you doing?” Rein asked.

      “Dodge!” Iziro commanded.

      “If these are attacks, they are too slow. I can just step aside,” Rein said.

      “Approach and dodge!” Iziro insisted.

      “Alright… but it’s too slow, so it’s too easy!” Rein remarked.

      “You want it faster? Fine…”

      When Iziro sped up, Rein dodged for a short while, or more accurately, until he was sent flying into a tree from a strike to his body.

      “Ah… When you sped up, it felt more like how you fought before,” Rein said, rubbing the spot where he was struck. “You hit hard!”

      “Do you want to do it too?” Iziro asked. “Train your speed and striking power every day on anything.”

      Afterwards, Iziro approached the tree under which a bewildered Rein sat, and he struck it hard and fast with his palm and then with his fist.

      “Like this!” Iziro said, offering a hand to help Rein stand.

      “Alright… I got it… The dance is good… Train the body every day… But what about the mind?” Rein asked.

      “I’ll tell you about that in the next lesson. Usually, it’s done earlier, but I thought this lesson would be closer to your understanding, so I decided to start with it.”

      On the long journey, they stopped near water bodies and large boulders, as Iziro instructed Rein to train his spirit and body.

      Once, during spirit training, Iziro said, “Meditation is the pinnacle of concentration and also the most powerful manifestation of spiritual strength. You must learn meditation, but it is extremely difficult. Preceding it will be concentration, as it is easier. Still, it requires practice as it is challenging for the unprepared. For now, just practice meditating and focus more on sensing the movements of the spirit in your body.”

      Frequently, during the regular breeze, they stopped so that Rein could feel it, concentrating his mind on these gentle gusts. Iziro said that the wind is one of the manifestations of the soul of this world.

      During their physical training, in addition to the regular muscle workout, they trained something else. Moving slowly, they practiced dance-like combat movements with and without weapons like sticks. One day, Iziro said:

      “While training, it’s not always about hitting faster and harder… When starting to learn something, it’s smarter to move slower so that your body can adapt. Then it’s important to build up strength and speed.”

      When they took a break near a river, Iziro, noticing a fish swimming near the riverbank, said:

      “Watch that fish and mimic its movements. Fish are one of the many animals that can be in harmony with the world almost from birth.”

      “So, wisdom is in their blood?” Rein asked.

      “Not entirely,” Iziro replied. “Some might say that to some extent, fish are wise, but for now, it’s important to learn how they move, so mimic them.”

      “Just don’t tell me you learned to move like that by watching a fish…” Rein commented.

      “No… In the village of Oi, there were teachers. They taught entire groups of those who deserved such a right. My teacher always said that the whole secret is to move like a fish, using your mind, but if necessary, to strike like lightning.”

      “Well, I hope this slave will help me move like her and strike like lightning,” said Rein.

      “This slave won’t teach you to strike. You’re already not bad at it…” Iziro laughed. “But if you train more often, you’ll strike even harder.”

      “In essence, everything related to physical training depends on practice,” Rein said.

      “You’re right about that,” Iziro said. “You gain wisdom.”

      They walked along the forests under massive stone mountains hovering in the air above them. Iziro stood in the midst of the mountain-shaded forest and said,

      “Finally, the time for the last lesson has come,” Iziro said.

      “Really?” Rein replied, stopping.

      “You probably already understand that understanding everything depends on practice. It may seem banal to you now, but realization comes to a person not immediately – and so it is with everything. You know a lot, but there’s also much you don’t understand. I’ll teach you how to quickly grasp everything you didn’t know before.”

      “Do you see that berry?” Iziro asked.

      “Yes,” Rein replied with confusion.

      “You need to look at it. You should do it for a long time, thinking about nothing else. Don’t pay attention to anything else. If you do this often, over time, you’ll be able to concentrate on your own specific thoughts just as easily – this will mean that you’ve mastered concentration.”

      “After my concentrations on the wind around and searching for its breezes inside me, which I still haven’t been able to detect, this seems quite easy,” Rein said.

      “Exactly! Thanks to your past training, it’s already easy, but I should have said this so that you understand why all this was done. By now, you should be closer to meditation. Thanks to the search for the spirit’s breezes, even concentration on nothing seems not so difficult anymore. Previously, in challenging situations, you were indecisive and couldn’t determine your actions, which significantly slowed you down, in addition to your armor and sword. The ability to concentrate, which you probably have already mastered, will help you think only about the most important things at the right moment, significantly speeding up your actions. But all of this was not just for that – the ability to concentrate easily is needed to grasp this lesson. The easier concentration comes to you, the easier and faster the understanding of things you need will come to you at the right moment. And this speed of understanding increases from the knowledge you already have. It’s impossible to grasp everything at once. Perhaps it’s impossible to grasp everything at all. But you can maximize preparing your mind for what awaits you. Reflections contribute to this preparation. Meditation helps the mind rest and the ability to concentrate on essential thoughts. Meditating, you also relax your spirit, not just your mind. But a tempered mind, through reflections, tempers your spirit. Knowledge dispelling fear tempers the spirit. The spirit also tempers the body, prepared for the trials of fate. I’ve given you the path to acquiring knowledge. I’ve given you the path to strengthening the body. Everything, as I’ve already said, tempers your spirit. If you were looking for a secret, here it is. Everything is interconnected! And all your questions will

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