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Jesus woke to the gentle nudging of Jayesh, one of the leaders among Amrit’s men. The sun had not risen yet, but a faint glow in the east showed that dawn would arrive soon.
“Is anything wrong?” Jesus asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
Jayesh’s teeth flashed brightly against the background of his dark skin. “Nothing immediate. But you must join us now so that you can help prevent trouble in the future. Come with me.”
Jesus quickly put on his sandals and slipped his robe over his head to drape over his shoulders. Walking to the clearing within the circle of tents they had erected the previous afternoon, he found the other men standing in formation. Amrit stood before the group.
“You must join us for our morning exercises,” Amrit said, addressing Jesus. “Soon we will be traveling through treacherous territories, and I cannot guarantee that any of my men will be able to protect you because they may be too busy protecting themselves. Therefore, we must train you to protect yourself.”
In the clearing amid the ring of wagons and tents, the men stood in three straight rows, each row consisting of six men except for the last, which had only five. It was to the vacant spot at the end of this row that Amrit directed Jesus. Thus when the leader returned to his position at the formation, he faced an even eighteen. He nodded once, and then all the men simultaneously flung their arms out in a slow-motion sweep across the front of their bodies, ending in a defensive posture as if to ward off blows in hand-to-hand combat. They held that pose for more than fifteen seconds, and then slowly lifted their left legs and, again in slow motion, shifted their stance to more squarely face their imaginary attackers. They continued such defensive postures, always in unison, always in slow motion.
At first Jesus did not catch on. He would wait until the slow movements stopped and then adopt whatever pose the men had settled into. But the man nearest him shook his head at the boy, indicating he should emulate the slow-motion sweeps with his arms and legs. Jesus tried to follow along with the others.
No one spoke. They all made identical, fluid movements with their arms and legs, moving at the same speed almost as a flock of birds in the sky maintains its formation by instinct during flight. After about fifteen minutes Jesus began to perceive the repeated pattern of the movements. But it was difficult to fall into the same rhythm as the group of men because the maddeningly slow pace of the movements caused strain to the boy’s muscles and he instinctively tried to move faster.
Finally the exercises ended. The men fell out of formation and went about their usual chores. Amrit approached Jesus with a smile and outstretched arms. “Well, my young friend, did you enjoy your workout? We learned these exercises from the people in the Middle Kingdom, to the north of my homeland.”
Jesus grinned. “Actually, sir, when you said we would do exercises, I expected perhaps some running, jumping and lifting. How will these slow movements help me if there is an attack?”
“Patience,” advised the master. “Tell me, did you find it easy or difficult to do the slow movements?”
“Difficult. It’s so much easier to move quickly.”
“Exactly! You use one set of muscles when you move your arm like this,” he said as he made a swift chopping motion with his arm stretched out at full length, “but you use different muscles to support your arm as it very slowly makes the same motion. We want you to develop both sets of muscles.”
“But sir,” Jesus persisted, “if I am ever in an actual battle, certainly it would be more important to fight off the attackers with lightning-fast punches than these slow movements. I would not expect them to wait for me at the pace we just followed.”
Amrit gestured for the boy to approach him. “Come, let me see some of these lightning-fast punches. Try to hit me as hard as you can.”
Jesus shook his head and wagged his finger. “Sir, it would not be proper for me, as a guest of your generous hospitality, to hit you.”
“Ha!” the man barked. “If you are able to hit me, then I deserve to be hit. In fact, I will be content if you are able to swing your fists at me without hurting yourself. Come, are you afraid?”
Afraid? Okay, he’s asking for it, the boy said to himself. I know a few moves myself. With that, he swung his left fist wide in a feint but jabbed quickly with his right, aiming for Amrit’s stomach. Neither punch landed. In a blur Amrit used motions identical to those of the exercises — but much faster — to deflect the blows.
“Come, I thought I told you to try to hurt me,” he chided. “Let’s see you make a serious attempt.”
Irritated by the man’s mocking tone, Jesus launched a rapid flurry of punches with both arms. But with easy, flowing motions taken directly from the group’s exercise routine, Amrit parried each thrust. Then Jesus lashed out with his right foot, hoping to distract Amrit with a painful kick to the shin. Instead, almost as if he had been told in advance what was coming, the man shifted his leg slightly to avoid the blow and, as the boy’s foot flashed past, hooked his own foot behind the boy’s and raised it up. Jesus struggled to keep his balance as Amrit grabbed his ankle with his left hand and held it waist-high.
“You see? Now you are at a disadvantage, and I only used the same motions we had in our exercise.” He released Jesus’ foot. “Study with us, and we will teach you much more than these simple things. In the meantime, find a pair of rocks that you can lift.”
After looking around for a few moments, Jesus stood before the man holding two hefty stones.
“Too heavy,” Amrit said. He glanced around and picked up two much smaller rocks. “Here, use these.”
Jesus scoffed. “These are too easy. See, I can lift them with almost no effort.”
“That’s good. Now hold your arms straight out to your sides while you hold those two stones. No,” he corrected Jesus as the boy held out his arms, “not with your palms facing upward. That is how you always carry weights. Hold the rocks with the backs of your hands facing upward and the palms toward the ground. Arms straight out. Now, does that feel a bit more strenuous?”
Jesus held his arms out several seconds before dropping them to his sides. “Yes, I see what you mean. I —“
“You lowered your arms. Did I tell you to lower your arms?”
Jesus raised his arms straight out again, the rocks clasped in his hands with the palms downward.
“As I was saying,” Amrit continued, “study with us and you will learn to defend yourself. But you must never use our methods to attack anyone without provocation, because you will not succeed. Attacking leaves you vulnerable, both physically and spiritually. If you attack, you must lunge into your opponent’s space, where he can strike you down more easily. And spiritually, if you attack without provocation, you forfeit the power that comes with being centered, being comfortable with your relationship with your god. Tell me, have you ever had occasion to do any fighting back home?
Jesus felt a tremendous strain on his arms as he held out the rocks, but tried not to show any pain. “Yes, just recently I had a short fight with some boys. I won. They were bullying my younger brother, and I stepped in to make them stop. There were five of them,” he added with pride.
“Five,” Amrit said. “Impressive! And you say you fought to defend your younger brother against five attackers, and you won. Defending the weak is a worthy cause. But let’s suppose the roles were reversed and you were the bully. If you had decided to attack those five boys just because you did not like the looks of them, do you think you would have won?”
“Probably not,” Jesus said upon reflection. “Um, can I put my arms down now?”
“Not yet. You see, when you were using your power for good and in the service of another, you could prevail. But if you attempted to use the same power for evil, to hurt someone just to satisfy your own ego, you would lose. This is an important lesson — not only in fighting, but in your relationships with people in all of your everyday activities.”
Amrit paused to let his words sink in. Then, with emphasis he added, “Learn this lesson well and you will grow to become a mighty man. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Excellent!” With that, Amrit turned and started to walk away. Then he halted and looked back over his shoulder. “Oh, I almost forgot. You can put your arms down now.”