Monday, July 20, 2009

How to Put Out a Candle

By Al Case

One of the less spectacular feats in the martial arts, and yet one of the most important, is how to put out a candle. Interestingly, with just a little bit of practice almost anyone can put out a candle, it is that simple. Unfortunately, most people reach the point where they can do it, then stop, but that is where they should begin their study, for doors are about to be opened.

The basic principle of putting out a candle is to let the woosh of air drain oxygen from the flame by stopping your fist an inch from the candle. There is much higher ability available, however, if one continues to pursue this simple trick. One can, for instance, put out a flame from across the room.

To stop the fist is to use muscles, and this confines your technique to a physical level. To attain higher ability through this trick you must not concentrate on relaxing, using the muscles less, and letting the mind go. Intention is what you are trying to build, and that is the key to real higher ability.

Try stopping your fist two inches from the candle. The air is not be effected because your fist is too far away. Now, to make the candle flicker and go out, you must rely on intention.

You could start this stage of training at about a foot, and this would be better, though you may have to experiment to find the distance that is best for developing your intention. You must focus on the flame when you flick the fist. Don't concentrate fierce and hard, just work on relaxing. The more one relaxes the better this trick will work the more intention you will have.

Your real body is not the flesh envelope you are wearing, your real body is the bubble of world that you perceive. Thus, you must break free of the desire to improve the flesh, and concentrate on the desire to alter the things that you perceive outside your body. And perceptions, at least the kind necessary to put out a candle across a room, work best through space.

Through nothingness, space, a vacuum, emptiness. Not air, nor wood, nor even brick, nor other things which are merely ideas held in place to support the idea of your real body.

To most people my words may seem to be alien, for it strikes to the heart of the matter of our existence in the cosmos. Our existence in that nothingness in which we place the universe is the most important thing...behind the structure of the universe. So still the mind until it is peaceful and calm, and practice launching your intention, and a score of hours later you to see what I am talking about.

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