A Boring Story About a Drowning Kid and The Foundation of Ninja Meditation
I grew up in a summer haze. With summertime meet-ups with cousins and get-togethers that provided me with a lot of good, and bad, memories of my childhood.
When I was around seven years old, I couldn’t remember the exact year, my cousin came for a vacation from the U.S. and we did a lot of things together with the family.
An Innocent Gathering
One day, because it was a hot el niño summer, we went over to the swimming pool at the Villamor Air Base where one of my uncles worked as a pilot and planned to hang out there for the whole day. We arrived early at the clubhouse and had the place almost to ourselves with the intention of getting the best poolside table when the ‘swimming’ crowd arrives in the afternoon.
My uncle parked the car and us kids went in ahead of him while the other adults ordered some food for breakfast and was checking out which space we should occupy when the afternoon sun arrives later that day.
And, often is the case, us kids decided to check out the pool – except I didn’t know how to swim back then. My cousins went in and the crystal clear water, well bluish, because of the chemicals but it was the cleanest it was going to be that day.
The Calm Before the Storm
I was looking in the water and I can count the tiles at the bottom of the water. It was a perfect day.
I saw my cousins clinging to the edge of the pool and I thought “what a wonderful idea!”. I decided to follow them in and slowly come down by the side of the pool because I was being careful not to fall.
As I came in, I felt the cold refreshing water touch my feet and I began to enjoy my day. Suddenly, I felt concerned when I felt my body going into the pool, my hands slipping and failing its duty to keep me safe and alive.
I felt like everything around me is in slo-mo; much like the time I almost got hit by a Volkswagen beetle when I was younger.
Creeping Desperation
I tried flailing my arms and feet to keep me afloat but nothing worked. I took a deep breath of air and thought that if I can get to the bottom of the pool, I might be able to kick myself up to reach the edge of the pool: problem solved.
It was the perfect example of a good plan that is doomed to fail in reality: because I was too small to reach the poolside; because I did not possess the proper technique needed to propel myself upwards; because I did not have the enough strength.
Being inside a government facility, a lifeguard should be around to watch over and enforce safety guidelines but we were there too early.
Even with the big gasp of air that I took before being fully submerged in the water, I felt that I had to breathe. It was difficult to hold one’s breath underwater, especially for a seven year old without any experience swimming in the adult pool.
Accepting My Fate
As fate would have it, I did not drown that day. My uncle just got in from the parking lot at saw my flailing arms disappear into the beautiful, calm, serene water. And, being a military man himself, he jumped in with his clothes without even removing his shoes and his 6’5” tall frame easily helped me get to safety.
It’s surreal when I think about it now. It’s just like a dream that happened a long time ago.
Significance of Breaths
Being without breath is scarily disorienting, it’s something that no one wishes to go through in life, but all of us will eventually reach that point in our life when we will no longer have the luxury of taking in breaths.
The last thing that we might be clinging onto when we face the final hurrah is that gasp of air, that which becomes the most important thing to us at that moment. And, yet, we take it for granted. Forgotten and oftentimes overlooked, meditation reminds us that breaths are important to us, as humans, to carry on living our lives.
And, more than that, breaths are a key that can unlock a gateway to increased energy, increased oxygen level in the body, increased awareness of the soul -- something that might be good for us moving forward.
Ninja Breaths
Breathing can be used as a tool to point out our level of awareness of our inner thoughts and desires and the noise and ambient sounds in the world outside. It is an integral part of ninja training so that they can hold their breath in water or suspend pain when they go through fire. The breathing techniques helped them run long distances without getting tired and train for long periods of time.
Ninjas, much like yogis, can control their bodies in ways that might astonish ordinary people. Feats of strength, Olympic-level athletic skills, increased capacity for self-introspection, mastery of the environment and other legendary feats have been attained thousands of years ago and can be replicated today through mastery of breath.
Today, peak performance psychology and other similar disciplines lead the way in pushing athletes forward to record breaking performances; elite military personnel train under special conditions to be able to endure extreme physical, mental and emotional stress replicating wartime scenarios; and us, the ordinary people of today, can achieve our goals with breathing as one of the methods available in the toolbox of life.
Going back to my story.
I was sitting at one of the poolside chairs watching my uncle pull out the wet bills from his wallet and putting it in a neat row of cash in the next pool chair. His documents were all wet and I felt embarrassed about the incident.
My cousin said that I was lucky that his dad was there to save me, and I am really thankful that he did.
The lifeguard arrived for his duty time and came to ask how I was doing and offered to teach me how to float in the water so that I won’t drown in case of another ‘incident’. Being the young and adventurous person that I was, I obliged and went in with him. He gave me a few instructions and I was floating fetal-position after a short time.
He then got me to face up and asked me if I can swing my right arm back and then the other arm while he was pulling me to and fro. I mastered the technique after a while and he let go of me when I got the hang of it. The flutter kicks and overarm strokes seemed very natural that I wondered why I hadn’t learned of it before since I was always “swimming” in the river with my friends.
Life Lessons
The universe has a way of teaching that is beyond ordinary human thinking. I learned how to do the backstroke that day and avoided a situation where I will have a fear of water that could have pestered me for the rest of my life. Things have a way of working out and life goes on.
That’s it for now. My post is up to here. Thanks for reading through my long winded post. I wish for you the best in everything that life can offer: the best of health, love, luck and riches, but with that, the wisdom to use your gifts for the good of humanity and the betterment of mankind.
Have a great day ahead.
Images by Aquilatin, Free-Photos, Şahin Sezer Dinçer, 1820796 , DavidRockDesign, ArtTower, and milesz from Pixabay.