Real Courage

Did you see this photo of the monk Thich quan duc? If you have seen it, nothing more needs to be said. It is just an example of the few rare brave people in this world who stand up for what is right and are prepared to lay down their lives for the sake of truth.

I find it hard to hold even a glass full of steaming tea in my palm. How did this man manage to do this.And just look at him as he sits calmly, as the petrol flames devour his body inch by inch.

Incidents such as these are needed to shake up the consciences of governments. As a result of his sacrifice, world attention was drawn to the oppression of the Buddhists  South Vietnam, and to its eventual end.

And how did he do it? Buddhists say such extraordinary feats are the results of mindfulness practice.
Here

The limits of humans-or are there any ?

There does not seem to be any limit to the extraordinary feats achieved by humans in their quest to transcend mortal boundaries.

I once watched was a show on National Geographic,around December 2001 or so.It showed old women demonstrating their martial arts prowess. The camera showed an iron rod being placed (sharp end) against an old lady's temple and being hammered in at full force.Can you guess what happened ?

The end result was that the thick iron rod was bent into a big V. And the woman? Smiling as ever, she didn’t even move a muscle throughout the demo.She was a regular practitioner of Qigong.Does not this lady's story give us inspiration to question our own limits that we have set on ourselves?

Martial arts like Taichi, Qigong and Sindo focus on developing the internal life energy (Called Prana in Sanskrit / Chi in Chinese/ Ki in Japanese). Often the practitioners can achieve astonishing results as described above.