Last night I had a couple fights. With demons.
There I was, lying merrily in my bed, resting my limbs and pondering a brighter future. Then, sometime before the stroke of midnight – a demon appeared before me.
“Furey, who do you think you are?” it questioned. “You’re never going to recover from your eye surgery. You’re never going to regain your vision. You’re never going to rise above this. Face it, you’re finished.”
Twas stunned to hear such a thing said to me. But it was there and it was real.
“Look at you, you can’t even fight back, can you?” railed the demon. “All bed bound and helpless, needing others to take care of you, needing to take medicine to ease your pain. I thought you were supposed to be some kind of master. I thought you were the guy who teaches others to be strong – and look at you NOW – in your weakness.”
At this point I struck back. I stood up in bed and wrist locked the demon. He tried to punch me in the head as I did this – but I was ready for him. I stepped forward and hip tossed him, separating his elbow in the process and making him shriek in anger.
I remained calm, still doing my Zen Master deep breathing, even in the midst of a fight.
The demon then drew a sword and took a whack at me. I evaded his strike by falling on my matfress. Then I grabbed my bathroom towel as he was preparing his fnishing strike. I snapped him in the eye, kicked him in the nadz and pulled away his sword. Then I went to town on him in a way that would make a Samurai proud.
I laid back down – still doing my breathing exercises. Still calm.
18 minutes later another demon showed his ugly mug. As he started to yell and shriek I simply used the power of imagination to fight him. I didn’t even bother to get out of bed. I drew an imaginary sword and began slicing him to bits.
Amazingly enough, he was even easier to beat than the first evil predator.
No, I am not hallucinating. I am not delirious. I am alive.
At the same time I have told you these tales because, whether you realize it or not, each day the demons of self-doubt, fear, worry and so on are looking for resting places. They’re looking for souls to disturb, souls to drive mad.
No, I didn’t physically fight any demons last night – but I did fight them in my imagination – and I won both times.
Today, I want you to remember this. Whenever anyone human tells you that you “can’t” – draw your imaginary weaponry and reduce this insult to the gutter realm where it belongs. More importantly, whenver you have self-doubts, fears, worries and so on – be not afraid. Picture them as demons and draw your weapon.
Nothing – and I mean NOTHING can defeat you but yourself. And if you are on YOUR side – then you’ve joined forces with the stranger within who wants to see you make the most of your life.
Friend, what I have illustrated for you is merely a taste of what you will learn at my October seminar – be sure to take a very serious look.
Matthew Furey
Zen Master of the Internet®
P.S. I have more fights to tell you about in the future – and they’re far better than today’s lesson. Stay tuned.