Journey through memories.

Peter walked towards the tree and sat cross-legged under the tree. Mary was satisfied with his attitude, 'I thought he would act like a brat and make things difficult to progress.'

She stood in front of Peter and watched his posture. After deciding it was the correct posture, she sat in front of him in a cross-legged position. "All right. The next step is placing your dominant hand on top of the other hand and closing your eyes."

"Why place them on top of each other?" Peter asked her with a hit of curiosity. 'Just when I thought he wouldn't ask lots of questions.' Mary thought. But there was a smile on her face, which thoroughly hid her inner thoughts. Even though she was annoyed, she knew she had to explain it to him.

"While meditating, it is essential to sit in a proper posture. There are various positions and hand symbols people practice while they meditate."

"For example: When people join the tips of the index and thumb fingers of one hand, they will feel the pulse beating of both index and thumb. It will help the meditator to further concentrate on the pulse. Well, never mind about it now. Just know that it will help you to improve your concentration. You won't feel body pains when you meditate in proper posture. Just take it one step at a time, don't rush." Peter still didn't adequately understand what Mary had explained to him. So, Mary decided to cut short the explanation, 'Somethings can only be understood by experience if the person doesn't have the required enlightenment points.'

Mary asked Peter to listen to her instructions and find the answers by himself. Peter didn't want to make unnecessary arguments, so he nodded his head in agreement and closed his eyes.

"Good. Now breathe in and out and concentrate on your breath. Concentrate on the flow of air in and out of your body." Mary instructed. Peter performed Mary's instructions exactly as per her instructions. But Peter was finding it hard to concentrate on his breath.

Peter's different emotions and memories started to affect his concentration to focus on his breath. Peter's deeply hidden memories resurfaced. He experienced various emotions he had gone through at different times within these few moments of his meditation. Happiness, sadness, guilt, anger, lustfulness and greed were overwhelming him right now. Then the darkness that made Peter try and jump off the cliff finally made its entrance. Peter opened his eyes immediately and punched the ground hard, screaming out of his lungs.

"Mary watched the entire process but didn't try to calm him." She watched him without any pity, anger or fear. Her eyes were devoid of emotion.

"WHAT IS THIS?! Why is this happening?! I do not want to experience all this again!!" Peter was very emotional right now. No one knew what he was capable of right now. Maybe even he didn't know what he was capable of at this moment. And yet Mary remained unmoved by his yelling. She closed her eyes and started meditating. No matter how loud Peter yelled at her, Mary did not open her eyes. But she has focused her concentration on hearing. Her focus was so incredible that she completely muted his loud voice and only focused her hearing on the sounds of his movements with her eyes closed.

Peter was so frustrated because Mary wasn't replying to his questions. He watched her body movement and got scared. So scared that he forgot about his frustration and anger. Mary's body had gone stiff, so much so that it appeared like she wasn't breathing. She was like a mediating statue without any life. Peter started to panic and slowly moved his right hand towards her shoulder to shake her while calling her name. "Mary. Are you okay?" Peter was close to touching her shoulders, but something stopped his hand from touching Mary's shoulder. Peter looked at his hand saw that Mary was the stopped him from touching her. Her left hand caught his right hand while her body was still motionless. Peter was speechless and looked up to see Mary again, only to find that she had opened her eyes and staring at him like an emotionless ghost.

"Mother holy *!" Peter pulled his hand away from her grip and fell backwards on the ground. After retaining his sanity, he yelled at her again. "What the hell? I thought you were dead. By the way, No matter how beautiful you are. Any man would get scared if you look at him with that ghost eyes. Stop looking at me like that." He was scared like crazy. 'Wait, in the middle of the forest, a beautiful girl appeared out of nowhere. She even knew what I was thinking. She might be a ghost. No, that is not possible.' Peter was freaking out.

"Stop looking at me like that. I'm not a ghost." Mary was annoyed by his meaningless fear. But just like before, this sentence made Peter even more scared. 'I was right. She is a ghost. Her breathless meditating body was proof. I have to run.'

"Would you please calm down? So that we can move on to the step." Mary was trying to keep his cool. "You were feeling extreme emotions a while back. All those emotions first turned into sadness. Later the sadness became anger." Peter was still agitated with fear. But Mary continued to talk to him. "The anger would have caused you to do something irreversible. Fear and anger are like fire and wood. So, fear can burn out anger."

"But you weren't breathing," Peter asked Mary. "I was meditating. I can hold my breath for more than 25 minutes." Mary replied to his questions. She knew it was a waste of time if she explained other stuff.

"Are you taking me for a fool? who can hold their breath for so long?" Peter argued. "There are many in this world who can hold their breath for more than 20 minutes. You can find out yourself later. Any more doubts?" She was ready to clear his doubts.

"Yeah, How are you able to read my thoughts?" Peter asked. "There are many in this world who can tell what people are thinking based on their attitude, body movement and breath movement. It is called Body language. Some talented people can manipulate others to do their bidding smoothly. When you combine the body language and mentalist techniques, you can do what I did." Mary replied while smiling.

Peter was not able to believe her answers. But he knew both mentalists and body language readers existed in real life. Did she create some hybrid techniques? No, that shouldn't be possible. Peter reluctantly accepted her answers.

"Anyway, now that you have gained back your composure. Let us continue and don't more waste time. For a change of mind, do some physical exercise." 'I think a simple workout should work for today.' "I thought of some simple exercises. Ten push-ups, ten sit-ups, ten squats and run two miles."

"Are you kidding me? In my younger days, I used to do a hundred push-ups. I also ran 6 miles per day." Peter was mocking her training regime. "Fine! Then do a hundred push-ups. Let us see if you can." Mary replied with a smirk.

"Watch me do it." Peter started with push-ups. But he couldn't do more than six. 'WHAT THE HECK? I used to do a hundred of these during my teenage. Oh no, She is smiling at me. Why did I brag so much? this is embarrassing. NO. Don't look at me, Look away.'

"Could do it?" the smirk on Mary's face hadn't disappeared. "Okay, fine. I couldn't do it." Peter accepted it with shame. "It is all right. Just finish the rest." Even though it sounded like she was consoling him, she still had that evil smirk on her face. Peter, however, completed her training regime and laid on the ground breathing heavily.

Mary gave him a bottle of water. "Thank you. Where did you get this bottle?" Peter asked Mary. "Where do you think? I bought it from the store. Did you think I was living in this forest or something?"

Peter shook his head like a kid and said, "I thought you were a ghost living in this forest." Mary laughed at his comment. "What a rude person you are. I have heated the fish while you were running. Let's eat." they both started to eat the remaining fish for their dinner.

"While meditating, you will have to face all your memories. It is a necessary process to start your cultivation." Mary said this out of the blue while eating. Peter was also a little stunned, "Is that so. You could have warned me before."

"I can only show you the way at the beginning. But you will have to experience everything yourself and build a foundation for your cultivation." Mary said in a solemn tone. "Cultivation? Like those fantasy novels? Are you for real?" Peter was finding this funny.

"No. Those are fantasies. What I am talking about is the cultivation of the mind. I believe that is the ultimate goal for humans that God has created." Mary said. Peter fell in deep thought. Although, I do not believe in God. But the cultivation of mind? That is another story entirely. Mind is everything for humans. When a football player's body listens to his mind's instructions and acts accordingly, He can achieve outstanding results. It is not just football. It is the same for every other issue.

"Do you know why I made you do exercises?" Peter snapped out of his thoughts and said, "No, I do not know why."

"The mind becomes dull with continuous meditation. Exercise kick starts the brain overall again, just like the day and night. After the cycle ends, there is a new day. Food provides the energy to do both." Peter approved this. "That makes sense. But if meditation is going to be that painful, I don't want to do it."

'Don't want to do it? I can't force him. After all, it is his life. Still, I will try my best to save him.' "It is your choice. There is a method to take things slowly. I call it 'Journey through memories'. This method allows you to face one memory at a time and learn from it. You will have to accept all your memories and face them head-on eventually. There are no shortcuts. But at the least, this method will be less painful and time-consuming. I hope you at least try it once. Or I will fail to keep my promise to you. Which will lead me to develop inner demons and affect my cultivation."

Peter was half-hearted. He didn't want to go through the pain again. Peter also didn't want to harm the person who tried to help him. Even though he didn't know what the inner demons were. Peter knew it would affect her badly. In the end, he decided to give a chance. "Alright, I will try again."

"Good. let us try again." Mary was happy that he accepted. 'Oh, thank God. I don't know what changed his mind, but I didn't fail this mission or I would have gotten in trouble with the master.