Matajuro (student) and Banzo (teacher) story about improving awareness/alertness to sense sword attack from behind; Shirdi Sai Baba handling wooden stick attack on him with miraculous powers

Interesting Awareness training story from Osho, https://oshostories.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/footsteps-of-the-thoughts/.

The overall story (paraphrased in my own words with just one or two quotes from the above link) as narrated in above link is as follows:

A king in Japan was unhappy with the lack of awareness in his only son. He sent his son to the awareness master who had taught him awareness, with the condition that he (son) could succeed him (father) as king only if he learned awareness well enough from the master.

The son went to the master who assigned him cleaning work in the commune. The master started hitting the young prince in the back with his stick without any warning. The prince had to take a lot of such beatings from the master. Eventually the prince acquired one stage of the learning expected of the prince where his awareness/alertness became so sharp that he would sense that the master is trying to hit him in the back and prevent him from doing so by catching hold of the stick. And this would not be much of a distraction from the menial work that the prince was engaged in.

The next stage was the master hitting the prince with the stick while the prince was asleep! Once again the prince had to take some beatings while he was asleep till he learned to have alertness/awareness even while he was asleep and prevented the master from doing such beating by becoming aware of it even while asleep (perhaps a light kind of sleep).

Now the master told him that the next stage would involve the master using a sword instead of a stick to hit him which could finish him (kill him)!

The prince got concerned about this test and started thinking that he should test the master by checking whether the master himself can pass such a test (the prince attacking the master with a sword while the master was asleep).

Even as these thoughts were playing out in the prince's mind, the master read those thoughts and said, "... Do you want to hit your own master with a sword? Feel ashamed! I can hear the footsteps of your thoughts… drop the idea."

The prince was ashamed and fell at the feet of the master seeking forgiveness.

Eventually the prince passed even this test (master attempting to hit/attack him with a sword) by improving his alertness/awareness even further.

The master got satisfied with the progress in alertness/awareness of the prince and told him, "Now you can go and tell your father — and this is the letter from me — that the kingdom is yours."

--- end overall story ---

Ravi: Now I have directly experienced that Sathya Sai would know my thoughts. But I have had that experience, so far at least, ONLY with Sathya Sai.

I wonder how many such spiritual masters like the one in this Osho story, are there today who can read thoughts of people. I wonder whether Osho himself could read thoughts of people.
---

I tried looking for the original Japanese story. The story seems to be one involving Matajuro (student) and Banzo (teacher). All the versions I looked at did not involve the master reading the thoughts of the student/prince. This is one version of it: http://www.bodhitales.org/banzos-sword.php. And this is a more elaborate version: https://samuraifitnessmaine.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/impatient-young-samurai-and-the-old-master/.

These versions stop at Matajuro becoming alert/aware of Banzo attempting to hit him with a wooden stick/sword. They do not involve Banzo hitting Matajuro while Matajuro was asleep and do not involve Banzo reading the mind of Matajuro. Zanshin is the word used for awareness/alertness.

Perhaps Osho embellished (made up) this part (master reading mind of student) of the story.
---

I felt it appropriate to share one paragraph from the Life History of Shirdi Sai Baba, http://www.saibaba.org/lhossb/lhossb5.html below, though I must say that I do not how accurate this account is :

Devotees out of love for Baba used to do pada puja ( offer prayers at his feet) daily. They also put sandalpaste on the hands and gave arathi and camphor. Though Baba had no desire for all this, he never objected to their actions. A Muslim devotee of Baba, Rohilla, out of religious fanaticism, wanted to kill Baba, because he was allowing ringing of bells, giving arathi, etc. in the mosque which went against Islamic doctrine. So, one night he waited for an opportune time to hit Baba with a big stick. When Baba came out of the mosque for a stroll, Rohilla tried to hit him. Immediately Baba turned around and with his eyes wide open focussed them on Rohilla. Two light rays came out of Baba’s eyes and fell on the hands of Rohilla. Immediately, the stick dropped to the ground from his hands. Baba lifted his own hands and showed Rohilla his palms. Rohilla saw Mecca Medina and the sacred Quran in the palms of Sai Baba. Saying "Ya Allah", he fell at the feet of Baba.
--- end extract from Life History of Shirdi Sai Baba ---

Ravi: Due to some direct personal experience I have had of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, physical form, in 2010, I do not have any doubt that Shirdi Sai Baba would have had power of reading Rohilla's thoughts and the power of sending light rays from his eyes (as a weapon of force) which fell on Rohilla's hands due to which the stick dropped from his hands.

[I thank oshostories.wordpress.com and saibaba.org, and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above short extracts from their websites on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]

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