The room was sealed according to the Masters instructions – the doors and windows shut and locked, the curtains drawn. Within seconds, the air was oppressively still. The dust hung suspended where I had placed a candle, swirling up briefly where it touched the rising heat that wavered above the motionless flame.
Master Lew sat cross-legged in the lotus position. The candle flame was opposite him, a distance of five feet away. I had taken up a position at his right side, forcing my occidental legs into a half-lotus while trying to disguise the look of discomfort that flickered in my face. Turning his head, the old man fixed me with his eyes.
“Watch closely”, he ordered, and making his right hand into a fist, he held it close to his ribs, high up on his right side. He kept his head turned away from the candle, his eyes concentrating on his right fist. Slowly, almost imperceptively, the fist moved forward, no more than an inch over a period of ten seconds.
As Master Lew’s fist moved, the candle flame danced and sputtered violently. As the movement ended, the flame became motionless again, only the dust swirling around it.
“Did you see it?” he asked, looking up from his fist.
“Yes” I nodded with a half-believing expression on my face.
Unperturbed, he looked down at his fist, and the candle flame sputtered again… touched by some unseen force flowing from his fingers.
“When you can do this from this distance” Master Lew instructed, “your Kung-fu will be good. You will practice.”