Survival Levitation

Levitation is not a by-product of meditation and is not even a “magical” ability. No secret spells or magical incantations will make this thing called levitation a reality for you. It can be done and has been done by a great many people, and some will even tell you that you must be spiritually pure to achieve it. However, let me show you how that may not be true; for example, some decidedly unspiritual folks in history have had the ability to levitate.
His name was whispered in the leaves and spoken by the wind as he ran with his hand held close to the wound in his side. He did not think of the pain of the knife or the death that might follow, for there had always been pain, and death was something he had learned to accept as part of the illusion of life in the scheme of totality. His mission was complete here. The warlord lay dead in a pool of his quickly cooling blood. All he could do now was evade his pursuers or die rather than allow capture. This was the way of his clan and the way of his grandfathers before him. This is what a Ninja knows as honor—succeed or die. So he ran until he reached the edge of a great cliff. His head turned quickly to the side so as to better hear his enemies who were giving chase and to gauge the time he had to prepare. He knew at once his time was very short indeed, with no time to hide and not enough time to navigate the cliff face safely in the dark. For many men, this would be the end of the hunt and a time to die. For you see, men foster illusions of what they can and cannot do, just like the fabled grass-eating tigers of Japan that believed themselves to be sheep.The bitter wind blew against his face, but he did not notice it. He had already begun to concentrate his breathing in order to better feel the energy inside. Even as he did this, he started to untie the belt around his middle and take a firm grip on each lower corner of his night coat. He knew from discipline that he could do nothing until the energy was heightened to the point of lift, so he pushed the energy with the power of his intention and the urgency of his need. He felt the lightness and realized the soles of his shoes had begun to slip on the ground. It was time to act. He shuffled two small steps to the edge of the cliff and walked off into darkness.To say he fell would be untrue. His body did not fall but merely coasted in the darkness, with his awarenessonly on the task of maintaining control of his energy. The peril of his choice had the effect of making his concentration complete. His night coat filled with air from the speed of his descent, and any fool who watched would assume the coat itself acted as a brake to slow the Ninja’s fall, but this was not true. The coat only acted to stabilize his fall and to free his mind to concentrate fully on the energy. As he felt his speed slowing and the tension in the coat lessening, he pushed the energy slightly forward to change his point of landing to clear the rocks at the base of the cliff. Time has no meaning to the mind solely intertwined with the task at hand, and a thousand eternities passed before he touched the ground. When this happened, he rolled to break his fall, but it was hardly necessary because he had no weight to his body and therefore left no impressions on the meadow beneath him.
He looked back up the cliff at his enemies who were just now coming to the cliff’s edge. Two hundred and fifty feet above his head, the torches appeared like small candle flames, and there would be no illumination this far below. Still he knew he must clear out of this area for the guards might shoot arrows down the cliff face in desperation. They had already gotten lucky once at his expense, so there was no need to allow them a second chance. As he began to run once again a soft laugh escaped his lips . . .