Epic on a poor man's mourning ---- His Ultimate Emptiness
This is the story of a man who started and ended his life
throughout in his hometown only.
He was born in a very poor family in a small and remote village.
What's worse is that his legs are crippled after injured in a construction site accident. He can only drag and stagger slowly
to walk. So he's often bullied by other bad guys in his neighbourhood and school. Despite this, he always managed to get good
academic results at school.
But a misfortune happened when he's 13, when his father abandoned
him. He then go to nearby charities for help, which gives him minimal money for his school and living. For fear of further
money shortage, he decided to waive his lunch everyday to save money for emergencies. This lasted for 5 years.
During these days of 'noon-starvation', he's still always
bullied by other strong, bad guys. These days of malnutrition makes him grow weak, not to his normal size if not for the noon-starvation.
But the bad guys take advantage of this and bullied him further. He always waves his crutch for defence, which in turn leads
to the bad guys' teasing.
On one occasion, he had picked some wild fruits near his village
and decided to bring them to school for lunch, as an exception to his lunch-waiving days. He secretly went to a street corner
to eat them, for fear of being seen by others eating such inferior food. But unfortunately, the bad classmates caught him
and openly told every other classmates on the street about that. They even grabbed his fruits and threw them onto the ground.
He desperately picked the wild fruits up and still eat them despite the shame in public, and the bad guys teased him and went
away.
He then hold his crutch and staggered back to school, holding
his tears. On the way, some tender-looking classmates approached him and gave him some bread, saying that they felt pity for
the incident just happened. He suddenly felt very grateful and ate the bread at once, but just to find out the awful, disgusting
taste of the bread which had been malignantly contaminated by them with dirty stuffs. He vomited them out, and the other bad
classmates before appeared again and teased him with those tender-looking classmates, feeling glorious to have gained his
trust when he's desperate and immediately betrayed him once again.
He went to his form master to complain about this, who said
he had no comment on the other classmates, and told him to think why he will be bullied by others.
It's a difficult and harsh time for him to fight the bully.
He had to study hard in the hope for a better future, after which he's become very tired; his waived lunches make him smaller
and weaker than normal; still he managed to do weight-training exercises, but he's too tired after studying, and he has little
to eat for him to grow since he's got only minimal money. These of course made him unable to produce good physical gaining
results.
He then resort to Bruce Lee's Jeet Kuen Do, which tells him
that the highest form of martial arts is to turn yourself to emptiness ---- forget yourself and the old, rigid
& fixed postures of all forms of existing martial arts, and feel for the attack and defence for fighting
by your basic instinct.
After the 5 years of 'noon-starvation', when he's 18, he won
a Outstanding Academic Award at school, and the charities supporting him gave him a sum of money as a reward for his hardship.
But, on that day, just after that, on his way home, the usual bad, strong guys waited for him again.
He kept calm, forget everything, including the award medal
and the money in his hand, which he dropped down to the ground, and hold on to his only belonging at this point of moment
---- his crutch. Then the bullying began ---- the evil spirit's biting and the bad guys' teasing and threatening. He staggered
around and waves his crutch for the fight, and the following depicts his defence: emptiness ---- his Ultimate Emptiness:
He is alone in the midst of the battlefield,
holding his breath to bear the evil spirit's biting all around.
He resists to laugh to despise his enemies(the dumb dogs),
which would otherwise be like a clown for a cold-blooded audience.
His eyes see no hope for this endless fighting,
because God doesn't answer his prayer to beat the evil spirit's
biting.
He feels like Jesus betrayed by God to the crucifiers at the
cross,
and managed to stand still empty-brained without any signs
of breathing.
But the dumb dogs just unscrupulously continue their biting,
there's no room for any sentimental feeling.
At the most extreme point of his Godless hopeless crying,
he takes a breath furiously to create a virtual, imaginary
hope for further fighting.
His legs staggered again to run after the dumb dogs,
waving his crutch with might and main to revenge for their
biting.
He roars like thunder to scare the dumb dogs' inner feeling,
but they doesn't care and agitate him with cunning teasing
and biting.
He too doesn't care about his life for the fighting,
he feels he's become a God to punish these dogs-disguised
beings.
But he's so exhausted after years of hopeless living,
it's not promising for his one-to-millions fighting.
For justice, truth and God's beauty, though feeling Godless,
he doesn't care for anything,
and turns himself to emptiness in exchange for
energy to instinctively feel for the fighting.
The dumb dogs then routinely take advantage of his fury to
pretend retreating and then again biting and teasing,
and this process doesn't show any signs of stopping.
But he doesn't care for the dumb dogs' teasing,
in such a den-like planet what's the point of living?
But still there's no ways of escaping the evil spirit's biting,
God still turns a blind eye to his desperate mourning.
He waves his crutch madly without thinking,
on this Godless cold-blooded earth he's the only human-being.
No love, no laughter, no tears for crying,
smell of ammunition paralysed his heart which now stops beating.
Yet another horrible evil spirit's biting is head-on approaching,
he stands still, staggering, but his paralysed heart can't
feel the fear of fearing.
He's already used up all the power and tactics of Bruce Lee's
art of emptying,
and he FEELS that in himself there only remains his sense
of being existing.
Then with the last amount of his emptiness-energy to withstand
his enemies' threatening ultimate biting,
out of his utmost paralysed frightening, he breathes his last
breath, waves the last stroke of his crutch, and turns his remaining sense of being existing to emptiness ---- his ULTIMATE
EMPTINESS,..... and fell down to the ground without his eyes closing, a teardrop
flows down his face which is still smiling.
After all the underlying hope is only
virtually created for this one-to-millions fighting,
death to end a hopeless life to him now
doesn't mean anything.
********************************
3 days later, a flock of seagulls find
his award medal and his sum of money, and pick them up and drop them to a nearby river, where they dispersed away and flow
to nowhere.....................
Epilogue
'If people around you bully and persecute
you because of the way I created in you, rejoice! Because your rewards in heaven above is great.' (Matthew 5:10-11)
During his life struggle on earth he managed
to overcome his crippled legs and win an Outstanding Academic Award from school. But he still cannot win the evil spirit's
biting of his enemies. Then as the last resort, when he turns himself to his Ultimate Emptiness and leave the world behind,
he wins everything, everything on earth, including the evil spirit. You cannot win something which is empty.
He doesn't care where he's getting afterwards.
He already used the strongest form of his true SELF, for the sake of God. Whether his last stroke can beat his enemies or
not, he leaves without regret. When the last element of his existing is turned to emptiness, a teardrop flows down his face----
he cries to the earth but smiles to the heaven(he hopes).
'If a man gives up his life for the sake
of me, he will gain life.' (The Bible ?:?)
May these words and the above-mentioned
verse from Matthew Gospel do come true after his Godless life on earth.
When he gave up his whole --- his award
medal, the sum of money, and, ultimately, his sense of being existing, for the sake of God(he hopes), he's got the strongest
power, pleasure and consolation, above all on earth.
**********************************
Dear friends, shed no tears for his leaving.
Just keep on with your daily talking, laughing, eating and sleeping. But, if you do have some pity on him, please don't listen
to those shitty things being rumoured about him by his enemies.
Just remember one thing------
he had had, for once in his lifetime and
just before he left, won his award medal and his reward money, now floating
on the river, flowing to nowhere.............................
Abridged and adapted from his true life
encounter by himself, Frederick Fung Yiu Cheong (1969 - )
