Yip Chor heard birds chirping and the sound of a nearby stream. As he lay on the grass, his mind emerged from a deep state of confusion. Where was he? Who was he? How did he get here?
He began exploring his surroundings through touch, stretching his limbs and feeling the shifting grass beneath him. It was wet with dew and the ground was cold. He felt an unfamiliar sense of deja vu. Had he been on wet dewy grass, blindly feeling around before?
After some time, he opened his eyes, surveying the unfamiliar glade. There were trees surrounding him, and a stream that flowed by a large rock that sat in the centre of the glade. A tiny bird chirped at him, happily pecking at the ground near his head. It seemed so familiar.
Was this paradise? Had he finally died? He could not find any memories of his past life so he was not sure.
As he explored the glade, his eyes chanced on the top of the large rock in the centre of the glade, where he noticed a small boy sitting. The boy was remarkably cute, with a button nose and a shock of silver hair. The young boy sat in a meditative pose, his eyes closed in peaceful contemplation.
"Greetings, little brother! I seem to be a bit lost. Do you know where we are?"
The little boy remained silent for a while, and Yip Chor began to shift uneasily. Was the little brother deaf? Maybe he should speak again.
Before he could utter a word, the little boy spoke, eyes still shut. "You are not lost little one."
Yip Chor recoiled in shock. The voice that emanated from the little boy was that of a very old man—a contradiction that unsettled him.
"Sir, who are you?"
The little boy continued his meditation, seemingly forgetting Yip Chor's existence. This time, Yip Chor did not mind. He felt that the answer the little boy would give him would be more terrifying than anything he could conceive.
Suddenly, the little boy opened his eyes and turned to look down at him. Space seemed to stretch between them as Yip Chor's mind went blank. Within those eyes lay a universe of stars, and Yip Chor instantly began falling into that cosmic abyss.
"I am the beginning, and I am the end. I existed before all things. All things were created by me, and within me, all things exist!"
Then, the little boy closed his eyes and the feeling of being drawn into the infinite abyss dissipated as quickly as it had come. This feeling! He had felt it before! The image of a holy and sacred tree entered his mind before it left in a swirl of reverential fervour.
Unable to contain himself, Yip Chor dropped to his knees, kowtowing, tears streaming down his face. "My god, my god, my god!" In his heart, he felt an overwhelming sense of awe. How could this not be his god?
The little boy continued his meditation. Finally, Yip Chor stopped his prostration his body wracked with sobs, as he clasped his hands and stared at the dirt.
"Be careful who you bow to little one. I am not your god!" Yip Chor barely registered the soft rebuke, his mind so filled with rapture. Finally, he sat up from his prostration and looked down at the dirt, not daring to look at this powerful being.
"Hmmm! Good seed! Come up little one." The little god beckoned. Yip Chor, not daring to disobey, stood up, gazing at the dirt as he climbed up the side of the boulder. As he climbed, it felt as though he was stretching against the inside of a soft bubble, that snapped back into shape as Yip Chor reached the top.
Reverentially, his body bowed parallel to the flat top of the rock not daring to look up as he waited for further command. As a spiritual chill took his body, his curious eyes followed a series of grooves engraved on the top of this boulder. They swirled and connected, some thick, some thin, all profound.
"Little one, come and see."
Immediately, Yip Chor felt his body being dragged by an unseen force seemingly teleporting beside the tiny frame of the little god. He sat, mirroring the deities' meditative pose, staring out at a sight that shook his mind. They sat on the top of a dais in the night sky, a verdant green world stretching out beneath them covered by an atmospheric bubble. In the black sky, two megalithic circular stone rings revolved around them and this world like the wheels of a gyroscope. As they sat in the stillness of space, Yip Chor felt a feeling of peace and tranquillity, unlike anything he had felt before.
This felt like home.
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They sat in their meditative pose in tranquil silence for what seemed like an eternity.
Using his peripheral vision, Yip Chor fearfully attempted to take another look at the little god. He saw nothing.
His mind began to race with questions and possibilities. What was this sacred place? What secrets lay hidden within the patterns and symbols on the rock platform? And most importantly, what was his role in all of this?
"The karmic scales shall be balanced, your offering of Dao delivered is worth a price. What do you seek in return?" The young god's old voice blared across the space around him, coming from all around him.
Yip Chor did not know how to respond. Had he given this little God a gift? Surely not! What could he have offered!!! Nothing came to mind. Was the little god waiting for him to ask for something? Ah! If so, what could he ask for!? His panicked mind sought something big and bold. After all, this was a divine being offering him a boon, who knew if this would happen again!
His mind raced with possibilities. He could ask for boundless wealth or unparalleled strength. He could seek eternal youth or supreme knowledge. Or perhaps he could request the power to bend reality to his will. The options seemed limitless, and Yip Chor's excitement grew. Perhaps, he could ask to be as powerful as a god! Ah, there were so many choices!
Finally, his mind settled on a single request. "This little one has a small wish... my request is to have unlimited wishes!"
Silence seemed to stretch out and Yip Chor felt that he had crossed a line.
A disappointed voice finally replied. "Your request is too small to balance to karmic scales. Ask again". What! How could unlimited wishes be too small? It did not make any sense! Ah, what could he ask for!? As the greed and desperation of his impoverished mind generated request after request, a sudden thought began to take shape.
What value would treasure, invincibility, power or women bring to him? In the grand scheme, he knew they would not satisfy him. No, these requests came from a childish place, and in the presence of this little god, they were indeed tiny, insignificant. His mind began to quiet, and the excitement of this opportunity began to flatline as he began to exist in the present.
Yip Chor's eyes began to follow the movement of the giant rings around him, observing their slow, laborious motions that seemed to communicate the passage of time. Questions about this world bubbled up within his mind, seeking answers. All his life, he had a burning curiosity for the unknown. He had been limited in life, by his sickly physique and so he had found questions in the books he had read, the stories he had been told, or the sights he had seen. Answers, well, they came less frequently, and yet he had accepted that this must be the case about everything. Not anymore.
A request bubbled up from the depths of Yip Chor's being into his mind. "The deepest mysteries... I want them all bared before my eyes by my own strength!"
"The scales of Karma are balanced. I have granted your request."
A powerful force once again took hold of Yip Chor, dragging him to a great height.
---
Looking down from space, he observed two spherical rings revolving around each other. Contained within these spheres was a small biosphere, with a pillar that rose above the atmosphere of this small plane. Yip Chor realised that the top of this pillar was where he had just been meditating.
"Open your ears little one. Listen to my words." The little god's old voice boomed with purpose as if he were an oracle of the divine mysteries.
"The things I am about to tell you are a secret to all except those that sit at the peak of existence."
"The Wheels you see represent Life and Fate. The Wheel of Life turns, bringing seasons of activity..." The sound of a bell rang out around them as visions burst before Yip Chor's eyes... his life, from childhood to adulthood. His happy moments, his sad moments. It all blended into a timeless image, represented by the turning of the great wheel of life. Other moments also burst before his eyes, past lives, loves lost, victories won. All these lives were those of a mortal existence echoing across time.
"...and It wanes, bringing seasons of slumber. This is Samsara!" Another bell tolled in the distance and more visions came. Some familiar some strange... His life ended on a granite gravestone, covered in blood. His life ended on a pyre, on the end of a spear, and in his bed by assassination - all these events were accompanied by the wheel of life slowing to a stop.
"Look now. The Wheel of Fate turns, bringing a myriad of expressions!" Again the visions came, but they were more abstract. They showed decisions made at crossroads in life, his decision to not participate in games with the other children in his village during youth, his decision to not accept an investment of money from his mother so he could attempt the exams at Qilin gate, his decision to make his way towards that lonely graveyard where he knew he would die. Again, visions from past lives entered his eyes, decisions consistently made out of fear, cowardice, or a lack of desire to live. He observed himself at each crossroads in shame. He had always taken the path of least resistance, and it always slowed his Wheel of Fate... and reduced his number of options in life to zero.
"Observe little one, your spheres of enlightenment..." Another bell tolled in response to the little god's command, and Yip Chor noticed those tiny specks of light that floated at the edges of his wheel of fate, seemingly attracted by its gravity. There were only two flickering lights left. The third had gone out. Yip Chor felt a profound loss at its death, he felt that now his experience had been limited.
"Surely, they will each die, and live, along with the turning of your fate. Cherish these spheres, they represent the gates to your divine experience, through which your soul finds sustenance. Three spheres there be... body, spirit and universe three." Another bell tolled in the distance, as Yip Chor felt that same attraction to those motes of light that he had felt before. His spirit, a divine inner self that represented the connection between his body and soul. His universe sphere represented his connection to his comprehension of the Dao. Both flickered weakly, the stillness of his fate wheel and the absence of his body sphere having a great impact on their brightness and manifestation.
"Look now, between your cosmic manifestations, your soul realm." Yip Chor shot down like a comet entering a planet's atmosphere, flying towards the ground of the biosphere at the centre of his wheels. This world was the size of a small glade, and at the centre of the glade was a boulder... the same boulder he had climbed up when he had first been welcomed by the little god.
"This is thy universe, give it mass, and it shall lift you to the highest heavens. Come, and I will show you your most valued treasure."
They floated up through the atmosphere of Yip Chor's biosphere again along the boulder at the centre of the small glade, which now seemed to morph and stretch upwards into a pillar that peaked above the heavens. Here, back where they had started, they floated down to sit side by side on the runic surface looking out at the great expanse.
"Little one, on this rock, you will carve your Dao. This is your soul's gene. Build it firm, and you will assail the very heavens and the depths of hell! Beyond all existence, you will find answers to the deepest mysteries... by thy own strength and in this manifestation, let it be!" A series of bells tolled loudly and endlessly from all around, as profound changes began taking place in Yip Chor's soul.
His universe and spirit spheres, once floating around aimlessly, smashed into his fate wheel, integrating with it as they began to increase in brightness. His fate wheel, which had been until this time, completely still, began to speed up, along with his wheel of life. The light in his biosphere below, began to glow brighter, as the limits of this domain began stretching outwards.
As these changes were taking place, the patterns on Yip Chor's soul gene began to glow, rippling along paths previously carved. As they did, this was mirrored in his fate and life wheels, patterns glowing to life along their edges. The whole space was coming alive!!!
On the Tree of Life, a delicate bud at the farthest tip of a branch began to emit a soft, ethereal glow. An angelic hum filled the air as if signifying the imminent arrival of something uniquely supreme.