A BEST SELLING STORY
Longy's story is truly inspiring, so I will share a very short version here.
A best selling book has been been written about his life - the only book to have a forward by two of the world's most powerful businessmen- Rupert Murdoch and Frank Lowie.
Longy was born in The Imperial City of Hue, the old Royal Capital, home of the original Vietnamese Royal Family and the most
venerated city in Vietnam, full of beautiful gardens,
moats and beautifully crafted stone buildings, but was soon under constant siege, chaos and tension.The sounds he heard were no longer wind chimes, but the scream of bullets and rockets.
Instead of beautiful incenses and scents the smell he remembers is that of gunfire... bombs rocked his cradle. The 'birds' starting to wheel through the sky were helicopters, seeking out targets to swoop on and destroy.
Longy’s father’ was a General in the South Vietnamese Army. Corruption was wide spread and his father's integrity and standards were amongst the highest, soldiers under his command were the best drilled, the best trained the most fearless fighters.
Yet he had trained to be a priest.
His command was one of the closest to the North Vietnamese army and was continually subjected to attacks..
It was not just the soldiers who had to think if this was to be their last day alive.
Longy’s mother had a life long interest in healing, instead of taking drugs or tranquilizers she turned to “Auntie Eight”, an 80 year old
lady, an exceptionally gifted masseur, the only person allowed to walk the street after curfew such was her reputation as a healer..
Longy was a keen observer of her work and the results She was also able to alleviate Longy’s grandparents rheumatism and arthritis,
one day she said to Longy “Soon the main road will be closed you have to learn to take over from me”
At six years of age, Longy began learning massage, how walk on people’s bodies, even using his toes as precisely as his fingers.
His mother's full time job was keeping him out of trouble. He was a 'little rascal', always finding new ways of getting into mischief.
Every day as headed off to school her mother last words were reminders not to get into a fight.
THE HEALING HANDS BECOME DEADLY WEAPONS .
IF YOU LEARN HOW TO BREAK IT, YOU HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO FIX IT.
His father’s Body guard, a South Korean soldier and Master of Martial Arts began to teach him Twaekondo, from the centuries old school of the fierce Chinese warriors who were also taught heal the injury by themselves.
Each morning, before sun rise, Longy spent an hour exercising to build his strength, the power of his legs, his agility and speed.
Then punching, with bare knuckles, a 6” thick log to bring the calluses out on his knuckles.
He was confronted with the transitory nature of life, one day you could be an extremely powerful soldier, the next an amputee beggar.
Longy became committed to learning as much about healing as he could. His Australian counter parts were playing soldiers at school, he was in hospital corridors witnessing the destruction of war. Often an army truck drove past carrying bodies to the morgue, and a horrible the smell followed. He started to create his own view of reality; including 'cleaning his mind.'
“If you worry, you get nothing. You have to carry on as if you didn’t see.
You let your mind worry about it for an hour until it doesn’t have an impact.
The Person is dead, the person is smelly. Don’t be like that. Get on with it.
A dead person is silent, while sick and wounded people groan and
make soul wrenching sounds,
you want to be able to help the living.”
AN ALTAR BOY WITH A KILLER PUNCH
VIETNAM'S YOUNGEST TWAEKONDO BLACK BELT.
Longy demonstrated exceptionable will power and skill to become the youngest ever South Vietnamese to win a black belt, at 11.
He applied the same dedication to learning the healing arts and survival skills, and became the 'Boss' of the school yard seeing life almost as a boxing match:
“You go in as a person that’s going to win, not to be beaten.”
The 'Blind Master', an old soldier, ex army nurse,who had been blinded when a rocket hit his trench became another teacher. Longy' nicknamed him “Seven and a half” as he had also lost two and a half fingers, Longy would often leave “Auntie Eight” to study with him. It is said that if you lose one sense, you develop ten others. Not surprisingly, this Master had more feeling than most people in his
71/2 fingers. He would blindfold Longy and make him find acupressure points on the body purely by feel.
Longy had also developed his own techniques for fishing with hand grenades he 'found', before long there were no fish in the lake.
WHAT’S SCARIER THAN ROCKETS AND GUNFIRE?
Scared of nothing, Longy's friends were the sons of soldiers, army cadets and they were cheeky, especially Longy.
Nothing would scare them, they ventured fearlessly deep into the jungle. Guns, rockets, things blowing up, they wouldn’t bat an eyelid.
Longy laughed as he recalled their first Christmas day.
Buses took them to the American army base for a Christmas party, they walked happily into a mobile army house, then froze in fear.
A huge man with a giant white beard and a bright red suit was smiling and beckoning to them. They’d never seen anything like Santa Claus. They shat themselves!
Longy had to convince them this was a ceremony like the Chinese Dragon dancing, only a white man's thing. They hesitantly shook Santas hand, grabbed their presents and bolted. Half an hour later, on the bus, they were laughing, swapping presents and stories of their experience.
Sixty years later Longy still laughs when he sees a Santa Claus.
A fast MV car with guns blazing couldn’t scare his little friends, but Santa did.
Something “BIG” was about to happen.
I thought it was incredible that at the same time I was learning the art of Meditation and quietly exploring the 'inner world', Longy was immersed in the harsh realities of life in the 'outer world' of war.
Longy’s father could 'smell trouble', the Americans were pulling out of the Pleiku area So he gathered his family to take them to Saigon and then returned to Pleiku, it was his job to stay put there.
“A soldier never ran away ...they only ran after the enemy.”
The streets of Saigon seethed with criminals, ex soldiers, street people, and gangs. Amongst the chaos, Longy a 13 year old with an acute sense of survival opened his first clinic with another friend, under a simple army tent.
He learnt to 'have many faces' and 'two eyes in the back' of his head. His ability to fit in and make the most of whatever was happening, kept Longy in touch with what was happening on the streets, who had what, how people were getting out from the country.
With his power to fight like a tiger no-one could tame him and he was soon "THE KING OF THE SAIGON STREETS" running the biggest street gang.The angelic face of the Altar boy could instantly turn into a terrifying mask ready to tear you apart from limb to limb.
Besides running the clinic, Longy was running another small business, selling petrol, a government banned substance on the black-market Petrol was hard to hide and Longy was caught, charged with 'corruption' and sent to a hard labor prison for 2 weeks.
But within those 2 weeks Longy’s life education intensified.
Every kind of prisoner from high ranking officers jailed for corruption, to con people and murderers were crowded together in the small space. Longy soon learnt you have to accept where you are, the less upset you are the have more chance of survival .
In the same section as some of the cities worst criminals, some waiting to be executed, watching their behavior started him thinking, some of them didn’t want to sleep, they spent all night thinking and starting to respect everything around them, when you know you’re going to die and you’re still healthy you realize you’re going to miss it .
Longy also realized sickness can make your own bed a prison. Abusing your self for years can create a sickness which can be like a prison where you have to think about your life, and what you’ve done with it
THE END OF THE WAR WAS THE START OF MORE HARDSHIP AND SUFFERING.
As the communists took power harsh economic sanctions were imposed by the West. Russia and China were facing their own internal problems unable to help. Vietnam was left alone with increasing arguments between the North and the South. Thousands were being sent to camps for re-education. Another war was breaking out between Vietnam and Cambodia. Young men were being randomly 'collected' for the army.
The only chance for freedom for many was to leave the country. And the only way to leave the country was by the ocean.
A lot of people died on the ocean. Thai pirates were ruthless. Girls were kidnapped and raped. Men had their heads chopped in half and thrown into the ocean.
Imagine being hidden, hunched, not being able to move under firewood on a timber boat for over 68 hours, pissing and shitting where you squatted, with no food, to sneak by the inspectors that patrolled the rivers.
And to go through all that to head into the ocean to meet a fishing boat, only to encounter a terrifying thunder storm that drove you back. Cramped, barely able to walk upright after the hours of squatting, bitterly disappointed, starving, walking by night, keeping to the bush to make your way back to your village, if you stayed in the area you were often informed on and sent for 're education.'
Longy tried to leave Vietnam by boat at least sixteen times.
To detail all the attempts he made before he was successful would take many books.
AN ANGEL APPEARS ON THE HORIZON.
Packed into a boat the size of a bus with 100 others. For 30 days living on two tables spoons of fresh water and a banana each a day. Every one had malnutrition.
There was a crack in the timber, running the length of the boat, water was seeping into the boat.
A dot appeared on the horizon. A fear ran through everyone, was it Thai Pirates? Realizing it was too big a ship to be pirates, they tried to position their boat to cross their path.They edged closer until a massive Japanese tanker was right in front of them.
It was hard to manouver near the big boat, but the captain was patient and edged up beside them .
One of Longy’s co passengers spoke English and was able to explain what was happening. The crew decided to pick them up ands a rope snaked over the side. The aching limbs, the painful joints, the tiredness, the effects of starvation dissolved and Longy felt like a totally new person.
“ I was reborn at that moment.
If I could bottle this feeling
I could become the richest man
in the World.”