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To be a real Taoist (道教門下徒) or a self-cultivated person (修真之人), oneself must somehow be initiated or under-go Spiritual Registration or Reporting.
Usually before a person who agreed to be a Taoist or self-cultivated person, the person who lead him in, can be the Master, parent, teacher or some other Spiritual Leaders, will need to ask for an Acceptance Ceremony/Ritual for the person who wanted to become a real Taoist or self-cultivated person.
Once the Ceremony or Ritual is being arranged, the person will need to provide his/her personal particulars (生辰八字) to the Person who conducts the Ceremony or Ritual, in-order for the preparation of the Spiritual Document or so-called Petition (文疏).
A lot of people get frighten or scare-off by the requesting of providing the particular, this is quite common, but once a person who are willingly to accept the initiation and yet worried about the providing of the particulars, this may somehow caught in contradiction.
Once the Petition is prepared, the Person who lead the Ceremony or Ritual will choose an auspicious date, usually on the 15th Day of Lunar 1st, 7th or 10th Lunar Month (which also known as San Yuan Ri 三元日). By going thru the Ceremony or Ritual, Reporting to the Heaven (上蒼), San Qing aka The Three Pure Ones (三清道祖) and Heavenly Master Zhang Dao Ling (張天師), the person will be officially accepted as a Taoist or so-called Ju Shi (正式成為道教居士).
If the Ju Shi wanted to step forward to become a Spiritual Leader or Master or Priest, then he/she will needed to go thru another Registration Ceremony or Ritual to request for a Heavenly Officer Post or Spiritual Registration as an Spiritual Officer.
Usually such Ceremony or Ritual will be conducted by the Master of the person or going to the main Holy Place of Taoism in China or Taiwan to get register. Such Registration is called Shou Lu 授籙 or Zou Zhi 奏職 (Shou Lu, meaning receiving the authorities from the Heaven or Heavenly Master and Zou Zhi, meaning receiving the title or Spiritual Will for conducting of Rituals/Ceremonies, etc).
Upon the registration, a person will be officially known as a Spiritual Officer who can somehow conduct Rituals or Spiritual Ceremonies or even subduing of any entities, but again, certain set of rules and regulations must be followed and obeyed.
Today, in the Taoist Society (may it be Folks or Main Stream 民間和正統道教), a lot of Spiritual Leaders/Masters/Priests didn’t really under go such Registrations or Reporting, which actually is a big taboo or forbidden case. Once a person who is not officially accepted by the Heaven, Three Realms, San Qing, Heavenly Master Zhang and the Sect Ancestors, no matter how reputable the person is, he/she will still not be enhanced with 90-100% Spiritual Will or Energies, etc. And so, the people who engaged them for Rituals/Ceremonies might not get whatever they requested for or some of them might get into more troublesome issues after that.
So who shall go thru such a Registration or Reporting?
The recommended group will be, a Must for Taoist Priests, followed by Spiritual Masters, Leaders, Mediums, Assistants of Mediums, Altar Protectors, Spiritual Armies Commanders, Talisman-study disciples, etc.
For Priests, Spiritual Masters and Leaders, without the Registration, they cant communicate with the Heaven or the Spiritual World, only by then, the "Doors" are opened for them and special arrangements for Protectors of Spiritual Skills will be done for them. Special enhancement will also be done on them in-order to use the different Spiritual Objects/Weapons during different occasions, such objects are as Spiritual Whip aka Fa Suo (法索), Da Gui Bang (打鬼棒) & Tian Peng Chi (天蓬尺) aka the Rods for subduing Ghosts and Demons, Seals (道印) and Wu Lei Ling (五雷令) aka the Five Thunder Commanding Block, etc.
A lot of people thought that, by just joining any Temples (廟宇) or Sintuas (各別神壇) and by going thru the help of mediums, a person can used the Spiritual Objects freely, without any obeying of rules and regulations, actually all these are not correct. Only people who are Officially and Spiritually recognized Taoists can used the objects and released the highest percentage of Spiritual Energies without them after registrations, etc.
Same applies to mediums and mediums-assistants. Once they are register, their energies or power will be enhanced and of cause, needed to obey the so-called rules.
Been doing researches and observations on those who practiced Talisman Skills (符籙門下弟子), most of them are not Officially Accepted, even though they claimed that they are being Officially Accepted by the Masters, etc.
Once a Talisman-person is being Officially Accepted by the Real Taoism, the way of their issuing of Talismans and the way they performed the Drawing will be different (now in the market, a lot of mix-and-match Talisman appeared, which will somehow, affect the Correct and Upright Culture or Teaching of Taoism).
Not long ago, saw a posting in of the Multiply Website, claiming that Talisman Skills originated by our San Qing Teaching (三清之法) at 5000 years ago, to be honest, the person is not that well-versed in our Taoism Teaching, cos, our Real Taoist Talisman Skills only being promoted and widely used after our Heavenly Master Zhang (張天師) created the First Talisman to cure the folks in Late Han Dynasty (abt 2000 years ago) – and this is why, our Zheng Yi Sect is being addressed as Fu Lu Sect (正一符籙派), a Sect uses Talismans for Rituals/Ceremonies and assistances to beings.
By going thru that, for those who are well-versed or trained will know that, such a person who do the postings are not well-versed or trained in the knowledge of Real or so-called Main Stream Taoism (this happened in all around Asia too).
Back to the topic on registration.
To conclude, in-order for a person (who are interested in becoming a real Taoist or future Spiritual-person-to-be) to reach the higher standard of using their Spiritual Energies/Power or Promoting of the Culture of Taoism or assisting people-in-need, the person must find the real Sect or real Master to do the registration and the learning of Skills, if not, the person not only does harm to him/herself, but also to those who approached him/her for assistances.
only one star for this well written entry? it deserve more then that. looking forward to some serious chinese lessons :)
ReplyDeleteHahahaha.. usually for own write-up, I wil only put a Star, if not, people will say that I bias on my own and degrade on others.. wahahahaha
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, so for people interested in Taoism and cultivating the Tao should they register as well? Any recommendations on where to do so?
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha.. of cos they needed or a Must to do the registration.
ReplyDeleteFor the moment, I have yet to come across a totally recommandable group for the others to join, mostly are commercial group which performed Rituals and Ceremonies.
For a Group to do all the preachings, skills training and culture study, I dont think there's any in Spore, not even the major organisations.
Oh that's too bad. I think a non-commercial, group commited to Taoism, helping others and willing to answer questions on the relation of Taoism to the world (and not just the local Chinese community) will do well in Singapore.
ReplyDeleteHahahaha.. too bad is that the situation here doesnt allowed.
ReplyDeleteEven if the situation allowed, things will still wont work out, cos how many groups can really promote the whole culture of Taoism?
In here, we have alot of different groups, but each of them only promote their own culture, own teachings and own thoughts which sometime, degrade the others by giving wrong impressions to the students or disciples.
Especially those groups which are closely controlled by political issues. So sometime, to find a good master who is knowledgable in all aspects is not easy... good one are all gone with enlightenment.
Maybe they don't have to promote Taoism as a whole. If you go to some Buddhist associations these days you will find they cater to young educated Singaporeans. Talks are conducted in English, and they are willing to explain their religion and philosophies and answer questions. And of course Christian Churches have been doing this for a very long time. Yiguandao also conduct talks in English, explaining their version of Daoism to others etc.
ReplyDeleteHahahaha.... this is one thing that alot of Taoist Groups in Singapore cant do, cos they do not have enough well-versed people who are able to communicate in English to give provide the Teachings and, due to the lack of supports from the Society, till today, local Taoism is still running around in Square One - difficult to move a step forward.
ReplyDeleteAnother reason is that, alot of them do not have a specified target or objective. They do not know what to promote and what are the people in the society looking for. Alot of the time when you go to attend talks or seminars on Taoism or Chinese Culture, mostly they only touch on very academic topics, usually this is a topic that put alot of people to "sleep"... and this is why, sometime, different skills must be applied to promote Taoism. But too bad, they dont take comments and suggestions... haizzz
hehe, well, you just have to take the lead.. ;-)
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha.. I have been doin that... wahahahaha.. if not, I wont be startin my Taoist Skills Sharing Session next year :P
ReplyDeleteAnyway, promoting of Taoism Culture is not what a person can do, but all of the other Taoists must come in, willing to learn and promote the Correct Culture... if not.. very difficult to achieve what we want.
This is one thing that we always cannot compare to Buddhism or Christianity. Their bonding is one thing that can keep the culture going.