Upon request, in here, Jave will share a set of pictures that were being shared by Taiwan High Priest Master Li Xuan Zheng (李玄正道長) on the Ritual of Honouring the Northern Dipper Lords (禮斗祈福) on the 6th Day of Lunar 6 Month (農曆六月初六日) – Tian Kuang Day (天貺日) aka Tian Men Kai (俗稱天門開).
Master Li Xuan Zheng (李玄正道長), one of the famous Taoist Priests in Taiwan and he was also one of the most respectable Priest that Jave respected.
In Taiwan, he can said to be the 1st Taoist Priest that will explain every details of a particular Taoist Ritual to the devotees & public before he conduct the Ritual. To him, this is important as he doesn’t want the devotees or public to just blindly follow the Ritual and at the end of the day, the devotees or public don’t know what are the objectives of the participating in the Ritual or Honouring.
Besides that, Master Li will also use various high tech equipments to enhance in the understanding of the Rituals that he’s conducting; such equipments are Projectors, Laptops, Sound-amplifier, etc. Not only using the high tech equipments, Master Li will also print a number of Taoist Scriptures and distribute out to those who had came to participate in the Ritual, these Scriptures allowed the devotees or public to follow whatever Master Li & other Priests had chanted and also, allowing them to understand more in depth into the hidden meaning of each sentence in the Scriptures. Another good credit is that, Master Li had arranged People to sit in the crowd to guide the devotees & public along during the whole Ritual on the Chanting.
As for the Items/Spiritual Objects that Master Li had used for the various Rituals that he had conducted were all prepared accordingly to our most Traditional & Official Taoist ways or, shall said, Taoist Skills that being imparted down generation by generation, this is one thing that in Singapore, we will never ever had a chance to see or when someone is there doing, those “busybodies” will comment that ALL these ARE NEWLY CREATED SKILLS.
Last of All, in order for Taoism in Singapore to succeed and improve, we have to make a lot of changes & guidance to the Taoists & also, the Public. Certain unnecessary practices shall be eliminated and Proper Imparting of Taoist Skills & Teaching must be made; such as what is the Taoist Five Offerings, What type of Taoist Robes must be worn in what Rituals/Ceremonies, etc. If not, within another 5-10 years, Taoism in Singapore will be gone and left over will only be a “Bag of Trash”.
Do enjoy the pictures and feel free to provide Jave with your enquiries and comment.
PS:
Special Thanks to Master Li for sharing with us his pictures and guidance.
His Taiwan Website is at http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/liuk-tw/
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