In the following is the Picture of a spot in He Ming Mountian in Si Chuan Province (四川省鶴鳴山), where our Heavenly Master Zhang Dao Ling got his Enlightenment.
According to record, Heavenly Master Zhang Dao Ling jumped down from the Cliff (where you can see in the picture) and after his jumping, you got his Enlightenment.
Together with Heavenly Master Zhang Dao Ling, his other 2 Disciples also jumped down the Cliff on that day.
In the following are very Rare Paintings on the Story of Xuan Tian Shang Di.
The story started from how Xuan Tian Shang Di got born, going thru his Cultivation, issues that he faced, getting his Enlightenment and last, Xuan Wu Holy Premises located at Mt Wu Dang.
A very nice and rare painting, worth sharing and distribute around for Xuan Tian Shang Di's followers.
In Chinese Custom, on the 15th Day of Lunar 6 Month is known as Half Year Celebration, in Chinese known as Ban Nian Jie, in Hokkien, we called Phua Nee Zhuay (半年節).
On this Day, the Taoist or Chinese will prepare Rice-dumpling, in Chinese known as TangYuan (湯圓), in Hokkien Ee, to celebrate the Joyous Occasion.
In the Ancient Era, on this Day, All the Working Adults such as Officers, Farmers, Guards, etc, were entitled to One Day off to return back home to enjoy a Feast with the other Family Members and also, to pay respect to Deities and Ancestors, thanking them for providing the necessary Blessing for the past Six months.
On this Day, usually the Ladies will wake up early in the morning to prepare the Glutinous Rice Flour for the making of the Tang Yuan. Once the Tang Yuan is ready and being cooked, the Leader of the Family will first offered 1 Bowl to the Heaven, 1 Bowl to the Earth (placing on the ground outside the House), 1 Bowl to the Water (usually near Water-stream or Well), 1 Bowl to the Top Beam of the House and then few Bowls on the Main Altar for the Deities and Ancestors.
Only after the offering being made, then the other members in the Family will then enjoyed the Tang Yuan by sitting around (just like celebrating Winter Solstice).
In the Noon period, the whole Family will visit Temples to make their Respect to the Deities and also to request for Blessing from the Deities for the next half a year.
At night, the Taoist or Chinese will prepared some simple Feast for the whole Family to gather around.
After this Day, Life will return back to Normal.
For Modern Society today, people tend to ignore this Day as it doesnt mark any important significant. And due to the Myth of Summer-snow (六月雪或稱竇娥冤), the Elderly will tend to avoid eating the Tang Yuan as it represent mis-fortune and unlucky.
Now, only a minority number of Taoist or Chinese will celebrate this Occasion by paying respect to Ancestors.
This is another Video Clip made dedicated to Xuan Tian Shang Di.
The song is composed in-order to Praise on Xuan Tian Shang Di on his Credits, Merits and his Wills in assisting the Three Realms and also the Living Beings.
In Taoist Culture, every year during the Lunar 6 Month, the Taoist or Chinese will celebrate 1 very important Festival on the 6th Day of Lunar 6 Month (2008 falls on 8 July).
This Day is known as Opening of Heavenly Gate, Tian Men Kai (天門開) or Tian Kuang Ri (天貺日).
In Singapore, due to the mis-interpretation and mis-teaching, the Opening of Heavenly Gate will usually be celebrated on the 7th Day of Lunar 6 Month, but to be more accurate or exact, it shall be on the 6th Day of Lunar 6 Month.
According to Chinese History, the Celebration of Tian Kuang Ri aka Tian Men Kai was only being fixed after Song Dynasty (this is a Day that being Bestowed by Song Emperor Zhen Zong 宋真宗祥符四年 on AD 1011, before AD 1011, Tian Men Kai is usually being celebrated between the 1st Day & 15th Day of Lunar 6 Month).
So does Really the Heavenly Gate opened on this Day?
This is just a Myth that the folks believed in, to be more exact, Heavenly Gate does not have the process of Opening or Closing.
So what is the actual meaning of this Tian Kuang Ri aka Tian Men Kai?
According to records and the Objective that being fixed by the Song Empire, actually Tian Kuang Ri is a Day for the Taoists to pay respect to the Heaven and other Deities and also, for Jade Emperor of Heaven (玉皇大天尊) to send his Officials to the Mortal Realm to distribute out the necessary Blessing to the Living Beings according to their Credits and Merits accumulated thru-out the past 6 Months (another Day of such Events will be on the 25th Day of Lunar 12 Month).
Due to this Tian Kuang Ri belief, this is why in our Taoist or Chinese Society, in the Spiritual Theory, we have a Theory of Luck will only changed after every 6 Lunar Months.
Tian Kuang Ri has another meaning of, Heaven gives out the Necessary Gifts/Rewards to the Necessary groups of Beings, such as Sick, Poor, Cultivated People or “Badies (its time for them to Receive the Rewards of what they have Accumulated)”.
So how will the Taoists or Chinese Celebrates this Day?
For Taoists, we will visit Temples to pay Respect to Heaven & Jade Emperor of Heaven and then, do certain Chanting or Reciting of Scriptures or Mantras.
For Chinese, they will visit Temples to do requesting of Lucks and also, to do reprimanding of one self Debts, Sins and Evil-doing, once the Reprimanding is done, then they will do another round of Luck-requesting.
For those whose Requests being fulfilled within the 6 Months, they will need to return to the Temple to show their Gratitude to the Heaven or Deities before 25th Day of Lunar 12 Month.
For the Folks, on this Day, they will bring out their Clothing, Paintings, Books or some Valuable-stuffs to do Sun-bathing. Why they do so? Folks believed that by doing the Sun-bathing, the Objects will be blessed by Heaven and all these Objects will be able to last longer.
In the Early Days (in Singapore), Old people who had bought their Shou Yi (壽衣 the Apparel for their Funeral) to keep, on this Day, they would bring out one piece (out of the 7 Layers) to do Sun-bathing. Why they do so? The Old people believed that by doing so, their Age-span would be prolonged by 1-3 years. If they didn’t do that, meaning that on that year, it might be their Last Year staying in this Mortal Realm.
So how can one self Celebrates this Day in this Modern Society?
Its very simple, just get some simple Offerings (as followed) to any Temple. Sincerely pay your respect and I’m sure your Request will be heard by the Heaven.
Here the offerings go:
1 A set of 3 Long Incenses
2 A pair of Red Candles
3 A set of Fruits (5 Quantity)
4 A set of Loose Flowers
5 A/3 set(s) of Tian Gong Jin (Big Josspaper)
6 A/3 set(s) of Shou Jin (Normal Josspaper)
Upon reaching the Temple, place All the offerings on the Main Altar or at the Jade Emperors Altar, then proceed to the Whole Temple to pay respect to the Other Deities and then return to the Altar where you placed the Offerings, sincerely make a Bow and then Kneel down on the Kneeling-pad and start your Requesting:
1) Start with the Offering of Incense Mantra:
祝香神咒 (Incenses Offering Mantra)
道由心學。心假香傳。
Dao You Xin Xue, Xin Jia Xiang Chuan
香爇玉爐。心存帝前。
Xiang Re Yu Lu, Xin Cun Di Qian
真靈下盼。仙旆臨軒。
Zhen Ling Xia Pan, Xian Pei Lin Xuan
令民關告。逕達九天.。
Ling Min Guan Gao, Jing Da Jiu Tian
2) Report your name and where you stayed
3) Report what is the event Today
4) Report what is your Request (remember to request for those that is possible to fulfill)
5) Once the report is done, sincerely make 3 Bows and then stand-up and place your Incenses into the Urn
6) Make a Bow and leave the Spot
7) After 10 – 15 Minutes, retrieve the Josspapers and proceed to do the Sending-off
8) Once the Burning is done, retrieve the Offerings and then leave the Temple
Remember, once the Request is being fulfilled within the 6 Months, please return to the Temple again to show your Gratitude.
PS: This year, Wan Shou Shan Tian Gong Miao located at Telok Blangah Height, besides Blk 45 & 46, will be conducting a Ceremony of Enhancing the Newly Renovated Temple Gate on the 7th Day of Lunar 6 Month (9 July 2008).
For those who are interested in observing this Event, please do proceed to the Temple in the Morning.
According to Chinese Deity Systems Record, here are the Birthday of the various Taoist Deities, Patrons, Sages & Immortals in the Lunar Sixth Month.
六月初六日虎爺公誕辰
6th Day of Lunar 6 Month: Tiger Deity aka Tiger General
六月初六日天貺日又稱天門開
6th Day of Lunar 6 Month: Opening of Heavenly Gate
六月十一日田都元帥聖誕
11th Day of Lunar 6 Month: Marshal Tian Du aka Deity of Opera
六月十五日王靈天君聖誕
15th Day of Lunar 6 Month: Heavenly Marshal Wang Ling Guan
六月廿四日關聖帝君聖誕
24th Day of Lunar 6 Month: Lord Guan Yu
六月廿四日西秦王爺聖誕
24th Day of Lunar 6 Month: Duke Xi Qin aka Deity of Opera
六月廿四日雷祖普化天尊千秋
24th Day of Lunar 6 Month: Heavenly Lord Pu Hua
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Alot of the people had been approaching me for one same enquiry, How to do a proper, effective and easy Cleansing for one's home (may it be a totally new one, etc).
And of cos, my task to share with them and in here, all of you.
To get the best and the most appropriate way of doing cleansing (this is the way that being practice by the Official Priests and Chinese Physicians for Centuries), one self can prepare the following stuff:
1 get a New Urn (not necessary to be very big, maybe a diameter of 8 Inches)
2 go to a Chinese Medical Hall to get the following Chinese Herbs:
2a) 藿香 (Huo Xiang, English term: Agastachis Herba)
2b) 甘草（Gan Cao, English term: Liquorice)
3 go to Joss-shop to get some Incense-powder (used during Ritual/Ceremony)
After getting all the stuffs, choose a Good Morning (without Raining, Storm or No-sunshine Day), best that everyone is at home.
Bring out the Urn, wash it with Water, dry it and them, pour some of the Incense-powder into the Urn to make a layer of Base.
Then, spread out the Huo Xiang and Gan Cao over the Powder-base, after spreading the Herbs out, pour another layer of Powder onto the Herbs, repeat the procedure for at least 3 times (meaning 3 Layers) and then, light a stick of incense and throw it into the Urn (allow the Incense to slowly lit the Powder up).
Once the fume of the Burning started to get thicker, walk around the whole Premises, allow the Fume (smoke) to reach every corner of the Premises.
After the whole Premises is being Cleansed, place the Urn in the Center of the whole Premises, in-order to allow the Fume to continue doing the necessary Cleansing. During this period, everyone in the Premises can take turn to start in front of the Urn to allow the Fume to flow thru the Whole Physical Body, by doing so, it will attain a form of Physical, Mind & Soul Cleansing.
Once the whole Cleansing Process is done, make sure the Burning stopped in the Urn and then keep the Urn in a safe and dry place. Do not throw the Urn away, cos the Urn may be used for next Cleansing Process.
Okay, till here, some of you might have some enquiries on whether will the Fume do harm to one self, my reply is an absolute NO. According to Chinese Medical Theory, Huo Xiang is a Chinese Herb that used to do Killing of Germs in the Ancient Era whenever there is a Virsus-attack disaster and according to the Modern Scienticfic Examination, Huo Xiang is able to kill at least 80% of the Normal Virsus that can be found in our Surrounding. And for Gan Cao, it is a form of Chinese Herb that act as Catalyst in many Mixture Processing and so, by adding these 2 Chinese Herbs together for the Cleansing Process, it will somehow reached a Higher Percentage of Cleansing Objective.
In Spiritual Theory, Huo Xiang is treated as a form of Spiritual Weapon that give out Brightness and Strength to overcome any form of Negative Entities or Energies, by calling upon the Energy that being given out by Gan Cao (in Chinese Term known as Deity of Medicine), the surrounding stubborn Energies will be ward-off and so, a Spiritual Cleansing will take effect in a very short moment.
And so, when can such Cleansing be done?
For those who are okay with the Fuming, such Cleansing can be done in Weekly basis, if not, Monthly basis.
Best timing to do such Cleansing will be,
1 when there is sick member who stay at home
2 49/100 Days after Funeral (when the Tablet being transfered onto the Main Altar)
3 before moving into a New House
4 after Major Renovation
5 Moving into a New Temple
6 while Priest performing the Dotting Ritual for new statues
In Taoist Context, such Cleansing is known as Zheng Qi Chang Cun, Yin Yang Shun Diao (正氣長存。陰陽順調), meaning The Upright will retain and the Yin Yang will Balance.
Ready packaging for sale > please see intro at http://javewutaoismplace.blogspot.sg/2010/07/cleansing-chinese-herbs-in-ready-made.html
Special Thanks to my London Classmate Mr Matt who shared All these pics that taken during his Trip to He Ming Shan last week.
He Ming Shan, a cultivation and enlightenment Holy Premises of Heavenly Master Zhang Dao Ling. According to History, this is the 1st Mountain that Heavenly Master chosen before his descendants shifted to Long Hu Shan to do their cultivation.
As you can see in the 1st picture, it is an Altar dedicated to Heavenly Master and the rest of the pictures are the various Talismans that we, the Zheng Yi disciples will used or engaged into in different events.
In the following is a very rare Talisman or Painting of the Spiritual Tortise & Snake.
According to record, this Talisman or Painting was being drawn by Wu Dao Zi of Tang Dynasty (and this is why, in the Picture, you can see the Taoist Title of Wu Dao Zi being included).
So what is the main Purpose of this Talisman or Painting?
This Talisman or Painting is being invited in-order to give the necessary blessing for the Home or Building by calling upon the Heavenly Snake aka Watery Snake & Earthly Tortise aka Firey Tortise to do protection.
Besides that, if you will to see closely into the Tortise Shell, you can even see a few Traditional Taoist Talisman Writing on it, each of them got a different meaning and usage.
