Chapter 6 - Studying Taoism At Mount Lien T'ou

With directions from my Spirit Master, I sought out Taoist Master Ch'ing Chen at Mount Lien T'ou and became his student. Under Master Ch'ing Chen's guidance, I walked through a fire ritual, which is a Taoist initiation rite, and formally became a Taoist practitioner. Perhaps readers will wonder why they have never heard of a mountain called Lien T'ou among all the famous mountains in Taiwan. This is because Lien T'ou is, in fact, a lesser-known name for one of the many mountains in a large mountain range.

Taoist Master Ch'ing Chen came from mainland China.

When I met him, he was in his eighties. In his youth, he had studied Taoism at the Ch'ing Cheng Mountain in China. His family name was Chang, the same as the Heavenly Taoist Master, Chang T'ien Shi. Since his arrival at Taiwan, he had been living in seclusion in his thatched hut on the mountain and subsisting on several plots of farmland. Inside the hut, there was an altar for the Three Pure Ones of Taoism.

According to my Spirit Master, "Taoist Master Ch'ing Chen is no longer an ordinary mortal; it is just that the worldly people do not recognize this. He has been doing cultivation for more than fifty years and has access to his spirit. At night, he travels out of his body. By becoming his student, you will not go wrong.

He does not like to take students, but if you go to see him, he cannot refuse you. If he teaches you the Liuchia Divine Art, you will benefit greatly from it."

When I first met Taoist Master Ch'ing Chen, he was in meditation. Opening his eyes slightly, he asked me, "Why have you come here?"

"I was guided by Mr. Three-Peaks-Nine-States to ask you to be my teacher." I knelt and kowtowed to him.

"What is the date and time of your birth?"

"I was born at noon on the eighteenth day of the fifth lunar month in the year of Yi Yu," I answered.

Taoist Master Ch'ing Chen was greatly startled by my answer and spoke to me haltingly, "Then you were born on the same month, day, and hour as the Heavenly Master Chang.

Get up quickly and bow to me no more-I do recognize you." Strangely, I also felt that I had met Taoist Master Ch'ing

Chen somewhere before. I thought about it and suddenly remembered. Taoist Master Ch'ing Chen was the Taoist priest with whom I had an appointment in the dream and who had used a duster to knock on my head in an effort to remind me!

In real life, Taoist Master Ch'ing Chen also owned a duster. When I told him about my strange dream, he just laughed loudly and did not say anything.

The Taoist practices my teachers taught me leaned heavily on the writing of magical inscriptions (Fu's), mantras, and Taoist alchemy. Most of my knowledge of Fu's was taught to me by Master Ch'ing Chen, while Mr. Three-Peaks-Nine-States taught me the mantras. Taoist alchemy has to do with returning to the Source and involves secret teachings from the Nine Stages of Taoist Mystical Practices.

Master Ch'ing Chen taught me, "Walking on the Great Way is like tumbling from head to toe; if one is able to tumble around, then one will be a Great Immortal." Master Ch'ing ' Chen also told me this, "Lian-shen, in order to return to one's Source or to one's Original Nature, one has to recover one's ching, chi, and shed from the places to which they have been dispersed. To travel out of one's body at will is neither impossible nor superstitious. It might sound like a fairy tale, but it can be done. How can ordinary people understand this since it is a cultivation of the spirit body?"

My studies with Master Ch'ing Chen up in the mountain could take place only on the days I was off from work. I was still of the world and unable to devote myself wholeheartedly to this study; however, I was very serious and diligent. Master Ch'ing Chen encouraged me to study hard, so that in the future I could use what I had learned to help other people. He taught me how to recognize and neutralize evil methods used by devious practitioners for their own monetary and sexual gains. He taught me the Vajra Indestructible Mantra to protect myself from evil energy and black magic. He also explained many Taoist practices to me.

Master Ch'ing Chen said to me, "If you want to rescue and deliver human beings, then this is the moment for you to make a vow with great compassion to spread the Correct Dharma. This is to enable sentient beings who have not seen the Truth to see it, and those who have not heard the Truth to hear it. Through your teachings, sages will realize their Original Nature, and ignorant beings will achieve understanding."

He continued, "In the world, both positive and negative forces exist. Be concerned only with the positive forces. Negative forces thrive only because man insists on neglecting the positive forces. If one affirms the positive forces, the negative forces will recede. All cultivators should seek this point of view. As long as one abides in the positive forces and cultivates the Supreme Ultimate Pathway, then one will not be harmed by negative forces. If one further obtains the transmission of the immortality method, then one will reach the Tao."

One day Master Ch'ing Chen asked me, "Lian-shen, do you want to learn how to read the past and the future?"

"Yes, I do."

"Study the book, Huang Chi (The Supreme Method of Fortune Telling), in depth, and I will teach you the Spiritual Divination Method. Then, everything in the world will be known to you."

Master Ch'ing Chen awakened the innate "spirit body" inside my flesh body. This spirit body is the true spirit that has been sealed inside my physical body ever since I was born. If it remains unawakened, this spirit body will only manifest itself when the physical body dies. The spirit body is the true body while the flesh body is the illusory body. This spirit body is what is often referred to as the "soul" by ordinary people.

When one's "soul" awakens, one can then function through the soul and be able to see into the spiritual realms. Some people can sense, while others can see or hear happenings in the spiritual realms. Some people can also use help from the spiritual realms to make predictions and learn things from the past. The Spiritual Divination Method works differently from other divination methods, such as Pa Tzu Index, Four Pillar method, palmistry, face reading, bone reading, and Chi Men Tun Chia.

Not too many people know how to use the Spiritual Divination Method, as the first requirement for using this method is to have an "awakened soul." I shall explain more about how this method works in later chapters.

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