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Chapter 34 - Reflections After Writing This Book
I, Living Buddha Lian Shen, was originally a Christian. Later I studied Taoism and geomancy under the supervision of Master Qing Zhen. Then I took refuge in Esoteric Buddhism and then in the Tantric School. Master Qing Zhen was a Taoist of the Qingcheng City School, but he had renounced secular life and had stayed away from name and fame. What he knew was far from Taoism alone, but embraced Esoteric Buddhism and Tantric Buddhism. If it was traced further back, Vajra Master Rong Zeng and Vajra Master Nuo Na were Master Qing Zhen's fellow disciples. Master Qing Zhen was knowledgeable and versatile. His collection of books exhausted all secret texts without exception. The secret books that were handed down from generation to generation were invaluable. In his later years, Master Qing Zhen devoted himself to some dark learning (Tr. Note: Xuan Xue (dark learning) refers to a mystical school that developed in the third and fourth centuries in China, characterized by metaphysical speculations seeking to adapt Taoist theories to a Confucian milieu) and became professional in making pills of immortality. He had got the greatest attainment and complete freedom. Here, however, we are not discussing his god-like abilities or his miraculous performances. He taught nobody but me, teaching me Taoism, Esoteric Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, and geomancy. His geomancy, in particular, contained the secrets of secrets that were worth thousands of taels of gold. I considered myself extremely fortunate to have learned his geomancy. During my many years of study, I came to know everything about Taoism, Esoteric Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism and geomancy. Since then I have got to know the Secrets of Heaven. I have tried to live in seclusion. However, I have many students now and many masters have come to ask me to write books about what I have learned. The harder I try to run away from fame, the greater fame comes; the harder I try to live in seclusion, the better known I become. This is the embarrassing situation I am in. After I renounced secular life, I came to know what it is to "Contain the sacred to overcome the secular", how to achieve immortality. My consciousness and nature are now one with the Buddha. I have awakened to my original nature. I no longer intended to write any books on geomancy. Sages, masters and men of virtue all over the world, knowing I have once studied geomancy, all asked me to write this book The Land Spirits of Your House. If I kept everything in my heart, the treasure will disappear together with me, leaving no trace in this world. For the above reasons, it was out of my own expectation that The Land Spirits of Your House came into the world after I had renounced secular life. It has not been easy to write this book, because there are many special terms in geomancy. If it is written in obscure language, no student or reader can understand it. So I have tried hard not to use many technical terms nor to go very deep in my writing a difficult book will frighten the beginners away. In writing this book, my first and foremost wish is to make my readers understand what I have written down. I tried hard to be informative, explanatory and instructive, leaving no obstacles on the way for the reader. This was how I was feeling when writing these pages. It goes without saying that The Land Spirits of Your House is only fairly elementary and does not at all contain everything in A Book of Secrets on Land Spirits it is only one thousandth of that great book. That book talks about twelve types of land spirits in seventy two volumes. What I have written here is only one important point from each of those volumes. So the present book is in fact a collection of my experiences and feelings which are really practical and effective. Even so, I know for sure that the methods I record here are efficacious. For I have studied thousands of houses and my methods have been verified time and again. There are a thousand and one methods concerning both houses and graves; they are easy to learn but difficult to learn very well. Please do not look down upon this field as a "fraction of enquiry". This "fraction" may take a lifetime to learn well. There are now too many books in the market on geomancy, all of which talk about "methods of direction". Those books are obscure and unintelligible, and some "fashionable masters" are out to cheat in their writing. For these reasons I have made my book based on "vitality forces, positive and negative" and on "logic", doing away with the usual mysterious flavour. There are other important theories, such as "the Three Harmonies" ( harmonies among Heaven, Earth and Man), "the Three Periods" (a period of a cycle of 180 years, computed by the Heaven Stems and Earthly Branches to form 60 pairs which are then computed using the Nine Palaces to get three periods of 180 years: the upper, the middle and lower periods), "the Nine Palaces" (a computing method in ancient China two and four are the shoulders; and six and eight are the feet; three is the left and seven is the right; they carry nine and walk on one, with five in the center; the three numerals in any column or row make exactly fifteen), "the Nine Stars" (seven stars in the Big Dipper plus two assisting stars), "the Five Elements" (metal, wood, water, fire and earth believed to compose the physical world), "the twenty-eight Constellations" (into which the celestial sphere was divided in ancient Chinese astronomy), "the Mysterious Void", "the Eight Trigrams" (eight combinations of three lines all solid, all broken, or a combination of solid and broken lines joined in pairs to form 64 hexagrams, used in divination), and "the Twenty-four Mountains". I plan to give open lectures on these theories. I have been invited to lecture on them in Washington University, teaching geomancy like a school subject. If I explain everything clearly, patiently and tirelessly, both Chinese and foreign students will enjoy the course very much. Taught face to face, many of the geomanic methods are easier to understand and nothing will be held back. I, Living Buddha Lian Shen, believe that only by teaching everything in the prescribed order, can we move forward step by step, from the easiest to the most difficult, thus making learners understand all the implications. A training program on A Book of Secrets on Land Spirits is now under consideration. Things about land spirits are in fact relevant even if one has renounced this world. A monk is one who adapts his vital energy to that of Heaven and Earth. This is why Tantric monks prefer caves in deep mountains for meditation in seclusion. Taoist masters manoeuvre their vital energy solely for the merge with the vital energy of Heaven and Earth. The ultimate attainment for Tantric monks is precisely the manoeuvre of one's vital energy, the merge with the energy of Heaven and Earth, which is then turned into the invisible. If one can achieve that, it will be the greatest success. Here is a verse:
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