True Story: A Daoist's Other Worldly
Encounter
A Monk in A Daoist Temple (3)
22 July 2006
1 A Daoist
College
2 Daoist
Wang
3
Many Worlds and
Beyond
Danxi: You say you were
frequently visited by the beings from other
worlds, what are they precisely?
Wang: Most are animal
spirits: foxes, wolves, rabbits and you name
it. Some came to practice with me, and others
tried to make trouble for me. The most
powerful and vicious among them all are the
wolves living in the grassland - many have
become animal immortals, and the hairs on
their back are all red.
Danxi: Where do
they belong, the yin world or our yang
world?
Wang: Both. Then there
were dark spirits, which worked on demonic
cultivations and would send a possessed human
to make my life hell, or a sick person to
seek healing with the purpose of depleting my
original essence. They succeeded, very much
so. I became weaker by each day. When finally
a woman was sent to strip herself naked in
front of me, I could take it no more, so gave
up and left the Inner Mongolia for good.
Wang: Actually it was me
who went to their worlds. Each world is a
field defined by its unique wave frequency of
the qi, and as you cultivate and
expand your mind, you transcend the realms.
The more advanced your cultivation, the
severe demon obstacles you are facing.
Apart from the external
barriers, you also have to overcome your
internal restrictions. Normally, when you've
integrated into a certain field of qi,
there is a strong correspondence and mutual
influence between your mind and your
environment. Once a bond is established, it
is extremely hard to free yourself from the
attachment. Many great Daoist masters of the
past frequently relocated during the
cultivation process, the reason of doing so
is to prevent themselves from being tied to a
certain field. That is why it is said that if
you don't know about Feng Shui, you'll have
little chance to succeed in your Daoist
quest, for sure.
Danxi: There is a
passage in The Master Who Embraces
Simplicity (Baopuzi 抱朴子), and it says if you
intend to cultivate the Dao in a remote
mountain, you must understand the art of
Hidden Time (dunjia 遁甲) and Orphaned Void (guxu
孤虚), otherwise your life
could be in danger.
Wang: Just so. And
you've read quite a few Daoist books, seems.
Danxi: Well, I do not
have an inborn gift, nor do I possess a
sudden enlightenment quality, so I have to
learn through books.
Wang: Cultivation is not
a task that can be accomplished within one
lifetime, and the so-called gift is often the
result of the previous hard work.
Danxi: I guess you have
some knowledge of your past lives?
Wang: Sort of. I did
review my past, and found I was also a Daoist
in my previous two lives. The problem is, you
see, each time when I got connected to my
death frequency, I became so traumatised, and
would be left in deep depression for a long
while. So I stopped checking further back.
Danxi: What happens
after death in your experience? Is it really
like what has been described in the sacred
text of Buddhism and Daoism?
Wang: Pretty close if
you ask me. I started observing death
phenomenon ever since I was a child. I
remember once I saw black qi around a
neighbour's house, and I kept watching it
every day. Eventually a greyish human image
appeared in the sky above the house. In the
beginning the human image was rather blurred
and poorly defined, but it grew clearer day
by day. Then one day the image suddenly shone
brightly, and I recognised that it was,
unmistakably, in the dying neighbour's usual
appearance. At that very moment, the
neighbour died. After a while, the bright
human image reduced to a small light ball,
and went away through the path formed by two
beams of light, one black one white.
Danxi: You mean, Black
Impermanence (Heiwuchang 黑无常) and White Impermanence
(Baiwuchang 白无常), the Ghost King's
death squad? They are actually real?
Wang: Well, they are not
the spirits, but a consciousness shaped by yin-yang
duel forces.
Danxi: How about the
Incarnation Via Six Paths (liudao lunhui 六道轮回), is it the valid concept in
your opinion?
Wang: Very much so. That
is what I've seen and experienced anyway.
But, before entering a path to rebirth,
you'll encounter the Mountain of Approaching
Soul (Lingjianshan 灵渐山), and if you can escape into
the mountain, you are therefore free from the
Five Agents effect (buzai wuxing zhong 不在五行中) and Three-Realm circulations
(tiaochu sanjie wai 跳出三界外) (namely Hell, Earth and
Heaven).
There is a precondition
however: your spirit must be nothing but a
pure yang essence. If it is anything
else then it won't be able to approach the
mountain, let along to get into it. In Daoist
cultivation, we have two essential exercises:
Closing
Gate for Black Light (biheiguan
闭黑关) and Closing Gate for
White Light (bibaiguan 闭白关). In the latter practice,
you'll have to meditate with your eyes
directly looking at the sun - the purpose of
which is to prepare you for enduring the
overwhelming brightness of the light from the
Mountain of Approaching Soul.
Danxi: Has your yang
spirit (yangshen 阳神) ever come out of your body?
Wang: Certainly not. If
my yang spirit grows so strong that it
can freely wander around at will, my Daoist
cultivation shall be nearly complete. By then
my body is no longer made of flesh and blood
but formed by pure essence. But, well, I did
take astral travels with my yin spirit
(yinshen 阴神), which allows me to
get contact with ghosts and spirits alike. I
don't do it often though - yin world
is a dangerous place, with one slip I may
fall into the animal realm.
Danxi: True. I've heard
a story about how some practitioners of Black
Soul Gong (Xuanlingong 玄灵功) got their yin spirits
out of the body but were unable to find way
home. They died subsequently.
Wang: Yes, it's a sad
story. The path of cultivation is full of
pitfalls - one has to be very vigilant.
Danxi: My word.
Scnce in a
sacred Daoist mountain Wudangshan in Hubei
province
The sun was a little low in the
sky. I had to leave the Daoist temple to go
back to my Buddhist practice, so I said
goodbye to Daoist Wang. I did so, again, with
my cupped hands, expressing my respect to his
way. And he, like all other Daoists,
farewelled me with folding palms, saluting to
my path.
I walked straight to the open
gate. My life is short, but my time is
unlimited, and my existence is eternal. As
long as I keep walking towards the
destination, one step at a time, sooner or
later, I will get there.
(The End)
