Dear friends of Bai Ma Shan,

This week has been dense with Daoist festivities: the birthday of Lao zi (and anniversary of ascending of Tao Shifu the previous Abbess of Five Immortals Temple), the Tomb Sweeping Day (a day to honor spirits of the dead and to give help to those who lost their way) and finally the birthday of GuanYin (Bodhisattva of Compassion the “one who observes the sound”).

The numerous ceremonies have been an occasion to elevate and learn about how to relate with outer forces using those ancient Daoist methods witch include singing, recitation and offerings (incense, prayer paper, food, tea) as well as an occasion to study together and to deepen our bonds, to pray for our families and friends.
Since the weather has been very rainy it has been a good occasion to spend some time together around the fire, to exchange, to watch and comment videos and to discuss about the relation of humans, animals and other being in the universe.

We also had time to discuss the priorities of the construction works and Li Shifu seems willing to postpone the building of the towers (witch he said will be up to 7-8 meters tall) in order to give the priority to the building of new rooms next to Guan Yin temple, after the completion of the front courtyard.

We also have been practicing recitation of scriptures and also massage methods on each other in this days to put into practice our studies.