Hello everybody,
This month we have been preparing the temple for the programs that will begin the 28th of May with the Taijiquan course. Many works and tasks where accomplished; painting Tao Shifu’s tower (the previous Abbess of the Five Immortals Temple) and laying tiles around it, painting the entrance, the kitchen and the common room as well as the inner courtyard. But the biggest part of the work was to finish the project for the front of the temple by lying the tiles on the floor and building and painting the new burner; now the front is very beautiful and it has plenty of space for training.
A New student from Italy arrived this week. He is a practitioner of Western and Chinese Medicine Shifu told him he studied many methods with form and now is time for him to study formless methods so that when he will be able to unify them he will be able to perform a higher type of medicine. That’s why he will now begin to learn Longevity, Qigong, Taijiquan and the eight mantras. He gave him many classes about medicine and longevity. There are 5 major factors that need to be taken in consideration for longevity: Internal environment, external 
environment, diet, negative forces and psychology. Regarding the psychology aspect he explained the importance of the influence of the thought on the body through a few examples: he said:” if I tell you about how sour the unripe kiwis I ate where all your mouths immediately start to produce saliva”. He also mentioned an old Chinese story where an exhausted army in the desert could not advance anymore and sent forward some scouts to explore the area, one of them came back and said that there was an oasis filled with plums in front of them. The army immediately started to move; the oasis was not there but they managed to walk out of the desert. Sick body, sick behavior and sick thoughts are strictly connected: keep on selling medicines to cure stomach ulcer of a alcoholic who doesn’t want to change its habits would definitely be a good way to make money and a bad way to cure the patient since he will always have just temporary relief from your healing but never get better.
To understand how to heal this aspect one must understand the relation of the seven emotions and the six desires. To explain this Shifu gave us an example took from an old Chine story. There was a man who suffered from spleen cancer and nobody could cure him. He was afflicted by worry and he would have had to face death if he didn’t find this doctor. When the doctor received him he treated him with indifference and then sent him away. The patient then was so filled with anger that he started to vomit blood and in the end he was healed. Since this aspect is so central it is very important for a doctor to communicate with the patient, to understand his thought, to understand the root of his illness. Trough communication the doctor will share his energetic field with the patient, build an emotional relation with the patient.
“if one doesn’t regard the sick as his own relative one cannot become a Daoist healer”
If such a communication happens the healer will have power to help the patient to change his thoughts and way of living, only in this way he can really heal himself.
“If the heart-mind and the conduct are not upright,
Desires and greed become infinite.
Qi and blood inevitably will become disorderly.
how couldn’t the meridians, the endocrine system and the energetic field be affected?
Cause and effect correspond to each other.
Effect follows one’s conduct like a shadow follows a person.
If one violates the Dao’s principles,
How can one obtain long and everlasting life?”
Ultimately the aim of the doctor is to give a direction to the people and to help them open their thought and elevate. The necessity of a change of thought or of direction may even be the reason why the illness originated with intervention of some higher self or teacher or of karmic forces.
White Horse Mountain used to be filled with animals and wildlife in the past but in the last decades a lot was hunted down by the people from the nearby villages.
This month we have started to make some re-population by freeing rabbits in the area of the Northern gate.
Translation of characters on burner:
金鞍宅香炉
The Golden Saddle Fortress Incense Burner
South:
Hexagram: 乾
Top: 元
Middle: 如
Bottom:
R：裱文上达
L：恩命下颁
The paper prayer ascends
Your gracious command is issued down
North-East:
Hexagram: 兑
Top: 口
Middle: 意
Bottom:
R: 吉辰启建法筵开
L: 迎请高真降驾来
Auspicious time beginning to establish the law, the banquet begins
Welcoming and begging the high truth so that the vehicle descends
East:
Hexagram: 离
Top:亨
Middle:福
Bottom: 白马山
White horse mountain
North-East
Hexagram: 震
Top: 口
Middle: 寿
Bottom:
R: 十方救苦放祥光
L: 照破铜诚铁壁墙
Ten directions rescuing from bitterness plceing an auspicious life
Light pierces the copper barrier and the iron wall
South-West
Hexagram: 巽
Top: 口
Middle: 祥
Bottom:
R: 祝寿壶中不夜天
L: 蟠桃熟时庆长年
R: celebrate longevity, inside the kettle no day no night
L: when the immortal peach is ripe celebrate eternal life
West
Hexagram: 砍
Top: 真
Middle: 吉
Bottom:
R: 五色祥烟
L: 熏裱上天
Five colors auspicious smoke
Burn prayer paper ascending to haven
North-West
Hexagram: 艮
Top: 口
Middle: 宁
Bottom:
R: 龙虎山上炼大丹
L: 九天魔王心瞻寒
Tiger dragon on top of the mountain practicing internal alchemy
Nine heavens the daemon king is terrified in his heart
North
Hexagram: 坤
Top: 利
Middle: 康
Bottom:
R: 七宝灵炁
L: 护裱达御
Seven treasures spirit qi
Protect prayer paper reach the imperial
top order:
元亨利真
Origin prosperity benefit truth
middle order:
福寿康宁吉祥如意
Good fortune long life health and peacefulness and auspiciousness as you please as you please
