Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism
Among Taoist talismans, the protective amulet is without doubt our most devoted guardian. Like an invisible shield, it blocks the evil qi, turbid qi, and declining luck that come at us from every direction. The talisman for changing one's luck, in turn, is like a sturdy shield whose radiating energy, like a warm spring breeze, blows away the gloom in our hearts and lets our fortunes gradually rise again.
Taoist talismans not only carry the wisdom and devotion of the ancients but have also become a “guardian spirit” in the lives of us moderns. At work we often meet all kinds of challenges and difficulties. Taoist wisdom is like a wise mentor: by hanging or wearing Taoist talismans, we are subtly inspired to find the best ways to solve problems. It teaches us how to get along with superiors and colleagues and how to move with ease through complex relationships. It teaches us how to seize opportunities and how to stand out at critical moments. Taoist talismans can also clear away many obstacles around us; with the help of these numinous talismans, our career path is undoubtedly smoothed.
With talismans, simply drawing them is not enough; they require the support of a series of rituals such as prayer, reciting incantations, forming hand seals, and drawing the talisman.
For example, when using the talisman for summoning the flying eagle, one first forms the Chen hand seal and recites the “Flying Eagle Capturing Incantation” three times, takes in qi and blows it into the talisman, then recites the “Dispatching Incantation,” moves the seal around from the Chen position through a full circuit to the Mao position, blows northern qi onto the talisman, and burns it facing the prosperous direction. Its incantation for capturing evil spirits says: “Red Emperor of the upper quarter, numinous spirits of the five directions, clad in golden armor, iron-clawed general, beak like a frost-cold blade, devourer of ghosts and spirits: hearing my one call, spread your wings and soar. Mountain goblins and water monsters, earth floods and stone sprites, snarling apes and goblins, wild foxes and strange sprites—cut them all down and turn them to fine dust. Swiftly, swiftly, as by the edict of the Northern Emperor and the command of Supreme Marshal Yuantong.”
As for whether talismans and incantations are efficacious, it depends mainly on the inner refinement of the practitioner. The Qingwei Elixir Instructions says: “The essence of the rites lies neither solely in talismans nor in clinging to incantations; first unite my upright qi with the generals... Simply abide within the two Dippers and within the fixed light; when I link spirit and qi and unite with the generals as a general, all illnesses vanish and all evils submit.”
The Corpus of Taoist Ritual (Daofa Huiyuan) notes: “A talisman has no fixed form; it is made numinous by qi. The numinous is the ancestral qi; if the ancestral qi is not bright, how can one expect it to be numinous!” All of this points out clearly that the art of talismans and incantations must itself be built on inner cultivation. The “single point of numinous light” (the primordial spirit) realized in inner refinement is the basis of successful ritual; talismanic diagrams and incantation formulas are only the medium for communicating with the numinous. As Zhang Jixian, the 30th Celestial Master, said in his Verses on Illuminating Truth and Breaking Delusion: “Incantations, formulas, and talismanic diagrams wondrously accord with the heart... one point of numinous light is what makes them numinous.” “When the work of the wondrous Tao of prior heaven is complete, incantations, formulas, and talismanic diagrams may or may not be used.” His disciple Sa Shoujian also said in his Formula of the Inner Heavenly Mainstay: “One point of numinous light is itself the talisman; people waste their ink and cinnabar in vain.”
Taoists often say, “At the beginning of all things, the Great Tao is utterly simple; in its unfolding it becomes utterly complex.” The Great Tao is utterly simple: this is the law of development of the universe and all things, and the essence of Taoist culture. The great principle is extremely simple, so simple that it can be explained in a sentence or two. As the saying goes, “The true transmission is a single sentence; the false transmission is ten thousand volumes.”
The Great Tao is utterly simple, the Great Tao is formless, the Great Tao has no method: this is an advanced state of practice in which the Great Tao is what is so of itself and one returns to simplicity and the true. In this state of clarity, stillness, and non-action, of selflessness and forgetting oneself, of the unity of heaven and humanity, you do not seek to increase your power, yet your power naturally grows; you do not seek to cure illness, yet body and mind naturally adjust; you do not seek special abilities, yet abilities naturally appear; you do not seek the Microcosmic and Macrocosmic Orbits, yet all the channels naturally open. The deepest truth is the simplest and most ordinary truth. To turn the most complex into the simplest is the highest wisdom.
This art of talismans and incantations, rooted in the body's essence, qi, and spirit, fuses breath and talisman into one, using the spirit and qi within one's own body to call upon the energy of heaven and earth, so that the talisman is formed as the brush descends. The method of writing talismans transmitted by the Qingwei school in the Song dynasty, recorded in scroll 4 of the Corpus of Taoist Ritual, says: “The formula says: First become clear and still, cut off thought and concentrate the spirit, so that your mind is wide open and the eight wildernesses are all within your door. Then the spirit returns and the qi is restored, and the primordial spirit appears before you; only then may you take up the brush. Stare at the tip of the brush, and visualize the divine light of your body coming out from between your two eyes and uniting at the point between the brows, becoming a pearl the size of a millet grain before your face, which then becomes a golden thread, its light pouring into the tip of the brush. Then write the seal script according to the method, visualizing it as a golden snake flying across the paper. The brush must follow the eyes: the eyes write the heavenly seals, the mind awakens to the thunder chapters, and you visualize the golden light gradually growing vast until it fills heaven and earth. In your mind recite the three-five taboo names. If you are summoning generals and writing talismans, then use the summoning incantation of that method, or write the various titles one upon another—all as you see fit. Yet even so, one point of numinous light illumines heaven and brightens earth; before the brush has even come down, the distinction is already made. Those skilled in practice should work especially hard at what lies beyond vermilion and ink.”
Mo Yueding, the Song-dynasty master of the Shenxiao (Divine Empyrean) school, also pointed out in his Oral Formulas for Writing Talismans: “For ordinary talisman writing, one need only concentrate the spirit and steady the breath, recite the Golden Light Incantation and the sound-character incantation, visualize golden light filling the room and the myriad spirits arrayed in ranks, sweep the eyes around once, and project divine light onto the paper, where it forms the shape of a thunder god. With the left hand work the thunder incantation to bind it; with the right hand hold the brush and, with one breath and bold force, sweep out its form with a rapid brush. Speed is the key.” “My mind moves together with the brush, my qi turns together with the incantation; in a state of trance it is as if one sees the thunder gods racing through clouds and mist, commanding wind and thunder, and the myriad spirits obeying orders. Practiced in this way, it will never fail. If it does not work, it is because one has not been able to master the wonder of gathering essence and concentrating spirit to call forth a response. Incantations, qi, the pacing of the stars, and formulas are but the branches—how could the Tao lie in these! How could the law lie in these!”
Taoist talismans carry the energy of the practitioner's level of cultivation. Talismans are a special link between those cultivating the Tao and the gods and Patriarchs, embodying the shared convictions of “honoring the Tao and valuing life” and “saving the world and benefiting people.” Therefore, “do not treat as commonplace what you have not easily obtained.”