Baiyun Shenchu
In Taoist spiritual practice, the great Tao is simple. The truly useful methods have never been unfathomable, mysterious techniques, but ones close to daily life, simple and easy to do, that anyone can practice and that show results as soon as they are practiced.
The old Taoist master Baiyun Shenchu has summed up for us ten practical Taoist methods of daily practice for changing one's luck, which offer us very good guidance.
1. To Change Your Destiny, First Nurture Life: The Taoist “Twelve Pieces of Brocade” for Nurturing Life and Cultivating Nature
The body is a vessel, the foundation that carries the Tao; of the countless Taoist methods, nurturing life comes first. If you can exercise every day according to the Taoist “Twelve Pieces of Brocade” for nurturing life and cultivating nature, you will surely be healthy and strong, full of vigor, and good luck will come of itself. If, on the other hand, you are riddled with illness and listless in spirit, how can you talk of changing your luck and destiny?
Sit with eyes closed and mind darkened; hold fast the fists and quietly contemplate the spirit.
Tap the teeth thirty-six times; clasp Kunlun with both hands.
Beat the Heavenly Drum left and right, heard twenty-four times.
Gently sway to shake the Heavenly Pillar; let the red dragon stir the water.
Swish and rinse thirty-six times, until the divine water evenly fills the mouth.
Divide one mouthful into three swallows; when the dragon moves, the tiger runs of itself.
Hold the breath and rub the hands warm; rub the Essence Gate on the back.
With this one whole breath, imagine fire burning the navel wheel.
Turn the windlass left and right; let both legs relax and stretch.
Interlace the hands and push up the empty air; lower the head and reach for the feet repeatedly.
Wait for the divine water to come; rinse again and swallow the saliva again.
When this has been done three times, the divine water has been swallowed nine times.
Swallow it down with a gurgling sound, and the hundred vessels are regulated of themselves.
When the River Chariot has finished its carrying, kindle the fire to burn throughout the body.
Evil demons dare not come near; dreams and sleep cannot cloud the mind.
Cold and heat cannot enter; calamity and illness cannot invade.
Practice after midnight and before noon; creation accords with Qian and Kun.
Turn like linked rings in due order; returning and reverting is the good cause.
2. Replenish Qi and Nourish the Origin, Harmonize Yin and Yang
For long-term exhaustion that depletes qi, late nights that damage the blood, a dull complexion, and bodily weakness and fatigue, this secret ancient method of food therapy nourishes yin, replenishes yang, and dispels sha qi (malign energy).
Method: take three dried red jujubes with their skins on. Put one in your mouth, chew it and eat it all, keeping the pit and not spitting it out. Stir the pit with the tip of your tongue, performing the “Roaming Dragon Plays with the Pearl” method. When the mouth is full of saliva, swallow it slowly in several parts, visualizing the jade fluid going straight into the elixir field (dantian) and warmly nourishing the internal organs. Repeat this cycle nine times, about a quarter of an hour in all, and finally spit out the pit. Practice once each morning, noon, and evening; persisting over the long term nourishes the complexion, replenishes qi, strengthens the root, and builds up the original qi.
3. Drink Water to Regulate Qi, Steady the Qi and Calm the Spirit
If you suffer from emotional instability, anxiety and insomnia, mental fatigue, or disordered breath, you can drink water to regulate qi, steadying the qi and calming the spirit, quickly harmonizing the breath throughout the body and lifting your energy field.
Method: choose a quiet place and sit down in seated meditation, as comfortably as you can. Take a cup of warm boiled water, close your eyes and focus the spirit, and take a large mouthful of water, holding it in the mouth with the tip of the tongue curled up like a dragon raising its head. Swallow it slowly in nine parts, each time visualizing the warm water flowing into the elixir field and warming the internal organs. Repeat this cycle three times, twenty-seven swallows in all, and finally swallow one large mouthful whole, making twenty-eight in keeping with the number of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions. This instantly smooths the breath, calms the emotions, and steadies the energy field.
4. In Choosing a Home, Avoid Sha and Welcome Good Fortune
When buying a house or choosing a home, keep the core taboos firmly in mind and avoid places of inauspicious sha; only then can you live in peace, receive blessings, and enjoy lasting good fortune.
Four places not to live when buying a house or choosing a home: do not live in front of a government office or behind a temple; do not live with a mountain in front and water behind; do not live in a triangular or oddly shaped house; do not live by a lone hill or a cemetery.
The area in front of government offices carries heavy sha qi; behind a temple there are no blessings to receive; a house blocked in front gets no light; next to a hospital the yin qi is heavy.
A house with no mountain behind it for support, windows facing a triangular sha, a door facing a straight road that strikes it head-on, a standalone building with little human presence, an elevated overpass bearing down from above.
All these dwellings have an unbalanced energy field and are unfavorable to the family's fortune; they should all be avoided. Before buying a house, first learn the history of the plot of land—whether it was a graveyard, an old battlefield, or a place where criminals were executed. If it was, on no account choose it.
5. When the Home's Feng Shui Is Good, Blessings Last Long
The importance of home feng shui goes without saying. No complex calculation is needed: by following this verse, you can check for yourself whether the layout of your home is auspicious or inauspicious.
Home feng shui: sit squarely in the main hall and look out at the door—behind you a mountain for support, at the door nothing leaking or harming; go down to the kitchen, go up to the toilet, remember the layout, then look at the windows. No corners or edges aimed at the house, square and upright with a bright hall (mingtang); water and fire not clashing, privacy not exposed, host and guests in their proper places—blessings and fortune will naturally last long.
A home that is square and upright, with support behind it, water and fire not clashing (mainly meaning the doors of the kitchen and toilet should not face each other directly), and regular doors and windows is an auspicious layout that holds the wind and gathers qi, with lasting blessings and prosperity. If some unfavorable local problems appear, you can ask a professional feng shui master to adjust and arrange things, and so dissolve the sha and avert disaster.
6. Purify the House of Filth, Settle and Protect the Home
All things and environments have an energy field and energy, especially the place where we live: its magnetic field should be stable and its energy pure. So whether it is a new home or an old house, it should be cleaned and tidied regularly, keeping inside and outside the house neat and clean. After tidying your belongings, you should then purify the house, driving out dark, turbid, and inauspicious qi.
Method: prepare 1.5–2 jin (about 0.75–1 kg) each of glutinous rice and table salt. Choose a sunny morning before 11 a.m. and, starting from the innermost part of the home, scatter them evenly over all the floors of the house. At the door, light three sticks of pure incense and sincerely ask the local Earth God to settle and protect the house; a paper cup filled with rice can serve as a temporary incense burner. When the incense has burned out, sweep from the inside of the house toward the door, put the salt and rice in a sealed garbage bag, and dispose of it more than 500 meters from your home.
7. Purify and Settle the Home, Dissolve Hardship and Misfortune
When moving into a new home, clearing out an old house, after upheavals in the family, when nothing goes well, or when troubled by dark evil influences, you can use the house-purifying method to settle the Earth God, secure the home, and dissolve hardship and misfortune.
Method: avoid performing it on Wu days and in the Wu hour. Prepare three kinds of fruit offerings (not plums, pears, or pomegranates), divided into five portions, and place one portion each at the center of the living room and at the east, south, west, and north. Use five paper cups filled with rice as incense burners, light one stick of incense in each, and sincerely ask the Earth God of this place to protect and settle the house; you may recite the Incantation for Settling the Earth God to add blessing. When the incense has burned out, leave the room and return half an hour later; take the rice from the incense burners and the fruit offerings and scatter them in the grass by the roadside, signifying that all living beings share them and the merit is complete.
In addition, you can buy a brand-new box of wooden or iron chopsticks and, without opening it, place it deep inside a wardrobe. This method is simple and discreet; practiced over time, it can steady the energy field, reduce setbacks, and help the home become prosperous and life go smoothly.
8. Enshrine Deity Images Properly
Many families today enshrine images of deities, praying for protection and safety, wealth, and promotion. There are many complicated taboos concerning enshrining deity images at home, and improper enshrinement can instead bring obstacles and disaster. If you have not been properly guided by a Taoist priest, it is best not to enshrine one on your own. For those who already have, the following points should be observed.
1. The deity image you enshrine should be of clear origin. It is best to receive it respectfully from a Taoist temple whose abbot is a senior Taoist priest. On no account enshrine an image of unknown origin or one bought at random.
2. The deity image should have a solid wall behind it for support. It must not be placed on a windowsill, in the kitchen, in the toilet, in a bedroom, or in other unclean and cluttered places.
3. The shrine should be higher than an adult's waist, not low. In addition, no one should sit directly in front of the deity image or lean back against the shrine.
4. Do not face the deity image naked, and do nothing improper in front of it. At ordinary times the deity image may be covered with a red cloth.
5. The incense burner on the altar should be cleaned often and kept clean, and the offerings of water and other items should be changed frequently. Avoid offering pears, plums, pomegranates, or other fruits with unlucky meanings, as well as fruits with a strong smell.
6. Do not enshrine images of underworld deities, images of unknown origin, images given to you by others, or memorial tablets of living people. Unless it is the portrait of someone widely recognized as of very high virtue, it is also best not to enshrine portraits of the dead.
9. Recite the Taoist Scriptures: Reaching Perfection and Attaining the Tao, Praying for Blessings and Averting Calamity
Taoism holds that reciting scriptures is an important way of “uniting with the Tao and becoming one with the Perfect.” By reciting the scriptures of the patriarchs again and again, one can commune with the divine and reach the Perfect, pray for blessings and dispel calamity, cultivate oneself and save others, clearly distinguish good from evil, nourish one's mind-nature, regulate the breath and focus the spirit, balance body and mind, and nurture life and prolong one's years.
The Morning Altar Liturgy of Daily Recitation of the Mysterious Gate says: “The merit of reciting scriptures is inconceivable; all the heavens and all the earths turn their numinous workings.” Devout recitation can win the protection of the gods of heaven and earth, dispel calamity and relieve distress, and preserve and prolong life. Reciting the Taoist scriptures is “doing one's own work and cultivating one's own Tao.” Its merit can be dedicated to all living beings, for the ritual deliverance of the dead and for blessings on the living; it is a practice of “saving oneself and saving others,” leading people to do good, accumulate virtue, and keep away from evil deeds. The process of reciting Taoist scriptures itself regulates the breath and focuses the spirit, and so nurtures life and prolongs one's years. Concentrated recitation of the scriptures can bring one into a state of “emptiness and stillness,” easing anxiety and stress and achieving the harmony of body and mind described as “attain utmost emptiness, keep steadfast stillness.”
What matters in reciting scriptures is a sincere heart and proper method: without haste or impatience, step by step, one can draw good affinities and accumulate merit. Before reciting, wash your hands and quiet your mind—better still, wash and bathe. Then sit upright in a quiet room, close your eyes and calm stray thoughts, and open the scroll respectfully, without any trace of irreverence. Recite the sacred proclamation, make your vow, with a voice clear and gentle, hearing your own voice, giving rise to good thoughts and nourishing your mind-nature. The scriptures arise from the heart: when one thought arises, ten thousand good things are born.
10. Break Evil Interference, Protect Yourself and Guard Against Disaster
If, when traveling at night, you encounter a “ghost wall” (walking in circles unable to find your way), mischief by dark evil forces, a nightmare (the sense of a ghost pressing on the bed), or interference with your energy field, you can immediately use these methods to protect yourself and break the evil interference.
Relieving nightmares: clench both fists tightly and silently recite “Heavenly Worthy of Thunder of the Nine Heavens, Responding to the Primordial, Universal Transformer by the Voice of Thunder (Jiutian Yingyuan Leisheng Puhua Tianzun)!” Visualize golden light protecting your body, and it is dissolved at once.
Warding off evil on night roads: bend the four fingers and press the fingertips with the thumb to form the thunder hand seal, and strike outward with the palm three times in succession while reciting the sacred name: “Heavenly Worthy of Thunder of the Nine Heavens, Responding to the Primordial, Universal Transformer by the Voice of Thunder!” You may also recite the Golden Light Incantation, visualizing thunder-light protecting your body and driving away evil and filth.
Breaking a ghost wall: throw away the loose change and coins you are carrying and sincerely recite: “Heavenly Worthy Who Saves from Suffering (Taiyi Jiuku Tianzun)!” Close your eyes and stand still for thirty seconds; your energy field will right itself, and you will find your way again.
Taoist magical methods are only outward aids to protection; cultivating the mind is the fundamental great way. In daily life, hold fast to the right path, keep body and mind pure, do good, and accumulate virtue—this is the best method of protecting yourself and opening up good fortune.
The secret methods of Taoism never depart from daily life. At the core of all the methods for nurturing life, protecting oneself, settling the home, warding off evil, suppressing sha, and changing one's luck lie nurturing upright qi, guarding one's original heart, doing good deeds, and keeping good thoughts. Practice them daily: accumulate small good deeds, nurture upright qi, avoid calamity and misfortune, and increase your blessings and fortune.
May those with the affinity to receive these methods cultivate themselves and settle their homes, seek good fortune and avoid misfortune, enjoy lasting blessings and fortune, and be safe and well year after year!