The Tao Te Ching says, "The Tao is the Tao, the Tao is very Tao." Then he said, "I do not know whose son he is, like the emperor." "Seeing" the Tao is a thing, only trance. "It belongs to" what is not seen, not enough to hear, and not enough to beat." "Metaphysical existence.
"Zhou Yi": "The metaphysical one is called the Tao; the metaphysical one is called the instrument." "Taoism has always regarded the Infinite Avenue of the Ether as the ultimate goal of pursuit and restoration, and enshrined Sanqing as the highest god, which belongs to metaphysical existence. However, Taoist priests have always been known for their proficiency in numerology, and have the five techniques of "medical astrological mountain".
Medicine, that is, medicine, including acupuncture, tuina, blessing; divination, divination, Liu Yao, Taiyi, Qimen, Ziwei Dou number, etc.; stars, stargazing, qi, wind angles and the like; phase, that is, we are familiar with the face, palm, bone touching genus; and the mountain is feng shui. In addition to these, there are spells, charms, ghost catching, demon-holding, tomb-raising, rain prayer, and tranquility, all of which are also the best tricks of Taoists.
Many of the Techniques in Taoist Health, such as Baduanjin, Taijiquan, and Neidan Technique, also belong to the scope of Fangshu, and Taoism has "sex with the Tao, fate with the extension of the technique, the form of the gods is wonderful, and the Tao is true." " statement. Because these techniques are all exposed, that is, the most direct sensory experience given by Taoists, it is believed that Taoism is these techniques, and Daoists are mostly alchemists. Actually, wrong!
First, the Dhamma is the embodiment of the Tao
Taoism believes that metaphysical things are derived from the metaphysical Tao, that is, the void path and all the existence we see are actually one. The Tao Te Ching says, "Nameless, the beginning of all things; nameless, mother of all things." Zhuangzi believed that the Tao was everywhere, even in the midst of, there was also the Tao, and it was the manifestation of the Tao. This constitutes a Taoist monist cosmology, which holds that man and heaven are one, and the concept of the unity of heaven and man, that is, the premise of the small universe of heaven and man, so if you do not understand these, you cannot understand many problems in traditional Chinese culture.
Since everything in the world is the manifestation of the Infinite Dao, then Fang Shu is also a manifestation of the Dao. Taking the Qimen Dunjia as an example, the Qimen is actually a model of the universe, in which the nine palaces belong to represent the earth element; the eight gates and the earth disk three odd six instruments represent the human yuan; the heavenly disk three odd six instruments and the nine stars represent the heavenly yuan; and the nine gods of the heavenly disk represent the invisible mysterious power. In this way, as a technique, the principle of qimen generation is actually to figure out with the heavenly path, and it is a model of the movement of the universe. It can be seen that although Fangshu is a metaphysical technique, it originated from the innate avenue, and in "the world knows that beauty is beautiful, and evil is evil." In the eyes of the Taoists, there is no distinction between noble and inferior.
Second, fangshu is a necessary for Taoists to learn the Tao
We said earlier, "Sex is perfected by the Tao, and fate is extended by magic." "Although people's mental cultivation depends on the understanding of the Dao, the continuation of life is bound to depend on the power of fangshu. The unremitting pursuit of longevity and longevity, and the yearning of the gods, made the monastic path have to be implemented in the metaphysical alchemy, the so-called "everything is in the cavity." He also said, "Burn the elixir in the pot, and practice yishoudan on the right path." "In the pot", and Lü Zu's so-called "pot with kanli," actually refers to the human body. Therefore, if a Taoist priest wants to live forever, he must know the art of alchemy. Cultivators visit The Dan Recipe in order to seek eternal life, and the Dan Fa, a series of engineering and technology are also implemented in the human body, so that they can "be tested step by step." ”
And in the past, when Daoist monks entered the mountains to cultivate, it was necessary to prevent the invasion of wolves, insects, tigers and leopards, and it was a lot of taboos mentioned in the "Baopuzi Inner Chapter", and fangshu, including forbidden laws, spells, etc., and Taoist spells were the bridges between human gods and gods. Taoist monks climbing mountains, if they do not know the taboos, do not learn some medical techniques to emergency, do not know the good feng shui, it is difficult to achieve their cultivation. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Tao Hongjing once made a armillary celestial instrument, which was extremely exquisite, powered by water, and the rotation of the stars on the instrument was completely in line with the changes in the celestial bodies, Mr. Zhenbai said: "Monasticism is necessary." "Therefore, for those who learn the Tao, they are the tools of cultivation that must be learned.
Third, FangShu is a means for Taoists to accumulate merit and carry out missionary work
Taoism circulates such a saying called "Tao yi shu xian", which means that the dao is invisible, but manifested through technique, so praying for the sun and praying for rain and driving away evil spirits and curing diseases has become an important means for Taoists to preach. This is not only true of Taoism, but when Christianity first came to China, it was also led by Western science and technology.
In the past, there was a stipulation in the Miaomen Precepts that Daoists were not allowed to travel down the mountains and clouds if they did not have certain abilities, because if Daoists did not understand magic, they could not relieve the people's suffering, so what to do? Fang Shu has become an important means for Taoists to help the people and accumulate merit, and Gai Daoism has always paid attention to the sufferings of the people, so many Fang Shu have taken this as their goal. In the magic books published by the Song Dynasty, there were spells on how to take the lives of traitors, which showed that the Taoists at that time actively participated in the political struggle and maintained the Chinese regime through another way. Taoist and proficient in medicine, often in-depth folk free clinics, for the people to relieve the pain of many people, Tang Dynasty physician Saint Sun Simiao is a Taoist, Taoist medicine with its special curative effect, still play its role in the interests of the group.
Fourth, Taoist alchemy has made great contributions to China's science
Taoism is one of the few world religions that is mysticism and does not reject science. And The alchemy of Taoism, as the pioneer of the world's chemistry, has won a place in the history of science and technology for our nation. The invention of shengdan, descending dan, and gunpowder are all related to this, and when the Taoists burned dan medicine, they found mercury, sulfur, cinnabar, etc. to find the reversibility of chemical reactions, and the simple concept of conservation of matter. China's refining of pure arsenic predates the West by more than nine hundred years, and Tao Hongjing's "Records of Ancient and Modern Swords" records that steel is made of pig iron and wrought iron, becoming the first person in Chinese history to record the smelting method of steel filling.
The contours of the Five Peaks True Shape Diagram depict the contours of the Famous Mountains and the distribution of the rivers in the Five Peaks, which the British scholar Joseph Needham believes is "not inferior to the methods used in modern times." Ge Hong's "Elbow Backup Emergency Formula" about the use of rabies brain plasma to apply external wounds to prevent rabies attacks is an extremely important discovery in the history of immunology, and its application principle is the same as that of the later French microbiologist Pasteur (1822-1895) who extracted rabies virus from rabies brain to make rabies vaccine.
Metaphysical alchemy is actually a way for Taoists to communicate with the metaphysical Tao, and it is also an important means of Daoist cultivation, which has accumulated and developed over thousands of years, and there are many contents in Taoist alchemy that cannot be scientifically explained so far, just like the meridianology of Chinese medicine, but it does exist. The research and cracking of these still have considerable positive significance for modern society.