Assassins are not on the table, but they are very useful.

Many famous ministers in history died under the dagger of assassins. Therefore, on the Two Realms Mountain, those who knew that Xie Baoshu was the descendant of Liu Guanshan were very worried about him. The real person who carried the water was the same, so he gave Xie Baoshu a piece of talisman paper.

The Netherworld True Man is also a glance now, and he is very worried about Xie Baoshu.

There is a saying in Taoism: "My life is up to me, not to heaven."

I don't know if you have noticed, to this day there are still people who think that this life is not good, it is all the evil in the previous life, according to the cause and effect, this life should live a poor life, and gradually admit "fate"; some people think that fate is already predestined at the moment of birth, and it cannot be changed by human power alone, so no matter how hard you struggle in this life, it will not get better, so they give up on themselves and wait for fate to arrange.

Even the sage Confucius said, "Life and death have fate, and wealth is in the sky." "It is believed that people's life and death, poverty and wealth are arranged by God, and manpower is irretrievable. So why does Taoism say: My life is up to me, not to heaven? Why do you think that people can control their own destiny? Doesn't it mean that cause and effect bear the burden?

First of all, let's look at ancient times, where life expectancy was very low, and people often died of unknown diseases. In addition, due to historical reasons, this has created a very bad situation, in today's forty or fifty prime-age people's parents are mostly alive, and most of the friends around them are living in good health, but in ancient times, most of the prime-aged parents are gone, and many of the friends around them have left this world.

Because the vast majority of people have almost zero education, they are often confused about the causes of these phenomena and do not know how to solve the problem.

In our Taoism, there are many exhortations such as "those who are good at traveling drowned, and those who are good at riding are falling", hoping that everyone will stay away from danger! Similar thoughts are also said in the "Tao Te Ching": What people are afraid of, must not be feared. It means to stay away from what everyone is afraid of, that is, to simply avoid the evil.

In addition, the Taoist magic of Qimen Dunjia and Zhou Yiyi can teach people how to seek good fortune and avoid evil, which is very effective. This is the first confidence of Taoism to say "my life is up to me, not to heaven": seek good fortune and avoid evil!

After staying away from danger, in response to the lack of health knowledge of people at that time, Taoism compiled and published a lot of health books and articles on health preservation. For example, in Da Sui's "Health Guide Cheats", it is said that "my life is up to me, not to heaven".

Then he said in an almost scolding tone: "People who don't care for their bodies are stupid people, if they know to cherish their bodies and know how to maintain their health, they can stay away from diseases and live a lot longer!"

This is the second confidence of Taoism that "my life is up to me", "as long as you practice the method of health preservation, you can stay away from diseases, so that you can naturally prolong your life."

Biosurgery can only delay the aging of the body, but cannot fundamentally prevent the diseases caused by the aging of the body, that is, the so-called treatment of the symptoms but not the root cause. This is the reason why no matter whether you take medicine, injections, surgery, or other health preservation techniques, you can't completely eliminate physical diseases.

Taoism believes that everything is born by innate qi, and when qi is dispersed, it dies.

Therefore, the practitioner strives to stimulate the innate qi of the human body, and when the weather grows stronger, all diseases in the human body, including hereditary diseases, can be completely eliminated.

Refining and refining gas, refining gas and turning gods, refining gods and returning to the void, and finally Sanhua gathers at the top, five qi Chaoyuan, and Dancheng soars, which can be invasive and invincible, and the purpose of changing one's life against the sky can be achieved. That's right, the third confidence of Taoism that says "my life is up to me, not to heaven" is: Taoism.

Taoism believes that the foundation of "my life is up to me, not to heaven" lies in spirituality. Spirituality is the foundation of Taoist practice, and the "Taishang Lingbao Jingming Cave Shenshang Sutra" bluntly says that "the immortal road is cloudy, and the spirituality goes." This concept even influenced the gods and demons "Journey to the West", and there is a passage in the book that says, "He was originally Marshal Tianpeng Linfan, but because he was reincarnated by mistake, his mouth and face looked like a wild boar, but in fact, his spirit still exists." It is precisely because Zhu Bajie has the appearance of a pig, but because he still has the spirituality of God, so Zhu Bajie can perform spells and correct the fruit.

This is because all things in heaven and earth have spirituality, and Taoism believes that the human body is rare, and it is difficult to be born in the Middle Earth! To be able to obtain a human body is the primate of all things, and it is the most spiritual. From the Taoist point of view, if a thing does not have spirituality, it does not have the ability to control its destiny.

Spirituality is the fourth confidence of Taoism that "my life is up to me, not to heaven". What is this spirituality? In the "Longmen Mental Method", it is said that spirituality and wisdom have similar meanings. Whether it is to know that it is good luck to avoid evil, or to master health and prolong life, all this is because we have wisdom!

Taoism's "my fate is up to me", persuading people not to listen to fate, but also to advise everyone to know their fate, but not to accept their fate. At the same time, it does not deny causal burden, because the impact of causal burden on people is not absolute, and it has its own limitations.

If we make good use of spirituality, seek good fortune and avoid evil, and maintain health guidance, we will improve our fortune through spiritual improvement, and we will be able to let the river of life go in the direction we want to go, but this also has limitations. To put it simply, ordinary people can transcend their lives to a certain extent, and then change their lives, and it is up to me to achieve my life, but it is impossible to be completely unaffected by my life, unless I am enlightened and immortal.

Of course, fate has the meaning of coercion, and unchangeable things determine the upper limit of life, such as our parents, genes and other things that cannot be chosen. These things are like rules, and Taoist practice requires wisdom, clarity, and self-awareness, and people can see these rules when they reach the point of knowing themselves, so that they can live more freely within the framework of the rules of fate.

There are four main canons of Taoism. One is to teach. Teaching is the only way for Taoists to become immortals and prove saints, so Taoism regards the teaching of secrets as extremely important, and it is not allowed to spread indiscriminately as a warning.

When teaching, there must be devout thoughts and actions to seek the Tao, wash the body and mind, burn incense and fast, and take a grand oath, ask the teacher to testify to the alliance, and the teacher will teach it. The second is to reward the good and punish the evil. As the saying goes: "There are gods three feet above the head", and the immortal palace rules the three realms and ten directions, so the good and evil of human beings are also within the scope of the gods' supervision.

Those who do evil will be punished and even die, but those who do good will be able to ward off calamity and prolong their lives. The third is fasting. Taoist fasting is set up to achieve the purpose of accumulating merit and preventing the occurrence of negligence and evil diseases. Fasting is divided into fasting and heart fasting, and fasting is to keep life with God

, the heart of fasting to bathe in the spirit of snow.

The precepts refer to the different precepts for Taoists, and advocate that all people practice the five precepts and ten virtues, and propose that if mortals often practice the five precepts and ten virtues, then the heavens, men, and gods will protect them, and they will forever eliminate disasters and blessings. Fourth, recitation. Taoism stipulates that all scriptures passed on by teachers must be recited and admired. This means that all Taoists must always recite the sutras passed down by the master and wear talismans.

According to the Taoist scriptures, Taoism began before the misty catastrophe, when the heaven and the earth were not divided. The universe is chaotic, the sun and the moon are not shining, Taishang Laojun was born in the middle, and his pseudonym is Pangu; after the five Tai, he floats lightly and condenses under heavy turbidity and opens the world; and from the beginning of the Xuanyuan Dynasty, he is reborn for three days.

Lao Jun's eyes turned into the sun and the moon, his hair into stars, his muscles into fertile soil, his bones into hard rocks, his breath into wind and clouds, his voice and the divine light in his eyes into thunder and lightning, the blood in his body into rivers and lakes, and his hair into grass and trees...... As a result, yin energy rises, yang energy falls, all things are generated, and people are prosperous.

At this point, Lao Jun returned to the heavenly palace, with the void as the body and the micro as the house. Then Lao Jun incarnated several times and went through eighty-one transformations. During the time of Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor, he incarnated as Guangchengzi and granted the Yellow Emperor the way of health preservation; in the Spring and Autumn Period, he incarnated as Lao Tzu and passed down the "Tao Te Ching" to teach Guan Yinzi to cultivate the truth, so that the Tao vein flourished.

Dao Zhan is derived from the ancient arts, which have appeared in ancient times. References to the art can be found in myths, legends, and later texts. Zhu Youshu was a very popular method at that time, and it was clearly recorded in the "Yellow Emperor's Neijing", so I will not repeat it.

Fangshu originated from the fertility cult of primitive societies, and one of the early Fangshu was the form of primitive gods. It is characterized by the concept of gods, because ancient people believed that all things have gods, and the primitive gods deified objects, and asked and worshiped them, trying to control or influence the objects with the help of gods.

"Historical Records" once recorded that Hua Xu gave birth to Fuxi because he stepped on the footprints of the gods, reflecting one of the primordial gods of this kind of magic; there are also primitive spirit monsters, in the "Lü's Spring and Autumn Period" and the "Historical Records of Justice" that quoted the "Chronicles of the Heavens", there is a spirit fish called Danyu, if its blood is smeared on the feet, people can walk on the water, which is also called the primordial spirit magic, and divination is one of it.

Later, the rapid development of the astronomical calendar led Dao Zhan to embark on the path of simple materialism, which was combined with the ancient science of the East.

Daozhan originated from Fuxi, Shennong and Yellow Emperor, matured in Jiang Shang, Laozi and Guiguzi, and carried forward more than Zhang Liang, Dong Zhongshu, Dongfang Shuo, Kong Anguo and Sima Qian. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors created various ancient techniques centered on Dao Zhan through labor and continuous practice in labor, so that our ancestors avoided unimaginable natural disasters such as great floods, great earthquakes, great droughts, great hunger, and so on.

Daozhan is one of the important techniques of Taoism, which is the study of using Taoist theories to understand or predict the laws of the development of things. The scientific theoretical basis of Dao Zhan is the theory of yin and yang, heavenly stems, earth branches, jiazi, bagua, and five elements.

Dao Zhan is to use yin

The technique of dividing the law of the five elements of yang, that is, understanding the law of things. Since the qi of the five elements of yin and yang exists in space, the theory of Dao Zhan is actually about the law of the movement of qi in space, and qi comes from celestial bodies and various objects on celestial bodies, so the law of qi is actually the law of movement of objects such as celestial bodies.

Daozhan is the practical result of looking up at astronomy, looking down on geography, taking things from afar, and forging ahead, and Daozhan is to predict what will happen at a certain moment by studying the laws of motion of celestial bodies. Then it's time to discuss the principles of the Tao Possession.

On the first day of the tenth lunar month every year, it is called the "October Dynasty", also known as the "Ancestor Festival". For the Winter Clothes Festival. Also known as the Hades Festival, on this day, special attention is paid to the sacrifice of the deceased, which is called sending winter clothes. With the Qingming Festival in spring and the Midyear Festival in autumn, it is known as the three major "ghost festivals" of the year.

In order to prevent the ancestors from being cold and cold in the underworld, on this day, people will burn five-colored paper, send them warm clothes, and send warmth to the lonely souls and ghosts. On October 1, the burning of cold clothes carries the nostalgia of the present people for the deceased and the compassion of the living for the deceased. At the same time, this day also marks the arrival of the harsh winter, so it is also a day for parents and lovers to send warm clothes to those they care about.

This festival has been around since ancient times. According to research, as early as the Zhou Dynasty, the first day of the tenth lunar month was the day of the Wax Festival, and a grand sacrifice was held on this day. The "Book of Rites and the Order of the Month" describes the situation of the Zhou Dynasty's wax sacrifice: with the prey as a sacrifice, the Son of Heaven sacrificed the sun, moon and stars to the gods on the altar, sacrificed the ancestors of the five generations in the gate, and at the same time comforted the peasants and promulgated a new work and rest system.

"The Book of Songs, Feng Feng, July" once mentioned that "the fire flows in July, and clothes are given in September", which means that the weather is gradually getting cold from September. It's time for people to buy warm clothes, so the first day of October is also commonly known as the Clothing Festival. Therefore, most of the clothes given by the former generation are in the ninth month of the summer calendar, and the date is uncertain.

Tang Xuanzong Tianbao said in August of the second year: "Those who worship are sincere and respectful, and recommend new ones, so they think of frost and dew." It is the time to know the first king's ceremony, and to cover the feelings of fate. During the period of artesian fire, the business style changed the law, carried the depth and chased the distance, the feeling of the object, and the poems were given clothes, so that the rest of the people was in the courtiers, and the favoritism was private, and the garden mausoleum was not standardized. From now on, every September 1, recommend clothes in the tomb, Yifan for thousands of years, and show filial piety. And the Midsummer Dragon Boat Festival, there is no classic, the vulgarity is transmitted, so it is to move the wind, and the filial piety, because of the pro-teaching, the feeling of the clothes in the Han Dynasty, into the dedication to the ceremony, the declaration of the bureaucracy, so that the knowledge of the meaning. ”

This edict directly affected the custom of people to worship the tomb and give clothes. Winter begins in October, and early in September.

It is popular in Luzhong to burn cold clothes at the intersection of wild roads in the evening, and to sacrifice to the dead or lonely souls and wild ghosts without descendants. In the southwest of Lu, in addition to preparing winter clothes for the Winter Clothes Festival, paper is also made with the theme of the opera or mythological stories that the deceased loved during his lifetime for entertainment in the underworld.

Burning cold clothes is a technical work, all the clothes, coins and other things given to the deceased must be burned cleanly, only in this way, these waste paper of the yang world can be transformed into silk and satin, gold and silver treasures of the underworld. If there is one

If the corner of the paper is not burned out, then I'm sorry, you will waste all your efforts, and the dead you have sacrificed will not get half of the benefits.

Nowadays, the custom of burning paper and clothes at the grave on the first day of October has gradually faded, and many people just go to the grave to pay silent mourning or offer a bouquet of flowers to remember their deceased relatives. All the clothes and money that belong to the deceased must be burned, and only when they are burned clean, can these yang papers be transformed into silk and satin cloth, house clothes, and gold, silver, and copper coins of the underworld. As long as there is a little bit that is not burned out, the previous work will be wasted, and the dead will not be able to use it. Therefore, on October 1, we should be particularly careful and meticulous in burning winter clothes. Although this kind of action seems funny, it also reflects the grief and reverence of the living for the dead, and belongs to a kind of spiritual sustenance.

When the people send winter clothes, they also pay attention to burning some five-color paper at the crossroads, symbolizing cloth. The intention is to relieve those desperate souls who have no one to worship their ancestors, so as not to rob them of the winter supplies sent to their relatives.

The burning of winter clothes is carried out in front of the grave of the deceased in some places, and it is important to go to the grave before the sun rises over the mountain. In some places, it is customary to burn sacrifices in front of the door. In many places in Yanbei and Pingyao and other counties in Jinzhong, women cry loudly outside the door in the evening. There is a poem in the old days of Linxian County: "Sticky paper garments are cut and burned in the early morning." Is it used to keep the cold spring taiguo? but it is pleasing to the ears when you hear the sorrow!", which not only describes the scene of sending winter clothes, but also questions its legendary effect.

The children kept filial piety and wore filial piety clothes for three years. On the first day of October in the year of filial piety, he changed into regular clothes. Ceremonies such as the relocation of the graves and joint burials of the ancestors are always used to be carried out on October 1.

On October 1, the people not only send winter clothes to the deceased for the winter, but also the living to carry out some traditional activities to symbolize the winter. On this day, the women should take out the cotton clothes they had made and let their children and husbands change the seasons.

If the weather is still warm at this time and it is not suitable to wear cotton, you should also urge your children and husband to try it on and be auspicious. Men used to tidy up stoves and chimneys on this day. After installation, try to light a fire to ensure smooth heating in cold weather. On the first day of the tenth lunar month, it is called the "October Dynasty", also known as the ancestor worship festival. Since ancient times, our country has had the custom of paying tribute to our ancestors at the time of the new harvest to show filial piety and not forget the roots.

Taoist temples generally hold a ceremony on this day to recruit An Ling to transcend the lonely souls of the past.

The ancients also used millet to worship their ancestors on the first day of the tenth lunar month. On the first day of the tenth lunar month, ancestors are sacrificed, and there are family sacrifices and tomb sacrifices. The first day of the tenth lunar month is also the first day of winter, after which the weather gradually gets colder, people are afraid that the ancestors and souls in the underworld will lack clothes and wear less, therefore, in addition to food, incense candles, paper money and other general offerings, there is also an indispensable offering - the underworld.

During the sacrifice, people burn the clothes to their ancestors, which is called "sending winter clothes".

Later, in some places, the custom of "burning cold clothes" has undergone some changes, no longer burning cold clothes, but "burning baggage" People seal a lot of dark paper in a paper bag, write the name of the recipient and the sender and the corresponding title, which is called "burden". There is the name of winter clothing, but there is no reality of winter clothing. people

It is believed that the underworld is the same as the yang world, and that if you have money, you can buy many things.

The Netherworld Zhenren smiled: "I have told you so much, I just hope that you will not let your relatives burn paper for you later." ”

Xie Baoshu said coldly: "I have no relatives. “

Nether True Man was stunned for a moment: "I'm sorry. ”

Immediately afterward, he asked again: "Xie Baoshu, from your current point of view, do you think we can defend the Two Realms Mountain? Today's move, although it is powerful, but I never dreamed that the demon clan still has such a powerful power. ”

It seems that the power of the demon clan really frightened the real people of the Netherworld.

Xie Baoshu said with a smile: "After such a long period of recuperation, the demon clan is naturally very powerful, but we Datang will not be afraid." ”

(End of chapter)