Long Shan Men Cultivation Mantra for Offering of Incense, Spiritual Cultivation & Respect Etiquette (龍山門上香.禮儀.內修要訣)

The following Mantra is a Mantra passed down by Long Shan Men's Ancestors for disciples' self-cultivation (including Qi Gong Cultivation), making offerings and while pay respect to any Taoist Deities.Due to this Mantra is being passed down for many generations, different generations have different explanations. In order for the new generation to have a better and easy understanding of the Mantra, here I will do a quick and simple translation for each phrase.

Here it goes:

一身是道。Yi Shen Shi Dao

A physical Body of one self is considers as Dao aka Taoism. One self physical body is able to release different form of positive and negative energies that will somehow affect the surroundings.

In order for one self to be a Good & Upright person or Spiritual Person, one self must always reminds one self to be Upright and must understand the theory of the Yin & Yang Forces.

By understanding the theory and put good use to it, one self shall be able to merge the 2 forces well and then transform the output into positive energies, in order to assist whatever that needed assistance.

For paying respect & offering of incenses: Always maintain a clear mind and sincere soul.

兩合陰陽。Liang He Yin Yang

Dao is made up of the 2 forces of Yin & Yang, in scientific term known as Pull & Push forces.

If a person is able to direct in the Pull forces and merge with the Push forces, a certain outcome will be presented and vice verse. Only Upright forms of Yin & Yang energies are being merge-well, a Strong & Positive outcome will be created.

For paying respect & offering of incenses: Using the symbol of Yin & Yang from our physical hands to gather the Natural form of Energies from the surrounding to gather into our physical bodies to produce the highest respect for the Deities.

三清為尊。San Qing Wei Zun

San Qing aka The Three Pure One, are the 3 Deities that manifested the infinite quantities of Deities all over the Three Realms.

With their manifestation, all Living Beings are able to get the necessary blessings & sufferings being salvaged. As a Taoist, we Must always have them in our Mind, Soul & Physical Body. Always remind one self that, we are Dao and we need to withhold the Uprightness of Taoism and provide our best assistance to those who needed assistance.

For paying respect & offering of incenses: During this moment, the 3 incenses that we hold on to is the represent San Qing.

四象歸正。Si Xiang Gui Zheng

Si Xiang aka The Four Miracle Changes that created from the Yin & Yang forces.

In order for all Living Beings able to be manifested into the 3 Realms, these 4 Miracle Changes Must know what is the Positive & Negative forces or which choices are Wrong & Right while they started to manifest the Living Beings out from the combination of the forces.

For paying respect & offering of incenses: To see one self Uprightness or behaviors, one self body posture can tell all. While paying respect, in order to show one self highest respect to the Deities, the arms must be properly place & legs must be firmly stepped onto the ground.

五體敬儀。Wu Ti Jing Yi

Wu Ti, the Five physical body parts that one self has, which are Head, 2 Arms & 2 Legs.

By sacrificing the Five physical body parts (not cutting them off, but refer to kneeling & kowtowing) thru certain sufferings of minor pains, one self will attained a certain cultivation, etc.

For paying respect & offering of incenses: In here, meaning kneeling down & doing kowtowing. In certain Rituals/Ceremonies, constant kneeling & kowtowing will be needed, Thru such practicing, one self can learn certain things and certain wisdom will be enhanced.

六竅閉靜。Liu Qiao Bi Jing

Liu Qiao, the Six Sensing Sources in one self face, which are 2 eyes, 2 nostrils & 2 ears. During self cultivation, these 6 sources are the most easily being affected. In order to concentrate, these 6 sources Must be Shut-off from the external World.

How to?

This will have to depend on one self cultivation level.

For example: By not hearing physically does not mean one self wont hear the physical speech. In order to cut off totally such physical distraction, one self Must practice the method of Ceasing of Physical Distraction to attain the Spiritual Cultivation, etc.

For paying respect & offering of incenses: During paying of respect, one self Must only concentrate on the paying respect and showing one self respect to the Deities. Do not think of other issues while paying respect.

七元護身。Qi Yuan Hu Shen

Qi Yuan, the Seven Star Lords of the Great Dipper of the North.

The source of where a new Life begin and end.By practicing self cultivation and follow the above methods of ceasing all external distraction, one self will then be able to call upon the Seven Star Lords to send protection or blessing from the Northern Heaven to one self physical body, mind & soul. With such protection or blessing, one self will be able to stay close connection with the Three Realms and whatever messages that one self wished to convey will be easily being received by the destinated parties.

In some contexts, such protection or blessing will enable one self Spiritual Level to increase, etc.

For paying respect & offering of incenses: If one self is sincerely & faithfully in giving respect to any Deities, the one self will be blessed and any troubles or obstacles will be removed.

八卦立地。Ba Gua Li Di

Ba Gua, the Trigram. With the Eight Symbols in the Ba Gua, many things & Living Beings are able to be manifested onto this Mortal World. And with the assistance of these Eight Symbols, a lot of predictions can be made to minimize the percentage of destruction & sufferings.

And this is why, our Planet Earth cannot survived without this Eight Symbols. In order to allow more positive issues to be manifested and sufferings to reduce to the minimum, Ba Gua Must be set as the base of Earth. This applies to actions that one self does.

By understand how each symbol in the Ba Gua affect each other and how each symbol in the Ba Gua collaborate with each other, one self will be able to achieve in most of the things that one self engaged in.

For paying respect & offering of incenses: While paying respect, one self both feet Must spread at an angle with shows the Chinese character of Eight – Ba. By stepping the Ba step, one self will be reminded of the importance of Ba Gua and Must always Stand-firm & Upright in whatever one self does.

九九得元。Jiu Jiu De Yuan

Jiu Jiu as in the multiply of 9 with 9 which equals to a total of 81.

81, an auspicious number in Chinese Culture & also Taoist Practices.

In here, we are not talking about mathematics or formulas, but the number of trials of success & failure. In order to attain Enlightenment, one self must put in effort in all forms of cultivation, never mind if one self failed a number of times. As long as one self is sincere and faithfully in the cultivation that one self is engaged in, one day, one self will achieve.

Jiu Jiu De Yuan means, only with numbers of trials of failure and successful. One self will be able to attain another level of cultivation which leads to Enlightenment in the future.

For paying respect & offering of incenses: In order to show the highest respect to the Deities, one self can end the Paying Respect Ritual/Ceremony by having a 9 times kowtowing.Constant practicing of the 9 times kowtowing can achieve certain cultivation for one self.

精神化真。Jing Shen Hua Zhen

By practicing the above mentioned actions, went thru numbers of failure & successful, doing serious self cultivation, one self will be well equipped with a certain quantities of knowledge and attain a certain level of enlightenment.

Put in more effort to achieve the next higher level of cultivation, one self will succeed in no-time.

For paying respect & offering of incenses: After all the sincere & faithful actions of paying respect, one self will be protected or blessed by the Deities and whatever messages that one self wish to convey will be done.

Last of all, to conclude, paying respect to Deities or making offering of incenses to Deities does not just simply mean paying respect or offering of incenses, etc.

All these are forms of self cultivation, a self cultivation to enhance one self in determination and spirit of not giving-up.

Once one self is well "trained" in how to do things with determination & a spirit of not giving-up, one self will succeed in a lot of things that one self never succeed before, etc.

Long Shan Men 64 Generations Taoist Lineage Title (龍山門六十四代傳承道號)

(天 Heavenly Section)

混元玄黃。Hun Yuan Xuan Huang

宇宙洪弓。Yu Zhou Hong Gong

日月星光。Ri Yue Xing Guang

辰宿烈宗。Chen Xiu Lie Zong

(地 Earthly Section)

陰陽八卦。Yin Yang Ba Gua

水臨木豐。Shui Lin Mu Feng

金仰火炎。Jin Yang Huo Yan

中土興通。Zhong Tu Xing Tong

(人 Humanly Section)

全忠孝禮。Quan Zhong Xiao Li

信仁慈勇。Xin Ren Ci Yong

義恭貞廉。Yi Gong Zhen Lian

誠慶明朗。Cheng Qing Ming Lang

(萬物 The Dao Section)

上天下地。Shang Tian Xia Di

風雷雨電。Feng Lei Yu Dian

山川河海。Shan Chuan He Hai

春夏秋冬。Chun Xia Qiu Dong 　

Reasons for the existence of the different Sections

As recorded in Long Shan Men's records, in order for the different generations to have a better understanding of what tasks (allocated) to perform in the different eras, our Founder Ancestor of Long Shan Men – Lord Long Yi (龍山門創教祖師龍一真君) created the different sections for the descendants and disciples (by seeing the different Lineage Title, the others will be able to know what’s their tasks are, etc).

For Heavenly Section – Tian (天), disciples under this Section were needed to assist the Country in getting rid of all invaders and resolving of any external destruction forces. Besides that, disciples of Heavenly Section had to withhold the Upright-reputation of the Heaven & the Sect and also, to follow rules & regulations set by the Authorities of the Spiritual World.

And in our records (in Chinese), it's recorded as Qian Tian Ci Xun Du Wan Zhong

(乾天賜巡度萬眾).

For Earthly Section – Di (地), disciples under this Section were needed to salvage as much sufferings (in any forms) as possible and, to master all teachings and preaching passed down by the Ancestors in order to assist in the future development of the Country and the Sect.

And in our records (in Chinese), it's recorded as Kun Di Xiu Shen Xing Jia Guo.

(坤地修身興家國)

For Humanly Section – Ren (人), disciples under this Section were needed to master the skills being passed down by the Ancestors and do as much preaching as possible to people who wished to promote the Upright Culture of our very own Religion – Taoism.

And in our records (in Chinese), it's recorded as Zheng Jiao Zhu Ren Chuan Zhen Dao.

(正教助人傳真道)

For The Dao Section – Wan Wu, disciples under this Section were needed to "transform" all the teachings and preaching passed down by the Ancestors from the previous Three Sections into the Push & Pull forms in assisting all the Living Beings in the Mortal World (objective: All Living Beings to attain Enlightenment). And to promote the Best Culture out of the many Cultures, in order to prolong the "Age" of our Taoism.

And in our records (in Chinese), it’s recorded as Qi Wei Wu Wei Hua Zhong Sheng.

(氣為無為化眾生)

And last, ALL the disciples of Long Shan Men must withhold the reputation of these Four Characters: Qian Kun Zheng Qi (乾坤正氣) Meaning: Positive & Upright Energies are always in this Universe, we will need to try our best to maintain it, withhold it and never-ever try to destroy it. Only by maintaining & withhold it, ALL Living Beings in this Universe will be saved and possible of living peacefully and harmony, etc.

Ten Vows from Long Shan Men Master – Lord Long Yi (龍山門始祖 - 龍一真君十願)

According to the main Scripture that being passed down by Long Shan Men Ancestors, all disciples of Long Shan Men will have to try their best to fulfill the Ten Vows that made by Lord Long Yi (龍一真君).

These Ten Vows were being made before Lord Long Yi got the permission from Yuan Shi Tian Zun (元始天尊) for the reincarnation into this Mortal Realm.

In order for the disciples of Long Shan Men and the others to understand more on the Vows, here are the brief explanations of the Ten Vows:

首願下降助度世。

First Vow: Upon reincarnated in this Mortal Realm and being officially accepted as the disciples of Long Shan Men, all disciples will have to assist any Deities and Long Shan Men Ancestors in doing any form of salvations.

在願救拔諸苦離。

Second Vow: All disciples will have to put in effort in ceasing sufferings and provide possible assistance to the needy.

三願救改諸惡厄。

Third Vow: All disciples will have to put in effort in resolving all misfortune & mishaps (Spiritually or Physically) for any living beings.

四願救渡諸難關。

Forth Vow: All disciples will have to put in effort in assisting any living beings to overcome any difficulties at anytime, may it be a minor or major one.

五願救民有舍宅。

Fifth Vow: All disciples will have to put in effort in assisting the needy in having a place to stay (this vow was made in Late Tang Dynasty, during the Chaotic Period, where wars and riots happened. In the Modern World today, disciples of Long Shan Men can avoid this vow, unless someone who are financially-capable in assisting the needy in getting a home).

六願救國興國祚。

Sixth Vow: All disciples must be Loyalty to his/her own Country and shall try the best in providing as much assistance as possible to the Country in maintaining peacefulness and harmony for the citizens.

七願救疆無兵災。

Seventh Vow: All disciples will have to assist the Country in minimizing/stop battles, riots and conflicts at anytime and anywhere, in-order to create a positive environment for the citizens to stay in.

八願救田豐收成。

Eighth Vow: All disciples will have to put in effort in assisting any living beings in any sort of harvesting. By providing the possible assistance for the harvesting, the citizens will be able to live in better condition.

九願救魂離九幽。

Ninth Vow: All disciples will have to put in effort in performing salvation for any suffering souls in any Realms, in order for the souls to attain their enlightenment & proceed to another higher Realm.

十願救魔出迷境。

Tenth Vow: All disciples will have to put in effort in guiding any forms of Negative Entities in turning-over-a-new-leaf or getting enlightenment, etc.

代代傳人傳十願。十願達成昇真境。

Once a disciple of Long Shan Men is able to achieve the vows, their credits & merits will be recorded and once they leave this Mortal Realm, they will be able to attain their enlightenment.