Anyone knows anything or heard anything about these Gods - 天仙五仙 師 ?

I'm not good in Chinese, is 天仙五仙 師 translated as Five Immortals?

Many don't know the difference.

And some are not even Buddhism or Taoism but local belief.

Ya, most Chinese mix Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Well, if it works for us, why not?

Anyone prays to this God?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuanwu_(god)

"Xuanwu (玄武 "Dark Warrior" or "Mysterious Warrior") or Xuandi (玄帝 "Dark Deity"), also known as Zhenwu (真武) or Zhenwudadi (真武大帝 "True Warrior Great Deity"), is a deity in Chinese religion, one of the higher-ranking deities in Taoism.

He is revered as a powerful god, able to control the elements and capable of great magic.

He is identified as the god of the north Heidi (黑帝 "Black Deity") and is particularly revered by martial artists. He is the patron god of Hebei, Henan, Manchuria and Mongolia.

As some Han Chinese (now the modern-day Cantonese and Fujianese peoples) migrated into the south from Hebei and Henan during the Tang-Song era, Xuanwu is also widely revered in the Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian provinces, as well as among the overseas diaspora. ..."

I think in Hokkien, he's Seong Tay Kong.

Treating anxiety

https://bigthink.com/21st-century-spiritual...reating-anxiety

grandma hardcore taoist. went taiwan earlier this year and stayed one week at one of my grandma fren house which is a foh tang. Followed one of the camps at the taoist center on top of a hill. very big and nice. Too bad some things they say doesn't make any sense at all.

Most probably is 一贯道 yi-guan-dao
Not Taoism

yeah its, 1-guan dao. not same? lol. i tot is the same.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiguandao

Yiguandao is termed as one of the Chinese folk religion sects, and is quite a "young" one, only a few hundred years old.

Taoism is quite old.

actually 一贯道 is a cloned type of buddhism + taoism ...
their so called sutra actually copy from buddhist sutra n change the sutra content to become their sutra ...
like shakyamuni buddha n maitreya buddha suddenly become their "lei lou mou" messenger that send to earth .....
to save people n bring them to "lei tian" n happy forever ....
then all this jigong that like to drink wine n eat dog meat actually come from them la ....
and they also got triple gem n eat only vege like mahayana buddhism ....

ha ha, in our computer age, it's called "cut & paste" ...

A short description of Taoism:

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/religion/taoism/

Taoism is a genuinely Chinese religion. Some hold the opinion that without understanding it, there can be no understanding of Chinese culture.

Lao Zi was the creator of this religion. According to the Shi Ji, or Records of the Historian, by Sima Qian , Lao Zi was named Li Er, with Dan as his alias. He was a reputed thinker around 6th century B.C. There are many legends about Lao Zi but few historical records. He left a 5, 000-word book and went on his ox from Hangu Pass and to where nobody knows! Lao Zi's 5,000 words are rather concise compared to his profound ideological system but there were numerous books interpreting the true meaning of his book.

Tao, originally, meant 'road' and then implied 'to rule' and 'principle'. Lao Zi used Tao to propound his ideological system; therefore his school of thinking is called Taoism. At the time Lao Zi created this religion, it was simply a school of philosophy. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, it became a religion.

Tao is the origin of the eternal world. It is boundless in time and space. Ordinary people can become gods when they have Tao. This religion pursues immortality and preservation of health; its uttermost goal is to become an immortal being. This can be obtained through cultivating one's moral character and perfecting one's moral integrity.

A Taoist phrase is to say an ordinary man can become immortal if he does good 3,000 times and accomplishes 800 exploits. Of course the number is symbolic. It requires people to do good without making it known to others as the gods will know it naturally, much like the Christian principle expressed in Matthew 6:3-4, "But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

Tao is wu wei, namely Non-action. Non-action is to follow the rule of nature instead of overriding it. By conforming to the natural rules, Tao does nothing but it can do everything. Tao makes everything run smoothly but it does not boast about its own achievement. Those learning this religion should be pure and take non-action.

Dialectic thinking is abundant in Lao Zi's system. He contended that Tao turned to the opposite during the circulation, like existing and non-existing, up and down, long and short, front and back, fortune and misfortune, strong and weak. Based on his thinking, a proverb was later devised, "Things will develop in the opposite direction when they become extreme." For example, this religion holds that flexibility can defeat strength. Water was used as a metaphor in Lao Zi to explain the prowess of flexibility. Nothing can be more flexible and soft than water but it can defeat all tough things. Similarly, it emphasizes humbleness and tenderness.

This religion has its drawbacks. For example, Lao Zi promoted the idea of a return to a small state with a small population; people did not socialize though they lived so near that the barks of dogs could be heard. These ideas prevented social development. Also, Chinese intellectuals resorted to a hermitic way of life whenever they met setbacks; when they were successful, they would say "the less hermitry was to live in the remote areas while the great hermitry was to live in the court". The inner worldly and outer worldly attitudes made the Chinese intellects hover between the active Confucianism and the passive Taoism.

Taoism became a religion during the Eastern Han Dynasty and Lao Zi was respected as the creator.

During Three Kingdoms, many scholar-bureaucrats practiced Taoism and it soon became separated into an aristocrat sect and a folk sect. This situation lasted till the Jin Dynasty but doctrines were not strictly adhered to due to the chaotic political background.

Sui Emperors professed to Buddhism but still placed importance on this religion. Ten Taoist temples were constructed in Chang'an (today's Xi'an) under the order of Emperor Yang, the notorious tyrant of Chinese history.

Tang Emperors regarded themselves as offspring of Lao Zi and Taoism developed rapidly and had a profound repercussion on the subsequent dynasties.

Unlike Buddhism, Taoism does not advocate asceticism. It pursues longevity and holds an open view toward sex. In the heyday (during Tang Dynasty), there is no strict restriction on this. Taoist nuns were not uncommon. A poem satirizes that beautiful nuns were used to attract people as a means to compete with Buddhist temples.

In the middle years of the Tang Dynasty, aristocratic women, court maidens, and almes flocked to join the Taoist nuns, which had the effect of making this group more romantic and better endowed from a cultural and artistic point of view. The reasons why women became nuns varied; which meant that their prime purpose was not merely an ascetic life filled with devotion. Many were so beautiful that the temples were filled with people coming to solely to admire them. All these facts were noted in the Tang records. Many poets fell in love with Taoist nuns and many beautiful and sentimental poems were left when their love was unrequited. As Taoist nuns were called Nv Guan and later Nv Guan Zi, became a ci pai, a name of the tunes to which ci poems were composed.

Special institutions were set up by the Ming court to rule over the Taoist affairs. Another big event is the integration of the stories of the Eight Immortals. Over its long history, many legends about Taoist figures emerged and the most well-known are those of the Eight Immortals. A colloquial phrase has it, "like the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each one showing his or her special feats'. These Eight Immortals are seven men and a woman. The images of the Eight immortals can be seen in many artifacts, from the bridal sedan to cakes, vases, paper-cutting and paintings.

Taoism was suppressed by the Qing rulers as well as by the foreign invaders consequent upon the Opium War. It has been faced with a huge impact from foreign culture but it remains an influential system of thought among the Chinese people.

Do any of you do this?

http://en.daoinfo.org/wiki/Divination


Begging for dreams ( 乞夢 Qimeng ) is also called praying for dreams. People go to sleep in a temple and take their dreams there as a god's revelation.

They will judge whether they will have good or ill luck and fortune or misfortune by it. Dream divination is a time-honored custom, its origin going back to primitive society. There are many records of it in ancient scriptures. Both the Chuci and the Book of Mountains and Seas mention that Empress Qi in the Xia Dynasty dreamed of flying to the Celestial Emperor and was bestowed the Nine Songs, and then returned to this world. This shows that ancient people took dreams very seriously and regarded them as omens and revelations of gods or as hints to certain changes.

People also believed that the soul left the body in dreams, and could contact with gods and go to where gods dwelled. When ancient people had a dream, they would prognosticate ( 圓夢 Yuanmeng ) by inviting shamans or generally acknowledged persons to interpret their dreams. Oneiromancy was the duty of shamans. The position of dream interpreter was mentioned in the Rites of the Zhou Dynasty. This position belonged to the Great Administration of Spring Officials. The Book of Dream Interpretation ( 解夢書 Jiemeng Shu ) circulated in society. The Daoist Canon also collected some materials related to dream divination. The Extensive Records of the Taping Era has seven volumes of stories about dreams. These materials mainly mention the efficaciousness of dreams and prognostications, with few references to begging for dreams. As an interpretation given after the dream, prognostication is passive.

Begging for dreams, however, is an active process. By praying piously, people hope that the gods appearing in one's dreams will foretell good or ill luck and guide one's actions. This depends on one's belief in dreams. The worship of immortals, Buddhas and folk gods are prerequisites. In Taiwan and even in Mainland China, the biggest place for begging dreams is the Temple of Guidance (Zhinan Gong). It once enshrined Lu Dongbin, and contained more than eight hundred guest rooms for people to beg for dreams and get Patriarch Lu's "guidance' in dreams.

Daoism and Buddhism's influence in folk beliefs is evident in begging for dreams. Most of those who go to temples are troubled by something and don't know what to do; they wish that the god will point out the way for them. They are not religious believers in a strict sense.

For the concerned people, what they get from dreams is decisive. Generally speaking, those who go to beg for dreams will never doubt the revelations of dreams, will take its interpretation seriously, and try hard to do what the gods tell them to do. Lu You, the Southern Song poet, wrote a story in the Notes of the Laoxue Studio ( 老學庵筆記 Laoxue An Biji ), vol.1, which reads: "when Li Zhiji was a child, he begged for a dream in front of the god Zitong. He dreamed of going to Tianning Temple in Chengdu that evening. A Daoist priest pointed at the stone of the Weaving Maiden and said: 'if you name yourself after it, you will pass the civil exams.' So Li changed his name to ' stone', and styled himself Zhiji. He did pass the provincial exam that year." Mr.Li changed his name according to the revelation in his dream and made his wish come true. The Imperial Heaven didn't fail to live up his wish.

People would beg for dreams when they encountered trouble. The dreams recorded in books are stories about dreams which have come true. From the stories we can judge that this way of divination must be efficacious. Gong Wei, who lived in the Qing Dynasty, wrote in his Writings in the Wood that: "He Zhuan was the king of Dongchuan. Before he succeeded in his civil exam, he begged for a dream in Patriarch Lü's temple in the capital. In the dream, he was led to one place and there was no door to get out. A god said: 'I will open a door for you.' When a door opened, he saw a god with a blue face who was very much like the worldly drawing of the fourth stellar god in the bowl of the Big Dipper. He was quite surprised when he woke up.' In the civil examination of the year of Kuisi, he actually got the first place in the imperial examination ( 大魁 Dakui )."According to legend, the fourth stellar god in the bowl of the Big Dipper is in charge of scholarly ranks. Whoever circles by him will surely pass the civil exam. He Zhuan dreamed of this god, so it was natural for him to be successful in the exam. Other dreams are very complicated, and it is hard to see their connections superficially.

Even if the connections with actual events may seem far-fetched, the dream will be considered to be efficacious. Once a person went to beg for a dream in famous Ming official Yu Qian's temple, and dreamed that the god's subordinate Xu Di touched his backside. He blamed the just god for being not just at all, allowing his subordinate to engage in homosexuality. Later, this person got a petty official position at Longyang. He suddenly realized that his dream had come true. It turned out that people called homosexuals "Long-yang-xu". His dream had indicated the place where he would get a position. Anyway, such dreams are hard to predict in advance.

side note
一贯道 yiguandao branched out from 白莲教 white lotus sect, this defunct sect made famous in 方世玉 fong sai yuk and 黄飞鸿 wong fei hung stories as a secret society of scammers using religion card LOL.

This post has been edited by sportivo: Jan 18 2019, 10:01 PM

This Sunday Jan 20, 2019 is what the Westerners call "Super Blood Wolf Moon".

Is this occurrence significant in Taoism?

i like 9 emperor god

dong dong chiang

Well, many Chinese festivals go dong dong chiang.

CNY coming, will be dong dong chiang everyday

I hear the words "cultivate your tao".

How does one do that?
Is it through meditation?
Do you need a sifu's guidance?