Friday, June 10, 2005

The Yi on the expulsion of a Quanzhen immortal

Daoists may be surprised to hear that a Heavenly immortal has been expelled from Quanzhen. In this case more surprisingly as it involves a well known Daoist immortal, and one of the five Northern Patriarchs of Quanzhen. No, it was not Donghua Dijun, Zhongli Quan, Lu Dongbin or Wang Chungyang but Liu Haichan, a student of Lu. One of Liu Haichan’s students, Zhang Ziyang was the progenitor of the five Southern Patriarchs.

A few months ago my Daoist friend and I were discussing on some alchemy practices taught by Liu Haichan. It was then when he mentioned that Liu has been expelled from Quanzhen for quite sometime. When he first heard about it from a Quanzhen temple in Hong Kong, he was surprised too and he did venture to ask why. But his ancestor master, a Heavenly immortal, just told him not to ask. Out of curiosity and as requested by my friend, I recently ask the Yi the reason for the expulsion. And this is what the Yi has to say:

11 Tai / Peace

The Judgment
Peace. The small departs, the great approaches.
Good fortune. Success.

The Image
Heaven and earth unite: the image of peace.
Thus the ruler divides and completes the course of heaven and earth;
He furthers and regulates the gifts of heaven and earth, and so aids the people.

Comments:
The way of the superior man is waxing; the way of the inferior man is waning. In the world of man it is time of social harmony; those in high places show favor to the lowly, and the lowly and inferior in their turn are well disposed toward the highly placed. There is an end to all FEUDS.[W/B]

Notes:
1) Although Yi’s answer contains no line changes, the second line refers to factions and clichés.
2) Also check out the relationship between the third line and the top line.
3) The top line explained the FALL and the ‘possibility’ of a return to the fold?
4) The expulsion confirms that even heavenly immortals have to constantly and continuously cultivate.
5) Although the nuclear trigrams indicated something more, out of respect, it is not appropriate to mention it here.
6) Perhaps the expulsion was the only way to end the feud and/or transgression, so that peace reigns once again on Heaven and Earth?
7) My Daoist friend has no objection to the posting of this entry as it was my question.
8) Time to go wandering.

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