Spiritual Cultivation and Movement
How did Sheng Zhen Men arrange spiritual-lord recognition, and was it merely receiving a token?
English translation draft · Based on the Chinese article. This is not a word-for-word translation approved by Master Shengyuan.
It was more than receiving a token. We hoped people would understand their spiritual lord and affinity, then establish connection through formal ritual. The token provides a medium for resonance; subsequent practice remains necessary.
We use our tradition's methods, such as asking deities through chess divination, to explore the lord and accounts of the soul before human incarnation. Hearing these sometimes moves people inwardly and gives them a clearer feeling of affinity.
The rite uses written petitions to invoke the spiritual lord and identifies a corresponding token. Deities differ in approach: sometimes arriving, sometimes only conveying words. Sensitive people may strongly experience the energy, and individual occasions need not feel alike.
The point is spiritual steadiness and knowing the direction of learning, not automatic supernatural powers afterward. Sound understanding and meditation to cultivate spiritual energy remain personal work. The connection supports you without completing the path for you.
We also value the person's feelings when arranging it. Practice or dreams may gradually suggest affinity with a deity, then both sides explore and arrange together. Having some personal experience before the rite clarifies what is happening more than only hearing another person's answer. This was part of what we valued in mature conditions then.