Stories of Sheng Zhen Men
What directions does Sheng Zhen Men emphasize in sharing and providing services?
English translation draft · Based on the Chinese article. This is not a word-for-word translation approved by Master Shengyuan.
Each person seeking help has different conditions and needs. Services cannot always apply one method or invoke one fixed deity. Understanding the problem first and then seeking corresponding divine help according to need has always mattered to Sheng Zhen Men.
Early on, Miao Nian sought help for her father from several teachers using the same approach without improvement. Later, reading my book and seeing different methods and even different deities for different problems prompted interest. Her experience cannot judge every teacher, but illustrates carefully unraveling problems. Products likewise sometimes arise from clients’ actual needs rather than deciding what to sell and inventing reasons. Nor does every product guarantee identical effects for everyone.
Wanting to help requires continued development of problem-solving ability. Interest in a field and wanting to do it well motivate learning and improvement. Difficult requests bring pressure. Alongside vows and a sense of mission, regular recitation, meditation, exercises, and connection with deities remain necessary. Claiming powerful backing alone is insufficient.
Practical work also requires care. Dao Shun described discovering a damaged altar before installing a deity for a client, purchasing materials and repairing it before the ritual, deeply moving the client. This was one experience, not a promise every service today includes the same repairs or an unchanging procedure.
The word Men in Sheng Zhen Men also relates to an educational path or method. I hope those entering learn and understand rather than only worship. Encountering different beliefs helps clarify accounts and methods of energy so they can later be explained. The wish to help, practical ability, and understanding all need continued development.
Use properly what you have learned and can handle yourself. Sometimes deities personally guide people during services with their own teachings, but I do not know this from the outset or prearrange a moment of descent. In an earlier case involving underworld soldiers, Master Ji Gong later came to remind the person about conduct requiring adjustment. That was one experience, not a plot repeated in every service.
Other places may understand a problem without accepting the case, depending on expertise. Some seeking help relay being advised to seek further divine assistance. Discussing this, I also said expertise differs. Understanding and practical handling both require corresponding capacities. Accepting or declining a case alone cannot support one judgment about every temple.
At one early period, clients mainly asked about ancestors; at others, demon-subduing matters predominated. Looking back, I understand deities as guiding further learning through different cases and building judgment and experience. I did not know every client’s question in advance, nor did finding one method remove further learning.
Remote purification likewise developed gradually from actual need. Although we initially preferred attendance in person, some genuinely could not come, so we continued seeking guidance and discussing help. Remote home purification requires environmental photographs and videos, with team checks during the work to identify what needs supplementing. Adding a service name does not complete preparation; actual methods still need clarification item by item.
After temple visits or activities, we sometimes return to Sheng Zhen Men to share and discuss insights. Having experienced something and raising unclear points deepens impressions and clarifies questions. This is seeing, listening, and learning more: not merely having an experience, but reflecting on what we actually understood.