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 The
Chinese hold very diverse religious beliefs. If you keep your eyes open,
you may notice people worshiping water, fire, or stone, but at the end
of the day we are a very pragmatic people. Religious faith has never
played a pivotal role in our history. The reason we worship the gods is
that they all help us in certain ways, and we want to thank them for it.
There’s a point to it all. It’s an exhortation to live right. It
urges us, as the old Chinese saying says: “Forget your
wicked ways right this minute, you will be fine.” Our gods started out as humans like you
and me. The only difference is that at some point they found
enlightenment, and turned a corner we haven’t yet come to…
Lungshan
Temple is where the residents of Taipei’s Wanhua district go for
spiritual sustenance. And when we go through the great passages of
life--birth, aging, sickness, and death--it is to Lungshan Temple that
we come to take part in the rites that put everything in perspective,
and it just keeps going generation after generation.
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 It
is common for both Buddhist and Daoist deities to be worshipped at
temples and shrines in Taiwan, but at temples it is Buddhism that takes
precedence, and Lungshan Temple is no exception. In addition to
Guanyin,
the boddhisatva to whom the temple is dedicated, the visitor here can
also worship Mother Zhusheng
, King
Wenchang, King Guansheng, Matsu
, and King
Dizang (we will introduce them for you. If you are interested in,
just press the blue-color words to read the details). The statues for all these
spirits give silent yet powerful testimony to the tenacious resilience
of our gritty forbears as they made their perilous way across the sea to
settle the untamed island of Taiwan.
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 The
faithful ask the deity a yes-or-no question and throw two
crescent-shaped divination blocks to see what the future holds in store.
If both blocks land flat side down, it means that the deity has given a
negative answer. The answer is also negative if both blocks end up with
the rounded side downward, but if the two blocks land differently, the
answer is positive. If you get the same answer three times in a row, the
response is valid. “Will I do well on the big test? Will I find the
love of my life?” The answer is in the divination blocks!
As we leave, a thought occurs: Might there have been a girl our same age
standing in this very spot a hundred years ago thinking what we’re thinking right
now or another girl our age come
along a hundred years from now…?
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