五品仙人
The Five Ranks of Immortals [part I]
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The following appendix entry is a write-up from a collection of notes taken over several years at Five Immortals Temple during lectures by the residing abbot Li Shifu. It is by no means comprehensive or all-encompassing, but more intended to provide an overview to deepen the reader’s understanding of the concept of Immortality from a Taoist perspective.
Immortals are separated into Five Ranks, namely Human Immortals [ren xian人仙], Heavenly Immortals [tian xian天仙] Immortals, Spirit Immortals [shen xian神仙] , Earthly Immortals [di xian地仙] and Ghost Immortals [gui xian鬼仙]. To reiterate, they all fall under the category of Immortals. The ranks reflect the level of cultivation by a human. Ultimately, the goal of an adept should be to cultivate and refine above the level of the Human Immortal. First and foremost, it is crucial to delineate the meaning of the word Immortal. An immortal is not identical to a common mortal person, for they have abilities, others do not. For instance, some immortals have wings, whereas normal people lack wings. If a normal mortal person can survive without food for a certain period of time, then an immortal is able to exceed that time period by far. When a normal mortal person takes two hours to travel by car from White Horse Mountain to Shiyan, an immortal arrives there in half an hour without the use of a vehicle. The above-mentioned examples pertain to two ranks of Immortals, the Human and the Earthly Immortal, since they possess a body. If they are knowledgeable of the right methods, it is easy for them to go skywards from that level upwards. It is, therefore, important to observe the lineage of teachers they had and what their techniques exactly consists of. Each level has its own set of pertaining methods which will yield certain “tools’ or accomplishments.
The lowest rank are the Ghost Immortals, as they descend, as if the leaders of the underworlds. Moreover, they are able to transform freely and exist for a very long time in this realm. Despite having failed to comprehend the larger workings of cultivation, they succeeded in returning to the centre. However, they did not grasp how to change Yin and Yang. In other words, they do not dissolve into Yin and Yang at death and, thus, remain one whole entity. This is due to their lack of knowledge and, consequently, they do not ascend. This concept is different from what commoners call Ghosts, as these ones discussed here are immortals; Ghost Immortals. Ghost Immortals are still capable of evolving, yet it will take them much longer in their current form than it would take them in human form.
“This is the reason why in this world the human body is the most treasured. From this human body you have the choice to decide what you will eventually become through your cultivation.”
Furthermore, the Ghost Immortals do not live in the same three-dimensional space as humans do.
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Post-Scriptum: This article will appear in the appendix of Purple Cloud Press’ forthcoming publication of 《The 49 Barriers of Daoist Cultivation》 by Xing De, a manual for refining Inner Nature based on Liu Yiming’s 50 Barriers.
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