Daoist Medicine I:
道医六个一
Daoist Medicine’s Six Ones
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Daoist medicine is characterised by “Six Items”, referred to as Six-Ones. This post is about its first item:
（一）一根/株/炉香
(1) One Stick of Incense
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通天达地。
[One is able to] connecting with Heaven and
communicating with Earth [through incense].
Incense expels epidemics and evils [bi wen qu xie 避瘟驱邪]. It establishes a channel with Divinities [tong ling 通灵] and Spirits [shen神] above and below and it awakens the brain [xing nao醒脑] and opens the orifices [kai qiao开窍]. Incense is a medium of form and substance, and offering incense [shang xiang上香] may enable the worshipper to interlink with Heaven and Earth. This is a cross-cultural concept. For instance as part of the Native American sweat lodge, incense is first offereed on the altar and later lit and burnt on heated stones. Sheep and lamb oil are also traditonal offerings [gong yang 供养]. One ought to communicate with sincerity and reverence in order to borrow higher powers and energy and in order to ask them for assistance with resolving a problem or issue. Furthermore in Catholicism, the priests in the Vatican only employ incense, not animals. What is the difference between burning animal oil or human oil? These are clearly two different paths.
The character for Incense contains the meanings of communicating and exchanging with Heaven and Earth and the Ten Thousand Things, as well as with the internal and external energy fields.
上通天，下通地。
Above connected with Heaven,
below connected with Earth.”
It could be argued that it also comprises as little as the significance of two Chinese characters:
诚敬
Cheng Jing
Cheng [诚] is the 24th Dragon Gate generation name and denotes Sincerity. Without sincerity you just fool around, trying things out and playing around. If you have doubts, you require Jing[敬] –Reverence. Humans ought to be deferential [gong jing 恭敬], minute [wei xiao微小] and humble [qian xu谦虚], since they are commoners, and have not become angels yet. Maybe they were angels in the past, but not now, because people are without wings grown on their backs. In the Dao De Jing and the Bible it says:
You must be like children [ying er婴儿], pure [chun jing chun jie纯净纯洁], without selfish desires [si yu私欲] and without strivings.
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Post-Scriptum: The full article on the Daoist Medicine’s Six Ones 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.
