Shanxi Temple
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Introduction |
Shanxi Temple founder Madam Ceng,Yue-Rui was previously a housewife but became sick in 1954. She sought for medical treatment but without progress. Her mother-in-law then took her to Jingmei Temple (enshrining Lu Dong Bin) for recovery. In one week she recovered from the illness and became the spiritual medium, she then swore to save people. The religious followers under the blessing of Lu Dong Bin made enthusiastic suggestions to build a small temple for enshrining at the current address, which then eventually expanded to the size today.
Shanxi Temple originated from the Shanxi Hall in Taipei City and the temple has been complying with "charity" by routinely donating rice to orphanages and holding various charity events such as winter relief for poverty and emergency aids.
Founder Madam Ceng,Yue-Rui already passed away and currently his daughter Madam Su,Su-Zhen is the abbot of the temple. She has invited the Abbot Li, Sheng-Xuan of Shengxuan Temple to work at the temple and declares the five founding missions of the temple, in an attempt to revitalize the cultural power of Longquan Road through the communities and adjacent temples.
Currently Shanxi Temple offers free shuttle bus on the weekends (F-602). The bus departs from Southern Tianmu and arrives to Exit No. 4 of Dingpu MRT Station in about 10 minutes. There is also shuttle bus for leaving Shanxi Temple, which operates by the following timetable:
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Southern Tianmu |
06:45 |
08:15 |
09:45 |
11:15 |
13:15 |
14:45 |
16:15 |
17:45 |
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Shanxi Temple |
06:00 |
07:30 |
09:00 |
10:30 |
12:30 |
14:00 |
15:30 |
17:00 |
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Interview with the Abbesses Su of Shanxi Temple |
Q: Could you please introduce us to some of the many changes made to Shanxi Temple recently?
A: The five founding mission of Shanxi Temple are culture, health, ecology, education, and religion.
Culture: We hope to develop traditional culture. Many deities protect Longquan River in Zutian Village and there are some 30 temples in Zutian Village. We have contacted with several temples that are willing to maintain this traditional culture. For example, we hold various drumming of temples during Chinese New Year's eve for praying and the lantern holding activities held on Lantern Festival, where we walk on Longquan Road from the bottom of the mountain to halfway so that we could all experience the beauty of traditional culture.
Health: The meals are made of natural and health ingredients with proper portions using their own tableware. We would like people accept the concept of health and introduce such concept to their home from the experience of contact with us.
Ecology: In New Taipei City, we have very good ecology environment and compared with Tong Blossom Park, this is a more primitive area and less artificial. Tong Blossom Park stresses the appreciation of Tong blossom but we don't emphasize on that here because it is an exotic species with poisonous fruits and grows fast. It affects the survival of local epidemic species plants. We prefer to maintain the original ecology. For example, we never use pesticides on our tea garden and the weeding requires many people but we still insist it. Our tea is definitely organic. The first sentence of Matzutian Song is the "Tea Garden of Lu Dong Bin," and that refers to our tea garden.
Education: We promote our concepts constantly in terms of education. We invite famous teachers to instruct our volunteers and she also thinks that we have a lot of potentials and is willing to help us. We also invite teachers for the recent assessment of bats restoration recently and to help us.
Religion: The last one is religion. We believe that religion can stabilize people and Shanxi temple is a dual practice place for Buddhism and Daoism. We used to arrange Buddhism and Daoism together in the past but now the Buddhist statuses are stored on the fourth floor while a meditation area is set up. The status of Lu Dong Bin is on the fifth floor. Some people regard Daoism as deceiving but actually Daoism also persuades people to do good and it is good. Buddhism comes with many religious doctrines while Daoism also offers doctrines. For example, the 100-word inscription behind me is the caring approach passed down by Lu Dong Bin. We hope to turn around everyone's idea and some of the wonderful things in Daoism could be used and sometimes you really could not explain them. Once when I was little, a police officer came to investigate on a crime case that could not be resolved. He knelt down to ask the Lu Dong Bin and Lu gave answer through my mother's mouth: "An old ox growing mustache (Taiwanese)." The police official thought about it later and said that the surname of the suspect was "Zhu." Sometimes people were cured for unknown fever at the pavilion by Shanxi Temple and I have seen it with my eyes and I am sure that it was not a fraud.
Q: Now that your mother has passed away so whom the religious followers can ask questions when they come?
A: There is this Abbot Li, Sheng-Xuan who is a pharmacist and owns many pharmacies. Now he comes here every Saturday and sometimes on Wednesdays if someone has an appointment. We have shuttle bus at the number 4 exit at Dingpu MRT Station and anyone could make an appointment for enquiry on things or life. These are free services. We are also currently updating the hardware environment. For example, the third floor we are on is the place having undergone renovation. I think we will need a seminar or conference room. For example the new Buddhism Hall built recently offers place for meditation. We will also renovate the second floor into accommodation rooms. There is a place upstairs for overlooking the views. Dr. Yang likes to read there and we could renovate it into a place for drinking tea and coffee. In the future, we would also like to cooperate with Dingpu Elementary School, where students can hold sketch activities and get in contact and appreciate the nature.
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Interview with Abbot Li, Sheng-Xuan |
Q: We would like to introduce Shanxi Temple so that the visitors will find out about this great place. Abbot Su mentioned that you took over the role of enquiry and could you please tell us how you will proceed?
A: My name is Li, Sheng-Xuan. Nowadays praying is much like fast food, where religious followers pray and tell you that they want. However I was told by the elderly that you pray and you also work for it. I used to consider the music of scripture recital is very noisy but when I had access to Zen sect and it is infused with some folk music with beautiful melodies and profound doctrines. I also worship. Some people ask me if I have even seen God when I am worshipping and I told them that I only see religious followers who are very pious and they will find spiritual entrust from my worshipping. I do not recite scripture like Taiwanese opera troupe and I only have one conditions: That is to give my three minutes before reciting the scripture and I will explain the doctrines of this scripture. At first people could not understand me but later some temples have come specifically for me. Some elderly also ask me when I would go again next years. This is when I feel like I need more academic structure, the knowledge and background, so I pursued advanced study at Fu Jen Catholic University.
My teacher told me that the essence of religion is "service" and I adjust my mentality and knowledge needed from this viewpoint. Once I went to a place with beautiful views with the teacher and the teacher shared with us study on health care. He also introduced me to the abbot of Shanxi Temple. The former abbot just passed away at the time and Abbot Su just took over the temple while many religious followers also left one by one. I discovered that many religious followers were following the previous abbot instead of Lu Dong Bin. So I talked with new Abbot Su and discovered that we had many belief and ideas in common. I suggested helping the temple and we will not talk about metaphysics, ghosts and deities but spiritual education and advocacy for moral and empathy. We do not refer the meaning of religion to Buddhism or Daoism only but ecology and education. The temple values ecology and local species and I have learned a lot from them. I think this is a good opportunity for people to learn and devote. I am really happy here and have learned a lot.
Q: What do you do when people come for inquiries?
A: My approach differs from the past. In the past the religious followers come to ask God but I use my method and I tend to skip the rituals for inviting God. I would first apply medical perspectives and Chinese medicine approach such as absent-mindedness or having poor sitting pose. Usually poor sitting pose will injure or be originated from some areas and so I could control the general conditions of his body, before looking into the types of his questions. I also have access to invisible magnetic field and so I send us electro waves and they return in words. I would tell the person of what I perceive but speaking in an approach of metaphysics. The average religious followers are more used to this approach. For example, "You will encounter problems with your business a few year later and then...," followed by giving him some suggestions based on my understanding of him. I will give these suggestions based on his physical conditions and then I will introduce him with some health care concepts. Therefore, people coming here for fortune-telling will hear about metaphysics on one hand and will be interested in the perspectives of medical field.
Abbess Su and Abbot Li took a picture after the interview.
