Qing Ming 清明 is usually a festival in the Chinese culture for people to go out and “sweep the graves” or the “pay respect” to their ancestors. However, many people just do it because their parents or family does it, and people really don’t know why they should go and do these things on this particular day and not any other day.
As time goes on, it became a “tradition”, meaning that you do because you have to do, but you don’t know why you are doing it.
As we have said before, Taoistshould understand things that they do, take control over their life, and not be a follower of the majority and be pushed by the wind. You should be doing things because you understand why you are doing it, and that ensures you that what you are doing is not just an “empty container” with the heart hollowed out, for anything to hijack your work in the spiritual world.
That's right, following a ritual blindly without knowing what and why you are doing it could lead to being spiritually hijacked and your physical work can be just a "shell" for something in the mid-air to suck the life out of you. That is why we must have true wisdom in Taoism, and know what we are doing!
What is Qing Ming?
We will refer Qing Ming as a day called Qing Ming itself, and not add “festival” like it is something to “celebrate”. However, if you look at the months and date of this day, it is the day that always lands on the beginning of the third month in the lunar calendar or about.
There are 12 months in the lunar months, and you can pretty much see the full cycle relationship of pre-heaven energiesand our living world here by using the theory of the 12 earthling branches and know why this day is called “Qing” and “Ming”.
Sum it up, in short, it is the day when the pre-heaven energies are finally “at the top of this world” and pouring down.
That is right, you can look at it like there are 3 stations. First, it is in the pre-heaven dimension, the Tin realm(Sky). Second is the post-heaven Yin, Dei realm(earth). Then the third is the post-heaven yang, Yun realm (Human).
When Chinese New Year kicks in, the new energies goes in the Tin Realm and it’s just an essence that dropped in from the pre-pre-heaven zone above, and this essence does not even have any energy much, it’s just a pre-heaven essence waiting to be unpacked later and blossom into other things.
The second month is when this essence is being digested by the DEI realm, which is converting the essence into energy for this world.
Then the third month came in, Ching/Qing the Ming down to the human realm, passing down the energies in a final form, to be “born” in this world, and there goes the beginning of growth. Hence, things start to “grow” faster after this day.
Decoding Rituals of Qing Ming
Ching Ming festival is a day where people go and hike, because hiking allows you to go “up” and so you can catch the pre-heaven energy of this world better, because the “Dragon energy” is all in the higher zone of this world at this stage and so most ancient people have to “walk upward”, which of course result in hiking.
What people don’t realize is, dragon energy is not like air, wind or any post-heaven elements. This is a form of energy that is used for creation in nature, bringing things to “life” and giving potentials to things. This energy is not going to work on you just because you walked up a mountain. The energy work with you because your mind knows and your heart feels for it.
The festival with people going to the graves and sweeping the graves, paying “respect” is a supposed to be a “sorrow” thing, not like you can go and play or joke around near your ancestor’s grave. The sorrow feeling is a natural feeling that is created to “feel sad”, and sad feeling “sinks down”, which gives the Qing Ming energy a suction power to suck into your system.
Do We Need to Do the Ritual?
Many people are not really understanding why the old traditions are there, and they do it, but not get the hidden lessons behind.
If you do know why you are doing all these, then now you can do it or not do it, because it’s not needed anymore. You don’t need to go and pay respect to get that Qing Ming dragon energy because this energy can be summoned in by doing magic – due to the fact that you know what it is about.
For our Saam Law Sun Gung disciples, you do not have to do anything special for this day. But if you really want to do something to “catch the energy”, you can open your altar and Cheng Sun, summon down energy and focus your cultivation on the Tin Law FU HEAD. You can also do the Jing Tin Dei magic for your house after Cheng Sun, then it will pack in all the energies you need.
We don’t have to give a darn about the people who died in ancient times or feel sad about someone we don’t even know in history. Those are irrelevant to us. The most important thing is, knowing the meaning behind these “smoke screens” moral stories and why the day has these “traditions”.
It’s like you have learned about the 3 little pigs story, then you don’t have to keep flipping the book and talk about pigs in your life. Move on and do what you have to do with the moral in your action and you are doing good.
Honestly, for Taoist who do magic, we summon in pre-heaven energy and dragon energy ALL THE TIME because we do magic and cultivation with these dimensions. Do we need to really care about just one special day of the year? Is it really that special?
For people who live in the desert, maybe they have to really treasure the day that rains because they don’t get water a lot. Therefore, raining day is a big day for them and they have to do their best to catch the water. For people who can open the tap and get water all they want, why grab buckets and do the same on the rainy days? Just because your ancestors have been doing it in the deserts, doesn’t mean we have to keep doing it today. The most important thing is to understand what is really happening and why you are doing it, learn the true wisdom behind and that is the most important thing about these “special days” that aren’t special to us anymore.
