Many temples in China were built by the kings and emperors who authorized them and let the people worship some “gods” that they believed in the culture. However, many people, including the kings, do not understand how it works. Our culture was influenced by the PreHeaven energies from nature and born physically, while human beings didn’t even understand the action. It’s like you just got a hole-in-one when playing golf, but you don’t even know how you did it; that is the power of PreHeaven energy. The China republic era kicked in after the Qing dynasty, and people started to say worshiping the gods was evil; they knocked down the temples and banned religions. Is that an advancement or the opposite for the Chinese? The westerner didn’t realize that China had also said their gods were evil and useless, just that the Chinese didn’t have the guts to bomb the churches. So some groups like the boxer’s rebellion 義和團 did the job for the country later by smashing down churches and temples of other religions from the foreigners. That’s unimportant because what bothered most people was “worshiping those gods in the temples is going to WORK? They are just clay or stone statues; what power do they have?”
Before Saam Law Tao came into my life, I was also ignorant, so I was strongly against going to temples and said that these were just useless things for controlling people’s minds. However, I was wrong. Maybe this article could be my apology and gift to those who previously listened to me for this. I will bring you the truth and wisdom from Saam Law Tao, which explains it in great detail and depth!
The Awakening Moment
After you have read “What is God,” “Spiritual Embryo,” and “Yuen Sun,” you should have the basic knowledge to understand the things I am about to tell you.
When Saam Law Tao came into my life, and my teacher from Daai Law Tin gave me the teachings, I was shocked and had difficulty accepting what I was taught. At one point, I even questioned if it was another evil spirit trying to trick me into some nonsense and “brainwash” me instead. However, I kept my promise and faith in the Tao; I kept learning and absorbing without resisting and used the time to tell myself the truth. After learning for a few months, with loads of information and other things that helped me mature, I finally realized my ignorance and was thankful to my teacher for whacking me awake. Had I not listened and resisted, I would have never gotten this gem from the PreHeaven.
An example of how one of these folks’ temples was built is that someone did something very significant for the country, and then they died. The king or ruler would build a temple to worship that person as a god. For example, if you watch the tv show on YouTube, “All Men are Brothers (Water Margin) 水滸傳,” it talks about the story of 108 heroic people who became sworn brothers and did something big in history. This was a story written long ago by many people of different generations. The earliest record of the book is from around the 1500s, but the stories inside are from many places and periods composed together as one huge story. It is one of the four most famous novels in Chinese literature. Fortunately for us, we have YouTube now and can watch these stunning stories in the form of TV shows with great actors and actresses that keep us focused and entertained. These stories inside the novel were often passed down from different temples, operas, and even in different villages, making the characters very well known by the people in China in the old days.
What’s so special about this novel is that it emphasizes the loyalty mindset to the point that it would touch your heart and make you cry. The little loyalty between the sworn brothers’ hearts and the big loyalty for the country was demonstrated in the TV show. You can watch it with English subtitles if you don’t understand Chinese. This quality of the heart seems non-existent for most modern people; it makes us reflect on ourselves and feel ashamed and embarrassed for being such a modern and “highly educated” but virtueless person.
These people came together to become sworn brothers and form their group because the country is corrupt, justice is non-existent, and corrupted officials are overpowering and bullying normal people. While all the civilians live in poverty and suffering, the wealthy officials are all rich, spending like no tomorrow. The emperor was using those corrupted officials and being misled all the time. Therefore, this group of heroes started to knock down the corruption and loot the wealth from these corrupted officials to support the civilians. It’s like Robin Hood on steroids but with a team of Robin Hood, not one! Each of these heroes has talent and skills, which worked wonderfully as a team, like a special force unit. They even built their army and base to fight against the bigger powers above. Every scene and chapter boils your blood and moves your soul. It’s so exciting and energizing to watch.
The loyalty between the brothers is demonstrated by how much they are willing to sacrifice and do for each other after the promise. They treat the parents of the sworn brothers as their parents, and they can die for each other without a doubt. All they know is that they have the same goal, which is why they are together as a group; the brotherhood is held by the same intention of turning over corruption and saving the people and the country. Their faith kept them together!
The loyalty that people cannot understand today is the “big loyalty” that the team leader demonstrated. As the brotherhood grew, the leader’s vision was ahead of everyone, and he was already thinking about the future of everyone on the team. He was truly looking out for others and thinking for them. He doesn’t want everyone to be labelled tyrants or robbers in history, which will leave them a bad name. After much mental struggle, he concluded that if the government could agree with them and use them, they would become a useful power to help the country, which means they could put their powers to fight the enemies outside and protect the country officially. That will leave everyone a good name later, allowing them to achieve their main goal: saving the country. They made it to that point, but the corruption in the country was not over. From 108 heroes, they died in battles one by one, and the corrupted officials used their dirty tricks to lead them to death while shaving off their powers. In the end, only a few people left, and the leader was even given a bottle of poisonous liquor from the emperor, which was a “mistake.” The emperor listened to the corrupted ones and agreed to award him a liquor bottle; the liquor somehow became poisonous on the way. The emperor knew about it and sent his people to stop the tragedy, but it was too late.
The leader was very scared, but he told one of his brothers who went to see him, “I must drink this liquor because of loyalty. If the ruler wants me dead, I cannot be alive. The court can betray me, but I cannot betray the country and anyone.” This is the “big loyalty,” which is touching and stunning to hear. While the leader was talking, his brother finished the liquor bottle at the back and said, “oh, you are going to die, then your brother must be with you too!” There goes the perfect demonstration of what true loyalty is about.
Ultimately, the emperor was very sad about what happened, but he wanted to honour these heroes, so a temple was built for these 108 heroes. The temple emphasized great loyalty as the focus, and everyone went there to pray and worship because they all respected them in their heart for what they had done for the country. They claimed that whatever they prayed for would come true, and the temple then became famous and always packed with believers.
This kind of story and temple history is very common in Chinese culture, and this is only one of the many temples built based on stories and tales. Someone could have just made up a few stories, passed them around in the opera and shows, making it viral, and there goes another temple. The “god” in the temple doesn’t always have to be a real person, just like you could imagine a temple that worships Batman or Robin Hood; no one would disbelieve it because the ruler above approved the temple, then it must be “real.”
I always questioned these temples, and I thought, how could a person magically become a god, and how does it work? No one can answer me; only Saam Law Tao has the answer for me!
In “What is God,” we discussed an example of how anyone can create god; it’s a natural thing we have done since childhood. These temples are no different. These gods’ creation starts with a focus and faith in something. For example, the one for this novel would be loyalty. When people all contribute to worshiping and sacrificing for the god in the temple, the god will get more spiritual embryo and become stronger and stronger. The whole process is not about the person who died, but that person was used as a profile for this god. God is a creation of the people who put their faith into the same profile, the same god. In short, these gods are real, and public believers build them by combining their faith into one container. Even if the god were just Robin Hood, it would still work. The common confusion is that people think that it is the actual person who died who became a “god” and started helping people in this world, which cannot happen and is in no way making any sense to me.
However, these public gods that many people created will not be better than your god at home. The problem is that people don’t know what they are doing, so the whole system waits for a spiritual hacker, like the Yin God, to take over the statue to claim it as theirs. As many folks believe, they started okay, and later some evil spirits came in and took over; the whole group was controlled, and evil spirits would also take over the altars and claim to be your gods. Since you cannot see them, they can trick you into any stories they create.
The Gods that Work
This has led me to understand why those temples were “real” and the gods have been working for some time. Even if they are possessed by other Yin Gods (evil spirits from other dimensions), they could still keep on “working” because the intruder can still let the people do their thing while just “taxing” their soul energies in the process. Many temples have weird things going on like spiritual possession, freak shows such as poking things through their body and such to show their “god power,” or started to have lots of spiritual problems around the neighbourhood; these are all things that show you the temple has been taken over by the other spiritual intruders from another world and already became a virus to our world. Do they work? Yes, to a certain point, they do work because the evil overlord needs to control the people and keep them as believers to contribute to keeping the temple going. However, it has become an exchange with the demons. If you are willing to give them what they want, they will help you fulfil your wishes (partially) while enslaving the people.
Surprisingly, if anyone just watched the TV show I talked about and started worshiping those gods themselves, it would work too. As I said in the “What is God” article, everyone can create any gods, which would work. Since you are not going to any public temples or opening your “statue” for anyone else, it would be kept private, and no one evil should be able to find you or want to overtake such a small creation. The problem usually starts when the god is big and juicy, such as a publicly worshipped statue, with a huge amount of energy gathered in one place, then it is like a sparkling ball of gems for the evil looters out there. Another one is when your gods get infected by bad energies from other people, or you have gone to these temples and picked up the evil virus; then your god can be contaminated. However, compared to public temples, a home altar would be much safer because it is kept private.
Creating a god is easy! People with faith in something can create gods and give them a statue (body) by buying a figure resembling the vibe. If you want to worship the leader of 108 heroes, you can find something resembling him, such as Robbin Hood; then you can buy a toy figure and worship it as him. As we have explained in the other articles, the statues are just a body for the god; the faith and spiritual embryo shape the god’s power!
The question is, how do we keep our gods safe and not be hacked or overtaken? That is one of the biggest problems that happened to all these temples! Your gods at home could be hacked and overtaken too!
We all build houses and put our goodies inside to protect them and keep them away from harmful elements, such as wind, sunlight, rain, or robbers! Your new statue or figure is like a new house without a door. When you have read this post and realized the potential threats that might come to you, your heart is already on guard, meaning the “door” was shut for this house. The more loyal to your god that you have created, the stronger this door is because your heart tells it, “ nothing but my energy can enter this statue.” Your faith in the gods gives it the power, and your loyalty to the god gives it the strength to close the door and keep it aligned to you only. If you are loyal to the god, then the god is loyal to you. A loyal god will not betray you or serve another person. That is why they won’t open the door for anyone but you!
I am proud of those who read this article and understood it up to this point—being aware of your gods and giving them protection by using this wisdom, which you can already do immediately. However, as we know how it works, even if you have a door put up, burglars and thieves can break in or pick your lock too.
What lock can secure the god in this statue and protect the door? What can prove your loyalty is what can be the lock of this door. For example, sacrifice, commitment, and things you are willing to keep with this god and not give up the demonstration of loyalty. For example, you can look at our Five Virtues and Ten Commandments; if you say these are the rules you will keep for god, then take action and start doing it daily. The more you try to keep the promise, the stronger this lock on the god is. These commitments and promises will put more power behind your faith and that which he “locks” for the door, just like a marriage is not strong if both are unwilling to make promises and commit to the relationship.
Can you do something for your wife that doesn’t make any sense but is just done to prove your love? If she told you not to use toothpaste to brush your teeth? Will you do it even if it makes no sense to you now? Faith is to believe without evidence, which means it doesn’t need to make any sense. Just say yes, and do it. The longer you keep this promise, the stronger the faith is, and the lock will reinforce the relationship between the two of you—the same thing for you and god. You can create weird rules and follow them as a sacrifice for god. For example, there was a rule for a military force that says you cannot put your hand in the right pocket, then the soldiers keep that in mind and are aware of it, but they will have to force themselves not to do that to show their loyalty to the country and military force. As they keep doing that, the faith is built, and the lock that protects them and the military will be reinforced.
As you can see, this is why Taoists have rules that they follow for the rest of their lives. Not only Taoists, but other religions might have these rules too. For example, Buddhists will say you need to be vegan or cannot eat this and that. Muslims will ban you from eating pork. Some Taoist sects will say you cannot eat beef. It’s the same concept, but people don’t understand it and always want an explanation for the “reason.” If there is a reason, it is already not “faith” anymore. Faith is something you believe without the need for reasons and evidence. You believe and do it blindly because of loyalty. The more you reason, the rule will lose power, and the lock weakens. In a way, the more you “know’, the less power you have. I have a very good disciple in Hong Kong, and she would do anything as long as I say it is good to do. That is faith; she doesn’t even need to ask me why. She said that she would do it because you said so. How many disciples can be like that? I also had bad ones who needed hours and hours of “convincing” before they believed and took action. It was a horrible experience. I told that disciple to watch a tv show series because the Tao chooses it. He came back with much questioning and criticism about the show, like he was being tortured by it. This disciple often requires much time to explain and “convince,” Unsurprisingly, he has failed and is out of the lineage today. I have witnessed the power of faith and how a weak heart can destroy a disciple even if they have such a powerful source backing them up.
After those horrible disciples, I have learned to heavily emphasize teaching people about faith, virtue, sacrifice, and the proper mindset for being a Taoist. We cultivate gods professionally, and if you do it right, it would be much stronger than those DIY ones that people do without religion at the back. However, if the disciple fails in virtue, then any strong magic can only become a virus for themselves.
Ordain today to learn more about this wisdom and, most importantly, how to cultivate the gods that can bring you a better future with the strong protection that ensures your god is always safe and protected. I can tell you that many disciples have failed in my lineage because of the same problem – a lack of virtues. I have learned enough to change my teaching focus and direction. I will emphasize the critical things that prevent a disciple from failing and keeping all my disciples safe. If you are about to ordain, rest assured that I will always be there to teach and guide you, even to scold you and give you some spiritual whacking to ensure you will not fall off track and go wrong. I am strict because I love my disciples, and care is given to them in a way that works.