Every corner of Taichung City

I'm gonna miss every corner of Taichung city.
This is where I meet Kurt, May, Poconz, Dettya and Rizki.
"Ninja", "like ka", "bi zui", "zhen de jia de" they say the most daily.
Wherever we go, always like a family.

I'm gonna miss every corner of Taichung city.
Lin, Jeff and the temple aunties.
Lin gives us orders and Jeff gives us money.
The aunties serve us food and we feel so happy.

I'm gonna miss every corner of Taichung city.
Johnson, Janet and Jia Yi are our temple buddies.
Sticking the coins and eating the piggies.
Sun Moon Lake trip is our most precious memory.

I'm gonna miss every corner of Taichung city.
THU, Keiko and Nancy.
We chat we laugh whenever we meet.
We jump high to get closer to our dreams.

I'm gonna miss every corner of Taichung city.
Kevin Temple or Kevin Tunghai comes whenever we need.
Soon, getting around in Taichung becomes easy.
No problem taking bus, train or BRT.

I'm gonna miss every corner of Taichung city.
I wanna thank AIESEC for giving me this opportunity.
Especially Ann yheen, Daryl, Josh and Wendy.
Without them, without the current me.

I'm gonna miss every corner of Taichung city.
Because I don't know when will I visit here again as I'm busy.
I love the people, food and hospitality.
When I come again, the first stop will be Yuanbao Temple in Taichung city.

Wish for the Best from Bao Sheng emperor

On 6th of February, Miss Lee taught us on how to ask blessing from the Bao Sheng emperor. Most of us asked about love and future partner because they hope to get good husband before they reach 30 years old.

The container is called as "Qian Tong".  “Qian" is the bamboo sticks inside the container. There are total of 67 bamboo sticks and one of the sticks is called "Tou Qian", which one needs to make a small donation for the temple. All the bamboo sticks are labeled with numbers in Chinese words and each of them has its explanation in all aspects, e.g. lawsuit, habitation, Feng shui, marriage, physiology, making money, job and fame, trip, family, friend and family from far away and lost property.

(from left to right) Xiao  Bei, Wu Bei, Wu Bei. All are Sheng Bei.

The thing that we can have a “conversation” between the Bao Sheng emperor and us is “Sheng Bei” as shown in the photo, which looks like two symmetric crescent moon. Whatever question we ask the God, we need to keep it short and straightforward, or else He might be confused.

Standing in front of the Bao Sheng emperor, before we ask for His help, we have to tell him our name, where we are from and our birthday so that He can identify us. Next, we need to toss the “Sheng Bei” to get the permission to ask a question from the God. If the answer is yes, you will have a “Xiao Bei” or else it will be a “Wu Bei”. After that, you start to ask your question, which can be related to family, relationship, business and so on which I mentioned above. Keep in mind that ask the question which the God is able to give a “yes” or a “no”.

And again, you need to ask permission from Him whether we can "qiu qian" or not. "Qiu qian" means making a wish and ask for His blessing by using 67 bamboo sticks.

Once you get a “Xiao Bei”, you can proceed the next step, taking a bamboo stick. Use both hands to grab the all the bamboo sticks at a certain height and release them to see which stick bound the highest in the container. The highest one will be the message from the God. As I mentioned above, if you get a “Tou Qian”, you have to make a donation to the temple and then only repeat the same procedure as shown in the flowchart below. 

And last but not least, get the message according to the number on the stick you get from the counter. There are many aspects in the paper (message/reply), however the reply from the God is true only for the aspect that you asked, whereas the rest is just for reference.

You might think that it is just a kind of prediction but somehow, to me, it is quite true. Because sometimes when you feel you have no other choice or helpless, you will wish you can solve the problem smoothly with the God's guideline or clue. No matter how, it is a kind of belief. Believe it or not, it depends on how you see it from different perspectives. 

3-day Fa Hui

There are four purposes of having this 3-day Fa Hui from 30th January 2015 to 1st February 2015. 

i) To show thanksgving to Bei Dou Xing Jun for His blessings in all aspects, e.g. health, business, safety, study and etc.

ii) To pray Tai Sui Xing Jun god. This practice is actually a taboo for Taoism believers. There are 60 Tai Sui Xing Jun and they take turn to record all the good deeds and bad deeds of humans. The people believe that Tai Sui gods are fierce. Each year, for example, this year is the year of goat, mean one of the 60 gods who is now His turn to carry out His duty. So, for those who have the zodiac of goat and also who are 6 years younger than the goat-zodiac people will go against with the god on duty. He or she needs to pray the god at the beginning of the year and show gratitude at the end of the year to avoid unfortunate incidents happened on them.

iii) To thank the gods for ensuring the safety and peace of the followers since they sometimes ask for blessings from the gods whenever they need.

iv) To respect the spirit of dead and show thanksgiving to them for providing the peace to the yang’s world. Every year end, the believers will prepare a small banquet for them to show gratitude. They always need to show compassion to the spirits so that to achieve win-win situation between ying and yang world.