Following, selected images from Taoist classics. These drawings are taken from the first juan of Shangqing Dadong Zhenjing, the "True Classic of the Great Grotto of Supreme Purity" (TT 6), the most important source of the Shangqing tradition.
These are four images out of a series of practitioners in meditation, caught during the visualization of gods. These creatures enter the body as breaths or pneumas (qi) of different colors (green, red, white, black and yellow) coming from the five directions (East, South, West, North, center). Their presence protects the practitioner's body and change it into a heavenly palace.
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The eight spirits visualized
by this taoist are supposed
to be dressed in red;
they reach the practitioner's heart. |
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These spirits are supposed
to be dressed in white;
they reach the practitioner's trachea. |
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These five spirits are supposed
to be dressed in black;
they reach the practitioner's bladder. |
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These twelve spirits are supposed
to be dressed in yellow. |
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