THE LEGEND OF ZHEN WU AND THE 5 DRAGONS
Zhen Wu & the 5 Dragons, painting by Manos Kantidakis (WDP Greece)
真武大帝
Zhen Wu Da Di
- The True Warrior -
Excerpt from the book Freedom by Ismet Himmet
ZHEN WU DA DI (The perfect warrior / the TRUE warrior) ... a well-known swordsman ... a prince ...
... renounced the INHERITANCE of the empire ... (defeated the yellow dragon)
... he left the imperial house and moved to the mountains of Wudang - defied the five hundred soldiers, who had asked him as his "army" to come back to the IMPERIAL HOUS ... he angered (!) and hit his SWORD in the "EARTH" (yellow dragon - worldly - social ties) and a gorge (called "Gorge of carefreeness" - Gorge of freedom or also called "Monkey Gorge") was opened in Wudang Shan between himself and the soldiers ... (he became the SAFE WARRIOR - XIAN REN - THE NOBLE - his Determination won - he was no longer able to dissuade him from HIS WAY (for some a NARROW-MINDED, for the Wise however, he had found HIS WAY) - that means, he counted from now on to the BLESSED ONES) ... they (The soldiers) became all his disciples... (His victory over the yellow dragon - worldly desires / habits - was at the same time a victory over all the soldiers) from now on, they served HIM, and no longer the WORLD ... HIS VICTORY was at the same time the VICTORY and the RESCUE for the five hundred soldiers, WORLD SLAVES, who were committed to SERVE only for the SAFETY, instead of serving for the putative safety, which is offered by the Emperor and the world.
Chapter 3:
... he cultivated himself for 40 years in the TAI ZI CAVE (he defeated the green dragon) he showed RESISTANCE. Defeat the IMPERMANENCE through constant ritual cultivation! (This is the same cave where the bee-daoist is today)
Chapter 4:
... he returned disappointed after 40 years of cultivation, because he couldn´t percieved any "Powers", his goal was immortality (FREEDOM), which was not given to him within that time, through ritual cultivation ... (he submitted the white dragon - he stopped all RITUALES and was on the way from the mountain to the city ... he knew that he can´t reach his goal through "formal" cultivation).
... on the way he met the needle grinding woman (a hidden immortal) ... he asked her, what she was doing with the IRON ROD ... why she was grinding it .... she answered: " i will make a sewing needle out of it ..." he laughed and asked the old woman, how that could be possible at all ... and the old woman replied: "without giving up", (the needle will be formed in a natural way!!)
... it hit him like an arrow in the heart ... he knew, that from now on he must sharpen his MIND ... using his MIND, instead of following BLIND TRADITION (!!!)
The naturalness was now his tradition!
(IRON - METAL - points to the RITUAL DESIRES, like FIRE is associated with the EGO, EARTH with the WORLDLY HABITS, WATER with the NATURAL DESIRES, WOOD with the IMPERMANENCE. In the story is reported, that IRON, hence METAL "grinding" - so to speak: will be refinded. That means, that the purposive RITUALS - METAL-, which the IMPERMANECE - WOOD break, must be refined according to the knowledge of RESISTANCE (be ground to the NEEDLE - ground the sword - ground the mind- , to reach higher stage that the POWER and ABILITY of Resistance can be use WISLY, not blind).
... he turned (through his WISDOM) back to the mountain (he could also just have laughed about the old woman and would nothing have learned from her words) and went to the WU LONG DING - the peak behind the Wu Long Gong Temple - and meditated from now on "his MIND using / sharpened" ... (the sword will be sharpened)
Chapter 5:
... there appears a lovely young woman (again the same hidden immortal, these time in another appearance) and disturb him in his meditation with her charms ... he notice the charms of the woman, but is not impressed by the charms of the woman, he let everything happen, without beeing influenced (he becomes the PERFECT WARRIOR - SHENG REN - THE WISE - his MIND IS SHARPENED - he accepts her ACTIONS - perfect ACCEPTANCE, without beeing succumbed by this event) (he submitted the black dragon - he is no longer the slave of his natural desires and does not imposed by the charms of the woman - he can control himself - his body is in his hand, not he is in the hand of his body - he is free from the NATURAL DESIRES and reached the first stage of the FREE WARRIOR).
Chapter 6:
... the woman does not let go of him and falls upon him ... she wants to live out the physical pleasure ... angered ZHEN WU pushed her aways and she falls down the cliffs ... in this moment he had a flash of thought: "... she will die, what i have done ... i will rescue her ..." (he overcome the FIERY RED DRAGON - his EGO, to be immortal, his cultivation is not so important then a human life, for what he is responsible, he was not in danger of life and yet just before killing a man, SELFLESS he jumps after the WOMAN, with the KNOWLEDGE, that he also will die, because he has no POWERS) (he becomes the TRUE FREE WARRIOR - IMMORTAL - his EGO is overcome - he sees HIS TRUE SELF).
... the 5 dragons rise up and carry ZHEN WU to the heaven (Astral World)!! (from now on the 5 dragons serve HIM, because he overcome them).
The five dragons refer to the 5 chains, or powers, holding human beings bended and captured to the physical and material world! They are also connected to the 5 emotions and 5 elements!
Breaking / bending / overcoming the reign of the dragons, or with other words, breaking the "5 chains of the Mortal Life" gives the Human the deeper view of himself and allows him or her to reach the 7th consciousness.
Any action / deeds what the chosen one does is performed cautious. He thinks about his deeds, whether they are arise in dependence on the 5 chains / dragons or the actions arise truly with the wish from the heart. From the smallest gesture to big decisions, these happen only after a clear contemplation of the mind, so that no actions arise from the 5 chains.
The EGO or wrong self-consciousness (the fiery red dragon is the head of all dragons and at the same time the strongest among them - if someone is able to conquer / tame this dragon, one can see behind the EGO the deepest SELF)
Element: Fire
NATURAL DESIRES (the black dragon is the second among the 5 dragons - it is a black dragon - who has conquered / tamed this dragon the whole NATURE will serve this person, he or she is no longer bound to the nature, all physical laws are no longer applicable).
Element: Water
WORLDLY DESIRES / HABITS (the third among the five dragons - it is a yellow dragon - who has conquered / tamed this dragon, no wordly affairs or events can harm or bind him or her. - any social moral conceptions are overcome and one is FREE from social CONTROL BY OTHERS - you start to live your own life, according to your OWN WISHES, not according to the desires of the expectant people).
Element: Earth
RITUAL DESIRES / HABITS (it is the white dragon, the "hardest" among them - if one has conquered it, one is no longer bound to rituals to achieve something - any tradition is forgotten and only the PRINCIPLE OF IT is important. From there on you start to understand "THE MEANING" of a thing rather than scratching the surface (to live the tradition).
Element: Metal
INPERMAMENCE (it is the green dragon, the smallest, but the most nimble among them), if one has been conquered this dragon, one can use his or her WILL at any time to reach what you want to reach - from that point on you have ENDURANCE und your are not restless anymore - you are constant and focussed on one thing and no longer influenced by the outside: TODAY THIS TOMORROW THAT ....)
Element: Wood
Any actions / deeds are therefor be checked, whether they arises, because:
Red Dragon: one identifies themselves with the idea of a limited I / SELF, therefore one has very limited goals / wishes / perceptions that you want to achieve, or
Black Dragon: you are governed by your physical nature and don´t understand, that you are the SOUL and SPIRIT, while one uses the body as a vehicle, or
Yellow Dragon: it is lived out / been taught / been programmed from the society, the circle of friends, the family, or the education, or
Green Dragon: of the impermanence maybe one is too lazy to put a certain discipline in the daily life, or
White Dragon: certain "rituals" have been adopted, whether religious, worldly or spiritual, which one don´t want to give up and leave behind, otherwise one would loose the "safety" and think by refraining from the rituals this is a "mistake", which one believes that in this way the chain of impermanence is overcome ...
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