Long ago there were ancient Shaman who lived in the high mountains in China. They lived in the misty mountains where the Reishi Mushroom grows in the crags. They never came down off of the mountain unless there was a great need in the villages, such as a plague. One of the books I have written is called,

"Ling Kuma, The Immortal Of The Mountain"

A story of a young girl trained by a Shaman, who went to live and study with him high in the misty mountains. From babyhood she could talk with animals and she learned the secrets of the healing plants that animals sought out when they were ill. This story came to me while meditating in a beautiful Lake Shrine Chapel in Pacific Palisades, California (it was across the highway from the Ocean) but it was higher up the mountain on Sunset Blvd. Every night when I meditated, a new chapter of her life came to me. Animals eat grass and other plants when they are sick to their stomach, watch them sometime. I lived a very peace filled life in California. My Sensai was Dr. Kaneko who is peace itself. I had the blessings of learning from the peaceful Monks at Lake Shrine where they lived. There was a place called Mother Center where Daya Ma , (Mother of Compassion lived with the nuns of Self Realization Fellowship). I went to China Town to buy my weekly herbs. It was there I met Doctor Ni, it was Dr. Ni who taught me how to make the most powerful flu medicine in the world. No virus could live in his formulas. He told me about his life in China, how he studied in Beijing. He was a brilliant doctor.

  Doctor Ni became my “Shaman” beginning in the year 1990.

The painting to the left depicts the Bamboo Forest region where Ling Kuma lived and also depicts the people following her because they desired healing. The inspiration for this painting came to me in meditation in the little Wind Mill Chaple at Lakeshrine.

This story is written in Myth style.

Confuscious was born 551BC. Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius(Kǒng Fūzǐ, or K'ung-fu-tzu, lit. "Master Kong", 551–478 BC). (Spring/Summer)

Ling Kuma was born September 8, in the year 600BC. Her family were of a tribe of people who lived near the Sacred Mountain in the Bamboo Forest. They farmed and made their home at the edge of the Bamboo Forest.

One sunshiny Spring day, a baby was born in a little house at the foot of the “Sacred Mountain”. The smoke from the fireplace was blowing quickly away from the chimney in great puffs of white smoke. No one knew why it was white, no one seemed to wonder too much about it.

The snow was melting down the mountain. Fresh mountain water flowed like a living mirror, the image of the Sun and the trees and the birds in the trees reflected in the glassy mirror.

Sounds of the little new born bears echoed from the Caves. They moved to the opening of the Cave as though they were little roly-poly balls of new wool. In the Burroughs new life was also born and the bustle of young squirrels making high pitched sounds competed with the song of the birds in the trees and the new found voices of the bears. Squirrels in Asia, are tree squirrels These squirrels like the heights of the trees and spend little time on the ground.

Tree squirrels are not like bears who hibernate during the winter months, these squirrels keep all activities to a minimum to conserve energy. They seem to completely disappear during the winter months. Their Winter tree nests (called dreys) are often shared for warmth where tree squirrels keep warm by snuggling with their fellow squirrels.

Within a few days of birth, the little animals tripled in size and shape. Their parents true to their heritage ways nudged their new born babies outside the warmth of the Cave and the Burrough so they could begin exploring their new world.

Day after day they grew and changed into more of the resemblance of their parents.

One day they wandered down toward the house with the smoke coming from the chimney. Ling Kuma’s mother was sitting on the porch rocking her new baby.

Animals have intuition and these little newborns knew instinctively something or someone else in their midst was also a newborn. Animals and children are naturally attracted to one another.

They had no fear of the porch. Their instincts were highly active. They smelled the essence of the new child in the arms of her mother. They wandered over to the rocking chair and nuzzled the blanket Ling Kuma's mother had wrapped her in. The little animals lay down on the porch and remained with Ling Kuma until the evening and they heard the calls of their mothers echoing from the caves and the Burroughs telling them it was time to come home.

Chapter Two

While her parents worked the land at the foot of the Bamboo Forest, the animals visited with the baby Ling Kuma in her basket. The little bears and wolves being babies themselves, played with her. The mother animals brought tidbits of food for their babies to eat. Panda babies were given Bamboo. The mother animals kept Ling Kuma warm while Ling Kuma’s mother worked in the fields. Every few hours her mother came to give her breast milk and water. She was too young to eat solid food. She was just a newborn.

The little animals talked with her all day long. Nudging her hands and licking her face which made her laugh. As the weeks and months went by, the little bears began to teach her to crawl out of her basket by placing one of their legs over the basket and then pulling their leg out. Ling Kuma was a quick learner and soon she was crawling in and out of the basket, laughing and giggling all the while. It was her favorite “game”.

Every day the little animals came to see Ling Kuma. She grew very quickly and when the weather grew warmer her mother sat her on a blanket in the Sunlight. Her black hair had grown down to her shoulders. Her face was round and her cheeks appeared to be swollen with nuts and were the color of bright red apples. She had cut quite a few teeth so that when she smiled, her smile seemed to light up every place she went. Her mother loved to tease her just to make her laugh because her laugh was so contagious. She seemed to sparkle with joy. All the little animals loved to play with her. She learned to walk by clutching the baby wolf's fur and he stood very still while she struggled to stand by pulling herself up. As the wolf slowly walked, Ling Kuma held on for dear life and walked along side the wolf. The squirrels brought her nuts which she could not eat, but she played with the nuts, throwing them while the animals fetched them for her. The bears taught her to somersault. When her legs became stronger they took her walking but always surrounded her and shielded her from danger.

Sometimes the Mother Panda Bear would lift her up and carry her to the berry bushes and teach her to pull the berries off of the bushes. She sqeeled with delight when she had a taste of the berries for the first time. The juice of the berries dribbled down her mouth onto her shirt. She seemed not to be able to get enough of the sweet juicy berries. Both of her hands clutched at least 3 berries at a time. The Mother Panda was like a second mother to Ling Kuma. Mother Panda was so gentle and her babies loved Ling Kuma like a sister. She would do everything the little pandas did, except one thing; she would not eat Bamboo unless her mother cooked it in a soup to make soft or flavored it with honey to make it edible.

It was the baby Panda who taught her to somersault, and roll around on the ground and to hug one another affectionately. Each of her little animal brothers and sisters taught her their own particular kind of game.

Sometimes she would grab brother wolf’s thick fur and pull herself up onto his back to take a ride round and round. Everyone had a good time playing with her. The little wolf took her over the little streams and showed her tiny little insects that crawled on the ground. He told her that some insects were good for a certain medicine.

It was not long before she was wading in the pools of water that formed at the edge of the mountain when the snow melted. There was a river they crossed to go into thicker part of the forest. They loved to climb the tall trees and look up into the clouds. The sky was sapphire blue and they pretended they were looking into the windows of heaven. Jeweled Rainbows arched over the misty mountain. The golden Sun's rays highlighted the blue, yellow, pink, green colors of the Rainbow. This was their paradise playground. They saw beautiful whispy beings calling to them from the Rainbow light, singing the most beautiful words to them. Some were winged beings who appeared mighty and strong. Some were delicate and childlike and playful.

Chapter Three

In China the Winters are very cold and the snow is very deep. The animals sleep either in Burroughs or caves all Winter. In Spring the animals would wake up and slowly lumber outside their caves and Burroughs. When Ling Kuma and the baby animals were in their second year of life. Spring had come again and the first thought the animals had was to find Ling Kuma. They ran toward her house so fast they fell and rolled over and over. Then they would get up and run as fast as they could to her porch. Their voices had deepened and no longer the voices of babies calling out to Ling Kuma , “Come out, come out Winter is over, it is time to play.“

Kuma’s mother opened the door and Ling Kuma ran to her friends. She hugged them and kissed them and laughed and giggled. The ground was wet with melting snow and her clothes became wet very quickly. Her mother picked her up and took her and all of the animals in the house to get warm by the fireplace. She changed Ling Kuma’s clothes and went to the stove to prepare a warm meal for her and her little friends. Ling Kuma's mother gave them Yak milk, Ling Kuma and the little wolves were the only ones who ate Yak meat and little pieces of a flat bread that she baked on the open fire. Bamboo was another treat Kuma's mother gave to them. She cooked it and made it soft and put sweet honey on it for Ling Kuma and gave the Panda bears uncooked Bamboo. Later in life when she had met her Shaman, she would learn that Zhu Ru or Bamboo was a cooling medicinal. Kuma's mother also cooked Bamboo in her everyday soups.

They sat on the floor in front of the fire, like great Chieftains planning great things. But actually they were planning their day and were excited about all the enticing mischief they could get into.

Chapter 4

Ling Kuma became the most important person in the lives of the animals. She spoke their language and understood their habits. They taught her why each food gave them a certain medicine if they were sick, these were flowers, grasses, and different kinds of nuts. They taught her the importance of fresh flowing water. Still water was avoided because it may contain animal waste or dead insects. She grew up playing with the animals. She was an only child, and there were no other children nearby to play with. The mother bear picked her up and carried her before she could walk. Now the wolves allowed her to pull herself up by clutching their fur and she would ride them like a horse. They followed the squirrels into the clearings to play. The squirrels ran up the tree and swung into the branches. They grabbed at the pine cones and pushed them to the ground. Then they ran down the tree and loosened the pine nuts from the cones. Ling Kuma loved the taste of the pine nuts as much as the squirrels did.

All throughout the day Ling Kuma and her little brothers and sisters seemed to be in a deep conversation. She peered deep into their eyes forming a loving bond with them. Not a sound was heard, little hands would touch Ling Kuma's face or touch her hand. One little animal would lay his head in her lap. Another would appear to be listening to her Soul and his little ears would twitch, or their big wide eyes would convey a deep love for her. They would lick her hands and cheeks. They seemed to be locked in deep conversation having a language all of their own. Finally, out of the silence came little noises that seemed to convey a question here, a question there. On one particular moment Ling Kuma may rise and take steps toward an interesting site which turned out to be some kind of insect or she would take the hand of one of her brother bear and lead him to a bird that had swooped down and had landed on a nearby tree branch. Then they would both begin to talk out loud to one another. The bear was teaching her about the bird as he picked it up and put it into Kuma's hand. He told her the species of the bird. Another brother would lead Ling Kuma to a clearing filled with bright sunshine and it was here he found lady bugs walking around on leaves. He picked up a lady bug and taught Kuma about the gentleness of the Lady Bug. Soon she had a dozen or so Lady Bugs crawling all over her hands. And this was how it was year by year the animals taught Kuma about the living things that grew in the forest from insects and birds and every living creature and all of the healing plants and rocks, the nature of clean water that moved rapidly so that the water was self cleaning. And the nature and the danger of dirty water that contained dead bugs and other waste and the water did not move. They described how dirty water would cause them to lose control of the contents of their stomach and their intestines.

Chaper 5

One year the Shaman came down from the healing mountain. The Shaman was getting old and he came to ask Ling Kuma's parents if he could take her to where the Great One known as Kwan Yin, Mother of Compassion lived on the high Holy Mountain. lt was the Mother of Compassion who had chosen Ling Kuma to become the next healing Shaman to the people.

The Shaman would train Ling Kuma to take his place when his time had come to go home. Ling Kuma's parents consented knowing how important it was to the people in that land who depended upon the Shaman to heal them when the great plagues came or when the people suffered great injuries.

Ling Kuma was only ten years old when she followed the great Shaman up to the top of the Holy Mountain to learn the healing secrets of the Great One who was called Kwan Yin. Ling Kuma would learn the healing secrets of herbs and Acupuncture for the healing of every disease. The Acupuncture needles were made of slivers of bamboo. So it is more than a myth for it is so that the first acupuncunture needles were made of bamboo and the ancients placed bamboo needles in the meridian points and they meditated on the connection or Lao points of the meridians. They discovered how and why healing took place. In the Bladder Channel the Lao point leaves the Bladder Channel to connect to the Kidney Channel, Loa was named "Taking Flight" or Fei Yang. It was documented as located seven inches above the outer ankle bone. Fei Yang was named Bladder 58 and it was good for headache, nasal congestion, nosebleed, lumbar pain, weakness of the legs. When the bamboo needle was placed in BL58 headache dispersed or nasal congestion dispersed. The Connecting Lao point of the Kidney Channel is Kidney 4 named Large Goblet or Da Zhong located at the back of the heel above the large bone. This KI4 point is good for asthma, pain in the lumbar, pain in the heel. KI4 is where it leaves the Ki Channel to connect to the Bladder Channel.

There are 14 Major Meridians including a Governing Vessel that goes up the Spine and is the sea of the Yang channels. It reflects the physiology and pathology of the brain and the spinal fluid and their relationship with the reproductive organs. The other vessel is the Conception Vessel that goes up the front of the body and is the sea of the yin channels. It governs the fetus.

When Ling Kuma was not quite 20, there was a famine down in the villages. Kuma's parents sent runners after her. They searched for Ling Kuma for what seemed like days. The forest was filled with all kinds of plants and bushes and trees but the higher the runners climbed the mountain seemed to become a landscape of only craggy rocks without vegetation. Yet there were herbs and mushrooms growing in those crags. The mist that gently touched the top of the mountain was like Divine Mother's veil over the mountain. The moisture in the air combined with the sunlight created a rainbow in the mist. That is why it was called "a sacred Mountain where The Mother lived". "The Mother " was the healer whom people called out to when they became ill. It was a sacred mountain. After many years the old Shaman went away to be with God. Kuma was now The Immortal Of The Mountain. She saw and heard the Kwan Yin the Mother of Compassion. The Compassionate Holy Mother taught her the ways of the healer. Ling Kuma became more and more beautiful in the image of the Kwan Yin. Her hands were gentle and the power of God flowed like a river throughout her body. Everything she touched became annointed with a brilliant light and energy that is named “Chi”. Her body seemed almost translucent with a holy white light.

When the runners found Ling Kuma they saw all the animals of her childhood were still protecting Kuma. She packed her herbs and pots and her belongings and went down the mountain. All of the animals following after her and carrying tied bundles on their backs. The wolves were now grown and had cubs of their own. The bears seemed to be as tall as some of the trees. She was taken to a village. The plague had already claimed many lives, She and the runners and men from the other villages pulled people out of their homes and stripped them of their clothes. She saw immediately the nature of the disease. She told the runners and villagers to make beds of bamboo and leaves, and grasses and to cover the bodies of the sick with clean cloth brought by villagers from nearby villages. She burned the homes and the clothes and every personal item belonging to the sick.

She cooked large pots of herbals formula containing Zhi Bei Mu, Ban Lan Gen, Da Qing Ye, Jin Yin Hua, Jin Yin Teng, Huang Lian, Haung Qin, Huang Bai and other herbs to fight the plague which caused an intense heat in the body. Along with the appropriate King, Assistant herbs and Medicine Horse that created a healing formula that would heal the plague. Every available person was asked to give the people the formula all throughout the day and night, and changing the garments and burning those garments that had become soiled. Ling Kuma continued to evaluate the disease. She changed and modified the formula as people began to get well and their body changed. Everyone had been saved from the Plague. The site for the Village was moved along with the victims who were now healed. A new Village was built near a river and the people prospered.

Ling Kuma taught the people to make preventative formulas to be taken in the Fall and the Winter. She taught them Tonic formulas to be taken in the Spring. Every family was taught to make the formula for the healing of plague caused by mice, caused by insects and caused by infections from animals.

Ling Kuma was known all over China and was summoned by the Emperor. She lived in the Palace and taught the Emperor’s physicians her ways of healing.

Ling Kuma influenced the Emperor to build great Universities of Chinese Medicine. Education of the people became foremost in the mind of the Emperor. It was the age of culture and harmony. She taught in the Universities bringing her knowledge of making acupuncture needles out of bamboo slivers. The ancients created slivers of bamboo and acupunctured themselves all over their bodies while they meditated on the "flow of the chi" at the point of acupuncture, they felt the heat of the chi moving and connecting to other points that is how the system of Acupuncuncture was born.

The Palace was a beautiful place for Kuma who discovered great libraries of ancient manuscripts and collections of great art along with beautiful paintings.

After many years she left the Palace and returned to the Sacred Mountain and lived as the Immortal Of The Mountain until her death.

There would not be another plague in China until the Mongols moved across China as Nomads and the Silk Road opened trade and there also came the spread of disease in China called the Black Death. The Silk Road traders brought the Black Death because flees infested their goods along with the Black Rat and other vermin. The Black Death Plague began in the year 1348.

Silk Road

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Silk Road extending from Southern Europe through Arabia, Somalia, Egypt, Persia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Java and Vietnam until it reaches China. Land routes are red, water routes blue trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe. The Silk Road gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade which began during the Han Empire, the major reason for the connection of trade routes into an extensive trans-continental network.

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Confucianism

The Dacheng Hall, the main hall of the Temple of Confucius in Qufu

Chinese
儒家

[show]Transliterations

Mandarin

- Hanyu Pinyin
Rújiā

Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (Kǒng Fūzǐ, or K'ung-fu-tzu, lit. "Master Kong", 551–478 BC). It is a complex system of moral, social, political, philosophical, and quasi-religious thought that has had tremendous influence on the culture and history of East Asia. It might be considered a state religion of some East Asian countries, because of governmental promotion of Confucian philosophies.

Cultures and countries strongly influenced by Confucianism include mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Vietnam, as well as various territories settled predominantly by Chinese people, such as Singapore.

In Confucianism, human beings are teachable, improvable and perfectible through personal and communal endeavour especially including self-cultivation and self-creation. A main idea of Confucianism is the cultivation of virtue and the development of moral perfection. Confucianism holds that one should give up one's life, if necessary, either passively or actively, for the sake of upholding the cardinal moral values of ren and yi.^[1]

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Themes in Confucian thought

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The Silk Road (or Silk Routes) is an extensive interconnected network of