Dragon Gate, Lung Moon 龍門 (Saamlawnese: Nong Moon) refers to the gateway that connects to a higher source. Everyone has a spiritual planetary body, the Yuen Sun 元神, our higher source, providing us with the energy to stay alive, think and act. However, for a Taoist, the dragon gate would mean much more than just being connected to our Yuen Sun, which was done naturally anyway. Let’s talk about the ordinary dragon gate that everyone has first, and then we will go deeper into the Taoist one that is more important.
Please don’t hesitate to click the hyperlinked text to go into deeper readings, I have spent hours typing the details for these detailed blog posts, and they will give you much knowledge on these special terms and specific subjects.
The Ordinary Dragon Gate
In the article “Why we dream,” we have gone into detail about our energy body (Faat Sun 法身) and its macro and microcosmic orbit (大週天/小週天) relationship, which allows us and our Yuen Sun to interact daily. If we are talking about the Yuen Sun as our source, then the dragon gate would be the “south pole” of your Yuen Sun which is the “exit” of this spiritual planet, and where it pushes energies out for you every day during your sleep.
The Yuen Sun is your spiritual planetary body, but it does not locally co-exist with you like your energy body and soul body. Your Yuen Sun is far away in space. Where the sun is, but in the PreHeaven dimension layer of that location, is what we call the Yuen “Sun” palace or area; please note that this is not the same “sun” in Chinese; it’s 元辰宮; the Sun is 辰 and not 神(god). This name refers to the area being like a palace or area with all the Yuen Sun of everyone parked around there like they are little stars. However, they are not the stars you can see with your naked eyes or a telescope. This is where many people went wrong and got mistaken. The Yuen Sun resides in the PreHeaven dimension, like another “layer” of nature that existed before ours. We cannot see it, but we can interact with it. It’s like saying something exists in your memory, you cannot see it physically no matter what tools you use in this world, but you can interact with the memory.
To help you understand the relationship better, you can imagine yourself standing up and the sky above your head. The Yuen Sun is high above, like where the sun is now. You see how far it is in terms of distance. However, in the PreHeaven dimension, there is no restriction on time and distance. Things can travel in a flash, just like light. Therefore, when you sleep, your soul travels to the Yuen Sun in a flash since it requires no time. Imagine the Yuen Sun is like a planet above your head. The bottom of the planet faces the top of your head. Can you see the two doors now? The top of your head is the entrance to your energy body, and the bottom of your planet is the exit of the Yuen Sun, where things go out of the Yuen Sun and travel to you. Since the Yuen Sun provides the life force energy to you daily and keeps you alive, the bottom, the south pole area, is the door that gives you the energy to stay alive. When you are dead, you shall enter the Yuen Sun to live inside, which is why the top of the Yuen Sun (the north pole) is the door that welcomes the dead (to go inside).
There is a common saying 南斗主生, 北斗主死. It translates to the “the southern dipper controls life, the north dipper controls death.” However, this is another thing many people misunderstand as the actual “stars” and “constellations” in the sky, which you can see with a telescope or naked eyes. If you don’t know about the Yuen Sun and PreHeaven, everything goes wrong because you are stuck inside the reality plane and cannot see outside this restricted space.
The north pole is the exit of the Yuen Sun to push things to the PostHeaven world, and that is why it is called the dragon gate because it allows the goods to flow from the sky and down into the “ocean,” which is the metaphor for the soul. Dragon is a metaphor, and this legendary animal is known for flying in the sky, diving into the ocean, and disappearing. In reality, it doesn’t matter if this dragon exists, but the metaphor is accurate and precise for what we want to say. The sky, ground, and human 天地人 concepts are among the most misunderstood by many people, including those who wrote books and sold them in bookstores. The poor readers are all misled by the word “heaven, earth and human.” Sky refers to the source of the resources: the preheaven, your Yuen Sun. The ground refers to the “container” of resources, which is the body, and what’s inside the body is the “water” under the ground, which refers to your soul. The human is the final result referring to the physical reality, with your flesh, body and everything that can be seen. When the dragon goes from the sky and swims into the ocean, the Yuen Sun’s energy goes out of the dragon gate and into the ocean, becoming part of your soul’s energy.
The top of the Yuen Sun is also called the southern sky door 南天門 (Naam Tin Moon) because of its location, which is the door that enters the "sky" which is the Yuen Sun world or the "heaven."
You do not need to do anything to “open” the door and get the goods because it is done automatically and naturally. It is being done as long as you live a normal life and goes to sleep. Nothing special about it, and that is why there is no need to mention the ordinary dragon gate much since it makes no difference to everyone’s life, even if you know what it is about. However, being a Taoist, you must realize this is taken to another level.
The Taoist’s Dragon Gate
As explained in “Celestial Court,” you should have read about how a Taoist lineage works, with the celestial court being like the power source and headquarters for the lineage or sect. It’s like the resource pool with all the gods and power grouped into the same place for every Taoist in the lineage. It’s like a gigantic Yuen Sun for everyone in the lineage to cultivate and take from. When we talk about the dragon gate in Taoism, we refer to the one in the celestial court!
When anything passes through the exit of the celestial court, it will exit the northern door and enter our world, which then finds its way to you or wherever it was directed by magic. Anything that must come to our world must go through the top of the energy body, which is the southern sky door of the subject.
There is a magic that we do which is called Hoi Tin Moon 開天門, opening the sky door. It opens up the top of the energy body of something in this world and beams a line toward the celestial court’s dragon gate, which aligns them and allows the power from the court to enter this subject in the PostHeaven world. It’s like connecting the WIFI from your router to the server so that data can be transmitted.
The Essentials
How to get the dragon gate to open and flow down its power for us? It’s very simple. In the article the Yuen Sun and “What is God,” we talked about how we can get things from the Yuen Sun too. In PreHeaven, time and distance do not exist, and your heart and the Yuen Sun are entangled, which means you can trigger the Yuen Sun to respond to you by using the heart. When you “want” to connect, it will connect.
What it takes to make the celestial court open its dragon gate for you is the same, the Tao Heart. If your Tao Heart calls the court, it will respond and open the gate for you immediately.
The Tao Heart 道心 is your heart with the Tao inside. How much of your heart is for the Tao? It’s not about a feeling or anything abstract that no one can measure. It is very easy to observe a disciple and see their Tao-Heart. As mentioned in the other articles earlier, what counts in nature is not what you say or feel but what you have done and output physically. Everything we have done physically in this world becomes something on a page of nature’s history. That counts at the end and goes back into the PreHeaven or your heart.
Observing the disciple, I can already tell their Tao-Heart’s size and power by seeing how much they have done related to the Tao. For example, how much time have they spent on Tao-related things, how much have they given or output for the Tao, how much have they done for the Tao, and so on? Those disciples who only show up occasionally and are not involved in everything, their Tao-Heart, are just like little pellets. Those who are always proactive, involved in learning and classes, and output to support the lineage, their Tao-Heart is much bigger and stronger, as you can see from their output.
The Tao Heart is also related to your faith in the Tao. How much do you believe without the need for evidence? Faith is demonstrated by physical action, which counts in nature, not what you say and what you “feel like.” For example, you have been cultivating hard because you want to reach Daai Law Tin, the Taoist heaven when you die. You cannot see or prove this yet; there is no evidence, but you kept doing it and investing your time, energy and effort into it, which means your faith is there. When it is the gods’ anniversary, are you doing anything and outputting anything to worship them? These are real outputs that can show your faith in the gods.
If a disciple’s faith is weak, they would not want to commit, try, and eventually believe or practice anything. The weaker faith ones are usually the non-proactive ones, quiet and only show up occasionally. It’s very obvious because if you believe in this and have faith, you should work hard to cultivate, learn and keep asking for more.
The more the disciple is willing to sacrifice, the more faith they have. The more they worship the gods, the more faith it builds. Is it something you should tape on the wall to remind yourself?
If your Tao Heart is good, you must “want” the power from the celestial court, and the dragon gate will open for you. It’s just that simple. It’s simple but not easy because many people have commitment issues or lack faith these days since they are brought up with the American-influenced mindset like you must see before you believe, and those “question everything” kind of “science” mindset that kills everyone who tries to learn Taoism.
To be good at Taoism, you must learn to be open-minded and like a baby. Empty your cup, be humble, and let the master guide you as you follow. Don’t be skeptical, doubtful, or questioning. Your master knows what you need, let him feed you, and you eat! Faith is like how a baby has faith in their parents; they will follow them no matter where they go and eat anything the parents shove into their mouth. Where do you see a baby thinking if the parents are “wrong” or feeding them poison? If the baby is like that, it must be possessed by evil spirits!
Ordain today to learn more and experience the real Taoist magic power. It is useless to read and read; you need to get ordained then the dragon gate is already opened for you. Reading doesn’t help! It’s like reading about workouts and the gym; why not just go to the gym and start doing something today? That’s what gives you the results.
