As a young child growing up, I was exposed to many different faiths, and it was not until my 31st birthday that I truly found comfort and solace in Daoism. To begin with, Daoism is not a new faith to me because when I was young, my parents would bring my siblings and I to the temple to pray. However, back then, I did not know why we had to go to the temple, why we prayed to certain deities in the temple, and why we had to offer incense joss sticks. All I knew back then was that I had to obey and follow my parents’ instructions.
I also recalled that at certain times of the year, there were significant occasions when we would visit the temple to pray. These occasions include Lunar New Year, Vesak Day, and the Hungry Ghost Festival. There were also occasions when my mum would prepare special dishes like glutinous rice dumplings during the dumpling festival, mooncakes during the mid-autumn festival, and glutinous rice balls in peanut soup during the winter solstice. All these did not make much sense to me until the later part of my life.
When I entered my teenage years, I attended church and stopped going to the temple. Although the company of people was great, I did not feel liberated and the experience that I had felt transactional, superficial, and distant. When scandalous news of the church leadership broke, it drifted me away and led to many questions and self-doubts. I was in a state of limbo for more than 5 years.
In 2019, I was fortunate to participate in a trip to the Wudang Mountain in China. The experience that I had was life-transforming and invigorating. Since then, my affinity for Daoism grew, and I wanted to learn even more. Though COVID stalled my progress, I am thankful that I could still learn about Daoism from many different Daoist masters. When the Quan Zhen Cultural Society (Singapore), 新加坡全真教化協會 restarted its ritual classes early this year, I did not hesitate to sign up. Since then, I have been learning something new about Daoism every day, and therefore, I desire to document what I have learnt through this site and share my knowledge with others.
