A Daoist Priest Drew Me a Talisman. It Took Him a Long Time.

 1|# A Daoist Priest Drew Me a Talisman. It Took Him a Long Time.
 2|
 3|I was cleaning out a drawer the other day and found a folded red paper packet.
 4|
 5|When I opened it, inside was a talisman I'd gotten last year at Mount Qingcheng. Yellow paper, cinnabar ink — the characters had faded, but the creases were still there.
 6|
 7|I sat on the floor and stared at it for a while.
 8|
 9|## I
10|
11|Honestly, going to a Daoist temple to get a talisman was never in my plan.
12|
13|Last autumn I went to Mount Qingcheng just to get away from people for a couple of days. Work hadn't been great — nothing dramatic, just that dull, grinding exhaustion where you open your eyes each morning knowing today will be exactly like yesterday, and when you get off work you know tomorrow will be the same.
14|
15|A friend said, go walk in the mountains. Mount Qingcheng is nice — busy in the front, quiet in the back.
16|
17|I went to the back.
18|
19|After hiking half a day, there were fewer and fewer people, more and more trees. By the time I reached a small Daoist temple, it was getting dark. I was about to turn back, but the gate was open, a lamp was on inside, and a Daoist priest was sweeping fallen leaves in the courtyard.
20|
21|I don't know why, but I walked in.
22|
23|## II
24|
25|I didn't ask the priest's name. He looked about fifty, wearing a faded blue robe, his hair held up with a wooden pin. After he finished sweeping, he saw me standing around looking lost and just said, "Come sit. It's getting dark."
26|
27|So I stayed the night.
28|
29|The next morning, I watched him do his morning practice outside the main hall. It wasn't what I'd imagined — no gongs, no loud chanting. Just him, alone, standing before the statues of the Three Pure Ones, speaking in a low voice. Like he was talking to someone.
30|
31|I couldn't make out the words, but the sound of his voice made me feel still.
32|
33|Afterward he came out, and I asked the question I'd been wanting to ask.
34|
35|"Daoist master, do talismans really work?"
36|
37|He looked at me and smiled. Not a mocking smile — more like someone who's heard the same question too many times.
38|
39|He said, "First tell me — what do you think 'work' means?"
40|
41|## III
42|
43|I was stumped.
44|
45|I said... I guess it means you draw a talisman and then your luck changes, your illness goes away, everything works out.
46|
47|He nodded, then shook his head.
48|
49|"What you're describing is magic. That's not a talisman."
50|
51|He led me to a small room next door. Inside was an old desk with yellow paper, cinnabar ink, a brush, and a bowl of clean water. He sat down and picked up the brush.
52|
53|"I'll draw one for you. Watch."
54|
55|Then he started writing.
56|
57|I thought it would be one of those swoosh-swoosh-swoosh things — a few flicks in the air and the yellow paper bursts into flame, or flies off and turns into something. That's how it works on TV, right?
58|
59|It wasn't like that at all.
60|
61|## IV
62|
63|He wrote very slowly.
64|
65|First a circle at the top of the paper, then stroke by stroke, from top to bottom. Some characters I recognized — "command," "decree," "peace" — but most of it I couldn't read. It looked half like writing, half like drawing. Twisted lines in some places, shapes and symbols in others.
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67|His hand was steady, but he wasn't fast. He paused a few times, as if thinking about where the next stroke should go.
68|
69|The whole thing took about fifteen minutes.
70|
71|When he finished, he set the brush down and let out a long breath. Like he'd just done something that took real energy.
72|
73|"Look," he said. "Every talisman comes down from above. I'm just a channel."
74|
75|"When I draw, I hold one thought in my heart — peace. If my mind is chaotic, the talisman is chaotic. If my mind is clear, the talisman is clear."
76|
77|He folded the paper neatly and handed it to me.
78|
79|"It's not that the talisman works. It's that once you believe, *you* work."
80|
81|## V
82|
83|I took the talisman down the mountain.
84|
85|Honestly, I didn't feel transformed on the way down. The things that bugged me still bugged me. All the mess at work was waiting when I got back.
86|
87|But something was different.
88|
89|I thought about it for a long time, and I think I figured it out.
90|
91|What moved me most wasn't the talisman itself. It was the state he was in while drawing it.
92|
93|Fifteen minutes. The entire world reduced to one thing. Each stroke, complete focus. No thinking about yesterday, no thinking about tomorrow, no wondering whether this talisman would "work."
94|
95|Just this moment.
96|
97|## VI
98|
99|It reminded me of a concept in Buddhism — mindfulness.

100| 101|Daoism and Buddhism are different traditions, but the funny thing is, they're both pointing at the same thing: put your heart in this moment, right now. 102| 103|That state the priest was in while drawing — Zen calls it "just sitting," Pure Land calls it "single-minded concentration," psychologists call it "flow." 104| 105|Different names, same thing. 106| 107|When you do something with your whole heart — whether it's drawing a talisman, writing, making tea, or walking — your mind settles. When your mind is settled, you make different decisions. When your decisions change, your destiny changes. 108| 109|So the priest said, "Once you believe, you work." 110| 111|The talisman itself might just be a piece of paper and some cinnabar. But when you carry it, you have an anchor — a quiet thought that says "I want peace" — gently tugging at you every time you make a choice. 112| 113|## VII 114| 115|I'm not saying Daoist talismans are all just psychology. The tradition runs deep — far deeper than I understand, and I wouldn't dare claim otherwise. 116| 117|The Daoist talisman system has over a thousand years of history, from the Celestial Masters tradition to the Mao Shan lineage. The format, brushwork, seals, and incantations all follow strict rules. Priests spend years learning these things. 118| 119|I'm just speaking as an outsider about my own experience. 120| 121|And I've noticed something interesting — a lot of foreigners who visit China are fascinated by Daoist talismans. There's a hashtag on TikTok called #Chinamaxxing where people share videos of getting talismans at temples, studying the bagua, trying to understand feng shui. 122| 123|They might not understand the characters, but they can feel that "sense of ritual intention." 124| 125|One foreign creator's video stuck with me — he was at Mount Wudang, watching a priest draw a talisman. The person filming asked how he felt, and he said: "I don't need to understand the words. I can feel the intention." 126| 127|I think he nailed it. 128| 129|## VIII 130| 131|I carried that talisman in my wallet for a year. 132| 133|Did good fortune come? Honestly, I'm not sure. Things at work gradually improved, but that might have just been time. I stayed healthy, but I was healthy before. 134| 135|What I do know is that every time I opened my wallet and saw it, I'd remember that morning — the priest doing his practice before the hall, his voice low and steady. I'd remember the way he drew stroke by stroke for fifteen minutes, the whole world reduced to a single brush. 136| 137|Then I'd take a breath and get back to whatever I was doing. 138| 139|Maybe that's what "working" means. 140| 141|## IX 142| 143|I read something recently attributed to Qiu Chuji, a famous Daoist master. I haven't verified the source, but I like it: 144| 145|> "Cultivation is not about going to the mountains. It's about the heart. If the heart is quiet, every place is a fairy realm. If the heart is restless, even the mountains are just another busy street." 146| 147|Talismans, prayer beads, amulets — they're all fingers pointing at the moon. 148| 149|The moon is that quiet heart. 150| 151|Don't stare at the finger. 152| 153|--- 154| 155|Today I folded the old talisman again and put it back in the drawer. The paper has aged. The cinnabar has faded. 156| 157|But that morning at Mount Qingcheng is still bright. 158| 159|--- 160| 161|Three questions for you: 162| 163|1. Do you have an object — not valuable, meaningless to anyone else — that you've always kept? What does it mean to you? 164|2. When was the last time you did something with your whole heart — not thinking about anything else, not thinking about the result? 165|3. If a talisman could truly "work," what would you wish for? 166|