The practitioners of such arts believe in the saying,  "one must not only train the physical, but also acquire spiritual enlightenment." Therefore they follow a certain basic ways of life which leads to the achievement of both spiritual and physical well being.

一心不能二用，           Do not attend to two things at the same time,

二目不能斜视，           Both eyes shall not lose its focus,

三人合为一体，           The Three united as one,      

四肢保持活力，           Maintain your limbs' vitality,

五穀不可不分，           The five grains must be distinguishable,

六畜不可不旺，           Domestic shall not be scarce,

七星时时明辨，           The signs from the stars bright as day,

八方皆来朝贺，           Good news come from all directions,

九思方成君子，           A wise man always think twice,

十全过得人生。           Only when you achieve it all shall your life be complete.

The above suggests that in life you should try not to multi task everything, most certain do not multi task your relationships. Eyes always on the target, never losing its sight. Limbs stay sharp, you never know when you need to dodge or run away. Always think before you act, only then you can see the truth from the lies. These are some of the pointers in your daily lifestyle.

Now, some of you have to be curious just what "The Three united as one" means. The Three has a very interesting tale, it is referring to none other than the three gods of Egypt. The very three whom left behind a secret upon a emerald tablet, known as the Smaragdine Table, the secret to turning metal into pure gold. In a word, Alchemy.

For those who does knows this subject you will know that 点石成金, "turning rock into gold" is of course yet another Ministry of Magic China's cover up to distract the muggles from trying to turn every single household pots and pans into pure gold and of course from the actual "rock", the Philosopher's Stone.

As we all know the only known creator of the Philosopher's Stone is none other than Nicolas Flamel (1327-1992), famous Alchemist, friend of the greatest wizard of all time the late Prof Albus Dumbledore (1881-1997). For more information about Nicolas Flamel please refer to the book: Alchemy, Ancient Art and Science by Argo Pyrites. 

Besides turning any metal into pure gold the Philosopher's Stone also contains the ability to make what was known as the Elixir of Life, or known as the Elixir of Immortality. Something which has driven many desperate muggles in search for it, none succeed in their findings yet of course due to another dose of tales and white lies which in turn sent many muggles, from Emperor to common folks, to their own demise through out the history. For more information about Emperor Qin Shi Huang and his journey for Immortality please refer to the books related to him.

Back to Egyptian alchemy records.  According to their history, the "Gods" refers to God Thoth, believed to be the Moon God, his son during that time the Pharaoh Hermes, and the Pharaoh's eldest son Tat. It was told that each of them represents the key ingredients to achieve great power, in this case how to make gold and elixir. The key ingredients are also known as the Three Parts of the Wisdom of the Whole Universe, aka Astrology, Alchemy and Theurgy.

For those who are familiar with Greek Mythology you would realize that God Hermes (Greek) looks like the Egyptian's "The Three", Hermes Trismegistus. That would be because it was believed using the power of Theurgy, the three Gods actually merged into one entity and thus becoming God Hermes. Information on how a Egyptian god became one of the Greek gods and the details if merging as one literally has any supporting facts is i'm afraid lost in translation between the two countries, but no doubt the idea of it is so overwhelming that it provided itself its own cloak of protection from prying muggles. 

Back to Maoshan Taoism. Of course when they speak of 三人合为一体，"The Three united as one" here they do not meant by literally. In this case they meant, "by the power of the three wisdom, only those who truly understands them could achieve great things", in a phrase, "knowledge is power".

As the wise man said, "the greatest offense is a good defense". In this case meaning prevention. In Maoshan Taoism looking at the signs (similar to divination), is also fairly important in everyday life as watching certain signs could tell what is coming next and prevent it.

If by any chance something evil does this way comes there are some simple things that would show it, crops usually starts to barely grows or even starts to wilt, the animals and even insects and pests starts to die one by one or evacuated from their homes. Even in the stars you could see the signs of danger, and most definately if you keep hearing bad news everywhere (doesn't have to be related to you directly) in your village, you most definately have something evil coming your way.