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- Does Feng Shui Work?
I am sure all of you are aware that only true Feng Shui works.
So the crux is: how can we distinguish the genuine one from the false
one?
Before we answer that question, we must be aware that in ancient time,
(unlike modern time) the teaching and passing down of Chinese Metaphysics
is not taught openly. Even the teacher with genuine lineage may not pass
down complete knowledge to his student, but reserve what the teacher has
learned from his experience to his personal private indoor student or
disciple (there is difference between student and disciple). That is to
say, using modern analogy, all the students get the same lesson note,
but not all of them obtained what the teacher has learned from his experience
or working know-how. This may have created the situation where students
can only 'take part as whole' (several blind persons trying to figure
out how an elephant looks like by touching it, but each blind person only
touching a part of the elephant). Students then have to rely on their
own feel about. Whether they get to succeed in their study or not still
depend very much on their opportunity and their effort (E.g. whether they
have financial support that allow them not to work but get to travel to
different places to examine feng shui, etc.) Therefore, only limited few
gets to successfully grasp the real essence and teaching in feng shui.
Those that passed down from 1 generation to another generation by lineage
are in very limited number only.
- Is the Usefulness in Feng Shui is just to seek 'Wealth'?
I am sure you have heard this question before: If (Yin house) Feng Shui
really works, why can't we see rich descendents of famous Feng Shui practitioners.
Actually this is due to one's aspiration and wish and depend the way on
how one is looking at things.
Firstly, we need to keep in mind that, the temperament of those learned
predecessors or forefathers feng shui masters in ancient time are not
wealth or fame-based, if they are the so-called materialists in modern
time, then they would just allocate the best feng shui to their own and
family members, and why should they have to travel here and there to perform
audits for others and to seek livelihood?
There are a lot of ancient FS masters who do not seek fame and wealth.
They lived their lives complied with religious requirements. They cherish
more on doing good deeds and accumulating merits and virtual. According
to their religion belief, they look upon themselves as 'Jia Pi Nang' (false
body). They would not be sentimentally attached to wealth and family members.
(Our friends with Buddhism or Daoism background will be familiar with
this 'renounce the world' and 'experience the real world' practice). How
would they want to ask for unnecessary trouble (wealth and fame is dust
of the secular)? They will only enlighten people that is be fated to meet
or help on their journey. Further, in this world, we do not just measure
'fine/good' with wealth. Therefore, we cannot judge the effectiveness
of feng shui in terms of whether a person will flourish.
- The Extent and Way of the Effectiveness of Feng Shui
I like to discuss the question on the extent/degree and way of the effectiveness
of feng shui. First of all, in the study of feng shui, we pay major attention
to coordination of Tian (Heaven) Dao, Di (Earth) Dao and Ren (Human) Dao,
so that it can have an auspicious result. A simpler way of expressing
it is: to achieve unity and harmony in terms of heaven and man. Its effect
is different from what is current and handed down from ancient time. There
are a lot of old feng shui stories, after passing down from one generation
to another generation, were greatly exaggerated to make them more fascinating.
To a large extent, they are not true to the fact. Those stories usually
told that how after the placement of feng shui, a beggar can become rich
very soon. Actually, feng shui can only improve a beggar's life from poverty
to self-sufficiency. By analogy, we can help an ordinary person to improve
his life from self-sufficiency to have some savings. This is to say, feng
shui can improve a person's life, but we need to take into consideration
of the 'starting point'. Every person has different 'starting point' in
this world. I like to use medical field as an illustration. A patient
with a minor illness can be healed very fast under the care of a diligent
doctor. But another patient with a serious illness, even under the care
of a very good and diligent doctor, will require time to be healed. But
the 3rd patient who has a fatal illness, however good a doctor is, he
can only release the pain and suffering, and cannot heal the disease.
- The other issue is 'prescribing the disease with the right medicine'
If feng shui can improve the luck of a person, then we must discuss what
luck is. From the Chinese way of view, a person is made up of 5 elements
(metal, water, wood, fire and earth) and 5 False (earth, water, wind,
fire, and empty), therefore, the combination of that person's 5 elements
will affect his 4 pillars of destiny. This is the pre-heaven/inborn pattern.
Then the effect of the meeting with 5 elements of the current luck period
and the relative interactions of the 5 elements of the location will be
reflected on a person's good luck or bad luck (The postnatal/later heaven
application).
There are a lot of different schools of thought in feng shui. The popular
one places emphasis on 'San Yuan' (3 Cycles) - longitude and space, 5
elements and time 5 elements and 'San He' (3 Combinations) - horizontal
and interval, plane 5 elements and earth 5 elements. Therefore if we use
San Yuan for feng shui placement, auspicious result can come true within
a short while, that is why a lot of people using it, as this generation
wants quick result, in order to solve the present difficulty. Because
this is a short-term result, it does not really affect the temperament
of the 5 elements. This is just a stopgap measure. If we use 'San He'
feng shui placement, the result came from earth (qi). It would then slowly
change the pre-heaven 5 elements temperament of a person. This is a radical
measure to get at the root. This is the focal point of how practitioner
view at fast and slow effect of 'facing' and 'mountain'.
I have no intention to boast which school is better, but to say that a
true, good and complete feng shui placement needs to deal with 2 or more
things. Don't we see a doctor need to assess the situation of a patient
before decide to merely alleviate symptoms of sickness or to get at the
root of the sickness.
My only wish is that this article can inspire those who want to learn
feng shui or those who do not know what feng shui is yet.
- Master Poh Wong
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