Saturday, September 10, 2011

Feng Shui Secrets

In the last paragraph of Tian Yu Jing 天玉經, it is mentioned:

更有收山出煞訣,亦兼為汝說。

In addition, there is the code of "Receiving Mountain Expelling Sha". I should tell you this as well.

The secret code was not explicitly written down. For over a thousand years Feng Shui masters have been telling people that you can never get the Feng Shui secrets reading books. The secret codes have been passed down from master to disciple and most of the time it was done just before the master died. What are these secret codes? Were they given to, say, Great Grand Master Yang Yun Song by a visiting alien?

History has recorded that during a rebellion against the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Xi Zong 僖宗 deserted the imperial palace and fled from the rebels. Yang Yun Song was an officer in charge of Ling Tai Di Li Shi 靈台地理事 - matters of Spiritual Realm and Land Rationality (Divination and Feng Shui). He went away with the books collected in the imperial palace and lived as a hermit in Kun Lun Shan 昆崙山. He studied the books and left the mountain practicing Feng Shui in the province of Jiang Xi 江西. He offered Feng Shui advice to poor people and they improved their lives tremendously. At that time, only the very wealthy people could afford the services of Feng Shui masters. He was honoured as Yang Jiu Pin 楊救貧 - Yang Saving the Poor. He recruited a handful of disciples and probably Tian Yu Jing was among a few books compiled by his disciples according to his teaching.

It was common practice of the rich and powerful people to acquire a piece of land with good Feng Shui by all means, including unethical or even illegal methods. Therefore, Yang Yun Song warned his disciples that they should help only people who were worthy of the land.

Feng Shui books were not written to provide spoon-feeding information. They were written to provide insightful information leading to knowledge. To people who study with their brains, the knowledge is there. To people who read with their eyes only, confusion is there. 

Well then, where is the secret code of "Receiving Mountain Expelling Sha"? Feng Shui masters in the past told people that this code was only passed down verbally to disciples who deserved the knowledge. Sometimes, it means there is a price attached to show you are worthy. For a high price, you end up getting a fake code and I have seen a lot of such.

As I said, the written words were only given verbally by Yang Yun Song to his disciples. He did not write it down himself. The word "Shan 山" could have been erroneously taken in place of the word "Sheng 生". You don't need further annotation if the code is "收生出煞" - receiving Sheng (Qi) and expelling Sha (Qi). This will wind up as the most important principle of Feng Shui practices.

JY

9 comments:

Mary Catherine Bax said...

Dear Joseph,

The dilemma is how to know who is worthy of Feng Shui.

Time has been the only way for me to know who a person is at their core.

How do you determine who is worthy of good Feng Shui?

Mary



Mary

Joseph Yu said...

Dear Mary,

The world today is not the same as 1000 years ago in China. We focus at Yang Zhai Feng Shui with the aim of helping people live a harmonious life. No one should be deprived of this privilege.

As for teaching, I believe that students come to teachers of the same kind. Whatever the teacher is, so is his disciple. 有其師必有其徒。

JY

Howard Choy said...

Dear Joseph and Mary,

Being a teacher myself, I find this discussion very interesting. From my perspective, I see studying Feng Shui nowadays like studying at schools, colleges and universities, where the students are exposed to all kinds of teachers and not just a disciple to one master.

I just came back from St. Petersburg and all my students have studied with other teachers. They are very broad-minded and willing to learn, so they are all worthy of my best effort to teach them.

If students are willing to pay out their hard-earn money to study with a particular teacher, then at least the teacher can do is to give them knowledge and experience in return. I cannot imagine a modern educational institution use moral virtue as a criterion for admission, who is to make the judgement as Mary asked earlier?

I tell my students what I teach is my "xin-de" 心得 (what my heart perceived) and it is only one person's experience and point of view; they should decide through their own practices what is useful and relevant for them from different teachers.

Like you said Joseph, “The world today is not the same as 1000 years ago in China”, only study with one master/teacher is very limiting and it is not to be encouraged if we want the best for the students, but of course, some teachers do influence a student more than others.

Howard Choy

joey said...

http://www.psychology4all.com/Thinking.htm

this article os well in line with Resource supresses output

Joseph Yu said...

Dear Howard,

In the "good" old days, the teacher chooses the students. This has already departed from Confucius' way: teach without prejudice (有教無類). Confucius also taught anyone who could afford to give him some preserved meat. He did not demand a hefty fee for his teaching.

Today, it is actually students who decide whom to follow. They might learn from a lot of teachers but eventually choose one or two to follow. There is actually no need to fear the knowledge going to the wrong people. They simply will not understand if you believe in Wang Yang Ming's doctrine of the oneness of knowledge and action 知行合一.

JY

Jodi Brunner said...

Hi Joseph, could it be on one level that the terms 'Shan' and 'Sheng' are interchangeable because 'receiving shan' can be likened to 'receiving sheng'. If shan is taken as the ruling qi (ie the Zheng Shen) then is it not also the Sheng Qi of the current period?

Howard Choy said...

Hi Joseph,

What you said is very true, the way to see what a teacher is like is to observe his or her students, they attract and mirror each other.

The only way to attract virtuous students is to be virtuous ourselves; likewise, with thinking and caring students.

HC

Joseph Yu said...

Dear Mary,

Shan 山 and Sheng 生 have never been interchangeable. They sound similar but different. However, when the disciple wrote relying on memory, it was easy to make mistake. And the mistake is carried down. Sheng qi used in flying stars refers to the future Ling Xing and not the current one.

JY

Howard Choy said...

Hi Joseph,

With regard to this post, I have written up what Zhang Zhong-Shan and Wang Ting-Zhi has to say about Shou Shan and Chu Sha on my Blog, your comments are most welcome.

http://howardchoy.wordpress.com/

HC