Saturday, November 26, 2011

How do we know that Feng Shui works?

I am quite happy to share some evidence from my files.

Case 1. This is a consultation I did in 1998. It was an apartment unit which was occupied by a medical doctor and his daughter. The daughter asked me to fengshui their home.

I am going to omit the details of the theoretical part. After analyzing the qi pattern, I told the lady that the occupants of the house would easily get into uninvited financial troubles. Before I was going into a little more details of what I meant, the lady told me with excitement what they were facing.

They bought the apartment unit three years ago and was always paying the mortgage on time. two years ago, they were notified by the bank that their payment was in arears and asked for immediate payment. They went to the bank showing the receipt and the bank manager apologized and told them that the records would be straightened out. Two months later, the same thing happened and they went to the bank complaining for the inconvenience caused. They got another apology from the manager and were confirmed that it would not happen again. Well, six months later, on a Friday evening, when they went home, they were not allowed to go into their home by some authorized people - the house was seized. They asked to go in to get their payment receipts to go the bank and were allowed to do so. It was a Friday and the bank was closed by the time they got there. They spent the weekend in a hotel and went accompanied by a lawyer to the bank. It was again the bank's mistake but this time they were very angry and asked the lawyer to sue the bank. They demanded a huge sum of money for compensation. The bank's legal team tried to drag on with the case.

What I did was to place a mirror somewhere so that the light from one window could be reflected into a room that they used as an office where they did their work. It was the easiest way to get the powerful timely qi to reach the area where they did the accounting influenced by the qi that caused the problem.

To cut the story short, two weeks later, they were offered something they could not reject from the bank for settlement.

It may be a coincidence as no control experiment can be designed and you cannot go back in time to prove that it is only a coincidence. Of course, you can say that it is not a valid proof that Feng Shui works. To me, I am just satisfied with the result. So did my clients.

JY

Autumn scenes

Air Show

Autumn

Monday, November 21, 2011

Dogmatism

This is an article I wrote 10 years ago:


"The central idea of Yi is "change". This means that the world is forever changing. There are forever new things and new situations. We are to deal with the ever changing world and to cope with the changes.


The teaching of Feng Shui is no exception. There are things and situations today that the ancients could never have imagined. If we practise exactly the way the ancients did, then we are simply outdated.


As a matter of fact, Feng Shui is a living knowledge and from time to time there are great masters who surpass their predecessors. It is not that they are better, it is because they are standing on the shoulders of giants (Sir Issaac Newton's words).


Inventions are good but they must be based on sound principles well established by the ancients (unless such principles have been disproved and overruled). Only in this way can Feng Shui become a respectable subject to learn.


The ancients never had the problem of using boxes or wedges because these are new inventions. They are inventions to help people understand how to deal with the qi in a house. They are invented for convenience of presenting the picture. Unfortunately, they have
been taught in a dogmatic manner.


In books and on websites, we cannot expect the teacher to use a lot of words to explain how the diagrams explain the qi pattern. So it leads to the misunderstanding that the stars are confined to 9 boxes or 8 wedges. My students all understand what they are and how they should be used. This makes the distinction between learning from books and from a
living person.


To be able to read the ancient books and apply the knowledge to fit the modern situation is the way to Feng Shui. To denounce anything that the ancients did not do in their Feng Shui practices is dogmatic. It only hinders the progress. Since the ancients invented a lot of things, why should we not do the same? However, it does not mean that baseless inventions are good. We only respect those that are based on established principles and have practical results."


JY

Monday, November 14, 2011

An inspiring case study

More than 10 years ago, I gave a Zi Wei Dou Shu seminar in India. A student asked me to read a chart in class. I told him that the person should do well in the military force if that was the career he pursued. He should also do well if he ran a business with a lot of people working under him and the business was competitive.


The student said that it was his chart. He was not doing too well although he owned a factory with quite a lot of workers. When I asked more about his business, he told the class that he did not have to compete with other factories because his product was quite unique. He made money but he did not have much job satisfaction as he did not have the feeling of beating his rivals because he had no rivals.


On the other hand, he pointed out that his twin brother decided to join the army and became a famous general.


We can see that life reading only unveils an image. The person's decision affects the outcome. Another person with the same chart may decide to do nothing and becomes a beggar on the street. However, he may become a leader of a lot of beggars as if he is the king of beggars who rules a certain domain.


Good advice well taken will bring a person's potential to the highest level. This is the value of life reading.


JY

Friday, November 4, 2011

An Old Post I wrote 10 years ago

The following is quoted from a Buddhist book. You will
find the situation amazingly similar in Daoism,
Confucianism and Feng Shui.


"Buddhism was regarded as an educational system, and
not a religion when it was first introduced into
China. Regretfully, about two hundred years ago, the
practice of Buddhism had taken on a more religious
facade.


Buddhism is a special kind of knowledge; it is not a
religion. In order to derive true benefit from it, we
have to understand its true nature. 


Buddhism is the teaching of Buddha Shakamuni as he was
its founder. We call Him the "Original teacher". The
relationship between Buddha and ourselves is a
teacher-student relationship, which is not religious
in nature. The relationship between a Bodhisattva and
ourselves is a senior schoolmate-junior schoolmate
relationship. 


A teacher can only educate us about the principles,
tell us of his/her experiences in practice and
attainment, and suggest various methods for our
attainment. The rest ultimately depends upon us."


Well, well, in Feng Shui education, what we learn is
the teaching of the great masters in the past. We are
learning from the great masters themselves through
their written work. A teacher is responsible to
educate his/her students about the principles, and
tell them of his/her experiences in practice and
attainment. 


The first part is fundamental. The second part is only
a guideline and sharing experimental results. 


A good teacher must teach the fundamental principles
and his/her experiments (practices) must be based on
these principles. It is not sufficient to say that
this is what my teacher told me and he is the most
experienced teacher today.


Anything not based on principles is not worth trying
because it is dangerous. An experiment is only to
verify a theory. We should not practise anything
blindly without a theoretical background.


JY