Thursday, November 14, 2013

Location

Like many other Chinese metaphysics enthusiasts, I was bothered by the fact that the same Four Pillars chart for people may lead to very different lives. The same house may bring happiness to one family but disaster to another. I tried hard to explain why this was so and could not get a satisfactory answer until I studied Da Liu Ren 大六壬 in the nineteen eighties.

There are twelve Heaven Generals 天將 headed by the Nobleman 天乙貴人. This is an important Shen Sha 神煞 that plays an
important part in various Chinese metaphysics studies. There is one very important sentence in the classics:

The Noble Spirit is noble when he lands on good grounds. When Nobleman is at the wrong location, he loses his nobility. When
added to the life of a wicked person, he brings disasters. When added to the life of a nice person, he brings fortune and the person will be loved by others all the time.

貴神得地則貴,失地則賤,加小人之命則生殃,加君子之命則降福,愛寵常合。

I almost exclaimed "Eureka!"

Most people focus on timeliness when they study Feng Shui or Destiny. The more important factor "location" is neglected.
Location here does not mean where the house is built and the surrounding forms. It refers to the occupants.

A house with good Feng Shui can help us to live with prosperity but what is more important is the qi that grows in our heart. If benevolence and love is always in our heart, then we can enjoy what good Feng Shui can bring to us. Otherwise, the timely fortunate stars may just be abused and they bring disaster.

Number 3 Lu Cun today is considered untimely. Yet we can play a gentleman's game to win a competition with the help of the star and achieve our goals. On the other hand, a robber can also be helped by this star to successfully rob a bank but eventually he will be arrested and cast into jail.

Location, location, location! How many Feng Shui master really know the importance?







3 comments:

Simon said...

Dear Joseph,

Da Liu Ren sounds interesting. It may provide us more insight into our life on Human level, ourselves and our company.

I've met the translation of 天乙貴人 several versions, a very frequent one was the common one, but in plural form: Heavenly Noblemen. I thought it is because 乙 means two and this ShenSha represents two branches. Could you explain what the 乙 mean in the expression?

Thank you in advance,
Simon

Joseph Yu said...

Dear Simon,

乙 is the second stem but this word does not mean 2 although it looks like the Arabic number 2. In fact, it is the longer form of the number 一 in Chinese.

Each stem corresponds to one branch as the location of the Nobleman. Chen and Xu are places where the Nobleman does not visit.

The fact that there are two formulas, one for Yang Nobleman or Day Nobleman and another one for Yin Nobleman or Night Nobleman caused the confusion. They are just the same spirit but they visit different branches during day and night times.

Joseph

Mary Catherine Bax said...

Dear Joseph,

You have given us the key with ...

" what is more important is the qi that grows in our heart. If benevolence and love is always in our heart, then we can enjoy what good Feng Shui can bring to us. Otherwise, the timely fortunate stars may just be abused and they bring disaster. "