Polish Summer Camp

Straight after our hectic building work I went to Lazy next to the Baltic Sea to do a summer camp for the Qigong and then after for the Feng Shui students organized by Lidia and Krzysztof Szarek. The weather was fantastic, hot and sunny, almost like Australia and the sea is not too cold. Konrad, one of our students,  gave a spectacular Fire Show in the square of the old town Darlowo for us one night, what a wonderful way to finish 10 days with friends and students.

Herzfelde

The last two and a half months have been really hectic for us, trying to finish off the last of the holiday flats in our Hertzfelde farmhouse. At last it is completed and during the process of cleaning up I even find some scraps to make a sculpture, I called it “Once were Trees”, feeling sorry for all the scrap timbers we have to throw out or burn.

Below is a picture of the finished loft space and also my latest “creation, to which Gyda my wife said, “It is very sharp!”

A Real Feng Shui Master

Some Thoughts on a Real Feng Shui Master:

A real Feng Shui master has the philosophical understanding and the technical know-how but he does not use them for mastery of a situation or to seek a final solution for a problem. He uses his knowledge and understanding to facilitate.

He understands the complexity of life and human nature, so he dares not to simplify what is inherently complex, but allow the complicity to be, and seek the “in-betweens” to help others to navigate, using nature and the built environment as a vehicle for the process.

He does not look for a solution nor sees the temporary breakdown as a problem to be solved, he sees instead what he does as a process of helping his clients to navigate between what can be, what should be and what is in a given space and time.

He knows there is no end point and there is no complete understanding and when we can see this as well, we understand a little bit more and see a bit clearer to allow the life process to go on.

Being complete is to start from the beginning again. Only a beginner looks for a complete set of Feng Shui theories, thinking that if they can have these theories, they have “arrived” and they can do wonders with Feng Shui.

A Feng Shui master is not so naïve; he sees and accepts the unknown as if they are vast darkness between the stars that made up the night sky.  The mysterious void is the wellspring that leads us to the stars, so a real Feng Shui master knows what he does is  Xuan-Kong 玄空 – Empty and Mysterious.

Finnish Radio Interview

The following is a transcript of a 10-minutes short radio interview with Leila Malmefjall of www.radio86.se on the subject of bedroom FS, you might hear the edited and translated version in Finish and Swedish in the near future, if you tune into their station through the internet:

LM: Tell us briefly about who you are and your background

I am a FS architect; that is I am a qualified and practicing architect who uses FS in his work and I am also a FS consultant and a FS teacher.

I was born in China and migrated to Australia when I was a teenager. I graduated from architecture at UNSW (Sydney) in 1974 and has been studying and using FS in my work for over 30 years. I am classically trained and my teachers are from HK and Mainland China.

LM: Feng Shui in the bedroom: What colors are best in the bedroom?

The choice of color has 3 levels: the Heaven, the Human and the earth level.

The Human level means you should always choose a color that you like because it means psychologically you are attuned to this color.

The Earth level means you should pay attention to the purpose and function of a room and in this case it is a bedroom and a bedroom should be quiet and calm, so the color choice should be a quiet and calm one as well.

Bright colors in a bedroom is not recommended, a more intimate and a more “qingdan” (simple, light and elegant) color is more desirable in a bedroom.

The Heaven level is where the FS color comes in, but it should be done as an accent color and not the color of the whole room. For example, if the FS says your bedroom needs some Fire, it does not mean you should paint the whole room in bright red!

Also the sun play a part, if your bedroom is a sunny one, then the general color tone should be a cool one to balance out the yin and yang and if your bedroom is in a cold place then the color should have a warmer tone.

There is no one best color of the same for everyone, it depends on the person and the place and also the FS adjustments required.

LM: Should one avoid a TV in the bedroom?

Definitely, because a bedroom is where you sleep and rest and make love (some of the time), so a TV is not a suitable equipment to have because you will tended to watch the TV and not look at each other or take a quiet rest. The same goes with a computer or working in a bedroom, they are inappropriate things to have and to do in a bedroom.

LM: Things above one’s head?

We perceive the influence of FS Qi with our five senses and also our mind and the visual is the most acute, so it is best not to see something heavy like an exposed beam or a hanging pot-plant over our head because they worry us.

Also a skylight directly above is not a good idea either, because the connection heavenward is too strong and it would disturb your sleep lying down.

LM: Flowers in the bedroom?

Flowers and plants are desirable in a bedroom because they absorb carbon dioxide and give out oxygen as you sleep to help with rejuvenation. They will make your bedroom look nicer and smell better if the right type of flowers and plants are chosen.

LM: Is there a difference between if you are single or a couple when it comes to furnishing the bedroom?

If you are an adult, it is best to have a double bed at all time instead of a single one. Not only it gives you more room but also the empty space left over will remain you it will be good to have someone sleeping next to you!

LM: How have you furnished your bedroom?

We have a nice big bedroom, about 4X5 meters in size and we have a king-size bed located against a solid wall, so we can have a view to the window and balcony as well as a view of the door. This way we always feel secured and have a vision of the door and the outside at the same time.

Our bed is a futon one made of solid teak timber, it is neither too high nor too low off the floor and we always keep the underside clear and well ventilated.

The room is painted off white and we have paintings and photos that we like. The biggest piece is an oil painting done by an artist friend and it hang next to the door.

There is no TV or computer in the room and we never work there. Sometimes I do my qigong exercises there when the weather is too cold outside and that is all.

In one corner of the room we have some candles on a sand and pebble tray and at least once or twice a week I would message my wife with the candle lights on, these are our intimate hours and we would make sure we will have this time no matter how busy we are.

My wife is also a FS Architect so we know how important is to furnish our bedroom well FS-wise to cultivate our affection and our life Qi.

LM: Tell us a little about your architect business.

We have a small practice in Berlin composed of 3 FS architects and we do FS architecture and consultations all over the world.

Right now we are finishing off a one-family house by the lake just on the edge of Berlin and also our 230 years-old farm house made of mud and timber about 80 km away from our home.

Another job we just finished is a harmony-living center in Slovenia for a group of British clients, in this job we worked both as the FS consultant and then the FS architect/designer. A local architect did the documentation and supervision.

We also do FS consultations and right now we are working on the Star City Casino in Sydney and we have been doing this large-scale job for the last 18 months.

We also do FS teaching all over Europe through our European College of Feng Shui (ECOFS – www.fengshui-college.org) and sometimes we take people on a FS study tour of China. This year we will visit the sacred mountains and temples all over China (www.arqitektur.com).

Thank you Leila for the opportunity to talk in your radio.

International Symposium on Kan Yu (Feng Shui) Architecture

The funding for the symposium has been approved so it will definitely go ahead.
Some of the world’s best Feng Shui scholars will be there and it is free and
open to the public, so please make it a date in Berlin. See you in November!

International Symposium Kan Yu (Feng Shui) and Architecture,
Humboldt University, Berlin.

Date: 09. – 11. November 2010

Hosted by
Seminar of Sinology, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
Supported by Gerda Henkel Foundation

09.11.2010

09:00-09:45 Gyda Anders, Berlin: The impact of Feng Shui on Spatial Design and
Planning

10:15-11:00 Prof. Yoon H.K., New Zealand: A Cultural Ecology of the Geomantic
Landscape of the Sailing Boat

11:30-12:15 Prof. Ole Bruun, Roskilde- Denmark:

12:45-14:00 lunch

14:00-14:45 Howard Choy, Berlin- Sydney: Yin Yang Dialectics – a Feng Shui
way to make
sense of our environment

15:15-16:00 Prof. Dr. Florian C. Reiter, HU Berlin: traditional Feng Shui
writings and their
implementations

16:15-17:00 Prof. Stephan Feuchtwang, UK: Feng Shui in planning and
place-making:
some bottom-up examples from southern Fujian

10.11.2010

09:00-09:45 Dr. Stephen L. Field, USA Fengshui Numerology and the
Hetu
Xianluo Key

10:15-11:00 Dr. Ellen van Goethem, Japan: The Four Gods in China and
Japan: A Comparative Analysis

11:30-12:15 Dr. Eduard Kögel, TU Berlin: Feng Shui and Yin & Yang in German
Modern
Architecture

12:45-14:00 lunch

14:00-14:45 Prof. Dr. Lothar Ledderose,
Heidelberg:

15:15-16:00 Dr. Lee Sanghae, USA:
16:15-17:00 Dr. Eva Sternfeld, TU Berlin: The Capital as Design. Beijing
urban planning between Tradition and Transformation.

11.11.2010

09:00-09:45 Dr. Michael Mak, Newcastle: A Study of Methodologies for
Scientific Feng Shui Research in the Built Environment

10:15-11:00 Dr. Michael Paton, Sydney: The Cosmology of Yang
Yunsong: is it
empirically based?

11:30-12:15 Dr. Albert So, Hong Kong: Case Studies based on Compass School

12:45-14:00 lunch

14:00-14:45 Prof. Wang Qiheng, Tianjin:

15:15-16:00 Prof. Wei Dong, USA: Chinese Traditional Architecture Cultural
Museum

16:15-17:00 Prof. Wang Yude, Wuhan:

Conference languages are English and Chinese

Venue: Humboldt-University, Berlin
Dorotheenstrasse 24,
Fritz-Reuter-Saal

Blame it on the Stars…

One way to read the stars, it makes one feels good and there is no need to make any changes in one’s life, we play this blame game in one form or another every day! (With apology to BCCL cartoon)

Testimonials

I am deeply moved by some of the testimonials given by students of the Flying Stars course I taught for the Golden Gate School of Feng Shui recently. Thanks you, it makes teaching worthwhile.

Lohan Qigong Weekend in Herzfelde

Come and join us for a weekend of Lohan Qigong in June, out on our Taiji farm just one and a quarter hours drive from Berlin. You can also stay for the weekend if you are out of town, all instructions will be in English.

LohanQigong

True or Magnetic North?

“I have been thinking about the difference between true north and magnetic north, since coming back from San Francisco which has a declination of 14 degrees, nearly one mountain. What is your take on this? Should one uses the true north or the magnetic north to measure the sitting and facing of a house to construct a Flying Stars chart?”

I asked my good friends Michael Paton and Derek Walters this question after coming back from San Francisco and the following are their answers, it is indeed a vexed question.

Hi Howard,

Originally fengshui xiansheng used true north. Only in the Song dynasty with the advent of the luopan did magnetic north come to the fore. Grafflin wrote a paper on the problem of declination with the fengshui of the Ming tombs, but unfortunately I don’t have a copy to send you. Perhaps Gyda could find it in the uni library there. The details are below.

Grafflin, D., ‘Geomantic Cliché and Geomagnetic Puzzle’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 105, no. 2, 1985. pp. 315-316.

I hope this helps.

Cheers
Michael

Dear Howard,

How nice to hear from you!

What a vexed question. When I was in Taiwan the Fang Shi there told me that the magnetic north follows the lines of qi. But when doing Flying Stars, which are more numerological than geographical, true north is used. Indeed, in the (modern) Book of the Luopan, which I have from Kaohsiung (Gaoxiong) there are tables of magnetic declination, to be used for calculating true north. But when they were taking readings for graves and temples, they used the Luopan but ignored declination. Some authorities (Needham nodding) claim that the Heaven, Human and Earth plates on the Luopan show that temporal magnetic declination was known to the ancients. I don’t hold to this theory; too neat for it to be so much one way and the same amount the other. In any case it varies from location to location in the same area. As indeed, the Luo Qing testifies, with its references to hidden weapons affecting the needle.

Very best wishes,
Derek

World Magnetic Declination Map 2005

Which Chart to Use?

I am in San Francisco teaching Basic Flying Stars for the Golden Gate School of Feng Shui in this lovely hotel by the bay. One of the exercise I did with the students was to work out the sitting and facing of the hotel to determine which chart to use. The hotel was built nearly 17 years ago (Period 7) and business has been doing well.

The difficulties in working out the sitting and facing are twofold, the first is the hotel is located between real water and virtual water on either side, the second is the architect has angled the building in two different ways, so best is to look at not only the big picture with Google Earth but also to walk around on the site.

There is a definite “Mountain” to the West on closer inspection because the highway is about one to one and half meters higher and the architect has planted many trees in this direction and there are more solid walls. So the task is to work out wether it is facing East or North East, and by doing two charts the outcomes become very clear.

The East facing chart has a “Timely Water going up Mountain and timely Mountain going down Water” pattern, so in theory they should be doing badly financial and management-wise because there is no Mountain at the front and the Water at the back is a very busy and unpleasant highway.

The NE facing has a “Timely Mountain and timely Water” pattern, so in theory they should have been doing well both financial and management-wise and that is the case. It is a pleasant place to be.

So the past history helped us determined which chart to use, very clearly. The computer calculations and overlays are done by Kevin Ross, one of the clever students in this course. The chart on the top is facing East and the chart below is facing NE.

Just how I feel

I am

Just about

To step out of the door

These words held  me back

It is or may be that is

Just how

I feel

 

I am bland

But not empty

I am emptied

But not blank

I am filled and bland

Emptied but not empty

But not blank

 

Make no sense

But it is

Just how

I feel.

 

 

Liu Fa

A new book written in Chinese by Lin Zhi-Rong 林志榮, a Taiwanese Feng Shui master has just came on the market, showing how Master Tan Yuan-Wu’s 談養吾 Xuan Kong Liu Fa 玄空六法 works in theory and in practice.

At the end of the book, he gave three work samples and I found one of them particularly interesting from a FS architect point of view, because he first amended the original design in a sensible way and then use the Liqi theories to support his redesign.

Below showed the work sample in question and if we look at them carefully we can see the core idea of Liu Fa is to “fen ci xiong” 分雌雄 and “na sheng qi” 納生氣 of the period by paying special attentions to the location of the Ling Shen and Zheng Shen for timeliness by lining up the furniture, windows and doors. The concept of “one item, one Taiji” is also evident at work and once the principles, and there are six of them are known, the applications are relatively easy to carry out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Illustration 7.4 showed the original layout of an old public housing type, which has poor planning and inefficient use of space and circulation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Illustration 7.5 showed the revised layout after Form analysis. The front door has been relocated to the right side and the bedrooms are grouped in the middle part of the house with a central corridor. All the windows and doorways are located in such a combination that they are in the Ling Shen position in relationship to the furniture, so as to na qi  (take in or receive the sheng qi).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Illustration 7.6 showed if the centre of the house is used to Li-ji, then the relocated front door is to the NW1 (Xu) and the facing windows are also to the west, which are all Ling Shen directions for Period 8, hence they are auspicious, because Ling Shen should have movement and Zheng Shen should have stillness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Illustration 7.7 and 7.8 showed if the user is used to Li-ji, then when the user is sitting on the sofa of the Living Room, he can “na” the auspicious sheng qi of the front door in the southwest (it should be northwest, the Qian direction as pointed out by Kit Hau), and when the occupant is lying in his or her bed, located in such a way that the doors are all in the Ling Shen directions to na sheng qi again.

Post Card from Paris

I just finished teaching a weekend workshop in Nantes, France, on the Yang Family Sword Form and the Five Animals Qigong Form. Some of the students have been with me since 2001 and it is satisfying from a teacher’s point of view, that some of them have improved noticeably in the last couple of years.

I was talking to one of the workshop participants in the train from Nantes to Paris and it was good to hear that he praised one particular senior students being so solidly rooted and powerfully connected, that no matter how he tried, he was sent flying in push hands! Now he is hooked with what we are doing.

My daughter Anna is turning 30 (we are celebrating the occasion in Paris) and that is how long I have been learning Feng Shui, but I studied Taijiquan, Choy Lee Fut and Qigiong long before Feng Shui; so what do I have to show for nearly 45 years of learning? Nothing much, except vitality and happiness and the fact that I still get a kick out of doing them every morning and that is what matters most to me.

Look at all my students in the photos below, they are all smiling and having fun and they do stick around, we are more like a family then a school and I learned just as much from my students as I have taught them, so what more would a teacher wish for?

I think Heaven and Thierry, my friend and organizer, for this privilege.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Turin FS Congress, September 2008, a press release by Richard Ashworth

First International Congress on Scientific Feng Shui and the Built Environment, Politecnico di Torino.

“The big picture is without form.” Lao Tze. 

Flying into Turin over the Alps must be one of the most breathtaking aerial approaches on earth: comparable to Hong Kong or Nice. As my plane descended, the undercarriage felt as if it might scrape the roof of the Superga, the magnificent Savoy palace that stands like a sentinel above the city which is itself divided by the winding River Po. This is real feng shui: real mountains, real wind and real water. Turin is a location that has commanded the Italian peninsula since at least the 1^st millennium BCE.

Sarawaggi is what keynote speaker Derek Walters called it: the mysterious quality that brings pilgrims to a location – Stonehenge, the Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat, standing stones lost in the wilds of Armenia – for no quantifiable reason.

I had a little trouble with the Turin Airport security X-rays which found my clear quartz wand, along with my trusty moldavite fragment in my jacket pocket.

“You write with this?” the baffled security officer asked, brandishing it like a stylus.

“No I point it,” I replied and he shrugged and waved me on as only an Italian can.

Whatever it is, sarawaggi enticed several hundred to Turin the weekend of  the 18^th September including some of the most fascinating, creative and authoritative thinkers on feng shui. These included designers, practitioners, writers, healer, enthusiasts and above all architects, all there to see how their various disciplines might marry to design a sustainable world for the future.

Principal among these was feng shui architect Howard Choy who may lead the world in linking these two spheres. Howard opened proceedings with a deft introduction that placed feng shui and architecture right away into their appropriate relationship with the tao (or way) This was typically both definitive and clear. The Chinese character for “think,” he informed us, differs from that for “observe” by the addition of the ideogram for “heart.” So to think is to observe with heart.

“We don’t say,” he said, inviting us to both think deeply and observe “That feng shui is a science but that we can study it scientifically.”

Attilio Andreini followed with a discussion of the traditional tale of Zhuang Tze and the jumping fish which led to a lively end-of-session panel discussion. How did Zhuang Tze know how the fish felt? You had to be there.

Welsh-born Jill Lander who practices feng shui on the Chinese mainland, graciously tolerated an introduction as English and gave a masterful and visually impressive exposition of the feng shui of Hong Kong, the fragrant harbour, and the threats and opportunities that may lie in its future. Was the Lippo Centre doomed from the start? What will be the future of Lantau Island? This was among the most talked-about speeches.

As was that of Mauro Aresu and Arianna Mendo who next told of their discovery in Sardinia of stone structures holding measurable healing energies. This exercise in the marriage of architecture, archaeology and feng shui in practice, caught the imagination of the audience which again led to a series of questions in the panel discussion.

Equally ground-breaking was Anthony Ashworth’s absorbing account of his field research into the geomancy of sub-Saharan Africa and his meetings with Credo, the mutwa, or holder of ancient knowledge. Who knows where this may lead?  He was followed by Manuela Gatti who had put her money where her mouth was by building business premises of sustainable materials in keeping with feng shui principles. Next Vastu Shastra Master Giulia Bellentani’s account of basic Vastu was so sensitive, thorough and expert, it was hard to believe she was both so young and born in Italy. Namaste! 

As the conference drew on it became more and more clear that Turin, World Design Capital 2008 was the logical venue. Set in the Po valley among the foothills of the Alps, themselves studded with the historic  palaces of the Italian Kings, the streets of Torino are laid out in a grid much like Paris or Washington DC. If you look all the way along them in any direction your eye catches distant green hills. The prescient Savoys also incidentally, knowing that being in the shadow of the Alps made for above-average rainfall, arranged for pavements throughout the city centre to be sheltered with cloisters so that (as long as you don’t cross a road) you can shop all day without getting wet.

Turin native and Co-organiser Carlo Amedeo Reyneri di Lagnasco’s beautifully illustrated presentation argued convincingly for connections between the power of the Savoy family and the Piemontese landscape.

Papers followed from authorities in disciplines as diverse as semiotics, martial arts and urban planning. Civil engineer Livio Dezzani (who brought Italian design to the Chinese eco-city of Caofeidian) and architect Claudio Greco (who gave us an overview of the evolution of the Beijing Olympic facilities) both showed how European design like feng shui, can be applied  anywhere in the world.

The Hollywood-based Simona Mainini quoted Frank Lloyd Wright: “Form follows function,” she told us and added that “Function follows the energy.” Simona, a long-time student of Feng Shui Master Larry Sang, served her architectural apprenticeship with Eric Lloyd Wright, grandson of Frank, whose holistic vision of course predated this Congress by more than half a century. Simona  went on to show how good drafting and strict adherence to the traditional meanings of flying star patterns could lead to almost supernatural results.

Joseph Yu alumnus Silvia Sacchi did something similar a little later with the addition of her own distinctive spiritual insight. Bernardino Chiaia showed how nature’s mastery of the right design for the right function was a perfect model for the architect and Ermanno Bellucci made silicon sound sexy.

All the way from British Columbia, Teresa Min Yee Hwang by showing how a professional feng shui consultant does her job, inspired many who aspire to her skills.

Among other outstanding presentations were Roberto Marrocchesi (described by the absent Jon Sandifer as a true gent, a very special soul) and his moving account of the use of feng shui in rebuilding a family’s life after the death of a child brought tears to the eyes of many. Francesco Rossena took events to new heights by having the audience physically practice tai chi with him and the sheer energy of Madhu Patel brought a standing ovation.

Other highlights were the irrepressible Priscilla Braccesi who spoke with enormous enthusiasm and authority, without notes about the feng shui of Milan, past, present and future. The youthful Master Jin Peh explained the differences between the various types of luo pan with such clarity that when Derek Waltersshowed one on a slide the next day, whispers could be heard saying “Sam He…no. Zong He”.

Master Derek, sometimes called the Godfather of Feng Shui because of his seminal books on the subject, gave two talks linked by the title Mirrors of the Heavens and showed why many continue to consider him the leading edge in the understanding of the 28 Lunar Mansions and indeed Chinese Astrology.

With great clarity, Gyda Anders posed important questions about the role of traditional feng shui in modern architecture as did Munich-based Michael Rappwho explained movingly how feng shui had put him back in touch with why he had become an architect and demonstrated how a small number of subtle changes could transform workmanlike architecture into homes that put human wellbeing first.

Again and again this theme of mutual learning arose and it was in the examination of it that this gathering truly caught fire as healers, earth acupuncturists and interior designers found common ground. If this world threatened by over-consumption, inequitable distribution of wealth, global warming and a plethora of philosophical conflicts is to emerge into the 1^st century let alone flourish, it may be that the connections made here in Turin over this weekend will prove to be key to it.

This point was emphasised by Richard Creightmore, perhaps the world’s leading authority on geopathic stress, who dazzled not so much with his knowledge of the problem as with his concentration on doing whatever it took to heal the stricken planet.

Co-organiser Richard Ashworth took his reputation in both hands by making predictions for 2009 based on Four Pillars theory, evincing an appropriate combination of respect and bafflement. Then on the Sunday, as planned, Jon Sandifer failed to turn up, appearing on a big screen explaining the principles of Nine Star Ki so as to show why he as a 2 Earth, could not safely have made a flight to Turin at this time.

Giulio Mondini from the Faculty of Architecture wound the Congress up with encouraging words about the lessons learned and possible future gatherings.

Congratulations are due to Richard Ashworth and Carlo Reyneri for putting this together as well as thanks to Silvia Sacchi for her supportive role and Laura di Stefano and her OSC team for the flawless administration. Also to be mentioned in despatches are Carlo’s tireless partner Marietta whose multiple contributions included recruiting and coordinating with OSC.

Thanks are also due to Barefoot Flooring magnate Dawn Gibbins and to Lillian Too for their invisible but indispensable support.  Last but not least, we would also like to thank:  Dianella Mancin, who is the fund raiser who obtained the important patronage of Citta di Torino, Provincial di Torino e Regione Piemonte.

 

A scene from the Congress

 

Meeting up with new and old friends

 

Carlo and Gyda, two Feng Shui Architects

The different meanings of Qi

Since the core competency of a Feng Shui practitioner is to read and analyze Qi and to work with Qi, we need to know the different meanings of Qi used by the Chinese in different context. There are at least four ways of looking at the meaning of Qi (courtesy: Gyda Anders):

1) “Qi” seen as a “concrete thing” – a definite object in contrast to the Dao, which has neither spatial restriction nor physical form, that which is manifested. For example, the weather (Tian Qi) or our breath (Qi) are forms of manifested qi.

2) “Qi” seen as a “subtle, incipient, actuating force” which is not yet visible – that which is hidden. For example, the term “Xing Qi” in Feng Shui where ‘Xing’ is refer to the physical form of an object and “Qi” is its formless quality hidden behind the form.

3) “Qi” seen as a “material force” that has both matter and energy, as opposed to the concept of “Li” or Principle. For example, in TCM, Qi denotes the psycho-physiological power associated with blood and breath – Vital Qi that keeps us alive.

4) “Qi” seen as a “concept of synergy” – a “field” of different things that are not related but finally connected together. So when we say this house has “Sheng Qi” it means a certain set of conditons is being satisfied to make the place come alive.

The Chinese often add an extra character to the character Qi to give it a more precise meaning. For example, the ones I mentioned: “Sheng Qi”, “Vital Qi”, “Xing Qi” and “Tian Qi”. One has to be careful in what context or situation the word Qi is used, for example, the term “sheng qi” mentioned ealier, it could mean being angry when you are having an argument with your girlfriend or it could mean a field of life enhancing qi when you are doing a Feng Shui consultation.

Taijiquan Class in Krakow

Every time I go to teach Feng Shui in Krakow Poland I also take the opportunity to teach a small group of my Taiji students. We don’t meet all that often so it is not easy to find a place to practise, but last week we have been lucky and went to a very nice Wing Chun School run by Sifu Andrezj Szuszkiewicz (www.wingchunkungfu.pl). We thank him for his generosity and he also took the pictures of our training below.

The first picture shows us beginning to train in push hands and the usual way is to start with static push to the body, to train the students how to use the body as a conduit to transfer the opponent’s force to the ground by being “fang song” (letting go of the tension in the body). The second picture shows me getting on my knees to show the finer points of posture integrity while the others looked on. The third picture shows a group shot of my dedicated students who gave up their Saturday night to train with me. The last picture show me with Sifu Andrzej in front of a painting of Grandmaster Yip Man. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Absolute Truth – Juedui de Zhen Li 絕對的真理

I have been reading the work of Daoist scholar Chen Ying-Ning 陳櫻寧, in an anthology published on his 20^th anniversary, called “Daoism and Health Preservation” 道教與養生. Chen Daoshi promoted the study of Daoist Philosophy of Immortality (Xian Xue 仙學) all his life and wrote many books and articles on the subject. I have found this little piece on Absolute Truth quite interesting.

Once a student of philosophy asked him this question, “What constituted Absolute Truth in this world?” and he answered:

“ Absolute Truth happens when there is a mouth and no speech; when there is a mind and no thought. Once you open your mouth, once you start to think, it falls on two sides, it changes to mutual opposites and no longer is absolute. Therefore to seek the (Absolute) Truth in written and spoken words are all a waste of efforts. You studied philosophy, maybe it is because in philosophy you cannot find the Truth, and so you asked me this question. To be honest, there is no (Absolute) Truth as such in this world and it is not worthwhile searching for it. But let’s say you have somehow discovered the (Absolute) Truth, what good will it do (for you)?  When (you are) old and sick, when (you) have no cloths and food and when (you are) in suffering and despair, will the (Absolute) Truth that you have found get rid of them?”

Many people these days cannot tell the difference between Absolute Truth and relative truth, so they became intolerant and pedantic. According to Chen Ying-Ning, if we want the Absolute Truth, then just sit quietly, don’t think and say nothing. Given time, we might even have a chance of becoming an Immortal.

 

Oh What a Lovely Sunset!

I am having a day off teaching Garden Feng Shui here in Santiago Chile, while there is a city council election going on. All the restaurants are closed this Sunday so I am eating my custard apples (best Chilean fruit, so I was told) for my dinner on the terrace of my apartment hotel and this is what I saw when I looked up, even nature can be beautiful in a concrete jungle like this as the sun is going down, and these words came to me… 

The sun

Is going down,

But I don’t feel sad,

Cos my love just Skyped me and

She said she missed me,

So why would I miss

The Sun?

The 15 Core Principles of Feng Shui

I Just found out a Chinese Feng Shui Architecture site has posted my paper presented at the last International Conference on Scientific Feng Shui and the Built Environment held in Hong Kong. You can read and down load it by clicking onto the title “The 15 Core Principles of Feng Shui” listed on the right hand side of their home page:

http://www.dnfsxh.com/

Still in Santiago Chile

01 November, 2009

We are half way through the Luopan Compass workshop and I am grateful that there is many students from different part of South America who have already studied with other teachers still want to come and listen to my points of view.

The Garden Workshop in the previous week was also great, the South Americans have a zest not only for learning but also for life, it seems singing and dancing are in their blood. Coming back from the practical workshop in the bus, they nearly rocked the bus off the road with their songs and jumping up and down. OK I admit, nearly half of them were Brazilians!

The food here is great too, I really love the Chilean Chirimoya, and you can eat it, drink it and make it into a delicious dessert.

The only downside for me was being cheated by a Taxi driver one night coming back from the restaurant. I gave him a 1000 and a 5000 Peso notes, and right in front of my eyes, he shuffled the two notes and they became two 1000 Pesos! He insisted that I should pay him another 4000 and with my students sitting in the back seat, I did not want to punch him in the nose and complied, looking him straight in the eyes to let him know that I knew what he was doing. He smiled back weakly but still took the extra cash.

I look forward to return to Santiago again next October. Thank you Lucia for doing the organisation to make it possible for an enjoyable experience.

My Luopan Class in Santiago Chile

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An old colonial courtyard, reminiscent of my Hong Kong days

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marcos and Renata, Feng Shui architects from Brazil

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tucking into my Custard Apple dessert!

Good to Know

It is good to know sometimes, that our students do appreciate our work, here is an example from Samuel’s blog:  

http://www.raumfuersleben.ch/

It roughly translated as follows:

“For some years Howard Choy teaches a “Professional Practitioners Course for Feng Shui Consultants” in Switzerland supported by his wife, the Berlin Architect Gyda Anders, who not only teaches also does the translation from English to German very professionally!

The seminars with Howard Choy and Gyda Anders are very different, they are alive and practice-oriented. Since they are both architects, their approach to Feng Shui is both functionally and aesthetically orientated.

The two are a super team – I can only recommend it highly, especially for professionals such as architects, interior decorators, town planners and landscape gardeners etc.!”

Thank you, Samuel, for the kind words.

Photo of Gyda and Howard by Samuel Frankauser

Incredible or Boring?

Being elegently simple, “Ya-Dan”  雅淡 in Chinese, is no longer fashionable and if you want to be famous you have to be really clever:

Herzog de Meuron’s VitraHaus near Hamburg (top picture) burrowed from earlier Sou Fujimotto’s Tokyo Apartments (below). I know one thing for sure, they are not Feng Shui architecture!

 

Fate and Destiny (II)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a great discussion on Joseph Yu’s blog concerning the following classic phrase and the Five Elements:

一命
二運
三風水
四積陰德
五讀書

(1) Destiny
(2) Cycle
(3) Feng Shui
(4) Accumulation of hidden virtuous deeds
(5) Study books

In the end it is about the role of Feng Shui plays in our fate and destiny (Ming, fate, Heaven’s decreed or mandate), which brought me to Wing-Tsit Chan again with his comment on Mencius in page 78 of his “A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy”, which I think every student of Chinese Metaphysics (Xuan Shu) should read.

Mencius said, “He who exerts his mind to the utmost knows his nature. He who knows his nature knows Heaven. To preserve one’s mind and to nourish one’s nature is the way to serve Heaven. Not to aloow any double-mindedness regardless of longevity or brevity of life, but to cultivate one’s person and wait for (destiny to takes its own course) is the way to fulfill one’s destiny”

Chan’s comment, “In ancient China there were five theories about destiny or the Mandate of Heaven. The first was fatalism: the Mandate of Heaven is fixed and unchangeable. The second was moral determinism: Heaven always encourage virtue and punishes evil; therefore man can determine his reward and punishment through moral deeds. The third was anti-fatalism, advocated by the Moist School. The fourth was naturalistic fatalism, which means that destiny is not controlled by Heaven in the sense of an anthropomorphic God but by Nature and works automatically. Lastly, there was the Confucian theory of “waiting for destiny”. According to this doctrine, man should exert his utmost in moral endeavor and leave whatever is beyond our control to fate. It frankly admits that there are things beyond our control but that is no reason why one should relax in his moral endeavor. The tendency was definitely one of moralism and humanism. The Confucian theory represents the conviction of enlighten Chinese in general”.

In view of the above, the study and the use of Feng Shui (and other branches of Xuan Shu for that matter) straddles the boundary between destiny and free-will, we should use these ancient knowledge as a tool to help use do our utmost  and only after we have tried our best, will our destiny be a true to self one and not to fall into the abyss of fatalism and determinism of all kinds.

The Bright Mirror of Eight Houses

Woke up this morning and the first thing on my mind was Manu’s question last night while we were having dinner (I am teaching the Bazhai module for Manu Butterworth’s Golden Gate School of Feng Shui in Marin County near San Francisco right now).

“Why in the Bazhai Mingjing system we work with the Ming Gua of a person first and not with the Zhai Gua of a house”

I thought about the answer I gave him, “There is a house and there is a person living in the house. A house is inert whereas a person has a will and a consciousness. When the house Gua Qi is not supportive and a person cannot change the orientation nor the “three requirements” (the door, the bed and the stove), then what is left is the human awareness and the will to make the changes for the better through the Gua Qi of a person, a house is not capable of doing this on its own.

“What if the Wuxing “jiehua” (“cures”) of the person clashed with that of the house? What is good for the person may be bad for the house.”

My answer was, “These are two different layers of Gua Qi, one for the person and one for the house, if an E4 (W4) person is not able to live in an E4 (W4) house, then one can make it better through the will and the consciousness of a person via the Ming Gua. But at the same time, one should and must improve the environment of the house, so the potential negative influence of the Gua Qi of the house will not be able to express itself.

There is always the interplay between the “mind” of a person and the “body” of a house, when the body cannot be changed, then a person can adjust his or her mind set to make the difference through mutual resonance between a person and his or her environment, that is how Feng Shui works through the Gua Qi or the Qi of the Trigrams.

Gua Qi is formless and intangible but one can connect to its symbolic and correlative meaning through understanding and awareness, then use them to connect to the objects in the environment and use them as symbolic remainders of our needs and prioritie , thus one goes from the form to the formless and back to the form again to complete the Feng Shui process.”  

From the classic “Bazhai Mingjing” (The Bright Mirror of Eight Houses”), “A house has a sitting and facing direction, a person’s life can be East or West, if one is concerned only with the sitting mountain and not with the Ming, it is most harmful. If one is concerned with the Ming and not with the facing mountain, then it is less harmful.”

Feng Shui and Urbanization

While teaching the Jiu Xing Pai Water Method 九星派水法 in Krakow Poland last weekend, I told my students that many of the old Liqi methods (the Compass methods) in Feng Shui were invented for a pre-urbanized China and when urbanization came, these methods went from being real and physical to being virtual and psychological.

A good example is the Five Ghosts Transporting Wealth Water Method (Wu Gui Yun Cai) 五鬼運財 from the Jiu Xing Pai or the Nine Stars School made popular by Taiwanese Feng Shui Master Wang De-Xun 王德薰, where the original aim is to use the Liqi calculations to locate a house near water and have it coming from a safe direction.

It is interesting to note that when one looks at the results of the calculations, they always end up with a house that has the Coming Dragon at the back (that is a higher at the back for better drainage and protection), the Five Ghosts (the Lian Zhen star) at the facing and the nearby water comes from the Heavenly Doctor (the Ju Men star) at an angle, either to the left or to the right. In a traditional Chinese village, there is a physical advantage in living near a water- course and having it meandering towards the site where the facing is always the same as the front door.An easy access to a safe body of water would have a greater chance of gaining wealth and that is the rationale behind the Five Ghosts Transporting Wealth Water Method.

However, when urbanization came to China and the roads are built to carry traffic and often in straight lines, this connection to the life giving Sheng Qi water is lost and a new way to connect to the auspicious water is done with a pathway from the front door to a straight road instead of a meandering water course.

Later still, when high rises are built to accommodate the ever increasing density of urban living, the connection to the water became fully virtual, although one still use the same calculations to obtain the results. A fish tank or an electrically operated water wheel, located somewhere to the left or to the right front corner of a living room or an office, now replace a watercourse.

The modern emphasis is on using human intention to entice wealth, rather than the physical production of wealth in an appropriate environmental setting. Without knowing this type of historical development, one might think Feng Shui, especially the Compass part, is all about “cures” and intention and nothing else practical.

Feng Shui Professional Practitioners Course

History and Philosophy of Feng Shui (for a sound foundation to build your Feng Shui career).

25 – 29 March 2009, Berlin Germany

Bilingual 5-days workshop in English with German translations (class size limited to 8 students)

Teachers: Cai Hong (Howard Choy) and Gyda Anders, Feng Shui Architects

Some of the course content includes:

-       The history of Feng Shui

-       A survey of Feng Shui classics

-       The influence of religion and philosophy on Feng Shui

-       Different meanings of Qi in Feng Shui

-       Different ways of thinking in East and West.

-       The Feng Shui paradigm

-       The San Cai Methodology

-       The theory and practice of Qi Energetics like Yin Yang, Wuxing, Early and Later Heaven Bagua, Luoshu, Hetu, Stems and Branches, Purple White Nine Stars, etc.

-       Ming Shu, Yun Shu and Zhai Shu (Numbers for fate, cycles and houses)

-       Different ways of calibrate time

-       Different ways of calibrate space

-       Different schools of Feng Shui, what they are and how they differ to each other

-       Learn to recognize and write 30 essential Chinese characters

-       Core competency to be a Feng Shui consultant and how to obtain them.

For further inquiries, please contact either Cai (English) or Anders (German)

fengshuiarchitect@hotmail.com, anders@arqitektur.de

Blog and website: http://howardchoy.wordpress.com, www.arqitektur.com

Do you want to become a Feng Shui professional or just want to improve the skill you already have? Come and join us in a stimulating face to face learning experience where the theory and practice of Feng Shui come together, taught by two Feng Shui architects with more than 40 years of experience between them, one from the old China and the other from the new Germany. You will not be disappointed, where the East meets the West next to the old Berlin Wall! 

 

                  

The Six Schools of Xuan Kong

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic era in China there were six major schools of Xuan Kong, they were the Wu Chang Pai (無常派), the Xiang Chu Pai (湘楚派), the Dian Nan Pai (滇南派), the Su Zhou Pai (蘇州派), the Guan Dong Pai (廣東派), and the Shang Yu Pa (上虞派). 　　　　

Out the six schools only the Wu Chang Pai, that is the Feixing Pai 飛星派 or the Flying Stars Schools as we know it today, headed by Zhang Zhong Shan 章仲山 at the time, flies the stars in the way that is genuinely Xuan Kong. The others did not really survived or at least they are not practiced much any more, with the exception of the Shang Yu Pai originated by Zhang Xin-Yin 張心言, and is popularly known nowadays the Yi Gua Pai 易卦派 or  Xuan Kong Da Gua 玄空大卦, where it divided the 360 degrees of the western compass into 64 Hexagrams of approx 5.6 degrees each.

Because everyone is very secretive, it is difficult to known exactly how the other four school worked, except they tended to be static and don’t fly the stars. Some don’t worry about sitting or facing; they take Period 1 as Kan Qi, Period 2 as Kun Qi and Period 3 as Zhen Qi etc. (that is, using the Early Heaven Trigrams and matched them with the Luoshu numbers instead of using the Later Heaven Trigrams like Flying Stars do).

Some fixed the stars in a particular palace, like the Qian palace as the Sheng Qi palace, and the opposite Xun palace is the Tong Gua Qi (Connected Gua Qi), therefore a house that sits or faces these two directions are always auspicious.

Some chose a different way to fly the stars, for example the Fu Mu Gua (the Parent Gua) always fly reverse ending up always a reversed house.

Some used the facing as the Period Plate and the sitting as the period 5 plate, that is the sitting is always Period 5 and only the facing flies according to the period the house was built.

Some used the Hetu paring to work the period, for example if it is Period 1 then add 6 a to do the chart. It was a confusing time.

There are no connection between these schools and the Taoist sects; they are practiced more by region (eg Suzhou Pai and Guangdong Pai, etc), rather than by religion.

The most authentic and traditional was the Wu Chang Pai and still survived today, thanks to Master Shen Zhu-Nai, who cracked their secrets and wrote books on them to pass down to us.

There were six schools of Xuan Kong and only one was genuine, because Zhang Da-Hong, the lineage holder of the Xuan Kong system, insisted that their art be kept secret from the public, so many not belonging to the lineage, tried their best to interpret Zhang’s writing to come up with their own interpretations that are often incorrect.

Most teachers don’t mention the other four schools because they don’t existing at all as far as the general public is concerned, especially in the West, so there is no need to say anything about them, with the exception of Da Gua of course. It is usually distinguish from the Flying Stars by name and teaching.

Some do mix some of the other schools techniques in their interpretations, but it is seldom the case and if they do, they would call themselves a special name, like the Imperial School of Feng Shui or the Central China School of Feng Shui (Zhong Zhou Pai).

Gradually, Feng Shui is opening up in the West, so the chance of being ripped off by the charlatan teachers is getting less and less. But nevertheless be extremely careful in choosing the right teacher and course to begin your Feng Shui study, as your first teacher always has a deeper influence on your future development then other teachers who come after.

Below shows a Liji Ruler used by the Xuan Kong Feixing School.

Feng Shui color and material trend for 2009

One of my students works for an interior design magazine and she wants to know just before Christmas last year how to use Feng Shui to predict the color and material trend for the coming year.

I told her Feng Shui prediction is done through correlative thinking, and one of the most widely used method is to associate the color and material with the elements of the coming year’s Stem and Branch and use the Wuxing Sheng-ke relationships to do the predictions.

It is more desirable to match the year’s elements; then use a good dose of generate-in, less dose of control-in, and avoid generate-out and control-out, unless one deems necessary. But she must also do the three following things as well:

One is to find out the trend for the current and past couple of years so she has a good sense of continuity from the past to present then she has a better chance of projecting her thoughts into the future.

Two is to have a thorough understanding of the current social, political and economical situation of the world, in particular the country and the audience she writes for. The audience’s needs, fears and longings in a particular situation and time frame, should be addressed as fitful as possible in her predictions.

Three is to be general and not too specific in her predictions, and try not to pick a choice that will alienate too many people, but she has to be creative and slightly controversial at the same time to generate “ganying” (mutual response). 

She asked me for an example, so I gave her the following practice piece, telling her this is a rough sketch because I have not done my proper research yet and my writing skill is geared for someone who knows a bit about how Feng Shui works and not for a more general audience. Her editor can help her better than I can in this aspect. 

“With Yin Earth on Yin Earth, a receptive gray/yellow/brown organic earthy tone pallet will be the dominant Feng Shui color theme for the next year of the Ox. The accent is on a return to authentic and sustainable materials that makes one feels cool, protected and stable.

Next year’s color choice should make one feels nurtured and cared for. They are colors of hibernation deep deep down in the damp earth, but with a generous amount of fire red (generate in) accent to keep us warm and a little bit of wood green accent to keep us awake (control in).

If you ever dream of building a mud brick home, this is the year to do it, you don’t need to go and see your bank manager, just pick up a shovel and dig up the earth on your land to do it.

Make sure you mix the dirt with plenty of hay and water, don’t use corrugated iron for the roof, it will weaken the Earth, use an earth covered roof and grow grass on it for insulation instead.Don’t use metal windows either, use wooden ones instead and let them go gray naturally.

As for flooring material, it should be burnt clay or naturally exposed grayish concrete. Think Yin Earth with a little bit of warm Fire and naturally weathered Wood, being receptive and nurturing in your choice and you can’t go wrong in a Yin Earth on Yin Earth year of the Ox.”

Everything goes in cycles, I would like to think our 230 years old timber and mud farmhouse show below is trendy again in the year of the Ox. Come and spend a few days there, if you have the time:

http://www.fewo-direkt.de/Deutschland/urlaub-ferienwohnung-Uckermark/p501698.htm

The First Monograph on Scientific Feng Shui

The Fourth International Conference on Scientific Feng Shui and the Built Environment is about to take place in Hong Kong this weekend (20-21 Febfruary 2009). The monograph from previous conferences is now available for purchase, below is a description of the content and how you can get hold of a copy. Be quick because these are a limited edition prints.

“Research in Scientific Feng Shui and the Built Environment”

Paper Back, 304 pages 190 x 235 mm

ISBN: 978-962-937-172-2

Publication Date: Feb 2009

List Price USD 27.00

Special price during conference USD 21.00 

Editors:

Dr. Michael Y. Mak Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Built Environment,

University of Newcastle, Australia

Dr. Albert T. SO Adjunct Professor, Department of Building & Construction,

City University of Hong Kong

Contributors:

Gyda ANDERS, Bixia CHEN, Michael CHIANG, Howard CHOY, Wei DONG,

Genji KURIMA, Kok Hoo LOO, Michael Y MAK, Yuei NAKAMA, Michael PATON,

Albert T SO, Ellen VAN GOETHEM, Derek WALTERS, Fook Tsan WONG,

Hong-key YOON, Rachel ZUEHL

Feng Shui practice has become an important reference for the planning and design of buildings, monuments and even entire cities. In fact Feng Shui is an evolved study of the natural and built environment. By utilizing the natural elements and practical environmental changes, we may improve upon our well-being, relationships, prosperity, health and living environment. People in many advanced countries seek to establish a deeper understanding of these relationships between human and natural environment. Architects from around the world also begin to recognize Feng Shui as a broad ecologically and architecturally connected paradigm.

To remove the shadow of superstition for Feng Shui practice, it is essential to use a scientific approach in the hope of combining and fusing ancient wisdom with modern knowledge in building science. Scientific Feng Shui has two meanings, namely (1) the verification of Feng Shui principles scientifically and (2) studying Feng Shui logically in a scientific way. This volume comprises 13 high-quality essays, which were well-organized into four parts to reflect the current trends and the future development of the research undertaken in the built environment.

This book will address the growing demand for architects, building professionals and other property practitioners to apply the concepts of Feng Shui in the built environment.

Content

Introduction: Scientific Research in Feng Shui

Michael Y MAK and Albert T SO

Part I Research in Compass School 

1 The Role of the Twenty-eight Xiu in Feng Shui

Derek WALTERS

 2 Observations Linking Megalithic Monuments to the Chinese Luopan

Derek WALTERS

 3 An Assessment into the Basics of Eight Mansions Feng Shui Theory

Fook Tsan WONG

Part II Research in Form School

4 Feng Shui and the Energy of the Land

Michael PATON 

5 Tracing Rational Aspects of Feng Shui (Geomancy)

Hong-Key YOON

6 The Core Principles of Feng Shui

Howard CHOY

7 A Conceptual Framework of Feng Shui Knowledge Structure

Michael Y MAK

Part III Research in Feng Shui and the Built Environment

8 Feng Shui Design and Planning of Ming and Qing City of Beijing

Michael CHIANG

9 Tracing Feng Shui in Ancient Japanese Capitals—Case Study: Nagaoka, Japan’s Forgotten Capital

Ellen VAN GOETHEM

10 A Study on Feng Shui Village Landscape Structure in the Ryukyu Islands

Bixia CHEN, Yuei NAKAMA and Genji KURIMA

Part IV Future of Research in Feng Shui and the Built Environment

11 Feng Shui and Contextualism in Western Architecture

Gyda ANDERS

12 The Comparison and Contrast between Green Design and Feng Shui

Wei DONG and Rachel ZUEHLl 

13 Sustainable Feng Shui Eco-house

Kok Hoo LOO 

Epilogue: Problems and Future of Research in Feng Shui

Albert T SO and Michael Y MAK

How to order

(1) You may mail your orders to the City University of Hong Kong Press, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong by accompanying a bankdraft or an international money order denominated in US Dollars and made payable to the City University of Hong Kong.

(2) For orders paid by VISA, please fax the order form to us at (852) 2779 3071, or mail it to us direct. If you wish to pay by VISA, please convert the total into Hong Kong currency using the rate US$1=HK$7.8.

Direction and Location (Fang Wei) in Bazhai Mingjing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have heard from at least one well-known teacher referred to the Zhai Gua (the Trigram of a house) as dealing with the location in a house and the Ming Gua (the trigram of a person’s life) as dealing with the direction in a house. This is not quite correct when we read the classic “Baizhai Mingjing carefully.

For this reason, I have translated the following two sections in the book and made some commentaries to show that both the Zhai Gua and the Ming Gua deal with location and direction at the same time:

Section 31 – Room Allocation

“Room allocation concerns with finding a suitable room position for the grandparents, grand children, fathers and sons, uncles and brothers, whether they sometimes cook and eat together or not, (unless) they have a suitable room within the four cardinal and the four diagonal directions, otherwise it would be harmful, whether the house is a single building or has one or two, large or small, light wells, if (the allocation) matches the Ming (Gua) of a person, then it is auspicious. Therefore a younger brother with an East Ming should live in the east, and an older brother with a West Ming should live in the west, without exception they will be prosperous and live a long life, otherwise poverty and early death will be unavoidable, the same applied whether (the room) is on the ground or upper level.” 

In this section, one is advised to choose a room located in one of the eight directions according to a person’s Ming Gua and is not according to the favourable Zhai Gua direction of a house.

Section 32 – The Bed Position

“Of all the different concerns of a house, moving the bed is the easiest and there are four ways to establish (it’s position): (1) the most (desirable) is to match auspiciousness of the Ming, (2) also to match the auspiciousness of the room allocation, (3) also to match the auspiciousness of the Sitting Mountain, (4) also to match the auspiciousness of a room to the door as mentioned in (the book) “Zhao Shui Jing”. Obvious it is different to have all four, then matching according to the person’s auspiciousness will suffice, no matter which order comes first.  If one wants to be meticulous in arrangement, then move the bed according to the person, and have the others to assist, (then) it is as easy as turning one’s palm to have children and wealth.

If the Sitting Mountain of the main house does not match a person’s life, then one can match the Ming of a person in the adjacent room or an addition to the main house and arrange the bed accordingly. But if the main house and the rooms; match both the parent and the children, with the room and the bed arranged accordingly, then there is prosperity without any disaster for everyone.”

In this section, one is advised to arrange the bed in four ways: 1) the bed should match the four auspicious directions of a person. 2) The bed should be in a room that matches the Ming Gua of a person.  3) The bed should match the four auspicious directions of a house. 4) In the room, the door should match the bed according to the four auspicious stars for the person.

The ideal condition would be to have an East Four person living in an East Four house, with the bedroom located in the East Four direction and have the bed located in the room according to the East Four also have an East direction, plus the door to the room and the bed position Four relation; the same applies for a West Four person. 

A Word of Thanks

Gyda and I have just returned from travelling and teaching with 15 participants in our Feng Shui study tour of southeast China. The role of being a teacher/mentor, friend/travelling companion and husband/wife (there were three couples on tour) all merged together in a full on 24 hourly cycles.

In the end, everyone learned by implication that when we are teaching, “Do as we say and not as we do”. When we are not teaching, “Do as we do and not as we say” and when we are husband and wife, “Neither do as we say nor do as we do”!

It was a wonderful group because we understood, we respected and we tolerated each other. To learn is to know, to know is to tolerate and they are all part of being – the art of living.

Thank you everyone for the wonderful experience.

Mirror Reversed Later Heaven Bagua

One of the more strange things that we saw in the 2009 Feng Shui Study Tour of Southeast China was the reversed Houtian Bagua 後天 八卦 (Later Heaven Trigrams) picture painted on the ceiling of the Dabaoji Hall in Baisha, where the famous Baisha Murals in Lijiang (Yunan) were painted.

Baisha murals 白沙壁畫 are mostly from the Ming Dynasty (1366-1644), so this mirror reversed Bagua would have painted about the same time as well. Instead of having the usual Tijitu in the middle, it has a Tibetan prayer written there instead. The mix of Buddhism, Daoism and Lamaism may have changed the order of the Later Heaven Bagua, but as to why, we have no clue.

The picture is not very clear as it was forbidden to take photos inside, please let us know if you have a plausible explanation for this unusually laid out alternative Bagua.

On the other hand, maybe the explanation is a very simple one, instead of looking up at the ceiling, one can see the Later Heaven Bagua in its right order by looking down at a mirror!

Teaching Bazhai Mingjing by Analogy

The last time I taught Bazhai (the Eight Houses Method) was with the Golden Gate School of Feng Shui just outside of San Francisco, and as usual, the students have difficulties in understanding how to resolve the contradictions when an East Four person is living in a West Four house or vice versa.

I thought of the following analogy to help them come to terms with the compass method as written up in the Bazhai Mingjing (the Bright mirror of Eight Houses), where the Zhai Gua (the Trigram of the house) is calculated based on the sitting direction of a house and the Ming Gua (the Trigram of a person’s life) is based on the years of birth of a person:

Imagine you are a traditional Chinese landscape painter and you have to find a place to exhibit your painting.

The most desirable place to do this would be an art gallery specialized in traditional Chinese painting and that would be like an East Four person living in an East Four house, where the Zhai Gua of the house matches the Ming Gua of a person, that is the house supports the person.

Imagine that you cannot get an art gallery no matter how hard you tried and all you can get is a restaurant, that would be like an East Four person living in a West Four house, where the Zhai Gua of the house do not support the Ming Gua of a person, because a restaurant is not a most supportive place to exhibit paintings.

But imagine the restaurant is a Chinese restaurant and the place has many large white walls to exhibit paintings, that would be like an East Four person living in a West Four house but the bedroom is located in the auspicious position for the person and the bed is located likewise.

Now imagine the restaurant is a Greek restaurant and the place is dim and dart, not suitable to exhibit paintings, be it Chinese or otherwise; that would be like an East Four person living in a West Four house with the bedroom located in an unfavourable position for the person and the bed is also orientated wrongly.

Now what can you do?

One cannot change the place but one can change one’s attitude to the place to take whatever advantage the place can offer.

For example, as an accomplished Chinese landscape painter, you can paint a series of Chinese paintings based on the Acropolis and you ask the owner to shine lights on them and use them as wall decorations for the restaurant. Now you get a chance to exhibit your painting and show how talented you are.

This would be like changing the bed to suit your personal direction, even though the location of the bedroom is not suitable and you are an East Four person living in a West Four housed. Depending on your skill and your attitude, you can still make a success of it, but you will need extra personal efforts and a nimble mind to understand the mutual effects of man and his environment and how to take advantage of what is available through the correlative contemplation of the symbolism of the Trigrams.

Lijing Old Town and Naxi Local Style Dwelling Houses

“Lijing Old Town and Naxi Local Style Dwelling Houses”, 離江古城輿納西民居 Edited by Zhu Liang-Wen 朱良文

Lijiang Naxi local dwellings have four basic layouts, these are:

1)   三坊一照璧  “San Fang Yi Zhao Bi” or a house “three buildings and one screen wall”, which has one main building with two side wings plus a screen wall opposite the main block, together they formed a u-shape San He Yuan, or a three sided enclosed courtyard with the fourth side being a screen wall  (1/Diag 1)

2)   四合五天井 “Si He Wu Tian Jiang” or a “four sided courtyard house with five sky-wells” , which has a main building at the back with two side wings and another block opposite the main building forming a four-sided courtyard house. Apart from the large central sky-well (the courtyard) there are four smaller corner sky-wells for ventilation called “Lou Jiao” 漏角 or “leaking corner” (2/Diag 1)

3)   前後院 “Qian Hou Yuan” or a house with a “front and back courtyard”,  which uses the central axis measured off the main building at the back of the house to layout out two courtyards. The main courtyard is in the form of “four sides with five sky-wells” and the front garden is in the form of “three buildings with one screen wall”. The room that separated the main and secondary courtyards is called a “Hua Ting” 花廳 or a “flower lounge” (3/Diag 1).

4)   一進兩院 “Yi Jin Liang Yuan” or a “one entry with two courtyards” house which is very similar to the “front and back courtyards” house mentioned previously, with the exception that the main building is now in the central block that separates the two courtyards. (4/Diag 1).  Diagram 1 is shown below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Yu Family Garden 余家花園 dwelling we visited in our last China Feng Shui study tour in Lijiang is a classic “front and back courtyards” layout, with the larger courtyard forming the heart of the arrangement.

One approaches the house and the main courtyard not through the street, but through a side gate and a passageway along one side of the house. At the end of the passageway is a blank wall and one has to turn 180 degrees to see the main door, which leads to the main courtyard of the house. When the door opens, one again faces another screen wall and the main courtyard is not visible until one turns left to see the garden fully with the main building across the courtyard.

The Yu Residence was built in 1925 with the main building facing east and all the wings are in two storeys. (Diagrams below showed Ground Floor and Upper Floor Plans and an Isometric view of the house):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At a first glance, the directionality of this house is not clear and that is because the front courtyard in the form of a “three buildings with a screen wall” layout faces the tall boundary wall of the Mufu 木府 (Mu’s Mansion) next door not able to see the open space beyond and the screen wall has not lost its function. This is because when the building was first built the Mufu was in a state of dilapidation and the present boundary wall was missing, giving the required Ming Tang at the front, which was the garden of the Mu’s Mansion.

All in all, there are four special features common to Lijiang Naxi local dwellings, these are:

1)   Use a large sky-well in the form of a courtyard as the centre/heart to organize the various components of a house, no matter what type of layout is used. This light-well has either 3 or 4 sides covered with rooms laid out along a central axis that faces either the east or the south. A screen wall or a lower building opposite the main sitting is often used to reinforce this axial layout.

2)   The main building or sitting is often two storeys high with the sides and opposite wing in either one or two storeys.

3)   Each house has a generous amount of covered balcony or outdoor terrace and walkway for protected family activities like eating, meeting guests, rest and exercise.

4)   The corners of the house are often left open to facilitate light and ventilation. Sometimes the corners are used for entry, kitchen or storage so these spaces are not wasted.

Thomson House

If you ever have a chance to visit Hong Kong and would like to look for “cures”, equipments and Chinese books related to Feng Shui, please do drop into our friend Ricky Than’s shop in Kowloon. Ricky is really knowledge, having designed and made most of the Luopan compasses for the different teachers all over the world, he knows just about all the workings of different Feng Shui schools.

Thomson House, 623 Shanghai Street, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel: (852) 2396 1944

Below is a picture we have taken in his shop with Mr and Mrs Than (sitting opposite to me next to Ricky), who is always helpful when it comes to looking for books on Chinese metaphysics.  

Tuishou (push-hands) Photos

Below are some Tuishou photos taken in the last Taijiquan workshop in Nantes with Thierry Doctrinal (http://www.taoouest.net/), my French workshops organizer and the last picture is with Jerome Touzain (http://touzaintaichi.free.fr/topic/index.html), who met me years ago in Sydney. We have been together for close to 10 years now, on and off, so it is my pleasure to continue to train with these guys, who have become more like friends than students over the years.

Thanks Thierry and Jerome for being there with me every time I go to France, your continual presence is greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Earliest Known Daoist Talismans

According to Prof. Ge Zhao-Guang 葛兆光 of the Department of History, Tsinghua University Beijing, the two Talismans shown above with their accompanying inscription are the two earliest known specimen excavated by archaeologists in China so far.

They were written in red Mercury Sulphide (Zhu Sha 朱砂 or Cinnabar) on a “Jie Zhe Ping” 解謫瓶, a ceramic bottle/vase that is suppose to have contained the deceased’s Yin soul which is to be taken up to heaven to rejoin with his Yang soul and his living sins absolved by the talismans (為死者解謫, 生人除罪過) (refer note at the end on Chinese concept of the soul)

The discovery was made in an Eastern Han 東漢 tomb in a village called Zhujiabao 朱家堡 in Huxian County 戶縣 Shaanxi Province 陝西 in 1972. The deceased’s surname was Cao 曹 and the inscription on the vase next to the talismans said he was buried in the 8^th Moon of the Second Year in the Reign of Yang Jia 陽嘉二年 (133 AD) when Liu Bao 劉保 was the Emperor.

Experts like Prof. Ge and Prof. Wang Yu-Cheng 王育成 have made attempts to decipher their meanings and below are some of their findings:

The first talisman to the right is composed of the characters Tu 土 (earth), Ri 日(sun), Yue 月 (moon), Wei 尾 (tail) and Gui 鬼 (ghost).  The Tu (earth) with the five Ri (sun) have the implication of being a Dou 斗, representing the Big Dipper in a commanding position of the Chinese sky. The Ri (sun) and the Yue (moon) together form the boundary of the entire heaven and the Wei (tail) with the Gui (ghost) could refer to the “life” and “death” parts of the 28 Lunar Mansions. They all have to do with the heavenly bodies and hidden within the characters and difficult to see is the character Shi 時 or time (as in being timely).

So the aim of this talisman could have been drawing on the power of the heavenly bodies and the heavenly spirits to assist the world in regulating matters of life and death, fortune and misfortune. (凭借天上星辰以及天上神鬼的力量对世间生死祸福进行调节) When the time is right, the Yin and the Yang are again harmonized by the power of the talismans, so the dead will continue to live in peace in the other world.

The second talisman to the left is less obvious in its writings, one can recognize the character Yun 允 (to allow and to permit), covering the whole talisman. In the middle below is a star formation in the shape of a Y, with the characters Tai 太, Tian 天 and Yi 一 recognizable at the top of the Y figure. Tai Tian Yi can be read separately as Tai Yi 太 一 and Tian Yi 天一, which are two stars in the Purple Palace Constellation above the Big Dipper, according to Prof. Qian Bao-Cong 錢寶琮.

However, Prof. Wang Yu-Cheng was more inclined to link the Y star formation and the characters Tai Tian Yi to a military formation called Tai Yi Feng 太一鋒 (“feng” is the cutting edge of a sword) to evade the enemies, except in this old illustration to avoid the enemies (Bi Bing Tu 避兵圖 discovered in another early Han archeological dig ) the Y figure is reversed.

The characters Zhu 主 (a master), Zhu 逐 (chase, expel), Sha 煞 (evil spirit) and Gui 鬼 (ghost) are also recognizable with three others uncertain below and to either side of the Y.  The general conclusion the experts drawn is this talisman ws used to protect the burial site 鎮安塚墓, but they also realized within the Daoist religion, only the initiated of the time are capable of fully understanding the symbolic meanings of these figures written during the funeral rite. They are written under strict spiritual guidance and strict ritual rules with deep inner sincerity to communicate with the Daoist Deities above. At the time of the writing, the Daoist priest is in a state of total communion with his counterparts in Heaven.

心与神合，神与气合，气与真合，阴与阳和，阳同日耀，阴同月耀

The Heart is in harmony with the Spirit, the Spirit is in harmony with the Qi, the Qi are truly harmonized (with each other), (thus) the Yin and the Yang are in peace, (while) the sun illuminated the Yang and the moon illuminated the Yin.

以道之精气，安镇五方

Using the Essence and the Qi of the Dao, to pacify and to protect the Five Directions. 

Reference:

葛兆光 《“神授天书”与“不立文字”》

王育成《东汉道符释例》

“In the…bodily existence of the individual…are…two… polarities, a p’o soul (or anima) and a hun soul (animus).  All during the life of the individual these two are in conflict, each striving for mastery.  At death they separate and go different ways.  The anima sinks to earth as kuei (gui), a ghost-being.  The animus rises and becomes shen, a spirit or god.”

[Cary Baynes, ed.; Richard Wilhelm and C.  G.  Jung, The Secret of the Golden Flower, (Harcourte Brace Jovanovich, 1962), p.64]

16 Ways to Determine the Directionality of a Building

Many student shave trouble working out the directionality (Sitting and Facing) of a building, often it is not because of their lack of abilities but it is caused by the house location and internal layout not responding appropriately to the context of the site. I have devised a checklist of 16 points for consideration to help them in the process.

From outside looking in – consider how the environment is affecting the building:

1) Consider the direction of the coming dragon, the coming side is the sitting and the going side is the facing.

2) Consider the topography of the land, the higher side is the sitting and the lower side is the facing.

3) Consider the location of the nearest watercourses; closer to the waterside is the facing and further away is the sitting.

4) Consider the nearest roadwork, closer to the road is the facing, further away is the sitting.

5) Consider the nearest open space (mingtang) and view, the more open and the better view is the facing, less open and lack of a view is the sitting.

6) Consider vehicular and pedestrian movements, the more active side is the facing and the more passive side is the sitting.

7) Consider neighbouring buildings, the taller and closer side is the sitting and the lower and further away is the facing.

8) Consider tress and shrubs, the side with higher and denser planting is the sitting and the side with shorter and sparser planting is the facing.

From inside looking out – consider how the building is responding to the environment:

9) Consider the different heights that made up a building, the taller side is the sitting and the shorter side is the facing.

10) Consider the proportion and shape of a building, the longer side is the facing and the shorter side is the sitting.

11) Consider the different levels within a building, the higher level is the sitting and the lower level side is the facing.

12) Consider sunlight and shade, the more sunny side is the facing, shadier side is the sitting.

13) Consider the internal spatial arrangement, the more active side (e.g. Living area) is the facing and the more passive side (e.g. sleeping areas) is the sitting.

14) Consider windows and openings, the side with more is the facing, the side with less is the sitting.

15) Consider the connection from inside to outside, the side with more connection is the facing and the side with less connection is the sitting.

16) Consider the location of the front door, where it is located is the facing and the opposite is the sitting.

By considering these 16 ways of contrasting the yin and the yang, we can better determine the directionality of a building, the general guideline is the more active and less substantial is the facing and the less active and more substantial is the sitting.

Qi and Yin and Yang

Qi and Yin and Yang

(Extract taken from Gyda Anders’ paper presented at the 4th International Conference on Scientific Feng Shui and the Built Environment, entitled “Feng Shui Criteria for Planning and Design”)

The principle of Yin and Yang forms the basis for Feng Shui. “ Once Yin, once Yang is called the Dao, the Dao of Kan Yu can not be separated from Yin and Yang”. Yin and Yang generate each other. In within Yin there is Yang, in within Yang there is Yin. If Yin reaches source for all being “ The so called dragon is enabled by the mutual transformation, the mutual transformation is enabled by Yin and Yang.” (Wang Yude 王玉德 (1995). “Zhonghua Kanyu Shu” 中华堪舆术. 文津出版社. Taiwan, p78ff)

All being derives from and is defined by the interplay of Yin and Yang. The balance of Yin and Yang define the quality of Qi. To investigate the Qi structure of a place, the qualities and tendencies of a given situation, its Yin Yang balance has to be recognized. To distinguish Yin and Yang 分陰陽 is the premise for the understanding and development of a place and by that for any building activity. Referring to Chinese Classic like the ”Zhou Yi”, the” Dao De Jing” or the Song Dynasty work “地理發微“(Gross And Subtle Principles Of Earth resp. Feng Shui by Cai Yuanding 蔡元定 1135 – 1198, picture showed below) Prof. Wang Yude and author Zhong Yiming 鐘義明 point out the most prominent aspects of Yin and Yang (辯陰陽) to be distinguished

1. Investigate hard and soft 推刚柔

2. Distinguish between substantial and unsubstantial 辯有無

3. Understand movement and stationary 明動靜

4. Distinguish between mountain and water 辯山水

5. Observe gathering and dispersing 觀聚散

6. Distinguish between form and configuration 辯形勢

7. Examine front and back 審向背

8. Distinguish strong and weak 變強弱

9. Differentiate the going along and going against 分順逆

10. Be aware of alive and dead 識生死

11. Inquire the subtle and prominent 察微著

12. Distinguish between stems and branches 辯秓幹

13. Study carefully the parts and the whole 究分合

14. Analyze appearance and essence 別浮沉

15. Determine shallow and deep 定淺深

16. Adjust abundance and reduction 正饒減

17. Particularize the accelerating and avoiding 詳趨避

18. Know about the diminishing and completing 知裁成

19. Regard female and male 觀雌雄

20. Ascertain the origin of mutual resonance 原感應

A system of variance gets established, serving as a frame or structure for the differences. The two complementary antipodes are opposed to each other. They constitute the extreme wherein everything develops. A meticulous inventory of the diversity is raised. With endless patience the being of the situation gets investigated, to find out the essence (本性) to draw its secret.

With this typology, a downright system of coherence is captured. This system is based on the oppositional- complementary relations of yin and yang. Each item or aspect is designed in reference and answer to another. Relevance evolves from their (inter)relation. The objective/aim is to make the specific potential perceptible and operant through grouping and configuration by developing and diversifying the interplay of Yin and Yang.

“So you do Feng Shui for a living…”

1^st. May 2009

Today on top of this castle tower showed below* we came to study the “Xing Shi” (Form and Configuration) of this defence stronghold as part of the Unit 2 Feng Shui Professional Practitioners Course. Lidia Sarek, our Polish host, told us a funny story about modern understanding of Feng Shui.

She said she went to see a client earlier this year, the husband said to her, “So you do Feng Shui for a living, you know, I don’t believe in this superstitious rubbish!” Lidia tried her best to be polite and replied, “Oh, is that so? What do you do for a living?” The man replied, “I do something very different, I look for potential sites for MacDonald.”

Being a good-natured person Lidia just smiled. Little did the man know he is in the same profession as Lidia and if he bothers to study a little bit of Feng Shui, it might even improve his professional skill! 

* Lipowiec Castle – built at the end of 13^th. century, by Cracow bishop Jan Muskata. The fortress was intended to be the church’s administration centre and at the same time a frontier watchtower. It sits on a solid Black Turtle to the north and has a closer and higher Azure Dragon to the left and a lower and broader White Tiger to the right, overlooking a wide Mingtang to the south with the distant mountains holding the qi back towards the Xue, the Feng Shui Spot – a classic Siling model in the landscape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taijiquan Workshop in Munich

Some photos of the push hands we did in Munich last weekend (24-25 May).  We took photos using a high speed camera showing students pushing me and then I push them and compare the two sets together to see how important it is to maintain one’s structural integrity as we push:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wang Bi on Words, Images and Ideas in the Yijing

I have been looking for a translation of what Wang Bi 王弼 has said about reading the Yijing 易經 in a chapter entitled Ming Xiang 明象 (Understanding the Images) appeared at the end of his commentaries, Zhouyi Zhu 周易註,  finally I saw one in one of  my friend Boyler’s postings and would like to share it here with everyone:

“Images are the means to express ideas. Words are the means to explain the images. To yield up ideas completely, there is nothing better than the images, to yield up the meaning of the images; there is nothing better than words.

The words are generated by the images, thus one can ponder the words and so observe what the images are. The images are generated by ideas, thus one can ponder the images and so observe what the ideas are. The ideas are yielded up completely by the images, and images are made explicit by the words.

Thus, since the words are the means to explain images, once one gets the images, he forgets the words, and since the images are means to allow us to concentrate on the ideas, once one gets the ideas, he forgets the images.

Similarly, ‘the rabbit snare exists for the sake of the rabbit; once one gets the rabbit, he forgets the snare. And the fish trap exist for sake of fish; once one gets the fish, he forgets the trap.’ If this is so, the words are snares for the images, and images are traps for the ideas.

Therefore someone who stays fixed on the words will not be one to get the images, and someone who stays fixes on the images will not be one to get the ideas.

The images are generated by the ideas, but if one stays fixed on the images themselves, then what he stays fixed on will not be images as we mean them here. The words are generated by the images, but if one stays fixed on the words themselves, then what he stays fixed on will not be words as we mean them here.

If this is so, then someone who forgets the images will be the one to get the ideas, and someone who forgets the words will be one to get the images.

Getting the ideas is in fact a matter of forgetting the images, and getting the images is in fact a matter of forgetting the words. Thus, although the images were established in order to yield up ideas completely, as images they may be forgotten.

Although the number of strokes were doubled in order to yield up all innate tendencies of things, as strokes they may be forgotten…”

Often we get caught up with words and images and forgot what the idea is all about, worse still, we read them too literally when the ancient Chinese used correlative thinking to deliver their ideas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A “Poem” for me and my Daughter

Skyping with my Anna
Berlin, May 29, 2009.

Seeing her smile with
Bright eyes and a
Mouth like mine
Is enough to bring
Tears to my eyes.

“How are you doing?”
“How is your love life?”
“Work is going well”
“No man for a while”
“But I am fine, Dad”
“Really, I am fine.”
“And you, what’s new?”

“In my second 60 Jiazi cycle”
“I have learned something new”
“I did not know”
“How to love your Mum”
“When I was young”
“But now I know”
“It is not that difficult”
“All I have to do is to”
“Make a commitment”
“Be monogamous”
“Be honest and”
“Be myself”
“Trust and respect will follow.”

“That doesn’t sound very romantic.”
“No, it is not, but then”
“Love is not romance”
“I looked for the wrong thing”
“When I was young.” 

Seeing her smile with
Bright eyes and a
Nose like mine,
Is enough to bring
Tears to my eyes.

 

Helsinki Workshops

I just had a great time teaching a four-days Garden Feng Shui workshop and a single day one on the Daoist Talisman organized by Kristiina Mantynen and Paivi Vilkki of the Finnish Feng Shui Association:

http://www.fengshui.fi/english.htm 

It is the first time I came across a house sitting right on the Da Kong Wang line between the Xun and Li trgrams but we managed to overcome the problem and designed a Feng Shui garden for our client in one day! I will post our solution when the scan becomes available.

We also had a lot of fun doing the talisman class and below are photos of some of the students and their work, thank you everyone for the pleasure and also for showing me around your wonderful city. 

Photos by Kristiina M.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Approach to Feng Shui and Architecture

Being architects, my wife Gyda Anders and I, have a different approach to Feng Shui, and the other day I picked up a book written by a PhD candidate in the History Department of Beijing University, where he wrote about a new approach to the study of Feng Shui in Mainland China. I think what he described fits ours very closely as well, so I have roughly translated his words as a reference to our own thinking.

The author name is Wang Hao 王浩 and the book is called “Shen Suan – Zhongguo Shushude  Mimi” (神算 – 中國術數的秘密), which I have translated as “Divine Calculations – The Secrets of the Chinese Art of Numbers”.

“In recent years, a group of specialists and scholars from the architectural field has declared openly that their in-depth study and research have revealed that the core content of Feng Shui is in fact essentially the same as the principles used in ancient Chinese architecture and planning. They reckon by using Feng Shui one can resolve the thousand years old riddle relating to how the architectural space is managed in our environment and how the man-made and the natural landscape are integrated in large or small-scale projects in ancient time. From this point of view, Feng Shui can be seen as a multi-disciplined and unified architectural theory that incorporated the study of geography, ecology and philosophy etc. as well as landscape and architectural design. Although this approach cannot fully explain all the mysteries attributed to Feng Shui, nevertheless it is a surprising but valid approach worth pursuing.”

Building Rituals

“Each house that is built is, in a certain sense, a reenactment of the creation of the world.” Mircea Eliade.

Topping-Off rituals has been practiced all over the world and we saw some of it in China in our last trip, but the Europeans like the Romanian, the French and the German do them as well.

The Chinese version is to burn some incense, make a lot of noise like doing drums, letting off fire crackers and lion dance and then paste lucky charms or talismans on the beams and rafters like the picture showed below taken in Dali by Michael Rapp.

In Romania, when the top of the rafters is installed, it is adorned with a fir tree or a green branch decorated with paper flowers or ribbons. In France, the ridge beam bouquet is still sometimes carried out, hung by the youngest member of the crew, and in Germany, where I am living now; the Richtfest is still practiced, and often accompanied by a Spruch (a poem read aloud by the head craftsperson). The picture showed below is the result of a Richtfest I downloaded from one of the Internet sites.

Are rituals like these considered superstitious? It is not a religious practice, it is like a celebration of things well done without any mishaps. More importantly, it affirms the house is the center of the world for the occupants. It is a pity more and more building rituals are dying out both in China and the West. May be we just take things for granted?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can we learn Feng Shui by reading books?

Nina Wang’s inheritance court case brought up an interesting question, “Can we learn Feng Shui by reading books?”

I once ask this question to my Sifu and he replied, “Of course we can, it is like learning how to cook by following the recipes of an experienced chef, but the result is often poor. Why? Because there are a lot of subtleties in cooking, and in Feng Shui for that matter, that can only be transmitted by a teacher mentoring to achieve the same result.”

I think it is a fair enough comment, we need teachers to learn better, but I can also hear some people who would disagree and say, “But with my own trials and errors and with my own logic and intelligence, I can even cook better than the author of the recipes.”

May be these people are right also, and that brings up another question, “Do we need face-to-face teachers any more when we have all the books and the technology (like eLearning) we need?”

Perhaps this story by Zhuangzi can throw more light on the subject, may be reading books is not enough, having a teacher and reading book are still not enough, we need to practice and practice:

Duke Huan was reading a book in the hall. Wheelwright Pian, who had been chiseling a wheel in the courtyard below, set down his tools and climbed the stairs to ask Duke Huan:

“may I ask what words are in the book Your Grace is reading?”

“The classic of a famous sage.” the Duke responded.

“Is he still alive?”

“Oh no, he is long dead.”

“Then you’ve been reading the dregs left over by a dead man, isn’t it?”

Duke Huan said,” How dare a wheelwright to have opinions about the book I read! If you can explain yourself, I’ll let it pass. Otherwise, it’s death!”

Wheelwright Pian said, “In my case I see things in terms of my own work. I chisel at a wheel. If I go too slow, the chisel slides and does not stay put. If I hurry, it jams and doesn’t move properly. When it is just right, I can feel it in my hand and respond to it from my heart. I can explain this to my son, but I cannot pass on the skills to him. That is why at seventy years old, I am still making wheels. The sage who couldn’t pass down his wisdom is already dead; and that’s why I say the book you’re reading is merely the dregs of a dean man.”

Paying Homage to the Four Quarters

When moving into a new home or an old one for the first time, the more tradition minded Chinese would often carry out a folk ritual called Paying Homage to the Four Quarters (Bai Si Jiao 拜四角), with the aim to send off the wicked spirit and allow the prosperous one to return (驅邪出外,引福歸堂), so the new occupants can feel safe and comfortable when moving in. It is a symbolic way to announce to the Earth and the Yin spirit (土地和陰靈) that a new lot of living beings are coming into the place and take up residence.

There are many ways to do this ritual and I have learned a couple of different ones from my teachers years ago as well, but I found this one mentioned in a Hong Kong Feng Shui forum recently very informative (Uwants.com), because the writer (音律長鳴) gave a clear explanation of the symbols and ritual involved (additional comments by me are in brackets).

He also made it very clear that there is a big difference between Kanyu Feng Shui and dealing with the superstitious ghosts and spirits. In Kanyu Feng Shui, one uses the power of symbols through understanding and ritual to mark a new beginning, and because it is about informing and sending off whatever that is undesirable so the good can return (one must remember ghost (gui 鬼) and spirit (shen 神) have a different connotation in China as in the West), there is no need to select an auspicious date, just do it before the renovation or before settling down in the house is sufficient enough, and one can do it oneself because it is a bit like an announcement and a personal prayer. This ritual is not about contacting or dealing with any ghosts or spirits; it is about us making an ordinary house our special home.

The best place to carry out the ritual is in the center (more precisely the “Taiji”) of the house or in the living room where most of the family living takes place.

The items used for the offering are few and simple and they consist of:

1)   15 large and 15 small size sticks of incense.

2)   5 pairs of small sacrificial candles 臘燭.

3)   4 pieces of fatty pork with skin attached.

4)   1 piece of roast pork with bone attached (for the middle position).

5)   1 brick of fresh bean curd with a handful of bean sprouts.

6)   3 triangular pieces fried bean curds 豆腐卜.

7)   A small bottle of rice wine 燒酒.

8)   11 apples (Apple is used because in Chinese it sounds the same as peace and fruitful 平平果果之意)

There is no need to use other kinds of fruit and one must not use any sweet, peanut, dates or anything sugary in the offering, nor to use any paper money or talisman because the main aim is to send off the unwanted spirit, not inviting anything Yin into the house.

Of the 11 apples, use 5 of them as incense holders, one in each corner of the room and one in the middle. Put the offering (1 piece of roast pork, 6 apples, 1 fresh bean curd, bean sprouts and 3 fried bean curds) on a large sheet of paper with the bottle of rice wine in front of the middle incense holder and there is no need to pour the wine into a glass.

Distribute the 4 pieces of fatty pork to each of the corners of the room, starting with looking at the main door into the room and go clockwise (going clockwise is going with the flow and is considered auspicious). Place the fatty pork to the left of the incense holder to the left side of the room and to the right side of the incense holder in the right side of the room (a symbolic way to give a clear order and directionality to the place).

Then light up the large sticks of incense follow by the small sticks and then the pair of candles, place 3 sticks of incense each, starting from the middle and then again going clockwise by sticking them onto the apple incense holders. While doing so, grab the incense or the candles with both hands and say the prayer, “Out go the wicked and in with the prosperous” (驅邪出外,引福歸堂), before each of the 3 sticks of incense and the pair of candles are placed into the holders at the four corners of the room.

When the two lots of incense and the candles are all done in the 5 locations, then go back into the middle of the room and pick up the bottle of rice wine, with one thumb pressing against the opening loosely, spray the room three time all round clockwise 360 degrees and when the incense is finish burning, pack up the offering and take them outside. Do not eat any of the offerings before or after the ritual has ended. They are meant to be the last supper for the departing wicked spirits.

My understanding that the numbers 1, 2 and 3 (and 2X3) are used because they represent the Taiji, the Liangyi (the two poles of Yin and Yang) and the San Cai or the 3 Abilities of Heaven, Earth and Human respectively. The 3 large and 3 small sticks of incense plus the pair of candles all made up to 8. Which again is considered an auspicious number by the Chinese because it sounds the same as “Fa” or prosperous.

Bean sprouts and bean curds are use as offerings because they are the favorite food for the unwanted spirits according to popular sayings 俗語有話鬼食豆腐, so are the fatty and the roast pork. At least that is the way this Hong Kong Sifu explains it.

Another explanation is the four quarters are the four diagonal directions in a compass, referring to the Qian (north-west), the Xun (south-east), the Gen (north- east) and the Kun (south-west) directions. Qian is considered the Heaven Door 天門, Xun is the Earth Door 地戶, Gen is the Life Door 生門 and Kun is the Death Door 死戶, together they correlated to Heaven and Earth, Life and Death, that is what is above and what is below, what is the beginning and what is the end – the two pairs of Yin and Yang extremities 極 that made up the core of our being.

By paying homage to the four quarters (the actual directions are not important because they worked as symbols), we made the house the center of our universe and we seek a life of harmony and balance as well as prosperity in this spatial enclosure we call home.

Feng Shui, what do you mean?

Not only there are many ways to define the term Feng Shui, there are also different meanings for Feng Shui depending on the context.

It can mean the practice of Feng Shui as in, “I am a Feng Shui consultant”, or it can mean the quality of a place as in “The Feng Shui of this restaurant is not too good”, or it can also mean finding a balance for a situation as in “I have adjusted the Feng Shui of this house”.

So when someone uses the phrase “Feng Shui of a city”, it can means the quality of the environment of a city; “Feng Shui for the body”, it can means finding a balance for the body and “Feng Shui for stock markets”, it can means looking at the stock market from a Feng Shui perspective. In each case, Feng Shui is used in a different way.

Just because Feng Shui can be used in different ways, it neither mean Feng Shui is a generic term with a broad meaning, nor it is just a marketing gimmick. 

In practice its precise meaning often depends on the situation and it is a judgement one should make with an understanding of the Chinese language and how the same two Chinese characters can mean different things depending on the context they are being used.

What is authentic Feng Shui?

The Nina Wang inheritance case also brought out an interesting question of what is authentic Feng Shui?

Joseph Yu, the expert witness for Tony Chan, thinks he can tell what is Fung Shui (Hong Kong equivalent for Feng Shui) and what is not by his common sense and to him anything that is not logical is not Fung Shui. Whereas his opposite number, Mr. Szeto incorporates Mao Shan practices which Joseph considers black magic.

So is Feng Shui as narrow as Joseph has defined it?

I asked this question, as well as the future of Feng Shui, to Prof. Ole Bruun, who wrote a couple of excellent academic books on Feng Shui that every serious students of Feng Shui should read. Below is his answer:

“Both the ‘authenticity’ and the future of feng shui are interesting topics, which merit greater attention. Being an anthropologist by training I should perhaps leave the question of authenticity to historians and only deal with feng shui in the present, perhaps seeing trends into the future.

My comments on authenticity are nevertheless that I don’t believe there ever was an ‘authentic’ system of feng shui – and in my previous book I argued against the whole idea of seeing feng shui as a ‘system’. The discussions you have among yourselves – as how to distinguish between real and degenerate feng shui, between professionals and charlatans, between this or that school – repeat themselves deep into Chinese history. They were a concern for both imperial power holders and individual scholars taking an interest in genuine learning. This is why I suggested to approach feng shui as a broad tradition rather than a coherent, unified system. The Chinese inclination to master-apprenticeship in both crafts and learning, such as still seen in popular medicine, further accounted for a multitude of interpretations. In fact, I believe the idea of feng shui, as an unambiguous system owes much to a western impact!

Contrary to the great religions, which had their sacred texts handed down by ‘divine’ authority, feng shui is a living tradition, with a range of classics, an overall approach to reality and a certain number of given elements, but constantly adapted to the conditions of human society. The discussions of what feng shui is and should be in the future are part of this process. Ideas develop and take shape by human interaction and mutual inspiration; however uncomfortable that may be we only have ourselves and each other to rely on when making sense of the greater picture!

So my best bet for feng shui in the future is really that it will become what you active people make it to be! The need for overarching perspectives to counter the fragmentation of life and meaning is as great as ever…”

Some stimulating fruit for thought here, and I think his advice that Feng Shui is a living tradition and what it will be what weare going to make of it, is as “authentic” and pragmatic as it can be.

10 things I learned from the Nina Wang inheritance case

1) Some people willl do anything for money.

2) There is no such a thing as an unbiased expert witness.

3) You are who pays you, so choose your clients carefully.

4) Don’t claim to be a Feng Shui expert by reading books, no one will believe you.

5) Always quote source and reference, otherwise it is seen as plagiarism.

6) Don’t judge Feng Shui by your own logic, which amounts to personal biase.

7) There are always two or more sides to a story, including the story of Feng Shui.

8) Trust is built on ethical behavior and not just on words.

9) Fame and fortune always come with a price.

10) Idealism is still an “ism”.

Two smiling Fungshuilo who have found fame and fortune by being the world’s first Feng Shui expert witness:

Dispatch from Freiburg, SW Germany.

Climbing up the West Tower of the Minster Cathedral in the middle of Freiburg im Breisgau, one can look to the east and see the Longmei (the Dragon Vein) of the Schlosssberg Mountain feeding the Diqi (the Earth Qi) into this wonderful old town founded in 1120.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Freiburg has the classic Feng Shui location of having a mountain at the back (located at the foothill of the Black Forest mountains) and facing the Rhein River to the front with a generous Mingtang in between.

In an old and well-preserved town like this, the church tower is still the urban marker, visible from all directions, and functioning like an Accupoint of the land to mark the Xue (the Feng Shui Spot) for the town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The square outside the Minster is the heart of the old town and the open space on both sides (a double Mingtang) draws the visitors and the locals like a magnet with its potent mix of commerce and religion, there is a market everyday except Sunday and church services everyday. 

The Minster is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, so it is consecrated to the “Yin Qi of Creation’, according to the Chinese, and when one looks at the West Portal with its Yang Tower soaring into the sky (116M high) and the Yin Gothic entry porch like a Yoni, one cannot but feel the creative power of Yin and Yang coming together to give life to this vibrant old town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To me, the act of creation is further accentuated symbolically by the 3 vertical columns located in front of the West Portal, 3 being the Yang number that give rise to 10,000 things (from the ground up).

But death is always present in the midst of life and one can see in some of the sculptures inside the church, so do enjoy every living moment we have and this was how I felt as we drove towards the French border this morning on our way to Provence….

A Market Day

France, because she never suffered bombing raids in the WWII, all her villages, towns and cities were kept intact and retained their characters and charms.

Entering France from Freiburg on the first leg of our summer holiday, we made the wrong turn along Highway A36 and ended up in the middle of nowhere until the little town of Luohans came into view.

It was Monday morning market day and the place was jumping with people and excitement, we could imagine that is what a traditional market town was like before the shopping centres killed them all over the place in the world.

But this little town kept its tradition; the centre of the town is a market street about half a kilometre long and on both sides were market stalls selling all sorts of wares and around the local church square were the fruit and vegetable stands and one can also buy food and local produce there.

Mary bought a white dress, Gyda bought her favourite olives and goat’s cheese and I got my Panama hat for the summer at last. We then went to the bakery shop and bought our stick of fresh and crunch bread and we ate our lunch in the sun. The local Bar only sell drinks but they let you eat your own lunch there. So a glass of wine, a stick of bread, some olives and cheese, they made a delicious lunch on a market day.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9 tips to change your bad luck

They are not really tips to change your bad luck as such, which is really impossible and I will explain this later, but they are more like advice to handle your life during a bad luck period and reduce its negative impacts until it passes and when it does, you will be in a better position to handle the future.

The Chinese believe everything has yin and yang, including the quality of the cycles of time, which the Chinese called “yun-qi” 運氣 or qi of the cycles. Some cycles or yun-qi are “lucky” and you can get things done easily and things come easily. Some cycles or yun-qi are “unlucky” and you can try your hardest but things won’t come your way and at times you feel like Heaven is against you.

Because of the yin and yang complementary opposites, we cannot have good yun-qi without the bad ones, so when it happens we have to learn how to ride it out without losing our focus and the will to carry on.

What I like about these little tips is that they have a mixture of old and new, psychological and metaphysical, as well as just practical common sense. There use to be 7 tips made up by a Hong Kong Feng Shui master, I added the last two to make 9, the yang-est of all the yang numbers to symbolize being positive and pro-active.

1)   Take a bath or shower with water soaked in 3 parts of green Pomelo leaves and 7 parts of yellow Chrysanthemum flowers. In theory, the beneficial effects should happen within 30 days.

2)   Learn to rearrange the furniture in your house to achieve better Feng Shui and at the same time keep your mind occupied with something worthwhile.

3)   Do some good deeds and then go to a temple or a joss house to pray for good luck.

4)   At all time, remain patient and level head.

5)   Do not lose your temper; instead try your best to be calm and good-natured.

6)   Read more, exercise regularly and talk often with your friends.

 7)   Make greater efforts to improve and expand your work skill.

 8)   Boost your self-confidence in front of a mirror.

 9)   Regularly hum the tune “We Shall Overcome”.

There is no guarantee that this will work for everyone, but they do you no harm if you follow them and it won’t cost you a cent. One never knows these tips may come in handy one day.

The desire to be happy, to feel safe and secure is part of human needs, these needs may not be satisfied at some time in our life and we felt “unlucky” as a consequence, not knowing that they are also part of life and instead trying to change them, it would be equally valid to endure them and learn from them and then come out feeling stronger and more at peace with oneself.  

Place Sevigne Grignan, France

This little square in the hillside town of Grignon just off the A7 near Momtelimar in the south of France works really well, because it is like a bay in a quiet and slow moving river giving shelter and “juqi” 聚氣 (gathering the moving qi) for the travellers.

But there is enough qi flow to charge up the place because it is right in front of the entrance gateway to the chateau of Grignan just metres away (on the map shown below it is located as number 2 and 10 is where the gateway is located) and right next door to the Hotel de Ville (Council Chamber showed as 1 in map).

The modern bench made of stone and the two trees next to it were placed just in the right place to hold the qi in the elongated and triangulated square. The water feather also added to its attraction, no wonder we had to wait for a while before we can get a table for lunch. It has good Feng Shui for the restaurant because it has a charged Mingtang to assemble the “water” for wealth.

First picture shows looking at the triangulated square from the ramp next to gateway to the walled-in chateau. Second picture shows looking at the square from the town side towards the council chamber; note the bench and trees are well placed to gather the qi for the square. Third picture shows one of the main entrance (le beffroi) to the chateau with the bell tower above. Fourth picture shows the water feature with a statue of the Marquise de Sevigne, who restored the chateau and made this place famous with her writings. Fifth picture shows the map of the Grignan Chateau.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feng Shui for Poetry

Last week we experienced another beautiful sunset and this time it is looking from our terrace in a “Chambres d’Hotes” (French for Bed and Breakfast”) called “Les Courtines” high up in the mountains of Montreal Les Sources in the south of France (www.lescourtines.com) where we had a few days of lovely stay.

Looking at these layers of mountains as the sun is setting, one cannot but appreciate the Chinese saying, “There are mountains outside mountains” 山外有山 and feels humbled by Nature’s Majestic and that no matter how clever Man can be, Man can always learn from Nature, but not only from Nature but from each other as well, for there is always someone who is better off and when one dies another will rise again, for the “ebb and flow” of a mountain range is like that of life and may be even of poetry!

Since the term Feng Shui has gone generic accordingly to some people and I have been labelled as a Feng Shui marketeer, may be we can call this “Feng Shui for Poetry” and promote it in a big big way to make lots and lots of money for me! Anyone wants to buy my poems, they are going cheap, like they are free. Danny? Marianna?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feng Shui for Poetry – Five Versions of “Another Beautiful Sunset”

(A. Normal)
1)There are
2)Mountains outside mountains
3)Golden seas beyond golden seas
4)They just keep on rolling
5)They just keep on turning
6)Speechless and in awe
7)I just keep on watching
8)Until there is nothing
9)More to see.

(B. Forward Flying)
5)They just keep on turning
6)Speechless and in awe
7)I just keep on watching
8)Until there is nothing
9)More to see.
1)There are
2)Mountains outside mountains
3)Golden seas beyond golden seas
4)They just keep on rolling.

(C. Reverse Flying)
5)They just keep on turning
4)They just keep on rolling
3)Golden seas beyond golden seas
2)Mountains outside mountains
1)There are
9)More to see
8)Until there is nothing
7)I just keep on watching
6)Speechless and in awe.

(D. Adding up to 10)
1)There are
9)More to see
2)Mountains outside mountains
8)Until there is nothing
3)Golden seas beyond golden seas
7)I just keep on watching
4)They just keep on rolling
6)Speechless and in awe
5)They just keep on rolling.

(E. Hetu Pairing in Gang Steps 罡步河圖)
8)Until there is nothing
3)Golden seas beyond golden seas
7)I just keep on watching
2)Mountains outside mountains
6)Speechless and in awe
1)There are
9)More to see
4)They just keep on rolling.

A simple village church

A simple village church or chapel has its own charm; one is not awed by the majesty of a God that is far above like in a Gothic cathedral, but feels the down-to-earth of an intimate place of worship instead. It is more human and hence touches you in a different way.

Below is a photo essay of a small church in a village called St. Sauveur Gouvernet in the Baronnies, south of France. Somehow a Romanesque arch feels differently to a Gothic one and when there are no decorations the space can make its presence felt in emptiness…

The watercolour is done by my wife Gyda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Sudden Hailstorm

Yesterday we went up to a little village called Montfarrand La Fare, Pay de Nyons in the south of France. The intention was to walk down to the ancient town of Rosans and have lunch there but my wife Gyda wanted, in the last minute, to walk up the mountain from about 500M to 1050M and skip lunch, so I decided to stay with the car and so some sketches of the village instead.

The sky was cloudless when she set off with Marie-Lou and the temperature was in the 30s, but within 2 hours ominous black clouds gathered overhead all around this isolated hilltop village and without any warning lightning and thunder appeared, the sounds that echoed around the valleys below were truly frightening.

I wish then I could have gone with them; at least we can endure this sudden change in the weather together. But instead, this tremendous hailstorm came with the torrential rain and our car ended up with small dents all over its bodywork, as I took shelter in the nearby balcony of an unoccupied house.

The hailstorm and the rain came twice and one can see them coming in two distinct patches and only a small portion of the sky is affected and this little hilltop village is right on their path. My wife only saw the lightning and heard the thunders high up in the mountain, they did not get wet at all but where I was, it was buckets and buckets of water and hails as big as marbles we use to play with as kids!

As I stood in my shelter looking at the rain and the hails hitting the roof tiles next door, I though how unpredictable life could be like the weather. One minute you would think everything is fine and the next minute the sky is falling on you, but when you look around, the sun could be shinning half a kilometre away. I thought then, it is better to enjoy the good times together whenever we can, one never knows, Heaven could just point her finger at us, out of the blue, and say, “Sorry, it is time to have some fun with you…”

I was relieved (and perhaps a little bit wiser) when I saw them walking down the mountain path.

First picture shows the impending storm.
Second picture shows the rain and hail hitting the roof tiles.
Third picture shows the coming of the second downpour.
Fourth picture shows the passing of the first downpour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Host and Guest (Zhu-Ke 主客)

Last Week I went flying with Ulli and Nora in a small 4-seater plane and we went from Berlin to Neuss to look at Tadao Ando’s Langen Foundation exhibition building for the day.

It is a really impressive and powerful building in his trademark off-form concrete, which one approaches from a cutout in a semi-circular wall in the middle of a former NATO base in the landscape of the Hombroich cultural prescient.

http://www.arcspace.com/architects/ando/langen/langen.html

The thing that struck me most is the different way Tadao Ando and I. M. Pei handled exhibition spaces, since earlier this year I also saw Pei’s extension to the Deutschen Historischen Museums in Berlin, where I am living now.

http://www.dhm.de/pei/

In an exhibition space there is always the question which is the guest and which is the host? Should the space serve the exhibits or the other way around?

In Ando’s Langen exhibition building, it is all about circulation, manipulating the viewers from one end of the complex to another, so there are mostly flows and little containment and that is one of the reasons why this building very powerful. As Ulli said at the end of the day, “I don’t have a “ganying” 感應 (mutual resonance) with this building, but I am awed and impressed by it”.

Whereas in Pei extension in Berlin, he separated the public circulation spaces from the exhibition spaces, so while the public circulation space is also powerful and impressive, strong enough to compliment the main building across the road, the exhibition space is very intimate and served the purpose of what it is meant to do.

There is a yin/yang interplay in Pei’s building that is missing in Ando’s masterpiece, which one gets the impression that the work of art is there to serve the building instead the other way around. One comes to look at Ando’s building and not the paintings on display. In Pei’s Berlin extension, I can see that his space is the host in the public circulation area and then his space switched to being the guest, when one enters into the exhibition halls, allowing the work on display to do their magic.

Apart from the picture of our little plane with Nora at the front and Ulli behind on the other side of the plane, I have attached the two floor plans below and if one looks at the circulation patterns of the two buildings, one will understand the importance of deciding which should be the host and which should be the guest and in what occasion, because the result will definitely affect the Feng Shui of a place, with a different atmosphere and feeling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chartreuse du Val-de-Benediction

This has to be one of the best Monastic architecture we have ever seen. The austere style characteristic of the taste in Avignon at the time of

Pope Innocent VI is reminiscent of the “qing-tan” 清淡 (“pure and simple”) taste favoured by the ancient Chinese due to the Daoist influence, especially in art and poetry.

“Qing-tan” means an object is created in it most simple and direct form without any embellishment or ostentation and that is exactly how the housing for the 12 members of the first foundation of this Carthusian Monastery is organized.

The 12 cells are grouped around the Cloister of the Dead, where the monks are eventually buried without a name. There are 3 ambulatories giving access to the monk’s lodging and the form is simply expressed externally with a raised roof. Internally, the space is designed based on the daily life of a Carthusian monk, who has completely renounced all commerce with the world.

As it can be seen from the photographs, being pure and simple do

es not mean it has to be boring, on the contrary, when we try to do architecture with a capital A we tend to destroy the spirit of a building, which should reflect the “ben-xing” 本性 or the “original nature” of  a building is meant for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthusian

The Chartreuse did it in a “wu-wei” 無為 way (achieving the most with the least) and expressed succinctly the philosophy of the Carthusian order founded by Saint Bruno in 1127. The “ben-xing” of the building is clearly articulated by Saint Bruno in his “Letter to Raoul le Verd”:

“The silence and the solitude of the desert…For here men of strong will can enter themselves and remain there as much as they like… Here they can acquire the eye that wounds the B

ridegroom with love, by the limpidity of its gaze, and whose purity allows them to see God himself”.

First picture shows Saint Bruno who founded the Carthusian Order.
Second picture shows a photo of a monk doing manual work in his cell.
Third picture shows interior of a cell where a monk can work.
Fourth picture shows the ambulatory with the doorway to a monk’s cell on the left. 
Fifth picture shows the fireplace where the monk can read and pray.
Sixth picture shows the Cloister of the Dead looking at the ambulatory and the raised roof of each of the monk’s cells behind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Hang it on Cloud Nine”

The trees stood like children in uniform,

Waving in the warm breeze,

Greeting me like an old friend,

As I cycled to see my love,

Along a path of the fallen Wall.

 

In early spring the trees are half dressed,

In late summer they wear deep green,

In autumn they turn bright red, and

In winter they are completely naked.

 

I asked my love,

“If the trees can change with the seasons,

Why can’t we?”

She smiled and whispered,

“We can and we can’t,

For some,

The Wall has not fallen,

So don’t ask, just

Hang it on Cloud Nine”.

Today I cycled past the same spot and the wind and the rain has taken some of the leaves already and autumn is in the air.,

A face in the rock

As I am looking through these photos, I realized how in Feng Shui we use different means to get ourselves engaged with the environment through observation, I guess that is why Feng Shui is classified in the classics as a part of Xiang-Shu 相術, or the Art of Observation.

In Xing-Shi Pai (Form School), there is the Five Formulae for the Landscape model (Dili Wujuw 地理五訣), namely the Long 龍 (Dragon), Sha 砂 (Sands), Xue 穴 (The FS Spot), Shui 水 (Water) and Xiang 向 (Facing), to give us a guide line to assess the natural environment and there is also the technique of He-Xiang 喝象 or “calling out the image” to get us connect to what we saw with analogy, and with practice we developed an ability to “read” our landscape with “Ganying” 感應 or “mutual resonance”.

These photos showed how we tend to zero onto something we are familiar with and thus made us connected to what we are observing. Out of this vast and beautiful landscape in the south of France, we saw above all, a face in the rock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Radio Interview in Finland

I had a wonderful experience being interviewed on Radio 86 by Michael Rossing, who is a philosopher by training, so it gave me an opportunity to talk about Feng Shui from a philosophical point of view.

The interview went on for over an hour next to a beautiful lake just outside of Helsinki and it was clever to have it edited down into two small segments of a few minutes each on different headings, in both English and Finnish (oops, Kristiina just told me it is actually in Swedish, the Finnish and English version will come later) and still managed to keep all the essence of the conversation we had. You can read Michael’s articles and hear the edited segments on our conversation here:

http://www.radio86.se/allt-om-kina/livsstil/kinesiska-traditioner/10881/howard-choy-berattar-om-feng-shui-och-materialism

http://www.radio86.se/allt-om-kina/livsstil/10930/feng-shui-i-relation-till-musik-harmoni-och-storlek

I have to thank Kristiina Mantynen, Chairperson of the Finnish Feng Shui Association, who made this pleasant interlude possible, between teaching Garden Feng Shui and Daoist Talisman last June for the association.

http://fengshui.pp.fi/english.html

Michael Rossing, philosopher and p/t radio interviewer.

Sue Holmes

It is always a pleasure to read about others mentioning us, here is one written by Sue Holmes.

http://www.firehorsefengshui.co.uk/about/about-feng-shui-consultant-holistic-therapist-sue-holmes/about-my-feng-shui-teacher-howard-cho

Sue is a very hard working lady and she makes extra efforts to come to our Professional Practitioners Courses and Master Classes in Berlin and Krakow because we don’t run them in England. She has studied with many other teachers before she comes to us for some post-graduate studies, she does her consultations under the name Fire Horse Feng Shui (You have guessed it, she is a Fire Horse!) and if you ever need a consultant in England, do get in touch with her:

http://www.firehorsefengshui.co.uk/

EXPERIMENTDAYS09

Our display layout and scene of the exhibition last Satuday where Gyda and Tilman showcased our work in the UferHallen Berlin (I went to teach Taijiquan and Qigong in Gniezno, the first capital of Poland instead) :

EXPERIMENTDAYS09
messe für wohnkulturen + nachhaltiges bauen:
kreativ. ökologisch. wirtschaftlich. gemeinschaftlich.
03./ 04. Oktober 2009, UferHallen, Berlin

People think we are only Feng Shui teachers and consultants but in fact we are all full-time working architects experimenting with Kanuyu architecture at the coal-face using principles we teach in the buildings we make.

You can read about our approach to Feng Shui and architecture here:

http://howardchoy.wordpress.com/artarchitecture-2/

Master-class at Oberstaufen

We had an intensive four days working on a project in the southern part of Germany to redevelop an existing hotel and the adjoining land for residential use.

Our group was small and we worked well together (being mostly environmental designers and familiar with using FS in our work), in the end we feel we have found the right Feng Shui approach to begin the development process. Below showed our group, the Feixing analysis and the black white studies we did to lay the ground work for a solution that can take advantage of the Sheng Qi of the land.

The “before” and “after” B&W study showed how the qi is better assembled within the hotel and the residential complex and also along the street-scape and we have set all the new buildings facing “Wang Shan Wang Xiang” (Prosperous Sitting and Prosperous Facing) for Period 8.

Bazhai Mingjing (BZMJ) Questions

SJ asked me these probing questions below on BZMJ the other day and I gave him my answers, may be those who have learned some Bazhai would find them interesting and would like to make some further comments.

SJ: I recently heard that one could not cure inauspicious Bazhai portents by using a reductive cycle. For example, Liu-Sha (Water) cannot be cured by adding Wu-Xing Wood.

HC: It is true that BZMJ did not mention this way of doing things, but some master like my Master Ren Zhi-Lin said it was a “secret transmission”! I guess they might have been influenced by Shen Shi Xuan Kong Wuxing Shengke to Jiehua (“cures”) where the weakening or the reductive cycle is preferred over a generating cycle to deal with a bad star. Theoretically to me it makes sense, because the wandering star always has it element associates with it as it “wanders”, and we are dealing one type of wandering star at a time.

SJ: I am told that according to BZMJ, in Chapter 91, Yan-Nian (Metal) is needed to counter Liu-Sha (Water). Apparently, a star Qi is necessary to counter another star Qi. Other cases would be Fu-Wei (Yin Wood) to counter Huo-Hai (Earth); Tian-Yi (Earth) to counter Jue-Ming (Metal); and Sheng-Qi (Wood) to counter Wu-Gui (Fire).

With the exception of Fu-Wei (Wood) countering Huo-Hai (Earth), all other relationships are in a generating cycle. Also, as Fu-Wei is Yin Wood and Huo-Hai is Yang Earth, this relationship is acceptable as opposite polarities do not fight each other.

HC: I think you mean in Chapter 81 and not Chapter 91 where it only talked about the Yan-Nian picture (Yan-Nian Tu), whereas in Chapter 81 which is called “Jiu-xing Ji-fu” or how to “Subdue the Nine Stars” and it said, “Sheng-Qi falls on Wu-Gui, Tian-Yi bullies Jue-Ming, Yan-Nian holds down Liu-sha and what Fu-Wei subdue is already arranged (that is the left over Jue-Ming)”.

But what one must remember is when this chapter talks about the four auspicious wondering stars subduing the four harmful wondering stars, one must ask how can they subdue each other when they are constantly wandering at different places at different times and there are two sets of them going at the same time (one set generated by the Zhai Gua and the other by the Ming Gua)? The subduing cannot be done in space, it can only be done with the stove, because the stove can “hold down the sha and welcome the sheng”, which is the same as saying that the stoves should sit on the four harmful directions of a person and face the four auspicious directions of the same person, and this is the unique character of the BZMJ. It is not the same as saying one should use a generating cycle of a good star to counter a bad star in space.

SJ: Also, for example, if a bedroom is in the Yan-Nian portent (Yang Metal), it is best to face the bed in the Yan-Nian direction (Metal), and not Sheng-Qi (Yang Wood), as Metal controls Wood and Sheng-Qi direction will not be activated!

HC: Again you are talking about two single wandering stars rather than two groups of matching wandering stars, the priority goes with the grouping of East Four and West Four first. You need to refer to Chapter 31 of BZMJ called “The Position of the Bed” to see the guideline clearly, where it said, “…Matching the Ming direction is the most auspicious, follow by matching the different rooms (location to suit the person), then follow by the sitting mountain and finally by it relationship (of the bed) to the door of the room…” Then we also has to take the wondering stars of the person into consideration as well and they have priority over the Zhai stars according to BZMJ.

SJ: There is also a star/palace method in Bazhai where one can look at the underlying Luo Shu Gua of a portent and compare it with the Star to determine if the portent will be auspicious/inauspicious to begin with. For example, in the case of a Li House (East Four) SE: Tian-Yi (Yang Earth) – Guest Star; Luo-Shu Element (4, Yin Wood) – Host; Host Controls Guest. Inauspicious; Therefore, SE palace has inauspicious Qi even though Ju Men Xing star (Tian-Yi) is present in that portent. Similarly, NE palace with Huo-Hai is not very negative as Luo-Shu (8) Earth has same element as guest star Lu Cun (Huo-Hai).

HC: I teach this in the more advance level, but it is not exactly used in the way you mentioned. There are three ways we can use the theory of palace/star sheng-ke:

1) Use to assess the relationship between the main door and side doors in a house.

2) Use to assess the influence of a larger object near the main door.

3) Use to assess the relationship between the location of the bed and the bedroom door.

The theory behind this is quite complex and that is one of the reason I don’t teach it at the beginners level, and when one look at this method closely one can see how BZMJ is beginning to merge with Yangzhai Sanyao (YZSY – The Three Requirements of a Yang Dwelling) and Feixing (Flying Stars) in the way Ji-Xiong (auspicious and harmfulness) is determined by Wuxing Shen-Ke (the generating and controlling cycle of the Five Elements) between two stars, except the Elements for the wondering stars in BZMJ and YZSY are correlated differently to the flying stars in Feixing.

ar.chi.tecture

We use the term “Qi” or “Chi” all the time in Feng Shui but it is a term difficult to define. I am reading “The Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy” by Zhang Dai-Nian (1909-2004) at the moment and the translator, Edmund Ryden does a very good job in summarizing the essential meaning of Qi even though it might have changed over time in Chinese history:

Perhaps the best translation of the Chinese word qi is provided by Einstein’s equation, e=mc2. According to this equation matter and energy are convertible. In places the material element may be to the fore, in others, what we term energy. Qi embraces both. The philosophical use of the term derives from its popular use but is nonetheless distinct. In popular parlance qi is applied to the air we breathe, steam, smoke, and all gaseous substances. The philosophical use of the term underlines the movement of qi. Qi is both what really exists and what has the ability to become. To stress one at the expense of the other would be to misunderstand qi. Qi is the life principle but is also the stuff of inanimate objects. As a philosophical category, qi originally referred to the existence of whatever is of a nature to change. This meaning is then expanded to encompass all phenomena, both physical and spiritual. It is energy that has the capacity to become material object while remaining what it is. It thus combines “potentiality” with “matter”. To understand it solely as “potentiality” would be wrong, just as it cannot be translated simply as “matter”.

So Qi is both matter and energy; it is the seen and the unseen, the form and the formless, the manifested and the un-manifested, the tangible and the intangible, etc. From what we can see, we can contemplate what we cannot see, from we can cannot see, we can also contemplate its potential manifestations.

But unlike Einstein’s’ equation, there is no one fixed and measurable constant we can rely on, instead we make up correlations to investigate the relationship between the two Yin and Yang aspects of the same Qi and the answers are often, depending on the circumstance, more than just one predictable result, which Science demands and is not possible with correlative thinking.

The Chinese made the assumption that everything has Qi and everything that has Qi has Yin and Yang as well. If there is one predictable outcome then there is also many un-predictable counterparts running side by side, so if  Science can give us a predictable answer, then Non-Science like Art, its complementary opposite, will always give us more than one  “non-answer” answer to the same question, because to the Chinese, even a constant is constantly changing and evolving (“the only constant is change”) and Qi is often used to express this idea, hence some scholar would also equate Qi with the Dao, which is the Way and not the Destination.

Personally, I like this idea of defining “Qi” as “potentiality combines with matter”, which is another way of expressing the Yin/Yang duality, and in the book, “The Tao of Architecture”, Amos Ih Tiao Chang ended his essay with these words,

“The life quality of architecture, like the life-quality of humanity itself, exist not only in the realm of the material but also in the realm of intangibility, the realm that each man must find and conquer for himself”.

In other words, it is finding the Qi in ar-qi-tektur (or the Chi in ar-chi-tecture) and it is this process that transforms a building into architecture!

張岱年 Zhang Dai-Nian

Physics or Metaphysics?

Traditional Chinese culture has a different way of thinking and naming things. Trying to put Chinese studies into a western pigeonhole is always fraught with problems. Below is a question by Alexey and my reply that illustrated the difficulty.

Dear Howard.

Recently with some colleagues we had a discussion on the term “Chinese Metaphysics”.

The base of the discussion was the formula
形而上者謂之道，形而下者謂之器

Here, 形而上 (形而上學) corresponds with dao, shen 神 and metaphysics. While 形而下 corresponds to qi 器. In Chinese sciences we study more qi than shen, so we are more to 形而下 rather than 形而上, so “metaphysics” seems to be an improper term.

What do you think on that?

Best regards,
Alexey

Hi Alexey,

Aristotle made the distinction between physics and metaphysics and we tried to find the Chinese equivalent in the Chinese sciences, which is never an easy task, because even in a binary relationship of this kind, between the Way (Dao 道) and the Vessel (Qi 器) (with the Way being prior in time and without substance and the Vessel being subsequent in time and has substance), it has a common base in the Form (Xing 形) and cannot be separated as two distinct entities.

Zhang Dai-Nian noted that Wang-Zhi did not accept that the metaphysical and physical are related as above and below form as quoted in the Great Commentary, but he affirmed that form is the basis of what is above form and the metaphysical is not prior to form but an expression of form.

Zhang also noted that Dai Zhen accepted that there is a distinction between what is above and what is below form. That the Qi of Yin and Yang that has not yet become things is the formless, and that is above form and not below it.

So the discussions that you are having with some of your colleagues are also reflected in the history of Chinese philosophy and the discussions that went on between the scholars over time.

My take is that since in the Chinese sciences, we study the form and what is above and what is below all at the same time with varying degrees of mix (not always more qi than shen), so if we have to use the Aristotelian terms, then they are both physics AND metaphysics; I agree with you in the sense that to say it is only “metaphysics” would negate the physical observation of forms in the practice of the Chinese sciences. For example: in the practice of Xiang Shu 相術 (the art of observation) where Feng Shui is one of the methods, it requires us to see the “qi/vessel”in and below the form as well as to contemplate the “shen/spirit”outside and above the form.

Regards,
Howard

The way we relate to the Chinese arts is the same in the way we relate to the Chinese sciences mentioned earlier, Bada Shanren’s paintings below show when a painting has both vessel and spirit in the form, then it becomes a work of art and not just an ordinary painting any more. His work transcends space and time because it is not only physically beautiful but metaphysically enlightening and that is what a traditional gentleman/scholar would tried to achieve – to be practical and transcendental at the same time.

The Brave Ones

These are my Polish students (with Lidia Sarek, my organizer, first on the left) who are willing to sit for the final examination and  submit two case study assignments for marking to get their Certificate of Completion to become a qualified consultant recognized by our school.

I have been teaching for nearly 20 years now, both in Australian and Europe and less than 20 students met the standards required so far, so good luck to these brave ones, who worked very hard in the last couple of years to fully complete the Professional Practitioners course.

Prof. Wang Qi-Heng on Yinzhai Feng Shui

I had the good fortune of meeting Prof Wang Qi-Heng 王其亨 in his home three days ago before we flew out of Beijing to Berlin. Prof. Wang is a famous teacher from Tianjin University specialized in researching and teaching the history and philosophy of traditional Chinese architecture. He part wrote and edited one of the best source book on Feng Shui in Chinese called “Research into the Theories of Feng Shui” 風水理論研究, published by the Tianjin University Press (see book cover below). His university department is also responsible for many of the conservation planning around the major historical sites like the Forbidden City and the Ming and Qing Tombs.

During our three-hours meeting I asked him many questions on Feng Shui and architecture, especially about the Qing and the Ming dynasties of which he is an expert. The most memorable one for me was about Yinzhai Feng Shui and my question was, “Do you really think intelligent and capable rulers like the Qing Emperor Qianlong 乾隆皇帝 (1711-1799), would believe that if they bury their ancestors in the best Feng Shui spot, their family would rule forever?” He laughed and replied, “Of course not!”

Then he went on to say that if we research into the historical court documents like he did, then the imperial burial sites were chosen not for selfish gains or un-realistic expectations, but they are in fact imperial site selections and architecture with a strong sense of commemoration in memory of their ancestors, as required by the Confucian Rites.

He followed up by showing me an example in the commemorative tablet erected in the Qing Yu Ling 清裕陵 (Emperor Qianlong’s burial site), where these words were carved in stone:

聖水深巖
Sacred-waters and deep ravines,
靈山翠微
Spirit-mountains and shady retreats,
億年安宅
(We) set down a dwelling for a hundred million years,
築我丕基
(and continue to) build our great foundations.

There was nothing said about tapping into the right kind of earth energy to make the descendants more powerful, richer and happier. It is done to remain them of their heritage and responsibility as a ruler.

Some people actually blamed the Feng Shui of Qianlong’s tomb for the decline of the Qing Dynasty because although he was buried in a Meridian Spot, he choose to face a “Death and Empty Line”, so while his descendants continued to rule another 112 years, they were very mediocre and downright incompetent or died young. It is grossly unfair and downright superstitious to blame Feng Shui and Qianlong on the natural rise and decline of a dynasty and misunderstood the real purpose of Yinzhai Feng Shui.

When I pressed the point, Prof. Wang also pointed out in the official documents, no Feixing calculations were mentioned, the imperial Feng Shui experts selected the sites for burial mainly based on Xingshi 形勢 considerations.

Prof. Wang said the real purpose of a grave or a Mu 墓 is to have a place to admire (pay homage) the ancestors and the character to admire (mu 慕) has the same sound as for a grave although it is written in a different way and this was pointed out by Liu Xi 劉熙 of Eastern Han (25-220AD) in his book “Explaining the Terms and the Burial Rites” 釋名。釋喪制:

墓， 慕也；孝子思慕之處也。
“A grave (has) the same (sound) as to admire, it is a place where a filial son can admire and remember (the dead).”

Prof. Wang said at the same time to bury is to hide from the wind (葬，藏也), to avoid attack by the ants and the worms and flooding by water, rotting the corpse.

Finally he said there is an educated understanding of Feng Shui and an un-educated one (Prof. Wang Yude 王玉德 used the terms “academic” and “folk” Feng Shui to say the same thing), to think that burial in a good Feng Shui spot will bring selfish gains to the descendants is to misunderstand the cultivated way of behaviour in a traditional Chinese society.

Confucian filial piety required a gentleman 君子 to find a good Feng Shui spot to bury, to remember and to pay homage to the dead and not to expect anything in return. Prof. Wang Qi-Heng said this is the real purpose of Yinzhai Feng Shui.

Dr. Michael Mak’s new Book on Scientific Feng Shui

Scientific Feng Shui: Application of Feng Shui Knowledge to Preliminary Building Design Evaluation Using Knowledge-Based Expert Systems Approach Author: Michael Y Mak Publisher: VDM Verlag Dr Muller, Saarbrucken, Germany (2009) ISBN: 978-3-639-20940-2 Weblink to order: http://www.amazon.com/Scientific-Feng-Shui-Application-Knowledge­Based/dp/3639209400/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257838236&sr=1-2 Feng Shui is a body of ancient Chinese wisdom which aimed at creating a harmony among environment, buildings and people. The Form School is based on the understanding of physical configuration of geographical features and is the most dominant approach that has had a great impact on Chinese architecture. However, the development of Feng Shui principles and Form School practices are complicated and there are lots of misunderstanding and confusion. This book provides a scientific approach of applying Feng Shui knowledge to preliminary building design evaluation through the representation of Feng Shui knowledge in a structured framework and the development of a prototype model using Knowledge-Based Expert Systems approach. The analysis provides a new understanding of how the outcomes of Feng Shui knowledge structured and represented in a scientific manner. This book is especially useful to professionals and researchers in architectural and landscape design, building construction and management, real estate and property development, town and urban planning, or anyone else who may be considering scientific applications of Feng Shui knowledge to the built environment.

How to handle differences between different schools of Feng Shui

I wrote this as a discussion topic in the Fivearts Forum because a lot of students are confused about the discrepancies in the working of different Liqi Pai (Comapss School) Feng Shui, others might find it interesting and would like to comment here as well:

Fivearts Forum, Liqi Pihttp://www.fivearts.net/index.php/topic,4070.0.html

This is a question asked by students of Feng Shui all the time, like what to do with the different ways of counting time (Two Eras and 8 Periods v Three Eras and Nine Periods), the different ways of allocating the Direct and Indirect Spirits, and the different Yin and Yang correlations and Wuxing correlations, etc. etc.

The answer can be found in an analogy to games we play in sport. Each game has its own set of rules and its own point scoring system, try to understand them clearly and then play the game according to the rules from the beginning to the end. If one wants to know which game is more enjoyable and more rewarding, one needs to finish playing one game before trying another.

Imagine the chaos one can create when half way through playing an English football game, then decided out of the blue, to change the game to American football and pick up the ball and run towards the goal posts!

Feng Shui methodologies are like intellectual games; each game has its own set of rules and its own way to evaluate the desirability of a situation, none of them are more right or more wrong than another, it is just an acceptance between one another of how each game should be handled, which philosophical interpretation and which correlation one should adopted and so forth.

Our task as Feng Shui students is learn these different rules from different schools of Feng Shui and then play the intellectual game according to thier set rules one at a time and don’t try to mix them up. After a while, an experienced player will know which game is more enjoyable and more rewarding and in what situation and then it can become an effective tool in helping others.

Some people, after a while for some reasons, might want to set up their own school with a new set of rules. All he or she has to do is to gather a group of followers, big enough so it can survive as a school, and then we will have a new game-play on the block. This is exactly what happened to 林雲 Lin Yun’s Three Door Bagua and 談養吾 Tan Yang-Wu’s Xuan Kong Liu Fa.

Another way to become a founder is to create a set of sub-rules with a main game, like 王亭之 中州玄空派 Wang Ting-Zhi’s Zhongzhou Xuankong Feixing Pai or 陳倍生妙派 Chen Bei-Sheng’s Mei Pai Da Gua. These can come under the guise or the banner of “secret transmissions”, “authentic teachings” and “direct lineage” etc.

As students, we need to see the scenery clearly and seek a path we can walk down to reach our goal, aim for the main path and not the side passages and get lost on our way.

The French does It differently

This is how urban myth is often created. When a tourist walking past a toilet sign like this, it can lead to thinking that the French femmes do “it” both standing up and sitting down!

Taiji Tuishou or Push-Hands

Some photos taken in last weekend’s Taiji workshop in Poznan, with Piotr Ziemba’s group and showing us doing some low-down Peng-Lu-Ji-An push-hands. As usual, I had a great time and thanks Piotr, for the effort.

http://www.taichi.com.pl/index2.php

Taiji Spear

Some rejected publicity shots for the next year’s workshop on the Taiji Spear in Nantes, France for Thierry Doctinal’s group (http://www.tai-ji-centre.net/). I am looking forward to teach this form since I have not taught it for a long while and that will force me to do some practice!

Five Animals Frolic Qigong Website

We just set up this website for the teaching of the Five Animals Frolic in Krakow, it is in Polish at the moment but the English text and further information will be uploaded very soon, so please keep dropping by.

http://www.bailung.com

How Feng Shui became superstitious

Superstitions in Feng Shui come about when technical application of a philosophical concept is misunderstood. The Toilet Sha is a good example in which the modern inventor misunderstood the meaning of Sha Qi.

Sha Qi 煞氣 is “above form (“xing-zhi-shang 形之上), it is a philosophical concept expressing the undesirable state when things are out of balance and harmony. It is complementary opposite to Sheng Qi.

Toilet Sha turned this metaphysical idea into a “below form” (xing-zhi-xia 形之下) physical agent (a “vessel” or a “qi” 器) that can cause sickness if it is in line with a toilet bowl. That becomes a superstition because it misinterpreted a metaphysical concept and turned it into an irrational belief that a toilet bowl can “kill” (sha 殺).

Some people tried to bring in good hygiene to explain the Toilet Sha but the health effect of air-borne bacteria is a scientific observation that does not need the Toilet Sha to explain its working nor the other way around.

This lack of understanding of the key concepts in Chinese philosophy often turned Chinese metaphysics into superstitions, and it not only happen in “New Age” Feng Shui but also in folk Feng Shui in China and SE Asia.

Toilet Sha travels in a straight line, penetrating through solid walls to give anyone sleeping in its path health problems, in this case a thumping headache or even a tumor in the brain!

St. Nicholas Day in Poland

Witajcie!

W załączeniu wspomnienie z grudniowych zajęć :-)

Dziękujemy Wam za obecność i serdecznie pozdrawiamy!!!

Lidia i Krzysztof i Howard :-)

Zen is Now!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

At this time of the year, I often think of the time I spent with Greg and Moko high up in the mountain just outside of Tokyo, in their lovely traditional Japanese cottage, that was abandoned by the owner who went to the city.

It was Christmas night and it was snowing heavily outside, Greg my host and I were drinking sake with a Zen Monk, who left his family after he turned 50, traveling from temple to temple to seek enlightenment, and to make ends meet, he helps Greg and Moko to pick tea leaves growing wild in the mountain, about this time every year.

We have been drinking for over an hour, our feet tuck under the warm kerosine stove below the wooden floor of this old Japanese house. Greg said to me out of the blue, “Ask him, ask him!”, I said, “Ask him what?”, Greg replied, “Ask him: What is Zen?”. I looked up at Greg and then look slowly to the Zen monk, feeling a bit drunk and stupid, but somehow, I would like to know as well.

So I said to the monk, “Sensei, what is Zen?”.

I remember even now, there was an audible silence and a definable time gap, before this gentle and hairless guy, looked up at me, jumped off the floor, rushed towards me, pushed me down and stood over me with his finger pointing at me, shouting, “Zen is now, Zen is Now, Zen is NOW!” (he knew that much in English), before he jumped outside in the snow and laughed as he skipped around and around in circles.

Greg and I didn’t know what to do at first, but being both sloshed, we just nudged and winked at each other before we went back to our drinking, feeling the warmth under our feet, and for the first time in my life, I knew clearly inside even though I was feeling plastered:

“ZEN IS NOW”!

PS: This is what Greg has to say about my version of the story, the slap was so painful, I have erased it from my memory:

Isn’t that wonderful …stories ..they are all true…Yours is just as right…but… I remember that you said to Shukan san and from no urging from me ..and in a rather,  ”Well!!!! What is Zen !!..” and Shuknan San as quick as lightning ….a little guy never done fighting in his life ..moved in Samurai fashion all on his knees in one foul sweep  across the floor and gave you the biggest hardest God almighty slap across the face ..that Iv ever seen ..and you holding your face and saying,  ”I got it !!  I got it!! ”

He was funny though..the time I came back from being away in China and rolled up some mean very mature super blow your mind heads and giving him a toke which I had never done before and never did again ..he puffed on the butt like it was tobacco and then just went into this state of pure enlightened bliss ..saying over and over in Japanese ..Iv got it ! Iv got it !!… this went on for hours and hours………

You can see Greg’s weblog here: http://greg.exblog.jp/

Which Period to Use?

This question of which Period to use in making up a Flying Star chart often confuse the beginners because different teachers and practitioners say different things. Recently this question was again discussed in the Five Arts Forum:

“I had an opportunity recently to attend a workshop by a renowned master. According to him, the pattern of the Qi in the atmosphere have changed with the change of time period say from Period 7 to Period 8, the Qi entering the house represents the current period Qi. So every house’s star chart will change to period 8 star chart.”

“I have been working with Xuankong Feixing and during my practice I have found that the moving in period, if there has been major renovations like changing the floor tiles – changing the main door etc, has coincided with the events (and changed the period). In my opinion Human Qi is most powerful.  Man can change the Feng Shui of the house and Man can affect his destiny by Good Karma. The Human Action is most powerful.”

Below is my edited comment to these two remarks:

In my humble opinion, both the master and the practitioner got 1 out of 3 for the effort, because in the first case the Earth Qi and the Human Qi have not changed, and the second case the Earth and the Heaven Qi have not changed, what we should be looking at is the influence of Period 8 on a house built in another period, that way the past Gua Qi and the present Gua Qi interact and reflect closer of the reality.

The same can be said for each new yearly cycle when the qi of the atmosphere also has changed, do we get a new chart or an extra number to consider? The answer is no, we don’t make up a new chart with a new period number; we make up an extra number to reflect the yearly cyclical changes to consider with the existing chart.

Also the same can be said of a new business or a new occupant coming into the house, do we get a new chart or do we look at the external Ming Gua influence of this new comer affecting the existing Guaqi of a house built in another time? The answer is again no, for even though Human Qi is powerful, it is still one third of the equation.

What about the change of Earth Qi when someone added a basement to the house or an extra room in the attic, do we get a new chart again? Again the same reasoning applies for changing the Earth Qi only is still one third of the equation.

My take is to keep the original natal chart (like one does with a Bazi), unless we demolished the house or make extensive changes that change the basic pattern of Heaven, Earth and Human Qi (like a house being bombed extensively in WWII and gets rebuilt after war), because that is the internal Gua Qi field of the house at the time of the birth of the house and look at the different external influence of space (change of Naqi mouth for example), time (period change for example) and human action (moving in and moving out of different occupants for example) affecting the house, so as the world changes, the present is always connected to the past and there is a continuity of the internal (fixed DNA) with the external (ever changing) San Cai Qi flow from the birth of the house to the present time.

We have a tendency to simplify things by isolating the Heaven, Earth and Human Qi on their own, instead of looking at their dynamic interactions as the world changes to get our bearings.

But it is only my opinion, although I believe it is a logical one and has been supported by Shenshi Xuankong Xue 沈氏玄空學, the Flying Stars Classic, I also use this in my work as a FS consultant but each of us has to decide what to do and which teacher/practitioner or book makes more sense.

D.I.Y. Forecast for 2010 using Flying Stars

This time of the year (the end of December), many people begin to worry about what the new-year will bring them? The market, especially in Hong Kong and SE Asia, is full of books on Feng Shui predictions for 2010. Some smart entrepreneurs, like our Michael from the Feng Shui Shop where I downloaded the star chart for 2010 showed below (I am too lazy to draw one myself), even use Feng Shui predictions to sell their merchandise, so I thought may be there are some interest in an article on D.I.Y. Feng Shui forecast for 2010, using Xuan Kong Flying Stars.

You can read this article in our ECOFS (European College of Feng Shui) Webpage:

http://fengshui-college.org/articles/d-i-y-forecast-for-2010-using-flying-stars

Interesting Matter to Ponder

This posting in the Five Arts Forum on the different ways of thinking used in Feng Shui, was written by Terrence Chan (aka Zeng Yong-Xing), the author of “Earth Discerning Truth – A Translation of the Feng Shui Classic Dili Bianzheng“, I have found it so memorable that it is worth re-posting here:

Some forms of thinking (used in Feng Shui):

1. Correlative Thinking - in simple terms, thinking of an item of one class by correlating it with an item of another class – has been used to describe what is supposed to be ‘Chinese thinking’. My impression is that such thinking is also used in the study of magic (sympathetic magic) where a symbol of a thing is taken as having a relation with that thing e.g. ‘picture of tiger’ talisman with a tiger.

2. Aristotelian or Logical Thinking. Correlative Thinking has been criticized as being illogical in contrast to Aristotelian, Logical or rational thinking. However, there could be an argument that Correlative Thinking is a variation of (Edward De Bono’s) Lateral Thinking, a concept accepted by the West.

3. (What could be called) Dialectic Thinking. The ability to think of and accept diametrically opposing ideas at the same time, a form of thinking applied by some of the philosophers of Chinese communism, for example (yes, they also have philosophers!).

4. System thinking. To always think of any one thing as part of a system, rather than in isolation.

What has this to do with metaphysics?

I suggest all four modes of thinking are useful tools:

1. The ‘-physics’ part of ‘metaphysics’ has to be answered with Aristotelian or Logical Thinking. The scientific side.

2. The ‘meta-’ (which means ‘beyond’) part of ‘metaphysics’ is dealt with through Correlative Thinking. The arts side.

3. The conflict between, and within, the two has comes within the scope of Dialectic Thinking. Any resolution of such conflict has to come through further theoretical research and empirical findings.

(An example of ‘conflict within’ is the argument over ‘good’ and ‘bad’ sectors of a house plotted using Ba Zhai versus Shen’s Fei Xing.)

4. Bringing it together is System Thinking.

I suggest that merely using one mode of thinking constrains progress in any field.

Let me cite an example of correlative thinking applied in science – it was the Manhattan Project (which created the atomic bomb). An architect of the bomb explaining how a conceptual breakthrough came about (emphasis mine), said:

“…We walked up and down in the snow, I on skis and she on foot. …and gradually the idea took shape… explained by Bohr’s idea that the nucleus is like a liquid drop; such a drop might elongate and divide itself… “ (source: Wikipedia).

In other words, it was the idea of correlating the nucleus (of an atom) to a water drop (base component of snow) which helped progress their research.

Feng Shui Chinatour 2010

JOURNEY TO THE FENG SHUI SOURCES –
Sacred Mountains, Monasteries and Temples of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism

Feng Shui is rooted in the classical Chinese world-view, reinforced by certain aspects of the teachings of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism.

On this trip, we will trace these historical sources, especially in Confucianism and Buddhism. We will experience their living traditions, feel their divinities, in the company of monks and scholars, and touch the spirit of the mountains, monasteries and temples, as we travel.

You will be accompanied by three specialists on this trip – Dr. Volker Olles is a Sinologist specialized in Daoism; Gyda Anders and Howard Choy are both practicing Feng Shui Architects, with a deep knowledge of Feng Shui. They will ensure that the experience and the knowledge you are about to obtain is an authentic and genuine one.

All lectures and talks will be conducted in English and German.

The tour will begin in Sichuan, where Zhang Daoling 張道陵, the Great Heavenly Master, founded Daoism as a religion.

We will look at the mutual influence of the different religions in the Chengdu area by visiting the Buddhist Wenshu Temple 文殊院 in Chengdu, and the hidden Daoist Niangniang Miao temple 娘娘廟 nearby. They are places for meditation and contemplation connected to Heaven (Tian 天),

In them we can feel the unique atmosphere of Daoism and Buddhism and we can explore their tradition past to the present, see how the monks lived their religious life and experience first hand, how the influence of Feng Shui affected the planning of temples and monasteries in practice. In this trip, Chinese cosmology is made visible.

While in Sichuan, we will visit the White Crane Monastery at Baihe Shan 白鶴山 and close by in Qionglai, the Laojun Shan 老君山 and Qingcheng Shan 青城山 all being sacred mountains of Daoism. Also we will visit the Monastery of Qingyang Gong 青羊觀 in the City of Chengdu.

From Chengdu we continue to Wudangshan 武當山. and we will spend two days there to dive into an ancient Daoist atmosphere and a traditional way of life in a sacred mountain, just like the hermits of Jin dynasty first made their retreats there back in the mist of time. Wudangshan is also the birthplace of Wudang Pai Kungfu, a famous Daoist form of self-cultivation cum martial arts.

After Wudangshan we continue our journey to the City of Wuhan and we will meet Professor Wang Yude, 王玉德, who is an expert in the field of Feng Shui studies and he is the Head of the Historical Research Institute in Huazhong (Central China) Normal University. While in Wuhan, we will visit the Daoist Changchun Guan Temple 長春觀.

After a connecting flight to the City of Taian 太安, we will travel to Mount Taishan 泰山, the most famous of the five sacred mountains of Daoism. We will walk up to the summit and visit monasteries and temples on our way; then we will spend the night on top of the mountain before we descend down the next morning.

After Taishan we will continue to Qufu 曲阜， the birthplace of Confucianism and visit the famous Temple of Confucius 孔廟, which is listed as an item of world cultural heritage.

Our journey continues to the City of Qingdao 青島 and from there onto the sacred mountain of Laoshan 嶗山.

We will spend the last two days of our trip in Beijing and will visit the Confucius Temple 孔廟, the Lama Temple, the Daoistd Monastery Baiyun Guan 白云觀 and Dongyue Miao 東岳廟, two of the largest daoist temples of the city, and get a further glimpse of the rich and vibrant history of Chinese religion and philosophy.

For further details, please visit our ECOFS website:

http://fengshui-college.org/

Wuxing of the Bazhai Wandering Stars

Why do we get different Elements in a Bazhai chart is a question often asked by beginner students learning the Bazhai Mingjing system of Feng Shui. Here is my answer:

If we look at the Bazhai Luoshu Wandering Stars chart posted below, one can see in the Kun trigram/palace, the Luoshu element is Yin Earth, but in the same palace is the wandering star Lu Cun and by changing the lower first Yao lines, it is correlated to the Bazhai wandering star Huo Hai, so when it goes wandering according to the formula laid down in the Da Yunian Ge (Song of the Big Yearly Cycle) – which is another way to represent the outcome of the changing Yao lines, the Huo Hai wandering takes this Yin Earth element with it, so we ended up with a Luoshu element and a wandering star element. This applies to all palaces.

Since in the Bazhai Mingjing system, there is the Zhaigua wandering stars as well as the Minggua wandering stars, so we ended up with 3 sets of elements, one for the Luoshu, one for the “Zhai” (dwelling) and one for the “Ming” (occupant) in any one of the 8 palaces.

But that is not so different to other systems like Xuankong Feixing (XKFX), where in each of the palace, there is the Luoshu element, the Period star element, the facing star element and the sitting star element as well. Like the Bazhai system, all these different elements are generated by the Luoshu as the stars went “flying” in XKFX or in the case of Bazhai they went “wandering”.

When we can understand how a chart is constructed in a Liqi system, then we can see it is no more than a pattern language made of interacting symbols and numbers with their correlations. We can only speak of the accuracy in its construction according to a set of rules, there is no guarantee of accuracy in its interpretations because it is done by an individual.

So when people speak about their experience in the accuracy of a Liqi system, be it Bazhai Mingjing, Yangzhai San Yao, Xuankong Dagua and Xuankong Feixing etc., they are speaking about their ability to use (that is to interpret) a particular system that makes it more “accurate” (or makes more sense), and not really about the system itself.

Feng Shui Plants

One of our clients asked me the other day what are good Feng Shui plants to use indoor and where to put them, since it is a frequently asked question, I have repeated my answers to him below:

Feng Shui plants for the interior can be generally divided into two types, one type is used to hasten good luck and the other is used to fight against bad luck.

In both cases use local species rather than imported ones and for this reason it is better to talk to your local nursery, than to try to import some exotic Chinese varieties.

To hasten good luck, the leaves of the plant should be relatively thick and round rather than thin and pointed, flowering plants are more desirable than non-flowering ones, especially if they have light pink, purple and red flowers (Wood generates Fire); try to avoid white flowers which are often associated with death and funeral . Also evergreens are more desirable than deciduous ones for the in-door situation.

To fight against bad luck the same requirements applied but it also should have some thorns or pointed leaves like the cactus or the “iron tree”. Having white flowers in this case is acceptable since white is Metal and Metal can cut off bad luck. Bonsai trees can also do the same job as trees in miniature size are still tress and they symbolize shelter and protection.

In both cases, try to select an odd number of plants instead of even numbers, so 1 or 3 is more desirable than 2 or 4 plants or pots of plants. Also plants used to fight bad luck should only be used during times when one feels unlucky, most other times, plants used to hasten good luck are more desirable.

Locate both types of plants in the “ju qi” or the so called “wealth corner”, which is normally diagonally opposite the entry door (see sketch below). Try not to locate the plant too deep into the room or in a dark corner, also in the way of traffic flow or too close to a fire place for the obvious reasons.

If one is to have plants indoor, then they need to be kept in good condition and need to be watered regularly to avoid looking dead and dying. A dry and unkempt plant is considered unlucky in Feng Shui.

One needs to be aware that we take advantage of the Feng Shui plants not only on a physical level but in a psychological and symbolic sense as well, hence the special requirements in the selection and location of plants.

"Juqi" corner showed in red.

The Functioning Mechanism of Feng Shui

Most people, including some FS consultants, have no idea how Feng Shui really works in practice, the following is a typical remark about FS “cures” we use, they treated the objects, in this case a calabash, they hang up, can actually do the job of healing or bring in wealth or whatever people desired, not knowing it is really “ganying” at work. Below the given remark from J, I tried to explain how Feng Shui works from my experience:

“As you and I both know, most of the Feng Shui cures are based on psychology. However, I have used a large, naturally grown wu luo in a child’s bedroom and seen them improve in their health – when they didn’t even know or understand about it and therefore it cannot be psychology at work.

I have used the sound of metal and it has worked, I have also used specific colours and they have worked. I have also seen an open fireplace in use on a Mountain Star 5 that has caused disastrous consequences, is this also psychology? I think
not.”

Hi J,

If we can connection the needs and concerns of our clients to the environment and improve the environment at the same time, then it will likely to work whether the symbols came from a shop or home-made. Just because we are not aware of it consciously, it does not mean it is not working on a subconscious level.

“Ganying” (mutual resonance) of the form and the formless is the functioning mechanism behind FS. It is not just psychology (Human Qi), it also involves environmental design (Earth Qi) and the cycles of time (Heaven).

Because the Sancai Qi (Earth, Human and Heaven) is involved, the outcome can never be like a clockwork – the same every time and we cannot attribute the cause to just one thing, it always involve the overlapping of three qi fields at the same time.

A fireplace in the same location can affect different people in different times differently, so the answer is never so simple as looking at a flying star chart and put some cures here and there. The same applied to sickness or the need for security.

Start from the tangible and work towards the intangible and back again, over and over again, somewhere between the Yin and Yang of the three Sancai Qi fields there is our answer.

It is neither a correct nor an accurate answer but an appropriate one to the Sancai Qi of a particular situation because every given situation is unique, so there is no fixed standard for correctness nor accuracy, only a relative appropriateness, and it may changes as soon as the FS is done, for the only constant is change.

As we can see, it takes a lot of skills to be a good FS consultant. Hanging up a gourd, whether it is a brass or an organic one, is only a very very very small part of FS, so please don’t judge the overall effectiveness only on a cure.

Direct and Indirect Spirits

Direct and Indirect Spirit (Zheng-shen and Ling-shen) is a confusing topic for many students of Feng Shui and that is because there are many layers and many ways the terms are interpreted, the classic said,“The real key to understand Ling Shen and Zheng Shen is that water is considered prosperous when it is declining and mountain is considered prosperous when it is timely”,  and it gives a suitable frame of reference for XKFX Indirect and Direct Spirit.

However, we need to be aware that there are three types of Ling Shen and Zheng Shen in the XKFX system:

The first is a fixed pattern based on the Luoshu, so for example in Period 8 the Zheng Shen is in the NE (8 Gen Gua) and in this direction it should have a mountain or be higher or has less activity and to the opposite the SW (2 Kun Gua) is the Ling Shen where it should have water or be lower or has less activity. In a way Ling Shen and Zheng Shen in this fixed pattern is about Yin Yang adding up to 10, so the complementary opposites are working together not only in numbers but in form.

But a fixed pattern without taking into consideration of a built form is contradictory to the working of the Yili principles (the only constant is change), so in XKFX there is also the second non-fixed Ling Shen/Zheng Shen arrangements and we can find them in the Wang Shan and Wang Xiang (Prosperous Mountain and Prosperoud Facing) charts, where the timely mountain star is located at the sitting direction and opposite to it is the timely water star at the facing. In these charts, the timely mountain is the Zheng Shen and the timely facing is the Ling Shen, and the external forms should support the stars likewise as for the fixed patterns, but it changes for each construction period as well as for sitting and facing.

It would be double good if the fixed pattern is support by the non-fixed pattern but what if it is not the case, then a fixed pattern would not have the earth configuration to match the timely stars to make it more desirable and a non-fixed pattern would not have the Luoshu Yin Yang adding up to 10 at the Earth Plate to make the Heaven Plate perfect.

The third type of Ling Shen/Zheng Shen is the Form or Xingshi configuration where the sitting direction should have a mountain and the facing direction should have water to make the Yin and Yang of the physical form come together. If it is not possible, that is if the sitting has water or is lower or more active while the facing has mountain or is higher or less active, then it is not desirable and we will need to modify the form to suit, in the more immediate or the micro-environment.

All these three types of Ling Shen/Zheng Shen work on the idea of balancing the Yin and Yang at the sitting and the facing of a house, in a general and undifferentiated situation (the first type), in a specific and differentiated situation determined by the time of construction and the directionality of the house (the second type) and in the Xingshi (Form and Configuration) of the environment (the third type).

If we can use this as a frame of reference then we can see how the other systems varied from the Xuan Kong Feixing standard, but it is not to say that XKFX is better, but it has a theory to its mechanics and we can use them to compare with others like XKDG, which not only have Ling Shen (also called Zheng Shu 正水) and Zheng Shen but also the Hasten Wealth Water 催財水, the Hasten Officialdom Water 催官水 and the Auspicious Reflected Water 吉照水 as well and on top of this the cycles of time are correlated in a different way (Er Yuan Ba Yun 二元八運 instead of San Yuan Jiu Yun 三元九運). Again, we need to be careful not to mix them up when the theory for correlation is different from one to another, leading to a different mechanics for a different system.

What is even more confusing is another new Xuan Kong system, the XKLF School arrive at their Ling Shen and Zheng Shen with a different interpretation of the classic, below is their rationale for the mechanics.

LF used where the 5 Yellow Large Golden Dragon (Wuhuang Dajinlong 五黃大金龍) is located on the Luoshu as the standard reference point, to work out where the two groups of Ling Shen and Zheng Shen are located, so there is one group or Pian 片 for the Upper Yuan and one group for the Lower Yuan, one group for Yin and one group for Yang, one group for Mountain and one group for Water.

For the current Period 8, 8 is a Yin number so 8 flies reverse and we get the 5 Yellow located at the Later Heaven Gen Palace, which has the Early Heaven Zhen Gua. Those belonged to the same group as Zhen, that is Qian, Kan and Gen (Yang Guas), are correlated to Ling Shen and their opposite Kun, Xun, Li and Dui (Yin Guas) are correlated to Zhen Shen. When we locate them on the Later Heaven Luoshu, we get the location for the Ling Shen and Zheng Shen as mentioned in the previous post.

The Yin Guas are Mountains (Zheng Shen) and the Yang Guas are Water (Ling Shen) because water is active, when viewed from a movement point of view, therefore it is Yang and mountain is passive, therefore it is Yin.

XKFX = Xuankong Feixing (Flying Stars)
XKDG = Xuankong Dagua (Hexgarams)
XKLF = Xuankong Liufa (Six Methods)

A High Court’s View of Feng Shui

Here is another important lesson we can learn from the Nina Wang case coming from the judge’s report as noted in:

http://news.sina.com.hk/cgi-bin/nw/show.cgi/434/3/1/1417106/1.html

<非正規學術> 對於在庭上聽取風水證供，法官一直抱保留態度。他在判詞重申，風水並非正規學術，門派各有不同做法，連同行之間也無基準。

My Translation: “In regard to the Court’s listening to the Feng Shui evidence, the High Court judge (Johnson Lam) has always kept a conservative attitude. In the judgement statement he re-iterated that Feng Shui is not a proper subject of study, each school has its own methods of doing things and there are no basic standards even amongst the practitioners of the same business.”

So what is badly needed is a basic industrial standard and a professional education curriculum for the practice of Feng Shui, otherwise the court and the general public will not take us seriously, but how can we achieve this? That is the million-dollars question and an urgent one, if Feng Shui is to be a legitimate profession free of amateurs and charlatans.

High Court Judge Johnson Lam

A Wake-Up Call for Feng Shui.

“Fung Shui is not a universally accredited discipline being taught in our formal education system. As far as Hong Kong is concerned, any person can run a Fung Shui class or held himself out as a Fung Shui practitioner or master based on his or her own knowledge or understanding of Fung Shui. There is no independent objective assessment (and by the inherent nature of the subject I doubt if there can be such assessment) and thus no quality assurance whatsoever. Against such background, it is rather futile to debate whether a person is a good Fung Shui master or whether a particular Fung Shui theory or practice is sound.”

The above quote is part of the verdict given by the High Court Judge Johnson Lam (courtesy of Joseph Yu’s blog) on the role of the Feng Shui expert witness in the Nina Wang case, in his report Judge Lam gave us a very clear clue of what we, as educators of classical FS, should aim for in the future and that is to make FS an accredited discipline to be taught at the tertiary levels

Acupuncture was not accredited 20 years ago; now one can study it as a Health Sciences degree in an Australian university (that much I know, because I taught FS and Taiji/Qigong at UTS, Sydney, as an elective in the Acupuncture degree). TCM was not accredited up to 10 years ago either, but now the situation has also changed.

Given another 20 years, may be we can do the same for FS and make it one of the degrees that can be offered in the Environmental Studies to be taught at a university or a technical college.

At present Feng Shui is mixed up with all the other Chinese Metaphysics like Bazi Suanming, Face Reading, Palmistry and Yijing divination, etc. which deal more with human potentials than with man’s relationship to the environment. I am of the opinion we should distant Feng Shui from the esoteric practices and restore Feng Shui to its original character and that is a tool examine our relation to nature and how to modify our environment in a harmonious way.

Lee Sang-Hae, in his PhD thesis “Feng Shui: Its Meaning and Context”, 1986 defined Feng Shui as “the canonical sets of ideas of Chinese Architectural Planning. Its theory is based in Chinese natural philosophy and cosmology. It is a mediator relating Chinese ideational systems to the planning of traditional architecture. It is, at the same time, a device for ordering the environment”. All this is worthy of our study.

Instead of complaining about the charlatans, the marketing gimmicks and the superstitious nature of human kind, let us do something pro-active about it.  Otherwise Feng Shui will always remain in the shadow of superstition and continue to be corrupted to a point of ridicule by the public.

I think this court case is a wake-up call for all of us and we should heed its warning before it is too late.

Zhanzhuang

Julius Ebner (http://www.taijidao.de/) took this picture of me doing Zhanzhuang (Standing like a Stake) and did a photomontage for fun, thanks Julius.

Master-Course on the Xuan Kong Bazhai Compass

A 5-Days Intensive Master-Course on The theory and the Practical Use of the Xuan Kong Bazhai Luopan Compass – European College of Feng Shui (ECOFS)

26.02.-01.03.2010 Berlin

With Cai Hong (Howard Choy) and Gyda Anders, Feng Shui Architects of Sydney and Berlin

This five days intensive course will cover the whole of the working of the 12 rings of the Xuan Kong Bazhai Luopan designed by Howard Choy and produced by arqitektur.ac in English and Chinese.

The participants will learn the use of the following Liqi Pai techniques:

1)   “Longmen Baju” or the “Eight Sets of Dragon Gates” also known as the “Early and Later Heaven Water Methods”.

2)   The theory and the use of the Replacement Stars in Xuan Kong Feixing.

3)   The use of the 24 Mountains in Xuan Kong Feixing calculations, with a comprehensive checklist of how to carry ou

4)   Carry out a Flying Stars audit and analysis with the Luopan Compass.

5)   If time allow, we will also looking at the influence of the Exteranl Gua Qi Field on the Internal Gua Qi Field of a Flying Stars chart.

6)   Date selection for construction using the 24 Solar Terms.

7)   The Bazhai Mingjing and the Yangzhai Sanyao Eight Houses Methods with theories and practical applications.

8)   The theory and the use of the Xuan Kong Da Gua system, including how to obtain the “One Pure Gua”,  “Mutually Generating” and “Adding Up to 10” arrangements.

9)   If time allow, Xuan Kong Da Gua Date Selection.

You will have a chance to purchase the hand made Luopan by Thomson House in Hong Kong at a reduce price of Euro 200.00 (Normal price Euro 240.00), signed by the designer. Full teaching notes in English will be provided.

This workshop is suitable for students with some knowledge of Feng Shui fundamentals, but since we will cover four Feng Shui systems and one to two date selection methods; your serious commitment to study is required. The workshop will be contacted in English with translation. Extra personal tutorials and discussions are available if required.

By the end of the workshop you can use a Luopan compass fully with all the rings at your fingertips.

Howard and Gyda are Feng Shui architects and teacher with more 50 years of experience between at the coalface of Feng Shui education and practices, our emphasis is on the practical use of Feng Shui to help you become a more knowledgeable practitioner.

The course will be taught in German and English. For further inquiries: info@fengshuicollege.de

Advance Training – Munich, 19-22 March 2010