Prescribing cure blindly

Chinese Metaphysics consist of many individual fields which can be classified into broad categories of Astrology, Feng Shui, Divination and Strategy. One of the common misconceptions is that these are stand-alone fields and that practicing one does not require knowledge and streamlining with other fields of knowledge. In addition, many held the belief that Astrology subjects like Ba Zi (4 Pillars) and Zi Wei Dou Shu (ZWDS) are merely tools to foretell our fixed-capacity destiny and fortune and Feng Shui solely holds the key to betterment of one’s outcome and luck.

In actual fact, destiny is not entirely fixed.  If destiny is entirely fixed, what is the use of consulting a doctor or surgeon for one’s illness? Geomancy tools are effective only up to the extent it complements one’s destiny and the key to betterment of one’s outcome and luck lies in using holistically using Geomancy, Divination and Strategy to support one’s destiny.   A simple way to view this is to look at human as the object and Feng Shui, Divination and Strategy as the tool. Astrology is tool to decipher human’s well-being and hence takes precedence over Feng Shui, Divination and Strategy in the scheme towards improvement of one’s outcome.
 
Providing Feng Shui solution to client without considering their Ba Zi & Zi Wei Dou Shu charts is like a doctor prescribing medicine to patient without his own diagnosis. A Geomancer prescribing Feng Shui tools to improve wealth for his client upon request is like a doctor who prescribes aspirin to his patients because he relied on his patient to tell him the symptom of headache but did not investigate or is incapable of investigating if the headache is a symptom to other underlying illness.
 
It may cure the symptoms in the short run but problems may surface in the long term. For example, clients usually engage a Geomancer to improve their wealth. If this consultant did not consider the ramifications of the client’s birth data, he may hasten the windfall his client had asked, but in the long term this client may lose his health or life. Or he may get the career advancements he asked for but end up losing his wife to divorce. The various aspects of one’s life are intricately linked and you seldom can improve one aspect without losing out on other aspects. Destiny is also a zero-sum game.

How important are knowledge of 4 Pillars and ZWDS towards the execution of Geomancy?  Stay tuned for the answer in my next article.

One of the most common type of question I get as a Fengshui, Bazi and Zi Wei Dou Shu (ZWDS) practitioner is that asking which type of career or occupation suits them.  Indeed the Chinese Astrology Art of ZWDS and Bazi is able to accurately determine the type of career that suits a person most because it can tell us a person’s character, ability, interests and luck.

However, I have observed that there are very few Bazi practitioners that are able to accurately advise their clients what is a really suitable profession for them.  How did such an accurate astrological tool end up to such a sorry state?  The root of the problem stems from these Bazi practitioners failing to understand the context for which the rules of this ancient art were set up.

Ancient China Bazi practitioners classified all jobs within 5 categories of elements consisting of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water by matching the key traits of jobs to metaphysical elemental properties of these 5 elements.  During such medieval times, they had at most 72 types of job which can further be grouped into 5 main types comprising of businessman, farmer, fisherman, government officials and academics.  Hence, classifying each occupation under 1 of the 5 elements is straightforward then.

They will proceed to read the Bazi charts of their client and determine their favorable elements.  Finally, they will advice these clients to take up a job listed in the category of their favorable element.  Note also the pace of life folks living in ancient China is relaxed and the mindset then is not so much about making big bucks but more about leading a not so hectic life.

Unfortunately most of these Bazi practitioners are copying such ancient Bazi practices lock, stock and barrel without much understanding the context and modifying it to suit modern society’s lifestyle and mindset as well as the much more complex range of occupations.  In Bazi, favorable elements are usually the element that we are in shortage of because the general principle of favorable elements is to balance out the elemental unevenness in one’s Bazi chart.

If one’s favorable element is one that this person’s Bazi chart has shortage of, suffice to say, he will be weaker in the qualities for which that particular element represents.  For example, metal represents perseverance and a person who has metal as his favorable element generally can be said to score lower in terms of perseverance.  As such, how can a person who lacks perseverance do well in a job that is the epitome of perseverance?

Why did ancient Bazi practitioners advocate client to take up an occupation one is weak in?  That is partly because in ancient China, the pace of life is much slower and hence it was more important then to lead a sedentary lifestyle which can only be brought about by using one’s occupation to balance out one’s Bazi deficiency.  In modern society, the emphasis has changed to excelling in one’s occupation even if this means a poorer quality of life brought about by hectic work schedule.

The other issue that makes such a method of advising occupation based on favorable elements’ industry inaccurate is because jobs have evolved in complexity and variety that makes it difficult to classify them exclusively into either one of the 5 elements anymore.  For example engineering is classified as wood but electronics and mechanical stuff are classified as fire and metal respectively.  So what then is the elemental classification of electronic engineering and mechanical engineering?

As such, I hope Bazi practitioners and believers alike will assiduously consider the context and relevance when practicing and following this art that has evolved from ancient times.  I will write an article on my method of deciding the favorable occupation based on a person’s birth data soon.  Stay tuned.

In my previous post on how buddhism win the hearts of the chinese part-1, we discussed about the reason why Buddhism was not accepted by the Chinese society. One interesting denial of Buddhism came from the Confucians as they argued that Buddhism drained the people of their all too inadequate funds and made them crave for what they are not destined to have, and that it undermined the social order by destroying families through monastic celibacy. They also reason that Buddhism undermined the state by wothdrawing monks and nuns from productive economic life (exemption from tax) as well as military conscription.

Conflict between the state and religion was an issue early in Chinese history but in the late Han dynasty, governments became so weak that Buddhists found it easy to maintain the independence of their monks from the earthy authority. However, it was not until the six dynasties period (epoch after the fall of later Han dynasty) that Buddhism came to establish its foothold in China. During this period, foreign powers and influences Chinese civilisation as invaders overran North China.

 North China, the heartland of the Chinese empire, was completely overrun by the ‘barbarians’ from outside China. South China, been incapable of restoring imperial unity, could not resist the entry of foreign religion and philosophy into China. This was also the period whereby Buddhism became widespread as the foreigner rulers were less resistance to Buddhism. (as a variant of Taoism since it has a magical appeal to the barbarian rulers)

The whole epoch from the 4th to 9th century is called the’ Buddhist age of both Chinese and Asian history. It was this period of time whereby Buddhism was embraced by the whole of Asian continent(except Siberia and West Asia). The Barbaric invasion of Chinese Empire is similar to what the Rome Empire experienced when they became completely destroyed. What is different is that the Chinese Empire managed to recover from the setback . We will leave this topic to another day.

Thanks to all who have taken an interest in the discussion of this topic on the forum. Feel free to continue with our dicsussion as I would like to hear feedback from other history and Culture lovers. Click Here to discuss

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 The above are typical lines taken off the websites and other advertising medium of certain famous Feng Shui masters.  While it is understandable to exaggerate service and products levels with advertising puffs, this one takes the cakes too far as paints a misleading picture that Fengshui is all about secret formulas that are only passed exclusively through appointed successors and descendants.  Such an advertising gimmick leads the layman to think that Feng Shui is mystical and un-learnable by most people. I have the benefit to come across the blog of the widely respected Feng Shui Master Joseph Yu on this matter.  I would like to thank him for his thoughts on this matter.  Excerpted from his blog are the following paragraphs in bold:

“I have Feng Shui practitioners today claim to be the xxx generation disciple of Yang Jun Song or even Guo Po, Huang Shi Gong, … They are proud of peeping under the trousers of these great Feng Shui masters in history. This is how the lineage game is played.

How did Newton learn from Descartes? The answer is simple: from his written work.If we want to see more, we have to stand on the shoulders of Giants and not hiding under the legs of Giants and claim to be closely related to the Giants. How? The answer is simple: learn from the books written by the great people in history.

The “lineage holders” will say, “You can’t learn Feng Shui from books. The masters in the past wrote the books in cryptic language and only the lineage holders can understand the secret. This is because the masters did not want the powerful Feng Shui technique to be in the wrong hands.”

How much damage can Feng Shui do if it falls in the wrong hands? Can it be worse than using the knowledge of science and technology to create modern weapons that can kill millions?There is a Chinese proverb: Stop eating because of hiccups that describes this stupid excuse.

I hope Chinese Metaphysics and Feng Shui believers will wise up and not be taken in by such irresponsible advertising claims.  Feng Shui is not that mystical nor secretive.  Greater are those Feng Shui Masters that are receptive to different practices of different Feng Shui schools and yet have the clarity of mind to discern and pick up the crème de la crème of different schools’ practices.  Poorer are the Feng Shui practitioners who need to cloud their lineage in a veil of secrecy and exclusivity to scare, confuse and con their customers.  It is by no coincidence that in my review of Feng Shui audit cases of customers who had suffered terribly, they had their Feng Shui audit done previously by Feng Shui Masters that proliferated this type of advertising puffs.

Geng metal is a symbol of toughness and strength and hence, it is often associated with the image of swords or mineral ore. Hence, Geng daymaster are people who are observant, direct and very determined. They will never admit defeat easily without giving a good fight! Hence, in order to win, they will always give their best and does not believe in wasting time.

This might not always be a good thing because Geng people can be prone to carelessness since they often charge into matter without giving a good thought and therefore might get themselves into trouble.As knives and swords tend to be sharp and have destructive nature, Geng daymaster are oftn people who very direct and have no qualm about talking out loud and been direct in their critism of others.

Yet, despite all the flaws of a Geng daymaster, they are extremely loyal to friends and will stand up to injustice. In this modern day, we can say that Geng daymasters are people with  unique characteristic and personality!

Having

We look forward to seeing you!

Zi Wei Dou Shu is very useful in its prediction of luck in lottery, offspring, romance, career and many other aspects. It is by far the most practical astrological technique & hence very useful for the modern person…

Back to our topic on daymasters. Bing fire daymaster, which is associated with the Sun, is easy going, straight forward and passionate people. Like a blazing sun, they do not like to dwell on insignificant or petty things and prefers to spend their energy taking care of people around them!

Bing daymasters tend to be abit proud and like to attract attention. They are sociable and fun loving people. The best thing of all is they are magnanimous! Hence, although they may be impulsive at times and blow things out of proportion, you can expect them to have relatively short temper.

Bing daymasters are charged with energy of the sun and demonstrate enthusiasm in their daily activities. Believe me, you will never feel tired working with a Bing daymaster!

What is Fengshui? Fengshui is an art of Chinese Metaphysics that seeks to identifies and seeks to harness the energies of the universe to improve the outcome to individuals.  Fengshui is thought of by non-believers as superstitions while by believers as a tool to improve luck. While there more accurate but technical definitions of Fengshui, it can fit loosely into the layman description of a tool to improve luck.

Many people had the mistaken impression that luck is random and it is futile to use Fengshui to tap on “good luck”. In actual fact, there are 2 types of luck, one of which is strategic, while the other type is random.  Fengshui is designed to tap on the strategic aspects of luck we normally termed as “Opportunities” and “Performance” rather than other type of luck that is random in nature. Using the simple analogy of a soccer player, Fengshui seeks to improve his ability to create more shooting chances and his rate of successful conversion of opportunities.

How does Fengshui achieve this objective? It seeks to deliver the environment that is most suitable to one’s talents and endeavours. So what are the characteristics of such environment that are in line with Fengshui considerations? Essentially some of the characteristics of good Fengshui like peaceful, good air quality, clean environment, conducive temperature, lighting are apparent to all. They all bring about a great living environment that will bring benefits to its occupants which ultimately translates to better personal performance in their endeavors.

Besides these apparent characteristics of the physical environment, there are other aspects of Fengshui considerations, both physical and non-physical that are less apparent. The less apparent physical consideration would be how the landforms around the house we lived in are shaped and situated. The less apparent non-physical considerations would be governed by the Fengshui formulas. 

Note that physical landforms have the same Fengshui impact on different people. An electric pylon will exert the same effect on the people living at the same house or units of a block facing it. However, the outcome on the different people is not the same and can be attributed to an individual’s astrological influence at birth. The Fengshui formulas determine who are affected by the physical landform as well as which are the type of Fengshui energies suitable to each individual and how the house will help him in harnessing the suitable type of energies for his type of endeavors.

So is Fengshui a superstition? No, unless we were to say the same of the soccer player who trains himself to create more shooting chances and higher rate of conversions. Another big no if we consider Fengshui also abhors noise, air, visual and other forms of pollution like science and common sense do.

Do you know how Buddhism gain entry into China? Afterall, we all know that Buddhism originated in India and that Confucian and Taoism were seen as the major philosophical traditions in China then.

Buddhism did not win favor and flourish in china without opposition as many aspects of Buddhist teachings were at odds with the evolved nature of Chinese. Buddhism pessimism about the worldly life conflicted with Chinese familism and views about social harmony.

One of the more bizarre aspects of Buddhist history in China is the long controversy that raged between Buddhists and Taoists over the birth time of Buddha(Buddhism founder) and Lao-Tzu (Taoist founder). In India, little attention was paid to historical recording and hence, the life of Buddha was mostly guesswork. Even whether a person named Lao-Tzu ever existed was full of suspicion. Both camps responded to each others’ attacks by reassigning the birth date of their founders to even earlier dates. (Wonder if they took account of the structure of the bazi lol)

Confucians were more rational of their criticisms of Buddhism. They were against the Indian notion of karma which has invalidated by the Chinese doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven. (See the influence of Indian culture on the Chinese? We use the term karma quite often today!)

So how did Buddhism fights its way to the heart of the Chinese? I shall continue the story in my next post….

Discuss with us why u think Buddhism managed to gain popularity in China.

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