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What is traditional feng shui? How does actual feng shui differ from the rest? Everything nowadays seems to revolve around feng shui - from key rings to rituals to obscure Chinese art work. If you have a Buddha drawn or something written in Chinese does it mean that it is feng shui and is lucky? Are we so naive to believe that luck is a commodity that can be bought at a cigarette shop for five bucks?
As a feng shui consultant people ask me all kinds of questions all the time. It was on such an occasion after I had recommended the changes and the audit was drawing to a close that my new client asked me if she would have to burn incense sticks and write for 49 days. Incense sticks and writing for 49 days??? I obviously thought she wasn't serious! I had not read about it anywhere and I considered myself pretty well read (though limited to the true form of feng shui only). I told her it was not required and that was not what I practiced. The lady didn't pursue the subject.
After two weeks when things were improving for her, she gave me a call to inform me of her progress: It was then that she inquired about the ritual prescribed to her by her previous consultant. I had forgotten about the ritual that she had told me but this time I asked her to explain it in detail. Her previous consultant had prescribed her a daily ritual of writing her wishes for 49 times and signing it 49 times and to continue this for 49 days. She was also asked to burn incense sticks while writing the wishes. My next question was if after having performed the ritual it improved anything? She said no.
My client was obviously confused. Burning incense sticks and the 49 day ritual was sold to her as feng shui and here I was making different suggestions and doing away with incense sticks, even I was calling it feng shui.
Many face this dilemma. Today I will try draw a clear line of distinction as to what is feng shui is and is not? I will probably never stop drawing this thin red line and I will never tire explaining the truth to people.
Burning incense sticks and writing 49 times for 49 days can offer a person some form of psychological relief. But that is not true feng shui. Everything Chinese is not feng shui. Chinese cuisine for instance is definitely not feng shui.
Frogs, ducks, cats, dogs, horses, amphibians, incense sticks, Chinese art, Buddha's, key rings, crystals, and rituals cannot be called feng shui. Feng shui is not an object oriented art where you can buy from a shopping mall, decorate your house and voila your house is feng shuied!!! If it were so, then why do we have so many ancient texts and why do people like me devote years of study to acquire the knowledge. I might as well just visit the next door shopping mall, where a shop attendant (whose knowledge of feng shui will not be greater than a common ground squirrel) will offer me good advice on keeping turtles, horses and other objects on sale, to transform my house into a Chinese museum or a porcelain menagerie.
So many have asked and written mails to me, telling me how they have spent thousands on these figurines or how they had read a book and tried to change things and everything started going wrong? All I have to say is that feng shui is not a coffee table reading material - first check the authors credentials, a fifty rupees ($1) book can at the most inform you about the basics of feng shui. It doesn't matter if the person advising you on feng shui has authored 1000 books or is the master of the grandmasters (fancy titles are simply to blind people into believing anything). Ask and look for logic. What is the logic behind placing figurines of horses, cats or any other figurines you can think of? Just don't do things blindly. Feng shui is not a commodity you can pick up in the supermarket neither can the entire subject be written in one book (which author will give out all the formulae for 100 bucks.... in this materialistic world is there anybody who would do that?). Think.
Probably I should also add a small warning that fooling around with feng shui is like letting an infant play with unstable chemicals, it just might blow up in your face and you will be left wondering as to what went wrong. As the saying goes little knowledge is dangerous especially when you have no idea how to properly utilize, apply and control that knowledge. If you are truly interested in authentic feng shui and not some balderdash then find an authentic consultant in your area, if you look hard you will find one (here also steer clear of anyone prescribing animals, amphibians and the likes).
Feng shui is and always will be an age old science based on the movement of qi in and around your house or property. Ancient masters have developed formulae for several purposes including health, wealth, education and relationship. Any competent consultant will be able to tell you your problems just by looking at your house. None of the ancient texts on feng shui (at least the ones I have read) contain anything on rituals, figurines and jewelry. Actual feng shui formulae are based on logic. Infact I myself have written about two such formulae in the last issue (Yin yang and mathematics of Ba Zhai) and this issue (Yin yang and mathematics of five friends) .
It saddens me when I see people tarnishing the name of feng shui. Actual feng shui is different and the fruits of actual feng shui are different as well, ones who have tried it know the fruits well. Sometimes the outcome of authentic feng shui can seem magical or spiritual but one has to remember that the formulae are all based on logic. Simple logic.
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