6: Is Feng Shui a Science?
People often ask: Is Feng Shui a science? How should it be classified? The correct answer is that Feng Shui is a philosophy, science, and art.
5: Yin Yang Balance and Resonance
In the previous posting (number 4), we mentioned that, in Yin-Yang theory, a combination of Yin and Yang create harmony, while a combination of Yang and Yang, or Yin and Yin, create resonance, which means empowerment.
4: Can the Tao be spoken?
The fifth chapter of the Xi Ci (or Da Zhuan) commentary on the Book of Changes contains a saying, “One Yin and one Yang make the Tao. People use it daily, but do not know it.” Over the centuries, many scholars have tried to explain this saying, but their explanations have been too abstract for most people to understand.
3: Feng Shui and Natural Law
To talk about Feng Shui, we have to talk about natural law, since it is one of the two pillars of Feng Shui.
2: Feng Shui is Design for the Living Environment
When we talk about “designing our environment”, the term “environment” can refer to different scales. It can refer to a city, a neighborhood, a building, or even a room, or the furnishings or decorations within a room.
We often think of Feng Shui in terms of the environment, what is outside and around us. Even though we may be aware that Feng Shui applies to every level of manifestation, from the smallest to the largest, it is still easy to miss a very important application that is very close to home, each and every person.
Herman Miller invented the cubicle in 1956, with the idea of creating more privacy and helping to reduce distraction and increase concentration. Since then, the cubicle has become a standard feature of modern office design in the American workplace.
Offices designed using this modular unit, often called mouse mazes or cube farms, have become the symbol of human conditioning, and of the reduction of individuality to uniformity and blandness.
The purpose of Feng Shui is to create a good living environment for all living beings. The “environment” in Feng Shui concepts exists in all scales; the planet, continent, region, city, neighborhood, house, room, and down to a favorite chair.
It is important to realize that our body and mind co-exist.On a more fundamental scale, our body is the “living environment” of our mind, and our mind is the “living environment” of our body. By taking care of our physical health, we provide a good living environment for our mind. Therefore, a sound and tranquil mind, provides a good environment for our body. This is the very first Feng Shui concept we need to concentrate on. Good Feng Shui design for harmonious living begins with our bodies and minds.
A house with good feng shui means it has good energy. A house with good energy will support you in all aspects of your life—health, good relationships, prosperity and success in your work or career. A good measurement of whether your house has good feng shui or not, is to look at the true reality of your daily life. If you have been living in the house for a period of time, and everything in your life is going well, then you must have a good feng shui house. If on the other hand, after moving in the house, things start to go bad, either in health, relationships or business, you may want to look into a feng shui issue.
On May 7th, I posted a blog about the ancient Trypillian culture (dated back 7500 years ago) along the Dnipro River in Kiev, Ukraine. I mentioned that most of the ancient villages were located on the right-hand side of the river, facing downstream. We find this consistent in the traditional feng shui concept, recognizing that land on the right-hand side was more auspicious. But why it this so? I have challenged students to come up with an explanation and have been waiting for the correct answer. However, it may be time to provide the explanation:
From the city’s point of view, which is the energy spot, the left-hand side is the yang side or the blue dragon guardian, while the right-hand side, also known as the white tiger guardian, is the yin side. The yang side is more dynamic while the yin side is more static. Since the river is more dynamic than land, ideally you want to have the river on the left-hand side of your village. Therefore, it is natural that the village is on the right-hand side of the river. Ancient people were intuitively following the natural principles, the feng shui principle, thus they chose to settle on the more auspicious right-hand side of the river. This holds true for both the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere. If you check the big cities around the world which sit along a large river, you will find the majority of cities are on the right-hand side of the river.
