Understanding Feng Shui
For centuries, the Chinese have attributed
the well-being of families to the intangible forces that surround
their homes. They refer to this as 'feng shui', literally translated
as "wind and water". The success and happiness of families
were believed to result from living in homes that had good feng shui
or a balanced environment, while a lack of descendants and other
misfortunes were ascribed to harmful feng shui. Auspicious feng shui
requires the family home to be built and arranged according to
favorable orientations, so that the home and its residents benefit
from the positive energies of the environment. These energies are
invisible and intangible, but they exert powerful influences.
The Cosmic Breath
Feng
shui describes these energies as a kind of life force, termed
'chi', or the cosmic breath. Chi can be beneficial and
auspicious, bringing material benefits and great good fortune,
in which case it is called 'sheng chi'. It can also be harmful and
injurious. This killing breath, termed 'shar chi', brings huge
misfortune, sickness, loss, and immense bad luck. Sometimes it
even brings death. Feng shui teaches us how to attract the good
'sheng chi' and avoid the bad 'shar chi'.
Harnessing 'sheng chi' involves placing
objects, arranging furniture, and orienting homes and offices
according to feng shui guidelines. Protecting the home from 'shar
chi' entails diagnosing furniture arrangements and orientations
that are harmful. It requires rearrangement of doors and
furniture to deflect this killing breath or the use of special
feng shui cures that cause the killing breath to be dissolved.
Feng shui is neither magical nor
spiritual. There are diverse components of superstition and
symbolism in the practice, but this is because feng shui is a
very old science whose origins go back at least 3000 years. The
theoretical foundation of feng shui is based on the Chinese view
of the universe. Much of this was documented in ancient texts,
but a great deal more has come down the centuries by word of
mouth, passed from father to son. This has given the practice
heavy superstitious overtones that have sometimes become
confused with traditional and spiritual practices. This was
mainly due to feng shui's observed potency in improving the
material well-being of those who followed its guidelines.
Feng shui addresses almost the entire
spectrum of human aspiration. The practice operates at various
levels. It can be highly personalized when practiced according
to specific compass school formulas, or it can be broad based
and generalized. There are different schools of practice
resulting from variations in the interpretation of ancient texts
and by the differences in dialect in feng shui source books or
materials.
Most of the method used are based on both
the form and the compass school. The former method involves
interpretation of the terrain, contours, shapes, topography,
elevation, rivers, and waterways, while compass feng shui offers
recommendations in terms of compass directions. Neither method
is more or less important than the others and usually a
combination of methods is used to create the best results. It is
never possible to get everything right with feng shui and it is
impossible to follow every recommendation that might be
suggested. As long as you can implement about 60% of
recommendations, your feng shui can be said to be good.
