Guest Author - Michelle Lee
The elementary feng shui and its practices can be traced back thousands of years in China. Feng shui is an intricate part of the art of living and the science of nature to the Chinese people.
Today, there are inexhaustible volumes of literature on this complex subject. In conventional Chinese societies, everybody has a feng shui tip or two to share, some are common, others, not too widely used. But as Lao-Tzu said, “the journey of a thousand miles begins from a single step”. In this article, we will explore the roots of this magical science.
In the modern times, the word “feng shui” immediately brings to mind exotic looking objects displayed around the home or office, intended by the occupant to bring prosperity, abundance, health, love and fulfilment of other desires.
The concept of placing auspicious objects with certain attributes, at specific location, to evoke certain energy that aids the fulfilment of desires is not unlike the use of “charms” in witchcraft. The only difference is that, witchcraft is not an accepted practice in the West, while “feng shui” is revered and commonly practiced by the general mass in the East.
“Feng” literally means “energetic wind” and “shui” means, “water”. The transliteral meaning of “feng shui” is ‘the energetic blueprint of forces that lead to myriad manifestations in the physical world’.
Since the ancient times, the Chinese people have sought to live in harmony and balance with the forces of nature or all that is. For this is considered to be the ultimate and supreme way of life. In pursuing this ideal, a section of population of the ancient Chinese have dedicated their lives and the lives of many succeeding generations to carefully observe, record and study their surroundings.
They noted the movements of all manifested forms and their energetic course, including the pattern of weather, the directions of the wind, the rhythm of rivers and seas, the movements of planets, the sun and other stars as well as the behaviours of plants, animals and humans.
Emerged from these observations, were the understanding of the dynamic relationships between all animate and inanimate objects. The ancient Chinese realised that everything manifested in this universe is really the interplay of energies. The interactions between the different energies create forces, and these forces always follow a certain rhythms and course of actions, which then affect the life forms in their corresponding vicinity.
Consequently, the Chinese believe that to live in harmony and balance, we as human, need to constantly observe and honour the flow of energies.
In its more primitive form, feng shui a practical science of living applied to architecture. For example, in the eyes of a feng shui master, the ideal structure of a house should always resemble a square. The front door and back door should be in-line with each other, the former facing south and the latter facing north. This structure will allow ideal air circulation throughout the house yet prevent the glaring sunrays from either sunset or sunrise.
Some ancient texts have suggested that feng shui was really geomancy, a ritualistic science used at burials to obtain “ghost blessings”, practiced with the intention of bringing prosperity to subsequent generations. This supernatural aspect of feng shui has never made its way to the West. In the East, it has been receiving cold-shoulders from younger generations that favours Western belief systems.
As the knowledge of feng shui evolves over centuries, it is influenced by other Chinese belief systems such as Daoism and Buddhism, turning the subject into a multifarious and highly sophisticated body of science. But as complex as it is, whether in its ancient or modern form, practical or supernatural aspect, feng shui remains at its core, an art of living a harmonious and balance life with ‘all that is’.
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