Article: "The Myth Behind FengShui Lineage" by Joey Yap

The Myth Behind Lineage ... Feng Shui

[FENG SHUI WITH JOEY YAP : TheSTAR Sun 26 Feb 2006]

WITH a booming demand for classical feng shui services and knowledge all over the world, the business of feng shui is becoming more and more competitive. Naturally, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the main source of much of today’s knowledge in classical feng shui, is where the battle to attract students and clients is most intense.

Subtle marketing is a thing of the past – these days, it is a no-holds barred approach to getting clients and pupils. The latest strategy unleashed in the marketplace, to attract clients and students, is the lineage card.

Stuff of kung fu movies The concept of a lineage was popularised not so much by feng shui masters but by Chinese kung fu movies. It’s a familiar scene: the dying master usually calls forth his most loyal or talented pupil and in a shabby hut, mossy cave or dark dank valley, hands over a blue-cover book or withered scroll containing “the great secret” of techniques, or teachings. After a few muttered cryptic lines that are key to deciphering “the great secret”, the old master dies.

All these movies are set about 400 years in the past, when being a student meant you were a disciple who would follow your sifu around for half your life and do lots of chores for him with the hope of being taught on the job. Today, the concept of “indoor disciples” is rare. Feng shui education, like any other form of education, is about paying fees and attending lectures!

And those blue-cover books containing “the great secret” are freely available at the corner Chinese bookstore. As for the cryptic lines that are the key to deciphering “the great secret”, most reputable masters who teach and practise are quite happy to “reveal all” to paying students.

Feng Shui genealogy

Feng shui does have its own lineages. Some are extensive and can be traced back quite accurately to the Qing, even Ming Dynasties. So, it is always more impressive to belong to a reputable feng shui lineage, especially since this is perceived to add creditability and pedigree to the master’s knowledge and skills.

What constitutes a lineage? If a feng shui practitioner really is of a particular lineage, he/she should be able to trace his/her roots of knowledge back to the original Ming or Qing Dynasty. Simply being able to name one or two teachers is not what is traditionally considered as having an authentic feng shui lineage. Lineage holders are also usually tied to certain feng shui classics. For example, students of the Wu Chang school of feng shui possess references to the original classical texts written by Great Grand Masters – Shen Zhu Reng and the lineage founder Zhang Zhong Shan.

Some feng shui practitioners today claim 40 to 50 years of experience constitutes a lineage. A proper system of lineage goes back a few hundred years and not only do the lineage carriers document all their cases, they also make it a point to document what works and what doesn’t in practising their system. In the present environment where anyone may claim to be a lineage holder, it is important to verify these claims.

Attending a class or a course with a feng shui school does not make you a lineage holder either. In today’s environment of study and teaching, it is more likely that you paid a fair fee to undertake a feng shui course with a feng shui practitioner or master. Like any university or college you may have attended, you are a student of that school. You do not gain a lineage by attending a particular class; you merely receive certification or accreditation for having taken the course. A clear distinction must be made between the lineage concept and that of studying with a particular school or feng shui master.

Does lineage translate to superior skills?

As Deng Xiao Peng once said, it doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.

Lineage today is partly a romanticised concept, but mostly, it’s a marketing tool that is often used a bit too loosely to gain some commercial advantage. Though it may be reassuring to know that a feng shui practitioner is from a certain reputable lineage, it is often very difficult for a lay person to establish if the lineage is real or not. This is why using lineage as a basis for determining the pedigree, qualifications and indeed, expertise and experience of the feng shui master or consultant, is dangerous.

While official titles, such as a Datukship, can be easily verified, feng shui lineages cannot be confirmed by a Google search or making a phone call to an official department. You have to be tenacious, very persistent and know where to look before you can verify a lineage.

Furthermore, clients or prospective students are not likely to suspect or question the origins of a lineage or even the lineage itself, if the practitioner states having decades of experience by virtue of his age and if the practitioner looks the part of an old sifu – you know, white hair, Chinese collar and full of “I’ve eaten more salt than you’ve eaten rice” exclamations of wisdom.

It can also be extremely convincing when a practitioner claims to be the sole recipient of a potent secret technique or formula handed down through the generations that no one else has but him, contained in, you guessed it, an old dog-eared papyrus paper blue-cover book!

It is best not to accept at face value a feng shui practitioner’s claim to be of a certain lineage – ask him or her, politely and respectfully, the roots of his or her lineage. Who are their teachers? Who taught their teachers? Do they have their lineage tree? If you intend to pay for pedigree, then you should make sure that you are getting a pedigree. Researching and establishing a master’s pedigree is important if you intend to learn from the person based on his or her claim of lineage, or if you are paying a premium for their services purely and solely on this basis.

Assuming that your feng shui consultant or master is an authentic lineage holder, is he better or superior to consultants who are not lineage holders? Lineage should be regarded in the same way as a person’s university qualifications. Someone with a degree from Harvard University may not necessarily be any better on the job than a person from a non-Ivy League institution. The school simply is a testament to the quality of knowledge they have received. It does not affirm the person’s ability to make use of that knowledge on the job. Similarly, lineage testifies to the quality of the knowledge, but not the quality of the consultant.

If you are hiring a consultant, it is more relevant to ascertain what systems of feng shui he/she practises and how well he/she knows those systems. In practice, feng shui consultants cannot afford to be pigeonholed by lineage or techniques. Feng shui consultants provide a service: they trouble-shoot for clients, solve their problems and help them achieve their goals. To rely on one method alone to achieve this is simply not practical or feasible any more.

A good practitioner is one who can integrate different systems, different schools and different practices in his work without conflict. The decisive factor is whether or not the feng shui skills of the master work, whether his feng shui knowledge is sound, authentic (based on classical texts), practical, useful, effective and beneficial to the clients. Lineage means nothing if the practitioner himself is not good enough.

Clan mentality – a barrier to knowledge

LINEAGE can also be a barrier to knowledge or an obstacle to learning. The devotion and single-minded focus on only the texts of that one particular lineage can sometimes lead to a dogmatic approach and ignorance of the effective techniques and theories of other schools of feng shui.

For example, in the olden days there was much debate over whether the San He or the San Yuan school of feng shui produced more measurable results. This resulted in both schools missing the obvious point – why not apply the theories from each other’s school and achieve even more exceptional results?

Devotion to lineage and fixation with the supremacy of their own theories lead to a lack of development in looking for methods to combine the theories effectively.

In today’s learning environment, a lineage approach can prove to be a limitation in truly gaining effective knowledge in feng shui. Yes, it may be reassuring to learn from an authentic lineage holder in that it is a testament to the quality of the knowledge you receive.

From a knowledge point of view, however, it can be limiting and restrictive. How can there be growth and development in any science, if the dogmatic approach is maintained?

Indeed, how can we know if one theory or approach is superior to another if we know nothing about the opposing theory?

The concept of lineage may not be applicable any more in today’s teaching and learning atmosphere.

The more effective practitioners and teachers are those who can integrate multiple schools or systems of feng shui, bazi and other Chinese metaphysical studies into their practice.

Like all things, a true professional has to approach feng shui in a pragmatic, practical manner. There is a place for tradition and for things like lineage but it is not the be all and end all when it comes to feng shui.

For more information about Life Gua, visit www.joeyyap.com where you can make use of the Life Gua Calculator there.

Joey Yap is the founder, CEO and master trainer of the Mastery Academy of Chinese Metaphysics. Call 2284-8080 or visit www.masteryacademy.com

ps. original story at:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/2/26/focus/13489927&sec=focus

Article: "Feng Shui - It's A Science, Not A Religion" by Joey Yap

It's A Science, Not A Religion ... Feng Shui

[FENG SHUI WITH JOEY YAP : TheSTAR Sun 19 Feb 2006]

THIS may come as a surprise to many people, but feng shui actually has absolutely nothing to do with religion nor does it have any religious components to it.

It is important to talk about these misconceptions because many people have reservations or are negative about feng shui because they perceive it to carry some religious connotations.

Firstly, there are people who see feng shui as a cult practice, as it seems to involve being part of a following and having to “believe” or have faith in order for it to work.

For many people, this concept of feng shui suggests the need to change one’s faith or accept another faith. Thus, feng shui and their personal faith are not reconcilable.

Secondly, there are people who see feng shui as paganistic. As a result of excessive commercialism, feng shui has been perceived as a practice that requires “worshipping” wealth objects, placing items around one’s home and placing one’s faith entirely in an item to resolve one’s problems in life, or bring luck in life.

Of course, this is not reconcilable with a person’s personal faith, especially if those objects are seemingly derived from a specific religion like Buddhism or Taoism or involve using symbols from these religions.

For those who are non-religious, this implies the need to insert some religious overtones into their life, which they do not find acceptable.

Thirdly, there are people who have a profound discomfort with something that is ritualistic in nature. Therefore, the perception of feng shui as something that involves chanting, doing love rituals, love chants or using mirrors to reflect energies off a person or object is a big turn off to many level-headed, practical people.

The truth is, Classical Feng Shui is none of the above.

HOW FENG SHUI BECAME 'RELIGION'

How, then, did religious overtones creep into feng shui? Like all classical sciences, it has suffered from a case of “lost in translation”. The rush to popularise feng shui has led to some creative interpretation, to say the least.

A good example of how a non-religious science has become “corrupted” into a religious, cultish and paganistic practice can be seen in the innocuous BaGua mirror.

In the old days when technology was less advanced, BaGua mirrors were made from brass. So when a feng shui consultant wanted to introduce an element of Metal into an area, he would advise his client to place a mirror in the area: Not because it was a BaGua mirror, but because it was made of brass, which is a metal element.

Somewhere along the way, the BaGua mirror became less about the brass, and more about the reflection. By the time the new millennium rolled around, the BaGua mirror had become a magical amulet for reflecting bad luck. So something that was not meant to have a religious significance in its original application, somehow, over the years, became religious.

Another reason why feng shui is seen as “religious” is the use of cures. You know, put a five-layer pagoda in the five yellow star and bye-bye problems.

Want to get rid of some bad qi? How about a crystal in your West corner?

The obsession with curing everything negative under the sun through trinkets has contributed substantially to the “religious flavour” that feng shui has acquired, especially since many of these objects are based on Buddhist or Taoism symbols.

These objects have nothing to do with collecting karma points or, at least, no significance in the Classical Feng Shui sense. Think about it – how can an object in itself change the course of your fortunes?

Over the years, quite a number of spiritual masters and part-time mediums have also doubled-up as feng shui masters, and so feng shui and religious practices as well as ghostbusting activities somehow became inter-related.

Sadly, this image of feng shui being synonymous with religious practices, as well as ghostbusting, still sticks in some people’s mind.

It is for a combination of these reasons that people think feng shui is related to Buddhism and Taoism or some form of Chinese religion or practice. It is not. It has its roots in the philosophy of Yin and Yang, which also happens to have some crossover with Taoism.

There is neither God nor spirits in feng shui, the natural environment. Many theories and practices relating to Chinese medicine, martial arts, health, religion and science overlap – almost all are premised on the backbone principles of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements.

So while the BaGua does have some application in Taoism, it is ALSO a mathematical model used to calculate and ascertain different types of energy patterns in feng shui.

THE FAITHFUL FACTS OF FENG SHUI

Feng shui is a science – it has a clear methodology based on the principles of Yin and Yang, the Five Elements and the use of direction to tap into qi, which is simply the natural energies found in the environment.

Feng shui has clear theory and basic principles, all documented in classical texts going back to the Tang Dynasty such as the Green Satchel Classics, Purple White Scripts, Entering Earth Eye and empirical evidence, outlined in various other classical texts.

Classical Feng Shui, as explained in all the ancient texts written from the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, does not contain any religious element, any reference to placing your faith in an object or symbol, and certainly doesn’t require you to chant anything or flash mirrors in people’s faces.

In Classical Feng Shui, the use of cures is highly restricted and always related to the Five Elements – Metal, Fire, Water, Earth and Wood. Most of the time, there’s nothing to put in the house and no special colours to paint.

In Classical Feng Shui, the best cure is using natural qi through alignment, changing directions or making use of strategic positioning of your house, office, room, bed, or desk.

Feng shui is about using space and land, making use of what is natural, what is readily available from your environment. It is up to you to think who make the energies: God, a higher being part of the natural universe, or whatever you are comfortable with.

The key point to note here is that feng shui is really just about making use of natural energy that already exists in the environment.

In this day and age, it is perhaps more relevant for people to see feng shui as technology (which is applied science) rather than a pure science. It affords a means in which to improve one’s quality of life, health, wealth and even relationships.

It is the science of ensuring that one’s home or office is located in an area with a living environment that supports one’s personal goals and endeavours.

I am not suggesting that people who are into crystals, space clearing, dousing or the “alternative” practices are in any way wrong or misguided. Or that it is wrong to believe or accept such practices. Rather, I want to make it clear that these practices are not what could be called Classical Feng Shui.

Similarly, if you are told that bringing feng shui in your life involves worshipping an inanimate object, placing your faith in a pile of trinkets or living your life in constant fear of shifting even a stick of furniture in your house lest you “upset the energies”, then this is not Classical Feng Shui as practised since the Tang Dynasty.

Classical Feng Shui involves using directions to tap into the prevailing qi of the environment, which stems from the Mountains and Rivers.

Classical Feng Shui always makes reference to the Time Factor, the Residents, the Directions and Location of the property. Practices that incorporate these elements along with spiritual rituals, chanting or object placement are not considered Classical Feng Shui.

Feng shui is culturally neutral, non-religious in nature and does not require you to compromise your principles or faith. Using feng shui is about benefiting yourself, helping yourself and making use of the natural energies that already exist in nature, not changing or compromising your beliefs in God. As long as we keep religion and feng shui separate, each can co-exist peacefully in our life.

For more information about Life Gua, visit www.joeyyap.com where you can make use of the Life Gua Calculator there.

Joey Yap is the founder, CEO and master trainer of the Mastery Academy of Chinese Metaphysics. Call 2284-8080 or visit www.masteryacademy.com

ps. original story at:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/2/19/focus/13408958&sec=focus

Article: "To DIY or not to DIY ..." by Joey Yap

To DIY or not to DIY ... Feng Shui

[FENG SHUI WITH JOEY YAP : TheSTAR Sun 12 Feb 2006]

THE Do-It-Yourself trend has become so popular these days that it has even extended to feng shui.

With a large number of books on the market designed to enable Do It Yourself feng shui, it is no surprise that many people decide to have a go themselves, before bringing in a professional.

I am in favour of DIY feng shui but to a modest and limited degree. After all, we have over-the-counter medicines but that doesn’t mean you can buy a book and do brain surgery on yourself.

It is the same with feng shui, where there is often the added danger of misinterpretation of theories, caused by the rush to simplify feng shui for popular consumption.

Nobody undertakes a DIY project unless it is simple enough actually to DIY. But the problem is, oversimplification sometimes results in literally doing the wrong thing.

As a writer of books on feng shui, I know it’s not easy to show people how to engage in DIY feng shui. The writer needs to provide as complete a picture as possible on the theory, without confusing the reader or making it complicated.

You’ve also got to absolutely make sure that it is applicable by everyone, not just those with a measure of feng shui knowledge, and that even if the reader makes a mistake or does something wrong, there is a minimal risk of negative implication. In other words, safety always comes first.

How NOT to Do It Yourself

A good example is a recent consultation I undertook for a businessman.

The gentleman in question was an avid feng shui enthusiast and quite well-read on the subject, but he had never really taken any formal classes in it.

Despite that, he was keen to “tinker” with his office feng shui and so when he moved into a new office, he decided to do the feng shui himself.

Upon visiting his office for the consultation, I immediately saw what the problem was. The office itself had been partitioned into a very strange shape, leaving many awkward angles. The desks were haphazardly positioned, making movement very difficult. Finally, the door was tilted to a very extreme angle. Very Picasso-inspired but, frankly, a feng shui disaster zone.

I informed the client that he was likely facing revenue problems, tension in the office, colleagues not getting on with each other, team in-fighting, office politics galore, projects at a standstill and senior staff leaving by the truckloads.

Quite simply, it was a case of the enthusiast having misinterpreted the basics of Eight Mansions Feng Shui.

The Big Picture

Feng shui is accessed and applied on two levels – internally and externally. The external environment influences about 70% of the feng shui of your property. The remaining 30% is a result of the internal feng shui in your property.

In feng shui, we are always concerned with determining what is in the environment that surrounds the property, such as mountains and rivers, before we concern ourselves with how the inside of the property is laid out.

My businessman client had the right approach when he used Eight Mansions Feng Shui to adjust the feng shui of his office. This is because Eight Mansions is a formula-based assessment method predominantly used for interior feng shui. For this reason, and because it is relatively simple to make use of, requiring practically minimal calculation, it is a popular system for DIY books on feng shui.

The Eight Mansions system of feng shui has two aspects – the Life Gua and the House Gua. Most people are familiar with the Life Gua aspect, which is used to derive the individual’s personal favourable and unfavourable directions.

However, they are usually not aware of the House Gua method, which is the actual method that should be used when evaluating the interior feng shui of a property. This is especially the case when the property is used by more than one person, as with an office.

When my businessman client undertook the feng shui of his office, as he was only familiar with the Life Gua method, naturally he tried to position all his staff’s desks according to their personal favourable directions. Hence, the desks at all sorts of angles and the door tilted in a peculiar manner.

This strange office layout and tilted door, instead of enhancing his office feng shui, did more harm than good.

Qi flow was disrupted and Sha Qi was created in the office rather than benevolent qi. The tilted door did not achieve the function and purpose of the Main Door, which is to tap and receive the qi from the environment. This is because a slanted or tilted door is like a slanted mouth on a person’s face. It is not possible to eat properly with a slanted mouth, similarly a tilted or slanted door doesn’t generally receive qi well from the environment.

The client also did not take into account the external environmental influence on his property, the forms, which are an extremely important factor in any feng shui evaluation and which easily account for at least 70% in terms of feng shui significance.

It would also have been far better in this case to ensure that the property itself was correctly positioned to receive positive qi from the external environment and then to use the internal locations within it to fine-tune the qi flow and ensure the organisational and business concerns were met.

Fixing the problem was not difficult. It was simply a matter of straightening the door, ensuring it was tapping the right direction based on the forms in the external environment and the House Gua.

The office layout, in terms of the location of certain key personnel and certain areas, was re-designed according to the House Gua of the property, the Flying Star chart, and then fine-tuned based on the Life Gua of certain key personnel, including the owner himself.

When it comes to Eight Mansions Feng Shui, it is important to recognise that the Life Gua method, which gives us individual favourable directions, is used for fine-tuning the interior feng shui.

At a macro level, it is the House Gua method, which gives us the energy map of the whole property, and the external environmental forms, which tell us what kind of qi there is in the area, that must be considered.

For more information about Life Gua, visit www.joeyyap.com where you can make use of the Life Gua Calculator there.

Joey Yap is the founder, CEO and master trainer of the Mastery Academy of Chinese Metaphysics. Call 2284-8080 or visit www.masteryacademy.com

ps. original story at:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/2/5/focus/13306238&sec=focus

Article: "Real Story of Feng Shui" by Joey Yap

Real Story of Feng Shui

[FENG SHUI WITH JOEY YAP : TheSTAR Sun 05 Feb 2006]

WHEN someone mentions feng shui, you will probably visualise bamboo flutes and wind chimes, think of ba gua mirrors or perhaps recall something about lucky frogs.

The reputation of feng shui as a respected field of science and art has taken a beating in the last few years. Some people consider it superstition, others as old wives’ tales; and with the number of luck-enhancing items and fortune trinkets on the market now, more and more probably think of feng shui as psychobabble at best, nonsense at worse.

I am glad to have this opportunity, through this column, to share my knowledge and research on classical feng shui and, hopefully, put this highly credible field of classical study in its proper perspective.

I intend, in the coming months, to broach this classical Chinese science in a practical yet informative manner with the aim of clearing up much of the mystery surrounding feng shui, dispelling the myths, separating the fact from superstition (indeed, fiction) while showing how you can apply classical feng shui successfully with measurable results to your home.

Some of the information I present may be completely new to some readers, especially if you have only been exposed to what I call New Age feng shui. The best approach is to keep an open mind.

About Classical feng shui

If there is one certainty I can be assured of each time I undertake a speaking engagement, it is to be approached by someone asking me if they have “bought the wrong cures” or “have the wrong items” in their home or office, or who are puzzled as to why none of my recommendations or suggestions include something they can buy or place in a certain corner or direction.

This underlines the problem with feng shui in today’s world – there is a clear lack of understanding about what Classical feng shui really is all about and what the practice entails.

Commercialisation, while bringing the concept of feng shui to the 21st century and to the masses, has also conveniently left out a lot of the genuine information.

I firmly believe that “the secrets of the Heavens” (as feng shui was termed during the Ming and Qing dynasties) should be shared and made available to everyone, and I certainly do not subscribe to diluting or, for that matter, oversimplifying the information.

Therefore, we must go back to basics and first ask and answer the crucial question: What is feng shui?

The answer to this question does to some degree depend on whether you are talking about New Age feng shui or Classical feng shui. Most feng shui practitioners today fall into two loose categories: the New Age practitioners, and the Classical practitioners.

New Age feng shui leans heavily towards symbolism and the placement of Chinese cultural items or good fortune cures. New Age feng shui is rather all-embracing, and as a result, many New Age practices, like Space Clearing and Dousing, have become ostensibly a part of and even are considered feng shui practices.

In actual fact, there is no historical, theoretical, empirical or evidential basis for New Age feng shui or the symbolic objects that are frequently recommended as part of this practice.

Everything in modern-day science, as we understand it, is drawn from basic science. So someone who posits a new theory must premise it on existing knowledge, for example, Newton’s Law. This is no different in feng shui.

All the different schools of practice, such as San Yuan, San He, Xuan Kong, Flying Stars, and Eight Mansions have their origins in ancient classical texts. The newer practices do not. Therefore, concepts like Space Clearing and the Eight Aspirational Directions, and Symbolisms are in fact modern practices that do not derive any of their basis or theories from the classical texts and literatures on feng shui.

The Chinese categorised their study of Metaphysics into five distinct classes, known as the Chinese Five Arts (Wu Shu). Feng shui falls under the banner of Physiognomy, the science of observing and understanding the living environment and through applying formulas and calculations to the living environment, to assess the potential and possible outcomes for a person living in a particular property.

Classical feng shui began life as Kan Yu about 1,500 years ago and was used primarily for burial sites. Today, this field of practice is known as Yin feng shui. Only towards the end of the Qing Dynasty did the term “feng shui” become more commonplace.

Like many of the Chinese Metaphysical sciences, Classical feng shui is a field of study that was well documented and there are numerous texts on its theories and techniques.

Classical feng shui’s most obvious distinguishing feature is that all the schools are premised upon four primary aspects – Residents, Time, Building and Environment. They do not have references to items or products but focus solely on the use of Direction and Location with reference to the four factors above.

The objective of feng shui is the harnessing of the qi in the environment to support us in our endeavours. It is a science for assessing the quality of a person’s life by looking at their living environment and seeking to improve that quality of life by tapping into the natural energies – the qi – in that environment.

Feng shui is not Chinese culture. Classical feng shui has nothing to do with the art of placement or symbols or even living in harmony with nature. It has nothing to do with your hair colour, with the pendants or crystals you wear and certainly, nothing to do with what colour your house or your toilet door is.

The application of feng shui also has no religious elements or beliefs, contrary to popular misconception. Again, this is the problem caused by New Age feng shui, which deploys as part of its practice a lot of the typical Taoist symbols and deities, such as the Happy Buddha or the Trio of Fuk Luk Sau.

It also stems from the fact that in the early 1900s, the practitioners of feng shui were usually also religious practitioners or people associated with the local temple. There is absolutely not one iota of reference to the need for such items as part of the practice of feng shui. The BaGua, the He Tu, the Lo Shu numbers, and the Five Elements, all which form the backbone of the practice of feng shui, have no religious implications.

Making Classical feng shui work for you

When you apply Classical feng shui to your home or office, you are looking at harnessing the qi that is already present in your environment and then making changes within your property to ensure the qi supports you in your life’s goals.

Many people have the idea of feng shui as a magic wand that overnight makes their lives better. In truth, feng shui is a goal-orientated science.

What do you want to achieve in life? What are your aspirations for the year to come? The next 10 years? The end game?

In answering these questions, a feng shui consultant is essentially looking to determine if the place you live in or work at, is “with you or against you”.

Besides supporting the individual’s aspirations in life, feng shui is also extremely useful for strategic planning of one’s life. Through feng shui, it is possible to assess the outcomes that may culminate as a result of living in a particular property. This is because qi is cyclical in nature and the influences in your living environment can be calculated based on formulas. By knowing what are the pitfalls coming up, the highs and the lows that are likely and then matching this information with that derived from a person’s Bazi or Destiny chart, it is truly possible to plan for the future.

Over the course of the next few articles, I will share with you theories, techniques and applications that will enable you, through simple modifications and changes, harness this classical science, and draw upon the qi in your living environment, to support your endeavours in life. The first step of course, is to open your mind to feng shui. Then, you can begin the journey of using feng shui to assist you in achieving your goals!

Joey Yap is the founder, CEO and Master Trainer of the Mastery Academy of Chinese Metaphysics. Call 2284-8080 or visit www.masteryacademy.com for further information.

ps. original story at:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/2/5/focus/13306238&sec=focus