Aesop Fable

Here is a story that I would like to share. It is fairly common story and incredibly valid in today's world.

A man and his wife owned a very special goose. Every day the goose would lay a golden egg, which made the couple very rich.

"Just think," said the man's wife, "If we could have all the golden eggs that are inside the goose, we could be richer much faster."

"You're right," said her husband, "We wouldn't have to wait for the goose to lay her egg every day."

So, the couple killed the goose and cut her open, only to find that she was just like every other goose. She had no golden eggs inside of her at all, and they had no more golden eggs.

Moral: Let's not kill the goose who has been the source of the golden egg.

source: http://www.storyit.com/Classics/Stories/goldengooseegg.htm

San Yuan, San He - Is there any comparison?

Is there any comparison at all between San Yuan Feng shui and San He Feng Shui? Each has it uses and it is more important to know how to use it rather than to claim that San Yuan Feng Shui is better than San He Feng Shui and vise versa.

It is claimed that San Yuan is the ONLY school that takes time dimension into consideration and it places great importance in energy changes between periods. On the contrary, anything that is remotely connected to Feng Shui have to take in the time dimension, not only San Yuan Feng Shui. In order to be effective, practitioners need to be able to determine what has happened, what is happening and what will happen and when. Without the timing built-in into the Feng Shui School, what is the point of implementing Feng Shui? How effective can the Feng Shui be? San He Feng Shui has existed way back even before San Yuan Feng Shui were born. Can we really say that San Yuan is the only school with time dimension?

Placing great importance to changing of energy of different period simply means that you need to change your property feng shui whenever the period or energy changes. Is it really necessary? It is even practical? It only means more money for the San Yuan practitioner.

Ba Zhai seems to be related to San He Feng Shui. How this comes about is a mystery. Ba Zhai is probably the black sheep that San Yuan practitioners (or perhaps, Xuan Kong practitioner who thinks they are San Yuan practitioners) are trying to disown. San He feng Shui is never about East and West groups and no such thing as permanent good or bad directions. Every directions can be used. It is how we can use it to our advantage.

Then there is the classic arguments of using a pie-chart and the grid chart and comparisons of how a San Yuan and a San He school makes use of them. Regardless of schools, a pie-chart is to determine direction, a grid-chart is to determine location. Period. Both charts are used and it is a matter of how you use it.

It is mentioned that San He uses low landform and water features to tap on energies and San He uses the construction time to determine the "Period" of a property. This only reflects ones ignorance and lack of understanding of the various schools methodology in order to come up with such a statement.

Yin and Yang Apart - Perfect Harmony?

I was surfing the Internet and I came across this page that talks about a rock, a Dragon Rock as it is known, located near the center of land formation called Petals of the elegant Plum Blossom.

What is interesting about this rock is that it looks like it has been split into half by supposedly a divine sword and the two halves has been "ordained" heaven and earth.

A quote from the webpage, "The clean split in the middle seems to symbolize the Yin and Yang of nature ever so close and yet so far apart. It is only here that.....can commune in perfect harmony in this wonderful setting"

One wonders if the Yin and Yang is supposed to be split into two halves to achieve harmony or must work together as one. Both Yin and Yang must balance. Can perfect harmony be achieved if it is split and be so far apart?

This dragon is hurting. A broken bone dragon is not a happy dragon. Time will tell the wrath of the dragon.

Focus on Strength, know your weakness

Some BaZi charts are good, some are bad. Good or bad, it is not the end. What is important is what you do about it in your life.

When you find your BaZi chart is good, with the luck pillar supporting you throughout, you must maximise your good fortune that is bestowed upon you. Don't squandered it all away.

When you find your BaZi chart not so ideal, get to know your weaknesses, concentrate on building your strength and focus on your positive.

Timothy Ferriss, author of "The 4-Hour Workweek" says that it is far more lucrative and fun to leverage your strengths instead of attempting to fix all the chinks in your armor.....Focus on better use of your best weapons instead of constant repair.

This way, your weaknesses will be taken cared of....

Kitchen In NorthWest

Very often we hear that if the kitchen is located on NorthWest sector of a house or apartment, it has bad Feng Shui and it is detrimental especially to the Father or the male head of the family.

The reason is because the "Flying Star" theory using the Later Heaven Ba Gua arrangement, the NorthWest sector represents the Father, Qian Gua. This Gua or sector is represented as Metal. Since the kitchen is "Fire", probably because it is the place that has a lot of fire used to cook food for the family, the "Fire" will melt the Metal, i.e. the father.

Suppose if this theory is true, all families living in condominiums with the kitchen located on the NorthWest shall be fatherless, unhealthy fathers and whatever reasons you can think of. Does this make sense?

Bring me a property with a kitchen on the NorthWest sector, I can prove to you that there is nothing to worry about and the family can still be healthy and prosperous. The question is how?

It's all about balance

In Chinese metaphysics, everything is about balance. In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), it is also talking about balance. The TCM practitioner will try to identify what is excessive or lacking and he will provide something to balance, to counter the abundance or the lack of it.

We hear the famous dualism of Yin and Yang. Many people intepret it as the opposites such as hot and cold, male and female, tall and short, etc, etc. But, just how many of us really know what it really means? Is it really 'opposite'?

One of the first thing we must know is that both must exists together at the same time. If they are indeed opposite, how can they be helping each other? One cannot live without the other. It is only when they are together, that you will have balance. When it is in balance, you have peace and harmony.

If you have too much of either a Yin or a Yang, this is the beginning of trouble.

When you do Feng Shui, even before you start taking measurements, the balance of Yin and Yang of the place must be evaluated first. If they are not balanced, any measurements taken and implemented may at best be only 50% effective.

As you drive around town, try to observe why certain shops are doing well and why the others are not. Why certain stalls have brisk business only at night and hardly any customers during the day? Why some business are busy 24-hours? The answers are all there.

Action

Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.

- BENJAMIN DISRAELI, former British Prime Minister

Real Feng Shui?

Just read an article published on The New Paper, page 16, 13 September 2008. A businessman paid SG$4000 for a Feng Shui Master to approve the location and setting up the office. And, what happen to his office? Flooded with sewage water.

Read about it...The New Paper Report

What shall I write about BaZi?

I have been thinking about the topics that I should write on BaZi. I realised that it is not easy to write this topic. Here are some of the reasons:

• If I write an article about a famous person, I may be accused of "reverse engineering" or I write based on hindsight. In other words, try to fit a person's life details into his/her BaZi.


• If I write about an unknown person, I may be accused of pulling a fast one as no one can verify (other than the person I wrote about) my analysis. I'd probably get killed by this person for revealing his/her life details on the Internet.


• I thought about explaining the techniques but then, I may be revealing too much.


• If I give a future prediction on world events, I could find myself in trouble with the law for causing major riot or unnecessary panic.


• If someone gives me their birth details to write about, I may be giving away free consultations.

So you see, it's not easy to write articles about BaZi....

Is Window behind your back bad?

There was a case where a Mr A's business was not doing well and he could not understand why as his office was Feng Shui audited before.

We conducted a check in his office and a recommendation was given to him to turn the work desk to face a certain direction for him to improve his business situation. He was reluctant to change because there was a glass window and it will be behind him if he moves his desk. According to him, it was recommended earlier that he must sit with the wall behind him so as to receive the "support" that he is lacking. Sitting with the window behind cannot give him the support and hence, detrimental to him.

We assured him that he does not have to be too concern about that. The wall behind ones back is all symbolic. We are more concern about what is on the outside and whether he is able to tap on any of the auspicious Qi or not. If he is not tapping on it, what's the point of having a wall behind?

We recommended a few more changes to his office and he is now a happy camper.

Are Books on Bookshelf Sha Qi?

I am always amazed some of the theories that comes out from some practitioner. Take for example the bookshelf. They go all out to discourage people from having bookshelf behind their work desk. The books behind them are like Sha Qi, sending sharp negative Qi to whoever that is sitting in front of it. It affects them, makes them lose concentration, deplete them of energy and so on. If one must have the bookshelf behind them, they must ensure that it is fill-up with books, to even out the Sha Qi.

If this is really the case, all libraries should be closed down. What's the point of having a library when nobody is going to gain the benefits of reading books in it? Imagine all the Sha attacking you. The CIA should just donate half-filled bookshelves to their enemies and include free interior design for them so that it could "sha" the enemies without them knowing.

We need to be more open-minded and do not let this type of knowledge "Sha" you.

House Facing Direction

A friend was looking for a house to buy and was asking what direction should the future house be facing? Does it depends on BaZi? Does it depends on Gua number and the East/West Group they belong?

The answer is, a house facing any direction can be good. What is really important is the "mountain" and "water" that can be found around the vicinity of the property. Every house, flat, apartment are not the same even though they are facing the same direction.

You can drive through a road with rows of terrace houses, all facing the same direction and yet, you will notice some are doing much better than the others.

Every floor of any apartment block is also different. Every unit is also facing the same direction, having the same layout and yet, not everyone is enjoying the same luck and lifestyle.

Why is that? They all face the same direction.....

The meaning and representation of water and mountain goes beyond its physical representation. Swimming pool, water fountains, tall buildings and so on, are some of the man-made structure. But what we are more interested in is the physical landform that can be found around the area.

Some tried to build structures within their gardens such as waterfall landscape, build drains surrounding the house to simulate water flow, etc and many times it attract more disaster than bring auspiciousness to the occupants. Did they take into consideration the external structure?

The next time you go house hunting, remember that every direction can be used.

Moving In………

Now that you’ve got your keys to your new house, what’s next? What must be done before you move in? What must you do when you move in? When is it considered moved-in? Renovations, costs, interior design, Feng Shui and so on….. all the questions that comes with getting those keys.

Assuming you have successfully selected an auspicious unit following the recommendation of a professional Feng Shui practitioner, the next item in your to-do list would be renovation and deciding when and how to move-in.

Most recommendations on moving in are about carrying out rituals and following certain customs that has been practiced by the family as part of their culture and tradition. Descendants from different provinces of China carry with them different processes and methodology of moving into a new home. However, you will notice the underlying objective is the all about the same, i.e., bring wealth, good health and good luck into the new home. The Chinese believes that it is important to choose a good day to move into a new home. All that starts well, will continue to do well (hopefully).

Whenever someone moves into a new home, the new owner and family will carry out certain rituals with the hope to bring in all the good luck into the new house, pray to the Gods for blessings and carry out ‘house cleansing’ rituals. Because of such common practice, people tend to relate it to being part of a Feng Shui practice.

Are the moving-in rituals part of Feng Shui? Not really. Feng Shui is about the property and the land it sits on, and the Qi that can be tapped from our surroundings. The rituals are about Chinese culture, family tradition and to a large extend, the religious beliefs of the individual family. It is important that we differentiate them and not combine them together.

Moving-in to a new home is fairly simple. By now, you would have completed your renovations, shifted your furniture and ready for occupancy. It is just that you have not officially moved-in yet.

Select a day and time where the Qi is vibrant and supportive to those intending to move to the new place. Open and enter the house at the recommended hour. Upon entering the house, you can start to “warm” it up by simply turning on the stove, boil some water to make tea or coffee or cook a light meal if you prefer. After this, you are free to do anything you want. To complete the process, you just need to stay in the new place for the night. You are now officially the owner of the new home.

If you are more religious inclined and wants to follow the traditional way, there are a lot more things you can to do. These are part of culture and religion and in no way part of Feng Shui.

I hope I have shed some light and given some pointers to differentiate what is part of Feng Shui and what is part of religion and culture in the process of moving-in into your new home.

Things to remember as part of house buying process when Feng Shui is involved:
a) Select a unit suitable (in Feng Shui sense) for you and your family.
b) Ensure your house is designed to tap on auspicious Qi from your surrounding.
c) Choose a good day to start renovation.
d) Choose a good day to move-in.
e) Fine-tuning and minor adjustment

What is Feng Shui really all about?

There is a real-life story that we learned of how a Great-Grand-Master goes about helping the poor using his Feng Shui knowledge a long time ago. Imagine the poor and their living conditions at those times. How could they afford to buy crystals, gold and other Feng Shui amulets? Putting a roof over their heads was already a difficult task. How did the Great-GrandMaster managed to do Feng Shui for them without having to recommend Feng Shui objects?


The real Feng Shui is about tapping on the unseen energy or the earth Qi coming from the external environment. It is about synchronizing the Qi flow from our surroundings into our homes or offices. Objects do not generate Qi. The piece of land where we build our houses and buildings gives birth to the Qi that we sought after.

Our job as Feng Shui Consultant is to make the Qi flow connection from the outside into the property. We achieve that by ensuring the property itself is “comfortable”. If it is comfortable, you will be comfortable too.

Allow me to give an analogy. Imagine that you are sitting down to have your dinner. Firstly, you want to make sure that you are sitting comfortably on a comfortable chair with the food in front of you. Each intake of food goes through a digestive process and sends nutrients to all parts of the body to function efficiently.

A property constructed on a piece of land is similar. The property must be comfortable with its surrounding and its location. When it is in sync with the land, it is able to receive positive energy. When positive flow of energy is distributed within the building, every occupant will enjoy the goodness that it receives.

There are some schools that implement Feng Shui to benefit only the breadwinner. On this day and age, this idea is considered obsolete. Today, we have couples working and each one has their own career and source of income. Even children needs all the help they can get to help them in their studies. Feng Shui must benefit everyone.

The application of traditional Feng Shui principles are always very consistent. This is to say that it can be applied yesterday, today and tomorrow, anywhere, anytime, using the same methods, and the results are always consistent.

We always tell people that a truly great Feng Shui practitioner will never leave a trace of Feng Shui scent in any property that is designed with Feng Shui principles. The occupants will enjoy the benefits of Feng Shui and yet, the uninformed will never know the property has been audited before. This is the real art of Feng Shui.

Many people misunderstands the actual usage of Feng Shui. As in the case of the Great-GrandMaster helping the poor. Did he make the poor become super rich? No, he just made their life more bearable, improve their well-being and comfort of life, all within their means and way of life. Each one of us are born with different gifts, different life with varying degrees of capacity and intensity.

Feng Shui is also not about hitting the jackpot or becoming rich overnight. The proper usage of Feng Shui is to create more opportunities that seemed very hard to come by. We use Feng Shui to improve our chances and our present luck cycle. We use it to attract the positive energies to help us in our endeavors. When things are going well, our way of life goes up a few notches. This is how we use Feng Shui.

Things about Feng Shui we seldom think about

Very often I would be asked how come I do not recommend Feng Shui items to be placed in the houses or offices that I audited. People would make references to some practices of other Masters and from some books they have just read. My reply is very simple. It is not about the objects that you put but how you activate the Qi.

Feng Shui objects are good to spruce up the interior decorations and to brighten up your home or office. They bring out the artistic spirit and they portray the cultured personality in you.

In the world of Feng Shui marketing, many of these objects are positioned to bring out the positive thinking and attitude in you. Having a positive psychology in our lives enable us to go out and make things happen. It is a great motivation tool to have. As a result, the marketers make us believe it was the Feng Shui items that help achieve the positive outcome.

Quite often I hear stories about people striking the lottery after they placed the Feng Shui items as advised by their Master. Is this merely a coincidence or is it because of the Feng Shui items? Do these people strike the lottery every week, every month and every year? Why isn’t that the case if the Feng Shui objects were effective? Why doesn’t it bring consistent results? If it works for one person, why does it not work for another?

If one can get rich just by placing objects, I am sure everyone is very rich today. A happy camper. There will be no war and poverty. We will only be worrying about who will be clearing the garbage bin outside the house. Perhaps, it could be somebody who is extremely wealthy and very happy to do it for us?

These are the questions we need to ask ourselves but seldom do.

About Date Selection

I was reading an article recently about someone complaining that he received a wrong date for marriage solemnization from a well-known Master. A further check with the Tong Shu (Chinese Almanac) confirms the date is a “big no-no” to get married. Did the Master give him the date by mistake?


What is date selection all about?

First of all, we need to understand there are many methods of date selection and we use them for different purposes. BaZi Method, Dong Gong Method, Liu Ren System, Qi Men Dun Jia, Xuan Kong Da Gua, just to name a few. Generally, there are two types of date selection, namely Personal Date Selection and Feng Shui Date Selection.

A personal date selection relates to choosing a date for oneself to carry out certain activities like getting married, signing a contract, going for an operation, etc. It is a date for the ‘human’ to do certain things deemed important in life.

A feng shui date selection relates to choosing a date to carry out activities for a property or the land that we dwell in. Start of renovation, construction of a building, ground breaking are examples of activities that require a feng shui date selection. This is the date for the ‘land’ if we want to do some changes to it.

In the date selection process, two things must be considered. One without the other does not augurs well as far as date selection is concern. The first consideration is the event or type of activity and the other is the person involved in the activity.

Date selection is about finding a good day and time where the energies are available and can be used to support the event. If you find a good day but the required Qi is not there, that day is not auspicious for that event.

Assume you have found a good day, the next step is to evaluate if it is suitable to the person is involved in the activity. We use the person’s BaZi to determine the suitability of the date and activity. If it is not suitable, even a good day cannot be used.

Why date selection?

The idea is to ensure that during an event such as a signing ceremony, the energies are prime and available to support the parties involved. It is to ensure that during the ceremony, the event will proceed smoothly.

However, does this means that there will be no breach of contract many months down the road? Will the project proceed without any incidents? Will it prevent a married couple from getting a divorce after years of marriage?

Steps before date selection….

Prior to choosing the date for an intended activity, we need to determine the suitability of the person’s role or job function, partnership compatibility and the phase of life the person is going through. For this, we use BaZi analysis to evaluate.


For example, when it comes to getting married, we first have to settle the compatibility issues. The couple needs to understand each other’s personal characters and determine if they can live with it for the rest of their lives. Each one needs to accept the other as who they are before they can even discuss marriage. Couples have to decide for themselves if this is what they want.


Starting a business also goes through similar process. We need to evaluate if running a business is suitable for the person and when would be the appropriate time to start the business. Right job function, right timing is what we are looking for.

Having understood this, what has date selection got to do with preventing a divorce or preventing a business from going bankrupt?

Tong Shu for Date Selection

Traditional Chinese culture has been using the Chinese almanac as the basis of date selection for a long time. The Tong Shu is too generic and it is at best, a ‘safety’ date selection method. If we were to strictly follow those dates in Tong Shu, we will find that there are limited number of days we can use. If it does not fit in your schedule, what is going to happen? No business contract to be signed? Cannot get married?

The situation is such that Date Selection specialists these days have to refer to the Tong Shu first before they confirmed the final date. Why is this so? In the case of getting married, the folks from the older generation will check the Tong Shu. If it is a bad day according to the Tong Shu, they will doubt the Master for choosing such a date, even though it may be the BEST date for the couple.

As discussed earlier, we choose a date based on the event as well as the suitability to the key people involved in the event. But it is unfortunate that if the Tong Shu says it is bad, we are unable to use it.

Conclusion

Referring to the opening paragraph above, we do not want to speculate if the Master made a mistake or not. It may well be that the date selected is good for the couple and their immediate family members from both sides, even though the Tong Shu says it is bad.

If one is to allow the Tong Shu to dictate the date selection process, why consider engaging a Date Selection Specialist? Just use the Tong Shu to select the date. It may save you a few hundred dollars and frustrations.

Castle Feng Shui

These are some beautiful pictures of castles from England and Japan.




Observe the pictures carefully. A moat typically surrounds the castles and they are filled with water. How does the Qi get into the castle? Did they just fly in, jump across the moat or walk across the draw-bridge?

How does the Direct-Indirect Spirit affect the people living in the castle?

Why are only the wealthy and the powerful stay in those castles?

Are they using Flying Stars or Ba Zhai? Or maybe they place some feng shui items in there to generate Qi?

Or maybe the sharp edges and the pointed rooftop will "sha" the people surrounding it. Another line of defense?

Something to think about ;)

Yin Feng Shui

I was having a conversation with Master Vin Leo recently and the subject of Yin Zhai or Yin Feng Shui came up during the discussion. Yin Zhai is attracting a lot of attention these days. Here is what he has to say about this topic.


“First of all, Yin Feng Shui is not about how the dead should dress, sleep or face. It is about the depth a coffin to be buried.

Secondly, the correct burial should yield results during this generation, not next generation. The layout of the tomb can be used to create opportunities.

Thirdly, it is not about the facing of the tombstone because if it is, it will be limited to a certain set of ‘good’ facing only. Every facing can be used. You cannot be changing your tomb every twenty or forty years when the period changes, not mentioning the yearly stars!

Fourthly, people are worried about future descendants if no proper burials are carried out. In India, there are fire rituals of sending the dead away on the river with no proper in-the-ground burial. The massive population in India today proves that with such fire rituals, descendants are not adversely affected at all.

There are other cultures where their dead are not buried, like the Tibetan’s ‘Heavenly Burial’ where the dead are fed to the vultures. The Chinese concept of ‘burying with a mountain behind’ the tombstone or a ‘created mound behind the tombstone’ for lineage is just a cultural belief.

Culture is good. It is a good form of identity. It should not be mixed with Feng Shui. Yin Feng Shui can create wonderful platforms for the ‘now living’. A ‘not-so-good’ burial only indicates a lack of divine support but it will not harm the descendants neither will it makes the descendant poor.”

This is yet another perspective of Yin Feng Shui. In your future engagement with a Yin Feng Shui consultant, you should check and ask the above-mentioned questions. Most importantly, look for evidence of proven results for the current generations.

Direct-Indirect Spirit: Are they for real?

The Direct-Indirect Spirit is one of the basic Feng Shui principles from San Yuan Xuan Kong. The principle of Direct-Indirect spirit as interpreted by many professional practitioners, determines the suitable location of mountain and water within the 8 sectors of a compass.


Water at suitable location brings wealth and status. Mountain at correct location brings good health, improve relationships and harmony.

During this period, according to San Yuan Qi cycle, water must be located at North, East, South East and South West sector and mountain must be seen at sectors of North East, North West, West and South.

Is this the correct application of Direct-Indirect Spirit principle?

In Singapore, if you were to drive around the areas of Thomson Road and Upper Thomson Road, you will find MacRitchie Reservoir located on the West and North West of a number of bungalows and successful businesses in those areas.

Along Bukit Timah road, famed for the rich and famous residents, most of the bungalow houses have MacRitchie Reservoir on their North East Sector.

It is taught that water and mountain in wrong location is detrimental to occupants of the property. Why is it that there are still wealthy and successful people staying in those areas? Isn't this is a total contradiction of the Direct-Indirect Spirit principle?

We were at a very popular restaurant recently where it is always packed with customers. What is interesting about this restaurant is that it is built on a platform surrounded by water. From left to right, a 180 degrees view, it is all water. How do we explain the Direct-Indirect Spirit principle? Water surrounding the restaurant and yet, their business is still thriving.

Direct-Indirect Spirit Principle has its valid usage but it is not as what is being taught by a lot of schools and well-known Master Practitioner in the Feng Shui market today.

Next time if someone tells you that your property has bad feng shui because the water and/or mountain is located in the wrong sector, you may want to question the validity of that reasoning. Do not be despair or feel disappointed. Ask the Master Practitioner to explain the above situation.

Does BaZi dictate your ultimate life journey?

Many of us who has gone for a BaZi consultation are often given the impression that whatever is in our chart, it is our final destined life. Period. Whatever good or bad, we have to live with it the rest of our lives.

Many have been convinced to believe that their life is so bad that there is no turning back, that there is nothing they can do about. Some consultants will tend to use fear tactics and the clients have to pay a hefty price to ward-off the bad omen.

Some have to give away their newborn babies to another family as they feared that the birth of a child spells bad luck or tragedy for the family.

Some has even believed that because they are expected to get a windfall in the near future, they decided to help themselves to prepare for it, i.e. by buying lottery, getting loans, etc. to get an even better windfall. Soon they find themselves in debt and have to stay away from public places.

These and many other scenarios are the wrong approach to accept the readings of our BaZi charts. BaZi charts are meant to give us information about ourselves, our personal characters, our strengths and weaknesses. It is meant to help us plan our lives so as to decide when it is a good time or otherwise, to carry out certain activities to achieve our intended objectives.

Assume for one moment that there is no BaZi chart. We know, to a certain extent, our weaknesses. What do we do about it? We work hard to overcome it. We work hard to improve ourselves.

We do the same when we know more about ourselves after knowing our BaZi. A BaZi chart gives us an indication our plus points and negative points. If we have more plus points, we should use it more often to help improve our lives. If we have more negative points, it does not mean it is the end of it. What we need to do is to try to overcome the negative and turn it into something positive.

For example, we find in our chart that we are spendthrift in nature. Does that mean we go out and spend more, just to fulfill our destiny? Of course not. The correct thing to do is we should be more cautious in our spending. This is how we turn it from negative to positive. BaZi charts give us an indication of opportunities and it is up to us to make it good.

The chart simply tells us that our tendency to spend is greater as it is already in our chart. However, with such information placed before us, we can still decide to change our lifestyle and be more frugal. It is still within our means to decide our ultimate destiny, not the charts!

Do not despair when you receive negative news or report about yourself after a BaZi consult. Take this as an opportunity to do the right thing instead of hanging on to the negative things. Our job as a BaZi Consultant is to help you understand the situation you are in today and find the best way to move forward.

Is it about 4 good directions?

With reference to my earlier article, "Learning Feng Shui", where i mentioned that we only need to adjust the work desk to see results instead of placing items on the work desk, someone asks me if it was about facing one of the four good directions, aka, 8-Mansion Feng Shui, aka Ba Zhai?

Unfortunately, it is not about facing any of the good directions related to Ba Zhai. Any directions can be a good direction. It depends on your environment and location.

What is known in the market about Ba Zhai is that it has 4 auspicious and 4 in-auspicious directions. We are all encouraged to face one of the 4 auspicious directions, depending on what type of energy we want to tap on. For example, if you are looking to create more opportunities to improve wealth and reputation, you should sleep or sit facing your Sheng Qi (Life Generating) direction.

In the so-called advanced Ba Zhai, in each of the 8 directions, it has sub-directions and they include good and bad directions. This is to say that even in one of the good directions, it has bad Qi direction that you may face as well.

If only life is that simple, everyone on this planet earth just needs to ensure we face our good directions and there will be no poverty, hunger, war, discrimination, etc. People on earth will be a happy camper with no worries.

Is this possible?

Ba Zhai has it uses and it is not what is being taught to the general public today. The main-stream Ba Zhai is at best "safety feng shui" and to provide positive thinking for people who needs it. This is to say that one need not go over-board to change everything at home or office. Husband and wife need not sleep in different rooms. A couple need not sleep smelling each other's feet when sleeping on the same bed because each one belongs to a different group.

Pure Unbroken Lineage Method Chant

Here is a special message from Master Vin Leo of VinLeo.com (www.vinleo.com)

Master Vin Leo is taking on a project to help promote the sale of compact-discs (CDs) for one of his spiritual masters, Geshe Tenzin Zopa, who is the resident teacher at Losang Dragpa Center (LDC). The sales proceeds will go to the TSUM Himalayan projects (Tsum Project Website) and other charity purposes.

The CDs are recordings of prayers and pujas that helps inspire and bring benefits to those who need them, just by listening to the chants. The chants are based on traditional, proper and pure unbroken lineage method for the entire sequence of prayers.

There are 4 CDs in each set and it consists of Guru Puja, Tara Puja, Medicine Puja and Protector Puja. Each chanting of the Pujas are for different purpose. For more details of the CDs, please visit the following website.

Website: Prayers and Pujas CD Recordings Website

For more information, kindly contact Geshe Zopa personally at tztzopa@yahoo.com or Vin Leo at vin@vinleo.com.

Your support in this charity project is very well appreciated.

Wet and Fertile Singapore

This is an image of Singapore-Kallang River looking from above. This is the area where the Integrated-Resort (IR) will be and the existing financial-business hub of Singapore are located.

One quick look of the image, it is like a woman's reproductive system. Whoever designed this Marina area must have thought really hard to ensure Singapore will always be productive and keeps growing.

One of the interesting features is the Marina Barrage. It is located at the mouth of the river that borders the sea and the river. It offers a host of water solutions to a small limited resource island. This whole area will eventually be a fresh-water reservoir. It will be the 15th reservoir that will meet 10% of Singapore's water needs.

Besides that, it is a tidal barrier for flood prevention, designated recreational venue, and will also feature a visitor's centre and restaurant. This whole concept was first conceived almost 20 years ago by MM Lee Kuan Yew, followed by 10-year massive plan to clean up Singapore river. What visions they have!

With these already in place, do you know how to select a property or an office space using Feng Shui? How do you go about looking for an office that will help ensure your business grows. I may have the answer just for you.

Remember, if Singapore grows, so should your business. The land is already fertile.

Always keep that in mind.

Feng Shui Expert Pledges Funds

I was reading an article from a Malaysian online newspaper today. It was reported that two China-based Feng Shui experts pledged to donate every single sen (cents) of their consultation fees to help earthquake survivors in Sichuan.

It is interesting to note one comment that highlights the Master has done many consultations for large corporations, celebrities, etc, and he did not use the feng shui skills to earn a living.

Read more about it

Online Paper: Click Here
PDF Version: FengShui Experts Donate.pdf

Do we need to tilt doors?

Sometimes when you enter a building or a house, you will notice that the main door is not in parallel with the tiles on the floor. They are designed to slant at a certain angle, to face a certain direction. If you were to check with the hosts, they will probably tell you it was recommended by some Feng Shui masters.

Slanting or tilting of doors are typical trademark of San Yuan Masters, more specifically, the Xuan Kong Master Practitioner. They are designed to tap onto certain auspicious Qi to serve its intended purpose. The reason behind the slant is because the electromagnetism energy are never the same when measured at different places, even though they are the same parallel wall.

For example, you have a wall that is about 10 meters wide. Try measuring the wall on the extreme left, middle and extreme right using a compass or luopan, if you have one. Record those readings and compare. Chances are they are all different.

Therefore, as it is very important to a Xuan Kong practitioner to get all doors to face the same exact direction within the same facade, they have to tilt all doors to meet this requirement. Hence, the tilted doors.


We were at the Bright Hill Temple, Singapore recently. You will notice that all the doors are tilted. If you were to take measurements, all the doors faces the same compass direction. Doors tilted, yet same direction. Amazing isn't it?

If you love to have tilted doors for your home or office, then probably, this method of Feng Shui Application is suitable for you.

But what if you hated it? Is there another alternate Feng Shui method that do not require tilting of doors and yet, produces the same results? The answer is YES.

As part of our research, we carried out a Feng Shui audit of the Bright Hill temple using a different technique and we concluded that without having to tilt all the doors, the temple could still achieve its intended purposes successfully. And...., let it be known, we are not using Flying Star or 8 Mansion, at all. They are only used for other purposes.

If tilted door is NOT your cup of tea.......You have alternative.

Learning Feng Shui

Ask around any Feng Shui enthusiast what Feng Shui books they have in their library, they will be glad to rattle off some popular names and proudly show you their collection of books. I can safely say 80 percent of their collections will be about the art of placing items at strategic locations to harness Qi. This is because 80 percent of the Feng Shui books out there are all about the art of placing items for prosperity and health.

There are many good marketers who can sell ice to Eskimos. Many thanks to them, Feng Shui became very popular to the general public within a short period of time. Even though this art has been around for many years, not much information can be found in major bookshops or the local library. All these changed with the arrival of New-Age Feng Shui Consultants.

As many of you know, this art has been passed down from generation to generation but to only people who are entrusted to keep this art alive and trusted to use it responsibly. The real secrets are not revealed wholesale to those who have the potential to exploit it for financial gain at the expense of the ignorant public. Based on this alone, can you imagine how much of the information found in the general public today can actually be used for effective results?

The concepts and its application has been watered down so much that only some of it can be used, if at all. You must be in terribly good luck to be able use it and produce some excellent results.

Begin by taking some time to look for a Master Teacher who is both passionate about the subject AND genuine in wanting to teach and share with students who wish to learn. Starting on a wrong foot can be very costly in terms of time and money. Be forewarned. If you are considering learning from high-profilers, you may want to give it some extra thoughts for reasons that is not appropriate for me to mention here.

Most of practitioners today starts off by going round in circles until they find a light that leads them to the correct path. If you are lucky, you may just go round in one circle. If not, you are probably still in the circle trying to find the light. Some practitioners are still in the circle. Many gave up while trying hard to find it and failed. Hence, starting off on wrong footing can be costly.

After you have completed your circles, you will realize that Feng Shui is a very basic art. Everything boils down to the fundamentals. It can produce results within a short time and it can last for a long time.

Unfortunately, to get to the fundamentals, you need to sift through a lot of so-called advanced theories that does not even explain its proper application.

I am most amazed when I see Feng Shui ornament lying on a work desk. Some spend thousands of dollars because the ornaments can generate certain Qi to help in their endeavors. We can easily adjust just their work desk alone and still achieve the same results. Need to buy anything? Nope, just coffee will do.

As part of the learning process, everyone needs to go through at least one circle. We need to be exposed to the in-effective system in order to appreciate the effective system.

Are The Classics Wrong?

I was involved in a Feng Shui project recently in a foreign country that took us more than 3 hours to get there by plane. This place is a beautiful island resort, with hilly terrain and beautiful mountain surrounding it.

In many classical text, landform embraces are essential to ensure that Qi is “well-protected”, limiting the Qi escaping from an area and to protect the occupants from negative forces.

The quality of Qi in an area depends on the quality of the landform embrace. There are many types of landform embraces and the most common embrace discussed is the ‘Green Dragon’ and ‘White Tiger’.

The Green Dragon embrace are typically ‘mountain’ formation that runs on the left side and the White Tiger on the right side of an area under Feng Shui investigation. Imagine your left and right arm hugging or embracing someone. It is said that Green Dragon governs wealth and White Tiger governs nobility.

It is also mentioned that the Green Dragon embrace influences the man to be the dominant gender while the White Tiger embrace influences the woman to be the dominant gender.

In the old days, men are supposed to be the dominant gender and this is the reason the Green Dragon on the left needs to be higher and bigger than the White Tiger on the right.

Each mountain formation comes in various shapes and sizes. The shape of a mountain will influence the occupants living in that area. Each shape represent a certain “Stars” and given names such as Tan Lang (Greedy Wolf), Ju Men (Huge Door), etc. Each of the stars will also exert a certain amount of influence pertaining to wealth, health, recognition, reputation, etc.



Back to this resort island project. This village in the photo is just next to the holiday resort that we were working on (see pic above). Here we have a beautiful Tan Lang mountain, situated on the left side of the fishing village (the Green Dragon), with practically no embrace on the right side (no White Tiger embrace).

There is a volcanic mountain on the left side of the picture (not in photo) providing the back support to the village. The sea front of the fishing village, the water is clear and calm as they are protected by the reefs and the adjacent island.

From the front view of the village, with hands stretching out, you could ‘touch’ the peak of another Tan Lang mountain located some distance away. This forms the “Table Mountain” for the village.

With such a landform ‘configuration’, many would jump into conclusion that this piece of land is very prosperous and the chief of the village would be a man.



Contrary to popular believe, as you can see, this area is still not well-developed and the chief of the village is a woman. How could this happen? Did our ancient text got it all wrong?

A lot of times, books that we read today do not cover the complete explanation of the theories they introduced. 99% of books in the market do not cover real application of Feng Shui. Even if they do, most applications are inaccurate. This explains the 'sometimes work, sometimes don't work' syndrome.

The secrets of the ancient art is buried deep in the classical text and it takes a lot of work and perseverance to decipher the coded text. We need to learn from a real Master who knows the art extremely well. How can we tell if a Master knows his stuff? This is another topic for another day.

Time to wake up People! Are we all awake yet?

Learn To Write Chinese Characters

There are many students out there who does not read or write Chinese and yet, they are very interested to learn the art of Chinese Metaphysics. To help students learn to read and write the basic Chinese characters related to Chinese Metaphysics, I have prepared the links to webpages that will teach students how to write the Chinese characters. We will start with the 5 Elements, followed by the Ten Heavenly Stems and Twelve Earthly Branches.

Fire - 火, Earth - 土，Metal - 金, Water - 水, Wood - 木

Jia - 甲, Yi - 乙, Bing - 丙, Ding - 丁, Wu - 戊,
Ji - 己, Geng - 庚, Xin - 辛, Ren - 壬, Gui - 癸

Yin - 寅, Mao - 卯, Chen - 辰, Si - 巳, Wu - 午, Wei - 未,
Shen - 申, You - 酉, Xu - 戌, Hai - 亥, Zi - 子, Chou - 丑,

Credit to authors of http://lost-theory.org/ocrat/

Professional BaZi Consultant

Bazi is really an amazing art that can reveal the inner truth of ourselves, the self that we are not aware of sometimes. The chart is able to read our character, our hidden-agenda, relationships with people around us, our good and bad intentions, our present situations, our strength and weaknesses, etc.

As responsible practitioners, we need to be aware of our actions and communications. We need to know the consequences and the impact that will be felt by clients when they received the information that we share with them. Ethics and professionalism must be upheld always .

Someone very ignorant once asked a Master Practitioner, "We hear that you are very good. But why do you need to know my details in advance before we meet? You should be able to read my chart this very moment when you see my birth details, right?"

Do you see the problem with this mindset?

Part of the job as a BaZi practitioner is to be a counselor. Clients come to us because they needed some guidance and answers to their predicaments. BaZi practitioners needs to be thorough in analysis before providing the solutions. Practitioners have great responsibilities to clients.

As BaZi Practitioners, our utmost principle and philosophy is to maintain integrity and uphold professionalism at all times. This seems to be lacking these days.

Can't sell/rent out my property!

A couple of months back, I had a friend who was trying to find tenants for an office space that has been vacant for some time. They had tried to rent out the place but not many interested parties called up to view the place. Advertisements on the internet, newspapers, flyers did not help. And all these while, the property market was booming like wild fire.

My friend suggested that I take a look at the office and see what can be done to attract more viewers that have the potential to sign the tenancy contract for 3 years or more.

With the floor plan and LuoPan on-hand, we went to the vacant office and started taking measurements. I noted the directions the office building was facing, the door locations, and some other measurements.

I pointed out that there are certain locations within the office that is very important and that the Qi flow to that area is necessary.

After a couple of days, I was told that the total number of calls received increased gradually and they finally got the office rented out after about 3 weeks.

The method used is equally potent when you have difficulty in selling your house or property. Many cases have been done and the required results are always astounding.

Whether you are a property owner, a trader, or a property consultant and if you have difficulty selling the property, there is a solution that you can tap on - Chinese Metaphysics.

Getting a good night sleep

A few months ago, a family friend was telling us that she had trouble sleeping, a lot of things were going through her mind, and life was full of petty people. It has been a few months that these have been happening and it was affecting her health due to the lack of sleep.

Out came my Luo Pan and I did a quick check on the main door, her bedroom door and her bed position. It was immediately clear to me why she had trouble sleeping, with bad dreams and restless nights. The position of her bed was aligned in a direction where the energy was unstable, not suitable for a good night sleep. Because of the unstable Qi, it was causing her mental stress and not supporting her well-being.

I began to check on the other sides of her bedroom, to find out if it can be used to position her bed. After taking a few more measurements, I recommended that her bed be placed against the wall on the opposite side and see if it improves her sleeping situation.

We met up recently over the holidays and she updated us she could sleep much better after changing the position of her bed. While the petty people was still around, they are more manageable and things are looking brighter.

If you have trouble sleeping, your child keeps you awake during the early hours of the morning, having constant nightmares, bad dreams, you may want to do a quick check of your bed position and the overall Feng Shui of your home. Who knows, it could save you trips and money to the doctors for sleeping pills.

Practise Makes Perfect

In your studies of Chinese Metaphysic subjects, just how many of you have a good idea of what to expect prior to attending a new class? Most of us don't. We can have the entire syllabus we care to request for but at best, we will only have some vague ideas. If you do, you are most likely a repeat student, a professional in disguise or studied from somewhere else before.

Even as a repeat student, you will find that there will always be new information. The question is, are they really new information?

If you have been recording the lecture notes, you will find that some of the so-called "new" information has already been covered. In your previous class, perhaps, it was simply just not emphasized. Go through your notes again and you will know what I mean.

Because of time constrains, we can only absorb what we can understand and leaving those that we cannot absorb to a later date. Very soon, we tend to forget those we have marked "to be revised". By the time we want to get to it, we would have totally lost it.

My advise is, practise makes perfect!. It is only through lots of practises that will reinforce what we have studied and confirm our understanding. It is also through practises, we will discover what we have missed out and what we need to do to find the answer. No question is too simple to ask.

Sometimes significant statements are made during class. But because you have yet to fully understand the complete picture, you do not realised the importance of the information. It was only after a few tries, and knocking on various doors that you realised "Hey, so that is what it is all about!"

As the saying goes, "The most profound are the most basic!"

Are you getting the right stuff?

Anyone who has just been introduced to Feng Shui will get to know about Flying Stars and 8 Mansion. Flying Stars and 8 Mansion has been made popular by various authors in the recent years, targeting especially the non-chinese speaking audiences. Flying Stars is known as Fei Xing ( 飛 星 ) and 8 Mansion is known as Ba Zhai ( 八 宅 ) in Chinese language. Fei Xing and Ba Zhai is the simplest and most basic of all the theories and formulas in Feng Shui. However, how many of you have tried them and successfully yielded effective results?

Judging from the amount of questions from the many public forums on the Internet, Feng Shui enthusiasts and practitioners alike are pretty much confused. The one big question remains,…. Is the information circulated currently the real stuff that can be used effectively?

In many books on Ba Zhai Feng Shui, Life Gua and House Gua is often discussed. Life Gua is related to an individual and it is based on the year of birth of a person. A House Gua is related to a property (“House”) and it is based on the sitting of the property. East Group and West Group Gua are used to categorize the two different sets of Gua numbers. Those who belong to the East Group will find that their auspicious property is those sitting on North (Kan Gua), South (Li Gua), East (Zhen Gua) and South East (Xun Gua). Similarly, the West Group people will find that their auspicious property is those sitting on North West (Qian Gua), West (Dui Gua), North East (Gen Gua), and South West (Kun Gua).

Each Gua number is divided into four “good” segments and four “bad” segments. The “good” segments are Sheng Qi, Tian Yi, Yan Nian and Fu Wei while the “bad” segments are Hua Hai, Wu Gui, Liu Sha and Jue Ming. All of you are told to use the “good” segments within the house, sleeping directions, stove directions, sitting direction as often as possible and avoid the “bad” segments at all costs. These are all discussed in great length.

Wow. Can you imagine what the world will be like if everyone were to follow this principle?

In the real Ba Zhai Feng Shui, every single segment, “good” and “bad”, can be used for effective results. We are not even talking about Na Jia sub-sector directions. We are talking about sectors such as Jue Ming, supposedly to be the worst of the lot, and others such as Liu Sha, Wu Gui and Huo Hai. We can actually use them to tap on auspicious energy for wealth, health, and relationships. The question is how to use them?

Now, this is the real art, the real stuff……

To tell or not to tell, that is the question!

Recently someone posed a question during class, "When you read someone elses BaZi chart and you come across a potentially heart-breaking situation such as death/separation, critical illness, extra-marital affairs, do you immediately tell them, for example, they will die soon or that their spouse is having an affair? Do you tell them that destiny is fixed and that there is nothing they can do? Do you also tell them that they need not to seek a second opinion?”

One of the first thing we need to learn as a BaZi practitioner is responsibility. We need to be responsible for the things we say because the repercussion is so great that it can change ones life drastically, for better or for worst. Clients come to consult us because they needed help. In return, we must provide appropriate solutions, to find a way out of their predicaments and NOT make it worst than before they seek our help.

Our job is to determine the potential root-cause of the problem. A client comes to see us and we see that there is a potential for a heart-attack to occur during a certain time, do we say they will suffer from heart-attack and die? Our job is to identify that possibility and get them to seek medical examination as soon as possible. It is not our job to provide a medical diagnosis and forgone conclusion.

Life is an amazing journey. There are many ways to solve a problem. Why do we need to close ourselves to only one solution to solve a problem? We should always be searching for alternate "route" until we have exhausted all options. Please do not be "God" and tell the clients that our analysis is final and there is no need to seek a second opinion. That is the most irresponsible action we can do as a BaZi Practitioner.

A BaZi chart tells us our potentials and opportunities that we can use during the journey of our lives. It is telling us what we are good at, what we can do to make our life a more comfortable place to live in. However, we still need to take the necessary actions to turn the opportunities into reality. It does not happen just because your BaZi chart says so.