Health And General Life Care: [AlternativeAnswers] Celebrating Chinese New Year: The Contribution of Feng Shui

Good Morning!

This is the beginning of the new lunar calendar. In celebration of
the Chinese New Year, I will be discussing the many wonderful
contributions the Asian cultures have given the world in relation to
alternative medicine.

Celebrating Chinese New Year: The Contribution of Feng Shui

Feng Shui: Wind and Water

"Allow things in your life which make your heart sing, feed your soul
or nourish you on a daily basis."

Feng Shui (pronounced Fung Shway) is the ancient Chinese art of
placement to enhance the flow of "vital life energy" known as Qi.
Practitioners believe that rooms, buildings and all environments can
be arranged and decorated in a way that maximizes the flow of Qi and,
resulting in improvements to health and happiness of those who live
in that environment. Although the translation of Feng Shui basically
means "Wind and Water", its scope and breathe are much deeper than
this.

Feng Shui is an expression of the oneness and interconnectedness of
all things on all levels and all dimensions. This is a "key concept"
in understanding how our essence relates to everything else around
us, including our environment. As we begin to sense this oneness we
then find that it is possible to gain insight from looking at our
environment on a broader scale. It is often said that "Feng Shui
teaches us what we already know".

Schools of Thought

"A place for everything and everything in its place"

The Art of Feng Shui is just that; an Art. You may have heard that
there are several schools of thought in Feng Shui- the Form School,
the Compass School and the Intuitve School. Yet another Feng Shui
derivative, Blackhat sect is said to have originated in Tibet, is
newer, and was introduced to the West by Professor Lin Yun.

Form School is a more traditional Chinese, older form of Feng Shui.
This school of feng shui began in southern China. It is based on
looking at and evaluating land forms, waterways and geography.

Black Sect Tantric Tibetan School, which has gained popularity in the
United States, disregards compass directions. Instead, you stand at
and use the entrance of the room, house or office as your main
reference point. Then you place objects and other enhancements
according to what you aspire to and wish to accomplish.

Both the Form school and the Black Sect are used extensively in the
West, and both are good introductions to Feng Shui. The difference is
that in Blackhat sect, the career area is centered on the wall that
contains the main entrance, while Form school has the career area
always in the North.

Compass School is the most predominate practice. The absence of
geographical and geological features and the relative flat topography
of northern China necessitated the development of the Compass School,
which dominates throughout most of the world. This is the
traditional, classical feng shui practice which uses either a Chinese
(luo pan) or Western-style compass to determine the eight compass
directions in a room, office or home. This compass is used to
determine the direction in which a building faces, and where the
portents will fall based on that direction. Because those directions
govern various aspects of your life, you place the corresponding
colors, animal symbols, numbers and elements in the areas that you
wish to activate.

The ancient text, the I Ching, describes the one universal flow of
nature's energy. Feng Shui derives from the ancient Taoist tradition.
The I Ching is the definitive text in which all Chinese Metaphysics
is based. It includes a full range of techniques that include Chinese
Astrology, compass methods, form methods and divining techniques.
Feng Shui utilizes two Chinese astrological systems. These are called
the Batzu - or "eight word" (also called "the four pillars"). And the
Jyo Hsing - or "nine stars" (also called the "north star method"
or "study of Qi").

The Bagua

In Feng Shui, a map called a Bagua is used to maximize the Qi or
energy of a given environment. The map divides a room into 9 squares
of equal size, with each grid corresponding to a specific "gift" in
life, such as health, love, and knowledge. The various schools of
thought in Feng Shui all use the bagua in one form or another. The
bagua, generally an octagon or square divided into nine areas, which
are sometimes referred to as "guas", is superimposed over a floor
plan of the building, room or property. Blackhat sect and Form school
Feng Shui use essentially the same bagua.

The nine areas of the bagua are (clockwise, from the northern area)
career, knowledge, family, wealth, fame, marriage, children, and
helpful people. The ninth area is the center. Each area is associated
with direction, elements, and I Ching trigram (the ancient system of
Divination). In arranging a room, 9 areas are noted to be of special
significance. The following table, which cooresponds to the Baqua,
illustrates the relationship of areas in a room (or home) in relation
to the room's Main Entrance. Imagine dividing your room (home,
office) into the following 9 areas. We have highlighted the ideal
items to enhance the movement of Qi within each location.

Career
Direction -- north
Elements -- the color black, and water
I Ching trigram -- K'an (This is the water trigram.)

Knowledge
Direction -- northeast
Elements -- the color blue (black and green may be substituted or
used in addition to blue), and earth
Trigram -- Ken (This is the mountain trigram.)

Family
Direction -- east
Elements -- the color green, and wood
Trigram -- Chen (thunder trigram)

Wealth
Direction -- southeast
Elements -- the color purple (blue and red may be substituted or used
in addition to purple), and wood
Trigram -- Sun (wind trigram)

Fame
Direction -- south
Elements -- red and fire
Trigram -- Li (fire trigram)

Marriage
Direction -- southwest
Elements -- pink (red and white may be substituted or used in
addition to pink) and earth
Trigram -- K'un (earth trigram)

Children
Direction -- west
Elements -- white and metal
Trigram -- Tui (lake trigram)

Helpful People
Direction -- northwest
Elements -- gray (white and black may be substituted or used in
addition to gray)
Trigram -- Ch'ien (heaven trigram)

Health
Direction -- the center
Elements -- yellow and earth
Trigram -- none, but it is represented by the Tai Chi symbol which
symbolizes balance, the ultimate goal of Feng Shui.

Once the bagua is superimposed over the floor plan, one can see what
parts of the building, room or property lie in each area of the
bagua. Feng Shui may be begun, using the colors and elements to
correct deficiencies or an overabundance of an element.

Deficiencies are corrected by adding the needed element or by using
its associated color. An overabundance of an element can be corrected
by adding its controlling element, by lessening the element itself,
or by using the associated colors. For example, if fire were
overabundant, then a water element could be added, thereby bringing
fire back into balance.

Everything is relative to each other. When using the bagua to
determine the Feng Shui layout, start with a floor plan of the
building and superimpose the bagua over it, as a whole; then apply
the bagua to each individual room.

Discover Feng Shui cures for your particular situation here:

http://www.peacefulmind.com/feng_shui.htm

Andrew Pacholyk, MS, L.Ac.
http://www.peacefulmind.com/workshops.htm
Therapies for healing
mind, body, spirit

__._,_.___

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