Over the past few decades there have been a huge commercialization centered around the art of feng shui. Items that are said to improve feng shui are sold at exorbitant prices, then there are various books on this topic more that an average person could read. One can also attend seminars costing thousands of ringgit to learn more about technical subjects like flying stars.
Please note that I am not writing this to say that feng shui does not exist. In actual fact, I believe that there is truth in feng shui just as I believe there is truth in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) where it speaks of the elements in our body and meridian channels.
My purpose is to express my concern that while there is truth in this, placing feng shui above all else in life including virtue and buying all sorts of so-called grossly overpriced feng shui enhancement product does not seems to be the correct approach.
We cannot use feng shui to make our kids filial or respect us. If we neglect our kids and is only interested in acquiring wealth, then no matter how we arrange the furniture in their room or buy feng shui enhancement products, we cannot expect them to be close or love us when they grow up.
I know of a tycoon who made the feng shui in the office to his favor, ie bringing in wealth for him. But this comes at a cost as due to the tycoon’s selfish and difficult character, the culture has created a toxic working environment. As the result, staff turnover is very high. And the business still meet with a lot of obstacles despite a lot of money poured in to fix up good feng shui for the workplace.
Yes there is truth Feng Shui
There are some things that perhaps are more related to common sense.
For example, no one would want their home to be directly facing the T junction. And anyone who tried to challenge this or moved in with ignorance would find many problems occurring or even family members falling sick and they would move out. You would notice most houses or buildings located at T junctions are abandoned. Even if the house or building occupied, is usually very run down and not maintained, it would be because its occupants could not afford to move anywhere else.
However, there was a lady whom I know managed to operate her business even though her shop is located at the T junction. It was said that other people would not be able to do it but she could.
She later lost her eldest son who committed suicide due to depression and mental illness.
Eventually she passed away from cancer in her 50s. It was strange because she had felt she had cancer but checks revealed nothing. She had insisted for checks until everyone said she was paranoid. Later she went down to Singapore and using the most high tech detection machine, yes they found that in fact she had cancer. But the cells are hidden deep in the folds of the adipose tissue around her stomach. The doctors were actually surprised because usually these are not easily detected and she had no symptoms or health issue.
I also remember years ago I read in the news that a feng shui master and his family in Johor were burnt to death in their home. Apparently the fire started from the altar outside his home and burned through his home at night when the entire family was asleep. They could not escape because the entire house had dead traps, ie iron grills that could not be opened. Because the fire started from the front of his house, they could not go towards the front to open the grill.
This was very sad news but because it happened before news archival were available via the internet, I am not able to locate the article online.
Things that feng shui cannot change
Such as destiny and kamma. At most, one can control the setup of one’s home but one cannot control other people and external people.
For example, in a previous article I wrote about Asia Jaya. Asia Jaya (where Hotel Armada is) was once a busy shopping complex. A highway, known as Federal Highway was build next to Asia Jaya. After the highway begin operating, the business in Asia Jaya got poor and shops started closing down.
This is an example of something external that comes along beyond one’s control and changes one’s fortune.
No matter how one tweak feng shui to one’s advantage, there are factors totally out of our control. I have met people who paid a tonne for feng shui still had unhappy relationships and conflict with their family, disappointment, loss of loved ones and illness. It is no different from other people.
Whar I am trying to emphasize is feng shui can help but it cannot solve ALL our problems and give us everything we want. If we can afford the best feng shui placement but is a arrogant, ruthless, rude, bad tempered and inconsiderate person, it is very difficult to form meaningful relationships with others.
There are a lot of issues and problems that we cannot solve with money or hiring Masters or consultants. Life would always has its ups and downs. It is important for us to build inner strength and resillence to battle any storms and obstacles that comes our way. As well as to treat others kindly and spend quality time with our loved ones.
Update: October 2021: A feng shui channel that combines spiritual values with feng shui
I have recently discovered a YouTube channel, that incorporate spiritual values in feng shui. Without the combination of spiritual values, I feel feng shui, which uses the knowledge of elements to extract wealth and luck, is akin to withdrawing from our ‘merit’ account. Meaning we take, take, take but never top up our ‘spiritual’ account. Till one day, the balance would come to zero or withdrawn and the life of the person would take a drastic bad turn.
The channel belong to Lee Ji Qian, a Chinese Metaphysics practitioner from Singapore. I attach an interesting video which she spoke about the disadvantages of having too many soft toys in one’s home- as not only it affects the career of the man of the house, it also attracts goblins or spirits to occupy the toy. Scary huh but yes, sometimes don’t you feel a little spooky when you see certain toys?
