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Without going into the vast detail which I had to study during
my Ph.D course, you are already beginning to see through Part
One how Feng Shui is not an isolated earth science or
art form, but rather it is an important part of a huge picture,
a way of life to the Ancient Chinese, which therefore linked
together and made complete sense and was not an airy fairy,mystical
mumbo jumbo! This is the danger in what I call The Emperors
New Clothes Syndrome, the blinding of people with mystical
terms and phrases - stay way from it - keep it down to earth,
and so , by using The Compass School Feng Shui explained in
this series of articles, it can always be approached as practical,
simple and well proved!
In Taoism, salvation, enlightenment, is not brought by deep
religious prayer but rather by the careful observance of nature,
the natural ways of life, the seasons, the flowing forces
of chi, the natural energies all around us. These meandering
flows of subtle energies flow throughout the environment and
through the human body--the inner and outer landscapes. The
Tao, the eternal movement of these energies, is the all embracing
ultimate principle which existed before all else. The Tao
is the life force, which emits the chi, the dragons breath
and right through Chinese history and prehistory, chi is referred
to, along with-the four celestial animals of the four cardinal
compass points [north,south ,east and west]. These symbols
were being used in ritual earthenware and decoration, so the
dragon, the phoenix, the turtle and the tiger were well known
before Taoism really got going. They were symbols of the types
of chi, the energy, the calm, the dangerous, the nurturing,
the lively - all the subtle winds swirling through the lives
of humans - the essentials of Feng Shui, developed through
the observation of nature.
The aim of the philosophical Taoist was to become one with
the Tao realizing the universal law of the return of everything
to its source. Many years later Taoists tried to achieve this
through becoming immortal and as you study more about Feng
Shui, you will read of the legends of immortality and the
symbols of it which remain today in such Feng Shui remedies
as the crane, the deer and the pine tree. In these symbols,
along with the Chinese astrological animals, there are strong
links to Buddhism, Shintoism and even Hinduism. Taoists, through
meditation and ritual, were trying to find a special kind
of emptiness-íwuí-and simplicity-ípuí
and abide in non-action-íwu weií, just be-ing
rather than do-ing. In this, Taoism shares certain similarities
with Buddhism . The insistence that the intellect cannot comprehend
the Unknowable, the Tao, which once named is not the Tao any
longer. Taoism teaches that understanding is not derived from
knowledge or theory- but, by comprehension of what is obvious
- by observing nature and the natural laws of the weather,
the seasons and in particular the flowing of water, which
though gentle is so very strong. Here, once again, the philosophy
contained within Taoism, Buddhism, Japanese Shinto and Tibetan
Bon have very strong connections with Feng Shui.
Taoism had existed alongside Confucianism and Buddhism in
China throughout the centuries, and along with Feng Shui,
it had exerted a great influence on Chinese
intellectual, poetical, artistic and spiritual life as well
as the ordinary everyday life. As Yin and Yang are opposites
striving to blend, so Confucianism and Taoism seem to be opposites
and yet were brought together as a combined way of life by
the Chinese, very much as a way of living rather than a set
religion. They were simple, near to nature and part of the
everyday world of farming, crops, weather, illness and death
Taoists saw as the ideal, a return to rural simplicity, in
which people would be content to conduct their lives unconcerned
with what went on in the next village, the perfect, simple
life. The Taoists valued the mountains solitude and also believed
that mountain tops brought them closer to the sources of the
Tao than anywhere else. The rolling mountain landscapes were
the sleeping dragons, the rivers its veins of flowing blood
and the energies of chi,the dragons breath. The mountain monastery
tradition carried through into Japan with many of the Buddhist
retreats being up in the mountains, the ëyamabushií,
the mountain monk warriors who still exist today in the Northern
Sacred mountains of Japan.
The yin and yang ideas also traveled to Japan to become Japanese
Feng Shui, known as ëInyodoí or Fu Sui. In yo
do means the way of yin and yang, Fu Sui means wind water
- indeed the Japanese days of the weeks reflect the important
essentials of Feng Shui, Fu Sui - Sun Day, Moon Day, Fire
Day, Water Day, Wood Day, Metal Day and Earth Day. The Chinese
days of the week are not so romantically linked, simply, What
Day is it?, and then day one, two, three, four five, and six!
Inyodo, the way of yin and yang is crucial to the study of
Feng Shui, but it existed back into the prehistory of China
and right through the history of Japan and other eastern cultures
- this was while Europe was fighting its way through the Dark
Ages and The Plague!
Yin and Yang, two forces which operate
throughout the universe - yin and yang - known in modern Physics
as positively and negatively charged electrons (amongst other
complicated names and particles!). These opposites are used
in meditation and Tai Chi as well as Feng Shui. Confucianism
was seen as a Yang philosophy, strong and forceful - Taoism,
on the other hand is gentle and so is yin, soft and feminine.
Kung Fu is yang, Tai Chi is yin. Its power, the power of the
chi, the dragons breath comes directly from nature.
Part
1: The Origins of Feng Shui
Part 2: Feng Shui influences through tai chi and meditation
Part
3: The Roots of Feng Shui
Part
4: Feng Shui and how you can use it
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