Water, as stated before in Parts One
and Two, represents the Tao, the
One, everything and the great importance of water in Feng
Shui is very powerful and can be explained from its links
with Taoism and Buddhism. Indeed, Taoists used water with
other natural herbs and fungi to try to achieve immortality.
Meditation, breath control and sexual yoga became known as
internal alchemy and all three were practiced. Buddhists,
Hindus and to a lesser degree Confucianists also used these
tantric(secret, quick)methods as a way of searching for enlightenment.
When Buddhism first came into China, the Taoists took many
of its features. This carried on right up to the Mao Revolution
period when Feng Shui, Buddhism and Taoism were banned by
the communists, but now they are back again in the mainstream
life of China. In towns as well as in the countryside too,
some of the larger Taoist temples are again functioning. Now
the temples are built of stone, not wood, so that they can
never again be burnt down, as they were in the early 1950ís.
In Hong Kong and Taiwan, Taoism and Buddhism never really
went away. It is interesting that in Hong Kong and Taiwan,
the tradition of Feng Shui is extremely strong. Note how strong
and prosperous both these communities are!
Apart from Taoism and Buddhism, Chinese society was also
strongly influenced by another body of ideas-Confucianism.
Kung Fu Tzu(551-479 BC), westernised into the name Confucius,
was the founder of the first Chinese wisdom school .Confucius
believed that good government was a matter of ethics, people
must play their assigned roles in a fixed society under authority.
He wrote strict moral teachings, based on the strong foundation
of institutions and practices that have been used by the Chinese
for centuries, and that were once again linked to Feng Shui.
To accept the inevitability of the world was one of the outstanding
characteristics of the ideal person of Confucius. It became
a personal philosophy for how each person lives their lives
and was strongly aligned with the natural laws governing Feng
Shui.
Feng Shui is concerned with the enhancement of Earth luck,
doing what you can with the environment around you, to make
it as healthy and harmonious as you can. Merit, good luck
achieved through good works and karmic luck, inherited from
previous lives, can never be strongly affected by Feng Shui.
It is important to note then that in the practice of Feng
Shui, you can never guarantee the dismissal of all problems
and pain--but it will enhance the good, produce opportunity
and potential, but also allow you to cope with the bad times
in a much more positive way. Feng Shui is an important piece
of the jigsaw of human existence, but it is just one piece.
What Feng Shui does do every time, without fail, is to attract
better luck for you and also enable you to deal with bad times
in a much better way than if Feng Shui had not been applied.
You are living in harmony with your environment rather than
fighting against it.
Luck then, is not just accidental as we seem to think in
the West, it relies on earth luck, the chi in your environment
and how you use it, this dragons breath. Merit luck is how
you conduct yourself through life and karmic luck is passed
through from previous lifetimes. Karmic and merit luck are
particularly connected to Buddhism and Taoism. It is important
that Westerners in particular realise that Feng Shui will
not necessarily bring a magical cure into their lives. It
often does, but because we are only dealing with one third
of the luck, sometimes, life although improving, will still
have its difficulties and problems---that is life, always
has been and always will be.
Chinese Buddhism, with its concepts of merit and karma, developed
through the 6th and 7th centuries. It divided into two distinct
schools, Chan Buddhism which used meditation and the other
school developed into a strongly devotional sect which practiced
the invocation of particular Buddhas and was a definite religion
rather than a philosophy. These Buddhas, notably Ho Tai and
Tara, also known as Quan Yin, are used in Feng Shui enhancements,
for cures and protection. Remember that all of the figures
used in Feng Shui were real living people and they are examples
of what can be achieved and called Gods because of this, not
in any Western religious sense of the word God. These certain
Buddha figures, both male and female, humans who have cracked
the code and knew how to live their lives, crop up along with
Taoist immortals in the symbolic applications of Feng Shui.
In Japan too, where Feng Shui is known as inyodo (the way
of Yin and Yang), these Buddha figures are used in Feng Shui,
as well as elements of its own very ancient religion, Shinto.
Shinto is very similar in many ways to Taoism and the nature
loving philosophies of Tibet and Ancient China, where Tai
Chi and secret Tantric practice developed through the observation
of nature, in particular the forces of wind and water--linking
it again to Feng Shui.
Throughout all of these philosophies
meditation was used. It was, and still is, hard work and can
be made easier by the influences of Feng Shui! Meditation
stressed oral instruction and was constantly looking to nature
for examples. It became the strong inspiration for artistic
and poetic creativity. Riddles and questions were asked of
the meditation students who were then left to ponder them.
These became the famous koans of Zen Buddhism in Japan. Meditation,
and the philosophies associated with it, is concerned with
things as they are - not how you would like them to be and
in this way it links again to the practice of Feng Shui. Feng
Shui is working with things as they are, to try and enhance
your life, bringing your life into harmony and balance with
its surroundings, the principles of yin and yang, comprising
the five elements of water, earth, fire, metal and wood. The
essence of all things, made of the elements in different combinations,
the chi, is eternal, immutable and independent-worldly things
arise, pass away and so are empty-once again, the very core
of Taoism and Buddhism.
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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