Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Is Feng Shui a Daoist practice?

Is Feng Shui a Daoist practice?

No, Feng Shui exists much earlier then Daoism. Back then, the practice is not known as Feng Shui yet but as Kan1 Yu2.

But why is Feng Shui always associated with Daoism?

This is because both Daoism and the practice of Feng Shui are based on the same core concepts of Yin-Yang, the five elements, the Ba Gua, the He Tu and Luo Shu, and also the existence of Qi. They share the same philosophical roots that are derived from the Yi Jing (I-ching). The reason being the earliest practitioners of Kan Yu are the Fang Shi 方士 (experts of th esoteric formulas) of ancient China who also happens to be the predecessors of the Daoists. That is why Cate Bramble (a Certified Traditional Feng Shui consultant and affiliate with the American Feng Shui Institute) said:

"Daoists developing Feng Shui were the theoretical physicists of the ancient world — part mystics and part scientists, their keen observations of and hypotheses about nature are the closest thing the ancients had to modern scientific inquiry, surpassing the Greeks by a considerable margin."

Master Yap Cheng Hai also commented on this:

"Feng shui has no bearing with religion. It is similar to the Taoist philosophy, which has its roots in China much earlier than Buddhism, in that everything is cyclical and everything will revert to the Tao or nothingness.
The link between feng shui and Taoism is very obvious. The scholars in ancient days were all Taoists and you could say that the Taoists practised feng shui. As the general population became more educated, feng shui spread as a form of knowledge and broke free from Taoism."

As a result, both Daoists and Feng Shui practitioners alike find it easy to embrace each others’ beliefs and practices since ancient time. That is also why many Feng Shui masters happens to be a lineage carrier of some Daoist sects (especially in
Asia). In fact, over the centuries ideas, concepts and terminologies have been borrowed from Daoism and incorporated into Feng Shui and vice versa. The author Lim Jian Qiang林健强 in his book [玄空风水科学检证] has mentioned:

风水思想和理论的形成虽然比道教要早,但道教的思想和理论渗透到风水文化之中,为推动玄空风水的发展产生深远的影响,功不可没。

据学者考证,玄空风水中的七星九星之名源出于道教。道教中应用的扶占、符箓、祝咒等,都在玄空风水文化活动中得到宽泛的运用。

Lu Xun 鲁迅, the father of modern Chinese literature, once said: " The roots of China lie in Daoism 中国根柢全在道教." Delve into the history books and it is not difficult to see that almost everything Chinese has intimate links with Daoism.

However, do not be mistaken to think that one have to be a Daoist to practice and use Feng Shui. This is not necessary and definitely not my purpose here. But I need to make clear one thing: Please do not deny Daoism's role in the development of Feng Shui, for to do so is to deprive others of the chance to know Feng Shui comprehensive history. I know alot of teachers in an attempt to market Feng Shui to the masses always claim that "Feng Shui has absolute nothing to do with Daoism. Period. " . I feel that this is unjustifiable and uncalled-for.

Here's what Larry Sang's student P.K. Odle said in her Feng Shui Advantage's website:

"Classical Feng Shui is a science with the same roots as Acupuncture. Needles are used in Acupuncture to treat the energy patterns of the body, while Feng Shui uses the five elements to treat the invisible energies in your home / office. Unless your religious beliefs prevent you from visiting an Acupuncturist, there isn’t anything stopping you from using the science/art of Feng Shui to improve the energy patterns that are already affecting every area of your life."


Regards
Alvin Chua

Written by Alvin Chua. All rights reserved. Copyright @. Not for commercial use of any kind.

Can A Buddhist Practices Feng Shui?

Yes, why not? Qi affects us in everyway irregardless of our religious beliefs. Feng Shui works like acupuncture, it is the manipulation of the Qi in our immediate environment to cure our daily mundane ills. Its efficacy is not dependent on you believing it or not. A tribal villager may think that you are bullshiting him when you try to explain to him the existence of ultraviolet rays but it does not change the fact that he can get skin cancer if he is overexposed to the rays under the sun. However, please note that the Buddha is clear that such practices are not advocated for a Buddhist. I know that there are many Feng Shui Masters who promoted Feng Shui hand in hand alongside with their Buddhist practices and in turn hope that their apparent piety can rake in more Feng Shui audit deals fro them.

Regards
Alvin Chua

Feng Shui Master Or Just A Salesman?

A few days ago, I went to visit a local Feng Shui Master in Eastern Singapore who is quite famous since he is frequently featured in the Chinese newspapers. In fact, I was very excited about meeting him and listen to what's his comments on my house's floorplan., which is a free service provided by him. I have bought some of his audio cds before and thus thought that he's good but when he analyse my floorplan, I knew something was amiss. First, he used the facing of my main door to determine the House gua. He then commented that it is a very good house for me and my wife since we are both West Group based on Bazhai and my house is a West Group House. "Of course it's a auspicious house since I applied my Bazhai knowledge when purchasing this house ", I thought to myself. It was later in my further indepth study did I realised that the method of using the main door as a determinant of house facing is not recommended by many masters. And this guy here is using this method to analyse my house, what the hell? He then go on about how I can enchance my house with drastic renovation recommendation. From this moment onwards, I truly saw his true colors. This so-called master is simply just a salesman. Said that the main problem is that my main door faces the door of one of the bedrooms. And the only way is to change the position of the bedroom door. The other option will be to place a crystal boulder there, next to the door. He went on to recommend me the crystal boulders he's selling which ranges from $5000 to $10000. Gosh, no wonder these Feng Shui bastards are so filthy rich. A few thousands for a bloody rock?! He maybe able to con the layperson but not a fellow practioner. Classical Feng Shui doesn't use crystal in the first place except as a Earth element. .. To increase my wealth luck, he try to sell me his Buddhist vase which cost a few hundred bucks. Feng Shui has nothing to do with Buddhism. In fact, the Buddha is very clear in his teachings that Buddhists are to shun away from such practices. From this incident, I gathered that in Singapore, only the rich can afford to have Feng Shui consultation. I am really disappointed with the Feng Shui salesmen out there who simply want to con people's hard-earned money. Pui!


Regards Alvin Chua

Written by Alvin Chua. All rights reserved. Copyright @. Not for commercial use of any kind.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Who’s who in the Fengshui World?

Grand Master: Yap Cheng Hai 葉清海 (Malaysia)
Student: Lilian Too (Malaysia), CP Lim (Singapore), Adelina Pang (Singapore) , Joey Yap (Malaysia)

Master: Joseph Yu (Canada)
Student: Lynn Yap (Singapore), Joey Yap (Malaysia) , Heluo aka Roel Hill (The Netherlands), Kartar Diamond (United States)

Master: Philip Cheong (Malaysia)
Student: Joey Yap (Malaysia)

Master: Larry Sang (United States)
Student: Kartar Diamond (United States), Lorraine Wilcox (United States) , P.K. Odle (United States), Chris Shaul (United States).

Grand Master: Lum Kwok Hung 林國雄 (Hong Kong)
Student: Joey Yap (Malaysia), Leung Kim Ho梁劍豪 (Hong Kong)

Master: Raymond Lo (Hong Kong)
Student: Kartar Diamond (United States), Georgia Kiafi (Greece)

Grand Master: The late Ma Jen-chou (Ma Renzhou) 馬仁騶 (Hong Kong; departed in the 6th lunar month of 2005)
Student: Eva Wong, Yi Guanyin 尹冠英

This is just a rough guide and may not be accurate. Please inform me of any mistakes.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Feng Shui of Marina Bay Intergrated Resort

















It's a bad job done. It's definitely not authentic Feng Shui but I read in the Chinese newspapers that the geomancer was paid a hefty sum of money for his service. Please zoom in the picture to read the article and also the pointers I have added to the pictures. The three towers were said to be the mountains providing a strong support and the three main event centers to represent three Chinese coins (what?!). The structure on the left of the picture which is supposed to be in the shape of a lotus flower was designed so as to appease the 妈姐 Ma Jies (who have broken their vows and punished by death) who died along this coastline, based on the Buddhist values attributed to the lotus flower. (Yah right...).

Can't believe big corporations are willing to pay that kind of $$$ for questionable Feng Shui theories...I have never heard of the guy before and thus do not know of his credibility. His name is 张传力 but intensive search on the Net found no information about him at all. The newspaper said that he was a Feng Shui consultant for some international corporations especially in Europe.

I have read a interview with Master Tan Khoon Yong about his comments on the IR and he said that it is a beneficial design and further elaborated the feng shui analysis in the same line as the one given by 张传力 above. Hmmm, maybe I am not skilled enough to understand their analysis and interpretation. But I do notice that there is a excessive focus on the symbolic meaning in their interpretation. Yes, we do use symbols in Feng Shui but the key aspect is still the manipulation of Qi, otherwise it would have been a form of psychological studies.

The Chinese newpaper is here:

























Regards
Alvin Chua

濱海灣金沙風水格局

Taken from the site:


ChinaPress.com

May 28, 2006 18:01

濱海灣金沙贏得發展權
風水格局成焦點

(新加坡28日訊)拉斯維加斯金沙集團的濱海灣金沙脫穎而出,贏得新加坡首個綜合度假勝地發展權后,濱海灣金沙的風水格局,很自然的成為眾人焦點。

新加坡風水師對這一發展項目的風水佈陣有何看法?

濱海灣金沙和澳門的金沙娛樂場,甚至和設在美國拉斯維加斯的總部又有何不同?

這些都是引人入勝的有趣話題。

新加坡著名風水師陳軍榮今早受訪時說,濱海灣金沙的基本佈局是“七星伴月”。

他說,3棟高的酒店建築和4棟矮的主要建築形成七星,屬于陽性建築,外貌似蓮花的戶外表演場所是唯一的陰性建築,也就是“七星”所伴的“月”。

3棟酒店建築象征著福、祿、壽,代表著新加坡3代領導人的傑出貢獻,而4棟矮的主要建築是“四大護法”,起著保護福、祿、壽的作用。

象徵福祿壽

陳師傅說,這4棟建築將是賭場,主要娛樂消閒設施所在處,因此是比較會賺錢的部份,支撐著整個綜合度假勝地的運作。

至于那蓮花型建築,配上噴泉和燈光效果,將讓綜合度假勝地所處的水域增添各種水上活動,帶動了原本被封住的河口,使死水變活水。

陳師傅認為美中不足之處,是3棟酒店建築上面的空中花園,在形成平台后限制了其發展,以致難有突破。他認為3棟建築應有高低。

隱藏蝠從天降
風水師:福蔭新加坡

蝠從天降的格局!

另1位風水師魏錦文認為,濱海灣金沙隱藏“蝠從天降”的風水格局,正好與新加坡本身的“金鷹撲石”形成“蝠鷹”陣勢,可說是福蔭新加坡”。

他說,從上面看,濱海灣金沙的4棟主要矮建築像蝙蝠,取蝠(福)從天降的風水格局,而蝙蝠喜歡在夜間活動,因此會帶旺各種夜間活動,包括賭場,夜總會,夜間表演等。

至于蓮花形狀的露天劇場,剛好在白虎的位置上,那是管錢財位置,因此能大吉大利。

魏師傅說,靠水邊的升降台則將吸百川之氣,起著帶旺整個綜合度假勝地的作用。

那3棟酒店則起著“三足鼎立的作用”,將和雲頂及澳門的賭場抗衡。

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Raymond Lo Talk: Feng Shui And You In 2007

Speaker:Master Raymond Lo
Date:Thu, 2 Nov 2006, 8pm - 9.30pm
Venue:Singapore Conference Hall, 2nd Level
Price:$10 (incl. GST) for all Singapore Pools’ customers


Click here for more details

Oh crappp............. what a sad day.......today is the talk and I can't get hold of any tickets for it. I went all over town, 5 outlets in all but 3 are retailers, telling me they don't sell the ticket and the other 2 are Singapore pools branches but the ticket are sold out. Really shitty that I have to miss this talk... Damned...

香港科学研究风水住宅面向西南 高楼居民最健康

Below is an report from the local Chinese newspaper, titled 'Hong Kong Scientific Studies discover that those staying in highrise apartments and facing Southwest are more healthy':

(新加坡)新明日报 (2005-08-02)
  (综合电)香港科学研究风水,香港理大建筑系的研究显示,在香港住在面向西南与高层楼的居民最健康。而面向马路的居民,每月却较常看医生。住宅的坐向和景观与健康息息相关,香港理工大学的研究,证实两者关系有科学根据。

  研究发现,住在面向西南及高层的住户是最健康一族,面向马路的居民每月却较常看医生,通风设计差的房子可能累积较平均高五倍的有害氡气。

  研究人员测试不同住户的通风效果,发现有部分住户居民紧闭窗户外出或使用分离式冷气机时,室内便积聚二氧化碳等空气中的有害气体,有些住户累积的可致癌气体氡气,较平均水平高五倍,达到危险水准。

  研究认为部分楼宇呈十字形设计的住户,‘天井’空间十分狭窄,各住户厨房向‘天井’排放的油烟难以消散,若倒流入住宅内,会污染室内空气。低层没有分开设置的独立污水系统,令高层住户的污水和臭气容易经马桶倒流入住宅内。

Sunday, October 29, 2006

A Recent Feng Shui Audit I Did Of A HDB Flat




















Here 's a report I have done up for my relative's house:

It's a 六运子坐午向之宅

FENG SHUI ANALYSIS
House: Period 6 (Built between 1964 – 1983)
Facing: 180 degrees South坎宅 (东四宅)
Current Period: 8
Usable Stars: 3 and 6
Guardian Star of each Family Member 命卦
Father: 4 Wood (Year 1969己酉) 东四命
Auspicious Directions (In order of from the best to the average): North, East, South and Southeast.
Unlucky Directions (In order of from the mild to the worst): Northwest, West, Southwest and Northeast.
Mother: 9 Fire (Year 1976丙辰) 东四命
Auspicious Directions: Southeast, North, East and South.
Unlucky Directions: Northeast, Southwest, West and Northwest.
Son: 6 Metal (Year 2003癸未) 西四命
Academic Locations: North-East
(文昌位) and West (文曲位).
Auspicious Directions: West, Southwest, Northeast and Northwest.
Unlucky Directions: East, North, Southeast and South.
Daughter: 3 Wood (Year 2006丙戌) 东四命
Academic Locations: South-West
(文昌位) and North-East (文曲位).
Auspicious Directions: South, Southeast, North and East.
Unlucky Directions: Southwest, Northeast, Northwest and West.
Remember: When seated (whether doing work, calculating finances, studying, etc), always face your auspicious direction. As for sleeping, the top of your head should point towards your auspicious direction. Harmful directions should be avoided whenever possible. These directions can also be applied to your workspace in the office.
Also, regarding the Academic locations (文昌/文曲), the children can use the given sector in terms of the whole house or of a particular room. E.g. Academic location is West, the dining area in the kitchen will be the West in terms of the whole house. As for rooms, just set your compass in the center of the room to find out where is the West and place the study table alongside the western wall.

General
This house will benefit the female owner greatly in terms of her career luck. This is because the Period Star at the main entrance is the 3 Wood star which gives birth to her guardian star 9 Fire. As for the male owner, career luck will be average since the house will not help him much but won’t cause much trouble also. As head of the family, he will be prone to injuries. Children will be generally unhealthy because of the 8 and 4 combination at the main entrance. In fact, health and relationships with others will be below average since the ruling mountain star 8 has “gone down the water”. Also, the Gen (Northeast) sector of the house is missing which means its occupants will tend to have stomach, spleen and intestinal problems.
Remove or cover any empty containers in the living room and dining area (the half of the kitchen that is nearest to the living room, where the dining table is), such as vases (both empty or with flowers/water), umbrella stands, etc. This will help in the well-being of the relationship of the husband and wife.
Room A (South-east)
Water Star 2; Mountain Star 1; Period Star 5
There will be frequent illnesses (especially concerning kidneys, urinary organ, and ear-related problems) for those who sleep in this room due to the combination of the 2 and 5. It will be worse if the room is used as a study room or play room. The effect will be felt strongest in the year 2006 and 2012. The occupants may even be injured. If out of necessity this place is to be used as a bedroom, make sure to hang a string of six-emperor coins六帝钱 with a calabash 葫芦. Never hang any wind chimes in this room. Among all the family members, the son is the most suitable person to sleep in this room.
Room B (East)
Water Star 3; Mountain Star 9; Period Star 4
The best room to sleep in since it contains the mountain star 9 which is the future ruling star, bringing good health. Other than sleeping, limit the use of this room to activities that are quiet or restful such as reading. The water star 3 is a quarrelsome star, however, it is usable in this period and thus will not cause any trouble.
Room C (Center)
Water Star 1; Mountain Star 2; Period Star 6
Not recommended to be used as a bedroom. Its door is located in the sector of the sickness star, 2. The mountain star 2 is also residing here, therefore making it a sickly place to sleep in. Best to have it as a study room, activity room, etc. Hang a string of six-emperor coins六帝钱 with a calabash 葫芦 to prevent the sickness star from creating trouble.
Living Room
Water Star 6; Mountain Star 6; Period Star 1
The water star 6 is usable in the current period; therefore the living room will provide a good space for family gathering. No remedy is required here.

Dining Area
Water Star 8; Mountain Star 4; Period Star 8
Keep this area alive by having meals here as much as possible because this is the part of the house where the money star is located.

Stove Area
Water Star 9; Mountain Star 3; Period Star 7
The water star 9 is the future ruling star and thus another money star also. Preparation of meal here will help give it power to bring beneficial energy. However, the combination of the 7 and 9 may cause fire and it is also physically supported by the Roof Ledge Sha屋檐煞 outside the kitchen window. Be careful when using the stove especially in the year 2010, 2012 and 2014. Another point to note is the stove which can be seen clearly upon entering the main entrance of the house. This represents money leakage as the stove is traditionally viewed as related to money luck. It can be remedied by using placing a standing screen in the living room or beads curtain at the kitchen entrance to prevent visitors from seeing the stove clearly when entering the house.
Prepared by:
Mr Alvin Chua
29 June 2006
P.S. I have focused more on spiritual healing in recent years (with my guru's guidance) thus I have no time left to do feng shui audit for people.
All rights reserved. Copyright @. Not for commercial use of any kind.

Interesting Post from SingaporeBrides.com

Below is a post in the website's forum, in which a member by the nickname of Mint commented about her experiences of engaging the service of a local Feng Shui master:

Posted on Tuesday, September 14, 2004 - 11:12 am:

Hi all,
I had a very bad experience with Master Koh Pu Lin and find that he's a con-man. We paid him and he never called back to do a follow-up as promised. We were so angry. Then he still had the cheek to ask us for donations. Later I got another geomancer and realised that Koh Pu Lin had given us the wrong directions of our house. He said that my main door faces north but in actual fact, it faces south. Can't believe this, a geomancer can actually get simple directions like this wrong and he's still so famous. Famous con-man more like it.

When he came to my house, he was very rude. We asked him if we could hack down a wall because we wanted to do open concept, he just said no without giving proper explanations. When I asked him again if we could hack it, he said, "when I say no, you just listen and dun ask so much". Can't believe he was so rude. He even said that we cannot sleep in our master bedroom and have to move out of the house after five years. He even ask us to put an umbrella stand at our front door. Lillian Too's basic feng shui already mentions that cannot put umbrellas at the front door and he's supposed to be a well-known geomancer. He didn't even use a luo pan when checking the directions of my house. He just used a normal compass and said that my door faces north. I was quite sure it faced south because I checked it with the Lillian Too's compass many times before buying the unit.

Later on, I got another geomancer and he explained to me that I should not hack down the wall because my wealth will fly out. My geomancer also said that the house is good for me and my hubby and that we should stay here long-term. Of course my geomancer was shocked when he heard that KPL asked us to put umbrella at the front door.

Anyway, I wasted money by getting that KPL. Consider it as "po4 qian2 xiao1 zhai1"

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Myopic Nation

I attended a talk on eye care and the optometrist reveal that the primary cause of myopia among Singaporeans is the result of the environment. By the way, Singapore is one of the countries with the highest myopic population in the WORLD. The environment factor alone makes up 85% while other factors like hereditary make-up, etc are in the 15%. What environment we talking about here? A superbly enclosed area. Due to the lack of land space, developers have no choice but to squeeze every building close together in order to optimize the land use. Without distance objects to focus on, prolonged visual exposure to nearby objects thus increase the risk of myopia. From a Feng Shui perspective, most of these buildings are lacking a Bright Hall 明堂. Other than those buildings facing the sea, all inland facing buildings or offices would mean a small Bright Hall or no Bright Hall at all. The occurrences of Poison Arrows will also be very high due to the proximity. Thus, a negative environment can actually have such a detrimental effect on a nationwide level.

Regards
Alvin Chua

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Clarifying Traditional Chinese Feng-shui

Below is a posting I found from the Shambhala Publications Community Discussions Forum (now defunct) in which Eva Wong was one of the moderators back then.

Clarifying Traditional Chinese Feng-shui
There are a number of requests for guidelines on how to distinguish traditional Chinese feng-shui from popular feng-shui and a mixture of the two.

The following is a set of guidelines. It is by no means exhasutive. It is designed to answer many common queries coming from many readers.

Now, here are some pointers.
1. Four Pillars is NOT a part of classical traditional Chinese feng-shui. NOWHERE in the traditional Chinese feng-shui classics are Flying Stars, or Three Periods, or Three Combinations, or 8 Mansions discussed together with Four Pillars. Four Pillars is astrology and is a stand-alone divinational system. It is only used by several contemporary practitioners in Hong Kong as part of a feng-shui evaluation.

2. EAST-WEST LIFE (K'UA) is part of 8 Mansions system. The technique of determining a person's life trigram is particular to the 8 Mansions school. It is inconsistent to use it in conjunction with Xuan Kong (Hsuan-k'ung). In the Flying Stars system there are 9 guardian stars.

3. Traditional Chinese feng-shui does NOT use crystals at all. Other cultures may use crystals, but use of crystals has never been a part of Chinese culture.

4. The Flying Stars of Hsuan-k'ung (Xuan Kong) uses 24 directions. There is only ONE technique of flying the stars. There are no "alternative" techniques.

5. If there are "alternative simplified" approaches to Xuan Kong, Three Periods, or Three Combinations, we would have seen them emerging in the last several hundred years. The fact that simplified versions of these schools did not appear until feng-shui has "reached" the west says something about the "simplified" versions.

6. Feng-shui is very complex. Eva Wong's two books and the YCH xuan kong homestudy course cover at most 10% of knowledge of the entire field. This gives you an idea of the scope of the knowledge of feng-shui.

7. All traditional Chinese feng-shui schools are concerned with hsing-ch'i (landform energy) as well as li-ch'i (directional eneregy). The dichotomy of Form school vs Compass school does not exist in traditional Chinese feng-shui. ALL traditional Chinese feng-shui schools (with the exception of 8 Mansions) use the Chinese geomantic compass or lo-p'an of the 24 directions.

8. Black Hat School of feng-shui is not a traditional Chinese school of feng-shui. For more information about this school, please check the website: www.qi-whiz.com.

9. So many feng-shui schools are cropping up these days that it would be impossible to keep a list of them. Best way is to know what's traditional and make the comparison yourself.Other than the James Wu post of Feng-shui Schools, the following posts may be of interest:-Eva Wong on "Clarifying Xuan Kong (Hsuan K'ung)-all the discussions centered around "xuan kong da gua"-Eva Wong on "schools, lineages, and transmissions"(You can use the Search function to locate these posts quickly.)- the discussions centered around shang shan hsia shui will give you an idea of the most up-to-date issues that concern the traditional pracititioners in Hong Kong and Taiwan today.

10. It is a problem that traditional Chinese feng-shui is still not understood well in the West. Introducing the non-Chinese-reading public to traditional Chinese feng-shui is a great challenge. We are just seeing the beginning appearance of authentic traditional Chinese feng-shui in the West during the last five years or so.

11. Responses from the moderators - Eva Wong, Yang Hsi, James Wu, Stephen Lin, and Gina Stick - will give you a feel for the kind of feng-shui typically practiced in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Information about the moderators can be found in the post: "Introducing forum moderators".

The above points do not address the issue of which system of feng-shui is correct or incorrect. It merely gives you a feel for distinguishing what is accepted as traditional Chinese feng-shui among the Chinese and what is not.

The forum moderators

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Faith & Feng Shui - Should Christians be taking Feng Shui seriously?

Today we take a look at Feng Shui from the Christians' perspective. The following article was originally published in the Jul-Aug 2005 edition of The Plain Truth – A Magazine of Christian Understanding.

Faith and Feng Shui
Should Christians be taking Feng Shui seriously?

By Dr. Chan Geok Oon

How can feng shui maximise your luck for the year? You have probably come across this in an advertisement. You may also have heard or read about someone who struck a lottery after rearranging his furniture according to certain feng shui principles. You

may even have been told to place a certain plant at a certain corner of your living room to improve the feng shui of your home.

What is feng shui? Why do people—from the highly educated to the illiterate, from the East to the West—believe in it? In the last two decades, the interest in feng shui has caught on globally. In fact, one of the non-fiction best sellers listed by The Star for the week ending November 16, 2003, was Flying Star Feng Shui For Period 8 by Lillian Too.

Feng Shui, literally ‘wind water’ in Chinese, is the study of ancient Chinese philosophy of nature. It is often identified as a form of geomancy—that is divination by means of geographic features— and is mainly concerned with understanding the relationship between nature and man so that man might live in harmony within the environment. Its original focus was to provide an auspicious burial site for the dead but this was later expanded to include providing auspicious structures for the living, fortune-telling, and prescribing remedies to people who have poor feng shui, and thus, miserable lives.

In ancient days, feng shui was conscientiously sought after and utilised by the Chinese emperors, especially in the building of imperial palaces and for personal power and success. The Imperial City in Beijing is a great example of good feng shui construction and landscaping as the environment and structure conform to the best feng shui principles. For a long time the knowledge of feng shui was closely guarded from the enemies. Later, it was confined to the upper ruling classes.

When a person says he has good feng shui, it probably refers to his state of well being resulting from arranging his surrounding in auspicious harmony with the natural environment. Given that a human being has a natural tendency to interact with nature, the ultimate goal is to capture the intrinsic energy or shen chi which moves around the atmosphere, to attract or harness all the good fortune that one can desire: wealth, health, success and happiness. Since the Creator God exists in every human heart, the natural environment—as opposed to our modern scientific desert—testifies to His existence.

In general, the practice of feng shui draws upon the fundamental concepts of the ancient Chinese view of the universe, which requires an understanding of balancing yin and yang forces and harmonising the combinations of the five elements—fire, earth, metal, water and wood. Among the Chinese, feng shui technology is commonly applied to designing, construction, orientation and decoration of buildings in order to “tap into the beneficial energies that cause intangible forces to generate good fortune,” according to Lillian Too’s Feng Shui Fundamentals: FAME.

Science, Superstition or Art?

Certain feng shui experts like to call it a science while others look at it as an art. In two interesting articles on migratory birds and lemmings, the Malaysian feng shui master Dr. Ong Hean Tatt used feng shui principles scientifically to explain the interconnection of the 12-year zodiac cycle with climatic and environmental changes.

Indeed, feng shui can be very exact in its calculations to get the best location, form, structure and decoration of a dwelling place. It also demands careful interpretation and subjective evaluation and intuition. This is perhaps why women are sometimes considered more efficient in undertaking feng shui analysis because they are more intuitive and detail oriented.

The feng shui language is full of symbolism. Besides the yin and yang symbol and the five elements mentioned above, there are the trigrams, the octagonal pa kua symbol, and the nine sector of the lo shu grid. Others are symbolic of abstract aspirations such as longevity, happiness, fame, wealth and fertility in marriage.

For example, placing the frog with a coin in its mouth outside the main entrance of the house is expected to bring wealth to the family. The crane symbolises longevity and a pair of mandarin ducks symbolises happiness in love. Jars attract chi to settle when placed near the entrance of the house. A fan is a symbol of protection for the home.

Likewise, placing the umbrella at the front part of the lobby is believed to ward off burglars. The mystic knot indicates a never-ending cycle of good fortune. There are many other symbols believed to attract or activate the energy that brings good luck.

“The cosmic breath of the dragon is the ultimate shen chi,” says a well-known geomancer. The “symbol of the dragon is the ultimate yang symbol,” and it is also said to be the “ultimate symbol of good luck.” Obviously the dragon is the centre of feng shui considerations. To most Chinese, it is a symbol of good fortune. Therefore it is highly desirable and is even revered or worshipped as a good luck charm.

Harmless decorations?

It may seem harmless and attractive to utilise some of these symbols as decorations. But for Christians, there is a danger that we may unconsciously put our trust in them to bring good fortune. When that happens, we insult God because it indicates greed and a lack of trust in Him. Such practices amount to idolatry. Colossians 3: 5 says, “…don’t be greedy which is the same as worshipping idols.”

Christians make choices that lead either to ultimate good and divine blessings or total destruction. “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?”

The feng shui literature and advertisements are definitely enticing, feeding on our fleshly desires. In her book “Feng Shui and Wealth,” Lilian Too says: “Earth luck is feng shui… Earth luck helps you to enhance good heaven luck, thus expanding the scale of your successes during good times and bringing you good fortune and prosperity. It also modifies inauspicious heaven luck, helping you overcome difficulties and loss during astrological bad times.”

Christians can be enticed by mammon if we are not alert. It is worth reminding ourselves of James 1:14–15, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn by his own desires and enticed. Then when desires has conceived it gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown, brings forth death,”

A professional feng shui consultant, advertised his course this way: “Learn the crux of the ‘Moving Stars’ and the ‘Shien Kong Moving Stars’ Schools which are practised by top Hong Kong Geomancers. You will be able to forecast events and adjust the feng shui to either enhance or neutralise them. Thus you become the Master of Your Destiny! When you conclude this level, you will have attained the standard of a respected Hong Kong Geomancer.”

Wouldn’t you be fascinated? There is an innate desire to satisfy our curiosity of the unknown, to learn the secrets of our future and the hidden things. God has made it such that we want to find out about our future with the intended purpose of seeking Him and to fear Him alone. Unfortunately people create schemes to bypass God’s way.

“Curiosity killed the cat,” so the saying goes. The moment we have an interest in things of the occult, we make an opening to the influences of the enemy. When we seek them out, the enemy wastes no time to be found.

Our future is in God’s hand. The secret things belong to the Lord (Deuteronomy 29:29). As Christians we are forbidden to dabble in or have any dealings with the elemental or nether world spirits. In Christ we have died to the elemental spirits of the universe. C.S. Lewis claims that pantheism is the natural bent of human mind because deep down in every human heart, God exists.

The Deceiver may grasp every opportunity, through the large number of symbolisms used in feng shui to make man pantheistic instead of just worshipping the one true living God. When the human minds are obsessed with feng shui, which promises them everything that they desire, they then have no need for God, let alone worship Him.

Published in Berita NECF, Jan–Feb 2004.
Reprinted with permission from NECF Malaysia
Research Commision. July–August 2005

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Determining the Facing of a House: Different Feng Shui Masters’ Perspectives

Lum Kwok Hung 林國雄 (Hong Kong): Main door of the unit / house as the facing. If many doors, take the one with the unit number or name of the building.

Li Kui Ming 李居明 (Hong Kong): For level 1 to 5, use the main entrance of the whole building. Level 6 and above, use the unit’s door facing.

Pak Hok Ming 白鹤鸣(Hong Kong): Use the most Yang side of the house, normally happens to be the side with the most sunlight. Must also consider the facing of the main entrance, the side with the most windows, the nearest road, the ming tang, the nearest water feature and also nearby mountains / hills (to determine the sitting).

Raymond Lo (Hong Kong): The side with an open space in front will be the facing of the house. It must also be assessable from outside (e.g. In the case of a beach house, despite having wide windows facing the sea at one side (open space), this side cannot be considered as the facing since it is not assessable by land).

Yeung Dengkwong 杨椗光 (Hong Kong): The main entrance of the whole building. If in terms of an apartment building, the chart is drawn using the facing of the main entrance of the whole building. The best unit is then chosen from this chart of the whole structure. Using the same chart, it will then be superimpose on the unit's floor plan to allocate the kitchen, the masterbedroom, etc. Finally, another chart is created based on the facing of the unit itself. This second chart is for evaluating the external forms and Castle Gate 城门 only. He reached this conclusion after evaluating the other methods in details and many experiences. This method is said to have the least conflicts and thus most accurate.

Joey Yap 叶威明 (Malaysia): The facing of the whole building. An apartment building is simply just a big house with many rooms. Therefore, all units will have the same facing.

Lynn Yap (Singapore): Must consider as a whole, from exterior first then interior. In the past, she used the main entrance of the house or unit as facing but realized that it was not very accurate.

Yap Cheng Hai 叶清海 (Malaysia): Main door of the unit / house as the facing. HE's one of the few masters that uses the main door of the structure, to the extent of a apartment's door. Probably he based it on the book 阳宅三要.

Joseph Yu (Canada): Must consider as a whole. Apartments are to be viewed as a stand alone house. The front door plays no role in determining the facing.

Lilian Too (Malaysia): For houses, use the most Yang side of the house, normally happens to be the side with the best unencumbered and spectacular view. For apartments lower than 9th floor, use the facing entrance of the whole building. Do not use the facing direction of the apartment door. If the unit is on the 9th floor and above, the side with a view from the balcony or patio will be used as the facing since this is akin to living in the high mountains and the Qi distribution will be different.

Larry Sang: The open side of the house is the facing and the closed side is the sitting. You can also think in terms of Yin and Yang. The Yin side is the sitting and the Yang side is the facing. The door does not determine the orientation of the house. The architectural intent is also something that can be used to determine the sitting and facing. Apartments often have the balcony or large windows off the living room as the facing and the hallway or door as the sitting. Remember that the main rule in Feng Shui is it depends. Each house needs to be looked at individually and a determination as to the sitting and facing is both key to the reading and something to be very careful with.

Johnny Chan 陈癸龙 (Hong Kong): The main entrace of the whole structure. This is because in the ancient scriptures, it is said that Qi will 随地而行 flow close to the ground, thus the main door that opens on ground level will have the most Qi entering the structure. This is true even though you maybe staying in a high-rise apartment building. As for deciding which is the main entrance of the building, it should NOT be based simply on the size of the door or that it is frequently used by most people. This is because when a structure was erected, the facing and Qi entrance were already established at the same time irregardless any human was using the entrance or not.

Liang Chao 梁超 (China): Use the most Yang side of the house or apartment.


Often when a practitioner gets negative feedback from a reading, it is because the sitting and facing where incorrectly determined.

Regards
Alvin Chua

Written by Alvin Chua. All rights reserved. Copyright @. Not for commercial use of any kind.

Is Bazi Necessary to do Feng Shui?

Here's what Master Joesph Yu has to say:

Should the Four Pillars be an indispensable tool in Feng Shui studies? The answer is "No!".

Four Pillars of Destiny deals with Heaven Luck. It tells us what is ahead of us in our path of life. It gives us suggestions to handle situations in the future. One of the ways is to use Earth Luck, that is, Feng Shui. The other way is the appropriate use of Man Luck.

Another question is, "In prescribing Feng Shui cures, should we take into account the four pillars of the occupants so that the right elements are assigned?" The answer is a simple "No!". Is this answer shocking? Ask yourself, "If water is my most unfavorable element, should I stop drinking water?" Is the answer obvious? What more intimate relationship between yourself and water than letting water into your body? It is simply a misconception and misunderstanding of the five elements theory to try to use objects and substances to balance the four pillars. Feng Shui and Four Pillars are divided into different levels. In the basic level, we may be using colors and substances to balance our Four Pillars. Since it is not harmful and may be beneficial in a psychological sense, it can be recommended.

Extracted from Jospeh Yu's Feng Shui Made Really Easy IV online article.

By the way, I have known that Bazi is never mentioned in the ancient Feng Shui scriptures. However, it is a common practice among many practitioners to utilise it to aid their analysis. Anyway, here's a quote on this from Johnny Chan, a Xuan Kong Master from Hong Kong:

"坊間人們都產生了一大誤會,以為懂看命理運程的,都應懂看風水,此眾人之誤解的確難為了很多「師傅」,原本未有進修風水的,都要「求求其其」,學些形家、八宅,想著馬馬虎虎,應酬兩句,便可蒙混過關。"

Regards
Alvin Chua

 An update in 2021: After so many years since i wrote the above, the answer is still no BUT if one is able to utilised solutions from Bazi or Vedic astrology simultaneously, then the effects can be many times better instead of solely relying on fengshui alone.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Bad Feng Shui Books

Hi, I've got a feedback asking if I could come up with a list of crappy Feng Shui books so that you people out there don't have to waste your hard earned money on them. Well, it's a great idea but I would say that 80% of the books out there contains rubbish, so it would be a pretty difficult task to list them all down. However, fret not because there's a website that may give you the headstart needed to track down bad feng shui books.

http://qi-whiz.com/node/99

By the way, getting your basics concepts like the Bagua, five elements, Yin-yang, the Ten Celestial Stems , the Terrestrial Branches, etc... will help you alot in learning the genuine Classical Feng Shui.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Meditating in the morning

I have always done my meditation at night before I sleep. But each time I have a deep meditation session, the adequate rest I get from it would keep me wide awake after that. It would take me a long time before I get drowsy enough to enter never never land. As a result, I can get rather drained out in the next morning. Another concern is the fact that I would be very tired after a hard day at the office. Meditation is the last thing to do since most of the time, I would simply doze off amid the process. In the end, I only manage to squeeze once or two times of meditation per week.

But recently, I tried waking up early in the morning to meditate and voila! It works... Here's the reason why it is better to meditate in the morning:

1. When you just wake up, your brain will still linger along the alpha level for awhile before switching to the beta mode, which is the frequency we experience when going about our daily activites. During meditation, we will enter the alpha state most of the time and for well-trained individuals, they may even enter the delta level. So meditating just after you wake up is easier since your brain is already in the alpha mode.

2. You wouldn't doze off so easily since you already had a night's rest. And for this reason, I now can meditate 5 times a week instead of the previous 1-2 times.

3. It charges you up, ready to meet the challenges ahead for the rest of the day.

4. You will not be late for work since you are already out of bed much earlier than usual.

Try it to feel the difference...

Regards
Kinryu

Quote of the Day

This one is from Master Joseph Yu:

"The greatest masters in the history of Feng Shui did not learn Feng Shui from a shifu(teacher) but from books. "

If one is to read up about the history of the ancient Feng Shui masters, one cannot agree more with him. Pretty interesting...

Regards
Kinryu

Saturday, July 22, 2006

My favourite tale of Kerala's Tantric Masters

Below is an account from Sri Atmatattva Das about the infamous Tantric Masters in Kerala taken from the india.divine.org website. It is one of the my favourite writings:

Exposure to the Tantric Path
By Sri Atmatattva Das. Published 05/24/2006

In that little town under the foothills of the western ghat in Kerala, there was just one real building which was a small temple with a tile roofing. The temple was surrounded by huts and shanties. When I arrived, there was a competition going on in the market place between two tantrics who had selected an onlooker from the crowd to be their medium. They had him standing stiff as a bamboo in trance. One tantric pointed a stick at him and said “lay down” he fell flat! The other pointed and said “get up” he rose up straight without bending a limb! A thing about six inches long made from flour which had loose hay for hands and feet with half an egg each for it’s eyes and a knot of real hair stuck on the top was lying on the ground nearby. One of the tantrics recited an incantation and the thing rose up and started moving towards him, rocking back and forth on its own, moving its hay legs sideward.

This town was near the famous Durga temple-town Chotanikara (where midnight tantric rituals are conducted treating hundreds of haunted people). This used to be a kind of show by the local tantric voodoo priests.. they will put up a small challenge to the competitor and usually they meet in front of some old temple in an empty ground .The names of competitors will be announced in the local market place , community bathing lake, and in the temples. So there will be two or three villages gathered around for the fete. About 200 people will be there, and the priests don't have any stage or microphones or anything like that. They just start shouting at each other and the people will stand in a circle. I was just sitting back in fear. I heard some of them murmuring, "When these things start to happen it means it is getting dangerous." One of the tantrics cuts the tongue of the medium with a gross looking blade, there is blood all over . He covers the medium with a blanket and starts screaming out some questions to him, while going in front of different people in the audience. The questions are like what is the color of shirt this man is wearing, what vegetable this lady has in her bag, where is this old man coming from etc. The tongue cut medium screams back answers from under the blanket. Then the other tantric sticks the tongue back in its place, but now the guy cannot talk! In the zeal to outdo one another tantrics call more people out of the crowd. asking them to perform as mediums. No one comes forward fearing that they may possibly perform injurious acts.

Finally, to the relief of everyone they declare a draw to the challenge and announce that they will meet everyone again on another date. The crowd broke up. I walked around the little bazaar near the temple. There I saw one of the tantrics going from stall to stall. This is a weekly kind of market there. There is no building or anything like that, people will come, may be spread a mat or spread a long blanket and then they will put their things on and start selling, while shouting loudly the prices . It will go till sunset time in the evening. Just before they close, the local criminals will come and collect their tax. After they left, everyone was afraid of this magician who went around collecting his toll. After he left I asked some of the shop keepers why they allowed this to go on. One man says if I don't give he will change all these vegetable into creatures. He said, “ He can make snakes fall from the sky”. Another said anything may happen , this man has no heart. He can do what he likes and no policeman will dare touch him. A third man told me he will change the color of my wife's skin. He has chatan (a type of spirit) working for him. Chatan is derived from the Sanskrit word chetana or consciousness. Whether there is a relationship between this name and the Arabic saitan or Hebru's Satan is a question for etymologists.

I was eager to get to the bottom of what I have seen and heard. Without wasting more time in the bazaar I headed for the woods outside the village. At the end of a long paddy field in the eucalyptus woods is where I was told I will find the tantric showman’s residence. after a time consuming hike through the thick village I finally reached the place. The small shelter in the middle of the clearance was assembled with crude wood, with a cut rock that deemed the roof and the ‘hut’ was built under a banyan tree. The roof was not full because one could stand up and see part of the tree where one side there was no or very little roof (rock). It had all around animal bones and human skulls and hair and all kinds of disgusting paraphernalia.

A charming, fair skinned, young lady sat just inside the doorway, if you call it a doorway, that was again a broken side of a wall. She was not yet 20 and looked fresh and virgin. Her hair was worn long , half wet and loose. She had on a simple ankle length maroon red gown which had a long open neck in the front, revealing her flesh.. There was a vacant look in her eyes that did not change when I spoke to her. Asked about the man I was looking for she slowly mumbled, “ please wait he said he would come” which really didn't tell me what I wanted to know . I replaced the question and got the same reply!. Now like a recorded message repeated over and over I could see that see was under some kind of influence. Curiously , I slowly landed my palm on her right cheek, I was right, she didn’t seem to know that I was touching her. Every couple of minutes, she slowly moved her head down a bit, like a newsreader. There was a bewitching smile on her lips too.

I sat down outside the stone shelter. I heard someone moving through the forest. A man stepped into the clearing and I recognized him as the tantric I have seen demanding goods in the village market. Now he didn't look so wild eyed or fearsome. In fact it could have been any common fellow from the street, a rickshaw-driver for instance. Still one could see in his face a strange sort of controlling mood. Not that of a gross sensual lusty person. But someone who had some lust for power. One might say he had the same sort of air about him as a very successful business man - a mixture of ruthless ambition and a cocky confidence. But his success was not in business it was in the black arts. Soundless, he led me into his hut.

The foreside of its dark disjointed interior was taken up by a stove that was simply an arrangement of bricks housing a wood fire. Upon that squatted an oversized copper kettle with two earlike handles on either side. Steam spooled out from under the jug, filling my nose with a stomach unsettling odor. Just a bit short of disgusting and causing me to throw up. Against the other two walls were a flat stone with a highly polished mirror-like surface, a small book case with a thick bundle of palm leaves crowding the shelves and an old, half broken harmonium. In the other corner I saw more of the now familiar rice flour “figures” chilling in their combined morbidity and childishness. As I walked in stooping, my head brushed against bones tied with knots of hair hanging from the timber rafters above. With the stove's fire he lit a couple of candles and we sat down.

By this time it was getting dark. Nervously I began explaining myself, and my new found interest in Tantra. He gazed at me steadily with a cold thin smile until I broke in, in haste, “Can you teach me? Do you think I can learn from you?”

Then he asked in a deadly calm voice, “That job is mine, but tell me, how far do you want to go.?” A scary giggle followed his question.

“To tell you the truth, my real interest is to develop faith in spiritual things by actually seeing something like this”.

“Did you see the show I did today”, he asked , maintaining his reptilian smile.

“Oh yes it was very impressive. How do you perform such feats?.”

He thoughtfully stared at me for a moment. Then he replied, “I can tell you where you can get a little deeper look into the mystery of Shakti, (power). This will be a sort of test for you. But it will have noting to do with me. I will tell you where to go and give you some advice in preparation. But you will be on your own after that. I have selected a venue very close to the house of your Muslim friend." It was bewildering to me how he knew about my Muslim friend.

"If what you see convinces you that this is not parlor magic, you may return here for some serious instruction. Are you interested?" I nodded eagerly - I was very interested. He told me about a small Muslim settlement near a stand of trees known by the name Chavuk, similar to Pine. In the midst of Chavuk woods was a clearing. I was to go to that clearing on the next full moon night and sit and simply watch for something to appear.

“Don't fall asleep whatever you do. You should bring with you a pocket full of small white stones - if you get frightened spit on these stones one at a time and throw them behind you as far as you can and then run. This will help you to get away. Try this encounter , then you may return here”.

I left in no small state of excitement eager for the next full moon night. The afternoon before the full moon night I returned to the region with my Muslim friend. We soon found the little village, that the tantric had told me about and made discrete enquiries about the chavuk forest. Around sundown we located it. Just in case we might need some help, my friend made a quick acquaintance with a Muslim family living some 100 meters across the road that skirted the edge of the trees. These people confirmed that certainly there could be danger and told us they would keep the lamp burning in the window so that we could find our way there easily. We had our pockets full of white stones.

After some hours of killing time in the village we returned about 11 o'clock in the night and entered the woods. The moon was high in the cloudless night sky flooding everything with its pale shine. After a brief walk down a gentle incline we came to an area where some trees had been felled. In the midst of the clearing we saw a broken circular wall that rimmed an old well.

We sat down on a fallen trunk some 20 meters away from it not knowing what to expect .Our attention was drawn to each and every rustle of the woods. For long time nothing happened. Finally after midnight my friend nodded into sleep. I remembered the tantrics warning and remained alert. My back to the well and my gaze moving like a searchlight along the line of trees all around. You could hear every single turn of breeze that was going through the thin leaves of those chavuk trees.

Ten minutes after my friend fell asleep, I trembled, as a cold tingle crept up my spine. Leaping to my feet and turning around I saw something that made my heart almost stop. Bathed in the moon shine a tall statuesque women stood on the well’s rim. I was sure she didn't walk to that place because I was watching. Her eyes were closed. For a moment I wondered if she was a sleepwalker. In face and physique she did not resemble an Indian woman . She had a long loose hair that hung down over the front of her body to her knees - otherwise, she was naked. She was hauntingly voluptuous in a way that was both enticing and frightening.

Staring open mouthed at this apparition I nudged my sleeping friend with my foot. He sat up with a shock, turned to see what I was looking at, then gasped and scrambled to his feet. At once her eyelids lifted revealing twin orbs from hell to penetrate the darkness with a glare like the eyes of a tigress. She fixed those terrible eyes upon mine and stepped off the well alighting to earth as if she was not heavier than a wisp of cotton. The woman’s legs propelled her forward. I cannot say she walked or ran or floated for these words will not simply be able to give you an accurate picture as how she advanced upon us. Her legs moved without bending at the knees making swift little steps of such fluid effortlessness that I was reminded of the locomotion of a centipede. It was almost as if below the waist her body was motorized for when her legs started her head and upper torso with her limbs snapped back slightly from the sudden forward motion at least to our vision.

My friend shaking violently and gibbering caught my hand and tried to pull me with him in a dash for the road. But I was rooted to the spot transfixed by the mysterious eyes of the women. I tried to tell him I couldn’t run but no sound would come from my contracted throat. He left me and fled for his life just as she halved her distance from us. What deadly hypnotic power an automobile’s head lights will have over a deer standing in gaze on it’s path - her eyes had over me. She closed the last few feet between us and I heard my friend shout from behind me “get ready to run!” something flashed through the air and landed behind the woman. She broke off her mesmerizing stare and turned to see what it was. As soon as she looked away I regained control of myself. I bolted in sheer terror to catch up with my friend who was now in the woods on his way up to the road. He turned took something from his mouth and threw it past my head. It was then that I remembered the stones! Still running like a mad man I fumbled in my pocket and pulled one out. Popped it in my mouth for an instance then passed it over my shoulder without looking back.

Hearts pounding we burst out of the groove, crossed the road and entered the field at full tilt on our way to the Muslim’s house. I turned and saw the woman emerge from the trees and skitter over the road right behind us. An awful thought crossed my mind - that’s it! we will never make it. Slow into a stumble I plunged my hand in my pocket to snatch a whole fistful of stones. I licked them ravenously before hurling the lot right at her, then sped off again at full speed. Looking over my shoulder I saw her stoop to examine some of the stones, picking them up one by one. but as if in sudden fury she flung them down again and rose to resume her pursuit.

By this time we had reached the house. We entered breathlessly and bolted the door behind us. A man and his old mother came out of another room and made us to sit down as they quickly drew the blinds on all the windows. That done, the man handed my friend and I each a large shiny bladed knife. He rubbed some limestone paste on the sides of the blades and told us to hold the knives ready. In the mean time the old lady read aloud from the holy Koran. Whoever or whatever the mysterious woman was, she did not try to enter the house. After an hour or so the man and his mother retired. My friend and I still trembling with fright did not dare drop into sleep before the first rays of dawn.

Secrets of Left-hand Tantra
When we met again, the tantra master was much more forthcoming. I was greeted with a warm embrace and invited to relax under the banyan tree. I sensed that I now belonged. In an awed voice I asked him, "What was it that I saw?"

He chuckled at my neophyte's excitement. "So, you were impressed?" I nodded. "You saw Mohini, a demoness from the underworld. Had you known how, you could have entered a pact with her for the next cycle of Jupiter (twelve years). You promise to satisfy her lust once a month, and she will do your bidding in return - protect your property, destroy your enemies, whatever.

"But a pact with Mohini is very dangerous. When she comes for sexual satisfaction, she may assume eighteen forms in the course of the night, expecting you to fulfill the demands of each one. If you cannot, it will cost you your life. And if during the twelve years of your relationship with her you have an attraction to another woman, that will also cost you your life. You suddenly vomit blood - finished."

I asked, "Why was she attracted to the white stones?"

"Mohini draws energy from the male sexual fluid," he answered. "Besides the pleasure of sex, this is her main interest. Of the bodily fluids, saliva is the most similar to semen; that's why throwing a white stone upon which you've spat is a sure way to divert her attention. People who drool while sleeping unknowingly invite this kind of succubus to take control of their bodies."

Looking at me appraisingly, he then asked, "Has your faith in the occult increased?" I swallowed and blurted, "Yes, how could it not? I'll never forget that experience as long as I live!"

"So, you want to learn something from me?"

"Yes, of course!"

He devised a schedule of appointments based on my days off from work. On the average I would see him once every two weeks, but sometimes he insisted that our meetings be separated by as much as forty days, in deference to his own obligations. He ordered me to keep my relationship with him a strict secret.

During our meetings he taught theory, reading and explaining Sanskrit verses to me from a old book. In the course of these lessons, I learned he had twelve chatans under his control. He engaged these demons in grisly tasks for paying customers, such as frightening or inducing insanity in the customers' rivals, or even killing them.

I also learned that my master had taken up vamamarga in vengeance against people who had used the same methods to hurt his family. He destroyed these enemies and then went into business for himself. In India, vamamarga has always been the last resort of the downtrodden in securing justice and getting respect: 'Dog as a devil deified, deified lived as a god.'

Apart from my master's ruthlessness, I found some things in him that were admirable. One was that he was strictly self-controlled, despite the fact that he used women in many of his rituals. He was a rare man who was motivated not by sensual pleasure but by sheer power.

Another good quality of his, fortunately for me, was that once he was your friend, he would not betray you. Many tantric masters accept disciples simply because they need assistants, not because they want to impart knowledge. Since in tantra today's disciple may become tomorrow's rival, a master's students can find themselves in grave danger when he no longer needs them. But my master accepted me as a friend, knowing that I would not seriously pursue tantra later on. I was only experimenting.

For the last ten years he'd been attempting to get mystic powers by a method known as uttara-kaula: the worship of Shakti in the form of a virgin girl with particularly fine lakshanas (physical qualities). His chatans would search for such beauties as he traveled around Kerala doing his magical exhibitions.

From time to time he would place one of these women under hypnotic control and bring her to a burning ground, where bodies are cremated. There he would bathe her in liquor and invoke the power of the goddess with mantras and mudras (symbolic hand gestures). Yet during all this he had to remain completely unperturbed by sexual desires (he'd been celibate for the last thirty years). After the ceremony he let the girl go home untouched, unharmed and unable to remember what had happened.

Having completed theory, one night I assisted him in a particularly gruesome ritual. He took me to a crematorium where he had the cooperation of the man who burned the bodies. This man had pulled from the fire a smoldering half-burned carcass that we used as a kind of altar. My master sat down near the body in meditation. I had a box containing eight different powders; on signal from my master, I would sprinkle one of them on the hot, crackling corpse. The other fellow would place burning cinders on the body from time to time to keep it hot.

The powders produced different colors and flavors of smoke. With the rising of each puff from off the carcass my mind would be opened to a particular realm of thought. For instance, one powder caused thoughts of clear skies to flood my mind - the dawn sky, noon sky, sunset sky and night sky. With another I saw different kinds of clouds. Visions of bodies of water were induced by a third. Sometimes the visions were horrible, as when I saw mounds of different kinds of stool, and sometimes they were very sensual. In all cases, I had to keep my mind under control and not allow it to be overwhelmed by fascination, lust or revulsion.

I was being used by my master as a 'video monitor' for his own meditations. I was to sustain the images in my head undisturbed while he entered them with his mind. Each image was a door to a particular level of consciousness, and at each level he had to propitiate a particular form of Devi.

This ritual meditation went on until about an hour before sunrise. Finally he stood up and embraced me, saying, "With your help, tonight I was successful. What a mind you have!"

He explained that he had long attempted to complete this ceremony, but because of not having a suitable assistant, he'd never seen it through to the end. Now, he told me, he'd attained the power to render objects - including his own body - invisible, as well as reproduce them in multiple forms.

Such powers are called siddhis, and are obtained by yogis after long, arduous austerity and meditation that might stretch over a succession of many lifetimes. Yoga slowly opens by increments the chakras, the hidden power points of the mind.

But the tantric process, when successful, places the mind of the meditator under such intense pressure that the siddhi-chakras can be abruptly wrenched wide by a mighty burst of willpower. This is precisely why tantric ritualism combines such explosively contradictory elements as the vow of celibacy with the bathing of nude girls in liquor. This is also why tantra is so dangerous, for its forcible distortion of the mind often ends in insanity.

Likewise hazardous is the congress the tantrics have with chatans, mohinis and similar evil spirits. As an old saying goes, 'Mahouts die by elephants, snake charmers die by snakes, and tantrics die by the entities they summon and attempt to control.'

After the session in the burning ground, my master told me not to visit him again. "You have seen enough to have faith in the realm beyond the senses. If you are intelligent, you will take up a proper religious life. This path is only for wild men like me."

And in fact my faith was greatly reinforced by my master's help. I concluded that if such displays of power as he could effect were possible through the dark practices of left-hand tantra, the miracles attributed to the Krishna murti at Guruvayur must be of an infinitely more sublime and pure nature.

During the period I was learning from my master, I visited other tantrics. There were two in particular who became the main reasons why I took heed of my master's warning to abandon vamamarga. I didn't want to become like them.

The first, who directed me to the second, was a woman who was reputed to be the most adept tantric in all of Kerala. She sometimes stayed in a ruined house in a village outside of Trichur. It was only with great difficulty that I managed to find her there as she was very secretive about her movements. It was rumored that she was wanted by the law, so I dared not make open inquiries about her for fear of being arrested as an accomplice.

When I came to the house, I saw nothing indicating recent habitation except for an old ragged quilt flung in a heap on the veranda. After looking around a bit and finding no one, I picked up a corner of the quilt to see what was beneath it. The cloth was snatched from my touch as a voice hissed from under it, "Don't touch my blanket! If you want to see me, come back after sunset!"

Shocked beyond words, I recoiled from the quilt as if I had suddenly seen a scorpion in its folds. I went into the village and had dinner in a small eatery. As the sun sank below the horizon, I returned to the old house.

As I mounted the veranda, the figure under the blanket stirred and sat up. Her face gave me yet another shock, for it was decrepit beyond belief and covered with infected running sores. Her hideous visage reminded me of a reoccurring nightmare I'd had as a child, in which a hag much like her peered from beneath a staircase of an old building.

But fascination for her reputed abilities overrode my loathing. As she was physically unable to stand (she moved about with the help of people over whom she had power), I sat down next to her. In a rheumy, quavering voice she said, "If sunlight touches my skin, I will die. That's why you can only see me after dark."

I tried to introduce myself, but she cut me off. "I know you and know why you've come, but I do not deal with beginners. You are looking for drastic displays of power that will give you faith in the mystic realm. Very well; I have thousands of tantrics working under me, and I will recommend one to you who will more than satisfy your curiosity. And I guarantee - after you've met him, you will not want to become a tantric yourself."

She told me to go back to the village and spend the night there. The next morning I would see a line of people boarding a bus. "You give the driver two rupees. Where he tells you to get down, you get down. From this veranda I will direct you the rest of the way. Now go."

Everything transpired as she said it would. Around noon I got off the bus at a Muslim village where the main business seemed to be the sale of deep-fried plantain chips. From there I walked, following a footpath out of town and through a green field of tall grain. At the end of the field I saw a house perched atop a rocky knoll. Somehow I knew that was the place I was supposed to go.

On the veranda of the house were four young, pretty women in red dresses, each wearing her hair tied in a long pony tail; they were arrayed on either side of a flamboyantly-dressed man sporting a full beard and shoulder-length hair. He looked for all the world like a gangster, and I began to wonder if I'd stumbled upon a house of ill repute. The five sat in chairs as if they were expecting someone. As I came up the front steps to join them, I saw the veranda was also host to a large population of pet animals - cats, dogs, monkeys, and even a jackal.

"So, you've come!" the man welcomed me heartily. "And you want to see something interesting. Well," he gave me a toothy grin from within his beard, "you must see the performance we have planned for this evening. But until then, make yourself comfortable." He introduced his female companions and hinted that they would be as friendly as I might like them to be. I modestly declined their assistance in passing the time, for I was by now curious to find out what sort of discipline this man was following.

His specialty was spying on people and locating lost objects by means of mystic sight. And to attain his power, he performed the most obscene rituals imaginable. That night I would be witness to one.

He told me that his line of tantra required no vows or austerities like those maintained by my master. In fact, he knew all about my master and his trust in me; this, he avowed, was the only reason why I'd been permitted to meet the old lady who had directed me to him.

He said more about her. "Her greed for power knows no limit. She has attained levels that no one else can master, and she still wants more. Her physical disabilities are the result of the terrible methods she has used to get where she is now - but that doesn't matter to her, because her satisfaction is not in the pleasures of the body. To be truthful, she cannot be satisfied. The secrets of the universe are unending, and she has set her mind on fathoming them all. Her goal is to swallow the universe."

Tantrics consider the siddhi they call 'swallowing (internalizing) the universe' to be the summit of attainment: one has access to anything in the cosmos, on any planet, anywhere, simply by thinking about it. Thus all desires are fulfilled by the mind alone.

Yogis who know this mystic process can mentally move through the regions of the universe as easily as someone using an elevator can move from floor to floor in a building. The yogi's elevator shaft is his body's central psychic channel, which runs through the length of his spinal cord. By meditation he can link this channel to the shishumara-chakra, an astral tube coiling from the Pole Star down to the nether regions, and project his subtle mental body through it for an easy journey to other planets. He may even teleport the elements of his physical body through the channel, reassemble them in the place of his choice, and so seem to appear there out of nowhere.

Shortly before midnight, the tantric gave me a battered tin box to carry and led me to a nearby burning ground, where the body of a pregnant woman had been saved from the fire for his use. I watched in growing horror as he stood on the corpse and recited mantras. Using a special instrument he took from the box, he removed the fetus from the womb of the dead woman. Examining the tiny limp form, he assured me it was still undead, though beyond hope of revival. He'd kept the soul within the body by a magic spell, he claimed. He pulled a razor-sharp knife and a large jar half-full of some solution from the box, and then, chanting more mantras, he began to butcher the baby, dropping the pieces of flesh into the jar. Aghast and trembling, I fled the scene.

I went to the watchman who had let us into the burning ground. "How can you permit this?" I raged. "That woman's family paid you people to consign her body to the flames, and you're allowing such evil things to be done to her and her baby!"

The watchman cautioned me in a frightened whisper. "Don't say anything more, please! That man knows what you're speaking to me now. Don't make him angry! You must be very careful with him - he even knows your thoughts. If you don't like what he's doing, why have you come here with him?"

Feeling ashamed of myself, I mumbled, "I only wanted to see the secrets of his power..."

The watchman shook his head in pity and said, "Your curiosity will ruin you. You're a young man, you look well-bred and intelligent, why are you getting mixed up in this? Just leave. Don't spoil your life." But I couldn't leave, as I didn't know where to go. One does not stumble around the Kerala countryside at night, for snakebite is a likely consequence. I settled down near the watchman's campfire and soon dozed off.

Some time later - it could have been one or two hours - the watchman roused me. The tantric had come out of the burning ground carrying the jar under one arm. In the other hand he held the baby's skull. "Why did you leave?" he admonished me, not unkindly. "If you want to do things that other people cannot do, you have to do things that other people cannot do!" He laughed, and his easy manner stupefied me.

"Look at this!" he exulted, thrusting the jar under my nose. I thought he would unscrew the lid, and my gorge rose. But he only wanted to explain that by treating the baby's flesh in the solution he'd made a powerful ointment. He reproved me again for not having stayed and watched how he'd done it. In the darkness the jar looked empty to me.

"Go get the box," he ordered. "We'll go back to my place and tomorrow I'll show you what this preparation can do." He led me through the fields back to his house. Inside, he went to bed with two of his girls. I slept fitfully on the veranda.

The next morning he set the jar down on a small table between us. Now I could see that the bottom was covered by a pasty substance. With a hand caressing the shoulder of a girl on either side of him, he leaned back in his seat and probed my mind for a moment with a quiet stare. "I think you ought to test the power of this ointment," he said, raising his eyebrows allusively. "There's a problem at your factory that you can solve with it ... some missing cash?"

He was right. A considerable sum of cash funds had disappeared recently, and suspicion had fallen upon a Mr. Murthi, though no proof could be found against him. The tantric smeared a bit of the ointment on my thumbnail and told me to look carefully at it. As I concentrated, I saw in the nail the image of the office from which the money had been taken. I found I could alter the view with directions given in my mind, just as a TV studio director changes the image on the video screen by telling the cameraman to pan, zoom in for a close-up, and so on. But my mystic thumbnail scope was incredibly more versatile, for it even showed the past.

I saw that it was not Mr. Murthi, but another man who had entered the office surreptitiously to take the briefcase of money and hide it in his car. I followed him after work; he drove to the place of an accomplice and stashed the briefcase with him. The accomplice spent the money on black-market gold so that the cash could not be traced. And I saw how the thief had his share of the gold made into doorknobs that he placed on the doors in his home, naturally without telling his family what they were really made of.

Later I tipped off a friend at work who wrote an anonymous note to the police. They verified that the doorknobs in the man's home were solid gold. He was arrested and convicted on charges of grand larceny.

From my further discussions with him that day, I learned that when people came to the tantric for the recovery of stolen or lost property, for a fee he had one of his girls trace the missing goods with the mystic thumbnail scope. The existence of the ghastly ointment was kept secret, of course. The customers thought it was the power of the girls themselves.

The thumbnail scope had its limitations. Though it could penetrate any closed door or wall, it could not see above or below a specific height or depth, nor look into powerful holy places or temples and could be baffled by expert singers performing certain melodies. Certain kinds of smoke would likewise render it ineffective.

I asked him about his karma. "You have attained this siddhi by very obnoxious methods. What do you think lies in wait for you in future births?"

On this point he was surprisingly philosophical. "Those who would master this knowledge must be ready to face the consequences without flinching. I will surely have to suffer for all the black deeds I have done. But that's part of the game we play.

"We tantrics view all existence as an ebb and flow of Shakti. We connect with that power, and it sweeps us up to untold heights. Later on, the same power may plunge us into despair. But what else is there? Everything is but a manifestation of Shakti."

This man's question - 'But what else is there?' - for which the tantrics have no answer, bothered me. If there was really nothing else beyond the goddess and her power, then he, and the old witch on the veranda, and my master who poured liquor over women's bodies, and the brahmin who broke coconuts on his head, had attained all there is to attain. I couldn't accept that. There had to be something more.

I was now not interested in going any further with vamamarga. But I thought that the theoretical principles and the basic discipline I'd learnt from my master were of great use to me. I had no inkling that once the lid of the Pandora's box of occult mind power had been pried off, it was not so easy to close again.

Regards
Kinryu