Path of Cultivation in Chinese Metaphysics

 Love these photos of Buddhism and Taoism co-existing. 

I think like many Feng Shui practitioners, along the way, we may bend towards Buddhism and/or Taoism belief. 

Not about those ritual practices but rather the values. 

After studying Bazi, I realized that no matter how good I am able to accurately read a person's life chart, very often there are little things I can do to change what will happen. 

When relationship turns sour and marriage fails, it's not as if you can "Feng Shui" a place and bring two person to fall in love with each other again. 

Accidents do happen. It's not as if you can hang something in your car or carry something in your bag and you can avoid a car crash just because you didn't crash onto someone else. But someone else crash onto you. 

We all will suffer from illnesses and death. No Fengshui in this world can guarantee that you will be free from cancer. 

That’s when I realized somewhere along my years of learning, I was stuck at a cross-road. 

Then why did “Heaven” or “God” let me learn Chinese metaphysics to be able to read charts but not giving me the ability to change lives? 

Slowly, along the way as I get to know more about Buddhism and Taoist philosophy I realized that perhaps Chinese metaphysics skills are only part of the story. 

These are merely tools (用）for us to read, to prepare, to understand. 

But the road of life takes more efforts than just Feng Shui-ing a place. As a Chinese saying goes. 

一命二运三风水，四积功德五读书，六名七相八敬神，九交贵人十养生

(1) Life, (2) Luck, (3) Feng Shui, (4) Karma, (5) Study, (6) Reputation, (7) Appearance, (8) Respect for spiritual, (9) Knowing Nobleman, (10) Healthy Living. 

Your Life and Luck is destined but if you put in effort in other areas, you can improve your life. 

But yet again this is only part of the story. Life is like a complicated “Matrix” programme. 

Everything is inter-related and everything has it’s own path, time and space. 

Imagine yourself a dot in the middle. You have macro external factors that influenced your life but you can’t see it and you can’t feel it. You can only feel or see the result. 

You can put them all together and perhaps call them “Act of God” but I somehow think of them as Siblings. 

The siblings are Nature, Fate, Time, Space, Illness, Mental, Karma.  They sometime work together or on each own. 

Unknowingly to you, they can be mischievous to you, they can also be cruel, evil or kind to you. 

And because there are too many macro external factors that are uncontrollable influencing us, Buddhism and Taoism philosophies seek to cultivate us to live with them, attempt to minimize (if not break away) their influences on our minds and bodies. 

The essence of Buddhism is on Internalising. The emphasis of 空， 无我 (emptiness) is to cultivate our mind, and hence our emotions to be “empty” so we do not get affected by other worldly affairs. 

At the same time, Buddhism encourages Compassion and believe in Karma. 

To have good thoughts, say good things, do good deed and bear good intentions to others. 

These are ways that we all can understand and hopefully do positively. And in so, no matter what might come along and hurt you. Hopefully you will have the strength internally to make yourself transparent like “emptiness” and reduce the hardship. 

Taoism on the other hand teaches one to understand nature and go with the flow of nature. 

The essence  of I-Ching was for people to understand how Nature evolves and changes through time, space, environment and people. 

There’s a Taoism saying 趋吉避凶 - leverage on the positive and avoid the negative. 

Another of my favorite quote from Dao De Ching (道德经）- 上善若水。Literally means “Be like Water”. 

 Be magnanimous, forgiving. You don’t have to fight with others or life forces. You can be adaptable and maneuver along even the smallest crack. 

You can stay and you can move. You can be as dirty and smelly as drain water but you can also be clean and drinkable water. You can be a droplet and you can be part of the ocean. 

In other words, adaptable, mutable, flexible. 

Not just in our actions but more so cultivating our minds and emotions. 

Hence the martial arts Taiji. 

When someone deal you a blow, as a Taiji practitioner, you bring in that blow, maneuver and control it. Either to exhaust the energy away or to convert it as another energy.

There are just too many things to talk about in Buddhism and Taoism philosophies. I’m just touching on the tip of the iceberg.

What I’m trying to say is. Through my life of studying Chinese metaphysic, I found that we need to also understand either or both Buddhism and Taoism philosophies. 

Rather than doing rituals or finding miracle cures, the cultivation of self, be it internalizing or flowing with nature is probably a better way of dealing with life obstacles/challenges. 

壬寅 Ren Yin 2022, a year of hope?

壬寅 Ren Yin 2022, a year of hope? 

Time passed so fast and soon we are saying goodbye to 2021 and moving into 2022. 

I remember the moment in 2019 when I was showering and thinking about 庚子 (Yang Metal/Yang Water Rat) in 2020 and I felt the fear and anxiety that something bad was going to happen. A lot of information was flowing through my brain, and I was trying to make sense of it but it’s difficult to pinpoint a particular incident for sure. 

Chinese metaphysic is such that you can only make inference to the 5 elements, Yin and Yang and they cover everything in this world, including our body parts. 

So if you go back to my blog in 2019, I wrote that 庚 is like a White Tiger and it symbolizes danger, injury, misfortune, accidents. At the same time, in health it also represents a “lump”, a blockage like cyst, tumor, cancer and relating to our lungs/respiration system.

子 represents cold, winter, water, dark and fluid. So with the combination of 庚子, an unexpected coronavirus swept through globally affecting our health in great damage. People were dying due to this virus that attacks our respiration system. 

2021 was the year of 辛丑 (Yin Metal, Yin Earth Ox).

Everyone was hoping that things would get better. Vaccines would be developed, and we could move on and get back our lives. However, I didn’t think so when I wrote my prediction in 2020. You could refer to my writing again. (That’s why I enjoyed keeping records in my blog so everyone can refer and see how accurate I was when I wrote my prediction). 

I said that 辛丑 is like a tube/needle (yin metal) above the bottle (yin earth ox). It represents the vaccines that the world was trying very much to create, procure and getting everyone to be vaccinated. But also, that the negative Qi was leaked out and the virus would continue to exist.

And so, we continue to live through 2021 with many people still dying and a devastating Delta variant that evolved and “escaped” into the world continuing impacting everyone’s health and livelihood. Every country was closing off their boundaries, stopping entry of foreign visitors as we continue to go for our third dose of vaccination to block this virus. 

As we come to the end of 2021, everyone including the “Masters” are hoping and writing that 2022 would be a good year. Maybe I’m a pessimistic person. I would say it’s a mix of something good and maybe something bad. 

2022 is the year of 壬寅 (Yang Water heavenly stem on top, and Yang Wood Tiger below). A lot of Masters would say this is a good year as both elements are at their right location. With Yang Water on top as water supposed to fall down and Yang Wood below as wood supposed to grow up. So it is a good combination If we convert 壬 to 坎, 寅 to 震, we have 水雷屯卦, Water Thunder (Tun) Hexagram.

屯(Tun) represents coming out of difficulties. And it represents Spring when plants start growing out of the cold winter soil. 

So generally, the good sign is that we are moving out of our difficult times. The dark days were over, but it doesn’t mean there’s no difficulties or challenges. There still are, but not as bad as compared to the last two years. 

Having the elements are their right locations, means that people/government/health care bodies are getting used to what had happened before. They have better knowledge now and better systems to know how to move on. The last two years caught everyone by surprised, but this year they would be better prepared. 

But that does not mean that everything would be back to pre-covid19 days. As I was telling my friends. When 2020 COVID19 happened, I was looking at the annual chart and was hoping that I could see fire elements. But fire elements would not appear until 2025 乙巳 Yin wood, Yin Fire Snake. I would think only when fire snake appears, then things would get better, and we could be more comfortable and enjoy our life. 

And if you realized, we are going through the phase of 3 tigers. 2020 – 庚 White Tiger, 2021 – 辛 – Small White Tiger, 壬寅 – Black Tiger.

It’s quite a rare chance that we would have 3 tigers in a row and they happen to be in Winter water years. So that exemplify their negative strengths. So that goes to show how devastating they were. Black Tiger although not as ferocious as the White ones, nonetheless still a Tiger, which means it is hurtful and can be damaging. If we look at the hexagram of 坎震 again in details, 坎 signifies obstacles, challenges and difficulties, potholes, sunken, depressed. In tradition Chinese homes, it represents the pop-up slab of wood or stone at the base of an entrance door, which we call 门坎.

Supposing, one has to move your feet over the 门坎 to signify crossing over obstacle and it will be good luck. You do not step onto the 门坎 as it will be bad luck. 

震 represents Thunder. It signifies great movement, shock, shifting。 

In Sun Zi’s Art of War, he described how an army troupe should behaved. 

《孙子·军争》：“故其疾如风，其徐如林，侵掠如火，不动如山，难知如阴，动如雷震。”

“Move swift as the wind and closely-formed as the wood. Attack like the fire and be still as the mountain.” 

But some didn’t know that they missed out on the last two sentences, 难知如阴，动如雷震. Literally means “be mysterious like the shadow and move like the thunder”. 

So it means 2022 may not be a bed of roses. There are still obstacles and there is a possibility of great movement/changes.

And since it’s 壬震 (Yang Water/Yang Wood (movement) means there is a possibility of earthquake, tsunami, heavy typhoon. 

Great water movement above and great earth movement below. 

If we look at 2022 flying star chart. It is the original natal chart where Yellow 5 is in the middle. When the chart is the same, we call it Fu Yin 伏吟 literally hidden cry. 

The Tai Sui is in North East (艮) Mountain and Sui Po is in South West Earth. Both are related to earth, ground, mountain. Which also give us the hint that there could be misfortune relating to earth. San Sha (3 killings is in North) which also signify potential risk/danger due to water, north. E.g flooding, landslides, ships collision, water poisoning. It is difficult to pinpoint where the natural catastrophe will happen as the energy runs through from Northeast to Central to SouthWest. So it could be in China, Japan, Taiwan, Tibet, etc. It could also be in LA, KANSAS, New York.

In any case, let’s not worry too much about it as there’s no way we would know for sure whether it will happen or not. 

Then what will be the industries that will be doing well? I would think things relating to making changes, movement or encouraging people/companies to do overhaul. For example, education, schools. Consultants/consulting companies that starts to change people’s mindset/lives (e.g Meta, Elon Musk).

Transport and travel companies will start to pick up again. 

How to boost luck for yourself? 

I would say wear or carry some bright lively colour clothes, ornaments, accessories. Sometimes you don’t have to change your clothings to be like a walking red packet to be auspicious. In fact, too much of it is no good. A bright colour scarf, or brooch sometimes will be sufficient. 

How to Feng Shui your house? 

I would say there’s not many places/directions to tap on. If I had to recommend, would be to focus on your South area where the auspicious star 9 will be in 2022. You can brighten the place with flowers, grow plants, or even place a standing lamp there to boost your luck. But it may not work for all people. So, if you sense things are not going well. Do remove the lamp. I hope the above helps. 

Till the next time if I have inspirations to write again. 

Continue looking at 2021

 I had written about 2021 previously and you can refer to my blog in March 2020. 

I don't want to talk about Flying Stars or Qimen Dunjia as there would already be written by many Masters out there. 

I thought I just want to focus looking at I-Ching Bagua (Eight Trigram). The thing is the essence of the combination of Heavenly Stem and Earthy Branch could give us a lot of information. They are almost like the binary code of computer. The very basic of coding.

If we have a better understanding of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, its relations to Early/Later Bagua, its meaning to 像 (representation/references to nature, objects, people, things in the universe), 理 (logic, system, seasons, interaction of elements, etc), 数 (numbers), we could have a better understanding to a lot of things. 

Taking 2021 辛丑 Yin Metal, Yin Ox Year as an example. 

辛 = 兑卦 = Has opening/mouth = not closed/leaked

丑= 艮 = storage space, vaults, banks, tombs, death, mountain

I've already mentioned in my previous blogs that COVID19 will not be contained and many people will be taking vaccines.

But my concern is that what if the virus is just one part of the story? The second wave that hit us is not the virus but the effect of the economic lapses/black holes that will cause another ripple effect globally?

兑 - River, stream

艮 - hard mountain, tomb

Supposing if you looking at this Xian Gua (咸) as a whole. It could mean positive things like better understanding of each other and better relationships. This could possible be so after Joe Biden become the U.S President and he would start rebuilding the relationship with the rest of the world and China. 

Yet personally it could mean other things to me. For example, This Gua is also called Xian (Salty).  When will a river be salty? It's when it's been mixed with impurities along the way down the mountain. 

And if the water is not fit for drinking, it means a lot of health issues.  It could range from Kidney issues, Diabetes, dehydration and even cancer or tumour in the body. 

For people who haven't been taking care of themselves, have family history of illnesses or their Bazi not favourable this year. They have to be more careful to their health this year. 

I will stop here and will continue if I have the time. 

 

Looking into 2021 - Coronavirus perspective

We started the Gang Zi year with bad news of the coronavirus. We never thought this virus could spread so fast and stay so long. 

And it caused a devastating effect on the economy, pushing far worse than what the trade war had done. It also caused a lot of social problems. People panicked and hoard all the groceries they can get. People blamed and bullied Asians for the virus. 

As we keep hearing the bad news everyday, we asked ourselves when will things get better? When will the virus stop?

Some medical experts said things should get better in summer, some said it’s going to stay for a long while. 

As of now, they are still researching on the vaccines and understanding how this virus works. 

Before I go on, I must add a disclaimer that I’m not a medical professional. What I do is just read, decipher and make inference from the elements from my training and experience in Chinese metaphysics. 

Please read it with a pinch of salt. 

So last year as I was showering, it just hit me (like awakening) that 2020 Geng Zi year would be a very bad year. I quickly wrote some parts of it, which I hope people who read it and could understand what I was writing and where I was coming from. 

At the same time, I was also skeptical about it. What could have happened that would caused a major destruction? The trade war? Earthquakes and Tsunami? It didn’t occur to me that it would come in the form of a virus attacking the respiration system.

And it happened so quickly that it caught the world off-guarded. 

So I can’t help but looked forward to next year 2021’s bazi Xin Chou year. 

We look at the elements separately and individually. 

Xin 辛 (Yin Metal) - is small metal like needles, jewellery, key, knife, etc. 

Inside the body, it represents respiration systems such as lungs, nose, skin, sickness like asthma, cough, flu, nerves pain, skin related disorder/disease, or rheumatism, etc. 

The word Xin 辛 is also associated with negative Chinese words like misery 辛苦, bitterness 辛酸, 

Chou (Yin Earth) 丑 - is like a cold wet swamp or muddy water.

Inside the body, it represents spleen, stomach. sickness like diarrhea, stomach bloating, food poisoning, nausea, etc. 

The word Chou 丑 is also associated with negative Chinese words like ugly, dirty, insulting, undesirable.  

Put it together and view it as a whole. I would say the coronavirus would still continue to be around into 2021.

Why?

Chou is a wet cold earth containing the elements of yin metal,  yin water and yin earth. It is also called a storage of Metal or a storage of Water. 

If there is no Xin metal on top of Chou, I would say the virus is likely to be contained and will not cause any problem. The yin elements are “stored” within the earth. As long as you don’t break it, the elements will not be leaked out and cause any issue. 

However in this case, the Xin metal is on top of Chou. Xin Metal represents the negative Qi of Metal (lungs) which was brought forward by the Yang Metal in 2020. And if Yang Metal is known as White Tiger, then Yin Metal is known as “small white tiger”. 

The effect may not be as devastating as White Tiger Yang Metal (finger crossed) but still it’s there. 

So in this case, it is almost like a tube/needle above a bottle. The negative Qi is let/leaked out. So the virus would still continue to exist. 

At the same time, because it is Xin Chou 辛丑, Xin is like polluted substances floating on top of a dirty water. There might be other diseases or illnesses that will affect us. Our immune systems will be low in 2021. 

We have to be careful of what we eat or drink. 

Also it could represent a body floating on water. So please avoid water trips or near water area. 

I will stop here and not dwell too much into 2021. We’ll look at the chart again nearer to the year. 

I’m only writing this pertaining to the COVID19 virus, whether it will be resolved by this year, which I doubt so. 

And a friend was saying, shouldn’t the virus be gone in Summer? I looked at the monthly bazi of this year’s summer, Xin Si 辛巳, Ren Wu 壬午, Gui Wei 癸未. I said unlikely. The fires are all suppressed with yin metal and water. No help. 

And so in my view, which I hope I was wrong, that this virus is going to be around for quite some time probably into near year. And gosh, now it’s only March. 

2020 祸不单行 Misfortune will occur again

One day I was showering and suddenly it dawn on me that 2020 is going to be a really bad year. Exactly how or why I can’t explain as the elements can represent many things.

Yet as my mind started spinning, as if I was awaken with a lot of information coming into my head. I felt fear and hence wanted to pen down my thoughts. And share it so you’ll know what I’m talking about and it’s not 马后炮 (to say things after it happened).

Subsequently I read other masters’ predictions. Many painted a very nice picture of 2020. “The energy flows from Metal to Water, there is a connection so things will do well”. I begged to differ.

Hence I used the illustration of “White tiger coming down the mountain”. Everyone be afraid.

No one suspected that it was a new virus that affected us and in a very short matter of time.

I kept emphasizing Metal - respiration system (lungs, nose), skin.

My next prediction is on Fire specifically Heart/Blood. I’m waiting to see if there are leaders having heart/blood problems. (E.g heart attack, stroke, blood virus) or even cancer (it’s a combination of fire and earth).

So far I saw 2 prominent leaders having the possibility of above-mentioned health issues occurring this year. (Names shall not be mentioned) (snake and dragon)

We shall see.

Analysis of Geng-Zi year 2020 （庚子年）

Analysis of Geng-Zi  year 2020 （庚子年）

While I was showering, my mind started spinning and thinking a lot of things. Things are not going well in this world and to people around me, what would happen next year? How does Geng-Zi (庚子) going to affect us?

As I thought about it, my mind went deeper and linking all the theories that I’ve learnt.

For a start, we can look at Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch of Gengzi (庚子) and try to understand what this two words means.

Geng (庚) – Yang Metal

It symbolizes big heavy metallic objects such as aircrafts, ships, cars, big swords

It also symbolizes North West, Qian hexagram (乾卦), Father, Leaders, First.

In our body, it symbolizes intestines. As it is also Metal, it is also related to lungs, skin, nose, respiration system, bones, teeth, etc.

乾 – also represents Money. Metal relates to Financial sector, electrical & engineering, building and maintenance, aesthetic and beauty products/services.  

庚 – is like a sword, it is cold and sharp. It is also associated with blades, needles, hence surgery.

Zi (子) – Yang Water Rat

It symbolises big water – sea, ocean

It also symbolises North, Kan hexagram (坎卦),  Middle Son/Middle-age adult.

In our body, it symbolizes kidney, reproduction system, woman’s period, lower part of the body, fluid, circulation system, bladder, etc.

坎 – also represents obstacles, difficulties, problems, etc.

子 also represents Winter Water (Jan) when it is very cold.

Water relates to high turnover industries such as hotels, F&B, theme parks, shipping, etc.

So when you put庚 on top of子, it is like a big (metallic) object above the water. Except there is nothing to support it, hence the big object will fall into the water and the water will create big ripples of water.

In this illustration, we can visualise problems relating to Tsunami, airplane crashes, ships sinking.

And these two are cold Yin elements, and the base is fluid, hence they represents unstable/unsettling, dark cold thoughts and emotions. Like depression, suicidal, schizophrenic, jealously. etc. At the same time, because the emotions are unstable, they are reactive as well. They will think of hurting others, revenge, unscrupulous plotting.

If we look at the hexagram (I-Ching), 乾坎 – 天水讼

讼 itself is legal suit, 口舌quarrels, disagreement, legal complications.

天 – sky at the top

水 – water at the bottom

They are not connecting, distance to each other. You do your things, I do mine. So people at the top and people working at the bottom are not in agreement. They have different thoughts of working.

In QiMen, 庚 is a White Tiger star 白虎. It symbolizes danger, injury, misfortune, accidents. And because it attacks Jia 甲, hence甲 has to hide 遁.

甲 – represents leader, Number 1, general.

Hence, we’ll see a lot of problems to the Leaders of the world, leaders of the corporations, leaders quarreling with each other. Especially those who are outshining and outspoken because they do not hide遁, they get attack by unseen forces and visible enemies.

庚 also represents “lump” in health. So it could be a cyst, tumours, blockage. Hence it is also related to cancer, stroke, heart attack, respiration/skin problems, kidney stones, etc.

In flying stars,

5 Yellow Star is at East (misfortune, accidents, sickness, anything that is bad)

2 Black Star is at South (sickness)

Tai Sui （太岁）at North

Three Killings (三煞) at South (mishap, unrest, obstacles).

So we might expect more problems with China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan.

Well is it all that bad, maybe and maybe not. And everyone’s bazi is different, some are running good luck, some are able to tide through. So not everyone will experience the same thing. But I’m saying this only for us to take note of it so we can control our emotions and behavior. Take note of changes that might affect us.

There’s a Chinese saying 先知先觉, when you know about it you can be aware of it. And sometimes may prevent things from getting worse.

I shall stop here. Will write more along the way when I get my inspirations.