Feng Shui is more than just rearranging furniture, it’s a lifestyle. And lifestyles involve mindsets or concepts that are prevalent. Feng Shui experts just say no to some things without reason. Most of the things they do come with a line of reasoning that may not necessarily be embraced by many people.
Nonetheless, it is still a point of view that among other things, require careful consideration and thought. So what are the thoughts that prevail on the onset of Feng Shui? Here are just some of these prevalent concepts that a Feng Shui enthusiast or researcher may find useful.
Sense of Balance
The number one thing that Feng Shui promotes is balance. This balance comes in many forms, in the color arrangement, in the spatial factors up to the numbers that concern your working space or environment. The balance is more promoted by the five Earth elements of Feng Shui and the bagua, which is designed symmetrically and with complete reference to the different elements of the earth by Feng Shui standards. The standards of Feng Shui is made customized in every person, but it all boils down to having the right sets of things that complement and balance each other out.
Sense of Positivity
A sense of positivity is also what Feng Shui promotes. Positive energy is the thing most sought after by people who try to get the services of Feng Shui consultants. This positivism needs to be maintained. Conversely, it wards off all the forms of negative energy that may come in a given space. This is why there are charms that help cure the bad luck in a given place, especially those which have been established without guidance of Feng Shui.
A Natural Inclination for Beauty and the things that Promote It
Beauty in symmetry and symmetry in beauty is one of the core concepts of Feng Shui. It appeals to the physically inviting, and also adheres to fighting for beauty and balance in things. Feng Shui, in some ways, is a celebration of beauty in design and other physical elements of the space being designed.
Love for Your Environment
Feng Shui promotes the careful consideration of the environment before establishing places. Good Feng Shui respects the elements of the earth and makes the Feng Shui enthusiast more mindful of their surroundings. They don’t just work instantly in any oppressive place, but strive to remove any existing negativities in the environment.
Love for Self
The love for self is also promoted by Feng Shui. You will detect energy based on what generally feels good to you. Love for self involves not subjecting yourself to oppressive places or harboring negative energies that can be counter-productive to your different activities.
Dreaming big and making the environment jive with that dream
Finally, Feng Shui is more anchored on the greater scheme of things. When you have a dream and you intend to fulfill it in numerous ways, the best way to start is to have an environment that embraces those dreams. If you dream big and work hard, but your environment cancels all the things that you are striving for, it will be a very difficult task for you.
Feng Shui ensures that there is alignment between the things you want and the things that are manifested in the objects you see everyday.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Yin and Yang of Feng Shui
Is Feng Shui really friendly for all genders? While there is no question to the fact that it can invite some positive vibes into your home just by the mere art of rearranging your furniture and the orientations of your surroundings, it may actually reveal so much more about culture if one takes a good look at it.
For one thing, the Yin and Yang illustration is a very famous facet of Feng Shui. It simply states that opposites are necessary to be able to appreciate the beauty of things. You cannot appreciate the good without bad, light without darkness and so on. This theory of opposites and balance extends to the elements of the earth: water, wind, fire, wood and earth. These elements are also in balance if good Feng Shui is present.
Yin is often characterized with strength, viability and aggressiveness. More importantly, it is attributed to the masculine side of identity. On the other hand, weakness and femininity are interchangeably attributed to the Yang side, the softer side of things. Is this really a good thing? While it has been maintained that it is a world for the masculine, the main precepts of Feng Shui are actually more tailored to suit male, establishing them as the strong ones in the spectrum of life.
The Feng Shui concept is already organized in its scope. Any person you ask about Feng Shui may tell you its symbols: the bagua, the yin and yang diagram and the charms used by Feng Shui experts to cancel bad luck. However, the main concepts are not entirely original. The philosopher Heraclitus from Greece is credited for having first denoted the concept of having opposites. And consequently, psychology on colors and other visual media can also state some theories that are resonant with Feng Shui precepts.
Interestingly, there are more women drawn to the Feng Shui habit than men, who may or may not be conscious that they are actually supporting a form of belief system that establishes males as strong and females as weak. But other than the Yin –Yang concept, there is no other outward manifestation of this gender bias.
Is it really a good thing to believe in Feng Shui and apply it? The answer is relative. It depends on the person who is asking and the background under which he or she is raised. If you are born in an open-minded culture which holds less restrictions on what you can and cannot do, the applying of Feng Shui may be a non-issue. Meanwhile, if you are under a movement that opposes the main beliefs of Feng Shui, you may have to make a more substantial choice of lifestyle changes.
Feng Shui also has its own Yin and Yang to speak of. If you are really intent on ruminating on the deeper aspects of Feng Shui, you may have to dig deeper beyond what you see on promotional materials and even hate literature against Feng Shui. For the most part, Feng Shui is quite harmless in nature and it does not really explicitly cause major changes in one’s lifestyles or belief systems.
But if in case you choose to be more meticulous, you may find that analyzing beneath the layers of promotion of Feng Shui that there is more to it than just rearranging furniture.
For one thing, the Yin and Yang illustration is a very famous facet of Feng Shui. It simply states that opposites are necessary to be able to appreciate the beauty of things. You cannot appreciate the good without bad, light without darkness and so on. This theory of opposites and balance extends to the elements of the earth: water, wind, fire, wood and earth. These elements are also in balance if good Feng Shui is present.
Yin is often characterized with strength, viability and aggressiveness. More importantly, it is attributed to the masculine side of identity. On the other hand, weakness and femininity are interchangeably attributed to the Yang side, the softer side of things. Is this really a good thing? While it has been maintained that it is a world for the masculine, the main precepts of Feng Shui are actually more tailored to suit male, establishing them as the strong ones in the spectrum of life.
The Feng Shui concept is already organized in its scope. Any person you ask about Feng Shui may tell you its symbols: the bagua, the yin and yang diagram and the charms used by Feng Shui experts to cancel bad luck. However, the main concepts are not entirely original. The philosopher Heraclitus from Greece is credited for having first denoted the concept of having opposites. And consequently, psychology on colors and other visual media can also state some theories that are resonant with Feng Shui precepts.
Interestingly, there are more women drawn to the Feng Shui habit than men, who may or may not be conscious that they are actually supporting a form of belief system that establishes males as strong and females as weak. But other than the Yin –Yang concept, there is no other outward manifestation of this gender bias.
Is it really a good thing to believe in Feng Shui and apply it? The answer is relative. It depends on the person who is asking and the background under which he or she is raised. If you are born in an open-minded culture which holds less restrictions on what you can and cannot do, the applying of Feng Shui may be a non-issue. Meanwhile, if you are under a movement that opposes the main beliefs of Feng Shui, you may have to make a more substantial choice of lifestyle changes.
Feng Shui also has its own Yin and Yang to speak of. If you are really intent on ruminating on the deeper aspects of Feng Shui, you may have to dig deeper beyond what you see on promotional materials and even hate literature against Feng Shui. For the most part, Feng Shui is quite harmless in nature and it does not really explicitly cause major changes in one’s lifestyles or belief systems.
But if in case you choose to be more meticulous, you may find that analyzing beneath the layers of promotion of Feng Shui that there is more to it than just rearranging furniture.
Feng Shui History
Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese practice of utilizing certain so called laws governing the heavens and earth that can improve through what is called having positive Qi. Feng Shui history is an ancient one and covers over 3,500 years. It is even older than the invention of the magnetic compass. A main portion of its origins may stem from ancient astronomy.
The astronomical history of Feng Shui is evident in the ancient instruments that were developed in its practice. The earliest known Feng Shui instrument may have been what is known as the gnomon. This instrument was used along with trying to circumpolar the stars in order to determine the north and south axis. This was basically used in laying down early Chinese settlements.
The ancient Yangshao and Hongshan cultures in China provide the earliest evidences of the practice of feng shui. As early as 4000 BCE, doors from Banpo dwellings were aligned to the star called Yingshi just right after the winter solstice. This allowed the homes to be sited for better solar gain. During the Zhou era, the star Yingshi was known as Ding and had a great influence in trying to determine the appropriate time to build their capital city. This is according to records on the Shijing.
Another example of the practice of ancient feng shui can also be found from the grave at Puyang that dates back to about 3000 BCE. This particular grave contains mosaics of the stars called Dragon and Tiger along with the Beidou, known in the Western world as the Big Dipper constellation. The mosaics seem to be oriented along the north to south axis. The presence of round and square shapes were also found at the Puyang tomb as well as at the Hongshan cultural ceremonial centers and the former Longshan settlement. These evidences suggest that the practice of gaitian astronomy (belief in a round earth and a square earth) was already present in the ancient Chinese society.
One of the oldest instruments used in ancient feng shui were the liuren astrolabes. These ancient instruments consist of a lacquered, two-sided board equipped with astronomical sightlines. The oldest of the liuren astrolabes have been found and discovered from tombs dating from 278 BCE and 209 BCE. These ancient astrolabes show the cord-hook diagram and some those found even include the magic square of three. The markings on these instruments remained unchanged, from the ancient astrolabe down to the first magnetic compasses.
The practice of astronomy that bears a striking resemblance to many modern feng shui devices and theories were also discovered on a jade artifact found in Hanshan that dated at around 3000 BCE. Ancient structures in China which included its palaces in the capital cities are all influenced by feng shui in their design and layout. The rules that were followed were written during the Zhou era on the "Kaogong ji", or the "Manual of Crafts".
The magnetic compass was initially invented for the practice of feng shui and has been in use since its invention. Traditional feng shui instruments include the Luopan or the earlier south-pointing spoon or the zhinan zhen. This shows the extent of feng shui history and its long standing practice in ancient Chinese history.
The astronomical history of Feng Shui is evident in the ancient instruments that were developed in its practice. The earliest known Feng Shui instrument may have been what is known as the gnomon. This instrument was used along with trying to circumpolar the stars in order to determine the north and south axis. This was basically used in laying down early Chinese settlements.
The ancient Yangshao and Hongshan cultures in China provide the earliest evidences of the practice of feng shui. As early as 4000 BCE, doors from Banpo dwellings were aligned to the star called Yingshi just right after the winter solstice. This allowed the homes to be sited for better solar gain. During the Zhou era, the star Yingshi was known as Ding and had a great influence in trying to determine the appropriate time to build their capital city. This is according to records on the Shijing.
Another example of the practice of ancient feng shui can also be found from the grave at Puyang that dates back to about 3000 BCE. This particular grave contains mosaics of the stars called Dragon and Tiger along with the Beidou, known in the Western world as the Big Dipper constellation. The mosaics seem to be oriented along the north to south axis. The presence of round and square shapes were also found at the Puyang tomb as well as at the Hongshan cultural ceremonial centers and the former Longshan settlement. These evidences suggest that the practice of gaitian astronomy (belief in a round earth and a square earth) was already present in the ancient Chinese society.
One of the oldest instruments used in ancient feng shui were the liuren astrolabes. These ancient instruments consist of a lacquered, two-sided board equipped with astronomical sightlines. The oldest of the liuren astrolabes have been found and discovered from tombs dating from 278 BCE and 209 BCE. These ancient astrolabes show the cord-hook diagram and some those found even include the magic square of three. The markings on these instruments remained unchanged, from the ancient astrolabe down to the first magnetic compasses.
The practice of astronomy that bears a striking resemblance to many modern feng shui devices and theories were also discovered on a jade artifact found in Hanshan that dated at around 3000 BCE. Ancient structures in China which included its palaces in the capital cities are all influenced by feng shui in their design and layout. The rules that were followed were written during the Zhou era on the "Kaogong ji", or the "Manual of Crafts".
The magnetic compass was initially invented for the practice of feng shui and has been in use since its invention. Traditional feng shui instruments include the Luopan or the earlier south-pointing spoon or the zhinan zhen. This shows the extent of feng shui history and its long standing practice in ancient Chinese history.
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