Wandering in Metaphysics

There is a Feng Shui war going on between the “netizens” of China and South Korea on the worldwide web.

Here is the Chinese link with English text (page-down to see the English)
http://www.fengshui-chinese.com/discuz/viewthread.php?tid=65736

The message accuses South Korea trying to hijack “Feng Shui” as its own “Intangible Cultural Heritage” (ICH, of UNESCO). At the beginning of the message, the writer claims that South Korea had already “stolen” China’s “Dragon Boat Festival” as its own ICH from UNESCO.

However, when I search UNESCO website, I could not find proof of the “Dragon Boat” claim.
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?cp=KR&topic=mp

Anyway, regardless of the authenticity of the message, it provokes the indignation of other netizens. They run a “poll” to ask members to “vote” for the country which they think “Feng Shui” should belong to. Then they will send the result to UNESCO to “counter” South Korea’s claim.

The irony is that the Chinese government (PRC) considers Feng Shui superstitution and does not really care. Chinese Feng Shui enthusiasts are very unhappy about the “news”.

The original message may even be a hoax too.

Incidentally, the 8-mansion Feng Shui system (Bazhai) was originally written for the Koreans! The legend was: During the Tang Dynasty (618- 906 AD), a Korean King, seeing the prosperous Tang empire, had requested China to teach his scholars Feng Shui. Tang emperor did not want his neighbor become powerful using Feng Shui. He had summoned Monk Yi-xing (一行僧)to write up a Feng Shui system that works sometimes but not all the time– hence the birth of 8-Mansion system. Problem was, the system is so good and appealing, it was re-exported back to China!

In practical uses, 8-Mansion system has its strength and weakness. It also takes longer to have effect than Flying Star system.

Ken Lai

“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 10 hr. video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing” w/ 12 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp” with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/
http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot. com/ My Blog site

Jennifer Lopez has given birth to a girl and then boy early today.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080222/ap_en_mu/people_jennifer_lopez;_ylt=AmQzjjTNdNZn4ZVPgvlfFpwnncUF

The report does not say the exact time of birth other than “the babies were born shortly after midnight“.

I would guess the twins were born in early zi hour (00:00- 00:59). If that is the case, the twins will have a challenging future:

YEAR: WU-ZI
MONTH: JIA-YIN
DAY: REN-CHEN
HOUR: GENG-ZI

10-YEAR LUCKS will be different for the twins since one is a girl and the other is a boy.

There is a special way to handle twins’ 4P chart. It is discussed in my “4P Bootcamp” list.

If born in early zi hour, the boy will have good life for the first 30- 40 year of life whereas the girl will have mostly challenging life throughout her life.

One hour difference will change the daymaster (the twins) from strong to weak.

If the birth hour is xin-chou (after 1 am), then the girl will have mostly great life and the boy will have pretty great life except a challenging teenhood and some rough time between 25- 34 years old.

Let’s wait and see if we can live long enough.

Ken Lai

“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 10 hr. video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing” w/ 12 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp” with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/
http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot. com/ My Blog site

According to Buddhism, every lunar month has eight auspicious days that you can take advantage of to enhance your good karma “credits”. When you do “good” or “bad” deed in these days, the karma points (good or bad) will be multiplied numerous times according to following formula.

First day of the lunar month
100 times karma credit: Ding-Huang Buddha day 定王佛日
–examples, 3/8, 4/6, 5/5 (dates for year 2008 only)

8th day of the lunar month
1000 times karma credit: Bhaisajya Guru Vaidurya Prabharajah Buddha day 藥師佛日
–examples, 3/15, 4/13, 5/12

10th day of the lunar month
100,000 times karma credit: A Thousand Buddhas in Good Kalpaa Buddha day 千佛日
–examples, 3/17, 4/15, 5/14

15th day of the lunar month
1 Million times karma credit: Amitabha Buddha day 無量佛日
–examples, 2/15, 3/22, 4/20, 5/19

18th day of the lunar month
10 Million times karma credit: Avalokitesvara- Great Compassion Bodhisattva day 觀世音菩薩日
–examples, 2/24, 3/25, 4/23, 5/22

21st day of the lunar month
100 Million times karma credit: Earth Treasury King Great Vow Bodhisattva day 地藏王菩薩日
–examples, 2/27, 3/28, 4/26, 5/25

25th day of the lunar month
100,000 times karma credit: Padmasambhava day 蓮師日
–examples, 3/2, 4/1, 4/30, 5/29

30th day of the lunar month
900 Million times karma credit: Shakyamuni Buddha 釋迦牟尼佛日
–examples, 3/7, 6/3

To take advantage of these auspicious days, you may:
–Do charity work like donation or give alms
–Eat vegetarian food
–Donate blood
–Release animals, birds, aquatic animals back to the wild
–chanting

This is an ingenious system—people are motivated to do good deeds or at least, avoid doing bad behaviors during these 8 auspicious days. You may notice that the end of the lunar month has the highest karma credit ratio of 900 Million— huge incentive for people to donate money, so that temples can pay for the routine end of the month expenses.

Well, today is the 15th day of the lunar month with 1 million times karma credit for good (and bad) deeds. It is not too late for you to take advantage of it— use your Paypal account or credit card to donate money to charity or simply go vegetarian for the day or just chant a little bit for world peace.

You definitely don’t want to beat up your wife or cheat the old lady next door today – it will cost you 1 million bad karma points.

Ken Lai

“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 10 hr. video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing” w/ 12 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp” with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/
http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot. com/ My Blog site

“Ken, your Swallow Lovers story is touching, but does it have anything to do with Chinese metaphysics? “

Yes, there are something related to swallow and Feng Shui. I save it for this message, so it won’t spoil the love story.

Traditionally speaking, when birds and insects build their nests under the roof of your house is considered auspicious. It signifies the energy at that location is
good. However, the nests must be OUTSIDE your house, including outside your courtyard.

Swallows and small birds that are small and cute, are considered “yin“. “Yin” stands for women, ghosts and sickness. So if swallows build a nest INSIDE your property, it has the following implications:

1. the man of the house has a mistress outside this house
2. someone is chronically sick

Another folk belief about swallow is the association of “separation” with swallow. There is a traditional Cantonese song with the title “Separation Swallow”. It talks about physical separation of two lovers. Physical separation is not as fearful as separation by death. So the Chinese does not really welcome the appearance of swallow around their properties.

On the other hand, Chinese considers swallow nest as very nutritious to the body. The nest is made with the saliva of the swallows. Swallow nest is a big business in certain regions of Indonesia and Malaysia.

Ken Lai

“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 10 hr. video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing” w/ 12 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp” with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/
http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot. com/ My Blog site

The traditional love story of “Butterfly Lovers” is the Chinese version of “Romeo and Juliet“, in which the human lovers turned into butterflies when they died.

“Swallow lovers” is the story of two real swallows. They are the hottest news during last Valentine in China. Almost every Chinese news agency has carried this story.

The story began with a literature-historian, Fan Xiang Yu (范翔宇) who found a motionless swallow on January 31, 2008, hid behind a building pillar in Bai-hai City. It was a cold day with temperature of 3 degrees Celsius. Fan wanted to find out if the swallow is still alive or not. He had poked the bird gently. It was dead many hours ago apparently. When Fan moved the dead bird, a sight had caused a deep breath out of him. The wings of the dead swallow embraced a smaller female swallow, also dead.

Fan guesses that the bigger swallow is a male bird. It tried to fend off the cold for the female bird with its wings covering the female. Both were eventually freezed to death.

Fan took pictures of the swallows before giving them a decent burial. Then he wrote a story with poem and put it in his blog. The blog titile is: 《燕殇——两只燕子至死不渝的故事》(Swallow obituary: The unwavering love of two swallows).

“Yesterday the swallows were flying in pair,
Today they died embracing each other,
Very sad!
Very Beautiful!”
昨日双飞燕，今朝相拥死，哀哉！美哉！

Fan’s poem laments that the swallow lovers’ last act makes many human vows and promises on love look pale.

This blog message has generated over 10 thousands views within 3 days after it was posted. Readers are all touched by the amazing love of the swallows. Fan said “Swallow Obiturary” is a fable for human emotion and sensibility. The attention drawn by the story is the best footnote for it.

May the swallow lovers rest in peace and be reincarnated into higher level beings in their next life.

Ken Lai

“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 10 hr. video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing” w/ 12 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp” with 12 hr. video
http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/
http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot.com/

The year of Rat starts on February 4 and “The Super Tueday Tornadoes” hit the America South on the next day. It killed over 55 people and millions dollars worth of property damages.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/atornado;_ylt=AiZCYrWrfsLWUIhKgnO8YARH2ocA

Here is the Feng Shui way of explaining it:

For 2008 Wu-zi year (earth-rat),

* Grand Duke (Tai Sui) is in the North (zi mountain)
* Year Breaker (Sui-po) is in the South (wu mountain)
* 3-Killings (San Sha) is in the South (si, wu and wei mountains)
* 5-yellow disaster star is in the South

You can see that three vicious energies overlap in the South. So they can create havoc when violated. One should avoid constructions, earth-digging and movements in the South and North (Grand Duke).

If your house faces South (wu mountain or 172.5- 187.5 degrees), it will be auspicious for you for the year.

If your house facing North (zi mountain or 352.5- 7.5 degrees), your house “violates” Grand Duke and needs appropriate measures and remedies (Check my “Sha Avoidance Feng Shui” Course)

Ken Lai

“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 10 hr. video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing” w/ 12 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp” with 12 hr. video

I have received numerous free trial memberships from AARP (American Association of Retired People; http://www.aarp.org) in the last two years. I must be getting OLD!

On the other hand, many people said that I look young for my age. The other day an online idiot even says that I am “very young“.

I like AARP’s benefits of discount received from travel, insurance and other service. But looking “young” hurts business in the Chinese metaphysics world. People equate age to experience.

The issue of “age vs. experience” is similar to “lineage vs. no lineage”. The young crowd uses the “white-cat-black-cat” theory (any cat that catches mice is great, regardless of age or lineage). The older crowd argues that experience is important and like wine, takes time to develop.

I am at the embarrassing age of fifty some years old— too old to claim myself a “young and talented genius” like those in Asia and too young to be a “grandmaster”.

“How about master?” “Masters” are everywhere and granted daily to anyone who pays. It’s “value” is doubtful at best.

“So, what are you going to do, Ken?”

Just call me Ken. I can dye my hair white or pull my 87 years old father out of retirement to be my grandmaster.

Happy Year of Rat!

Ken Lai

“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 10 hr. video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing” w/ 12 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp” with 12 hr. video

Every year end, masters of various caliber enliven our lives with their “annual predictions“. They tell us obvious things like “oil price will be very high” or “bank stocks sucks!” or scare us with those “famines, floods, earthquakes, terrorist attacks and (the sky may fall down)…”.

2008 is the year of rat. They also give predictions based on the animal sign of the year— rat is dirty, so disease will spread; rat means poverty, so people will be poorer…… there is no lack of imagination (or no imagination is needed).

When someone shoot out 100’s of “predictions“, there will be some hit the mark. The “misses” will be forgotten and the “hits” will be amplified 10X next year for promotions.

Few masters will make predictions if someone or website keeps a database of the “hit” and ‘miss” of each master’s annual predictions.

Yesterday (Jan. 30) and today, there are sad reports of horses being euthanized or starved to death from local newspaper:

http://www.startribune.com/business/14873851.html

I quote a few paragraphs here just in case you can’t read the above link:

===========================
The ever-worsening story of foreclosures in America now counts among its victims the family dog, the pet cat and even the farmer’s horse.

Animal rescue volunteers say they’re seeing more animals abandoned or dropped off at shelters as families are forced to move from homes that they can no longer afford.

“I’m getting skinny horses in here that people have walked away from,” said Drew Fitzpatrick, director of the Minnesota Hooved Animal Rescue Foundation, based in Zimmerman, Minn.

……

The problem has been exceedingly acute for horse owners, who were already facing high feed costs because of rising commodity prices and the recent elimination of horse slaughterhouses in America. That market — a federal ban recently closed the last three such slaughterhouses in the United States — once provided horse owners with an option that paid about $600 per horse, when there was nowhere else to turn.

Reports have cropped up of horses wandering the Florida Everglades and coal mines in Kentucky, where owners too poor to care for them have set them free to forage on their own.

A horse owner recently euthanized more than 80 horses, most of them Shetland ponies, in Grey Eagle, Minn., northwest of St. Cloud, because of rising feed costs and her own poor health.

……..

Others are seeking help. “All of our rescue groups are overwhelmed with horses,” said Stephanie Valberg, director of University of Minnesota equine center.

………

===========================
In 4-Pillars, rat clashes horse (zi-wu clash). It seems real horses also get affected too when Year of Rat approaches.

While most masters have warned people with horse animal sign to be careful during the Year of Rat, almost none has warned the real horses (or at least horse owners).

Read my lips– these masters will warn the goats (rams) for 2009 (year of ox) and monkeys in 2010 (year of tiger).

Ken Lai

“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 10 hr. video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing” w/ 12 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp” with 12 hr. video