Rolls Royce of UK, manufacturer of deluxe vehicles, has marketed a “limited edition” of a dragon car by hand painting a few golden dragons in the interior of a Phantom model vehicle. People have snapped up this dragon inventory within a week when the car was put in the market. This dragon car has a little price tag of about US$1.2 million a pop.

Alas, not every Chinese is a rich panda to afford this Rolls Royce Dragon.  But they want to get some benefits from the year of dragon too.  So they resort to “making” dragon babies.  Many Chinese hospitals are already fully booked for dragon baby deliveries up to Sept. 2012 now. This  baby boom will increase competitions for school, jobs, spouse among dragon babies themselves than other birth cohorts for the rest of their lives.

Well, not every Chinese is fortunate enough to have someone to “make” dragon baby with or afford a babysitter.  How can they cash in this dragon mania?

By the grace of God Microsoft has created two affordable “limited editions” dragon mice.  The black “Arch Touch Mouse” only costs you US$69.95 and the wireless “mobile mouse” US$34.95.

The question is:  Do the designers of these mouse models understand Feng Shui and Chinese folklore?

2012 is Ren-chen or year of water-dragon.  In Chinese metaphysics, black or blue stands for water. Therefore the base color of these mice is correct to use black.

However, the gold or metal colored dragon version is a little bit off, though still usable.  Year 2000 or Geng-chen was the year of metal dragon.  Metal nurtures water in Chinese 5-element theory, so a gold colored dragon is still acceptable or auspicious for the year of water dragon. For the same reason the gray-colored dragon on the Arch Touch Mouse is considered metal and so it is also acceptable.

The model with red dragon imprinted can be put in storage till 2036 when the year of fire-dragon (Bing-chen) comes.  Fire-dragon clashes water dragon– inauspicious for the user of this mouse during 2012. Microsoft can market the red dragon mouse as an antique mouse in 2036 if it is still in business.

Now comes to the most important question– are these dragon mice good Feng Shui or not? You need to learn something about the concept of Grand Duke or the Annual Ruler of the year.

2012 is the year of the dragon.  This means dragon is the Grand Duke or Ruler of the Year. Dragon is your boss for the year.  Chinese Feng Shui dictates that you should not face Grand Duke directly, let alone holding his head and moving his tail backwards when you use the dragon mouse.  This is disrespect to the max to Grand Duke.  Antagonizing Grand Duke is a one way ticket to make your life miserable.

“Ken, since I can’t afford the Rolls Dragon or make a dragon baby, I have already bought a dragon mouse.  What should I do with it?“

Well, you may get rid of it on Ebay or put it at the back of where you sit most of the time. Grand Duke enhances your competition power in business or examinations if he is at your back.  It is auspicious to have Grand Duke as your back support. You may use your dragon mouse safely after Feb.3, 2013.

Now Microsoft can market these dragon mice as Feng Shui remedies and double the prices. Bill, do it quick before the Queen of Feng Shui picks up this business idea.

Disclaimer:  I do not own Microsoft or Apple stock.  I do not own or use any Apple software or hardware. I have been a Microsoft Windows user for over 25 years.  This blog is written with Microsoft Windows 7 operating system.

Ken Lai

“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. w/ Bazi- Basic/ Advanced w/18 hr. HD video each
“Feng Shui Toolbox: Sha-qi, Health/Wealth & Career” w/ 7 hr. HD video
“Period 7/8 Feng Shui Toolkit w/ Advanced Flying Star techniques” w/ 6 hr. HD video
“Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 11 hr. video
“Advanced Practical Imperial QMDJ” w/ 18 hr. video
“EZ QMDJ series: Astrology, Date/Task Selection, Annual Luck/Feng Shui”w/ 3 hr. HD
“EZ QMDJ Advanced Feng Shui” with 4 hr. HD video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui/Blessing” w/ 24 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

Most of the annual predictions focus on these areas:
Disasters– natural or man-made disasters like tsunami, earthquake, flooding, drought, snowstorm, tornado, tropical storms, epidemics, nuclear accidents, war, train accidents, terrorist attacks, air disasters, cruise ship sinking ….(hints: earthquake is likely in  the “rings of fire” region; war in the middle east… throw a dart to a world map if you can’t make up your mind)
Economy– stock market, housing market, FOREX, oil market…. (hints: either up or down or “up a little bit or down a little bit”; pretty easy to predict!)
Politics– who gets or loses power (hint: don’t make  50/50 chance prediction like the USA presidential election.  A bad guess will make you look like an idiot and correct one will not win you anything)
People– most celebrities and politicians; who cheats, marries, divorces, scandals… etc.

COMMON TOOLS FOR MAKING PREDICTIONS
Gut-feeling : Simply make any guesses or “educated guesses” based on past year statistics.  Isn’t this easy?
Psychic reading: People who are psychic or think they are psychic make predictions based on their “psychic feeling”. You may even use what you have dreamed.
Divinations: For people who are not psychic, they may use Yi-Jing, Xuan-Kong-Da-Gua, Plum-Flower and similar divination methods to make predictions down to individual month or even days.
Bazi of the New year:  This method requires knowledge of Bazi (4-Pillars).  You find out the exact date and hour when the New Year kicks in and generate a 4-pillars chart.  This treats the new year as if it is a person and make predictions or telling stories based on the combinations and clashes in the chart.
Animal sign of the New Year:  This method creates a story based on the animal sign of the new year. For example, 2012 is ren-chen or water-dragon year.  The story-telling part will be concentrated on the personality and characteristics of dragon and its water nature.  So you may hear about flooding stories.

Annual chart based on 9-stars: this method is used mostly in Feng Shui predictions.  For example, 5-yellow disaster star flies to southeast for 2012, so major disasters are likely to happen in the southeast, especially when monthly 5-star flies there.
Qi-Men-Dun-Jia Year Chart:  Predictions can also be made based on QMDJ, but it is not common to see.  It is pretty good at predicting Feng Shui problems.
Scavenger method:  If you can’t think or don’t want to think, you can “improvise” on other’s predictions.  This method summarizes or pick-and-choose the predictions made by other people.  The disadvantage of this method is that you lose the bragging right of being the first to make the prediction.  The advantage is that you can make the most comprehensive predictions.

It is  rare that “masters” utilize only one method to make predictions.  They use combinations of the above methods to “enrich” or throw out more predictions.  When one throws out 100+ predictions, a few of them will “hit”.  ”Masters” can brag about how accurate their predictions were the following year (never mind or mention the ones they have missed).

Compare with economic predictions, astrologers are doing pretty well.  The late economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote:

“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”

“Ken, I have not seen you make any annual predictions.”

I do not want to make economists feel good.  Besides, predicting disasters will generate mass negative manifestations.  It is bad karma for everyone.

Happy Year of Dragon!

Ken Lai

“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. w/ Bazi- Basic/ Advanced w/18 hr. HD video each
“Feng Shui Toolbox: Sha-qi, Health/Wealth & Career” w/ 7 hr. HD video
“Period 7/8 Feng Shui Toolkit w/ Advanced Flying Star techniques” w/ 6 hr. HD video
“Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 11 hr. video
“Advanced Practical Imperial QMDJ” w/ 18 hr. video
“EZ QMDJ series: Astrology, Date/Task Selection, Annual Luck/Feng Shui”w/ 3 hr. HD
“EZ QMDJ Advanced Feng Shui” with 4 hr. HD video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui/Blessing” w/ 24 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

Ren-chen or year of Water Dragon will start in a few weeks.  You may want to fix the regions that will become “dangerous” to fix or dig after Feb.3, 2012 now.

The annual chart for the Year of Dragon is:

Annual chart is based on Purple White Method which holds that 1,6, 8 and 9-star locations are auspicious. 2-black sickness and 5-yellow disaster star locations are inauspicious.  Therefore, for current year, Southeast sector with 5-yellow disaster star is the most inauspicious, especially Tai Sui or Grand Duke also sits in that region.  You definitely do not want lots of movement and especially “moving earth” (digging or construction) there.  If the Flying Star chart of your house has 2-sickness star in the SE, you need to put metal or coin-solution cure there, especially if you have a door there. Same scenario and remedies and precautions if you have a 5-disaster star in the north sector of your house.

“Minimal Feng Shui” is to fix only 2-5, 5-5, and 9-5 star combinations in regions with activities.  You don’t need to put up remedies or Feng Shui monsters in all 9-palaces of your house, especially in region of no activity like storage room and guest room.


OTHER PRECAUTIONS:
Grand Duke is at Chen mountain (SE, 112.5- 127.5 degree) — minimize movements and avoid construction or digging. 5-yellow disaster star is also in this sector for current year.   If your house is facing Chen mountain (112.5- 127.5 degree), your house is said to be “Chong” or clashing Grand Duke.  You may want to put a Grand Duke Talisman there for protection (see my previous message on how to get one).

Sui Po or year-breaker is at Xu mountain (292.5- 307.5 degree)– avoid construction or digging.

San Sha or 3-killings are at Si, Wu and Wei mountains (South, 142.5- 217.5 degrees)– avoid construction or digging.

5-yellow disaster star at Xun palace (SE)- avoid construction or digging and movements. Grand Duke sits in Xun palace with 5-yellow– definitely be very careful when you do constructions and movement here (and avoid going SE)!

5-tiger sha at Shen, Geng and You mountains (West, 232.5- 277.5 degrees)– avoid construction or digging and movements.

Yang nobleman sign for this year is Mao (rabbit).  Yin nobleman is Si (snake).

You need to do a good date-selection if you need to do construction in any of the above locations (mountains/ palace) or better doing it before end of the current year (rabbit year).

People with dragon and dog zodiac sign should avoid seeing putting corpse in coffin or burial for this year.

Happy New Year!

Ken Lai
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. w/ Bazi- Basic/ Advanced w/18 hr. HD video each
“Feng Shui Toolbox: Sha-qi, Health/Wealth & Career” w/ 7 hr. HD video
“Period 7/8 Feng Shui Toolkit w/ Advanced Flying Star techniques” w/ 6 hr. HD video
“Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 11 hr. video
“Advanced Practical Imperial QMDJ” w/ 18 hr. video
“EZ QMDJ series: Astrology, Date/Task Selection, Annual Luck/Feng Shui”w/ 3 hr. HD
“EZ QMDJ Advanced Feng Shui” with 4 hr. HD video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui/Blessing” w/ 24 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

If you have just read my previous message about functions of Grand Duke, you know that there are two Grand Dukes watching over your shoulder and counting the good and bad deeds that you have done and execute rewards and misfortunes accordingly. This is a major rationale that donation to get your Grand Duke talisman.  When your talisman is grounded with a charity deed, GD is less likely to execute any misfortunes due from your karma account.

2012 GRAND DUKE GENERAL PENG TAI
2012 is Ren-Chen or year of water-dragon. Grand Duke for the year is General Peng Tai who was born in 13th century during the Ming Dynasty. Peng was intelligent and smart since childhood.  In 1394, he had passed the Imperial Examination and become a high level official.  Yet he still lived an average and frugal life like ordinary citizens and was keen at improving government services for the public.

Before passing the Imperial Examination, Peng was engaged to a poor village girl.  After becoming a government official, Peng’s family thought that his fiancee’s social status was not compatible with his newfound status.  They also thought she was physically unattractive to be the wife of an official and wanted to cancel the engagement.

When General Peng heard his family’s intention, he had strongly opposed the idea and married the original poor girl anyway. The couple lived a happy and loving life together.  Therefore, people who have problem getting married due to physical characteristics and/or financial situations may get the sympathetic ears and help of General Peng this year.

2012  “EXTRA-STRENGTH” GRAND DUKE TALISMAN

With all the end of the world predictions about 2012, I have prepared an “extra strength” Grand Duke Talisman for you.  It is 30% bigger in size.  It invokes protection, blessings and treasures from Buddha, Lord of Sun, Moon, North Dipper, South Dipper, Thunder, Grand Duke and two Celestial armies.  It may make the end of the world impossible (I guarantee it or your money back!)

Here are the four groups of people who need Grand Duke Talismans:

• animal protection shelter
• homeless shelter
• Save-the-Children
• children hospital
• food shelves/soup kitchen
• and more…..

If you are worried about privacy issues and future solicitations– please be assured that I will not email you in the future other than sending a note that your talisman is sent. You will send me no money. You send your money directly to your favorite local or international charity. You do not even need to pay me postage. You do NOT need to purchase any additional item from me or anyone else. No future solicitation of any type will be sent to you.  This offer is for people who have no access to Daoist temples.  Please support your local temple if you have access to one.

If you need more than one Grand Duke Talismans, here is the discount schedule:

Tai Sui originally refers to the imaginary or invisible star that orbits around the zodiac in opposite direction of the Jupiter or from west to east along the zodiac.  Sui Xing or yearly star is the visible Jupiter which revolves around the sun once in about 12 years.  The Zodiac is divided into 12 segments and each segment is named after an earthly branch (Chinese Zodiac animal).  Orbit of Tai Sui is assigned with 10 heavenly stems for each year.  Combining the two we have the 60 Tai Sui or Grand Dukes, which fits the 60-years cycle of Chinese calendar system.

GRAND DUKE (YUAN CHEN) HALL WITH 60 GD AND GD MOTHER, DOU-MOU (in center)

PERSONIFICATION OF 60 GRAND DUKES
The idea of Grand Duke was based on the strong energy field created by Jupiter that is balanced by the imaginary Sui Xing (yin-yang balance principle).  It was not easy to be understood by average people, especially when literacy was not widespread during ancient time.  By assigning a name and face to each of the 60 binomials (GD), people can conceptualize and GD easier than as an energy or qi.

According to Daoism, 60 GDs are the immortals from the North Big Dipper constellation, ruled by Dou-mou , the mother of 60 GDs.   These immortals were born in different historical periods to show and teach people the Dao and righteousness.  The personalities associated with 60 GDs were drawn from actual historical figures who were characterized by high moral principles, civic spirit, patriotism and compassion.  They were mostly pious government officials or loyal and patriotic military generals.  All the 60 GD personalities were taken from pre-1644 time period  (before Qing Dynasty).  So we can deduce the personalization of GD came after 1644. This is relatively “new” in terms of the 5000 years of Chinese history.

FUNCTIONS OF GRAND DUKE
According to Daoism,  60 GDs, are the emanations of Dao (“The Way”).  On human level, GD handles the “fortunes and misfortunes, including health and sickness” of people according to their pre-determined destiny and personal choices/behaviors after birth.   GD does not “punish” but simply executes what are scheduled and arrange rewards/disasters based on people’s merits..

However, Daoism also stresses “my destiny is determined by myself and not heaven and earth“.  It holds that if we do charity work and practice kindness,  GD will protect us from misfortune.

According to Daoism, every individual is under the constant observations of two GDs.  One is his/her “Personal GD” or the one’s birth year GD.  For example, I was born in 1955.  GD of 1955 is General Yang Sen.  Yang is my personal GD who is in charge of my life and death events.  He is the Chinese version of your personal guardian angel (note:  there is a daoist method of harnessing the power of one’s Personal GD for success and avoidance of misfortunes).  The second GD is the “Annual GD” which changes every year.  Annual GD is the “ruler of the year” who is in charge of your annual luck and events.

Grand Duke statues inside Qing Shan Temple, Hong Kong

GRAND DUKE WORSHIP
The idea of Personal and Annual GDs to keep track of your good and bad deeds and administer rewards and disincentives accordingly may be scary enough to make some people kow-tow or worship GD.  But some people may treat it as another bogeyman story.  How can Daoism draw a direct relationship of GD to every person on earth?

With Chinese metaphysics, it is easy to accomplish because almost every Chinese metaphysics subject is associated with heavenly stems and earthly branches.  60 Grand Dukes is based on the 60 Jia-zi calendar system.  This means it is in terms of the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals.  People in China are born with an Zodiac animal sign.  The basic interaction rules of branches like 6-clashes, penalty, and combinations are turned into personal relationship between individual and GD.

Basically, if one’s animal sign has any interaction with Annual GD’s animal sign, is generically called “violate GD” (fan tai sui) with clashing GD being the most serious violation that could bring major misfortune, sickness and even death.

At least once every three years one will “violate” GD in some ways and once every 6 years a major clash with GD.  This really brings a major reason to appease GD.  GD worship is an important income source for most Daoist Temples.  Even some Buddhist temples put up Grand Duke Halls to draw in worshipers.

Stems and branches, the “a-b-c” of Chinese Metaphysics, are multidimensional concepts.  They can represent directions, time, seasons, shapes and the likes.  In other words, they can jump or change to different dimensions, be it time, space, seasons and etc..  So for Feng Shui, GD becomes a directional space with strong energy that should not be disturbed or misfortunes will happen.  For example, in Dragon year (2012), GD will be in the Chen mountain (SE1).  One should not have construction or excessive movement there.

For date-selection systems, the logic is similar to Feng Shui except in this case, GD is in terms of time dimensions– year, month, day and hour.  For example, in Chen year (2012), you don’t want to chose a time (month, day, hour) that has the Xu (dog) sign.

The GD concept and its applications are pervasive in Chinese metaphysics.  It is used in Feng Shui, date-selections, Bazi and more.  The origin of it may be just from the 12 branches/ animals!

CHRISTMAS COURSE SALE! (up to 50% off)
Please visit http://www.kenlaifengshui.com

Ken Lai
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. w/ Bazi- Basic/ Advanced w/18 hr. HD video each
“Feng Shui Toolbox: Sha-qi, Health/Wealth & Career” w/ 7 hr. HD video
“Period 7/8 Feng Shui Toolkit w/ Advanced Flying Star techniques” w/ 6 hr. HD video
“Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 11 hr. video
“Advanced Practical Imperial QMDJ” w/ 18 hr. video
“EZ QMDJ series: Astrology, Date/Task Selection, Annual Luck/Feng Shui”w/ 3 hr. HD
“EZ QMDJ Advanced Feng Shui” with 4 hr. HD video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui/Blessing” w/ 24 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

I have watched a BBC documentary “Come Bell Ringing” last night.  Conductor and musician Charles Hazlewood  had created a concert with the bell towers of 3 churches and a group of bell ringers in Cambridge, England. There are some historical footnotes about medieval Europeans had used bells to expel evil and sickness.

Bell ringing during a medieval funeral

In China or most Buddhist countries,  one can find a giant temple bell in a temple. The biggest temple bell in China is located in Tianning Temple in Changzhou City.  It weighs 15 tons and sits on the 13th floor of a pagoda.  When this bell is rung, its tone can be heard within a 10 miles radius.

The 15-tons Bell of Tianning Temple

Chinese Buddhists and Daoists believe that the metal sound of copper or brass bell can cleanse and purify the qi or energy of nearby environment, especially when the bell is inscribed with holy texts and blessings.  These texts and blessings will be converted to sound energy and spread into the area nearby to cleanse and harmonize the energy field there.

It seems that both eastern and western cultures believe in that metal sound has certain mythical cleansing power.

In Chinese Feng Shui, metal sound is believe to cure the 2-black sickness and 5-yellow disaster stars.  The rationale is that both 2 and 5 stars are earth in nature and metal sound is akin to their children crying for help (note:  this is based on 5-elements theory– earth produces metal). These negative earth energies, which would have caused sickness or misfortune, will be re-directed to nurture metal.  Therefore, the Feng Shui cure for 2 and 5-stars– small copper bells are hanged at the door or even chiming grand father clocks are used.

Tibetan Bell

QUICK & EASY WAY TO CLEANSE YOUR HOUSE
You may want to do a cleansing of your house if:

• you feel depressed lately
• you feel tired or no energy all the time
• many people get sicked in your house
• overall family luck drops or suffer more accidents
• your house is full of tension
• annual end of the year cleansing 

The cheapest and easiest way to cleanse your house is go buy a copper or brass hand-bell.  You may buy a Tibetan Bell if you can afford one.  First you cleanse the bell by running it over lighted candle or incense urn.  You may also cleanse the bell with holy water obtained from a church.

The house cleansing process is easy– simply ringing the bell while walking around your house. While walking, visualize heaven or the universe is sending cleansing and blessing energies into your house and the stagnant and sickness energies are pushing out. Make sure the dark corners, especially those that cannot see sunlight, are also “rung” at. Those are the high risk areas for hidden “stuff” or energies.

How about adding blessing and amplify your manifestations while cleansing your house?

Today is your lucky day.  Here is how:  Simply write down the blessing like “good health”, ‘harmony”, “better wealth-luck” (don’t ask for $1M), “improving career”…..etc.  on a small piece of paper and stick it on the bell.  Make the paper removable so that you can change your wish and blessing whenever you do house-cleansing.

Merry X’mas & Happy New Year!

CHRISTMAS COURSE SALE! (up to 50% off)
Please visit http://www.kenlaifengshui.com

Ken Lai
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. w/ Bazi- Basic/ Advanced w/18 hr. HD video each
“Feng Shui Toolbox: Sha-qi, Health/Wealth & Career” w/ 7 hr. HD video
“Period 7/8 Feng Shui Toolkit w/ Advanced Flying Star techniques” w/ 6 hr. HD video
“Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 11 hr. video
“Advanced Practical Imperial QMDJ” w/ 18 hr. video
“EZ QMDJ series: Astrology, Date/Task Selection, Annual Luck/Feng Shui”w/ 3 hr. HD
“EZ QMDJ Advanced Feng Shui” with 4 hr. HD video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui/Blessing” w/ 24 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

An “over-metaphysicalized person” is someone who will fine-tune every activity with metaphysics methods OR obsessed with maximizing the advantages from applying metaphysics methods to a major activity– most likely in business or wealth enhancement aspects for both genders and relationship or romance for females.  These people think that metaphysics is their ticket to solve all their worldly problems.

Because I teach Chinese metaphysics, some people thought that I have a magic wand or direct hot line to heaven.  They have requested me to help them move the slow-selling houses in an estate, selling a 50 feet yacht, houses or even pushing up the margin call of stocks.

An average “metaphysicalized person” simply tries to enhance some aspects of his/her life with metaphysics whereas an over-metaphysicalized person try to get an upper-hand in every facet of life or in competitions for wealth.

I have clients who keep begging for new metaphysics techniques to enhance their wealth acquisitions.  I have told them that how much wealth one will acquire and enjoy is pre-determined.  By pushing for wealth, they are doing “early withdrawal” from their life-time pre-determined wealth account.  They will die prematurely when their life-time account is drawn empty.

You may not believe in this Buddhist view of wealth pre-determinaton.  In Bazi or 4-Pillars, there is a term called “weak day-master cannot handle wealth“.  Bazi classifies people in strong, balanced or weak “day-master”.  People who belong to the “weak day-master” group cannot handle or enjoy big wealth when they are still “weak”.  There are numerous stories about lottery winners’ life got worse or even got killed after hitting the jackpot.  A recent example is the relative short life of Apple’s Steve Jobs.  His health got worse as he made more wealth after 2000.

There are three major types of over-metaphysicalized persons:
1.  The successful business people:  These are the luckiest group who enjoy successes in their business with application of metaphysics.  But their appetite for metaphysics tricks keeps growing and become “metaphysics junkie” and are hard to satisfy.

2.  Business people who WAS successful and is low on luck now:  These people either fail to change with time and/or adapt to new business environment.  Their major problem is not metaphysics but personal problems.  They hope the metaphysics magic wand will turn their business around overnight. I know a businessman who has built two “5-ghost carry wealth” and a few “water-dragons” in his house. But his business still “sucks” because the problem is people-problem.  The better one will use metaphysics to boost their confidence while the worse one will use metaphysics to justify their failure because of “bad luck” or “bad Feng Shui“.

3.  Non-business people who WAS successful and is low on luck now:  Like the business counterparts, these people sometimes dwell on their past successes and fail to change or adapt to new realities. They will max out their credit cards to buy new metaphysics course and hope to turn their luck around. The new courses will dig a deeper financial hole for them.  They also tend to justify their lack or action or failures on “bad luck ” or “bad Feng Shui“.

“Ken, do you mean metaphysics does not work?”

Of course, not every metaphysics method works.  But some methods like Feng Shui, Bazi, date-selection methods are likely to enhance your goal-directed activities.  However, my personal bias is:  use metaphysics methods to avoid or keep bad things from happening to you. Methods for wealth enhancements should be used sparingly or “unless you have to“.

Metaphysics methods, especially the wealth enhancement ones, behave like anti-biotic, the more you use it, the less effective it becomes to your personal qi.  I use metaphysics methods to the max only for important occasions.  For everyday life, I just use my own natural qi or energy to handle the events.

Happy Holidays!

CHRISTMAS COURSE SALE! (up to 50% off)
Please visit http://www.kenlaifengshui.com

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com

http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot.com

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/man-accidentally-gives-away-life-savings-hidden-away-165333331.html

Is this another case of  “no good deed goes unpunished“?

There are past news about some good Samaritans had helped victims of accidents and ended up being sued for causing injuries to the victims.  There are similar scenarios that sometimes we do our friends or family members some favors and get blames instead of gratitude. Sometimes it may be due to our over-zealousness to help or please.  But some people somehow always get reprimanded no matter how hard they try to please or being considerate.

People who get “no gratitude” (like Rodney Dangerfield’s “no respect”) from others even though they have done nice things to them, have a certain feature in their Bazi or 4-pillars charts.  They are likely to have “Zi-Mao Penalty” or their annual luck and/or 10-year luck form a ”Zi-Mao Penalty“.

Zi-Mao Penalty is also called “Penalty of ingratitude” because “Zi” is water  and “Mao” is wood  in Bazi.  Water feeds or nurtures wood.  So wood should show gratitude towards water.  But if wood refuses to be nurtured or over-nurtured, it becomes “ungrateful“.

People with Zi-Mao Penalty in their 4P charts are likely to suffer “no good deed goes unpunished“. They are also likely to be back-stabbed by the very people they have helped.   So they feel unhappy and think the world is unfair.

How do people with Zi-Mao Penalty  maintain their sanity?  My advice is: “no ask, no help“.  Don’t volunteer to help without being asked to.  Stay away from helping people during Zi (rat) and Mao (rabbit) years except in life and death situations or making donations to charity organizations.  Otherwise, they are likely to get ingratitude and back-stabbing and suffer mental anguish.

Ken Lai

“EZ QMDJ Advanced Feng Shui” w/ 3.5 hr. HD video
“Destiny & Luck Mgmt: Basic Bazi Therapy & Enhancement” w/ 18 hr. HD video
“Destiny & Luck Mgmt.: Advanced Bazi Therapy/Enhancement” w/ 18 hr. HD video
“Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG)” w/ 13 hr. video
“Practical Imperial Qi-Men-Dun-Jia” w/ 11 hr. video
“Advanced Practical Imperial Qi-Men-Dun-Jia” w/ 18 hr. video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing” v.2 w/ 24 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp” with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/

The massive land development and building boom in China has created a new category of residence called “nail households” (釘子戶 dīng zi hù) or holdouts from land developers’ buyout offers. Most of these “nail households” dislike the low offers or resist the corruption due to official and land developer alliance.

The pictures below show what Chinese netizens termed “Coolest nail household in history” (史上最牛钉子户) in 2007. Even CNN had reported this incident in international TV news.

Click on picture to enlarge

“Nail household” is not a monopoly in China.  The following is the famous “nail household” of a Japanese-American family living in Anaheim, California, USA, next door to the “happiest place on earth“– Disneyland.  The family refuses to sell out to Disney for decades.

Below is a group of “nail households” in the middle of a major traffic throughway and surrounded by tall buildings.

Wait!  How about dead people?  Yes, China also has “Nail Tomb” (坟墓钉子户).  Descendants of the tomb refuses to relocate the tomb for land developer.  Here is an example:

“Nail Tomb” surrounded by tall residential buildings.  All the “dragon veins” are c

“A PAIN IN THE REAR” FENG SHUI
The “nail households”, if they preserve and keep staying in their isolated houses will win the battle but lose the war, especially the Feng Shui war because:

• nail households are likely surrounded by new and tall buildings.  It create a subconscious feeling of being suppressed and lacking prosperity
• dwindling luck because earth qi tends to migrate to newer structures
• sickness and misfortune because qi is blocked by tall buildings surrounding them 

In the long run, the nail households will lose more than the land developers.  So this “a pain in the rear” Feng Shui has no winners but losers.

Ken Lai

“Destiny & Luck Mgmt: Basic Bazi Therapy & Enhancement” w/ 18 hr. HD video
“Destiny & Luck Mgmt.: Advanced Bazi Therapy/Enhancement” w/ 18 hr. HD video
“Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG)” w/ 13 hr. video
“Practical Imperial Qi-Men-Dun-Jia” w/ 11 hr. video
“Advanced Practical Imperial Qi-Men-Dun-Jia” w/ 18 hr. video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing” v.2 w/ 24 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp” with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/

My previous blog has discussed the source of the Bagua or 8-trigrams.  Now comes to the core of the discussion.

Middle Heaven Bagua (MHB) is also called “Yellow Emperor Bagua” because it is based on  Lian Shan Yi which was attributed to the Yellow Emperor.  The first version of MHB that I introduce here is based on Yuan-bao Jing (元包經)– a classic written in Northern Chou Dynasty (557- 581 CE ).  It is regarded as an elaboration of  Gui Cang Yi (歸藏).

MIDDLE HEAVEN BAGUA BASED ON YUAN-BAO JING 
At first glance, this bagua is clear yin-yang division or sex-segregation.  The gua (trigram) order in this version are as follows:

• Kun to Qian
• Dui to Gen
• Li to Kan
• Xun to Zhen

Yuan-bao Jing model starts with Kun (female/ yin) and ends with Zhen (male/ yang). Females are on the left side and also on top of males. It shows “Yin first and Yang second” or matriarchy ideology. The word “Cang 藏” as in “Gui Cang 歸藏”, stands for Kun or the receptive/ storage.   However, the ordering of trigrams still reflects yin-yang balance concept.

MIDDLE HEAVEN BAGUA BASED ON GUI CANG YI

Click over picture to enlarge

This looks like a “gay bagua” because both 90 and 180 degree paths of each trigram always reaches trigram of the same gender.  However, if you look at the neighboring trigram in terms of the yin trigram (e.g, Kun/ Qian, Dui/ Gen and so on),  you will find each “yao” of the trigram pair (the straight and broken lines) is yin-yang balanced.  

There is no accurate information except speculations on the gua order of this MHB.  All we know is it starts of Kun trigram with a right moving track.

Until one day a copy of Gui Cang Yi is discovered or unearthed, we cannot ascertain the validity of existing MHB creations.  This is one major reason that most Feng Shui books do not bother to include or discuss about MHB.  But it does not stop some marketers from boasting about their trove of  “MHB secrets”.

Anyway, all the bagua models (pre-, post- and Middle) reflect the rules of “yin-yang theory” like confrontation, mutual dependency and balancing.  Bagua models are also the original sources of 5-element theory. Pre-heaven bagua reflects the mutual-controlling aspect of 5-element theory.  Post-heaven bagua shows the nurturing aspect of the same theory.   Middle heaven bagua, if proven, points to the combination aspects of 5-element theory.

SHAO YONG AND MIDDLE HEAVEN BAGUA
The Pre-heaven Bagua diagram that we have today actually shows up LATER than the Post-heaven one.  It was put together by Shao Yong (1011–1077 CE) based on the following entry from Confucian classic Shuo-guo Chuan (說卦傳, Commentaries on Trigrams):
“天地定位，山澤通氣，雷風相薄，水火不相射，八卦相錯，數往者順，知來者逆﹔是故，易逆數也。”

This entry specifies the location and pairing of each trigrams.  It shows the spatial and original aspects of the system.  Trigrams also represent gender locations and relationship, so this Post-heaven bagua also reflects the human aspects of the system, especially in terms of power-relationship.

Shao Yong was probably one of the most talented Chinese cosmologists and Yi-Jing scholars.  He had created Huangji Jingshi (皇極經世, Book of supreme world ordering principles) and the Plum Blossom Divination method.  A logical question will arise:  If Shao was smart enough to figure out the Pre-heaven Bagua sequence from the classics, why did he not reconstruct one for the “Human or Middle Heaven Bagua”?  Did he feel the human aspects are already embedded in the Pre- and Post-heaven bagua?

MIDDLE HEAVEN BAGUA SECRETS???
We do not know if MHB exists or not, so is there such thing as a “MHB secret“?  Anyway, someone claims “Turning Qian over to Kun” (扭轉乾坤, reverse the course of events ) is one of the MHB big secrets. I will give you a hint to crack it.

There are more than one way to do  ”Turning Qian over to Kun“.  Many people in the motivation, life-coaching and destiny-changing (or luck changing) business use similar technique. But people do not call it a MHB secret. It is just one of the basic yin-yang principles.

Here is the hint:  go to my website www.kenlaifengshui.com and click the link for “Destiny & Luck Management: Advanced Bazi Therapy & Enhancement” course.  Look for the DVD box cover image. It is one of the possible answers for  “Turning Qian over to Kun“.

Ken Lai

“Destiny & Luck Mgmt: Basic Bazi Therapy & Enhancement” w/ 18 hr. HD video
“Destiny & Luck Mgmt.: Advanced Bazi Therapy/Enhancement” w/ 18 hr. HD video
“Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG)” w/ 13 hr. video
“Practical Imperial Qi-Men-Dun-Jia” w/ 11 hr. video
“Advanced Practical Imperial Qi-Men-Dun-Jia” w/ 18 hr. video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing” v.2 w/ 24 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp” with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/