Feng Shui

THE PHILOSOPHY OF FENG SHUI 1

by Paul Darby Ph.D, The Feng Shui Doctor

In this series of articles, I shall try to show you the depth of the connections that Feng Shui has with the philosophies which grew up around it. It is important to lay deep and strong foundations before building up your course of practical Feng Shui applications. It will all be worth it! At the end of the series you will see all of the connections and thus be able to explain why Feng Shui is like it is, and be able to demonstrate in simple terms its symbols and metaphors to the most sceptical. Incidentally, Feng Shui is like the Law of Gravity, in that you do not have to believe in it for it to work. It just is! It just does!

So, to understand Feng Shui, it is essential to know a little about the philosophies surrounding it. Taoism, Tai Chi , Meditation, Buddhism and Shinto. Much confusion can be caused if you do not study these basic traditions. From them, their rituals and their thinking, it becomes obvious what Feng Shui is and how it should be treated. Taken in isolation, Feng Shui can be seen as just the ramblings of superstitious minds, when in fact it is much, much more.

At the end of these articles, you will know a great deal about Feng Shui , how and why it works and how to apply it to your own and, to your friends’ lives.

TAOISM.

The particularly strong characteristics of the earth science known as Feng Shui lie deeply within the ancient Chinese philosophy known as Taoism, but it also has certain connections with Confucianism as well as Buddhism and Japanese Shinto. Feng Shui also links across to Vashtu Shastri in India and even has connections with Native American Questing and Space Clearing as well as Ancient Egyptian mythology with wild touches of the Knights Templar, Freemasonry and mystic Hebrew! Quite a mixture. It also has strong echoes with the eastern martial arts, in particular Tai Chi and the exercise regime of Chi Kung.

Taoism, pronounced 'Dowism' is a name which has been applied to a kind of naturalistic religion and a number of schools of philosophy found in Ancient China. It should be said however that before Taoism, pictures of animals and symbols connected with Feng Shui have been found which date back into prehistory. The actual term Taoism was not used until the Han dynasty in the 2nd century AD. Its main beliefs and rituals had merged into the main concept of the ‘Tao’ as being the unity behind the multiplicity of things. The Tao is ‘the way’, the nothingness from which all things are created to take part in ‘becoming and unbecoming’--the constant whirl of life, surrounded by the vibrational energies given off by all things, known as ‘chi’. It is interesting to note that ‘becoming and unbecoming’ fits very well into the basic theories of Quantum Physics, i.e., nothing stays the same---- and with the working of the electromagnetic fields around the earth known as the Van Allen Belts [which were only discovered in 1958!].

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