Feng Shui

THE PHILOSOPHY OF FENG SHUI-3

by Paul Darby Ph.D, The Feng Shui Doctor

In Taoism, salvation, enlightenment, is not brought by deep religious prayer but rather by the careful observance of nature, the natural ways of life, the seasons, the flowing forces of chi, the natural energies all around us. These meandering flows of subtle energies flow throughout the environment and through the human body. The Tao, the eternal movement of these energies, is the all embracing ultimate principle which existed before all else. The Tao is the life force, which emits the chi, the ’dragon’s breath’ and right through Chinese history, chi is referred to, along with-the four celestial animals of the four cardinal compass points [north, south ,east and west]. These symbols were being used in ritual earthenware and decoration, so the dragon, the phoenix, the turtle and the tiger were well known before Taoism really got going. They were symbols of the types of chi, the energy, the calm, the dangerous, the nurturing, the lively---all the subtle ‘winds’swirling through the lives of humans.

The aim of the philosophical Taoist was to become one with the Tao realizing the universal law of ‘the return of everything to its source’. Many years later Taoists tried to achieve this through becoming immortal. There are many legends of immortality and the symbols of it which remain today in such things as the crane, the deer and the pine tree. In these symbols, along with the Chinese astrological animals, there are strong links to Buddhism, Shintoism and even Hinduism. Taoists, through meditation and ritual, were trying to find a special kind of emptiness-’wu’-and simplicity-’pu’ and abide in non-action-’wu wei’, just be-ing rather than do-ing.

In this, Taoism shares certain similarities with Buddhism . The insistence that the intellect cannot comprehend the Unknowable, the Tao, which once named is not the Tao any longer. Taoism teaches that understanding is not derived from knowledge or theory- but, by comprehension of what is obvious------ by observing nature and the natural laws of the weather, the seasons and in particular the flowing of water, which though gentle is so very strong. Here, once again, the philosophy contained within Taoism, Buddhism, Japanese Shinto and Tibetan Bon have very strong connections with Feng Shui.

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