All aboard the Feng Shui Express! It's impossible to get through a day without hearing someone, somewhere talking about feng shui. Little strings of coins, bamboo plants, and bells all come with tags saying that they will bring 'good feng shui' into your home. So, what is good feng shui? For that matter, what is feng shui?
Feng shui dates back 3,000 years. It is a Taoist system that combines philosophy, design and cosmology. Basically, feng and shui mean wind and water, two things that in China are thought to bring good fortune. In English, anything that brings good fortune has started to be called 'good feng shui' and anything that discourages good fortune, 'bad feng shui;' which must sound very strange to any Chinese speakers who hear it. Some Taoist practitioners in China 3,000 years ago started creating some ideas about how to design a home, or a pick a grave site, or build a government building in ways that all the things that would bring good fortune would be included.
The original practice had everything to do with what direction the exterior door faced, whether there was a river, or a mountain, or geographic point of interest in the area, and the architecture of the building. Recently, a new school of thought developed in feng shui, called the black hat school. The black hat school of feng shui takes the philosophy and world view of classic feng shui, and moves it inside the house.
Traditionally, having a stand of bamboo near your property was said to encourage prosperity. So, the black hat school, when things like having a small bamboo tree in the house became possible, determined that having bamboo in a room would bring prosperity to that part of the house (which is why bamboo is good feng shui in an office). Other concepts in black hat feng shui are that a person sitting at a desk should not have their back to the room, and that furniture in a room should not be pushed right up against the walls.
The reasoning behind feng shui is closely tied in with Taoist thought, and the way the Chinese view the world. Understanding all of the ideas of feng shui takes time and study, and only the black hat school is widely taught or practiced outside of China. However, taking the time to learn about feng shui and its teaching can have a strong positive effect on your home and life. A basic feng shui course can teach a lot of the foundations of feng shui, enough so someone who takes it can begin applying the principles to their own life, and decide if they want to learn more.
Feng shui dates back 3,000 years. It is a Taoist system that combines philosophy, design and cosmology. Basically, feng and shui mean wind and water, two things that in China are thought to bring good fortune. In English, anything that brings good fortune has started to be called 'good feng shui' and anything that discourages good fortune, 'bad feng shui;' which must sound very strange to any Chinese speakers who hear it. Some Taoist practitioners in China 3,000 years ago started creating some ideas about how to design a home, or a pick a grave site, or build a government building in ways that all the things that would bring good fortune would be included.
The original practice had everything to do with what direction the exterior door faced, whether there was a river, or a mountain, or geographic point of interest in the area, and the architecture of the building. Recently, a new school of thought developed in feng shui, called the black hat school. The black hat school of feng shui takes the philosophy and world view of classic feng shui, and moves it inside the house.
Traditionally, having a stand of bamboo near your property was said to encourage prosperity. So, the black hat school, when things like having a small bamboo tree in the house became possible, determined that having bamboo in a room would bring prosperity to that part of the house (which is why bamboo is good feng shui in an office). Other concepts in black hat feng shui are that a person sitting at a desk should not have their back to the room, and that furniture in a room should not be pushed right up against the walls.
The reasoning behind feng shui is closely tied in with Taoist thought, and the way the Chinese view the world. Understanding all of the ideas of feng shui takes time and study, and only the black hat school is widely taught or practiced outside of China. However, taking the time to learn about feng shui and its teaching can have a strong positive effect on your home and life. A basic feng shui course can teach a lot of the foundations of feng shui, enough so someone who takes it can begin applying the principles to their own life, and decide if they want to learn more.
About the Author:
If you're interested in taking a basic feng shui course, be sure you enroll in a thorough and reputable feng shui school.
No comments:
Post a Comment