【望聞問切】
Sir Isaac Newton's 1st Law of Motion:
"An object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line, unless compelled to change its state by an external force."
This reminds me of a how a vacant house has no Feng Shui influence to speak of. Unless a person comes in to stay.
The energy field from the human will stir up the energies dormant in the house.
This interaction will give rise to a good or bad pattern Feng Shui, that subsequently affects the occupant's life.
My job is to create good patterns and disrupt bad patterns.
People and their home Feng Shui cannot start, stop, or change direction all by themselves. It requires some force from the outside to catalyse a change.
I am like the external force as stated in the 1st Law.
But one of the greatest forces that I was taught early by Shifu to deal with...
Is the mental blocks in people.
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#1
I sometimes hear these from clients and readers.
"I am a logical person, so I am unsure what to think of Chinese Metaphysics."
This sounds like all geomancers are illogical people. 😄
No, we are thinking people too. Our parents didn't raise us up to be mystical beings like unicorns who poo rainbow.
The years we spend mastering our skills are in no way less comparable to your time in schools.
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#2
"I want to keep an open mind, and hear what you have to say."
I have mixed feelings about this phrase, open mind.
Are we getting too westernised in our education, that anything not taught in school is considered unorthodox?
And to understand Chinese Metaphysics, something that's unique to our Chinese culture, needs an open mind?
Must be stifling to live with a closed mind like that.
It sometimes sound like they are doing me a favour when they need to open their minds to listen to me speak. 😄
When I probe further to ask what lead to their clamped minds, I get different answers.
Some blame it on their bad experiences with certain Feng Shui practitioners.
Some had parents/friends/spouses who learnt Chinese Metaphysics, yet these people aren't successful in any way for them to look up to.
A bad student doesn't always mean the teacher is lousy or the school sucks.
Others couldn't give me a logical answer. They just follow-the-herd.
In other words, it was an emotional decision for them to disregard our ancestral ancient wisdom.
Nothing logical about it.
讀這麼多書，卻不能夠說出一些像樣的話。
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#3
"I am a scientific person, but I believe there is more to Science in this universe. So I'm somewhat curious about what Feng Shui can do for me."
I'm happy that you are making space to take in new knowledge. But some questions.
What Science did you study?
Only those developed by the Western civilisations?
How long and how much did you study?
How about the science that is developed by our ancestors?
Or are you so Ang-Mohdified that you only accept science from the Western world and not those from our roots?
If you formulate a hypothesis that Chinese Metaphysics is woowoo talk, what experiments have you carried out, how many and under what conditions?
Who monitors the experiments and how qualified is the person? Who are your test subjects? What is your sample size?
Or you assume your hypothesis stands as a well-established theory, without all these testing?
That would be disgracefully illogical, my Friend, and no way will you qualify to declare yourself as a scientific person.
Modern science is only about 400 years old.
Chinese Metaphysics spans over 5000 years.
How can a 400-year-old understand something as dense and complex as a 5000-year-old?
I hail from a pure Science background.
If you had spent the same effort as I did, learning from the right Teachers, you too would realise the Science in Chinese Metaphysics, instead of saying "there is more to Science".
Chinese Metaphysics is more scientific than modern Science in so many ways.
If only you know the experiments our ancestors did on themselves to establish this great vault of knowledge to benefit humanity.
My advice: don't be too quick to label others as unscientific or superstitious, when you know and did nothing.
書讀得少，不是一個好藉口去排斥我們古聖賢的智慧。
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I particularly like this example quoted by a well-known TCM professor and physician, 樊正倫教授, Prof Fan Zheng Lun. He is from China and has about 40 years of clinical experience. He has also appeared in several TV shows to talk about his experience.
He used this simple example to illustrate the difference in TCM and Western Medicine, to students in Beijing University:
「我給北大的學生們講課，他們問中醫、西醫有什么區別。簡單地說，夏天買西瓜，想買一個好瓜，你把那瓜拿起來，不管你會不會，拍一拍，聽一聽，看看樣子，看什么呢？對瓜望、聞、問、切。對不對？
我說如果一個很有經驗的老瓜農，都不用拍，他一看，他就告訴你，這瓜是生的，那瓜是熟的，為什么？觀其象，知其數。西醫怎么辦，要不就切開觀看，要不就從根那兒抽點水，從上面抽點水，再從中間抽點水，到實驗室化驗一下。然后告訴你，這是熟的，這是甜的。你要問他是沙瓤還是肉瓤，那得用X線照一照。老瓜農不用，他把瓜的產地弄明白，把今年的氣候弄明白，就敢告訴你，這瓜就是沙瓤，這就是中醫和西醫的區別。」
My translation:
"When I was lecturing to the students in Beijing University, they asked me what the difference in Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine is.
Simply put, when you buy a watermelon in summer, you want to get a good one. Whether you know how to do it or not, you will hold the watermelon up, and knock on it. You will listen to the sound and examine it.
What are you looking at? You are looking, listening, questioning and feeling the pulse (TCM four ways of diagnosis), aren't you?
I say, if it's a very experienced and veteran watermelon farmer, he would not even need to knock on the watermelon. With a single look, he can tell you that this melon is raw and that melon is ripe. Why? He observes its appearance, and he knows it in his mind.
What does Western medicine do?
They will either cut it up to examine, or extract some liquid from the stem, the top, and the middle part of the melon. The liquids will be sent to the laboratory for analysis, and then they will tell you this melon is ripe and this melon is sweet.
If you ask him whether the melon flesh is firm or mushy, he will need to do an X-ray to know.
But not the veteran watermelon farmer. When he figures out the production place of the watermelon and the climatic weather of this year, he will dare to tell you that this melon has firm and crunchy flesh.
That is the difference between Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine."
A western approach is not always the best way to understand everything.
It is also not the ONLY way to make sense of the world around us.
If you have been misunderstanding our Chinese ancestral wisdom, I say it's high time to build new neural pathways.
We have high brain plasticity.
Live like you own it.
Don't look down on the wisdom of our Chinese ancestors.
I don't subscribe to nonsense like things are fated.
It is always the people that refuse to change.
