The tradition of the Feng Shui masters and the Asian idea of success
As already briefly mentioned, there are various Feng Shui systems, each of which comes from a specific tradition. This tradition goes back to certain monasteries in different regions of China. Originally, this Feng Shui knowledge was a kind of secret doctrine that was closely linked to the religion of the country in question. After all, China is as big as Western Europe and, like Europe, used to consist of many countries with different peoples, cultures and religions.
Before Buddhism and alongside Taoism, these religions were animistic nature religions. Natural forces, spirits, demons and the spirits of the deceased were worshipped. It was precisely these animistic religions that were the source of traditional Feng Shui. Much was done exclusively to do the gods, demons and spirits of the dead a favor, to appease, attract and use these forces, or to deter and drive them away.
The Chinese and many other Asian peoples all the way to the South Seas believe that the spirits of the dead are still connected to a people and a family. In this tradition, a people or clan consists of a certain number of currently living people (and animals) and a much larger number of deceased people who live and work together with the living.
The spirits of the dead influence the actions of the living! The living ask the dead for assistance in their business dealings, in disputes with other people, or in the choice of marriage partners for the next generation. Part of Feng Shui is exclusively for this purpose. Feng Shui is intended to help regulate the conditions between the living and the dead, as well as with the gods and demons.
These methods are not exactly popular here in the West. In Feng Shui , they are the core of the system, but at the same time a “trade secret” of the respective master and his clan. For this reason, you will never know why a Feng Shui master you hire gives you a particular instruction. He may consult the symbols for the dead in his astrological chart and tell you something about the wind in that region!
All classical Chinese symbols have several meanings: They are characters a) in a secular sense for everyone, for language/writing and b) in a religious sense. However, only monks understand this religious script. In addition, there are c) mythical and magical meanings for all characters, which are also only understood by the appropriately educated monks and masters and not by everyone.
No matter which master you might want to study feng shui with, they are guaranteed not to tell you the secret meanings behind the worldly statements. All genuine masters are bound not to reveal the secrets of their tradition to outsiders. These are the mystical secrets of individual clans and secret orders. There really are worlds between us and these people!
As soon as you take a closer look at one of these systems, you realize that all of these masters strive to praise themselves highly and present the other providers in a bad light. There is no question of “serious competition” or “friendly cooperation”. In Asia, especially in the area influenced by China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, it is considered chic to brag about one’s own successes and denigrate competitors. It is almost expected that you brag about your salary, your possessions, the contracts you have won, etc.
This is a behavior that we are not familiar with in Europe or America. Western people tend to treat their personal successes as an intimate private matter. You can only recognize success by your lifestyle, your style of dress or your car.
Feng Shui practitioners of different schools are engaged in veritable wars to see who can manage to advise a certain important company, preferably with all its branches worldwide. Once a company has come into the consulting circle and influence of a Feng Shui master, it must expect that competing companies will hire other Feng Shui masters to fight this company with their perhaps good successes, also with the methods of Feng Shui. So in Asia, mostly invisible to us, real Feng Shui wars are raging over the success and influence of the various Feng Shui masters and their schools.
Some of the teachings of Feng Shui therefore make sense in practical application. However, it should not be overlooked that with the technical know-how of a master, one also buys into his ideology, world view, his secret intentions and even his enemies.
According to our many years of experience, these various masters are all “not green”, but each one vies to be the greatest, and the well-known masters are real egomaniacs.
Feng shui definitely has nothing to do with spiritual development or with the free, independent, completely individual and personal development of the individual! “Serving the customer” is a foreign word there.
The Chinese (the source of feng shui) are total pragmatists. Anything that promises a practical benefit is done. Our moral concepts do not exist there. The term spirituality is a foreign concept to these people. They obviously have no sense of it at all! At least in the past 30 years, since we have had repeated contact with Asians, we have only met one spiritual “East Asian”. All the others were very self-centered and only concerned with their own advantage.
© DHA Kyborg Institute
