izus Posted April 13, 2006 Report Share Posted April 13, 2006 so Feng Shui is kinda like a farmers almanac for people instead of crops?is it more then a horoscope? http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/coollinks.htm Link to comment
Dan R Posted April 13, 2006 Report Share Posted April 13, 2006 Feng Shui is much more than that because it is a way of living that maintains harmony of the universe thereby keeping away bad luck and making things right. It is used in architecture to assure that the doors, kitchen, bathroom even the direction the house faces will ward off evil. Things such as mirrors to reflect back evil spirits are used for protection. Also as part of the living in harmony with the universe it is about how you include the elements of earth, wood, metal, water and fire in your life. This is why it is so attractive to New Agers interested in oneness with the planet. I find it interesting that the Navajo Indians have a similar system. Link to comment
david_dawei Posted April 13, 2006 Report Share Posted April 13, 2006 As well, an expected result of this harmonous living is the harnessing of Qi, which is in everything that exists... feng shuihttp://skepdic.com/fengshui.html "Wu Xing" or 5 elementshttp://www.bhargo.com/articles/5elements.asp Link to comment
jemmyell Posted April 13, 2006 Report Share Posted April 13, 2006 Lol, I just came here to open this EXACT topic. Let me say that if any of you that don't have your SO here yet have a bed that faces a door or a mirror you should rethink that strategy since you have an 'unlucky bed'. AND an unlucky bed will have an unhappy wife in it.... MY room addition design just acquired a wall between the bed and the entry door. The wall will be far enough from the bed so an entertainment center will fit easily there and a large bookshelf will go on the other side. The wall will NOT go to ceiling height, because we have a ceiling fan there in the current design. If there is not enough room from the top of the entertainment center, then we will lose the ceiling fan I guess. More planning coming... -James Link to comment
david_dawei Posted April 13, 2006 Report Share Posted April 13, 2006 If your going to go out and 'house hunt'.. here's one tip which will make you look like the ultimate Feng Shui-ster: Bring a compass !! Link to comment
izus Posted April 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2006 so could you consider this a religion? Link to comment
david_dawei Posted April 13, 2006 Report Share Posted April 13, 2006 One of my links mentioned: "Feng shui is often identified as a form of geomancy, divination by geographic features, but it is mainly concerned with understanding the relationships between nature and ourselves so that we might live in harmony within our environment." It seems that the 'geomancy' label is attributed to christian missionaries who had mis-translated the meaning of Feng Shui... and that it is probably closer to our ideas of astrology where divination occurs. Because no god is involved, I think it makes it difficult to label a religion (same issue with philosophies like confucianism) ... but IMO, there is certainly a common thread, that [like religion and ethical philosophies] it is basically a 'belief' system, just not one based on a deity.. Link to comment
pkfops Posted April 13, 2006 Report Share Posted April 13, 2006 My bedroom closet runs the full legnth of the room andhas full length mirrored doors. The section that is oppisite the bed now has curtians. Also the bathroom door must remain closed because itis a "dirty room". Link to comment
izus Posted April 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2006 i want to learn how...i spoke with a friend of mine who is south american indian and they reconize this as well...i suppose its world wide not only a eastern belief Link to comment
whatsthehaps Posted April 14, 2006 Report Share Posted April 14, 2006 It's interesting to me to find many Westerners becoming interested in this, as well as chinese medicine/techniques, and Asians less interested (in a younger generation I would say). It seems they are becoming more Americanized and losing some of their culture. What I get out of it is a natural balance of elements. Elements and living beings have energy and the arrangement of these elements creates harmony. Now I like a nice balance, myself. From my perspective a space generates a feeling, you have a comfortable and relaxing feeling or a harsh feeling, etc. I like a nice pleasant feeling. While I may prefer one architectural style over another, the feeling is more important. Therefore, the style I prefer may give me the wrong feeling in certain cases and the other style a pleasant feeling. It's an oddball way of describing things but it is a feeling and I'm trying to put it in words. Other cultures have different ideas on achieving harmony. The Danish like natural colors and organic forms. The Italians like more vibrant colors and clean lines, simple, stylish, also a little more hard looking. I think the feng shui is probably the most philosophical and thought out. I like Danish and Italian and you can add the feng shui touch. Donald Trump actually hired a feng shui master to revise some of his buildings and he keeps these principles in mind for his new ones. It cost him quite a lot also. Link to comment
Dan R Posted April 14, 2006 Report Share Posted April 14, 2006 Is it a religion? Technically not because as David says there is no diety. But then that would be defining religion (a western word and concept) in a western way. The word religion itself is usually referring not only our origin but a divine cause. This tends to exclude many belief sysatems which attempt to explain existence in other terms. To me it is a religion since the concept of Qi explains the natural tendencies of energy as the creation of order and the solid world. Further it attempts to define proper activity and community of man in moral terms, which is a broader common characteristic of religion Link to comment
david_dawei Posted April 14, 2006 Report Share Posted April 14, 2006 Although Qi is itself created, according to later philosophers: "Tao becomes one, one becomes two, two becomes three and three becomes ten thousand. Behind existence of every item is a shadow, in front of it is light and as stabilizer is immaterial breathing." -- Lao Tzu ---- From TAO comes ONE; existence From existence comes TWO; Yin and Yang (heaven and earth) From Yin and Yang comes THREE: Qi (immaterial breathing; all forms of energy--Five energies/elements). From Qi (five elements) comes the TEN THOUSAND THINGS: Everything. Yin and Yanghttp://www.white-sun.com/yin.htm The Cosmological Origins of Feng Shuihttp://www.fengshuigate.com/cosmology.html Qimancy: The Art and Science of Feng Shuihttp://www.fengshuigate.com/qimancy.html Link to comment
ameriken Posted April 14, 2006 Report Share Posted April 14, 2006 Lol, I just came here to open this EXACT topic. Let me say that if any of you that don't have your SO here yet have a bed that faces a door or a mirror you should rethink that strategy since you have an 'unlucky bed'. AND an unlucky bed will have an unhappy wife in it.... MY room addition design just acquired a wall between the bed and the entry door. The wall will be far enough from the bed so an entertainment center will fit easily there and a large bookshelf will go on the other side. The wall will NOT go to ceiling height, because we have a ceiling fan there in the current design. If there is not enough room from the top of the entertainment center, then we will lose the ceiling fan I guess. More planning coming... -James206812[/snapback]I just talked with Jie about this, because our bed faces both a door and a mirror. She said she was not familiar with this, and she did a search...what she came up with is that the bed should run the same direction as the main crossbeam in the house, and the head should point east and feet should point west, which ours does. I guess we are about half-shui there then. Link to comment
ameriken Posted April 14, 2006 Report Share Posted April 14, 2006 (edited) Lol, I just came here to open this EXACT topic. Let me say that if any of you that don't have your SO here yet have a bed that faces a door or a mirror you should rethink that strategy since you have an 'unlucky bed'. AND an unlucky bed will have an unhappy wife in it.... MY room addition design just acquired a wall between the bed and the entry door. The wall will be far enough from the bed so an entertainment center will fit easily there and a large bookshelf will go on the other side. The wall will NOT go to ceiling height, because we have a ceiling fan there in the current design. If there is not enough room from the top of the entertainment center, then we will lose the ceiling fan I guess. More planning coming... -James206812[/snapback]I just talked with Jie about this, because our bed faces both a door and a mirror. She said she was not familiar with this, and she did a search...what she came up with is that the bed should run the same direction as the main crossbeam in the house, and the head should point east and feet should point west, which ours does. I guess we are about half-shui there then.207118[/snapback]......and let me add that she has just confirmed something else........resulting in our decision to take down the bedroom mirror ! Edited April 14, 2006 by ameriken (see edit history) Link to comment
jemmyell Posted April 14, 2006 Report Share Posted April 14, 2006 Hi Ken, Well, east / west is not going to happen, but the wall just grew to ceiling height and the fan will now be over our bed. We are emailing a design in CorelDraw back and forth and we will finish it this weekend. (I hope!) I will meet with the contractor new week to firm up the wall's location. I MAY put a dogleg in the wall so that the wall can be narrower and I will probably move the bed off center since the contractor says we can move the window over the bed a little... Details.... -James Link to comment
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