Feng Shui help

[Bum Grasshopper]

I am considering renting a house that is next to a graveyard. The front of the house faces north. The back door, the one we will most likely use use as our everyday entrance, faces south. On the east side, across the street is a good sized graveyard. The master bedroom is on the east side of the house. The entrance faces west, away from the graveyard. The "back" yard is actually on the west side of the house. The front yard is bigger than the back.

 

I know that graveyards are teeming with yin energy and can have a negative effect on our lives. Any suggestions on what I can do to stabilize the energy flow? Which direction should we place our bed?

[Taomeow]

I am considering renting a house that is next to a graveyard. The front of the house faces north. The back door, the one we will most likely use use as our everyday entrance, faces south. On the east side, across the street is a good sized graveyard. The master bedroom is on the east side of the house. The entrance faces west, away from the graveyard. The "back" yard is actually on the west side of the house. The front yard is bigger than the back.

 

I know that graveyards are teeming with yin energy and can have a negative effect on our lives. Any suggestions on what I can do to stabilize the energy flow? Which direction should we place our bed?

 

Do not rent this house. Yin energy is the least of your concerns, it's sha' qi of the graveyard that comes with the territory and can't be neutralized with any feng shui methods.

 

Not living near a graveyard is feng shui commandment number one. There's cleansing procedures in feng shui to use after visiting a cemetery, but none for living in its proximity.

[Bum Grasshopper]

Do not rent this house. Yin energy is the least of your concerns, it's sha' qi of the graveyard that comes with the territory and can't be neutralized with any feng shui methods.

 

Not living near a graveyard is feng shui commandment number one. There's cleansing procedures in feng shui to use after visiting a cemetery, but none for living in its proximity.

 

But it is such a beautiful house that fits our needs and our budget. Is there nothing we can do to even dampen the negative effects?

[Scarlet Wampus]

I may be mistaken but I've noticed people free of sewpastecious qi appear to avoid the terrible harm that otherwise inevitably comes from living near a graveyard.

Edited April 11, 2010 by Scarlet Wampus

[Sloppy Zhang]

The dorm I live in is right next to a graveyard (I literally mean right next to, there is a sidewalk and a one car lane driveway, then the graves) and I don't really have any problems. Not to go against feng shui but... yeah.

[Taomeow]

I may be mistaken but I've noticed people free of sewpastecious qi appear to avoid the terrible harm that otherwise inevitably comes from living near a graveyard.

 

Yes, mistaken you are, as is everyone who chalks up thousands-year-old taoist sciences to superstition. Chinese geomancers are the ones who discovered magnetism, for starters. Thousands of years before Maxwell and Faraday et al. They discovered that certain rocks which superstitious people said attracted certain metals -- gasp -- actually did. They made a hair-breadth needle out of one of those metals, light enough to float, and threw it in a pool of water collected in a concave leaf, and it turned always in the same direction. That's how they invented the luopan, the main tool of feng shui, whose poor relative became our compass. (No, we didn't invent it, we borrowed it from Chinese taoist civilization, too superstitious for our taste.)

 

Anyhow... don't even go there. In fact no one should go there in diapers.

[Taomeow]

The dorm I live in is right next to a graveyard (I literally mean right next to, there is a sidewalk and a one car lane driveway, then the graves) and I don't really have any problems. Not to go against feng shui but... yeah.

 

The problems are seldom immediate and hardly ever obvious to anyone who won't phase in the feng shui connection. Of course you are still young and the younger you are, the higher your natural vitality that counteracts adverse feng shui for a while. For a while, but not forever.

 

I had a friend whose wife killed herself by jumping from a 13th floor window of their beautiful upper west side NYC apartment. When I was there shortly thereafter, I looked out of the window she jumped from. Down below right across the street from their building I saw a cathedral, Gothic style, with its spiked towers pointing in the general direction of the window. FS rule number two is, don't live near a church, hospital, fire station, slaughterhouse, or some such. Those people lived in that apartment for fifteen years before tragedy struck. They were very happily married, professionally successful, nice people. However, the wife started having health problems and diligently treated them, only to keep getting worse. What pushed her overboard was some new pill a doctor prescribed -- she took it in the evening, jumped out at dawn, leaving a note for the cops and a letter of apology for everyone else. The husband wouldn't hear about "silly superstitions" when I tried to tell him he might want to move. He died of a stroke two years later.

[Taomeow]

But it is such a beautiful house that fits our needs and our budget. Is there nothing we can do to even dampen the negative effects?

 

Traps are always baited with something attractive or no one would get caught. Meat in a bear trap, cheese in a mousetrap... There's usually a 4P problem underlying people's attraction to bad feng shui residences -- someone with a lucky chart will navigate toward good feng shui, and vice versa.

 

Tell you what. Don't take my word for it. Find a good form/compass FS professional (just don't fall for anything that isn't that, which is 99% of what's out there and all bogus -- from your description of the house I gather that's what you've seen, the static make-believe FS for Western consumers originating with Lin Yun and his bogus BTB sect -- which is a FS-flavored scam, is all it is). Ask the same question. Ask ten of them. If there's going to be even one who will suggest renting a graveyard-adjacent house on the merit of its beauty and fitting the budget and so on, I'll become this master's student, upon checking the lineage credentials that is. (If there's none or if there's a Lin Yun lineage connection, I will just call a fraud.)

 

There's groups on yahoo -- basicfengshui and advancedfengshui, if I remember correctly, where you can find a wealth of resources and ask questions and ask for references. I was a member for years years ago, and there were some serious people there, don't know what the situation is now, but worth checking out IMO.

[Gerard]

Bum Grasshopper,

 

You cannot block, as TM already said, the excess Yin energy generated by a cemetery would be overwhelming for the home. Unless tere is a volcano beside it, I wouldn't live near one.

 

Some more FS tips:

 

1. Do not live near a freeway or a railroad track. Sha (evil influence) and fast moving Qi will interfere the the harmonious enviroment required for a home. And if you do, try to put some barriers between your home and the Sha.

 

2. Do not live in a house or building on the outside edge of a curved road because it allows Qi to pierce through the house.

 

For example, it would allow a car to lose control and end up in your backyard. The solution to this poor Qi would be building a blocking structure but ensuring it blends well with the environment, maintains a good proportion with your house and it doesn't produce an isolating effect.

 

3. Do not live in a small house or apartment with a high building or skyrise next to it, or in a high building/sky rise that sits by itself. It is bad FS as it creates, in the former, an overwhelming effect to the residents, and an unprotected and exposed result, in the latter.

Edited April 12, 2010 by durkhrod chogori

[Birch]

IME, living next to graveyards provokes stuff you don't want. Everyone I have known (including yours truly) that has lived close to a graveyard has BOTH a)had some sh*t thing in their lives happen and b)never failed to mention the proximity of the graveyard as relevant to what happened. I think "" is the weirdest part of it.

If living next to a graveyard wasn't an issue, no-one would bring it up, right?

 

Causality in this configuration is beyond me. IME with graveyard, causality is somewhere else. I don't know what it is, but I'd get another house to rent, just because it's enough to warrant the question. And the thread

 

"Hey, I'm thinking of moving right next door to a landfill, want to come to dinner?"

[Scarlet Wampus]

Hmmm. That's interesting to me Kate because, until now, the lack of anyone at all I have known living close to a graveyard mentioning something bad happening in relation to it or witnessing something bad happening in relation to it is partly what makes me suspicious. (Well, that and a fundamentally different understanding of the workings qi I have from the classical but never mind that for now).

 

What I'm thinking is maybe you guys do something weird with your graveyards because the ones we had in the UK didn't seem that big a deal. A whole row of houses in the village I grew up in were alongside a graveyard. The graveyard even had one of those dangerous-in-FS churches in it. Nothing about the families in those houses seemed somehow different from the others. Really, I think it would have shown up somehow.

 

Unless there is something very different about the ground used for graveyards the causality part of why they are supposedly so bad would surely be something to do with having corpses stuck in it. I mean, that's where this association with extreme yin is coming from right? Rotting bodies?

[C T]

I believe there are sound reasons why in most Asian countries graveyards are always located at quite a distance from residential and commercial sites. I also know that some graveyards are more 'negative' than others.. depending on the concentration of corpses that had died traumatically and/or in tragic circumstances. Having visited numerous graveyards (to honor my ancestors) it is my experience that some areas within the yards are more 'chilly' than others... especially where tombs of children and women who had died while giving birth are found.

 

Just some thoughts i had.

[hagar]

I believe there are sound reasons why in most Asian countries graveyards are always located at quite a distance from residential and commercial sites. I also know that some graveyards are more 'negative' than others.. depending on the concentration of corpses that had died traumatically and/or in tragic circumstances. Having visited numerous graveyards (to honor my ancestors) it is my experience that some areas within the yards are more 'chilly' than others... especially where tombs of children and women who had died while giving birth are found.

 

Just some thoughts i had.

 

I contemplated moving to an appartment near a graveyard in Oslo, but my teacher adviced against it. I was meticulous and sent him the location via Google maps; he tuned in, and responded that it would affect the lung qi.

h

[Bum Grasshopper]

Pros

Nice , quiet, safe neighborhood

Brand new remodeled interior

Nicely landscaped front yard

Good sized fenced in back yard (I have a dog)

Affordable rent, water and lawn service included

Nice landlord

Low utilities

Perfect size and floor plan for our needs

Close to parks and shopping

Plenty of storage space

Ample parking

 

Cons

Possible bad feng shui being close to a cemetery

 

What would you do?

[C T]

Quite a dilemma, BG. Perhaps it might be wise and certainly beneficial to seek further consultations with those (seriously) in the know about matters bordering into dimensions beyond ours.

 

Maybe take a mindful stroll around the yard and gauge/intuit your own feelings.. this may be more crucial than any 3rd party observations.

 

Wish you the very best in making the most appropriate decision, and may you always be protected.

[NeiChuan]

Hm what do you think meditating in a graveyard would do?

[C T]

Hm what do you think meditating in a graveyard would do?

It was a mindful stroll that i suggested.. not meditation, although there is nothing wrong with the latter.

 

Many sadhus in India spend their lives on charnel grounds (please read - http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Charnel_ground) and with pretty good reasons too.

Edited April 12, 2010 by CowTao

[Aetherous]

Maybe take a mindful stroll around the yard and gauge/intuit your own feelings.. this may be more crucial than any 3rd party observations.

 

Agreed.

 

Here is something to try that can help...read each sentence twice and really do it...

 

Picture the property in your mind, focusing on the first mental image you get. See the outside of the house. Look at the grass and yard...what's the weather like in this mental image?

 

If the sky is cloudy and overcast, maybe it's not good. If it's sunny and blue and a few white puffy clouds, it's really good. If the grass is extra green when you picture it, good. If it's off-green, bad.

[Gerard]

...What I'm thinking is maybe you guys do something weird with your graveyards because the ones we had in the UK didn't seem that big a deal. A whole row of houses in the village I grew up in were alongside a graveyard. The graveyard even had one of those dangerous-in-FS churches in it. Nothing about the families in those houses seemed somehow different from the others. Really, I think it would have shown up somehow.

 

In your particular case, you live in the UK which is already a very In country. If you add a cemetery to the equation that extreme Yin combination would rise to yang. You can guess the rest.

 

Pros

Nice , quiet, safe neighborhood

Brand new remodeled interior

Nicely landscaped front yard

Good sized fenced in back yard (I have a dog)

Affordable rent, water and lawn service included

Nice landlord

Low utilities

Perfect size and floor plan for our needs

Close to parks and shopping

Plenty of storage space

Ample parking

 

Cons

Possible bad feng shui being close to a cemetery

 

What would you do?

 

I still wouldn't live in there even if they put in the house 20 million bucks.

 

Bad FS cannot be fixed with bells and whistles.

 

Hm what do you think meditating in a graveyard would do?

 

That's what Buddha did to understand impermanence (in India corpses are dumped in specific locations and the Buddha went there to meditate).

 

Some meditators in Asia do train in graveyards to become more Yin.

 

I have done it myself but there were way too many mosquitoes and the practice became unbearable. I would love to meditate in a graveyard in the northern hemisphere, not in a tropical environment for sure.

Edited April 13, 2010 by durkhrod chogori

[Sloppy Zhang]

The problems are seldom immediate and hardly ever obvious to anyone who won't phase in the feng shui connection. Of course you are still young and the younger you are, the higher your natural vitality that counteracts adverse feng shui for a while. For a while, but not forever.

 

I had a friend whose wife killed herself by jumping from a 13th floor window of their beautiful upper west side NYC apartment. When I was there shortly thereafter, I looked out of the window she jumped from. Down below right across the street from their building I saw a cathedral, Gothic style, with its spiked towers pointing in the general direction of the window. FS rule number two is, don't live near a church, hospital, fire station, slaughterhouse, or some such. Those people lived in that apartment for fifteen years before tragedy struck. They were very happily married, professionally successful, nice people. However, the wife started having health problems and diligently treated them, only to keep getting worse. What pushed her overboard was some new pill a doctor prescribed -- she took it in the evening, jumped out at dawn, leaving a note for the cops and a letter of apology for everyone else. The husband wouldn't hear about "silly superstitions" when I tried to tell him he might want to move. He died of a stroke two years later.

 

I don't want to be "that guy" (not the forum user , but you know the one) and I definitely don't want to be responsible for any deaths.... HOWEVER.... Anyone see the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats?

 

****spoilers****

 

 

 

 

George Clooney's character gets hit with a "dim mak" strike and thinks that he's going to die. Ewen McGregor's character was like, "what's Dim Mak?" And Clooney tells him a story of how a Dim Mak master used a Dim Mak strike on someone, the Dim Mak master "lost", but he said, "oh no, I won, you will die soon." and 14 years later the guy died. And McGregor's character was like, "uhhhh....." Then Clooney says he got hit with a Dim Mak strike years before the events of the movie and now has cancer. And McGregor thinks, "uh....."

 

 

 

 

HOWEVER, I will say that as a result of my practice I've started to feel energy more sensitively. And recently I've taken a few walks in and around the cemetery. It's a nice place.

[C T]

I don't want to be "that guy" (not the forum user , but you know the one) and I definitely don't want to be responsible for any deaths.... HOWEVER.... Anyone see the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats?

 

****spoilers****

 

 

 

 

George Clooney's character gets hit with a "dim mak" strike and thinks that he's going to die. Ewen McGregor's character was like, "what's Dim Mak?" And Clooney tells him a story of how a Dim Mak master used a Dim Mak strike on someone, the Dim Mak master "lost", but he said, "oh no, I won, you will die soon." and 14 years later the guy died. And McGregor's character was like, "uhhhh....." Then Clooney says he got hit with a Dim Mak strike years before the events of the movie and now has cancer. And McGregor thinks, "uh....."

 

 

 

 

HOWEVER, I will say that as a result of my practice I've started to feel energy more sensitively. And recently I've taken a few walks in and around the cemetery. It's a nice place.

I used to work/live on the outskirts of London years ago, and the back of the apartment overlooked a fairly large cemetery, and it was one of those that were really well-kept. I remember going there often for walks - such a peaceful place actually, and quite surreal too, especially in deep autumn/winter, or after snow had blanketed the place. I recall now having made some new friends there, in the form of squirrels. I wonder if they have their own brand of squirrel FS with their own FS consultants? hehe...

[Bum Grasshopper]

Well, the physical benefits, as well as the timing issuies have weighed out over the spiritual concerns, and I have put a deposit down on the property. I am putting faith in belief that if I can keep my energy level higher than the negative energy emanating from across the street, I should be fine.

 

Thank you all for your responses and concern. I was expecting posts like "put a bagua mirror above the door" or "place your bed so your head faces away from the graveyard". From what I gather, this kind of stuff is not enough to counter the bad FS from the graveyard.

 

Is it a waste to to do these kind of things? Can I get some kind of benefit from it?

[Taomeow]

I don't want to be "that guy" (not the forum user , but you know the one) and I definitely don't want to be responsible for any deaths.... HOWEVER.... Anyone see the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats?

 

****spoilers****

 

George Clooney's character gets hit with a "dim mak" strike and thinks that he's going to die. Ewen McGregor's character was like, "what's Dim Mak?" And Clooney tells him a story of how a Dim Mak master used a Dim Mak strike on someone, the Dim Mak master "lost", but he said, "oh no, I won, you will die soon." and 14 years later the guy died. And McGregor's character was like, "uhhhh....." Then Clooney says he got hit with a Dim Mak strike years before the events of the movie and now has cancer. And McGregor thinks, "uh....."

Yeah, I've seen the movie, but you have to realize it's a movie, and the writer and/or the director are mere mortals who present their idea of dim mak as something bogus, which gives you an idea of what they personally believe or disbelieve -- plus know or don't know -- and not much else. The real dim mak story is quite different from the movie version.

 

I hear what you're saying though. There's no control group to find out if it's bad FS that caused the problems. Control groups, no, but statistical groups, yes. E.g., the cops are aware of certain houses -- regardless of the level of affluency or lack thereof of a neigbourhood -- where things always go wrong no matter who lives there, consistently, for decades. They know because they get called to certain addresses where the residents may have changed but the frequency of police presence hasn't, it's always something with these houses -- a violent domestic dispute, an accident, a crime, a fire...

HOWEVER, I will say that as a result of my practice I've started to feel energy more sensitively. And recently I've taken a few walks in and around the cemetery. It's a nice place.

 

Yup, some of these things can be felt, most of the advanced FS stuff can't though, can you feel the pull of Jupiter? -- most males and many females don't even feel the pull of the moon. Space-time FS is one of taoism's rocket sciences, it's not intuitive anymore than quantum mechanics is. A master's skill is enhanced of course with developed intuition and sensitivity and meditative/qi modulating practices, but most of it is an in-depth course of study with empirical applications as one goes, the best masters emerge after 30+ years thereof, and the ones who want to transmit the art rather than a general idea hand-pick their students and don't waste precious secrets on the unworthy.

 

I was vacationing in the vicinity of a cemetery once. It was actually a small but very old church cemetery, with many generations of priests buried there. There were mulberry trees growing over the holy fathers' graves and they produced the biggest, sweetest mulberries I've ever eaten. I had no qualms about eating them. I've been to nice, not-so-nice, and horrible cemeteries, but I wouldn't live near one regardless of how nice it is.

 

The world of the living and the world of the dead play by different rules. Yin FS for the graves, which in parts of Asia where they didn't lose the tradition is considered far more important to observe than FS for homes and offices, gives one an idea as to why you don't want to intermix the worlds of the living and the dead: doing so causes both to participate too much in each other's affairs. Which is why avoiding this is FS rule number one. The worst thing one can do FS-wise is invite the energies idiosyncratic for the world of the dead to participate in the lives of the living without being a professional skilled in handling them expertly (a shaman or a priest.) And vice versa -- the last thing someone who is dead needs is a noisy family running around or over the grave, or machinery, music, construction, you name it... The dead are universally known to prefer eternal peace to eternal commotion...

[reddragon]

[Stumpich]

FS says not to live next to a hospital - I lived  next to a hospital & it was the worst -----( literally )- --. The place seemed nice when I went to look at it  & the neighborhood seemed nice & peaceful --- but in reality , the pure evil of the place was unbearable