Vaastu vs Feng Sui

[Yoda]

I've always known that places have energies that can help or hinder but I've always had mixed feelings about systems of working with place energy. My biggest beef is that they are too fussy... impossible to win... there's always some angle or direction that sucks.

 

With some hesitancy, I ordered "Victory Through Vaastu" by Sri Kaleshwara. I'm not at all familiar with Hindu feng sui, but this version has the plus that it's simple enough for anyone to master. Sure enough, there are plenty of nice Vaastu aspects of my current house but, of course, there are negatives that can't be changed. But there are some things that can be changed. I'll experiment with it. For the things that can't be changed, maybe I'll pop a piece of organite on the spot or some sort of energetic happy face to help keep the groove.

 

I'd love anyone's thoughts on this topic.

 

I suppose if you just think happy thoughts that you'll be less impressionable to external influences and less likely to live with them too that you don't really have to concern yourself with this sort of thing. That's probably the bottom line.

 

btw, the Hindu thang is that they dig domes and pyramid roof lines, hence you see that kind of architecture.

[Ian]

 

I suppose if you just think happy thoughts that you'll be less impressionable to external influences and less likely to live with them too that you don't really have to concern yourself with this sort of thing. That's probably the bottom line.

 

 

I'm not 100% on this, but I have the distinct impression that the more one clears out one's own gunk the more, rather than less, one becomes susceptible to external influences, simply because there is more space for them to get in, in one sense.

 

I've heard stuff along such lines from Chia, and from people in the Gurdjieff tradition.

 

Hopefully by the time such clearance has occured one is increasingly ready to process, or not be carried away by, whatever comes along.

 

When you talk about thinking happy thoughts, I assume you're talking about a whole-body kind of thinking such as you use when manifesting. Which is something else again, I suppose.

 

(disappears in puff of irrelevance)

 

[Taomeow]

The universe is fussy. Feng shui emulates that.

 

Here's a true story for you to ponder. My husband was looking for a new job. He got three offers. The financially best one was someplace where I figured, with my FS calculations, it would be absolutely disastrous. I placed some FS remedies in his room, against his disbelief and resistance. The best-offer people suddenly lost their enthusiasm to have him and started dragging their feet. So instead of going to work with them, he took another, "second-best" offer. The first-choice place was located on one of the top floors of the World Trade Center, and the events took place a few days before 9-11.

 

"Real" FS is very complicated, pop FS is not worth bothering with, since it is quite completely bogus and useless. Since real FS deals in space-time aspects of qi, I view it as the rocket science of taoism -- something it's not worth having "opinions" about. Either study it (making damn sure you haven't been saddled with one of the pop FS versions, which sadly but predictably constitute 95% of "everything out there"), or don't -- but approach it as something that merits an opinion roughly to the same extent quantum mechanics merits an opinion: i.e. you don't ask an accountant or a lawyer, or your hairdresser, or a random pedestrian in the street. You ask a physicist, preferably one who's been tweaking with it for a few decades. And then if you don't believe what she tells you, study it yourself to see whether she's right or wrong. You either take the expert's word, or become one yourself -- either one would be the only reason for having an opinion on the subject. That's the deal with FS too, far as I've been able to discern.

[Wayfarer64]

Thanks Taomeow for those concrete stories that point to Feng Shui's possibilities. I am very interested in how feng Shui works -and sense it as a function of space and time as you discribe. I know just enough for folks to come to me for advise on it which I tend to disallow. The basic -keep yr home clean and clear; creating harmony and the easy flow of energy, as well as the basic placement of the baguas is all I will offer.

 

I always preface the help I offer as scant and surface, without depth. But I am trying to learn more in an effort to be of more help.

 

For myself, I have delved into the influence of my horoscope and the home itself, and the alignment of my horoscope with the directions of the compass...All very basic. My concern right now is how the everyday vageries of life will disturb the feng shui so often, creating clutter and blockages, or color changes and the arising of pointed projections into the living area. These things are pretty unavoidable.

 

What aspects do you think of as most important to maintain? Also what books do you suggest to get a better grasp of feng shui's potentials?

with many thanks- Pat

[Spectrum]

"...about systems of working with place energy."

 

There are no systems that work, the place energy IS the system.

 

Practice like you normally do, THINKING about how perfectly neat or powerful or awe filled or terrible a place isnt practicing, just practice like you normally do; that might mean picking up some trash.... FEEL these differences... observe.. and pause before you speak.

 

Spectrum

Edited April 26, 2007 by Spectrum

[Yoda]

So the Vaastu recipe for arranging a home office: put the desk in the SW quadrant of the room and have it face north or east and keep the NE of the room as empty as possible... Sounds odd, but I just tried it and it's good. I think it's important not to get too caught up in this sort of thing as it's impossible to get everything perfect per whatever theory unless you custom build.

[Spectrum]

As an aid to meditation the most natural lines sooth seemingly through seams beyond. Inside Out, Outside In; ride the lines. Be like Water.

 

impossible to win... there's always some angle or direction that sucks.

 

I think we should talk about this a little more. Can you expound a bit? I have some thoughts as well. Thanks Yoda - Spectrum

Edited April 27, 2007 by Spectrum

[Yoda]

Well, the problem with these systems is that there is a good place for a toilet and a bad place for it too. If you add up the same thinking with every single part of a house, then you can't but find some inauspicious factors that you can't do much about aside from a massive remodel.

 

Like Taomeow suggested, I've never been able to figure out Feng sui theory but I've grokked Vaastu due to its simplicity. I'll do what Mrs Yoda allows to improve the Vaastu of the pad, but to get to perfection I'd have to buy land and custom build on it which is just too much.

 

Here's a sample Vaastu system: http://www.truthstar.com/vaastushastra/vaastuforhome.asp

[fatherpaul]

this is a facinating subject

it seems as if the instinct of puting things

in there proper place has always been with this one.

when there is a sense of order and centeredness within oneself

it seems to relate to the potential orderlyness of the enviorment.

thus in the mere cleaning of the home, orderlyness comes about.

 

perhaps i am not being clear.

paul

[Taomeow]

What aspects do you think of as most important to maintain? Also what books do you suggest to get a better grasp of feng shui's potentials?

with many thanks- Pat

 

Hi Pat,

 

I once had a chance to ask a very amazing FS master, a traditionalist who doesn't write books, has trained only a total of ten students in thirty years, and makes her living as a FS adviser to Asian governments, the same question -- what's the most important aspect to maintain? She said, Unclutter and keep your house clean.

 

The colors you mentioned are the least of your concerns. This year, place a piece of red paper in the NW corner of your house, and that's as far as you need to go with color remedies. If you want to research FS from books, try avoiding Lilian Too, Lin Yun, Sarah Rossbach and all their clones and anyone who calls their feng shui Black Hat Buddhist or Black Sect Buddhist. There's no buddhists aware of such a sect, and definitely no genuine FS masters. However, these guys are the ones who brought "instant McFeng Shui" to the West, and since the West always falls for the get-rich-fast, get-enlightened-faster scams while having no patience with the real thing, that's what 95% of all "feng shui" out there is about. Caveat emptor.

 

Eva Wong has written a good FS guide but it is rather dry and may be somewhat difficult for a beginner. An unexpectedly decent source under a sadly lousy name, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Feng Shui," second edition, by Elizabeth Moran and Val Biktashev, would be a good start. Val Biktashev, my Altai compatriot, is one of those Asian Russians who look Chinese but are actually descendants of the Siberian peoples the Chinese are descended from. Far as I can tell, his knowledge may be from some ancient lineage, it feels solid...

Edited April 27, 2007 by Taomeow

[Wayfarer64]

Hi Pat,

 

I once had a chance to ask a very amazing FS master, a traditionalist who doesn't write books, has trained only a total of ten students in thirty years, and makes her living as a FS adviser to Asian governments, the same question -- what's the most important aspect to maintain? She said, Unclutter and keep your house clean.

 

 

Thank you so much Taomeow! That is what my take is as well, clean and neat and functional, is the first and foremost direction to take. It makes me feel good to have that reaffirmed by you. I have read the idiots guide and did like it. I may buy a copy... the others I don't know. I was given a copy of Master Lam Kam Chuens' book and like some aspects of it relating to the astrological and ordinal considerations. And it is pretty user friendly for beginners too. But he too brings up a few Buddhist considerations in his jacket notes, which didn't really bother me at the time.

 

See ya 'round cyber space- Pat

[mYTHmAKER]

what's the most important aspect to maintain? She said, Unclutter and keep your house clean.

 

Rght on.

Every time we so much as straighten out a drawer there is a shft that takes place within.

There is truth in - "Cleanliness is next to godliness."

Edited April 28, 2007 by mYTHmAKER

[Yoda]

She said, Unclutter and keep your house clean.

 

Nice! If somebody would like to come over and help me straighten out... that'd be a plus!

[agharta]

I really enjoyed "The Idiot's Guide..." as well. I always wondered how someone named "Val Biktashev" would know so much about the subject.

[Yoda]

Idiots guide does look good... I'm excited to get an understandable intro to Feng sui.

[Yoda]

I got the Complete Idiot's guide to Feng Sui.

 

On the one hand, it is a fantastic introduction to Chinese energy theory/astrology/iching/fengsui/numerology etc... a subject that I've always been interested in but haven't had the patience to actually digest.

 

On the other hand, the subject matter is still too complex for my speed reading ways. It's definitely not for dummies... you need to know you and your family's/coworker's astrology factors and date the house/office is built to sort this out. The tables are all in the book, but I'd be scared to learn that I need to sleep facing south, Mrs Yoda facing north and we kick each other in the face all the time, etc.

 

So if you are single and have some time on your hands, this book is worthwhile. The same authors wrote an Idiot's guide to IChing which I imagine would be excellent too. Possibly even easier to get into.

 

 

I also got Power of Vastu Living and it is a nice book and it's a much simpler system. Written for high volume readers like me.

 

Yoda

[Spectrum]

In the terms of the body as a house, and the earth being a rather large body in which we rest, the geometry of the houses of suburban america are probably not representitive of the possibilities of "green architecture" or various topographical / environmental considerations.

 

I suppose the point of "green" being to build around naturally strong attributes. Look at the foundations. Even bridges are simply a series of repeated 45's and 90's in tetrahedral chains. In consideration of Yi I quietly observe greater knowledge through stillness; natural logic is the language of lines, the most efficient lines w/ the least effort, the water coarse way, follow it and see where it goes.

 

Well, the problem with these systems is that there is a good place for a toilet and a bad place for it too. If you add up the same thinking with every single part of a house, then you can't but find some inauspicious factors that you can't do much about aside from a massive remodel.

 

Inauspiciousness only exists in tandom w/ auspiciousness; no? Yet every shadow has the potential to suggest unknown terrors to the student of allegoric circumstance.

 

[

b]but to get to perfection [/b] I'd have to buy land and custom build on it which is just too much.

 

Nature has a way of organizing things. Some of the most memorable times I have w/ Seigung are exploring various avenues of standing meditation while walking in a rain forest. Sometimes picking up trash at that perfect spot turns an air of sacredness to the fresh sceneries breath. Live With. Be. The language of nature is wise. The pace is subtle.

 

 

Here's a sample Vaastu system: http://www.truthstar.com/vaastushastra/vaastuforhome.asp

 

I'll check it out.