"I can't burn my mama!"

I was in Mexico City teaching "4-Pillars Bootcamp" last weekend.

Owning to the summer tourist season, the only hotel room that I can get is located at San Sha (3-killings) and 5-yellow disaster direction!

The first two nights I had dreams of long-deceased relatives and a grad-school classmate. I rarely dreamed of deceased people and let alone dreaming of them 2 nights in a row.

The third night, before going to bed, I saw a 5-inches big black moth on the window edge.

Chinese believe that their deceased relatives, especially the newly deceased, come back in the form of flying insects like butterflies and moths, to visit their love ones.

I was worried if anything happened to my own family members due to the dreams about dead people and especially this mysterious appearance of a black moth.

I have called my relatives in the states and Hong Kong. They are all safe and sound.

So I have called a Mexican friend about the symbolic meaning of black moth to them.

"Black moth or butterfly flying into your house means bad luck or even the death of a family member. We normally catch and burn it to avoid bad luck." My amigo said.

"I can't burn my mama! The black moth could be her visiting me-- though it is a long flight for her to fly from Hong Kong to Mexico City!" Said I.

To prevent some worrisome amigos from burning this black moth, I have captured it with a plastic bag and release it outside the hotel.

The next day, which happened to be the second day of the "4P Boot-camp" seminar, something unexpected happened.

At the end of the day, a new student come into the class! This is very unusual for someone to join a class when 66% of the class was already done. It can also be the good work of Monica, my local organizer.

This "unexpected income" means 10 tanks of gas for my car!

The following evening, I found the same black moth on my door edge! This became very freaky to me. Is this really my deceased mother visiting me? I must have been a bad boy lately.

Anyway, to avoid the black moth being killed, I telepathically told it, "Hi amigo! Go away if you don't want to be a roasted moth!" Then I have used a stick to drive it away. It has disappeared ever since.

To my Mexican amigas and amigos who are reading this, I cannot guarantee you getting 10 tanks of gas when you set free a black moth or butterfly. But letting the "bad luck" or butterfly/ moth fly away is much better than burning the "bad luck" in your house!

It is bad karma to kill any living being, especially those who do no harm to you. On the other hand, one kind deed can potentially mean the difference between going to heaven or hell! There are stories in Buddhist literature about some people who had escaped hell due to one simple random act of kindness to a small animal or insect.

Adiós!


Ken Lai

Video Correspondence Courses: (click for details)   
“Applied Bazi: Sickness Forecasting and Management” w/33 hr. HD video 
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. 1: Forecasting and Decision Support” w/32 hr. HD video
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. 2: Basic Bazi Therapy w/18 hr. HD video
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. 3 w/ Advanced Bazi Therapy w/18 hr. HD video
“Feng Shui Toolbox: Sha-qi, Health/Wealth and Career” w/ 7 hr. HD video
“Period 7/8 FS Toolkit w/ Advanced Flying Star techniques” w/ 6 hr. HD video
“Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
“Practical Imperial Qi-Men-Dun-Jia 4G” w/ 12 hr. video
“Professional Imperial QMDJ 4G” w/ 21 hr. video
“EZ QMDJ series: Astrology, Date/Task Selection, Annual Luck/ FS”w/ 3 hr. HD
“EZ QMDJ Advanced Feng Shui” with 4 hr. HD video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui/Blessing” w/ 24 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp+ 2017 edition” with 18 hr. video
“Advanced Visual Form Feng Shui” w/23 hr. HD video
“Visual Form Feng Shui” w/13 hr. HD video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com

The big black cat and the baby cricket

If you follow my blog, you probably know that I become an "accidental" owner of a 3 years old big black cat a few weeks ago.

This cat looks like a shrunk black panther. Its look is pretty intimidating to small kids. It can run 20 feet in half a second to her food bowl when she is hungry.

My kids talk to her (a female cat) in English, but I talk Chinese to her, hopefully she will become a smart bilingual feline. Her name is too complicated for me, so I just call her "Meow-meow".

It has the bad habit of drinking water from the offering cups of my earth-god altar. It could have been her death warrant if we send her back to the animal shelter. Being relatively old, big and black, she is likely euthanized than adopted again. So she is either stay with us or in heaven.

Last night, I saw some amazing interactions between this cat and a baby cricket. The cricket is less than 1 cm. in length.

When Meow-meow saw the cricket, instead of doing an ambush strike that most cats will do, she gently touched the cricket with her paw. The baby cricket, probably has never seen a cat before, simply jumped a few inches. She again gently and slowly touched the cricket. Again the cricket jumped a few inches.

At this moment, I thought Meow-meow may stretch her tongue and sweep the cricket into her mouth. Again, she just chased the cricket slowly and let it run away.

This is a good cat with a gentle heart! I have almost sent her back to the animal shelter to face the Lord!

Just like human beings, you cannot judge an animal by how it looks or judge a person by his/ her external appearance. This is why I resist learning or teaching face-reading. I do not want any preconceptions of how a face looks to color my perceptions of and interactions with people.


Ken Lai

"Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
"Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia" w/ 10 hr. video
"Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing" w/ 12 hr video
"Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth" w/ 3 hr. video
"4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp" with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/

The Ultimate "Iron Plate Divination" secrets

A few new Chinese books on "Iron Plate Divination" or "Tie Ban Shen Shu" (TBSS) were published in the last 12 months.TBSS is probably the most hyped Chinese fortune-telling method with BS like that only "X" number of people can learn it (x is less than 10) for the whole universe.

Basically, TBSS is a compendium of thousands of oracle-like "comments". The methods or formula to "retrieve" these comments from the compendium are considered "top secrets".

In Hong Kong, there are "masters" who charges from HK$50k to 200k (US$5300 to $25,000) for a reading with "waiting period" from 6 months to a year! And they do not just take any John or Jane from the street. You need to be "referred" by someone they know.

Recently, an online forum in a south-eastern Asian country reports about someone has paid about US$500 (about one month salary of a local engineer) to an online personality for a TPSS reading.

After waiting for 3 weeks, the payee just got a 3-pages report that looks like generated by a Zi Wei Dou Shu computer program.

A few years ago, a Hong Kong radio program had done an exposé on TBSS fortune-telling.

The radio reported that the reason that there is a long waiting period is not really that the "masters" have so many clients on their waiting lists, they just need the time to do background investigation on the clients!

With the high consultation fee, they can afford to hire private investigators to dig up info on the clients. Not to mention internet search will also provide tons of info for free.

When the client is referred by someone they know, they can tap into the channels for information tooSo the common characteristics of these readings are: past events and family relationship predictions are very accurate. Future predictions are given in very ambiguous fashion and are much less accurate.

There are some fortune-tellers who can do something similar by using witchcraft (like using "child ghost"). But their future predictions are pretty inaccurate.

Please note that I do not mean TBSS is fake-- just the probability of you seeing the real thing is pretty low.

Ken Lai
© 2008 Ken Lai, all rights reserved.

Video Correspondence Courses: (click for details)   
“Advanced Visual Form Feng Shui” w/23 hr. HD video
“Visual Form Feng Shui” w/13 hr. HD video
“Applied Bazi: Sickness Forecasting and Management” w/33 hr. HD video 
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. 1: Forecasting and Decision Support” w/32 hr. HD video
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. 2: Basic Bazi Therapy w/18 hr. HD video
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. 3 w/ Advanced Bazi Therapy w/18 hr. HD video
“Feng Shui Toolbox: Sha-qi, Health/Wealth and Career” w/ 7 hr. HD video
“Period 7/8 FS Toolkit w/ Advanced Flying Star techniques” w/ 6 hr. HD video
“Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
“Practical Imperial Qi-Men-Dun-Jia 4G” w/ 12 hr. video
“Professional Imperial QMDJ 4G” w/ 21 hr. video
“EZ QMDJ series: Astrology, Date/Task Selection, Annual Luck/ FS” w/ 3 hr. HD
“EZ QMDJ Advanced Feng Shui” with 4 hr. HD video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui/Blessing” w/ 24 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp+ 2019 edition” with 18 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com

In search of a better (Feng Shui) mouse-trap

A student asks me if he should take someone's "Hi-Hi-Hi Feng Shui" and "La-La-La Feng Shui" courses (course titles withheld to preserve the integrity of the original methods).

"Take the courses if your father owns a non-U.S. bank". I told the student.

"Besides, you have taken quite a few Feng Shui courses! You may already have the best Feng Shui mouse-traps without knowing."

To my dismay, this student's father really owns a non-U.S. bank! So I need to explain further.

"Hi-Hi-Hi" method was originally designed for fast-changing battlefield environment and "La-La-La" method was designed for divination of daily events. Either method can easily take someone a life-time to master.

To apply a method in a new field that is not originally designed for may need more cautions and time to be proven. Also the credibility of the source of such new methods needs to be considered too.

My personal bias is: I tend to be on the conservative side. "Discoveries" in Chinese metaphysics can easily take 50+ to hundred years to be "proven" and/ or widely accepted.
While these methods may somehow be directly or indirectly related to Feng Shui, it may not be the most efficient way (cost or time-wise) to tackle Feng Shui problems.

"Hi-Hi-Hi" and "La-La-La" methods are not easy to learn even assuming cost is not a consideration. If these methods were easy and powerful, it should be "Hi-Hi-Hi" and "La-La-La" and not Flying Star Feng Shui, dominate the current Feng Shui field.

To learn or use Feng Shui, you may want to go straight to traditional Feng Shui courses like San Yuan, San He or the like directly.

The same logic can also be applied to Bazi (4P) and ZWDS. Both are also somehow related to Feng Shui. One may apply these methods to Feng Shui if by chance one had taken these classes already.

But to take a class on 4P or ZWDS or "Hi-Hi-Hi" or "La-La-La" because you want to do Feng Shui, is like taking a guitar class because you want to learn typing.

There may be new or attractive claims on "Hi-Hi-Hi" or "La-La-La" Feng Shui that may be too much to resist. I cannot help or advise you on those claims. But again, all I can say is:

"Take the courses if your father owns a non-U.S. bank".

For those who have a poor dad, you may want to do some "mining" with your old Feng Shui course manuals instead. Very often, people take a course, get excited and then shelve the course materials without testing or trying it.

I had the same "better mouse-trap syndrome" when I was young. Instead of examining and studying of what I already have, I tried to look for a "better mouse-trap" to "spare" me of the hard work required to learn. The result was wasting tons of money and time chasing and buying repackaged or recycled "mouse-traps".
Ken Lai"Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
"Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia" w/ 10 hr. video
"Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing" w/ 12 hr video
"Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth" w/ 3 hr. video
"4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp" with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/

The $250 Million question in forecasting (astrology)......

Lately, an old argument pops up in different discussion forums -- can astrology predict the life events (like marriage, sickness, accidents, wealth...) of a person?

This question used to be the million dollars question, but due to inflation and devaluation of U.S. dollar, it becomes a $250 million question.

There are two major perspectives on this question. First one is shared by those masters or practitioners who incline to wear the "scientific hat" in explaining things. I call them the "trendy guys".

The trendy guys said that astrological methods like 4P and ZWDS cannot really predict when someone marries, gives births, gets sick or dies and the likes. These methods just give a "trend" of someone's luck or the ups and downs of personal energy patterns.

The second camp is the "intuition guys". They will say "yes" to the question. Indeed you can predict life events of your clients to a certain extent PROVIDED the client and you (the astrological reader) have affinity or "feel" with each other. Simply put, if there is "click" between the two parties, the practitioner's intuition will make correct predictions.

"Hi Ken, which camp do you belong to? "

(Put on my "Ken Solomon" or smart-ass hat)

"I belong to both camps". When there is no "click" between me and the client, the reading becomes a "trend analysis". When there is affinity, whatever mumble jumbo I utter will fit perfectly, even when there are data errors!

Here is my $250 million to you, good enough to buy a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe.












Ken Lai

"Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
"Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia" w/ 10 hr. video
"Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing" w/ 12 hr video
"Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth" w/ 3 hr. video
"4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp" with 12 hr. video

Cats and Lottery

A few days ago, I have done a "blind" cat adoption, taking over a cat from my kid's classmate without seeing the cat first. The cat was adopted from an animal shelter and it does not work out because of the new owner is allergic to cats.

I thought the cat must be a kitten because it was adopted by a little girl.

When the cat is delivered to my door, I was dumbfounded that it is a huge 3-years old black cat that is great for Halloween or Friday the 13th movie.

This black cat is well-behaved and seems to be well "cultured". It roams around the house without scratching anything. But it is hungry for human affection and likes to be petted.

I want to see if this cat can sense the good qi or energy areas of my house.

It likes to sleep under the couch inside my porch even it is hot there. That area used to have water star 8 during Period 7 and mountain star 8 in Period 8.

It likes to stick around my altar area. I can feel good and clean qi there. It does one thing that drives me nuts--- it drinks from the tiny cups of water that are offering to my earth-god. It does not drink from her own water bowl.

Earth-god is the first line of defense for each household. He blocks off unwelcome entities and brings you some wealth. You don't want to piss him off.

But I can sense my earth-god just shakes his head without being offended. This cat probably will go to heaven if I send it back to the animal shelter. So earth-god just takes it easy.

Earth-gods are normally promoted from souls of righteous and pious people. So they are pretty conscious and understand human sufferings.

The compromise is refilling earth-god's water cups more often and treats the cat as the representative of earth-god to drink the water.

I bought a lottery ticket the same day the cat moved in. It hits the first number out of the six.

"Stupid me, I should have adopted 6 cats. Each cat hits one number. I still come out ahead with the first prize minus $900 for adoption fees." I said to myself.

Well, now you may want to go to an animal shelter and adopt 6 cats. And don't forget to buy a lottery ticket!



Ken Lai

"Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
"Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia" w/ 10 hr. video
"Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing" w/ 12 hr video
"Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth" w/ 3 hr. video
"4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp" with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/

Feng Shui Anything

A few years ago, many of us laughed our heads off when we saw the "Feng Shui haircut" in Penn & Teller's TV series "Bullshit".

Well, you have not seen the real head-turner yet.

Ms. Yang-lan, a TV personality in China, has teamed up with a clothing manufacturer and developed an underwear line using "Feng Shui" as the brand name. The picture here is the cover of a magazine pushing the FS undies.

Here is the headline:

"Yang-lan highly recommends Feng Shui Underwear.
Wearing Feng Shui Underwear wil turn you into a rich woman"

It does not specify if a man wears the FS undies will turn him into a rich woman or free sex-change operation is included.

Feng Shui undies may be an extreme case of marginalizing Feng Shui. But the damages to legitimate Feng Shui has been done by these "Feng Shui Anything" marketeers. They promise anything you want-- health, wealth, relationship, academic, career.... ., but deliver little.

You can see the "damages" by simply going to bookstores like "Borders" or "Barnes and Noble". A few years ago, there were 2+ more shelves devoted to Feng Shui books. Now it is less than half of a shelf.

Well, do you want to buy a Feng Shui Magic Wand? Simply make a wish, raise the wand and viola, get whatever you want without leaving your bed to attend any Feng Shui seminars.


Ken Lai

"Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
"Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia" w/ 10 hr. video
"Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing" w/ 12 hr video
"Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth" w/ 3 hr. video
"4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp" with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/

"It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's ........"

Some people think Feng Shui master is a superman. They expect him/her to solve most if not all their problems.

Sometimes people think that a Feng Shui master is God or at least has a direct phone line to God. They ask him/ her to enhance their wealth through Feng Shui remedies, solve their relationship problems, children's academic problems, job-seeking, health problems or even weight-loss.

If you have an Asia-based email address, you probably have received tons of "Feng Shui for Anything Seminar" email ads. It brags about a fast-talking Feng Shui master can teach you to do anything with Feng Shui-- for power, wealth, relationship......

Well, have you ever wondered why the world's richest person is not a Feng Shui master?

While everything may somehow related to Feng Shui, but using Feng Shui to fix or enhance every thing may not be the most cost-effective way.

You can walk to Rome or fly to Rome. Feng Shui is good for problems that are directly related to your residence or properties. Indirect problems should be handled by professionals in the special areas concerned.

If you have money problem, go find a job or a financial planner or a loan officer. Money won't fall from sky into your hands if you sit on your ass and do nothing. I know a guy who has 2 water dragons and three 5-ghost-carry-money setups and still having money problem-- because he just sits and waits.

If you have relationship problem, go see a family counselor or Dr. Phil.

If you were chronically sick and the problem is not Feng Shui related, go see a health professional.

Feng Shui practitioners should not masquerade as financial planners, Abbey, motivational talkers, medical doctors or the like. Elevating Feng Shui as a magic bullet or answer to every problem in life will hurt the discipline in the long run. It heightens people's expectation on Feng Shui which is more than likely, resulting in frustration.

Feng Shui is not the master-key or solution to all the worldly problems or it would have been the compulsory requirement for graduation for all the universities.

The basic premise of Feng Shui is to live in harmony with nature. It is not a church or temple for you to plea for wealth, power, relationship .......


Ken Lai
"Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
"Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia" w/ 10 hr. video
"Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing" w/ 12 hr video
"Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth" w/ 3 hr. video
"4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp" with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/
http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot.com/ My Blog site

Enhancing your wealth luck with the right pet

My kid's classmate has adopted a cat from the local Animal Humane Society a few days ago. She found that some of her family members are allergic to cat. So the poor cat ends up at our doorstep.

I take in this cat because cat is my wealth element.

In 4-Pillars of Destiny, the 5-elements (metal, water, wood, fire and earth) are represented by 12 animals. What you control is your wealth (or wife for male). My day-master is metal, so wood is my wealth. Cat belongs to the wood element category, so cat represents my wealth.

By taking care of a cat, hopefully, also take care of the well-being of my wealth.

To find out which animal is good for you in terms of wealth, you need to find out your day-master element first. Simply go to:

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com

Click on the 4P Calculator link and punch in your birth day and click on the "COMPUTE" button. You will see a table with 4 columns: year, month, day and hour.

Check the upper row of the day column, you will see one of the 5 elements (wood, water and etc.). That element is your day-master element.

Here are the corresponding pets that you may have to enhance your wealth luck:

For metal day-masters: (wood element is wealth)
Pets: Tiger, cougar, bear, cat and rabbit

For water day-masters: (fire element is wealth)
Pets: Snakes, reptiles, turtles and horses

For wood day-masters: (earth element is wealth)
Pets: goat, dog, dragon (you can use a deer or giraffe) and cow

For fire day-masters: (metal element is wealth)
Pets: chicken, birds, and monkey

For earth day-masters: (water element is wealth)
Pets: mouse (ferrets, guinea pig, rodent type) and pig

HOWEVER, if you really want to find out the exact pet, you need to figure out if your day-master is strong or weak. You may want to take my "4-Pillars Boot-camp" video correspondence course to figure it out (sorry for the plug, I need money to pay for vet and cat food!).


Ken Lai

“Practical Date-Selection Methods” (incl. XKDG)w/ 12 hr. video
“Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia” w/ 10 hr. video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing” w/ 12 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp” with 12 hr. video
http://www.kenlaifengshui.com