"Watching the Tree" and attribution of success

I paged thru' a book "Watching the Tree" by Adeline Yen Mah, author of the bestseller "Falling Leaves." The book is on the bargain shelve ($5.98) of Barnes & Noble, next to a few of L. Too's books and other spirituality books.

This book is a collection of Mah's childhood memories and her own views about Chinese culture. Chapter 10 is on her view about Feng Shui, which is quite representative of many Chinese intellectuals-- Feng Shui is superstition.

Mah cites two of her personal Feng Shui experience. First was about her father, who had rented a house from a landlord during early fifties in Hong Kong. The landlord was a Feng Shui expert.

The landlord said his house had good Feng Shui. Mah's family just laughed it off and did not take it seriously. Then Mah's seventy-something grandpa had died soon after moving-in.

Mah's father questioned the landlord about his good Feng Shui claim. Landlord replied that it is not unusual for a 70+ years old guy die of old age.

The business of Mah's father went well after moving into this house. Mah herself had won top prizes in international writing competition.

So, did Mah's family think the house had good Feng Shui? Nope.

Then Mah had a young brother, her father's favorite son, suddenly died of an acute sickness.

Her father questioned the Feng Shui landlord again and he could not give an explanation either.

They moved out of that house.

According to some social psychological researches, people tend to attribute success to their own personal qualities and hard work and failures/ disasters to external factors like Feng Shui, third parties and factors that are beyond their control.

Sometimes you may offend some people by saying their successes are due to good Feng Shui of their house or office, especially for people who do not believe in Feng Shui theories. They think you try to minimize of their personal efforts and talents.

On the other hand, some Feng Shui practitioners tend to attribute any success, financial or otherwise, solely to their Feng Shui remedies. Some even claim "overnight millionaire" Feng Shui tricks.

It is not difficult to create "millionaire" in California, if I play my cards right.

Real estate is pretty expensive in L.A., especially around new China Town area like Monterey Park, Acadia, and etc. An average house could easily cost US$400- 500k and $600- 700k houses are all over.

So if you find a guy who starts with say, a $500k house, it is not difficult to make him into a paper millionaire in a year or two, esp. during the real estate boom in the last few years.

Ken Lai

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“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
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“Advanced Visual Form Feng Shui” w/23 hr. HD video
“Visual Form Feng Shui” w/13 hr. HD video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com

WET FENG SHUI

Note: The following was written on Jan 31, 2003

Got your attention? Too bad, this is not what you think.

I saw a Discovery Channel program about burial at sea. Someone invented a new sea burial method-- mixing the ashes of deceased with cement to build an artificial coral reef and sink it into the sea. So the deceased will become sea creature habitat.

Then a pal in Singapore emailed me an ad for underwater pagoda burial.

Singapore is a tiny country with limited space for burial. Some marketers think of mixing ashes of the deceased with cement and mould it into cement blocks. Then treat the blocks with water- resistant compound and build it into a pagoda. The pagoda will be sunk into sea with an anchor and GPS.

So do you think your love ones will be happy to be wet 24x7?

I think westerners may have no problem of becoming an artificial coral reef after they died. For Chinese, this will be a tough sell.

According to yin Feng Shui, it is a big "no-no" for tombs that are flooded with water. Extreme bad-luck and strange diseases will befall to the descendants of the deceased.

However, in these cases where the deceased are cremated, the effect on descendants may not be as potent. The ashes are essentially carbon.

In any event, personally I don't like spending my eternity wet. I'll tell you a fun alternative in my next msg. So don't kill yourself yet until you have read my next msg.

(PS: The msg. had never been written because it was about space burial and the Challenger space shuttle accident was happened around that time)

Ken Lai
Video Correspondence Courses: (click for details)   
“Applied Bazi: Sickness Forecasting and Management” w/33 hr. HD video 
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“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
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“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

Love Thy Neighbor

Note: The following was written on Jan 18, 2003

Local TV news reports that an adult video and lingerie store has opened next to a Baptist Church in a small town.

One can see the giant sign "Pure Pleasure" through the window of the priest's office.

Of course, church members are mad and voice their displeasure to local media.

The owner of the adult store then displays a big mobile sign outside his store. On one side of the sign says, "God say enjoy sex" and the other side, "Clergy Discount".

The adult store owner tries to "love thy neighbor". But his neighbor tries to drive him out of the neighborhood by complaining to the City and tries to re-zone the area as not suitable for adult business.

In terms of Feng Shui, it’s stupid to open a business or build a house next to a church or temple.

Church or temple has too much yin and spiritual energies that will deplete or draw too much qi from houses nearby.

Church belongs to fire element and adult business water element. So the adult shop will eventually goes out of business even without interference from church members.

If the church seeks my advice, I'll tell them put a big cross pointing to the adult shop. This will drive him out quicker. Or simply hang a bagua mirror pointing at the adult shop, but this will be too pagan to the church people.

WARNING: Do not point a bagua mirror to other house unless the target is a super-scum. But try not doing it is the best policy.


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

Feng Shui Story (almost)

When I was a kid, I had seen a Disney movie about a dog guarded its master's grave after his death.

The town people had buried this dog next to its master after its own death. They had also created a statue of this dog. It becomes a tourist attraction nowadays.

In 1630 (late Ming Dynasty), Emperor Chang Qing was misinformed (by his Manchurian enemy) about the loyalty of General Yuan Chang Huan, one of his better commander-in-chiefs. General Yuan was accused of treason and sentenced to death by cutting into pieces. His head was hanged above the city wall to warn other possible traitors.

General She, an officer of Yuan, knew the accusation was false. He had risked his life stealing the head of General Yuan.

General She had buried Yuan in his backyard in Beijing. He had instructed his descendants not to work for the government, so that they could guard General Yuan's tomb.

160 years later, the Qing Government had released historical records and cleared the General Yuan's false accusation. The She descendants were still guarding Yuan's tomb. Even the Qing Emperor Qian Long (coins minted during his reign is a favorite Feng Shui cure) had commended

their action and loyalty.

In 1952, the Chinese communist government wanted to move all ancient tombs out of Beijing municipal area. She's descendants were still guarding the tomb. They had begged many high ranking officials to spare the tomb. Miracle did happen; Chairman Mao had spared the tomb.

But in 1966 (the Cultural Revolution), Yuan's tombstone was smashed by the Red Guards. The tomb hall was occupied by 10+ families. The She family was kicked out to a goat stable.

In 1992, Beijing City Government had budgeted RMB$50,000 to repair the tomb, but the squatters still occupy the tomb hall.

She descendants campaigned hard for the removal of squatters from the tomb.

Last year, the city government had ordered the eviction of squatters, remodeling of Yuan's tomb and opening it to tourists. But the order does not specify rebuilding the house for the tomb

guardians-- the She family.

Seventeen generations of the She descendants have guarded General Yuan's tomb for 372 years.

The government has offered the She family a bigger house outside the tomb, RMB$200,000 (US$25000) as compensation and lifetime consultancy.

The She family has declined the offer, saying that they are not aiming for money and fame but for doing something meaningful. "We cannot face our ancestors and descendants if we stop our

tomb-guarding duty after 372 years.


Ken Lai
http://www.kenlaifengshui.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10429370@N05/

Titanic Feng Shui

Note: The following was written around 2003

Titanic Feng Shui? Do you mean underwater Feng Shui? No, I just want to grab your attention.

When Titanic sank, the rescuers had recovered only one child body. The surviving crew members donated money and erected a monument unscripted with "Erected to the memory of an unknown child died in Titanic April 15, 1912." The town people of Halifax attended the unknown child's funeral in a grand fashion—he represented all the children died in the tragedy.

In the last few weeks the public TV here (U.S.) airs a special on how DNA scientists identified the unknown child's DNA and tracked down his relatives.

Many of the Titanic victims were buried in Halifax (Canada). To obtain some DNAs from the victims, the DNA scientists must exhume their graves.

(Now some yin Feng Shui)

Assuming you are a graduate of any yin Feng Shui class, how can you tell, by just looking at the tombstone—if the grave is flooded, if the body became mummified, if the descendants (or direct relatives) are prosperous, if the descendants are lustful, if the descendants become outlaws,.......

An experienced yin Feng Shui guy should be able to tell without digging up the graves. Old tombs like the Titanic ones are great for case studies of yin Feng Shui as there are extensive genealogical researches done.

(Now at the cemetery)

The cemetery where the Titanic victims were buried was built on a hill slope. The yin Feng Shui would be reasonably good if the backs of the tombstones (and coffins too) are facing the hill slope. Unfortunately, this cemetery was designed more for the living than the dead. Tombs' orientations are based on the pavements (pathways), so you have some tombstones facing the hill slope and some are opposite. The unknown child and quite a few of the Titanic victims' tombs are on the "wrong" side, according to yin Feng Shui standard.

Besides the unknown child, DNA scientists also want to ascertain the DNAs of a couple victims buried there. They have obtained DNAs of surviving relatives.

When they exhumed the graves of other victims, they found the graves were flooded and no bones or any DNA-worthy materials were recovered. This is not a big surprise, considering the tombs are almost 90 years old.

Then they exhumed the grave of the unknown child. It was not flooded. But only a tiny bone and 3 teeth were recovered. A DNA scientist said that the tiny bone is an outcry of the unknown child to be identified.

To keep the long story short, their first attempt to identify the child has failed. Then they found the teeth recovered were baby teeth of less than 1 year old. Researchers have identified a finnish passenger with 5 kids, including a baby boy. In turn, they have located a relative in Finland and took some DNA samples.

Ken Lai
 
Video Correspondence Courses: (click for details)   
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“Advanced Visual Form Feng Shui” w/23 hr. HD video
“Visual Form Feng Shui” w/13 hr. HD video

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Sniper & Dao (Tao)

Note: The following was written on Oct 25, 2002

There is a Chinese saying, "When one attains Dao, even his chicken and dogs go to heaven with him."

This statement does not really address "Dao" but saying when one gets famous, anything remotely related to him will come and take a cut of the good fortune.

The Maryland snipers were caught now. The mass media try to dig up anything remotely elated to the snipers-- their high school pals, their old neighbors, their remotely related relatives, ex-wives........ Everyone tries to get his/ her 15 minutes of fame.

It seems when one dumps Dao (becomes infamous), his chicken and dogs still go to heaven--- without him/ her.

BTW, yesterday on TV, there were many aerial shots of the duplex previously resided by the sniper-suspect. If you are familiar with Form Feng Shui, you should find quite a few Feng Shui clashes among the neighbors.


Ken Lai
http://www.kenlaifengshui.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10429370@N05/

Feng Shui of Frank L Wright's Taliesin Home (WI)

I saw a re-run of Ken Burns' documentary on Frank L. Wright. Wright is hailed as the greatest American Architect of the 20th century. He is famous for his organic style architecture.

Frank's life was full of scandals, tragedies and ups and downs. So the Feng Shui of his residence should be of interest to any inquiring Feng Shui mind.

Frank had built his Taliesin residence in 1911 and stayed there most of the time and till his death in 1959.

I have not visited the Taliesin site, so I just rely on the descriptions and map from the Taliesin website to do this "paper audit".

http://www.taliesinpreservation.org/estate.htm

From the website's map, we can see the house shape has 3 wings, like a flapped "E". In terms of form Feng Shui, it has a "run-way dragon". This means the male head does not want to stay home too much and problem getting helping people.

In real life, Wright was not closed to his children or wife and treated his buildings like his children. Wright's father had dumped his mother. Frank hated his birth father to the guts and did not go to his funeral. Yet Frank did the same to his wife. History repeated itself.

There are two wings at the right side-- two white tigers! Wright got a mistress openly and created a scandal (it was conservative at the turn of the century).

At the back of the house, there is a pond. But the house is built on a slope, so if it rains, water should flow from the house to the pond. This meant that the owner would not be able to keep his money.

This house had two fires over the years. One had happened in August 1914 with a murder of 7 people. Frank's mistress and her 2 children was murdered by a male servant with an axe, who then set fire to the residential wing of the house.

Frank had rebuilt the house and called it Taliesin II. It then was burnt in April 1925. Frank again had rebuilt it and called it Taliesin III.

From the description of the website, the flying chart looks like this: (ms,ts,ws)

S sitting

521 175 393

E 412 639 857 W

966 284 748

facing N

The chart smells blood and fire all over! The 7 water star in the west sees water which would activate injury by metal (5-7). The ms 3 is thrown into water (pond at the back). This would hurt people (murder here). 9-6 in the NE, NE refers to son or male servant in business relationship. 9-6 means mental problem. Center palace is 6-9 which means disobedient son or subordinate.


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