Let's talk dirty or money

 Will you be very happy if you run into a box of cool cash like this one?

But if you find out that you cannot enjoy this cash until you have died.........   

This box of cash looks like U.S. Dollars but actually is a version of Underworld currency or "joss paper money" for the dead.  This offering of joss paper money to the deceased is popular among Chinese in Southeast Asia.   

The $10,000 currency above is issued by the "Hell Bank" with the portrait of the Underworld Emperor.  It beats the $500 denomination of U.S. Dollar joss paper money with Ben Franklin portrait by 20 times.  

In 2009, I had written about underworld currency:

https://kenlaifengshui.blogspot.com/2009/12/hell-does-not-take-american-express-but.html

With online marketing, there are competitions in Underworld U.S. Dollar joss paper money.  You may go to AliExpress website to check.

There are denominations of US$100 to 1 Million in the joss paper money section of AliExpress.  For  US$5, you can get 250 pieces of US$1M denomination joss paper money issued by Heaven-Hell Bank. Five real U.S.  dollars for 250M of underworld U.S. Dollars!  What a deal made in hell! 

There are also 5000 British pounds and 50,000 Euro denomination of joss paper money.

With different underworld currencies, the dead now can have their own FOREX trading to keep them busy.

Now comes to the million dollar questions:

• Do our deceased love ones really receive the joss paper money that we offer to them?
• If the answer is "yes", do these "money" worth much in underworld given the arbitrary value assigned.
• If the answer is "no" or "no idea", what purpose does burning joss paper money serve?

From the perspective of the living (us!),  this approach shows our remembrance, love and care to the deceased provides peace, emotional balance and even redemption to us regardless whether the deceased receive the offering or not.

From the perspective of the deceased (assuming souls of the deceased continue to live on),  this show of remembrance, love and care from the living love ones is what counts most.  The amount of offering and value of joss paper become insignificant.  After all, the living project the material needs and desires on this earth to the spiritual world, which may not be true or needed.

My Daoist Sifu (teacher) told me when preparing joss paper for offering,  make sure the love ones of the deceased touch all the joss paper money or fold the paper gold nuggets,  to imprint their qi or energy on the paper.  This energy is what makes the deceased feel comfort and loved.

Ken Lai
© 2020 Ken Lai, all rights reserved.

Video Correspondence Courses: (click for details)
“Visual Bazi: Wealth Secrets and Maximization” w/ 18 hr. HD video
“Advanced Visual Form Feng Shui” 2020 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 2020 (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+ 2020 edition” with 18 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com

Money Emergency? Help is hidden in your own home!

"Money emergency" here does not include no money for beer, cigarettes, I-Phone or the likes.  It refers to money for food, rent and other basic necessities. 

Many cultures have the belief of "earth-god".  Chinese believes that every household has an earth-god stationing inside.  He is the first line of defense against intrusion of malignant spirits, ghosts and other beings for your house.

Earth-God is a relatively low rank deity. He is commonly selected from “enlightened spirit or ghost” (including animal spirit). This includes the spirits of people who were righteous and pious when they were alive. They are granted the title of “Fu-De-Gong” (福德公, God of blessing and virtue, the official name of earth-god) by local spiritual authority and are worshiped in temples after they had died. 

Earth-god

Earth-god is also regarded as “wealth-god” who takes care of the material and social well-being of the household he watches over. So there is a tremendous mass-consciousness about the power and function of earth-god for centuries— he is the protector and wealth-god of the household. It is quite common to see earth-god altars everywhere in Hong Kong, Taiwan and SE Asian countries.

In terms of consciousness, earth-god is more close to human level and is sympathetic to human needs and suffering. Hence, earth-god and other lower level deities actually are more responsive to your prayers than higher rank deities like Bodhistsattva (equivalent of St. Mary) and Buddha. Some people have joked that you may get poorer praying to Buddhist and Daoist deities because they emphasize "nothingness" and "emptiness" (don’t cling to materials and money!).

Hence if you are suffering from money emergency during the current pandemic, help is surprisingly close to you-- your own earth-god inside your house.

Higher level deities are more concerned with your overall well-being like health or spirituality and are not too responsive to minor requests, especially plea for money. My Daoist sifu had taught me that earth-god is good for bringing small fortunes and I did not believe him until I have set up an earth-god altar. Within a week of setting up the altar, I got a rush of orders for my correspondence courses AFTER Christmas (people normally are broke after holiday spending).

EARTH-GOD MANTRA (transliteration of Sanskrit)
"NaMo SanManDor, WuDaiNam. OM. DuLuDuLu. DeViSoHa"
---- Recite the mantra 7 times to enhance your plea.

HOW TO SETUP A SIMPLE EARTH-GOD ALTAR 
1. Print out the earth-god picture here or do a Google-search on "Chinese earth god" and select the image you like.  Print the image out (at least 5 x 7 inches size).  Alternatively, you may simply write "EARTH GOD" in your own language on a piece of paper instead of an image.

2. Go to a nearby temple to have the earth-god picture rotate on top of burning incenses 3 times and at the same time, visualize (imagine) an earth-god descends from heaven and enters into the picture (if there is no temples around you, you can light 3 incenses or candles and do the same procedure at home).
3. Put a dollar bill or a small size local currency into a red packet or envelop, stick it to the back of the earth-god picture.
4. Put the earth-god picture with the red envelop into a picture frame
5. Normally, earth-god altar is put outside your house, close to your main door. If you have problem doing that (like weather or someone may steal it), you can put it inside your house in a location that faces the main door.
6. Earth-god altar should be put close to the ground (or even on the ground). You may put the picture frame against a wall on a clean tray or in the lowest level of a bookshelf. The tray is put on the floor.
7. Select a good date to set up the altar (a day that does not clash your animal sign).

HOW TO MAINTAIN AN EARTH-GOD ALTAR 
a. Minimal maintenance: put 3 small cups (like 2 oz size) of water or tea in front of the altar and change the liquid daily (prefer in the morning).
b. Basic maintenance:  doing "a" plus lighting 3 sticks of incense
c. Normal maintenance:  doing "a and b", plus offering candies, cake and fruit (no tomato or fruit with seeds carried by bird feces) on the second and 16th days of the Moon (lunar month). Also special offerings (more varieties) during major festivals like Chinese New Year, Winter Solstice, 15th day of the 8th Moon…
d. Recite the Earth-God mantra 7 times: Pray to him if you have any request.

The offerings do not need to be huge portions, just a few pieces of candies, small cakes or a few fruits. Remember this works best for small fortune, especially legitimate emergency help. It probably works better if you make offering.  Earth-god is pretty close to human consciousness in terms of thinking. So a little bit “grease” (offering) will probably keep things “smoother” for you!  I always find new buying orders coming in after I have made an offering.  However, your requests must be reasonable and based on good intention. Do not make ridiculous request like hitting the first prize of lottery. You may wear out your welcome mat if you keep on asking for money and/or not doing anything positive to push up your good “karma score”, like donating or volunteering for charity works.  I guess treating earth-god as if he is one of your family members will help tremendously for the physical, spiritual and material well-being of your whole family.

WHERE DOES YOUR EARTH GOD MONEY COME FROM? 
Chinese belief thinks how much wealth or money one enjoys is pretty much predetermined or fixed.  So how does earth-god find money for you?  He cannot grant you more money than your destiny is assigned.  Based on my personal experience, I think he shuffles your money sources by:

• prompting people who owe your money to repay you
• prompting people who will buy your product/ service in the future to buy it NOW
• giving you "advance payment" from your future entitlement 

I also think earth-god cannot do this too often except when you are in urgent need.

SOME EXAMPLES OF THE EFFECTS OF EARTH-GOD MANTRA 
Besides emergency money, earth-god also does other miracles for you if he likes you.  Below are some recorded examples:

• Someone recites the mantra for an extended period and got rid of his 10 year old chronic skin problem. 
• Someone who had bad luck throughout his life and after recites the mantra regularly, his luck has changed and become rich from poor. 
• Someone who has problem getting pregnant for 10 years, gave birth to a baby boy after reciting the mantra for a while. 
• Someone’s life was full of obstacles and become smoother after reciting the mantra regularly. 
• Someone find a good spouse after reciting the mantra regularly. 

PRECAUTIONS 
You should not kill any snake or small reptile in your property as sometimes earth-god shows up as a snake or reptile. You get very bad luck if you accidentally kill your earth-god!

If you use this article to set up an altar, please make a donation of any size to your local charity or temple or church in the name of God of Blessing and Virtue. This provides the good beginning for your altar and exchange of good energy with the universe. 

Good luck and Blessing!

(Above info is taken from my "Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui and Blessing" manual)

Ken Lai
© 2020 Ken Lai, all rights reserved.

Embracing (your God's name) when running into emergency

Chinese has a saying: "Embracing Buddha's leg when running into emergency" for people who do not really care about their religious belief when they have no urgent problem in life.  It is the opposite of "fair weather friend" to God or deity.

My old classmate John in Hong Kong runs into a few obstacles since the Year of Rat (2020) comes.  Lately he has abdominal pain when waking up in the morning.  He went to a hospital, did some tests and was waiting for the results.

A Hongkonger runs into this situation usually may also consult a fortune-teller or go to a temple to do a divination to find out what is the problem.  But John is an atheist and does not care much.

However, his wife Mary believes in Buddhism and Daoism.  She thinks John's horse animal sign clashing current year's Grand Duke (rat sign), is the cause of his problems.  She told him to go to a temple to pray and make offering to Grand Duke.

Mary took John to a temple and found it is closed to the public due to the coronavirus.  It seems his "embracing Grand Duke's leg when running into emergency" attempt does not pan out.

John told me his Grand Duke problem while chatting online with me.  He does not know I do Grand Duke Talisman charity drive every year.  So I have sent him the GD talisman file.

 The next day John told me the following:

If you run into many obstacles and problems in 2020, it is not too late for you to "embrace Grand Duke's leg" for relief.  Check the article below for details.

http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot.com/2016/12/what-is-house-violating-grand-duke-in.html

Ken Lai
© 2020 Ken Lai, all rights reserved.

Video Correspondence Courses: (click for details)
“Visual Bazi: Wealth Secrets and Maximization” w/ 18 hr. HD video
“Advanced Visual Form Feng Shui”2019 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 2019 (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

Master-Killing Days and Feng Shui Audit Precautions 地师杀师日时

Traditional Feng Shui masters have many "no luopan opening" days within each year.  These days are usually called "master-killing days" (杀师日 ) to really scare practitioners to think twice before opening their luopan (Feng Shui compass) for audit.

The #1 section below is taken from my "Practical Date-Selection Methods Collection" course manual. 

1.  MASTER YANG’S AVOIDANCE DAYS 揚公忌日

These 13 days are not suitable to do anything.  It is also called “Master-killing days”—not suitable to do Feng Shui audit, grand-opening, marriage, setup bed, burial, trading, receiving payment, taking new post and the like. 

Avoid being called “Master” in these days.  And don't call people "master" in these days too. 

 

MASTER YANG'S AVOIDANCE DAYS

MONTH (lunar)	DAY		MONTH	DAY
First (Yin)	13		Seventh (Shen)	1, 29
Second (Mao)	11		Eighth (You)	27
Third (Chen)	9		Nineth (Xu)	25
Fourth (Si)	7		Tenth (Hai)	23
Fifth (Wu)	5		Eleventh (Zi)	21
Sixth (Wei)	2		Twelveth (Chou)	19

2.  ANNUAL LUO-HOU DAYS 每年罗喉日
"Luo-hou" is the name of a star.  According to traditional belief, using a luopan during Luo-hou hour days/hours will be hazardous and dangerous to the Feng Shui practitioner.  

year	DAY		year	DAY
Zi (rat)	gui-you		Wu (Horse)	ding-mao
Chou (Ox)	jia-xu		Wei (Ram)	jia-shen
Yin (Tiger)	ding-hai		Shen (Monkey)	ji-si
Mao (Si)	jia-zi		You (Rooster)	jia-wu
Chen (Dragon)	yi-chou		Xu (Dog)	ding-wei
Si (Snake)	jia-yin		Hai (Pig)	jia-shen

3.  4-SEASONS LUO-HOU DAYS 四季罗喉日

SEASON	DAY		SEASON	DAY
SPRING	yi-mao		AUTUMN	geng-shen
SUMMER	bing-wu		WINTER	xin-you

4.  MONTHLY LUO-HOU DAYS 每月罗喉日

MONTH (lunar)	DAY		MONTH	DAY
First (Yin)	hai		Seventh (Shen)	si
Second (Mao)	zi		Eighth (You)	wu
Third (Chen)	chou		Nineth (Xu)	wei
Fourth (Si)	yin		Tenth (Hai)	shen
Fifth (Wu)	mao		Eleventh (Zi)	you
Sixth (Wei)	chen		Twelveth (Chou)	xu

5.  DAILY MASTER-KILLING HOURS 

DAY	HOUR		DAY	HOUR
ZI	Chou/ wu		WU	Mao/ shen
CHOU	Si/ hai		WEI	Wu/ chen
YIN	Yin/ wu		SHEN	Xu/ hai
MAO	Chen/ si		YOU	Zi/ wu
CHEN	Si/ chou		XU	Mao/ wu
SI	You/ wei		HAI	Chen/ mao

   

All these no-luopan or master-killing days can easily knockout a month of working days per year, not to mention everyday also has two 2-hour blocks of "master-killing hours".

In general, if you current luck is not low and you do not do yin (tomb) Feng Shui or old houses with "hidden residents" (ghosts), not following these taboo days may not affect you much.  If otherwise, you may either become disoriented, have fever/ diarrhea, suffer a major illness, accident or even death after doing a Feng Shui audit.

FENG SHUI AUDIT PRECAUTIONS AND PROTECTION FOR PRACTITIONERS
For safety, you should not do Feng Shui audit after 5 pm (because ghosts become active).  When doing Feng Shui audit, carry talismans or religious objects for protection, do not drink anything provided by client other than canned soda (no ice cubes) and do not use client's bathroom (not leaving your energy imprint there).  As an extra precaution, Feng Shui remedies/ fixes should not be discussed inside client's house.  This is because certain Feng Shui remedies could change the energy field of the house and drive the ghosts away (you don't want them to know it is your idea or they may follow you).

Not everyone can afford not generating income for almost a month per year due to this luopan taboo.  There are Daoist and Buddhist mantra that one can chant to override this taboo.  But you must get authorization from the master (teacher) to use it.  Below is one that my students may chant before using a luopan for protection, even if the day is not a master-killing day.

 罗盘忌讳化解咒语

"一二三四五，金木水火土，无形通天地，八卦定乾坤，盘古开天地，山隍土地护，姜尚先师到，百煞请回避，吾奉杨公祖师令，到此开盘定九宫，天无忌，地无忌，阴阳无忌，百无禁忌。"

念毕咒语后，用剑指在罗盘上画四纵五横，顺转三圈，边画边念：天无忌，地无忌，阴阳无忌，百无禁忌。

Ken Lai

© 2018 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+ 2017 edition” with 18 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com