I think Feng Shui is synonymous to Chinese New year or the Lunar New year, and it is also synonymous to the Chinese. I once heard a Filipino friend said that Feng Shui must work because a lot of his Chinese friends are really rich. The statement is not exactly accurate because most rich Filipino-Chinese do work hard for their money and there are Filipino-Chinese who are not financially rich, but I do know that a lot of Filipino-Chinese do practice Feng Shui thus it helps them with their everyday lives.
Feng Shui has reach a certain popularity and a lot of people has some understanding of what Feng Shui really is but to be quite honest its difficult to say what Feng Shui really is.
Nevertheless, in the years I’ve studied about Feng Shui I came to describe Feng Shui as an art of ancient science that has its roots in Mainland China. It is a study of how the Chinese view the Universe, where all things here on Earth are categorized into five elements (water, earth, wood, fire, metal) that take on an implication with energy or chi, w/c in turn can be categorized as positive or negative chi.
Feng Shui’s literal translation is wind and water.
While certain mysticism surrounds the practice of Feng Shui, I only attribute this to the fact that a lot of things involve in the practice of Feng Shui has been lost. A lot of the books either didn’t survive time and/or were intentionally destroyed, especially, since a lot of Emperors would like Feng Shui to be exclusive to them. On top of that, Mao Zedong also banned the practice of Feng Shui and had a number of books destroyed and Feng Shui experts killed.
Nevertheless, a lot of symbolism is involve in the practice of Feng Shui that may help affect the chi of our surroundings that in turn will have an effect on the different facets of our life.
While Feng Shui promises much in terms of bringing physical/mental/emotional and material balance or blessing to those practice and follow its ‘rules’, we must all remember that Feng Shui is not magic. Although it brings miracles to our lives its still a ‘science’ unto its own.
Feng Shui may have miraculous effects in our lives but its only one face of our life. The Chinese believe that our life is composed of 3 Branches: Tien Ti Ren or Heaven, Earth, and Man. Tien or Heaven’s Luck is something that we cannot change, it is believe that once a person is born his/her life is already pre-destined. But we are always given 2 paths and this is where Ti or Earth’s Luck and Ren or Man’s Luck comes in. Ti refers to the practice of Feng Shui and this is something that we can control by making sure that we are in constant harmony with our surroundings and with this planet. Lastly, Ren refers to the things that we do to our life. This refers to how we manage or on how we control our life. Thus this explains that we cannot completely rely on Feng Shui. We cannot be carrying all the Feng Shui tools/charms available in the market and be lazy. Ren is the luck you create for yourself.
Feng Shui: Everyday Miracle for Love, Success, and Happiness 