Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Memoirs of Grasshopper


Continued....

Old Chen: ‘Oh no, Master Dragonfly, you told me to watch out for my health 注意身体 but you should elaborate further......’

Master: ‘Oh, what happened?’(Master Dragonfly to himself: I sure hate this last name my master gave me; I had hinted obviously about Hexagram 1 Flying Dragons from the Yi Jing to Master on his deathbed to change it from Housefly)

Old Chen: ‘I had been very careful on my diet and I did some horse riding to exercise for my health but my favourite pony went berserk and threw me off, accidentally breaking my right leg.’

Master: ‘Tsk, tsk. Too bad to hear about it, anyway, Man proposes, Heaven disposes. Heaven’s secret sometime cannot be disclosed too obviously....’ (Yeah, if I tell you too clearly, you won’t be back here today)

Old Chen: ‘My apology for that day when I first came as I was in a hurry to meet Blue Peony at the Tea house to stay on to discuss further and had only bought tokens of humble gifts as my sincerity. (Old Chen to himself: That incident is an bad omen; I better let him know I can afford to pay him more if he gives me better advice)

Master: ‘No, Not at all, not at all, sincerity is what it counts that matters, let me further seek an Yi Jing oracle to see what we can do about it. (Sure, but it is an insult giving me sweet potatoes which I have in my garden and pig meat leftovers from the butcher)

Old Chen: ‘Well, I hope this time that you can give me some clearer advices on what to do about my house feng shui which you said is not in accordance with Heaven’s Will. Money is not a problem.’

Master: ‘Oh Master Chen, for this I will need to have to do some time consuming concentration and adjustments which unfortunately is a problem for I have been thinking of revisiting my hometown as I have not seen my parents for years but the thought of the travelling expenses and gifts is very distracting.’ (Now let’s see how sincere you are)

Old Chen: ‘Don’t worry about that, I can sponsor you with five hundred taels of silver as long as you can make sure my family’s fortune are safe and prosperous.’

Master: ‘Oh that would be so gracious of you though it is still a bit of short of what I need. Well, anyway, let me do what I can best to protect your family fortune,’

After Old Chen have left,

Grasshopper: ‘Master, I do not understand on the changes you ask Old Chen to do.’

Master: ‘What do you mean?’

Grasshopper: ‘This is a Reverse Dragon Formation, why did you have to ask him to build a garden and pond at the back of the House and to shift the dug soil to the back of the house. Won’t this give you more work as you have to pick a date and conduct a ritual for him to have an opening ceremony for activating the Water Dragon energy?”

Master: ‘You means since the natural landforms are there, all I need are to get him to open a Main door at the back and make some simple changes at the back of his house.’

Grasshopper: ‘Yes Master, won’t this saves a lot of works and makes this 500 taels of silver much easier to earn’

Master: ‘Sure Boy, but do you think Old Chen would be happy and impressed if I give him this simple advice without any impressive hula bula with it after paying me 500 taels of silver. Further, those idle fawning scholars would as usual be busybody and would come by to give their learned opinions to Old Chen.’

Grasshopper: ‘Ah Master, I remember Old Chen’s wife had come by to see you before and was very secretive about it’

Master: ‘Yes, my boy, she was very generous and bought a jar of my favourite wine. She was very concerned about her family dwindling fortunes and her future. I guess with all this feng shui stuffs and a broken leg, Old Chen would be too preoccupied the next few months to carry on wasting the family fortunes on whoring and other so called gentleman’s pastimes.

Grasshopper thinking to himself: 'Well, I hope this time Master won't dump me alone here while he goes sightseeing in Jiang Nan'

Master: ‘All-right, I am very pleased about the whole matter as Old Chen's wife have promised another 200 silver taels as a bonus, Grasshopper. I guess this coming trip; I would have to bring you out to see the real world and understand the Human Heart more so that you can progress more.’

Grasshopper: ‘Hurray, I am finally going out to see the World’ (I sure hate this name; don’t know why Master gives me such an awful name instead of something nice like The Aloof Dragon)

Till-then, cheers.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Understanding Feng Shui 风水

Part 1 - Wind


From the Need Project

The Sun Makes the Wind Blow

The energy in wind comes from the sun. When the sun shines, some of its light reaches the earth’s surface. The earth near the equator receives more of the sun’s energy than the North and South Poles.

Comments: This refers to how the chart for Da Liu Ren is derived and makes it one of the top Metaphysics Art in the 三

Some parts of the earth absorb more solar energy than others. Some parts reflect more of the sun’s rays back into the air. Light-colored surfaces and water reflect more sunlight than dark surfaces. Snow and ice reflect sunlight, too.

Some types of land absorb more solar energy than others. Dark forests absorb sunlight, while light desert sands reflect it. Land areas usually absorb more energy than water in lakes and oceans.

When the earth’s surface absorbs the sun’s energy, it turns the light into heat. This heat on the earth’s surface warms the air above it. The air over the equator gets warmer than the surface air near the poles. The air over the desert gets warmer than the air in the mountains.

The air over the land usually gets warmer than the air over the water. As air warms, it expands. The warm air over the land is becomes less dense than the cooler air and rises into the atmosphere. Cooler, denser air nearby flows in to take its place. This moving air is what we call wind. It is caused by the uneven heating of the earth’s surface.

We Can Capture the Wind

Some places have more wind than others. Areas near the water usually have a lot of wind. Flat land and mountain passes are good places to catch the wind, too.

Comment:  The term popularly used by Feng Shui practitioners, 藏风聚水/. Qi travels on Wind and collected at the boundary of Water.

 Create Power



Create Seas of Lights

 The Power You can Get





The Fun you can Have (Oops, My apologies to the gentle sex here)


Good at provoking Fire and Re Creation of Life

Spreading Life


And Being Romantic (Think of Storms and Heavy rains when two persons is alone, also got to do with Life)


Good Bye.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

The Dragon Masters

Well, well, we are into the Rabbit year and next, Mr. Dragon will be coming.....



Anyway, since I can't think of anything, let me carry on with The Memoirs of Grasshopper, 'A Fung Sui Matter' started last year.

A conversation between Grasshopper and his Master....

Grasshopper: ' Master, what is the problem with Old Chen' s house?'

Master: 'Boy, tell me what is the formation of the Seven Dipper Stars for the house?'

Grasshopper: 'Oh, that is easy, it is called Mountain Dragon drowned and Water Dragon stranded'

Master: ' No, no, this is between you and me, for the learned scholars, it is called Up Mountain and Down Water上山下水, boy.'

Grasshopper: 'But master, isn't it the same? Why bother with such flowery language?'

Master: 'Of course, for us as Dragon masters, it is different but remember for the common people, you have to confuse them with such encryptic language and they will be more confident of your skills which is why the learned scholars spent so much time on reading books to confuse them'

Grasshopper: ' So Master,  what is going to happen if nothing is done to correct Old Chen's House?'

Master: 'Well, first of all, he is going to have health problem which will result in him not being able to create wealth as the two little dragons have been reversed in position'

Grasshopper ' What about Papa Dragon?'

Master:' He of course is not happy as he is seating with his backside facing out and being made to turn his head every now and then to look back when his backside is being poked by Sha Qi'

Grasshopper: 'So how?'

Master: 'Its' time for my afternoon nap, we will talk about it again when Old Chen comes back again after breaking one of his legs'

Grasshopper: 'But Master, why wait until he comes back after breaking one of his legs?'

Master: ' What are you thinking? Fairies? Are both of us just living on fresh air and eating flowers here in the remote mountains everyday as what the idiotic villagers thinks? Where do you think the money for the the 18 years old Ni Er Hong  女儿红 wine, roasted chickens and porks comes from?'

To be continued.......


Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The Year of the Chinese Rabbit



WAIT


Ha-ha, this is why until now I have nothing to say for the year 2011, just that as usual, the World would still carry on and at the end of the year, it would still be the same as the Earth will still be revolving though it is rumored to be a worldwide conspiracy by the governments to deceive common people like us that the Earth is not flat. I' m not kidding you, there is even a book wrote about it in 1919: below is the link,

I had a good laugh after reading this article. Read the comments column.

http://oddbooks.co.uk/oddbooks/westfield.html

Anyway if you have seen the movie, 'The Matrix', then maybe that could be what the author above means. So the same goes for the yearly astrology forecast of the chinese animals picked from the Last End of the World of Noah's Ark for this year of the Rabbit. Anyway, for the yearly astrological forecast, my apologies as I have not received some signals yet, EH?

So instead, let me share something about our Brains as I have been under this illusion from my peers from the seventies of : We only uses 10 percent of our brain?

Scientific American:
'The human brain is complex. Along with performing millions of mundane acts, it composes concertos, issues manifestos and comes up with elegant solutions to equations. It's the wellspring of all human feelings, behaviors, experiences as well as the repository of memory and self-awareness. So it's no surprise that the brain remains a mystery unto itself.

Adding to that mystery is the contention that humans "only" employ 10 percent of their brain. If only regular folk could tap that other 90 percent, they too could become savants who remember π to the twenty-thousandth decimal place or perhaps even have telekinetic powers.

Though an alluring idea, the "10 percent myth" is so wrong it is almost laughable, says neurologist Barry Gordon at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. Although there's no definitive culprit to pin the blame on for starting this legend, the notion has been linked to the American psychologist and author William James, who argued in The Energies of Men that "We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources." It's also been associated with to Albert Einstein, who supposedly used it to explain his cosmic towering intellect.

The myth's durability, Gordon says, stems from people's conceptions about their own brains: they see their own shortcomings as evidence of the existence of untapped gray matter. This is a false assumption. What is correct, however, is that at certain moments in anyone's life, such as when we are simply at rest and thinking, we may be using only 10 percent of our brains.

"It turns out though, that we use virtually every part of the brain, and that [most of] the brain is active almost all the time," Gordon adds. "Let's put it this way: the brain represents three percent of the body's weight and uses 20 percent of the body's energy."

The average human brain weighs about three pounds and comprises the hefty cerebrum, which is the largest portion and performs all higher cognitive functions; the cerebellum, responsible for motor functions, such as the coordination of movement and balance; and the brain stem, dedicated to involuntary functions like breathing. The majority of the energy consumed by the brain powers the rapid firing of millions of neurons communicating with each other. Scientists think it is such neuronal firing and connecting that gives rise to all of the brain's higher functions. The rest of its energy is used for controlling other activities—both unconscious activities, such as heart rate, and conscious ones, such as driving a car.

Take the simple act of pouring coffee in the morning: In walking toward the coffeepot, reaching for it, pouring the brew into the mug, even leaving extra room for cream, the occipital and parietal lobes, motor sensory and sensory motor cortices, basal ganglia, cerebellum and frontal lobes all activate. A lightning storm of neuronal activity occurs almost across the entire brain in the time span of a few seconds.

What's not understood is how clusters of neurons from the diverse regions of the brain collaborate to form consciousness. So far, there's no evidence that there is one site for consciousness, which leads experts to believe that it is truly a collective neural effort. Another mystery hidden within our crinkled cortices is that out of all the brain's cells, only 10 percent are neurons; the other 90 percent are glial cells, which encapsulate and support neurons, but whose function remains largely unknown. Ultimately, it's not that we use 10 percent of our brains, merely that we only understand about 10 percent of how it functions.'

So how much percentage of the brains is the above Rabbit using or are you going to use for this year?

Anyway, it is agreed that we have a subconscious mind which when tapped can do miracles. Keep that in mind when you learn metaphysics, it will helps a lot regardless whether you know the Chinese language or Chinese Whispers or not. If you bother to ponder further, you might understand the logic of 為無為 or the short term used in Western Yi Jing studies 'Wu Wei'. Further, you might understand why the birth year pillar is considered sacred in Ying Zhai Feng Shui or Feng Shui for the Dead on the Na Yin aspects. As we don't really know yet for sure whether the Brains after death could still transmit signals, EH?  (There was a research done by Soviet scientists during the Cold War period which had shown that a person body or bones transmited a certain frequency signal after death that can only be detected by using special equipments.) I'm not kidding you, ok?  Something for you to think about in your pursuits of metaphysics for the Year of the ehmm, Rabbit.

Till-then, cheers.

Happy Chinese New Year to all my readers here.

'Sometimes I think I understands everything then I regained consciousness.'