Yin is female, dark, stillness, downward movement.
Yang is male, light, active, upward movement.

Yin and Yang energy is also expressed in terms of light and dark, sunlight and shade, hard rock and soft soil. For example, tall buildings, sunlight, and rivers are Yang. Low shopping malls, windowless rooms, and mountains are Yin. If there's an imbalance of Yin and Yang, you'll encounter financial or health troubles. 



Feng Shui enables one to discover if Yin and Yang together are in harmony and properly balanced within a particular environment so that chi (the vital life force that flows through earth and people) can promote good health, peace and prosperity within the location and its people.

The Ba-gua (an octagon compass that represents perfect harmony points within the universe) is the principal tool used by a Feng Shui Expect to determine if Ying and Yang (energy) are properly balanced within a given site (exterior and interior) and if an imbalance is blocking chi (life force), or causing it to stagnate. It also enables the Feng Shui Expect to adjust or improve upon the environmental conditions by offering solutions that will bring about or promote good chi. (The Ba-gua will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 3 of this Feng Shui module.)

Feng Shui What? Feng Shui Why? Well, WHY NOT Feng Shui! By observing and adjusting environment, so that people are continuously being energized and working harmoniously together, as well as having business thrive and prosper-are these not "celebrated" objectives all of us in business should strive for?

FENG SHUI - ANCIENT WISDOM FOR MODERN LIVING

Literally meaning "wind and water," Feng Shui (pronounced fung shway) is a 4,000 year-old Chinese discipline based on the belief that a vital life energy, chi, flows in the earth-a life force that creates mountains, makes rivers flow, and plants flourish. Positive and negative energy (chi) lines travel the earth. Chi also flows through people, keeping the mind alive and the heart beating. A marriage of art and science, the laws of Feng Shui harness positive chi through the proper design and placement of buildings, rooms and furnishings-encouraging good health, greater wealth and serenity.

People are now discovering that the location of a building can determine success, moving a desk to the "command position" can encourage wealth, and positioning a bed kitty-corner to the entry door can improve marital relations. The orientation of a building or the furniture layout of a room can either block the flow of chi - causing physical illness and stress - or enhance chi - leading to success, and happiness. According to Feng, our destiny is linked to our environment. It's well known that our surroundings influence our emotions, health, relationships, and work. 

Rooted in the ancient Taoist principle of living in harmony with nature, Feng Shui strives to create compatibility between people and their environments to promote peace and prosperity. The Chinese saw themselves connected to the earth, nature and cosmos. They relied on stars, sky, and land to direct them where to live. Choosing the right place to live and plant crops meant the difference between a prosperous life and misery. 

A blend of Chinese philosophy, religion, folklore, and science, some believe Feng Shui began with grave siting. It was thought that if ancestors were buried in a comfortable location--where the wind is mild, the water clear, and the land is green, --ancestors would be rewarded in their next life. If not, descendants would suffer. 

The sacred knowledge of Feng Shui was confined to the aristocracy and revered by emperors. During the mid 1800's Opium war, European "foreign devils" wanted spoils from China, so the emperor gave them low, flat lands which were know to be riddled with malign spirits and bad feng shui (Shanghai, Tientsin, Hankow).

Feng Shui masters were always consulted when palaces and tombs were built, when new cities were planned. Today, builders, corporations, and homeowners call upon placement experts who offer advice from the practical to the metaphysical.


DIFFERENT SCHOOLS

Traditional Feng Shui includes the Compass and Form Schools. The Compass School relies on cardinal directions and cosmology to determine the best location for good earth chi. The Form School interprets the land as being alive, animistic, and sees positive chi in the form of animals. The ideal building site should have a black tortoise to the North, a red phoenix to the South, a white tiger to the West and green dragon to the East. The dragon, representing goodness and strength, is a popular, powerful, mythical figure in Chinese culture. Hills and mountains are seen as dragons. Builder beware! Cutting into hills may rupture dragon veins, unearthing misfortune.

THE BLACK SECT SCHOOL OF FENG SHUI

The Tibetan Tantric Buddhist Black Sect School of Feng Shui takes into consideration the modern science of physics and psychology, architecture, design and intuition in its Feng Shui analysis. A synthesis of Confucianism, Taoism, and Tibetan Buddhism, the Black Sect School considers the immediate surroundings to be more important than compass directions because the chi (energy) flow of cardinal directions is influenced by so many factors of modern life - i.e. tall buildings, freeway structures, power lines, computers, televisions, etc. So Black Sect practitioners study the changing dynamics of chi by examining the immediate surroundings (landscape and conditions of nature), shapes, angles, colors, and placement. It incorporates elements of the Compass and Forms schools.