What is Dao?

The closest word that best describes its meaning would be the word ‘Nature’. Literally, it is the Chinese word for ‘way’ or ‘path’. However, to use ‘Nature’ alone as an equivalence of Dao will be extremely limiting to our view and comprehension of it for it is much more then Nature. Dao is the natural flow and balance of everything. It is all that is and the substance that the whole universe is made of, as said in the Daodejing 道德经,

“The Dao gave birth to One, the One gave birth to Two, the Two gave birth to Three,

and from the Three everything was conceived.”

It is omnipresent, omnipotent and the subtle law that all things follow. It is formless yet it exists in all that have forms. It has no beginning and no end. Its very nature is spontaneity and thus does not interfere with the world. But through it everything is created and accomplished. This is why in the beginning line of the Daodejing, it is said that the Dao that can be described is not Dao because the real Dao’s all-pervading nature cannot be captured in mere words. Only through one’s own direct experiences can the Dao be understood and felt.

The word ‘Dao’ was not uncommon before it was mentioned by Lao-zi in his book. However, its meanings were very different back then. Based on studies on the linguistic aspect and analysis of early texts, it is said that the shamans were the ones who started using the term and it was very much referring to the different phases of the lunar movement. To these ancients, the sun appeared constant everyday whereas the moon seemed to be the embodiment of change due to its waning and waxing. Thus the shamans gave equal importance to it in their rituals and beliefs. Under the influence of Confucianism, the Dao changed to imply a moral system that which people are supposed to abide in their daily conduct. It was with Lao-zi’s book that the Dao took on its new meanings as well as regaining back its previous arcane characteristic.

Written by Alvin Chua. All rights reserved. Copyright @. Not for commercial use of any kind.

How did Daoism came about?

How did Daoism came about?

Daoism actually has its roots in ancient shamanism. In any primitive community, the shamans and priests were the ones with great authority and possessed the ability to manipulate the elements of nature. These ancient wise men worshipped nature and spirits; divination and vaticination were then common too. This form of primitive religion gradually evolved into the worship of `Heaven', `God' and ancestors prevalent in the Yin and Zhou eras. In fact, almost all religions have their roots in such shamanistic practices. By the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, the archaic religion had undergone a metamorphosis that contributed to its more organized structure. The Hundred Schools emerged and competed with each other 百家争鸣. Different schools of thoughts emerged like the Huang Lao Daoists 黄老道, the Confucianists 儒家, the Mohists 墨家, the Yin-Yang Naturalists (Yin Yang Jia) 阴阳家 and also the Immortalists (Fang Xian Dao) 方仙道, all of them having strong influence on China's cultural history. With the introduction of Buddhism to China during the Eastern Han period, religious interest among the people turned into some form of delirium. Under these circumstances, the Huang-Lao tradition of thought (based on the teachings of the Yellow Emperor and Lao Zi) was eventually fused with the different philosophies and gradually assimilated the traditional Shamanism, Immortalist alchemical techniques, Yin-Yang Jia’s duality concepts, etc. Thus, the earliest form of organized Daoism we all know had taken shape at this time.

Written by Alvin Chua. All rights reserved. Copyright @. Not for commercial use of any kind.

What is Daoism?

Below is an extract from a book on Daoism that I did not managed to finish writing. Nevertheless, I have put it up here to share the parts I have written. I will post most of them up in time to come.


What is Daoism?

Daoism is actually a collective term used to describe various religious movements and schools of thought that are native to China. We conveniently called them Daoism because the concept of Dao is a common theme present in all of them. Basically, it can be classified as two main categories, Philosophical Daoism (Dao Jia) 道家 and Religious Daoism (Dao Jiao) 道教. Philosophical Daoism would refer to the school of thought made popular by Lao-zi during the Spring and Autumn Period 春秋 to the Warring States Period 战国. Strictly speaking, Lao-zi 老子 and his later counterpart Zhuang-zi 庄子 did not call themselves Daoist. In fact, the label was unheard of until the Han 汉 Dynasty when Sima Qian 司马迁, the famous Chinese historian was faced with the challenge of categorizing philosophers of the classical period into various schools of thoughts. To facilitate his work, two new groups were created which is the Daoist because of their common idea of Dao, and the Legalist (Fa Jia) 法家.

Religious Daoism on the other hand is a religion that was established amidst the Eastern Han dynasty later on, which makes it more than 1800 years old. It is a religion that upholds the Dao as its highest belief as well as the possibility of attaining immortality through cultivation of the body and mind. To some Daoists, Philosophical Daoism is a thing of the past since it was almost completely substituted by the Daoist religion. Thus, after the Jin4 晋 dynasty, references to the term Dao Jia will actually refer to the Daoist religion, unless it is made clear that one is talking about the pre-Qin Philosophical Daoism. One important point to note here is that despite the classification we have above, we must remember that each part is essential to the whole to enable us to have a comprehensive understanding of Daoism. The stratification of Daoism into two major styles was actually more of the effort of scholars and historians so as to facilitate their work than literal occurrences. In fact, change is the only constant in the history of Daoism, making the diffentiation an overly simplified depiction. Discretion must be practiced in order to define Daoism accurately as it has the tendency to mean different things in the many dynasties prevalent in Chinese history. Another point to take note here is that Daoism is more of a way of life than just an occasional practice or worship. The reason being that philosophy, religion and life style have always been inseparable in the Asian context all this while.

The present facet of Daoism commonly practiced by worldwide Chinese communities is mainly of the religious nature but alas, most of its believers are ignorant to the underlying concepts and principles behind its rituals nowadays.

Written by Alvin Chua. All rights reserved. Copyright @. Not for commercial use of any kind.

Ba Zhai 4 Inauspicious Directions

四凶位：

絕命（破軍）

財運極差，多病損壽，凶則死亡，破財，失物，肺病，被劫，火災，離家出走，有外遇，好友成仇等（肅殺之神）：有殺傷力，忌作主房氣口，犯則易有手術，刀傷，車禍，賊劫 。

Chueh Ming means exhausted fate. In this location nothing will work out, financially you might suffer and you may face many incurable sicknesses. Accidents, loss of children, disharmony leading to family break up and loss in business are just a few of the problems you may face. This location is also called total loss location.

阳宅三要：破军不可当。黄肿病残伤。有子难延寿。女劳命不长。

五鬼（廉貞）

破財連連，健康甚差，容易招鬼，遊蕩，惡疾，好勇鬥狠，暴戾，吸毒等（威武之神）：指無端惹禍，但亦有轉禍為福之力，宜作廁所，士多，浴室，忌作主房。大門。廚房和主氣口。犯則意外多生。生癌手術等 。

Wu Gwei means five ghosts. This location represents total disharmony, lots of bickering amongst family members and disloyalty. Backstabbing, project failure, fire disasters, always running into losses are synonymous with this location. You may face employee retention problems there is also a possibility of robberies.

阳宅三要：廉贞独火星。二子败家门。燥暴多凶恶。拖炝作健军。

六煞（文曲）

財運不好，災禍連連，多病，貪花戀酒，愛情反覆，意外受傷，離婚等（遊魂之神）：乃宅主桃花位，已婚主婚姻反覆，宜作廁所浴室，忌作主要房間或氣口，犯則人口不寧，夫妻紛爭 。

Liu Sha means six evils. This location brings forth lawsuits and relationship problems. Loss of money, promiscuity, health problems and argumentative problems are few of the problems which this location may bring. Your business will suffer and there is a possibility of untimely death.

阳宅三要：文曲润下水。颠狂不足言。军徒兼忤逆(disobedient children)。业祖败庄田。

禍害（祿存）

官災是非，財難積聚，爭執被騙，不好的加倍壞下去，離婚，撞車，吃得多變糖尿病，惡疾，手術，胃病，神經衰弱，性病等（禍害之神），宜作廁所浴室 。

Ho Hai means injury. You may sustain injury in the form of emotional pain, physical suffering and unexpected calamities. This location brings forth hassles, loss of work and loss of money. You might be always running into obstacles and nothing ever runs smoothly. The impact of all problems and loses in this direction is less compared to the ones listed above.

阳宅三要：阴土禄存星。人贱子不兴。零丁多带破。绝小二房荣。

Ba Zhai 4 Auspicious Directions

When learning Ba Zhai from different sources, the interpretation of the meaning of the Auspicious Directions always differs. So I decided to look through the ancient scriptures for their true meanings. I have compiled the common interpretations followed by the exact texts from the scriptures so that everyone can make a comparison. It is not complete at the moment but this is what I have done so far. It is not a easy task since some of the old Chinese words used in the ancient scriptures are not in use nowadays and thus not available in any dictionary.

四吉位：

生氣（貪狼）

財運好，健康話力充沛，移民，旅行，進步（生氣之神）；生生不息之意，利男性名聲，忌做廁所浴室，否則會引起失職，多病痛，女性小心小產。

主富贵多子。

Sheng qi basically indicates life giving force. Sheng qi direction can be used to attain wealth luck and authority. It also ensures business success. This location can be used to gain political power, business success, wealth luck and fame. It can be used for business men, entrepreneurs and politicians. This direction can also be helpful in attaining children and leading a healthy life. This area is good for wealth.

金光斗临经：人命合得此吉方吉向。又逢贪狼生旺之神修造。定生五子。大旺赀财。催官贵显。百庆交集。

阳宅三要：贪狼家道隆。五子更英雄。文艺多端立。精专百事通。

延年（武曲）

財運好，健康延年益壽，官運，中標，考試，升職，轉業或開業（明喜之神）；主和諧，主壽，利外交事務，忌作廁所浴室，犯則口舌官非，家宅不寧 。

Yen Nien means longevity. This location can be especially used for relationships, for harmony between husband and wife. This direction ensures good networking skills and enables a person to acquire wealth through his inter-personal skills, can be used for PR, marketing managers, human resource managers and personnel. It promotes goodwill and harmony amongst family/staff members. So if family disharmony is your problem this is the direction to use.

阳宅三要：阳金武曲星。豪杰出二门。武雄仁慈孝。精专百物能。

天醫（巨門）

財運好，疾病痊癒，貴人扶持，求醫，貿易，止夜啼（財富之神）；主健康，主富行婦女，旺財，忍作廁所浴室，犯則多主頑疾 。

Tien Yi means heavenly or celestial doctor. This direction can be used to cure illness. It also pertains to making a person wealthy. This direction enables a person to have the talent in curing sickness and blesses the person with healing powers, can be used by doctors, healers. Using this direction also ensures that people always help you out and that you lead a healthy and long life. If health is your concern then this is the direction to use.

金光斗临经：人命合得宅之床房灶向者。生三子致中富。创造则人财旺相。修改则除病免祸。

阳宅三要：阳土巨门星。人财家道兴。功名三教显。医卜性聪明。

伏位（左輔）

如沒有巒頭上之沖煞，主財運小吉，運氣中等，健康如常，尤其是在衣食，慶典，地位，婚嫁方面；但如果有巒頭上之沖煞，凶起來比其他位置更凶，好的變成壞的，例如婚姻不成，沒有衣食，小產流產，慶典變紛爭，工作壓力大等。（抱喜之神）主平靜，利主管，有鎮壓之力，宜飭神位，主管位，忌作廁所浴室，犯則令人心煩意亂，不安於位 。

Fu wei means lying down position. It is for general prosperity, can be used for personal development and studies. It promotes clear thinking and increases a person’s ability to concentrate on his/her work. A person using this direction will never face problems. It is a good direction for maintaining one's position and taking administrative decisions can be used for administrative managers, analysts, research and development managers and personnel.

阳宅三要：伏令二木星。逐势达时荣。见吉多逢吉。逢凶必见凶。

Written by Alvin Chua. All rights reserved. Copyright @. Not for commercial use of any kind.

Grandmaster Yap's Ba Zhai Feng Shui

The following is a compilation of the methods used by Yap Cheng Hai of Malaysia. His Ba Zhai method is different from what is commonly taught by other masters but he's had more than 50 years of experience and findings to support his style. Thus, I feel that there's must be something of value to learn from it:

Main door of house should FACE Ming Gua auspicious directions. Shift or tilt the main entrance to face the good directions if required to ensure the entry of only the auspicious Qi. Ancient feng shui masters did not have to tilt the angle of their doors and it was because town planning was unheard of those days. They could therefore build their homes according to their respective auspicious feng shui alignments. Hence the haphazard streets and layout in some old towns and villages in China. Another case in point: The Yaps visited a Master Leaw in his home in Ganzhai, China, not too long ago. The 85-year-old feng shui master, who is a direct descendant of one of the two disciples of Yang Su Chong, had his door tilted in the early 1990s to tap his most auspicious direction. This is significant because feng shui is here today because of Yang Su Chong, an imperial astronomer and librarian.

The position of the kitchen and direction of the stove is the second most important aspect of a home, after that of the main door. Kitchen is to be located in your Ming Gua inauspicious locations with the stove pointing towards your auspicious directions. The kitchen door must face an auspicious direction. What is the direction of the stove, you may ask. The direction is deemed to be the controls of the stove or the fire mouth, which is where the flame of the stove is controlled. Also, watch out for the directions that should be avoided each year. You will need to be careful when shifting a stove which, in feng shui, is considered a major project. An alternative to moving the stove would be to use a portable stove for that year.

Headboard of bed should point to Ming Gua auspicious directions.

Always sit FACING your Ming Gua auspicious directions.

Bedroom should be located in your Ming Gua auspicious sectors.

Toilet should not be located in your Ming Gua auspicious sectors.

It is alright to renovate the Tai Sui area if you have yet to move in. To offset the Tai Sui, you may consider putting something metallic.

If your children are rebellious, and you want them to listen to you, activate the Yan Nian direction. The ideal would be to locate the child in a room at the parent’s Yan Nian location. If this is not possible, an alternative would be to use a room in the child’s own Yan Nian location. In both cases, the child should sleep with his head pointing to his own Yan Nian direction. For example, it the father is Kan Gua (Gua number 1) and the child is Zhen Gua (Gua number 3), the child should sleep in the room located in the South (the father’s Yan Nian location) with his head pointing to SE (his own Yan Nian direction).

To assist in studies, the main point to consider is the location of the study table and the direction of the study table. In this case, we will want to activate either the Fu Wei or Sheng Qi direction. For example, if the student is a Kun Gua (gua number 2), then his Fu Wei direction is SW and his Sheng Qi direction is NE. Have the desk at the SW room in the SW location of the room and facing either NE or SW. An additional consideration is to look at the fl ying stars of the house. The 1 White star is generally considered the scholarly star. As such, if you are able to face the 1 white star and that direction coincides with the your auspicious direction, this will also contribute to the scholarly success of the person. The 1 White star is at the East in 2006.

Certain masters would determine the facing of a condominium from the balcony, basically standing at the balcony door looking outwards. We have found that this is not necessarily correct. In most cases we would use the actual entrance door of your condominium, standing inside the unit and measuring outwards. Why measure outwards? This is the direction the Qi is coming from. I would usually consider the apartment entrance as the main facing and my case histories have proven me to be correct. The entrance to the respective condo or apartment unit is considered its main door. So, this is where the owner should tap his auspicious direction. On the other hand, while the common entrance to the condo or apartment project is not important to the individual unit owners or dwellers, it is important to the developer. As for the feng shui for a whole floor, consider for a moment: Is everyone on the same floor enjoying the same good fortune or suffering the same bad luck? I heavily doubt that this would be the case. “In our opinion and experience, the balcony door does not qualify as the main door. This is taking into consideration that the doorway is defined by the action of entering and exiting a property, and in the process, bringing in the qi from outside the property,” say the Yaps. One can’t possibly walk in through the balcony door, nor can one exit from the balcony door to leave the unit.

I am sure that in every floor there is a mix of both good and bad. This could be more a case of whether the apartment is suitable for the occupants rather than the feng shui of an entire floor. Yes, there is a methodology to choose the best floor and from there, the best unit, but ultimately I am more concerned about your main entrance and master bedroom. Only after these major aspects are put right would I consider looking at the floor and the unit location, which I consider to be more of a fine tuning effort.

The first bit of advice I can provide you is to forget about buying numbers. Some people have the luck and some do not. In your case, I suspect that you do not as you have yet to strike any numbers. So, the first step to wealth is to save the money that you spend on buying numbers.

The notion of house Gua is basically incorrect. I am sure there are people who will argue about this point but they don’t have 50 years of accumulated data on this matter. Let us look at the matter properly; feng shui consists of the heavenly or cosmic trinity of Heaven, Earth and Man. Feng shui is a potential, which can only be activated by the human qi. The house is passive and hence cannot have a Gua. Also, from another angle, this would mean that a person who is an E Gua should only use a N-S oriented house and a W Gua person should only use a NE-SW oriented house. This will limit the choice of houses a person can buy. The lamppost opposite you will affect you only if you have a door facing it. As your door is facing SE, the lamppost should not affect you. If you are still worried, you can hang up a Ba Gua mirror with a convex surface on the front of your house pointing back towards the lamppost.

Basic Guide for Water Placement Based on Ba Zhai

Place water in good areas. For example, the best direction and location for a Kun (No 2) Gua person is in the northeast. Based on this school of feng shui, the best place for an aquarium is in the northeast sector of the house.

Colours have a very minimal effect. I would say that if the rest of your feng shui is correct, having the right colour is not too important. On the other hand, if your feng shui is generally wrong, then every little bit helps where ease of mind is concerned. In other words, if you get your room location and bed direction right, don’t worry about the colour.

You should put the crystal in a location that is auspicious for you. What is auspicious depends on your Life Gua.

Feng shui is definitely not a religion. In fact, anybody can learn and implement feng shui for himself. It is about tapping the qi, a universal cosmic energy, for a person's well being. Feng shui is also about location and direction. Thus, if something claims to be feng shui but does not have anything to do with location and direction, then it is most probably not feng shui. The art is derived from the ancient Chinese Ba Gua or eight trigrams, which dates back some 6,000 years ago. Feng shui has no bearing with religion. It is similar to the Taoist philosophy, which has its roots in China much earlier than Buddhism, in that everything is cyclical and everything will revert to the tao or nothingness. The link between feng shui and Taoism is very obvious. The scholars in ancient days were all Taoists and you could say that the Taoists practised feng shui. As the general population became more educated, feng shui spread as a form of knowledge and broke free from Taoism.

Grandmaster Yap Cheng Hai puts it aptly: "Heaven Luck is the boat given to you by God. Earth Luck is the wind that fills the sails and the currents of the ocean. Man Luck is the way in which you use the wind and the currents to steer your boat."

According YCH a few hundred years ago books were written by feng shui masters during the Ching dinasty with false information to confuse the masses to spoil their own feng shui.