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.