18: Ideal Four Features Model
The ideal Feng Shui setting requires that the Four Features – Mountain, Guardian Hills, Energy Spot, and Water – have balanced quantity, good quality, and ideal coordination.
I formally became the disciple of Zen Master Pu Yu of Bubble Spring Temple on Drum Mountain in Fujian Province, China, right after the end of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970’s. At that time, the temple had few monks and hardly any visitors. After the private ceremony, Master Pu Yu gave me a pep talk that has guided my life since. He talked about Zen tradition, the temple’s history, and also spoke more informally and personally to me.
Human beings live between Heaven and Earth, nourished by Yang and Yin energy. The energy of Heaven comes downward from above, manifesting as sunshine, rain and so on. The energy of Earth rises upward from below, manifesting as food, water and other nourishing products. Heaven (yang) energy implies dynamic expansion while Earth (yin) energy implies collection, connection, cooperation and nourishment. Without the effects of Earth’s energy that emerges to balance the outward expansion of Heaven’s force, there will be conflict and strife. What are the most powerful factors in manifesting Earth energy, the energy of connection and cooperation? The answer is trees, forests and all vegetation. The places that tend to have more conflict in the world are just those
places that lack forests, or that have undergone recent, sudden deforestation. In modern history, there are positive correlations between the depletion of natural forests and the general level of strife and chaos in the world. This is the source of the problem.
In the arenas of politics, economics or other specialized spheres, there is constant effort to control chaos and conflict. The emphasis is not on how to solve the issues but on how to not create further problems. Due to this, there will always be an uphill battle to find a fundamental solution to today’s issues. From a feng shui perspective, the best solution is found in Mother Nature. We must look at it from an energy (chi) level. Chaos and conflict means there is too much Yang energy so it is necessary to increase the nourishing Earth or Yin energy or increasing energy for cooperation and support. How do we go about this? We must begin by planting trees and establishing greenery all over the world. In the meantime, where forests are abundant, water will be abundant. And water, to the planet, is like blood in the human body.
The global warming and the increase of CO2 is the modern urgent concern. While people search for different ways to find solutions, which are often complicated, we should just ask our Mother Earth for a solution. According to a scientific study, 20% of CO2 is attributable to deforestation, which is more than all of the world’s cars and trucks combined. Let us stop and take the time to think. How much of a positive impact will there be in solving the CO2 issue if instead of deforestation, we increased forestation?
In life, often the most ordinary things are the most unordinary and the most familiar are the most unfamiliar. For example, every day of our lives, we sleep and we wake up. Have you ever thought about how we fall asleep at night? Or what part of the body wakes up first in the morning? Do we wake up from head to toe or is it from toe to head? Or does the whole body wake up all at the same time? Have any of these questions ever crossed your mind?
We all enjoy beautiful things, whether it is a scenic landscape, colorful foliages in autumn, new buds bursting out from a branch in early spring, or a garden in full bloom. We can all appreciate the beauty in each of these images. But, have you ever stopped to think about how you enjoy these beautiful things? Do you simply stare at them with your big eyes? Do you just look at them casually, not giving much thought? Have you ever tried to communicate with them? Have you ever noticed your breathing patterns when looking at beautiful images?
The universe is an open system. This means that the process of exchange between us and our immediate surroundings to the greater whole of nature is a process of exchange that never stops. This exchange includes information and energy from all matter. However, most people have never received the benefits of a full exchange. What happens is we end up depleting our own energy more than receiving from nature. For example, as we look at beautiful scenery or even a flower, we are giving it energy which means we are depleting our own energy.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could constantly replenish our energy from nature? Just imagine that after a stressful day at work, you could come home and recharge your energy to enjoy your free time! Wouldn’t that be nice! Actually, this is possible. To gain this type of knowledge cannot be too difficult, or even complicated, as in nature, all things are easy and simple. We just complicate things on our own. Just imagine if schools stopped focusing on teaching only academic knowledge and instead taught useful living knowledge, it would open the minds of the youth. It would be wonderful if they taught how to receive energy from a flower, tree, mountain, ocean, moon or sun. I hope that those of you out there with such knowledge and wisdom will begin to write and share such valuable information.
In one of the earlier blogs published on April 4th, Master Hsu discusses the natural change of seasons. He mentions why we find new found energy in the spring and how this connection can be observed through nature. This point rang so true when I was a chaperone for my son’s school trip, on a study of vocations with animals, to the Seattle Aquarium.
The middle and high school students were asked to gather water samples from the Puget Sound just outside the Aquarium. These samples were then brought up to one of their rooms where they had microscopes set up for them to observe the plankton they captured.
So what is plankton? According to Wikipedia, it is divided into three groups.
1. Phytoplankton
2. Zooplankton
3. Bacterioplankton
What caught my attention was when the biologist/teacher mentioned that the “plant” plankton, phytoplankton, which is the green stuff you see floating on the surface of the ocean, sea, lake or other body of water, is responsible for 50% of the earth’s oxygen! And when does it start to grow? Yes, in the spring, when there is more sunlight, so we get photosynthesis. With the increase in oxygen within the earth’s atmosphere, it is no wonder we have more energy to get up and go in the spring! This is the natural law Master Hsu was talking about.
