(291) Curse of imprudent developments - Teachings of Feng Shui

By Janet Shin

The sinkholes continuously found in some districts these days arouse great fear among people living in urban areas.

Various causes are enumerated, such as suffosion or dissolution of rocks, when we include natural ones. However what matters now is whether they are generated naturally or not.

We are concerned about those formed in large cities near residential and downtown area. They are associated with high-rise buildings and complicated transportation system. It is told that the excessive constructions or inappropriate applications of geographical features both above and underground are critical causes.

In the process of city developments, subways go deeper and closer and buildings rise higher, which affect unexpected transformation of geological features.

Feng shui provides some correlative explanations about this.

Feng shui, literally representing wind and water, is compared to buildings and roads in modern times. It teaches us how to acquire positive energy for the healthier, happier and wealthier life through the well-suited location of surrounding structures.

In old days, mountains and rivers were the main components to constitute our environment pertinent to the wind and water. Bae San Im Su, a famous feng shui principle, means ‘positioning the mountains at your back and a river in front of you’.

Mountains were considered a dominant source of energy. In addition they determine the qi strength and flow. Controlling the wind- making it milder and blocking the harmful energy was the crucial task for people’s survival in ancient days.

Since oriental philosophy classified universal energy into either yin or yang and one of the five elements, mountains inspire people living nearby in accordance with particular energy they possess. They influence the personality, aspiration and quality of people’s life.

When it comes to modern residential environments, many artificial buildings obstruct or redirect the air flow. Accordingly big buildings replaced the function of mountain while the roads play a similar role as the rivers did in old days.

Rivers or other types of water sources are believed to carry the energy. The welfare of mankind, wealth and health are closely related with the water. That’s why the cradle of civilization, Mesopotamia, Egypt Indus, and Huang He, were all founded near the large rivers. This was on account of human population and their economic activities flocked toward them.

By the way, as we have been moving forward highly advanced society, our relentless desire made the buildings more gigantic and dug the roads deeper so that people may enjoy wider, faster and higher speed of life. It is apparent that the development has brought enormous advantage to the quality of human life.

However can we just consider them virtuous in every aspect?

Feng shui has warned us about the extremely huge structures that do not harmonize with other objects. The masters advised people to construct buildings judiciously so that they do not block the air circulation nor cause a harmful energy. It was often told the owners of a high-rise building that does not accord with others experiences sudden failure whereas those who own a low-rise building among many tall ones also go through hardships due to the killer energy from others.

Even though their judgments may not sound so scientific, the masters also mentioned the destructive consequences of water vein and geological features affected by the curves of roads and rivers. It is not just an ambiguous atmosphere but an obvious impact they occurred to the natural environment.

For instance, the negative energy is created by the curved outside edge of the roads and rivers. The region where the recent sinkholes were made is located near the outside curving line of Han River.

There is something that we shouldn’t sacrifice for the name of development.

Information : Are you interested in learning more about the ancient Chinese teaching about the “Four Pillars of Destiny”? For further information, visit Janet’s website at www.fourpillarskorea.com, contact her at 010-5414-7461 or email janetshin@hotmail.com.

The writer is the author of “Life’s Secrets”.