Over the years, I have effect forth the idea that Classical Feng Shui is a scientific practice. Now, I have espoused that understanding of Feng Shui all over the world, when I allege Feng Shui, BaZi and Mian Xiang at seminars. So I was very pleasantly surprised to earn out that my comments had created a buzzing debate over the inquire of what creature Feng Shui is – is it scientific practice? Pseudo-science? Or purely idea? Hence, I opinion I would address this suppose in more depth and witness the scientific side of Classical Feng Shui.
You have to gain in Feng Shui, so it’s not science.
Wait a diminutive – you also have to maintain in your doctor, before you go and seek him or her. You also have to fill in your lawyer before you appoint him to defend you in a case. Does that mean that the entire body of medical science is not kindly if you don’t absorb your doctor’s diagnosis? Of course not.
When people exhort that Feng Shui is not a science or not scientific, the quandary is, people may not understand what science is to commence with. The word ‘science’ comes from the Latin word scientia, which means knowledge. According to Wikipedia, science can be defined simply as “any systematic field of discover or the knowledge gained from it”. So, how does Feng Shui measure up against this definition?
There is no doubt that Classical Feng Shui is a systematic field of study: by systematic I mean it has basic models, basic principles, empirical evidence and most importantly, documented observation. It is not made up. It is not this today, that tomorrow. It is not without logical explanation.
How do scientists reach at scientific conclusions? They conduct experiments, examine the outcomes, declare those experiments if vital to ensure a consistent outcome and then document their observations. Feng Shui has basic models and principles: the Five Elements, Yin and Yang, the He Tu, the Lo Shu, the principle of Cosmic Trinity are examples of principles at the core of Feng Shui and many Chinese Metaphysical practices. What about empirical evidence? This has been accumulating since the Tang Dynasty! primitive classics gain not only descriptions of landform and the principles of Qi, but drawings of mountains and water.
recent books and recent theories on Feng Shui, adjusted to the recent world that we live in, are constantly published and written in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The recognize, and the body of knowledge, is constantly growing, not unlike scientific practices like medicine and engineering.
In any science, a valuable component is observation. Feng Shui is a component of Physiognomy, which is one of the Chinese Five Arts. It is known as a science of observation of the environment. Many of the principles in Feng Shui are the result of observation by practitioners since the Tang Dynasty, which are then documented into classics like Qing Nang Jing (Green Satchel), Ru Di Yan (Entering Earth gaze) and Zi Bai Jue (Purple White Verse) . Some of the classics that acquire the basis of Feng Shui watch are not unusual classics that propound novel ideas, but weed out the observations that did not pan out and the ones that did. Feng Shui until the early 1900s was exclusively for Imperial consume only. So the research was often carried out from one generation to another, without breakage or stop. This enabled observation of what worked and what didn’t, over the span of several hundred years.
Today, whilst not all Feng Shui masters can claim affiliation to lineages, those that do, document their cases extensively and thoroughly, so that the body of knowledge serene during their lifetime, can be passed on to the next generation of the lineage, so that they may continue to witness the outcomes, and grow the body of knowledge.
Science is not honest physics, chemistry and biology. That is an extremely narrow minded perception of science. Science encompasses amongst other things, social sciences like anthropology and sociology, earth sciences like geography (traditionally perceived as an ‘arts’ subject in Malaysia) and applied sciences such as engineering, computer science and psychology.
You can’t touch it, you can’t view it, how do you measure it?
Many people also point out that it is hard to win Feng Shui as a science because it is not possible to measure Qi. Again, that is a flawed perception.
Before Michael Faraday (1831-79), electricity and magnetic forces couldn’t be measured. Does that mean that until Faraday’s time, electricity and magnetic forces did not exist? Electron microscopes helped pioneer the field of virology or the notice of viruses. But does that mean before that, viruses did not exist? Quasars and blackholes cannot yet be actually measured but no one disbelieves Stephen Hawking when he talks about the wormholes in the universe, even if no one has actually seen one to know how it works, except on Star stride.
Can you measure blood pressure with a stethoscope? Of course not. We tend to lift that all things in our world and universe are measurable by rulers, test tubes and electronic devices that we read about or have heard about. But if that were the case, then there would be no need to accomplish special tools for measurement or observation in fresh fields like status exploration or quantum mechanics. Until the Hubble telescope, man studied the stars and the universe through observation only. We had to get the Hubble. fair like to gaze dwelling, we had to make the rocket.
So, when we talk about measuring Qi, we must ask: what is the design for this particular type of practice? Are we not able to measure it because we are not using the correct diagram?
The Chinese already had devices to measure Qi. The Solar and Lunar calendar, the Luo Pan and observation skills – using one’s eyes to sight the environment. Of course, nowadays, some of us consume Google Earth. And you can recall an electronic Luo Pan. And plotting Flying Star or Da Gua calculations (a blueprint for quantifying and identifying types of Qi) can be done electronically with a computer these days, or even a Palm program. So who says that Qi is not measurable? It is simply that Qi is not measurable through the devices or means in which people capture are traditional to measure everything in this universe, from gases to insects. You don’t exhaust a stethoscope to measure blood pressure after all, apt?
Art in every science
The other debate over Feng Shui is whether it is an art or a science. Let me throw out a potentially plucky suggestion: In every science, there is art. I contemplate if you ask a doctor or a dentist, they will most certainly sigh you that there is an art, to the science that they practice. This art is judgment. It is subtle elements that near with experience and application of knowledge in different cases. Even in the purest science, the Queen of Science, Mathematics, there is beauty and aesthetics!
Science only affords us the pure application. Art is what enables a person trained in a scientific practice to construct a decision as to which technique to apply, and in what instances a technique can or cannot be primitive. This is lawful in Classical Feng Shui as well. There are universal principles in Feng Shui, and formulas. This is the science. But choosing the good instance to apply the interpretation, or qualifying the instances when a formula can be frail, this is the art gradual the science. Similarly, environmental formations, mountains and water, are unusual in each environment. So while they will conform to clear basic rules (for example, mountains always halt at water) and drop within a clutch of more sophisticated rules, how the Qi is best tapped and utilised, based on the structure (house, office building, resort) is the art.
It makes sense if you assume this all within the Yin and Yang context that is a bedrock principle of Feng Shui and all Chinese Metaphysics. Yin and Yang symbolises balance, perfection. Within science, that which is grounded in strict principle, there is room for interpretation, or artistic application. Yin and Yang.
Thinking Metaphysical
Metaphysics today is sometimes associated with kook practices like the occult but this ignores the very passe history of metaphysics in the Western world. Aristotle was one of the illustrious thinkers associated with Metaphysics, as was Rene Descartes and Albert Einstein. Western metaphysics is quite a brain cracker and I don’t profess to be an expert in Western metaphysics. But a cursory search on the Internet will direct that metaphysicians are alive to in questions of existence (why are we here? ), the peruse of Gods or the divine, along with belief causality (why things happen), relationships and the universe. It combines reasoning and logic, with philosophical ideas.
Classical Feng Shui and the Chinese Five Arts were always recognised as metaphysical subjects by the Chinese – in other words, scientific practices with philosophical existential issues to it. Metaphysics is a more moral means to picture Feng Shui, BaZi and Mian Xiang (although this doesn’t detract from its scientific nature) because these scientific practices originated out of a desire by the Chinese to understand issues of destiny, the universe, fate, existence and identity, which are essentially metaphysical or philosophical issues. Feng Shui, BaZi and Mian Xiang have philosophical connotations to their scientific findings because they essentially are sciences in which to understand a person’s life.
Now, I’m a Feng Shui practitioner and trainer. I’m not a philosopher and I’m certainly not an expert on metaphysics or sciences. My goal in this article has been to give you an inkling of how I have arrived at my conclusion of Feng Shui as a scientific practice. I do not seek information from people to immediately be convinced of my viewpoint but I enjoy that getting to the truth is never about what one person thinks, but about opening our minds to possibilities before we advance at conclusions. Stimulating debate, opening the door to discussion and putting out alternative perspectives is section of the procedure in which unusual ideas can be approved.
For the longest time, people believed Feng Shui was about superstition, cultural beliefs (symbols and trinkets) or religion. Less and less people consider that today. impartial like thousands of years ago, people plan the world was flat. People may not be convinced that Feng Shui is a science or scientific practice, but if they originate their mind to the possibility, honest like Galileo opened minds to the possibility that the earth was round, I have done my job!
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