I have a story to share. Let me explain. It is unavoidable and it is the truth that we won’t be liked by everyone we encounter in our life. In life there will always be people who try to thwart the progress of those that are spiritually advancing for various selfish reasons.

Some will treat us like a friend to our face, then lie, cheat and steal behind our back. Others will give us the best advice they have to offer and will do it in such a way that we’ll be convinced that they are right, even though they are very wrong, which will bring us much trouble. Still others will implant bad ideas in our head about ourselves or others, that were never our thoughts to begin with.

A particular sect of Tibetan Buddhism uses mantras as a spiritual protection, an aura of defense, if you will. What does it mean to use a mantra as a defense? It means having a protection from harm. You must be initiated into this practice of Yidams in person with a Guru from an authentic Vajrayana Buddhist lineage in order for them to work. It’s one of the highest yoga tantra practices. Yidam Practice is a way that leads to accomplishment and enlightenment. ‘Yi’ means Mind. ‘Dam’ means Committment. It is a ‘Mind Commitment.’

Oh sure you can recite the Yidam’s mantra if you learned it but without the teachings surrounding it and an understanding of the teaching, a true empowerment, you’re as good as useless with it. The majority of practicing Tibetan Buddhists do not practice this type of high yoga tantra as they’ve not been officially initiated.

Now as the story goes, in the late 19 century there was a great scholar who was   accomplished with siddhis and who was a person that possessed supranormal perceptual states. Siddhis are typically defined as “a magical or spiritual powers for the control of self, others and the forces of nature.” Some might say it’s magic while others might say its being extremely adept at controlling the mind.

This scholarly monk was versed in Nyingmapa and had written a text about the Middle Path, about how to clear up some diversification points. As was normal for that time period the Tibetan Buddhists debated the teachings of Buddha holding all the authentic teachings valid.

In the debate about the Middle Path the debating monks first became very sad that this Nyingmapa scholar had defeated them with flying colors. Their sadness grew into hatred and once that happened they held wrong views. They decided they must perform a powerful puja to subdue him and convinced themselves that if they subjugated the Nyingmapa scholar that they would be protecting the Buddha’s holy teachings. Thus they set out like vultures to put him off by performing wrathful prayers and did perform these pujas. Unfortunately for them they had met with someone highly unsusual.

This Nyingmapa scholar remained normal, stayed healthy & happy. He did see a few inauspicious signs so was aware something was up.

Well, when the 13th Dalai Lama heard of what these monks had done he was so worried he sent his messenger to apologize for those monks. The Nyingmapa scholar was none other than Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso also known as “Mipham the Great.” (Mipham is considered to be one the three “omnscient” writers of the Nyingma tradition) When the messenger delivered the apology to Mipham Rinpoche he simply smiled & replied: “What those monks had performed was utmost powerful. It could crush a huge mountain into dust. If I have not assumed the Glorious Yamantaka form, I am dead by now.”

What happened to those monks who performed the pujas and wrathful prayers to subdue Mipham Rinpoche? Some committed suicide, some died of an illness, some went crazy, some had bad luck.

There is a lesson in what happened to these monks.

Tibetan Buddhism is divided into two major sectors, Sutra-yana and Vajra-yana and it consists of four schools : Nyingmapa, Kagyudpa, Gelugpa and Sakyapa. All practitioners from every school begin by studying sutras and basic philosophies and then slowly progress to Tantra.

Debating is a method adopted by them to sharpen one’s understanding of Buddhism teachings; while questioning others, one also examines one’s understanding. However, there is one major rule here that everyone must abide to, i.e. this is not a worldly debate, one should not grow hatred if one loses the debate and one should not be proud if he won. A wrong view can lead to one’s downfall therefore Vajrayana Buddhism emphasizes holding the RIGHT VIEW.

Guru Chokling Rinpoche described it in this way,  “As Vajrayana practitioners, like a snake in bamboo, we can only go two directions: up or down.”The bottom line is: If one misses the objective of having debate, it is better not to have one at all.

Many beginners who have heard of Feng Shui have the mistaken belief that Feng Shui is almighty. The beginner thinks, “As soon as I get it right, as soon as I master this technique  I’ll be rich, famous, capture my love’s heart, be CURED of my sickness…etc.”

Basically, Feng Shui is really like a safety-net as it prevents you from falling to death. What does this mean? It means that the right Feng Shui set-up can cushion you from going to the worst (effect from a cause) by your own act (a cause). To rephrase that, what Feng Shui does is to cushion one from going to the worst (effect from a cause) which is caused by one’s own deeds.

Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re receiving energy (QI) from a particular compass direction and you’ve made a blunder at work that could get you sacked. But because of that positive Qi you’re receiving you might only get demoted or just a warning.

You see, Feng Shui is always a safety net. It can’t change the fact that you will receive some karmic effects from your actions but it can reduce the negative impact. If you combine a spiritual practice with Feng Shui it will be extremely powerful at cushioning the impact although the spiritual practice is not needed for Feng Shui to work.

So it is that life flows and we receive both the good and the bad. Lao Tzu said, “Life is the flow of energy. It is the air that we breathe, the force that moves the weather, the force of all minds combined. The sage understands and utilizes this flow for the benefit of all.” (And so does the Feng Shui master) He also said, “The flow of life can be affected and manipulated by a simple thought or action. The sage is also aware that the results of such activity can be quite unpredictable.” This is where a spiritual practice can strengthen the cushioning as a focused mind is more easily able to overcome.

If someone puts all of their hopes into Feng Shui, believing they will have complete control and being able to turn everything into a benefit for them they are forgetting one important thing~ the KARMIC SUBTRACTER. Bad karma yields negativities. Those negativities reduce the positive effect given by good Feng Shui.

So, if Feng Shui can only cushion you from an impact of your own bad karma, what else can you do to change your destiny, to help you eliminate the negative karma you’ve accrued? The best way is through *doing good deeds.* Every religion, even atheists, believe in doing good deeds. No one owns the rights to the idea of doing good deeds.

How do you change a bad life into a good life? Practice all forms of kindness & develop virtue. To learn more about how you can do that watch these two videos:  http://bit.ly/mHsFz & http://bit.ly/HoWaq.

In closing, I leave you with the knowledge that Feng Shui can most certainly help you overcome difficulties if you can manage to receive positive Qi from your environment. I am here to hep you should you need me. Just ask.

Take every opportunity to do a kindness, because you never know when the chance will come again. The sage understands how a simple kindness can bring great rewards for oneself and others. –Lao Tzu

—– by the Great LF Master Tan Yang-Wu.

Zhu-zi (朱子) pointed out that :” Being descendants, one should learn medicine and geomancy (fengshui). Reason being both arts bring benevolences to our parents and ancestors.”

Should everyone know Medicine, then medicines will be inexhaustable. Should everyone know geomancy, good burial lands and dwellings will be easily accessible.

As we all have parents, and we are also parents to our offsprings. And, the compassion and kindness that directed to our parents are of nature. Based on this ground, if we happened to be competent doctor, we will provide medical assitance to our parents, as well as parents of others. In the same way, if we are skillful practitioner of geomancy, we will rest our parents at right places, and we will certain do the like to parents of others.

It is impotant in Geomancy, you do not strive for good places (burial ground) that will yield wealth and nobility for either yourself or others.

Medicine doctors can make medicine as their career. But, geomancy practitioners can not make providing consultation as their source of income, instead they should only provide necessary help to those with virtues.

Whether one could successfully acquire a good land will all depend on his/her merits. It is definitely beyond the control of FS practitioners .

For medicine, the doctor is the sole person who diagnoses, checks and prescribes treatment ; the patient has no single say throughout the whole process. The effect of treatment can be observed within a short period. However, for geomancy which concerns longer term benefits in future, its effects will only be obvious after quite some times.

When medicine takes effect, everyone are rejoiced. When fengshui takes effect, it seems nobody will applause. Why ? It is not being ungrateful, it is due to the fact that the effects were taken place after a longer period( as compared to the time took for medical treatment to take effects).

You can pay to acquire a doctor’s service, but you have to depend on right karmic-conditions in getting a FS practitioner’s help. To those who cultivate virtues, meeting a competent master and eventually acquired a good land would not take too much effort and time.

Unfortunately, we have many FS practitioners out there who apply their skills acquiring good land for people who do not deserve it. And, factually, most of these practitioners faced tonnes of obstacles in their later life – which served as punishement from the heaven.

In this world, descedants to doctors who had been sincerely practising medicine for the benefits of others are still enjoying prosperities as the gift from the heaven. Thus, FS practitioner who practises geomancy for the sake of benefiting others will too be enjoying the like.

Heaven treats all beings with great equality. Medicine doctors who treat their patients lightly or carelessly will certainly be cursed.

So, your life depends on the path you are choosing to follow.

This is my advise from my heart to all the FS practitioners.

Kindly translated by:  千葉衣