“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” Exodus 20:12

“Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only a change of worlds.” Chief Seattle

When I was a child, every Memorial Day my great-aunt would take my two brothers and I to the grave sites of our dead ancestors to honor them. In those days, family never moved far away. We lived near, worked near, and died near our family. Each cemetery we visited to see the dead relatives was within 20 miles of the other.

In the days leading up to this national holiday my great-uncle would have cut fragrant yellow daffodils, blue bearded iris, fern fronds, and salmon and red colored roses from around our yard. With much care he would lay them out on a newspaper, cut their stems, then bundle them with a rubber-band into small beautiful bouquets. Then, they’d sit in a bright red bucket full of water until the next day when we delivered them to each family member’s tombstone.

Visiting a cemetery has never been scary to me. For my younger brothers it was even a bit of fun. They would playfully chase each other through fresh mowed grass across the large green field as I was by the side of my great-aunt. Our feet would get damp from the early morning dew, and my brother’s white tennis shoes would be covered in grass stains. My great-aunt would always cry a  little as she placed the flower bouquets in the green, cone shaped metal holders that were provided by the cemetery for a small fee. She always said a prayer for our family. Afterwards, she would often talk out-loud to the dead loved one as if they stood right there with us.

In my early childhood I was raised in a devout Catholic home. I even attended a private Catholic school from first through third grade. My family’s understanding of Exodus 20:12 is something different from the way it is most often interpreted and used in church today. I was taught and shown that the word honor in this passage meant to hold my parents in deep respect, but it did not mean I must obey their every word as if a dog obeying it’s owner’s command. The passage is about how to have a long life and for us it meant to not forget where we came from, that our luck, our life even, was connected to that of our parents. My family had great respect for the dead. To me then, it makes sense that I might somehow be personally affected if something bad happened to my ancestor’s grave.

Perhaps it was because of these moments that I found Yin Zhai Feng Shui so easy to accept. Yin Zhai literally translates to ‘yin house’ but it might more appropriately be known as ‘yin grave.’ In this type of Feng Shui a master will locate a burial site for the body in a favorable spot where it will receive the most beneficial Qi. This method, used to locate a favorable spot for the dead is somewhat different then that used to find a good location for the living but the principles are still the same.

In Feng Shui there is Na Qi and there is Cheng Qi. Na means ‘riding’ and Cheng means ‘receiving.’ Qi is an invisible subtle energy and believed to be a real physical force. There is internal Qi and external Qi. The dead, material body of the ancestors is touched and affected by the external Qi. The placement, the location of the burial plot of the deceased, will have some impact on their living descendants. The only way to study these things is to exam what happens to the living family members when the body is placed in a favorable or unfavorable location. A Feng Shui master can tell you what is happening to each family member based on the location of that person’s deceased parent’s body.

Although Chinese Feng Shui masters of ancient didn’t call it DNA, they knew a connection existed between the physical body of the dead to their living descendants. While it cannot be proven in Feng Shui it’s believed the DNA of living descendants resonates with that of their dead parents. It’s like this: Imagine your parent’s DNA is a guitar string. If your parent’s string is plucked or picked, you’re going to feel a little of it too. The reason? The other strings on the guitar will vibrate with the parent strings. Beautiful, right? So, if you don’t want bad things to happen to you make sure that nothing bad is happening to your parent’s grave. (Around a favorable site: Digging up the landscape and destroying hills, or putting in drainage pipes, digging under graves to put in transporation, pipes, etc. will all have a disturbing and negative affect on the dead body and it will be felt by the living descendants.) If the grave is water logged and flooded, undoubtedly the descendants will suffer misfortune and illness, typically one or many will have cancer in that family line because of the swamped burial plot(s).

Why might someone who is having good luck while their parents are alive suddenly have bad luck when their parents are dead & buried? The buried body might be buried in a bad spot and receiving negative Qi. How long will the descendants bad luck last? Answer this question: How long does it take for the human body to decompose?

Also, the cremated ashes of a parent will have considerably less impact on the living descendents then the entire decomposing body. The residual energy of the DNA is said to last for only about two to three years after a cremation. If your parents have had an especially difficult life, (street person, alcohol/drug addict, mental illness, etc.) it might be best to consider cremation rather than burying their body otherwise you’ll be affected for a longer period of time.

Some of you might think, “One or both of my parents are alive. Does where they’re living now and how they live affect me?” In Feng Shui the answer is a definite YES. In addition, the life and death of a child does not affect the parent’s DNA in the same way. The parents are the original cause of that chain of energy and not the the child. There is only one parent string. So, if you don’t have children your particular mixture of energy is said to no longer be in existence once you die and your body is gone.

So be kind to your parents whether they are dead or alive. You need to do it not just for them, but for your own good luck.

“To support mother and father, to cherish wife and child and to have a simple livelihood; this is the good luck.” ~ Buddha ❀