观音诞穿耳洞不痛

I saw this advert some years back. Very interesting as it says that piercing one's ears on the birthday of Guan Yin is a less painful affair than any other days.Maybe can try if you or your daugther wants to get the ears peirced.

Good Chinese site on Luopan's History and Uses

This site has many articles on the history and developments of the Chinese compass:
http://www.luopan.org/

Regards
Alvin Chua

金鸡独立 - A simple and effective exercise

Below is an email I received recently and I have done some research on it. Do give it a try.

SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE EXERCISE
The essence of the exercise is that your "Eyes Must be Closed" when you are doing this exercise. You must practise the "Jin Ji Du Li" exercise with the eyes closed. This exercise was so simple and amazing that I thought I had to share it here.
Here is the exercise:
Stand on one leg while your eyes are closed. That is all. Just try it right now, stop reading and stand up, close your eyes and try standing on one foot.


If you are not able to stand for less than 10 seconds, it means that your body has degenerated to 60 to 70 years old level in other words, you may be only 40 years old, but your body has aged a lot faster.

Compare your performance to the norms for various ages:

20 to 49 years old: 24 to 28 seconds.

50 to 59 years: 21 seconds.

60 to 69 years: 10 seconds.

70 to 79 years: 4 seconds.

80 and older: most cannot do it at all.

I tried this exercise myself when I read the mail. I thought “oh, big deal, I’m sure I can do this easily” I was fooling myself, I’m glad I tried it because I discovered much to my surprise that while I could stand easily on one foot with my eyes open, trying the same thing with my eyes closed was another story! I just could not keep my balance for more than two to three seconds before I started wobbling and hopping around.

You do not need to lift your leg high, if your internal organs are out of synch, even lifting your leg this bit will make you wobble.
Now this was quite scary because it told me that my body was almost 60 years old and here was me, barely into my forties! These Chinese are really very advanced in their knowledge of the human body. It was very heartening to know that frequent and regular practice can help you recover your sense of balance. In fact Chinese specialists suggest daily practice of Jin Ji Du Li for 1 minute, this helps prevent dementia.
You can try slightly closing both eyes while practicing Jin Ji Du Li, instead of completely closing them; in fact this is what the health specialist Zhong Li Ba Ren recommends.
Daily practice of Jin Ji Du Li, can help in healing many illnesses or diseases like

• Hypertension,
• High Blood Sugar or diabetes,
• Neck and Spinal diseases,
• it can also prevent you from getting dementia.

Zhong Li Ba Ren has written a book titled "Self Help is Better than Seeking Doctors' Help", which is a bestselling book that has been the best seller health book in China since it was first published last year. Its success can be measured by the fact that it has been reprinted 12 times within 6 months, with more than 1 million copies sold. The book is a hot seller because is it teaches many simple practical health tips.
It is said that according to the understanding of Chinese physicians, diseases appear in the body because the coordination between the various internal organs encounter problems and that causes the body to lose its balance. Jin Ji Du Li can readjust this inter-relationship of the organs and how they function with each other. Zhong Li Ba Ren stated that many people can't stand on one foot with their eyes closed for even 5 seconds, but later on as they practice it daily, are able to stand for more than 2 minutes.
As you gain ability to stand for longer time, the feeling of "head heavy, light feet” disappears. As benefits or practising Jin Ji Du Li, you will experience that the quality of sleep improves, the mind clears up and memory improves significantly. Most importantly if you can practice Jin Ji Du Li with your eyes closed for 1 minute every day, you will not get dementia. (I think it this also means the brain will remain healthy).
Zhong Li Ba Ren explained that there are 6 important meridians passing through our legs. When you stand on a single leg, the weak meridian will feel sore while getting the necessary exercise, and as this happens, the corresponding organs of these meridians and their path-ways, start getting the necessary tuning. This method can focus or concentrate the awareness, and channel the body's qi to the foot. The beneficial effects of practising Jin Ji Du Li on various illnesses associated with hypertension, diabetes, neck and spinal diseases are quick to be seen and felt. Jin Ji Du Li can also prevent gout.
Jin Ji Du Li helps to Strengthen body Immunity rapidly
Jin Ji Du Li it is suitable for everyone generally. It is the basic cure for "Cold Feet Disease” and it can also strengthen the body’s immunity. You do not have to wait until you have any illness to start practising Jin Ji Du Li. It is especially beneficial for young people, when they practice it daily while they are healthy, so that their chances of contracting the various illness associated with aging is comparative lower.
Please note that it is not suitable for people over 70 years old, or those old people whose legs are not strong and cannot stand steadily.

Testimonials, video and more info in Chinese can be found here:
http://blog.39.net/jcj19560518/a_6170560.html
http://blog.sina.com.tw/cj_lankofun/article.php?pbgid=33100&entryid=251171
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4a35e10b0100cyp4.html

English Articles on Sense of Balance and aging:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Senior-Balance---Why-Does-it-Get-Worse-As-You-Age?&id=1498086
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/health/08brod.html

Regards
Alvin Chua

Interesting Discoveries by a Taiwanese Forensic Pathologist

Watched a Taiwanese TV talk show today and one of the invited guests is an experienced forensic pathologist, Dr Gao. He shared with the viewers some interesting trends that he discovered over his 27 years career, having performed autopsies on over 3000 dead bodies. Here’s what he shared:

1. A high percentage of unnatural deaths (e.g. accidents, victims of crimes, etc) occur at the age of 9, 19, 29, 39, 49 and 59.

2. A high percentage of unnatural deaths occur in the 2 months just before the birthday of the victims.

3. Most of the younger victims (age 20s to 30s) of unnatural deaths REALLY do have a shorter Life Line (this is one of the main lines in palmistry, commonly said to denote the lifespan of a person. The longer it is, the longer the lifespan. Majority of palmists however, do not believe this is the case).

Very interesting discoveries indeed.

This forensic pathologist has written a book about forensic medicine before:

http://www.books.com.tw/exep/prod/booksfile.php?item=0010258582

Regards

Alvin Chua

活到老，学到老

Few days ago I was at a bookshop looking at feng shui books (as usual, my 职业病). Beside me was an old man in his 70s, and he started asking me if I was looking for books on bazi. I politely replied that I was just browsing around, not just bazi but feng shui as well. He then went on “it is not easy to good books on bazi, furthermore, the more you read, the more confused you become”. How true indeed, I thought to myself. “After so many years of studying bazi books, I came to the conclusion that there is only one author that truly presents the theories and concepts effectively, and his books are highly recommended to you”. He then showed me a book from this author, and I truly agreed with him. The author is almost the same age as this old man and his name is Zhu Que Qiao 朱鵲橋. I thank the old man for sharing his wisdom and secretly marveled at the fact that despite his age, the man is still an ardent fan of bazi study.

Regards and Happy 2012!

Alvin Chua

The Hour Pillar in your Bazi Could be Wrong

Hi all,

Do you know that the Hour Pillar in your Bazi could be wrong if you are born in Singapore?
Singapore have adjusted the national time a couple of times since 1950s, hence, the accuracy of your birth hour could be undermined since being born in each different decade in Singapore's history would mean a wrong hour instead of what is indicated in your birth certificate.

The following article will shed some light on this:
http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/teaching/timezone.html

Regards and Happy New Year
Alvin Chua

Dynamic Meditation of Luangpor Teean

Today, I would like to introduce a very effective method of meditation called Dynamic Meditation. It is sometimes also known as Rhythmic Meditation or Mahasati Meditation. It is a method that uses a sequence of hand movements to focus the mind, very different from the typical way of which stillness is the keystone.

I have tried it and find it highly suitable for the urban dwellers since you can really achieve the stillness of the mind in a shorter time than the conventional methods. There is less time wasted on the mind wandering during practice.

Someone even did a University Thesis on this method of meditation.

It is a way that is simple to learn and practise.
The following links will provide you the necessary background knowledge as well as the instructions:

http://paulgarrigan.com/luang-por-teean-and-his-dynamic-meditation/

http://www.mahasati.org/

http://www.awarenesswithmovement.org/rhythmic.php

http://www.archive.org/details/Ajahn-Suthep-Introduction-to-Basic-Dynamic-Meditation

http://buddhaleelamahasati.com/

http://www.mcu.ac.th/thesis_file/255122.pdf

Regards
Alvin Chua

Bed Against the Stove

In feng shui for the bedroom, one of the major taboos would be to position the bed with the headboard sharing the same wall with the stove directly on the other side.
Anyone sleeping on such a bed location will become impatient and short-tempered over time.

Thus, it came to me as a surprise when I watched a documentary about Northern rural China, where it is a norm in certain villages to deliberately position their bed this way. This is because of the cold temperature they experience most part of the year. By having the bed behind the stove, the warmth created after cooking will help to warm their bed before their bedtime. Since they use wood as the fuel, the smouldering can provide warm throughout the night.

Hence, in their environment, this feng shui taboo has lost its significance and instead providede a more conducive living condition. Very interesting.

Regards
Alvin Chua

Feng Shui Shops no biz...

In the last few years I have seen a handful of feng shui shops, selling feng shui paraphernalia, cures and offering consultation services by their in-house masters, all closed down after a few years of bad business.

Yesterday, I saw another feng shui shop in town area, located in a recently opened shopping mall. I was surprised that the owner chose to open his branch here since the mall is known to be a flop since day 1. There are no customers at all and rental is not going to be cheap in town area. It will probably fold once the lease is up.

All these make me question about the validity of feng shui applications for retail businesses. After doing some extensive research about it, it seems that feng shui theries used for commercial premises is a rather recent development. The earliest record I can find is a theme park in Shanghai built in 1916, where a fengshui master was consulted in the building of the place. In fact, up to the 1960s, feng shui was used solely for Yang Zhai (town planning, residential dwellings, basically buildings for non-commercial basis) and Yin Zhai (burial places). It was only after the Cultural Revolution, in the early 1970s when feng shui became a primart concern of businesses growing durong the post-unrest economic boom. So to say, feng shui being applied to retail businesses has less than a century of history and developments.

Regards
Alvin Chua

Woodlands Checkpoint

Don't know why but when ever I travel via the Woodlands Checkpoint, I always felt that the building looks like the traditional headgear worn by the Chinese Emperors of the earlier dynasties. But only if you view it from the front.

A simple prayer to the Di Ji Zhu (地基主)

Conducted a prayer to the Di Ji Zhu (地基主) at a client's new home today. After which a space cleansing ritual was conducted.

Hope all will be well and blessed for the new occupants of the house.

Regards
Alvin Chua

A Case Study - Period 6, 3 Room HDB Flat

The following was a recent case I attended. The house is a 3-room HDB built in the late 1970s and the couple moved in 1986 when they tied the knots. As it is an old flat, getting a copy of the floor plan was not easy since most people who bought their flats in the 80s don’t really see the need to have one.

The house has a 9 Facing Star located at its main entrance, which is excellent in terms of prosperity. But this is true during the current period 8. The couple moved in Period 7 and thus the auspiciousness of Star 9 was not strong enough to be of any benefit.

Unfortunately, there are a few serious flaws of the house that undermines the feng shui even further. First, the bedroom has a 2-5 combo at the room’s door and the bed was locate in the 3-6 sector, with the quarrelsome 3 Sitting Star activated.

The sector representing the male owner’s was severely drained and the sector representing the female owner was weakened by the Wood element (a big tree, this unit is on the 6^th floor but you can see canopy of the tree from the living room).

Marital woes started in 1990 onwards and eventually ended in estrangement and finally divorce.

Regards

Alvin Chua

Birth Month Suggests Career Path -- Science & Technology -- Sott.net

The recent study in UK suggests that being born in certain months will determine the career paths as well as potential health problems. Maybe this is why in Bazi, the month is always the most important aspect.

Birth Month Suggests Career Path -- Science & Technology -- Sott.net: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/234518-Birth-Month-Suggests-Career-Path

观世音菩萨的一串念珠

今天上网看易学文章之余， 看到了这个故事，非常有道理：

佛印禅师与苏东坡同游灵隐寺，来到观音菩萨的的像前，佛印禅师合掌礼拜。忽然，苏东坡问了一个问题，“人人皆念观世音菩萨，为何他的手上也和我们样，挂着一串念珠？观世音菩萨念谁？”佛印禅师：“念观世音菩萨。” 苏东坡：“为何亦念观世音菩萨？”佛印禅师：“他比我们更清楚，求人不如求己。”

A Feng Shui training recently attended

A photo taken with my latest teacher (my 4th one), Mr Wilson Heng from True Yijing Training Center. Definitely have improved my perspective on feng shui analysis. The truth is learning feng shui is a lifetime process.

Regards
Alvin Chua

A Science Lesson on Earth's Inconstant Magnetic Field

Do you know that our planet's magnetic field is in a constant state of change?

This fact may not even be known to a lot of feng shui practitioners.

Fortunately, we have in our modern times, Google maps and satellite images for us to make a comparison and check the deviations. The generic directions can still be determined with fair accuracy.

However, if you are talking about zooming right down to a degree or two, then I shall wish you good luck. The reason being the reading you have taken may have deviated a degree or two over just a few years and Google satellite images can’t give you that level of precision. Hence , you can see, this fact can in some ways undermine the very soundness of certain feng shui methodologies.

Below are some extracts from an article published by NASA:

“Scientists have long known that the magnetic pole moves. James Ross located the pole for the first time in 1831 after an exhausting arctic journey during which his ship got stuck in the ice for four years. No one returned until the next century. In 1904, Roald Amundsen found the pole again and discovered that it had moved--at least 50 km since the days of Ross.”

“The pole kept going during the 20th century, north at an average speed of 10 km per year, lately accelerating to 40 km per year…”

“Earth's magnetic field is changing in other ways, too: Compass needles in Africa, for instance, are drifting about 1 degree per decade. And globally the magnetic field has weakened 10% since the 19th century.”

Source: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/29dec_magneticfield/

Regards
Alvin Chua

Quote of the day

Nothing to blog about metaphysics but rather a beautiful quote to share:

"If you are right then there is no need to get angry
And if you are wrong then you don't have any right to get angry".

Regards
Alvin Chua

Giok Hong Tien Temple in Havelock Road

I was going to pray at this temple today but unfortunately it was closed. It seems that it is close on weekends. I used to pray here every year during Chinese New Year since I will visit one of my aunts that was staying in that area but I don't recall it to be a weekday or weekend. Anyway, this temple is said to be the oldest Chinese temple in Singapore and has many tales about it.

Let me share with you a secret: It is said that couples who want to conceive can have their wish granted after praying in this temple.

The following is an amazing account of the miraculous power the deities manifested:

天公坛的传奇

天公坛又叫玉皇殿，屹立在加里村的村口，是五六十年代香火最鼎盛的庙宇之一。每逢神诞日或七月鬼节，从全新来的香客把庙挤得水泄不通。

庙的历史究竟有多长，没人说得清，据外祖父说，他来到加里村落脚时，庙已存在，算起来，该有百多年历史。

日军攻打新加坡时，曾经在村里投下三枚炸弹，一枚落在私塾学校，把地上炸出一个大坑，炸死了好多人。两枚就落在天公坛前的马路上，说也奇怪，都不爆炸。村人说这是天公显灵，是不是天公保佑，也没人说得清。就因如此，光复后，天公坛的香火变得更加兴旺。

庙里除了供奉玉皇大帝，还有十八罗汉，风雷雨电四大金刚，观世音菩萨，正德福神（大伯公），以及其他各种各样的神像，可谓满天神佛。庙里有个灵媒，叫何仙姑，在庙后为信众下地府叫唤阴灵。何仙姑又叫猫神，据说是天上的猫神在人间的化身。虽然缠脚，走起路来却疾走如飞，听说还能飞檐走壁。村人见过她三更半夜像猫一样潜伏在墙角，一有动静，马上“嗖”的一声闯上屋顶，两手一探，就抓住了老鼠，然后往口里咀嚼。隔天，庙后的垃圾堆上总有一撮带血的鼠毛。言之凿凿，越加添何仙姑的神秘色彩。

庙前也是三轮车夫聚集的地方，当时还有牛车行驶。我家大舅是个搬运工人，有一回，当货车经过庙前时，忽然翻覆，成吨重的铁条压在他身上，人们都以为会被压成肉饼，但只是头部压伤，变成个猪头。命是被捡回来了，只是此后头脑有点迷糊，也没什么大碍；人们这又说是玉皇大帝显灵。我家三婶也遭过一劫，她小时候在街边玩儿着，不知怎的，被一辆载草料的牛车从腰部辗过，连青色的粪便都喷出来了，人却好好的。这一来，天公坛的名气越发响亮了，甚至连印尼也来了人参拜。

六十年代末，村里发生了一场大火，几乎把整个村子夷为平地，大火烧到庙旁就拐了个弯而去，你说怪不怪？至今，周围都建起组屋，天公坛仍然站在原地，只是香火没以前那么旺了，但每次经过，我都会停下脚步，进去庙里拜一拜这些伴着我走过童年的神像。

原文章作者：李海鹰
http://www.sgwritings.com/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=33328

History of the 4 Directional Animals and 28 Constellation

A must-watch Chinese documentary for all serious feng shui enthusiasts on the origins of the 4 Animals Concepts (Green Dragon, White Tiger, etc) and also the 28 constellations. I have watched it a few times and feel that it is a pity not to share this excellent video.

Cheers

我的天！鲁班尺都跟iphone扯上了关系

New Lu Ban feng shui ruler apps in Iphone... What the...?

http://funiphone.pixnet.net/blog/post/30393310

Anyway, you can still see some feng shui masters using this ruler (not the apps but the actual thing) but can it be trusted?

古人使用的鲁班尺和时下流行的鲁班尺有何区别？古籍记载，“鲁班尺乃有曲尺一尺四寸四分，其尺间有八寸，一寸准曲尺一寸八分。”“曲尺” 即古代木工匠师用木工尺，其长度与历代朝廷工部颁布的营造尺相同。因明清时期的营造尺长32厘米，故鲁班尺的长度为46.08厘米，鲁班尺每寸为5.76 厘米。古代流传下来的鲁班尺并不多见，北京故宫博物院收藏有一把鲁班尺，长46厘米，与古籍记载的鲁班尺长度非常接近。

目前国内流行的鲁班尺主要有两种，一种是42.9厘米，另一种是50.4厘米，这两种鲁班尺和古代的鲁班尺长度都不一样，可以说，这两种鲁班尺都是不准确的。

Cheers

Alvin Chua