A New Meetup Group For Fengshui Enthusiasts

Dear All,

Noticing the growth of people interested in Fengshui, I've decided to set up a Meetup Group to gather these people for regular discussion and exhange of thoughts.  Feel free to join.

http://www.meetup.com/Singapore-Fengshui-Group/

Unripple The Water Facebook Page

Dear All,

I've set up a Facebook page to share knowledge and answer queries on Fengshui, I-Ching, Meditation, Buddhism, Zi We Dou Shu (Purple Star Astrology), Spirituality and others. 

I'll personally answer them without obligation.

Feel free to join - https://www.facebook.com/unripplethewater

What If.....

You can learn leadership skills that suits the fast-paced modern world?
You can learn it in the most flexible manner?
You can use it in any environment?
You can use it on anyone?
You can use it for business strategies?
You can bring it anywhere with you?
You can use it for life, if you continue practising it?
And you can pass this down to your next generation, and the next?

And all in line with morale and integrity?

Would you want to learn it?

This Thing About I-Ching

I-Ching is the mother of all oracle systems in China.

It bore Fengshui (风水), the TCM system, Bazi (八字), Ziwei Doushu (紫薇斗数), Huang Ji Jing (皇极经) etc where each system developed their own formulae and rules.

In my study into I-Ching, I realised that it's a system of philosophy for Life's changes and human behaviour, with nary a tinge of superstition or supernatural.

In this article today, I'll share briefly on how I-Ching works.

Why isn't it about superstition and supernatural if you say it bore the rest of the oracle systems?

I-Ching is a system of causes and effects of how Life and environment changes.  Unlike the Karma belief, it shows the life cycle of human emotions and Life in general.

Like, an average income person got a chance in life to strike it big, the sudden windfall knocked the socks off him/her whom has no experience with financial management in the bigger scale = he/she starts to spend more frivolously and ended up finding the bank account back to where it was before the windfall.

In I-Ching, the above scenario is the cycle of the 55th hexagram, 丰.

In 丰, it means "rewarding reaping", however, with rich rewards, the human psychology is such that one tends to rest on the laurels more and take things for granted with the material abundance and security.

In US, where the lottery system can go up to hundred millions of dollars jackpot, a statistic was done on the winners in the 5 - 10 year period.  Most of the winners go back to where they originally were even with the windfall because of poor financial management.

This is the best example of the 丰 hexagram.

Then how does the superstition and supernatural come about?

We need to acknowledge this thing, there is God and Devil in this world.  With that, there will be their group of messengers who help or destroy.

Now with good tidings blessed upon us, if we do not know how to appreciate the Above for it, our heart starts to take things for granted, get lazy or over-ambitious without laying the solid foundation to grow, then it's time the Devil takes over.

This is where the 7 Sins in Christianity and the 108 Defilement in Buddhism come in.  And this is also where I-Ching teaches us to be wary over.

With I-Ching, in 95% of the cases, the Devil comes from within, from our heart, meaning, we start this negative cycle because we're not strong enough against the negative desires and ambitions where our mind and heart are not clear enough to understand our strengths and weaknesses that allow things to turn bad.

With a clouded mind and heart for every necessary and unnecessary thing, we cannot sense the good energy in people and places, and with that, leads to us living and working with stress and issues with the wrong people and places.  Especially so for the current modern life.

It is a cycle of chained effects.

So the rest of the oracle system developed is to further refine the teachings of I-Ching to help fellow human beings walk onto the right path.

If we radiate positive energy that is strong and consistent, we wouldn't be attracted to the negative, or the "wrong" people and places/jobs.  This is the main gist of The Law of Attraction too, if we read deep enough.

Then how does I-Ching work?

I-Ching is something from the Universe (or the Above, if one may like) to help guide us, so it has a natural frequency bonded to us.  Because it has no religious roots (it doesn't talk about any God or Buddha), it is applicable to one and all without prejudice.

So firstly, we need to understand the meaning of all the 64 hexagrams, then seek its advice for our future direction or next step with a sincere question.

Once the reading is out, we need to mull at how it applies to our question and plan our steps.

If we seek I-Ching predictions, are we working against the Flow of Life?

Good question.

Now lets do some reverse engineering, keeping in mind the issue of most human beings = lack of clarity in our mind and heart.

A company has a project to develop.

2 suppliers submitted their proposal for it, with quotation.

Both don't have a bad name in the industry.

Many meetings have been done to find out more about their expertise etc.

Supplier A was picked in the end.

It messed up the project leading to big losses.

There has to be alot of signs along the way before the supplier is decided, like if we look back at our lives, we tend to realise the various subtle signs that has been pointing to the eventual result.

It's about whether we managed to pick it up, or if our eyes are open wide enough to pick them up for consideration.

Many many things in life can turn out right, if we pick out the signals that helped us make the decision.

Like Supplier A has alot of manpower hiring from a recent high turnover rate, but because the main head in the meeting showed alot of expertise and track record, the company overlooked that and decided on them, without considering that new people hired in Supplier A's company need time to orientate themselves to the workings of the new environment.

Which eventually caused the mess in the project delivery leading to the losses.

In this modern day, our mind is highly distracted with various requirements of each of us.  Then add on to that, is the attractions from the various online and offline media for our attention.

This leaves us with little time to rest our mind and heart, leading to our clouded perception on many things.

And this is where mistakes come easily.  More easily than the past where technology is non-existent or primitive enough not to attract us that much.  We are over-stimulated in so many ways these days that we're almost always tired, or think that time isn't enough.

An overworked human being cannot focus and make good decisions at all.

It still doesn't explain if I-Ching is working against the Flow of Life

If we know to learn I-Ching and let it help us make big decisions while learning its wisdom on the way, many negative untowards things would not have happend, and many of us wouldn't have to live in regret or losses.

You mean we're to depend on I-Ching to run our lives?

On the surface, it seems to be.  But the truth isn't at all.

Because I-Ching is all about positive decisions for different situations, where we modern human beings have little ability for it now, letting it help our decision making process is picking up its wisdom to run our lives on our own all over again.

It's like having a hired helper at home for the mother/wife to do some housework, it doesn't make the woman less of a mother/wife if she knows not to take things for granted.

I-Ching is helping us not to take things for granted.

How?

In the process of letting I-Ching help with major decisions, the hexagrams offer teachings that we can learn from.  From it, we slowly start to re-open our eyes and mind to little grits in our lives that we can do without and then proceed to a clean-up of our lives.

Then as time goes, where we run our lives with the right priorities, what to let go and pick up, how to process our thoughts positively etc etc.......it'd be time for us to slowly put down I-Ching, our helper, and we live as if we are reborn again.

That is, provided we've enough persistence to learn and absorb this valuable art.

Ending notes

Again, I'd like to say that not all human beings are poor decision makers.  No.

But most of us have areas that we're weaker over, like some are good in their career but poor in their love relationship.  Some of us are good with people, but very poor in handling our money. 

The list, combinations and permutations are endless.

And then, there're people who are strong in every aspect but negative towards Life itself when looking at the current world situation.  Learning I-Ching help these understand that not all human beings are made with the same software (i.e our mind), and it's almost often the case that our minds and hearts bring us our downfall.

And then the question, why are some people born suffering in bad countries?  Places of famine, wars and diseases?  God is so unfair!

But alot of us failed to see this -- These countries are poor and in wars because of the people running them, not because God made them to be.

Singapore is a very small country of no natural resources, but it's a safe, peaceful and rich country.  Exactly because the people running it are ok.

Our current world is a global village with good technology and advanced transportation systems, we've resources for almost every knowledge we want to seek in, very unlike the ancient past.  But have our lives got better?

So the most important thing now isn't about technological advances (not saying that we should stop the development and evolution), but seek to enrich ourselves with the right knowledge (and information) and grow our wisdom in Life.

And for ourselves to change for the better. 

Changes isn't always bad, it's just good or bad ones.

Free I-Ching Talk For Career & Businesses On 18th June, 2011. From 12pm - 1.30pm

I-Ching is the mother of all Chinese oracles -- Fengshui, Bazi, Ziwei Doushu etc came from I-Ching. 


However, more interest are geared towards the other oracle styles than I-Ching itself.


In this 1.5 hour talk, audience will be able to take away the following:



1.  The workings and philosophy of I-Ching.
2.  Why it is so difficult to understand and learn I-Ching.
3.  Why it is still highly relevant in the modern world today.
4.  Why I-Ching has nothing to do with superstition.
5.  How I-Ching guide us in our daily lives in every situation in positive action.
6.  Why I-Ching has a part in our career and business.
7.  How it makes a difference on our business and career.
8.  How to learn I-Ching fast in this modern, stressful world and society.


Audience are invited to prepare questions for me on their current business or career obstacle(s) so I can analyse and dissect on the spot for the solution. 

The obstacle(s) can come in many ways e.g inter-human relation, stagnancy in sales, how to get a promotion, how to negotiate a contract, how to expand etc etc

The more questions prepared for me, the more I can exemplify how I-Ching work proactively on our lives instead of superstitions.

If the audience has any question on Fengshui, I would be able to field them too.

This talk will be a combination of practical I-Ching theories and showing the audience how it works through the lively Q&A.  Everyone will receive a write-up on the talk with all the points discussed and are welcomed to fill additional notes for their future reference.

There'll also be an introduction of my I-Ching course, personal consultancy and business services too.  Audience are also welcomed to enquire without obligations.

Register to attend this talk via email -- mail@unripplethewater.com.  Please state if you'd be bringing any guest.  Only 25 seats available.

Venue address:  Sanctum, 66A Haji Lane (second level), S'pore 189259
Date:  18th June, 2011
Time:  12pm - 1.30pm
Language medium:  80% English, 20% Mandarin

Please note that a reply email to you means I've received and booked the seat(s) for you, otherwise, please check that the email address sent is correct.  Thank you.

What Is Deliverance?

Deliverance, or 超度，is a very important affair in all religion.

It is especially highlighted in Buddhism by the Tibetan Book of Death that took the world by storm more than a decade ago.

Many people think deliverance is only for the demise, that it is only funeral rites, however, it has a far deeper meaning behind it which I shall share today.

What is deliverance?

Every human being (in fact all living things) consists of the tangible physical part we know by body and the intangible part that is the soul.  Deliverance is the cleansing work upon the soul.

Is it important?

Very.

An average soul do not go through a system and series of "trainings" (meditations etc) to separate the mind from it, so it's often "polluted" by various emotions that are not positive. 

With little positivity, the soul is burdened heavily which in turn, do things we may be aware of or not that spark off a series chain-reactions affecting our emotions and physical mind further.

It is a continuous cycle.

How would a "polluted" soul affect us?

By ways of daily decision-makings = how we choose our investment, business directions, friends, spouse, job to take etc etc.  Some people just pick the wrong friends, job or investment etc etc no matter how careful they are.

And some people just appear very irritating, unappealing to people around them, even with strangers. It's not about looks, as a very beautiful or handsome person can be uncannily off-putting too.

These are actually accumulated previous lives Karma, we're obstructed towards goodness and veered towards a life not as positive and abundant as we'd like because of it.

These may come at different timing of one's life, not everyone is stricken with issues from birth.

So upon death, because of all the hanging onto things our desires want while living on Earth, our journey to the Pureland (Buddhism) or Heaven (Christianity/Islam etc) is obstructed.  One often gets reincarnated to human form again to re-learn lessons not passed in the previous life.

** Or as what others would put, to repay the Karma debts.

Not everyone goes to Hell, most human beings are not evil.

** A good look into the state of our true happiness and peace, level and depth of desire(s), our relationship with people around us will reveal the level of "pollution" within.

Isn't deliverance for the dead?

It is both for the living and dead, in fact, in my experience, I'd think it's more important for the living.

The dead has no chance to re-look into their doings on Earth and re-start their lives to put things right, the last and funeral rites are there only to persuade repentance, forgiveness, letting go and moving on.

Deliverance for the living involves active repentance, forgiveness, awareness of sins done (knowingly and unknowingly) in the past and previous lifetimes.  With guidance from the spiritual teacher, one starts to live a better life proactively after the deliverance by better choices in clearer mind.

It also involves invoking the "creditors" of one's previous lives to arrive for the deliverance rites to appease their souls with scriptures and mantras, forgive the living debtor, then invoke the Higher Power (according to one's faith) to bring these spirits to a better, higher realm.

It's an exercise of letting go, seeking forgiveness, repentance and changing ourselves for the better, for the road ahead for the living.

Christianity's saying that everyone is borne a sinner is true and right, though in my view, these sins we already have from birth are accumulated through various past lives.  Lessons that we failed to learn and pass.

The Western countries are now looking into the notion of previous lives regardless of religion with the book by Brian Weiss, "Many Lives Many Masters".  You may like to have a read, it is a very good book on past lives.

Who pass these tests or how we are in the next lifetime?

Contrary to popular beliefs, every soul has an auto-pilot system that record our thoughts and doings, this system would determine our culpability in absolute fairness after death.

All that we have not passed and learnt follow to the next life e.g addiction in previous life may lead to similar addiction in the current one, fear of water in previous life may follow to the next one.

However, even with that, we need to find the Source of the issue and pass it before moving on successfully e.g addiction stemming from hatred towards a previous life parent, fear of water because one was drowned in one lifetime etc.

Why was there hatred towards one in the first place?  How did one drown in the first place too?  These need finding out again.

What about the "creditors" you mentioned up there?

By different level of ignorance or wilful acts in the previous lives, we would have let down people who were good or benign to us.  Letting down comes in 2 main ways = Hurting them emotionally or physically.

These sow the seeds of anger and resentment are very strong energy that are sent towards and "sticks" on the doer.  It will translate into various obstacles to one's physical life on Earth in different ways.

For some, it's obstacles in human relationships.

For some, it's health.

For some, it's financial stability and security.

For some, it's emotional health.

For some, it's a different combination of some or all of the above in varying degree.

And then, these seeds will grow like vines, obstructing the "view" of the debtor in their current lifetime that leads to (for example) behavioural issues they're not aware off, yet keep repeating the same pattern and launch them into "bad luck" with different aspects of life.

Like, a very kind yielding person just get bullied by peers no matter what.  The kind yielding nature is the trigger that set off the pattern of bullying in that group of people.  If he/she met a kind group of people, that kind yielding nature would trigger no negative effect at all.

Meaning, being kind persistently at the wrong people = wrong and poor results.

But the sufferer "just can't change", in their words.  "I just can't bear to stand up for myself!" would be their words.

How do we perform deliverance for the living?

There're different ways in different religious faith.

One of it is to burn a quantity of Underworld money according to the Chinese zodiac sign to these "debtors" to appease them.

However, in my understanding and experience doing quite a few deliverance rites, giving money incites greed and not activating the true wisdom of letting go and moving on to a better realm. 

My practise is to have the client fold lotus flowers with scripture paper for the creditors, while I ''counsel'' them to free their debtor with further scriptures and mantras chanting, and burning good quality incense to "repair" their "wounds".

Then invoke the Higher Power to descend and bring them to Pureland so there's no more reincarnation.  In Buddhism, Pureland is a place without suffering, and where one continues gaining wisdom by learning fruitfully there.

One can do it on behalf of another too.

What are the effects after the deliverance?

The interpersonal appeal-factor (人缘) will improve, health will improve and/or get to know of the right doctor for the illness, financial stability and security etc etc.  That one can finally find peace and stability in their lives.

Light at the end of the tunnel.

Having said that, we must be mindful that for one to opt for this ritual, one must humble themselves, be repentant, open to accept that that they're the ones creating problems in their lives and willing to proactively work on a better life by effort after it.

It doesn't mean one can go back to their old ways after cleaning up their Karma debts, this only create more ignorance and issues later.

Case study

A 40-odd year old man has been out of jobs for 2 years.

He's not untalented, his work has won industrial awards for himself and his previous companies.

He is a very kind man by his friends. --> this was a referred case, so there's a strong character testament from my client, the referrer

His wife is very cold towards him no matter how or what he does since marriage.

His wife only has eyes for their only child.

Even in his last employed job, he was often bullied in workplace.

Then he has to support his old parents and a sibling who has no capacity to work.

After the deliverance ritual, he got offers from companies and work has been smooth without the depressing bullying in workplace. 

His wife is no longer as cold and unyielding in their relationship. 

His sibling, who cannot work, is now employed by a company who is willing to overlook his handicap.

He now don't have to contribute so much money to his parents' household.

Ending notes

The reason why we're on Earth as human beings is because there're lessons to learn and wisdom to grow.  As nothing is perfect on Earth, none of us is perfect too, so incurring Karma debts isn't anything shameful.

And everyone of us would have sinned or erred in one way or another with our tenure here, so it's only right that we face up to it.

The most important thing is understanding and accepting that we've flaws and mistakes committed with or without knowledge, then seek to address it and move on with a mind to reflect on ourselves often in future.

I'd be lying to claim that one would never sin again after the deliverance ritual, the importance is clearing the backlog so we can step out and work positively for ourselves and others, living as a renewed person.

So with renewed knowledge and understanding in this aspect, the likelihood of committing heavy Karma sins/debts to impede our future would be far far lower.  With more wisdom, we pay it forward in society to others to better it.

The issue in this world now is the lack of actual, real Wisdom.  Many people confuse wisdom with intelligence.  While for some, abusing the wisdom word to con the ignorant.

Past lives and Karma are all real.  To one who don't believe the Eastern culture of past lives can refer to Brian Weiss's books to have the Western perspectives for it.  Why would a good-earning, intelligent psychologist touch on such sensitive topic to unleash the religious-staunch against him?

Because he cannot believe it himself too, and so, worked on more than 500 patients as a focus group to find out more.

The topic of Karma has been on for a long time, and we're seeing the mechanism of Karma work before our eyes.  The kind gets rewarded, the bad gets punished.  But things are not so simple for some people.

Everything has a reason for it's existence, why are some kind people so unlucky?  Why are some bad people still having it good?  Most people have no way to see through time, so don't know the working of Karma and lifetimes.

Some people blame God/Buddha.  My question to them is, God/Buddha being God/Buddha, would He be so stupid/silly to be wrong, or do wrong?  He's not human being, He will not err like us.

"But why don't He stop all the bad people?"

The issue now isn't about stopping bad from happening.  Knowing human beings, we tend to test the ground or waters we have experience in.  Without allowing us to go into the deep end, our mind wouldn't have learnt how it's like to be in the deep end and grow wisdom from it.

You can stop a baby from playing with fire, but by hurting himself by fire would stop him from testing it again and learn how to discern danger.  Curiosity kills the cat, it can also kill anyone.  But only from mistakes do we truly and really grow.

There's no shame in making mistakes we don't know, the Devil is making mistakes we really want to.

Wisdom and Knowledge are the only Ways to liberate our heart and soul.