Q: Is Yin House Feng Shui still popular? If so, what training is required to get involved in this niche?
A: Senior Master Yap Boh Chu:
In Asia, Yin Zhai is still very popular. For example, in Malaysia, most gravesites are still done with feng shui in mind. I just did a couple this last month…..
The training for Yin Zhai is not easy and is not for everyone. The first requirement is that you learn from a practicing master of yin feng shui. This is really learning, as in the old way of following the master around and learning from the master’s experience and practice, not just from a class.
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It is preferred that the practitioner is not a female. This is not due to any sexist reasons, but that Yin Zhai deals with a lot of yin qi, and females are more likely to attract yin qi by the female nature of being in themselves.
You must be prepared to cultivate some form of practice that will strengthen your body and mind as you will be exposed to these yin qi regularly. That is why most Yin Zhai practitioners are normally adept in some other form of the art.
You must understand the danger not just to your clients when something goes wrong but to yourself, the practitioner. Many is unaware that the first to encounter a problem is not the client but the yin zhai practitioner if something goes wrong.
Must be also responsible, when you take up the project, the results will affect many generation of the clients family. The karmic debt can be very heavy.
Yin zhai is the most interesting of all feng shui but also the most difficult and dangerous of all forms of practise of feng shui.
Q: What are the top 3 things to consider to prepare for a feng shui evaluation for a new construction?
A: Senior Master Yap Boh Chu:
1. In feng shui, every piece of land has an optimum location and direction. The land will tell you how it is to be built on:
- Get a feel for the external environment. Go around the land and note the viewable natural land features: mountains, rivers, higher ground, and lower ground. Measure from the centre of the land to get an idea of the locations of these features.
- Take note of the man-made features: roads, tall buildings, road junctions, large drains. Again, take measurements of its locations and if necessary, the directions of the incoming and outgoing roads to this property
2. If everything is fine after step one, and there are no Sha that renders the land unsuitable, we then determine the optimum direction of the facing of the new build. This will take into account the features we have noted above so that those features can be made to benefit the building or at least not harm the building.
3. If this is a new house, we then consider if this land is matched to the person whose residence it will be; firstly, will it suit the person at all, Then we consider if it suits them for what they want and their current stage of their life. There is no point in giving a house that promotes calmness and a long life for a person in their thirties driving to get their business off the ground. On the other hand, you don’t want to have a property that will give them too much aggressive drive when they are in their 70s and are interested in retiring and playing with their grandchildren.
- If this is a commercial building, we then have to consider if the new build can be optimised to be auspicious for business
After these 3 steps then only we can consider the internal layout
Q: Are there specific rituals or ceremonies that you do if you know the land is being developed on a gravesite?
A: Senior Master Yap Boh Chu:
Yes, you need to know the art of convincing your client to not build there……
Joking aside, there are such rituals and ceremonies. You need to understand that these rituals and ceremonies do not fall under the purview of purely feng shui.
These rituals and ceremonies are normally religious in nature, and common rituals are either Buddhist or Taoist in nature. In the olden days, many feng shui practitioners in China were also skilled practitioners of Taoist rituals. At the very least, I would call in a priest of whatever religion to bless the land first if it really needs to be used.
From the purely feng shui perspective, you also need to ensure that the land still has Qi that can be used. Some locations, the Qi is finite or takes a very long time to accumulate. The graves may have drained the qi such that it is no longer usable or in a worst case has corrupted the qi so that it is too yin to be used again for a yang zhai application
Q: Can you practically apply both? Do 8 mansion and Flying Star contradict? If they contradict, what are the solutions?
A: Senior Master Yap Boh Chu:
Yes, you can definitely apply both. In the Yap Cheng Hai Academy we use both systems all the time. The Flying Star system is very time based whereas the Ba Zhai system is more stable and long term. Knowing this, the skill is in knowing which system to give more weight to in a particular situation to give the benefit that is required/expected for the building. This may mean that there is a time limit to the current recommendations that will need some changes in a few short years. For example, I have had a client where the feng shui recommendations were such that it only lasted 3 years as they had a prticular problem that required solving and after the 3 years they needed to change again to ensure that the results thay had gained would be maintained.
Do they contradict. Yes, they do. You must understand thoroughly all the contradictions at a whole and synergistic level. Once you do get the full picture, you can start to plan for your recommendations such that the contradictions do not harm the residents.
The best solution is to avoid the contradictions as much as possible. Of the 8 useable sectors in a building, it is very rare that all 8 will contradict. There will be sectors that are beneficial in both systems.
In the cases where you have to use a sector that has contradictory indications, there are 2 solutions:
- The recommendations are to make it such that you remove the contradictions, create new spaces, or redividing the spaces used to remove such a contradiction.
- The second is more involved and require that the practitioner has a full understanding of the whole picture such that these contradictory sectors are used in such a way that when one system is bad, the other system is able to mitigate to the extent of fully offsetting the negative effects of the other system. This means that you have to fully understand the time aspect and the balancing of other sectors to compensate.
This article was originally published in the Feng Shui Journal Volume 8 in June 2021; it is now republished here on FSML with the author’s permission for everyone to enjoy.
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