Why Learn History of Feng Shui - Part I

In my previous article about the psychological explanation of human resistance to change, I talked about how people are mentally conditioned against changes and usually back themselves up by falling back on precedent cases. A more extreme form of precedent cases are historical ones. Ask ourselves, do the past always oppose to changes in the future? Without change, how can improvements come about?

Ask yourself whether a man living in contemporary society like you will like a dish that was cooked exactly the same way 1000 years ago? With technological advancements we have high pressure cookers, deep fryers and plenty of other cooking equipments. Why should we still think that a dish that was cooked using wood and the pathetic stove of few hundred years ago is still the best way to process it? Such an insistence to adhere to historical practice betrayed one's reluctance to innovate and follow up with times.

In fact a Feng Shui practitioner ought to be lauded for his ability to modify and adapt Feng Shui advices to the modern and local context. Why is this so? The logic is that Feng Shui method evolved from a context was set few hundred years ago in China and houses and social practices have changed significantly since then. Even if Feng Shui methods were only developed in recent years in China, its geo-political and cultural differences with other countries meant that modification and adaptation of the methods must still be made for Feng Shui advice in another country.

For example, few hundred years ago in China, toilets were never housed within the same roof as the living quarters. But in modern society, toilets are under the same roof as the living quarters are the norm now and differences like this inevitably means that a Feng Shui practitioner that continues to copy methods listed in Feng Shui classics blindly run a great risk of messing up his client's environment. Feng Shui practitioners should not be mistaken to think that they can continue to practice Feng Shui by following ancient Feng Shui classics to a T.

Autor: Ken Toh J

I am a Feng Shui Enthusiast in private practice and I specialise in Ba Zi or 4 Pillars, Zi Wei Dou Shu or ZWDS, Feng Shui, I-Ching, Qi Men Dun Jia or QMDJ, Chinese Name Analysis and other tools. My blog site is at: http://fengshuiforward.com and http://fengshuiforward.com/forum

Added: March 2, 2009
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/