Feng Shui, Karma and the Butterfly Effect

Woo hoo, its Chinese New Year, a time when people can't seem to stop talking about fortune and luck. What's CNY without a personalized reading of the Chinese zodiac anyway.

But its fun. Feng shui is a fantastic business. Nobody will begrudge you if none of your predictions came true, thanks to the caveat of "heaven luck" or so I'm told. Yes I've learnt a few things these past few days. ^_^

You see, feng shui is divided into parts that include human luck, earth luck and the heaven luck. One part can feed or frustrate the other. You can shore up the human part like moving things around your house or office and activating chi at certain times but if your heaven luck says you're screwed, then no amount of interior decoration can save you.

Now the meaning of "heaven luck" might differ depending on who you talk to but the feng shui guy I spoke to, probably sensing where I was coming from, likened it to karma.

Interesting.

Since only a Buddha would know what his karma is, it does seem like a handy excuse to have if a year later, none of the predictions you're given actually came true. And seriously, how many readings have you gotten all these years that turned out to be 100% correct? Or 50% correct? 30%?

But that's not the eyebrow raiser. More interesting to me is the feng shui concept of predestination; the belief that if your heaven luck or karma is such, then there's nothing much you can really do to change it. Well, except for moving objects around a bit to "dampen" the effect I'm told.

At the core of it is the view of heaven luck / karma as something predetermined, fixed and unchanging. The only problem is, that's not how I understand karma to be. But then again, I am partial to the Buddhist view of these things which may not be where the feng shui master is coming from.

The Buddha likened karma to a lump of salt. Put it in a glass of water and the water will taste salty. Put it in a large flowing river and you won't notice its there.

The water represents one's conscious actions.

What does it mean? It means that even if you hit a spot of bad karma next month, if you've been living a wholesome life and practicing kindness, generosity and concentration, you'll hardly feel the pinch.

The other thing I understand about karma is that you can actually change the amount of salt with free will. Yeah dudes, you can change your own karma.

From what I'm told, conditions determine what karma will ripen at any given moment so obviously by making choices that change the conditions in your life, you also change the nature of your karma. Some people blame their poor school grades on bad karma. Others actually make an effort to study. By studying, one changes his life conditions, thus allowing different a type of karma to ripen. The effects of negative karma is diluted or delayed to some other moment when new conditions allow it to ripen.

Now I don't know if changing our bedrooms from one side of the house to another is the action that will change our destiny. The feng shui masters seem to think so and well, maybe there is something to it if you consider the Butterfly Effect. That's something out of chaos theory that says that the flap of a butterfly wing in a jungle can make the difference between a gentle wind and a coastal hurricane.

Let me illustrate. If you crossed the road and escaped being hit by a car by just one second, just imagine all the things that needed to happen to make that one second difference possible. You'll begin to appreciate that sometimes the only thing that stands between you and a life-changing event can be as insignificant as a sneeze, a quick dash to the restroom or a moment of hesitation to glance at your watch. Come to think of it, even a burp can change the entire trajectory of your life.

So its anybody's guess if placing a wind chime near your door will trigger a chain of events that precipitate your rise or downfall in 2009 - the simplest one being to get hit by a car on your way to buy the dang wind chime - and the fact is, we may never know. But that's the beauty of feng shui. If the prediction comes true, we praise the good master. If not, we just blame it on bad karma.

So I guess I'll just relax and try to do as many good things as I can. It might actually do me more good than messing with a bronze tortoise with a dragon head.

Xi Nien Kuai Le. Gong Hei Fatt Choy. Have a happy new year.

War

Ever since the Gaza skirmish broke out just before Christmas day, its been rather unsettling for me because I have a friend, a college-mate who joined the IDF (Israel Defense Force) right after graduation. His family's now in New York. They have dual citizenship. My friend Mark was a reservist and I'm told he is involved in the ongoing operations.

I hate war. What wars affirm to me is that technology or not, humans haven't changed. We exist in transience, flourishing in between periods of war. During the time of Alexander and the Romans, milions died in one day with hardly a whimper. Today, 30-40 would die in one day and its aggressors would receive instant worldwide condemnation. If we were to believe the talking heads, today's war dead would seem a million times more unjust and tragic than the ones that died by the Roman sword. Such is the power of perceptual management.

Not to make light of the situation but to me, a life in modern times is no more valuable than a life during Julius Caesar's or Emperor Chin's time. All deaths are equally tragic. Yet if they didn't happen, we wouldn't have China, India, Europe, etc and life would be different than what we know it to be. It could be worse. Or better. Who knows. But we can't run from the fact that we are the collective result of every single war that has been fought on earth.

Just imagine. Our early ancestors fled from famine or conflict in continent A, got married to someone in continent B, gave birth to someone who was then sent to fight a war in continent C, who then settled in continent D and so on and so forth. A hundred generations later, here we are. Change any incident in the timeline since the beginning, no matter how insignificant it may seem, and "we" may not even exist.

I hate war. At the same time, I believe man cannot help but go to war. A difference in opinion is all it takes. The fact that we're born to different cultures, language, value systems and social status dooms us to the prospect of perpetual conflict. When nations name their nuclear missiles "Peacekeeper," you know that world peace has just about enough chance as a snowflake in hell.

When you travel the world with open eyes, you can't but help notice its unstable nature, physically and metaphysically. Will man exercise his free will for restraint for the good of his fellow man? As long as people disagree on what "good" means, it'll never happen.

People would say this is being negative. On the contrary, the world gives me good insight. It forces me to seek an alternative view that has a positive ending. That is a long story in itself.

As for my friend Mark, my prayers go to him and I hope he makes it back in one piece.

An answer to an old question

A viral email has offered the most plausible answer yet to one of my old questions about why people seemed happier in younger countries (less than 400 years old) and miserable in countries where civilization and the idea of goodness and universal harmony first started - read China, India, etc.

The viral email was in Powerpoint form but here it is in text form:

"The difference between the poor countries and the rich ones is not the age of the country.

"This can be shown by countries like India & Egypt, that are more than 2000 years old and are poor.

"On the other hand, Canada, Australia & New Zealand, that 150 years ago were inexpressive, today are developed countries and are rich.

"The difference between poor & rich countries does not reside in the available natural resources.

"Japan has a limited territory, 80% mountainous, inadequate for agriculture & cattle raising, but it is the second world economy. The country is like an immense floating factory, importing raw material from the whole world and exporting manufactured products.

"Another example is Switzerland, which does not plant cocoa but has the best chocolate of the world. In its little territory they raise animals and plant the soil during 4 months per year. Not enough, they produce dairy products of the best quality. It is a small country that transmits an image of security, order & labor, which made it the world’s strong safe.

"Executives from rich countries who communicate with their counterparts in poor countries show that there is no significant intellectual difference.

"Race or skin color are also not important: immigrants labeled lazy in their countries of origin are the productive power in rich European countries.

"What is the difference then?

"The difference is the attitude of the people, framed along the years by the education & the culture.

"On analyzing the behavior of the people in rich & developed countries, we find that the great majority follow the following principles in their lives:

"1. Ethics, as a basic principle.
2. Integrity.
3. Responsibility.
4. Respect to the laws & rules.
5. Respect to the rights of other citizens.
6. Work loving.
7. Strive for saving & investment.
8. Will of super action.
9. Punctuality.

"In poor countries, only a minority follow these basic principles in their daily life.

"We are not poor because we lack natural resources or because nature was cruel to us.

"We are poor because we lack attitude.

"We lack the will to comply with and teach these functional principles of
rich & developed societies.

So, is that a reasonable answer?

I can think of two places where the 9 points apply but the people there are still miserable, even bitter. Singapore and Hong Kong. Oh, and the US states of Michigan and Ohio after the 3 automakers collapsed.

So while it does seem to explain why some countries are richer than others, it still does not explain why some countries are happier than others.

I am back

Rested.

Relieved.

Thrilled.

Hungry for local food.

More later.