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Day 7 – Pulse of the Dragon
Last update: 20th April 2008 1:35pm (GMT+08:00)
Reported by Sherwin Ng.
18th April 2008 (Friday)
Walking all the way up the mountains, do you feel it's pulse? A helicopter may give you an arial view, but you need to be WITHIN the Dragons to find the vein, too feel it's charisma. You need to walk along the curves of the embraces, pass thru the water mouth. The sub-dragons will guide you to the main dragon if you know how to read the language of the dragons - where it sinks in to store the Qi, where it moves to release the Qi. Walking the Dragons is the hardest part to learn in real Feng Shui. Some might take years, some take forever. Where is this important? Because formulas will never make a person into an emperor, minister, or even a famous astrologer. These are only possible by tapping the power of the natural lands, the source of Qi.
 After yesterday's well-deserved break, refreshed students of the Mastery Academy are ready for more today - Bai Yun Shan, 'White Cloud Mountain' at Guang Zhou - promising a feat of a climb. Why weren't we allowed to take the cable cars? Because one needs to walk with the Dragons to feel its pulse. (Furthermore you can't actually see even simple Star shapes from above)
Bai Yun Shan is scattered with ancient tombs despite being a favorite hangout place for the Guang Zhou locals, and our first stop after a 30 minutes hike is the tomb of a famous General. As usual we were allowed time to assess the tomb using what we've learnt since Day 1. Like second-nature, many pointed out the weak embrace, steep mountain crashing down (was it even a vien?), missing Table Mountain to barricade Qi. Interesting enough, this General, as powerful as he was during his time, did not leave any successful descendants.
One student pointed out that a hole was made in a corner, not previously seen with other ancient Tombs - was it the famous 'secret water exit' technique so widely used today? Did it work at all? Obviously not - there were no famous descendants to stand as testament. Furthermore, Water Formulas are used to (a) actual river flow or lakes, and (b) assess an actual Water/Qi Mouth in the macro scale. Measuring drains, toilet water exits, is stretching the concept a little too thin, due to weak fundamental understanding.
The next site, however, was a different story.
Another 20 minute hike took us to the Tomb that has a very interesting architecture. Each detail in the design is functioned to slow down Qi coming down from the steep mountain. Manmade 'Cicada Wings' for example, buffers Qi flow by redirecting into the Bright Hall; the Bright Hall itself is wide to catch Qi from escaping. From higher up, we could see that this tomb taps into a distant Greedy Wolf. It's embraces are prominent, although not as sentimentally wrapping around the front. This is because, as Joey pointed out, it is only the vein of a sub-dragon. While this burial site did leave behind prominent descendants, the formation and quality holds relatively less firepower than the ones we saw in the previous places. But then again, this is true for most of today's situation - how many people will have the destiny to find and use an emperor-producing spot? For most lay people, leaving behind wealthy and successful children is sufficient.
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Our last highlight of the day - and the final site visit for leg 1 of our China excursion - brings us to the tomb of Su Tong Bo's grandson. Now, Su Tong Bo was a very famous poet during the Song dynasty. The grandson himself was a general. The land embraces cross the Bright Hall, protecting the site even without a Table Mountain.
The lesson is clear today: steep flow of Qi requires a wide Bright Hall to catch. Other methods like use of water, extended embrace, cicada wings, all allow the Qi to slow down and gather. We also saw the differences between a sunken vein and a protruding vein. Both veins have different methods of usage.
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After a hefty lunch, we are all back at the hotel for a wrap-up discussion of part 1 of the China Excursion. It lasted longer than expected, as Joey summarized each visited site for the students once more. From the first house we saw at the Lee Family Village that was positioned away from the flow of the river; to the story of Jiang Da Shi, using the Plum Blossom formation to trap (not TAP) spirits; The San Liao Village, housed by the families of Zeng and Liao, saw the many techniques of Landform Feng Shui taught by Grandmaster Yang. When a house is positioned to receive Qi, we do not have to worry about the internal setup. On the other hand, if a house does not receive Qi from the externals, there's nothing much we can do internally!
Students and instructors were given a chance to share their experiences with each other. I recalled my experience of crossing the gap at the dragon's neck, and the Yu ancestral tomb where both spots were still and windless, but move a few meters up further the howling wind returns. It was indeed an awesome experience with nature. New students who took the dive into this China trip can now recognize mountain Stars, see dragon veins, embraces, water mouths - lessons that typically require years of experiential learning.
After a short break it was time for the first Farewell Dinner. Coming dressed to the nines, it was time to sit back and have fun! This is also goodbye to a few of our students who can't join us with the second leg - watch out for our daily updates and pictures! Tomorrow we take a day off the Feng Shui Excursion before the start of Part 2.
Reported by Sherwin Ng.
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