Ancient Chinese Secret: The Truth About Feng Shui!

I have been an adherent to the old Chinese practice of the correct placement of certain pieces of furniture and colors, called Feng Shui(pronounced: fung shway), in my home since 1995. It simply makes me feel more "alive" walking into my home, where "chi" (or "energy") seems to be flowing in a benevolent way, rather than feel staleness and no life, or worse yet, a sense of malevolence.


That's what Feng Shui teaches you to do: to pay attention to sharp pieces of furniture, sticking out at you, waiting to jab into your sides, or about not having dried flowers in your home, as they signify death.


There are many great books written on Feng Shui, including the two that I've had for many years by Lillian Too: "The Complete Illustrated Guide to Feng Shui," and "Symbols of Good Fortune."



Recently, I began to appreciate Feng Shui even more when I entered into a home that made me want to RUN! The "chi" flowing was not good!

Without making any judgment, other than to satisfy the veracity of Feng Shui practices, I can tell you the place was dark... it was uninviting and it seemed set in the 1960s... without providing a Retro feeling.


It simply was not a place most people aspiring to have a positive, bright outlook on life would want to be!

I didn't even think of Feng Shui, until I left the place and wondered about the Souls of the occupants.

I truly was PUZZLED, as to how they could allow this to continue without any seeming care to fix it.

I'm not talking about the 60s furniture.

I'm talking about the darkness and the sense of depression that invaded the inner space. You FELT their sadness and their struggle.

Knowing what I knew about the occupants, I then began to think of Feng Shui and how the practice states that your "home is a metaphor for your life."

When I first learned Feng Shui in a Saturday afternoon workshop, I immediately left and went to the store to purchase objects, like mirrors and wind chimes, and plants and other "things" to get my home the right "chi" to bring me good fortune. I don't know how, but a SEASON of real prosperity followed me then!

Now, I've moved fully beyond believing in objects bringing me good fortune or bad fortune, especially as a member of the Ancient and Mystical Order of the Rosae Crucis, which does not in any way endorse superstitions. So, once I decided to commit to membership and realized that my superstitious ways were "things of the past," I actually felt relief!

I realized how far I'd traveled along the spiritual road, where I can KNOW without doubt that no person, place or thing can harm you, only your own thoughts and the quality of your inner mind.


This brings me back to that dark and uninviting home!

If a person visiting a home very briefly on an afternoon can feel the dark "chi" , how much more the occupants, who day after day, enter and leave from that ENVIRONMENT!

I felt the heaviness of the burden these occupants had carried for SO long...not because of bad luck or ill-will of anyone...but because of their refusal to acknowledge there was a problem in the way they walked in and viewed the world.

The world is a very friendly, loving place. So are many, many people who occupy the Planet Earth!

Life also is FRIENDLY AND LOVING to us...but it depends on who is doing the looking and the perceptions we take from the events and people in our lives.


The truth is that if we cannot even begin to see the external world we occupy, day, after day, after long day and night, then HOW can we even begin to explore the inner qualities of our Souls!

Although I pride myself on always keeping a neat and tidy house, I went home that night after visiting that dark, sad place, and immediately went to work...dusting and mopping and opening drapes and examining pictures for their right"presence" in the rooms they occupy!


When I was done that, then I went into a deep meditation and reflection on the current state of my life and affairs and how my life was currently being "reflected" into my environment.

Then I traced my life back for 20 years, remembering the spaces and the places I'd occupied. With "dead" accuracy, I was able to see how each home, each space, each place I'd occupied was then reflective of the state of my inner being.

So, I share all this with you to ask you to look around your home.


Even if you don't know Feng Shui and don't know about the flow of energy and how metals, water, wood and other objects help this to benevolently flow into your space and life, see what you FEEL?




How does your home make you FEEL?

If you're just in one room: How does it make you FEEL? What "chi" are you feeling?

Happy, Sad, Depressed, Alive, Positive, Negative, Dead or Bright?


What is your home, or your space, saying about YOU?

Are you living too much in the past? Are you dwelling too much in old memories that no longer serve you?

Are you inviting people in or expelling/repelling them out?

Do you have "dried" stuff all around you, sucking the life out of both your home and you?




After you've done that, then I invite you to sit in quiet meditation and reflect on the state of your SOUL?

Is is confused? Is it clear?

Do you know where you're going?
Do you know why you do what you do?


Do you know WHAT MAKES YOU TICK?

Do you know why you HAVE A PULSE...or.... why you don't feel any?

Do you know why your ENERGY IS LOW? Do you know if you're happy or sad?

Examine yourself. Reflect on yourself.

Examine your home. Reflect on your home.

Think about what it's saying about YOU!

If you don't like what you see... or the "chi" you feel....then...get busy "Feng Shui"-ing!


Namaste',

Che'

Book Review: If not for the ..."Grace of God" by Joyce Meyer

So now that you've found out that you can operate fully with multi-sensory perceptions in the world, as detailed in last month's Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav, where do you go from there?

In steps that could only have been experienced by a spiritual pro like, Joyce Meyer, you get a full understanding of how Grace can work in your life, day by day, moment by moment. She writes, "Actually the grace of God is not complicated or confusing. It is simple, and that's why so many people miss it."


With candor, freshness and purity that are Trademark Meyer, we are invited to live with God, moment by moment, by seeking Grace.

Meyer details that how she was saved by Grace from her willful personality, which wanted to do it all and be it all.

"Besides trying to change myself, I was trying to change everything else in my life. I was trying to change my husband, my children, all my circumstances, everything that I thought was the root cause of my problems. I tried and tried and tried until I felt I would die from frustration. Trying to do something about something you can't do anything about is frustrating."


"After struggling for years as a Christian and a preacher, I finally got it through my head that it is not by my might or power, but it is by the Spirit of the Lord that I am to live. The success of my life and ministry does not depend upon my effort, but upon the presence and power of the one Who lives his life in me and through me." (Gal.2:20)

"Sometimes in our zeal to serve the Lord, we do too much. I know there have been times when I was actually overprepared. I studied and prayed for so many hours that I got all caught up in me. Often that is why, despite all our activity, nothing happens. Even when God does show up and work in and through us, sometimes we are not thankful and grateful because we think we earned the results by our own efforts."

Joyce Meyer, throughout this wonderful book, addresses those who would be boastful and proud, and those, especially who believe they are SOMEHOW blessed and others cursed.

"Instead of boasting of our great strength or knowledge or power or accomplishments, we should begin each day by saying, 'Here am I, Lord, ready for whatever You have for me to do. I empty myself, as much as I know how, to allow Your grace to flow in my life, to cause me to be able to do whatever it is that You desire for me. I cast myself totally upon You. I can be only what You allow me to be, I can have only what You will for me to have, I can do only what You empower me to do---and each victory is to Your glory, not mine.'"

She talks about the fact that "You and I are the vessels through which God does His own works. We are partners with God." She then goes on to say that this is an awesome privilege and that we need to remember this, "He allows us to share in His glory as long as we remember that apart from Him we can do nothing."

About those people, who REALLY REALLY disturb my peace, every time I hear them claiming that they are "Blessed," and that they somehow have EARNED blessings, Joyce Meyer writes,"If God could bless only perfect people, then He could never bless anyone, because we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23)


Thank you, Joyce, for STRAIGHTENING that one out!

She said for a long time in her life, she would blame her frustration on the devil and say, "'Satan, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus!' But it wasn't the devil who was frustrating me, it was God!"


She cites 1 Peter 5:5, where she writes, "God opposes, frustrates and defeats, the proud, the insolent, the overbearing, the disdainful, the presumptuous, the boastful. Who are these people? They are the ones who try to figure everthing for themselves, those who try to do it their way rather than God's way. They are the ones who try to change themselves into what they think they ought to be rather, than asking God to bring about within them the changes that He desires to make."


I love this outspoken preacher and her clearcut writing!


If you want to a book that really delivers on what it promises to help you "Break free from bondage and take hold of all that is yours by the grace of God," this is the book for you!

Namaste',
Che'
NOTE: In our next book review, we'll look at the book that is causing a MAJOR stir in spiritual and religious communities, "The Shack" by Wm. Paul Young.

Would You RECOGNIZE Him? Would You UNDERSTAND His Words?

If he'd walked amongst you, would you have recognized him?

If he'd talked amongst you, would you have known to call him by name, or would you have called him "names"?

If he'd preached amongst you, would you have followed?

If he'd tried to teach you, would you have scourged and crucified him?


On this day we celebrate Easter Sunday, a day dedicated to recognizing the Risen Christ.

Most people in celebrating the man, Jesus, focus on the religion that developed from him, rather than on his teachings. Christianity, indeed, has become the religion about Jesus, and not a religion of Jesus.


There are more than 57 million people around the world who claim to be Christians, the largest following of any religion on earth today. Indeed, if all these people were truly following the teachings of Jesus, we'd all have a transformed universe.


Among the greatest words Jesus uttered were:

"Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God." Matthew 19:17

(Why do you call me, good, there is only one who is Good and that is God.")

"And call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Matthew 23:9

"It is not I who doest the work, but the father within me." John 14:10

"These things have I done and greater than these can you also do." John 14:12

Do we truly understand and put into effect these words of the Christ?

How about these?

"He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." Luke 16:10

"And seek not ye what you shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind."Luke 12:29

"But rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you." Luke 12:31

In these days, of economic challenges, especially, we should recall these words of Jesus and find comfort in their wisdom.

Most people going through hard times tend to believe that they are unique in their experience and that they walk alone. Some believe that the "troubles" have come to them because of some "bad" they have done. So many, refuse to see the "GIFT" in the struggle! So focused are they on achievement and recognition in the eyes of the world.

I saw a recent Oprah show where husbands and wives were turning away from each other because life seemingly has dealt them a big blow during this economic meltdown.


What was so amazing to me, as I joined in the middle of the show, is the obvious AGONY these people were in because they had lost their status in life and in the eyes of their mate and the world.

Their pain was not because they did not have a roof over their heads or food on the table, but all their pain seemed to come from their lost perception in the eyes of the world.

How SAD IS IT when we look to the world of PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS...to give us our Own Sense of Self?


What have we lost as a generation of people who are so isolated from themselves that without the doting eyes of the world on them, they do not KNOW who they are. Now, they have no job, no title, no sense of self, and they are so lost without those!


Shame on all of us to have come to a place in life where we become CRIPPLED AND PARALYZED because of lack...not of the GOODNESS in LIFE...but lack of SELF IMAGE!

We see why there had to be a correction in the Universe of these false illusions we cling to day after day, as we go meaninglessly forth trying to acquire more and more and more.

Why do we do it ...what purpose does it serve...to what end are these goals?


Jesus, The Buddha, Ghandhi, Mohammed, Krishna, among so many others...all taught humility, love, forgiveness and simplicity.

The people who are suffering emotionally because of today's economy are those Who Have Lost Nothing but A Separation from their Own Soul! It is an invitation to "Come Home!"

Should they wake up to that...should they begin to live from the Center of their Being...they would and should be able to see what Unity and so many spiritual-based organizations, teach: "nothing is truly ever lost in Spirit."

The seeming lack today is the seed being planted for the fruits of tomorrow.


As I write this, it is "Good Friday." This is a day symbolic of the crucifixion of Jesus, the Christ. Today, Easter Sunday, is the day that symbolizes that resurrection.

The man Jesus tried to teach us so many things. Principally, he pointed to the Spirit within us that has all the power and all the good that we seek!


Jesus tried to teach us that we, too, can become the Christ: Man connecting to the Spirit within him or her. (Man as God through Spirit).

Are we heeding this message today, or, are we seeking to become more and more in the eyes of the world?

Can today be the day that you and I and all others, instead of celebrating to appease the vanity of our EGOs, GET STILL ENOUGH to look into the CENTER of our being...and find the TRUTH of what Jesus tried to teach us: There is NO POWER GREATER THAN THAT WHICH IS WITHIN YOU!?

Can you walk the walk of faith, by believing in this power within you, no matter how dire the circumstances that surround you, that you are okay, and that you always WILL be okay?

If you are able to do that, then you would have achieved the awareness of the Divine Consciousness...The Christ...being alive in YOU! That is the message of Easter, the resurrection of the Christ in man!


For more on this, I strongly recommend this fascinating book, "Your Forgotten Self: Mirrored in Jesus, the Christ," written by my writing colleague and friend, David Robert Ord. The book is available through amazon.com and is one of the best reads on Jesus!


Happy Easter! May the spirit of the resurrected Christ be with you ALWAYS AND IN ALL WAYS!

Namaste',

Che'