Feng shui and property

By S.B.S. Surendran
Master Feng Shui consultant
and Traditional Vaasthu Practitioner

The buzz word in today’s lifestyle is ‘Feng Shui and Vaasthu’ when it comes to locating plots, buildings, orienting homes, designing corporate set ups, interiors, placing décor and even planning gardens.

Many would adapt it blindly, few look at it as a religious practice and some discard it as a ‘superstitious belief’.

Is it that homes and offices just cannot exist without the use of Vaasthu or Feng Shui in their designs? Can we not have structures which are just about confirming to our day to day requirements without bringing in the concepts of Vaasthu and Feng Shui?

Feng Shui is not about just building structures which is supposed to usher in ‘luck,’ it is a lot more than that.

It is the art of spacing, positioning, planning and orienting not just the structure but even the furnishings to offer greater support to the occupants. It is the study of the energy around the occupants, its cause and effect and the effect of the immediate surroundings or environment.

This tradition, called Feng Shui, is both, an art and a science that aims to ensure that all things are in harmony with their surroundings. Its application ranges from planning entire cities and empires to placing a guest at the dinner table; from the orientation of high-rise office buildings, to the interior decoration and furnishing of a house or a room.

When a modern new skyscraper goes up in Taiwan, the owners always hire a Feng Shui geomancer or xiansheng to create the best position for the main entrance. Over the years, several major new buildings in downtown Taipei have remained unoccupied and their owners have gone broke because they failed to follow the dictates of Chinese geomancy during construction.

In Hong Kong, Feng Shui is widely used today by many planners and architects. Hong Kong's mainland district, Kowloon (meaning Nine Dragons) was named and sited according to Feng Shui traditions. Eight of these dragons are represented by the hills on which Kowloon stands, while the ninth dragon represents the Emperor.

Large construction projects in Hong Kong are said to use the advice of Feng Shui for the location of the veins of the dragon (or underground water flows).

Geomancy (Feng Shui) is the branch of classical cosmology, which gives a blueprint for us to build our homes in splendid harmony with the elements of our natural environment. The Chinese exponents of Feng Shui believe that where you live and how you allocate and arrange the elements of your home or workplace can significantly affect the harmony of your health, wealth, and happiness.

If you acknowledge and understand the all-pervasive life energy (Chi), you can affect the whole tenor of your well-being. Simple things like placing your furniture the wrong way, using wrong colors, and elemental conflicts (i.e. having the water 'refrigerator' next to the fire 'stove', can create factors that impact negatively on your life
Feng Shui considers four factors: the Chi or "breathe of life" potential of the neighbourhood; the site orientation or the importance of the direction in which the building faces; the five elements – fire, water, wood, metal, earth -- and their mutual influence upon a location; the power of water and its significance in relation to the property.

A property possessing low "Chi" (low energy) means No Sale! Feng Shui helps to correct low energies, deficiencies, afflictions because one can harness the positive flow of earth energies in order to achieve a harmonious sense of ease, balance and peace.

What are the benefits of a correctly Feng-Shuied property?

* As a result of our consultation, potential buyers will feel more at ease and drawn to your property. Harmonious life giving force -CHI is felt by everyone subconsciously. And usually properties that possess this intangible quality sell much better than most.

* Feng Shui will correct underlying problems which have prevented the property from being sold in the past. It is not unusual for the property to start getting offers before the completion of the Feng Shui process.

* Feng Shui has become very popular. A Feng Shui compliant house is an excellent selling feature that can not be ignored; it is a viable factor in finding the right buyer.

Feng Shui enhances the energy flow in any property and is a value addition tool to your pursuits.

Today, Feng Shui is widely used not only in Asia, but in the Western world as well. Yet now, this technique is only supervised and dictated by Feng Shui masters and a Chinese Compass or Lo P'an. Today, Feng Shui is established as a scientific tool easily used with computers, more specifically, with Geographical Information Systems [GIS].