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Designing Your Life -
Continued

     Feng Shui for Life: Mastering the Dynamics Between Your Inner World and Outside Environment, by Jon Sandifer, presents a well-researched, knowledgeable approach to the Oriental school of Feng Shui, usually called the Compass School, because it relies on the use of a luo pan, or Chinese compass.

     Some of its practitioners say it may be more reliable than Western Feng Shui because it is more solidly based on scientific principles. However, if you have as much faith in your intuition as you do in science, you may want to try both schools of Feng Shui and see which one works best for you. (In many cases, you will see that the two schools overlap.)

     According to Sandifer, “the Feng Shui perception of the landscape and our environment as a living, harmonious organism underlies Chinese thinking about how our bodies function.”

     The author, who also incorporates something called Nine-Star astrology (see book for detailed explanation) gives an example of how his first home office kept him from moving ahead in his career.

   “To begin with,” he writes, “I was sitting in a draught of chi - I sat midway between the door and the opposite window - allowing my ideas and inspiration to be distracted.” “The desk,” according to Sandifer, “was a large piece of plywood supported by a couple of trestles!” This was the desk from which he hoped to write words of wisdom.

    Vaastu, The Indian Art of Placement, by Rohit Arya, gives the reader a different perspective. Vaastu - which means the actual life force of the earth - has strong links with geomancy (the divination of lines relating to the earth).

    From one of the oldest texts on Vaastu, the Vishwakarma Vaastushastra, comes this partial quote: “By following the precepts of vaastu . . ., vigor, joy, and prosperity pervade the universe. Man attains the stature of the gods with this shastra.” (p. 13)

     Although vaastu is fundamentally in agreement with Feng Shui, according to author Rohit Arya, vaastu differs in the details. Vaastu, for example, not only lays down principles that detail the big-picture considerations of building a building, such as size and shape, but it also addresses the details of where windows and doors are placed. (See illustration #3 for an “ideal” vaastu house grid which differs from the Bagua Map in illustration #1.)

    Some of these details may be of little value to Western architecture. For example, the scorching heat of India causes vaastu to advise against placing any room in the Southwest corner of the house because this is the room in India which receives the most intense sunlight.

    However, the instructions about house or street numbers based on your astrology sign are certainly worth a try. For example, I am a Sagittarius. Therefore, according to vaastu philosophy, my next home should face the North and I should choose a number 3 as my house number.

    Ridiculous? Maybe. Or maybe not. Perhaps what is more important to remember is that our beliefs about the arrangement of our homes are as important as what these three guide books tell us.

    So whether or not we decide to follow Western Feng Shui, Oriental Feng Shui, or Vaastu, we can't go wrong. Intentions are what matter. As author Colllins says, live with what you love, put safety and comfort first, and simplify, simplify, simplify.

Bonnie W. Mason is a writing coach for children and adults.
She specializes in articles about psychology
and medicine. Reach her at 770-938-3358.