Eva Wong- Earth Energies. Shambala Sun Nov. 2005
Taoism presents a parallel structure of the body and the land-- by explaining, in the body qi follows a pathway (known as the microcosmic orbit) made of two meridians that link to each other. The du meridian runs up the spine and the ren meridian runs down the front of the body.
The back is depicted as mountains, such as the spinal vertebrae, and the front part of the body as hollows, the river basins, valleys and caverns.
Within both the macrocosm of the land and the microcosm of the body their are collectors, access points (called xuex, acupuncture points), regulators and protectors.
This macro/micro parallel is “found not only in Chinese culture but also in tantric theory and practice.”
Tibetan Buddhism sees the land as a body, with thousands of energy points, associated with deities and and their domain.
** look up the 24 sacred sites-
24 major gathering points of energy in the body.
7th to 10th centuries- China- kanyu was extensively used in selecting sacred sites and building Buddhist and Taoist temples and monasteries.
p. 66 “Chinese kanyu masters became advisers in the Tibetan court, and Tibetan lamas became spiritual advisers in the Chinese courts. The close relationships lasted until China became a republic in 1911.
(4th stage of human development, and the separation splits)
by the 5th century, the art and science of drawing energy from the land to facilitate spiritual practice were applied extensively to the construction of monasteries and retreats in eastern Tibet. Kongtrul the Great (1913-1899) greatly illustrated how land can facilitate enlightenment.
Wong says:
Energy of land according to pathways seen in China:
Mountain energy is called the dragon vein. Said to resemble the body of a dragon.
Chinese word for vein is mo, which is the same word for meridian and pulse.
Amount of energy carried in the vein depends on the the “health” of the mountain.
The energy is strong when the mountain has many peaks(exhalation points) and dips (inhalation points).
Mountain is yang.
Valley is yin.
The number of tributaries in a waterway and its drainage pattern determine its health. The more flowing, the more energy the river carries. Energy from a river is lost when its course is blocked by debris and dams.
She says:
“Just as an imbalance of yin and yang energies in the body is detrimental to health, land that is overly mountainous is considered too hyperactive to accumulate energy and land that is predominately flat is considered too lethargic to awaken energy.”
( look at peoples’ geographical locations. anthropological study can be considered on this bases alone.)
Collectors:
“ideal energy container has three basins. These three energy containers are the macrocosmic equivalent to the lower, middle and upper elixir fields of the body in the Taoist arts of health. Procreative, vital and spirit energies-- are purified and stored. In Mahayana Buddhism these energies are equivalent to body, speech and mind.”
a site that not only receives energies from mountains, rivers and valley but can also contain and purify them will “bring prosperity, health, longevity and spiritual well-being in those living there. “ Mixture of people feeling out these sites and studying this information relate to how they experience such reality.
Power spots:
“most important idea in kanyu is the power spot,” where potent amount of energies are gathered. Just as acupuncture accesses the xue of the body, energy from the xue of the land can be accessed naturally by needle-like landforms or architectural structures such
move from Pleistocene → Holocene
power spots are protected by landforms that act as guardians, or protectors. The four protectors are called the green dragon, white tiger, red raven, and black tortoise, named after the Taoist guardian spirits that protect the left, right, upper and lower parts of the body. IN the land form, they often appear as rock formations.
Regulators:
energy outbursts, like a geyser, most powerful ones take the form of a mesas, buttes and large rock pillars. They are called regulators because they have the capacity to: channel, amplify and transform energy.
These areas receive tremendous amounts of land energy.
“Architectural sites on top a regulator act like a valve that can control the spread of land energy.” p. 70
“Some landforms are so conducive to spiritual practice that one only needs to have a line of sight toward them to benefit from their transforming power. In kanyu, this the principle of “orientating to patterns of enlightenment.”
** the Kanyu classics emphasize that in order to identify patterns of energy in the land, the barrier between the microcosm of the mind and body must dissolve and merge with the macrocosm of the land. One cannot recognize such patterns and relationships based on purely technical or conceptual knowledge.
Intuition and direct experience with the qi of the land is required-- which is why meditation and yogic practices traditionally formed a part of the kanyu training.
best put by Jamgon Knogtrul the Great--
“to those of aberrant minds, the place is just earth, stone, water and trees.
to mistaken intellects, it appears as solid, inanimate objects.
To practitioners, appearances have no intrinsic nature.
To those of pure vision, it is a celestial palace full of deities.
To those with realization, it is the radiant luminosity of innate awareness.”
Eva Wong is a lineage holder of the Hsuan-K'ung (Mysterious Subtleties) school of traditional Chinese feng shui. She is a practitioner and author of a number of books on feng shui and Taoism, including Nourishing the Essence of Life: the Outer, Inner, and Secret Teachings of Taoism and A Master Course in Feng Shui.
