Take a Coffin Nap to Fix Your Karma?

After putting up the previous post about The Coffin movie, I just could not get it out of my system that people would actually sleep in a coffin. Was almost wondering if the director/producer of the movie was really exaggerating about such a ritual. When I went into the wonderful web, wow..there were quite a fair bit of write-ups about this ritual. Indeed this ritual exists in mystical Thailand and people are reportedly queuing up to lie in a coffin especially during these dark economic times.

Newser reports " Thais Takes Coffin Naps to Fix Karma - (Newser) – As Thailand's economy slows and its government falters, growing numbers of deeply superstitious citizens are jostling into a pink coffin to "die," the Telegraph reports. At about $5 a head, monks in a monastery outside Bangkok officiate over the "dead bodies" in the coffins, before ushering in the next group of people hoping to rid themselves of bad karma.

Telegraph.co.uk reports "Thais queue to 'die' in pink coffins and be 're-born'" -

Every week thousands of customers flock to Wat Prammanee monastery in Nakhon Nayok to get a fresh start in life. They pay around £3 each for floral offerings and a cash donation to the monks.

Inside the monastery hall nine pink coffins with gaudy gold mouldings are lined up.

"It's five minutes sleep in the box," explained a teacher at the monastery school who gave her name as Mrs Laddaman. "People want to be happy."

Analysts say that in uncertain times, as the Thai economy slows and the government wobbles, there are growing numbers of people with problems they would rather leave behind. "Dying", they believe, allows them to get rid of their bad karma and move on.

A stroke victim passes a young girl preparing to perform a traditional dance and offerings of cherry aid to the gods at the entrance to the main shrine Photo: THOMAS BELL - photo source Telegraph.co.uk

Found a very interesting comment by Oceanos at the SgForums. Oceanos wrote...

'Die' for a better life

NAKHON NAYOK, Thailand, Oct 10, 2008 (AFP) - Namfon Mamuenwai says she died for the man she loves - if only for a moment.

The 39-year-old Bangkok resident climbed into a coffin in a Buddhist temple, experienced a "spiritual death" and was resurrected with purified karma - all in the hope of joining her foreign boyfriend in the Netherlands.

"I want to get to another country but cannot get a visa," said Namfon.

A week after seeing the ceremony at the Wat Prommanee temple on television, she drove 112 kilometres (70 miles) from Bangkok to become one of around 2,000 people who each week climb into a coffin to "die" and be "reborn".

"I think this can help me a little bit because now this temple is popular," Namfon told AFP.

The coffin ceremony is the latest religious trend to sweep Thailand, and the saffron-clad monks at Wat Prommanee promise money, love - or, in Namfon's case, a visa to the Netherlands.

"Everyone who came here, who prayed here, who came to make a wish, they got what they wished for," said Charuay Thanavaro, a monk at the temple.

Wat Prommanee has been running the coffin ceremony for four years, and officials say that over the last two years attendance has almost tripled from the 100 people who trickled through the door each day in 2007.

At first, participants got into non-specific boxes as the monks tried to get people used to the idea of willingly climbing into coffins, but now people happily jump in for a chance at improving their fortunes.

A spell in a coffin costs 100 baht (nearly three dollars) for about two minutes, while the whole ceremony will set you back 180 baht.

Charuay recommends participants pay for the full package if they want their wishes completely fulfilled.

"If they just want to attend the ceremony and pray that is fine, but then they will only get 80 or 90 percent results," he says. "If they lie in the coffin, they will get 100 percent results."

After 90 minutes of chanting, the hopefuls queue for the nine oversized coffins, each marked with a random three-digit number which can be used for betting in the lottery, organisers say.

Once in the coffins, visitors hold a bunch of flowers, whisper some more prayers, then lie down and "die".

Monks pass a white cloth over the nine coffins, triggering the symbolic death and sucking the bad karma. Attendees are advised not to stand on the side of the coffin where the bad karma is dispelled.

Amulets and rituals promising protection, wealth or to fulfill wishes play a big role in the culture of the 95-per cent Buddhist kingdom, despite not being mentioned in Buddhist doctrine.

A few years ago, the nation scrambled for amulets featuring King Rama V.

Last year, a 51-year-old woman died as a crowd swarmed for a different talisman, which was believed to bring wealth and protection from harm.

These booms and busts for rituals, temples and amulets are not just fads, says Milos Hubina, a lecturer at the College of Religious Studies at Thailand's Mahidol University.

Rather, they reflect a widely-held belief that magic and luck can be used up over time and once they have been drained from one place, must be sought in another spiritually-charged object or ritual.

"This view of temporal efficiency or a temporal magic charge within the object is quite common in Thai culture," Hubina said.

"I think this is one of the reasons they have no problem with going crazy for an amulet one year and forget about it completely the next year."

As with many of the worshippers, money woes brought 50-year-old Thanyathon Iamnaimuang to the temple, and her initial success prompted the widowed mother of two to bring her friend Laongdao Chaiyasat.

"At first I was excited, shaking and I was afraid," the 42-year-old pharmacist said. "But the monk told me that if our mind is strong, we will progress steadily, so I wasn't afraid any more."

Patacharawarai Sri-on, 23, came to the temple out of curiosity and snapped pictures of the ceremony before stepping into the wooden box.

"I think it helps," she said after her "death" and "rebirth" were complete.

A fellow blogger Meeklamb wrote a great post with pictures which I wanted to borrow :D but need Meeklamb's permission first. Whilst waiting, do pop over to Meeklamb's post here and have a read.

Phew.. finally got that out of my system.. haha.. must be the Halloween feeling..

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Cosplay and Anime

Cosplay, which is shortform for Costume Play is rather interesting. I am told that it is really a performance art, where people dress up, complete with accessories and makeup and clothes, to portray a character from medias, which includes manga, anime, video games, etc etc.

In the begining, I was only familiar with Manga and Anime. That is why I love going to visit Kenny's blog. Codename: Dreams. Over the past month, I have learnt quite a lot manga and anime characters from his blog. It was Miow who introduced me to Cosplay. The first time was venturing into a shop called iSock or something like that at Berjaya Times Square. That is where I learned about the Lolitas and her friends. Some of the costumes were nice and sexy. Others were really wierd, dark and scary.


Anyway, I was at MidValley Mega Mall on Saturday and Sunday, helping out my friend at his booth in the 2008 Diet and Beauty Exhibition. By the end of the first day, as I was about to leave the exhibition center, I saw this one fella walking towards the other exhibition hall.

He looked suspiciously like one of those characters I saw on the Anime channel on Astro. So, I followed him in to the next hall and wow.. there was a whole bunch of them. They were really out of this world. I guess you either like them or you don't. I find them fascinating. To actually take the effort to dress up, complete with makeup and accessory, guys and girls alike.

As I was rushing to get back as my legs were killing me, I could only stay to snap shots of a few of them. As I left the hall, there were still several trouping in. They did not have their make-up on yet, so, I didn't bother to take their photos.

Mmm.. very interesting.

The crowd contrast was so obvious. This hall were filled with the young people. I think the average age must be around 20 years old to 22 years old.

In the other hall where the Diet and Beauty exhibition was being held, I think the average age would have to be around 35 years and definitely more.

When I went back to the exhibition halls this morning, I made sure I stood around Hall 1.... where the young people were... haha.. even though I am old in face, I am still young at heart.

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Horrible Intense Gastric Pains

Wow.. this morning was really agony for me. When I got up, I already started to feel some rumblings and twinges of pain running through my abdominal area. I knew that something was not right already. Even before I went to brush my teeth, I went to rummaged the medicine cabinet, took out 2 gastric pills and swallowed them with some water.

Went into the kitchen, put in some rice to be steamed in the brand new pressure cooker that I bought and whilst waiting for the rice to cook, took out the nori sheets, the sushi mat, the bonito, sesame seeds stuff that I used in the previous Bento #3 and suddenly, I felt this horrible cramp. Cold sweat broke out....sheeezzzz... went back to lie down on my stomach. Nope the pain was not going away.

The rice was ready as the timer which I set sounded. Dragged myself out of the bed. Went into the kitchen, decided that I still have to finish the bento but was not going to make rolls or fried eggs or anything too complicated as the pain was really killing me.

Took out the packet of chicken floss that I bought, placed it on a plate, poured some teriyaki sauce over it and mixed it up a little.

Put back the bamboo mat and took out the onigiri moulds and the small pieces of nori sheets. Seasoned the rice with some rice vinegar and a little salt. Used the chicken floss as fillings and as I was doing this , I was still breaking out in cold sweat.

Given any other day, I would have called in office and told them that I was going to the doctor and hopefully get a medical leave or worse case, take an emergency leave. But I could not do that as I had another of those meeting/presentation in the afternoon. I really had no appetite for rice or anything for that matter. So, this bento went to Tobiyama and his brother, who were going to a reiki class in the morning. They would probably eat this in the car for breakfast.

One more thing, Tobiyama has recently gone for sessions of alternative healing himself and he is also a level 2 reiki practitioner. I am also a level 2 reiki practitioner but there was a difference when he channeled healing energy to me. I did it to myself this morning but the pain lessened whilst I had my hand on my abdomen. Tobiyama did it for about 10 minutes, and in less than 5 minutes after that, I started puking. Every drop of water that I had taken in since I got up in the morning was ejected out of my body (via the mouth only..luckily). But I felt tremendous relief immediately. The pain was there but much more manageable. Mmmm.. some would say that it was the gastric medicine kicking in.. but me... I give credit to Tobiyama and his healing capabilities.

I think I know what did me in this morning.... it was my fruit tarts... those *@##@#* fruit tarts. Remember I mentioned that I made them for 2 friends birthday.. but I saved 2 for myself.. which I have forgotten to eat until last night. Ate one yesterday. Tasted ok. But this morning, I checked on the last one and there were molds on top of the blueberries... YUCKS!!! I think I must have eaten mold last night.. sheeesh... must check before eating the next time.

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Reconnective Healing

Have I ever mentioned that I am very interested in all things unconventional, whether it is unconventional music, food, religion, healing. Well, I have been a reiki level 2 student since many years ago and have been using it mainly to heal myself and some of those close to me. In the beginning, I was also a bit skeptical as to how effective this form of healing can be until a very personal experience I had in my office some years back. A colleague was having an awfully painful encounter in the office which later was diagnosed as a spontaneous abortion. Well, that experience really changed my entire perception and understanding on the potential of using reiki as an alternative form of healing.

Yesterday, as a result of much encouragement and sponsorship by a good friend, I made my way to Lighworks at the back of Wisma NPL for my Reconnective Healing. At times, we are not even aware of what sort of healing we need. Most of the time, we are only aware of our physical needs, but there is also our emotional needs, our psychological needs and also our body's hormonal needs. When I went through my reiki level 1 attunement process, which basically enables a recipient to open up and connect to the Universal Reiki Energies on a mental, physical, emotional and psychic level plus it also clears and balances many important energy channels within the body, I never thought that what I needed healing most was my emotional side. After the attunement process, my Reiki Master did ask me to be prepared as sometimes healing takes place after experiencing some unexpected results due to "cleansing" or what others would call de-toxification. Little did I know that my healing started in the middle of the night, in a cyber cafe. Half way chatting to a friend in Canada, suddenly, I felt quite emotional and tears started to roll down my face. Heck, we were chatting about his lakeside holiday the weekend before. I had to quickly bade him goodbye and log off my MSN and practically ran out of the cafe. The bout of tears went on for almost 5 whole minutes. Mmmm... according to my Reiki Master, I must have been carrying these emotional baggages without knowing that I was. Cool...hahaha..

Anyway, after the healing treatment yesterday, the facilitator informed me that healing will take place when when his treatment stopped ... yikes...i hope it is not with another bout of tears to kick off the healing .. haha.. but i doubt it..my emotional baggages have all been cried out the last time...but let me share this with you (hopefully he is not going to kill me when he finds out that I have posted his less than attractive picture here)... a friend who went for his healing session almost a month back was a-ok until 2 days ago. He broke out in rashes.. from the scalp on his head to the soles of his feet... he looked like he was going to transform into the THING.. from the Fantastic Four Team. Asked him if he felt any super powers surging in... for that I got a growl... oh well, it is not everyday one has a superhero for a friend mah!! According to the facilitators at Lightworks, this is likely to by my friend's way of his body getting rid of all the toxins. Each person will experience different results after the treatment.


This reminded me of the healing potentials of lingzhi. Many have spoken of the lingzhi's ability to heal a lot of illness but before healing can take place, one has to experience some form of detoxification. Some people even get fevers, coughs, colds. Well, I will soon know :)

Lightworks

General Line
Tel: +6 03 2143 2966
Fax: +6 03 2143 2977

Address:
19, Jalan Mesui
Off Jalan Nagasari
Kuala Lumpur
50200

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Crystals' been helping me zzzzzz

Since the beginning of this year, or was it end of last year, my dear friend Tobiyama has been very interested in Crystals and the healing powers that they were purported to have. He has been going to this place called Lightworks and has invested in a fair bit of these crystals. He gave some to me in a bag and I have been carrying them in my handbag since then. Shhhh.. don't tell him but at first when he gave it to me, I was not really thinking too much about the healing potentials of them.. rather, I look at them as weapons... they were sure prettier to put in my handbag than bricks :), in case I need to wallop a thief or two should they stop me for my handbag.



I have been feeling tired and sleepy in the mornings for the longest time and I have put this down to having rather restless nights, with dreams of which some I can remember, some which I cannot recall at all when I wake up. So, I decided.... nothing to loose but try to see if the crystals can help. So, what I was told to do was first, to reiki these crystals first and then place them under my pillow. Surprisingly, I didn't feel them when I slept on the pillow. Maybe it is because I am using this wonderful "therapy" pillow which is contoured to take the shape of your neck and head. Wonderful pillow...only RM15 plus pillowcase. Got it at IKEA.


Wow... every night since then, sleep has been wonderful. I just "switch off like a light" and when morning came, I would wake up fresh. No dreams or no recollection at all of any dreams (if I had any at all) and the body felt totally rested. There are plenty of websites on Crystal Healing but I found this page rather interesting.

These days, for me its "Have crystals will travel". Wherever I go, my bag of crystals goes with me. HeeHee..after food....sleep is the most important thing to me...(oink oink..grunt, grunt).

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Time to shift my seating position :)

As most of you already know, the Year of the Earth Rat arrived yesterday at 7:30pm. And guess what, this year, I am really going to practice what I preach. This was really triggered by what my ex-Managing Director said to me a few weeks ago during lunch time. He said "Things have not been going to well for you lately has it?". Not sure if he meant it as a joke or whether he was serious as what he said did hit the nail on the head. After thinking about it, I realized that yeah.. i could calculate where the auspicious stars seated and where a person should locate himself or herself, especially for those who have come to seek advice from me. But as for myself, I definitely was not practicing what I preached.

For the whole of last year, I was actually seated in a position which promoted arguments and relationship problems. I must say that that was oh so true. There have been cold wars and hot wars. They were definitely unpleasant but as I was also living out the year of the boar, which was my "emptiness" year, I was probably caught in a period of being confused and lost. But as the boar left, clarity came back. As I am writing this post, I already have my compass out and have marked out the auspicious sector where I am going to located my table. I cannot really request for a new office spot but the least I can do with this limitation is to change the seated and facing direction of my office table.

This is the position of the various auspicious stars and inauspicious stars for the year 2008. Normally people used the annual flying stars positions to maximize short-term good feng shui energies. All one has to remember is that the most auspicious positions by virtue of the Qi positioning is the East and the South East Sector, or even the centre. But it would rather be ridiculous to seat or to sleep in the middle of the room. The numbers 8, 9 and 1 are where the auspicious stars are located.


If you are seated in the East or South East Sector and also facing any of these two positions will be what we call having fine-tuned the seating position.

What I intend to do would be to place my table in either the East or the South East position. If I don't do that, I am likely to find myself still in a very argumentative state plus deteriorated health. A little bit of effort is all I need to do. No need to ask the company for budget to add furniture or do any renovations. And I am certainly not going to place any items or feng shui objects onto my already work cluttered table :).

Well.. (rolling up sleeves getting ready to move table).. here's to a much better year of the Earth Rat for me :)

Feng Shui

The Year of the Earth Rat Starts today!

Chinese New Year eCards are flying over the internet and everybody assumes that the new year of the Rat will start on the 7th February 2008. But in the study of Feng Shui, the year of the Earth Rat actually starts tonight after 7pm on the 4th of February 2008. The 4th day of February signifies the coming of Spring in the Chinese Solar Calender. The 7th February 2008 signifies the new moon in the Chinese Lunar Calender. So, if one is concerned about their luck for this coming year, then the Rat arrives tonight.

This is the Bazi Chart which is plotted using the Online Tools off the Mastery Academy of Chinese Metaphysics Website. It probably makes no sense to those who are not in the study of Chinese Metaphysics. The reason why I added it to this post look a little bit more authentic..hehehe



But after saying that, luck (whether good or bad) does not happen like the water off a tap.. where you turn on or off. The year of the Boar tapers off whilst the Rat moves in subtly. Just because you heard over the radio that you have abundant good luck in the year of the Rat, do not put all your savings on the poker table during your sessions during the new year. It really does not work that way.

I was listening over the radio this morning and there was a Feng Shui master who was doing predictions for the year and for those individuals who sms-ed in their hour and date of birth. It was rather interesting as different feng shui masters uses different techniques and interpretation to derive their readings. But my advice is whatever you hear or read, do not be fixated. The bazi readings are only to give you a guide to life. It shows you your potential. How you live this life is something you have control over, either through your actions or non-actions.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends and all who happen to drop in a wonderful and happy New Year of the Earth Rat!

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Astrology, Bazi, Destiny Reading, Naadi Readings

It is Man's basic nature to be curious and at the same time fearful of the unknown. The new year has just started and some of my friends have been calling me to see if I am free to do a smite of reading for them. Some have been very nice about it.. like they start with "Hey.. how have you been keeping? Are you like very busy??" By the 3rd sentence, they would pop out the real reason as to why they were talking to me in the first place ... "Can you do a reading for me ah?".

There was this one guy who turned rather nasty on me by calling me dirty names over the MSN. He has seen several astrology masters and when I tell him certain things, he says "yeah, I know that already". So, what the heck does he want to know since he knows everything already!!!.

Reading one's future is an arts & science thing. It can be a very sensitive subject matter indeed. For everyone who is interested in knowing what the future holds for them, there are 10 others who either thinks it’s a scam or against their religion or just not the thing for them.

It is my personal believe that to know what the future holds for you means you have that added advantage in the planning of your future. For example, if it written in your cards, or palms or whatever that you are more suited to a job which involved moving around, i.e. not desk bound, shouldn't you then make plans to go into a career that offers that kind of opportunity? Or if the next few years are going to be very positive and auspicious times, shouldn't you maximize your potential then. Alternatively, it is the reverse, and then maybe more time should be spent in self development or something which does not involve moving too aggressively in one's career?

I have always been curious about my own future and that was one of the reasons why I took up the study of Bazi (4 Pillars of Destiny) with Master Joey Yap. It has been a long road but I am glad to say that I have completed my diploma in Bazi with the Mastery Academy. I know that there are many other forms of study but some of them are not easy to learn or readily available. There is one very interesting form of readings that I would really like to explore.. not in terms of studying it, but more of checking it out to see how it runs alongside with the study of Bazi. This is what they call the Naadi Palm Leaves reading. But a friend also told me that very good Naadi Palm Leaf readers are in Chennai. Sign.. what a long way to travel just to have your astrology read :(.

Good to Great in 2008

Ballroom 1 & 2 KL Convention Centre, bursting at it's seams with more than 3000 people

I was at the Feng Shui & Astrology Seminar for 2008 conducted by Joey Yap yesterday. The crowd was 3000 thick. They kept having to add chairs at the back of the hall. It's a wonder that people didn't have to sit on each other's laps. He was his usual self, humorous, at times sarcastic but totally practical with his suggestions and explanations. It was an extremely interesting seminar.

Joey Yap...a very articulate speaker

In a nutshell, his advice for everyone is not to be fixated with what one reads from his/her destiny chart. The destiny chart reveals the person's capacity and potential in life. What is more important is what one's does with it. His words of wisdom has always been "It is not the cards life has dealt you with .... it is how you play those cards that counts!".

He also mentioned that the horoscopes and astrological predictions that one reads in the Sunday papers are published with the intention to entertain as they are very general in nature. It’s objective is for people to have fun, read it with a large pinch of salt and generally forget about it. Why? Well, if it was written all those born in the year of the Tiger will likely meet with an accident, then all the hospitals in the world would not be enough to house the 1/12 ratio of the billions of people in the entire world born in the year of theTiger. That would be ridiculous wouldn’t it??

Book signing

Anyways, he did mention that generally the effects of a year on any person will depend on the hour, date, month and year in which he or she was born in. Interesting isn’t it. I will try to consolidate all that he presented yesterday and put in into a file. If you are interested, do drop me a tinkle :). Or you can can also read what he has to say in today's The Star's article.

Joey's staff, My friend, the Sales Guru, Nathan

Joey's staff, My friend, the very pretty Jamie

Joey's staff, My friend, the cute photographer Chris

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A Tree Man

I was flipping through the papers today and chanced upon the article which read "Tree Man". The only Tree Man I know is Treebeard, from Lord of the Rings. The article in the local daily was rather brief and as this was definitely something categorized under unusual and unconventional, my interest was tickled.

Searching through the internet, I found that the original article probably came from The Telegraph UK. The Tree Man is actually a fisherman from Indonesia who has tree-like growths covering his body and what caught my attention was really his hands and his feet. These have turned into gnarled twisted tree trunks. His predicament started after an accident when he was in his teens.

The photos below are taken from the Telegraph.Co.Uk (Britain's No.1 quality newspaper website)







A dermatologist Dr Anthony Gaspari from the US, who is looking into this case, concluded that this affliction was due to a virus causes warts. But in Dede's case, due to his defective immune system, his body was not able to fight of this wart causing virus.


For a more detail report on this story, click here.

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Weird Cures that Works??

There are lots of home cures and weird cures that people have sworn that works. Today, we are told that Vodka drips saved a tourist in Australia by reversing the effects of poison. Shucks.. I should not have given away my bottle of Absolute Vodka to the guys who washes my car every week :(.

There are lots more of these weird cures which we have tried. I still remember in the old days when my grandmother was still around. Each time any of us kids complain of twitchings in the eyelid area, she will either tie a twisted black and white thread on one of our fingers or she will tear a small piece of red paper (chinese use that for lining their altars) and wets it with her saliva and stick it on our eyelid (Yucks). But if I do recall correctly, the twitchings did stop. Not sure whether it would have stopped anyway in due time.

I would not classify what I am going to share under the category of Alternative Medicine (like Herbs, Accupuncture, etc) but I supposed if it is not too dangerous, it's not going to kill ya (smirk) or you could try them on your best pal (hahaha).

Most of these are researched from this fabulous source UCLA Online American Folk Medicine Database. There are some which are totally mind boggling, like these....

Headaches - To cure headache, take a rope used to hang someone and wrap it around your head.

Birth Control - Jump backwards several times in the direction of the sunset, then wake up and jump backwards several more times in the direction of the sunrise, all to avoid being pregnant.

Hiccoughs - get a small cup of water, and light a match. put out the match in the water (throwing it away when it's out) and then have the person with the hiccoughs drink the water.

Nosebleed - Pull three hairs from the top of the head, and it will stop a nosebleed

Constipation - For constipation give castor oil in small doses. Also rub the armpits, rump, backbone and stomach.

Toothache - charm written on paper and put in cotton bag around neck

Very disappointing to find that there is no cure for Laziness and mum was wrong. There is indeed a cure for Stupidity. The cure for Stupidity (of coz they were too polite to call it that, instead, they call it mental abilities, lack acuity ), the cure is pluck hairs above nose buahahaha.

Finally... some good dates :)

I have been reading and plotting for days and finally, I have come up with several great dates in the Month of October for me to do some personal stuff. After having attended the National Feng Shui Congress recently, I have decided not to just leave everything to chance, or luck as some people call it. If I am able to plot my personal good dates to do certain tasks and if the chances of better results are available, why not. It is not really going to cost me anything, other than some time (which I would otherwise be watching The Sopranos...thanks babe for lending me the dvds).

Like I mentioned in my previous posts, the art of personal date selection is to first eliminate all the "bad" dates and then select the most prefered good dates from the balance of the usable dates.



Identifying "bad" dates is quite simple. "Bad" dates are generally dates which are not suitable for carrying out important events like marriage, moving house, signing contracts or anything thing else which one deems to be significant in their lives. These "bad" dates are normally dates which clashes with the Year (Animal) and the Month (Animal). In the study of chinese metaphysics, we identify the Qi for the year and months by using the animal signs as this is much easier for lay people to understand.



Hence, I have identified these following dates as "bad" dates to avoid regardless of the individual's year of birth. I have only done October 2007 for the time being.

1st - Year Breaker
13th - Month Breaker
14th - Year Breaker
25th - Month Breaker
26th - Year Breaker

Other "bad" dates which should be avoided would be those considered Disaster Days and 3 Killings. These are a little more complicated to explain but nevertheless, one should try to avoid selecting these dates for very important activities.

5th, 6th & 7th - 3 Killings
17th, 18th & 19th - 3 Killings
29th, 30th & 31st - 3 Killings

20th & 22nd - Disaster Days.



The balance of the dates in the month of October will be considered usable dates. Of course, one would like to get to the exact few dates which are considered the most auspicious for one. To do this, one has to elimnate one more set of dates, and that is the personal breaker dates, i.e. dates which clashes with one's year of birth.

Having done all the above, I have come up with 3 very auspicious dates for me for the month of October, i.e. the 12th, 27th and 28th of October. So, with a little bit of effort, I will now confidently use these dates for an important acitivity of mine.

Just one word of advice though, NEVER get paranoid or go overboard with date selections. Most of the time, these dates are only used for people who are deciding when to carry out major events like those mentioned earlier. Don't let it control all aspect of your life until you dare not step out of your front door on a "bad" date or have a haircut or go out with friends for dinner.

NFSC - Going through a Good Luck Phase?

One of the topics discussed during the National Feng Shui Congress (NFSC) was Personal Date Selection. Joey mentioned that to be successful, one must be at the Right Place, Doing the Right Thing at the Right Time. Sounds easy enough but I used to think that a lot of it was left to chance or luck.



However, I am not so certain of that anymore. Having been a student of Chinese Metaphysics for the last few years, I have come to acknowledge the fact that life is always better if you had the ability to make informed decision. It is not really that hard to accept.

I know that probably it is not only the Chinese who have been using Date Selection as an integral tool in selecting the most auspicious time and date for a wide range of activities, from commencing a business venture or partnership, to getting married or moving house. Of course in the old days, the farmers selected auspicious dates to start planting their crops based on calculations and the tung shu (chinese farmers only coz this tung shu is a chinese almanac). Now the farmers uses weather forecasts and good seeds.

I do believe people of other races and cultures are also using some form of date selection techniques to identify auspicious timings for their various forms of ventures.

At the congress, Joey gave some tips on the selection of personal good dates. He mentioned that there are several techniques one can use for the date selection. The 1st method is by using our individual Destiny Codes. This is based on the time, date, month and year of our birth. From these 4 pieces of information, we are able to locate our individual luck pillars. This will give us a very broad view of the luck cycle we are in at the moment and what sort of luck we will be moving into.

Face reading is the 2nd method. This is quite simple to do. The face holds very important information about us and our lives, if only we know where to look. To determine general good luck periods, we look at a person’s forehead, between his eyes, his eyes and his nose (“he” here refers to both genders). The forehead of the person should be high. High here is defined as higher than 5 fingers width, from the hairline to the eyebrows.

The area between the eyebrows must be “bright” and fleshy. His eyes should be alert (not dull or watery) and full of spirit and his nose tip should also be fleshy (not bulbous) and has a healthy shade (not oily). These are all indications that the person is undergoing an auspicious luck period.

The 3rd method which Joey recommended was using the Flying Stars. This technique is not only used for the plotting of a house feng shui but also for our personal feng shui. We use the person’s Gua (based on his year of birth) to determine his luck for this month and the year as well.

When we use only 1 of the methods, obviously it can become rather general as there are lots of people born in the same year and some facial features are not easy to discern. However, when we take the person’s birthdate and time to add to the entire equation, then the results are more tailored to that one person.

All these will just give us a very rough indication on the person’s luck for the current period. Once the good luck period is determined, then one can go into the dates selection. Joey wrote an entire book on this subject matter but in a nutshell, his technique is first to eliminate all the “bad” inauspicious dates leaving only a handful of “good” dates. You’d be surprise to know that out of 365 days in a year, sometimes we can only get about 10 good days. Ha ha.. does this mean that for the rest of the 355 days, we just sleep the days away, doing nothing for fear of getting lousy repercussions? Nah.. that is being too paranoid already. These so call good days are really reserved for very important events like going into a business venture, starting a partnership, getting married or moving house. Come on, we don’t do this sort of thing every other month do we?

Well, if you are interested in learning more about Personal Dates Selection, you can do one of many things. Consult a feng shui master; buy the Personal Date Selection book from Joey Yap’s website or at any of the bookstores; or ASK ME. I am trying to plot my own Personal Good dates at the moment and I can teach you how to do it at the same time.

Anyways, I am still compiling some of the stuff talked about at the National Feng Shui Congress. So, watch this space.

Musicals;Metaphysics;Exhibitions;Death & a Wedding!

The weekend has just passed and it was kinda of a mixed emotional bag.

I started Friday with a wonderful time at Bangsar Actor's Studio, watching the KL Young Singers at the 5th Anniversary Performance. It was light; it was nice but really... I am biased. I have always enjoyed YKLS, whatever they have thrown at me in the past and whatever they will throw at me in the future. Having excellent seats and getting them on time to go in also helped the mood a lot :D. The songs which they did were from their past performances but I totally melted when they sang that "lum" song, Autumn Leaves. (lum here means romantic :>). Fantastic arrangement. I was rather disappointed when there was no encore. Don't know what happen? Guess the audience was totally mesmerized by the singers that they didn't wake up until the house lights were all turned on.

Saturday was the first day of the National Feng Shui Congress at KL Convention Centre. Being the cheapskate that I was, decided to save on 6 bucks parking next to the KL Convention Centre by parking at my office and walking there. Really regretted it when I walked back in the evening, lugging 4 thick books with me :(.







The conference was so interesting. Students, friends and audience coming in from 4 continents and for the 1st time, Joey Yap, the Master gave his senior student lecturers some stage time. They covered several topics related to Feng Shui for the Housebuyers. There is so much to share and I am now trying to compile all the inputs into logical buckets for postings.





I have been receiving sms from my Dharma Centre regarding an exhibition which they have been invited to participate in and we have been urged to go support. Being the "blur like sotong me", I did not really register in my mind the actual location of the exhibition until I met a friend from my Dharma Centre JP at KL Convention Centre. I said "Hi..What are you here for?". He said "Why.. for our Centre's Booth exhibit of coz!". Opps... pretended I knew that all along and said "Of coz. Well, see you in abit. Going to the loo first!". What a dumb arse (me). Anyway, during the Congress lunch break, I grab a quick bite and went over to the EXPAT exhibit Halls 3 & 4 to go look for the Kechara Mystical Treasures booth. Met so many people over there. Bought a nice miniature altar for my beautiful Vajrayogini. She is going to love it :).

















Sunday morning.... received a very sad sms. My friend Adrin's beloved father passed away in the morning. I felt so sad for him. And I hate to say this... being Adrin's MSN pal for so long & he is also a member of my Dharma Centre, I did not even have his mobile number. Could not say how sorry I was to hear of his father's demise. Can't expect the man to be on MSN like right now, I felt really like the dumb arse that I am. Anyway, quickly changed and went off to the Congress. This time, parked next to KL Convention Centre. Paid RM6 for the open air parking space but that sure beats walking 15 mins back to the office to collect the car. Joey's talk was as always, informative, humorous and impactful. But couldn't wait for lunch time to happen so that I can run over to the Kechara Mystical Treasures booth to ask for Adrin's number.

Brought some friends from the Congress over to the booth along the way and managed to get Adrin's number. So many friends at the booth so did not get a chance to sms Adrin. Hung around and chatted until it was time to go back to the Congress. During the later part of the Congress, one of the speakers spoke on Yin House Feng Shui (feng shui for tombs). A very experienced speaker, an engineer by profession who took us to a virtual trip to China to view some of the famous emperors' tombs. Fantastic speakers... if only I see more of these kind of high caliber speakers at work.

Congress ended at about 6pm, took a quite bite and rang off to a colleague's wedding at The Concorde. It was more like a reunion for me. Met up with so many ex-colleagues there. The food was excellent and the company was great.


3 handsome eligible young men at the wedding dinner last nite:)


Amidst all this, I suddenly thought of Adrin. Sent him an sms with words of comfort and really from the bottom of my heart, May he always be guided by the wisdom of Buddhadharma. May his father have a swift and positive rebirth.


Got home, showered, read a little and finally got to sleep at 1:30pm.