Political Feng Shui

It’s almost a year until the presidential elections and I’m already sick of the political scene. I’m tired of thinking about how much money is being spent on ads for these people when our health system is in dire need of financial resurrection. I’m tired of hearing about the tweak someone’s platform took when a candidate used different wording to describe their stand on Iraq. I reach for the remote when I have to hear again how the polls are doing. It’s a year away, people.

However, the thing that rankles me the most is when these intelligent, brilliant (okay, that might be a stretch), savvy individuals resort to standing in front of national television and spend their time, my time, and everyone’s time running down their opponents. Rather than explain their own positions on our world, clarify their proposed policies, explain their strategies if elected, they belittle their opponents, and, I feel, themselves in the process. Who taught them this was a good approach? Now it’s such a standard tactic that if one person doesn’t get on this accusatory band-wagon, they’re left in the dust.

Well, this is the world of politics, as disgusting as it is. What has really saddened me is that this strategy is now permeating the world of Feng Shui. Just this week two situations occurred which nearly brought me to tears. One was an article forwarded to me which was published in the Finance and Commerce magazine/journal, an obviously local publication here in Minnesota. During the course of the article, a practitioner from the compass school of Feng Shui discussed her observations about the IDS building in relation to City Center, two major buildings in downtown Minneapolis----one which has struggled from its beginning and the other which seems to be thriving. She didn’t explain if she was hired to do this or whether this was simply a way for her to express her views. Nonetheless, some valid and interesting points were made about these two buildings and how they affected one another. However, for some reason unknown to me, the practitioner was compelled to take a jab at the western version of Feng Shui (aka Black Sect, the other main school of Feng Shui) that is currently so popular in the States. She readily offered her “disdain” for this form of “psychobabble” and “nonsense.” I didn’t see any value that was gained in making derogatory remarks about the school and those of us who practice this form of Feng Shui. I re-read her comments which I originally thought were well-founded and insightful and, quite honestly, dismissed them. A knee-jerk reaction, I grant you.

The very next day another article came across my desk entitled “What You Should Know Before You Hire a Feng Shui Consultant.” This consultant, a compass student, left no doubt in anyone’s mind about her opinion of the western version. Yikes! I broke out in a cold sweat reading her comments and her experiences working with people who had had the great misfortune of hiring a Black Sect consultant. In between her valid suggestions about what and who to look for to make sure you get the help you want, she couldn’t keep from blasting away at a perspective different from her own. She could have easily made her point without the insults and jabs. Again, I couldn’t help but dismiss her 12-page diatribe in toto----the good with the bad.

Any one of us who work a lot, or even exclusively, in the realm of Black Sect Feng Shui could have responded to both articles, arguing each point, defending our own system, offering countless examples of how the allegations were not based on fact but rather on ignorance, and offering examples of how compass is “nonsense” as well. But what would have been the point of that? Besides, those of us in Black Sect don’t believe that at all. We know the two systems are different—neither one being better than the other. In September, I was part of a Feng Shui conference in New Jersey where the whole theme was about working together, no matter what school is our preference. It was a very empowering and successful undertaking. In all of my training in both the compass tradition and in Black Sect, my teachers were adamant about being non-critical of other schools, other teachers, other consultants.

Perhaps politics has entered the realm of Feng Shui. It doesn’t seem like a good move to me. The latter example mentioned above hit home pretty hard for me since this was a former student of mine. I know she didn’t learn that in the classes she attended here in Minneapolis. I ask what is gained from taking this approach? Perhaps these two people have been watching too many political debates?

In a perfect world, politicians would smile at one another, congratulate one another on their victories (and mean it), keep in mind the big picture (making the world a better place), and stop the critical comments. It goes without saying, Feng Shui practitioners would do the same. In my perfect world, I had hoped Feng Shui practitioners would help to lead the way to this new paradigm----maybe not yet.