There are different types of teachers and with different agendas. But many teachers sincerely want to have their students learn something practical right away. We also want students to learn how to make a change to their personal space that will work fast. Some of this is intended to help “sell” Feng Shui. We want our students to believe that Feng Shui really works, so we might try to give them something powerful right off the bat. It is actually hard to dispense anything more than general information to a classroom full of people who each have unique properties and unique circumstances that we don’t know about.
Out of context, many recommendations can sound strange or ritualistic or even superstitious. When I teach a three hour intro class, I build the students up the first half of the class with a rapid over view of such profound topics as Yin-Yang Theory, Qi Flow Theory, Eight Trigram Theory and Five-Element Theory. I tell the students that we are spending only ten minutes on subjects which each deserve a week of instruction. And yet, like other teachers, my end game is to quickly get the students to a point where they can understand some of the theory or the mechanics behind some powerful adjustments they can make.
The truth is that Feng Shui is best taught in a certain order, and this can include more theory and more explanations before we even get to the point of actual remedies. In fact, I have seen it time and time again where someone was trying to adjust their own living space before they even had the minimum required amount for learning for creating a Flying Star chart (energy blueprint based on when the structure was built and its precise compass alignment).
Those of you reading this article have different back grounds in your exposure to this mystical art form. Some of you may only have a passing interest, while others have studied formally and even some of you are practitioners. So, ask yourselves, would you be willing or would you have been willing in the beginning of your studies, to spend a hundred hours learning more about the philosophy behind this ancient practice, before rushing the “cures” and remedies?
We live in a fast food culture and every time I have been interviewed by the media, they all want easy “Top Ten” To Do lists and simple actions that everyone can apply to their lives without any training whatsoever. So, we teachers end up getting reduced to some of the LEAST interesting things to talk about.
Then, in a number of classical schools, the more esoteric explanations are left for advanced practitioner courses. I view this as teaching Feng Shui backwards because many of us are a little insecure and we want people to trust us and believe that Feng Shui is for real and not a superstition. Because of this, we sometimes leave out many interesting, subtle, and even profound sections of learning. In fact, once a student learns the “rules,” they really need to continue their studies to discover all the “exceptions to the rules” and ultimately how to “break the rules.”
Years ago, I once called a Feng Shui master whose books impressed me and I asked her if she ever took on any private students. She said yes. My next question was how many years that private student would need to study with her. She said “about eight years.” Compare THAT curriculum with schools that certify their students in a matter of weeks! This is a completely different problem within the Feng Shui industry, where some people teach “backwards” because sadly they really don’t have enough material to share with their students. These same students think they are more advanced than they really are and they don’t know what they are missing. This became crystal clear to me when students who had graduated from other schools where shocked to find out new things in my Beginner’s class.
For more information about Kartar’s School of Traditional Feng Shui, visit the School section of my website.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From the On-Line Students Blog Series
