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What Feng Shui did you study?

Sep 6, 2024

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Black Sect Lineage


I compiled some research of the BTB tradition and wanted to share a post about it. My info was primarily distilled from Laura Morris and Anjie Cho’s teachings from my certification from Mindful Design Feng Shui School, Katherine Metz https://www.katherinemetz.com, and Benebell Wen's writings about feng shui https://benebellwen.com.


My feng shui foundation comes from lineage teachings of Black Sect Tantric Buddhism (often shortened to BTB) or Black Sect Feng Shui being the most common names.


Black Sect Feng Shui derives from the oldest tradition of feng shui, coming from the indigenous Tibetan Bon tradition.  It is a lineage thousands of years old, and focuses on the primary flow of Qi rather than absolute direction.


Black Sect is non theistic and has shamanic, Taoist, Chinese folklore, and Tibetan Buddhist influences. The lineage categories its primary influences in stages. Stage 1 is its roots in the indigenous Bon tradition of Tibet. Stage 2 is when Buddhism from India spread to Tibet, resulting in a branching of multiple Tantric Buddhist Lineages. Black Sect retained Bon practices, unlike the other lineages. In its 3rd Stage, Black Sect was heavily influenced by Chinese culture, folklore, and philosophy. Stage 4 is when BTB feng shui was introduced to the west by Professor Thomas Lin Yun and was heavily influenced by adapting to western culture and modern knowledge and technology.  It is currently in Stage 5 under the lineage holder Khadro Crystal Chu Rinpoche under the name Black Sect Esoteric Buddhism. You can find out more about her and the Lin Yun Temple at  https://www.yunlintemple.org.


Professor Thomas Lin Yun brought the BTB lineage to the west, and emphasized the adaptable nature of Black Sect traditions. He stressed the importance of cultural and locational relevancy, incorporating contemporary knowledge like psychology, architecture, urban planning, ecology, color theory, and medicine. Another defining characteristic of BTB credited to Lin Yun is the emphasis on cultivating personal intention and using transcendental cures.


“Just like the color black absorbs all other colors and becomes blacker, the Black Sect absorbs all the knowledge it encounters, keeps what works, and becomes wiser and more effective.” - Professor Lin Yun (as recalled by Katherine Metz)


SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT


There are different schools of thought, primarily Form school or Compass school. Form school is the oldest feng shui tradition and possibly where feng shui gets its name - Wind (Feng) and Water (Shui). Form feng shui is most concerned with natural land formations and urban alterations. How does the wind and the water flow in a given area? (The Form school of thought is what our Black Sect lineage is rooted in.)


There is a Chinese poem from which the term feng shui could possibly derive, describing ideal conditions:

The winds are mild,

The sun is warm (bright),

The water is clear,

The trees are lush.


Compass feng shui is based on the cardinal directions of North, South, East, and West, using absolute directions to orient itself.  Compass has many branches to it, often prioritizing hemisphere location, astrologies, and calendars. There are many other schools of feng shui.  No one school is more correct than another, they are different structures and ways of understanding and practicing feng shui. They all have a common goal of cultivating harmony and wellbeing.


Like the blind each touching a different part of an elephant, their description of the part they experience is true and valid, and not discredited by being an incomplete expression of an elephant. Each of us is experiencing and seeing only our part of the mysteries of life.



Mariah Braden

Sep 6, 2024

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