Glimpses Through a Feng Shui Telescope (I)

Though I have studied many schools, what I ultimately put into practice and found truly effective still comes from the Yinfu school. The various arts in the marketplace, some with rather profound principles, I have studied for years and paired with various secret formulas, yet mostly left me disappointed; those with any accurate effect were few, though some merit consideration.

To assess them: Golden Lock has the power of verification but lacks transformation; Dunjia has miraculous swift results, yet rebound effects follow; the Four Great Formations of Sanhe are reliable but rarely seen in practice; the intercourse of Sanyuan is but a beginner's stumbling; Heavenly Father and Earth Mother is slightly better than blind guessing; Pure Yin and Pure Yang often conflict with the writings of clear-sighted masters; Shen's Flying Stars should never be used for yin dwellings; the Six Methods' theories are arcane yet impractical; there is also what is called Great Xuan Kong, which merely resembles Sanyuan qi reception and often fails verification—it is no more than a flying method applied through the Kun formula, seeming reasonable but yielding very slight results. There are also the Heluo water methods, whose principles are elaborate and complex, sometimes matching; further, techniques like the Pot-Ghost hexagrams, Plum Blossom alone, the Central Fire Two Stars, and constellation-based sand elimination, though commonly seen, mostly fail to match.

As for all these various methods, to call them false is too harsh, and to call them true falls short; yet they still beat idle ruminations. Thus the methods of the marketplace may be consulted for reference, but must not be blindly believed.