SOMETHING GREAT IS WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED
photo from NASA
Once, my teacher Master Seol-won took me to the Unmunsa (雲門寺, Cloud Gate) temple in Mount Crouching Tiger in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea. It is an old Zen temple first built in the 6th century, and since the 50s, it has been used as the largest training centre for nuns under the Jogye Order.
Owing to its long history, there are many interesting things to share about the temple, but what impressed me the most was its location. We drove into the deep mountains for about an hour, when out of nowhere, a completely flat landscape appeared. It looked as though the flat land was cuddled up by the layers of mountains that formed a crouching tiger.
From the viewpoint of Feng Shui, the temple is designed in such a way that its back is turned to the crouching tiger, rather than standing against it. You don't want to confront the tiger, but with your back turned to it, you must stay awake with your eyes wide open at all times. If they slack off for even a moment, practitioners would be bitten. It is like having a very strict teacher, like a tiger. Just so, this temple has been an institution producing many excellent Buddhist practitioners since the beginning.
The dirt ground also seemed pretty firm and solid throughout the area. As you go through the thick old pine tree forest to get to the main gate, you can see tree branches gently bent over the road like awnings. Everything grows properly and harmoniously here and you can feel the calm and grounding energy as you enter the area. It was a very special place, indeed.
Old temples and auspicious places have their own unique and powerful energy that have been continuously drawing people in for centuries, but their locations are not easily accessible for most people, even in the 21st century. So, I asked my old teacher how the people found special sites like these over a thousand years ago. As always, his answer was simple and powerful. He said:
“You can't possibly look for a site of this calibre on your own. It has to choose you for you to discover it.”
That was it. All these sites have their own story of how they were discovered and by whom. Typically, those chosen to do the job had a higher level of consciousness and got their calling either in a dream or in deep meditation.
This can be applied to our modern day flat hunting. The area you live in and how your home environment is arranged says a lot about your current energy. If you don't resonate with the place, it will push you away — at least a place with good energy works that way.
Then, how do we raise the level of our energy? First and the foremost, you need to keep yourself balanced physically, mentally and spiritually. Good and bad things happen to us in life, and sometimes, good turns to bad and bad turns to good. Staying balanced doesn't mean that you shouldn't be happy when something good happens and shouldn't be sad when something bad happens. Balanced living means you enjoy the happiness as much as you can and cry a river when you feel sad; then after a reasonable time, bounce back to the balanced state, the Middle Way (中道, Zhong-dao).
The best way to bring yourself to the middle way is by taking a pause out of your busy schedule as often as you can. Taking a pause means stepping aside from being who you are through a short meditation. Trust me, it's not wasting your busy day. When you are balanced, you can effortlessly manage any tasks in front of you to your best possible ability. According to Laozi (老子), this is living effortlessly through Effortless Actions (無爲, Wu-wei). Naturally, through the effect of resonance, your life, in general, will become calm and peaceful with more orderly things happening around you.
In Nature and in life, when your energy reaches a certain vibrational level, everything with the same frequency resonates and they all start discovering one another.
Maggie H is a Life Cartographer, Eastern philosopher, Qigong master, Buddhist and Taoist meditator, Feng Shui practitioner, and researcher of Buddhist scriptures. She lives in Hong Kong, and regularly travels to both India and South Korea to further her spiritual growth and development. Her lifelong motto is: "benefit to all humankind."