My Thoughts On Why Learning The History And Philosophy Is Important

Have you ever been in a situations where a group of middle-aged adults come together and start talking about Chinese metaphysics - be it BaZi or feng shui - as though they really know what was going on? Many of my clients, especially the young ones, describe such a scene to me when they are at family gatherings during the Chinese New Year festive season.

To the layman, you'd probably brush it off and see it as just another common topic people bicker about.

To a practitioner like myself, these are the eye-rolling moments where you realize how ignorant and naive people can be. This goes back to my rule of why I don't want people to get too excited about reading charts, because unless you go into the history and philosophy of things, you're not going to understand what you're talking about or what you're learning.

If you've been through the Singapore education system and did math, and never understood why cos + sin = 0 but you just memorized it because it's going to get you that A grade, there should be no reason why you should be talking about metaphysics as if you knew what was going on. You probably don't even remember what cos + sin = 0 is anymore.

***

You cannot truly be a master or expert on something if you're not curious about the origins of a subject. Most students these days rush into wanting to learn to read a chart without given Chinese metaphysics the due respect it deserves and this is not a good thing.

I had quite a number of students under me before I kick-started this online school, and as I've said, most wanted to rush into learning how to read the chart. In the end, they didn't get very far in their studies as the foundation was very weak.

I self-taught myself Chinese metaphysics. I have to admit that when I was 18, I studied it because it was fun and it was a novelty. I studied it just because I wanted to know what my future was going to be like and I had no inkling of what Chinese history and culture was. It was only till I encountered certain life events that I took the time to study Chinese history and culture, and that was when I really started to understand metaphysics, what it was built on, and the wisdom behind it.

If I were to ask you, "How would you describe what Yin and Yang is?" or "What exactly are the 5 elements?" If you can't answer these two simple questions, then you probably won't be able to each the level of proficiency you want to.

On top of all these, bear in mind that metaphysics was also built on things such as astronomy, how the calendar was developed, and statistical studies. Did you even know there is a Solar calendar vs a Lunar calendar?

Trust me on this. Before you embark on trying to read a chart, you really, really need to find out everything that metaphysics encompasses. Metaphysics doesn't exist on its own - it is built on a lot of the wonders and discoveries of the ancient Chinese.

Don't feel alone, because I'll tell you I don't have everything wrap around my head as well and I'm still constantly learning new things everyday.