Feng Shui & Destiny

Tonight, I’m asking for a little grace from my brothers and sisters — it’s my birthday, so there will be no article this evening. I’ll spend these hours with my family, settle into a book, and savor a rare moment of stillness. After all, our bond runs long and deep, so surely one small indulgence is forgivable. 😄 And there is one thing I do want to give you tonight: It’s not that life gets better and then you get better. It’s that you get better first — and then life gets better.

Student Question: How does one shape their life with wisdom and a strong life pattern (格局), just like Master Chi? Master Chi’s Response: Protect your rest every single day. Do not run yourself into the ground. Recover in a warm, contained space whenever possible. Don’t scatter your Chi (vital energy). Stop speaking pessimistically. Do not invite bad luck with your own words. Practice duan-she-li — cut what no longer serves you, release the clutter, and shelf anything that brings misfortune. Keep life simple. Find more joy in your work. Exercise and meditate regularly. Nurture the vitality within.

Many ordinary people have a fairly narrow worldview — they look at things from a single angle, and they’re easily driven by emotion. But you still cannot look down on them for this. Their awareness and insight may not match yours, yet at their core, they remain good and simple-hearted people. The key difference is simply that their base of knowledge is more limited. Not long ago, at a dinner gathering, a young friend turned to me with a question: “Master Chi, why is it that people on the other side of the Pacific always seem to have those who can’t stand to see us doing well?”

There is one thing you absolutely must wake up to as an ordinary person: the wealthy and powerful who stand where they are today got there with very little to do with “hard work.” Who among the ordinary isn’t working hard just to survive? Remember — moving up comes down to three core things. First, the accumulated legacy of generations before you. Second, the ruthless willingness to keep seizing era-defining opportunities. Third, deeply-rooted, interlocking networks of resources.

As the year draws to a close, many of you have been asking me with concern: Master Chi, what should I be doing right now to make sure the new year goes smoothly? There are many answers to this question. The most important is to plan your monthly arrangements in advance based on your own destiny framework (格局). Another is to adjust the layout of your office and study desk according to the year’s conditions.

Actually, I already know — without you even saying it — that anxiety has been following you around these past two years. Can’t eat properly. Can’t sleep. Sometimes even breathing feels tight, your chest pressed down by one thing after another. Suppressed. Worn out. Restless. I get it, dear brothers and sisters. And the reason I get it isn’t because I have some rare depth of spiritual wisdom — it’s simply because I’ve lived through enough. Over time, the heart grows larger, and the life pattern (格局) expands along with it.

Here is a passage worth saving and sharing with everyone. Heaven Replenishment: Sunbathe. Gaze at the moon. Embrace the natural world. Let the wind blow across your face. Go hug a tree. Touch the leaves, the flowers, the grass — truly feel them. Come back to this moment. Earth Replenishment: Take walks. Go barefoot on soft soil and feel it beneath your feet. Hike a mountain, wander through green fields, swim, sleep deeply, practice energy cultivation — Five Animals Qigong (Wu Qin Xi), the Eight Brocades (Ba Duan Jin), or standing meditation (Zhan Zhuang).

Student Question: Hello, Master Chi. Last Saturday at five in the morning, I was jolted awake by an urgent phone call. My business partner was calling to say he was pulling out his investment. On top of that, one of our core marketing people was also resigning. Up until recently, my entrepreneurial journey had been mostly smooth sailing — I genuinely made money. Then in 2023, I got overconfident and decided to jump into live-stream selling myself. It was an absolute disaster.

1 - Even if I possessed the skill to overturn the heavens, there is still one hurdle in this world I cannot clear: helping a weak woman stage her comeback. Among all the sisters who have come to me for destiny readings (命理) and life planning, I have seen many poor women and many foolish women — but helping them was never truly difficult. You identify the root issues in their wealth fortune and life pattern (格局), and you address them.

1 - For ordinary people, never pour all your energy into just doing work. If you spend every day with your head down grinding away, you’ll rarely have time to think and analyze. My hard-won conclusion: “low-tier repetitive labor” is exactly what keeps people perpetually trapped in the cycle of exhaustion and poverty. 2 - Some people may never understand this: in today’s world, simply being a grounded person who consistently shows up and does the work puts you ahead of 95% of the NPCs sleepwalking through life. In the real world, people who actually live with intention are rare — don’t be fooled by how busy everyone looks. The vast majority are simply getting by, muddling through. And surpassing them has never been particularly difficult.