9 October 2016 Is Chong Yang Festival -- Step 3: DOUBLE Double Dragon Ring

This Sunday 9 October is Chong Yang festival 重阳节! It's not a "branded" festival, unlike Mid-Autumn or Winter Solstice, but it is super important, especially in terms of Chinese culture and fengshui.

What you need to know first is that Chong Yang is an extremely auspicious occasion. And you can leverage prosperity from the heavenly time. You can do 3 things: 1. have yourself a piece of Lotus agarwood (read here); 2. place your crystal mountain (read here); 3. wear TWO Double Dragon jadeite rings.

ONE Double Dragon jadeite ring is awesome. Wear it on your middle finger for wealth, last finger for benefactors...but since it's the double "9", double yang festival, might as well take the heavenly chance to DOUBLE your Double Dragon ring, right? 

But of course, there is more to it than a symbolic celebratory cause. Let's go back to the "Book of Changes 易经"...

The Book records 64 hexagrams (六十四卦), each foretelling the possibilities of future. A form of divination. But it is actually a form of empirical science -- we can talk about this next time. Each hexagram 卦 composites mainly of 2 parts of "eight trigrams 八卦". Let's have a visual understanding, these are the "eight trigrams 八卦":

Have another set of these, stack any 2 of them together, you get a hexagram 卦. For instance, I get a Dui 兑 on top and a Li 离 below, I get this hexagram 卦:

There's a new name for the combination. This is Ge 革卦. You might also get the same "eight trigrams 八卦" for top and bottom. Say, instead of a Dui 兑 on top, both top and bottom are Li 离:

Then you have this. But what has this to do with Chong Yang...double yang, what happens when 2 ultimate yang "eight trigrams 八卦" combines? 

Qian 乾 refers to the skies, the patriarch. Qian is the ultimate yang, the tai-yang 太阳. And when 2 Qian combines:

The first hexagram 卦, this Qian 乾卦. Fully yang, even the look of it seems fierce. The ancients left parables to expound the meaning of Qian 乾卦, not too easy to understand, so I am just going to quote a couple of lines here:

The Qian hexagram, the symbol of heavens predicates supremacy, potentiality and perseverance. The dragon is lying in wait. The dragon appears in the fields. It is time for the great man to emerge from obscurity...
(乾，乾为天，元亨，利贞。初九，潜龙勿用。九二，见龙在田，利见大人……)

And the rest of the passage just kept talking about the behavior, transformation and greatness of dragons. No other parts of the Book was "dragon" so intensely highlighted. The suggestion of this Qian 乾卦, this double yang hexagram, can't be more obvious: are you with the dragons? 

In the entire parable, there are no less than 4 dragons mentioned. How many dragons do you have now?

And since wearing ONE Double Dragon jadeite ring prospers you either wealth or benefactors, why not have TWO, and have both wealth and benefactors?

Especially since we are in the Chong Yang 重阳 season. Perhaps "it is the time for the great man to emerge from obscurity..." 

Huat double! Huat more! 

-- Kan Ying Loong, Executive Director

9 October 2016 Is Chong Yang Festival -- Step 2: Crystal Mountain

Chong Yang festival 重阳节 is coming this 9 October! Not as widely celebrated as its counterparts like Mid-Autumn or Winter Solstice, but it is no less significant, especially in terms of Chinese culture and fengshui.

What you need to know first is that Chong Yang is an extremely auspicious occasion. And you can prosper along with it. 3 things that you can do: 1st thing, have yourself a piece of Lotus agarwood, we talked about this; 2nd thing, place your crystal mountain.

If you haven't worked on your house or office fengshui, or you are on your way to make it even better, this is the occasion. Place your crystal mountain, at a specific advised spot, as the core pillar of your fengshui. 

But what has this got to do with Chong Yang? 

There's a folk practice. To celebrate Chong Yang, the ancients used to climb mountains 登高. There are many reasons to it, beautiful tales of vanquishing evil and recovering the light too, you can read more about it online. But what I think is this: Chong Yang is double "9", it's the ultimate yang. There are 9 fengshui numbers, and number 9 is the highest. To climb a mountain during Chong Yang festival might be a symbolic activity of attainment, of reaching the highest. Also, ultimate yang is tai-yang 太阳, literally meaning the sun as well. To reach the peak of a mountain might just be the closest one can get to the sun... 

Yes, Chong Yang is a season of attainment, of reaching out for the highest standards...but we can surely do better than a symbolic act of climbing a mountain. Let's do something that has genuine fengshui energy effect. Like, strengthening your mountain star.

The Lotus has series of crystal mountains. The basic category takes the exact form of a mountain, with steps and ladders, pine tree and houses...have one of them in your house to attain progression, benefactors and fulfilling relationships.
 

Something better, especially for those who own the Lotus Heaven and Earth jadeite rings. An upgrade from the basic category of crystal mountains, have either the Lotus Pineapple Dragon crystal charger or the Lotus crystal incense pot. While these also strengthen your mountain energy, you can also charge your Lotus Rings with them.

And since this is the double yang festival, might as well double your prosperity. Prosper both your mountain energy, and charge your Lotus Rings.

Huat double! Huat more!

-- Kan Ying Loong, Executive Director

9 October 2016 Is Chong Yang Festival -- Step 1: Agarwood

Chong Yang festival 重阳节 is coming! Surely, this is not a festival as well-known as Mid-Autumn or Winter Solstice, but it is no less significant than its counterparts, especially in terms of Chinese culture and fengshui.

What you need to know first is that Chong Yang is an extremely auspicious occasion. And there are mainly 3 things that you can do to prosper in this season. The 1st thing to do, have yourself a piece of Lotus agarwood.

If you haven't own your agarwood, if you are on your way to own your agarwood, this would be a good chance. The good season to get it. Remember: what you do -- agarwood in this instance, where you do it -- put it on in the Lotus galleries, and WHEN you do it matters.

Chong Yang means "double yang" (重 is double or a repeat, and 阳 is yang), because this very important day occurs on the 9th of the ninth lunar month 九月初九. Fengshui, and practically the entirety of Chinese culture, originates from "The Book of Changes" (《易经》). From the Book, nine fengshui numbers were derived, number 1 to 9. Each number has its responsibility, element (and hence color), and is a manifestation of either of yin or yang. "9" in the Book means ultimate yang. And on the 9th of the ninth lunar month, the yang doubles.

And to tap on the bursting of yang energy, agarwood.

We spoke about this many times. We all need a good balance of yin and yang. Our jadeite is yin. Our scented-wood collections is yang. Of which, sandalwood, queen of scented-wood is yin, and agarwood, king of scented-wood is yang.

When you have your portion of necessary yang energy -- your agarwood, the power of your Lotus jadeite increases too. The yin rises to match the yang. When one gear meets a bigger one, it moves, and together they can move a force bigger than both of them combined.

So the intensity of the yang energy you are getting really depends on the grade and form of your agarwood. For those of you have the 108 agarwood beads, congratulations, that's the ultimate-ultimate-ultimate yang power. With agarwood, you get a great dose of direct wealth, benefactors, radiant health, and the power to convert obstacles into opportunities. Once again, the extent of these benefits is related to the type of agarwood you are getting.

Then there's the earth agarwood series. Many great pieces were chosen before the 10th anniversary celebration -- but there are still worthy pieces. Very limited now. There has been no new pieces of agarwood since I am back with the Lotus in 2011. I can't begin to explain how difficult it is to harvest aged and natural agarwood that meets the standards and requirement of the Lotus. So my advice is for you to really speak to your Lotus advisor, and see which Lotus agarwood is good for you.

And you got to do it fast.

Huat double! Huat more!

-- Kan Ying Loong, Executive Director

怎么那么多假黄水晶？

黄水晶相当稀有，这个稀有的程度就好像在几亿人中找寻自己的另一半，其实应该比这个还要困难。黄水晶的形成需要数百万甚至数十亿年，并且必须在50度的高温中才能养成。所以一块好的黄水晶非常难得也相当昂贵。

黄水晶山星的颜色使它成为最适合旺阳宅和办公室的风水宝贝。这是因为黄色代表五行中的土，而山中处处是土，因此黄水晶山星是居家和办公室风水的最佳靠山。

黄水晶有聚财的功能，因为土里蕴含着大地中的奇珍异宝，例如：宝石、黄晶等等。

云龙子旺财馆的黄水晶出产自巴西或非洲大陆的马达加斯加。这些货真价实的黄水晶主要雕刻成神佛像和神兽像。但这些货真价实的黄水晶必须经过一个最重要的环节才能为你旺财运。那就是云龙子大师亲自为你的黄水晶开光，并为你在家中或办公室里选择最佳的摆放位置。

我最喜欢的黄水晶山星

——诗以

（译）