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Home Is Where the Heart Is
I haven't seen the new movie Life As a House yet, but according to Doaist priest and Feng Shui master Jeffrey Yuen, the house we live in resembles in many ways the body we live in.
Let's start with the front door of the house, which we can think of as the mouth. This is where things enter. As we pass through the mouth we enter the esophagus, hall or foyer, which can be thought of as the lungs. We may take off or put on (inhale or exhale) things as we prepare to enter or leave.
The next room is the living room, associated with the heart. This is a place of joy and celebration, a lively room where the qi/energy and life blood circulate freely.
Next come the kitchen and dining room, which relate to the spleen and stomach. This is where we go for nourishment, where we replenish the energy we use up. These are often the most popular rooms in the house.
Then there are the kids' rooms, or, if there are no children in this home, the den or study. In Chinese medicine the liver is the organ system that relates to growth and expansion, such as physical growth in the case of children, or mental growth as with the study or den.
Moving further along the body/house we get to the master bedroom, or the kidneys in Chinese medicine. This room/organ system is associated with the three Rs: rest, regeneration and reproduction. Need I say more?
Finally comes the bathroom, related to the intestines and bladder. This is where the waste material exits the body/house. It may not be the room we choose to spend lots of time in, but it is nevertheless a very important room, because if the plumbing isn't working...watch out!
So there you have it. The reason I share this is not to literally say our body is a house, although it is often said that our body houses our soul or spirit. Rather, I want to encourage the reader to see the house and body as systems made up of different aspects that support and create a whole whose sum is greater than the parts.
Finally, let me say that this metaphor is just a very small aspect of Feng Shui. Feng Shui is both a common–sense approach and a highly complex system of geomancy—the study of how the placement of structures or objects affect each other and the environment. I am not an expert in this field; I'm merely a student looking to find my own place in the grand scheme of things.
© 2001 Larry Forsberg. All rights reserved.
Articles posted on this Web site are for personal use only and remain the property of Larry Forsberg, L.Ac.
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