Significance of the 5 Elements

Article by Singapore Feng Shui Master Edwaard Liu

Story of a magical stone

There was a man who is not successful at anything; he decided to seek the advice of a wise man. Finally he found one and he asked, “Master is there any treasures that can make me successful?”

The wise man took a small stone from the ground and said to him, carry this with you and everything will be successful.

Seeing that the man had some doubts, he continued, “But it only helps people with the 5 virtues.”

“What are the 5 virtues? “, asked the man

“Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom and Trustworthiness.” said the Wise man.

The man asked how much money he owes the wise man. The Wise man refuses the money and told him to come back and pay him three year later if the stone is working.

Three years later, the man seeks the wise man again, he was very pleased that the stone is working and things has become smooth sailing for him and he became successful.  The wise man asked to look at the stone again, when the man handed over the stone, the wise man took the small stone and placed it back on the ground.

Feeling puzzled the man asked the wise man, “Master, what are you doing? The stone have been helping me a lot, can I have it back?”

You don’t need the stone anymore, what have help you is not the stone; it is the five virtues that you have developed and maintained that bring you success. The stone is just a reminder for you to carry the 5 virtues where ever you go and whatever you do.

The man finally understood and bowed to the wise man.

Many people know that in Metaphysical studies like Feng Shui and Bazi there are 5 Elements.

Wood, Fire, Earth,  Metal and Water.

The 5 elements represent many things.

Most people do not know they also represent the 5 virtues.

Wood – Benevolence – the quality of being well meaning; kindness.

Metal – Righteousness – the quality of being morally right or justifiable.

Fire – Propriety – conformity to conventionally accepted standards of behaviour or morals.

Water – Wisdom – the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement; the quality of being wise.

Earth – Trustworthiness – the ability to be relied on as honest or truthful.

From a person’s Bazi 八字 reading we can discover a person’s favourable and unfavourable elements and which of the virtues are his or her strength and which are the ones that needs to improve.

Elements that are unfavourable or are clashed by other elements will also affect the different body part of a person.

Wood – Eyes, liver, gall bladder, bones

Metal – Big intestine, lung                                                                                                                              

Fire – Heart, small intestine

Water – Bladder, womb, kidney

Earth – Stomach, pancreas spleen

We can also tell what the dominant emotions of a person are by looking at the Bazi of a person.

Wood – Anger

Metal – Sadness                                                                                                 

Fire – Extreme Elation

Water – Fright

Earth – Worry

For example if a person tends to worry (Earth) a lot, it affects his stomach, pancreas or spleen, it may also is an indication that he need to reflect on his trustworthiness.  This also means that, if a person is very trustworthy, usually he may not have issues on those body parts relating to earth elements.

By having the 5 virtues Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom and Trustworthiness, a person, a person’s energy of the 5 elements will be enhanced, he will not be affected by the 5 different emotions and he will have peace. This health will be good because his elements are constantly being enhanced by his virtues.  Overall luck will also improve, for health, wealth, relationship and career.

How accurate is my Bazi reading? Someone once asked me.

I can’t claim to be hundred percent accurate. But i do have many referrals and good testimonials. There are however 2 types of people that may not get accurate readings. The one that do a lot of evil and the one that do a lot of good. For evil people, during periods that are supposed to be good, it can turn bad.For good and kind people, when bad times come it may not have a negative effect on them or it may be minimized.

Here is another famous story about how kindness changed a person’s life.

An enlightened master who has the ability to see the past and future, know that his young disciple has only seven days of lifespan left. He told his disciple to go home and visit his family then come back to him. Knowing that his disciple will not be able to make the journey back, the master wanted to give the young monk a chance to see his family for the last time. Seven days later, the young monk came back to the monastery. The master was very surprised and asked the novice of he had done something extraordinary the last seven days. The novice said, “No” The master wasn’t convinced and after going through the events that happened. The novice did one thing that altered his lifespan. On his way home, he come upon a pool of water, in it a black ball moving in between the pool. Upon closer inspection he saw the black ball is actually a cluster of ants holding on to each other to prevent them from drowning. The boy walked into the pool of water and lifted the ant ball with a leaf and put it on dry land and continued his journey. To him he did not do anything extraordinary. But what he did saved hundreds of life. And because of that his life was extended. Being compassionate and doing good deeds because it arises from the heart can alter one’s life.

Can we alter our life or is our life predetermined? What else can we do to change our life? You can read more in this article.

Contact us if you want to know more about your Bazi.