Hey everyone! Time flies! We’re almost into October already and I hope 2017 has been great for everyone! A big thank you to the people who reached out to me after reading my previous post on the difference between a good BaZi chart and a bad one. It was a difficult post to write because there’s always a fear of a backlash, but turns out many people liked the post, citing that it offered a very different and fresh perspective on metaphysics. That post was really a culmination of everything that I’ve learned, as well as real life case studies and what I’ve observed.
This entry is going to be a light hearted one to change the tone and mood from the previous post and ride on the festive mood of Mid-Autumn where it’s traditionally meant a period of thanksgiving. I think everyone knows by now that the reason why I have this blog, aside from acquiring new clients, is because it’s my medium of connecting with people because I feel clients should get to know their practitioner, and I just happen to enjoy writing. I was asking myself what was my ‘mission’ for this sideline, and came to the conclusion that education should be the core focus.
Metaphysics is not just about being accurate or predicting events. Why do we want to predict events? Because we want to attract what’s good and avert the negative, but as I’ve always mentioned, the reason why negative things happen or get to happen to us all stems on the decisions we make, so it’s more important to address the root of the issue rather than just skimming the surface and treating metaphysics like a guessing and forecasting game.
Anyway, I hope you all enjoy yet another peak into my personal world and walk away feeling that metaphysics is nothing mystical – because it shouldn’t be. It’s really just the constant interplay of nature’s laws throughout the centuries. The environment and context in which these laws operate in will change, bu the laws itself doesn’t.
I know everyone finds my blog posts lengthy and most people visit my website via their mobile phone, so I’ve been actively trying to adjust my style to make it easier to read via have sections. Below are some of the topics I’d like to take the opportunity to share with everyone:
Giving Thanks To My Clients And New Found Friends
To simply put it as me being grateful doesn’t quite cut it. I’m not sure if I’m having a writer’s block, or that the things are I wish to convey are just to complex. This sideline of mine has given my life a lot of colour and meaning. As I think back to the time when I first started this, it still amazes me how well things have taken off. It started of as a means for me to eat a little better, and pay for my rent, but it has turned into so much else. It has become something much deeper and meaningful, and frankly when I first started this, I never saw saw it coming to this.
It has been 3 years now, and 3 years is enough for me to see the kind of impact this field can have on people. Some clients have reached out after a year to inform of me that they felt like the consultation helped them make better decisions, though on the flip side, there have also been clients who didn’t manage to avert the obstacles that I foresaw coming. Most people can’t appreciate or measure the impact of metaphysics because they are on the receiving end of the consultation, but trust me when I say it looks very different from the other side.
I don’t know how else to put this, but the level of trust people put in me is extremely humbling, and I will always remind myself to be appreciative of this, because without it, I wouldn’t be able to do whatever it is I’m doing today.
I’m Not The Perfect Practitioner + Don’t Call Me “Master”
First of all, I don’t like to call myself “master” or “feng shui master“. I’ve never wanted nor required my clients me to address me as such. I’ve always called myself a Chinese metaphysics consultant. The only reason why I used the word “master” for my website is because other domains like seanchan.com and sean-chan.com are taken. And adding a “master” give people a heads up on the industry I’m in. Really, you don’t have to call me “master”. If you see this word popping out anywhere in the website, it’s really for Search Engine Optimization purposes. There are still tons of things for me to learn, and it’s just weird to use this word.
I think most people don’t know how difficult and tiring it is to analyze a chart, and quite frankly I don’t know how some practitioners are able to do it on the spot just like that when people enter their shops. It’s really not as easy as it looks. I don’t want people to think that I am 100% accurate – I’m just a normal human being who happened to read a lot of books, and I’m not always accurate in my readings although I try my best to be. I do make mistakes from time to time and there are still so many things I have yet to learn. We’re not living in a time where I can sit around whole day reading books, so there will definitely still be gaps in terms of where I am now and where I hope to be in terms of competency in this field.
I’ve never based the value of my consultations by how accurate I can be. What’s more important to me is the educational element behind it, and the new perspectives a consultation can give you and how it allows you to look at your life differently. Of course, being accurate is the foundation of a good consultation and I hope all practitioners in this field are accurate, but my point is that there comes a point where the real value of the consultation is not on the accuracy of reading per se, but what are you going to do with that information. Let’s assume that all practitioners in the world are 100% accurate, but so what? The most important thing is that one’s life can change, because like I said in my previous blog post, not all BaZi charts are good. The pinnacle of metaphysics, in my opinion, is in understanding what is required to bring about that change – being 100% accurate during chart readings is meaningless.
That being said, of course, I try my very best to be as rigorous and accurate as I can be in my analysis, putting together all the experience and case studies I’ve gathered, and I thank everyone for their trust in my competency and their willingness to put in a good word for me through their testimonials.
What’s My Day Like?
I go to work in the day to earn a monthly salary, and return home at night to write my reports and do my Q&A for my clients. Most people don’t actually know how many consultations and Q&A sessions I have ongoing simultaneously, and quite honestly I feel like I’ve been burning the candle on both ends as this sideline of mine grows. Some of my weekends are burned doing feng shui audits.
The positive side of this is that my life in the corporate world and this sideline complement each other really well. I’m able to apply the knowledge I gained from one side to the other. Having a corporate job also puts me in the position of being able to relate better to my clients as well, because most of them are salaried workers.
Do I get tired, impatient or annoyed during the course of my consultations once in a while? Of course I do! But I have also been blessed by clients who have spared a thought for me, asking me to get some rest and take my time with my replies.
There has been one or two client engagements that were memorable for the wrong reasons, but I always tell myself it happened for a good reason and it’s Heaven’s sign to me that I should change the way I conduct things. It’s the reason why people need to fill in a form before the consultation begins because not everyone benefits from a chart reading, and just recently I had to turn away someone who was suffering from depression.
The most rewarding consultations that I have are those that I get into a meaningful discussion with the client, and they walk away with a fresh new perspective on their life and situation. Of course, not many clients are in a mindset that allows for that, which is why I have this blog. If you are ever thinking of getting a consultation, not just from me but from anyone, remember to take your time to go through this blog, because it holds the essence of what I’ve learned over all these years, and dispels the myths that has been plaguing metaphysics for decades.
Growing As A Chinese Metaphysics Practitioner And Person
The way I conduct my consultations, as well as myself, have changed over the course of the years. I have to admit that when I first kick-started this and was participating in the forums, I wasn’t very nice and was quite honestly was very arrogant, always challenging people on the forums. You could say the motivation behind that behavior was mixed, partly due to my pride for this field, and also my abhorrence towards people who have no idea what they are talking about, and are harming people without knowing because of the things they say. The forums were really a very primitive way to get clients at the beginning, and I’m glad I eventually started my own Facebook page and website which allowed me to ignore all the clutter and focus on giving the best consultation to the people who approach me.
I started off in this field being a brat quite frankly, and I guess I’ve mellowed. This field does put my character to the test quite often because the struggle in adjusting the mindset of most clients is real, and the impression they have on metaphysics is extremely distorted, so a lot of consultations end up feeling like counselling sessions which can be rather draining emotionally. Nonetheless, these experiences do help me grow as a person as I do learn from my clients as well when they share their life stories with me.
Feeling Like This Is A Calling
I’m not sure how many people know of this, but I don’t have a lineage and all of what I know are self studied by ploughing through tons of books. I honestly don’t feel that you need a lineage in order to be in this field. The person at the time of the lineage probably dug through the Chinese classics just like I did, and the fact that our ancestors can develop the study of metaphysics from scratch is the very testament that a lineage isn’t necessary.
My girlfriend and close friends will always go “I don’t understand how are you able to understand something like this you weirdo”, which tickles me because I ask myself the same question sometimes as I break into a faint smile as I let my thoughts wander back into the past once in a while. For the new readers to this blog, long story short, I was so low and lost in life that I just picked a random Chinese classic to read and it led to all this eventually. I have always been interested in philosophy and I started off with studying Western philosophy back in university.
Do I feel like this is a calling? I guess I do. I think some of the most memorable moments were my clients coming back to me to tell me they landed a promotion, got pregnant after implementing some of the suggestions I gave, and most recently, meeting the baby I named.
Remember my previous blog post on auspicious name selection? I finally got to meet the baby I named over the weekend while I was conducting a feng shui audit for the same client. 威辰 is 4 months old and he’s the first baby I had the honour of meeting in person. I remember feeling some warm and fuzziness when the baby saw me and start smiling and kicking his tiny little legs in his crib.
It’s moments like these that remind me how much weight my words have on people that decide where to live and what to name their baby based on what I say.
Moving Forward
There’s so much I wish to say for this. In a way, I hope this sideline of mine continues to grow, because that would mean a materially more comfortable life for me and my future family, but at the same time, I know I need to constantly remind myself that this field is not something which should be motivated by monetary rewards – I guess you could say the same for a lot of other professions. If the monetary reward is a by-product of my passion, talent and affinity with this field, then I’m definitely fine. I never truly appreciated why successful people said “don’t do things for money” until I started this sideline of mine.
There is a reason why I do not wish to do this full time, and I’ve not written a dedicate post on this topic yet because it would be opening a can of worms and may seem like an attack on other practitioners. I want to do this sideline freely and without any pressure, because that’s the state of mind that I feel would be in the best position to serve my clients because I’m not dependent on this field. Although a lot of my friends are teasing me that this sideline of mine feels more like a full-time job now. I guess I also want to develop my own style of doing things that is aligned with my beliefs and principles and I want to be known for that instead of making decisions motivated purely by monetary returns. There is a reason why I’ve not appeared in the media or public talks as much because I simply turn them down as they require me to say things I don’t believe in.
On that topic, I’m already getting invitations for corporate talks next year for Chinese New Year, and not surprisingly, they have requested for the topic of Zodiac forecasting which I am apprehensive of because it’s very misleading and laden with too many misconceptions and I don’t want to be seen as helping to perpetuate these myths. It is something that I have been against right from the start. I guess I’ll write an entry regarding this topic soon and share my views on it, so do look out for it.
Before I digress too much for this post, I think all in all, I just want to thank everyone for their support, trust and kindness. It means the world to me. All the cases I’ve taken recently are all extremely pleasant experiences, and I couldn’t be happier. =)
Cheers,
Sean
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