Feng Shui Diary: Fire Dog 2015

“They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom for trying to change the system from within.” Leonard Cohen.

If I were i/c Reincarnation Central I think I’d be directing the zygote of the next Dalai Lama anywhere but Tibet. Silicon Valley, maybe or Singapore. In their native country, Tibetans are vastly out-numbered by imported Han Chinese. They have been deprived of all sorts of civil rights, forcibly relocated disenfranchised, herded and their culture taken from them. Torture and murder at the hands of the occupiers is commonplace. In his autobiography His Holiness even reports crucifixion of alleged freedom fighters.

As it happens, Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama was born in Taktser in the North-Eastern province of Amdo in 1935. That makes him a Wood Pig. It also makes him a weary Pig, I’d guess. He’s been homeless since the Chinese invasion of 1950 which he has used as an opportunity to canvas the world for support and to demonstrate the religion he defines as “kindness”. That’s a lifetime spent trying to get support for a country he has not seen since 1959. It makes Julian Assange look half-hearted.

Wood Pigs are generally gentle, multi-talented and possessed of a wide variety of interests but not usually gifted with patience. Which makes that long fruitless odyssey the more touching. Sixty five years is a lot of patience. What might make sense then is that the Day Animal of his ba zi is the long-suffering Sheep. The Sheep never deserts his post.

Diamond Dogs.
October, the Dog month, the time of the Cold Dew brings the first frost; usually around the second week although recently it has been earlier. I reckon my hibiscus and fuchsia will get by till the sun returns but soon I must gather the succulents and marantas in. This is the month when we perhaps consider the year’s end and the beginning of the next. Which could be why the Dalai Lama has cut short his current British tour and returned home. I write “home” but I mean Dharamsala in Northern India, of course.

This October’s mutt is a Fire Dog – like the year 1946, a year studded with the births of superannuated rock stars like David Gilmour and David Bowie, ex-presidents (George W) Bush and Clinton and er….Donald Trump. The Fire modifying the Dog’s natural Earth is not self-effacing. Accordingly this is a month of public events, of innovation and surprise. It was no surprise that the Dalai Lama’s itinerary included the usual comfort at several hundred pounds a pop, for “mindful” financiers. Every good cause needs money. But at least one of his statements was surprising; that if he were to be reincarnated as a woman, she would have to be very attractive.

Interestingly October is likely to be a month of rebellion and insurrection as the lo shu (or magic square) of the month holds at its centre the 6 which represents Qian the Father and hence authority. Resistance is stiffened by the Dog’s Element which is yang Earth, symbolically Mountain, the immoveable.

Lama Ding Dong.
There seems to be precious little resistance in Tibet any more. But His Holiness is himself the subject of resistance not only from the Chinese authorities (who simply won’t talk with him) but from Shugden Buddhists as well as Western exporters in pursuit of the yen. One thing Tibet has counted on because of our long and deep ties, going back to the mid-18^th century, has been British outrage on his nation’s behalf. He isn’t even seeking independence any more – only some measure of autonomy.

During a Sheep year, Dog days – like today – and Dog hours as well as the Dog month tend to be fraught as the Dog is traditionally at odds with the Ox and Sheep; a contretemps that is reckoned to be solved by the Dragon. So if you’ve been a fractious Doggy, Ox, Sheep or indeed a peace-keeping Dragon this year, there’s your rationale. And here’s a warning: October brings such disputes to a head. Anything that needs settling is up for healing this month. Seek mediating Dragons and bring it on.

Rinpoche ricochet.
At the Dalai Lama’s advanced age a succession of one-nighters is a demanding thing. Illness brought on by overwork may be the whole story. Two events however may have lowered his head and raised his temperature: one was reaction to the reincarnation comment. Whether we put this down to unworldliness or a life of celibacy, he repeated it when challenged. Not a thoughtful response perhaps but a human one.

However another surprise, may have been on the Dalai Lama’s mind. You’d need to know a little about Chinese diplomacy to unpack it. I’m referring to George Osborne’s recent sales trip. Osborne’s mission appears to have been to tout to China whatever booty they fancied – nuclear power stations, the National Grid, the Royal Family, Mary Berry, whatever.

So far so predictable, but it may not have been the actual sales pitch that depressed His Holiness, as much as Osborne’s insistence on visiting Xinjiang, the restive home of the Uighurs. This Turkic-speaking minority is mostly Muslim. God – or whichever entity you want to credit – knows what Osborne said privately but the visit implied that Britain sympathised with China and that we are haunted in common by the spectres of separatism and multiculturalism. Count me out of the haunted btw. But under the first category comes the “problem” of Tibet. Oh…. and the second.

I know I bang on a bit but many warm-hearted people queued recently to sign a petition to spare the life of a young man in Saudi Arabia due to be beheaded and crucified basically for thinking the Saud family were a bit crap. Is it only me His Holiness and Richard Gere who remember that the Chinese were committing exactly this outrage in large numbers in recent memory? And finally is it possible that a lifetime of offering mindfulness to financiers at hundreds of pounds a ticket has encouraged rather than challenged China? Is Osborne’s single-minded pursuit of the yen a let-down too far? What do I know?

Where to do what, when and why.
The East is in pole position this month; good for study, preparation and ambitious projects. This is where to sit, face and sleep; remember your sleeping position is where your pillow is btw, not your feet.

Dog Pillars; know your Dog rating.
Birth in the Dog hour (19:00pm-21:00pm): inheritance.
Birth in the Dog month (October*): a single consistent career.
Birth on the Dog day#: success in middle age.
Birth in the Dog year: relatively inflexible parents.
* Caution, the Chinese month generally starts and finishes a few days after ours.
# Just ask.