Living Color: Master Lin Yun's Guide to Feng Shui and the Art of Color

Rating:
Summary: A colorful fung shway mess
Review: Hello all! I have owned this book for several years. Just yesterday after trying to use it once again for guidance in energetic color work in my home "gua" areas, I ripped out one color chart with the intention of keeping it. However, I stuffed it back into the book and threw the entire book into the trash bin! Please, let me tell you why.

Although I wouldn't describe myself as a color expert, I'm pretty close to it. I, myself, for some years now have intensively and deliberately used color in so many ways everyday, from psychic color healing to colored stones energy work to eating specific foods for their healing colors, etc., all to learn more about and bring about joy and health and change through color.

Now, this book in particular is so incomplete and confusing and has many contradictions to its own philosophy. Forget Eastern versus Western color differences; there are enough problems within this book that you don't even need to compare and contrast East-versus-West color associations.

Just a few quick examples to give you a feel for it. First of all, there is a statement about plants being one of nine feng shui cures. This is not to be disagreed with. But in all of my searching and searching and searching in this book, there was not a list of NINE feng shui cures. Why not name them and give brief examples!? All I could ascertain from other gleanings throughout this book was that along with green plants, mirrors and light were two other cures, and perhaps water, but of that I cannot be sure from studying this book. Such a gross deletion, this not naming of the cures.

Secondly, and I'm sure that this is not a lack of understanding of the concepts behind feng shui, but the career gua, which is generally the home's entrance, is supposed to be represented/dominated/influenced/call-it-what-you-will by the color black. Now, that's fine and dandy, and one can try and study that and work with that. However, in this same book the authors go on to say that the foyer should be light and bright and white and pink and, and, and... Gimme a break! How can the foyer be "black" and "white" at the same time!? Well, it can't. This book is just plain full of misinformation.

Furthermore, the book focuses far too much page space and content on what colors are good for which businesses. As far as I'm concerned, that topic had very little if any place in this book, as the book seemed to be more marketed as a color guide for living, not for working.

The one good piece of advice that this book gives -- and you certainly don't have to buy it or read it to know this -- is use colors that you feel drawn to. Well, isn't that a no-brainer.

I did find, however, that after deciphering as much of this book as is possible, that my home is encolored largely according to the concepts of feng shui. I'm not sure if this pleased me or not; it was just a validation that my color workings work well with ancient Chinese philosophy.

As for the other reviewer who says that this book is good only for the intuitive: I wholeheartedly agree, with one exception. Even we, the intuitive, can't find much use for this book, try as we may.

I've read only one other feng shui book a few years ago, which I found as irritating as this one (and, don't quote me, but I think it was the same female author as this book.) That book, too, met a similar destiny as this one. I can't even recommend another feng shui book, because I'm too frustrated by what seems like the lack of abilities in these authors to transmit color healing information in an understandable and useable format. Perhaps it's just plain the differences in East versus West. At least that's what I'm finally chocking it up to.

My advice is to skip the feng shui books and just start using color: colors that you are drawn to, colors that you like, colors that make you happy, colors that you want to know more about, and even experiment slowly with colors that you hate. (For example: In order to stop hating and really start enjoying all the blues, I had to spend two years in what I called a "blue appreciation phase," during which time I forced myself to wear blues occasionally, eat blue foods occasionally, and purchase and experiment with owning a few blue objects. Now I just literally love blue--with aquamarine being a very favorite blue stone and royal blue being a very favorite clothing color!)

So, go ahead and don't be afraid to experiment with color in your home and your life. Just don't paint your bedroom pink until you're sure. ;)

Rating:
Summary: helpful only to the intutive
Review: I am someone who is deeply interested in and in agreement with the foundational principles behind what goes by the name of Feng Shui. And as much as I found this book helpful, I also tried to read it from the point of view of someone who might find the whole FS to be a bunch of BS. And I found it to be wanting in clearer explanations, even if only to explain why and how some of these things were beyond rational explanation.
This book IS about color theory and practice as espoused by the Black Hat Sect Tantric Buddhism (BTB) in organizing the environment - micro and macro. By now the interested reader ought to know something about the historical dimensions that shaped the BTB, especially including the Chinese input over the last 1,000 years or so. That said, I can say that this book is helpful only to those who are artistically inclined and/or familiar with, AND accepting of the logic behind Chinese cosmology and cultural symbolisms. Why?
Take for example, the part where the author mentions that the color white for fences is bad and red is best. She recommends a cure that can be had by tying 9 red ribbons to the fence. Okay, let us leave aside for the moment the issue of whether that is "true" or not, on whatever level. The fact that the author would make such a statement is bound to rub the average American reader the wrong way, which is indeed unfortunate.
The fact that the color white symbolizes death and purity (to the point of permitting no life) to the Chinese is no reason to write off the whole Western practice of investing the color white with other meanings, such as purity (as in chastity), honesty, cleanliness, and new beginning -- all hopeful and positive things.
This book, as good as it could be, makes the same mistake as some of the other bestsellers in assuming that every reader will (have to) simply accept the Chinese cosmology as universal truth. It is not clear why this oversight continues to occur, but it gives the uncomfortable impression that only a particular culture had access to the "real" truth of colors.
This sort of explanation right from the start would have been helpful to the reader: That the FIVE ELEMENTS merely represent the five MODES of Ch'i, and the names (that is, the elements) associated with them were chosen largely for easier memorization and visualization, and thus application to the visible material world, including medicine. They could just as well have been labeled A,B,C,D, and E. (The subatomic particles also have names that are there just for easier identification. Are electrons really electronic?) The names of the five modes don't really matter, but the manner of their interaction does. The reader should not accept the (pseudo) explanation that "metal 'produces' water because water condenses outside a copper pail filled with cold water", or that "fire 'produces' earth by way of ash". Nor should the reader reject it as "bad science" and forego the more interesting stuff behind the immensely complicated system of observation (as well as observances) in FS. The five elements structure is a mnemonic device before it is anything else but the author does not tell you this, and the disinterested reader is left to follow wide-eyed, marveling at the "awesome" wisdom of the Chinese; or to reject it without furthur ado as New Age mumbo-jumbo.

Given that the BTB puts a lot of emphasis on YI (intention, will), and even in its meditation practices it encourages people to activate whatever religious symbolisms with which they feel most at home, it would only makes sense to assure the Western reader that the purpose of Feng Shui is to activate the energy (Ch'i) of one's environment in harmony with one's own psychic disposition, which would certainly include one's own traditional orientation and inculcation of values -- ethical and aesthetical.

This book, I think, can confuse as well as enlighten, depending on the reader's own level of intutional development. Those who are too uncritically enthusiastic about FS so as to accept everything written here, may end up with a mess of colors all over their house. If it's true that 'You can take a horse to the water but you can't make him drink', then it's also true that if you're the horse, you have to figure out just how thirsty you are, and for what.

All in all, this is a good book, but if you are trained to think critically, it may not be the best book out there for you....

Rating:
Summary: Too many lists
Review: If this is your favorite book, I apologize for not giving it a well deserved 5 stars. I am writing for those who might share my perspective, and do not want to diminish the perfection of this book for many people.

This is only the third book on Feng Shui that I've read. My immediate interest was sparked by reading 'Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui' by Karen Kingston. Wanting to learn more and using my engineering research skills, I combed the reviews here and picked 'Living Color'. My color IQ is nil and I hoped the book might offer some assistance.

Unfortunately, I was too dense to make much of the insights offered. The various matrices of color vs. room or color vs. business or color foreground vs. color background went over my head. I'm already a habitual list/matrix maker, but they are memory aids for recalling 'known' insights. In this case, the original insight eluded me, so recalling it offered me little.

I did enjoy the first 3 chapters, which included preparatory material. Perhaps the book was simply too advanced for me. For example, the notion of a destructive and creative color cycle is very appealing; I just couldn't get a feel for it.

Near the end of the book, the use of color as part of meditation practice is described. I appreciated this section, too.

Rating:
Summary: Too many lists
Review: If this is your favorite book, I apologize for not giving it a well deserved 5 stars. I am writing for those who might share my perspective, and do not want to diminish the perfection of this book for many people.

This is only the third book on Feng Shui that I've read. My immediate interest was sparked by reading 'Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui' by Karen Kingston. Wanting to learn more and using my engineering research skills, I combed the reviews here and picked 'Living Color'. My color IQ is nil and I hoped the book might offer some assistance.

Unfortunately, I was too dense to make much of the insights offered. The various matrices of color vs. room or color vs. business or color foreground vs. color background went over my head. I'm already a habitual list/matrix maker, but they are memory aids for recalling 'known' insights. In this case, the original insight eluded me, so recalling it offered me little.

I did enjoy the first 3 chapters, which included preparatory material. Perhaps the book was simply too advanced for me. For example, the notion of a destructive and creative color cycle is very appealing; I just couldn't get a feel for it.

Near the end of the book, the use of color as part of meditation practice is described. I appreciated this section, too.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific Guide
Review: The subject demands illustration and this book delivers--big time! Full of instructive (and beautiful) photography, complimented by thoughtful and useful text.