10 Essentials for Harmonious Chi Gardens
Recently, I was sitting in a Kuching hotel room located in Malaysian Borneo waiting for a rainstorm to pass over and thinking about what influenced beneficial (sheng) chi flow in the garden. I jotted down 10 points for consideration and left it at that. After the storm passed I visited a garden centre looking for unusual plants and marvelled at the range of plants available for local gardeners. Returning to the hotel I passed through a suburban enclave and was impressed with the standard of gardens. Some had great visual chi appeal.
I thought about the list and yep the 10 points were as relevant in the gardens of Kuching as gardens anywhere. Here is the list as described on the piece of paper:
- Climate, impacts on the site and its user
- Water presence. Greater diversity in gardens that contained clean free moving water
- Boundaries to the garden to help contain positive chi flow and deter negative chi flow
- Avoidance of straight lines and sharp edges
- Recognising influences of sha or inconspicuous (negative) chi energies
- Flow, not rushed, meandering images throughout
- Life including healthy vegetation, presence of birds and insects, movement
- Variations and no dominance of one colour or shape, sound, smell, light or shadow
- Use of space, recognition of space, it has a value
- Mind and place of the user, the connection.
I’ll take that list. It’s a beauty and could recommend it for any garden. A product of Kuching in Borneo. Who said travel doesn’t broaden the mind?
The ten points don’t seek to offer design criteria in terms of plant use, function and aesthetics but suggest a framework of thought about the garden space and what it could offer for harmonious chi flow. I noted a commonality about flow, gentle lines, slowing down and smooth transitions in use of space. It was about absorbing the good things about our surroundings and what they represent to the art of connectiveness.
Harmonious chi gardening is about ourselves relating to our surroundings in an intimate manner and allowing the mind to connect with those surroundings in a harmonious fashion. If we mould our surroundings to encourage positive chi energy flow, harmony becomes a product and connectiveness becomes a deep and potentially a spiritual thing.
