Customer Reviews

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Feng Shui (Complete Illustrated Guide)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The bottom line of Feng Shui
Time ago I decided to select and buy the 5 best Feng Shui books I was able to find, after several months of research (I had already bought another 5).
Maybe the best books on the subject are those in the realm of the so-called "traditional Feng Shui" (that is: F.S. using a compass, your birth date, the date of construction of your home, and some complex formulas to arrive to conclusions about the effects of your home over specific areas of your life). On the other side, "Western Feng Shui", in general, ignores the compass and takes the entry door of the home as the base for any further analysis, and uses mirrors, wind chimes and other cures to fix any existing problem. (Of course these are crude descriptions, F.S. goes far beyond this!!)

In this book, Lilian Too includes all her knlowledge on Feng Shui, based in what her experience has shown to be effective. I must stress this: based ONLY in what her long experience in F.S. has proved to be EFFECTIVE. And the result is a mixture of formulas and procedures from Traditional Feng Shui (mostly) and some "cures" and "boosters" that you will find also in "Western" F.S.".

Well, the point is that at the end, I found myself using this book more and more than any other I have. The reason? It simply works, and works in the deep and in the simple. So I left the deep T.F.S. literature for later, Western F.S. was absorbed in a couple of evenings, and in the meantime I'm using, applying and enjoying what this book shows, more than any other I've found.

Now I have some mixed comments:
-Lilian has written specific F.S. books (F.S. for love. F.S. for success, F.S. for the home, for the garden, etc. etc.) in those books she makes a complete analysis of every subject, but you can find the bottom line in this book. You might not need anything else (at least for a while). People buying these specific books may sense that they include almost the same information...

-The book has many illustrations and tables that make reading easy.
-I was not only amazed, but SCARED when I applied the "flying star formula" to several homes of people I know, it described circumnstances you thought were simply natural, but at the end seemed to be an effect of the kind of plan and location of things there.
-In some instances, it explains very easily with pictures, principles from traditional F.S. that I found hard to retain in memory when reading other books

I strongly disagree with the comments by Kathy Ross and Jeff Derek. This is not just a repackage job with nothing new. It is necessary to some repeated information, such as the three classical formulas (i.e. Eight Mansions, Flying Star, Eight Aspirations) but it provides a lot of NEW insights into the subject as well. I have bought a lot of Lillian Too's other books, and this one is no different, it keeps you reading from start to end, and because it is an encyclopedia, it is a great reference manual for dates and formulas. It covers all the Classical Feng Shui Schools and pulls them together in a comprehensive manner. A joy to read and a joy to own.

This is TRULY a book I cannot do without, and it reminds me again what a great writer and generous individual, Lillian Too is. I have no hesitation in recomending this easy to understand and well laid out book. Feng Shui for Modern Living magazine calls it a "tour de force" and I fully concur. DEFINITELY A MUST for any feng shui practitioner or enthisiast - beginner, intermediate and advanced.

I am a professor of Physics, and a Malaysian student of mine told me about feng shui, and mentioned that I should read Lillian Too's books. I have known about feng shui's existence, but until this book, I had dismissed it only as an Eastern superstition. Anyway, my student was very determined to introduce me to this "science", so I chose this book because it was considered the one and only comprehensive encyclopedia for feng shui - all in one book. True enough.. the book was very interesting - scientifically, as well as practically. This book has seriously demystified this "science" for me - well categorized and not at all a difficult read.

Feng shui has become a very popular subject and only because Mrs Lillian Too has done so well to popularize and articulate a much forgotten science and philosophy. I've read many of her books and this encyclopedia covers her methods of feng shui quite extensively. I recommend this book as a starting point to beginners, and a reference book to advance feng shui book beaters. Mrs Too also likes to throw in a dash of Tibetan arts and philosophy, so watch out for these lasting touches!

I read a few other books before I found Lillian's Too's book. This encyclopedia has helped me put everything together. I got so confused to have read different FS, there's the Indian FS, the Western FS, the Japanese FS, I also was surfing the net and just read whatever was there. Thanks to Lillian, it all then finally made sense why other FS contradicted each other. It's also good to know that you can also use FS principles/cures from other FS as above in different rooms in your house. This is an excellent excellent book, anyone starting in FS should not be without.

This book was really helpful to me. I've bought other books on fengshui before (not Lillian Too's) and most of them are hard to understand and have no illustrations. I decided to give this one a shot bec I heard from some friends that it's a good one - and I've been impressed! Great graphics - illustrations helped me understand otherwise difficult concepts. I'm so glad that Lillian Too wrote such a book! My review is that it's a wonderful fengshui book for beginners, as well as advanced practitioners (as a reference).

Within design, the one pragmmatic and problematic extents is the ability to integrate mind/body to the environment. Feng shui offers a solution or should I say an answer in allowing design and the mind to come as a unified form.. the placement of elements and the position in relation to ones elemental disposition enhances and focuses energy or chi. The Illustratated Encyclopedia offers an amazing vocabulary and resource to feng shui allowing an ease and vast knowledge in understanding the fundamentals as well as the essential understanding of placement, elements with directions. Take this knowledge and apply it to your site, consider site constraints.. apply the pa kua and the elements that enhance the directions with the ingenious use of materials to enhance water, wood, etc. The encyclopedia has given me the essential and important infomation and knowledge I needed to integrate to design and to create an aesthetics that not only creates flow of people, and energy but a symbiosis between landscape / building and humans.. a great book which in my mind takes a step further and pushes the edge on the practice of feng shui...

In addition to the fengshui stuff that everybody has mentioned already, it is also a good looking book. It is more suitable to read here and there than page by page. This is a great living room book. with all the beautiful pictures and little stories. It is a nice conversation piece. Share with friends and open a new view of life for them. This book was featured by the FengShui BookClub(tm) in fengshuihelp.com

This book is beautiful. The Pictures are uplifting and the data is laid out for easy reference. Yes, it is the same data as in other books, But Feng Shui is Feng Shui, and I love having everything in one book at my fingertips. Thank you Lillian.