Many Asian people will claimed themselves to be a Buddhist.  But the truth is, Buddhist only believe in Buddha.  Majority of Taiwanese don’t just pray to Buddha, they prays to various Gods.  Therefore, they should be called Taoist.  Buddhism prays to Buddha, what follow through what he believe, while Taoism actually believe human who had done extraordinary contribution before their life time could evolve into God after they were dead.  Therefore, many Gods in Taoism were human before they die.  To simplify this, Buddhism only believe in Buddha, and Taoism believe in many Gods. (it’s like Christian and Catholic).  The reason most of Asian call themselves Buddhist is just because that’s the only word we were introduced since we were kids (and probably the only word that we think Westerner know)

Though most of Buddism and Taoism carry similar beliefs, there’s still some minor difference.  Since Buddhism believe more in self-evolution, therefore, you will hear me calling myself more a Buddhist than a Taoist.

Ep. 29. Property Guardian

Have you ever wondered why Asian pray all the time? Especially if you were second generation Asian, you’d probably see your parents praying day and night, high and low, and any special occasions…  And whenever you go to ask them whom they are praying to, instead of giving you a solid name like God or Jesus, they just brush it off like you would never understand it anyway.  The thing is, if you were not born and raised in Aisa, you would probably have no clue whom and why they are praying to anyway, because the word simply don’t exist in English.

Here is another new vocabulary for you all Westerner or second generation – property guardian.  (I know what your reaction is: Uh?  You said what? because that’s exactly what my husband’s reaction was.  :p)  Even though I’ve been talking about phrases that most of you have probably never heard of in your life, karmic creditor and property guardian are actually the most asked topic during my psychic journey.  In fact, I am very certain that those two topics covers the most religious income out there.

Property Guardian is basically a spirit who monitor your house, control your luck and sent report to Gods about how you are doing.  So God could later decide what happens to you when you die.  As you can only imagine, this spirit is important because he held of power of your afterlife and the luck of the household, therefore, people feel the need to please this spirit by praying to him in regular basis.

Property Guardian in old time is more like the lord of Foundation, who had been watching over the land for god-knows-how-long.  Since there’s only house before, one foundation would most likely have only one foundation lord.  As time progress and house starts build into high-rise, that one foundation lord somehow splits and each unit will have its own property guardian.

There are so many rules when you are praying to property guardian.  The first and the most important of all, your ceremony table should never set too high (more so like a IKEA children table).  Obviously, this property spirit is only 100-120cm tall.  It seems that if you put the table too high, it would insult and upset him.  Second, he loves chicken leg, so you’d always have to make sure there’s a chicken leg on your praying table.  Asian pray to this spirit on first and fifteenth of the month (*note: people corrected me that they only pray to property guardian four times a year.  Every first and fifteenth of month, people pray to Land God), whenever you move in or out of the house, and also start a new business or whatever change you are going to do that relate to property…  As you can all do the basic math, we pray to this specific spirit ALL THE TIME.  We are so afraid to upset him that we sometimes plan the next praying when we are not done with one yet. :p

Since this property guardian is the lowest level of God, who is not really qualified to be God yet, he obviously has a temper as well.  (And base on how society projected him, it seems like he is narrowed minded and calculated soul? ;p)  Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that property guardian is not real.  They do and could look like a spirit, act like one and do have a personality of its own as well.  But remembered that I said there are several spirits that are generate by human?  Karmic creditor is a projection of soul’s database, and property guardian is actually raised and fed by human energy.  Usually, whoever is dominant in the household would decide the personality of the property guardian. If a household happens to have two dominant people in charge, the chance is that you will have a pair of property guardians which Asian sometimes refered them as husband and wife just like in the real life.  That’s also why sometimes Asian will set 2 sets of utensils believing there’s couple of property guardian they need to pray to.  So if you’d ever wondered how many set of bowl you’d need to prepare, check the household first and see how many dominant people in the house.  Two conflicting dominant personality would most likely create conflicting energy as well.  So the most ideal situation is when you have a couples work well with one another in order to create a balanced personality of one property guardian instead of having two with extinctive personalities that conflict one another.  And in no circumstance, you want your child to be the dominant one in your household. ;p

Westerner also have a term for this as well.  They called it ‘the energy of the house’.  People with awareness will put their intention and effort to manage the energy of the house.  So if you’d ever wondered why Westerner seemed fine even when they don’t spend 24+ times a years praying to property guardian, it’s because they put effort managing the energy of their house.  They just don’t believe that some spirit is in charge of their luck and afterlife, not to mention that they believe praying to a spirit would do them any help.  As westerner or second generation, if you’d ever wondered why Asian prays all the times?  Noticed if the table is set low and there’s a chicken leg on the table, the chance is they are praying to property guardian in hope to collect more prosperity to the family.  So don’t always come to me and asked whether you should pray to property guardian or how.   You know my theory by now; if you believe it exists, then pray to him as often as you want.  Or you will be trapped by ‘what if’ question, and that ‘what if’ energy is exactly what will generate you bad luck.  If you want to know your property guardian’s personality and what he likes, go check on the dominant person in the house.  You should have no problem figure out how many set of bowl or what dishes to put on praying table. 😉

Sometimes, things may not go as well when you move into a new property and people believe that’s the result for not praying to the property guardian.  Well, I am here to tell you.  That’s your energy conflicting with the energy leftover from the previous tenant/owner.  That would happen to Westerner as well.  It’s not like you will stuck with that energy forever, but it usually take time for your energy to overwrite the leftoever energy.  I will say in average, it will take approximately 6-8 months of time depends on how strong the personality of the previous tenant.  But if you can keep focus and not to be defeated by whatever conflicting energy creates, you can overpower the leftover energy soon enough and replace one of your own.  But if you choose to live in fear of whatever that leftover property guardian could do to you, the chance is that you will be feeding it energy for him to stay.

So I hope this will answer questions to both cultures.  There a living energy in the house that is raised and fed by human energy, mostly the dominant one in the house, which could be projected as a form of spirit sometimes.  In Western country, they called it the energy of the house.  In Asia, they believe it’s a spirit with personality called property guardian (or the lord of foundation)