In this book, metaphysician and astrology expert Andy Nicola becomes
our tour guide in helping to explain existence in both the physical and
spiritual realms. The reader is given a thorough, all-encompassing
review into the principles operating in each dimension. After reading
this book, you will have an in depth and richer understanding of
humanity's involvement with the natural cycles of reality in all its forms.
The author's precise and detailed descriptions and explanations give the
reader the ability to understand and participate in the creative processes
of destiny.

The Realities of Destiny : Unveiling The Deeper Meanings of Fate and Freewill,
examines many areas of metaphysics, from Karma and Law of Attraction to Omens,
Dreams, Symbolic Meanings and much more. The main premise of the book is
humanity's age old concerns of whether our destinies can be shaped or are we
simply organisms following a preset patterned cycle.

Andy does a thorough job in sorting out the ideas in this often complex subject.
After reading his work, the reader will develop a deeper understanding of destiny
by inheriting a closer alignment with the ultimate meaning of existence.

Orders will be available through the website or by mail. Please refer to the "Store" section of the website, on or after May 1, for information on placing an order for Andy's long awaited new book!

Qi And Objects

Qi (chi) and objects are not two separate entities, they are two aspects of one whole. In the non-material realm qi crystallizes to form objects that come into expression in the material world. Qi is to the object it creates as an object is to its shadow in the phenomenal world. An object and its shadow are not two separate entities.......they are, (like qi and its object mentioned above) two aspects of one whole. In the intangible realm an object is qi's "shadow", and in the tangible realm an object is a shadows qi. That is, qi creates objects and objects create shadows.

Another way of looking at it is that in the intangible realm qi is the shadow of Tao and in the tangible realm objects are the shadow of qi.

If you can meditate and ponder on the above statements and rise beyond the "haziness" of the description, you may be surprised at what you may discover. It is definitely metaphysical.

The Price For Education

In the old days the student's journey in eventually becoming a future master may have begun by walking through the mountains or forests with their own master and enduring the hardships of the terrain. They may have went for days eating herbs to survive, stopping along the way for deep periods of meditation or contemplation. The student and master relied on each other for many things; the master relied on the student for his young, energetic, physical energy and the student relied on his master for his wisdom and experience. It was a tight bond, and the student was in many ways closer to his master than to his own father. They went through years and decades of practice and learning and eventually there would come a day when the master sensed that the student was about ready to pass on the tradition to another up-and-coming student. The patience involved in cultivating the student was enormous. No shortcuts were taken and there were no time constraints in rushing the student.......sometimes the lessons took a lifetime, but when the student was "let loose" the master knew he was ready and was confident that the world had gained another master.

Today is a completely different story. In these modern times a person can become a master in 4 weeks by sitting in front of a computer and sipping a coke and typing away at the keyboard in a half-dazed state of confusion. All it takes are two things basically. These two things are money and the ability to put your faith in a person who claims to be a master. Whereas in the old days the journey began in the mountains with your master, today the journey begins by calling a self-proclaimed master on their cell phone or e-mailing him/her and giving them your credit card number. Then you take their correspondence course (CC) and you will eventually become a certified master. I guarantee you that I can find a person out there who has never heard of the word Feng Shui and within approximately 4-8 weeks become a certified master. No years of experience... no walks in the forest... no deep meditation... none of that stuff. As they say, " all it takes is money honey". Today "masters" are reeling in students like a fisherman reels in fish. "Masters" compete with each other to see who can catch the most fish, and you can be certain that there are fish to be caught. Once a master has you hooked you can forget about it, he'll keep throwing out more bait such as new classes, computer video seminars, new CC's, new e-books, "latest information", and so- on- and- on- and- on. The "master" will act as though nothing else in the world matters other than your education...but as soon as you run out of money he will want to have nothing to do with you. It is a sad but true reality. Recently I saw a picture of a guy who promotes himself as a master (who I've mentioned on my blog before) with many of his students/victims around him. The picture reminded me of a fat cat with swarms of lifeless fish surrounding him. The fish looked lifeless...but the fat cat looked content... like he was going to have quite a feast with all the fish he captured. Well, fish are fish and cats are cats...what can you do.

If you are in the market for a metaphysical education be careful. Although there are some good teachers and masters, the majority are promoters and business men/women. These types are charging thousands of dollars for this "education" that eventually runs into the tens of thousands of dollars and the cycle never seems to end. Don't believe you can become a master or qualified practitioner by taking a CC or a few classes. Don't believe these exaggerated claims. Anyone who tells you that you can become a qualified practitioner in less than a year is lying to you. Anyone who is churning "masters' out of his students by the droves is doing an injustice to themselves and to the student. We can stop them by refusing to be tempted by their dazzling claims. If we refuse to buy into their exaggerations they will eventually have to go work a regular job, whether teaching high school mathematics or whatever. It is ultimately up to us to put an end to all this nonsense.

The Rabbit

On Oct.10.2006 a student of Joseph Yu named Mark Andres who calls himself "The Rabbit" wrote the following on the Astro fengshui yahoo group list :

"To me, for anyone to "claim that Shao Yong's formula is invalid" merely shows ignorance on the part of the person making the claim. Ignorance beneath contempt."

He wrote this about me in defense of his "master" after I made public the unethical practices of Joseph Yu. I would like to respond to his comments . First and foremost the Rabbit's statement is a lie. I have NEVER claimed that Shao Yung's formula is invalid because I have never believed that Shao Yung created the Plum Blossom (Mei Hua) method of divination. Joseph Yu has been stating for years that Shao Yung is the inventor of the PB method and when I stated in a post on a yahoo list that it is unlikely to the extreme that Shao would create such an unbalanced PB dating system he publicly called me arrogant and ignorant and said I was showing disrespect to the great Sung scholar. For me to mention that Shao Yung did not invent the PB would make the feeble-minded master look incompetent in the eyes of his students and the public should my opinion be correct. He kept insisting that Shao was the originator and Mark Andres with his Blind Faith in full bloom made the statement above. More recently, however, Joseph has shifted his views and wrote on his blog :

"The formula may be the work of Song Dynasty scholar Shao Yong or it may be not. "

and ..........

"the system is beautiful whether invented by Shao Yong or any other wise person."

It may seem like a trivial matter on the surface but it certainly reveals a few things. The first is that Joseph's initial lack of flexibility and his contradicting character is 'leaching' onto his students. It would kill Joseph to admit that my statement may have been correct so he 'hedges' his stance by making the above statements where he tries to 'graciously' reverse his opinions without saying I might be right. With Joe's statements above, the Rabbit may have to conclude that his master is "Ignorant beneath contempt", to use his own words. Mark Andres is an absolute perfect example of the Blind Faith I wrote about a few days ago.

Mark's comments surprised me. He has no idea of either my works or myself and the only time I have ever met him in person was on an August weekend night last year when he called my home phone at 1 AM to let me know that he and one of Joseph's top students who came to stay with me just left a 'seedy' nightclub and I could go pick up Joseph's student at an area closer to my house (I'm not a drinker so I declined their invitation to go drinking with them). When I got to the destination, the glassy-eyed and wobbly Rabbit looked a little "shaky" and I was hoping he would make it home OK as he slurred his good-nights. That is the only time I've ever met him. I also talked with him on the phone once or twice concerning Plum Blossom. He told me that he was not a PB expert and that he had only studied PB for less than a year. In spite of this, he gives PB readings and promotes himself as a "Professional" certified by Joseph. He was/is actually charging people for consultations with his less than 1 year of study. Good heavens...I have studied it for about a decade and a half at an extremely deep level and I refuse to charge for consultations until I can know more. This is a perfect example of people exploiting the public for money and hiding behind the curtain of spirituality. Joseph was steaming when I made a comment that his (Joseph's) PB teachings were nothing more than what Lillian Too or other elementary authors have been trying to shove down the public's throat. Joseph's usual response to claims like these against him is "prove it"..."prove it"..."prove it". It seems to be the only words he knows when someone says he's wrong or questions his expertise. However, he did not ask me to prove my claims, even after I publicly stated that I would elaborate on my views if he cared for me to. The offer still stands, and if he would like for me to "prove" why I believe his PB knowledge is inadequate I would be happy to do so. Although, if he doesn't respond I may give my views in future blog post to let the public be aware of how he is presenting his PB ideas.......at a hefty price I might add.

In concluding this post I would like to say that "The Rabbit" will not likely be pleased with this post but then I wasn't all that crazy about his comments either. His drinking buddy (whose name I won't mention) will not be pleased either. The drinking buddy will probably be reading this and he knows why I am writing this post. He knows I can tolerate many things, but one I will not tolerate is when someone gives me their word and then lies and breaks their promise. He knows how close we were and he knows I won't mention his name, but deep down he also knows what he has done for me to break my trust in him and write these words. Disloyalty and the breaking of one's word is something he knows I will not forgive.

Blind Faith Leads To Poor Vision

It is no secret that the ancient Chinese left behind a myriad of divination methods and techniques that are in use today. I myself, am truly grateful to the ancient wise ones, whose wisdom was deep and unfathomable. I have often wondered if it is possible to convey my gratitude to them for the gifts they have left. I attempt to do so in dreams, contemplation, and meditation. I have had dreams too numerous to count where I am engaged in lengthy conversations with the ancient Chinese Sages and Masters. Many times I have been working on extremely complicated matters in the physical state that I have only been able to sucsessfully complete from information recieved in the realm of dreams/spirit. I keep a dream journal and have filled more than 9 full-sized volumes with information from my dreams. When I look at some of the patterns in my journal and compare them to the patterns my life and studies have taken, I am absolutely certain that we do have the ability to connect with "higher beings" and recieve information from them. I often wonder if this happens with others, and I have concluded that it must........for I am certainly no more special than anyone else. I have learned that it IS possible to express your thanks to the wise ones of the ancient past.

We hear of the passing down of secret information from master to disciple, many times orally to avoid discovery by outside sources. This clearly suggests that the wise ones in the past did not have intentions of their methods becomming public knowledge, but throughout the ages the masses were evntually able to reap the benrfits and the methods were slowly revealed. I guess you can say that humanity was never that good at keeping secrets.......but in this case we can be thankful.

From thousands of years ago to the present day, the 'politics' game has been in effect in metaphysics and spiritual matters, although today it has gotten completely out of hand. We have also fallen into the Blind Faith trap. I have seen a leading macrobiotic 'guru' who has become a multi-millionaire that advocates a very strict, clean, and pure diet and lifestyle who has been seen on numerous occasions eating many of the foods, and participating in many of the habits he preaches strongly against. Another spiritual guru with a large following, boldly (and publically) claims that he has had not eaten a single bite of food for many years and lives on sunlight through solar-gazing or what others call "sun-eating". To back his claims he states that he was observed by NASA and went through documented tests with them. A little research revealed that : 1) NASA has never heard of him, and 2) He was observed by a film crew making 3 trips to the buffet line in a California restaurant, and also seen eating at an Indian foods buffet in Texas. Both these gentlemen have large followings and I have heard that it is not uncommon for them to scorn their students for not following the principle they preach. If this is not hypocrocy, then I have no clue what it is. I used to belive that religion and politics were the hypocrites, but now I understand that spirituality has joined in the game. Even when the masters are revealed and the news becomes public, their students and followers will continue to defend them strenously. They refuse to see things as they truly are and they try to convince others and themselves that it is all a conspiracy against their masters.......or that others are 'attacking' their master out of jealousy.......or a million other reasons. This is called BLIND FAITH and it is poison to the student/follower.

Chinese and other metaphysical groups or cultures are notorious for the Blind Faith syndrom. Much of metaphysics/spirituality is about business strategy, jockying position, and advertising/promotion. There is no doubt that there are more politicians in metaphysics than there are masters. To find the metaphysical politician is very easy, just grab any spiritual magazine or tune into any spiritual broadcast and 9 times out of 10 the charlatan stands out like a sore thumb. There are so few deep-thinkers in metaphysics.......most are Surface Scratchers, meaning that they barely scratch the surface. Many hide behind fancy clothing or sophisticated words to cover up their inadequate knowledge. I wrote a short saying to myself a few years ago and I try to always remember it :

" Beware of the man who hides behind words,
the more sophisticated the word
the more confused is the man. "

People who hear sophisticated words become hypnotized and conclude that the speaker must know what they are talking about because the words sound so confusing. A lot of people say that Deepak Chopra is an absolute genius because the words he uses are quite sophisticated and elegant. Mr. Chopra is a master hypnotist, we must give him that, and if he is a wizard genius and worth the mega-millions he has made off people can only be a matter of personal opinion. When the master or guru speaks, the listener then becomes a follower and the blind faith game begins. If you don't believe in blind faith, look closely at what what governments are saying, look at how the masses react, and then look at the conditions of the world. You would have to be truly blind not to see it or notice it. The same thing happens in the spiritual field. The master takes the position of the politician or government, the student/client is equivalent to the masses, and the false knowledge stemming from the false words can be correlated to the declining conditions of the world. Truly a sad state of affairs.

We will talk about some of the false masters operating today in future blog posts. We will talk about their tactics and strategies and the conditions they are creating in Chinese metaphysics. In the meantime remember that, blind faith leads to poor vision.

Andy Nicola

Tellin' It Like It Is

At first glance, the name of my blog may not seem fitting for Chinese metaphysics. The different media types paint a distorted picture of angelic proportions where bliss is floating around in abundance, leading one to believe that there is more spiritual energy than air pollution circulating in our atmosphere. In reality, this view is very biased and things are not quite as these folks portray. If the true nature of spirituality as it is being practiced today were revealed to the masses; there is little doubt that the gurus, masters, pundits, teachers, etc. would quickly find themselves out of work and standing in the unemployment line. Perhaps now you may begin to get a glimps and understand why they must promote spirituality in an extremely exaggerated manner. Given the choice of "feeding the family" or "standing in the welfare line", which do you believe most would choose ? Almost all students, when confronted with this dilema will admit that, "yes, things are out of balance in this field, so thank heavens that I have a genuine master and not a false one". Every student has convinced themselves that they are blessed to have the only genuine master on the planet. This biased perspective actually stunts the growth of the student to eventually develop into genuine masters themselves. In my opinion, it is one of the reasons the world lacks true masters.

Tellin' It Like It Is will attempt to bring back into balance the distorted messages that have been implanted in our conciousness. Many may not like what they hear...and many may love it, but I do believe it must be told. I have practiced Chinese metaphysics for many years at a profoundly deep level and from the beginning I promised myself not to get involved in the exaggerated promotions and outlandish claims that seemed to be the norm in the field. This decision has caused me to remain financially lacking but spiritually true. Overall, I believe it was a wise choice and do not regret it. Being truthful can many times create enemies along the way, but I would rather tell the Sad Truth than a Happy Lie.

I will share many of the discoveries I have made over the years, along with insights and revelations I have gained. You will read things you have never read or heard of before and I will always be Tellin' It Like It Is to the very best of my knowledge. Thanks for stopping by my blog and I do hope you enjoy the tour .