Caring for the Carers of the Irish Survivors

At Rising Dragon Feng Shui we teach and practice Feng Shui as a means to getting to a better life. We’re here to help solve people’s problems and to support them in achieving their dreams. When His Holiness Grandmaster Sheng-yen Lu taught us Dharma, he did so because he saw so many people in this world were suffering and he wanted to do something about it. But then Grandmaster Sheng-yen Lu is a truly remarkable and extra-ordinary life. What would Rising Dragon Feng Shui’s senior Feng Shui consultant Angela Ang find when she visited London solicitors, McMahon & Company in Harrow, Middlesex?

Pentax House, Harrow, London - home of McMahon & Company, specialists in the issues of the Irish Survivors

“I’ve been involved in the Legal Industry for fourteen years now,” said Eileen McMahon, principal of the firm. “And the reason I started down this road was because I believed I could make a difference and help people in my own way. I know a lot people like to make fun of the law but too many people forget what it is like to be abused and to have nowhere to turn for protection. Forget about the media attention on what law is like and look at the reality – there are people out there who have suffered the most horrendous treatment and their whole life can be destroyed. I want to address the needs of these people. When the law rules in a case, the first thing it does is lift the guilt from the victim.”

McMahon & Company specialise in helping the “Irish Survivors”, victims of the Irish Social System from the Forties and Fifties. During that period, many children in care were subject to appalling conditions and many were abused. Eileen is able to offer them the peace of mind that even though they may now be in their 50’s, 60’s or 70s, those issues that still haunt them can be resolved and they needn’t carry this burden with them any longer.

When families collapse, whether it is because of money problems, arguments, adultery or other reasons, it affects many people’s lives. Having good Feng Shui provides you with the framework to enjoy better relationships, more money and greater happiness. After that you still need to cultivate a good heart and apply effort to your relationships if you want to reap the rewards that Feng Shui can place within your grasp. One of the greatest ways to improve one’s luck is to perform acts of charity. This is because when we selflessly try to help others we create positive energy. In Buddhism, we call this Karma, but it’s essentially the same as when Christians say “You reap what you sow”. Those positive seeds we plant return to us after a while and increase our luck. This is a type of good Karma. If one is possessed by a miserly or evil heart, even the best Feng Shui master on earth cannot guarantee your continued success!

The Four Essays, a Ming Dynasty Classic, follows the true life story of author Yuen Liao Fan. In order to change his destiny he completes 3,000 charitable deeds and gets promoted to a high official position. After that it reads:

Seeing that I didn't accomplish enough charities, my wife talked to me with worry, "When we lived in our village, I could help you perform charities and we accomplished 3,000 good deeds in a rather short time. Now that we are in this government office, there is nothing I can do to help. How can we fulfil the vow to accomplish 10,000 good deeds?"

Then one night I dreamt of a deity. I talked to him about the difficulty of fulfilling the vow. The deity said, "If you implement a rule to cut the grain tax, you would have done enough for the ten thousand good deeds."

The grain tax rate of my district is 23.7%, which is quite high. I immediately designed a new law to reduce it to 14.6%. However, I was not sure if that could really be counted as ten thousand good deeds. Fortuitously, a Zen master came from Five Platforms Mountain and I told him about my dream. He said, "As long as you perform charity with a sincere heart, and do the best you can, one deed is as good as ten thousand, especially when the one deed is a district-wide reduction of grain tax! Thousands of people will benefit from this new administrative rule."

Essentially what this means is that if you are poor or of average status, then one can carry out simple charities that require no money like helping the aged, collecting for charity or giving your time and words of comfort to those in distress. If you have money, status or fame you may think that performing charity is hard to do because your life is more complicated. But even if you can only use your status to encourage others to perform charity, you’ll be able to enjoy countless blessings. Eileen McMahon provides a shining example of this that we can all learn from.

“After living in Zimbabwe for four years I was so touched by the way the children were out there,” explained Eileen. “With the terrible government they don’t have the same standards of living as we do, yet they just want to be happy and play games like normal kids do. I wanted to do something simple for them that would let them know that people still care about them”.

Eileen showed that with a little initiative and a heart of gold, much can be achieved. She spoke to all her local schools and arranged for a project in which children would donate their unwanted toys to become Christmas presents for other children in Zimbabwe. The children gift wrapped the donations and added a gift tag to let the receiver know who it was from. Over 800 presents were arranged in this way, and Christian Aid in Zimbabwe will be distributing them. That means that every child will get a little bit of Christmas cheer to raise a big smile! In addition, many school children here in London have been able to reach out and perform a good deed. The total sum of all these compassionate acts is truly vast!

“I believe that as people we have to care,” spoke Eileen. “It’s something I’ve tried to put into my work and into the way I lead my life. It was also the reason why I chose to be advised by Angela Ang. When I decided that Feng Shui was something I’d like to use, naturally I spent some time looking for a Feng Shui consultant that I could be comfortable working with and letting into my private life. While there are many Feng Shui consultants out there, when I came across Angela at Rising Dragon Feng Shui I looked at her face and felt that here was someone I could trust; someone who really cared. As a lawyer, I’m a pretty good judge of character and can tell a lot about a person just by looking, but for those of you who haven’t met Angela, I can tell you she really does care.”

No Clutter Clearing here - the mound of bags behind Angela and Eileen contain some of the many hand wrapped presents for children in Zimbabwe

During the consultation, Angela used several systems of Feng Shui in combination to analyse the business premises. Afterwards Angela said, “I personally believe that each and every one of us is special; and I use Feng Shui to bring out the best in people. That is what this is all about. Eileen McMahon has been brave enough to let the love in her heart shine forth onto everyone she can. In Buddhism we call this Bodhicitta; having the sincere intention and desire to benefit all others through our existence. Having this type of sentiment within your heart can not only make you special – it can make you a saint. What Eileen’s example shows is that you don’t need to be a Buddhist Grandmaster to have compassion; you don’t need to be old to give back and you don’t need to be rich to generate great happiness. You yourself can make a difference to your life and to others and even if you only achieve a tenth of what Eileen has, the merit so generated is still huge.”

“I’m always grateful to be doing what I do as I get to meet so many upwardly mobile, caring and sincere clients like Eileen. It makes me really happy when I see them, because I can make a solemn prediction. Now she is aware of how to use Feng Shui to support her, she will be able to reap what she has sown. Her luck will be coming back to her, allowing her to enjoy life fully”

McMahon & Company are solicitors that are based on sound values. Whether Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or Atheist, we can all learn from Eileen’s pure motivation of caring, and join us in wishing her every continued success. If you are an Irish Survivor or seeking to make Personal Injury Claim, then ask yourself who do you want to take look after your interests? Do you want someone who is really going to care that things work out for you? If so, McMahon & Company is there for you. You can contact Eileen McMahon on 0208 938 4721 or by visiting either of Eileen's websites at www.irishsurvivors.com or www.mcmahonandcompany.com.