Death is coming

The closer death creeps up upon me the less I am able to understand the reasons for life or living.

Yes I have experienced a close family member dying and unlike television it takes decades to handle such a thing. To think I am going to put my family through such a thing when I finally leave is more horrific to me than the thought of death itself.

My life was and is still a learning experience but when all said and done what am I to do with all this accumulated learning over my lifetime if I just die. There is no logic or reason to this.

Long ago I became aware that the God story that is sold to the majority is just a nice story to give mankind with a message of a basic layout of how nice life could be if everyone followed these ideas. Not many in life do and if one thinks about it the good and evil structures actually depend on each other. The good that can be experienced in life is only understood as good when there is it's opposite to compare it to. This is not rocket science only common sense in reality. I am not saying we need to experience bad but understanding in it is needed to appreciate the great things many of us can have in our lives. From birth to death there are many ways mankind helps his fellow man. How many ways can you help?


Monday, April 4, 2011

Mandarin New Year Dragon Symbol

By John Chan


Let us see the prestige and importance that is connected with the Chinese Symbol of the Chinese New Year.

The images of the Chinese dragon and the occasion of Chinese New Year have been two eventful components of the Chinese Tradition. For thousands of years now they have still withheld the same importance for themselves and exclusive presence even till date. Moreover, interestingly they are deeply intertwined with each other.

The dragon has become a symbol which is immediately linked to the Chinese culture. The west has come to know of this dragon symbol from martial art flicksand art work from China. For the Chinese people, this figure of dragon is a highly honorable mythical animal that is respected for its rarity, magnificence and spiritual powers.

With due respect to the Chinese custom, firstly we must recognize the fact that the Chinese New Year does not match with the Western celebrations of the New Year. The reason behind this is that the western world follows the Gregorian solar calendar and the Chinese have always followed the lunar calendar. Thereby, the cycle of the moon decides the date on which Chinese New Year event is celebrated and this is completely on a different day from the Western New Year.

In the event of New Year, the Chinese people are unnaturally and especially high on joyful spirit and various kinds of revelry are seen. To indicate the change of time with the New Year, Chinese have a unique tradition of associating animal symbols to this change. There are twelve animals in total and these twelve animal signs are repeated every twelfth year. So the year of dragon comes back into action with rejuvenated spirituality after every twelve years.

The Chinese New Year symbol of the dragon holds good to indicate overwhelming power. Generally the dragon image is imagined to be a symbol of spirituality and unforeseen power and rage. The anger of the Chinese dragon however, is somehow always justified and is used to indicate the correction of any mistake. In this way the angry dragon image is a positive image and often inspiring.

Chinese people believe that the streets have rights over you. When you are walking on the streets and come across evil the task of blocking it falls on you if you have the strength or with your speech if nothing else. If you are unable to stop it then at least recognize the evil act to be wrong.

What the image of a dragon does is to eradicate the wrong doers. It does not represent wrong doings but works in opposition. The best option is to avoid doing evil and engaging in doing right things. Hence the Chinese New Year symbol of the dragon is nothing but a revolution to bring about peace in a festive and spiritual way.




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