Posts Tagged ‘western’
Chinese Zodiac Signs
Each Chinese New Year begins on the day of first new moon. In the western year 2005, the new moon began on February 9. It was the Chinese year 4702. In actuality, most Chinese began using the western, or solar, calendar in the early twentieth century, except on important holidays. Many of the calendars in China show both the solar dates of the western calendar and the lunar dates of the Chinese calendar. Chinese astrology is based on the twelve cycles of the moon.
The Chinese zodiac consists of twelve animals, rather than the solar signs used in the west. In the Chinese calendar each period lasts for a full cycle of the moon, from new to full. There are twelve complete lunar cycles in a Chinese zodiac year, but one animal symbolizes the entire year. According to their calendar, the Chinese complete a cycle every twelve years. So if you were born in the year of the rat, you would celebrate your zodiac birthday every twelve years, and your Chinese zodiac sign would be the rat. In the west your astrological sign appears once each year.
The calendar and its animals were created from an ancient legend. It tells us that the animals were all fighting about who was going to be in the prime (first) position on the Chinese calendar. The gods devised a test in which the animals would compete for their position by swimming across a river. Another version says that the Buddha requested visits by the animals before he left earth. He named the moon cycles after the animals in order of appearance. So the Chinese zodiac symbol is a circle divided into twelve equal sections; think of it as if you were marking off slices of a pie. There is a picture of the animal representing that Chinese zodiac sign in each section. The calendar’s use dates clear back to 2600 BC.
The animals used in Chinese astrology are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep (goat), monkey, rooster, dog, and boar (pig). Persons born during their cycle are said to take on their animal traits:
- Rat- Perfectionist, charming, aggressive, secretive, party-loving, quick-witted, stubborn, good at politics and business, can be mean
- Ox- Quiet, quick to anger, excellent memories, hard-working, family loyalty, creative, skilful hands, responsible, self-confident
- Tiger- Leaders, courageous, territorial, possessive, fighters, generous and selfish, magnetic, passionate, works solo, dynamic
- Rabbit- Sweet-natured, conservative, artistic, tasteful, sentimental, emotional, shy, faithful to partners, romantic, avoid fighting
- Dragon- Regal, leader, centre of attention, powerful, lucky, aggressive, dynamic, big ego, snobbish, tyrannical
- Snake- Charming, popular, lies easily, possessive, hates rejection, deep thinker, well-mannered, lazy, romantic, insecure
- Horse- Crowd lover, rebellious, energetic, selfish, self-centered, good with money, cunning, lacks self-confidence
- Sheep or goat- Artistic, creative, lazy, disorganized, charming, well-mannered, dreamy, pessimistic, romantic, worrier, not good in business
- Monkey- Charming, witty, clever, emotional, unscrupulous, love food but not gluttons, deceptive, funny, lucky
- Rooster- Straight-forward, honest, flashy dresser, loyal, honest, dreamer, psychic, busy, loves a bargain, observers
- Dog- Traditional, loyal, sincere, intelligent, private, judgmental, serious, anxious, likes solitude, champions causes
- Pig or boar- Loving, caring, chivalrous, sincere, honourable, easy to take advantage of, belief in goodness, love food, romantic, jealous
As you can see the Chinese calendar with its Chinese zodiac symbols is most interesting indeed. If you look up your Chinese zodiac sign, you will enjoy the time learning more about yourself.
Bo Guo is the owner of Char4U.com and OrientaLabels.com. Please include an active link to our sites when reprinting this article.
How to Benefit from The Mind-Body Connection
Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of “Love, Medicine and Miracles” was once a distraught surgeon who fretted over his inability to effectively serve his cancer patients. Dr. Siegel’s recognition and growing understanding of the mind-body connection eventually allowed him to serve his patients and himself in a greater capacity.
Bernie writes in his book, “When a doctor reports amazing improvements in a patient’s condition, he or she almost never mentions that person’s beliefs and lifestyle, but when I inquire, I find the patient always has made some drastic change toward a more loving and accepting outlook. The patient seldom tells an unreceptive doctor about this, however.”
When the person’s mind changed, the state of their health changed. Hence, the importance of the mind- body connection.
However, just covering up the surface with positive thinking isn’t necessarily going to help. It’s like cleaning out a house. The dirt and filth has to be removed and the stale air replaced with fresh air. There has to be a fundamental change for real healing to take place. Surface level, ‘positive thinking’ isn’t going to effect this kind of change, just like lightly dusting our homes won’t get the real dirt out.
So what are the dirty and stale things in our minds? Well, they could be things like grudges, prejudices, anger, resentment and hate. One spiritual principle from religion talks about “loving your enemy”. That can’t be done without giving up hate. By giving up something bad, we can make room for something good to come in and may, as a result, see a corresponding change in our bodies.
The problem here is that many of these bad things are buried and hidden and we won’t necessarily see them or recognize them in ourselves. We can be certain that they are there though, it is a virtually inevitable consequence of living in a world that is so focused on selfishness and less concerned with “loving” others.
So in order to find these bad things and eliminate them requires introspection, it requires looking at oneself hard and long. However, there is still a problem. When we are searching within our minds, we have to have a standard to do the comparison with. Otherwise, how will we find anything? How will it stand out?
Let’s look to one of the greatest thinkers of the Western world, Socrates. What did Socrates do with is life? Didn’t he teach others about virtue? Interesting, isn’t it? One of the most influential people in western thinking emphasized virtue to his students. Socrates talked about things like absolute goodness, beauty and truth.
If someone as great, as well loved and respected as Socrates thought these things were important, perhaps therein lies the key to the mind-body connection. To live a truly healthy and worthwhile life, maybe virtuous thoughts like truth and goodness are what our minds should embrace rather than the negative things modern life finds us clinging too.
Remember what Bernie said, “I find the patient always has made some drastic change toward a more loving and accepting outlook.” When we embrace truth and goodness, the beauty of life and this vast universe that we live in becomes evident. That is when we can heal our bodies. Real healing happens in the mind.
This article is for information purposes only, it is not meant to diagnose, prevent or treat any illness or health issue. If you have or think you have a health condition, please visit your primary-care physician immediately.
Dave Snape is a health, fitness and wellness enthusiast. His website is http://tobeinformed.com
