It is Chinese New Year again and this time the year of the Tiger has started. Tonight I attended celebrations in Parramatta, a suburb of Sydney and saw some great fruit and vegetable carvings. Have a look yourself an take particular note of the pumpkin buddha. Enjoy!

Yesterday I participated in the Deepavali or Diwali Festival. It is one of the main Hindu festivals and was organised by the local Hindu Council. It took place at a stadium. In short, this festival symbolises the victory of Good over Evil, Light overcoming the Darkness and welcoming heroes after winning the battle against different evil forces.

There are many legends attached to Deepavali and if you want to know more, go to: 

http://www.diwalifestival.org and look under “Legends”. There is also other Deepavali information on that site and some lovely poems as well.

At the festival there were many stalls, lots of them offering great Indian vegetarian food, some had clothes, jewellery and other items. The stage was buzzing with non-stop entertainment, mainly dancing and a few singers. The dances ranged from very traditional village dances to modern Bollywood style dancing. Even the modern dances had amazing hand gestures and eye movements choreographed into them. Tradition was never abandoned completely!

Different spiritual traditions were represented throughout the festival as well and I want to share one of the “gems” with you:

A man told me: “You can only enjoy the sun that is shining today, yesterday’s sun will not warm you or give you any benefits. This is why you need a living master to guide you on your spiritual journey, somebody who will be there to travel your path with you, guide you and support you. It doesn’t matter who this master is, as long as he or she is a truly enlightened human being, a true master.”

I haven’t had time to think about the above in great detail. One thing that immediately came to my mind was the fact that human beings seem to do better when they are accountable to somebody about their actions, what progress they have made, which new strategies they have put into place – whether this is in your own business or on a purely personal development level. Especially when we are dealing with old beliefs and behaviour patterns it is very easy and tempting for us to find excuses not to do what will be beneficial for us in the long run.  Maybe the modern day psychologists, counsellors, social workers, health professionals, yoga teachers and others have replaced the gurus, saints and priests to a large degree?

Are we ”hard wired” to follow a leader, a shining example, our hero? Is this something that was necessary for the survival of the human race a long time ago and are the remnants of this behaviour still within us today? I don’t have the answers, nor do I know what criteria we should apply to find a true living master of any tradition and where they are to be found.

I leave you with these thoughts for today, if you have any ideas, comments or opinions, please share them below in the comment section.

Till next time

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

www.yogainahurry.com

Early December 2009 a very interesting gathering will take place in Melbourne. It is called the “Parliament of the World’s Religions”.  It takes place every 5 years and is held in a different location each time. I think it would be great to attend for anybody interested in spirituality and religion. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the event myself.

For more information have a look here:

Connie,

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

The Horse

Last night I went to see the Chinese New Year Parade in Sydney. This is the first time it was held in the evening. The streets were lined with lots of people of all ages. There was a happy and festive atmosphere.

This year is the Year of the Earth Ox. There are 12 animals in the Chinese System and each one of them rules a whole year. Each year also has one of the 5 elements attached to it – earth, fire, water, metal or wood. This is determined by the number the year ends in.

The very first animal of the Zodiac is the Rat, and there are different stories how the rat came to be the first animal of the 12. Below are just two of them:

One of the stories goes that Buddha was dying and called all animals to come and say goodbye. The first 12 to appear were the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, cock, dog and pig. 

The Rabbit

Another story goes like this:  The Jade King was bored in heaven, so he asked for twelve animals to be sent to him so he could get an idea of what was going on on Earth. The rat was the first to be invited and then invitations were sent to the ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, cock and dog the next day.  As it turned out, there were only eleven animals and not the twelve the King had asked for. One of the advisors ran back down to Earth and in his hurry ended up picking up a pig. The rat ended up getting first place because he jumped on the back of the ox and played the flute. The ox being so tolerant and supportive was given second place.  All the other animals were given their positions, with the pig getting the 12th place.

In the parade there was a huge lantern representing each of the animals.

I hope you enjoy my photos.

Rat

The Ox

The Ram

The Rooster

The Dog

The Pig

The Monkey

The Dragon

 Till next time,

The Tiger

Trees in the Fairy Glen

Dam at Sunset

One of the activities I did during my holidays was to attend a gathering called “ConFest”.  I was told this stands for “Contribution Festival”.  It was my first time at such a gathering. The basic idea behind it (as I understand it) is that a group of people comes together and creates a community with shared tasks and everybody contributes their unique talents to the whole to make it work. It seems to need at least 100 people to make it successful.

The “Community” usually gathers on a large block of land that has no facilities as such but may have a river flowing by or a dam or a rock pool. (more…)