According to the horoscopes this is the year of the Dragon – the Water Dragon. The Dragon is a symbol of power, wealth and intelligence, while the water element helps calm his fire, which sounds pretty handy to me.
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The keywords for the year are boldness, communication, patience and endurance. It is a year to show your determination and refrain from being negative, lazy and unfocused.
All these good attributes were on display at the Buddhist Society of WA celebration on Friday night. Twelve monks had flown in from across the globe making for one mega meditation session. [I toyed with writing ‘mammoth meditation session’, but I wasn’t sure if Mammoths and Dragons would have occupied the same time zone, and if they did what the result would be should they come face to face, but I digress]….
With the lights dimmed calm soon flowed across the 300+ people in attendance and through to the worldwide audience watching the live stream http://www.bswa.org/. Those of you who’ve been following my meditation attempts may be pleased to hear I haven’t given up, though there have been numerous hilarious failures along the way. A break through came after the Dalai Lama’s lesson in Melbourne, more of that another time, so thankfully I was able to sit quietly for forty minutes without fumbling, fidgeting, or worst of all farting.
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Aside from a healthy dose of wisdom, Ajahn Brahms talk offered a game of poker face.
As each joke was told it was fun guessing which of the statuesque monks would dissolve into giggles and which would remain in meditation mode unable to understand what had just been said.
All that calm was soon broken however with the coming of the lions.
Three lions crept into the room and sat in front of the monks, tails wagging. This was followed with a bit of a boogie, displaying the latest slick lion moves, and as anyone who has danced the night away knows, the need for some food … money filled envelopes replacing greasy kebabs.
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© The Ponder Room
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© The Ponder Room
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Sadly though, while it was an impressive display that would have had Lady Gaga’s choreographer and X-Factor judges weeping, their fate was …
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Wishing you all the courage of a dragon to face your challenges this year and easily overcome any weak points that arise along the way. I’ll leave it up to you to ponder how you’ll incorporate a water element, though the amount we’ve all sweated over the past few weeks may be enough to quell the mightiest Dragons fire.