Duan Wu - Chinese Tradional holday

So.. yesterday was Duan Wu or better known as the Dragon Boat festival. This is the 5th day of the 5th month according to the traditional Chinese lunar calendar.
The lunar calendar doesn't work quite like the gregorian one that we use so that's why it ended up being on 6/19 this year.

according to a site about traditional chinese holidays, here is an excerpt about the holiday's historical context:

Duan Wu (Dragon Boat) Festival (5th of the 5th month)

Said to be in memory of a great patriot poet of the then State of Chu during the Warring States period (475-221 B.C.), Qu Yuan (Ch'u Yuan), who drowned himself to protest his emperor who gave in to the bully State of Chin. For fear that fish may consume his body, people of Chu threw launched their boats and started throwing rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river where he was drowned to feed the fish. Now the big event of dragon boat contest may be a legacy of such activity. People today still eat the bamboo-leave rice dumplings on the occasion today.

However, there is a more secret meaning behind Duan Wu. This is related to the rotation and position of the earth as it relates to the sun during this period leading up to the summer solstice on June 21st.

During Duan Wu, at noon, the earth energy reaches a climax and it is at this time that its most auspicious (haha yes chinese Feng Shui language coming out) to do any kind of meditation or exercise. I do walking meditation but everyone is free to do whatever it is they like, including sitting around and farting...

You will be more connected to the earth and sun at these moments and people of the mystery schools around the world take advantage of these unique moments in the year.

One last bit of interesting news before I sign off.... Mayan Calendar and Chinese Lunar calendar both operate in the same way and share the same dates of alignment. These Lunar based calendars are a means to track the different solstice and equinox patters our earth expreiences.

You will find in Mayan pryamids and Chinese doaist temples some of the same motiffs and designs in the art. Most notably the "uroboro"
google that and see what comes up!

well, i'll save more details about that for next time...

The Rebel and Buddha

"The way of Gautama the Buddha is the way of intelligence, understanding, awareness, meditation. It is not the way of belief; it is the way of seeing the truth itself. Belief simply covers up your ignorance; it does not deliver you from ignorance. Belief is a deception you play upon yourself; is it not transformation.

And the people who think themselves religious are only believers, not religious. They have no clarity, no understanding, no insight into the nature of things. They don't know what they are doing, they don't know what they are thinking. They are simply repeating conventions, traditions; dead words spoken long long ago. They cannot be certain whether those words are true or not. Nobody can be certain unless one realizes oneself.

There is only one certainty in existence and that is your own realization, your own seeing. Unless that happens, don't become contented; remain discontented. Discontentment is divine; contentment through beliefs is stupid. It is through divine discontent that one grows, but it is the path which is arduous. The path of belief is simple, convenient, comfortable. You need not do anything. You have only to say yes to the authorities: the authorities of the church, of the state. You have simply to be a slave to people who are in power.

But to follow the path of Buddha one has to be a rebel. Rebellion is its essential taste; it is only for the rebellious spirit. But only rebellious people have spirits, only they have soul. Others are hollow, empty."

- Osho, The Dhammapada Series 8