Dragon Hopes
Dragon plays with ball,
last cold breath of Winter fades-
Spring hopes peek through dirt.
Photo: Winter sunrise over the French Riviera
2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon, beginning on February 10th, 2024 (Chinese New Year) and concluding on January 28th, 2025 (Chinese New Year's Eve). In Chinese culture, the Dragon holds a significant place as an auspicious and extraordinary creature, unparalleled in talent and excellence.
I was delighted to catch this dragon cloud sunrise earlier in the week! An auspicious omen for all of us as the Year of the Dragon approaches.
The Chinese dragon has very different connotations from the European dragon – in European cultures, the dragon is an aggressive fire-breathing creature, whereas the Chinese dragon is a spiritual and cultural symbol that represents prosperity and good luck, as well as a rain deity that fosters harmony.
Many pictures of Chinese dragons show a flaming pearl in their jaws or claws. The pearl is associated with spiritual energy, wisdom, prosperity, power, immortality, thunder, or the sun or moon. Chinese art often depicts a pair of dragons chasing or fighting over the flaming pearl.
I try to meet the sunrise each morning with moving meditation (be it tai chi or qigong). It's not unusual to feel some resistance to morning practice, especially in Winter when it’s warm in bed and bitterly cold outside, but once I’m out the door a positive energy gradually takes over and by the time I pass through the tunnel beside the cathedral in Grasse, a short walk from my front door, I'm more often than not greeted by a blast of gold-orange light that fills me with joy.
The rising sun is never repetitive, it is an artist without parallel, painting the sky with strokes of luminescent color. If you do morning exercise in the dawn it bestows a special gift that is impossible to receive at any other time of the day. The Chinese call this "ch’i” or "qi" (same pronunciation and meaning, two different spellings depending on whether you use old or new transliteration to English). The first light of the day fills the body with energy, calling it to open in the same way as it summons flowers to open and reveal themselves.
So stretch, overcome resistance and pull yourself out of bed (the French say se lever, “to pull yourself up”), and head towards the Year of the Dragon filled with light and energy.*
And afterwards, give yourself permission to relax, put down the heavy bag of "self", and enjoy your weekend, unencumbered by distraction or expectation.
*There's a whole art to drawing energy from the sunrise to power you through the day along with using the dawn as an oracle to predict how your day will go. There’s no superstition involved, just practical methods that deliver results, uncovered through years of daily practice.
Bonus Content: Professor Cheng’s Teaching on the Word “Relax”, the “Self Bag” and the Secret of the Laughing Buddha.
Here are some encouraging words from the founder of my tai chi tradition Professor Cheng Man-ch’ing :
“I have been practicing T’ai-Chi Chuan for over fifty years. Only recently have I started to fully understand the word ‘relax’. I remember my T’ai-Chi Chuan teacher Yang Cheng-Fu who did not like to talk much. He used to sit all day without saying a word if no one asked him questions. However, in our T’ai-chi class he would tell us to ‘relax’ repeatedly. Sometimes it seemed like he would say the word hundreds of times during the practice so that the word could fill up my ears. Strangely enough he also said that if he did not tell me of this word that I would not be able to learn T’ai-chi in three life-times (meaning never). I doubted his words then. Now that I think back, I truly believe that if he did not keep reminding me of the word ‘relax’, I doubt if I could have learned T’ai-chi Chuan in six life-times.
What is the meaning of ‘relax’ in T’ai-chi? Here is an example to help you understand the word. When we go visit a Buddhist temple we usually see a statue of Mei-Lo Buddha. The one who has a big rounded stomach with a big smile on his face. He carries a large bag on his shoulder.
On top of this statue we see a motto: ‘Sit with a bag. Walk with a bag. It would be such a relief to drop the bag.’ What does all this mean? To me, a person himself or herself is a bag. Everything he or she owns is baggage, including one’s children, family, position and wealth. It is difficult to drop any of one’s baggage, especially the ‘self’ bag.”