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The Living Life Series is dedicated to Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨). The doctrine is in His image. The image is the doctrine. He who sees, understands and effects the doctrine sees and knows Him. He who does not see, know and effect the doctrine sees not and knows not the saint even if the saint or His image is beside him. The far may be near and the near may be far. Let the doctrine and the saint be part of our life. The lord saint in your life can be any heavenly saint of any religion, sect or school. The doctrine of truth is behind all and this is the Inner Truth that leads all (regardless of their religious affiliation or even if none) to inner peace and heaven on earth here and now and not just in the after life. The ideal worship and devotion is to know and effect the doctrine of God and the saints. The best gospel is the gospel of life. We learn from our life and the lives of others. The true temple is the world we live in. The sky is the roof of the temple and religions and sects are the pillars of the temple. All under Heaven are in the temple. Needless to say that all the saints we know are in this temple. Ji Gong Posat too is no exception. The whole wide world and web is the temple and must be regarded as a sacred place --- a temple for living and learning. It is more important that everyone that counts plays a role in this universal temple if due focus is to be given to the Mission of Heaven. Men must not be distracted by the agenda of men and end up serving the mission of man. That would be a far cry from the Mission of Heaven. We worship God and saints, not man however good that man may be. There should be no hero worshiping or idolizing of man whether he is a charismatic pastor, priest, monk, medium or lay leader. We don't even idol worship the image of any saint but reflect on what the image stands for. - the doctrine in the image. Omitofo 阿弥陀佛!.

Monday, February 11, 2013

How lion dancing came about in Chinese culture

No 385 of  Living Life Series 1







The 5th lunar day of Chinese New Year is the welcome day for the god of wealth. Many families worship the god of wealth in the early morning.  

Some even invite the lion dance team to celebrate the opening ceremony of a store. The lion is the mascot of the god of wealth. 






The house or store owner will give the mascot a red packet with money reward inside. 

Who is the god of wealth? The answer is that there is more than one god of wealth in the Chinese culture, in fact five. There are two gods of sword wealth and two gods of pen wealth. 

The fifth is the god of windfall, because lucky money make it easy for people to get  rich faster. He is the one referred to when Chinese refer to the god of wealth as one. 



The five gods of wealth arose and were intertwined with Chinese history. They were personalities involved in history of dynasties.


The five gods or deities  of wealth  are sometimes referred to as god of wealth for military wealth (武財), god of wealth for scholarly wealth (文財), god of wealth for directly-associated wealth (正財), god of wealth for physically-associated wealth (偏財), god of wealth for sudden wealth or wind fall (橫財). Each type of Wealth is being in-charge of by one deity or god of wealth. 

In Taiwan, Ji Gong the Living Buddha is regarded also as god of wealth and this is also the popular belief in South East Asia. He too likes to frolic with lion dancing during festivities in temples. 


Ji Gong the Living Buddha

Feng shui practitioners are fond of using the statue of Laughing Buddha (Maitreya) as a fortune god to bring fortune to home or business.