The Dragon versus Human

This year is the year of Dragon according to Chinese lunar year calendar. In chinese calendar there are 12 animals sign called shio to represent the repetition character of the years and how human being born on those year have certain characteristics following the sign of the animal in which year they were born. for the Dragon, it would be for anyone was born in 1952, 1964, 1976 and so on every 12 years.

I found these 12 signs are interesting because somehow there are 12 arabic letters in the word Laa ilaaha illa Allah and 12 arabic letters in the word Muhammad Rasulullah. Just like in a day there is 12 hours and night 12 hours as well as in a year there is 12 months.

Being A Dragon

The king of fire in animal kingdom

Amongst all the sign, dragon is the myth animal for us nowadays. Because in real life we have never seen the actual living dragon to really understand its characters. However as I read several information about the dragon stories, there is similarity in their characters, i.e. they have the ability to spit flames and making the earth tremble beneath his gigantic weight, soaring in the air on jagged and blackened wings.

In its mythical story, the dragon is a symbol of breathtaking and implacable power and an esoteric symbol of wisdom and enlightenment. It is said that whoever crushes him, opens the gates to a great mystery and crosses the threshold to another world. It is also said that to conquer the dragon one must conquer oneself. This is why the blood of the dragon is supposed to make one invulnerable or immortal.

Having all that characters and symbol, if we have a dragon that can't spit flame and being a docile one, we can certainly said there must be something wrong with the dragon. A dragon can't assume that it has to act like a chicken, even though they both have wings. If it does, it is either a dead toy or an imprisoned one. Because being a dragon require all that dragon characters. And I think the situation in which animals are being themselves the most is when they are situated in the wild, their own habitat and territory.

And just now I read the article in yahoo.com that the Dragon is suitable and make a very good affinity with the Monkey, the Rat, the Hen but not good with the Dog. It is a very pleasing information, considering that I am the Rat hahaha... Quoted the information given above, it means that if  "anyone (here is I) can "crushes him, opens the gates to a great mystery and crosses the threshold to another world". Well I certainly will not crush him, but I will nurture him and be his very best ally :)



Being Human

Being a human is the same. The best state for a human is when they become a human not anything else, not as an animals, or vegetables or angel or even a devil. And I know it isn't easy. Because being a human is both simple and complicated. Simple when we really understand our real self and complicated when we get caught up in the problem of managing the world.

There is good and there is bad and above them all
There is knowledge and wisdom

There is a story in the Qur'an to tell us that being a human takes a lot more compared to being an angel. It is described in QS Al Baqarah 102. " They followed what the evil ones gave out (falsely) against the power of Solomon: the blasphemers Were, not Solomon, but the evil ones, teaching men Magic, and such things as came down at babylon to the angels Harut and Marut. But neither of these taught anyone (Such things) without saying: "We are only for trial; so do not blaspheme." They learned from them the means to sow discord between man and wife. But they could not thus harm anyone except by Allah.s permission. And they learned what harmed them, not what profited them. And they knew that the buyers of (magic) would have no share in the happiness of the Hereafter. And vile was the price for which they did sell their souls, if they but knew! "

And following the information as mentioned in Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harut_and_Marut) :
According to Muslim scholar Ansar Al-'Adl, many interpretations of the verse originate from alleged Judeo-Christian sources that came to be recorded in some works of Quranic exegesis, called Tafsir.[1] Numerous tales have been transmitted about these verses, yet all center around the same basic story: The angels [who, in Islamic theology, do not possess free will and cannot sin][2] had become astonished at the acts of disobedience committed by the human beings on earth. They began to curse the humans, and could not understand how they could be so sinful. Allah informed the angels that they would have also sinned if they were in the position of human beings. So the angels elected Harut and Marut from amongst themselves and God gave them human attributes and sent them to earth after commanding them to avoid wine, idolatry, fornication and murder. Harut and Marut eventually succumbed to their human lusts and fell into all of these sins. Consequently, God punished them for their transgressions.[1]

The innocence of a baby is the true nature of human being

That's how so different the nature of angels to the human being. Even when Allah was about to create human being, the angels had questioned Him why created something that would make damaged on this earth, as mentioned in The Qur'an QS Al Baqarah 30 " Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: "I will create a vicegerent on earth." They said: "Wilt Thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?- whilst we do celebrate Thy praises and glorify Thy holy (name)?" He said: "I know what ye know not.". Never did they know the higher / divine purpose on the creation of every single human being. In having all that, we as a human being needs to understand this divine purpose of our creation, because without it I am afraid we will assuming our role in this great stage of universe to be anything else but human.

Because we are a microcosmic world to the macrocosmic of the universe, we carry the characteristic of other creation roles such as plant, animals, devil as well as angels. Most of us in acting the roles assumed ourselves to be like animals where they are only eating, mating, sleeping without any further effort in understanding the divine purpose of their creation, thus made our selver being even lower that animals just like it is mentioned in the Qur'an QS At Tiin (95): 4-5. In another verse QS Al Furqan (25): 44 Allah had also mentioned "Or do you think that most of them hear or reason? They are not except like livestock. Rather, they are [even] more astray in [their] way. " And some of us assume the role of the accursed devils, by following their steps and some of us assume the role of angels thus tormented their true nature and made themselves to be like a dragon without its spitting flame.


True Human Being

It is about mastering the elements of life

There is a cartoon movie by nickelodeon that I like very much under the title of Avatar: The Legend of Aang. It is a story of becoming an avatar, a true human being. The story told us that to be an avatar one must master the four elements of life i.e. Water, air, earth and fire. Because he had to conquer Ozai, the King of Fire, the final stage that he had to do was mastering the fire. That is the part I liked most, it is mastering the fire, because being an easy going person I saw myself in that situation.

When Aang had to learn how to master the fire and then how to conquer the King of Fire, he found it very difficult. His compassion to human being and his true nature of a happy person (having affinity to air element) were the cause of it. He didn't know yet how to collect his anger, regulate it and channel it to the right direction. In all he didn't know yet how to master his fire element within him.

Once he could master the fire element, he had to go through the last obstacle, that is to either kill or disarm Ozai who had made so much damaged in the world by damaging the Kingdom of Air, Water and Earth. It is when he received his enlightenment that he finally able to bring himself forward to do what he has to do as an avatar.

We all have the potential to be an avatar, not only in the cartoon kind of picture but a real avatar, a true human being in our real life. It is when we have become a true human being that we know the divine purpose of our very existence thus find our true balance state of freedom.


True freedom

People are so wish to be free, but they have their own definition of freedom according to the state in which they are now. To the prisoner, to be free means to get out of jail. To the poor, to be free means to get rich. To the rich, to be free means they have the ability to do as their wish without being questioned why they do as their wish. And so on and so forth.

But the situation is such that as long as we live in this world, in this planet earth and being a creation of The Mighty Creator, we aren't truly free of anything. Because our default setting as a creation is made in such a way that when we don't follow our true nature as a creation, we will find ourselves suffering. This suffering is what commonly people see as the symptom or sign of sinful.

So having true freedom is when we in our life has the ability to base our action on knowledge and wisdom and find them again after we did it. There is this beautiful Zen koan to describe it:
         Before Zen, Mountain is mountain.
             During Zen, Mountain isn't mountain.
                  After Zen, Mountain is mountain.

Uncaged Budha at the top level of Borobudur Temple is
a symbol of true human freedom

When human being based their action on knowledge and wisdom, they become the hands and the feet and hearing and the sight of The Mighty Creator in fulfilling His Wish as mentioned in the Qur'an QS Al Anfal (8) 17 " And you did not kill them, but it was Allah who killed them. And you threw not, [O Muhammad], when you threw, but it was Allah who threw that He might test the believers with a good test. Indeed, Allah is Hearing and Knowing. " That is why there is certainly no question can be asked to why he did as he did. Because he didn't follow his lowly animals instinct or humanly needs. And that is the true freedom.

All Praises belong to Allah, The Creator of the Worlds.