12 Zodiac Animal and their protectors

bohiruci SG

http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/8-zodiac-protectors.shtml

earthling82 SG

Honestly the 12 animal zodiacs are not real animals as ppl now know. They each represent the 12 earth branches in chinese astrology and each represent one of the 5 elements in either Yin or Yang form seperated by earth. More fundamentally these 12 animals actually represents the 12 climatical picture of China.

Therefore this type of 12-animal chart has nothing to do with buddhism, and is just a spin off of local beliefs. Even from pure taoism point of view, it is also wrong.

bohiruci SG

hmm ,show me your url where u based this upon,lets have an discussion Smile

geforce SG

http://www.12chinesezodiacsigns.com/chinesezodiacsigns/legendschinesezodiacsigns.shtml

very interesting... Shocked

bohiruci SG

I would say although zodiac animal with their protectors have no relevance in Buddhism

but the willingness of one to practice the dharma door is essential

Cool Cool Cool

yamizi SG

It's mentioned on one of the radio programme that I'd heard quite some time ago that in fact there are not only 12 but in fact 36 zodiac in the Chinese astrology. It depends on which time of the day you were borned that further differentiates to 2 more zodiac animals.

But I agree with earthling 82 that these Chinese zodiacs belief has nothing to do with pure Taoism, let alone Buddhism.

As a buddhist, we must share with people the right thing in the first place.

±ðÄÃ·½±ãµ±Ëæ±ã d typed, Bie2 Na3 Fang1 Bian4 Dang4 Sui2 Bian4

earthling82 SG

I speak from experience cause I was into this. Each 12 zodiac are not animals. They are actually representations of the changing weather conditions

Major Spring Summer Autumn Winter = 4
Minor Spring Summer Autumn Winter = 4
Seperated by 4 "Break" seasion of earth = 4

4 x 3 = 12.

You can go buy a traditional chinese calendar at a joss paper shop.. Within these 12 weather conditions, we can further subdivide into different changes in atmosphere and geological occurences. Like your Dong Zhi, xiao xue, da xue, chong xing

path_seeker SG

So how do you actually link up the animal symbols to the weather conditions? And why limit to these 12 chosen animals or 36 as stated in Yamizi's sharing?

I'm dun quite understand with the 4"Break"seasons of the earth too. Care to elaborate?

earthling82 SG

There is no need to link up since it already is. The 12 zodiacs are not zodiacs at all. It is originally and is still now a representation of the 12 climatical changes of china. It is used in conjunction to determine the Farmers calendar (Nong min Li), which is backed by the emperor's seal. An inaccurate Farmers calendar can signify the downfall of the Emperor's heavenly mandate. Basically China follows 3 calendar systems incld the western calendar even till today.

The 12 zodiacs (earthly branches) is used to represent not just year, but also month, day and time. For the time aspect as said by Yamizi, it is seperated every 2 hours or 1 Shi Chen = 2 hours.

The break season occurs when seasons change. Say the easing of winter into spring, which occurs during the dec-jan period yearly. This period is denoted by a period of geological adjustments trademarked with "Hidden water arising" being the melting of snow. The Chou (Ox) denotes this geological condition