{"id":3829,"date":"2012-06-18T14:07:27","date_gmt":"2012-06-18T18:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=3829"},"modified":"2012-06-18T14:07:27","modified_gmt":"2012-06-18T18:07:27","slug":"dragons-buddhists-magic-oh-my","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2012\/06\/dragons-buddhists-magic-oh-my.html","title":{"rendered":"dragons & Buddhists & magic ~ oh my!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I’m crazy about dragons. \u00a0It’s at least partly because I was born in the year of the dragon (a very auspicious year, just in case you were wondering). And it’s also because I was raised in Southeast Asia, where dragons have a far richer and better-known mythology.<\/p>\n

When I was little, not many kids talked about dragons. Me? I had the little kids’ version of the dragon dance set, complete w\/ vivid dragon head. Other little girls played house. By the time I was 9 I was creating one-act plays that involved dragons. Sometimes I was the dragon, rarely the dragon killer. Usually, as I recall, I sent the dragon packing — not wanting, even as a child, to kill it. Now, many years later, I have dragons scattered through the house: a small stuffed toy here, a hand-puppet there, a music box elsewhere. A teapot, \u00a0a silver pendant. The drawing for a tattoo \u00a0I want to get this fall.<\/p>\n

In Chinese mythology, the dragon<\/a> is fearless. A leader, articulate, and — when endowed with five toes instead of three — royal. There is a saying (another possible tattoo :)):\u00a0humans once were dragons<\/em>. I thought that as a child, and the non-rational shadows of my East-meets-West brain still believe it may be true. Once I realised I was a Dragon child, I was content: nothing would harm me :).<\/p>\n

Which leads me to legends, and mythology, and how important it is. As a child, I read every bit of mythology I could find. Our amah — the lovely\u00a0Ch\u1ecb B\u1ed1n — would take us to the\u00a0Vi\u1ec7tnamese American Association library, and I would check out books \"\"<\/a>on Eastern myths & legends, books on Greco-Roman myths & legends, books on whatever I could find about magical creatures & stories and cultures. To me, they were the best possible reading.<\/p>\n

I like to think, now, that my reading about dragons, and the ghosts under the bed (they had sharp, hungry teeth, I was told by\u00a0Ch\u1ecb Ba, the baby amah ~ it would be years before I got up at night w\/out thinking about those ghosts…), prepared me to better accept the Buddhist\/ Taoist\/ Confucian cosmologies they lived in. Dragons were as real to me as dinosaurs, perhaps more so. In the East, pictures of dragons adorn everything — they are lucky. When’s the last time you saw a dinosaur on multiple business logos?<\/p>\n

So for me, dragons remain a possibility. No more unlikely than a velociraptor<\/em>, I’m just waiting for a skeleton to be discovered. And I’m okay with that particular wrinkle in my brain. After all ~ what’s life w\/out some magic? The kind that dragons bring. On fiery breath, and even (at least in some versions) on wings…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m crazy about dragons. \u00a0It’s at least partly because I was born in the year of the dragon (a very auspicious year, just in case you were wondering). And it’s also because I was raised in Southeast Asia, where dragons have a far richer and better-known mythology. When I was little, not many kids talked…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,346],"tags":[11,1181,1187,262,347,348,1272],"class_list":["post-3829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-metaphor","category-myth-legend","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-dragon","tag-east-meets-west","tag-myth-legend"],"yoast_head":"\ndragons & Buddhists & magic ~ oh my! - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I'm crazy about dragons. \u00a0It's at least partly because I was born in the year of the dragon (a very auspicious year, just in case you were wondering). 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