Beliefs and it's impact on the society - Lion Dance

If you learn about Lion Dance, you will see that the two creatures in the video are "lions",and they appear once in a year. To frighten them away, you can put a piece of red clothes at your door, and burn the fire crackers, because they are afraid of red and loud noise. (^^ sounds very much like Exodus 12:21-23)

The legend continues today with a modified version. Whenever there is a celebration of an event, traditional Chinese will have lion dance. It is believed to bring "LUCK" to the business people or family who invite them to their companies or homes. The practice is prominent in Chinese society whether in China or overseas.

We used to chase after the lion dance while we were kids, followed them from home to home. The loud drums, the colorful costume, the entertaining dance, made fabulous to us. But there were also certain fear if you allow the them to pass by your home, you will perhaps have less luck during the year. In some provinces in China, you don't really see lion dance any more. Because of the poverty and huge disparity, not every home can afford to invite a lion dance team. And there are certain believe that if the lion dance do not visit all places, the district will not do well as a whole, because there is a MISS. 

So, in this believe, if you do not do good, you probably had miss something at beginning of the year. Everything could count in this situation, perhaps you gave less "ang pau" to the lion dance team, perhaps you didn't invite them to your home, perhaps you allowed the incense and candles went off before it finish, perhaps you forgot to put a chicken on the altar, or perhaps you had put the chicken in an opposite direction etc. Everything could be blame for not doing well that year. Some may look at these as a bondage, to some, perhaps this is an easy go for living. A lot for you to think about....... ^^ Shalom!

When our behaviors and believes are inconsistent

When we are confronted with a risk, we often find way to dilute the evidence, so that it goes consistently to what we believed.

It is about behavior and believe. When our behaviors and believes is inconsistent, we tend to change one or another. If we can not change our behaviors, we change our believes!

For example is that when a message goes, "Eating chips makes you fat no matter how much exercise you do." Then, it comes back to the hearer to decide what to do. We know that a chips lover has no limit on the quantity that he takes once he a pack of chips is opened. If a chips lover cann't change his behavior, he has to dilute the message of "eating chips makes you fat no matter how much exercise you do" by searching for opposite evidence.

Buddhism does not actually requires sacrifices and incense burning, but when the Chinese Taoisim believers adopted Buddhism, the habits of burning incense and offering sacrifice had somehow modified the central believes of Dharma and made it a new system. So, basically they perform the "same" ritual to a different set of believes, when the two sets of believes actually requires two sets of behaviors.

In Japan, as the long period more than two hundered years of Christian persecution ended, the Kakure Kirishitan (Hidden Christian) faced strong struggle when they were told that their version of believes was somehow being mixed and confused, they refused to be absorbed into the mainstream of Catholism, and chose to live as a community and maintain the believes that they hold as the right version of Chrsitianity. And that was the kind of believes that had sustained them through the years of persecution.

These two examples would be an illustration of "changing believes when behavior is unchangable".