Year of the Pig

 What does the Year of the Pig symbolize?

  

A pig represents luck, overall good fortune, wealth, honesty, and general prosperity.  The pig symbolizes a hard-working,  peace-loving person, someone who is truthful, generous, patient, reliable, trusting, sincere, and giving.  The pig represents a sociable person who has a good sense of humour and understanding.

When I learned that this was the Year of the Pig beginning February 5,  I called it the Year of Otis, for my pot-bellied pet who was with me for 19 years before he died.

OTIS

It was the spring of 1993 when Otis came into our family.  My wife and I had talked about getting a pig, and the pot belly “craze” was fading out.  Though we toyed with the idea of breeding pot-bellied pigs, Otis had been neutered, so that was not a viable idea.  But that was OK, because we fell in love with Otis right away.

We learned a lot about the nature of “pig-ness” during Otis’ life.  In fact, this was partly why we got Otis in the first place – we were going to learn about the nature of pig-ness, which is also an aspect of human-ness. 

We learned that he certainly had a good memory, especially as it related to food.  He once discovered a bag of carob pods that I had in the living room, and he nearly ate half the bag before I caught him.  After that, any time he got into the house, he always went right to that spot where the carob had been.

Though we’ve heard that pigs are very smart, you can’t really compare them to dogs, for example.  Dogs might not have pigs’ great memory, but they seem smarter due to their loyalty to their masters. I’m sure that Otis always recognized me from other people, but loyalty?  I don’t think so.  Pigs don’t seem to want or need close affinity to people in the way that dogs do.  Nevertheless, later in his life when Otis was mostly alone, we did develop a “closeness.”

Yes, Otis was a pig, and yet he was such an individual!  I learned to know what his sounds and grunts meant, so I knew when he was happy, when he felt threatened, when he was worried, and when he liked (or disliked) someone.  His range of vocal sounds was broad and fascinating.

My vet once told me that Otis lived well over twice the average life for a pot-bellied pig.  He’d gotten much slower in his last two years, and became slow and unsteady on his feet.

I felt a great empathy for Otis. He was a big guy, for sure, but his personality was such that he always seemed like a little boy.  When Otis was dying,  I thanked him for the good life we had together, and  I whispered in  his ear that everything was OK, and that I loved him. He just grunted his friendly “oink” in return.  Otis never got up, and he died a week later, on Hannukah.

YEAR OF THE PIG

I spent New Year’s Eve for the Year of the Pig at the Puti Meditation Center in Alhambra, with Helen. It was open to the public, but about as close to a family gathering as you can get.  The meals was made by the various members, and we began by sharing a home-made meal.  There were some dance performances by the teens, and much socializing and talking.  About 45 minutes was spent chanting one of the healing chants.  From the large TV screen in the center, we watched a message from the founder  Master JinBodhi, who extolled everyone to treat each other well, which not only makes the world a better place but also improves one’s karma.

Though 95% in Mandarin, I was still able to follow the majority of the commemoration because of the degree of pantomime used – recall that words are only a small part of total communication—and I also received periodic translations from Helen.

Bodhi Meditation was founded by Meditation Master JinBodhi in 1991 with a mission to impart practical, effective meditation techniques as a way of strengthening the energy of the physical body, and to inspire the spiritual mind so as to bring greater health and joy to the world at large.  He adopted the 12 Great Vows of the Medicine Buddha and began teaching the practices of Bodhi Meditation, embarking on a journey to liberate humans.  Buddhism has been around for about 2,600 years, a bit longer than Christianity, and both have resulted in countless sects which espouse one aspect or another of the basic tenets.