It is said that when the Buddha was on his deathbed, 12 animals came to say goodbye. To honor those animals, the Buddha used each animal as one of the 12 signs of the Zodiac in Chinese Astrology. The upcoming year is the year of the Tiger.
There are no accidents for Yogis. Everything has meaning. The location of celestial bodies at the time of your birth has meaning and most mystery schools use some science of astronomy and astrology as a means of self discovery. If you are a Tiger by your birth year, then this upcoming year will be auspicious for you, but all humans will be learning the lessons of the Tiger in this year. The gift of Tiger is to learn to place your paws mindfully. To slow down and move deliberately. We slow down so that we understand what is motivating us to speak or act right now. Are we acting from love and compassion or are we acting from fear or anger? The Upanishads teach us that action is the seed we plant that grows into the reality of our life. The actions we perform now create our future experience and what is happening right now in life is a result of past actions. It is the Yogi's work to learn to experience negative emotion without acting out. If we can resist speaking or acting from negative emotion, that negative emotion loses its power and eventually ceases to be.
Slow down.....create consciously by choosing the actions you perform.
PS: The Dalai Lama is a Dragon like me! Our next year is 2012- watch out!