As I post this it is just becoming April 8th in Japan because they are many hours ahead of us in the sunrise department. This is the date on which the birthday of the Lord Buddha is celebrated there. It is appropriate in the land of the Rising Sun that the solar calendar is used and the date celebrated is always April 8th.

As I post this it is just becoming April 8th in Japan because they are many hours ahead of us in the sunrise department. This is the date on which the birthday of the Lord Buddha is celebrated there. It is appropriate in the land of the Rising Sun that the solar calendar is used and the date celebrated is always April 8th.

As it’s the Easter season maybe I should get back to my real life’s work for a moment and deal with a spiritual matter brought up by a querent. My conferees were often confronted with the either/or nonsense, such as "If you aren't with us then you're against us." And often it was difficult to see round that in the context in which it was presented.

Today is January 1st 2009 by the calendar used by many Western nations. January 26th will be the beginning of the Chinese New Year of the Ox signifying prosperity through fortitude and hard work, a good year to be born for would-be Chinese entrepreneurs. That used to be the way people became prosperous here. Now of course they do it by cheating, lying and lobbying. But it isn’t the year 2009 for the Chinese. They are not a young country. For them it’s the year 4710.