Buddha's May Moon

Last night the full moon marked Vesak :
The Birth, Enlightenment,
and Death of Siddhartha Buddha.
All in May. All on the May full Moon.
What better cause for meditating on the meaning of life, or lack therof.

Full Moon over Palm Springs
photo by Jameson

If nothing else, our global awareness and omnipresent access to the World's events, give us food for thought. I still recall standing in the Blue Mountains of Australia looking at the same moon I've seen at home, the same constellation Orion, and delighting in the familiar sky of another continent. Everyone on the planet sees the same full moon; why can we not all see the same divinity? And what better divintiy than Buddha to unite us and bring peace? (OK I wouldn't forget Pan and Dionysus-- maybe we can have other favorites to supplement and individualize our Buddhisms).

Think of it: The same full moon, lighting the lovers in the garden, lighting the lake enough for skinny dippers to catch a glimpse, lighting the bombed out hovels where soldiers look for an unknown enemy, lighting Washington and Moscow, and Baghdad evenly. Lighting the Parthenon, the cliffs of Dover, Stonehenge. Would we could harvest this light and illuminate our souls with it instead of dousing our souls with the dead, dark residue of the dinosaurs.

"From the aspect of eternity," wrote Spinoza. I'll take the cosmic, the universal, the global over the local any day-- unless the local is my very own GARDEN OF EPICURUS.



Happy trails in the sky,

Jameson