Early this morning I opened my front door to take my dog for a walk and encountered the setting full moon directly in front of me through the trees. It was an amazing sight and one I am more likely to see in the evening in the back of the house than at the beginning of the day.

The moon is usually associated with night, where it illuminates the darkness and shines a light on our inner awareness which can shine more fully when there is less outer stimulation. Encountered in the morning, the moon was revealed in its full and brilliant splendor as if to remind me that in darkness and in light, the light of true consciousness never ceases to shine brightly within.

A Buddhist site I found says this about the moon:

The blissful state reveals itself as a shining light, as a luminescence permeating the still field of the mind. There is a sense of light from an undefined “above,” silence, a fullness of vitality, and deep rest.

In sacred poetry, particularly in Zen poetry, this is often expressed as the full moon in the night sky.

The moon is the individual consciousness that shines only by reflecting the constant light of the sun, which is unbounded awareness. Individual consciousness, like the moon, waxes and wanes, sometimes bright and clear, sometimes dark.

When the moon, consciousness, is full, it is round, whole, complete, perfectly reflecting the light of divine awareness. The full moon is enlightenment. It is Buddha-mind. It is the soft light that illumines the land below when all is at rest.

The magnificence of this “unbounded awareness” is available to us any time we turn within. How incredible is that?!