Full moon in Leo portal is open! 8 things we need to know!
📃 Relevant sources 📖
- Hedges, A. (2020) — Lunar Alchemy: Everyday Moon Magic to Transform Your Life. Llewellyn Publications.
- Hardy, P. (2017) — The Book of Moon Spells: Lunar Magic to Change Your Life. Rockridge Press
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The Buddhist lunar observance: uposatha
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| Moon over sacred Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma |
Rather than the normal adherence to the Five Precepts (abstaining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, or consuming intoxicants that lead to heedlessness), Eight Precepts are undertaken for the day. Visiting the temple or monastic complex for studying, hearing, and practicing the Dharma, the Buddha's Teachings, is done to rededicate oneself to the practice of the Path to awakening.
This is often called the "fasting day" not because one does not eat but because one fasts from noon onwards, not taking dinner or anything after the sun is directly overhead. (We often take three or more meals a day, and fast food commercials tell us to add another late night This is to preserve energy to put forth in one's kammathana or "field of endeavor," one's meditation subject or striving to establish a good habit, such as overcoming a particular obstacle or impediment to one's practice.
- Say, for example, laziness were an issue. One might undertake the dhutanga or "sane ascetic" practice of not lying down for 24 hours and instead strive diligently while sitting, standing, or walking. This should only be undertaken under the supervision of a sufficiently skillful teacher for guidance, for otherwise we might only be exacerbating our imbalances without actually addressing what needs addressing.
- If we tend to overeat, we might fast the whole day.
- If we overtalk, we might observe noble silence or complete silence to balance out our tendency.
- If we have an issue with some unskillful karmic habit, we might address it intensively on this day with help from a monk, nun, or meditation teacher.
- In my case, I might notice an issue with getting angry or annoyed or being irritable and may therefore want to practice loving-kindness (metta bhavana) for the full day.
- Others may constantly find themselves distracted or addicted to their phones and may want to strengthen their mindfulness (sati) by attending to the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, or at least the first, which is "mindfulness of the body" unbroken for a whole day.
- Another may think the biggest issue is lust, greediness, or selfish behavior, in which case sharing, sacrificing for others, helping, giving, or letting go might be wise.
In ancient India, "Buddhists" (disciples of the Enlightened One, the Buddha) would come to the monastery and spend the whole day and night (24 hours) there dressed all in white. This was the custom even in modern times in Theravada Buddhist countries.
Rather than sleeping, one might meditate the whole night or take just a few hours, say maybe four, of rest before returning home and resuming normal activities and the Five Precepts.
The Buddha highly praised "keeping the Sabbath," keeping one day -- in accordance with a phase of the moon visible to everyone looking up at the sky, particularly the full moon -- sacred, holy, or for intensive effort. Most of us will not become monastics even temporarily in this life, but we can have the benefits of monastic practice and quick progress even while leading a completely worldly life if we always remember the uposatha. - Dharma Editor Seven, Wisdom Quarterly 2025
- Eye of Wisdom, Feb. 12, 2025; Sarah Hall, Feb. 9, 2025; Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jen B., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
