Today is June 21, the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. It is rightfully celebrated for its warmth and its brightness, but it is also unbalanced, the two states of darkness and light at their most unequal. For the next several months, the two states move back toward equanimity, toward balance, toward equipoise.
The darkness is often thought of as representing ignorance and the light to represent enlightenment, but to favor one over the other is in itself a delusion. In fact, the brightness of the day can dazzle and overwhelm the senses to the point where we are blinded to reality, while at night we can calm our minds and better perceive the skies above.
The moon is often used as a symbol for enlightenment or the true nature of things, and at night, we can see the moon so much more clearly. So we may want to think of the shortening of the days not as a slipping into the darkness of ignorance and delusion, but as increasing opportunity to directly perceive the reality of the Moon.
Summer Solstice, 2013
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