Mindfulness is like the moon, it’s there whether you see it or not
There’s a well-known metaphor that likens mindfulness, the product of meditation, to the sun. Openness and clear thinking are always available to us, yet they’re obscured by clouds of thoughts and emotions. But I think the moon is the more useful comparison.
From our vantage point, the moon changes shape each night, waxing or waning from full to unseen. But, in fact, it’s always “full.” It stands ready to reflect the sun’s light whether that light reaches it or not. What obscures it is the earth — in other words, us — the very thing that perceives its light.
Like the earth blocking the moon, we obscure our natural mindfulness, our ability to see things as they are. We get caught up in thoughts and emotions, which causes us to forget how free we are to relate however we’d like to what is. We forget that no matter what, we have the option to open — we hold ourselves back from feeling satisfied.
Two big caveats. One, emotions are not bad. More so than thoughts, they are often a sign of what’s really going on. If we ignore them, they cause us anxiety and stress, and if we repress them, they eventually explode with much more power and unpredictability. The trick is relating to them differently — letting them just be. Like, I’m angry right now, it feels like my chest is on fire, that’s okay, let me see how long this lasts.
And two, the moon metaphor isn’t an ode to individualism. No one can actually pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.
Our ability to see our innate freedom is itself obscured by conditions — by how we were raised, by the trauma we’ve experienced, by how much wealth we (likely don’t) have, by how those with power in society treat us based on the color of our skin or the gender we identify with. The most effective way of freeing the most amount of people is by changing the conditions, e.g., ending white supremacy and patriarchy, and progressing beyond capitalism.
But, as individuals, underneath all of that we have a choice whether to open or closed, to give or not give consent, if you will. And the point is to open whether our openness is received or not.
The late Tibetan Buddhist master Chögyam Trungpa talked of the moon shining on one hundred bowls of water:
“Openness means this kind of absolute trust and self-confidence. If the bowls are there, they will reflect your ‘moonness.’ If they are not there, they will not. Or if they are only half there, then they will reflect only half the moon. It is up to them. You are just there, the moon, open, and the bowls may reflect you or not.”
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