Swami Chaitanya KeertiThe last night of this month happens to be a very special night--it is the night of Buddha Full Moon. It is a well-known fact that Gautama the Buddha was born on full moon night; he became enlightened on full moon night — the same full moon night, the same month. And he attained to mahaparinirvana on the same full moon night. It is certain that he was in deep communication with the moon energy. Though this happened over 2500 years ago, this great incidence has gone so deep into the psyche of millions of meditators that every month they get reminded of Buddha's enlightenment.
Before his enlightenment, the Buddha was known as Gautam Siddhartha. As a sincere seeker, he had been meditating for a very long time, over six years. He went through all the austerities one can imagine. He had been fasting for long hours on the banks ofNiranjana river. He had become very very week. And on one blessed night, he realized that it was really not needed to torture oneself to attain to enlightenment. He dropped all efforts to attain to anything. With this dropping of all efforts, his ego also evaporated--and with it evaporated the whole anxiety of achieving something and becoming somebody. He entered the space of total non-doing, no-mind space, and shunyata--the ultimate void.
In such a space of deep relaxation--he disappeared as an ego and became one with cosmic consciousness, as the mystic saint Kabir describes: Bund Samani Samund Me, So Kat Heri Jaye. The drop disappeared into the ocean. Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha, the awakened one.
It happened on a Full Night of Vaisakh..which became associated with the Buddha. Since then this Full Moon night has become a tremendously significant night. To meditate on this night is considered very auspicious. It seems that the energy moves in a different way during that time, and entering into our inner space becomes easier. The opposite also happens.The psychologically week people may feel insane and could harm themselves and others under the influence of such powerful moon energy. It has been observed that more people commit suicide on full moon night. More people have road accidents also. They go lunatic.The words Lunar and Lunatic come from the same root, and on the night of the full moon, it is easier to access the irrational, the right brain, the mysterious, that which lies outside of the known, outside of the mind. So it is best to go deep into meditation and not go lunatic. This will be deeply relaxing.
The easiest way to meditate is to keep looking at the moon very softly for some minutes and then close the eyes and feel the moon energy within. We can go through a mysterious metamorphosis. We become more loving and compassionate, creative and artistic with overflowing energy. in deep silence, we become free from our limited self andconnect with the universal reservoir of energy and consciousness.
Osho explains this space of meditation: Truth happens to you in a wordless silence, in deep, deep meditation. When there is no thought. no desire, no ambition, in that state of no-mind truth descends on you —or ascends in you. As far as the dimension of truth is concerned both are the same because in the world of the innermost subjectivityheight and depth mean the same. It is one dimension: the vertical dimension. Mind moves horizontally, no-mind exists vertically. The moment the mind ceases to function — that’s what meditation is all about: cessation of the mind, total cessation of the mind — yourconsciousness becomes vertical; depth and height are yours.
Talking about Zen, the enlightened master Osho concludes: So in every Zen monastery on the full moon night, people just sit under their trees and watch the full moon. The full moon has become symbolically connected with Gautam the Buddha. And just watching and witnessing the full moon, they enter into deep meditation.
With Gautama, the Buddha begins a new chapter in the world of meditation--and remains new forever and ever. It becomes even more contemporary and futuristic with Osho consciousness. Read and listen to Osho, and you will become contemporary to the Buddha.
