The Lunar Wisdom of Emptiness

There is a time for emptiness and a time for fullness. Nature teaches us that emptiness is a beautiful state, even as our culture pushes us to seek continual fullness.

Where there is silence we rush to fill it with talk, recorded music, tv. We eat before allowing ourselves to become hungry. We fill our eyes with light and images from our screens, and our minds with the chatter of media. Although we love the idea of sitting in silence, we are profoundly uncomfortable with the act. Fulfillment is the desired state, emptiness is scorned, even feared.

None of this is really our fault. We are not taught to sit in silence or allow emptiness. We are taught to fill ourselves constantly, and that to be full is to be successful. We are taught that happy people see the glass as half-full, that those who see the emptiness of the glass must be sad.

Culture is a powerful influence, but Nature is a greater teacher. Each month, the patient Moon teaches us not only the beauty of Fullness, but the beauty of Emptiness.

There is no denying the glory of a Full Moon shining in the sky. At the peak of her cycle she glows with satisfaction, she sheds light on our dark nights, keeps us awake, stimulates our thoughts and dreams, and stimulates natural processes like spawning and blooming. Fullness is beautiful. We don’t need to learn to celebrate fullness, we already know how... everything around us encourages us to strive for the beauty and satisfaction of fullness.

What the Moon teaches us though, is that fullness is not a permanent state to be achieved and held; it is one beautiful moment in a great cycle of filling and emptying. We can witness this cycle everywhere in the natural world, but the Moon makes the cycle very clear.

As soon as the Moon is full, she begins to empty herself. Her bright body diminishes as she releases her light - wanes - through the second half of her cycle. But there is another peak moment: it is the beginning of her cycle, her brief time of complete emptiness, the Dark or New Moon. When we look up and gasp at the brilliant sliver of light visible at the New Moon, we are inwardly rejoicing in the beauty of emptiness. We are celebrating the spaciousness, the peace, the potential, and the creative space of the unmanifest. We are celebrating the place where everything begins, the out-breath of relief, the empty fertile womb of all creation.

I think it is natural to our beings to celebrate both states, emptiness and fullness. And I think in our culture, the celebration of fullness has become pathological. We want to fill ourselves, then deny the natural process of emptying that follows. We want to be always full. One more cookie, one more episode, another glass of wine, more light, a full day, a full to-do list, more noise, more giving to fill up others, more and more. We hold on to what we have until it hurts us, because we have not learned the grace of release. We are, quite simply, out of balance.

My life has certainly suffered from too much filling and holding, and from a fear of emptiness. I am gradually, gently, learning to be more like the Moon.

There are many ways to cultivate a practice of celebrating emptiness. Meditation practices encourage us to sit with silence and stop striving to fill ourselves. I think creative practices naturally show us the cycling from emptiness to fullness and back again. But a beautiful, simple place to begin is by following the Moon through her cycles. Just watch her. Try to find her in the sky each night or day. Notice when she is empty and absent, and when she is full and present. Notice the same things in yourself. Begin to allow yourself times of emptiness and absence, just as the Moon does.

We are connected to the rhythms of nature and the cosmos. We participate in the rhythmic cycling of life. We can learn about ourselves by watching natural cycles, and by learning to be more like the Moon.

artwork: Koson, Full Moon Sleeping Ducks, detail