September 2010 Full Moon Practice Day
October 5, 2010
On the night of the September full moon instead of the usual 9:00pm-12:00pm sitting and walking, we were instead going to go all night till 5:00am – with a break at 12am for some refreshments.
The full moon at Wat Buddha Dhamma is so incredibly bright you can read by it, and this combined with the extraordinary silence of the evening made it a special experience.
The entire night until dawn was marked by a hush that fell over the Wat – there was no no wind in the trees and outside only one insect was making a small amount of noise, every other creature was totally silent – there were no bird noises and no sounds of wallabies moving about.
Below, our guest Donald gives his experience of this special night:
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Full Moon Sit
I stayed for a week at Wat Buddha Dhamma in September and was lucky enough to be there during the night of the Full Moon. All the residents and guests were excited about it in the lead up to the 23rd when we would sit all night. When the day finally came the Abbot was very flexible about the hours we put in and stressed that it was optional for everyone.
Some of us sat and walked from 7 to 12, some from midnight til 5 am and some did it all. I went to bed shortly after the Dharma talk and got up around midnight, then sat until morning. Sitting in that unique Sala, walking under the full moon, walking back to the village with sound of the birds waking up, feeling tired but serene afterwards all made the experience something special that I want to do again.
Donald.
