Hi,

I think that the relation between mind and Moon is of correspondence.

This is a correspondence between two realities, one located within microcosm (the mind), and the other located within the macrocosm (the Moon). I this is why the mind is the microcosmic counterpart of the Moon.

I am thinking of the ancient Rishis exploring their microcosm in a practical manner, and finding these correspondences, which they expressed in written form afterwards.

Such a correspondence is to be found be mere spiritual intuition, and can be proved afterwards by using analogies.

So, I think that mind and Moon are in correspondence, among others, because of the following aspects:

1. reflection;

2. fluctuation (as Matthew nicely pointed out) - but I think that mind is subjected to more influences than the Moon is, so that its state of fluctuation is more complex that the one of the Moon; we just have to think to the five tattvas, to the three gunas, etc.;

3. seen / unseen - just like the Moon, which has a hidden face, the mind a ”hidden” part, which is the subconscious.

I am sure that more analogies or similitudes can be found, in order to prove that the mind and Moon are in correspondence.

Claudius

On Tue, Aug 2, 2016 at 11:14 AM, Matthew Kapstein <mkapstei@uchicago.edu> wrote:

So far as I am aware, the moon was considered in early India, as in many other civilizations,
to be a bright body, not a source of reflected light. So it is unlikely that reflection plays
any role in the mind-moon analogy.

I would suggest, however, that serious thought be given to the phenomena of waxing and waning.
Indeed, the increase of wisdom (prajñā) is not infrequently compared in Buddhist texts to the
waxing moon.

Unlike the sun, which blazes quite constantly, the mind strengthens or weakens, both periodically
and in the course of life -- if there is metaphor that links mind and moon, I suspect that it is
to be found here.

Matthew Kapstein
Directeur d'études,
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
The University of Chicago

http://kuberam.ro