Moonbathing

I went out of my house last night. I did not go far. I only stood at the frontyard. There was half moon in the black sky decorated with thousands of visible stars. I looked up to the moon. With my eyes staring at the moon, I took deep breath several times understanding in my mind that I was absorbing the light energy of the moon - the yin energy. 

Near full moon

I tried to take pictures of the moon using my cell phone but the result was not good enough. I went into my house again to get my pocket camera, it is a Nikon AW130. I used it to take some pictures of the moon. Still the result was not sharp enough. Well, I should use better camera later. 

Because my main intention was to enjoy moonbathing, I decided to do it by standing towards the moon for a few minutes to be more exposed to its light.

Earlier than that, during the day, I showered in the rain. This time at night, I was moon-bathing. This may sound weird but in Chinese philosophy having a balanced yin & yang energy in our body is important for our health. Well, that's what I have done in the last few days since Sunday. 

Going to the beach to enjoy the scenery of the sea, and its waves while doing meditation on the white sand, walking around the football field under bright sunlight, getting drenched under heavy rain and moonbathing is my way of getting exposed to a balanced yin and yang energy.

The result? 

Well, I can sleep early and well at night. I could not do it for years. I always fell asleep late at around 04.30 morning. 

Tonight, moon will be bigger. I hope I can stay longer to absorb its moonlight energy. Most people do sunbathing but do they also do moon bathing? This is something, you may consider doing in order to balance your physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. You could try if you are interested. 

Moon and Environment

Moon plays important role in our environment. For example, the sea tides are influenced by the gravity of the moon. When I was a university student tens of years ago, I saw how villagers caught fish by taking advantage of high and low tide. There was a small bay at the coastal area of their village. When the tide was high, they let the fish entered the bay. They know the time when the tide would go down again. So, during the peak time of the tide, they deployed net to close the bay. The net has big holes to let small fish to pass through. When the tide was receding, big fish swam to deeper water but later they were trapped in the net. With this technique, the villagers did not have to go to the open sea to catch big fish. It was an environmentaly friendly way to catch fish. They let small fish return to the sea. 

My father is a farmer. When I was a kid, he collected the sap of aren tree that is consumed by us as traditional drinks. Thr sweet sap of aren palm tree can be 'cooked' to make palm sugar. So, when there is high tide, the level of water in land is also higher and it allows plants to absorb more water. So, during full moon period, my father can collect more palm sap. To make sweet palm sap, we need to wash the container that we use to collect the palm sap so it does not contain natural yeast. If not the palm sap will not be sweet. Mothers drink sweet palm sap which we call saguer to increase their milk for breastfeeding their babies. These are simple examples of how moon play important contribution to environment and human life. 

Also read: Moonwatching