A Talk on Winter Solstice: Turning Toward the Light

0:00Good morning everyone, so today is the solstice and I wanted to talk a little bit about that. The solstice has become huge whether you call it Christmas or Yule or whatever else has become huge and the question to me is why and you're a lot of comments this time of year defending the phrase happy holidays, let's say, oh well, they're multiple holidays but multiple religions this time of year, they all celebrate. Been winter, do they? Or are all of them, that's the majority of them, expressions of the single holiday of Yule or solstice that arose in other Europe, Scandinavia, because if we look at the history of Christmas,

1:25it wasn't celebrated at all by the early church, they could care less what date Jesus was born. Then, Nithrism and other Roman religions started to celebrate a festival called Solid Victus, around December 25th, the Return of the Sun. And Christians began going, yes, when Jesus was born, we're going to celebrate that. When Constantine took over as emperor, he codified that as being the date of Christmas, but it never became popular, it was celebrated as a mass at church, just another feast day. It never became popular until Christianity began moving into northern Europe, the British Isles and Scandinavia, and encountering these celebrations of Yule, which were so important to the people that it was the biggestumbling block to Christianity converting people.

2:40And so, suddenly, Christmas became, oh, this is one of our most important holidays, and all those things you're celebrating, they're actually expressions of Jesus' birth. And the Return of Light, and all of this is very important, you're right, but you're just focusing it wrong. And then, Judaism moved in the same direction, and took a very minor feast, Hanukkah, and said, oh, well, all of our neighbors are celebrating. So, let's make this a bigger thing. We now have huge celebration around Hanukkah. But it's all in response to this huge Celtic-Golish Norse celebration of Yule, of the Return of the Sun.

3:49And when you look at a globe or the world, you see fly, it took that long to become important to the major religions. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, all occurred in tropical climates, all arose in tropical climates, or some tropical at least. Where, yeah, even if they noticed the passage of the seasons, and the fact that, oh, yeah, it got dark earlier at the end of the year, it wasn't a huge thing. It didn't go from 12 hours of light to four hours of light. It went from 11 hours of light to 10 hours of light.

4:49So, the celebration of the Return of the Sun of the longest night of the year wasn't that big a thing. And still, Hinduism, there are a couple of small festivals that are celebrated around this time of year. Occasionally, holy, the festival of lights falls this time of year, but it's all the lunar calendars that falls anywhere from September on. Buddhism has really nothing this time of year until it moved into China and Japan, where again, you're north enough that suddenly this longest night of the year becomes important. So, we sell the Chinese Buddhist or Chinese Japanese Buddhist started celebrating the Buddha's enlightenment in late in the year. It makes us enlightened.

5:49We won't like to come back, but it all comes back to this concept of solstice in places where solstice was actually important. And now it's being exported across the world, I think especially of South America and Australia, where they're celebrating the longest night of the year at the Return of the Sun in the middle of summer when it's hot as hell outside. And the sun is shining most of the day, but we've said, oh no, put up greenery and lights and candles to celebrate the Return of the Sun as they do.

6:49And honestly, I just started thinking about this last night. I don't know where I'm going to go with this, but it's one of those things that just tickles my mind to think about that here, the only place it was really important was the far north of Europe, Scandinavia, across into Eastern Europe, etc. Where it was very true that at the water solstice, it was dark. Now the Scott Scalic name for December is the blackness. So yes, they're going to come up with festivals that set her around death ring as community because you want community around you when it's dark outside that celebrate feisty because you want to pack on the pounds for the winter when it's cold outside that celebrate

7:59the green greenery inside to remember the green times that celebrate light, lighting fires, keeping fires going because it's frigging dark outside. And when we really think about it, this, this little celebration has become, I would not hesitate to say the largest worldwide celebration that there is. And Ben exported to other religions, other religions have kind of gone, oh yeah, that's a good idea. We need to celebrate that. But other than the fact that yes, in the northern latitudes, it was fairly important to celebrate as community to stay as community and to look forward to the returning of the light and to getting out of your cramped little house that contained you, your family, your neighbors and your cattle and back out into the fields.

9:22Now, what is it that we are so so cold to celebrate because if you look at the summer solstice, there's not nearly the emphasis on it kind of makes sense. You're at the longest day of the year and now you know, oh, days are going to start getting shorter, not a big thing to celebrate. You can celebrate the fact that hey, this is a wonderful long day, but there's always in the back of your mind now they're going to start getting shorter again. I think in, in Buddhism, we probably would more likely emphasize the equinoxes that equality between dark and light that balance. But at the same time, if we look at Buddhist teaching, it's also important to celebrate the solstices because there are times that darkness is going to have dominion.

10:35There are times that things are going to be bad, but it's important to celebrate the fact that those times are fleeting, they're passing. They may be here now, but even now in darkness, we should celebrate the fact that light will return. I was always bothered in my religious studies days by the fact that whenever we studied and remember I was in college at the late seventies, so we still called the class primitive religions. But whenever we studied primitive religions, we were told that, oh yes, they were doing these celebrations to bring back the saw. And the logical part of my mind was going, well wait a minute, there had to be a time that they started.

11:42And when they started, somebody had to remember that the year before, before they started these celebrations, the sun had still come back. And you knew there were a couple of druid priests going, hmm, I'm not going to celebrate and see what happens. Oh, damn, the sun still came back. What do you know? These people lived close to nature. That's why I tend to think that all of these celebrations were more celebrating the fact that we've reached the depths of darkness and now the sun is coming back, rather than chasing away darkness or pleading with the sun to come back. And I think that we're observing the fact that, hey, this is going to happen. We've asked the longest night, it's time to celebrate.

12:45I think is reflected well in Buddhist and even Taoist, which was a huge influence in Zen philosophy, that yes, when you encounter darkness, it is passing. It is going to go away and be overcome by light. And when you get to summer solstice and everything is bright and beautiful, that's going to go away too. Remember that these things are all fleeting, that they pass. And so to be, as a Buddhist priest, the centrality of the winter solstice is not about the fact that we've reached the darkest night and are now heading toward the light.

13:55I should say it's not about the dark light portion of that statement. It's about the, we've reached it and are now passing. It's about the transition. Because Buddhist observation of reality, and remember that, to me, that is where the Buddha is coming from. He observed that things pass, that things move from one state to another. The centrality of this time of year is in the recognition that this is one of those peak points where it's easier to see the transition. It's easier to see the movement from, say, December 10th to January 10th in the light of the sun. Then it is to see the movement of change in daylight from July 10th to August 10th. You know, really notice it there.

15:03Was it time to notice that things do change and move, not only in nature, but in our own lives. So with all that being said, happy solstice, enjoy the return of the light, which remember the darkness is going to return to. That's not a bad thing. It worked for darkness. There would be no time to rest and recover. Not what we do much of that or, but that's what this time of year is about, is resting and recover. So enjoy your rest, get ready for spring. So go into the chat, winter summer solstice is our verb between the hemisphere is the December solstice is winter in the north and summer solstice in the south.

16:10Yeah, as far as naming goes, they did after colonialism or as colonialism collapsed, they did basically on the southern hemisphere say, fuck this. We're not going to call it winter solstice anymore because it's not for us. It's summer, who we still, do they still celebrate all of the festivals around winter solstice at that summer solstice time. My mom said the reason that they moved from Corpus Christi was she was on Christmas shopping one year and she realized that all she had on was done. But he shorts and bikini top. And she was like, yeah, that felt really unnatural. And I'm sorry for being on my phone. I was looking for a post that I had made a few years ago after doing some research about. There was Pope Julius in the 600s. There were, you know, lots of colonialism and he was newly elected or whatever it is you call the selection of Pope.

17:14And there were lots of people from different religions who were, you know, cohabitating in the same general space. There were lots of fights going on because of whatever winter holiday people had. So in the using the audacity of the Catholic Church, you was like, okay, well, let's just call it December 25th and then everybody can celebrate whatever they celebrate on that day. And I thought that was really interesting that especially a Pope would say, okay, well, you know, we don't need this fighting. Let's everybody just get along. I'm calling it this day. There's lots of, you know, bad stuff in there, but I just thought it was cool that he was like, okay, everybody just come down and celebrate your own all of it. Which is basically, I, there's a meme that pops up on my feet every year at this time saying, happy solstice, the time when the whole world celebrates bigotism and drops their own drops. They're clinging to their religion.

18:18Right. So, but yeah, there's also interesting that the only real opposition to December 25th being celebrated as Christmas was from the early fundamentalist juridians who were able to read the Bible and go, uh, this obviously was not December. It was springtime because the lambs were being born and you all got it wrong. So don't celebrate this hawkish Catholic thing and let go of it. Uh, and then, of course, night husbands, family was Joe's or still is Joe's witness. And so he grew up not celebrating it for essentially that same reason that hey, there's no reason to celebrate Jesus's birth that that wasn't important except that you brought it into the world.

19:31And we don't celebrate this world. Uh, so yeah, the, it has always, whenever I hear that Christmas is being banned and always like, uh, yeah, the only people who've ever abandoned our Christians. I don't know if this is a product of the soul's this or my age, but as they're like, um, my friends and I, it turns into more of a nostalgic slash reminiscent time, I guess kind of preparing for the end of the year and thinking back and thinking ahead of what you want. Um, but I always thought there should be a holiday at the end of February because I'm okay at this time of year, but the end of February when there haven't been leaves on the trees or any of that for like months and it's still brown and the snow, if there is snow is all dirty, that's when I'm ready for slump.

20:32You know, it's when you say that because my boss, um, we had a holiday party at work last Sunday and my boss and was arguing for exactly the same thing. He's like, Christmas needs to be moved to the end of February. So we've already got Thanksgiving this time of year, let's take care of that. We need something in the end of February because that's when people need to. Yeah, um, so one holiday one could make for February or end of February would be a seed buying holiday or anyone that's into gardening and that's that's one I would claim. Thanks. Good morning and thank you, uh, Sensei Glenn for your talk. Before Buddhism, I was fully engaged at pansyism as a philosophy and, uh, you know, living with nature, uh, kind of a Dallas Buddhist thing.

21:36Um, so the solstices and the equinoxes weren't so much a celebration, but kind of a recognition and a time just to say something nice to your friends. Because they could actually be marked by the earth's position within the orbit of the sun, which caused the change in light or whatever, depending on your latitude. As opposed to the kind of random date they chose of the earth's orbit to be New Year's Day. Um, so I've always kind of, uh, my wife celebrated Christmas and so I kind of threw in the winter solstice with that. So we had kind of a longer week of celebration, but, uh, I do appreciate your thoughts this morning. Thank you. It's called a happy solstice to everyone. Um, you were talking about, um, how we don't live so close to nature anymore and how holidays like this and equinoxes are a good reminder that things are temporary.

22:43But I think as women, because our very nature is cyclical, that we're more used to that. And I think that most of my women friends are very much affected by as much as they like, you know, the darker time, you know, where you rest more and you make soup and, you know, you read, which I do a lot of in the winter. Um, it also is, they're very much affected by, you know, people need vitamin D too. And I think it helps a little bit to have that reminder, um, in the form of any sort of a holiday that, uh, our nature as humans is cyclical too. And a girlfriend of mine who gets seasonal effect of disorder really bad. And from the day of the atomic equinox, she posts on Facebook every day, like this many days until the return of the light.

23:46And honestly, I find that very helpful. Like I don't even really, I'm not really even affected by the seasonal depression, but I always really enjoy seeing that it's a good reminder for me as someone who claims autism, you know, that we're moving along. Yeah. Um, no, I really, I really like the, uh, and as far as paganism, dealing real real ones that I'm familiar with, we're kind of European paganism, the juridic traditions in that area. But the fact that they celebrated not only the quarters, but the eighths. So it wasn't just the solstices and the equinoxes, but the pinpoint in between each of those. And I think the reason is that continuous reinforcement of things are moving along.

24:49So we get to February 1st. And in Celtic paganism, you celebrated the feast of Bridget. Uh, because it's that midpoint in winter. And it's like, you know, we need to celebrate the fact that, hey, I know it's still cold outside, but it's getting better. There is a statement in Irish, uh, Christianity that, uh, the light returns on Christmas, the ice breaks on St. Bridget's day, and the rivers flow on St. Patrick's day, which is basically solstice midpoint in, uh, solstice equinox. So this is that recognition. It's just phrasing it as Christian remembrances rather than the pagan.

25:50Um, but it is that remembrance that, hey, as we go along, it's important to have that celebration that, hey, yeah, things are moving along. And that is what we, we kind of are missing in the midwinter period, because we kind of don't have anything. And we are, okay, Christmas is over now. Easter, April. Wow. And also long time. Everyone takes off the decorations down and everyone. Yeah, again, my boss swears that he's not taking your Christmas lights down at work until, um, March, he's like, these are winter lights that they're bringing still for the winter. Yeah. Um, so I was just curious at a question. Um, do you, do people tend to walk clockwise up, counterclockwise around the temple, just out of curiosity? Thanks.

26:54Yeah. Um, in pragmatic Buddhism, it don't matter. In Zen and most other Buddhism's clockwise, some lies. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. And if we, uh, Stephen bachelor has a wonderful book called After Buddhism, uh, where he traces a lot of the teaching. And, uh, talks about a, where they came from and be where they can be going in the current world. But he does this by talking about the history of why things are done the way they are. One of his points is, uh, in very traditional Buddhist temples, especially in the Theravans tradition, the Buddha statue will always be placed in the west of the temple, facing to the east.

28:06Because that's where the Buddha sat supposedly under the Bodhi tree. He sat on the west side of the tree facing the rising sun. And bachelor went on to say this, the sakya tribe from which the Buddha came were actually not Vedic practitioners at that time. They were some worshipers. And so the orientation was very important. It was very important to them to know that the Buddha was facing into the sun when he attained enlightenment. Because that confirmed the enlightenment. And that tradition has gone on in time. There are some other sects who switch it and put the Buddha statue in the east because now the Buddha having been enlightened becomes the sun to provide enlightenment for the rest of us.

29:18But the movement tradition has always always been some lies to clockwise. A student of mine went to a zin temple in North Carolina. And he made the mistake of turning to the left when he got off his cushion. And the lady behind him sat and said, we turned right. So there are people who are very closely to it. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. It's definitely interesting because then you could one could also ask another second question which would be, would meditation be better reserved for before noon or afternoon? Yeah, good question there too.

30:18Down. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I think a lot of people do meditation in the morning to kind of start their day. I tend to do it more in the evening to end the mind. But again, when is the best time to meditate whenever the fucking can sit down? I always kept doing that bomb in there, don't you? You're worse than me. Hey, Judith at last time. Daddy, yeah, we were about to go for a non explicit talking in june will come. Hey, and thanks for the talk. I was interested in what you were saying about some ancient religions celebrating things on the eighths of the year. That still happens today. I don't know how involved in their religion. It is, but the Sammy people that live in the extreme north of Finland Sweden.

31:23That area that white people tend to call Lapland and they call Suomi. I think they celebrate on the eighths because they are to this day reindeer herders and have been for 10,000 years up there. They're the indigenous people in that region. And it's important in terms of reindeer herding that you do things on the first day of fall winter or of spring summer. And there's also a first day of summer. But if you don't start moving that herd on the first day of spring summer, then you're fucked. See, I do it to you Glenn. And I don't know a lot about their religion, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if there were festivals on the eighths where they aren't like actively birthing reindeer or whatever. But when I visited that region, I was very taken with that tradition and have taken it back here.

32:23And so I do a little personal celebration just internally of the first day of fall winter, which is where the aspens are still bright, bright yellow, but they've got snow all over them. And that's just such a beautiful transition moment that I really like to sit in that. And so maybe even some of the members of your song are celebrating on the eighths. Yeah. Now, I think there are definitely, there are definitely people who still celebrate the eighths. It's still honestly incredibly important to Irish Catholicism. They've simply replaced the gods of goddesses with Christian saints and put the same day on the eighths or close to them. But it's still, it's still important to a lot of traditions, especially I think agricultural traditions, because again, if you don't start preparing your labs until March 21st, you're probably falling behind a little bit.

33:39You're getting ready around February 1st to get it prepared. If you don't do your harvest until the fall equinox, you're probably running late. Part of your crop is rotting in the field. So yeah, the eighths are very important in agricultural communities. They just don't necessarily call them that because it doesn't fall with the majority religion anymore. It becomes folk tradition. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, which is why it was very easy to let an agon pill right then. It seems that it is an interesting, I guess this is just an observation and Buddhism, especially in the way I practice, very concerned with the attachment and the versions, kind of these intrinsic human qualities.

34:43It seems to me that these solstices kind of mark the transition of wanting more of something and then morning the loss of something, right? Like right now we start being like, all right, every day we're going to get more and more sunlight. I can't wait to have just a little bit more and just a little bit more and just a little bit more. And then at the summer solstice, we're like, yeah, we got all the sun. And then right the next day we're like, oh, but now it's going again. And then so I think just like an observation of this is kind of this human cycle of wanting more and never really being satisfied and then morning the loss of things that are changing. And then also not understanding that either self. Yeah, and I think it's a good point and it to me should guide the way we approach the solstices and equinoxes out of the eights where if we approach them as simply recognition of.

35:59Then it becomes very different from celebration or morning. It's just the recognition that hey, we've reached the longest night. Now we start getting more sun and could we first come and say, hey, we can actually notice now and march for the first comes. Ah, they have ballots. And when you're noticing those things, you're sitting in reality. But yes, if you allow that to move over into attachment and aversion, then it becomes those those moments of sitting with reality become instead moments of. Essentially increasing your own dissatisfaction.

37:02So very good point. Thank you. Well, thank you all for the discussion today. We'll go ahead and close up for the day. Thank you.