You walk the path of self-unfold­ment, to become what you are to become. Your jour­ney is long, the lessons are many. But there are some who have gone ahead; they have accom­plished what must be done. They have shown the way. Their life, their mes­sage is a gift that lifts your spir­it as you strug­gle to under­stand what is it all for; and in the sto­ry of the Bud­dha we have the reas­sur­ance that no one will be left behind, the door will not be shut, ’til all have come back home again.

Today we cel­e­brate what many con­sid­er the great­est of these Great Souls, The Bud­dha. Sid­dhārtha Gau­ta­ma was said to have been born at the Full Moon of Tau­rus; achieved Enlight­en­ment at the Full Moon of Tau­rus; and left of his own voli­tion the human phys­i­cal form at the Full Moon of Tau­rus. The teach­ings that he shared are some of the purest expres­sions of the Ancient Teachings.

The Ancient Wis­dom has been passed down from the begin­ning of time; it forms the core of under­stand­ing behind Sci­ence, Phi­los­o­phy and Religion…and Astrol­o­gy. At times more revealed, and in times more obscured, it endures as the promise that there is a pur­pose to your jour­ney and a path that you must fol­low. Many teach­ers have come, many unsung and known but to a few, but all have sought to re-affirm and pass on the truths of your existence.

The core under­stand­ing of the Bud­dha con­cerns noth­ing less than the way to ful­fill your human des­tiny. The heart of the mys­tery is that we are sparks of the Divine and our jour­ney through all the forms of exis­tence is so that the Divine may become man­i­fest. Yet, in mov­ing through these forms we become attached to form and so suffer.

We, as spir­its of the One Spir­it, must descend and be “formed into forms” that delight us, and yet lim­it us. These forms help us to grow, learn and under­stand our true nature as our pow­ers unfold. Yet, ulti­mate­ly our mov­ing into forms caus­es suf­fer­ing, because each form is lim­it­ed and must even­tu­al­ly fail us.

The Bud­dha’s mes­sage, which is so beau­ti­ful­ly demon­strat­ed by the Sun in Tau­rus and the Full Moon in Scor­pio today, is that the jour­ney of Spir­it is from the Un-Man­i­fest to the Man­i­fest, from Pure Poten­tial to Mag­nif­i­cent Fullness…and back again. This is your jour­ney, to go out into the Uni­verse and by your con­tin­u­ous “becom­ing”, to evolve through your expe­ri­ence of Spir­it in Mat­ter-Forms. You move from the Ide­al of Val­ue and Beau­ty, to Val­ue and Beau­ty Real­ized. But your true nature is Spir­it, and it is always about this jour­ney of Spir­it, and so you must con­tin­u­ous­ly move through the forms, and not stay in any form.

Bud­dha taught that the nature of your mate­r­i­al exis­tence leads to suf­fer­ing because you become attached to the form of val­ue. He showed that the way to peace, the way back home to your Spir­i­tu­al home, is through devel­op­ing the “Way of non-attach­ment”. The key to life…is to be the light flow­ing through the forms, breath­ing life into the forms, but not iden­ti­fy­ing with the forms of existence.

This is the great mes­sage of the Tau­rus Full Moon. That pre­cise­ly when you feel most strong­ly the life force surg­ing, and all of the delights of Mate­r­i­al Cre­ation are arrayed before you so that you wish to hold onto the form of val­ue, when all your sens­es are aroused, and you are most keen­ly aware of your phys­i­cal self, it is then that you need to remind your­self that this is only for a time.

Yes, you should gaze with won­der at the dawn of a new day, and dance in cel­e­bra­tion at the resplen­dent abun­dance of life increas­ing, but you must always be ready to release the val­ue-spir­it behind the form when the day is done. The les­son of Bud­dha is that even as we cel­e­brate and move through the forms of val­ue, we must devel­op in equal mea­sure our capac­i­ty for non-attach­ment to the form.

You left long ago on a jour­ney of self-real­iza­tion, of self-unfold­ment, of becom­ing. You start­ed as an unself-con­scious spark of the Divine. You will return when you have achieved a ful­ly awak­ened con­scious­ness, which is your gift that you offer to the Spir­it upon your return. How far away that is no one can say.

You can take com­fort in the knowl­edge that your jour­ney is guid­ed, encour­aged and inspired by those who have gone before you. For at the end of the path, The Great Ones, the “Bud­dhas of Com­pas­sion” stand, watch and wait for you to return. This is the Bud­dha’s great sac­ri­fice; that although he has fin­ished his jour­ney in the human form, he will not cross over till all have com­plet­ed their jour­ney. The door will not be shut.

We began as many com­ing from the One. We return to the One, bring­ing our gifts of expe­ri­ence, of life and love made man­i­fest. So cel­e­brate the Tau­rus Full Moon, of life surg­ing and beau­ty beheld for it is a nec­es­sary part of the great cir­cle of Life-Consciousness-Spirit…and then think of those who patient­ly wait for your return, and be thankful.