Buddhists celebrate the Summer Solstice (Midsummer, Litha)

Ancient numinous pagan festivals, with their evocative names
 and customs, offer an escape from the soulless,
 stressed-out, dehumanised,

  over-regulated and proceduralised existence 

that is modern urban life.

Gimme that Old Time Religion

Among people living in northern latitudes, the summer solstice (Midsummer, Litha) has always had a spiritual significance.

Midsummer Eve in Poland - Henryk Siemiradzki

Although not a traditional Buddhist festival, as Buddhism transculturates itself into the West, many Buddhists have begun celebrating the festival as part of their rituals...

Midsummer Eve - Edward Robert Hughes

'We're coming into a very interesting time.
The summer solstice is approaching, and I'd like to talk to you a little bit about the summer solstice. There are four times of tremendous power that occur every year. There are others that occur at different times, but there are four that you can count on, and those are the solstices and the equinoxes.  

- The Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism.    

'Midsummer Day, the summer solstice, is celebrated annually at Gampo Abbey and across the Shambhala mandala. The event is one of a number which celebrate the change of the seasons...'  

- Gampo Abbey 

'Maitrivajri writes with news of a cycle of celebration at the FWBO’s London Buddhist Centre: an honouring of the little-known Five Prajnas, the ‘female’ counterparts of the Five Buddhas in the well-known Five-Buddha Mandala.  She says - “This year we are ritually celebrating the female Buddhas, or Prajnas, on the day and time of the year associated with each of them. We began the cycle with the Summer Solstice and female Buddha Mamaki. We are performing outdoor rituals...  

- Female Buddhas celebrated at London Buddhist Centre  

Mamaki - Midsummer Buddha

'There is still a lot of pagan in me, as I've said before. It is still my basic cultural paradigm for interacting with the world with whatever Buddhist sensibilities I've developed on top of it.

I've always appreciated, if not always dramatically celebrated, the wheel of the year as a sensible series of holidays (or "holy days") during the year. Of these, I've always appreciated the solstices the most. They are the points of the greatest light and darkness in our daily experience of the world...'

- Open Buddha    

- Sean Robsville

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Numinous Symbolism - Pagan, Buddhist and Christian

The mind has several levels, the main distinctions being

(i) Gross mind
(ii) Subtle mind and
(iii) Very subtle or root mind.

The gross level corresponds, more or less, to our waking mind and the subtle level to our dreaming mind.

Buddhists believe that only the very subtle root mind goes on from life to life to life, so it is this level of the mind that we need to transform to make progress on our spiritual path.




There are a number of ways of producing long term changes to the root mind. One of the easiest to understand is analytical and placement meditation, where we use discursive philosophical reasoning and/or intellectual analysis to generate a realisation of a particular idea. We then attempt to hold this realisation for as long as possible (placement), and mix and imprint it into the deeper and more subtle levels of the mind.

As well as analysis and placement, we can also use intuitive experiences to transform the root mind. The three main ways of accessing intuitive levels of the mind are symbolism, visualisation and ritual. Symbolism may be used on its own, or in combination with visualisation and ritual.




Symbolism
The concept of symbolism has two aspects - Representational Symbolism and Evocative Symbolism, though sometimes a representational symbol can, with familiarity, become an evocative symbol.


Representational symbols
These are shorthand representations for substances, numbers, instructions etc. Examples are chemical symbols such as Na, Au, Pb for sodium, gold and lead; p for 3.14159, and the warning symbols in road signs. These types of symbols are interpreted by, and affect, the gross levels of our minds, and are used for our normal day-to-day business.


Evocative symbols
Evocative symbols are interpreted by and affect the more subtle levels of the mind.



Evocative symbolism is associated with art, architecture and poetry, especially where there is a spiritual aspect. Examples of evocative symbolism in the visual arts are icons, thangkas, mandalas, stained glass windows and statues of holy beings.




Evocative symbolism does not use direct representation, reference or explicit analogy. As the symbolist Mallarme said "Don't paint the thing itself, paint the effect that it produces".




Similarly with symbolist poetry. Direct description is avoided because it engages the grosser levels of the mind. Intuitive realisations are produced by indirect allusion and subtle evocation.




Representational symbols may evolve into evocative symbols.
On first meeting with Buddhist teachings, many Westerners ask about the meanings of unfamiliar symbols such as the lotus, wheel, vase etc. These are explained, and at first understood, intellectually (they are thus representational symbols) .

But later, as intellectual understanding of the concepts transform into intuitive realizations, the symbols may become evocative. Merely seeing the symbol may then evoke the associated realization.


Visualization.
Visualization usually begins with representational symbolism. For example, in the Tonglen 'taking and giving' visualization the black smoke and white light represent suffering and happiness. But with practice the understanding may become more deeply intuitive and less intellectual. Presumably the same thing happens as Tantric practitioners gain greater experience of visualizing themselves as the Yidam.


Ritual
Ritual is acting out or watching someone else acting out a symbolic role in order to bring about deep changes in one's mind. Rituals may be performed individually, but often involve numbers of practitioners.

The theatre may have originated out of pagan Greek religious rituals. For example, ritualised acting out of tragedy was used to produce catharsis in the minds of the audience.


Ritual actions often involve some form of symbolic transformation, purification or gift, such as these symbolic gifts on a shrine at a Kadampa Buddhist festival.





Other rituals evoke a symbolic journey, and may involve traversing a path through a processional or meditational landscape. Examples are the ritual landscape around Stonehenge in England, and the circumambulation of Mount Kailas in the Himalayas.

- Sean Robsville


RESOURCES FOR SYMBOLISM


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Buddhism Subject Index

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