I find nothing as calming as the feel of my body touching what the Buddha called the “earth element.” Of course, it’s the solid, steadfastness of the way earth element feels that I find so settling, so stilling . But what is earth element?
My body has weight and solidity. I can feel this. My bones are solid. I can feel their weighty, uncomplaining dependability. And wherever my body makes contact with anything, it’s at that point of contact that I feel a general sense of solidity and unbiased support. This is earth element. And because I’m always embodied, and very nearly always in contact with some kind of solid, physical support, call the feeling that goes with this support simply “earth,” if one learns to tune in to this feeling, a calming earth experience is always at hand.
Cultivate an Earth Experience, Practicing Earth
So practically, whenever I feel frustration, for example, rather than getting carried away by the hot, messy drama frustration promises, when I feel the steam rising I mindfully expand my awareness to feel frustration’s unpleasant simmering as just one factor within the broader felt context of the solid, patient, steady, cooly unbiased earth sensations in the body that always hold and support me. That is, I shift some awareness to the supported, solid, and steady feelings in my feet if I’m sitting or standing, or to the feel I associate with the big bones in my legs and shoulders. From these steady, earthy places, I can watch frustration arise and pass without becoming reactive.
One can feel the earth or touch the earth anytime. So often in my day, I allow myself an earth experience. I find this double-turning to the earth “in me” supported by the earth “out there” psychologically settling and stabilizing, while also physically calming. Try it and see.
If you haven’t practiced resting or settling your awareness on “earthy” sensations in the body, it may take you some time to discover what I’m talking about. However, because you have a body, and because your body is so earthy, you can find what I’m talking about if you try.
The Buddha Taught his Son, Rahula, How to Cultivate a Mind Like Earth
This, I think, is inspiring and deeply touching. The Buddha did not raise his son as a prince. The Buddha did not teach his son that he was some-kind-of-otherworldly-Buddha-special by birth. No, the Buddha taught his son to regard himself as earth. The Buddha told him:
Whatever there is, Rāhula, that is inside, in oneself, that is hard or
has become solid, that one is fond of or attached to, for example:
head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin,
flesh, sinews, bones, bone marrow, kidneys,
heart, liver, pleura, spleen, lungs,
intestines, mesentery, undigested food, excrement
or whatever else there is that is inside, in oneself, that is hard, or has
become solid, that one is fond of or attached to, that, Rāhula, is called
the internal earth element. Now, that which is the internal earth element, and that
which is the external earth element, that is only the earth element.
Yes, The Buddha, And You, And Me, We’re All The Same: Earth
The Buddha was in touch with the earth. He was tuned in. Likewise, he taught his son and the rest of his male and female disciple to be in touch with all that is earthy in and around them. Why? Because this reflection gets us in touch with our creaturely, down-to-earth contingency and equality—all living beings are earth. Mindfully touching the earth helps us understand that to care for ourselves we must care for the earth that sustains us. If we really see this truth, we’ll practice what it implies. But there is more to this teaching. For, earth is the epitome of equanimity and a site of transformation.
Be Even As the Earth
Develop the meditation, Rāhula, that is even as the earth,
for, Rāhula, from developing the meditation that is even as the earth, when appealing or unappealing events or things arise in your experience, your mind will
not become attached to or repulsed by them.
The meditation that is “even as the earth” involves simply inviting awareness to rest on and remain with earthy sensations in the body as the body contacts the earth or some earth-like surface. For example, I rest my hands on the desk in front of me. I notice their weight and solidity against the hard, unyielding, earth-like surface. These sensation become the center of my attention. I see that the surface—call it earth—does not resist my hands. It supports them, is available to them. It supports my hands as it would anyones hands. This earth experience is unbiased, not for or agains my hands or me. I notice also that, just like my hands, this surface would accept anything placed on it with perfect equanimity. This is earth experience. Attending to things in this way is one way to develop the meditation, and the frame of mind, that is even as the earth. And developing this earth like equanimity can be extraordinarily helpful when facing life’s challenges. With practice, one can become like a mountain. But there’s more.
Earth, All Creatures Die Into It, And Live By It. ~~Wendell Berry
We can not be aware of earth until we see that the earth in us and the earth out there together are the mysterious site where life transforms death, and death, life, inseparable and whole. No writer I know more ably reflects on this wisdom and insight than Wendell Berry.
Whatever is in touch with the earth is in the process of becoming something other than it is. You can watch this happening if you take the time.
FOR MANY YEARS MY WALKS HAVE TAKEN ME DOWN an old fencerow in a wooded hollow on what was once my grandfather’s farm. A battered galvanized bucket is hanging on a fence post… and I never go by it without stopping to look inside. For what is going on in that bucket is the most momentous thing I know, the greatest miracle that I have ever heard of: it is making earth. The old bucket has hung there through many autumns, and the leaves have fallen around it and some have fallen into it. Rain and snow have fallen into it… Nuts have fallen into it… animals have left their droppings; insects have flown into the bucket and died and decayed; birds have… left their droppings or perhaps a feather or two. This slow work of growth and death… which is the chief work of the world, has by now produced in the bottom of the bucket several inches of black humus. I look into that bucket with fascination because… I have seen the same process at work on the tops of boulders in a forest, and it has been at work immemorially over most of the land surface of the world. All creatures die into it, and they live by it.~~Wendell Berry
The mysterious turning of death into life and life into death is as close and as common as dirt. When we listen to, or feel our way into the earth element in our bodies, we find peace and equanimity that passes all understanding. My friends, develop the meditation that is as even and as welcoming as earth!
Earth And Ritual
Earth is a solid, steady, supportive, and steadfast factor in human experience, an avenue to equanimity in meditation and in life. It is also, quite literally the source and sustenance of every living thing we know. This makes this element a fruitful object of reflection and ritual. Here is a link to a ritual of forgiveness and transformation developed by Thich Nhat Hanh called The Five Earth Touchings. plumvillage.org/key-practice-texts/the-five-earth-touchings/ I think these ceremonies can be quite powerful. I hope you consider them and enjoy them.
Have a wonderful week touching the earth!
