So today I thought we'd look at a fairly well-known story about touching the earth.
There's a story,
And I know I don't normally make any sort of religious references,
But today,
There's a story about the Buddha when he was doing his final long sit,
I think it went for days,
That under the Bodhi tree where he became enlightened.
So take that story for what you want to take it for.
But at one point there was an interaction,
Well several points,
But he'd been having this interaction with Mara,
Which is basically all the things coming up from the ego essentially saying,
Hey,
And Mara was saying,
I'll give you everything you want,
I'll give you this,
I'll give you this,
I'll give you this,
All you have to do is stop doing this and stop going for this path.
And at one point,
The Buddha put his hand on the earth,
Touched the earth,
Touched the ground.
And to me,
That's a really important metaphor for what this practice is about.
Touching the ground brings us back to presence,
Brings us back to now,
To this.
And you can consider Mara as being all the distractions,
All the thoughts,
All the desires,
Everything that comes up in a practice.
This is the thing that we discover when we're practicing is that there's a lot going on in here and that it's very hard to maintain any sort of open space because of all the movement that's going on within us.
And this simple act of touching the earth,
Touching the ground can bring us back to now,
To this moment,
To this experience as it is.
So the invitation today is to find something,
It doesn't have to be the ground,
If you're sitting in a chair,
For instance,
Or something,
But find something that to you feels solid,
To you feels,
It's something that will bring you back to presence.
So something you can touch.
So the invitation will be whenever you do find yourself being distracted,
Whenever you do find yourself or thoughts running away or anything like that during this practice,
To literally touch the earth,
To touch the ground,
Touch something that to you connects you to ground,
To earth,
To literally do that.
So that's the invitation.
So let's settle in.
I invite you to have a couple of deep breaths perhaps and just begin to allow settling to take place.
Settling in to your breath,
Whatever your breath is in this moment,
Settling in to your body,
To your whole body,
Allowing wherever the body wants to relax,
Wherever the mind wants to relax,
To just allow,
Allow that to take place.
Not seeking for it,
It'll show you settling,
Settling,
Noticing the difference between what is being experienced and what is experiencing.
So what is having the experience,
So what is being experienced and what is having the experience.
And as best as possible,
Inhabit the space of that which is having the experience rather than the space of what is being experienced.
That space of observation,
Of seeing,
So the content isn't that important,
The content will come and go,
But there is a stability to the space which sees,
Which experiences,
Entering that space of stability,
The seer,
Not the seen,
Continuing to allow relaxation and to settle into the relaxed spaces to inhabit them,
The spaces that see,
That whole.
So an invitation to be here in space now,
Not in some imagined space in the past or the future,
Not in some imagined space somewhere else geographically,
But here now.
And when you find your mind taking you somewhere or somewhere else,
Touch the earth,
Touch the now,
And let the earth bring you back to now and relax into this new experience of now.
Every moment you relax into this space,
Inhabit the space of relaxation,
Inhabit the space that sees,
That experiences.
And keep an eye on the mind and how it plays its little tricks.
It may devise some clever concept and get caught in the concept rather than this experience.
It may come up with some great ideas for what it's going to do with what it's learning here,
For instance,
What it's experiencing here.
It may reflect back on how this could have been helpful somewhere else.
All of these things are just clever tricks of the mind to take us away from this.
It's very clever.
So if you find your mind playing its clever tricks,
Touch the earth,
Touch the earth.
What would take you away from this?
When you find out what would take you away from this,
Touch the earth,
Come back to this.
When you find yourself caught up in the objects of experience,
The ever-flowing,
Changing world of form,
Touch the ground to change your perspective,
To return to the space that experiences that rather than the experience itself.
So just returning to body now,
Full body,
Whole body,
Sitting here,
Grounded,
Whole,
Solid,
Noticing how it forms,
Appears,
Inhabiting the body,
Fully inhabiting the body as body,
As ground,
As earth,
Sensing into your feet on the floor and your seat,
This constant connection with earth,
With ground,
Sensing into the air on your skin,
Clothes on your skin,
And with one last deep breath giving yourself a stretch or a wriggle or whatever you need to come back to this space.
Thank you so much for your practice.
