According to the stories passed down, in the final moment before Siddhartha’s (the future Buddha’s) awakening, he was challenged by Mara, the embodiment of delusion. Mara asked the young prince why he thought he could awaken or by whose authority he could do such a thing – trying to inspire doubt. Sitting devotedly underneath the Bodhi Tree, Siddhartha simply reached down and touched the Earth. Mara vanished, and the Buddha became enlightened.
Precisely what the ardent spiritual seeker intended when he put his hand on the Earth can’t be known. Many have said he was calling the Earth herself to witness or authorize his awakening. It’s also possible that this act signified the profound transformative power of synergizing one’s being with the larger consciousness of the planet and beyond. We could call this an act of embodied interconnection or an expansion of our small, conventional identities. In the language of the Dharma of Healing, perhaps the Buddha returned his Original Heart back into the Heart of Life.
Either way, it’s particularly telling that the Buddha didn’t conquer the “armies of Mara” through argument, judgment, or conflict. He did so by aligning with a reality that included Mara. Additionally, perhaps his Earth-touch may have actually been a compassionate message to Mara. “Not just me, but you, too, are part of this Earth”. If so, perhaps instead of being vanquished, Mara actually awoke alongside the Buddha. They were finally of the same cloth, and that’s what dissolved the mutual contention and confusion once and for all.
The Buddha’s touch didn’t signify an awakening from the world, but instead an awakening as the world. This embodied and integrated wisdom led naturally to action. Indeed, when the Buddha awakened, he didn’t become complacent or incompetent. He got up and skillfully helped those who were ready to hear. He did so tirelessly, traveling and teaching for the next forty-five years. However, if he had relinquished his separate sense of self, then it’s fair to say that it was no longer him actually doing this. We could surmise that it was the Earth or the Cosmos teaching herself the Dharma.
A healthy cell doesn’t overthink its role or over-exert its energy in a body. It simply acts intuitively, naturally synergizing its innate cellular wisdom with the body’s wisdom as a whole. When a cell loses touch with the body, we call it cancer. When we lose touch with the whole, we see the plethora of mental illness and confusion. In this way, the teaching of touching the Earth suggests we can return the cells of our selves to the body of the Earth and that this will be the precise realignment we need to steer the planet back into collective harmony.
In practice[[ Could be a separate exercise.]], we might experiment with a few eco-somatic exercises to feel how these ideas could support us. In meditation, we might imagine placing our attention not just on our breath or hearts, but into the body of the Earth, feeling ourselves animated by this greater ancient presence. We could even sit with a being in nature, like a tall tree or an old mountain. We could place a bare hand or foot on it and imagine our energy systems merging at the point of contact. We might breathe into that point, exchanging support back and forth. We might even ask if that part of the Earth could hold our pain or offer us guidance.
As we continue to play with this, we could even imagine letting go and letting the Earth breathe, the Earth read, the Earth walk, the Earth cook, the Earth help. What would the Earth do now? We might ask and then move intuitively. We might even narrate a few moments of our day to remind ourselves: “The Earth is feeling upset. The Earth is feeling joy.”
In this playful way, we can invite our experience to break out of the same confining boxes of self-protection that tend to define our lives. In our decision-making, we can quiet the cost-benefit equations and the moral assessments. We can expand into a heart-based intuitive guidance system located in the greater field of interconnection.
When you try it, you’ll likely find that things go better. Or, we could say, “The Earth does it better”. If that proves true, it wouldn’t be a surprise. The Earth embodies the intelligence of billions of years of evolution. Whatever it does through us might be superior to what we’ve been trying to do for it. We might find ourselves humbled to discover that some of our past perceptions and actions were yet another protective act of well-meaning hubris, thinking that we once again knew what was best.
Merging with the Earth this way doesn’t just connect us to a more profound wisdom. It also connects us to a deeper source of personal healing and resilience.