Plant-based Meditation: Rooting
Remembering our inherent ability to root + ground when we need to
This is the final plant-inspired dharma talk and meditations I’m sharing, from a series I offered in January and February 2023 at Merrihew’s Sunset Gardens nursery in Santa Monica. Catch up on the full series here: on plant joy and expanded awareness; on xylem and phloem-inspired Tonglen to ease suffering; and peaceful abiding, breathing with plants.
Notes from the dharma talk and meditation are below, and further below is full audio of the talk + guided meditation.
The view—
My monstera is growing a new aerial root. It’s reaching out toward a painting on the wall near it, like a curious, tentative child at an art museum, wondering what the canvas might feel like with all that 18th century paint…
“What do you you think you’re doing, young sir?” I wonder. But the root has a plan, every root always does.
In the natural world, roots come in many forms: aerial, fibrous, buttress, tap, stilt, propagative, tuberous… They reach, yearning, through soil, muck, air, water, sand, and anything else, to ground and to bring nutrients in.
Our roots are anything that may literally or energetically provide anchorage via nourishment they draw in. Connecting us to our lineages and ancestors, homeland, sense of peace, our breath, and so on.
Roots are endogenous, meaning the stuff they’re made of as they grow come from within. This is in contrast to that which is exogenous for a plant, or additive superficially. The buds on a stem or the layers of bark on a tree are exogenous.
Because roots are endogenous, coming from deep within, they are close to the heart of the plant — they are the heart of the plant. They are the plant’s heart on their sleeve, somehow extraordinarily adaptable — everyone is depending on them — and also exploratory.
They are Mars rovers in the substrate, radioing back to control what’s out there as they simultaneously adapt to it. Using whatever is there to thrive to the utmost is always the goal. The roots of a cactus, for example, are both very deep and very wide because the desiccated desert life is hard in both ways.
These roots are everywhere. What is a root? What isn’t a root? We can take the time to reflect and discover our own roots in all their forms. Whatever is that which grounds us, keeps us steady, helps us receive nourishment and resource from it, whatever is that which connects us to something sacred, palpable, or solid, enabling us to weather. That is a root.
Now, to remember that everything that is our root has come from deep within us. Put another way, we have within us the capacity to root in whatever way we need, at any time. The stuff we need to root is already within us. No credentials, purchases, learning, additives, or anything external necessary. How does it feel to discover that you already have everything you need to thrive in your current condition?
The meditation—
(Recommend having a houseplant nearby, or doing this outdoors if you can)
Find your seat, whatever that feels like it should or can be for you right now. Be comfortable and at ease, but intentional. Consider you are sitting on a throne, with dignity and humility.
Check-in. What’s the quality of your mind right now? Your breath, your body, your energy? What’s racing through your mind? Or are you zoned out? Don’t fall into any of these noticings too deeply, just survey how you’re showing up right now. You’re gathering data about the material with which you’re practicing right now. Right and wrong don’t exist here.
Come into your body, noticing where each limb rests. Maybe lift or adjust them lightly and let them settle again. Perhaps offer gratitude to a body that accompanied you into this new day today. Allow your spine to stretch upwards toward the sky like a root growing up. Feel your seat resting / supported by the earth beneath you.
Take a deep breath, or a couple, just to start to feel and notice the breath in your body. In reality, your body is already breathing itself. So you don’t have to worry or try too hard.
Come back to awareness of your seat on the ground - perhaps this is a contact where some roots are growing.
Consider aspects of your body that feel like roots today - maybe crown of head, maybe back of seat, maybe arms or legs. Maybe breath.
Notice ground beneath you and spend some time visualizing this ground. Texture of it, literally. How far up or down are you relative to actual earth? What is the temperature, tenor, texture of the little plot of earth which holds you, right this moment? Get to know it, allow it to get to know you - you are holding each other.
Honor the stewards of this land long before you, indigenous communities and perhaps endogenous creatures as well. Earth worms, etc.
Honor your energetic roots: elders, ancestors, lineages - allow them to arise with ease, those who are anchoring you lovingly to a sense of greater community and greater vision of freedom.
Hold these various experiences and awareness of roots lightly in your beautiful mind and continue breathing easily. You are just spending time in the experience of rootedness.
Consider some mantras, if you’d like:
Breathing in, “I have”
Breathing out, “What I need”
Breathing in, “I am”
Breathing out, “right here”
Breathing in, “I honor”
Breathing out, “my roots”
Continue as you’d like, letting it flow easily. If the mind wanders or you feel un-rooted, simply wiggle your seat or touch a hand down to the earth and begin again, somehow.
You might visualize bringing in all this experience of rootedness into the heart, perhaps as a great glowing orb, that you can access in the hardest and most chaotic moments. Something to remind you of your great endogenous nature, containing multitudes and universes within.
Eventually, when you’re ready, you can let your practice begin to dissipate. Bring awareness back to seat on earth as you re-enter the current space you’re in. No rush. Swallow. Blink your eyes. Gentle movements. Notice sounds. Come back in whenever you’re ready.
Dharma talk + guided meditation on Rooting
Merrihew’s Sunset Gardens | February 12, 2023
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