Have you touched the earth lately? You’re probably touching it right now.
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As a practitioner, I’ve ended countless yoga classes with namaste. It was never mindless, but it was automatic. It’s just what you do, I assumed.
Once I began studying yoga more deeply, and teaching it, that shifted. It no longer felt natural or sensical for me, as a white American offering a thousands years old practice not indigenous to my culture, to close my classes that way. There are many way to consider how to convey a tradition with integrity and intention, and this was one personal decision I made.
My alternative has been to invite students to touch earth as we close class. It feels natural and grounding, since the earth plays a central part in all aspects of our yoga, and our life. What’s funny is that as I began this, though it was a very conscious decision, there was so much more to “touching earth” than I realized or recalled at the time.
In fact, touching earth or bhumisparsha is a foundational moment and mudra (hand gesture with special power) in Buddhism. If you look at any classical representation of Shakyamuni Buddha seated, you’ll see his right hand draped over his legs, fingers reaching toward the earth. This is the moment that he realized enlightenment; the moment it all began (or ended).
Throughout the course of his meditation under the Bodhi tree, the Buddha had been continually dogged by the demon Mara. Mara threw at him temptation after temptation, trying to suck him back into samsara. Mara pulled at him, picked at him; he is the original gaslighter and demon inner critic. Mara’s Hail Mary pass was a final, fantastic display of temptations to challenge the Buddha in his moment of enlightenment. One last hissing, you aren’t who you say you are.
In response, the Buddha reached down and touched earth, calling upon her to witness his awakening. He touched the earth to verify the truth in his experience. Earth is a reliable witness — solid and grounded. Earth to you, earth has been witnessing you this whole time.
“The earth is always under us. The earth is always inside of us. The earth is always around us. The earth is always holding us, which means that the earth always loves us regardless of who we are. This is the most intense gift of the earth, and it is something that we can evoke and rely on when we feel the most alone and unloved.”
Lama Rod Owens, “Love and Rage”
This Sunday is the last in a series of earthy meditations I’ve been leading at a local plant nursery. It’s been a really magical experience and I’m searching for ways to share it more widely. We gather outside among a wide variety of plants and trees and hummingbirds. Before we settle in to meditate, I offer a rooting practice — bhumisparsha in a way. We feel our contact with earth, we imagine its texture, we offer gratitude to indigenous stewards, and we sew ourselves into the earth as both a source of transformation and stabilization. We remember that everyone we’ve ever loved or will love — those who are no longer living and those not yet even born — will touch earth. Crawling, walking, running on it; buried in it, or scattered across it.
In yoga (or life), when get overwhelmed, dysregulated, or lose the thread, we can ground. Come back to the earth in a child’s pose, forehead touching earth, or in savasana, corpse pose, with the full footprint of your back held by the earth. Or a walk in the woods, a lean against a tree, you get it.
Touching earth is about grounding into what is real and solid. It’s also about getting dirty. Literally putting fingers into earth, seeing what you find. You cannot transplant, or weed, or tend or prune without touching earth. Dirt under fingernails, the occasional worm body squirming by. Great!
Touching earth is getting dirty; “getting dirty” is being honest — seeing Mara’s illusions for what they are, asking questions about the words we use, not just skating along in our cocoon in a way that is easy and feels good all the time.
Because here’s what really happened under the Bodhi tree. While the earth witnessed the Buddha, the Buddha also witnessed Mara. He didn’t avoid or ignore him. The Buddha saw him. He said, “I see you Mara.” In seeing him, he saw him for exactly what he was — he saw right through him. Next time your Mara looms around — you’re not who you say you are, you’re not enough, you’re too much… — look directly at him. Tell him you see him, and then touch earth. You know what you are.
Offerings
(I’m going to start regularly recapping how to connect with me in space)
For those of you in the LA area:
Last Breathe Like a Plant meditation series at Merrihew’s Sunset Gardens Sunday Feb. 12 at 9am. I’m likely turning this into a monthly series there, so watch the space! Also, I’ve recorded all of the sessions and am thinking about how I can share more widely. I hope everyone gets a chance to try plant meditation :)
New! Glacial slow flow class at the Santa Monica YMCA on Mondays at 5:45 starting Feb 13th. The class is to support your breath and unwinding, allowing you to go deeper into body and peace.
I’m so happy to be teaching more regularly at Love Yoga in Venice, though still at random times. I usually post on Instagram or check the schedule.
Offering private 1:1s focused on yoga (restorative, yin, prenatal, vinyasa) and meditation totally tailored to your goals and body.
I’m considering offering an online drop-in class that is glacial slow flow / yin / restorative - good for anyone with mobility issues or who is trying to slow down and go deeper. If you’re interested, let me know!
I love this idea of touching earth. Agree whole-heartedly "Namaste" always felt like the thing to do after yoga — to express gratitude, to seal the practice, etc. will be trying this! also YES YES YES to online glacial flow