Tara Brach - Belonging to the Earth

Episode Date: April 23, 2021

Belonging to the Earth (2021-04-21) - As a species, forgetting our belonging to our larger body of Earth is causing suffering for this entire living web. In this talk we look at what causes and sustains this trance of forgetting. We then explore the ways we each can awaken a sense of loving connectedness and active caring toward our natural world.  

Greetings. We offer these podcasts freely and your support really makes a difference. To make a donation, please visit tarabrock.com. Welcome and namaste my friends. Really good to be with you. This evening's reflections are in honor of Earth Day, which is tomorrow. I thought I'd start with a favorite story. This is a story about Mullah Nasradine who's a Sufi wiserdh wise man and also somewhat of a jokester. And in this story he's resting under the shade of a

tall, luscious walnut tree. And as he's daydreaming, he notices these huge pumpkins that are growing on delicate vines snaking across the ground. And then he looks up and he squints and he sees these tiny little walnuts growing on these magnificent trees. And he says, how strange Mother Nature is. And he's thinking to make a little walnuts, he's going on these magnificent trees. And he says, to make plump pumpkins grow on these spiny little vines while these little walnuts have their own impressive tree. And just then a walnut fell from above and it landed with a tuk, you know, on Mullah Nazerdin's head and he rubs his sore head and picks up the fallen walnut and he looks high up toward the branches of the tree. Then he looks over thankfully at the swollen

pumpkins growing safely on the ground. And he says, oh, Mother Nature, you are wise. And I love this because, as we know, there are just so many learnings and insights being in the natural world, as well as healing. There's a growing scientific field called echotherapy. Some are familiar. And if you do a review of the literature, National Institute of Health, research is demonstrating the positive impact of nature, whether it's seeing pictures, are being outside, on longevity, on medical recovery, pain reduction, PTSD, stress, attention deficit, dementia, anxiety, depression, loneliness, spiritual well-being, you know, nature, being in nature, affects relating with others, we become more generous.

There's more pro-social behavior. And the research shows that the benefits are not just from time in nature. It has to do with feeling connected to the natural world wherever you are. and that those who feel connected to the natural world have high levels of well-being. There's also a study from last year that says that feeling or belonging to the natural world leads to pro-environmental behavior. So I'm suspecting as you're listening that this all resonates and it's not new. In fact, maybe what's most striking is just,

just how obvious it is, you know, that there's this field now called ecotherapy and yet, of course, it's like having an aha realizing, you know, that a zebra is going to be more content with its family in the grasslands and the savannas than in a zoo, you know, and take a creature out of its natural environment and it doesn't flourish. Now, of course, being in natural environments doesn't always work out well for everyone. Another favorite story I'll share is of a posting that National Park Rangers put up advising hikers in the national parks out west to be alert for bears and to take extra precautions to avoid an encounter. And they advise visitors to wear little bells on their clothes so they make a noise when they're hiking. And visitors should also be carrying

pepper spray in case a bear encounters is encountered and because spraying the pepper into the air irritates the bear's nose, it runs away. And they say it's also a good idea to keep an eye out for fresh bear scat so you have an idea if the bears are in the area and they say people should be able to recognize the difference between a black bear and a grizzly bear scat. Black bear droppings are smaller and they often contain berries. originally bare droppings tend to contain small bells and smell like pepper. So as I mentioned, tomorrow is Earth Day and I've really been reflecting on what wakes

up our feeling of belonging to this living web that we're a part of, feeling belonging and feeling our caring, taking care. wakes that up? So we'll be looking at this this evening. I like the way my friend Wes Nisker puts it and Wes is a fellow teacher. He says our primary identity is that of earthling. He says you can feel your earthling nature inside your body which is composed of all natural earth ingredients. He also says of course if we discover life in other galaxies we might have to become galaxy identified, which would make us Milky Wayans. So, as we know, many of us earthlings have become quite removed from our natural surroundings. Everything living in air-regulated environments,

with artificial lighting. In the United States, people spend an average of 90% of their time indoors. And there's a cluster of reasons that keep us from making at least regular visits to the natural world around us. For some, it's poverty, lack of mobility. For some, it's health. For many, it's the speed of our society, the demands of work and family, our compulsive busyness, even when we don't have to be so busy. It's our internet addiction. You know, there's only two industries that call their customers users and that's drugs and computers.

And as we know, it's not just adults, it's children, internet reduces engagement in nature. And yet for most, when we do spend time in natural surroundings, we do spend time in natural surroundings, it nourishes us. And I'd like to pause right here and just invite you to reflect a memorable time as recent as it happened where you were outdoors somewhere that was lovely to you. And you felt that kind of nourishment. You felt it really be a healing space for you. you and it might have been in a park and it might have been in the woods, it might have been your mountains or streams or rivers or by the sea. But just remind yourself for a moment, perhaps of a place you love, a place you've been

to recently. Sense for yourself what was really going on internally that allowed you to shift to feel some healing? What actually happens when you're in natural surroundings? Maybe for some you're noticing how just quiets the mental stories that create so much anxiety in our life, just quieter, that your senses wake up. Maybe for some you're remembering it just brings up a feeling of wonder. I know for myself there's just increased aliveness, a kind of home-coming. with the simplicity of just the elements, you know, what we're made of, earth, water, air, fire. I just feel more a part of the world.

So here we are, we belong to this web of life. Nature's not out there, we are nature. And when we forget that belonging, to me that's kind of the real meaning of leaving the garden, leaving Eden when we forget that belonging. And not only do we suffer, we become sick animals in certain ways, but out of that severed belonging we cause harm to the web. And this is what we've been seeing as happening, that through these centuries, especially in recent years, the human race has not only forgotten but it's caused massive damage. We know that this larger body we belong to, this web of life, it's struggling, it's sick,

it's in dis-ease. You know, our air, water is increasingly toxic. As most are aware, we're in what scientists call the sickth extinction, which is predicted to be the most devastating event since the asteroid impacted and wiped out larger dinosaurs. And it's hard to fathom. I mean, really, it's really hard to fathom the truth of that, that we're in the sixth extinction, what that really means. We know that, or we hear that dozens of species are going extinct every day.

But can we let that in? I mean, extinct means never to appear again in that particular unique form ever. We know that as many as 30 to 50% of all species are going to be extinct by 2050. Again, never again to exist. Can we take that in? And we know that this extinction, the cataclysm is us, that we're injuring our earth daily. You know, clear-cutting vast swaths of trees, creating the wildfires that disturb how this earth breathes, mining, overfishing,

our toxic runoff is destroying coral reefs, and our great addiction to fossil fuels, which is the primary focus many people put their attention to, creating the greenhouse gases that warm the earth and change the climate in catastrophic ways, especially for vulnerable populations. And as I say this, we also know it's been an excruciatingly slow response from us humans. There's a short verse from Rumi that's so powerful. Sit, be still, and listen. For you are drunk and we are at the edge of the roof. Isn't that amazing? Sit, be still and listen, for you are drunk and we are at the edge of the roof. It just captures our collective predicament.

We're drunk, we're at the edge of the roof, our larger body, this precious earth is in such terrible trouble. So we can see our predicament in one of the legends of the Holy Grail. Some of you are familiar, I'll remind you, this is of Parciful. He's a young night on a quest and he wanders into a parched and devastated land where nothing grows. When he arrives at the capital of this wasteland, he finds the townspeople are behaving as if everything's normal. They're not wondering what horror has befallen us or what can we do.

Actually they're rather dull and mechanical as if under a a spell. So Parciful's invited into the castle where to a surprise, he discovers the king's lying in bed and he's pale and he's dying. And like the land around him, the monarch's life is waning. So Parciful's full of questions, but because he's been told by an older night that asking questions is improper for one of his stature, he keeps quiet. Next morning he leaves the castle to continue on his journey, but he hasn't gone far before he meets the wise sorceress Kundry on the road. And when she hears, he hasn't asked the king about himself. She goes into a rage.

How could he be so callous? He could have saved the king and the kingdom and himself by doing so. So taking her words to heart, Parciful returns to the wasteland, goes straight to the castle, without even breaking his stride, he walks right up to where the king is lying on the couch. He kneels there and so gently asks, Oh my lord, what alleth they? At that moment the color comes back into the king's cheeks and he stands up fully healed. And throughout the kingdom, everything comes back to life.

People newly awakened, they talk with animation, they're laughing and singing together and they move with vigorous step. and the crops begin to grow and the grass in the hills starts glowing with a new green of spring. To me, it's a really poignant legend. You know, with the townspeople living life as usual while all around the land is parched and devastated. And what's needed is the wise urgency of kundry, which is really the feminine principle that just cares, wants life to live.

And the message is so clear that if enough of us remember our belonging, remember our caring, we will try to save our collective life. It helps to see the two universal forces that continue to fuel trance, to block our caring. And they both are expressions of the pain of separation, the fear that comes with separation when we've left the garden. And one of the forces is grasping, that's unending, insatiable greed,

and the other's aggression, domination and violence. So we see this in our personal lives, and this is very much a part of the Buddhist teachings that grasping arises, you know, and causes suffering. And it arises because our basic needs for feeling belonging aren't met. If we don't feel loved or seen, if there's not that kind of secure bonding with our world, if our needs aren't met, then we go for substitutes. We're just trying to feel better.

And our substitutes take the form of, you know, grasping after power, control, or more achievements, more recognition, possessions, money. We're trying to fill a whole of need. And of course, like drinking salt, water when we're thirsty, it can't work. Another short story of a woman sitting at a window seat on a plane and a man sitting next to her in the center aisle and she sneezes and takes out a tissue and wipes her nose and then visibly shutters for about 10 to 15 seconds. Man's kind of curious but goes back to the reading. A few minutes later it happens again. She sneezes, takes out her tissue, wipes her nose and then shudders violently. Assuming the woman might have a cold, the man's just really curious

because what about the shuddering? So a few more minutes past, she does it again and this time he can't restrain his curiosity. So he turns to her and says, I can't help but notice you sneezed three times and wiped your nose and then shuddered violently. Are you okay? And she says, oh, I'm so sorry if I disturbed you. I have a rare medical condition. Whenever I sneeze, I have an orgasm. So the man's a bit embarrassed, but he's still curious. He says, I've never heard of that condition before. Are you taking anything for it? And the woman nods. She says, yes, pepper. We know that our addictions keep getting primed. In other words, the more you, you know, eat the sugar or the more you gamble or the more you go after sex in the way that she is

or the more that you buy things, the more it just feeds the need. You get a hit, it doesn't really work and then you need another. It's like many are familiar with the story about Rockefeller when he's asked how much money is enough money. His reply was, just a little bit more. It's never enough. When we're disconnected from the garden, when we don't feel a sense of that fundamental belonging, we humans have this fear-based restlessness. It makes us sensationalable, you know, the sense that there's something more, it's not enough, I'm going to miss out, I need something. And you can see it through the centuries, the drive for more land, more conquest, more productivity, more growth.

So we know that our greed is depleting Earth's resources, just ruining planetary health. Yet the assumption is we need to keep growing. And this is liberals and conservatives alive that the value of growing our economic productivity and our consumption. You know, why? bigger, better? To keep growing, we need to keep fueling that need. There we got the billions of dollars of advertisement of never enough. So this is the first way when we've left the garden, we get caught in the delusion and the energy of wanting, greed, something's missing.

The second big energy, and it's also based on delusion, is aggression, violent domination. And this happens too when we leave the garden when we don't feel connected, that the other becomes an object, something to control, to dominate, to aggress against. This is from Genesis. And God blessed them. God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing. that moveth upon the earth, subdue it. So homo sapiens emerged to consider the earth

and other people of difference and non-human animals as other and that it's okay to aggress against them. And this is a deeply embedded part of our historic narrative. It's often referred to as manifest destiny. And the first formal evidence was Papal decrees in the 13th and 14th century. That basically said that gave entitlement to vanquish and destroy that which was indigenous. And I say ask because it assumes the rights of settlers, typically white Europeans, so here I'm, this is my identity, it assumes the rights of settlers to take wealth to make more for the empire. So humans spread around the globe, decimating indigenous populations, driving most large mammals to extinction, and decimating the land.

So this is that force of you have the right to aggress and dominate. And it's important to know that the same hierarchy and privilege is the one that allows for the daily domination of non-dominant people within a culture. In other words, you can't separate the violations of a racial caste system from the violations of indigenous people and the earth. And the same delusion means that to satisfy human appetites we cause inconceivable suffering to billions of animals each year, you know, through our industrial farming. And it's also a huge contribution to global warming.

So this is the second great force, aggression, violent domination, from whether it's the Papal declarations to our individual psyches to current global business. I mean, there's an ongoing attitude towards the natural world. It's a utilitarian relationship, anthropocentric attitude that it's ours for the taking. The Earth is an object. We can do what we want. Joanna Macy, many of you have heard of, she's an environmental activist, Buddhist scholar, a teacher, also a friend.

She writes this, she says, we have been treating Earth as if it is a supply source and sewer, extracting resources, pouring waste into it over and over. How we're violating our larger body earth is not sustainable. And it destroys all of us. And first, those who are most vulnerable. I mean, the most consuming is the wealthiest countries, yet climate change initially wreaks most havoc, parts of the world with the fragile economy and health systems,

and people with few resources. I know you were following as I was probably, you know, in the United States when Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi, are when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico four years ago, it was not the wealthy who suffered. Those who were killed, those who had to evacuate, those who lost homes, struggle with disease. And it's taken years trying to rebuild. It's the most vulnerable. So we're waking up slowly.

We know we're on the edge of the roof. we're waking up slowly and about 60% in the United States are taking seriously our self-made predicament. And that leaves a powerful minority who either feel this is a conspiracy or due to economic self-interest block a response. But you know it's not that hard to see why And for all of us, it's been so slow. We primarily care about what affects our personal lives. This is our daily focus. And many don't feel the impact of climate change.

Often it's an abstraction or it doesn't seem related to immediate problems we might be concerned about or struggle with or see close in, whether it's poverty or racism or authoritarianism. the threats to democracy, although it's entirely related. And even those who love nature, very close in, have been caught to some degree in trance and paralyzed in responding to our growing wasteland. And there are several reasons. I mean one is the kind of lobster in the heating pot one, which is it's gradual so not directly registering day to day, but that's changed.

because there's so much science, it's so frighteningly immediate. Another is not wanting to stand out and comfortable talking about it, engaging in activity. But a big one is it's so upsetting to think about. I mean if we really let ourselves think about it and there's this, there can be this sense of powerlessness and despair that what we can do is not going to make a difference. feel so big so we close down and just go on with life as usual like the townspeople. Again I'd like to read you from Joanna Macy. There is so much going on in our world today that makes us want to close down and not see and not here. It's easy to shut down in

the face of suffering but I think that's the greatest danger of our time. The greatest peril is not nuclear war weapons, not climate change, not the impoverishment of more than a half of the world's population. The greatest danger is the deadening of our hearts and minds. It arises not from indifference but from fear. We fear we might be shattered by pain, are stuck in despair forever. So this is what keeps us in that spell in the face of the wasteland. And so our inquiry friends, this is the last part of this talk, is what really does deepen our sense of belonging, a felt sense of belonging to this living world, what awakens our courage and caring so that each in our own way truly part of the healing. And really the ground level

is the practices you're doing of mindfulness and in particular mindfulness of the body, without being awake in our bodies, we can't feel how our bodies belong to this earth and we can't feel out of that our sense of love and connection. So meditations that help you reconnect with your own earthling body really make a difference. You can just pause here and take a moment to let your attention go inward. And you might just feel your body breathing, knowing that all bodies, all forms breathe in some way. Feel connecting to the air, feel that oxygen that you're bringing in is feeding every cell. that your life depends on it.

You might feel the warmth in your body. This is the element of fire, the sun, the stars. You might feel the weight or density of your body where there's some solidness and sense gravity, that earthiness, the hug of gravity. And if you listen inwardly, more deeply, just feel the movement of energy. There's a kind of fluidity. For my friend West Nisker, he says, just rub your upper and lower teeth together for a moment. Feel the hardness of your bones. They're made

out of minerals found in the earth, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, all mysteriously molded together into your skeleton. Can you feel that you are a piece of earth walking on Earth. It is as though we are earth sprouts and somehow gained a lot of mobility. Meanwhile about 75% of your body's liquid and most of that liquid has the same chemical consistency as the oceans. You literally sweat and cry seawater. It's as if the ocean splashed up on shore and eventually walked away. When you think about it, where else could our body bodies have come from but the earth and it sees. You are certified organic. So feeling this living, breathing, body, just like other forms of life, dog, snakes, plants from the earth,

listening deeply your body will connect you back to earth to pure aliveness. And you can continue to meditate with your eyes closed, if your eyes are closed or open them. Your heart will connect you to if you deepen attention when you're in natural surroundings. In the most basic way, if you want to practice formally, you can just find a spot in nature and sit or stand, but become still and open each of your senses. You know, really seeing the forms and colors, listening to the sounds, smelling what's here, feeling the breeze or whatever the air on your skin. Open your senses and with interest in receptivity.

Just take it all in this mysterious changing world. And if you sense beauty, you might say thank you. Because just expressing that gratitude will tenderize you, help you become more a part of what you love. And then there are several what I think of as, nature meta meditations. Meta is loving kindness. Their heart reflections in nature that can bring a live belonging. And I'll share for you the way one of them came up for me. You might remember, I think I shared this a few years ago. I was walking by the river. I live right by the Potomac River.

and I heard the sound of guns and I realized immediately it was hunters shooting a geese and I just started crying because I spent a lot of time watching the geese and the ducks and watch their babies in the spring and you know these beings are real to me they feel and then I thought to myself wow they're my friends And I started reflecting on the sense of kinship with so much of the natural world. My dog, Katie, was trotting there by my side and I said, and we're friends, you're my friend. And two cardinals flitting in the bushes and I said, and you're my friends. And then the great sycamores that hang over, the Potomac, you know, you too are my friends. So along with that wash of sorrow, I was just feeling this belonging to.

to a world of living beings, subjectively aware feeling beings. And the more I open to that, just this sense of the shared sentience, I had this realization it was just with such gladness, I am never alone. I might feel alone, but when I remember this, I'm not in any way separate. Just knowing we are friends created these threads of sacred connection. I was back in the garden, you know, and much peace. So it's continued and often now I'll attend to I'll see a tree or a plant and I'll either say we are friends or I'll say thank you and just your being or I'll send love and just feel loving me back

but really what I'm feeling is just this field of loving, you know, of connection. And inside I have a tree you can see over there. It's a false arralia. And I've had it for years and when I care for it, when I'm giving it water or just reflecting on it, I can feel my caring and I feel like we're in relationship. And I'll often widen it as I mentioned, squirrels of the foxes and other humans. We are friends. or send love and feel in doing so, just feel that connection spontaneously arise.

So it might sound like anthropomorphizing and conceptually it is, but on some level all parts of this universe are connected. We know that. All parts, everything influences everything, everything's in relationship. And if we can enter into that, and whatever reflections help us enter into that, tasting that relatedness with tenderness for me draws me into this wordless truth of belonging. So here's the thing. We earthlings have such deep conditioning to feel separate, this delusion of separation, this delusion that we're in some way separate and more important than other living parts of

the web. Yet the freedom and the joy in realizing belonging that every life form is intrinsically sacred, it brings such happiness and open-heartedness and it takes intention to wake up out of the separateness. So I invite you to experiment. because there's such a great gift in that sense that you can never really be alone. So I want to name that many have no access or it's hard to get to more natural, more wild natural areas. But that's okay. You can find this precious living world in all places and the trees on urban streets

and the grass and the bushes and the changing sky, a plant in your home space. you can awaken to that realization of loving connection of returning to the garden. Here's a poem. It's called Testimony. It was written by Rebecca Baggett and she wrote it for her daughters. I want to tell you that the world is still beautiful. I tell you that despite children raped on city streets, shot down in schoolrooms, despite the slow poison seeping for from old and hidden sins into our air, soil, water, despite the thinning film that encloses our aching world, despite my own terror and despair. I want you to know that spring is no small thing, that the tender grasses curling like

a baby's fine hairs around your fingers are a recurring miracle. I want to tell you that the river rocks shine like God. the crisp voices of the orange and gold October leaves are laughing at death. I want to remind you to look beneath the grass to note the fragile hieroglyphs of ant, snail, beetle. I want you to understand that you are no more and no less necessary than the brown recluse, the ruby-throated hummingbird, the humpback whale. I want to say like Neruda, that I am waiting for a great and common tenderness, that I still believe we are capable of attention, that anyone who notices the world must want to save it.

In this reflection together this evening, I'm not really going into the activities that save the world. There are so many wonderful guides in ways that we can individually reduce our carbon footprint and ways that we can focus on systemic change, you know, give them our time or financial support or political support. What we know is this, that our earth, as we're earthlings and our earth needs us to take care. And as with any activism, I found this for myself over and over, it's most energizing, sustaining, inspiring to do with others, to hold hands and act together. And it's happening. You know, there's

growing numbers of beings all over, young people, business leaders, people waking up and caring all over the world. You know, I love this from Paul Hawkins, who's an environmental activist, author, and he shared this in a commencement address. When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic, about the future, my answer is always the same. If you look at the science about what is happening on Earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this Earth and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.

The poet Adrian Reich writes, So much has been destroyed, I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world. So ultimately, the decision to save our environment, to reconstitute our world, has to come from the human heart. It's like, Percival, we need to care enough to face how our precious Earth is becoming a wasteland and respond.

And it won't work if we consider the Earth, this living web, as something separate we're trying to fix. Just the way we would bandage our own bleeding leg, we act because we are this Earth in human form. Our consciousness is the consciousness of the Earth. And this is our collective belonging. I sometimes think to myself, what would this world be like if there were no trees? Or if there were no birds or no fish or dogs?

And when I reflect on that, there's a grief beyond words. I mean, it's so clear that these sentient beings are part of of what we are. Yet, if we're willing to pause and really imagine, you can do this, imagine within these next 50 years, life without the species that are endangered are going extinct. the Bornean orangutang, gorillas, rhinos, sea turtles, the North American right whale, the Asian elephant, the Amora Leopard, and more. We need to let that in, along with the very real suffering of so many today due to climate change in these recent years you can just see those living with the drought in Kenya that's left millions

on the brink of famine, typhoons in the Philippines, the rains, the heat waves, the earthquakes in Japan, animals killed in the wildfires in Australia and Brazil, the forced migrations from the Pacific Islands that are going underwater, the suffering of the sub-Sahara Africa due to heat. It's happening. And we can cast. our lot with those who dedicate to healing. So let's close with a sit. I invite you to come into presence, into heart, letting the attention go inward, and again to remind yourself of what you love in this living world, of what most stands out. It might be a certain landscape. It might be

an animal, plant, the winds, the sound of rain. the seasons, your fellow beings that are human. And just let yourself feel that loving. Let yourself feel that loving for what brings up the mystery, the wonder. And you might, if it feels right, just say thank you. Just mentally whisper, thank you. Because there's a certain grace to it all. You might sense for tomorrow, Earth Day,

If there's some way you might want to express your care for our earth, it may be just taking a few moments outside, communing with some part of this natural world, it may be prayer, words, action. I want to say, like Neruda, that I am waiting for a great and common tenderness, that I still believe we are capable of attention, that anyone who notices the world must want to save it. Thank you, my friends, for your kind attention. Just feeling how we're in this together.

Blessings. For more talks and meditations, and to learn about my schedule or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com.