The earth itself played a key role in the Buddha’s enlightenment, or at least that’s how the story goes.* You see, before he became “the Buddha,” Siddhartha was all alone. Originally a prince, he’d left his family, wife, and child to seek spiritual liberation as a forest-dwelling Hindu renunciate. He’d trained for years with the best spiritual gurus of his time, but they had not lead him to ultimate freedom from suffering, and so he’d abandoned them and continued on his own.
Siddhartha was emaciated, dirty, and near starvation after living in extreme asceticism for years. At the end of his rope, he sat down under a tree and vowed that he would not move until he reached full enlightenment.
That’s when Mara, the god of craving, delusion, and death, showed up. After several failed attempts to persuade the would-be Buddha to give up, Mara finally said, “Even if you do reach enlightenment, who is going to witness you?” Mara knew that Siddhartha had no teachers, no friends, no caretakers; his mother had died when he was a baby. It was a deep cut.
But, in his wisdom, Siddhartha reached down and touched the ground, saying, “This earth will witness me.”
That was the moment of his enlightenment.
Whenever I find myself spiraling, feeling lost, unlovable, and alone, I try to say to myself, “This earth is your home. You belong here.” I think of what Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist Tara Brach calls the “gentle hug of gravity” pulling me close to the planet. I think of the story of the Buddha’s enlightenment, and I feel held.
This practice of leaning in to Mother Earth is forging a new kind of relationship to the natural world for me. I feel more and more connected to the birds, the forests, the water, the fungi. I also feel more and more grief for what our society’s way of life has done to our collective home, but also, a greater willingness to look, to see, to do something to help restore this sacred bond between people and planet.
May we all know, deep in our bones, that this earth witnesses us.
In what ways does the earth witness you? Share your answer in the Mother Den community.
* See Mark Epstein’s wonderful book The Trauma of Everyday Life
Danielle LaSusa Ph.D. is a Philosophical Coach, helping new moms grapple with what it means to make a person. She is the creator of The Meaning of Motherhood course, and co-creator and co-host of Think Hard podcast, which brings fun, accessible, philosophical thinking to the real world. To join her mailing list, subscribe here.
© Copyright Danielle LaSusa PhD, LCC, 2021. All rights reserved.
