The Earth Mind

This guided practice by Insight Timer Teacher Tom Evans takes you on a journey to reflect on Mother Earth and our place in the cosmic scheme of things. At this time of change, it is worth reflecting on how special our planet is and how blessed we are to even be here - and why we might be here in the first place.

Transcript

This visualization explores the nature and essence of the earth mind.

You can listen to this with your eyes closed,

Or even when out in nature while walking,

Or just sitting looking at a view.

Wherever you are,

Before you start,

Just take five deep in and out belly breaths.

And as you breathe in,

Imagine the breath is coming all the way from the earth,

Up your spine,

Into your crown.

And as you breathe out,

Imagine the breath is coming all the way down,

From your head,

Through your heart,

Through your pelvis,

Into the floor,

And back to the earth mind.

Just do that five times.

Now unless we get up in an aeroplane,

Most of us consider the earth to be flat.

This is a natural assumption.

When early explorers didn't fall off the edge,

And when astronauts and space probes looked back at the earth,

We gained a new level of understanding and comprehension.

We now know the earth is a roundish object spinning on its axis,

With the moon in close attendance.

What is less known is as the moon revolves around the earth,

Its gravity pulls the surface of the earth up and down a little,

So you can think of the earth as breathing in and out every 28 days or so.

As the earth and moon perform this dance together,

They orbit around a medium sized star we call the sun,

Somewhere near the middle of a spiral arm of our galaxy.

And this star is just one of billions of stars in billions of galaxies.

But as far as we know,

The earth is pretty special,

As it has us on it looking outwardly and inwardly.

And we are able to ask questions like,

How did we get here?

Why are we here?

And what is the purpose of life?

And just reflect and muse on the nature of the earth.

Our special home planet consists mainly of rock,

Some of which is molten in the core,

And around 80% of which is solid or semi-solid in the mantle and outer layers.

But when viewed from space,

The earth looks like a planet of water.

With over 70% of its surface covered by the oceans.

But the water in the oceans,

Rivers,

Lakes and atmosphere is only about 10% of the water that is thought to be trapped in the rocks of the earth.

And enveloping the earth is a thin layer of atmosphere that we call air.

And several miles up from the top of the atmosphere,

The earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere,

Created by the spinning liquid core of the planet that protects all life forms from the ravages of cosmic rays.

All in all,

Our planet consists mainly of rock,

Water and air,

Protected and cocooned by a powerful spinning magnetic dynamo.

But our planet earth has another secret up its sleeve.

Just muse on this.

Our heart beats without us having to think about it.

You can envisage that the intelligence that knows how to recirculate the blood around our system and pump the blood to where it is needed,

Is contained in the muscles around our heart.

They know exactly how to fire in synchronism.

Our heart and its muscles have a level of consciousness independent of our conscious mind.

In the same way you can think of the earth and other planets as having this base level of consciousness.

They know how to be a planet.

The sun and the earth also work in harmony,

With our planet maintaining an orbit that keeps the temperature relatively stable so the water doesn't evaporate into space.

The core knows how to spin to create our protected magnetic field.

The rocks know how to support the oceans,

Land masses and how to grow into mountains.

Some of the rock even gains more consciousness when it is formed under great pressure into crystals.

At the same time the water in our oceans knows how to form currents,

How to evaporate into the air to form clouds,

And how to fall back to the earth again in the form of rain.

The atmosphere of the earth is something rather special though.

Without life on the planet the atmosphere would be like that of Mars and Venus,

Which is largely carbon dioxide.

It is the life on the planet that gives rise to another level of consciousness.

This consciousness is sometimes referred to as Gaia,

The consciousness level of a living planet.

This gives rise to the ability of the planet to create and maintain conditions for life to flourish.

Plants absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.

So if you are out in nature right now,

Give thanks to all that is green around you.

Without it you would not be alive to see it and appreciate it.

Plant life also has a level of consciousness.

It knows when to hibernate,

To germinate and to blossom.

It knows how to absorb sunlight,

Which powers its ability to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen.

And some plants are really smart.

They use scent and colour and shape to attract birds and insects to them,

To aid them in reproduction,

Distribution and repollination.

What is really clever about planet Earth is that the percentage of its mass that makes it a living planet is minuscule.

About 0.

0000002% of the planet forms what is known as the biomass.

Most of the biomass is concentrated in microbes and in plants on both land and the sea.

Termites and worms and marine organisms like plankton and krill form the next highest percentage of the biomass.

Together this level of consciousness formed most of the Earth's intelligence for billions of years.

When flying insects and fish appeared,

Things got much more interesting.

The Earth has spawned life with new senses.

Self-propelled lifeforms like this gave Gaia the ability to perceive itself from the air and to move around the oceans and the land.

This in turn gave rise to an explosion of lifeforms and awareness in the many forms we see of life today,

With amphibians,

Reptiles,

Birds,

Mammals and us.

But when it comes to us,

The total of all 7 billion or more humans together only represents about 0.

0001% of the total biomass.

Yet about 20% of all food production across the planet is geared toward providing food for human consumption.

While this might seem somewhat greedy,

Consider this.

What if we had a very special role in the evolution of the Earth mind,

Along with other sentient self-aware creatures like primates,

Dolphins and whales,

And perhaps octopi and even some birds?

What if the Earth mind consisted of three layers,

Just like the mind of humans and other animals?

The first layer has the knowledge of how to be a planet.

The second layer has the knowledge of how to spawn life.

The third layer has the knowledge of how to become aware of itself.

And then through us and all other lifeforms,

The Earth has evolved to become aware of itself.

And through the self-aware lifeforms,

The Earth connects to the rest of the cosmos and becomes aware of its place in the scheme of things.

And through our awareness and connection to the cosmos,

Other planets become able to reproduce the success of Mother Earth.

And just imagine this,

What if every single human on planet Earth was in training to be a guardian for another planet?

Now that would be one amazing trick to pull off for the Earth mind.

Reviews

Mind blowing and profound. Thank you for sharing this

I listened to this meditation while standing beneath the night sky brightly lit by an abundance of stars! 🌌⭐️I even saw a fallen star 💫 It could not have been more perfect!
✌🏽,💕& 🤗 Peace, love & hugs!

Beautiful representation of the collective intelligence of life.

I loveloveloved this and was sorry when it came to an end.

Probably my favorite meditation I have done so far. Thank you!

Astounding. I couldn’t stop meditating afterwards. I felt in touch with so many layers and levels of consciousness- thank you so much.

Oh WOW! I was on the highest level!
I realise I can be myself. No need to put on a prevention or hunger for appreciation! I am just a speck in this vast universe

I wish I could've listened to this as a child. Better late than never ❤

Thoughtful meditation about life and the earth as a sentient being.

You are an amazing teacher Tom! Thank you for your heart and soul.

Thank you, how wonderful to think that the earth might be "aware of itself " lots of food for the soul, thank you insight Timer and thank you Tom Evans for gifting and sharing your beautiful voice and heart with us all in insight 💕🧘‍♀️🙇‍♂️🌈🙏

Such a beautiful visualization of the universal collective consciousness🤍

Stunning. I will play this to my family and to the children I teach. Namaste Tom and Insight Timer peeps 🙏🏽💞🧡

This meditation really moved me. It’s both thought-provoking and beautiful in its imagery. Thank you!

Sparked my imagination and wonder today!
Thanks!

Thought provoking and wonderful. Will come back to this often. Thank you so much!

This is s nice meditation. I wish there had been some silence or pauses built in. It is good to reflect in what’s being said or just be with it. ❤️

Very interesting guided journey through the Earth Mind - Thanks!

Mind opening. Our place in this vast knowing universe. Thank you for expanding my consciousness.