We will go through the gatha,
We'll go through it line by line and then we will enter a meditation and we will meditate with this gatha.
Our gatha today is called Touching the Earth.
And this is on page 80 of Present Moment Wonderful Moment by Thich Nhat Hanh.
I think that again,
Whether we are using this gatha as a way to metaphorically connect with Earth or even if we are looking at it to physically connect with Earth,
I do think it's quite important given,
You know,
The state of the world,
The urgency of climate change.
I think it is very important for us to take a moment,
Whether it's when we wake up in the morning or the first time we're stepping outside.
And for me in the mornings,
That's when I'm walking my dog.
It's,
You know,
Time to take her for a walk.
And that's usually my first moment outside is letting her out and then getting us ready for her walk.
And so I think I would invite all of us to take that moment before we're first taking that first breath outside,
Maybe inviting ourselves to just slow down and maybe taking the opportunity to recite these words in this gatha to just allow ourselves to reconnect to Earth.
You know,
There's a lot of not just beauty and joy,
But a very strong connection that we can share with the Earth.
All of life comes from the Earth.
And we share a lot of,
We share our whole life with Earth as well.
If we think of just the very simple relationship of when we breathe in oxygen,
We breathe out CO2,
Which is what the trees use.
And then we breathe the oxygen that they give us.
So there's a lot here that we can really be grateful for when it comes to our connection with Earth.
And so I think that is the invitation here in this gatha and touching the Earth.
So the very first line is Earth brings us life.
Earth brings us life is the first line.
And I think I pretty much highlighted,
Just highlighted that.
And the second line is that it,
Or sorry,
And nourishes us.
So line one is Earth brings us life and line two,
And nourishes us to complete that entire sentence.
And so we do have this strong connection,
As I mentioned before,
But there's also this idea that Thich Nhat Hanh talks about who says,
We're continuously coming to life and continuously returning to the bosom of the Earth,
Right?
If we think of life and death,
And if we even just think of transformation,
A lot of the work that I do through my own projects,
And my meditations is about inner and outer transformation.
And so this also kind of relates in order for us to transform,
Something has to die,
And then something is reborn again.
So we're kind of always rebirthing in this lifetime.
The third line is Earth takes us back again.
Earth takes us back again is that third line.
And we close with,
We are born and we die with every breath.
That is the fourth line,
We are born and we die with every breath.
When we practice meditation,
We will see birth and death in every breath.
And again,
This sort of comes back to this idea of transformation,
But also when we consider many of the Buddhist traditional practices and traditional dharmas really invited us to come to peace with death.
There are original meditations that were about imagining your body as a corpse.
But the reason is that because we should not be fearing death when we think of what Buddhism is about.
It's about letting go,
It's about non-attachment,
About the transformation of suffering.
And so when we can understand and appreciate death,
We understand and appreciate and honor life.
And so this is not meant to be a negative sort of connection to Earth,
But it's being able to honor life and death.
We are born and we die with every single breath.
So that is the gatha there.
Four lines,
Very simple.
And again,
I think I would extend the invitation to all of us here to just take a moment,
You know,
Next time we're outside or taking that first breath,
Maybe we can pause and recite these words to ourselves and just allow us to reconnect again to Earth,
Maybe find that sense of peace,
That sense of stillness.
And also again,
That sense of gratitude,
Right?
Being able to be grateful for the land,
The Earth that we are given and also what we can offer Earth back in return.
We will now enter the meditation portion of this practice.
And so typically we will start with just finding a meditation posture.
We'll arrive and find that sense of stillness with the breath.
And then we will also get into the actual meditation part.
And that will be just a mindfulness meditation.
That will be us just letting go,
Settling in.
We'll recite the gatha and then we will meditate in silence for probably,
We'll say between five and ten minutes.
I just see that we're already halfway through this practice today.
And then we will close with a small gratitude practice and come back.
And so to start,
I'm going to invite us to just find our comfortable meditation posture,
Whether that is lying down on your back,
Your legs and arms can be extended,
Arms by the side.
And we'll keep those palms up,
Facing up towards the skies.
If you're seated like myself on the edge of a chair or a couch or the bed,
I invite you just to keep your feet flat on the floor.
We'll keep the shoulders back and down a slight tilt in the chin just to keep that neck and spine in alignment.
And we can place those hands in the lap or at the knees again,
Those palms facing upwards.
And similarly,
If you're seated on a meditation cushion or a mat,
Be welcome to join us again.
Shoulders relaxed,
Slight tilt in the chin and we'll keep those hands at the lap or in the knees,
Palms facing up towards the skies.
And as we get comfortable here,
We'll remind ourselves that this is a practice.
No need to put pressure or stress ourselves into feeling perfect.
This is literally just a time for us to come and find that sense of stillness with the breath.
As we settle,
We'll tune into the breath here,
Just noticing its natural rhythmic patterns.
No pressure,
No expectations of how the breath should look,
Sound or feel,
Just allowing the breath to arrive.
In doing so,
We allow ourselves to arrive.
We allow ourselves to greet the breath in the way that it needs to be met.
And as we allow the breath to settle,
We'll invite the eyes just to slowly wander around the room,
Taking in our surroundings,
Signaling to the brain that this is a safe space for us to let go.
And maybe allowing the eyes to rest on something that maybe inspires us,
Brings us a sense of joy.
Maybe it's a painting on the wall,
A plant or decorative item on a table.
Maybe it's something out the window.
And we'll just pause,
Breathing that inspiration in and exhaling.
And bringing our gaze here back to the center,
Slightly ahead of us.
And we'll inhale that inspiration here.
And on that exhale,
Allow the eyelids to close,
Tuning into this inner world.
Noticing the breath again.
Maybe even noticing that heart rate.
Taking an inhale into that heart space.
Pausing at the top of that breath.
And exhaling.
Right till the end of that out breath.
And again,
This time inhaling a little deeper into the lungs.
And exhaling.
Right till the very end of that out breath.
Maybe going on a little longer than that inhale.
And one more deep breath into the belly.
Holding at the top of that in breath.
And exhaling.
Right till the tip of that out breath.
And again,
Noticing the breath here.
And maybe noticing that heart rate.
And noticing that as one slows,
The other slows.
And the mind follows.
And noticing the breath again.
Inhaling.
Feeling the body and exhaling.
Relaxing the body.
Maybe breathing into the shoulders.
And exhaling.
Releasing any tension.
Being aware of the muscles in the face.
And breathing out.
Relaxing the muscles in the face.
And breathing in again.
Just into the body here.
Noticing any tension throughout the body from head to toe.
And exhaling.
Releasing any tension in the body from head to toe.
And we'll do that one more time.
Inhaling.
Noticing the body from head to toe.
And exhaling.
Relaxing the body from head to toe.
And we'll stay with this breathing pattern.
Inhaling.
Exhaling.
Noticing as we inhale,
Maybe we deepen the breath.
And noticing on that exhale how we soften the breath.
On the inhale,
Deepening our connection to the breath.
And on that exhale,
Softening our connection.
With the breath.
Inhale,
Deepening.
And exhale,
Softening.
And on that next inhale,
Reciting our gatha.
Inhaling,
Earth brings us life.
And exhaling,
Earth nourishes us.
Inhaling,
Earth takes us back again.
And exhaling,
We are born and we die with every breath.
Earth brings us life.
And nourishes us.
Earth takes us back again.
And exhaling,
We are born and we die with every breath.
Earth brings us life.
And nourishes us.
Earth takes us back again.
We are born and we die with every breath.
And completing this final round of breathing here.
Pour one hand on top of the heart space,
Second palm on top if that's comfortable for you.
Pausing here in gratitude for this space,
For this community,
For this sangha,
For this practice to touch the earth.
And extending gratitude to the earth itself,
The life she gives us,
The life that we share.
And reciting this gatha for one final time.
Earth brings us life and nourishes us.
Earth takes us back again.
And exhaling,
We are born and we die with every breath.
And allowing the hands to fall wherever they may.
Maybe giving a wiggle of the fingers,
Wiggling the toes.
And inviting the eyelids to open when we're ready.
And coming back into this physical space.
Taking our time here.
We can pause here and notice what's coming up for us.
What may be arising.
What may be present.
What we may be an understanding of.
Maybe reflecting,
Or even taking a moment to journal.
Thank you everybody.
Thank you for being here.
I hope to stay connected to you all and I hope to see you again in another practice.
Thank you so much.
