2021-04-25-Earth Day and the Art of Living Beauifully

2:11PM Apr 26, 2021

Speakers:

Gil Fronsdal

Keywords:

buddha

earth

world

life

enlightenment

touch

awakened

suffering

live

story

care

flowers

awakening

art

witness

home

evoke

people

tree

leaf

So, this is the Sunday after Earth Day. So some some of us sometimes will commemorate Earth Day, not on the 22nd of April, but on the Sunday, following it, or close to it. And I certainly would love to speak a little bit about this home that we live with in this home that we share and the care of it. And there's many, many of you know, the prefix eco e CO, like ecology means in Greek home. And so ecology is the study of our home. And I just finished the two days yesterday, two days of training that I teach, I co teach on Buddhist eco chaplaincy, the spiritual care, in relationship to our home that we live in this home that we all share, together. And, you know, when people live together in a home, roommates family, there's a whole different relationship, we have to the mutuality of that, that home space, the mutual care of it, then keeping it clean or taking, you know, creating an environment that's nice for everyone, they're caring for the people under the same roof. So we share this global home, and that we call the earth. And, and in the way that I like to see things in words, it's an ancient game, that Buddhist teachers, back even back in ancient India, love to take Indian words and, and do kind of not exactly etymology, but to tease apart things from the word. And so it turns out that the word earth and the word heart both overlap with the letters A RT art, and, and the art, and maybe the meeting place of our hearts, and this earth is in the art of living. And this expression, the art of living, is a offers a kind of, I think, a rich series of connotations, that life can be a form of art. And more than it is, work the work of life, more than it is a duty or a burden. But an art is something that we offer our hearts to our care, our creativity or attention or to detail. And, and so this earth of ours, do, we live on it with the art of living. And the so one of the most powerful, and the most powerful, more than, I think powerful images coming out of Buddhism of our relationship to the earth is the image here on the Buddha and all altar has this, what's called the earth touching mudra. I guess I'm blocking a little bit with my shoulder. But if I lean a little bit to the side, I think maybe you can see that the Buddha's right hand is reaching down over his knee, and his fingers are just about to touch the earth, or maybe has just touched the earth and he's pulling it away. And but you see the delicacy the simplicity, the very relaxed way in which that hand is draped over the knee, and it's a relaxed kind of going forward to touch. It's not grabbing the earth or attacking the earth. It's a light touch, just a tip so the finger is going to come down and touch the earth and

can't help but to think of the image on the Sistine Chapel where Michelangelo has painted the touch of God on the fingers of Adam and Adam is just coming alive. being touched by God. And there also we have this light touch this gentle, it's not a gentle touch and to live, touching the earth, to live lightly on the earth, a light touch and how we live our lives. That Buddha, there's a wonderful verse where the Buddha says that, like something like add like a bee, collects pollen from the flower without harming the flower. So a wise person walks through life without harming anyone or anything. So certainly, you know, we get our food or water, we get our things to take care of our sweat sustains us from the earth. But to do so in a way that it's a light touch, that doesn't harm the very thing that is sustaining us like a bee. So here are the Buddha's touching the earth likely. And the story of this is, it's part of the mythology of Buddhism, you don't find this story in the earliest layers of the Buddhist records from the Buddha's life. But some, maybe 500 years later, after the Buddha, you find this story that is really colorful, it's, I think of it is, you know, this is a time in ancient the world where there was no Technicolor movies, there was no color photos, and it was a very much an oral culture. And, and so it was orality that would paint these dramatic pictures of, of, that were evocative in, in, in this imagery, maybe not just to entertainment sake, but also to evoke the emotion is to evoke a sense of all at this life we live. And so the story goes that the Buddha was sitting on the ground and the statue we have behind us, we it's not sitting really on a pedestal let's is meant to be, you know, sitting, you know, on the ground on the earth. The night, in the evening, before his enlightenment, he was sitting there in his quest for awakening, for freedom, for freedom from suffering, to really get to the bottom of what suffering is, and to find a way not to suffer, what that's considered to be one of the great noble quests, to bring suffering to an end, not as a fantasy or a fable, but as a real possibility for human beings. And that was his dedication. And so in this fable, this myth that was the there's a lot of things, a lot of forces that want to prevent the Buddha from becoming free of suffering of discovering this piece and stepping away from the attachments, addictions, hostilities of the heart that might, you know, that have such a strong compulsive pole and demand on our attention. And these are represented by Mara, Mara, and morrows army armies. And Mara came with this and that descriptions are, you know, like Lord of the Rings and, you know, of the huge evil forces that are marching across the plains and with all kinds of ogres and orcs and all kinds of awful creatures and huge elephants that must have been like the Bradley tags of the ancient world, fighting elephants and came marching to, to chase the Buddho way to destroy the Buddha to prevent him from becoming enlightened. And the drama of the stories is, you know, worthy of, you know, something like Lord of the Rings and, and, and they throw every possible weapon they have at the Buddha, arrows and javelins and sharp edge discs, and you know, I written these and, and the Buddha, as you see in the statue, is unmoved and relax and breathe at ease and doesn't react or doesn't,

doesn't flinch in any kind of way. And, in fact, all the arrows and spears as they come flying through the air at the Buddha 10s of 1000s of them. The air is buzzing and howling with all these armies and dragons and Things that are just kind of attacking the Buddha. And all the weapons turn into flowers, and the flowers land on the ground. So after a while, Maher realizes that violence is not going to dissuade the Buddha from his calm is peaceful endeavor is calm discovery of where freedom and suffering is. And so Mara comes with his last weapon, and that is to sow doubt in the mind of the Buddha, to challenge him, that or to claim to him, You have no right to become awakened, you have no right to attain this highest capacity of human peace, that a human being can experience. And, and this idea, you have no right. So I interpret all this as being all kind of psychological forces inside the Buddha himself, that are casting all the forces that can to prevent them from letting go of how he usually has been, the attachments don't want to don't want to be let go of and, and his self worth has huge doubts whether it's appropriate for him to become awakened, isn't awakening and freedom is freedom suffering kind of, isn't that kind of an abandoning of people isn't that a kind of, you know, attaining something profound and beautiful for oneself and beset, okay to do when everyone else is suffering, and there's all kinds of doubts that can come up. And, and so and one of the things that, that Mara says and sowing that trying to sow doubt in the Buddha's mind, is that you have not benefited people enough to deserve being awakened, you have not practiced enough generosity, you haven't given enough to people in the world and, and without, you know, having lived for the benefit of others, it's not appropriate for you to become awake. And, and the Buddha says, well, that I'll bring a witness who can bear witness to all that I've done to support this world, all the generosity that I've done, back over the many lifetimes I've lived in lived. And he said, I'll call upon the earth as my witness. Then here, we have this provocative idea that the earth that's been around for so so long, is the witness that keeps their record of what we have done. I grew up on the coast of Italy. And it was remarkable to see it was kind of it was kind of beautiful, first seeing the islands around where we were lived. And then to realize that they were completely denuded of soil, mostly bare rock, because they've been over farmed with grapes, and olives 2000 years ago, or in the Roman times, and all the soil had washed away and the over farming of them, and nothing was left. They'd cut the trees and they'd farmed. So the record is still there. And the records of the record of what humanity's doing to this planet, that the earth remembers, it's here. What do we carry with us? But the earth remembers also the good and, and, and so the Buddha asks the earth bear witness to all the generosity and all the benefit he'd brought people over his lifetimes. And to assert his right, the UK okayness to let go of his clinging, his attachment to become free and experienced the happiness of liberation. And, and so that's when he reaches down he's gonna touch the earth to ask the earth for

be that witness. And I love this that he doesn't assert his right for awakening. He doesn't rely on his own feeling that, yes, it's okay for me to become free. That he's calling on something that's larger than himself or beyond himself. That for their support for the validation. For the encouragement, yes, it's okay. And if we see ourselves as part of the natural world Part of the earth we are the earth. Because we're part of the earth, we are made up of 100% recycled material that has been part of the earth for eons for a long time. And in a sense, we're a rise out of the earth, and as part of the earth, and we are the earth, that can see itself, where the earth that can hear itself, through the earth, they can taste itself and, and walk on itself. And so here the Buddha is touching the earth, this light touch of the earth, and then the earth, in reply, to bear witness to his right to be awakened and all the generosity and good had done, the earth has an earthquake. And then the legions of morrows armies realize that the Buddha has indeed the right to be awakened. And they get frightened. And they run away in all directions. And they say that tech says no to them going the same direction, or same path. And they run run away and, and then in the vacuum that's created, all these deities come to create light and celebration, and with the Buddho just sits there. And as he's sitting there, he's sitting is sitting under the Bodhi leaf tree, the Bodhi tree. And as he's sitting there, a few leaves from the Bodhi tree, gently fall from the tree, and land on his robe land on his lap. And there's no explanation about what this is about. But it's a beautiful imagery, again, again, the Buddha's in nature, under the sitting at the base of a tree. And now, this gentle movement of us leaf, this Bodhi tree, that leaf that looks coincidentally a little bit hard like, comes down and lands on the on the Buddha and, and sits there and, and I take it as being little bit again, this is intimacy with nature, the natural world, that and then only then does the Buddha see deeply into the nature of this world. And, and he sees something about the interconnected nature of this world in particular, some uppada is the Pollak the Pali word for this. And, and in doing so he becomes liberated and free. And, and then there's this Technicolor mythology, it's, the whole universe gets lit up in light, even the dark crevices of the universe, light up with the Buddha's enlightenment. And then he gets up, eventually, and he walks. He walks a long distance across northern India, to find people, that he can begin teaching to find people he think are ready for his teachings, now that he's awakened. And so his awakening is not the end of the story. But in a sense, it's the beginning of the story. And in this ancient texts that talks about this, it's actually made up in three large chapters. And, and the third chapter begins with actors awakening, to a new chapter in this Buddha's life, when he goes out, to be of service and to serve and to help the world. And so we have this wonderful myth that is evoking our connection to the earth as part of practice as part of the natural world. And any the idea of the Buddha sitting under the Bodhi trees sitting on the earth, touching the earth, being caressed by the leaf that falls down. It's also said in this mythical story that with his awakening, the flowers,

Bloom and the other trees around, and those flowers begin kind of falling, petals start falling as well. And so the art of living an art of caring, living in such a way that we live beautifully. That's one of the associations I have with the idea of art. Certainly not all art is meant to be this way. But when I think of the art of living, I think of living beautifully. That thing with a beauty, living with an ease, living with a career. ativ source from within, that is not burdened by distress, not caught in hostility and aversion. not caught up in self condemnation and, and feelings of guilt. not caught up in giving up despairingly giving up. But rather one that feels the natural alive this and lived life that wants to meet life wants to be connected, that when it's intimate and connected to what we love the most, then we'll treat it like a bee, taking pollen from a flower without harming the flower, and to sit and sit or meditate and become free, and then have access to us in intimacy, or a closeness or have a love for what we see and what we what we go do. In this story of the Buddha's enlightenment, this mythology, the whole universe gets transformed with his enlightenment, as I said, the flowers and also fruit bloom out of season. Music starts being played in the skies, light spreads throughout the universe. Beautiful Things happen. And for me, this is a metaphor for how we see the world. When we become free, when we settle and become intimate and present and clear, and we've cleared away that distractions and preoccupations and fears and worries that we live under the eyes with which we see the world changes, and we it isn't that the world has changed and is this not the kind of to be pollyannish, about what goes on in the suffering in the world at all. But the eyes see the world tenderly the eyes see the world and see beauty and never see love or see sweetness. In this mythologies says, All the oceans of the world, turn into sweet water, when the Buddha, when the Buddha Bhikkhu, fresh water when the Buddha becomes enlightened. And so there's, it's as if everything changes, and there's a there's a beauty in this world. So to live beautifully, and one of the ways that this last elfin an English translation of the Buddha's teachings is the Buddha talked about beautiful karma, beautiful actions in the world. And the word he uses colliano and, and sometimes it translations as good karma. And then there's bad karma. But in many teachings, the Buddha talks about not, doesn't use the word good, but uses the word beautiful. And so that our actions, how we live our life, has a beauty to it in a gentleness or a tenderness to it. And part of that is to live a beautifully in relationship, this home that we have the earth, and to care for, to love for it, to love it, and the art of living and, and the art of caring for this world. And so the quote, you know, to put to do make that be kind of the, to be really not a subsidiary thing that we do, a sideshow for us, but to really live in a way that we care for this world, that people have our lives. The environment, we live in the planet we live in, so that it becomes it's not a duty. And it's not a burden. It's not like we make ourselves now so much more busy. But rather, it becomes a innate expression

of our love, our creativity, the artfulness from which we are living our lives. So that this is why we practice. We practice every day we practice all the time. Not because it's a duty not because it's an escape per se, but rather because it allows the best of who we are, the most beautiful qualities of who we are and the most richest ways in which we can see the world and hear the world becomes You know becomes natural for us becomes where we live from. We live from freedom we live from ease from peace. We don't live from hurry we don't live from greed and wanting and filling our plate and attacking and we live with a light touch and and the earth will bear witness the earth remembers. And the earth hears. And one friend of mine says it's because the word Earth begins with E AR with the here that we know that the earth is listening. The earth is listening to us, watching us and certainly caring for us. And and the kind of keeps her record. And perhaps when you're ready for your enlightenment, you can call upon the earth to bear witness to your right to becoming free. I think the earth will support us if we care for this earth that we live on. May we care for it together as if it is our home because it is our home on this Earth Day Earth week of 2021 Thank you