Touching the Earth Guided Meditation

Touching the Earth
A Teaching of Thich Nhat Hanh

Little intro, reflections, and understanding of this practice as I have experienced it.

 I encourage and invite you to explore your own reflections and experience of the meanings and openings it creates in you. I offer this practice, originally taught by Thich Nhat Hanh, today to help us open to compassion for ourselves, our past, our future, each other, all beings, the planet...all that is. My experience is that through compassion and connection, we can heal.

This meditation helps us practice and contemplate the concept of all is one or “no-self”. When we start to open to and embody these concepts we can release the suffering that is a result of the illusion of separation and connect with the healing frequencies of compassion and understanding.

Tips - I invite you to step into the mindset and heart space of witnessing versus judging. Try to bring a sense of curiosity. Notice where you might feel ease dropping into connection and where you might brace or resist dropping into a sensation or thought. The skillset of the observer self enables us to release judgments and attachments to past hurts and pains. Developing the skills of the observer self also dissolves the prison that comes with holding judgments within ourselves and of others. Hold compassion and kindness for yourself throughout the meditation. Throughout the practice he asks you to hold different polarities during of each of the “touching of the earth” passages: opening to connecting with our ancestors, connection with all living beings, and then connecting to the larger concept that we are one and there is no separation for our divine self and the great “whole”. Cultivating the ability to detach from the illusion that we are not connected allows us space to engage with each other through kindness and compassion.

Side note – The use of the word “accept” and the concept of acceptance does not mean condoning or approving of something. In mindfulness and in meditation the act of Acceptance is to release the struggle to change that what you have no power to change, in doing so you are able to move into choice. The process allows grace to transmute and heal you from the weight of past pains and bring your heart space into alignment with compassion and the freedom to create a present moment based on your power of choice at that moment with compassion and the grace of understanding.

Sending light and love,

Words to guide the practice
Taught by Thich Nhat Hanh, translated and edited by Sister Annabel Laity

The First Touching of the Earth

(To be contemplated while touching the earth) My spiritual ancestors include both my lineage...and all my own spiritual teachers still alive or already passed away. They are present in me because they have transmitted to my seeds of peace, wisdom, love, and happiness. They have woken up in me my resource of understanding and compassion. When I look at all my spiritual ancestors I see those who are perfect in the practice of the precepts, understanding and compassion and those who are still imperfect. I accept them all because I see within myself shortcomings and weaknesses. Aware that my practice is not always perfect and I am not always understanding and compassionate I open my heart and accept all my spiritual descendants. Some of my descendants practice understanding and compassion in a way that invites confidence and respect but there are also those who come across my difficulties and are constantly subject to ups and downs in their practice. (three breaths)

In the same way, I accept all my ancestors on my mother’s side and my father’s side of the family. I accept all their good qualities and their virtuous actions and I also accept all their weaknesses. I open my heart and accept all my blood descendants with their good qualities, their talents and also their weaknesses. (three breaths)

My spiritual ancestors and my blood ancestors, my spiritual descendants, and my blood descendants are all part of me. I am them and they are me. I do not have a separate self. All exist as part of a wonderful stream of life that is constantly moving. (three breaths, Bell. Everyone stand up and with palms in prayer pose enjoys breathing)

The Second Touching of the Earth

Touching the Earth I connect with all people and all species which are alive at this moment in this world with me. (Bell. Everyone touches the earth)

(To be contemplated while touching the earth) I am one with the wonderful pattern of life which radiates out in all directions. I see the close connection between myself and all others; how we share our happiness and our suffering. I am one with those who were born or who become effected by war, accident or illness. I am one with those who are caught in a situation of war or oppression. I am one with those who find no happiness in family life, who have no roots and no peace, who are hungry for understanding and love and who are looking for

something beautiful, wholesome and true to embrace and to believe in. I am someone at the point of death who is very afraid and does not know what is going to happen. I am a child who lives in a place where there are miserable poverty and disease, whose legs and arms are like sticks and who has no future...I am the frog swimming in the pond and I am also the snake who needs the body of the frog to nourish its own body. I am the caterpillar or the ant which the bird is looking for to eat, but I am also the bird that is looking for the caterpillar or the ant. I am the forest that is being cut down. I am the rivers and the air which are being polluted and I am also the person who cuts down the forest and pollutes the rivers and the air. I see myself in all species and I see all species in me. (three breaths)

I am one with the great beings who have realized the truth of no-birth and no-death and are able to look at the forms of birth and death, happiness and suffering with calm eyes. I am one with those people – who can be found a little bit everywhere – who have sufficient peace of mind, understanding, and love, who are able to touch what is wonderful, nourishing and healing, who also have the capacity to embrace the world with a heart of love and arms of caring action. I am someone who has enough peace, joy, and freedom and is able to offer fearlessness and joy to living beings around themselves. I see that I am not lonely and cut off. The love and the happiness of great beings on this planet help me not to sink in despair. They help me to live my life in a meaningful way this true peace and happiness. I see them all in me and I see myself in all of them. (three breaths, bell. Everyone stands up and with palms in prayer pose enjoys their breathings.)

The Third Touching the Earth

Touching the earth, I let go of my idea that I am this body and my lifespan is limited. (Bell. Everyone touches the earth)

(To be contemplated while touching the earth) I see that this body made up of the four elements is not really me and I am not limited by this body. I am part of a stream of life of spiritual and blood ancestors which for thousands of years has been flowing into the present and flows on for thousands of years into the future. I am one with my ancestors, I am one with my descendants. I am life which is manifested in numberless different forms. I am one with all people and all species whether they are peaceful and fearless, or suffering and afraid. At this very moment, I am present everywhere on this planet. I am also present in the past and in the future. The disintegration of this body does not touch me, just as when the plum blossom falls it does not mean the end of the plum tree. I see myself as a wave on the surface of the ocean, my nature is the ocean water. I see myself in all the other waves and all the other waves in me. The appearance and disappearance of the form of the wave do not affect the ocean. My [soul] is not subject to birth and death. I see the presence of myself before my body manifested and after my body has disintegrated. Even at this moment, I see how I exist elsewhere than in this body. Seventy or eight years is not my lifespan. My lifespan, like the lifespan of a leaf or of a [soul], is limitless. I have gone beyond the idea that I am a body that is separated in space and in time from all other forms of life. (three breaths, bell. Everyone stands up and with palms in prayer pose enjoys their breathings.)