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TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 23

Really taking in the inevitability of spoiled. Now, Mother Earth has Then we will move into action, one
death doesn’t lead to doing nothing. become sick. It’s up to us either to step at a time, with equanimity and
If that happens, we need to keep grow up and stop thinking only of dedication—trying with all of our
going, because we are still in the ourselves, or to die with our mother. might to do what needs to be done,
early stages of the contemplation. We are all her children, and we are while at the same time knowing that
all in this together. saṃsāra ultimately cannot be fixed.
Imagine a dear friend is dying. We
know that the friend is dying, but If you murder someone, you can’t At different times in my life, I’ve had
we do our best to help, to heal, tell the judge, “I should not be different teachers. Right now, the
and to comfort. We don’t abandon punished—eventually that person Earth is my most powerful teacher.
our friend, nor do we stop caring. was going to die anyway, so it If we are looking for a teacher, we
Out of love, we do what we can, doesn’t matter that I killed them.” don’t have to look very far. We are
knowing that no matter what we Even if we are all only waves on the standing, sitting, and lying down
do, our friend eventually must die. ocean, we still have to look out for on our teacher. We come from
We continue to care, even though one another and do our best not to our teacher, and we return to our
no amount of caring can save her in cause harm. We all know this. As teacher. All it takes is one moment
the end. we work with maraṇasati and our of feeling our feet on the ground.
grounding practices, we discover Even right now, in whatever way
Like children, for a long time we the Middle Path between shutting comes most naturally, we can
have just been taking and taking. down and becoming obsessed, connect with the Earth. She is
Everything seemed to revolve between freezing and panicking. always right here with us.
around us, and we thought of Once we see for ourselves that we
ourselves as the center of the cannot draw a line between this EH thanks Ven Santacitta for kindly
universe. The only times we thought thing called ‘me’ and the planet, a allowing us to reprint this article
about our mother was when we deep sense of belonging and relief from the free book, Leaving it all
were hungry, when we were tired, will arise. With this comes an Behind (Aloka Vihara Publications,
or whenever we wanted something. understanding of what we actually 2019). www.alokavihara.org EH
Our mother has been very patient can do for our planet, for one
with us, and we have become rather another, and for ourselves.