In the wake of last month’s uplifting (and disturbing) Resurgence Conference we are re-reading Satish Kumar’s Soil, Soul, Society: a new trinity for our time. First published in 2013, it seems even more insightful and urgently relevant today, more than a decade later.
Satish is too busy to write a book for Mud Pie, alas, but he has happily given us permission to publish the extract (pp.54-5) below. It is entitled ‘Soil as Teacher’.
One morning the Buddha was sitting in meditation, cross-legged, with his hands in his lap, the right hand above the left hand.
‘You teach equilibrium and compassion. From whom did you learn this wisdom?’ asked a disciple.
The Buddha lifted his right hand and touched the soil. Without speaking for a while, he sat in that posture. The disciple of observed the Buddha and his new posture, which became known as the Bhoomisparsha Mudra, meaning the ‘touch the soil posture’.
The disciple realised that the soil is the teacher of the Buddha. There is no one as patient, resilient, forgiving, and generous as the soil. The soil sustains, feeds, and shelters all life. Humans tread on it, plough it, dig it, and build on it, and yet the soil forgives. Humans put one seed into the soil and the soil multiplies it into ten thousand seeds and provides nourishment in return. We, the seekers of truth and liberation, need to learn from the soil the qualities of unconditional giving, expecting nothing in return.
The disciple also realised that the Buddha chose to sit under a tree for his meditation, and while sitting under a tree he was enlightened. He was enlightened because he observed deeply that all phenomena of the living world, embodied by the tree, are impermanent and interconnected and through that mutuality and reciprocity the world achieves its harmony. The sun feeds the tree, the rain feeds the tree, soil feeds the tree, the tree feeds the birds. The tree returns nourishment to the soil by dropping its leaves; what an interconnected world! As the tree is, so is everything else. Life maintains itself by constant receiving and giving. In nature there is no hoarding, possessing or owning; everything is in constant flux and flow. That was the meaning of ‘touch the soil’ posture.