34. Reflecting on Being One with the Earth

Hello! Welcome to this sacred space … to this quiet moment …

to our reflective, meditative time together!

I’m Bill Bauman, and I’m deeply honored

to invite us to reflect together on …

… being one with the earth!

Isn’t earth an incredibly awesome planet—

so abundantly filled with mountainous terrains, vast oceans,

stunning sunrises, billions of life forms and endless styles of consciousness?

Wondrous as it is, though, today I’d like to invite you

not so much to a focus on our earth ‘out there,’ beyond us,

but to spend our time celebrating the earth ‘in here,’ the earth that is us—

that is you and me, is every life form and is every human being

who walks a mile on our planet’s rich, organic, prolific skin.

Yes, you and I are not just embodiments of consciousness and energy.

We embody earth itself! We are earth beings, organic presences.

Just as our spinning planet is a physical being,

you and I are physical beings—

Just as our earth is organic, primal, chemical and cellular,

you and I are all of those ingredients—and more.

Just as our terrestrial planet is enlivened by earth, air, fire and water,

you and I are made up of and powerfully fueled by these same four elements.

Yes, I know, we humans tend to bypass and ignore our organic nature;

We often see it as a means to support more important human endeavors.

Ironically, though it never ignores us. It’s always on duty, loving us.

It prompts and helps us to eat, move, exercise and function.

It digests our food, pumps blood throughout our bodies,

regulates our breathing and sends electrical signals everywhere within us.

Indeed, you and I are dynamically physical, earthy and animal presences.

At least, that’s our ‘inside-the-human-dream’ experience and conclusion.

From a more objective quantum perspective, though, we can honestly assert

that our supposed physicality is a mere illusion of quantum consciousness,

a make-believe fantasy that plays make-believe in our ongoing human dream.

I deeply believe that quantum perspective is very, very true.

Yet, within this human dream, we have all chosen to be housed in a physical form.

We all are designed and driven to embrace physicality,

to identify with being physical, to love the pretense

of being the physical, earthy, primal mammals that we look like.

This experience, that of being both a dream-like fantasy and a physical reality,

may be one of the most perplexing enigmas we face as humans.

Before we dare to solve the puzzle of this enigma, though,

let’s first spend a few intimate moments with your body!

First, let’s ask your body what it’s like to be a body.

Let’s ask it how it feels being primal, raw and earthy.

As we ask your body these intriguing questions,

are you hearing it responding in any way?

While you continue listening for any ways your body is responding,

let’s take a short time-out from the bigger quantum truth

(the truth that our bodies are but fantasy-like illusions),

to ask ourselves some specifics about this very human experience of being a body!

For example, let’s ask ourselves how we feel being, or seeming to be, a body—

even if it’s just a convincing fantasy!

Do you experience yourself not only as having a body, but being a body?

What is your relationship with your personal body,

that is, with the individualized earth that you are?

Do you bond with, love, treasure and feel devotion for your body—

for the ‘you’ that is animal, visceral and physical?

To help ourselves with these questions, let yourself experience your body now!

For example, reflect now on your body’s beauty, its wonder, its power.

Get lost in its sheer mystery, even as we both admit that,

despite knowing science’s findings about your body’s mind-blowing talents,

we quite simply can’t grasp or understand its mystery-filled ways.

Spelunk deep into your body’s mysterious underground world of activity

and be in awe of its primally driven magic.

In the process, forget any judgments you may have about its supposed limitations,

release any frustrations from the fact that it doesn’t behave the way you want it to.

Simply embrace its primate-based and illogical nature,

Become one with its earth-air-fire-water powers

and marvel at its profound capacity to support your sense of aliveness.

Finally, thank your body by giving it a giant-size hug of unconditional love.

How are you feeling about being your own version of earth right now?

Are you feeling a little more accepting, maybe even a bit more loving

in relation to this amazing physical ‘you’?

My own sense is that we’ve just expanded the meaning of the term self-love

to include being in love with your physical, organic self.

Finally, let’s take a leap—a really, really big leap—

into your body’s innermost regions, where your bigger truth lives.

Yes, deep within the recesses of your body’s physicality

there’s the equivalent of a secret chamber,

a not-so-obvious resource of truth—a genuine truth about you.

Hmm, we might even call it a quantum chamber!

I’ve found that this valuable bodily resource—

this physically encased quantum home—usually becomes available to us

only after we’ve gotten beyond feeling separate from our body,

after we’ve become close friends with it,

after we’ve found a genuine oneness with it,

after we’ve learned to hear it, feel it, intuit it and experience it

as true friend, partner and, best of all, embodiment of ‘self.’

Only then does it show us its deep wisdom

and invite us into its quantum reservoir of our purest truth.

As we complete our time together today,

let’s pause anew, express gratitude to the earth that we are,

thank our earthy self for its underlying wisdom and truth,

and acknowledge that our personal earthiness is indeed

a gift to be treasured, a gem to be celebrated

and a ‘self’ to be honored!

Thank you!