Dharma Topic: Celebrating Our Ancestors

Dear Still Water Friends,

This Thursday evening, after our meditation period, Still Water Practitioner Paul Flippin will guide the community through the Five Touchings of the Earth, a guided movement meditation. The discussion will focus on developing gratitude for our collective ancestors. Notes from Paul are below.

The best times to join our Thursday evening gatherings are just before the beginning of our 7 p.m meditation, just before we begin walking meditation (around 7:25), and just after our walking meditation (around 7:35).

Warm wishes,

Mitchell Ratner
Senior Teacher

Message from Paul Flippin

Dear Friends,

I have spoken many times during our Thursday discussions about the connectedness I feel toward our practice of the Five Earth Touchings. This connectedness is rooted in the affinity my body feels when I prostrate myself on mother earth. It is especially fulfilling when lying on the brown earth and hugging the soil that nourishes us in so many ways.

It is at that point that I truly feel one with the earth and part of a greater whole – part of our collective ancestry as human spirits. We are all a part of that whole. When we connect to the earth in this way our hearts beat with the pulse of the earth, upon which we walk every day. I find the same connection when doing walking meditation. Each step connects the soles of my feet with the beautiful nourishing earth. It flows through us all.

Our ancestor’s physical bodies become part of the earth while their spirits soar. Our prostrations can reconnect us with that aspect of our ancestry.

While we are not actually touching the soil outside, our touchings in our sangha are rooted in the by-products of the earth that sustains us. The rug fibers are of this earth. The concrete floor is made from the dust, stone and water of this earth. The building foundation is supported by the earth below us. Our connection is supported by the collective practice of our touchings as a sangha. Our ancestors, teachers and mentors are opened to our hearts through our prostrations.

Thich Nhat Hanh talked our connections to our ancestors in a 2005 Stonehill Dharma Talk:

The purpose of looking deeply helps us to see that we are not alone. When I breathe in I am aware that my ancestors are all in me and I can be in touch with all my ancestors, whether they are blood ancestors or spiritual ancestors. They are all in me. They are fully present in every cell of my body. If I have a feeling of being lonely or cut-off because I am not capable of touching the presence of my ancestors in me, but if I know that my ancestors are in me, in every cell of my body, then I only need to breathe in or breathe out in order to get in touch with them and I don’t feel lonely anymore. IT IS A FACT. When I practice walking meditation, I like to walk with my ancestors when I make a step peacefully and joyfully with stability and freedom, I know that all of my ancestors are walking with me, are making that step with me. I am not alone at all. Sometime we feel we are cut-off, we are lonely, and we are self separated from others. That feeling is born from illusion. That is not reflected in reality. We are never alone. We carry within ourselves all our ancestors, blood ancestors and spiritual ancestors. If we know how to breathe, how to walk, how to smile, we can get in touch with them and no longer feel alone.

Please join us this Thursday and celebrate in gratitude our collective ancestors with the Five Earth Touchings.