WHEN SIDDHARTHA BECAME BUDDHA

Siddhartha touched the earth; he became Buddha and the Earth Truth.

Many individuals willing to be enlightened, or Buddha, walk with their celestial yearnings reading all kinds of texts, going to a variety of meetings, conferences, retreats, meditation centers, places of silence, as esoteric practices. The question is why are they lost in the stratosphere of pink clouds instead of doing what transformed Siddhartha Gautama into Buddha, which is stop being spinning around and touch the earth?

Prince Siddhartha was in a crucial moment of his spiritual journey. (Recall some of his questions: Why are there poor? Why sick people? Why people age? Why die? How is it possible being at peace in the midst of discord?). After years of fruitless searching, which also lead him almost to death, he decided to sit under a fig tree and face his own mind. With the stillness surfaced the temptations obstructing his transformation. Those temptations of wealth, power, distractions, apathy, anger, entertainment, and the pleasures of the flesh were the demons that blocked his advance. Psychologically they can be expressed in three groups: the desires, the fears and the opinions. We can ask: what wishes catch me? What fears prevent me from moving forward? And, what opinions I let my mind think that do not allow me to live more free?

There, under a fig tree of India, when he was overwhelmed by the beauty of the daughters of Mara, he did something unusual: instead of going after them, he touched the ground! We would say “he landed" and then "Eureka". At that moment Mara, the god of temptations, disappeared. It vanished as if it had never existed. Why? Mara is also known as the God of Death, and the Lord of the Senses, because they are the means that lead to death. The senses never are satisfied. They are insatiable; always ask for more, creating conflict, pain and suffering. It is the emancipation of the desires that leads to liberation.

Honored and beloved Mother Earth, with different names, like a goddess of the planet, was receptive, and as a caring mother, absorbed the negative energy of these emotional, physical and mental temptations, leaving Siddhartha free. The temptations were not outside; they were in his mind. Therefore the work of salvation depends on each individual. He changed his mind, renewed his conscience and was a new being. He stopped being manipulated by his worst enemy: his own mind!, and returned to his unpolluted being. Only when we master our minds, we dominate reality. Thus, we become not what we think, but what we are.

Spiritually, the earth represents the Great Mother of all forms that can be generated: human forms, animals, plants, minerals, rocks, trees, or flowers forms. Some cultures connect with God through the Earth, such as in pre-Columbian culture do it through Pachamama, the goddess of the people of South America. Andean communities —annually— offer to her the tribute of the first fruits of the season. A Jewish expression says “we see God on the face of the people around us”; likewise Native Americans saw the Great Spirit in every stone, every tree, and every animal. After all, God is all in all. The principle of what exists is in all things.

When we connect with the earth, we connect with our basic energy, from which we sustain, move and fortify. It is our natural force renewing our being. Native Americans could see the Great Spirit in every dawn and in each lake a smile. To look beyond the skin of vast fields of rice, corn, sunflower, rapeseed or wheat, we understand how our existence depends on Mother Earth. Giving in addition the beauty of the flowers of the field, with the variety of colors, shades and perfumes, which allows us to work in beauty; walk in beauty and live in beauty.

The land can receive the impact of meteorites, lightning, be shaken by thunder, rain, all of it clears the skies of static electricity. Through this receptive capacity, it restores energy, balance, harmony in the atmosphere and the welfare of all beings. The earth can be seen as many rocks, deserts, mountains, rivers and seas. But we can elevate our vision and see the earth as a life system, the manifestation of a creative principle that some call God. Earth was considered sacred and blessed by almost all civilizations. When we are grounded in this sacred soil, and establish our life on this Principle of Existence we can grow, expand and fulfill our purpose.

When Buddha touched the ground, or Mother Earth, he discharged the tensions, failures, frustrations, and doubts about his life. He released himself from negative forms that still inhabited his mind. These forms of temptations (as manifest in Jesus about five centuries later) were the real obstacles to his perception of spiritual reality. These forms are the product of the dreams of a mind immersed in the fantasy and animal conception of life. Psychologically he unloaded his desires, his fears and mainly his views or traditional paradigms. When his mind was cleaned he awakened to the reality as it is.

People like Gandhi had to face them too. Many of us are mesmerized by these forms (expressed in images, aromas, melodies, actions, etc.). When we contemplate them, rather than confronting them, we give them tickets and become Trojans, which we try to dodge the best we can. Satyagraha was the name of the purification process and strengthening that Gandhi used and recommended to his followers to apply non-violence and to achieve the independence of India. Satyagraha was to develop mastery over ties to mental and physical desires. Only after reaching this mastery over one's mind, we can go to meet other social problems, and be victors. Until his followers failed that domain, Gandhi decided not to go ahead with his peaceful and nonviolent movement. So, to overcome external violence, we must first overcome inner violence. The same applies to all of us: if we do not overcome our internal violence, never will triumph over external violence. We have to be ethically honest with ourselves!

We must have the courage, like Siddhartha, Gandhi or Nelson Mandela and plant ourselves at the center of our being to eliminate our darkness and touch the ground to turn on our own enlightenment! Transfer the negative voltages to the ground! We need the courage to focus with a clear sense of reality, stop the illusions and fantasies. Stop the mind from its constant going around. Be grounded! Between consciousness and natural reality, mind is the agent of obstruction and confusion. We need courage to plant at our center, our concrete being...

Earth, as the dynamic sphere gives an unlimited funding to awaken to our identity. Buddha confronted cultural forms imposed by the society in which he was born, grew and educated: prejudices, beliefs, traditions, old paradigms. He faced the Brahmins with their gods and intricate metaphysics to subjugate the people. He presented a system of eight steps starting from de problems and working the path to liberation, to reach a state of bliss, called Nirvana.  

At the time of burying his fingers on the ground, he detached from desires, fears and opinions. It was a moment of pure mindfulness, when a clear conscience opens and embraces the universe as it is. Contemplating the universe without desires, without opinions or fears, we see the universe for the first time. It is the time of awakening to Buddhahood or spiritual purity in us. Similarly, Jesus, after suffering equal temptations in the desert, awakened in him the Christ, the spiritual being, perfect and eternal. The being that, despite external turbulence and suffering, maintained its unity centered in the Spirit

When Siddhartha touched the land was transformed and became Buddha. When asked who he was, he answered: “I am an awakened one”. Does anyone want to wake up?