Why Did Buddha Touch the Earth? Buddhism and Earth Day with Robert AF Thurman
In this short video broadcast live on Earth Day 2018 Robert AF Thurman discusses the Buddha’s Earth Touching Gesture or the Bhumisparsha Mudra, the Buddhist perspective on Earth Day and global environmental responsibility.
I’ve always harkened back to Henry David Thoreau’s statement, “The mass of men today lead lives of quiet desperation.” He said it in the 1830s, but there was full-scale industrialization going on like we’re still in now.
We’re in the endgame of it now, so the planet has taken a level of industrialization and we’ve poisoned everything. And we’re still having quiet desperation.
Once we’re in despair, then we don’t have fun. Ignorance is not bliss; ignorance breeds suffering. And knowledge and wisdom and intuition breed bliss.”
Robert AF Thurman via www.eomega.org
This video is an excerpt from “Dewa, Emptiness + The Buddha’s Inspiration – Episode #165 of the Bob Thurman Podcast” by Robert Thurman.
In the full two part podcast Professor Thurman opens with an invitation to the Dewa Spa at Menla Retreat providing a translation of the word dewa, a history of the Tibet House US property in Phoenicia, New York and a teaching on his personal inspiration found in the life and wisdom of the Buddha.
Citing the Buddha’s scientific prediction of the infinite divisibility of matter, the inevitability of causal processes and his development of a theory of biological evolution which includes three genes (the two of the body and another of the super-subtle mind or spirit) as the wellspring of inspiration Robert AF Thurman discusses the importance of Himalayan and Buddhist Medicine found in Tibet in his personal studies, to the mission of the Dalai Lama’s cultural center and to the modern world.
Podcast includes a discussion of the symbolism of the Buddha’s Earth Touching Gesture made under the Bodhi Tree, the story of the Devil Mara, a history of Menla’s Panther Mountain, Wakanda and how Tibetan Medicine is interconnected with Ancient Galenic, Chinese, and Ayurvedic systems of healing.
To listen to the full audio recording please visit: www.bobthurman.com.
About Robert AF Thurman
Suggested Books & Audio by Robert AF Thurman:
Man of Peace: Illustrated Life Story of Tibet’s Dalai Lama (Book), Infinite Life: Awakening to Bliss Within (Book), Anger: The Seven Deadly Sins (Book), Inner Revolution (Book), Circling the Sacred Mountain : A Spiritual Adventure Through the Himalayas (Book), Essential Tibetan Buddhism (Book), The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between (Book) The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism (Book), The Central Philosophy of Tibet (Book), The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti: A Mahayana Scripture (Book), Life & Teachings of Tsong Khapa (Book), Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World (Book) & Liberation Upon Hearing in the Between: Living with the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Audio).
