Bronze Buddha, Crafts of India
When the subject of meditation comes up in conversation, the person I’m talking to will often assume the posture of faux-meditation – fingers pressed together into a point, hands upturned, eyes closed in a semblance of bliss – and will hum ominously, giggling, as he half-imagines entering into some far-out realm. The irony is, meditation is exactly the opposite of all that.
Buddhism, at its core, is an earthly tradition. It’s less about hidden sky kingdoms and more about what’s in front of you right here, what you can see, smell and touch right now. It’s about the earth all around you, underneath you, the earth to which you’re connected. When you meditate, you’re not communing with some celestial elsewhere. You’re practicing being where you are. Meditation grounds you.
It’s no accident that when you meditate, you sit cross-legged on the floor. In fact, you’re explicitly instructed to situate yourself on your cushion so that you feel a connection to the ground you’re sitting on. It’s no accident that figurines of Buddha include not only the cross-legged figure of Buddha but also the cushion on which he’s sitting. The connection between the two things, the Buddha and the cushion, is what matters, and so the cushion and the cross-legged figure of the Buddha are sculpted from the same bronze or jade, formed into a single, solid unit of connectedness – a man and the patch of earth beneath his legs, together as one figurine. He’s a part of the earth and yearns to see it clearly. And by practicing meditation, by repeatedly and thoughtfully taking his seat on the ground, he connects to the earth beneath him and around him. His eyes are open. His heart is awake and aware. It’s no accident that Buddha, in miniature, touches one hand to the ground.