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Summoned by the Earth: Excerpt

May 2, 2024

bookcoverEd. note: This post is excerpted from Summoned by the Earth by Cynthia Jurs. You can find out more about the book here.

I am on the path, walking up the steep stones of the high Himalayas. The path climbs and climbs, and I wonder, as I stumble along, what am I doing? At home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, my life has recently fallen apart; my marriage has ended. I feel lost and confused, and here on this path halfway around the world, I am trying to find the way. Luckily, my traveling companions know where to go. It is 1990, and they are taking me to the hermitage of an old Buddhist lama who lives in a remote cave at thirteen thousand feet in a faraway corner of Nepal.

One step, one breath; higher and higher into that rarefied air I climbed. With each step a clearer awareness dawned of the moment I was in. But what would my question be for the Rinpoche? What should I possibly ask him? The leaves on the giant rhododendron trees along that rocky path nodded, and the prayer flags greeting us along the way waved their colorful hands. I was inspired to keep going by the prayers in the wind and on rocks carved with mantras invoking the compassion of Chenrezig and the companionship of Tara, the savioress, who is said to come when called—beloved deities venerated in that part of the world.

At a certain point in our ascent, I knew I must find a question for Charok Rinpoche that would not just be meaningful to me but would bring an answer helpful to others who could never travel to such a place. To be given the chance to ask a question of an old wise man in a cave was quite an opportunity, and I felt a responsibility to everyone whom I imagined traveled with me on that mountainous path. I ached with the awareness that I was somehow part of some- thing much larger than myself that I did not understand.

Walking up the path, my heart had to work hard to push the blood and pump the muscles to make the high-altitude climb, and I became aware of the Earth talking to me in my blood and bones. Once again, I sensed the terrible challenges our planet was facing, and felt Her calling for attention in each cell of my body. A deep longing for Earth’s health and safety came into my heart and mind, and I asked myself, What can I do to bring healing and protection to the Earth?

This was the question I had been looking for.

I came to realize that part of the global healing called for is rethinking the belief in the West that we must do everything individually. Systemic change will require a massive movement not unlike the Arab Spring, only bigger. I was personally moving away from the old destructive patriarchal worldview to finding solidarity with others. My time of solo striving was giving way to a collective responsiveness unlike anything I had ever seen or experienced before.

I saw that the Bodhisattva of Compassion needs a thousand arms to accomplish the great task of alleviating suffering in every direction. And so does Gaia. In order to accomplish the task of global healing in these dire times, we simply must unite in our efforts. Gaia was asking for a collective awakening. Thich Nhat Hanh had pointed to this one memorable day during a retreat at Plum Village in 1993, when he told us in no uncertain terms: “It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a sangha—a community practicing understanding and love, a community practicing mindful living. This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the Earth.”

As his words rippled out into the group gathered there, you could hear a pin drop. It felt prophetic. He was recognizing the path of awakening for our times. We were going to need to wake up together.

The Earth Treasure Vases offer us a way to collectively bear witness to the truth of suffering and our commitment to heal it. We may be conditioned by patriarchal views to believe this is not enough, but this bearing witness is the critical first step: seeing clearly together. Feeling together. Remembering the infinite reflections within Indra’s Net, we see we are not alone. Operating within an awakened collective, anything is possible. Each of us is a jewel radiating light in every direction, like each treasure vase, filled with infinite potential on every node of the mandala.

Living and practicing the way of awareness teaches us to work different muscles than the ones we are conditioned to believe are going to get us where we need to go. It’s easy to fall back into our collective agreement that the world is a terrible mess and there’s nothing we can do about it. The dominant culture tells us this every day. But our awareness, especially when cultivated collectively, gives us another view. The mycelial network shows us how we can work to restore balance to the web of life. To be planetary healers we must choose to focus our attention, with all our hearts, on the path of restoration— and to imagine that the healing is accomplished and the vitality of the Earth is completely restored.

The implications of a collective awakening are shattering to our sense of individuality. Our identification with a separate sense of self will no longer be the organizing principle for life on Earth. Our evolution as a species and as a planetary culture depends not only on our realization of this, but our embodiment of it. Living our lives in a profoundly transformed way and connecting our communities in service to Mother Earth is where hope can be found.

Cynthia Jurs

Cynthia became a dharma teacher (Dharmacharya) in the Order of Interbeing of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 1994 and in recognition of her dedication in carrying out the Earth Treasure Vase practice, she was made an honorary lama in the Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism in 2018. Inspired by thirty years of pilgrimage into diverse communities and ecosystems, today Cynthia is forging a new path of dharma in service to Gaia—a path deeply rooted in the feminine, honoring indigenous cultures, and devoted to collective awakening. Cynthia leads meditations, retreats, courses, and pilgrimages to support the emergence of a global community of engaged and embodied sacred activists.

She lives at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico where she is often found walking in the wilderness with her dog or gardening with her husband. You can find her offerings and join the global healing community at Gaia Mandala.