As I walked into my bathroom this morning, the dappled morning light came in through the leaves and warmed my face. My eyes closed, I could see the patterns of light playing on the backs of my eyelids. When I looked up, the sun was shining through multiple, smaller starbursts instead of one large ray, which felt incredibly magical.
And it is.
Enjoying the glow of the sun and listening to the birds in the trees offered me a moment of spontaneous, deep relaxation. From this place, I remembered my basic goodness.
The concept of being “basically good” comes from Buddhism. It invites us to rest in the fact that we are fundamentally not at odds with the world, nor is it at odds with us. We can soften and let go of struggling and striving from this place.
When I think about a somewhat more simple world, I can understand the ways in which this belief is true.
The earth provides us with everything we need to live and bestows us many pleasures to relish. Food is provided abundantly, with relative ease. Trees deliver us oxygen to breathe, only asking for our exhales in return. Water glimmers and delights the eyes. Drinking it provides life, swimming in it feels like heaven.
There is nothing that I need to do to prove myself to the world, yet she gives of herself endlessly. I am basically good, and so are you, and the earth longs for us to remember this.
Somewhere along the way, someone started to tell a story, one in which we had to earn the love of our parents, the community, and even the Divine. This story started to lead us away from who we truly are and into a more confused and distressed place.
It makes sense that someone, particularly a confused someone, would begin to tell this story because they thought they would have something to “gain” from it. If we forgot our basic goodness we would devolve into constantly struggling to prove ourselves worthy. We would relinquish our divinity and what is rightfully ours.
On some days it has felt difficult to remember my basic goodness and the basic goodness of the world. When I engage with the various media platforms that are available today, I am inundated with messages about how I need to do better and more. And even when I do as much as I possibly can, I am told that it is still not enough, that there is still more to do.
But as I work in the community garden, I forget about all of that. My hands in the dirt, I feel an awakening to something deeper in me. A connection to a lineage of people who I am related to but have never met. People who ripple and extend back for millennia.
I chat with my neighbors and catch up on their lives. We offer food to some of the folks walking by. Someone reveals they need a ride to the dentist and another person offers to take them. Later on, I watch people smiling at babies on the street and saying hello to their neighbors. Dogs offer their adorable faces to be rubbed, and birds sing their songs in the air above.
In the evening I sit outside and drink a juice slowly. My eyes glance upward, catching billowing white clouds against the brilliant blue sky. I breathe slowly and easefully. I think about nothing in particular. My muscles relax, my nerves rest.
I remember who I really am.
My true nature is beyond all form, while my existence on this planet is human. No other animal or plant, as far as I know, strives to prove itself or even make itself known. Its mere existence is enough. Perfectly enough.
Maybe we could start to feel the same.
Of course, there is work to do and there are certainly messes we have made that need to be cleaned up. But perhaps we can drop everything else, or at least the things that are causing us to suffer.
The earth itself isn’t out to get us. It doesn’t want to make us pay or become indebted to it. The earth doesn't want us to be more beautiful or smarter or richer or more pure. It isn’t interested in any of the moral or philosophical constructs humans have created.
I think this is the beauty in that meme that asks us to go out and “touch grass.” Like, no truly, go out and be with the grass. Let yourself log off for a while. Simplify your to-do list. Even if only for a few hours. Try to touch back into that place where you are not at odds with the world and the world is not at odds with you.
What does it feel like? Really take it in.
Or it might be helpful to think of yourself as a child. How would you treat her? What would you expect of him? And remember that you are still that child, only with slightly more years lived.
The earth is still supplying food and water. Friends are still gathering and laughing. My body is still breathing. And the sun is still shining. There is so much good in the world.
You are one of those good things.
“Be yourself. Life is precious as it is. All the elements for your happiness are already here. There is no need to run, strive, search, or struggle. Just be.”
— Thích Nhất Hạnh