Volume 63. May 15, 2025
American modernist poet E. E. Cummings once asked:
O sweet spontaneous Earth, how often have the doting fingers of prurient philosophers pinched and poked thee?
How often has the naughty thumb of science prodded thy beauty?
How often have religions taken thee upon their scraggy knees squeezing and buffeting thee that thou might conceive gods?
Thou answer them only with — Spring.
Spring, ah, Spring. Our rhythmic lover has returned in all her glory.
The warm breezes. The tootling birds. The fragrant blossoms.
Why think? Why pinch? Why prod? Why analyze? Just breath.
Connect with Mother Earth.
Buddhism teaches that connections are vital to one’s well-being.
Perhaps a story may illustrate.
Long ago there lived a lonely elephant. Hoping to find a friend, he crossed grasslands, deep rivers and high hills. Despite his efforts, he could not find a companion anywhere.
Discouraged, he came to rest beside a quiet lake. He stared at his reflection in the water. He felt so lonesome he wanted to hand in his lunch pail and go to that elephant graveyard in the sky.
But then the still waters moved. A turtle emerged from the depths. It paddled over to the shore and asked the unhappy pachyderm, “Why so glum, chum?”
The elephant wailed, “I feel so lonely I could die.”
The turtle said, “My flap-eared fool, tune into the world around you. Listen to the wind. Feel the sunshine. Smell the flowers. Connect with the trees. Connect with your breath. Connect with your thoughts and feelings.”
The elephant focused on his surroundings. He listened to the wind rustling through the trees. He felt the warm sunshine on his skin. He followed his breath, slowly inhaling and exhaling. He observed his thoughts and feelings come and go like passing clouds.
Connected to himself and to the world around him, the elephant realized he was not really lonely at all. He felt alive and happy.
From that day on, the elephant lived in harmony with himself and his surroundings and never felt lonesome again. The End.
What’s the moral of the story?
Loneliness is not the absence of companions but the absence of connections.
All things are interconnected. Plants, animals and human beings depend on each other and live together in one grand, glorious web.
You exist; therefore, I exist.
When we disconnect from the web, we cause needless suffering.
When we connect with people, plants and animals, we thrive.
How can we make connections?
Spring, our cheerful goddess, is here to help.
The Buddha Times 