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Seeing, Listening, Acting: Meditation on the Five Rivers for the Earth
The Earth is a living and miraculous organism, a gift offered by life that contrasts with the coldness of the moon. Adults confess to the younger generations their responsibility for the destruction and wars of the past century, and invite children to draw the planet while answering two crucial questions: how not to repeat the mistakes of the twentieth century, and how to heal the wounds of the Earth. Living the present moment with responsibility makes it possible to transform the past and prepare for the future, for our ancestors are always alive within us. Loneliness is not dissolved by running away, but by returning to one’s own territory, composed of five rivers: form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness.
Meditation consists of sitting on the bank of these rivers to embrace our pain and examine our wrong perceptions of happiness with the energy of mindfulness (smrti). This energy carries within it concentration (samadhi) and leads to insight (vipasyana), revealing the nature of inter-being, where the flower contains the sun and the clouds. To act rightly, we must cultivate three faculties symbolized by Bodhisattvas:
- The eye of Manjushri for deep looking and understanding, the source of compassion.
- The ear of Avalokiteshvara for compassionate listening, the only remedy capable of restoring communication and relieving the suffering of others.
- The hand of Samantabhadra for action.
The image of the Bodhisattva with a thousand arms, where each hand contains an eye, teaches us that action must never be blind, but always guided by understanding and love, starting with oneself.
