Experiencing earth-moving presentness
Earth-moving presentness experiences do not happen every day, nor do they happen for every person alive today. Those of us who have experienced even a small earthquake, know how out of mind—how impossible to perceive—the actual moving of the earth, can be. Literally when the solid earth, that thing you walk on all day, that thing you depend on to be solid state and steady…when that solid earth moves uncharacteristically, your mind doesn’t know what to make of it.
The true As Above-So Below irony, is that the earth is always moving under our feet, and we don’t perceive it! Here’s a time-lapse video showing the literal diurnal motion or movement of the earth in orbit as captured in Chile’s Atacama Desert. How’s that for mind-blowing? Literally, the earth does move under our feet, is constantly moving, but we are not conscious of it! What else might we not be conscious of? (For the curious out there, here’s an article on EarthSky.org that explains why we can’t feel the earth’s spin.)
Beyond personal normal: disaster or expansion?
Feeling the earth move under your feet is mind-blowing. And if you’ve experienced a large earthquake, then you will personally know of the terror and overwhelm that can ensue. This is literally and physically what happens when the body perceives something out of character from whatever that body calls “normal experience”.
This notion of overwhelm, or earth-moving presentness, might also replicate out into the emotional and the mental arenas of life. When we cognitively come across something we can’t fathom or comprehend, it might be as shattering to our mental constructs as an earthquake is to any landscape. Think of living in third-world poverty conditions; unless you’ve done it or seen it, it can be hard to comprehend.
More readily accessed might be the parallel construction of earth-moving presentness in an emotional arena. Take your parents for example. Usually, they have been in your life from the moment you were born. When they pass on into the after-life, you may feel that emotional aftershock for years, without really comprehending what it is you are actually feeling. You may be having an earth-moving presentness experience that overwhelms your pre-existing emotional field integrities.
No earthquake, just earth-moving presentness
In a way, when the earth’s crust quakes, it actually does call us into presentness, in order that we survive the earthquake! What if we weren’t to rely on earthquakes alone to call us into earth-moving presentness states? What if human capacities actually already included a stillness of mind potential, capable of experiencing an earth-moving presentness, without the earthquake? This is where the mindfulness and meditation movements have been aiming to place us for decades: in a state of earth-moving presentness.
Back in the seventies, Carol King wrote a song about feeling the earth move under your feet. King was not likely directly referring to mindfulness or meditation, but the reference can be made. King’s song “I Feel the Earth Move” may be more directly referring to the equally mind-blowing experience of falling in love. And the song includes a heavy dose of that tangibly joyful, earth-moving presentness experience of being around the love object.
Take a look at Carole King’s earth-moving presentness as she performs live, “I Feel the Earth Move.” Her performance is entrancing, and without hubris, instead being very present, clean, sweet and real.
Carole King’s “I Feel the Earth Move” as posted on YouTube by luckysmusic:
Saying YES to life means joyful play AND moving earth
Obviously in this video, Carole King is very presently, in the moment, one with the music and her art form. What is she feeling? Does it matter? As you watch, do you notice your energy comes up, and a smile tugs at your face? How grand would it be to feel the earth move under your feet? How would it be, to be that still, that present and that joyfully alive?
Joy and play, or joyful play seem to be the main element of earth-moving presentness in this performance. And yet King is singing about the earth moving and a trembling heart; what a paradox! Joy and play coupled with potentially terrifying heart palpitations and an unstable earth. But think for a moment: isn’t that what being alive really is, sometimes?
Don’t you find it IS an earth-moving presentness experience when you bear witness to yourself experiencing the flow between subject and object? When you are without attachment, whatever form that takes, don’t you feel the most alive? The trick seems to be staying in non-attachment.
When you are feeling the most alive, how is that experience for you? Sometimes isn’t the “fear factor,” the exhilaration, the “edge” of it all, what creates the joy, the play, and the passion? Curious isn’t it? King’s lyrics talk about seeing a “darling face,” “as mellow as the month of May” but not being able to stand it. And when we see the darling face of earth-moving presentness in our daily living, do we stand it? Not according to King’s lyrics, which state:
I just lose control
Down to my very soul
I get hot and cold
All over, all over, all over, yeah
Isn’t being human and being alive, just grand? Some of us may welcome earth-moving presentness with joy and play some of the time; and other times earth-moving presentness may fill us with dread and fear. The variety of forms our perception may take is immeasurable; and we are fortunate to be afforded such a vast potential of outcomes. Each time the earth moves under our feet, we must perceive that movement, and actually experience that movement. And then after perception and experience, there may arise a host of random and opposing emotions and thoughts. Ultimately, we choose how to react; moment-to-moment we choose our reaction to feeling the earth move, to having a perception of earth-moving presentness, in whatever form it appears.
And by no means will earth-moving presentness limit itself to one form! The bliss of moment-to-moment earth-moving presentness is available whenever, and wherever, we wake up to it. As we move into celebrating the beginnings of a new year, it might also be appropriate to contemplate your personal experience of the earth under your feet, and to discern how you hold earth-moving presentness experiences in your own daily life.
Do you feel the earth move under your feet?
As this new year unfolds, how much earth-moving presentness will you hold and bear witness to? Do you feel the earth move under your feet? Can you still your mind, calm your ego, go off automatic, and drop into earth-moving presentness more and more in the coming year? Grounded Relating’s weekly Monday Music selection is here to help. Enjoy the music, and use the Grounded Relating Monday Music Challenge to stay present to yourself today, and every day!
Full lyrics for “I Feel the Earth Move” by Carole King and James Taylor, as posted on Google Play:
“I Feel the Earth Move”
I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down
I feel my heart start to trembling
Whenever you’re around
Oh baby, when I see your face
Mellow as the month of May
Oh darling, I can’t stand it
When you look at me that way
I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down
I feel my heart start to trembling
Whenever you’re around, yeah
Oh darling, when you’re near me
And you tenderly call my name
I know that my emotions
Are something I just can’t tame
I’ve just got to have you, baby, yeah, yeah
I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down, tumbling down
I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down, tumbling down
I just lose control
Down to my very soul
I get hot and cold
All over, all over, all over, yeah
I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down, tumbling down
I feel the earth move under my feet
I feel the sky tumbling down, tumbling down
Tumbling down, tumbling down
Tumbling down, tumbling down, yeah
