Our Earth Bodies

Our human bodies are expressions of the earth’s creative force. Everything that makes human life — breathing, eating, elimination, perception, feeling, language — occurs only in concert with earth. No thought would ever take place without the prior existence of earth. No thought would be thinkable without air, water, fire, space, dirt. Even our most abstract ideas, like freedom, justice and, happiness, are nothing more or less than earth’s urge, the thought of wind, sky, water, and light. Nothing we think or do could ever be more profound or true than these natural elements, which are literally nothing more or less than our own bodies.

Norman Fischer
from When You Greet Me I Bow; Notes and Reflections from a Life in Zen