Reading Highlight

There is a notable mudra of the Buddha touching the earth with his right hand as he sits upright in meditation. The mythology behind the gesture is that the Buddha was experiencing doubt about himself and so to release that doubt he allows the earth to confirm his presence. I love this gesture because it depicts a very human response to a difficult state of mind. Here is the Buddha sitting in a stoically upright position, straight and serene, and there is his hand exposing his absolute humanness in the face of the onslaught of doubt. He reaches down and says in effect that my mind is telling me I should be somewhere else, but I am here because it is the only place I am.