We are all interconnected (part 1)

This is a common refrain from Buddhists and other spiritual folks, right? But what does it mean? Is it some metaphysical or philosophical or simply spiritual concept? I'm reading a book by Thich Nhat Hanh, a well-known Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist, entitled Essential Writings, from 2001. In the second chapter, he takes a crack at this concept, and I think presents a very compelling case. He calls the concept interdependence and inter-being.

Here's the premise. Take a piece of paper in your hand and look at it. It's a separate "thing" right? An unconnected entity unto itself? Whoa, not so fast. Look closer at the paper, and see if you can see the sun in it. You know, the sun that gave light to the tree, which perhaps you can also see in it. And the clouds, can you see them also? Of course they gave themselves up in the form of water to enable the tree grow. And maybe you can see the wheat -- a little harder perhaps, but look closely. Can you see the wheat that made the bread that fed the logger that cut the tree? Maybe now you get the idea -- and perhaps you think it is just a word game. But is it?

It's certainly true that all of that was needed (and of course so much more) to produce that piece of paper. So much that it is in fact a part of that paper, because without any one of those, that paper would not exist. This is Thich Nhat Hanh's concept of inter-being. All these things are an integral part of the being of that paper. The paper can't exist by itself, so it 'inter-is' with all those other elements. And when you really consider it, everything is connected and essential in everything.


Take another example. The beautiful orchid you see in the picture above is truly splendid. Now think about your garbage. You probably just run it down your garbage disposal, but if you put it in a pail it would become, over a few days, rotten and putrid, and really quite disgusting. But that's not seeing the interconnectedness of all things. If you cut that orchid, and put it in a glass, it will stay fresh and beautiful for a few days, and eventually start to wilt, and then rot. It will become the garbage, and therefore it has its garbage-nature in it all the time. Similarly, that garbage will rot and turn into compost, which can then fertilize the orchid plant, and together, and only together, can they make the beautiful orchid flower. So that garbage has orchid-nature in it all the time as well.

What is the point of this thought exercise? Well first, to realize that this isn't a "game" but is in fact the true nature of things. Things do not exist in and of themselves in isolation. We are tied inextricably to our environment. Indeed, we are all interconnected.

And from our Native American brothers:

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. -- Chief Seattle

More later ...

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