Everything is interdependent. One in all, all in one. When we open up to interbeing, we’re opening up to our true nature. It can’t be grasped and it can’t be lost. Suffering cannot dwell. Our true nature is boundless  compassion, and it’s no different from the Buddha’s. This is the foundation of Engaged Buddhism.

 

By Johnathon Lee

Thich Nhat Hanh was a truly beautiful person, and an astonishing teacher who introduced millions of people to the Path. He will be missed by the masses.

A lot of people are already writing articles about him that surpass anything I could come up with, so I’m going to focus on one of his teachings instead: interbeing. It’s an ancient Buddhist philosophy, but I first came across it in his commentary on the Heart Sutra. I wept. 

If you look deeply enough, you can find sunlight in each sheet of paper. The paper came from trees, the trees from sun, rain, and soil. The sun, rain and soil came from…the net goes on forever. The whole universe can fit into a single piece of paper. Everything’s like this, including the whole of space-time itself. 

Nothing is separate. No one’s alone.

When we experience something as isolated and independent, we’re experiencing a habituated illusion. A handy mirage. Then we grasp at it and suffer as it slips from our grip. Then the suffering makes us do all kinds of weird stuff—like dieting, listening to disco, and committing murder—and this usually creates more suffering. On and on. 

Everything is interdependent. One in all, all in one. When we open up to interbeing, we’re opening up to our true nature. It can’t be grasped and it can’t be lost. Suffering cannot dwell. Our true nature is boundless  compassion, and it’s no different from the Buddha’s. 

This is the foundation of Engaged Buddhism.

When you see your true nature, you naturally lend others a hand. When you lend others a hand, you’ll eventually see your true nature. Sudden enlightenment and gradual cultivation aren’t different. 

Showing compassion to others also waters their Buddha-fields. Do you remember a time when someone did something kind for you, and then—maybe even years later—you did the same thing for someone else? That’s how interbeing works in daily life. 

Compassion and understanding aren’t different. Buddha got up from the Bodhi Tree because he saw that everyone was suffering, and he knew how it felt to suffer. He saw that suffering isn’t yours or mine, it’s a phenomenon that’s part of the whole. 

This is why Bodhisattvas vow to not enter nirvana. The work goes on. 

Thich Nhat Hanh goes on too.

His true nature, who he really was, wasn’t born, so it can’t die. This would sound insensitive if I was saying it to non-Buddhists, but if you’re on the Path, then this is what you need to hear. This is how we honor him. 

Thich Nhat Hanh was an appearance of interbeing, and he lived up to that truth. Even though his appearance is gone, everything he was is still thus. He’s the sunlight in the paper, and the ache in your heart. He’s in each smile, each moment of silence, and each act of human decency we encounter throughout the day. 

We’re like that too. May all beings feel happy, loved and at peace. 

 

Photo: Pixabay

Editor: Dana Gornall

 

Did you like this post? You may also like:

 

Dying is the Closest You Can be to the Presence of Truth: Remembering Ram Dass

  By Tyler Lewke I can’t believe how good I feel and how bad I felt. It leaves me wondering; how do emotions bend? What changes the composition of feelings? Why do things change so quickly? Do they change quickly? Or do I change quickly? I...

Mindful Compassion in an Angry America.

  By David Jones 2016 has been angry, anxious and sorely lacking in compassion---compassion for others, and compassion for self. November 8th I got off work and met up with my fiancée to go vote. I was trying to stave off an anxiety attack the whole way there. It...

Artificial Intelligence Just Got Real

  By David Jones AI is a main character in some tense and scary films. It led to the rise of the machines in The Terminator. It was the creation which created the Matrix. When two computers weren't allowed to communicate with each other in the film Colossus: The...

How the US Women’s Soccer Team Can Teach Us about Sympathetic Joy

  By Sensei Alex Kakuyo I was never very good at soccer. A lack of foot/ eye coordination mixed with my ability to sprint like an asthmatic turtle caused me to hang up my cleats at the ripe old age of 10. However, I never lost my love for...

Comments

comments

Johnathon Lee