THE HEART OF UNDERSTANDING by THICH NHAT HANH
“If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. If we look even more deeply, we can see the sunshine, the logger who cut the tree, the wheat that became his bread, and the logger’s father and mother. Without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist. In fact, we cannot point to one thing that is not here- time, space, the earth, the rain, the minerals in the soil, the sunshine, the cloud, the river, the heat, the mind. Everything co-exists with this sheet of paper. So we can say that the cloud and the paper ‘inter-are.’ We cannot just be by ourselves alone; we have to inter-be with every other thing.”
In common language this ‘inter-are’ is known as inter-dependence. When human beings understand this concept and accept it then unconditional love follows. Everyone is a part of everything and loving yourself will mean loving everything and so love will flow. I am the cloud, I am the paper and I am the tree, I am all one and I am all three!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
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2 comments:
FANTASTIC, thanks! and how are you? Love and oms, Yogaratna
To see yourself in every thing and every thing in you takes a leap sometimes. It isn't easy to acknowledge that the ugly, painful detestable around you is also part of you - as are the sunsets the clouds and the green grass. As much as we are all interconnected - to see that we are also the micro and the macrocosm is not always easy.....and yet that is what motivates us to strive for goodness and understanding and compassion ... and to just surrender to the moment.
Thanks Bubloo!
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