This commentary on the Diamond Sutra
is by Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh (2002) found here. He introduces a new verb, “interbeing” to
help us understand the web that we are a part of.
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| 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. The cloud is
essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper
cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are.
"Interbeing" is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but
if we combine the prefix "inter" with the verb "to be", we
have a new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud, we cannot have paper, so we can say
that the cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are.
If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the
sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact
nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that
the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine
inter-are.
And if we continue to look we can see the logger who cut the tree and
brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We
know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the
wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger's
father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way we see that without
all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.
We are familiar with the narrative of separation. It is the narrative that seems to be running the world. It is the narrative that tells us there is scarcity, that competition is the norm and that we are separate from each other and from nature.
What would it be like to explore the narrative of inter-being? How would you tell the story of your life? How would you tell the story of your family, your community, your country, our world?
We are familiar with the narrative of separation. It is the narrative that seems to be running the world. It is the narrative that tells us there is scarcity, that competition is the norm and that we are separate from each other and from nature.
What would it be like to explore the narrative of inter-being? How would you tell the story of your life? How would you tell the story of your family, your community, your country, our world?
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