Monday, June 18, 2012

Zen Break: The Universe Is Within You - Literally!


No, this is not a philosophical statement, but a literal one - I'll allow Zen monk Thich Nhat Hanh to explain his Zen Concept of 'Inter-Being' in his own words: 

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 ha vea new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are.