by Thich Nhat Hanh
One of the biggest lies or illusions of our time is that we are all separate. We are interconnected not just with each other, but with all of nature. Could it be that the illusion of individualism helped us succeed as a species, but could now be the downfall of us all?
In our reality, the isolated “self” is a psychological construct. Humans love to construct labels for the “other”, such as the social construct of race, gender as a binary, “normal” vs. mentally ill, class or caste systems, nationality and citizenship.
But we are fundamentally interconnected biologically, socially, ecologically, and cosmically. The atoms in your body were forged in dying stars, your thoughts were shaped by people you’ve never met, and every breath you take contains molecules once inhaled by every human in history and exhaled by organisms across the planet. The boundary between ‘you’ and ‘not you’ is mostly a useful fiction.
While Thich Nhat Hanh captures interbeing poetically and in accessible language, the true depth of interconnection is something we constantly forget. That forgetting has consequences. Remembering it is what sustains our bond with each other and with nature.
“We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”
-Williams James