We are a flower, a tree and the whole garden.

Thich Nhat Hanh has described this statement. I read it and dear ones; I wanted to share it with all of you. It is so beautiful and it made me understand myself better and I hope it does the same for you.

We feel disconnected from each other and much of our suffering results from this non interaction. Examine your relationships with your neighbors-workers and even family members. What answer do you have? Each one of us is cut off from the support of the community. However, we cannot live in isolating solitude. We should be able to see in each individual our cosmos and the nature of interbeing.

How do you look at yourself? Are you a seed, a plant, a flower, a fruit, a pulse? Are you the earth on which the garden is?

What do we have to do? We practice Atmabhava as described by Swami Sivananda. Atmabhava is seeing oneself in everyone. So how does this affect us. We can make our families, workplace, or even our neighborhood into an ashram, a sangha or a sacred space. All we have to do is see the others as we see ourselves, nurture and respect them and our garden will flourish.

There are all kinds of people as are flowers, plants, and weeds. Each has a purpose and their flowering and fruiting time is different. Also, some plants need shade, others need sunshine. We are all interconnected. We cannot be in isolation. Sunlight, clouds, earth, bees are all required. We cannot function in seclusion.

The Buddha teaches Interbeing. Interbeing is that everything is made by and made up of everything else. When we apply it to ourselves, we find that we are transformed.

I would like to apply Interbeing to interconnectedness in the Cosmos. Look upon the Cosmos as a Garden of Eden and let us attempt to restore it to this pristine state.

Aim Hrim Klim

Photo by Mitchel Boot on Unsplash