Meditating on the nature of interdependence
can transform delusion into enlightenment.
Samsara and suchness are not two.
They are one and the same.
In order to transform delusion into enlightenment we need to meditate on the nature of interdependence. The interdependent nature of reality is the connect between imaginary construction and suchness (fulfilled nature). By constantly looking at things through the eyes of interdependence we can touch suchness.
The world of birth and death, separate self and others, is an imaginary construction. Just like how a cloud transforms into rain and back into a cloud, there is transformation. This transformation is dependent on causes and conditions. This transformation can be seen and understood by looking deeply into impermanence.
A cloud is not separate from the sun or the rivers or trees. Without water there would be no cloud. Without the sun, the water cannot transform into cloud. Rain is necessary for trees to grow. Rainwater is present in trees. Rainwater is the cloud. The cloud is in the tree. When the tree bears fruit, it is in the fruit as well. When we consume the fruit, we also consume the cloud. The cloud is in us. It is not separate from us. By looking at things this way we understand that there is no separate self.
When we look into impermanence and no-self we are looking at the interdependent and interbeing nature of reality from the dimensions of time and space. Impermanence is the dimension of time. No-self is the dimension of space. Looking at no-self we understand interbeing.
Thich Nhat Hanh talks about interbeing and compassion -
"In Plum Village, where I live in France, we receive many letters from the refugee camps in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines, hundreds each week. It is very painful to read them, but we have to do it, we have to be in contact. We try our best to help, but the suffering is enormous, and sometimes we are discouraged. It is said that half the boat people die in the ocean. Only half arrive at the shores in Southeast Asia, and even then they may not be safe.
There are many young girls, boat people, who are raped by sea pirates. Even though the United Nations and many countries try to help the government of Thailand prevent that kind of piracy, sea pirates continue to inflict much suffering on the refugees. One day we received a letter telling us about a young girl on a small boat who was raped by a Thai pirate. She was only twelve, and she jumped into the ocean and drowned herself.
When you first learn of something like that, you get angry at the pirate. You naturally take the side of the girl. As you look more deeply you will see it differently. If you take the side of the little girl, then it is easy. You only have to take a gun and shoot the pirate. But we cannot do that. In my meditation I saw that if I had been born in the village of the pirate and raised in the same conditions as he was, there is a great likelihood that I would become a pirate. I saw that many babies are born along the Gulf of Siam, hundreds every day, and if we educators, social workers, politicians, and others do not do something about the situation, in twenty-five years a number of them will become sea pirates. That is certain. If you or I were born today in those fishing villages, we may become sea pirates in twenty-five years. If you take a gun and shoot the pirate, all of us are to some extent responsible for this state of affairs.
After a long meditation, I wrote this poem. In it, there are three people: the twelve-year-old girl, the pirate, and me. Can we look at each other and recognize ourselves in each other? The title of the poem is "Please Call Me by My True Names," because I have so many names. When I hear one of these names, I have to say, "Yes."
Call Me by My True Names
Don't say that I will depart tomorrow—
even today I am still arriving.
Look deeply: every second I am arriving
to be a bud on a Spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.
I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,
to fear and to hope.
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and death
of all that is alive.
I am a mayfly metamorphosing
on the surface of the river.
And I am the bird
that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.
I am a frog swimming happily
in the clear water of a pond.
And I am the grass-snake
that silently feeds itself on the frog.
I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin a bamboo sticks.
And I am the arms merchant,
selling deadly weapons to Uganda.
I am the twelve-year-old girl,
refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean
after being raped by a sea pirate.
And I am the pirate,
my heart not yet capable
of seeing and loving.
I am a member of the politburo,
with plenty of power in my hands.
And I am the man who has to pay
his "debt of blood" to, my people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.
My joy is like Spring, so warm
it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.
My pain is like a river of tears,
so vast it fills the four oceans.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up
and the door of my heart
could be left open,
the door of compassion."
To find the world of no birth and no death, we need to look deeply at impermanence and no-self. Nirvana is not separate from samsara. It is right here. We need to wake up. To be awake is to be aware of what is happening around us.
(Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh.)
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