The Sun My Heart by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781946764713
Publisher: Parallax Press

Interbeing and Interpenetration

The meditation that I just suggested might also be called “Interbeing Endlessly Interwoven,” that is, meditation on the manifestation of all phenomena as interdependent. This meditation can help free us from the concepts of “unity/diversity,” or “one/all.” This meditation can dissolve the concept of “me,” because the concept of self is built on the opposition of unity and diversity. When we think of a speck of dust, a flower, or a human being, our thinking cannot break loose from the idea of unity, of one, of calculation. We see a line between one and many, between one and not one. In daily life we need this just as a train needs a track. But if we truly realize the interdependent nature of the dust, the flower, and the human being, we see that unity cannot exist without diversity. Unity and diversity interpenetrate each other freely. Unity is diversity. This is the principle of interbeing and interpenetration of the Avatamsaka Sutra.

Interbeing means “this is that,” and “that is this.” Interpenetration means “this is in that,” and “that is in this.” When we meditate deeply on interbeing and interpenetration, we see that the idea of “one/many” is only a mental construct which we use to contain reality, much as we use a bucket to hold water. Once we have escaped the confinement of this construct, we are like a train breaking free of its rails to fly freely in space. Just as when we realize that we are standing on a spherical planet which is rotating around its own axis and around the sun, our concepts of above and below disintegrate, so when we realize the interdependent nature of all things, we are freed from the idea of “one/many.”

The image of Indra’s jeweled net is used in the Avatamsaka Sutra to illustrate the infinite variety of interactions and intersections of all things. The net is woven of an infinite variety of brilliant gems, each with countless facets. Each gem reflects in itself every other gem in the net, and its image is reflected in each other gem. In this vision, each gem contains all the other gems.

We can also use an example from geometry. Imagine a circle with its center point “C.” The circle is composed of all the points equidistant from C. The circle is there because all the points are there. If even one point is missing, the circle immediately disappears. It is like a house of cards. Remove one card and all the rest collapse. Each card depends on all the others, and without each one there is no house. The presence of one point of the circle depends on the presence of all the other points. Here too we see that “one is all, all is one.” Every point of the circle is of equal importance. Every card in the house of cards is of equal importance. Each is vital to the existence of the whole and therefore to the existence of all the other parts. This is interdependence.

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