“Neither increasing nor decreasing”
We worry because we think that after we die we will not be a human being any more. We will go back to being a speck of dust. In other words, we are decreasing.
But that is not true. A speck of dust contains the whole universe. If we were as big as the sun, we might look down at the earth and see it as insignificant. As human beings, we look at dust in the same way. But the ideas of big and small are just concepts in our minds. Everything contains everything else; that is the principle of interpenetration. This sheet of paper contains the sunshine, the logger, the forest, everything, so the idea that a sheet of paper is small, or insignificant, is just an idea. We cannot destroy even one sheet of paper. We are incapable of destroying anything. When they assassinated Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, they hoped to reduce them into nothingness. But these people continue to be with us, perhaps even more than before, because they continue in other forms. We, ourselves, continue their being. So let us not be afraid of decreasing. It is like the moon. We see the moon increasing and decreasing, but it is always the moon.
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Source: THE HEART OF UNDERSTANDING by THICH NHAT HANH
1 comment:
Beautiful posting! I thought the timing was in a way ideal with all the chorus against corruption; not without the anxiety that the Government/underworld would do something to stall the efforts. The idea of 'interpenetration' is beautiful and much in need for out times when ecological conscience is important too. Actually, the posting looks fantastic in the blog with its new layout. Keep on! :-)
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