“We all are so deeply interconnected; we have no option but to love all. Be kind and do good for anyone and that will be reflected. The ripples of the kind heart are the highest blessings of the Universe.”
― Amit Ray
We are all interconnected. One is hurt, and the other feels the pain. One is happy, and the other feels happy. We may separate ourselves and live in our bubbles, thinking whatever we do affects us. But does it?
No matter how we lie to ourselves or put up a fight with the world, none of us can break this connection. This connection from dependence to independence to interdependence nurtures while we grow until we are young and it has fully ripened. It is the perfect time to become conscious of how this phenomenon of interconnectedness works.
Studies have shown that a child brought up in a happy environment is much more intelligent, compassionate, and loving than the ones brought up amid abuse and violence. So, the environment and the people we are surrounded by, have a constant effect on our moods and growth. It can either be an impediment or a stepping stone in our character development.
Since we cannot change our instant environment, school, workplace, or either adopt parents and neighbors; we will have to come to an understanding that we have to change our relationships with them. Like Ray says, we have to be unconditionally kind to others. Other people reflect how we treat them. And thus, we lay the foundation of a society that is kind, peaceful, and positive.
Now, there is another layer to interconnectedness. When we delve deeper into meditation practices, it is taught that there is only one way of reducing pain and suffering. It is to feel the connectedness of it. More often than usual, we stand together in difficult times rather than the happy ones. Happiness often makes us exclusive to a chosen few but it is suffering that makes us more inclusive.
Suffering and loss are an indispensable part of being a mortal human. Once a mother came to Buddha with a dead child in hand and asked to revive his son with tears in her eyes. Buddha calmly said, “I would. If, you can bring some grain from any house in the village in whose house nobody has died.”
She kept knocking and asking until the last door and returned empty-handed to Buddha but with wisdom that death is a natural process. And suffering is inevitable. But what helped her to console and move on in life was that each house in the village has witnessed death.
As creatures of the human race, we all suffer. In fact, animals, birds, mammals, and vertebrates too suffer. But we have to draw a pattern of this interconnectedness of suffering and free ourselves by tending to each other in the process, we heal ourselves.
That is why in India we have a tradition of feeding the first two chapatis of the day to the cows, seeds to pigeons, and biscuits to crows. In order to remind ourselves every morning that each life no matter how small or big matters as much as ours.
Things are changing at a faster pace. Competitions are increasing and it is taught that if we don’t hurry and snatch, opportunities will slip to others. What if it does and we can be happy about it? We are growing insecure and acting evil not because opportunities are scarce but because we have let our garden minds grow weeds.
Time to uproot a little every day and gradually open our hearts and hands to others. We spread what we have. Let’s create peace and happiness within and spread it outside. And share and grow together and celebrate small milestones we attain in the journey.
Feel this interconnectedness and embrace it. After all, we were never strangers to each other.
Stay with
Prerna 🙂
