“In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be...This is the inter-related structure of reality.”
- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail
From what I can tell, mystics of all religions sound very similar, often discussing experiences of the oneness of all beings or all existence. They might call it God Consciousness, the “super-splendant darkness” of St. Bonaventure, becoming one with everything, Buddha Nature, union with the Atman, Indra’s net, or any other metaphor. This feeling of interconnectedness with all nature, all humanity, including the people who do not share your values, seems like a great idea. Yet, we evolved with instincts for both selfishness and selflessness. The current political climate favors selfishness and an extreme version of independence. It’s easy to see differences in such a climate. How can we understand both the individualism and the mutual interdependence?
There’s a school of Buddhism (Huayen) that focuses specifically on this, and it has some analogies that have been useful for me. One begins by asking us to consider all of reality to be like a house. The general idea is that we only know what a house is because it comprises all of the separate individual parts, such as roof tiles, windows, ceiling beams, etc. The ceiling beam is not the same as a window, yet without it you don’t have a house. If you remove the window, it ceases to be a window – it’s not just a piece of glass. The window gains its distinct identity because it’s part of the whole, and the whole is the whole only because of the individual parts. That is, a house without windows isn’t a house any more.
Thus, although every individual part of the house is unique, they also all are identical to each other in that they together are equal in relation to making a complete and functional house. Every part is both distinct and identical.
As another example, my father used to say, “The world is divided into people who think they’re right.” So yes, differences exist. And yet, all those different people are identical in thinking that they’re right.
This view of conjoined uniqueness and equivalence teaches us to value both the independence and the interdependence equally.
This means that we need to become meticulous with our thoughts, words, and actions, because they matter. They matter for us, they matter for those around us, and they matter for the entire universe.
The Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg has a saying, “If you really want to be a rebel, practice kindness.”
In a time when selfishness and cruelty are being promoted as virtues, kindness is an act of extreme rebellion. MLK said much the same in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. He wrote:
“One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty… And now this approach is being termed extremist. But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: 'Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you…'"
So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love?”
St. Bonaventure said, in his Journey of the Mind to God: [N]o one can become blessed, unless he ascends above his very self, not by an ascent with the body, but with the heart.
Let’s go out and be rebels. Practice kindness, because it changes the world.