I led my first sangha on Tuesday and focused the meditations on breaking down the boundaries that we use to define ourselves. Inter-being is based on the idea that everything is composed of the same elements and gives us a sense of unity rather than division. The lines between matter become a bit blurrier and nature no longer seems like a phenomenon that exists separate from us. It gives us a sense of belonging and oneness with the universe. We can stop fighting against the world and melt into our surroundings flowing with all the elements within and around us. Humans struggle with a superiority complex. We declare ourselves masters and feel we have the right to rape and pillage the earth to feed our endless desires. In doing so we are stripping ourselves of what gives us life. Everything that the earth feels we feel too. How we treat the earth is a reflection of how we treat ourselves and those around us. The earth is not here to serve humans. Thay describes this concept with the analogy of a wave. He says that if a wave thinks itself separate from water, it will end in suffering and death when it hits the shore. The wave has to look inside of itself and realize that it is not just a wave but also water as a whole. Without water the wave would not exist. The wave is water and the water is the wave. They are different levels of being yet are still one. This is inter-being. We are separate beings but cannot exist apart from the whole. Blurring the lines of division can help us remember that we are not standing alone but are enmeshed in all that is life.
