“If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are.”  - Thich Nhat Hanh

The Buddha called this Dependent Origination, sometimes also known as Interdependent Co-arising, or even Inter-being, a term coined by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. It is an understanding that no thing spontaneously exists all on its own. All things are influenced by many others. 

“This is, because that is.

This is not, because that is not.

This ceases to be, because that ceases to be.”

We begin to understand that nothing is an island unto itself. No thing is separate all on its own, and that no thing is completely self-contained or self-reliant. Everything that is, exists solely because of other events that have also co-arisen. All things are dependent upon cause and effect. Everything is connected. and there is nothing more profound.

Up can’t exist without down, that East can’t exist with West, that wealth cannot exist without poverty, that life cannot exist without death. 

All things are empty of their apparent separate self . all things are interdependent. 

We see that the cup of coffee in our hands could not exist without the woman who ordered the bag of beans into her store. Looking deeper, we see the truck the beans arrived on, and its driver. We see the fuel in its tank and the man who pumped it.

We see the woman who roasted the beans and packaged them. We see the ship the beans sailed on from Peru, and all of the hands on deck who ensured its safe arrival. We see the farmer who cared for the soil, who planted the crop, and who picked the beans.

We see the sunshine that made the plants grow. Furthermore, each and every one of these conditions each had their own complex web of factors that contributed to their unique arising as well.

We see the clouds the water fell from that landed on the crop. We see the rivers in which they once flowed. We see all of the decisions in each of the people’s lives that led to their interaction with the coffee bean, and we see all of the things which then influenced each of those decisions too.

Infinitely.. it goes on. Everything impacts everything else. And everything depends upon everything else.

When we intimately understand the interconnection and interdependence that exists between all things, We see that all things are truly equal, man or animal, river or rock.