Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00462)

Liesel:

Your quote from the Dalai Lama was good. It illustrates in a
very practical way the interdependence of life, how everything
depends upon everything else for its existence. Our very
being is defined in terms of this unity. It's only when the
mind acts up, and misbehaves, that it leads us to the delusion
that says "I'm a separate finger, different than all the other
fingers and with a life of my own, apart from the hand itself!"

Beautify as the analogy is, though, there is a paradoxical
flip side to this. We exist due to our interdependence, we
co-create the world, we are that bundle of energy that composes
our links of living karma with others. And yet we are unique,
special, and with something important to contribute to life,
something that only we can do, something that will forever
remain unseen, unfelt, and unappreciated if we hold back and
fail the world. We're responsible to become independent forces
for good in the world, and not remain the passive experiencers
of the effects of others.

-- Eldon