It might help to understand the interdependence of our inner emotional or mental conditions through an analogy of how our internal organs work. Here, too, we see interdependence at work. Having two strong lungs is not sufficient. Our lungs must function in close connection with the rest of the respiratory system, our heart, our liver, and all the rest of the interdependent internal organs. Each needs to have a certain level of health, although if one is slightly compromised, others can compensate to a certain degree. But no one organ can keep us alive on its own.
17th Karmapa
from the book
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Further quotes from the book Interconnected :
- The imagination to see the other as free and happy
- An important source of closeness and love
- Knowing more is not a substitute for feeling more
- Self-reliance
- The interdependence between us and the world
- Acting against self-serving impulses
- Webs of interdependence
- Noticing the collective effects of our individual actions
- Our closest and most reliable allies
- Touching the core of our equality
- His Loneliness
- The deeper common ground all living being share
- Collective actions and attitudes
- Delight in positive thoughts
- Gradual change
- Our intimate dependence on the natural environment
- Interdependent individuals
- Opening up to the view of interconnectedness
- A main condition for our selfishness