We are in many ways creatures of habit. If we live within certain conditions long enough, they come to seem natural to us. But if we had lived in different conditions, they would seem equally natural. Looking at the cultural, religious, or material conditions that others have become habituated to may make us feel that they must be totally different from us, but we are just mistaking something circumstantial for something essential. It is largely an accident of our birth and our life circumstances that we have come to find certain conditions familiar and others alien or distant. It is not an indication of anything essentially other or different about us.

Beyond any superficial circumstantial factors that differentiate us, all living beings share a much deeper common ground, as I discussed in the previous chapter. Buddhism identifies this deeper ground as the wish to be happy and the longing for freedom from suffering. This fundamental inner condition lies at the very core of our existence. Our apparent physical and circumstantial differences are relatively unimportant and shallow, compared to the more important — and much more foundational — level of reality on which we all stand.

Focusing on this deeper level can help us to access a sense of closeness and shared experience — of all being in it together. With this as our starting point, we can explore our particular conditions without experiencing them as a gulf that separates us.

17th Karmapa

from the book Interconnected: Embracing Life in Our Global Society

source: https://www.wisdompubs.org/book/interconnected


Read a random quote or see all quotes by the 17th Karmapa.

Further quotes from the book Interconnected:

• Thinking about the consequences of our collective actions
• Naturalness
• The workings of interdependence
• Being an interdependent individual
• Inner freedom is key
• The ability to experience genuine closeness
• Becoming stuck in a quagmire of self-obsession
• Enthusiastically benefiting whomever we come in contact with
• Our innate ability to connect with others
• Interdependence always works both ways
• Enjoying the goodness of what you are doing
• A Vast and Complex Web of Causality
• A greater sense of possibility
• Concealing our weaknesses
• Cultivating a spirit of generosity
• The impulse to connect
• Viewing others through the lens of interdependence
• Interdependent individual
• Bringing about real change in the world
• Experiencing connection rather than isolation