When we think of containers, we often overlook the ways in which the contents can affect the container itself — warming or cooling it, staining or bleaching it, stretching or strengthening it and even breaking it. The word used in Tibetan for “contents’ in this analogy also literally means “nutrients”, such that we ourselves are like the nourishment for the world that contains us. Indeed, as I have mentioned, the carbon dioxide we exhale nourishes the trees and plants, and our bodies also return to the earth and nourish it after we have died. The natural environment, in turn, nourishes us and provides us with the conditions we need for life. What this signals is that the connections of interdependence between us and the world we live in are far closer and more reciprocal than we normally envision.

17th Karmapa

from the book Interconnected: Embracing Life in Our Global Society

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

Further quotes from the book Interconnected:

• Individualism or interdependence
• A genuine sense of affection
• The power of our senses
• Gratitude
• Self-discipline
• The full vividness of direct contact
• Dismantling the walls that separate us
• Inner conditions of interdependence
• You exist in connection with others
• Extend yourself and connect
• The opportunity to love
• Remaining indifferent to the suffering of animals
• Time to act
• Our life is like a vast net
• The air we breathe
• Extending gratitude in all directions
• 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