Words from Saint Stephen's: INTERBEING

The Zen Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hahn, passed away last week. He was a peace activist, a practitioner, and foremost advocate of mindfulness. He also coined the word "Interbeing." 

Like many eastern religious practices, mindfulness tends to be reduced to self-help in the West. Mindfulness is packaged as a way for people to reduce stress, relax, and perhaps even concentrate on what is essential in one's life. As a novice practitioner myself, I am in no position to criticize anyone's spiritual practice; however, I want to suggest that mindfulness, as articulated and practiced in its fullness sense, has everything to do with interbeing and less to do with the self.  

Perhaps using the word interconnectedness might make mindfulness a bit clearer. Whether we are aware or not, everything we do is in relation to something else. We cannot dump trash without causing harm to the earth, marine life, non-human animals, and ourselves. Interbeing reduces these lines even further; the destruction of anything destroys us because we are everything, and everything is us. Conversely, the uplifting of anything uplifts us. When we say earth, we are talking about ourselves. There is no difference between "me" and "earth" or "me" and "you" for that matter. Each moment, each act is everything. Now that might make us pause and be mindful! 

I was introduced to Thich Nhat Hahn by my spirituality professor in seminary when we read his book Peace is Every Step. Thich Nhat Hahn believed Buddhism is not a religion and can help those of other faiths be better adherents of their own faith. This is never so true than when I read his meditation on compassion and enemies in another book called Being Peace.

Again, if we close our eyes and listen deeply to our breathing, we become aware that our enemy breathes the same way. And if we are linked in-breath, we will begin to understand the enemy not as different from us, but the same. We will start to seek why the enemy behaves as he does and why we behave as we do. Once we understand we are one, we can no longer have an enemy and are open to love. This is how we may practice loving our enemies as Jesus taught us.

To my surprise, The Rev. Bosco Peters, in his blog Liturgy, reports that A Litany for Peace written by Thich Nhat Hahn in 1976 has made its way into the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa on p. 163.  

This is the perfect introduction to the practice of mindfulness and experiencing the deep meaning of interbeing. I invite you to pray it. You have nothing to lose, except yourself!

Let us be at peace within ourselves.

Silence

Let us accept that we are profoundly loved

and need never be afraid.

Silence

Let us be aware of the source of being

that is common to us all

and to all living creatures.

Silence

Let us be filled with the presence of the great compassion

towards ourselves and towards all living beings.

Silence

Realizing that we are all nourished

from the same source of life,

may we so live that others be not deprived

of air, food, water, shelter, or the chance to live.

Silence

Let us pray that we ourselves cease to be

a cause of suffering to one another.

Silence

With humility, let us pray for the establishment

of peace in our hearts and on earth.

—Rev. Mike Giansiracusa