If you can see that all things inter-are with each other,

Then you will not be fooled by the labels of the mind.

Because all things depend upon all others,

There cannot be or will ever be a separate I.

Without a separate I then all things are inconceivable,

All things are transient labels created by the mind.

All people in history are trails of wondrous smoke,

And people of the present are mysteries.

This body and mind that now appears -

Is the flowing on of a great stream.

A stream that includes our ancestors -

Who are not separate from us.

We are not exactly the same as our ancestors,

Yet we are not something totally different…

We are more than the arising of thoughts,

Beyond the name of this and that.

When we come to realize our vast connections,

We come to realize our non-separation.

We are a river continuously flowing,

Composed of everything.

With this insight we can start to see,

The small things that we quarrel about…

They are like ants on an oak tree,

A pebble belonging to the sea.

Words are only provisional,

They can never describe a whole person.

It is like this with all thoughts and things,

Intangible but also magical.

When we understand interbeing,

We understand our interdependence,

We understand we are not separate,

We go beyond the construction of I.

Mist and fog in the morning…

Is dispersed by the rising sun.

Calm lakes and green forests,

Dark clouds, and falling rain.

— Luan Dinh

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