Week Twenty-three: Remembering Oneness

During the recent memorial service held at Yankee Stadium, religious leaders from all traditions and faiths gathered to remember those killed in the attack on the World Trade Center. It was a moving experience, and heartening to see so many faiths represented. At one point, a rabbi said something that moved me deeply. He said something like, “Six thousand people didn’t die in the attack. Rather, one person died six thousand times.” With this statement, he touched on a most profound reality – that we are all one. As I listened to him, I was reminded of the challenge presented when we think in terms of wholeness – that when we perceive oneness, we don’t leave out any of the parts. The entire memorial was oriented toward inclusion, toward a sense of oneness within the diversity of faiths and beliefs represented throughout the service.

Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk from Viet Nam who teaches mindfulness practices to Westerners, created a word, interbeing, to convey how interconnected we are with one another. When he talks about eating mindfully, he reminds us that the food we eat required soil, sunlight, water, the human hands that cultivated it, the people who harvested it, those who brought it by truck, cart, or train, those who displayed it in the grocery store, the person who prepared it for us to eat – all the many interdependent people and moments it took to bring food to us.

For this week’s experiment, and I know this can be challenging at a time like this, notice what happens when you consciously remind yourself that we are all one, that when someone suffers anywhere in the world, we all suffer. While we can’t always stop bad things from happening, or make it better for everyone who suffers, we can – in our own small way – bring awareness of interconnection, interbeing, and oneness into our lives right here, today. Then, we can notice how our thoughts, feelings, and behavior are touched by this awareness. As you work with this week’s experiment, be sure to allow yourself mixed feelings, and remember to invite curiosity and compassion for yourself to be your constant companions along the way.

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