Interconnected: Embracing Life in Our Global Society

by Ogyen Trinley Dorje

However, just because our sense of ourselves as utterly separate is erroneous does not imply that no I exists. Of course you do. But you exist connected to and dependent upon many other factors. You are an interdependent individual. Our clinging to exaggerated concepts of a self-sufficient and autonomous self blinds us to a basic reality that we need to take into account. Why? Because it structures everything we do and are. The unique person we become over the course of our lives is based on the ongoing interplay of interdependent causes and conditions. If we cling to our individuality without appreciating how that individuality is supported by interdependence, we live in a kind of willful blindness. This harms us, and it can also lead to us harming others. For sure, it limits the positive ways we could shape others through our connections to them. If we hold to the theory that we are entirely independent agents, and can pursue our individualistic aims without considering the context of interdependence, we will be looking at the world with skewed vision.