This is how Ringzin Dorji, quoted in Barbara Crossette’s book on the Buddhist Himalayan kingdoms, describes this phenomenon: “Today my mother may be human. But when I die I may be reborn as a dog and then my mother may be a bitch. So, therefore, you have to think that all living things are my parents. My parents are infinite. Let my parents not suffer.” When I first read that passage, it made a big impression on me. Not just the dubious proposition that “my mother may be a bitch,” but the more profound notion that our parents are infinite. That we are all related.
