Interbeing

In an article at the Garrison Institute website, Thich Nhat Hanh talks about coining the word Interbeing to emphasize the extension of our being beyond the physical self. He quotes biologist Lewis Thomas saying our bodies are “shared, rented, and occupied” by many, many other tiny organisms that we depend on to make our own systems run properly. They facilitate the proper operation of all the systems of the human body, each separate system with a role to play yet contributing to and dependent on the others. We have many thermostat-like elements to keep us in balance and systems compensate where the balance is upset somewhere else. Brains are the best example of this since they grow and build mass in areas we use most and shrink in those we don’t. Some say that the planet as Gaia has the same properties. Wikipedia states that the Gaia hypothesis “proposes that living organisms interact with their inorganic surroundings on Earth to form a synergistic and self-regulating, complex system. “ We depend on so much outside the body. Our food comes through a chain of workers cultivating, harvesting, packing, delivering and finally put on shelves in stores for use. And that doesn’t count all the manufactured items we use. We move through a world of interaction and interchange, a web of systems that support every aspect of living. This is a worldview than can be shown. Images integrate and connect in a way that clarifies meaning. We’ve overidentified with the body as the edge of our being when we couldn’t survive without everything else. We each experience a specific unfolding within and dependent on the environment that supports us. We contain the genes of ancestors that combined in certain ways to make us who we are. Mentally there have been ideas and people that help us develop our way of thinking. Emotionally we have the people with whom our lives are interwoven. Even when we struggle with the world we learn about ourselves. Nature cooperates and gives up resources that we have up until now mindlessly extracted. Though the scale of the crisis we face may be overwhelming, once faced we can choose our place to make a difference. Thinkers are now considering the idea that consciousness could be the base of everything, not an outgrowth of human beings. Art can show alternatives, offer perspective to linear thinking which is such a thin thread through a big picture. Images can spur a speculative philosophy that can shift paradigms for the better. What’s important is to see.