Many spiritual teachers, and recently many scientists, have spoken and written about the deep interconnectedness of all life. Thich Nhat Hanh coined the term 'interbeing' for this purpose. In one of his talks he held up a sheet of paper and asked what we saw. Like many others I simply saw a piece of paper. However, he said that he saw the whole universe in that sheet of paper. This is an abridged version of his short talk on interbeing:
"If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow, and without trees, we cannot make paper...If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. And if we continue to look we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper..."
Many meditation teachers speak of the importance of looking deeply at the narratives we tell about interconnectedness--our relationship to others and to the world at large.
One morning I looked more deeply while saying a short meditation adapted from Thich Nhat Hanh:
I am grateful to have this abundance of nutritious food.
I give thanks to all who made this meal possible.
I vow to live in such a way to make the world a better place for all beings.
I paused at each item on my plate:
Eggs: from certified pasture raised chickens.
Coffee: organic and fair trade from Guatemala,
Toast: whole wheat bread from a local bakery.
I considered this same breakfast 60 years ago:
The eggs were from a factory farm, the chickens living their whole lives cooped up in cages, and their beaks clipped to keep them from harming each other because of the anxiety from being so crowded together.
The coffee was from a coffee plantation where the workers were paid barely enough to live, and the government used repressive measures to keep the people from uprising, and U. S. companies were making huge profits.
The bread had all sorts of additives, and was baked in a huge bakery with workers paid minimum wages while the owners got rich.
I started moving toward buying eggs from free range chickens and fair trade coffee many years ago after a friend of mine, who had looked more deeply, told me that, to large egg producers, free range chickens meant they were let out of their cramped cages into a slightly less cramped space less than an hour a day, and that fair trade coffee simply meant that at least 10% of the coffee was indeed from fair trade coffee growers.
When I looked on the internet, I discovered that the USDA defines free range as chickens having 2 square feet of living space and being led outside on days when the weather is good. Imagine a chicken coop the size of a basketball court. An average of 2 square feet per hen would have 2500 hens in that space. With respect to coffee, there are several Fair Trade and Equal Exchange organizations, each with their own standards. It is still confusing to sort out.
Whew--what we can notice when looking deeply with both our minds and our hearts! As a result of a large enough number of people looking more deeply and then acting on what they saw, more chicken farmers now treat their chickens more humanely, more coffee growers now pay their employees a living wage, and more people now buy local bread which also helps the local economy. All three of these actions means more food is grown sustainably which makes people healthier and can slow down the effects of climate change.
If we inquire further and look deeply at all (or even many) of the items we buy, and we feel that we have a sense of this interconnectedness of life, we start to feel compelled to make changes in our purchasing of food, clothing, and other items which enables a more sustainable world for the people producing these items and a more sustainable environment which benefits both humans and animals. If we continue to look deeply, we pay attention to how we dispose of food waste and possessions that we no longer need or break down or become outdated. A simple phrase captures this ethos: Reduce Reuse Repurpose Recycle.
I feel a strong sense of urgency about this, because predictions about the future of life on earth range from serious and devastating changes to many places in the world to catastrophic changes across the whole planet in the lifetime of people were born since 2000. A recent study found that more than half of the 16- to 25-year-olds said they believe humanity is doomed. A local middle school teacher confirmed that these figures resonate with what she is hearing from her students.
I think it is time for all of us to look more deeply at our spending and consuming habits and then take action. I also believe that this action needs to be driven from love of the world more than from hatred toward those people doing most of the damage to the environment. Otherwise we simply increase the polarization that has risen dramatically in the last few decades.