Connections

In an interview published in the March 2010 issue of Shambhala Sun, Jon Kabat-Zinn is quoted as saying, "Given the condition we find ourselves in these days on this planet, understanding our interconnections is not a spiritual luxury; it's a societal imperative."

One obvious way in which people are interconnected today is through the Internet. In the late 1960s, I knocked on neighbors' doors and stood on street corners, circulating a petition calling for an end to the Vietnam War. I eventually garnered some 100 signatures (maybe more) and traveled to Washington DC to deliver the petition to my Congressman and to a Vietnamese diplomat whose position I don't recall. With the petition I left a book published by the American Friends Service Committee regarding methods to achieve peace in Vietnam. It was a small, naive gesture on my part, though a great adventure for me that involved moving way out of my "comfort zone."

By contrast, today I can sit at my computer and receive petitions for my signature from all kinds of organizations. There are petitions from environmental organizations seeked to protect endangered species or ecosystems; petitions from political organizations regarding the status of various bills in the U.S. Congress; and petitions from global organizations regarding the welfare of people half a world away from me.

The remarkable aspect of this is that some of these petitions have been signed by hundreds of thousands of people. And they can make a difference. What a contrast to the 1960s! The Internet is a more impersonal and less demanding way to express an urgent opinion, but these petitions point to the interconnectedness of all the people on this planet.

Nature gives us clues to the interconnection of all life, with its amazing, delicate balances, from the sub-cellular level to an entire ecosystem. Human activity can disrupt these balances so easily. A respect for our environment is vital now because our connections with it, though sometimes not seen, will ultimately affect all people, including those not even born yet.

What great, mysterious Power weaves all the connections, all the intricate patterns, into another, grander Pattern?

Kenneth G. Mills, in his book Given to Praise (Sun-Scape Publications, 1976), has stated, "You are not a man of a nation. You are a Light experience, or a Conscious experience, and only secondarily a person with a nationality. You are Conscious Experience primarily." How can there be wars among nations when each and every citizen is fundamentally Conscious Experience? That is interconnection at its most profound level.

Be grateful for this connectedness, wonder at it, and strive to find it expressed in your moment-to-moment actions as Love.