Zen and The Human (Dis)Connection
When I sat with the concept of moving classes onto Zoom, and how to maintain the Human Connection, I thought about connection from a Zen perspective. Many people feel this has been a time of disrupted relationships and separation – despite modern technology being so good at keeping people in touch.
Connection, in the dictionary lists words such as tie, link, attach, bind, join. (None of which are particularly "good" Zen words.) When we talk about human connections, we're usually talking about relationships or social connections, which we need to thrive. Connection fosters a sense of tribe, recognition, acceptance, satisfaction; we need it. Physical connections, skin-to-skin connections are important to our very survival. We need skin contact from the moment we are born.
Taking the concept to a broader, universal level, connection may be a goal or ideal: to create unity, harmony or equality among people, race, colour or gender.
But when we look at the human connection with Zen eyes, the idea of human connection goes far beyond an idea or a goal. Because we believe being connected is our natural state. We call this "Oneness". It means we are connected, despite any external conditions. There is no such thing as true separation. There is only separation through perception, our thought process.
Our minds create separation and fragments. It's like seeing things through a broken window. The picture is in little bits, with lines that separate things.
We don’t normally think of ourselves as “being at one with” or being intimately connected to our world and everyone and everything in it. We think of others and especially strangers, as being somewhat separate from ourselves. And the same when we look at animals, flowers or cars. There is me and there is other. This sense of distance feels so familiar, so normal, that we almost never notice we’re doing it, or seeing things in that way.
The philosophy of One-ness doesn’t see the world as being in any way separate from us. Each person is one element of a larger unity that includes absolutely everything, animals, flowers, cars... Difficult to get our head around?
It's not so easy to explain something which could be considered a feeling as well as a concept. But let's try:
We feel oneness more easily when we are in nature. If you could close your eyes now, you might remember that sensation when being immersed in nature, whether it's walking through a silent forest, on a quiet beach, or in the mountains. The same feeling we experience when we see a beautiful sunset or view a majestic thunderstorm. That feeling we experience of being totally in awe of, immersed in, captivated by the spectacle of nature. We feel like we are really "in" nature.
Actually, this is not such a super special feeling or experience. If it wasn't for the fact that we don't do it often because most of our life takes place in an urban environment. We are at work, we are at home, and then we feel separated from nature, we forget we are part of nature. So from the perspective of our mind, it might feel super special.
As Eckart Tolle says: "You are not separate from the whole. You are one with the sun, the earth, the air. You don't have a life. You are life." We are all part of this continuous circle of life, this great kaleidoscope, none of us can exist without all the others.
There are a few examples which might explain it simply:
One of my favourite explanations is by one of Thich Nhat Hanh's students who explained it like this: "We see an orange and think, ‘I know oranges.' But the thing we call orange is only an appearance."
Looking at an orange with Zen eyes, we see that the orange isn't what we usually think it is. It's not a separate entity. It's not solid or permanent. The orange is made of all the elements that created it -- sunshine, rain, dirt, insects that turned the dirt, farmers that fertilized and tended the tree. The orange is also made of all the elements that created these elements: the cloud that changed into rain, the farmer's mom and dad. And the orange is also all the elements it will become: worms that eat its rind, you who eat its sweet wedges."
Another explanation is from a seminar held on the concept of oneness, emptiness and impermanence:
“Do you see a cloud in this paper? Or “There is no separation from cloud” We SHOULD see a cloud in this paper, because without a cloud there is no rain. Without rain there is no tree. Without a tree there is no paper.”
“Do you see Wheatbix in this paper?” Loggers or lumberjacks work hard and need a good breakfast. No breakfast, no loggers, no cut trees, no paper.”
So let’s take a moment to consider how we are connected when we sit together and practice.
In our practice we sometimes focus especially on cultivating awareness of our interdependence or connection to each other the the world around us. No matter where we are.
When we zit via Zoom, we may have felt a little disconnected, or thought that our only connection was a thin wire of technology. But thankfully, distance doesn’t mean disconnection. Like a spider web, intricately connected, we are somewhere in that web, connected to everything.
A beautiful consideration I read earlier this week is that "Meditation tunes us into the oneness, the great unity of which we are all a part because during quietness, you breathe together with the whole world." Whether you think of it as oneness with God or oneness with the universe, we are always connected, regardless of whether the people we wish to be with are in our space or not. We are connected to those who have gone before us, and who will come after us.
We are never separate.
Have a wonderful week!
Metta
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There are many incredible articles online which I used as inspiration and reference, including:
