Suppose you plant a kernel of corn and seven days later it sprouts and begins to take the form of a corn stalk. When the stalk grows high, you may not recognize it as the kernel you planted. But it wouldn’t be true to say the kernel had died. With Buddha’s eyes, you can still see the corn seed in the corn stalk. The stalk is the continuation of the kernel in the direction of the future, and the kernel is the continuation of the stalk in the direction of the past. They are not the same thing, but they are not completely separate, either. You and your mother are not exactly the same person, but you aren’t two different people either. This is the truth of interdependence. No one can be one’s self alone. We have to inter-be to be.
– Thich Nhat Hanh
(Photo: Béatrice Lechtanski)
