Quotes About Interdependence

Given that no one is born into this world without others, that one's ability to think requires language learned from others, and that one's cognitive and emotional experiences are shaped by thoughts and feelings about others, thinkers began to argue that individualistic approaches miss the mark. What is fundamental is not an isolated self but rather a kind of brute fact that just is—the reality of being in the world with others. Who we are is who we are with others.

We can be connected to others as with people or connected to others as with objects, but we are always connected. Separation is an abstraction. Together is our reality.

If I have an outward mindset, knowing that the organization's success depends on my colleague's success as well as my own, I will feel an obligation to help my colleague succeed.

Would our organizations be better off if all of us were to turn outward in our work with each other? Yes. But this preferred state can be reached only if some are willing to change even when others do not—and to sustain the change whether or not others reciprocate.

When I was younger, so much younger than today I never needed anybody's help in any way But now these days are gone and I'm not so self assured And now I find I've changed my mind, I've opened up the doors Help me if you can, I'm feeling down And I do appreciate you being 'round Help me get my feet back on the ground Won't you please, please help me?

Impermanence and selflessness are not negative aspect of life, but the very foundation on which life is built. Impermanence is the constant transformation of things. Without impermanence, there can be no life. Selflessness is the interdependent nature of all things. Without interdependence, nothing could exist.

Just as a flower is made only of non-flower elements, Buddhism is made only of non-Buddhist elements, including Christian ones, and Christianity is made of non-Christian elements, including Buddhist ones.

We cannot be by ourselves alone. We can only inter-be with everything else in the cosmos.

Reality is reality. It transcends every concept. There is no concept which can adequately describe it, not even the concept of interdependence.

The Buddha said, "There is no separate self." You and your son, you and your daughter are just a continuation of many generations of ancestors. You are part of a long stream of life. Whatever your children do continues to affect you deeply—just like when they were in your womb.

Nothing can exist by itself alone. It has to depend on every other thing. That is called inter-being. [...] There is no being; there is only inter-being.

The truth is that everything contains everything else. We cannot just be, we can only inter-be.

When you wake up and you see that the Earth is not just the environment, the Earth is us, you touch the nature of interbeing.

Often, our pride stands in the way of our asking for help. In true love there is no place for pride. To love each other means to trust each other. If you don't tell the person you love of your suffering, it means you don't love this person enough to trust her. You have to realize that this person is the best person to help you. We need to be able to get help from the person we

Nothing exists by itself alone. We all belong to each other; we cannot cut reality into pieces.

All things arise because of their interdependence, and that is why nothing has a separate, independent identity.

A person is not some private entity traveling unaffected through time and space as if sealed off from the rest of the world by some thick shell.

No one can be by himself or herself alone. We have to inter-be, connected with everyone and everything else.

You cannot take the mind out of the body, and you cannot take the body out of the mind.

Our happiness and suffering are the happiness and suffering of others.

Everything depends on everything else. The One contains the many, and the many contains the One

A true bodhisattva is one who sees no demarcations between organic and non-organic, self and non-self, living beings and non-living beings, bodhisattvas and non-bodhisattvas.

To see things in their interdependent relational mature is to perceive their nature of non-identity. Put another way, it is to recognize their existence, even when they are not present.

When you speak, allow the insight of our collective humanity to speak through you. When you walk, don't walk for yourself alone; walk for your ancestors and your community. When you breathe, allow the larger world to breathe for you.