In his writing on the Heart Sutra—a fundamental text on emptiness and wisdom that serves as the foundation of many branches of Buddhism—Thich Nhat Hanh explains the idea of interbeing. Declaring all things empty, he teaches, does not mean that there is no meaning in anything, but rather that phenomena we encounter in the world are empty of

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I want to start with a quote from writer, activist, and teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh. In Being Peace , he writes:

“If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in every sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for

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Modern Zen teachers often emphasize how liberating this is. When the ego loosens its grip, there’s no longer a fixed self to defend. Praise and blame lose their sharp edge. Fear softens. Compassion arises naturally, not as a moral project but as a consequence of intimacy.

Shunryu Suzuki put it simply: when we let go of self-centered practice, our... See more