This loss of opaqueness in experience enables us to see in another way that things are not quite what they seem: they are not separate and isolated, but interdependent with everything else.

If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there can be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper . . . So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are . . . Everything—time, space, the earth, rain, the minerals in the soil, the sun

When we have truly grasped the truths of impermanence, emptiness of self, and dependent co-arising, we see how wondrous our own hearts and minds are. We see how wonderful our bodies, the branches of violet bamboo, the golden chrysanthemums, the clear stream, and the radiant moon are.