OT: "Clouds in Each Paper"
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OT: "Clouds in Each Paper"
I went to a non-denominational Beltane/May Day service today and saw the following piece as a poster in the community room where we had coffee after the service. I wanted to share it here, hoping others will find it inspiring:
Clouds In Each Paper
If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this 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 the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are.
"Interbeing" is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix "inter" with the verb "to be", we have a new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud, we cannot have paper, so we can say that the cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are.
If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger's father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.
-- Thich Nhat Hanh
Also mentioned in the service was that, before the Beltane festivities in ancient times, the Beltane bonfire would be lit and then all the people of the village would extinguish their individual hearth fires. The bonfire would burn until the next day, when each household would re-light its own hearth fire from the communal Beltane fire.
The symbolism of this resonated w/me pretty strongly. I'm really glad I got myself together and got out and had this experience. Hope the rest of you are having a great Sunday also!
Clouds In Each Paper
If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this 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 the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are.
"Interbeing" is a word that is not in the dictionary yet, but if we combine the prefix "inter" with the verb "to be", we have a new verb, inter-be. Without a cloud, we cannot have paper, so we can say that the cloud and the sheet of paper inter-are.
If we look into this sheet of paper even more deeply, we can see the sunshine in it. If the sunshine is not there, the forest cannot grow. In fact nothing can grow. Even we cannot grow without sunshine. And so, we know that the sunshine is also in this sheet of paper. The paper and the sunshine inter-are. And if we continue to look we can see the logger who cut the tree and brought it to the mill to be transformed into paper. And we see the wheat. We know that the logger cannot exist without his daily bread, and therefore the wheat that became his bread is also in this sheet of paper. And the logger's father and mother are in it too. When we look in this way we see that without all of these things, this sheet of paper cannot exist.
-- Thich Nhat Hanh
Also mentioned in the service was that, before the Beltane festivities in ancient times, the Beltane bonfire would be lit and then all the people of the village would extinguish their individual hearth fires. The bonfire would burn until the next day, when each household would re-light its own hearth fire from the communal Beltane fire.
The symbolism of this resonated w/me pretty strongly. I'm really glad I got myself together and got out and had this experience. Hope the rest of you are having a great Sunday also!
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