Happy Labor Day!
Today we honor the contributions that American workers have made to the prosperity, and well-being of our country. Everything that we use or consume was made by someone else. It’s crazy to think about how many different hands go into making something before it reaches ours and so it is easy to see how dependent we are upon one another. DT Suzuki said, “Only if you keep your eyes wide open, can you clearly see the real world in which all individual entities are interfused without any hindrances or jiji muge (事事無碍).” Understanding interdependence, we realize that we don’t live in a vacuum and that we rely upon one another to survive and so the true currencies of life are kindness and compassion. The Dalai Lama said, “An individual is reliant on the community to survive which teaches us to strive for kindness and compassion towards one another, qualities intrinsic to human nature.” In budo, the goal of each person in training is to make one another better. In training, we are trying to attain a certain level of self-development and it is easy to think that we are doing this work alone because we are the person “doing” the technique. However, the person who is really developing themselves is actually the uke or the person that the technique is being done upon because it takes a great deal of character to sacrifice one’s self for another. Training then becomes a synergy of people caring for one another - they sacrifice and we in turn care for them. Our survival depends upon treating each other with the utmost respect, kindness and compassion because we realize that our salvation is tied to theirs. A warrior is keenly aware of interdependence and how they rely upon the kindness, compassion and sacrifice of others to be successful.
Today’s goal: Have a great holiday, but we also don’t forget those that have and are still sacrificing themselves for your survival.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama gives a succinct overview of interdependence and Alan Watts gives an interesting but longer description.