Through the Insight of Interbeing

Thich Nhat Hanh opens with the Buddha’s refusal to answer metaphysical questions, telling the story of Malunkyaputta and the poisoned arrow. He says the Buddha taught suffering and its transformation, and presents interbeing as the insight that supports this: a sheet of paper holds the tree, rain and sunshine, left cannot exist without right, and the lotus needs mud.

He says love is made of understanding, dwells on the first two Noble Truths, suffering and its roots, and describes mindful breathing as holding pain tenderly, like a mother with her baby, with the sangha as a river that carries a drop of water. He tells of work in wartime Vietnam, then covers selective watering of seeds and meeting a minor pain without adding a second arrow.