hilitehead

“From the Buddhist point of view, even when you are unenlightened your life is so intertwined with those of others that you cannot really carve yourself out as a single isolated individual. Also, when you follow a spiritual path, many spiritual realizations depend on your interaction with others, so here again others are indispensable. Even when you have attained the highest state of enlightenment, your enlightened activities are for the benefit of others. Indeed, enlightened activity comes about spontaneously by virtue of the fact that other beings exist, so others are indispensable even at that stage. Your life and the lives of others are so interconnected that the idea of a self that is totally distinct and independent of others really does not make any sense.”