40 Quotes About Interdependence

All have their worth and each contributes to the worth of the others.

The combination of realizing our distinctiveness along with our unity is seeing interdependence.

We give something, and that opens the possibility of receiving: we naturally receive something when we give. This is how we live, whether it is in the business world, in our social lives, or in any other context. Giving and taking is happening all the time. Living is dependent on giving: we give and therefore we receive. This interdependence is natural; however, it takes a special effort to train our mind to know this well enough so that our understanding is clear and strong. – 17th Karmapa

Things are highly interdependent. The very concepts of “we” and “they” are becoming irrelevant. War is out of date because our neighbors are part of ourselves. We see this in economic, educational and environmental issues. Although we may have some ideological differences or other conflicts with our neighbor, economically and environmentally we share essentially the same country, and destroying our neighbor is destroying ourselves. It’s foolish.

Interdependence and emptiness show us that there are no fixed starting points. Many people have the idea that they lack what they need in order to start working toward their dreams. They feel they do not have enough power, or they do not have enough money. But they should know that any point is the right starting point. This is the perspective that emptiness opens up. We can start from zero. (17th Karmapa)

None of us can ever save himself; we are the instruments of one another’s salvation, and only by the hope that we give to others do we lift ourselves out of the darkness into light.

We have geared the machines and locked all together into interdependence; we have built the great cities; now there is no escape. We have gathered vast populations incapable of free survival, insulated from the strong earth, each person in himself helpless, on all dependent. The circle is closed, and the net is being hauled in, They hardly feel the cords drawing.

Zen is the very awareness of the dynamism of life living itself in us—and aware of itself, in us, as being the one life that lives in all.

There is no "I" as such apart from others.