We are related through our actions. It’s through our choices that we’re connected with different people in different ways — which is one of the reasons why you want to be very careful about how you relate to others, how your actions have an impact on others. Try to create connections that are good.

"So the general interconnectedness out there is not always a good thing. In fact, Interbeing is Inter-eating. We feed on one another.

The types of connections that can be helpful, though, are the ones that we connect through our karma. In that chant we have about our actions: kammabandhu, we are related through our actions. It’s through our choices that we’re connected with different people in different ways — which is one of the reasons why you want to be very careful about how you relate to others, how your actions have an impact on others. Try to create connections that are good. This is what generosity is for; it’s what virtue is for

Meditation helps in this way as well. The stronger we are inside, the less we have to lean on others. The more clarity we bring to our own actions, the less we’re likely to harm others. And the greater sense of strength we have inside, the less we’re likely to do unskillful things. Because it’s usually through a sense of weakness or being threatened, being fearful, that we can do harm.

So as we meditate, it’s not just for us. We’re creating the basis for good connections. Without this inner basis for good connections, there’s no telling what kind of connections you’re going to create. You never know how long those connections are going to last. Sometimes they go from one lifetime to another to another to another.

There’s a passage where the Buddha says it’s hard to find someone who hasn’t been your mother in some lifetime, someone who hasn’t been your father, brother, sister, son or daughter. But a lot of those connections are long ago. They’re people you just barely meet this time around, and that’s it. Other people, as soon as you meet them, it’s like two magnets: You’re drawn together. But magnetism can be either good or bad. You have to be careful."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Limits of Interconnectedness"

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