Our life is one

“One day, during one of my first visits to the United States, I was having lunch at Boston University with some friends, and I was looking down at the Charles River. I had been away from home for quite some time, and seeing the river, I found it very beautiful. So I left my friends and went down to wash my face and dip my feet in the water, as we used to do in our country. When I returned, a professor said, 'That’s a very dangerous thing to do. Did you rinse your mouth in the river?' When I told him yes, he said, 'You should see a doctor and get a shot.'

I was shocked. I hadn’t known that the rivers here were so polluted. Some of them are called 'dead rivers.' In our country the rivers get very muddy sometimes, but not that kind of dirty. Someone told me that the Rhine River in Germany contains so many chemicals that it is possible to develop photographs in it. If we want to continue to enjoy our rivers – to swim in them, walk beside them, even drink their water – we have to adopt the non-dual perspective. We have to meditate on being the river so that we can experience within ourselves the fears and hopes of the river. If we cannot feel the rivers, the mountains, the air, the animals, and other people from within their own perspective, the rivers will die and we will lose our chance for peace.” Thich Nhat Hanh