By Pamela Boyce Simms
Cross-posted from Befriending Creation, Quaker Earthcare Witness
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Quakers who celebrate their unity with nature, like Buddhists, know that separation of humans from nature is an artificial construct.
In fact, the absence of an isolated, permanent self which is separate and independent of the environment is at the heart of Buddhist practice. In Buddhism, “no [permanent] self” is the first “mark of existence.” i understand my “self” to be a process –a continually changing flow of interactions with my environment. Therefore, i am my environment and my environment is me.
Buddhism Buddhist Practice contemplative practice Quakerism spiritual deepening