Interbeing

La Racine de l’Expérience

How Things Arise and fall

The Common Ground of All Experience

Exploring the Mystery of Experience

Wie können wir beginnen, das Mysterium unserer Erfahrung zu erforschen – um zu erkennen, was unter allem liegt, was wir sehen, fühlen und denken? Ob wir nach außen in die Welt blicken oder nach innen den Bewegungen des Geistes folgen – was ist die Essenz, die sich unter allen Erscheinungen nicht verändert? Gibt es eine innere Präsenz, die sowohl physische Objekte als auch mentale Gedanken trägt?

Two Doors: Outward and Inward

Let’s open two doors to this mystery: one that leads to the world outside, and one that turns inward.

The Life Cycle of an Apple

Imagine an apple hanging ripe on a tree. For this apple to appear, countless conditions must come together—sunlight, water, soil, warmth, the seed planted in earth. These conditions combine in perfect harmony, giving birth to the apple’s shape, color, and sweetness.

But this apple’s life is not permanent. Over time, it ripens and begins to decay. The water within its cells vibrates less and less until it dries out. Its skin wrinkles, its flesh softens and disintegrates. Bit by bit, the apple returns to the earth, fading away until nothing remains but the soil from which it grew.

Wenn der Apfel verschwindet, bleibt nicht einfach Leere zurück, sondern eine tiefe Stille – jener stille Raum, der schon vor dem Erscheinen des Apfels da war und nach seinem Verschwinden weiterhin besteht. Diese Stille ist kein Objekt; sie ist die ruhige, weite Präsenz, in der die Form des Apfels entstand und sich auflöste.

The Rise and Fall of a Thought

Now consider a thought. Like the apple, a thought arises from countless causes—memories, sensations, desires. It appears clearly and occupies the mind’s stage for a while. Then, just as the apple fades, the thought dissolves into silence.

This silence is not blank or lifeless. It is alive with awareness. The mind becomes still, and in that stillness, awareness recognizes itself—not as an object to be grasped, but as the very presence in which thoughts come and go.

Awareness and Silence: A Self-Recognizing Presence

We tend to mistake this silent awareness as an object, like the apple or the thought itself. But it is not. It is self-recognition—awareness knowing its own stillness, just as water recognizes itself as wetness, fire recognizes itself as warmth, and warmth recognizes itself as fire. Just as wetness cannot be separated from water, and warmth cannot be separated from fire, so too silence and awareness are inseparable aspects of the same reality. The silence that remains after the apple or the thought is the silent, knowing presence that is always here.

The Observer and the Vacuum: Science Meets Awareness

To see how the outer world and inner awareness are deeply linked, consider an experiment from physics. Scientists create a perfect vacuum—a space entirely empty of matter. They measure and confirm the emptiness. But when a conscious observer looks into this vacuum, an atom suddenly appears. When the observer looks away or leaves, the atom vanishes.

Diese bemerkenswerte Entdeckung zeigt, dass das Vakuum – der sogenannte „leere“ Raum – nicht wirklich unabhängig von der Beobachtung ist. Die Anwesenheit eines Beobachters ruft Existenz hervor. Ohne Bewusstsein bleibt das Vakuum leer; mit ihm entstehen Phänomene.

This shows that the observer and the observed are not separate but intertwined. The physical world’s coming into being depends on awareness, just as awareness reveals itself through the world. The silence that remains after the apple dissolves is the same silence within us, the silent awareness that witnesses all.

The Unity of Inner and Outer Silence

Whether it is the stillness left in the space where an apple once was, or the silence after a thought fades, these are not two different silences but one. The silence outside and the silence inside mingle and become one. This is the silence of being aware—the foundation of all experience.

The Space Between: Awareness, Silence, and the Gap

The silence left after all conditions disappear can be found between two thoughts, two emotions, and in the spaces between objects. This silence is inseparable from awareness—it is self-aware because it is awareness itself.

Understanding this awareness means recognizing the gap between that which is observed and the one observing. The wider this gap becomes, the less we cling to what is observed—those shifting thoughts, feelings, and forms that arise and vanish.

By expanding this distance, we rest more fully in awareness, in the stillness that cannot be pulled away by the fleeting objects of perception. We begin to see the illusion of labels and the object-subject divide and realize they cannot define who we truly are.

It is in this spacious resting place—in this mystery of observation—that the depth of our own being reveals itself.

Beyond Inside and Outside: The Ground of All Experience

So whether we look outward into the physical world or inward into the mind, the journey leads us to the same profound ground. This ground is neither inside nor outside, for it cannot be grasped or located. It is the silent presence that allows all things to appear and disappear.

In this silent, still awareness, the dance of subject and object dissolves. There is no longer “me” or “apple,” “observer” or “thought.” There is only the luminous presence—naked awareness, knowing itself beyond all duality.

🌿 The Concept of InterBeing as Interconnectivity

Lorem