Are we related? (Hexagram 8 -- UNITY)

Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality.

(Ian McEwan, “Only Love And Then Oblivion”)

Is another creature my kin?

Is there really an ineffable thread that runs through and among everything that lives?

...It is so easy, really, to place yourself in another's place -- have you suffered? Have you loved? Do you -- can you -- feel?

Yes, yes, and yes -- I know this in my bones, unless I tell myself otherwise.

Thich Nhat Hanh calls this intrinsic unity, this essential relatedness, interbeing. Here's a moment of interbeing that confirms the truth of UNITY:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1231230/christian_the_lion/

Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one another’s being mingle –

(Percy Bysshe Shelley)