What is interconnectedness? Interconnectedness is a concept that has been known to humans throughout history, in one form or another. Interconnectedness is a network of things that depend on each other for their existence. When things are interconnected they lack a true separation from each other, and any distinction between parts is merely for convenience of description, not an accurate representation of the truth. Where can we see interconnectedness? Social networks, the internet, mass media, our bodily systems, and even the global biosphere are examples of interconnectedness that affect our everyday lives.
Oneness is nearly a synonymous concept to interconnectedness. It is the same idea taken a step further, that an interconnected network of parts or things is in reality a single object. Oneness is a prominent idea in modern science as well as spirituality. Quantum physics tells us that things are not really separable, but are part of a bigger wave of energy that appears separable from our illusory perspective. Buddhists, Hare Krishna’s, Hindus, and the Abrahamic religions discuss methods of becoming one with God/The Universe/Krishna/Christ/etc. by overcoming our egocentric, isolationist perspective on reality, that we are purely individuals that have no relation to the world around us.
Human beings have progressively lost their sense of oneness and interconnectedness with each other and the Earth over the last few centuries. The idea that we can do whatever we want to the environment without any lasting repercussions to ourselves is a result of this line of thinking. Politicians take our people to war on other people (who they forget are also people), big businesses slash down forests, BP and other oil companies negligently assume that they can conduct their line of work without destroying the lives of human beings or other animals, etc. All of these stem from the underlying problem of forgetting our connection to other things, people, and organisms, that their well being is directly tied to ours.
I would argue that lack of harmony is the cause of every major problem everywhere on the Earth. Harmony, according to a Google definition search is “congruity of parts with one another and with the whole”; it is an interconnection of parts to parts, and parts to whole, a state of oneness. Harmony in the way we typically understand it is the concept derived from music. A harmonious piece of music is soothing to the ears, every instrument works together with the others to produce a coherent sound. Music that lacks harmony is jolting and stimulates uneasiness, confusion, and anxiety, physiologically and psychologically; instruments lack cohesion or are even conflicting in their relations. In the same way, we are part of a global concerto of bodies, minds, and souls. For as long as we are alive we must play our own musical piece, but if we play it in the wrong way or in the improper place or time, we can ruin the delicate balance of the harmonious state of oneness that captivates audiences.
Following this analogy, nature comprises the majority of the global biological orchestra of being. This orchestra has a conductor. Call it God, call it evolutionarily influenced rules of biospheric maintenance, call it whatever you want. Nevertheless, this conductor utilizes the principles of balance, harmony, interconnectedness, and oneness. Bees pollinate the trees that feed them nectar; trees breathe the carbon dioxide that other organisms exhale and transform it into oxygen which other organisms breathe; carnivores maintain the population of herbivores, which maintain the population of plants, which maintain the population of herbivores, which maintain the population of carnivores, while the decomposers consume and recycle the scraps. In all of these instances, the ouroborical union of interconnected parts yields the harmonic oneness of the biosphere.
All this was once known to our ancestors. Indigenous shamanic belief systems, Native American mythos, the stories and symbols of the ancient precursor Western civilizations, and the religions and philosophies of the East show this. Many modern human beings have either forgotten or tossed out this wisdom in favor of the currently popular ideas of material hedonism and consumerism. Karma is a concept from several Eastern religions. Whether or not you believe in them, Karma undeniably has material truth to it within even this lifetime. If you steal, cheat, harm, or destroy others (people, animals, plants, etc.), you WILL get your due monetarily, legally, psychologically, emotionally, or in some other way, either now or later. This is the principle of balance of the world in action. By that same reasoning, if we don’t change our ways of destroying the environment, defrauding other people out of their money, killing others, or any other harm, the karmic debt will be settled.
The other side of Karma, that is an arguably better orientation to guide one’s actions, is that doing good deeds begets good deeds done on to you. If we treat others (humans, animals, plants, etc.) as they deserve to be treated, and work in harmony with them, they will help us out in return, whether we are aware of it or not. You probably have never met the tree that supplies you with the oxygen you just inhaled into your lungs, nor will you ever be aware that tomorrow’s miracle medicine that saves your life was derived from a rare plant or animal in a rain forest that was supposed to be cut down before it was saved by activists. In the human sphere of things, this is true as well. People are mirrors. How we treat each other reflects back onto us. Your social network’s psychological and emotional well being is directly influenced by how you treat those around you. You can multiply this idea up as much as you want, to the level of nations, and realize that it still holds up. The relations between nations are a direct reflection of the state of relations of the people contained within them. Each of us is like a neuron in a brain. We can work together on tasks to solve them and function as a unit, or we can fragment and continue to be plagued with the psychotic multiple personality symptoms that we have adopted. The choice is for each person to make, but it is absolutely in our best interests to choose unity over fragmentation.
