because someone sees the value of them and then produces them so that we can use them. No one can escape these conditions, and were anyone to try, he or she would find that it is impossible to live without others. We are all mutually interdependent because all things in the universe have come into being only through their interconnectedness, and they continue to exist solely through their interconnectedness. The Buddhist concept of cause and effect and mutual interconnectedness is the truth that explains humankind's place in this universe. For example, when we speak of time, we must conceptualize a past and a present before we can conceptualize a future. When we speak of space, we must conceptualize a north, south, east and west before we can conceptualize a center. When we speak of human life, we must understand that our own existence depends on the existence of other beings. Without them we could not exist. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Does the fruit on the tree have nothing to do with the seed in the ground? The Buddha said, “This exists and therefore that exists; this was born and therefore that was born; this does not exist and therefore that does not exist; this has been extinguished and therefore that has been extinguished.” The entire system of the universe depends on results arising out of causes; phenomena arise out of principles; being depends on emptiness; forms arise out of conditions; many are produced from one; the Buddha himself arose out of a man. In this same way, we all are dependent on one another for our birth and for our continued existence. In you there is me, and in me there is you. Conditions give birth to things, and conditions extinguish things. All things, in their essence, are equally interdependent. If we can comprehend the conditional interdependence of all things, then we will be
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