The fundamental delusion of humans…
“The fundamental delusion of human beings is the belief that we are separate and independent from the rest of the universe. ‘There is the whole universe,’ a human thinks ‘plus something, and that something is me.”
~ Reb Anderson Roshi, writing in ‘Being Upright - Zen Meditation and the Bodhisattva Precepts.’
When we believe that we exist separately from the universe and everything else, we become focused on our perceived uniqueness and grow attached to the concepts that reinforce this misunderstanding.
Instead, we are profoundly interconnected to the universe, one another, and all living things. At our atomic core, there is no difference between you and me, the ocean, its many species, or the stars in the sky.