Given our interconnectedness, it is essential to overcome the myth of separateness and to wake up to the responsibility we share for one another. Truly realizing this generates a sense of empathy and ethics. It brings awareness of how our human choices generate health and harmony—or not—within our families, societies, and the environment as a whole.

The obstacle is ignorance. Ignorance imagines that individuals are not interdependent; it perpetuates the myth of separateness. And with six or seven billion human beings whose chief concern is the comfort and convenience of a separate self, living together on a densely populated planet, how could that not be a problem?-  

Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche (1967 CE-), Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoch is a lama in Tibetan Buddhism. Born in Kalimpong, India and the daughter of the late Mindrolling Trichen, Khandro Rinpoche was recognized by Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa at the age of two as the reincarnation of the Great Dakini of Tsurphu Monastery, Urgyen Tsomo, who was one of the most well-known female masters of her time.