Chapter 13: Like, Wow, Everything is One (At Most)

What is interdependence?

Things that work together to sustain existence.

What is interdependent co-arising?

Things which may seem to exist independently of other things are in fact dependent for their existence and their character on other things.

What does Wright mean by "the exterior not-self experience?"

This consists of looking at the "outside" world—at things beyond your skin—and asking, "in what sense are these things not a part of me?"

How is tanha involved in the sense of self as bounded?

Tanha sustains and strengthens the sense of boundedness that, during the exterior not-self experience, weakens.

What, according to Wright, is the central experience of Buddhism.

The experience of feeling at one with the world or closer to feeling like you are nothing. Not-self and emptiness come together.

Is the skin a significant boundary between self and others?

The whole question being raised is whether it really makes sense to think of everything on the inside as me and everything on the outside as other.

How might dissolving the illusion of boundaries lead to better behavior?

We feel a boundary that is not ultimately as real as we think and moving toward the ultimate truth involves the dissolution of that boundary. Thinking of the bounds of self not being bounds can lead to better behavior.

Symbiosis, gut bacteria, and the self—if you depend upon the billions of organisms alive inside and on your body, and they affect how you experience the world, are they part of your "self?

Yes, you need them to live (personality, serotonin)