Love Is More Powerful than Death

In this interview, MIRABAI BUSH is interviewed by PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN about the influence of spiritual practice on relationships and the healing of wounds like betrayal and loss. She also explores the interconnectedness of all beings and the impermanence of life through the lens of spiritual practice.

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Q: Welcome Mirabai. It’s lovely to have you with us again.

Thank you Purnima, for me too.

Q: Today I’d like to ask you about how a spiritual practice can influence our relationship with others.

When I first learned meditation and other practices in the Buddhist tradition, which came out of a monastic setting, they were about sitting on the cushion, closing your eyes, and being with yourself. It had nothing to do with other people. And yoga was something you did with other people, but it wasn’t about relationships. There are old clichés about navel-gazing, and how contemplative practices cut you off from the world and others rather than connect you. Well, the truth is, some practices done in silence, like meditation, do leave you by yourself, even in a room with others. Through spiritual practice, though, you begin to recognize how you are interconnected with everything, including other people.

As you learn to be at home in the space of awareness, you naturally recognize that it holds everything and that there is no other. We’ve been working on a new book, curating some of Ram Dass’s writings on interconnection, and we’re going to call it There Is No Other. Because, at this time, especially in the USA, but also in India, people are increasingly separating themselves from other groups. We know that treating others as if they are separate means they are not treated with the care, love, and respect we give to those we see as like us.

Meditation, and other spiritual practices, help us come home to awareness, show us that there is no other. This is something we begin to know ourselves. We don’t have to hear it from anyone else, though teachers help by reminding us of what we’re discovering inside.