interbeing

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

Interbeing is Thich Nhat Hanh’s expression for existence through constitutive interdependence: to be is to be with and through others. The corpus uses it to challenge the self-contained individual without denying personal reality or distinction. Its ecological comparisons include vulnerability, asymmetry and material exchange, rather than promising that all relations are harmonious or morally good.

Explanation

AB introduces interbeing beside dependent co-arising and treats the self as an impermanent but consequential relational pattern. Its thinker register retains Thich Nhat Hanh by name. RB3 supplies a direct formulation and a native reference to Interbeing, so this attribution should not become anonymous authorial vocabulary.

RB2’s section headed ecological interdependence and interbeing develops Weber’s account of embodied selves and the biosphere. It emphasizes dependence, contest and the co-generation of individuality and wider life. That ecological treatment is related context, without being presented as a separate Thich Nhat Hanh definition.

AB’s refusal of sentimental relationality and RB2’s discussion of edibility constrain the synthesis. Shared participation can involve predation, decomposition and unequal vulnerability. Neither more connection nor ecological belonging alone supplies an ethical warrant for the institutions and practices people build.

Scope and attribution

A proposed attributed subentry with separately scoped ecological comparison.

AB — The Actual Book

Thich Nhat Hanh’s term clarifies a real but unsealed self.

Occurrence locators: 206; Thinker register: 232.

RB3 — The Real Book, Volume III: Murmurations

The named term is retained with its Buddhist reference.

Occurrence locators: 343.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Named theories and mechanisms are distinguished from neighboring background, homonyms and the author’s own synthesis. Reproduced AI passages retain their separate voice.