In this picture, there is water flowing, flowers are blooming and birds are singing. The practice does not stop at emptiness. If we attach ourselves to emptiness it could lead to separation and isolation. So we have to go one stage further, re-entering the world where "having forgotten ourselves, we are enlightened by all things". We realize the interdependence which is at the root of all life. When we are having breakfast in the morning, as we eat and chew a piece of toast we connect with the grain, the green shoots, the earth, the sun, the rain, and appreciate the efforts of all the people who made that piece of toast possible.

Our life is ordinary and just as it is but we look at it differently. We realize that everything expresses the truth of life and awareness, and is talking to us. We do not skip on the surface of things any more but we are intimately related and experiencing every single item without grasping or rejecting. We are not locked in on ourselves anymore but fully open to the world. We are not frightened but on the contrary exhilarated. The world is us and we are the world. All this practice — just to realize what was on our very doorsteps!

from Zen, by Martine Batchelor.