The Lost Self Charles Taylor’s Buffered Self and the Social Imaginary of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Interbeing

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Greg Mileski

Abstract

Charles Taylor tracks the emergence in Western modernity of a self-conception as “buffered,” separate from the body, nature, and community. For Taylor, this buffered identity chafes against the felt sense of things, leaving many in our age with a “malaise” and seeking an alternative conception. Christians especially need a new paradigm for understanding the relatedness to which Jesus points. Zen Buddhist teacher and activist Thich Nhat Hanh has explained a key Buddhist teaching, dependent origination, as “interbeing,” a description of reality as based in fundamental relatedness. His understanding begins with conceiving of oneself as an inseparable unity of mind and body. From this, Nhat Hanh draws an expanding picture of relatedness—the self as one with nature and as one with the community. Here, Nhat Hanh articulates an alternative conception of the self, not as buffered, but as inseparable from all else. This paper suggests Nhat Hanh’s interbeing as inspiration for a rediscovery or construction of a similar conception in Christianity.

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