Recently, I had lunch with a friend I hadn’t seen in 20 years.
She reached out to me after discovering my recent work as an artist online.
Interestingly, we had never spent time together one-on-one before. Even though we were classmates, we weren’t particularly close. Normally, I might have just exchanged a few messages and left it at that. But this time, I decided to act immediately and invited her to lunch. I felt that if we had the chance to meet, we should seize it.
As it turned out, she contacted me because she had recently lost her best friend to illness. This made her realize that if you want to see someone, you shouldn’t wait for “someday” but take action immediately.
The way our feelings and timing aligned perfectly made me reflect on the concept of “en” (縁).
En refers not only to relationships between people but also to connections between events, a concept deeply rooted in Eastern philosophy. It originates from the Buddhist term “Innen Shouki” (因縁生起), meaning that everything has a cause (因 - in) and a condition (縁 -en) that bring it into being. Reality is a complex web of interdependent causes and conditions.
Life may seem like it’s shaped by our own actions, but it’s actually a series of “en”, interconnected relationships. When we consider that, we realize that the people around us and the environment we’re in are all a result of these connections. It’s a reminder to cherish them.
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