One of the core themes in the darma that is somewhat downplayed in Western culture is the very very consistent emphasis that the Buddha placed upon human

interdependence connection as a foundation for healing.

And not only the famous suta,

ufada, I think it means the half-sua where

Ananda,

has the Buddha, is it true that wise, compassionate friends

are half of the path and the Buddha says that's not true.

They're the entirety of the path.

There's nothing without them. And then there's list after list in the

number of discourses where the Buddhist says before you can develop any of the spiritual faculties that will heal and will even cultivate the

and the possibility of experiencing inner peace, there has to be a foundation of empathetic human connection.

So why is that? Well, the core drive for all human beings is attachment, not individuation. That was actually for a little while psychologists thought it was individuation that was a terrible mistake.

And as we know from the work of John Bowly, Mary Ainsworth, Mary Main, etc.

That the core drive that we are born with,

and this has been established through cross-disciplines, neuropsychology and onwards, that the human brain is wired to look for connection with other humans.

The first thing that really gets wired up, fusiform gyrus in the brain is what allows us to

make out other faces, other facial expressions.

This is because, frankly, human beings need other human beings to regulate our emotions and regulate our nervous systems with sympathetic

nervous systems. It could be called limbic co-regulation. Without other people, we essentially become disregulated.

What this means if you were a squirrel and something frightens you,

you would run up a tree, find a very distant branch, and eventually your heartbeat and your nervous system would respond to normal.

If you were a bird at something terrified that you take flight and wind up on a perch somewhere and then

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