Interbeing and Collective Interdependence

Rabia's teaching that love dissolves the boundary between lover and beloved suggests a worldview of radical interdependence. In organizing, this reframes the relationship between individual and community: your wellbeing is inseparable from mine. This challenges Western individualism that treats community work as charity or volunteering. Instead, it's recognized as enlightened self-interest—mutual aid in the truest sense. When organizers help members experience this interbeing, people move from transactional thinking (what do I get?) to regenerative thinking (how do we all thrive together?). This perspective transforms how communities approach resource-sharing, decision-making, and conflict. Rather than scarcity competitions, members see investments in others as investments in themselves. This worldview is particularly powerful in low-income communities where actual material interdependence is already present, needing only recognition and honoring.