Sam Miller

“Could It Be?” questions whether there is even an autonomous self to make happy. It weaves together ancient Indian and East Asian ideas: we are different iterations of the same underlying reality (Upanishads), that reality is ultimately ungraspable (Daoism), and we are empty of independent essence (“could it be so empty”—Buddhism’s doctrine of emptiness/śūnyatā). Liberation arises through detachment and letting go. Embracing radical interconnectedness also points toward Robin Wall Kimmerer’s idea of mutual flourishing.