Order of Interbeing aspirant Nanala McMillan shares her call to compassionate action and commitment to serving the mahasangha bringing meaning to her life as a young adult.

If you asked me just a few years ago, “What is the meaning of life?” I probably would have said something along the existential lines of, “There is no meaning. I’m just doing me.” Many young adults, like myself, have expressed the same outward perspective. Get good grades, get a degree, go to work, get married, have kids. These concepts are spoonfed to us from a young age. There isn’t much time to think about what life is truly about. While not necessarily in that line of order, I found myself stuck in the same neverending whirlpool of thoughts. What is the meaning of life? What is my role in this life?

Visiting Blue Cliff Monastery for the first time in May 2023, it felt like my life suddenly shattered into a million pieces. All my wrong perceptions and suffering was put under a spotlight. Instead of having to put myself back together again all alone, there was a community—a sangha—to pick up all the pieces, each sharing a profound lesson and story with me. One of these pieces returning to my heart was the Order of Interbeing.

After looking deeply, I felt great resonance with the teachings and the Mindfulness Trainings. I committed to building mindful consumption in all aspects of my life. It was a natural progression when these aspirations started to grow outside of my own path to envelop all those around me on this shared Earth. The trainings offered me the necessary steps to overcome my fears and obstacles. Coming back to my breath, I ease my anxiety and see that this too shall pass. The Bodhisattvas Avalokiteśvara and Samantabhadra particularly transmitted to me the importance of touching compassion and being a living embodiment of the practice, not just for myself but for the sake of all beings. Standing on the bridge facing the large monument of Avalokiteśvara at Magnolia Grove Monastery, her eyes of compassion touched me. It was at that moment in the 2024 90-Day Rains Retreat that I felt clarity in what comes next. Learning to live with less, creating space for stillness has in turn created capacity for more. More joy, more love, more peace. The Order of Interbeing generously offers this path, a North Star, to nurture these seeds in order to blossom into a beautiful flower, committing to a service for both myself and the greater sangha.

I wish to offer this blossoming flower to my peers, my fellow young adults. When asked to reflect on my aspirations, I saw the faces of my past classmates, my friends on and off the path, my beautiful partner. The Order of Interbeing is presently celebrating its 60th Anniversary, and we are the seeds left in its footprints being beckoned to sprout by the warm hug of the sun and the Dharma rain. A torch being passed down. The importance of young adults in the practice space is not just an aspiration but a need that will have an impact on the entire human race. We are the next generation of the Order of Interbeing, a generation that has proven to stand up against injustice and be the voice for those who cannot speak. It is we who will answer to the next calls to action, facing a world on fire with a boundless collective capacity to embrace those suffering with our understanding, deep listening, and loving speech. When asked to share about The Third Mindfulness Training “True Love” on a panel during the Family Retreat at Blue Cliff Monastery in 2025, I was the first to receive a question during the following question and response session. This question was asked by another young adult looking for guidance in navigating the trainings in her life. After the panel was over, I received multiple encouragements from older adults. The importance of having young adults in a space dominated by an older demographic had spoken clearly that night, and something grew in my heart.

Swimming upstream against the currents of the world is a difficult but noble task. If I had someone like myself now to look up to when I was growing up and going through college, perhaps my courage would have been sufficiently watered to pause and come back to my true nature even earlier. To see that a life outside the box is possible, even if the strained voices of the world like to tell us it’s not. Many of us in our twenties are called away from ourselves, tempted by a newfound false sense of freedom and expectations. Addiction is prevalent among us—pornography, drugs, alcohol. The Fifth of The Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings, Compassionate, Healthy Living, hits home for many of us. I am building what is now a lifelong practice to uphold these trainings in order to nurture a collective well of true understanding and diligence from which others can drink.

I compassionately challenge my peers to pause and look deeply into “how we nourish our body and mind with edible foods, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness.” It may feel scary, it may feel overwhelming, but there are those of us who are here to share this journey. The Wake-Up Sangha (ages 18–35) is an ever-blossoming force of youth building fire in their hearts and stillness in their minds. When we are our authentic selves, following our hearts instead of a blueprint laid out for us, we can enthusiastically show up for our wellbeing and the wellbeing of the Earth. The practice is a lifelong journey; it is not a linear progression or a mark to check off a list. How you show up today is more than enough. “Peace begins with your lovely smile.” Freedom comes from within. Let’s use that freedom to help others free themselves from their attachments and suffering. Be a light at the end of the tunnel, a torch. Instead of losing ourselves in over-consumption, let’s practice consuming in a way that inspires joy and confidence in ourselves and others.

Like angels dressed in brown, the Order of Interbeing and Thích Nhất Hạnh have shown me the way out of many years of suffering down a path that I no longer have to walk alone. As we celebrate these sixty years of compassion and a call to action, I reflect on how I will live these next sixty years of my life. How will we pass down the torch to those who come after us? I now see the meaning of life is right here, right now. This very moment and the miracle of life that comes with it. My role is to smile, to be the light in my life and the light calling others back to their true home.