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Here are three life lessons that I learned at a vipassana meditation retreat:

1. All in life is interconnected.
We live in an incredible web of connectedness. Everyone and everything exist in relation to each aspect of their individual life and each tier of collective life:

• Family and generational
• Social and community
• National and global

On Sunday, May 6, the Venerable Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh appeared on Super Soul Sunday on Oprah's OWN network. In a rare interview with Oprah herself, the inspirational monk and gentle spirit discussed his dedication to mindful meditation. Of the many things he talked about, his "four mantras" for relationship success were truly powerful.

Okay, so here's the ugly truth: Marriage sorta scares the crap out of me. Maybe not as much as the possibility of early-onset menopause, and certainly not as much as the idea of Donald Trump in the White House. But still. I may not be some fist-pumping party-girl overwhelmed with the business of continually sewing my oats, or an inherently-unsatisfied-type who is always looking for the bigger, better deal in a man, but in fact when it comes to marriage I'm something worse: I'm a thirty-something first-generation Indian.