Happy Inter-Dependence Day!
The Shimmeringly Profound Jewel Net of Indra
Hello Spark Zen Readers! I hope you’re all enjoying your Inter-dependence Day weekend. Below is a passage from the book Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra, by Francis H. Cook. Given all the division and strife in our world, I thought I’d highlight our inter-dependence rather than the false view of independence. May all beings be free from suffering. May all beings know peace.
“[This book] presents a view of [humanity], nature and their relationship which might be called . . . ‘cosmic ecology.’ It is a Buddhist system of philosophy which first appeared in a written, systematic form in China in the 7th century, and it was the characteristic teaching of what came to be known as the Hua-yen school of Buddhism. It is a view of existence which is for the most part alien to Western ways of looking at things, but it is a world view well worth consideration, not only as a beautiful artifact appealing to the esthetic sense, but perhaps as a viable basis for conduct, no less plausible than the traditional Western basis.
“We may begin with an image which has always been the favorite Hua-yen method of exemplifying the manner in which things exist. Far away in the Heavenly Abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant taste of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering Jewel in each ‘eye’ of the net, and since the net itself is infinite and dimension, the jewels are infinite in number.
“There hang the jewels, glittering like stars of the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring. The Hua-yen school has been fond of this image, mention many times and its literature, because it symbolizes a cosmos in which there is an infinitely repeated interrelationship among all the members of the cosmos. This relationship is said to be one of simultaneous mutual identity and mutual intercasuality.”