The Net of Indra

Those who experience the unity of life see their own self in all beings and all beings in their own self. – Buddha

Imagine an endless net where in each knot of the infinite mass of intersecting squares, a jewel is sewn. Each pristine jewel reflects all the other jewels in the net, the same method produced when two-way mirrors are placed opposite each other and reflect an image ad infinitum.

In Buddhist teachings this net is referred to as The Net of Indra. Each jewel represents an individual life form, atom, cell or unit of consciousness. Every jewel is intimately connected with all the others and a change in one jewel means a change, however slight, in all the others.

Stephen Mitchell, in his book The Enlightened Mind, wrote: “The Net of Indra is a profound metaphor for the structure of reality.” It reveals what physicists agree to be a powerful illustration of our universe and what Science of Mind often refers to as the interconnectedness of all things. It is the prototype for a world we know can work for everyone.

We are mistaken when we think our actions are our own. The deliberate choosing to be conscious hosts for greater degrees of understanding, love and wisdom casts a permissive reflection within the jewel of everyone’s heart. Our existence is not siloed. We are connected in a quantum net of oneness and what affects one affects all. Believe it when you hear someone say, “You matter.”

There are countless examples of this, how one person’s decision managed to save the extinction of a coral reef thereby positively affecting a coastal community or a dedicated social worker who nurtured and managed the process of a child with such dutiful care then lived to see that child grow into an influential humanitarian. The world is ripe with the possibility of this expanding good.

In his seminal book The Science of Mind, Ernest Holmes wrote, “There is no such thing as your mind, my mind and God’s Mind. There is only Mind, in which we all live and move and have our being.”

Our best gift to humanity is awakening to the sacredness of our being. It is vital we realize that evolving isn’t a luxury but a necessity for our children, our children’s children, and the many generations to come.