Indra's Net
"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 tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each "eye" of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering "like" stars in 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."
This quote comes from a well-documented Wikipedia articles on Indra's Net. It is cited as coming from this book: Cook, Francis H. (1977) Hua-Yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra, Penn State Press, ISBN 0-271-02190-X.
I'm inspired to post here my musical reflection on this scripture. I chose to write a fugue on this text a few years ago. Here is a recording made by my friends--each of whom is a pearl of great price who reflects the light of all, to be sure. In case you have a group of friends who sing and you want the sheet music, here is the SSAB version and here is the SATB version of the piece.
A fugue seemed appropriate since each voice reflects the other voices--like the jewels in the net. This conception of the universe as filled with being capable of reflrecting and re-reflecting light from the source is a comfort to me. If I am one of the jewels all I have to do is faithfully let the light that comes from others, and from the pervasive and unnameable source shine through me. It is a beautiful vision.
