Indra’s Net
The Teaching
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. The artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each “eye” of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in all dimensions, the jewels are infinite in number.
If we now 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.
Commentary
Indra’s Net is one of the most beautiful images in world philosophy for the nature of interconnected reality. Every jewel reflects every other jewel, every being, every moment, every event contains the whole.
This is what you sense when you feel everything is interconnected, when the Fibonacci sequence gives you wonder. That intuition is not pre-spiritual, it is already the deepest spiritual insight. You are perceiving Indra’s Net before you have a name for it.
Black Elk’s sacred hoop, the center is everywhere, is the same image. The Hermetic sphere whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere is the same image. Modern physics’ quantum entanglement is the same intuition approached through measurement.