Thursday, March 24, 2011

Reflections and Indra's Net

I took this photograph at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston last month. If you look carefully, you can see me at the instant I took the photo in the upper right hand corner of the image. But it is not really me but a reflection, reflecting not reality but a digital image. That makes sense in Eastern philosophy where self is considered an illusion: Nothing in and of itself but merely a reflection of all that surrounds us. The Rig Veda has a name for these reflections: Indra's Net.

At every crossing of the threads there is an individual.
And every individual is a crystal bead.
And every crystal bead reflects
not only the light from every
other crystal in the net
but also every other reflection
throughout the entire universe.

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