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Indra’s Net

Posted on Mar 14, 2012 by

 

From The Open Road by Pico Iyer

Chapter Four, The Philosopher

 

When the Dalai Lama speaks

of interdependence

all he is really saying

is that we are all a part of a single body.

 

Perhaps it’s not surprising

he is famous

for his laughter, the sudden eruption

of helpless giggles

traveling to the point

where everything is connected,

our fascination with division

hilarious.

 

Quarreling over money is like

taking a ten-dollar-bill out of your right-hand pocket

and then,

after a great deal of fanfare and contention,

putting it in your left.

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See also:

The Open Road by Pico Iyer, Part One

Indra’s net at Wikipedia, the source of the above photo

Also the source of this quote by Alan Watts:

Imagine a multidimensional spider’s web in the early morning covered with dew drops. And every dew drop contains the reflection of all the other dew drops. And, in each reflected dew drop, the reflections of all the other dew drops in that reflection. And so ad infinitum. That is the Buddhist conception of the universe in an image.