"Indra's Net is a profound
and subtle metaphor for the structure of reality. Imagine a vast net;
at each crossing point there is a jewel; each jewel is perfectly clear
and reflects all the other jewels in the net, the way two mirrors placed
opposite each other will reflect an image ad infinitum. "The jewel in
this metaphor stands for an individual being, or an individual consciousness,
or a cell or an atom. Every jewel is intimately connected with all other
jewels in the universe, and a change in one jewel means a change, however
slight, in every other jewel." --Stephen Mitchell, The Enlightened Mind
"People are the primary
units of the actual community, and the community is composed of the
units. But each unit has in its nature a reference to every other member
of the community, so that each other member of the community, so that
each unit is a microcosm representing in itself the entire all-inclusive
universe."
-- Alfred North Whitehead, 1926 lecture: Body and Spirit
