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. ~Francis Harold Cook
The
Buddhists use the symbol of the net of Indra as a representation of our interdependence.
Each jewel in the net contains within it
the reflection of all the other jewels, and each reflection is dependent on the
other jewels. It’s the same with people:
We are all dependent on each other and our actions ripple through everyone to eventually reflect back at us. Today I’m asking you to help me make some ripples that will, in the next few weeks, return with abundance.
As some of
you may already know, I launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a yoga video
project of mine. Kickstarter is a website that allows people with ideas but not
enough funds (like me) get the visibility they need to raise enough money to
bring their idea to market. People pledge to pay a certain amount of money and,
if the total amount is raised, the project is backed and the pledgers
contribute. In my case,
I need to raise $18,700 in pledges by May 2.
Certain pledge amounts come with certain rewards (just like on PBS). If I don’t
complete my goal, none of the money pledged to my project will be available. But
that’s not what I want to reflect, and I need your help to make sure that I do
meet my goal. As of writing this, 23 backers
have pledged $1,268! I’m
extremely grateful to all of you who have backed me. I’m asking that you now
help me spread the news about this project far and wide by emailing, posting on Facebook or tweeting on Twitter about my project, found at
In other words, help
me build a net like Indra’s, reflecting support at each eye of the net. With
your help, I know word of this project will ripple through our independent webs
and eventually connect into the dependent web that really exists. Thank you!
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