What is Indra's Net?

A myth is something that resonates within each one of us at a deep level. A deep story vibrates our human soul and speaks to us without words. Myths from all over the world can resonate for us, even if we have never met the people that created them. This myth of 'Indra's Net' affirms for me that our actions, words and intentions really matter. The story speaks to the interconnectedness and interdependency of everything and everyone in the universe. Here is the myth of Indra’s Net, according to the Mahayana Buddhist tradition in the Avatamsaka Sutra

Far away in the Heavenly abode lived the god Indra. Indra, the god of natural forces that protect and nurture life, had a problem and thought deeply for a solution. Indra yearned to protect and nurture life of the entire universe, as all life is all the same. He saw that the whole cosmos was contained in a single grain of dust. Thus, Indra, by some cunning, hung a net around the universe so that it stretched out in all directions. The net was infinite; it had no beginning and no end. At each place where the net came together Indra placed a knot. In a gesture of extravagance that only a god can manage, on each knot Indra hung a beautiful jewel which contains and reflects every other jewel in the net. When Indra touched any jewel in the net, all other jewels in the web resonated.

If we select a jewel for viewing and look deeply into the jewel, each jewel contains every other jewel in the net. Each jewel contains all life in the universe. Just as within the seed lives the flower it grows to be, you contain seeds of your ancestors.

The myth I include on my Maine Coon Cats page shows this interconnection. Therefore, I am as careful where I place my artwork as I am with my breeding program and to whom I choose to sell my cats. Each piece of Artwork and each Kitten I sell is in my home 'under foot' until ready to send to its Forever Home with pride, love and thoughtfulness.

10% of all profits return to help Animal Rescue Efforts.

Capra, Fritjof: The Turning Point, 1982
Cook, Francis H.: Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel of the net of Indra. The Avatamsaka Sutra. 1977.
Indigo Children
Thich Nhat Hanh. Dharma Talk: Avatamsaka Sutra. Plum Village, France. January 2004.