OPENING WORDS
June 4, 2017
Rev. Emily Wright-Magoon
As UUs, we talk often about our belief in the interdependent web of life.
But what do we mean by “web”? Surely, we do not mean a spider’s web, meant to trap our prey?
Have you heard the story of Indra’s jeweled net? It is an ancient Buddhist and Hindu text.
This is a metaphor put forward by a Buddhist teacher who lived centuries before Jesus, and asked his students to imagine an infinite, vast net, that extends in all directions…
at each juncture of the net, there lies a jewel.
Each jewel reflects all the other jewels in this cosmic matrix.
Every jewel represents an individual life form, atom, cell or unit of consciousness.
Each jewel, in turn, is intrinsically and intimately connected to all the others.
Thus, a change in one gem is reflected in all the others.
This is the interconnected, interdependent web of all life – it speaks of our relation to one another and all beings. One tug or tear on the web affects each part of the web.
One repair of the web – or net – strengthens the whole.
So, as we sit together today, and as we hear each other’s stories later in the service, let us consider the web of life – that jeweled net – that connects us all.
Sometimes it feels like a trap, sometimes like a tangle…
but ultimately it is our reality, our support, our life with one another and the world.
Today, we make those strands between us visible – and remind one another that we are each a precious jewel, reflected in one another.
-Rev. Emily Wright-Magoon
Indra's Jeweled Net
