"And what is the relationship of each creature to the others?'

"Fa Tsang answered, 'Just watch, your majesty, how each mirror not only reflects the one flame in the center, each mirror also reflects the reflections of the flame in all the other mirrors, until an infinite number of flames fills them all. All these reflections are mutually identical; in a sense they are interchangeable, in another sense each one exists individually. This shows the true relationship of each being to its neighbor, to all that is. Of course, I must point out, your majesty,' Fa Tsang went on, 'that this is only a rough approximate and static parable of the real state of affairs in the universe, for the universe is limitless and in it all is in perpetual multidimensional motion.' Then the master covered one of the infinite number of reflections of the flame and showed how each apparently insignificant interference affects the whole organism of our world. Kegon expresses this relationship by the formula: One in all, all in one, one in one, all in all.

"Then Fa Tsang, in order to conclude his command performance, held up a small crystal ball and said, 'Now watch, your majesty, how all these large mirrors and all the myriad forms they reflect are mirrored in this little sphere. See, how in the ultimate reality, the infinitely small contains the infinitely large and the infinitely large the infinitely small, without obstruction. Oh, if only I could demonstrate to you the unimpeded mutual interpenetration of time and eternity, of past, present and future. But alas, this is a dynamic process that must be grasped on a different level….'

"Man is not an island; nothing is. All is interrelated, all is interdependent. Independence – the very word – is false; so is dependence. The reality is interdependence.

"Everything is so deeply connected with everything else that nothing can exist apart. If you can understand a small roseflower in its totality, root and all, you will have understood the whole cosmos, because the whole cosmos is involved in that small roseflower. In the smallest leaf of grass all is contained. But remember, as Fa Tsang said to the empress: All illustrations, all descriptions are static, and existence is a dynamic flux."