Being

In your moment of seeing the whole in the fine, glimpsing the holographic ocean in a drop of water

Scripture

A dust mote rests on the light; the cosmos shrinks into its pupil.

An image stands on a needle’s tip; the image unfolds the infinite.

Being is containing, is shrinking; being is receiving, is enriching.

The small is the seed of the great; being is containing, is seeding.

One instant contains a kalpa; the kalpa-wave has not yet flooded.

One glance, one universe; containing and releasing at ease.

Wenzi · On Being

You stare at a dew-drop on a morning leaf, about to fall yet not fallen. The sunlight slants in, and in its round belly condenses a whole world—the inverted far mountains, the miniature clouds, even your own distorted yet clear reflection. A grain of dust rests on a beam of light, casting a huge shadow on the surface of the drop (a dust mote rests on the light).

You lean closer, closer still, until your pupil almost touches the surface of the drop (the cosmos shrinks into its pupil). On that tiny curved surface, you seem to see the universe (the cosmos) “shrunk” into your gaze.

“Being is containing, is shrinking; being is receiving, is enriching.” A fact reveals itself here: you are in the midst of “containing” and “compressing,” “receiving” and “enriching” (being is containing, is shrinking; being is receiving, is enriching).

“An image stands on a needle’s tip; the image unfolds the infinite.” As the scripture confirms: on the tip of a needle (a needle’s tip), a complete “image” (a world-model) can be set up. And this miniature image can deduce and present endless changes and possibilities (the image unfolds the infinite).

Do not shift your gaze. In this dew-drop, make one journey of consciousness.

Imagine your consciousness shrinking to the nano-scale and entering this drop of dew.

You will find that inside it is not an empty liquid, but a vast micro-universe following the same physical laws. Molecular nebulae; gravity formed of hydrogen bonds; Brownian motion like meteor showers.

“The small is the seed of the great; being is containing, is seeding.” And so you fully realize: the small (the small) contains all the “seeds” and genes of the great (is the seed of the great). Within this “containing” is contained the “seed-nature” that will unfold everything in the future (being is containing, is seeding). The dew-drop is the embryo of the ocean.

“One instant contains a kalpa; the kalpa-wave has not yet flooded.” In time it is the same: one brief “instant” contains all the information and possibility of a long “kalpa-wave” (one instant contains a kalpa). Only that surging tide (the kalpa-wave) has not yet unfolded into a flood (has not yet flooded). The present is the miniature film of eternity.

“One glance, one universe; containing and releasing at ease.” At last, between your “one glance” (one glance), you have taken in and released a complete “universe” (one universe). This containing and releasing is so natural, so at ease. You are not looking at a dew-drop—you are reading, through the dew-drop, the holographic manual of the universe.

The dew-drop will at last fall, and evaporate.

But that “holographic law” revealed by the dew-drop

has been printed deep in your consciousness.

You are not a scientist observing the fine—

you are that dew-drop itself, that holographic meta-point which,

in its finest form, contains the whole of the vast.

Being-Containing: you are not the bystander—you are that holographic substance itself, the eternity running within one instant.