One cannot but be awed by the pictures which come from the Hubble telescope which has recently been upgraded. No words can fully describe some of the pictures.
While this particular image at the left looks like something created from Photoshop it isn't. This is one of 59 images that was released over a year ago by the Maryland-based Space Telescope Science Institute.
Seeing such beauty—and this is what it is—also seems to initiate in us a subtle desire to explore the profound; to know, in other words, what this all means and what am I in this mystifying universe.
Seeing such beauty also seems to prioritize things inside of us to some degree. Perhaps now we are more open to the call from the beyond (P., parato ghoso) which summons us to attempt to lift the veil of appearance and look upon the creative substance of all from which even galaxies and solar systems are made. This is, in fact, what the Buddha realizes upon his awakening as depicted in the Avatamsaka Sutra. We could even say the Buddha merges with the creative substance of the universe, itself, which is his real body. From a deeper reading of the Avatamsaka Sutra we get the impression that the whole of the universe is to be seen as a grand integrated matrix of spiritual forces which are always moving towards the fulfillment of awakening (buddha).
To get a sense of the immensity of the Buddha's vision from the perspective of his spiritual vision under the Bodhi-tree as he gazes upon the world this quotation from the Avatamsaka Sutra seems fit.
"By the blessings of Tathagata’s magic power,
In the ten directions I see every place
In all the worlds and universes
Pervading the vast expanse of space...
Some worlds of pure light are [made],
Suspended steadily in space...
Some are shaped like flowers,
Lamps adorned with jewels,
Some are vast as the ocean,
Spinning like a turning wheel...
Some are slender, some are small,
For they have countless forms—
And spin in various ways...
Some worlds are like a glowing wheel
A volcano...lion or a sea shell...
Infinitely different
Are their forms and shapes..."
If we think about these words uttered by Samantabhadra whose words are animated by the Buddha's spiritual power they poetically describe what the Hubble telescope sees as it looks deep into space.
Comments