How resplendent the luminaries of knowledge that shine in an atom, and how vast the oceans of wisdom that surge within a drop!
— Bahá’u’lláh, Kitáb-i-Íqán ¶107
Wan-sung says: ‘The moment one particle is brought up, the whole earth is contained in it. Who is it that can open the borders and extend the land as a lone rider with a single lance, and so can be the master anywhere and encounter the source in everything?’
— Cleary 1997b, 323
Do not think that to face a person is to understand a person. Do not think that not to face a person is not to understand a person. Those who understand a speck of dust understand the entire world. Those who master one thing master myriad things. Those who do not master myriad things do not master one thing. Because those who study mastering see myriad things as well as one thing through penetration, those who study a speck of dust simultaneously study the entire world.
— Dogen, ‘Shoaku makusa’ (Tanahashi 2010, 102)
One thought. fills immensity.
— Blake (MHH)
This is the abode of those with unobstructed eyes
Who perceive infinite lands, buddhas, beings,
And ages, in a single point, going in and out
Without encountering any boundaries.— Gandhavyuha Sutra (Cleary 1984, 1459)
One statement removes obstructing fixations; one statement fills everywhere. Tell me, which statement do the enlightened ones use to help people?
I have a statement that the enlightened ones have never made, and which I will quote to you.— Dogen (Cleary 1995, 47)