Huayan thought portrays the relationship between self and others through the image of Indra’s Net, an infinite web of jewels where each jewel reflects all the others. In this vision, what is conventionally called “self” is not an isolated, self-sufficient entity but a temporary configuration of causes, conditions, and relationships. The self has no independent, fixed essence; it exists only through its dynamic interplay with everything else. Likewise, “others” do not stand over against a solid, separate “me,” but arise within the very same network of conditions. Each being is distinct in appearance, yet each is like a jewel that contains the reflections of all other jewels. Identity, then, is not something sealed off, but something that emerges from this field of mutual reflection and conditioning.

This is expressed in Huayan’s teaching of mutual interpenetration, often summarized as “one is all, all is one.” Self and others are simultaneously different and non-dual: each maintains unique characteristics while, at a deeper level, each contains and is contained by all others. The realm of reality is understood as a seamless whole in which all phenomena arise together, so that every action or thought of any being resonates throughout the entire web. From this standpoint, the boundary between self and others is a useful convention, not an ultimate truth. To harm another is, in this ontological sense, to harm oneself; to benefit another is to benefit oneself. Genuine insight into this interdependence naturally gives rise to compassion, empathy, and a sense of responsibility, since caring for others is inseparable from caring for the totality in which one’s own life unfolds.