Enjoying an Extraorditary World

Aum Namah Sivaya.

Our monks are heading into a three-day retreat, so you'll hear from us again on Saturday. We've put together a fun little guessing game for you. Time to peruse through a very small world, and find out just how vast it is. If something so small can be so big, than what we consider big must be huge, right? Yet for all its vast vistas, our beautiful planet is but a speck floating through nearly infinite space, and existing as a short blip in an infinite cycle of time. Surely if time and space are infinite in all directions, it is our awareness and perspective that matter most. With all of that existence "out there," and with a personal evolution spanning untold eons, on untold worlds, in untold dimensions, our inner Self has us experiencing a life that is right here, right Now. It must be rather important, don't you think?

Can you guess what this is? See the next slide to find out.

Answer: The foot of a Diving Beetle. And how about this?

A: The scales on the wing of a butterfly. And this? Liquid gold, perhaps?

A: It sure is gold for some people. It\

s actually Espresso crystals. Can you guess this next one? Here\'s a hint: it\'s part of a plant.'

A: The tip of a corn root. Didn\

t see that coming I bet. This next one is too easy so we won\'t even give you an answer on the next slide...'

Ah, here\

s something a little more mysterious. '

A: It was a human fingerprint. This one should be a little harder. It\

s something really, really small.. '

A: Looking into the eye of a fruit fly. Ok, that was hard, so here\

s an easy one.'

A: The stem of a leaf. Lets zoom out for a second and rest our minds on this famous curvy street.

What\

s this, another winding roadway? '

A: Not quite, it was a close up on the leaves of moss. This Next one is a little tricky. We\

re on the cellular level now. The cells have more structured cell walls, so they\'re likely not animal cells. '

A: The cells of a Jasmine Leaf. Here is your next challenge.

A: Dandelion Seeds. And now for a really tough one. Some sort of fungi perhaps, or the eyes of something scary?

A: Nope, it\

s a microscopic look at phosphate. Oookkay, all that was really hard. So we\'ve zoomed way out to give you a really, really easy one...'

A: Whoops, turns out that wasn\

t the sunset you thought it was, but was actually the sunset on Mars! I guess we zoomed too far out. Here\'s the next one. It sure is cool looking. '

A: Copper crystals. Ok, lets take a break and enjoy this ant trying to roll a drop of water.

This one might look like abstract digital art, and it has been colorized, but it\

s a real photo. What could it be?'

A: It\

s a human brain cell. Ok, here\'s another easy one. Two trees, right?'

A: Nope, not trees.. they are actually structures made by slime mold. So, this next one must be a artistic painting of bamboo?

A: It\

s actually the fin of a Zebra fish. How about this one?'

A: That\

s right! A butterfly Proboscis. Ok, zooming out again to enjoy a peaceful island.'

And, another peaceful island?

A: Nope, some algae actually. Out we go again to enjoy some rice paddies.

Ok, obviously not more rice. So what could it be?

A: The cells of a leaf of course. For this next one, we\

re going to guess, it\'s a closeup of a polished Teepee-Canyon Agate?'

A: It\

s actually an aerial shot of the Zhangye Rainbow Mountains. This is our Agate!'
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