The simile of a star for conditioned things and existence might not be as obvious in its teaching as a mirage or dew drop, illusion or flash of lightning. A star seems so awesome, so majestic and perfect.
The “teaching” before we meditated explains that we know next to nothing factually about stars. The science is rudimentary, replete with surmising, and tries to put a star, its workings, and its capacity into the small box of currently practiced physics. If the physics understood by the ancient human beings who could levitate megalithic stones into perfect positioning were used, there might be some verity. But that is not the case.
In other words, we factually know next to nothing about stars; and the same is so of all conditioned things, people, events and circumstances. Generally, we human beings interact with and react to the surface, the obvious, the right-before us. The voluminous background of energies, causes and conditions, and untapped potential is rarely pondered, and even less frequently engaged.
It is this fundamental ignorance that is one meaning behind the simile of a star regarding conditioned things and existence.
We meditate on this.
