This life is described as being like a dewdrop in The Diamond Sutra, and Dogen elaborates on this image in his poem:
To what should I compare this life?
Dogen
Dewdrops, thrown from a crane’s bill.
We imagine dewdrops, thrown into empty space, reflecting the moon, still, in the same vast space.
But what we need to understand is that if there were no dewdrops, there would be no moon. The sky really would be empty. There is no Buddha waiting in Tusita heaven, or anywhere else. There is no preexisting moon, no preexisting world. Both are born together with this dewdrop person. Both exist in this dewdrop eye. When the dewdrop falls, the world falls.
The image of each dewdrop reflecting the moon, reflecting everything, is reminiscent of Indra’s Net, but with two differences. Indra’s net is still, but the dewdrop is thrown; it’s dynamic and temporal. And Indra’s net is in a galaxy unknown to us, but Dogen’s dewdrop is this person in this world, re-created.