The foundation of buddhism is dependent origination. The most frequent metaphor for that is Indra’s Net.
We can’t know, but it seems a reasonable guess that the inspiration came from someone looking up at the night sky; the glistening stars through the clear dark air.
For that person, the image was static. For us, it’s dynamic, because we know that when we look at the sky, we’re looking at time. Many of the stars we appear to be seeing are no longer there. There.
From this dharma position, here, now, the star exists. From another dharma position the star doesn’t exist. From the position of the whole, the star exists and doesn’t exist. Hence, empty.
And not just for the star, obviously.