Lotus
July 18,
2016
Daniel Scharpenburg Patheos
The Lotus flower is a beautiful plant. It lives in the water. It
often comes out of water that’s muddy and unclean. But with great
beauty, it blooms.
This is
a common symbol in Buddhism. You can see it all over the place in
Buddhist art. It’s really common for images of
Bodhisattvas to be seen sitting
on giant lotus flowers, and maybe holding small ones
too.
One of
the most well known mantras “OM MANI PADME HUM” means “the jewel in
the lotus.” Chanting this mantra is declaring our own intent to
attain Enlightenment.
Different colored
lotus flowers are said to have different meanings in Buddhist
symbolism. The blue lotus represents
Prajnaparamita, the perfection of
wisdom. The gold lotus represents the spiritual Enlightenment of
all awakened beings. The pink lotus represents the historical
Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. The red lotus represents
Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion and it’s said to
represent our pure true nature. The white lotus represent purity, a
state in which we aren’t afflicted by the three poisons: greed,
hatred, and delusion. The purple lotus represents the mystical
path.
There’s
an additional layer of meaning. A lotus that is fully open
represents full and complete Enlightenment. A lotus that’s closed
represents the earliest stages on the path.
The
lotus is significant because it’s beautiful and pure. But it came
out of muddy water. Out of impurity comes purity.
We are
the same. We come out of our messy human lives. We exist in a great
deal of suffering, like the muddy water. Many of us have had
horrendous circumstances in our lives. People we care about die. We
struggle in daily life. And most of us have made decisions that are
absolutely awful. (I know I have). We are mired in delusion and
this is like the muddy water.
But,
like the lotus, we can rise above it.
When we
rise above the suffering of our lives, when we let go of the
attachments that don’t serve us well, when we overcome the
preconceptions that are harmful to our well being, we are rising
out of the water. When we purify our minds, we are rising from the
muddy water, beautiful and pure. And as we travel on the spiritual
journey, our lotus blooms.
This is
our spiritual journey. To come out of this delusion and bloom as
pure and Enlightened beings is the essence of the Bodhisattva’s
journey. We exist in the muddy water of suffering, but we are
rising above the suffering in transforming ourselves. The lotus
reminds us that even in the worst, most stained and deluded
circumstances we can rise above things. We can transform
ourselves.
But the
truth is the lotus was pure the whole time, even before it bloomed,
even before it rose above the water. It’s nature didn’t change.
It’s purity simply emerged. We are the same way. Our Buddha nature
is our true nature. Our Enlightenment is right here right now. We
just have to emerge and bloom.