I’d often heard that the lotus flower symbolizes the enlightenment of a human mind. The seed (a person), planted into the murky depths of mud and water (this world), after striving towards the light it can barely sense from the bottom (meditation, living life), blooms into a beautiful flower (happiness, enlightenment). But it was pretty academic until I saw the lotus flowers at the Huntington last week. The picture does not do them justice, but seeing the murky ponds, with scum floating, and bugs jumping, juxtaposed next to the pure white lily of the blossom really drove it home. It inspired me to renew my meditation practice (which is always shaky at best).
What inspires you toward embiggening yourself, mentally, spiritually, or physically?
5 responses so far ↓
1 Elise // Aug 9, 2007 at 6:02 pm
I chose a lotus flower as the central part of my tattoo design exactly for the description you wrote above.
I find myself feeling “bigger” mentally, spiritually, and physically when I’m in grand parts of nature. The beach/ocean (when it’s not over-run by tourists) causes me to feel such incredible awe. I love the coastline right when the sun is rising in the morning before anyone else is there. Mountain ranges have the same effect of me - I spent the morning hiking in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah. I started in cool, shaded, wooded areas and eventually worked my way into dry, dusty, desert that led to a large, beautiful waterfall. (It’s ironic to me that to get to to the waterfall, you have to pass through a dry patch with very little green or growing.)
There are certain people that make me feel bigger, too. But I have that experience in nature more often than with people.
2 nee // Aug 11, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Your experience in seeing the contrast of the lotus and its environment reminds me of a sight I’ll be seeing soon.
Within the next month or so, there will be sunflowers everywhere around here. They will sprout up along roadsides, urban and rural. They will spring up in ditches and suburban common areas.
Most notably, their seeds will lodge in a crack somewhere along a cement median in the middle of the city, somewhere along a major street. People will find themselves staring out during a long red light, waiting to turn. If they don’t stare right past, they will notice these beautiful flowers which are flourishing in difficult terrain.
Every year I am amazed to see these flowers rising in a cement jungle against the odds, grabbing what they need to grow somehow in some way. They embiggen me. They inspire me to find a way to grow when circumstances are ridiculously challenging.
3 Miko // Aug 12, 2007 at 5:56 pm
nee: I love that! Are they the product of the “garbage” sunflower seed eaters have tossed uncaringly to the wind? That makes them seem even better than loti
4 nee // Aug 12, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Nah, those are a different variety.
5 Miko // Aug 13, 2007 at 7:24 am
*dreams shattered* It still sounds like a beautiful event: may I request pictures?
Leave a Comment