Lotus, Flower of Dharma
One day, Shakyamuni Buddha was with his disciples on Vulture Peak Mountain. In silence, he picked a flower, a simple flower, an udumbara flower, it would be said later. He turned this flower between his fingers as a teaching. Only Mahakashyapa, the future first patriarch, smiled. He had received and perceived. The Buddha thus would have transmitted the very essence of his precious spiritual treasure.
Buddhism and Lotus
In Buddhism, the lotus flower is symbolically linked to the Buddha. The lotus is found beneath the feet of Buddha statues as well as in paintings of the Enlightened One. Indeed, the lotus blooms above the water. Other aquatic plants float on the water. The lotus, between heaven and earth, demonstrates the Buddha's ability to exist in a non-ordinary state.
Another characteristic of the lotus: its flower and its seed coexist, symbolizing the simultaneity of cause (the seed) and effect (the flower) in the law of causality of the universe, which is one of the major concepts of Buddhist philosophy. The lotus draws its vital substance from the mud to flourish, indeed, above the water.
Thus, "the mud" represents sufferings, troubles, desires, which are the very soil of our flourishing. The lotus reminds us that everyone can transform their life by following the law of causality.
