On a quiet Saturday afternoon, one’s thoughts are liable to coalesce around the strangest things. Hence this post. I admired, briefly, Kew’s speeded up video of a lotus blooming, and thought no more of it.
Until I came across an illuminating post over at Gardenvisit.com that happened to be about … the lotus, specifically the sacred lotus of Buddhism. And, of course, what I didn’t know was the symbolic reason for the sacred status of the lotus:
The Sacred Lotus has importance in Buddhism because it grows from murky waters and struggles to raise its pure and beautiful flower into the sunlight, with the lesson is [sic] that humans should do likewise.
Which is as interesting, in its own way, as Kew’s koan for further contemplation: that the flower opens twice, to prevent self pollination.