In moments of utmost solidarity and silence emerges a beautiful flower; it is a white lotus. Nowhere found and never been seen, the flower rises upwards from the dark pond. Beauty is rare, and this kind of beauty is even less known.
I have heard about lotus, but never had a chance to see it come to bloom. Now that I am standing in front of it, I happen to intrude on the most mythical process of creation. At the hour when the flower comes to life, I find myself looking into the beauty of quiet intuition as I dip into a calming melody of the white lotus.
The song starts with slow and soft tunes, one note after another, and finally forms millions of small circles of music. Each circle slides off the petal, falls onto the water, then dissolves into thousands of other circles. The music, now with wings, travels on the water and quickly sprays a layer of mist over the pond. The flower shivers in fresh happiness of finding its new form of existence and slowly sings a song of life. I am deeply intrigued and lowering my breathing in fear of my noise disturbing the magic moment.
After years of evolution in the darkness, deep at the bottom of the pond, comes a wish to life. A lotus has been chosen to bear a seed of creativity. Not sure why, how, and when the wish was made. Perhaps the wish may have been different: being a bird flying in the sky, a leaf on the high tree, a glimpse of light by the window, or anything lively on earth. And here it is -- a lotus, the flower from a muddy pond. In the process of its creation, there is no sound, no movement, no taste, but I can feel its existence. A beautiful lotus in bloom does more awakening to the mind than anything else; it is like a knock on the door of consciousness, a bell singing to newly born spirits, morning rain softly tapping on the roof. In the minutes of silence and prayers arrives a ray of hope, a white bird of peace, a house of faith. Lotus is a flower of spirit, an invisible soul that transcends in time and appears from the most unexpected. When beauty happens in a place of murky chaos, it can only happen because of love, with love, and for love. It lives through a contrast of black and white, beauty and evil, divinity and existence; what else can be more amazing?
Wait, is it just me or where is this great smell coming from? A smell of pure sweetness with enchanting attraction lingers in my hair and it gradually mingles in the air, suddenly covers the pond with a profound sense of magic consolidation. I feel a powerful transfer of internal confidence and self- acceptance. I cannot tell whether this is a flower or it is in fact a living manifestation of something surreal rising above all things and truly bears a great spirit of contentment. Being its own self, different than any others, living far away from the rest of the flower garden, lotus is surely moving into its world, breathing the air it creates and growing from the foundation of a black pond what is comparable to chaos of earthy suffering. Just being happy with its life as a lotus and blooming for the happiness of being in new existence has made the flower legendary. But the meaning is simple, and it will always be, because the flower has no understanding of its significance. Lotus is not meant to be and will never be flamboyant. That is what made it so special and yet down to earth. It is not a rose full of pride and power, not a magnolia famous for sophisticated elegance, not a camellia with tiny smiles of timidity, either. A lotus is a lotus, and that is its uniqueness in the sea of flowers.
A sense of belonging fills me as I continue to look into the amazing colorful core of the lotus and surprisingly find a fraction of my own self happily sleeping on the petals. A dream has come true. A wish has found a wisher. The world's wonder is right here and now. Answer to mystery is nowhere farther, and a struggle of existence has matured in time for a life of companionship. The song of a lotus continues playing and I am entering a deep sleep; it is peaceful here - a home of acceptance and complete recognition that possesses the limitlessness of infinity. I am breathing in the life of a lotus as the music goes on.