Conversation with a flower

Hi everyone[wave]

Sitting in my garden and enjoying nature come to life again, I decided to do an experiment. In the garden there are some radiant yellow flowers (I don’t know the English name for them) that grow in the grass and are considered to be a weed. An unassuming and humble plant, soon to disappear in the mowing machine. Today I decided to place my zafu opposite to this flower, sit and focus my attention. Try to really see the flower for what it is and not just what I think it is. A few thoughts I’d like to share with you guys.

A flower blooms because that is what it does. It’s sole purpose during short existence is being attractive and beautiful. Sometimes. when we are in the right mood and break away from our daily troubles, by chance we stop and see it. Really see it for what it is. This beauty, we must understand, exists because of us or rather because of the Buddha that we truly are. A flower or a weed for that matter, may be conscious on some level but not self-conscious like you and me. This self consciousness in itself makes us or is Buddha. By looking at the flower we ad meaning and there is appreciation. By fully seeing it, in a way, we make it exist. The flower will not get brighter or more dull because of this, but because we are consciously looking, beauty comes to be. For that short and wondrous moment, beauty speaks to beauty in a language we cannot consciously understand. It is ungraspable and beyond us. We can however catch a glimpse and this glimpse alone, when experienced with our full attention, is the magic of life.

The flower blooms and burns itself up just to fully be a beautiful flower. It does not have a plan or an agenda. It’s life is short but it does not hold back and gives it all it has. No right or wrong. No better or worse. No holding reservations or judgment. You and me are the same as flowers, in a way we are flowers. We seem to resist this fact and aim to be more beautiful or work to rival another flower never realizing we already are what we are supposed to be, complete and flawlessly beautiful.

Sitting in my garden, I realized everything that we see and perceive, is the same as the flower that sparked these thoughts. The world, the flower and you and me are all one single thing. It all exists for a short while, a temporary manifestation of something truly amazing. Like a light far away on a storm tossed sea. First it is there, then it’s gone only to quickly or later on reappear somewhere else again.
By seeing it, we make the flower beautiful and existent, and in turn the flower makes us beautiful and existent because we see it. So what is essentially you and what is essentially the flower?

First sitting to admire the flower then sitting and letting it all go. Leaving the beauty to be just what it is. Magnificent, radiant. Nothing to add, nothing to change and nothing to find or realize. Deep bow to the flower and so to all existence.

Gassho

Enkyo

Enkyo,

Thank you for sharing this lovely reflection. Thich Nhat Hanh had a comment about this almost exacliy in his book on the Middle Way Sutra. I will copy it for you when I get home!


Gassho
Seizan

That was truly beautiful Enkyo. It closely reflects a conversation I had with a dandelion the other day myself. I was doing zazen outside on my zafu under the tree in my front yard. After I was done I felt come, at peace and in the moment. I saw spark of yellow in my front lawn, knelt beside it and marveled at its beauty. I felt its soft petals, and took in its aroma, did everything but taste it haha. Then I just sat with it, enjoyed it and lost myself in it. There was only the flower.

You are right, we could all learn something from the flowers, the trees, the grass and my dog. We are them and they are us after all. The only difference is that we cling to illusions.

Gassho,
John

The flower is just what a flower is.

So hard to see with my deluded mind.

Thank you, Enkyo.

Gassho,

Kyonin

Thank you for this! It is so nice to come home after a hectic day at school and see this.

Allowing things to be is The Way.

Gassho,
Alex

Reminds me I've got to cut back some vines that are strangling the rose bush. And take some time to enjoy the flowers. Thanks.

Thank you Enkyo ... that is why I love nature so much, it is just as it is. The flower is the flower, the tree is the tree, the mountains, mountains. :)

Gassho
Shingen

Beautiful, Enkyo! Flowers, trees, mountains and rivers - all have so much to teach.

Gassho
Andy

I too love getting lost/found in the beauty of nature. Thank you for sharing this Enkyo.

Gassho,
Kelly/Jinmei

Thank you. This is very nicely observed and stated.

Gassho,
William

Lovely Enkyo. Thank you.

Gassho,
Matt

Sorry for a bit of a spoiler…I often wonder why flowers, mountains and nature in general elicit such strong emotions in us but ordinary people we pass on the street every day rarely do so? Aren't they as beautiful as flowers, how can we see that beauty?

Andy, I believe this is because we are so connected with natural things and humans view other humans as above nature. We can elicit certain emotions on a daffodil because we do not know how that daffodil feels, or we can just see a daffodil. Just another quick theory of mine is that we see such things so simplistically (like a flower) and other natural wonders (Grand Canyon) as overwhelming and showing us the most momentous parts of the universe.

Of course, just an opinion. It would be nice to see others like Jundo add onto this.

Gassho, Alex

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Clarinetist!

Andy, I believe this is because we are so connected with natural things and humans view other humans as above nature.

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Alex, I think you hit the nail right on the head with that! I've never thought of it like that before but it does resonate well with me. Even the creations of humanity which we often view as something other than nature are composed of the elements of nature and created by us, also from nature. An amazing piece of architecture and be just as breathtaking as giant redwood. I've always found beauty in some strange things as well, such as an old abandoned and crumbling building slowly being reclaimed by vines and wildlife. Out here in the country there are a lot of old and crumbling barns and I really do enjoy them. I used to watch the show Life After People when it was on and they often showed abandoned cities and other locations. Rusted steel, rotting wood, overgrown lawns and broken glass. There is a kind of beauty in it. Perhaps it's because it speaks clearly to me of impermanence.

Gassho,
John