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homage to the flower
"Now the key story for me about Buddhism concerns the sermon where the Buddha was seated, and there was a group around him and he just held up a flower. Just a flower. One in the group got what the Buddha was on about. For him, the flower itself was enough to spark enlightenment. The rest of the crowd were still in the dark, so to speak, so the Buddha delivered a sermon—the Flower Wreath Sūtra—to explain what he meant, which was this: there is nothing to say about life. It has no meaning. You make meaning. If you want a meaning in your life, find a meaning and bring it into your life, but life won't give you a meaning. Meaning is a concept. It is a notion of an end toward which you are going. The point of Buddhism is This Is It."
Joseph Campbell, Myths of Light, p. 135 (I came across this quote on Facebook this morning)
after having read the above and being overcome by a short outburst of Joy and Yay to it All, I decided to go out into our garden and look at the flowers; to be honest there are more out there than I had been aware of....just goes to show how little I actually see when I'm looking without focus....I do believe there's a lesson in there
Comments
For all of the varied beauty of your flowers Saskia, it is the dandelion puff that calls to me; strong stem, fragile, wispy plant threads, ready to fly at the hint of a breeze, much like standing up to face what comes, you have to sometimes let go while knowing that you still remain strong in yourself.
You could extend FB Flower Saturday to Sunday! Did you see my flowers yesterday? I love that you tied this all together, then went out to spend time with the flowers. Beautifully thought-filled!
hi Susan, love your quote, haha, how often I 'm not really looking.......
yes Nancy, I did, and I know your yellow rose well by now! going out, breathing in the garden, the landscape has become more and more essential to me, keeping my healthy and grounded