And a poppy in the road.
Flower can grow anywhere. Surprise you on the corner of a road. Come from the crack in a pavement,a crevasse in the concrete.
This one surprised me yesterday as did the hedgehog on the path before dawn this morning. I heard the sound of her first,and turned to the direction to see a hedgehog running down the path. The sound of small claws scurrying along, hurrying somewhere before the sun came up, with a purpose known only in hedgehog mind.
Morning meditation became a shamanic journey of connection and became a new vision of the world as is.
Om Mani Padme Hum
The Jewel in the Lotus.
The Lotus that holds the Buddha mind.
Enlightenment within.
I always thought the teaching was encouragement : don't give up when life is hard, don't despair when things are difficult, keep going when life lends you cancer or war or suffering of other kinds. The Lotus grows out of mud like that.
This morning though I came to another version: remember you are the mud aswell.
The mud that is you, and from which the Lotus grows, is all the things you would rather not see : the hurt and the harm you have caused by your actions,the unconscious and conscious bitterness, envy, intolerance which leads to angry thought, words and actions. The envy that leads to covetousness and greed ; the pride that leads to ignorance; the ignorance that leads to hate. That leads to suffering.
All these are parts of the human condition that lead to suffering in big ways and small. The little things matter too, because they can grow into bigger things, cause greater harm,to self and others. Out of this mud grows the Lotus. I am the mud and the lotus.
Thankfully there is a way out of being simply made of clay, there are a few ways out. Buddha shows us a way for sure but his is not the only one. Jesus of Nazareth is a teacher of another way. Our shamanic ancestors who had a less
human-centric way saw Great Spirit in everything and I saw it in the hedgehog this morning and in the poppy beside the drain.
Seeing myself as the mud and the lotus, having within,the Jewel of Buddha nature, has given me a new insight. Be aware of the small things .