Spiritual Fridays: Buddhist Philosophy and Learnings from the Lotus

Blooming in the Muddy Pond
As per Buddhism, this facet of the lotus symbolises the potential of purity of each person amidst the defilement of the world he/she is surrounded by. A proof of this is that human beings have for centuries lived in a materialistic world full of distractions and influences that promote anger, greed, laziness, hatred, envy, foolishness and other such negative emotions, but despite them human beings also bloom in goodness and purity, especially when they follow a spiritual path. According to Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda, "From a profound viewpoint the lotus is, in fact, able to bloom because of the muddy pond and not inspite of it. Very often it is the evil influences in our environment that drive us towards a life of spirituality by the suffering they cause in our lives."

Simultaneity of Cause and Effect
The lotus is the only flower that illustrates perfectly the inner workings of the law of cause and effect. From a Buddhist viewpoint, when we make a create things or situations (cause) in our life through the threefold path of: thoughts, words and actions, the effect or result is in fact planted simultaneously in our lives, though it may take varied amounts of times to manifest around us. The lotus is thus important, as it perfectly illustrates the simultaneity of cause and effect–in a lotus, the flower and the fruit bloom at the same time.

Lotus and the Lotus Sutra
One additional, and in fact a very important connection between the Lotus and Buddhism is the Lotus Sutra, on which Nichiren and many other forms of Buddhism are based. Through this sutra Gautama Buddha (during the last eight years of his life) preaches that everyone irrespective of gender, ethnicity, social class, secular abilities or any other imaginable distinction is capable of achieving Buddhahood in their present lifetime–just as the he did. The lotus by blooming despite the muddy water aptly symbolises this idea of Buddha and also his other teaching in the lotus sutra that, "attaining enlightenment does not mean to change into or become something one is not. Rather, it means to reveal the inherent, "natural" state that already exists within."

Edited by Pooja Bhula