The Lotus Effect: Transformational Integrity from Botany to Philosophy by Hans Christian Von Baeyer et. al. Lotuses grow out of the mud as pure and clean as the morning dew. Lotus decorations and designs are everywhere the eye turns in nature and sacred geometry. Chinese poets also use Lotus flowers to inspire people to continue striving through difficulties and to show their best part to the outside world, no matter how bad the circumstances may be. This is understood as being just like the Lotus flower, bringing beauty and light from the murky darkness at the bottom of the pond. Another symbolic characteristic of the Lotus flower leads from the observation that the plant's stalk is easy to bend in two, but is very hard to break because of its many strong sinuous fibres. Poets use this to represent a close unbreakable relationship between two lovers or the members within a family, showing that no matter how far away they might live nothing can really separate them in heart. In Buddhism the Lotus flower symbolizes faithfulness. The influence of a Lotus flower painting is to open us up to beauty and light. A good Lotus flower painting can act as a reminder of the miracle of beauty, light and life. This reminder, communicated on an emotional level, is said to aid both spiritual and practical understanding of Tao, the world and our place in it. Lotuses are perhaps the most spectacular plants in aquatic environments. The Chinese say that, once having seen the growing Lotus, you never forget it. The Lotus flowers have color from red, pink, pale yellow to creamy white. A separate, long, tubular stalk supports each flower and each large round leaf. The sacred Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, is an extreme important spiritual symbol in Eastern religions. It represents purity, divine wisdom, and the individual's progress from the lowest to the highest state of consciousness. Seeded in muddy waters, the lotus rises above the mud and produces beautiful and fragrant flowers. The big showy bloom may be 8-12 inches (20-30 cm) in diameter. The flowers open for just three days. Then each petal falls silently into the water, one by one, at a short period. The large green seed head or pod remains on the top of the stalk for a long time, and gradually turning to dark color and ripe. The seeds impeded in the cone-shape pod with flat surface at the top. The pod then reverts to the water, where it floats face down, allowing seeds to take hold in the mud. The seeds then germinate in the following Spring and give rise to new Lotus plants. All parts of the Lotus are edible. The immature seeds can be eaten raw or cooked, they have chestnut like flavor. Ripe seeds are roasted and ground into flour, or boiled to extract oil. Lotus roots produce starchy tubers and have the flavor of sweet potato. The young, unrolled leaves are cooked as a vegetable. Lotus seeds have very hard, impermeable seed coats, and can remain viable for very long time. Sacred Lotus seeds, the most long-lived of all angiosperm seeds, have been known to germinate after more than 400 years! American Lotus (Nelumbo lutea) can germinate after a dormancy of 200 years, and recently, Lotus seeds of 1,200 years from China had been germinated! What's an incredible plant! "Purity, trustworthiness, the Buddha, the virtuous man: these are what the Lotus signifies," writes Huang Yung-chuan, assistant director of the National Museum of History, in his book Chinese Flower Arranging. Buddhism came to China in the Wei and Jin dynasties, at which time the Lotus, which had been simply a source of food, became a symbol for purity and the subject of many poems. Chinese literati believe that a lotus is a pure world unto itself in which both body and soul are clean. "Bathing in the clear water of the spiritual pond, the Lotus' roots dig deep into the soil. "My Love for the Lotus" by the Song scholar Zhou Dun-yi has exerted an influence on the Chinese down to the present. In this essay, the Lotus is compared to a man of great virtue for being able to live in muck without being tainted by it. Qian Zhong-shu, a Republican-era writer, wrote that Zhou's "inspirations" stemmed from Buddhist ideas. Buddhism explores how to transcend the troubles of human existence, to leave behind the sea of pain, the house of fire that is human existence. Becoming Buddha-like is the highest ideal. Out of the muck the lotus springs forth beautiful blooms, much as Buddhas free themselves from worldly worries. In the Middle Works of Hinayana Sutra, the Buddha says, "In this way the human heart doesn't give rise to evil desires or evil thoughts. It's like the blue, red and white Lotuses that grow in the water but bear no water." In comparison to the literati's notions about not getting tainted by the mud, the Buddhist description of the Lotus leaving the muck has even broader meaning. Mahayana Buddhism stresses finding a release from worldly affairs while in the world, taking the path of a bodhisattva amid the five filths of the world. The bodhisattvas take the human masses as their "field of blessing"-the muck is luck, evil is good, pollution is purity and no clear dichotomies can be made. Hence, Mahayana Buddhism stresses the idea that "this flower doesn't grow in the highlands but rather it blooms in the vile swamps." The root and flower merge into one, in which there is no distinction between pollution and purity. Apart from pursuing inner cultivation, meditation and deep thought, experiencing muck is also a form of cultivation, for it tests one's ability to endure misfortune and to sacrifice. Only by going to hell and being tempered by fire there, can one rise to religious exaltation and radiate the brightest and most beautiful light. Collectively, the numerous different descriptions of the Lotus are fitting, in that each Lotus bloom is a magnificent world in itself. It is quite natural that images of the Lotus are everywhere to be found in Buddhist lands. In one of the Dunhuang Caves, you can find yourself surrounded on four sides by the petals of a giant Lotus decoration, in which one peaceful Buddha after another sits in front of its own huge Lotus petal. Since Lotus petals and leaves have unusual shapes, you can always tell when a Lotus flower is being depicted no matter if it has been stretched long, pressed flat, or molded into a square. When Chan (Zen) Buddhism bloomed in China, the Lotus did not lose stature, but Buddhist art became more subdued, and the use of color in depictions of the Lotus declined. After the Song dynasty, folk culture grabbed hold of the Lotus with gusto, giving it symbolic meaning that was no longer purely religious. In mass-produced art works, fat babies danced while holding Lotus leaves or Lotus flowers. These were used in the hope that people would give birth to several boys in succession (a Chinese character meaning "one after another" is a homonym for the character meaning Lotus). And the Lotus leaves provide protection for goldfish under them, which to the Chinese symbolize abundance year after year. In the Tang dynasty one Buddhist deity was depicted as a baby holding a Lotus flower and laughing. On a festival for unmarried women on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, children would come out onto the city streets and imitate him. Down to the present, even if Chinese don't understand the Lotus Sutra or lotus-related Zen esoterica, they will surely know that you light Lotus lanterns on the Ghost Festival and that Songzi Niangniang allowed the Gold Boy and Jade Girl to get on a Lotus and float to the world of men. The secret of the self-cleaning leaves of the Lotus plant, like the subtlest applications of high technology, is simplicity itself. This magnificent blossom, rising on a tall stalk from a flat base of large, round leaves, is endowed with an exotic aura. In Buddhist tradition, Lotus blossoms mark each of the seven steps in ten directions taken, paradoxically, by the newborn Buddha. The Lotus was an important icon in ancient Egypt, the inspiration for the Phoenician capitals that preceded the Ionic order of design, the sacred flower of Hindu religions and the object of the principal mantra of Tibetan Buddhism: om mani padme hum, which means "Hail, jewel in the Lotus." Given the mechanical efficiency of prayer wheels that symbolically repeat those words without pause, the Lotus may be the most frequently invoked plant in the world. A twelfth-century Sanskrit poem extols Brahma, "the Lotus of whose navel forms thus our universe." But above all, the lotus represents purity. What an enchanting paradox, then, that the Lotus grows in muddy waters, emerging from them unblemished and untouched by pollution. Botanical scientist Barthlott coined the term 'Lotus Effect.' To demonstrate the phenomenon dramatically, Barthlott likes to squeeze a droplet of water-soluble liquid glue onto a lotus leaf. Barthlott smears the droplet a little with his finger, then steps back to watch. The glue quickly pulls itself back together, reforming the droplet, and the droplet rolls off the leaf at a stately pace. The surface of the Lotus leaf is covered with a dense layer of pointy little moguls. Not even glue can stick to an area as small as the tip of a microscopic mogul. Just as impressive is Barthlott's demonstration of the cleaning power of water: when a Lotus leaf is covered with a dusting of fine powdered clay, and a drop of water is added, the water rolls downhill, gathering dust as it moves. In its wake is a long, clean path. |
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