AWAKENING TO LOVE

There is a beautiful anecdote about Enlightenment that corresponds to the lotus flower growing out of the mud.  In this case the muddy dark waters stand for samsara, which is the realm of suffering.  This little parable encompasses the 4 Infinite Qualities of Altruistic Love, Equanimity, Joy, and Compassion. 

The seed of the lotus contains the flower of compassion and it is planted in the ground of love, which in the case of the lotus is the muddy and murky ground under dark water~ the analogy to being planted in the samsaric realm of suffering of stirred up emotions and the dark unknowns of life and impermanence.  

Gradually, the seed opens nourished by the water surrounding it and sends out a shoot to start climbing up towards the surface and the light. The water is the cool water of equanimity.  It is supporting whatever forms of life happen to be in it, without discriminating.  

The seed gradually breaks the plane of the water's surface suspending a bud above it.   In unabashed natural beauty the bud transforms into flower under the joyful light of the sun's warmth.  The bud responds to the invitation of light with equal joy in the creation of beauty offering a radiant flower stretching up toward the heavens. 

Now the flower is holding itself up and out of the dark murky waters from which its potential ascended blossoming above and over the darkness, into the light and beauty of its true nature~ compassionately offering its illuminated presence.  This occurs while remaining rooted in the ground of love using the very conditions to powerfully transform itself into an offering enhancing the environment and offered freely to all.

Can you find the story of awakening mind and the 4 Immeasureables? 

Go Love, Om Mani Padme Hum, 

Lisa