they seem to call out to me from where they are lying on the road. so i bend and pick them up. flowers, petals, colors, fragrance. i pick the occasional one up and put it on a tree, on grass, on soil, in the temple or in my pocket. why i do so i really do not know. and on the occasion it is a dangerous whimsy, especially if the flower is in the middle of the road. the act is spontaneous. imagine it from a car's perspective. one moment there's a professor sauntering down the road. the next, he's disappeared from plain view. vanished. where did he go?! (the blessed man bent to pick up a flower :-) and hey, there hes doing the boogie walk on the road again. where did he suddenly appear from!
i've been to this place before. in the days of our childhood, my cousin sister, vinita, had this habit of picking up empty matchbox covers from the road. it was a foregone conclusion. vinita sees an empty matchbox on the road, its time on the road is numbered! and she didn't even smoke! was a source of immense entertainment to us. how mercilessly we teased her. turned out that most of the matchbox cases had images of our gods and goddesses printed on them (at least in those days :-) and she couldn't bear to see them trampled. had a devout heart from childhood itself, this sister of mine. and sings like an angel :-)
so the sins of my past are visiting me now :-) and i bend down to pick up the occasional flower from the road because i cant bear to see it trampled too :-) so much beauty these flowers have brought into our life. effortlessly. just by being themselves :-)
a flower, a petal, a color, a fragrance. a single flower can transform a barren space. their collective presence changes our world itself! to walk down the road that leads to asb when the yellow flowers (asters?) are in full bloom is to be an emperor walking on a yellow carpet laid by nature, is to be part of a festive explosion of nature's joy. the flowers in yercaud bear especially vibrant smiles and their celebrations begin even as the bus is climbing those 22 hair pin bends to that little heaven on earth. each season has its hue, and how!
the joy of seeing the flowers bloom in your own home. the tenderness of the buds when they first appear (and the number of prayers it takes sometimes to make them appear :-), the freshness of the first flowering, the magnificence of the full bloom, and the sadness when they begin wilting. you are experiencing the flow, the deep mystery of life itself. all in a matter of a few days:-)
all in a matter of a few days. so much that the flowers are teaching us. the meaning of true beauty. the colors of joy when expressed without motive or striving (look at how they smile :-). the fullness of a life lived without self-concern and without judgement (look at the flowers, the saints constantly remind us, how equally they share their beauty and fragrance. no one is excluded.). and the fragility of our very life itself. here today, and gone before you could say "please. i want a few more years! you've got the wrong person!" this evanescence, this freshness, this vulnerability is the very beauty of life. every moment matters, live it fully, for the next one may never come.
and when the flowers do wilt, when the bloom decays, when the fragrance mutates, it is no less beautiful, the saints remind us - for this is the very process thru which life is renewing itself, the sacrifice that announces that life will be blooming again. look deeply and you will see the compost in the rose and the rose in the compost. no i didnt say this! i first came across it while reading thich nhat hanh or "thay" (teacher), a vietnamese monk and one of shobhana's favorite contemporary spiritual teachers. i can't quite claim that i can see the rose in the compost. but it sure does ring true :-)
"thay" is not only one of this day's most inspiring spiritual personalities (he came of age in a broken, ravaged, war torn vietnam to become, like the dalai lama, one of the most powerful voices for peace in a world gone mad) , he is a phenomenal poet too. his poetry has illumined these mails before and i return to a very beautiful benediction as this weeks choice.
Disappearance the leaf tips bend under the weight of dew. Fruits are ripening in Earth's early morning. Daffodils light up in the sun. The curtain of cloud at the gateway of the garden path begins to shift: have pity for childhood, the way of illusion. Late at night, the candle gutters. In some distant desert, a flower opens. And somewhere else, a cold aster that never knew a cassava patch or gardens of areca palms, never knew the joy of life, at that instant disappears- man's eternal yearning. Walk and touch peace every moment. Walk and touch happiness every moment. Each step brings a fresh breeze. Each step makes a flower bloom. Kiss the Earth with your feet. Bring the Earth your love and happiness. The Earth will be safe when we feel safe in ourselves. thich nhat hanh
kiss the earth with your feet then. bring the earth your love and happiness and a thousand mondays will bloom for there is in us something that no power can take away. may we be that flower :-)
much love,
d&s |
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