Action that follows from the understanding that we are, fundamentally, one being is full of compassion... It can manifest other qualities, but it can, when circumstances require, also don the color of compassion. Always in harmony with the current situation, it leaves no traces and frees those it touches. True compassion defies the preconceived ideas we have of it. It can seem strange, inappropriate, even brutal, but it is free, and that is its beauty. It is a tornado of freedom that blows where it will, erasing in its passage ephemeral attachments and false ideas, until only the indestructible remains: the true, the eternal.
*Francis Lucille. Eternity Now.
* * *
The Buddha took his disciples to a quiet pond. As was their custom, the Buddha's disciples formed a small semicircle around their Teacher. They sat waiting for the Buddha to teach them.
Unlike other times, the Buddha remained silent this morning. Instead, he pulled a lotus flower from the pond, its roots dripping with mud and water. The Buddha continued to hold the lotus flower in front of his disciples.
After a while, the Buddha got up and, walking to each disciple, quietly held the lotus flower for each to look upon. The disciples were perplexed and tried to understand how this act fit in with the Buddha's teachings.
When the Buddha stood before the last of his disciples, Mahā Kāshyapa, the disciple smiled and began laughing. The Buddha handed the lotus flower to him, saying, "What can be said, I have said to you all, and what cannot be said, I have given to Mahā Kāshyapa." Mahā Kāshyapa was designated to be the Buddha's successor.
* * *
In Buddhism, the lotus flower is not just a flower but a symbol of awakening. With its beauty, the lotus flower sits above the water, extending into the air. It is not a lilly that sits on the water. The lotus emerges from the murky depths of the pond or lake, symbolizing the journey from ignorance to enlightenment.
The True Self we are is not captive to the miseries and ways of this world. Yet, it does not want to escape either. It is grounded in the suffering of both others and itself, the ups and downs of history, like Yeshuah (Jesus) before his arrest and execution. Yeshuah said, "Do you (his disciples) think that I cannot pray to my (heavenly) Father, and he will immediately send me more than 70,000 (12 legions of) angels?"
* * *
Yet, we are left with an enigma. The Buddha says there is something that cannot be said that is revealed to Mahā Kāshyapa. The one who understood an ineffable truth was designated worthy to be successor.
Mahā Kāshyapa responds with a smile and laughter. When you see the truth that cannot be spoken - not just study it or theorize about it, not found in books, not taught by anyone - you feel this unspeakable bliss. At times, you are left speechless when tasting this subtle wisdom. Even seeing the suffering all about, you feel joy, and sometimes you feel your body can barely bear the bliss.
You are not helping the world best by thinking that suffering for its suffering is the better way to help alleviate suffering. Lotus hearts do not do that. The world needs your beauty, vitality, and bliss. It needs your smile and laughter. And, yes, it needs your tears, but not emotionality.
* * *
The grieving of a lotus flower is different from that of those living as though they have no choice but to live in the misery of the common mud. And many would want you to be miserable with them. Misery makes the news, and people use their emotional suffering for attention and companionship. Joy can be seen as a threat to misery: it is. Do not join. Your true nature is a quiet, gladful bliss. Stay above the water, open to the sun.
Yet, remember, as Lucille reminds us, compassion can appear quite unlike the prevalent understanding of compassion as an emotional merging with another's suffering. And this is true of so much, including your grieving, which is a shape compassion takes. The difference is so different, even radical, the Christian Scriptures speak of one being a "new creation" and "being born from above (or born again)." It is like you move to live on a different planet when you are awake to the one True Self. You are with everyone around you, yet you may be the only one on the planet you live on. We need spiritual community with others who have experienced this radical conversion from personal self to cosmic Self.
Yes, you will still be intimate with the suffering of the world: that not only of humans but other beings and Earth. You will, like the lotus flower, be grounded in the mud. Without awareness of suffering, there is no lotus flower. Yet, the flower in the sky is not in the mud; it only grows from the mud and can evolve from the murky water.
We all grow from the mud. Still, we learn to live as the flower. That changes our relationship to all below, including the mud. Jesus spoke, "You are in the world but not of the world."
* * *
We feel a lightness of spirit we did not know before. We can now be compassionate without getting caught in grief or sadness. This does not mean you will not feel all emotions. This means they will not be able to captivate your awareness. They will not remain attached to your consciousness. They cannot get a foothold. They will come and go like clouds before the moon. They will evaporate like the morning dew in the sunshine.
Our path is to become the flower we are, but that is one with the roots in the mud, too. The flower is not the mud. They are not the same, but they inter-are. We will live amid contrasts as long as we are in this realm.
As Richard Rohr entitled one of his books, It All Belongs. But the flower does not return and get stuck in the mud. We need flowers to show others how to live without living in the mire. We need Mahā Kāshyapas who can emanate a smile, bliss, and gentleness amid the misery and desperation all about, knowing the ache is not the final word. The final word, however, no Mahā Kāshyapa can speak: not even the Buddha or Jesus could speak it. Yet, like them and many others, you can know it.
* * *
The Lotus
First blooming in the Western Paradise, The lotus has delighted us for ages. Its white petals are covered with dew, Its jade green leaves spread out over the pond, And its pure fragrance perfumes the wind. Cool and majestic, it rises from the murky water. The sun sets behind the mountains But I remain in the darkness, too captivated to leave.
*Taigu Ryokan. Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems of Ryokan. Trans. John Stevens.
In Buddhism, the "Western Paradise" is a mythical paradise especially suited for persons to become liberated and no longer be reborn. Amida Buddha is the buddha of the paradise. Pure Land Buddhists worship Amida as a savior-like figure and aspire to go to the Pure Land next birth, taking the Western Paradise to be a real place. However, the Pure Land is here, now, even as heaven and paradise is. Ryokan's "too captivated to leave" signifies he is enjoying the Pure Land there in the mountains and under the night sky, captivated by the beauty about him. We have all visited the Pure Land. We can live there. It is our home.
* * *
*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2024. Permission is given to use photographs and writings with credit given to the copyright owner.
*Brian's book is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. The book is a collection of poems Brian wrote based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
