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In Egypt, the lion represented the ferocious heat of the sun and was seen in the likeness of Sekhmet who is the Egyptian goddess known as the Eye of Ra. She is the power that protects the good and annihilates the wicked.
The Lotus flower is regarded in many different cultures, especially in eastern religions, as a symbol of purity, enlightenment, self-regeneration and rebirth. Its characteristics are a perfect analogy for the human condition: even when its roots are in the dirtiest waters, the Lotus produces the most beautiful flower.
Once upon a time, in a land not very far away at all, there lived a lotus. The lotus made its home in a muddy pond and lived underwater, where the water is unmoving on the surface. Under the surface the lotus was surrounded by muck and mud and fish, insects and dirt. It would be easy for the lotus to be confused at times: why so much mud, and so relentless?
It seems, for the lotus that the world is all about mud, mud, mud! It’s true, at times the lotus is confused: what is the use of all this muck and mud? The lotus can feel quite overwhelmed by this dirt, being just a stem with only a few leaves and a tiny flower pod. But this lotus has learned something; in the dark, it has learned that it can take in the nutrients from the mud, little by little and it can actually use these nutrients to grow. So, it does, and it grows, and the pod slowly rises and surfaces above the water, then the mucky water falls away, as the flower opens into the clean air, finally freeing itself from the harsh life below.
It is then that the lotus slowly opens each beautiful petal to the sun, unmasking itself in the worldly beauty surrounding it. In Buddhism, the bud of the lotus symbolizes potential; the mud is suffering. Both, as Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh says, are of an “organic nature…which means they are both transitory.
The lotus flower represents an awakening, a soulfulness; it is intimate with, but not constrained by, suffering. Just as the lotus flower emerges from the water we can emerge from our suffering, if we find a meaning that is soulful.
The lotus could be thought of as awakened mind, a soulful quality of maturation that knows life cannot be lived without pain and suffering, yet this suffering need not be permanent, and it can offer us insight and build our souls into grace from grit.
Jennifer Williamson
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