The
lotus symbolizes the Buddhist way of life. It is born in the depths of the
impure mud. It grows through the unclean waters of the pond. It blossoms forth in
all its multi petalled purity and glory on the surface of the pond. In spite of
its unclean origin and surrounding its beauty pleases the eye, and its purity
chastens the mind and spirit of the onlooker.
Even so the lotus of the individual unfolds itself in the
pond of human society. The circumstances of his birth, of procreation and
parturition, are impure and unclean. His growth and sustenance, his upbringing
and education are associated with suffering and sacrifice, folly and
frustration, poverty and privation, disappointment and discouragement, success
and failure, gain and loss, fame and disrepute, praise and censure, and
happiness and misery. These are the waters of life, the circumstances of the
world. But the perfected being, the "arya sravaka", the true disciple
of the Buddha, rises above these worldly waters and shines in all his
impeccable purity and perfection.
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