Oh That We Be Like the Lotus Flower

Took this picture of a lotus flower when we were doing an ocular inspection of a camp venue. There is something so remarkable about it that captures my attention. It rises so elegantly dressed in loveliest pink, as if ready to walk down the red carpet of Hollywood fame. But its stage is not posh and glamour but the dark murky waters of ponds and lakes. There the flowers emerge untainted by the mud from whence it came.

In Buddhist and Hindu sacred poetry, the lotus is a perfect embodiment of the soul, that managed to rise above the murkiness of worldly entanglements, fully transcending all forms of attachment, blooming into something pure, free, and vibrant.