The Thrill of Trillium
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
This excerpt from the poem, A Prayer in the Spring, by Robert Frost sums up my love for wildflowers. They give us pleasure in the moment and keep us present to the beauty a moment can offer. This past week Tarn and I ventured into the lower elevations on the west side of the mountains in search of flowers that peek out earlier than those in the high desert. We came upon several trillium (Trillium ovatum) in bloom and were giddy at the sight of this spring season offering.
Seeing these fresh blossoms in the moist understory was like experiencing joy in recognizing a long lost friend who happens by. In early summer when we hike in the mountains on our side of the range, the trillium are mostly gone; dried up in the summer sun. That is why we venture to the lower elevations, to savor what early spring can offer without the snowpack. To me, this is no different than traveling to receive Dharma teachings from an honored mentor.
Dharma teachings can be read in nature. Trillium has three petals surrounded by three larger leaves. I think of the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Or the Trikaya: Seen, Unseen, and the Symbolic Realm. I could go on an on with the category of threes in the Buddhist and other spiritual traditions. But the flower remains a flower, unaffected by what it evokes in this human, and that is what inspires me more than anything else.
When we let things be as they are, the Dharma is obvious. But nothing we think can do justice to the flower just as it is. I muse about the words assigned to Buddha when he thought what he discovered in his awakening was, “To close to be seen, to wondrous to be imagined, and too simple to be grasped.” The thrill of seeing a trillium is the same—and may be experienced in a rock, a tree, or the person in front of us. They are just as they are, a glorious display of the vast beauty in a moment of awareness.