The Art of Living Among Flowers

“Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers—and never succeeding.” – Gian Carlo Menotti

I have often wondered about the human’s need to create when everything necessary has already been created. What we truly need surrounds us, clothes us, feeds us, shelters us. All we do is rearrange a few things. I suppose the art of rearranging what already exists is the task of human survival. But what if we become motivated by possessing the result of our creation or even monetizing the outcome of all our rearranging?

This, of course, is a silly question because the answer is self-evident: we destroy our home. We cease cooperating with the prompting of nature in favor of supporting the delusion of a self that can stand outside the effects of natural law—and that is called death. Very sad for all of us. And then I see flowers blooming at my feet and I smile and know beauty refuses to die. It re-emerges in myriad forms, adapting to all we throw at it.

Living among flowers is a sacred gift not to be squandered. A single bloom can melt the hardest of hearts among us and we have to honor that possibility through how we care for the land that yields such beauty. This is the art of gratitude and reciprocity. We humbly give thanks for the gift of a flower and vow to give back through our loving stewardship. 

In the Flower Sermon, the Buddha gathered his disciples together for a talk on Dharma. Instead of speaking, however, the Buddha simply held up a lotus flower in front of him without saying a word. Everyone in the assembly was trying to make sense of the Buddha’s message, waiting for him to speak. But he never did. The monks were baffled, but one of them, Mahakasyapa, suddenly understood the Buddha’s meaning and smiled.

Nothing else to say…