Here are some examples of "the mud" of it. For me, it has been a long time of physical illness with treatments, surgeries, and rehab. Perhaps, you are going through the difficulty of breaking a particular habituation or having a hard time with starting a new project or have an uneasiness with a job or relationship or dealing with an unusual happening in your life. All of these challenging situations whether small or large that life brings us are symbolized by the mud.
Instead of folding up and being angry, frustrated or sad, we can work through the mud. It gives us an opportunity to make choices, to do some inner and outer work, to make changes in our life, to grow, to blossom, to gain wisdom in mind and spirit.
We can be led to another place of being. This place is "the lotus" of it. The lotus flower is a symbol of wisdom or awareness or rebirth or awakening --- whatever you want to call that "aha" moment where you start to see with a new perception.
We can keep striving for the uplifted place during that time of frolicking in the mud. Thich Nhat Hanh tells us without these muddy and not-so-much-fun events of life, there is no chance for the lotus to bloom for this flower grows only in mud.
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| Thich Nhat Hanh mediatating on the Lotus! |
This beloved teacher has his own challenges. Last November he had a stroke so it had been almost a year of physical and speech therapy. He has started taking some steps and most recently he has spoken a few words. His teachings continue as he voiced these words several times:
In out in out in out
Happy happy happy
Thank you thank you thank you
Here we have the basis of the Thich Nhat Hanh teachings:
Conscious breathing, attitude and gratefulness!
Thank you to Thich Nhat Hanh for his dedicated
teachings and thank you for joining all of us on
the pathway to awareness!
the pathway to awareness!
