The lotus is a powerful symbol of transcendence. Rising from the murky depths, its blooms are a testament to its remarkable ability to endure and flourish in the face of adversity.
Transcendence
The lotus dares us to become the most authentic version of ourselves. It promises beauty and peace on the other side of hardship. It symbolizes the spiritual awakening that this world is so deeply in need of.
“The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
Within Buddhism, the lotus is used to represent enlightenment, or “Bodhi”-the realization of the true nature of reality.
An enlightened being perceives the world without the distortions of attachment, aversion, and delusion, ultimately experiencing a state of peace and compassion for all living beings. They realize there is no separation between us and nature.
The pressing issues of our time- inequality, exploitation, poverty, injustice, oligarchy, violence, war, tyranny and ecocide- are all thanks to a system premised on competition.
We have become a competition driven species ruled by fear and insecurity. Whether fighting for jobs, wealth, against rival businesses, as nations for planetary dominance, or against all other living beings for our profit and security, everything is rooted in this delusion of seperation.
“We imagine ourselves to be separate from other humans, so we compete against them, and can even be convinced to fight wars against other groups of them.
We imagine ourselves to be separate from nature, so we work to dominate and enslave it even when doing so destroys the biosphere we ourselves depend on for survival.”
My abstract waterlily ponds are intended as meditative escapes from life’s chaos .
Immerse yourself in a magical place where waterlilies float like soft whispers upon the surface, and dragonflies buzz in a symphony of movement. The pond is a sanctuary- a place where life unfolds in ripples. It is an invitation to pause, to breathe, and to witness and reconnect with the divine artistry that is life itself.
In times of sadness about the world, I would return to the sanctity of the lily pond. It became my personal nirvana, a place where I could imagine all the suffering of the world transmuted into something beautiful.
In this dark, uncertain time in history the only thing that can save us is a mass awakening of consciousness. We can unite via our shared connection with nature. There is no future without the widespread understanding that the earth and all of its beings are not resources to plunder, but rather all a part of one sacred community.