Golden Lotus Flower

Below is a dharma talk entitled " A flower and Lofty Nirvana." 

         This discourse was expounded by the Lord Buddha over 2500 years ago, while he was residing at the Jetavana monastery of Savatthi in India, with reference to a young monk who was the disciple of Venerable Sariputta Mahathera.

         There lived in Savatthi, a young handsome man, son of a goldsmith. Out of the reverence for the Sariputta, Mahathera, he entered the Sangha Order under the preceptorship of the Mahathera Sariputta. The Elder there after reflecting that the young monk being handsome and at the prime of his youth, may well be inclined to craving for sensual pleasures, decided to give him the asubha bhavana (contemplation on loathsomeness of the body) as meditation object to curb sensual craving.

         Here, it is to be noted that as the meditation subject given by the Elder did not suit the young monk's propensities, he cannot progress in his practice even for the whole length of three months raining retreat in the forest.

        It has been affirmed in the Buddhist texts that, an individual's dormant proclivities cannot be penetrated by any one but only by the Buddha. The Elder, realizing this fact, took the young monk to the Lord Buddha and related the matter.

         Thereupon the Lord Buddha scrutinized the matter and read the thoughts of the young monk's mind for his inherent idiosyncrasies and gave him the suitable meditation object. The Buddha created a beautiful golden lotus flower by using his psychic powers and said to the Young monk "Dear Son monk, take this golden lotus flower to a secluded corner of the monastery, sit cross-legged, intent on strenuous effort, gaze at the flower and contemplate incessantly by verbal label as "Lohitakam, Lohitakam golden-red, golden-red".

         The reason why the Buddha gave this particular meditation object to the young monk was that, in his previous five hundred existences prior to this present one, he was born as a goldsmith's son successively and the attachment for the golden-red color was latent in his heart. "Salvage the drifting boat by another boat" as the saying goes, the Buddha used the golden-red color of the lotus as the object of meditation to attract and fix the young monk's mind in concentration.

        Thus intently contemplating, the young monks mind was cleansed of the mental defilements (or Kilesas) and as his concentration became strong and deep he attained access concentration and thence all the four stages of absorption concentration or appana samadhi in succession.

         But what he had attained was just mundane Samatha Jhana only and it surely was not the final goal of his meditation. For the attainment of the final goal of Nirvana through Path and Fruition knowledge one must practice the insight meditation (Vipassana Bhavana) that of contemplating on the three characteristics of all psychophysical phenomena, impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and egolessness (Anicca, Suffering, and Anatta) and there by successively acquiring the various stages of insight knowledge.

         "Buddhas arise in this world for the benefit of all the living beings. "The Buddha kept the meditating young monk under surveillance to access the progress or otherwise and guide through his contemplation. When the Buddha found out the young monk's inability to further progress, the Buddha by dint of the psychic power willed that the lotus flower be faded and fell petal by petal to the ground.

         This incident touched the young monk's heart causing emotional apprehension that "even such a flower, a product of the seasons had to fade and fell to the ground, what have to become of my body aggregate, compounded by the four conditions of karma, Chitta (mind or consciousness), Season and nutriment. With that moral fear he contemplated intently and incessantly, clearly perceiving the impermanence (anicca), dukkha (suffering) and egolessness (anatta) characteristics of all the psycho-physical phenomena. That is in accordance with the aphorism quoted by our late Benefactor, most venerable Mahasi Mahathera: -" When true nature of the impermanence is clearly perceived the remaining two characteristics are also comprehended"

         As the young monk's meditation gathered momentum, the Lord Buddha by using psychic powers radiated the aura of light from Jetavana Monastery and exhorted the message thus: - O dear Son Monk! Like an autumnal lotus flower is crumpled to destruction by hand, you as a meditator extirpate all the mental defilements by cultivating path (Magganana) knowledge. The Buddha expounded that "the cessation of craving is the true bliss of Nirvana". So you should incessantly and perseveringly develop the Noble Eight Fold Path."

         On receiving the Buddha's admonishment the young monk, by applying the simile of" Lotus Flower". ardently contemplated on the aggregates to clearly perceive the impermanent nature of mind and matter. He attained successive stages of insight knowledge and realized the Lofty Nirvana Dharma through the four stages of Path and Fruition knowledge.

         May you all meditators, like this young monk be able to apply the nature of impermanent characteristic of the external objects to that of one's aggregate of mind and matter, and contemplate to clearly perceive the impermanent characteristic, thereby realizing the lofty dharma - Nirvana, the complete extirpation of craving.

Special Satsong Talk From Lady Quan Yin:

Blessings, and greetings to you all this morning. I am Lady Quan Yin, and it is my deepest, humblest joy to join with you here today, in this most beautiful of places upon God's divine Earth; to feel the love and the joy in your hearts, as you resonate and attune so closely with those of the animal kingdom around you, with the birds, and the gentle, whispering, rustling in the trees, and the sweet smell of the flowers of the garden. Does it not truly bring you a feeling of joy and oneness, dear hearts, as you know yourselves to be part and all with this divine kingdom, this kingdom of love and life, upon the blessed Earth Mother, Gaia? Dear ones, there is joy in our hearts to see the resonance of love that is growing and expanding around your kingdom, as each and every one of you turns your eyes to each other, in concern and in compassion for the fate of your brother and your sister. At last now humanity is waking up to its great task, this task of protection of the Earth, of loving the Earth as She loves all of you. You are at last no longer seeking merely to take from the Earth, but to give back. You are looking to protect those of the indigenous peoples of the Earth, who for so long have been the unacknowledged guardians of this planet. And you are now concerning yourselves with their welfare, and recognizing their part in the wholeness of All, and the great service that they have given, with their knowledge, with their ritual, with their spreading and holding of the energies around the planet. And it gladdens our heart to see how each one of you are sending love, and concern, and care for each other. For this is how the Light is to be grounded upon the planet. This is how the Heaven is to be created here, not through merely your own personal spiritual progression, but in the very deeds and thoughts, the ways that you act and behave in relation to another. The Light must come from within, and the Love must be effused into every moment in time, so that you become Love. It is not sufficient to say "I am Love, I am Light", if you then do not behave in an according manner. For the initiations that many of you try to understand and teach from a mental aspect are really initiations in Life. The challenges, the trials that you experience day to day, it is how you respond to them that is truly your initiation; and it is through these very simple moments and ways, that you will make the greatest spiritual progression. Techniques are there to help, techniques are there to assist you perhaps, but these alone cannot bring you to a full and total knowledge of the Oneness of All - En-Lightenment. Rather let you behave in a manner which encourages others, that you show from your heart your own simplicity, love, humanity, integrity and humility. It is in this manner that the ascension of all shall be achieved around the planet.

Many of you are experiencing the most difficult times and trials of all in your lives right now. Much is being asked of you. For some it is the leaving of old ways, the leaving of old paths, places, people. It is now your time to make the decisions, the choices, as to what is most important for you in your lives. Are you truly ready and prepared to step out on your path? Are you truly prepared to shine the Light that you are, wherever you go? Or is it just something that you have thought about up to now, and kept, maybe, for a Saturday afternoon, a Monday evening, a workshop here and there. Or are you now ready to integrate into your lives the knowledge that you have received and been given? For many of you there comes a parting of ways, a dropping away of old relationships, in order to make way for the new. "But what is the new?" you say. "I do not know yet what is occurring in my life. I do not know what is happening." And when you say this, so many of you will feel fear and confusion. But my dear ones, this should not be a time of fear and confusion. This should be a time of great joy, for when you do not know what it is that shall happen, it is in that moment that you will feel the un-limited-ness of All. For anything could happen! Anything wonderful and beautiful and joyous could now be brought to you. It merely requires your faith in yourself, and your trust in the Divine, for this to be opened up as a most glorious way forward - the potentiality of All, Un-Limited. So try, my dear children, to look upon it in this manner, and see that this is the way forward for you all, as the true unlimited beings of Love and of Light that you are.

For truly, who do you need other than yourselves? So many of you are running around seeking relationships, seeking partnerships, looking for the other person that you are going to "fall in love" with one day. But you have forgotten to love the most important person of all. You have forgotten to love your Self. This is not meant in an egotistical, lower self way. When we speak here of love of the Self, we are speaking of the love of the Higher Self, and through the Higher Self a coming into unity, and a love of the Divine Father Above, the Source Creator of All. For it is this gentle, sweet falling - into Love - with the Higher Self - that will bring about the most blessed spiritualization of Beingness. That is the relationship that all ones must work upon, the relationship with the Self, the Higher Self. For many of you it is difficult to conceive of this Higher Self, of who and what it could be. Some of you need, sometimes, for more definite ideas to work with. So let me suggest to you here, that you might like to think of it as the future Self. The Self that has trod the path that you now walk upon, has known what you went through, and has found the way through to the other side. The future Self that is existent within the arms of the Divine, the Self that is in total union and communion with the Divine. That dear ones, is your Higher Self, and what you are seeking to achieve is the full and total integration into your Beingness, into the Now, with that Higher, Future Self. It is the being that knows your innermost heart, that knows your innermost dreams, that knows the problems, that knows the side-tracks that you went down, and can help and assist you best in your path forward. For indeed, who better to know these things that YourSelf? So build this relationship, through love, through Divine Love, with the Higher Self, for then once all ones stand in Love and in Light, can the true out flowing and outpouring of that Love be shared with others, in a joyous, harmonious, and totally giving manner.

My dear ones, when last I spoke with you I gave you this beautiful symbol to represent the energies of the Mahatma, Mother/Father God. I gave you the symbol of the diamond within the lotus. So I ask you now to work with this symbol for a short time. I ask you to place your hands over your heart, and to feel this beautiful, golden lotus flower that is within your heart. Feel it resonating there, and feel it suddenly open and explode into joy and into light, revealing within it its innermost core, the diamond - the diamond of purity, the diamond of Shamballa, the Light flashing from within. Feel, for a few moments, this joy and this Light, this energy of Mahatma now resonating within your hearts.

And now bring your attention a little higher, to the true root of the heart, the thymus, the true placing of the heart chakra. And feel once more that golden lotus flower that is there within, closed, now impulsed by the Light, now opening in a thousand golden petalled form, and revealing within the diamond of Light, the diamond of the Mahatma.

Now take your attention a little higher, to the place of the throat chakra, and feel and see once again that precious, beautiful, golden lotus, opening in full flowering of joy and Light, to reveal within the diamond of purity. And feel now a joining together of these three most precious lotus flowers, in the heart, the higher heart, and the throat; so that all words spoken may come from the heart and be spoken in love, and truth, and light.

And now let us take our attention a little higher, to the brow, the third eye as some of you will call it; and see there once more the most precious bud of the golden lotus. See it burst open in life, and love, and joy, revealing inside this diamond of purity, this diamond of Light, the Mahatma energy, once more drawn from the heart upwards into the brow.

And let us now take our attention to the crown chakra. See the golden lotus of the crown burst open also, revealing within the diamond. And as the crown chakra bursts and opens, feel the gold and the silver and the violet light, flow down as from a fountain, over your whole being.

Now let us take our attention higher, one hand's height above the crown, to the Soul Star chakra. See that this too is a golden lotus, a lotus which also bursts open to reveal the diamond within. Join now this gold, and silver, and violet bridge that you have created from the heart, upwards, ever upwards, through the Higher Self, up through the dimensions to the Divine Source of All; and feel the Mahatma energy pouring down upon you. Bring it down through the Soul Star, through the crown, through the brow, through the throat, the higher heart, the heart.

Now bring this Mahatma energy down into the solar plexus. See the solar plexus also burst open, in joy and Light, and love. See this vision of the diamond within the lotus, glowing within the solar plexus chakra.

And now, we bring it down lower to the sacral. Once more, see this burst open as the Mahatma energy enters it. See it become and resonate to the vision of the diamond within the lotus.

And now, we bring this energy once more down through our root, and see there the great flowering of the divine lotus within, revealing the diamond of Light.

And then bring it down through the legs into the feet, opening those two chakras in the soles of the feet, until they too resonate in joy and Light, so that every footstep upon the planet shall be a step of joy, a step of love, a step of Light.

And now bring this energy, this blessed Mahatma energy, down below you into the Earth, through the Earth Star, which is just one hand's length below your feet, and feel your connection into the Mother. Feel your connection into the Earth, and bring this energy now right down into the central core of the Earth, into the crystalline centre of our Earth Mother, and feel yourself now to be a golden, silver, violet rainbow bridge between the Divine and the Earth. Feel this energy of the Mahatma flow through you from above, and bring it gently and lovingly as a gift, as an offering, into the very centre Heart Core of the Mother. Feel the divine centered thankfulness of the Mother, the Earth, flow back again up this bridge, being returned in blessed union through you, ever upwards, to the Divine Creator above. It is in this moment, and in this fashion, that you recognise your true natures, as bridges between the Earth and the Creator - the blessed gift that you can perform upon this Earth, to assist in the grounding of the creative energies into the very central core of the Earth.

Now, see from your hearts the bursting forth and outpouring of this Love and this Light to join with the hearts of all fellow beings, of all creatures, of all of creation around the planet. See this resonance glowing, growing, in Joy, in Light-fullness, in Love. See the planet Herself resonating once more to the song of Life, the song of Love, the song of Light, as She takes Her full and rightful place within the universe. As She once more sings the song of Joy and the song of Light, this will be heard resonating outwards through all time and through all space, to the furthest environs of your universe, and beyond. This is the note and the sound of divine creation. This is the resonance of Unconditional Love, and hear my dear ones, its resonance flowing through and of you. So you see my beloved children, what great service each and very one of you are here to perform; that simply by taking the starting point with the Self and learning to love the Self, and then sharing that love with all of creation, you can create yet again, and again, further Universes of Light. Is that not the most beautiful gift of service that the Creator can give to mankind, to humankind to kind man? I leave you now, my dearest children, with these feelings of Joy and Light in your hearts. It is my divine pleasure to have joined with you today, to be of service to you. I am Lady Quan Yin.