Flower of the day: Lotus
The lotus plant belongs to the Nillumbik genus and carries symbolic significance in major cultures across the world. Lotus plant’s floral meaning is rebirth and divinity.
In Buddhism it is viewed as a sign of purity of speech and mind and is associated with spiritual awakening and enlightenment.
In Hinduism it is associated with beauty and represents how a person can be awakened to the spiritual reality. In Egypt lotus stand for the sun. The most striking feature about lotus is that although it grows in mud and returns within, it flowers clean the next day.
The lotus stunned people with its ability to dip into the grime and revive itself unscathed—an incredible daily cycle of life, death, and a sudden immaculate rebirth that can only be described as spiritual. It is no wonder the lotus is associated with such celestial symbolism—the flower simply defies logic.
The lotus flower blooms most beautifully from the deepest and thickest mud.
The flower also blooms in the most unlikely of places such as the mud of murky river water in Australia or Southern Asia. Not only does it find sanctuary in the muck, but due to the waxy protection layer on its petals, its beauty is blithely unaffected when it re-blooms each morning.
It continues to resurrect itself, coming back just as beautiful as it was last seen. With such refusal to accept defeat, it’s almost impossible not to associate this flower with unwavering faith. Although cultures have largely dubbed the lotus as a spiritual figurehead, it is most emblematic of the faith within ourselves. It is particularly what the Buddhist proverb, aims to edify; living life with unwavering faith, as the lotus does, ensures the most beautiful revivals.
