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Blossom and grow

by Viki Distin

The lotus flower, a strong, yet delicate blossom, serves as a perfect analogy for human spiritual growth. This beautiful flower rises out of a muddy pond, meaning that regardless of our environment or circumstances we all have potential for growth and beauty.

The lotus flower is sacred to many of the world's religions and cultures. With its root in the mud, the lotus rises through murky water to blossom clean and bright. This symbolizes the Buddhist concepts of purity and resurrection, personified by the enlightened being who emerges from the chaos and illusion of the world.

Ancient Greek and Roman churches portrayed the Archangel Gabriel holding a spray of water lilies in pictures of the Annunciation when he appears to the mother of Jesus. In Egyptian mythology the lotus was associated with the sun, because it blooms by day and closes at night.

To Native Americans, who found all parts of the plant edible, the flower symbolized the sun's power to transform energy into food. The seeds were an important part of Native American diet. The genus name Nelumbo means "sacred bean."

In yogic lore, the lotus is a metaphor for how past experiences become the fertile soil for persons blooming with a more awakened soul. According to Sharon Gannon, founder of Jivamukti Yoga, "We can all become people like Martin Luther King Jr., and embody that awakened state of spiritual activation and send compassion into the world."

Life begins with roots growing deep in the mud. Although there's a density and heaviness to this physical world, this is where spirituality begins. It’s here that we learn the lessons that life wishes to teach us. It’s here that our relationships develop and we learn to ground ourselves by improving our interactions with others.

Yoga practice represents grounding through the hip openers and standing poses. Yoga teachers continually focus on the feet in standing poses, which need to be properly aligned for us to experience trust, security, and stability. These feelings are essential before we move upwards.

As we mature as human beings and have the opportunity to work through our circumstances, we begin to vibrate at a higher level than the physical. Symbolically, this level is the water where the lotus stem reaches toward the light. As we work with the mind-mud our practice is moving toward more subtle aspects. Meditation, pranayama, and even the subtle intentions of our asana (physical postures) can help us clear up the dirty water of our minds. We absolutely need to work with the mind-mud to advance to higher states of awareness. The antonyms of "murky" are: bright, clear, light, luminous, sparkling, and unobscured.

Recently, I took a yoga intensive from Maty Eratzy, founder of Yoga Works in Southern California. Maty, a yoga teacher for more than 20 years and a practitioner who can do really advanced poses, says that in yoga we advance by moving from the gross to the subtle, not by doing more poses. She believes that doing more poses is not beneficial if people become attached to just the physical practice. We move up and out of the mud by becoming more aware of the subtleties of our practice.

For example, during savasana, the ability to feel your eyelashes gently interlacing is so delicate that unless a student is very still and concentrated this sensation is impossible. Another example of cultivating the subtle is allowing ourselves to feel places of "stuckness" or obstruction. Here we discover the deeper levels of tension in the body. The first step in releasing tension is to first find it, and then stay present to feel it. This step necessitates a higher level of spiritual maturity.

Finally, the flower opens above the water's surface and basks in the light and freedom of the open air. This culminates our spiritual journey. We begin with the physical then pass through the mental to achieve the spiritual. It’s here, in the least dense of the three realms, that we come to know peace.

Yoga and meditation disciplines are tools to help us ground ourselves, grow through murky waters, and finally to reach our arms toward the heavens to find our true inner nature. May we all be like the lotus flower and rise above our challenges to bloom.