A student asked who's explanation on the Lotus Flower is correct? It's a good question since there's literally hundreds of articles on it. I feel everyone is allowed to express there feelings on anything; and I don't want to be the policeman on who's right, who's wrong. I believe everyone has their worth to chime in.
One pithy answer from my early Ordained Buddhist Mentor is that the Lotus Flower is an important symbol in Buddhism, as it represents the process of awakening. The Lotus Flower beginning as a seed, it becomes secured in the sticky muck of a pond or dead end water body, and grows from that environment to blossom into this beautiful radiant flower.
As a sacred symbol of awakening it represents the purity of our awakened body/mind, which in order to manifest itself, has to spring from the muck of normal existence. The Buddhist Religion in many forms has depicted this in their sacred art. The Lotus Flower/Lotus Blossom is often depicted in the hands of various Icon's or shown as a platform seat on which they sit. There are countless Buddhist documents, Recitation Practice's, short Mantra's (vocalization as a form of meditation), Mudra's (hand symbols) and Lotus Meditations using tantric imagery, and schools named after the Lotus Flower. Properly understood it for sure came from the Buddhist and has merged into many other systems of spirituality and health.
Lotus Flower Invocation
The purity of heaven, purity of earth; purity within and without; purity of my sense organs. Our mind being pure, there is no impurity in any pollution. Our sense organs of our body are pure, I am one with spirits of heaven and earth. Just as the awakened one has taught us the teaching of the Lotus Flower is like the shadow that accompanies form, if what we and what we do are pure, then all our personal request will be fulfilled and our happiness and longevity will be limitless. I am now endowed with the most revered and supreme sacred treasured teaching, my body/mind is pure like a beautiful Lotus Flower which transformed out of the emotional mud of the world.
GWA
