As it is getting warmer, we can see that flowers gradually started blooming. Everywhere. It makes me so excited.
When we have a Buddhist service at the temple, we decorate with flowers in our Naijin or inner altar space to pay respect to Buddha. But, there’s a mystery here. I had been wondering why flowers are presented toward us not toward the Buddha. If it is a flower for the Buddha, I thought we should have faced it toward the Buddha. But, strangely, they are always placed facing toward us, human beings.
According a buddhist priest in Japan, from the moment we arrange the flowers for the Buddha, those flowers are considered as the Buddha’s special flowers for us to understand the Buddha’s message through how the flowers are.
So, he said that it is still okay for us to continue to present flowers facing toward us even if they are for the Buddha.
The flowers are saying: The flowers, we are blooming as such beautiful flowers, but we cannot avoid withering and dispersing someday. We have such an ephemeral life. And so do you. But even so, I am blooming to the fullest at this moment. And so are you.
The Buddha tells us a teaching of the impermanence through the flowers like this.
However, even after hearing this we tend to think like this;
“There were times when I did, but in the current situation, I can’t even smile like a flower.” Or you may think “As I get older, I lose my motivation, strength and energy. I cannot say that I am blooming like an energetic and beautiful flower anymore. “
The Buddha’s teaching still continues like this through the flowers:
” There is no rule for Buddha’s flowers. We avoid poisonous flowers and thorny flowers, but basically any flower is fine whether it’s a flower shop’s high-priced flower or a small, unpriced flower that blooms in the field. As soon as you place it for the Buddha, all human values disappear, and it shows us the perspective which goes beyond our small ego. What you should see is neither the type nor the price of the flower. But, It is the “fact of life” that every flower is in full bloom. Both I and you are in full bloom now. You don’t have to put any condition there when you see the same life. Who put the conditions on us? “
We tend to believe that we cannot live without this, or we need that to keep our lives happier. We struggle in the small perspectives and conditions which we have. Who put conditions on us? That is not someone else, but we do it by ourselves.
As Buddha shows us through flowers, anyone who was born earlier or later, not only human beings, but also various creatures, when things go wrong and when things go well, the truth of our lives is the same for everyone at this moment. “Each one is in full bloom right now” going beyond our narrow perspectives or conditions.
The Buddha is hoping that we will free ourselves from our small cage in our hearts and minds and should open our hearts to a wider world and live freely. Not only Buddha flowers, but every time you arrange the flowers at your house, please remember that you are included in the wish.
