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Each Phenomenon is a Flower & The Three Prostrations
The pure fragrance of the night, the trees and grasses do not distinguish between time and birth-and-death; each morning is always new, never repeating itself if we are fully present. The morning is not a page in a book or a path we can return to, but a melody that arises as we breathe, look at the color of the sky, smile, and let our awareness flow like sunlight caressing the branches and leaves. The new leaf bud is not measured by months and years, but is a sprout of mindful insight arising in each moment.
A flower does not bloom for anyone in particular, but for itself and for the whole cosmos; to recognize this, we need mindfulness. Each phenomenon—the rising sun, a child, a young leaf—is a “flower” of life. When a flower withers, it is because it lacks connection with the source of life; this is called alienation. The feeling of loneliness is the illusion of a separate self; the practice of the Three Prostrations helps us:
- The first prostration connects us with our spiritual and blood ancestors, accepting both their strengths and weaknesses as well as our own.
- The second prostration expands our relationship horizontally with all species, all beings in the present moment, seeing ourselves as elder brother, elder sister, child, oppressor, victim… all are ourselves.
- The third prostration releases the notion that this body is “me” and that birth and death are limited to fifty or seventy years, realizing that nothing is born, nothing dies—life is the ultimate dimension, boundless, touching nirvana with body and mind in harmony.
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Basic Practice