Que Houxo

Que Houxo is a Japanese artist who does live paintings. His style is quite colorful, he uses fluorescent paints with black lights.

I especially love this piece. Hmmm wonder why??? lol

For more information about him, check out this video and website!

The Risk to Blossom

By Stacie Noble-Wiebe, layerbylayer.net

A bud is nothing more than a potential rose (ed. note- or I like to add potential Lotus Flower) . Too many times we are satisfied to stay as a bud and keep our dreams and goals small and settle for less. It is safe, reasonable, and you don’t risk exposing too much of what’s inside. But, people, like roses  (or Lotus Flowers) are meant to grow and the opposite of growth is death. If we resist this growth, there are consequences that lead to pain. Pursuing our full potential can be a frightening and risky process, indeed. But layer by layer, we can overcome those fears and limitations, and become a thing of beauty both inside and out.

Means that inaction is more dangerous that action

Basically that a time comes when it's no longer the right thing or healthy thing to shelter yourself from the world, that sometimes we hurt ourselves more when we hide from something we fear than we would if we faced those fears.

 "buds" right now, with nothing but their own fears preventing them from blossoming?

Most people remain tight in the bud, never fully allowing their inner light to shine.  They’re careful of what they do and say because they’re concerned about what others might think.  They consistently underestimate what they’re capable of.  They let fear run the show.  They constrict the spirit within them to fit in and find security and acceptance.  Most of them probably don’t even realize they’re doing it.

Staying tight in the bud means giving up too much.  And the “safe” path is never all that safe anyway.  There are no guarantees.

So if there are no guarantees, let’s flip the game around.  Instead of listing all the reasons why change is dangerous and focusing on what we might lose, let’s ask ourselves what we’re losing by not embracing our dreams and allowing ourselves to blossom into our full potential.   

Surviving Lotus Flowers

By Seleus Blelis aka Loflo


There are no coincidences in our practice. Everything is connected, happens for a reason and leads to places that you've never been before or right back to where you were meant to be. For a few years now, I was given the nickname Loflo (short for Lotus Flower). It is funny and sweet to be called that but I was never really comfortable with it. I am only one flower in a vast pond of possibilities. Everyone is a Lotus Flower. When it came to naming this blog, Lotus Flower was of course the obviously choice because if its significance in our practice. 

While searching for Lotus images for this blog, I stumbled across a site called After Silence- an organization, whose mission is to support, empower, validate, and educate survivors of rape, sexual abuse and all types of sexual violence by providing a safe, extensive, reliable and easy-to-read website where victims can find the answers and support they need to heal and reclaim their lives. 

Now why did this site turn up in my search you may ask? Well, their site's banners, logos, and symbol is of a Lotus Flower. And it also turned up because I am also a survivor of abuse.

From their website:  Why the Lotus Flower?

"Lotus flowers have strong symbolic ties to survivors.  The lotus flower grows out of mud. Yet, it rises above the surface clean, blooms with remarkable beauty, and its beauty remains untouched by the mud. The flower closes and sinks underwater at night, but it rises and opens again at dawn. Lotus flowers have strong symbolic ties to survivors. They start as small flowers down at the very bottom of a pond and then slowly grow and rise towards the surface, continually moving towards the light. Once the lotus flower has reached the surface of the water, it begins to blossom and turns into a magnificent flower.
 
The lotus flower is a symbol for courage, purity, and awakening, and it mirrors survivors' journey toward healing and recovery. Like the lotus flower, survivors have been at the bottom of the pond but can rise above it to show their worth, courage, and untouched beauty."
 
I can't think of a better symbol to use but The Lotus Flower to convey what surviving is all about. I always knew what the Lotus Flower meant but it was only until a couple of months ago when I started on my journey toward healing and recovery, that I fully understood my connection to it. And why I'm called Loflo for a reason. But there are millions of Loflos out there, men and women who are currently suffering from whatever it is- abuse, job and/or relationship loss, low-self-esteem, depression, sickness, etc.
 
For me it is comforting to know that we all can rise above the water despite the obstacles. Its important to remember that while we are under that muddy water, we are all still beautiful. We can achieve and bring forth our Buddha nature even when the waters seems dark. We can achieve this by chanting sincere Daimoku, having faith and making the right causes, through our thoughts words and actions. So when the time is right, a beautiful flower springs up and shines. Because no matter how hard things are, we Loflos can always bloom. As for me, its lead me to create this site for everyone but also having the courage to heal.

"A lotus is a flower that blooms in the mud, the deeper the mud the more beautiful the lotus blooms."

Please visit their site. Its very important to reach survivors and promote awareness on rape, sexual abuse, and sexual assault. Thank you

     

Lotus Art

Bally Lotus
Bernard Villemot

1973

We're All Lotus Flowers!

In Buddhism, the term Renge, literally means "Lotus Flower, " hence the title Lotus Sutra. The lotus is deeply significant in the traditions of Buddhism. In nature, the lotus plant flowers and fruits at the same time, thus symbolizing the simultaneity of cause and effect. We know from the study of the scientific method that cause and effect underlie all phenomena. Everything has its causes and its effects. In Buddhism, this cause and effect has a deeper resonance as applied to human life. We create causes through thoughts, words and actions. With each cause made, an effect is registered simultaneously in the depths of life and those effects manifested when we meet the right environmental circumstances. The Lotus flower is also symbolically prized in Buddhism because it blooms in a muddy swamp, thereby signifying the emergence of our Buddha nature from the "swamp" of everyday desires and problems. In a similar vein, society is also likened to a muddy swamp in which Buddhas appear. This, no matter how difficult our lives, how trying our circumstances, the flower of Buddhahood can always bloom.

(The Buddha in your Mirror, sgi-uk.org ) 

Seleus

A good and talented friend of mines Artman2112- used my likeness as a illustration of this. He said he got the idea from a photo of mines. He said "it looked like my face was emerging from darkness - the swirling purple stuff (my fave color!) is sort of "life's confusion" and the lotus' and you are emerging from it together. I thought about the lotus flower, the practice and how the lotus symbolizes that same thing, rebirth, reawakening, etc. It seemed more and more fitting to me as I learned more about you, your struggles/triumphs last year and from the past. And the picture came to represent "you" more as time went on."

I really appreciate his wonderful talent and the time he took to create this. I wanted to share this illustration with you all and more importantly add that we are ALL BEAUTIFUL LOTUS FLOWERS. Its beauty is nourished through its roots in the mud. This is a metaphor for our lives. Chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo uses the `mud` in our lives to enable us to reveal our highest life state.  :D

Cause & Effect

  
As we go about our daily lives, in every single moment, we make causes in the things that we think and say and do. Buddhism teaches the existence of a law of cause and effect which explains that when we make a cause, the anticipated effect of that cause is stored deep in our lives, and when the right circumstances appear then we experience the effect.

This concept of cause and effect is at the heart of Buddhism, and the characters for 'renge' in Nam-myoho-renge-kyo mean the simultaneity of the internal cause and the internal effect. This means that, through chanting, we have made the cause for our Buddhahood, and the effect of it exists simultaneously with that cause. By chanting we are directly causing our Buddhahood to appear.

Renge literally means 'lotus flower', which is a beautiful plant that floats on the surface of water and its beauty is nourished through its roots in the mud. This is a metaphor for our lives. Chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo uses the `mud` in our lives to enable us to reveal our highest life state.But the Lotus flower is significant for a second reason. It is a plant that flowers and seeds at the same time. It beautifully illustrates the profound working of life where the effect is simultaneous with the cause.

An example of the way Buddhism views cause and effect might be of a young person going home to spend a weekend with their parents. They have a blazing row before the end of the weekend and the young person leaves. In Western society we tend to see the blazing row as the cause and the young person leaving the effect. But Buddhism focuses attention on the internal cause and effect. So it may be that the internal cause turns out to be that the young person disrespects their parents,at quite a deep level, perhaps without realising it. The effect which is simultaneous with this cause is the state of hell, and it is this that is triggering the arguing. This example could equally be the other way round,with the parents doing the disrespecting. It is the internal cause and effect which a person who chants Nam-myoho-renge-kyo can change,replacing their internal feelings with respect.


Through the simultaneity of cause and effect we can cause our Buddhahood to appear. To help us gain a clearer understanding of what Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is we need to appreciate the nine consciousnesses. The nine consciousnesses can be thought of as different layers of consciousness which are constantly operating together to create our lives.And as we progress through explanations of these consciousnesses the significance of the principle of the simultaneity of cause and effect should become apparent.

(SGI-UK Study)