Lotus Sutra

“ The Lotus is the seat of most deities, but notably so of the creator Brahma, who, thus enthroned, is called the Kamāl-a-yoni, or the great androgynous god. The lotus is the womb of all creation. It is said to originate from the great fertiliser, water, alone; and dropping its great leaves on this fertiliser as on a bed, it springs upwards with a slender, elegant stalk, and spreads forth in a lovely flower. Even the grave and mighty Vishnoo delights in the lotus, which is one of the four emblems he holds in his fourfold arms. It is Venus’ sacred flower. ”

“ The lakes of the temple grounds, especially those dedicated to the water goddess Benten, are frequently planted with lotuses.... Wherever undisturbed pools and channels of muddy water exist, the lotus is to be found, and even the ditches beside the railway connecting Tokyo with the port of Yokohama are rendered gay in the Summer by the lotus flowers in bloom. As the peony is said to be the national flower of China, so the lotus is regarded as the national flower of India, the source and centre of Buddhism. ”

“ The orb of the earth is Lotus-shaped, and is upborne by the tusks of Vesava, as if he had been sporting in a lake where the leaves and blossoms float. Brahma, first incarnation of Vishnu, creator of the world, was born from a Lotus; so was Sri or Lakshmu, the Hindoo Venus, goddess of beauty and prosperity, protectress of womanhood, whose worship guards the house from all danger. "Seated on a full-blown Lotus, and holding a Lotus in her hand, the goddess Sri, radiant with beauty, rose from the waves." ”

“ Day wiped away all the glow of the lotuses with the sun’s orb hastening downwards like a hand roseate as fresh shoots. The pairs of cakravākas, whose necks were hidden in swarms of bees approaching from familiarity with the scent of lotuses, were separated as if drawn by the noose of destiny. The sun’s orb poured forth, under the guise of a rosy glow, the lotus honey-draught, as it were, drunk in with its rays till the end of day, as if in weariness of its path through the heavens. ”

“ There has been found a man who has seen the Land of the Lotus of the Sun. And a vast crowd of people ran from every street, and pressed around him, and accompanied him to the palace, and stood before it, tossing like the sea, while the guards took him in to the King.
But when the King heard the news, he wept for joy. And Umra-Singh seemed in his eyes like a draught of nectar, and like the fulfilment of all his desires in bodily form. And he said to him: O thou unspeakably delightful son-in-law that shall be, hast thou really set eyes on that accursed Land of the Lotus of the Sun? ”

“ Again, it is the dream of lovers to sit some day together on the ‘Lotus Throne’—so says Miss Du Cane; in other words, to die together, that is, to commit suicide! She also tells a story from Chinese literature of the extravagant Lord Tokonko, of the Sei province, which I have not met with elsewhere. This nobleman had a mistress named Han Hi, a singularly lovely girl. One day he made Lotus petals of pure gold and scattered them in his garden for her to walk upon, in order that he might compare their beauty with hers. ”

“ The Egyptian Ceres (Virgo) bears in her hand the blue Lotus, which plant is acknowledged to be the emblem of celestial love so frequently seen mounted on the back of Leo in the ancient remains. The following is a translation of the Purana relating to the cosmogony of the Hindus, and will be found interesting as showing the importance attached to the Lotus in the worship of the ancients:—“We find Brahma emerging from the Lotus. The whole universe was dark and covered with water. ”

“ My sister-in-law sat down upon a rustic bench which stood close by and said, "Kamalini was right, after all. We should have gone back with her. My feet are aching all over and I am very tired. But look there, sister, what glorious lotuses! Of all flowers I think they are the most beautiful."
I had run into the habit of expressing an opinion upon every earthly subject, so I at once put in, "Whatever you may say, sister, I think jasmine the most beautiful. The lotus is, of course, superior in outward beauty; but as to sweetness of smell it must give way to jasmine." ”

“ In our home, all has the appearance of a Japanese picture: we have nothing but little folding-screens, little curiously shaped stools bearing vases full of nosegays, and at the further end of the apartment, in a nook forming an altar, a large gilded Buddha sits enthroned in a lotus. ”

“ The lotus seat and the curling drapery of a stole are clearly recognizable. The bent arms seem to support some offering, perhaps like an Indian ‘Dālī’, as traces of red flowers and of leaves can be made out in the original.
Lotus flowers and rocks appear rising above the water. In the centre of the foreground is a black-tiled platform, on which are assembled a Garuḍa, peacock, crane, and some smaller bird resembling a duck but partly effaced. On either side of this platform there rises from the water a terrace bearing a subsidiary representation of Amitābha’s triad. ”

“ His face is smiling, His eyes are as wide as lotus petals, and His cloth is yellow as the filament of the Kadamba flower. His armlets glitter with gems and gold. His crown and earrings sparkle with brilliant stones. Adepts in Yoga place His feet on the pericarp of the full blown lotus in the heart. With Him is Srî (Lakshmî) . The Kaustubha gem is on His neck. He is adorned with a garland of ever blooming wild flowers. His hair is curling and deep blue. His very look is full of kindness to all. ”

“ The Lotus-pool was a Temple pool; its flowers are Temple flowers. The little buds that float and open on the water, lifting young innocent faces up to the light as it smiles down upon them and fills them through with almost a tremor of joyousness, these Lotus buds are sacred things—sacred to whom?
For a single moment that thought had its way, but only for a moment. It flashed and was gone, for the thought was a false thought: it could not stand against this—"All souls are Mine."
All souls are His, all flowers. ”

“ Thus Lafcadio Hearn describes the lotus of Paradise: "They are gardening, these charming beings!—they are caressing the lotus buds, sprinkling their petals with something celestial, helping them to blossom. And what lotus-buds! with colours not of this world. Some have burst open; and in their luminous hearts, in a radiance like that of dawn, tiny naked infants are seated, each with a tiny halo. These are Souls, new Buddhas, hotoke born into bliss! Some are very, very small; others larger; all seem to be growing visibly, for their lovely nurses are feeding them with something ambrosial. ”

“ At noon, blue in the radiant unveiled blue of the sky they are the blue Lotus of Vishnu the Preserver, the Pillar of Cosmic Law. At night, when all the earth is rapt in samadhi, the mystic ecstasy, they are the snowy Lotus, throne of Siva, Maheshwara the Great God, the Supreme Yogi when he dreams worlds beneath the dreaming moon upon his brow.
And India is herself a petal of the World Lotus of Asia as the Asiatic mind conceives it. Look at Asia of the maps and reverence the Flower which thrones all the Gods of Asia. ”

“ Then Umra-Singh said, in astonishment: And dost thou know that Lotus Land? Tell me how I must go to reach it. Then the Wairági laughed, and said: Ha! ha! Thou art one more ready to ask than to answer questions: but I give nothing for nothing. Know, that I also have all my life been looking, not for one way only, but for three. And now, if thou wilt tell me my three ways, I will tell thee thine. ”

“ The embodiment of central power is Buddha, seated cross-legged on a lotus flower. According to Birdwood, cited by Mr. Goodyear, “In the Hindu cosmogony [pg 315] the world is likened to a lotus flower, floating in the centre of a shallow circular vessel, which has for its stalk an elephant and for its pedestal a tortoise. The seven petals of the lotus flower represent the seven divisions of the world as known to the ancient Hindus and the tabular torus (Nelumbium speciosum) which rises from their centre represents Mount Meru, the Hindu Olympus.” ”

“ A vast mass of Sutra literature thus gradually sprang up in India, but of the Sutras which must have been composed and taught in these numerous Sutra-charanas comparatively few have survived. The Sutra literature falls into three great classes, dealing respectively with religion (Srauta Sutras) , law (Dharma Sutras) , and domestic life (Grihya Sutras) . ”

“ The Lord Buddha addressed Subhuti, saying: “If a good disciple, whether man or woman, day by day sacrificed lives innumerable as the sands of the Ganges;5 and if another disciple adhered with implicit faith to a stanza of this Scripture, and diligently explained it to others, the intrinsic merit of such a disciple would be relatively greater than the other.”6
1 A Chinese annotator observes, that as the “diamond” excels all other precious gems in brilliance and indestructibility, so also the “wisdom” of this Sutra transcends and shall outlive all other knowledge known to philosophy. ”

“ Chinese workmen,—amongst whom we are warned that there are spies and Boxers,—who look after the fires in the two furnaces in our palace, have kept us almost too warm all night. When we get up there is, as there was yesterday, [110] another illusion of summer on our light verandah with the green columns painted with pink lotus flowers. An almost burning sun is rising and shining upon the ghostly pilgrimage which I am about to make on horseback, toward the west, outside the Tartar City, and through the ashy, silent, ruined suburbs. ”

“ When she grew tired of caressing and playing with him she would order her servants to bring one of her large jewel-chests. Out of it she would choose a bracelet for the slender neck of White Lotus. One day it might be a bracelet inlaid with pearls, the next day perhaps one of rubies, the following emeralds, and then endless combinations and designs with the most astonishing variety of precious stones and gems, in rotation, for three hundred and sixty-five days in the year; and never did White Lotus wear the same ornament more than once. ”

“ No sooner have we put all straight than the spiteful wind shakes the branches and we have to begin all over again.
Arrow-Bearer
Remove them from the moss, at all events——Those faded flowers look like so many stains.
SCENE III
Rock, Fir-Sapling, Strong-arm, Humpback, Arrow-Bearer, Golden Lotus, Cinnamon, Pearl, Tranquil Beauty—Ladies in Waiting.
The ladies appear hestitatingly on the verandah of the Pavilion. Golden Lotus advances and rests her elbows on the balustrade. Arrow-Bearer gazes upon her with evident emotion. ”

“ The blossom is deemed by them the emblem of purity because it is unsullied by the muddy waters in which it often grows: with the flowers of the Mother-wort it is borne aloft in vases before the body in funeral processions.——The Chinese make the Lotus typical of female beauty: their god Puzza is always represented as seated upon the leaves of the plant.——The Lotus is stated to be held sacred by the Egyptians because it conceals the secret of the gods; from the throne of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys, it rises in the midst of the waters, bearing on the margin of its blossom the four genii. ”

“ They represent numberless, but continually modified repetitions of some motives: a man seated near an incense-offering or a flower-vase, and a man standing between two women, nymphs or servants; both scenes every time separated by a single woman’s image provided with a lotus or another symbol. This lotus may refer to female Bodhisattvas, otherwise I should be inclined to think of apsarasas or celestials, because I don’t see any reason for so many Bodhisattvîs. ”

“ There is hope in the thought, and confidence and the purest inspiration. And, stirred to the very depths, as we are and must be many a time when we see the tender Lotus buds gathered by a hand that has no right to them, and crushed underfoot; bewildered and sore troubled, as the heart cannot help being sometimes, when the mystery of the apparent victory of evil over good is overwhelming: even so there will be always a hush, a rest, a repose of spirit, as we stand by the Lotus-pools of life and seek in His Name to gather His flowers. ”

“ Simrock’s Deutsche Volksbücher, Vol. III, p. 399.
23 Lakshmí or Śrí the goddess of Prosperity appeared after the churning of the ocean with a lotus in her hand. According to another story she is said to have appeared at the creation floating on the expanded leaves of a lotus-flower. The hand of a lady is often compared to a lotus. ”

“ Then with fine paste they painted the Symbol between her dark brows, and, rising, she shone divine as a nymph of heaven who should cause the righteous to stumble in his austerities and arrest even the glances of Gods.
(Ahi! that the Transient should be so fair!)
II
Now it was the hour that the Rana should visit her; for since the coming of the Lotus Lady, he had forgotten his other women, and in her was all his heart. He came from the Hall of Audience where petitions were heard, and justice done to rich and poor ”

“ One old man, with strongly-marked Mongolian features, accentuated by the heavy shadows which were cast by the light of the fire above his angular cheek-bones and prominent and wrinkled brow, was busily revolving his prayer-wheel from left to right, repeating in a mechanical way the usual Omne mani padme hun, words which come from the Sanscrit, and refer to the reincarnation of Buddha from a lotus flower, meaning literally, "O God, the gem emerging from a lotus flower." ”