Wild Flower
Emerging with no unusual colour, the pale little flower grew and was tall enough among the grass to see the small world around her. With no special name she merged in the backdrop of the environment.
She saw the path way to a stupa garden and desperately wanted to ask the other flowers looming in the nearby trees about the beauty there. She looked on as the passers by stopped and admired the other flowers. In her solitariness she had only the weeds and the grass for company and they never spoke of the same thing that she used to feel. One day a dog came by and peed on her and it didn’t bother her as she found it amusing as it was something different. A few days went by and every day she watched in longing at the small glimpse of one of the stupas she saw amidst the trees. A small white pinnacle adorned with a purple jeweled eye. Sometimes it glinted in sunlight and there were strange rays coming out of it that lighted the darkness at night. Two sides had small bells and it was heavenly music when the wind rang them as they went by.
It was full moon on that day and she knew that she was going to start wilting away in the early dawn when the dew started to settle on her. She raised herself as straight as possible to get the best view at the stupa. The monks passing by clicking their malas were murmuring prayers and there was one single prayer that she was fond of. Two young monks were talking about it one day and the eldest monk was teaching the other. It was of a strange flower that grew in the mud and rose from it unstained. Looking at her own petals she imagined eyes on each petal just as the Boddhisatva with the thousand hands they spoke of. She wanted to offer herself to the stupa on behalf of every one like her, not seen and even not heard of. She stood tall and bared herself to the full moon.
She looked in the purple eye shining to its fullest in the moonlight. Offering herself with all her petals, the stem and tiny leaves, she vowed to be born in clusters. As many as of herself to save everyone. Each cloud, each raindrop, each wind, each leaf and everything that they fall and touch. She vowed to manifest many bodies like herself and bring a rare beauty that no other flower would bring. To heal everyone that looked at her in her many bodies and take away their sufferings.
From that day onwards, it is customary for the wild flowers to bloom a solitary flower first after coming in clusters and clusters. No wonder there is a strange beauty about the unknown wild flowers that are around us everywhere.
