A FLOWER SERMON: In Buddhist art and tradition, the Buddha taught perhaps his most famous sermon without speaking a word. Instead, he held up a single lotus blossom. It is said that only one disciple understood, and smiled. That is one of the meanings——that some lessons cannot be taught, only grasped through direct experience. But it is also true that the lotus, with its perfect blossom symbolizing beauty, purity, and enlightenment, grows out of the mud and muck into a lovely flower. Therein it symbolizes that we, too, may arise out of the suffering and defilement of the world. We are shown that beauty can, and often does, arise out of foulness and corruption. Sometimes I think that a Fragrant White Water Lily, from a little island in northern Minnesota, perhaps, is a fine stand-in for the Buddha’s famous lotus. And sometimes I, too, remember to smile.