Imagine, for a moment, a beautiful flower.
Perhaps it is a rose or an orchid or even a little daisy growing beside a path.
Looking into the flower we can see that it is full of life.
It contains soil, rain and sunshine. It is also full of clouds, seas and minerals.
It is even full of space and time. In fact, the whole cosmos is present in this one little flower. If we took away just one of these “ non flower” elements, the flower would not be there.
Without the soil’s nutrients,theflower would not grow.
Without rain and sunshine, the flower would die and if we removed all the non-flower elements, there would be nothing substantive left we could call a flower.
Our observation tells us that the flower is full of the whole cosmos, while at the same time it is empty of a separate self-existence. The flower cannot exist by itself alone.
We too are full of so many things and yet empty of a separate self. Like the flower, we contain earth, water, air, sunlight and warmth. We contain space and consciousness. We contain our ancestors, our parents and grandparents, education, food and culture.
The whole cosmos has come together to create the wonderful manifestation that we are.
And so, we are one with each other and everything formed and formless.
~Thich Nhat Hanh