Meditations In Wonderland

Much later, those delicate and fragrant beings we call flowers would come to play an essential part in the evolution of consciousness of another species. Humans would increasingly be drawn to and fascinated by them.

As the consciousness of human beings developed, flowers were most likely the first thing they came to value that had no utilitarian purpose for them, that is to say, was not linked in some way to survival. They provided inspiration to countless artists, poets, and mystics.

Jesus tells us to contemplate the flowers and learn from them how to live. The Buddha is said to have given a “silent sermon” once during which he held up a flower and gazed at it. After awhile, one of those present, a monk called Mahakasyapa, began to smile. He is said to have bee the only one who had understood the sermon.

According to the legend, that smile (that is to say, the realization) was handed down by twenty-eight successive masters and much later became the origin of zen.

-Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth