ZEN FLOWERS
In
Feng Shui, the use of fragrant fresh flowers and lush green plants are often
suggested as enhancements for the flow of chi.
For most of us, however, we bring flowers into our home—whether from
the florists or our own gardens—with little more thought than placing them in
a vase and then setting them aside. In
the art of placement, we look for the right color floral to decorate the
appropriate sector of the pakua : red or pink for relationships, blue for
wealth, green foliage for health. As
we look out our windows we study landforms and observe the details of the
natural world. Can you see the
Dragons in the hills or the comforting Black Tortoise embracing you?
Heaven
(Lha) is above us, below us is the Earth (Lu) and in between is Man (nyen).
The Tibetans call this the “hierachy” of the natural word.
“Lha, Nyen and Lu describe the protocol and the decorum of the earth
itself,” teaches Trunpja Rinopoche, “ and they show how human beings can
weave themselves into the texture of basic reality”.
To
arrange flowers is to express the life of flowers. Ikebana,
the Japanese art of flower arrangement, traces its history back to the 6th
century where the Buddhist priests would offer flowers to appease the spirits of
the dead. In these rather crude
arrangements both the flowers and the branches were made to point towards Heaven
as an indication of faith. By the
middle of the 15th century, ikebana became an art form independent of
its religious origins but still maintained its symbolic overtones of
representing the balance between Heaven, Man and Earth.
As
a poem or a painting made with flowers, ikebana expresses both the beauty of
flowers and the longing in our own hearts.
A flower, a plant or a tree looks perfect in its natural environment.
It cannot be improved upon. If
we cut it down to bring it into our home how can we duplicate its beauty?
So, as we try to arrange it in its natural state, to feel the plants
unspoken words and combine it with our own spirit, then with the help of nature,
beauty is expressed by man's hand.
We
tend to assume that nature is something obvious and apparent to anyone, but
actually, when we seek a true expression of nature, we find it always changing
and impossible to capture. The only
way to catch hold of nature is to seize some point of it—the rib of a fan, for
example—and make that hardly noticed detail a personal expression of nature.
---Toshiro Kawase.
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Article - Learn About Nine Star Ki
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