Flowers of the Universe

Flowers of the Universe:
Blooming into the Void
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by Peter Barreda, April 9, 2004
(Material copyright 2004, all rights reserved)

Imagine a tree, vast and ancient, reaching high into the unknowable distance. Imagine its trunk so thick, so strong, that it takes up all of space. Its bark is deeply gnarled with the ravages of time, the rings within its heart a remnant of its passage through the ages. Imagine its roots, so deep and ancient that their origins are a mystery, their very existence the source of countless myths. Imagine the infinity of branches that spring from this tree, growing from the energy emanated by the trunk, pouring forth from the roots, these branches taking every shape, in every direction possible. Imagine that on some of these branches-- with the proper conditions, a conducive environment-- springs forth a richness of leaves, bursting with evident life, swaying, moving, seeking light and swaying in the breezes of time. And imagine, finally, that on some of these green branches, when the air is just right, when the sun grants its warmth and the water flows freely, there sprouts a profusion of bright and vibrant flowers, colors never before seen in the history of this ancient tree, images electric and diverse that pulse with energy and beauty and the everlasting fire of wonder.
Imagine that this vast living tree is the whole of the universe. The roots are its birth, the trunk its space, the branches are the myriad structures that have formed from the fantastic interplay of forces and matter. The leaves, rare and precious but ultimately inevitable, are the glimmering bastions of life. And even more difficult to find, necessarily more challenging to achieve, are the flowers of consciousness, the sentient, living vibrancy that reaches far beyond itself to probe the very boundaries of reality. This blooming, beautiful awareness is a product of all that came before it, born of all of the growth and energy seeping from the heart of the tree, the very motion of the universe.
This way of looking at the universe is as accurate as it is beautiful, and it shows us our true place within the course of all things. We are part of the universe, as flowers and leaves are parts of a tree. We are a brilliant and amazing presence, with the ability to see and know and think and wonder. But imagine now that the flowers have become so occupied with the business of thinking, of analyzing, of learning, that they've forgotten that they had once sprung from the tree itself. Imagine that the flowers look down at the branches from which they grow and ask themselves, "How did this branch come to be? What is at the heart of the trunk? Where do the roots reach, and upon what do they feed?" Given the wondrous variety of flowers, there are of course many possible answers to these questions, and these differences of opinion result in a most powerful tension and hatred between the flowers. They take up arms against each other, cut each other to pieces, vowing revenge and destruction in endless cycles of violence. That is precisely where we are as a species-- pointlessly arguing about origins and ways. Worse than arguing, we are killing, destroying, and butchering each other to prove one point or another. And all we need to do is to realize, in one breathless moment of enlightenment, that we are all one, inextricably united with each other, with the animals, the rocks, the sun, the very breath between the stars. To realize this truth is to cast away all thoughts of divisiveness, of elitism, of selfishness, of condemnation. To realize this truth is to see that if you hate your neighbor, you hate yourself.
This vision of holistic unity and inevitable progression in the course of the universe, of life, of sentience, displays the underlying connections, not only among us as a species but also between ourselves and the universe around us. It is a fine and tiny point, so evident that it borders on trite truism. Yet it is as crucial as anything can be, essential to the future of the human race, and it is this-- we are of the universe, not just in it. We weren't placed here as if upon a stage, to strut and fret away our precious few hours of life. Just as a tree, given the right conditions, grows leaves and flowers and even fruit, so does the universe grow us. We are an element in the totality of the universal process, not to be isolated or separated by frivolous illusions of divinity. Such ideas serve only to draw us further apart, from each other as well as from the wondrous drama unfolding around us. We are not foreign creatures crawling about this grand universal tree, but rather flowers that have bloomed from its very branches. As such, we share the same roots, the same essence, the same destiny.
The bottom line is that we all share this amazing gift of consciousness, whatever precisely that may be, and we are all here and alive to enjoy it, wherever we may have come from. Is it so difficult to stand peacefully next to someone who thinks differently than you do? And if it is, might that difficulty have more to do with what's going on in your head than what's going on in your neighbor's? There is an apt saying from the Native American culture that observes: "There is no tree so foolish that its branches fight among themselves." Yet that is precisely what we do, at great cost to ourselves and to our future. By ignoring the unifying truth of our existence, we generate physical and spiritual suffering in ever-increasing cycles of fear, anger and retribution. All of this violence is utterly pointless and unnecessary.
This is the eternal message of the mandala. It is a message of unity, a demonstration of the interconnected relationships between every thing in the universe. We are certainly all linked together-- spiritually, historically, sociologically-- but also consider the awe-inspiring idea that we are all connected through the material and energetic fields that surround us. We see this clearly in the mandala. True to the relativistic aspect of all universal truths, we are each the center of the mandala. There is no conflict in that, for there are as many centers as there are points in the universe. But as important as the center is the whole, and just as the bindu of a mandala anchors it in space and time, so does the rest of its wondrous and endless variety bestow upon it wings with which to fly. A mandala is infinite potential, infinitely alive. Imagine the universal tree we spoke of earlier, viewed from some extra-dimensional position so that we may look upon it from "above". What would we see? A massive circle of a trunk, now so dwarfed by its myriad branches that it has shrunk to a point in the center of everything. Around this point swirl the curving lines and filigrees of universal evolution, growth and time and matter, actual and potential-- past, present and yet to be. Interspersed throughout this spherical infinity you will see glowing gardens of life, green and thirsty, and within a few of these, the breathtaking vibrancy of the flowers of consciousness. And each and every point within this mandala is also the center of a mandala unto itself. One of these is you, and in this way you are connected to the whole.
The crucial point, what we must all realize, is that we do not occupy a place in the universe, rather we are an essential part of it, born of its ages-long symphony of time and space and energy. Look around you, every day of your life, and realize that you are this glorious, intricate tree, and it is you. Our thoughts and dreams are the glorious flowers on this magnificent universal tree, shining out upon the void with brilliance and wonder and light.