The lotus in Buddhism

The lotus is one of the best-known symbols in Buddhism. In Sanskrit and Pali, the word for lotus is padma or paduma, and the blue water lily is uppala. The lotus grows in muddy ponds, rises through the water and opens clean and bright above the surface. For Buddhists, this is a picture of awakening.

The lotus in the early texts

The image appears in the Buddha's own teaching. In one discourse, a brahmin named Doṇa sees the Buddha's footprints and asks whether he is a god or some other being. The Buddha answers that he is none of these. Just as a lotus is born in water and grows in water, but rises above it unsoiled, so he was born in the world but is not soiled by the world. He tells Doṇa to remember him as awakened.

In another discourse, just after his awakening, the Buddha hesitates to teach. He then surveys the world and sees beings like lotuses in a pond: some still under the water, some at the surface, some standing clear of it. Some, he sees, have only a little dust in their eyes and will understand. This moves him to teach.

What the lotus stands for

The lotus carries several meanings:

• Purity in the midst of the world. The flower is not stained by the mud it grows from. In the same way, a mind no longer driven by greed, hatred and delusion can live among ordinary life without being caught by it.
• Growth. The lotus grows step by step from the bottom of the pond. Practice too is gradual.
• Potential. In many Mahayana schools, the lotus also stands for buddha-nature, the potential for awakening present in all beings.

The lotus in art and practice

In Buddhist art, awakened beings are often shown seated or standing on a lotus. The lotus posture in meditation, with each foot resting on the opposite thigh, takes its name from the flower. Different colours are sometimes given different meanings, with white linked to purity and pink to the Buddha himself, though these associations vary.

The lotus also gives its name to the Lotus Sutra, an important Mahayana scripture, and appears in the mantra oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ.

A symbol for daily life

Many people find the lotus encouraging. It suggests that the difficult conditions of life are not a barrier to practice. They are the very mud from which understanding can grow.