I found my photograph today at the reflecting pool in Balboa Park. I had gone there to check out this year’s crop of lotus flowers and water lilies. My fascination with lotus flowers developed at about the same time as my interest in Buddhism. I was living in Southeast Asia at the time, and both Buddhism and the lotus flourish effortlessly there year round. It is no coincidence that the Buddha is often pictured seated on a lotus flower. The lotus plant, which grows out of the dirtiest mud and water, produces the beautiful flower that seems to generate its own light. The symbolic value of the lotus plant, especially the flower, is centuries old. The flower is a reminder that a person can rise like the flower above being rooted in the ugliness and suffering of this world. Contemplation of the flower should lead one to try to be pure and to help others with the beauty of the spirit. When he is pictured seated on a lotus flower in paintings and sculpture, the Buddha is the symbol of the awakening mind.