Balancing now with forever

A flower symbolizes now and forever. It lives for a fleeting moment in the present, but because it has seeds of rebirth, it also lives forever, triggering its future plants. It is the merging of the finite and the infinite, the yin and the yang, transcending time and space. The flower connects the present and the future.

It is the same with people. We live in the present, but when we love each other, we take an instant giant leap into a mystical place called forever.

The lotus flower has deep meaning for Eastern cultures. It is their prayer and meditation flower. It has spiritual and transcendent qualities. Its exotic beauty symbolizes purity and mysticism.

For the ancient Egyptians, since it blooms in the bows down by mid-afternoon, it represents death, rebirth and the sun god Ra.

For the Buddhists, it represents purity, spiritual awakening and faithfulness. The red lotus flower represents love and the heart.

For the Hindus, it represents beauty, spirituality, fertility, prosperity and eternity. The lotus flower thrives only in muddy water, yet it is so pure, representing reincarnation and freedom from earthly attachments. It is the merging of purity and impurity.

The lotus flower blooms at dawn and hides again before dusk. The lotus plant thrives in both salty and fresh water, which is rare for a plant. It is often placed in giant clay jars in beach gardens, or it fills an entire lotus pond.

The lotus flower is sacred to Eastern philosophies because of this balance and merging of opposite elements, purity and impurity, temporariness and permanence, now and forever.

First Flight of a Baby Eagle — Now or Forever

The mother eagle trains her male baby eagle for his first flight. Every day, she pushes him gently so he can flex and exercise his wings. After a few months, when the mother eagle feels his wings are strong enough and he is ready for his first flight, she pushes him off the cliff.

In the blink of an eye, by pure instinct, the baby eagle either spreads his wings and soars or plunges to his death on the rocks below. Either he learns to fly in a split second or he dies. There is no other way the mother eagle can teach her baby to fly. The first flight of offspring is the only chance the eagle species gets to reproduce and proliferate.

It is a case of now and forever. If the baby eagle fails to fly and plunges to his death, that is the now, because he is the flower seed that dies, negating the next generations. If he dies, the eagle becomes an endangered species. If he soars, he is the forever, carrying the seeds of future generations.

Yin and Yang

Yin and Yang are another way to explain the meaning of now and forever.

Yin and Yang are an indivisible whole. One cannot exist without the other. You can learn about the light only after learning about the darkness. You can learn about the darkness only after learning about the light. Opposites attract each other. Yin and Yang, like now and forever, are complementary, interconnected and interdependent.

Yin and Yang yield harmony. There is a balance in duality in the universe. The Earth orbits around the sun because of the perfect balance between centripetal force (seeking the sun) and centrifugal force (escaping from the sun). This cosmic balance creates the harmony of stars and galaxies. In the same way, now and forever exist together as a “pair” of negative and positive forces.