This delphinium has been with us for twenty years. It flowers near the beginning of summer and is strong beyond its years. The hummingbirds enjoy its nectar, the chipmunks enjoy its seeds, and we enjoy its size and history. It reminds me of the many moons that have been experienced here on the hill above the marsh. I cannot look at this flower enough and wonder at its persistence in the face of weather, animals, and time. It is a true perennial that marks time in our flower clock.
The delphinium is like the sun, peering through the avenues of time, to reveal the nature of life in the mind. The world around here is clearly apparent, yet not existent. On a cloudy day look around and say that the sun is not shining. This is the appearance of not shining. Yet we can know through experience that the sun is shining above and beyond the clouds or the shadow of a planet, and does not cease to shine. Context makes it that the sun is not shining and is shining at the same time; and we live in both worlds together. All other appearances are understood in the same way. Carefully we can untangle this web of deception called perception and begin to understand that seeing is not always believing. “ I would not have seen it if I did not believe it.”
I can trust that unchanging awareness is underlying all of these phantoms of perception and be relieved that the delphinium appears at the start of every summer. The movement of awareness through time, space, and memory conjures perception. Unchanging awareness is like space. Everything rests inseparably on space and is permeated by space. In the same way everything is dependent on awareness for its context. Be unaware and you fall into a state of illusion, just like the sun on a cloudy day is not shining. Wake up and you remain in a state that has always been, like the sun shining in space. When a light is turned on in a room called your mind, the darkness of untold years is dispelled instantly. What great mystery is this nature.
posted by michael
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