No Mud, No Lotus.

No Mud, No Lotus. Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hahn (one of my favorite teacher & mentor) says that suffering and joy are intrinsically connected and one cannot exist without the other. The beauty of the lotus is found in its determination to rise out of the mud to meet the sun, transformed. Adversity is inherent to the human condition. We forget that. I forget that! We live in a culture that does everything in its power to numb, protect and run from the uncomfortable and often painful parts of being human. And yet, it’s the mud, our travails, that define us—Illuminates us.

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