Buddhist - What Symbols Are Important To You?

Buddhism has lots and lots of symbols. It's a very symbolic sort of religion if you like. So I'm just going to go into, I thought it would be helpful to talk about something that I use on a daily basis which is a symbol but also is actual in my life. I actually use it and that is what is called a lotus scepter and as you can see the lotus scepter has a nice curve in it and it curves over the top and what that represents is the lotus flower and the curve is the spine of the person who's meditating. So it's an upright symbol and I use that for ceremonial and the lotus flower is important to Buddhism because it grows in the mud and it grows its roots in the mud and in the water and from there it grows a very very straight stem and then flowers into this beautiful flower and Buddhism uses that as a symbol because it's the flower of enlightenment, what Buddhists call enlightenment, and the spine or the stalk is the upright nature of our lives and the roots are our daily life and so what it's saying is you can't escape from your, Buddhism isn't about escaping from yourself, it's about growing yourself into something that's quite beautiful and the flowering of our experience and our religious practice is represented in the lotus flower and by using it in a ceremony every day I'm holding a lotus in my hand and and it expresses the compassion of Buddhism. Well I've chosen to talk about figurines of the Buddha and the Buddha's helpers and I've brought along one which is really a traveling Buddha and it's quite a small one and I take that with me wherever I go and I keep it in a special pouch because it means a lot to me and I want to treat it with care. I find that if I'm away from home for example then wherever I am I can set up my own little altar and it helps to bring me back to how I want to be in wherever I am and it helps to bring me back to feeling a sense of kindness and care towards whoever I'm meeting. It might be hotel staff for instance so it just helps me in my daily life and a second one is a head of a Buddha which to me has a beautiful serene calm face and I have that at home in my bedroom and when I walk into the room I might be feeling upset or angry with someone and I can see the Buddha's head with its calm beautiful smiling face and that helps me to bring me back to that sense of kindness and openness to more than what I'm just feeling in that angry moment.