I’m often reminded of the things I need to hear, of the lessons I need to learn again. One such lesson is encapsulated in the phrase “No Mud, No Lotus”, a quote attributed to Vietnamese Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hahn. It is a teaching of the necessity of contrast, of how the beautiful Lotus flower is first nurtured and cultivated in the mud and darkness in which it grows. Without the mud, there would be no Lotus. From the human perspective, the mud represents our pain and suffering, the Lotus represents our having grown through it.

From time to time I find myself cursing the mud I have once again gotten stuck in, frustrated and impatiently waiting for my desired Lotus to finally bloom. It’s only when I remember that being frustrated and impatient only gives me more to be frustrated and impatient about. When I release my tight grip on what I don’t want I am then able to make space to grasp what I do want.

When I release the mud, only then am I ready to receive the Lotus.

I’ve come to see that there are two types of people we tend to surround ourselves with. Mud people and Lotus people. The Mud people are more common, much more prevalent. Their familiar presence almost feels comfortable to some. The Mud people are the ones who keep us stuck. Intentionally or not, their proximity stirs up the murky waters of our lives, thickening the viscosity of the emotional mud we claim we want to escape but on some level have come to expect and habitually accept. There is no clarity in the muddy waters they instinctually churn.

The Lotus people? They are the rare ones. They see who we really are, they see who we are here to become, and with loving acceptance and unconditional support they will guide us through our own mud creating an emotionally safe space for us to bloom into the beautiful Lotus that lies within each of us. They ask nothing in return, for they have navigated the path through their own mud on their way to expressing their own beautiful Lotus. They understand the pain of the darkness having journeyed their way to the light. Their insights are invaluable, and when you find yourself a Lotus person it is wise to keep them close.

But those damn Mud people feel so familiar, don’t they? And if we’ve only been exposed to Mud people, it’s hard for us to believe we are supposed to ever encounter a Lotus person of our own. So, we settle, holding out hope that maybe in time it will be different, that perhaps a particular Mud person can somehow morph into the Lotus person we’ve always been looking for. Our fears justify our willingness to contort ourselves to fit into what they want us to be, compromising standards if necessary, holding on tight as we hold out hope for a transformation which never comes.

Hoping people grow into what we want them to grow into is a proven lesson in futility, but that tends not to stop people from trying. Mud will always be mud, no matter how badly we want it not to be.

If we doubt our worthiness to receive Lotus people into our lives, we will magnetically attract more Mud people into our lives. Different people, new people, yet we’re somehow surprised when we experience the same result. No matter how we try to convince ourselves otherwise, the pattern will continue. More Mud. No Lotus.

Lessons get repeated until the lessons get learned.

The Lotus people are around us. But if we are radiating energies of self doubt and habitual unworthiness, we will find they will rarely appear in our lives. And if they do arrive, that same doubt and unworthiness will serve as a wedge and instead of us choosing their guidance we will eventually choose to stay stuck in the familiar and comfortably painful world of the Mud people waiting for the Lotus that will never arrive.

When you release your grasp on the Mud people, only then will you be energetically and vibrationally ready to fully receive the Lotus people into your life.

Ultimately we are the only one responsible for our own path, a journey no one can undertake for us. Those we willingly accept into our immediate circle with either perpetuate our stagnation and suffering or will elevate us out of the mud we’ve so longed to break free of.

Choose wisely.

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