Flowers Will Not Cling to an Unattached Mind
When the goddess scattered petals, they clung to those whose minds still held attachment, and slid right off those whose attachment had ended.
What keeps clinging to me — is it not the thing itself, but my own mind that grasps it?
📝Reflection
It is an unforgettable scene in the Vimalakirti Sutra. A goddess scatters petals over the gathering. Strangely, the flowers cling to some and will not fall, while off others they simply slide away. The goddess says the flowers cling not by the flowers' fault, but because attachment still remains in that person's mind. A deep insight. The things that cling to us and will not fall — worry, lingering regret, the memory of an insult — are sticky not in themselves. It is our own mind that holds them. Hearing the same criticism, one is bound to it all day in torment, while another lets it pass. The difference is not the criticism but the mind. If something keeps clinging and tormenting you, before straining to peel it off, ask: is it perhaps my own mind that grasped it first?
🌱Apply It Today
If a thought won't shake off today, ask "is it clinging to me, or am I gripping it?" and loosen your hand.
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
