Hail to the jewel in the lotus

[UM-Bot]

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/images/newsitems/lotus.jpg

William B Stoecker: "Om Mani Padme Hum," usually translated from Sanskrit into English as "Hail to the Jewel in the Lotus," is the mantra of the bodhisattva (meaning, roughly, an enlightened person) Avalokiteshvara. The mantra is popular among Tibetan Buddhists. The lotus flower (Nelumbo nucifera) is an aquatic perennial only distantly related to lilies, and it represents sexual virtue and non-attachment, considered a virtue by the Hindus. To the Buddhists it represents purity. The flowers, seeds, young leaves, and roots are all edible. But could its value be more than symbolic?

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[Sundew]

It would have been nice if the article had actually used a photo of the lotus or even the blue waterlily instead of a picture of some legume. Lotus are amazingly beautiful plants, the flowers are huge, in fact I believe the American Yellow Lotus (Nelubo lutea) has the largest flowers of any north American plant. Also the leaves are amazing, they are covered will nano-sized structures that allows water to roll around on them like beads of quicksilver (mercury) without getting them wet and kids love to play with them in this way. They are widely grown in S.E. Asia in small ceramic fish bowls at temple sites and form huge colonies in shallow ponds.

[Trog]

I've often wondered about such things as hallucinatory substances that give the user an altered state of mind , the Medicine Men of yesteryear and some of the great Artists of to-day .

Did anything those Medicine Men had to say have any basis in truth , did it happen or was it just the ravings of a fevered mind ?

It may have had some medicinal purpose , as I remember from old movies , the Medicine Man always danced very energetically around a fire at night while rattling bones together and chanting loudly .... So the substance they took gave them energy and made them feel like singing and dancing , I think they still use something like that to-day ?