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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

India and Indonesia..

"Golden threads of friendship that existed between India and
Indonesia..." -- Tagore

Monday, July 11, 2011
Indian noted writer Tagore makes return to Java at JIS | The Jakarta
Post

Economic Association of Indonesia and India (2010)
http://www.ecaii.org/
Gracing the southwestern corner of the Monas(Freedom Square), at the
downtown central business district in Jakarta, the capital city of
Indonesia, this statue depicts Arjuna Wijaya, the charismatic archer
from the Indian legend Mahabharata, with a bow and arrow, riding a
chariot of six galloping horses - a scene supposedly taken from
Bharata Yuda War when Arjuna defeated Karna. The monument holds great
significance for the Indonesians, with some believing that the very
figure opens a door to the spiritual world...

"Ramayana and Mahabharata are most popular in Indonesia. They were
probably translated in the 11th century during the reign of King
Airlangga in the ancient Kawi language. King Airlangga was himself a
great scholar and ascetic who spent many years in the jungle in
meditation. Ramayana and Mahabharata are the basis of innumerable
dances, plays, sculptures, paintings and music themes."

"In August 1927 when Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel prize winner
arrived at Tanjung Priok harbor, he burst into a verse in the memory
of the golden threads of kinship that have existed between India and
Indonesia."

"In 1947, Biju Patnaik flew a private plane full of medicines to
Indonesia and also rescued Mohammad Hatta and P.M. Sutan Sjahrir from
the Dutch and brought them to India. In 1951 when Nehru visited Bali
he said, "this is the morning of the world."

"The earliest historical record is in Ujung Kulon National Park, West
Java. An early Hindu archeological relic of a Ganesha statue from the
1st Century AD has been found on the summit of Mount Raksa in
Panaitan Island. The next historical record is in the area of Kutai
on the Mahakam River in east Kalimantan. Three rough plinths dating
from the beginning of the fourth century are recorded in the Pallavi
script of India. The inscription reads: "A gift to the Brahmin
priests."

"The famous Batu Tulis (stone writing) near Bogor in Western Java is
on a huge black boulder in, around 450 A.D king Purnawarna inscribed
his name and made an imprint of his footprints, as well as his
elephant's footprints. The accompanying inscription reads, 'Here are
the footprints of King Purnawarna, the heroic conqueror of the
world'. This inscription is in Sanskrit and is still clear after 1500
years. This is the oldest archeological monument in Java. (Candi)
Badut near Malang in East Java was built in A.D 760. Candi is the
name of the Hindu Goddess of Time and Death. This area is literally
strewn with ancient Hindu temples and even today temples are being
dug out from the ground".

"The famous Batu Tulis (stone writing) near Bogor in Western Java is
on a huge black boulder in, around 450 A.D king Purnawarna inscribed
his name and made an imprint of his footprints, as well as his
elephant's footprints. The accompanying inscription reads, 'Here are
the footprints of King Purnawarna, the heroic conqueror of the
world'. This inscription is in Sanskrit and is still clear after 1500
years. This is the oldest archeological monument in Java. (Candi)
Badut near Malang in East Java was built in A.D 760. Candi is the
name of the Hindu Goddess of Time and Death. This area is literally
strewn with ancient Hindu temples and even today temples are being
dug out from the ground".

"During the 8th and 9th century, the world's largest Buddhist complex
Borobudur and Prambanan the largest Hindu temple complex in Indonesia
were built near Yogyakarta in Central Java. In the 10th Century,
students were sent to Nalanda Buddhist University in N.E.India".

"The national emblem of the Republic of Indonesia"Garuda Pancasila"
is adorned with the Garuda in the Indonesian history holds a place of
honor. It is a symbol of national emblem with Wishnu riding it.
Garuda sculpture is shown in countless temples. Garuda stands for
complete devotion to Lord Vishnu and subsequent freedom from evil.
Garuda also stands for the freedom of the people of Indonesia from
foreign rule".

"The (Candi) Badut near Malang in East Java built in A.D 760. Candi
is the name of the Hindu Goddess of Time and Death. This area is
literally strewn with ancient Hindu temples and even today temples
are being dug out from the ground."

"In Sumatra in the 12/13th Century arose the great Kingdom of
Sriwijaya. However, it was during the reign of King Hayam Wuruk of
the Majapahit Kingdom that the Prime Minister Gajah Mada united the
entire Indonesia into a single state. It was the golden era of
Indonesia."

"The national emblem of the Republic of Indonesia -- "Garuda
Pancasila" is adorned with the with the words Bhineka Tunggal Ika-
which means Unity in Diversity. The concept of Bhineka Tunggal Ika
was started during the 8th-9th centuries in Central Java to create an
understanding between Hinduism and Buddhism. Classic example is Candi
Shiwa-Buddha. Afterwards King Airlangga made use of it in the 11th
century. However it was Mpu Tantular the court poet of the Majapahit
kingdom who during the reign of King Hayam Wuruk propagated this idea
of a Unity in Diversity, in his poem".

Mention must be made here of Panca Sila, the 5 basic principles of
the Republic of Indonesia. They are: Faith in one God, Nationalism,
Democracy, Humanity and Just Society. All over Indonesia, at Govt.
places you see Garuda, the vehicle of the Hindu God Vishnu alongside
with a Panca Sila plaque. Indonesians are extremely proud of their
historical cultural past. Indonesia like India is secular and even
one of their currency notes carries a picture of Lord Ganesha".

"Although there are hundreds of dialects throughout Indonesia, yet
Bahasa Indonesia in roman script is understood everywhere and this is
what unites them all in their outlook. Indeed "Bhineka Tunggal Ika"
'Unity in Diversity' stands proved through Bahasa Indonesia, which
shares many common words with Sanskrit like Guru, istri, suami,
putri, putra, warna, Akasha and niscaya. Bahasa Indonesia is a very
artistic language. Matahari means eye of the day which means Sun."

http://www.melali-indonesia-tours.in/tourism.php
Indonesia in India's Look-East Policy: Prof. Baladas Ghoshal
January, 2011

http://www.idsa.in/system/files/IB_IndoLookEastPolicy.pdf
Indian noted writer Tagore makes return to Java at JIS
The Jakarta Post

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2001/05/19/indian-noted-writer-tag...
Life
Indian noted writer Tagore makes return to Java at JIS
By Mehru Jaffer
The Jakarta Post
Saturday, May 19, 2001 - 2:22 p.m.

Jakarta (JP): As he stepped down at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok harbor in
August 1927, India's poet philosopher Rabindranath Tagore burst into
verse in praise of the ""golden threads of kinship that existed
between Indonesia and India"".

The Little Theater at the Jakarta International School in Cilandak
will resonate on Saturday night as an ode is once again paid to the
legendary Tagore, not just a poet but also a social reformer,
educationist, composer, painter and humanist.

Tagore's visit to Java and Bali were part of a series of lecture
tours he organized for himself to share with the rest of Asia his
romantic and idealized concept of a single eastern civilization. Most
of Asia at that time was a slave of colonial masters and Tagore felt
that Asia must find her voice if humanity was to be saved. The greed
of western countries caused him great concern.

And wherever the Calcutta-born Tagore went he attracted large crowds,
for he was already world famous. W.B. Yeats wrote the introduction
for the English translation of Gitanjali (Song of Offerings), which
won for Tagore the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.

Over the years, the Indian poet's initial concept of a spiritual East
standing aloof from a materialistic West flowered into a world ideal
that he hoped would one day unify all humankind. His religion, he
explained to Albert Einstein during their 1930 conversation at
Einstein's home near Berlin, was in the reconciliation of the super
personal man, the universal human spirit in his own individual being.

Tagore advocated a worldwide commerce of heart and mind so that the
individual's sense of purpose in life is enhanced. He took the
initiative to contact leading thinkers in other parts of Asia. In
Java one of his closest allies was Ki Hajar Dewantoro, founder of the
Taman Siswa schools, and the country's first minister of education.
Dewantoro was inspired by Tagore's talk of nationalism without
closing the door to modernism.

A literal translation of kindergarten or the garden of children, the
Taman Siswa schools remain the oldest national education institutions
here, started in 1932. Dewantoro was impressed with Tagore's school
at Santiniketan and Viswa Bharati, the world university founded by
Tagore in 1918 with all the money he received as Nobel laureate.
Dewantoro, painter Affandi and Dr. Ida Bagus Mantra of Bali visited
the university of universal learning which Tagore saw as a center of
Indian culture and also the thread linking India to the world.

The idea was to revive the traditional Indian way of teaching, in the
open, under a tree, in close contact with nature. Both Tagore and
Dewantoro believed that all the elements in one's own culture have to
be strengthened, not to resist western culture but to accept and
assimilate it, to get mastery over it and not to live at its
outskirts.

Tagore died in 1941 but his ideas continue to live through the works
of all those who look upon all civilizations in different continents
as being complementary to each other. It is in the same spirit that
Abhyudaya, an Indonesia-India cultural assembly came into being half
a decade ago. Since then every May is dedicated to the memory of
Tagore whose birth anniversary falls this month.

Chitrangada, an episode about a warrior princess from the Mahabharata
which Tagore wrote as a dance-drama, was performed in the past by
Indian dancer Nilanjana Ghosh along with Balinese dancers, and also
Tridhara, yet another offering of Indian dance, music and song to
Indonesian audiences.

""As we live, work and bring up children in foreign countries it
becomes our personal responsibility to keep them connected with our
culture and values,"" says Aparesh Mukerjee, production manager and
one of the founders of Abhyudaya.

The highlight of the evening will be an excerpt from a film on Tagore
made by Satyajit Ray, perhaps the greatest film maker of India and an
alumnus of Santiniketan.

The Performance will take place at Little Theater, the Jakarta
International School, Cilandak Campus, on May 19, at 6.15 p.m.
Further Inquiries at 021-7500340

HEALTH,PERSONALITY,SOCIETY AND LIFE

Health:

1.
Drink plenty of water.
2 Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
5. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer.
6.
Play more games.
7.
Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
8.
Sleep for 7 hours.
9.
Walk for 10-30 minutes every day. And while you walk, smile.
Personality:
1
. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
2
. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
3.
Don't overdo. Keep your limits.
4
. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5.
Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
6
. Dream more while you are awake.
7.
Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
8
. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
9.
Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others
10.
Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
11
. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
12.
Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn.
13.
Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
14.
Smile and laugh more.
15.
You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.


Society:

1.
Call your family often.
2.
Each day give something good to others.
3.
Forgive everyone for everything.
4.
Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
5.
Try to make at least three people smile each day.
6.
What other people think of you is non of your business.
7.
Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your family and friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:

1.
Do the right thing!
2.
Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
3.
GOD heals everything.
4.
However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
5.
No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
6.
The best is yet to come.
7.
When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
8.
Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

Flowers

Flowers
Blossoms, Flowering Trees and Shrubs, Wildflowers, Annuals

"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck."- Emma Goldman
"The world is a rose; smell it and pass it to your friends."
- Persian Proverb
"They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream."

- Ernest Dowson, 1867 - 1900
"A flower's fragrance declares to all the world that it is fertile, available, and desirable, its sex organs oozing with nectar. Its smell reminds us in vestigial ways of fertility, vigor, life-force, all the optimism, expectancy, and passionate bloom of youth. We inhale its ardent aroma and, no matter what our ages, we feel young and nubile in a world aflame with desire."
- Diane Ackerman,
A Natural History of the Senses, 1990, p. 13
" I do not think I have ever seen anything more beautiful than the bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty of our Lord by it."
- Gerald Manley Hopkins
"Where flowers bloom so does hope."
- Lady Bird Johnson,
Public Roads: Where Flowers Bloom
"Each flower is a soul opening out to nature.
Every child is born a naturalist. His eyes are, by nature, open to the glories of the stars, the beauty of the flowers, and the mystery of life."
- R. Search
"If I could carry calla lilies on my shoulder once more like an ubrella in daylight, I would lean them on the cemetery gate and sleep."
- Thomas Heise, Epitaph X
"The 'Amen!' of Nature is always a flower."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Eighty percent of the world's rose species come from Asia.
"Don't try to force anything. Let life be a deep let-go. See [God/Spirit/All That Is] opening millions of flowers every day without forcing the buds."
- Bhagwan Shree Rayneesh
"To analyze the charms of flowers is like dissecting music; it is one of those things which it is far better to enjoy, than to attempt to fully understand."
- Henry T. Tuckerman
"In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends."
- Kozuko Okakura

"I didn't know the names of the flowers - now my garden is gone."
- Allen Ginsberg
"The gardens that make us happiest flourish because we have taken the time to make sure they feed our souls and fill a special place in our lives. Sometimes you have to think about what you really want from your garden ... once the beds are laid out and the rose bushes planted."
- Lindley Karstens
"You love the roses - so do I. I wish
The sky would rain down roses, as they rain
From off the shaken bush. Why will it not?
Then all the valley would be pink and white
And soft to tread on. They would fall as light
As feathers, smelling sweet; and it would be
Like sleeping and like waking, all at once!"
- George Eliot, Roses
"In the 1600's, a language of flowers developed in Constantinople and in the poetry of Persia. Charles II introduced the Persian poetry to Europe, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu brought the flower language from Turkey to England in 1716. It spread to France and became a handbook of 800 floral messages known as the Book Le Language des Fleurs. Lovers exchanged messages as they gave each other selected flowers or bouquets. A full red rose meant beauty. Red and white mean unity. Crocus said "abuse not", while a white rosebud warns that one is too young for love. Yellow roses were for jealousy, yellow iris for passion, filbert for reconciliation and ivy for marriage."
"The nature of This Flower is to bloom."
- Alice Walker
"The actual flower is the plant's highest fulfillment, and are not here exclusively for herbaria, county floras and plant geography: they are here first of all for delight. - John Ruskin
"A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books."
- Walt Whitman
"For most of us who are intimidated by theories of garden design, the cottage garden provides immediate appeal, since it is a horticultural rather than an architectural solution to a limited area."
- Patricia Thorpe
"... the most fiendish plant I know of, the sort of thing Beelzebub might pluck to make a bouquet for his mother-in-law ... it looks as if it had been made out of a sow's ear for the spathe, and the tail of a rat that died of Elephantiasis
for the spadix. The whole thing is mingling of unwholesome greens, livid purples, and pallid pinks, the livery of putrescence in fact, and it possesses and odour to match the colouring."
- E. A. Bowles, My Garden in Spring, 1914
Speaking about the Dracunculus vulgaris, syn. Arum Dracunculus (Dragon Arum)
"You love the roses--so do I. I wish the sky would rain down roses, as they rain from off the shaken bush. Why will it not? Then all the valley would be pink and white and soft to tread on. They would fall as light as feathers, smelling sweet: and it would be like sleeping and yet waking, all at once."
- George Eliot
"The fairest things have fleetest end,
Their scent survives their close:
But the rose's scent is bitterness
To him that loved the rose."
- Francis Thompson, 1859-1907
"If all our eyes had the clarity of apples
In a world as altered
As if by the wood betony
And all kinds of basil were the only rulers of the land
It would be good to be together
Both under and above the ground
To be sane as the madwort,
Ripe as corn, safe as sage,
Various as dusty miller and hens & chickens,
In politics as kindly fierce and dragonlike as tarragon,
Revolutionary as the lily."
- Bernadette Mayer, The Garden
"To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat."
- Beverley Nichols
"When Shakyamuni Buddha was at Mount Grdhrakuta, he held up a flower to his listeners. Everyone was silent. Only Mahakashyapa broke into a broad smile. The Buddha said, "I have the True Dharma Eye, the Marvelous Mind of Nirvana, the True Form of the Formless, and the Subtle Dharma Gate, independent of words and transmitted beyond doctrine. This I have entrusted to Mahakashyapa."
- The Mumonkan, Zen Koans, Case 6
"To create a little flower is the labor of ages."
- William Blake
"Flowers have a mysterious and subtle influence upon the feelings, not unlike some strains of music. They relax the tenseness of the mind. They dissolve its vigor."
- Henry Ward Beecher
"As a flower that is lovely,
Colourful, and fragrant
Even so fruitful is the well-spoken word
Of one who practises it.
As from a heap of flowers
Many kinds of garlands can be made,
So many good deeds should be done
By one born a mortal.

The perfume of flower blows not against the wind,
Nor does the fragrance of sandal-wood, tagara and jasmine,
But the fragrance of the virtuous blows against the wind.
The virtuous man pervades all directions."
- Buddhist Sutra
"A lonely tulip
Dying on the dirt filled road
Never waking up"
- Allison Borowick
"Gardens and flowers have a way of bringing people together, drawing them from their homes."
- Clare Ansberry, The Women of Troy Hill
Leaping from the Ledge of Infinite Regress,
The Unmoved Mover fell into Formlessness:
Pure silence echoed between the galaxies,
Eons of eons vanished in a second,
Withered trees bloomed in fires,
Polar mountains melted, rivers went dry,
Thusness scattered in sixty directions,
Space became Time, time became things,
Black Holes filled with Nirvana,
A billion samadhi mirrors shattered,
Galaxies snuggled within a single skull,
Many became One, One only, only One.
Then, the Divine Illuminatrix in All Beings
Opened Her clouded Eye, to see:
Flowers in the Sky.
- Michael P. Garofalo, Emptiness in Full Bloom
"An angel, legend has it, took pity on a little shepherd girl who had nothing to give to the Infant Jesus in his manger. The angel handed her a weed, but first transformed it into this beautiful flower of winter... the Christmas rose, Helleborus niger.
- Allen Lacy, The Gardener's Eye, 1991, p. 14
"It is daffodil time, so the robins all cry,
For the sun’s a big daffodil up in the sky,
And when down the midnight the owl calls “to-whoo”!
Why, then the round moon is a daffodil too;
Now sheer to the bough-tops the sap starts to climb,
So, merry my masters, it’s daffodil time."
- Clinton Scollard, Daffodil Time
"What a desolate place would be a world without flowers. It would be a face without a smile; a feast without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars of the earth? Are not our stars the flowers of heaven?"
- Clara L. Balfour
"In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful."
- Abram L. Urban
"How could such sweet and wholesome hours be reckoned, but in herbs and flowers?"
- Andrew Marvell
"Moon, plum blossoms,
this, that,
and the day goes."
- Issa
"Compare the silent rose of the sun
And rain, the blood-rose living in its smell,
With this paper, this dust.
That states the point."
- Wallace Stevens
"The peony
Made him measure it
With his fan"
- Issa
"made to measure it
with a fan...
the peony"
- Issa
"The way in which the peony is considered as the active source of the measuring of itself is not merely good psychology, but shows us how Issa looks upon the plant world and upon himself. Compared to that of the ordinary man, human beings and plants are much closer together in the thought-feeling world of Issa. The flower stands there in its color and glory. It does not bloom to be seen, nor does it wish to blush unseen. It is not dependent upon man, but neither is it independent of him. Its purposeless purpose is fulfilled in its blooming in solitude and silence, yet when no one is gazing upon it, it has no shape or color or fragrance. The flower needs the mind, and the mind needs the flower for its fulfillment. Issa emphasizes the power and activity of the peony not only because we live in an egocentric, homocentric world, valueless and unpoetical, but also because he wishes to bring out the special nature of the peony, its power and magnificence, its lofty splendor. Is this splendor in the flower? Does Issa cause the flower to be measured, or does the flower cause Issa to measure it?"
- R. H. Blyth, Haiku, Volume 3, Summer-Autumn

"Bread feeds the body indeed, but the flowers also feed the soul."
- The Koran
"When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other."
- Chinese proverb
"The lily was created on the third day, early in the morning when the Almighty was especially full of good ideas."
- Michael Jefferson-Brown
"As a plant produces its flower, so the psyche creates its symbols."
- Carl G. Yung

"Science, or para-science, tells us that geraniums bloom better if they are spoken to. But a kind word every now and then is really quite enough. Too much attention, like too much feeding, and weeding and hoeing, inhibits and embarrasses them."
- Victoria Glendinning
"Just as the bee takes the nectar and leaves without damaging the color or scent of the flowers, so should the sage act in a village."
- Dhammapada, Sayings of the Buddha, Pali Cannon
"White dew-
one drop
on each thorn"
- Buson
"A fairy seed I planted, so dry and white and old, there sprang a vine enchanted, with magic flowers of gold."
- Marjorie Barrows
"How could such sweet and wholesome hours
Be reckoned but with herbs and flowers?"
- Andrew Marvel
"Every rose is an autograph from the hand of God on his world about us. He has inscribed his thoughts in these marvelous hieroglyphics which sense and science have, these many thousand years, been seeking to understand."
- Theodore Parker
"Life is the flower for which love is the honey."
- Victor Hugo
"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."
- Bible, Matthew, 6:28-29
"There is material enough in a single flower for the ornament of a score of cathedrals."
- John Ruskin
"Open afresh your rounds of starry folds,
Ye ardent Marigolds."
- John Keats
"So plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers."
- Author unknown
"To Nature the dweller in the Nile valley linked all that was dear to him: his happiest fetes, poetry, and love - all were bound up with the garden and its products, especially flowers. Few Oriental nations can think of a festival without flowers, but nowhere are they so completely a part of human life, and so essential, as in [Ancient] Egypt."
- M. L. Gothein, A History of Garden Art, 1928
"One flower makes no garland."
- Proverb from Romania
"and the gray Sunflower poised against the sunset,
crackly bleak and dusty with the smut and smog
and smoke of olden locomotives in its eye--
corolla of bleary spikes pushed down and broken like
a battered crown, seeds fallen out of its face,
soon-to-be-toothless mouth of sunny air, sun-
rays obliterated on its hairy head like a dried
wire spiderweb,
leaves stuck out like arms out of the stem, gestures
from the sawdust root, broke pieces of plaster
fallen out of the black twigs, a dead fly in its ear,
Unholy battered old thing you were, my sunflower O
my soul, I loved you then!
- Allen Ginsberg, Sunflower Sutra
"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
- Thomas Gray
"The love of flowers is really the best teacher
of how to grow and understand them."
- Max Schling
"The largest single flower is the Rafflesia or "corpse flower". They are generally 3 feet in diameter with the record being 42 inches. No species of wild plant produces a flower or blossom that is absolutely black, and so far, none has been developed artificially."
"To see the world in a grain of sand
and heaven in a wildflower,
hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour."
- William Blake
"The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower."
- William Cowper
"The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose,
But the theory now goes
That the apple's a rose,
And the pear is, and so's
The plum, I suppose,
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose,
You, of course, are a rose -
But were always a rose."
- Robert Frost, 1875-1963
"When at last I took the time to look into the heart of a flower, it opened up a whole new world; a world where every country walk would be an adventure, where every garden would become an enchanted one."
- Princess Grace of Monaco
" 'Tis the last rose of summer
Left blooming alone:
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone."
- Sir Thomas Moore
"The roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose. It is perfect in every moment of its existence."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I have a garden of my own,
Shining with flowers of every hue;
I loved it dearly while alone,
But I shall love it more with your:
And there the golden bees shall come,
In summer time at the break of morn,
And wake us with their busy hum
Around the Siha's fragrant thorn."
- Thomas Moore, The Casket, 1835
"O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm,
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy,
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy."
- William Blake
"What a pity flowers can utter no sound!—A singing rose, a whispering violet, a murmuring honeysuckle ... oh, what a rare and exquisite miracle would these be!"
- Henry Ward Beecher
"The grape Hyacinth is the favorite spring flower of my garden - but no! I though a minute ago the Scilla was! and what place has the Violet? the Flower de Luce? I cannot decide, but this I know - it is some blue flower."
- Alice Morse Earle
"To win the trophy of enchanting grace:
Ranks of Carnations, to all ladies dear,
Of whose sweet taste I write approval here,
For these pre-eminent myself I think,
As long as you don't overdue the pink."
- Ruth Pitter, 1897-1992, Other People's Glasshouses, 1941
Every Flower must grow through Dirt.
"Just living is not enough ...
One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."
- Hans Christian Anderson
"Correct handling of flowers refines the personality."
- Bokuyo Takeda
"Through primrose tufts,
in that sweet bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes."
- William Wordsworth
"The flower that follows the sun does so even on cloudy days."
- Robert Leighton (1611-1684)
"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us."
- Iris Murdoch
"God gave us our memories so that we might have roses in December."
- James Matthew Barrie, (1860-1937)
"Tis better to buy a small bouquet
And give to your friend this very day,
Than a bushel of roses white and red
To lay on his coffin after he’s dead."
- Irish Proverbs
"And these memories and associations that our flowers give us are independent of seasons or of age. They come to us as well in autumn and winter, in spring and summer; and as to age, the older we get the more, from the very nature of things, do these memories increase and multiply."
- Canon Ellacombe, In a Gloucestershire Garden, 1895
Qui pingit florem, floris non pingit odorem.
Who paints the flower does not paint the flower's fragrance.
"Flowers seem intended for a solace of ordinary humanity."
- John Ruskin
"Give me artificial flowers - porcelain and metal glories - neither fading nor decaying, forms unaging. Flowers of the splendid gardens of another place, where Forms and Styles and Knowledge dwell. I love flowers made of glass or gold, true Art's true gifts, their painted hues more beautiful than nature's, worked in nacre and enamel, with perfect leaves and branches."- K. P. Kavafis,
"In last night's storm the beautiful blossoms all fell off. Ah! What a shame. When it rains for two or three days, again the weeds have grown up. Oh, well."
- Zen Master Hakuun Yasutani, 1885 - 1973; Flowers Fall, 1996, Translated by Paul Jaffe

"The Kingdom of Flowering Plants holds a special compassion for human travail. Because of this, the essences of flowers support us with a special compassion through our earthbound transformation. Flower essences contain the vibratory qualities of the flowers, and are made by infusing the flower into spring water under sun or moon light."
- Flowers of the Soul
"The Chrysanthemum, the Flower of Happiness, was so revered that in Japan only the nobles could grow it. It has been grown for over 2,000 years all throughout in the Far East. It has come to mean love and truthfulness. We may see it carved on the throne of the Emperor of Japan and on many Chinese artifacts."
- Flowers: Myths, Legends and Traditions
"Some lives, like evening primroses, blossom most beautifully in the evening of life."
brilliant yellow
border of daffodils
behind barbed wire
- Michael P. Garofalo, Cuttings
"And over one more set of hills, along the sea, the last roses have opened their factories of sweetness and are giving it back to the world. If I had another life I would want to spend it all on some unstinting happiness."
- Mary Oliver, Roses, Late Summer
"Another thing much too commonly seen, is an aberration of the human mind which otherwise I should have been ashamed to warn you of. It is technically called carpet-gardening. Need I explain it further? I had rather not, for when I think of it, even when I am quite alone, I blush with shame at the thought."
- William Morris, Hope and Fears for Art, 1860
"The foxglove, with it's stately bells
Of purple, shall adorn thy dells."
- D. M. Moir, The Birth of the Flowers
"O frost bitten blossoms,
That are unfolding your wings
From out the envious black branches.
Bloom quickly and make much of the sunshine.
The twigs conspire against you!
Hear them!
They hold you from behind."
- William Carlos Williams, Aux Imagistes, 1914
"Science, or para-science, tells us that geraniums bloom better if they are spoken to. But a kind word every now and then is really quite enough. Too much attention, like too much feeding, and weeding and hoeing, inhibits and embarrasses them."
- Victoria Glendinning, Green Words, 1986
"Won't you come into my garden? I would like my roses to see you."
- Richard Sheridan
"Bloom where you are planted!"
- Mary Engelbert
"And why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow: they do not worry or make clothes for themselves. But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers."
- Bible, Matthew 6: 28, 29, & 30
"I appreciate the misunderstanding I have had with Nature over my perennial border. I think it is a flower garden; she thinks it is a meadow lacking grass, and tries to correct the error."
- Sara Stein, My Weeds, 1988
"Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers and never succeeding."
- Marc Chagall
"I haven't much time to be fond of anything . . . But when I have a moment's fondness to bestow, most times . . . the roses get it."
- William Wilkie Collins
What kind of flowers do you give to King Tut?
Chrysanthemummies
"The original Greek meaning of the word anthology is a collection or gathering of flowers in bloom."
- Jane Garmey
"One day when I was young, and walking with a friend, a field dry as straw bloomed with flowers. "Oh, glory!" we breathed, my good friend and I, for the flowers blazed like suns and fire and rainbows. They sprang from folds between hillsides, peeked from pockets of shade. Spiraling - dancing - they followed us home..."
- Maggie Streincrohn Davis
"A garden of roses is a fragrant piece of heaven. A garden without roses is a sorry thing."
- Matthew A. R. Bassity
"Lovers, forget your love,
And list to the love of these,
She a window flower,
And he a winter breeze.

When the frosty window veil
Was melted down at noon,
And the cagèd yellow bird
Hung over her in tune,

He marked her through the pane,
He could not help but mark,
And only passed her by,
To come again at dark. ...

Perchance he half prevailed
To win her for the flight
From the firelit looking-glass
And warm stove-window light.

But the flower leaned aside
And thought of naught to say,
And morning found the breeze
A hundred miles away."
- Robert Frost, Wind and Window Flower
"Each flower is a soul blossoming out to nature."
- Gerard De Nerval
"Take your seat on the thousand petals of the lotus, and there gaze on the Infinite Beauty."
- Kabir, Do not go to the garden of flowers
"To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat."
- Beverly Nichols
"Where flowers bloom so does hope."
- Lady Bird Johnson, Public Roads: Where Flowers Bloom.
"Little flower, but if I could understand, what you are, root and all, all in all I should know what God and man is."
- Tennyson
"By means of microscopic observation and astronomical projection the lotus flower can become the foundation for an entire theory of the universe and an agent whereby we may perceive Truth."
- Yukio Mishima
I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck."
- Emma Goldman
"The world is a rose; smell it and pass it to your friends."
- Persian Proverb
"They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream."

- Ernest Dowson, 1867 - 1900
"A flower's fragrance declares to all the world that it is fertile, available, and desirable, its sex organs oozing with nectar. Its smell reminds us in vestigial ways of fertility, vigor, life-force, all the optimism, expectancy, and passionate bloom of youth. We inhale its ardent aroma and, no matter what our ages, we feel young and nubile in a world aflame with desire."
- Diane Ackerman,
A Natural History of the Senses, 1990, p. 13
" I do not think I have ever seen anything more beautiful than the bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty of our Lord by it."
- Gerald Manley Hopkins
"Where flowers bloom so does hope."
- Lady Bird Johnson,
Public Roads: Where Flowers Bloom
"Each flower is a soul opening out to nature
"The Kingdom of Flowering Plants holds a special compassion for human travail. Because of this, the essences of flowers support us with a special compassion through our earthbound transformation. Flower essences contain the vibratory qualities of the flowers, and are made by infusing the flower into spring water under sun or moon light."
- Flowers of the Soul.
"Daffy-down-dilly came up in the cold,
Through the brown mould
Although the March breeze blew keen on her face,
Although the white snow lay in many a place."
- Anna Warner, Daffy-Down-Dilly
"Some lives, like evening primroses, blossom most beautifully in the evening of life.".
brilliant yellow
border of daffodils
behind barbed wire
- Michael P. Garofalo, Cuttings.
"And over one more set of hills, along the sea, the last roses have opened their factories of sweetness and are giving it back to the world. If I had another life I would want to spend it all on some unstinting happiness."
- Mary Oliver, Roses, Late Summer.
"Another thing much too commonly seen, is an aberration of the human mind which otherwise I should have been ashamed to warn you of. It is technically called carpet-gardening. Need I explain it further? I had rather not, for when I think of it, even when I am quite alone, I blush with shame at the thought."
- William Morris, Hope and Fears for Art, 1860.
"The foxglove, with it's stately bells
Of purple, shall adorn thy dells."
- D. M. Moir, The Birth of the Flowers.
"O frost bitten blossoms,
That are unfolding your wings
From out the envious black branches.
Bloom quickly and make much of the sunshine.
The twigs conspire against you!
Hear them!
They hold you from behind."
- William Carlos Williams, Aux Imagistes, 1914.
"Science, or para-science, tells us that geraniums bloom better if they are spoken to. But a kind word every now and then is really quite enough. Too much attention, like too much feeding, and weeding and hoeing, inhibits and embarrasses them."
- Victoria Glendinning, Green Words, 1986.
"Won't you come into my garden? I would like my roses to see you."
- Richard Sheridan.
"Bloom where you are planted!"
- Mary Engelbert.
"And why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow: they do not worry or make clothes for themselves. But I tell you that not even King Solomon with all his wealth had clothes as beautiful as one of these flowers."
- Bible, Matthew 6: 28, 29, & 30.
"Every child is born a naturalist. His eyes are, by nature, open to the glories of the stars, the beauty of the flowers, and the mystery of life."
- R. Search.
"The 'Amen!' of Nature is always a flower."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Eighty percent of the world's rose species come from Asia..
"Don't try to force anything. Let life be a deep let-go. See [God/Spirit/All That Is] opening millions of flowers every day without forcing the buds."
- Bhagwan Shree Rayneesh.
"To analyze the charms of flowers is like dissecting music; it is one of those things which it is far better to enjoy, than to attempt to fully understand."
- Henry T. Tuckerman.
"In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends."
- Kozuko Okakura.
"I didn't know the names
of the flowers - now
my garden is gone."
- Allen Ginsberg.
"The gardens that make us happiest flourish because we have taken the time to make sure they feed our souls and fill a special place in our lives. Sometimes you have to think about what you really want from your garden ... once the beds are laid out and the rose bushes planted."
- Lindley Karstens.
"You love the roses - so do I. I wish
The sky would rain down roses, as they rain
From off the shaken bush. Why will it not?
Then all the valley would be pink and white
And soft to tread on. They would fall as light
As feathers, smelling sweet; and it would be
Like sleeping and like waking, all at once!"
- George Eliot, Roses.
"In the 1600's, a language of flowers developed in Constantinople and in the poetry of Persia. Charles II introduced the Persian poetry to Europe, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu brought the flower language from Turkey to England in 1716. It spread to France and became a handbook of 800 floral messages known as the Book Le Language des Fleurs. Lovers exchanged messages as they gave each other selected flowers or bouquets. A full red rose meant beauty. Red and white mean unity. Crocus said "abuse not", while a white rosebud warns that one is too young for love. Yellow roses were for jealousy, yellow iris for passion, filbert for reconciliation and ivy for marriage."
- Valentine's Day Love Traditions.
"The nature of This Flower is to bloom."
- Alice Walker.
"The actual flower is the plant's highest fulfillment, and are not here exclusively for herbaria, county floras and plant geography: they are here first of all for delight.
- John Ruskin.
"To create a little flower is the labor of ages."
- William Blake.
"Flowers have a mysterious and subtle influence upon the feelings, not unlike some strains of music. They relax the tenseness of the mind. They dissolve its vigor."
- Henry Ward Beecher.
"As a flower that is lovely,
Colourful, and fragrant
Even so fruitful is the well-spoken word
Of one who practises it.

As from a heap of flowers
Many kinds of garlands can be made,
So many good deeds should be done
By one born a mortal.

The perfume of flower blows not against the wind,
Nor does the fragrance of sandal-wood, tagara and jasmine,
But the fragrance of the virtuous blows against the wind.
The virtuous man pervades all directions."
- Buddhist Sutra.
"A lonely tulip
Dying on the dirt filled road
Never waking up"
- Allison Borowick.
"Gardens and flowers have a way of bringing people together, drawing them from their homes."
- Clare Ansberry, The Women of Troy Hill.
Leaping from the Ledge of Infinite Regress,
The Unmoved Mover fell into Formlessness:
Pure silence echoed between the galaxies,
Eons of eons vanished in a second,
Withered trees bloomed in fires,
Polar mountains melted, rivers went dry,
Thusness scattered in sixty directions,
Space became Time, time became things,
Black Holes filled with Nirvana,
A billion samadhi mirrors shattered,
Galaxies snuggled within a single skull,
Many became One, One only, only One.
Then, the Divine Illuminatrix in All Beings
Opened Her clouded Eye, to see:
Flowers in the Sky.
- Michael P. Garofalo, Emptiness in Full Bloom.
"An angel, legend has it, took pity on a little shepherd girl who had nothing to give to the Infant Jesus in his manger. The angel handed her a weed, but first transformed it into this beautiful flower of winter... the Christmas rose, Helleborus niger.
- Allen Lacy, The Gardener's Eye, 1991, p. 14.
"What a desolate place would be a world without flowers. It would be a face without a smile; a feast without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars of the earth? Are not our stars the flowers of heaven?"
- Clara L. Balfour.
"In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful."
- Abram L. Urban.
"When a daffadill I see,
Hanging down his head towards me,
Guess I may, what I must be:
First, I shall decline my head;
Secondly, I shall be dead:
Lastly, safely buryed."
- Herrick, Hesperides
"The lily was created on the third day, early in the morning when the Almighty was especially full of good ideas."
- Michael Jefferson-Brown.
"As a plant produces its flower, so the psyche creates its symbols."
- Carl G. Yung.