BUDDHA AND THE ROSE

Everything is connected; a rose provides the path.

A group of brown-skinned children sit under a tree with the Buddha, depicted as a brown-skinned man. He holds a rose and is silent. The children are a bit confused, and one child, who narrates, stares and breathes and closes their eyes. Suddenly, the narrator is transported by the rose-ness of the flower. Its scent and its shape speak to them wordlessly. They imagine its journey from seed to flower as well as the weather it has enjoyed and endured. The child thinks of the bees that have visited it and the honey they have made as well as the uses that honey was put to. The narrator contemplates the roles that flowers like this rose play in the lives of humans and sees the rose and themself as special and part of the whole universe. Buddha smiles, and the narrator feels they have understood him, and he knows it. In her author’s note, Chopra says this book is based on the story of Sujata and Gautama Buddha, but it bears little resemblance to that story, which takes place before Buddha’s enlightenment. As an invitation to mindfulness and feeling oneness with the universe, it is much more successful. Rawat’s illustrations are bright, attractive, and inviting. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Not an introduction to Buddhism but may spark an interest in mindfulness or meditation.