True beauty lies within

This is a photo from 11 September 2011, of a beautiful Sacred Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera). The huge white petals are breathtaking, but I love the flower centre at this stage and, later, the bare seedpod. Taken in the ENMAX Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo. Lol, I wasn't tall enough to look down on the flower.

"The lotus was of great significance to many ancient cultures, and in particular to the Eastern religions. From ancestral times, the lotus regularly appears as a symbol of purity, peace, transcendence, enlightenment, rebirth, beauty, and fertility. In India, the lotus flower is considered to be of divine origin and is viewed as sacred by both Hindus and Buddhists. Buddha was said to sleep on a lotus six months of the year, and Shambala (Buddhist heaven) is sometimes represented as a field of flowering sacred lotuses." Taken from the first link below.

www.holisticaroma.co.uk/shp/TheSacredLotus.htm

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelumbo_nucifera