At the Nagasaki Retreat, we have just held our first “Hana-Mi”, or cherry-blossom-viewing event. The cherry trees in Kendo’s Anniversary orchard are now 4 years old, and are therefore still quite small, but they are now well-established and strong. We are looking forward to ever-greater spring-time beauty and inspiration from them.

After our very mild winter, we expected the cherry blossoms to come earlier, but, surprisingly, all the trees at the Retreat seem to be coming into leaf and blossom later this year, and the cherry trees only just obliged in time for our Event! However, on the day, it was a dry, bright, and crisp spring day, perfect for considering Kendo’s wise words while contemplating the beauty of the ‘Sakura’, or cherry blossom.

Kendo reminds us that cherry blossom is very important in Japan. The flowers are astonishingly beautiful, one of the most delicate and captivating miracles of nature, and they have inspired countless generations of people, including poets and samurai.

The fact that cherry trees blossom only once a year, and for only a very brief time, makes their beauty profoundly ethereal – the wonderful sight of cherry blossom is eagerly anticipated throughout winter and early spring, they are enjoyed as a priceless natural work of art during their short time with us, and theit exquisite beauty is anticipated once more as soon as they have gone, leaving a memory of a beauty so great that it is healing in itself.

For all these reasons, Kendo tells us, cherry blossoms have much to teach us about enjoying life.

Firstly, appreciation of the good things.

Cherry blossoms are so beautiful that it is tempting to wish for them to be with us all year round, but if they were to become too familiar, we may not appreciate them as much.

Yet, conversely, they are so beautiful that they make a deep impression upon our artistic and aesthetic sensibilities – so deep, that the memory of them is almost as captivating as experiencing them first-hand.

This is why it is said in Japan that one not need even see cherry blossoms to enjoy once more their beauty and their calming and healing effects on us, and Kendo points out that this translates into a powerfully positive symbolism about all that’s good in our lives.

The phrase, “count your blessings” implies that we may have become preoccupied with negative aspects of our lives to the extent that we may be overlooking the good things, but that when the ‘good things’ are counted, they can be ‘set against’ the ‘bad’ to somehow compensate for them. Kendo points out that life is much richer than such a narrow comparison – we are all agents for positive change in the world around us, and our motivation needs to be based on more than simply ‘keeping score’ – it needs to be consistently positive, and always open to the inspirational joy of nature’s beauty, as this will help us recognise, respond-to, and help in the development of all aspects of positivity around us. Cherry blossom is with us only a short time each year, but its beauty lives-on in our minds-eye, and can be recalled at any time as a powerfully-positive motivator.

Cherry blossom is symbolic of our lives in other ways too. The perfection of each flower is repeated countless times, yet each is unique, and this is a wonderful example of just how creative nature is in expressing itself. It is easy to imagine a perfect spirit of nature, or Shinto kami, inhabiting each and every flower. Also, whether viewed as a single flower or as a multitude, the beauty of cherry blossom is equally stunning – how did nature achieve that?!?

Kendo reminds us that this brings us to another wonderful lesson we can learn from cherry blossoms – we, too, are children of the same nature that is at the source of the cherry blossom’s profound beauty, and we too have the potential to have such a positive effect upon the world around us. By aspiring – as individuals – to the simplicity and perfection of a single cherry blossom, we have the opportunity to inspire and heal all those who encounter us. If we all live by this simple Buddhist tenet, our combined positive energy will equal the impact of a forest of cherry trees in bloom.

Kendo goes on to remind us that – just like our own enduring inspirational memory of cherry blossom even after it’s gone – our own actions inspired by such beauty will live on in the hearts and minds of those we encounter, and, consequently, in the positively-evolving nature of the entire society which we serve; a life lived this way is powerfully healing on every level.