Dawn reveals white magnolias blooming against crimson palace walls, their creamy petals glowing like doves poised for flight.
Their brief twenty-day bloom mirrors the Buddhist truth of form and emptiness, as well as impermanence.
The Ming poet Zhu Chang linked them to purity and the Lotus Sutra. Centuries before him, the Tang poet Liu Zhangqing noted how their fragrance, though fleeting, intoxicates all.
The flower’s short-lived splendor teaches the essence of living life well: to not cling to ideas of eternity, for nothing lasts forever. Rather, it’s to shine brightly, unreservedly, in the brief moment given to us.