A New Earth – Eckhart Tolle

CHAPTER ONE THE FLOWERING OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS

EVOCATION Earth, 114 million years ago, one morning just after
sunrise: The first flower ever to appear on the planet opens up to receive the
rays of the sun. Prior to this momentous event that heralds an evolutionary
transformation in the life of plants, the planet had already been covered in
vegetation for millions of years.

The first flower probably did not survive
for long, and flowers must have remained rare and isolated phenomena,
since conditions were most likely not yet favorable for a widespread
flowering to occur. One day, however, a critical threshold was reached, and
suddenly there would have been an explosion of color and scent all over the
planet if a perceiving consciousness had been there to witness it.

Much later, those delicate and fragrant beings we call flowers would
come to play an essential part in the evolution of consciousness of another
species. Humans would increasingly be drawn to and fascinated by them.
As the consciousness of human beings developed, flowers were most likely
the first thing they came to value that had no utilitarian purpose for them,
that is to say, was not linked in some way to survival.

They provided
inspiration to countless artists, poets, and mystics. Jesus tells us to
contemplate the flowers and learn from then how to live. The Buddha is
said to have given a silent sermon once during which he held up a flower
and gazed at it. After a while, one of those present, a monk called
Mahakasyapa, began to smile. He is said to have been the only one who had
understood the sermon. According to legend, that smile (that is to say,
realization) was handed down by twenty? eight successive masters and
much later became the origin of Zen.

Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the
beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true
nature. The first recognition of beauty was one of the most significant
events in the evolution of human consciousness. The feelings of joy and
love are intrinsically connected to that recognition. Without our fully
realizing it, flowers would become for us an expression in form of that
which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves.