udumbara ［優曇華］ (, Pali;  udonge): A plant described in Buddhist scriptures as blooming only once every three thousand years to herald the advent of a wheel-turning king or a Buddha. The udumbara is often employed as a symbol for the rarity of encountering a Buddha or hearing a Buddha’s teaching. The “King Wonderful Adornment” (twenty-seventh) chapter of the Lotus Sutra says, “Encountering the Buddha is as difficult as encountering the udumbara flower.”