Flower Sermon
Within Zen, and thus from an emic perspective, the origins of Zen Buddhism are ascribed to what is rendered in English as the Flower Sermon, in which Śākyamuni Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) transmitted direct prajñā (wisdom) to the disciple Mahākāśyapa. In the original Sino-Japanese, this story is called nengemishō (拈花微笑, literally "pick up flower, subtle smile"). The Flower Sermon was wordless, encapsulating ineffable tathātā: it comprised the purity of direct communication wherein Śākyamuni proffered a white flower to the sangha (a flower by which he had been gifted immediately prior to ascendence of the teaching dais), amongst whom there was no realization except Mahākāśyapa, who smiled. According to a tradition first attested to in 1036, the smile signified Mahākāśyapa's direct cognition, and Śākyamuni affirmed this by saying:
I possess the true Dharma eye, the marvelous mind of Nirvana, the true form of the formless, the subtle [D]harma [G]ate that does not rest on words or letters but is a special transmission outside of the scriptures. This I entrust to Mahākāśyapa.[1]
Thus, a way within Buddhism developed which concentrated on direct experience rather than on rational creeds, doctrinal scholasticism, intellectualism and analysis. Zen is essentially a spiritual discipline, an exploratory methodology that maps consciousness, a meditative tradition that foregrounds direct experience of tathātā which may only be forded by the entrance, the trance, of the "gateless" Dharma Gate.[2]
Jung and Kerényi (2002: p.179) demonstrate a possible commonality in intent between the "Flower Sermon" and the Eleusinian Mysteries:
One day the Buddha silently held up a flower before the assembled throng of his disciples. This was the famous "Flower Sermon." Formally speaking, much the same thing happened in Eleusis when a mown ear of grain was silently shown. Even if our interpretation of this symbol is erroneous, the fact remains that a mown ear was shown in the course of the mysteries and that this kind of "wordless sermon" was the sole form of instruction in Eleusis which we may assume with certainty.[3]
The story of the Flower Sermon may have been created by Chinese Ch'an Buddhists.[4]
[edit] References
- Welter, Albert. 2000. Mahākāśyapa’s Smile: Silent Transmission and the Kung-an (Kōan) Tradition. In The Kōan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism, edited by Steven Heine & Dale S. Wright. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 75–109.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Dumoulin 2005:9
- ^ Great religions of the world. Center for Distance Learning. Tarrant County College DistrictPDF (1.03 MiB)
- ^ Jung, C. G. & Kerényi, C. (2005). Essays on a Science of Mythology: The Myth of the Divine Child and the Mysteries of Eleusis. Routledge; 2 edition (December 16, 2005). ISBN 0415267420. Routledge. Source: [1] (accessed: November 28, 2007)
- ^ William Harmless (2007). "Mystics". Oxford University Press. p. 192. http://books.google.com/books?id=8pBmFhnrVfUC&pg=PA192&lpg=PA192&dq=mystic+flower+sermon&source=bl&ots=6o_Bak7B3Q&sig=2PiFZwSvG_Dt8bQEErSJv0Am6TU&hl=en&ei=0HuqSZL_Oozo6QPrnI20Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result.
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