Flower Sermon

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The Flower Sermon is a story of the origin of Zen Buddhism in which ??kyamuni Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) transmits direct prajñ? (wisdom) to the disciple Mah?k??yapa. In the original Chinese, the story is Ni?n huá wéi xiào (????, literally "Pick up flower, subtle smile").

Video Flower Sermon

Content

In the story, ??kyamuni gives a wordless sermon to his disciples (sangha) by holding up a white flower. No one in the audience understands the Flower Sermon except Mah?k??yapa, who smiles. Within Zen, the Flower Sermon communicates the ineffable nature of tath?t? (suchness) and Mah?k??yapa's smile signifies the direct transmission of wisdom without words. ??kyamuni 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 Mah?k??yapa.

Jung and Kerényi 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.

Maps Flower Sermon

History

The story of the Flower Sermon appears to have been created by Chinese Chán Buddhists. The earliest known version of the tale appeared in 1036.

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See also

• Mahayana sutras
• Platform Sutra
• Southern School

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Notes

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References

• Welter, Albert. 2000. Mah?k??yapa's Smile: Silent Transmission and the Kung-an (K?an) Tradition. In The K?an: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism, edited by Steven Heine & Dale S. Wright. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 75-109.

Source of the article : Wikipedia