6The World-Honored One Holds Up a Flower世尊拈花

Shìzūn niānhuā

世尊昔在靈山會上。拈花示眾。是時眾皆默然。惟迦葉尊者破顏微笑。世尊云。吾有正法眼藏涅槃妙心實相無相微妙法門。不立文字教外別傳。付囑摩訶迦葉。

Long ago, on Vulture Peak, the Buddha stood before the assembly and held up a flower. Everyone fell silent. Only Mahakashyapa cracked a smile.

The Buddha said, "I have the treasury of the true Dharma eye, the wondrous mind of nirvana, the formless form, the subtle gate of the teaching. It does not stand on words. It passes outside the scriptures. I hand it to Mahakashyapa."

Wumen's Comment 無門曰

黃面瞿曇傍若無人。壓良為賤。懸羊頭賣狗肉。將謂。多少奇特。只如當時大眾都笑。正法眼藏作麼生傳。設使迦葉不笑。正法眼藏又作麼生傳。若道正法眼藏有傳授。黃面老子誑謼閭閻。若道無傳授。為甚麼獨許迦葉。

Old yellow-face Gautama acts as if no one else is in the room. He drags the honest down into the mud, hangs a sheep's head in the window and sells dog meat out the back. You would think something marvelous had happened. But suppose the whole crowd had smiled. Then to whom does the treasury of the true Dharma eye pass? And suppose Kashyapa had not smiled. Then how does it get handed over at all? If you say it can be passed from one person to another, the old man was running a con on simple folk. If you say it cannot, then why did he single out Kashyapa?

Verse 頌曰

拈起花來
尾巴已露
迦葉破顏
人天罔措

He lifts the flower,
his tail already showing.
Kashyapa grins.
Gods and men: stumped.

Pointer

This is the founding story Zen tells about itself: on Vulture Peak the Buddha says nothing and lifts a flower, only Mahakashyapa smiles, and that smile makes him first heir of a teaching that travels "outside the scriptures," mind to mind. Wumen refuses to genuflect at the holy origin, calling the Buddha a con man who hangs a sheep's head in the window and sells dog meat, then springs the real question: if the thing passes from person to person the founder was scamming simple folk, and if it can't pass at all, why single out Kashyapa? The foothold is that nothing changed hands the way a deed or a secret does. Kashyapa already had what the flower pointed at, and the smile was him recognizing it, so the whole lineage rests on a transmission in which nobody handed anything over. Go looking for what the Buddha gave away that day and notice you are hunting the wrong kind of object.