22Mahakashyapa's Flagpole迦葉剎竿

迦葉因阿難問云。世尊傳金襴袈裟外。別傳何物。葉喚云。阿難。難應諾。葉云。倒卻門前剎竿著。

Ananda asked Mahakashyapa, "The Buddha handed you the gold-threaded robe. Did he pass you anything else?"

Mahakashyapa called out, "Ananda!"

"Yes?" Ananda answered.

"Take down the flagpole at the gate."

Wumen's Comment 無門曰

若向者裏下得一轉語。親切便見靈山一會儼然未散。其或未然。毘婆尸佛早留心。直至而今不得妙。

Drop one turning word right here and you'll see for yourself: the great assembly on Vulture Peak never broke up. It's still in session. If you can't, well, Vipashyin Buddha set his mind on this an age ago, and right up to this very day he still hasn't caught the marvel of it.

Verse 頌曰

問處何如答處親
幾人於此眼生筋
兄呼弟應揚家醜
不屬陰陽別是春

The question is nothing beside how close the answer cuts.
How many have strained their eyes raw on this one.
Big brother calls, little brother answers, airing the family shame.
A different spring, kept by no calendar.

Pointer

Mahakashyapa and Ananda were two of the Buddha's foremost disciples; after the Buddha died, Mahakashyapa led the community and Ananda became his heir. The "gold-threaded robe" was the Buddha's own robe, passed down as the badge of the lineage, proof you're the genuine successor. So Ananda is fishing: sure, you got the robe, but was there also some secret teaching, the actual goods? Instead of answering, Mahakashyapa just barks his name, Ananda reflexively says "Yes?", and that bark-and-answer, that live instant, is the whole transmission. This is the wordless thing the Buddha passed by holding up a flower (6), surfacing again. "Take down the flagpole" is monastery shorthand: a flag went up to announce a talk, so lowering it means the talk's over. There was never a separate secret to hand across.