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session: a zen story a day

the little flower

one day, the buddha holds up a little flower in front of an audience. he does not say anything for a long time. there is a man in the audience, Maha, smiles. The Buddha smiles back and says "i have a treasure of insight, i have given it to Maha.."

commentary

in the zen realm, they say "only he who sees, knows" which means that what you train & achieve, remains to be yours exclusively. i cannot, in any ways, know and you cannot, by any means, explain it to me what you see.

so "the treasure of insight" actually cannot be said, cannot be transfered, cannot be delivered.. one can only train for the road to enlightment. some trains fast, some trains slow, some takes multiple lives, some takes forever..

which means that the Buddha transmits nothing to Maha. they both just get it. the flower is just a medium, which, in that moment, is used to represent happiness. in short, it says, if you see a flower on the road, you smile.

the remaining crowd have eyes but dont see, have ears but dont hear, have senses but dont get it.