Growing in Emptiness: A Zen way of Life

Abstract

While Lord Buddha, the Blessed and the World-Honoured One, was staying on Mt. Grdhrakuta, just before he began his sermon, a certain Dharrnaraja reverentially offered a flower to the Master. Bud- dha, holding the flower in his hand and looking at it in silence, smiled. Seeing the smile on Buddha's face, Maha Kasyapa, one of his disciples sitting among the audience, also smiled. That was the beginning of Zen, the first transmission of Enlightenment without words. A unique parallel of this way of looking is Christ's asking us to look at the flowers of the field. Yet we never care to look at anything with a mind unclut- tered with all sorts of thoughts, let alone a flower. Truly speaking, the spirit of Zen is 'beyond words and Scriptures' and, therefore, it has nothing to do with any particular religion.