A single flower

“I heard that the first transmission of Zen happened like this…the Master stood in front of thousands of students, saying nothing and holding just a flower. As the crowd waited for him to say something, he just kept looking at the flower in his hand. Only one of the students in the crowd, suddenly smiled. The master then went to him and handed him the flower, saying the special transmission of his wisdom was complete.” Jack said.

Hamish: What the heck does it mean? A flower is just a flower, right? What special transmission could have happened there?

Jack: The Master later said about the student “He has a perfectly clear knowledge which is not due to the mental process of thinking”

Ayesha: That doesn’t make sense. Only when we use our mind, can we know anything clearly.

Are you really so sure?, I asked

(I could see some wry smiles on their faces as they gathered around me. They could sense another clue coming.)

OK folks…for today’s treasure hunt clue, you are going to search for something, I said

“For the God particle?”, Riya asked, with a giggle

No…you are going to search for the flower particle.

“Huh?”

It’s really simple.

All I want you to do is to look at this flower and find out what makes it a flower.

The fact that you see this as a flower, means, everything else you see is a non-flower.

So, there must be something independent – an essence – for this flower to stand apart from the rest of the universe.

Today, your challenge is to find that essence.

What is it that makes a flower a flower?

Where can we find its independent essence?

You have an hour to hunt. Your time starts now. (I then stepped aside)

 

Ayesha (in a whisper): Guys, is he like, nuts?

Hamish(shrugged) : Let’s just give it a go, Ok?

Jack: OK. Firstly, all of us can see this flower, right? So, it’s very much there. It’s independent and separate from the other objects around it

Riya: Yeah. So far, so good. Now, let’s attack the clue: ‘what makes a flower a flower?’ and ‘where can we find its independent essence?’.

Hamish: We can see its petals, pollen and so on. So, obviously, that’s what makes it a flower

Jack: Not so fast. Petals are petals. Pollen is pollen. None of them can be called a ‘flower’, can they?

Riya: Yeah. Remember, guys! We are not seeing a random bunch of petals and pollen. We are seeing ‘a flower’. So, what is it? Where is it?

Hamish: What about the color, shape etc of the flower?

Ayesha: Even if we look at its pinkness, yellowness, smell, shape etc – they appear so because of the way our senses work (eyes, nose, taste, ears, skin, mind).

Jack: So, even these properties can’t be the essence of the flower.

Hamish : The flower is part of a plant of course, so its essence must have come from the plant.”

Riya: No, we can’t say that, Hamish. If it’s part of the plant, it will have only a ‘plant’ essence. Then, where did the ‘flower’ essence come from? A flower is not a plant.

Hamish: But the flower came after the various parts of the plant came up. Right? So the essence of the flower must have come after them.

Riya: We will then have to look for ‘soil’ essence, ‘root’ essence, ‘branch’ essence etc. And, even they, in turn, will depend on other things, outside them.

Jack: Looks like we have run into a problem already. We can’t find the essence of this flower without referring to other objects and in turn, their essence. We are going in circles.

Riya: I was just thinking. Even if we say this flower came from exactly all these other things – roots, stem e.tc, there is another problem. We can’t prove it.

Jack: Why not?

Riya: Suppose we throw a seed in a bucketful of sand and water, put it in the sun and wait for 1 year….will we get exactly this same flower after 1 year? We won’t. We might get another flower, but definitely not this one. So, we can’t prove it.

Ayesha: Maybe the essence of the flower is hidden as a power of the
seed. We can say that the seed caused the flower to appear through its power

Hamish: Not so fast…don’t forget…if you put the seed on the moon, you won’t get a flower. The flower depends on several conditions apart from the seed – like sunlight, air, water, soil, humidity etc

Ayesha : Okay. So, the essence of the flower must be in all these conditions

Jack: Hold on! There is still no ‘flower’ essence in any of these conditions. What I mean is – air is air. There is no flower essence to be found in air or water or sunlight.

Hamish : Looks like we have run into a second problem now. How can an independent object depend on other things? Again, we are going in circles.

Riya: Crap! We are not able to say anything about this flower– independent of all these other objects and conditions.

Jane: Then what the heck is it? There is no flower in any of the objects and conditions we discussed so far….yet, we can see a flower right in front of us.

 

 

Riya: Guys…If this flower depends on so many things for its existence, I am beginning to doubt that it is an independent object in the first place!!!

Jack: Yeah. So far, we have not been able to find the independent flower.

Hamish: So?

Riya: Folks…I know this may sound weird..but suppose we are wrong all along…Maybe the flower is not real, the way we think it is. Maybe It doesn’t exist independently on its own.

Hamish: Yeah…weird. It is there, but at the same time, not there on its own.

Ayesha: The flower is a phenomenon that doesn’t exist on its own??? That’s so depressing.

Riya: No. (laughing aloud!) The clue tricked us! Think about it carefully. If there was a separate flower with a separate, independent essence of its own, then the flower will be the same forever.

Ayesha: How so?

Riya: Don’t you see? If it has a separate, independent essence, the flower can NEVER CHANGE! It would be JUST LIKE THIS FOREVER. IT would never blossom, change, grow, decay and so on.

Jane: Isn’t that better?

Hamish : Not at all. If it remains exactly like this, without changing, forever, then all the other objects and conditions that made it possible will also have to remain the same forever.

Jack: S@!@$! Then, nothing else, in the rest of the universe will be allowed to change at all. Everything else would be just like it is now. Forever. For eternity! Including us!!!

Jane: “Geez! When we try to find the flower, all we end up finding is the whole universe…even eternity….but no flower!”

 

At that moment, they all broke into a loud laugh….simultaneously!

 

All their thinking about the flower had been exhausted.

So the flower appeared clearly! As it is! Free of concepts!

The transmission was complete!