The expression “fiddle with a flower” alludes to a famous Chinese legend about the founding of the Zen lineage in India, which first appears in the Tiansheng Era Record of the Spread of the Flame天聖廣燈録
, compiled in 1036:
When the Tathāgata was preaching the dharma on Vulture Peak, the devas made offerings of flowers to him. When the World-Honored One held up a flower to instruct the assembly, Kāśyapa smiled faintly. The World-Honored One announced to the assembly, “I have the treasury of the true dharma-eye, the inconceivable mind of nirvāṇa, which I bequeath to Mahākāśyapa. He should spread it and not allow it to be cut off in the future.”
如來在靈山説法。諸天献華。世尊持華示衆。迦葉微笑。世尊告衆曰。吾有正法眼藏。涅槃妙心。付囑摩訶迦葉。流布將來。勿令斷絶。
Mahākāśyapa, according to this tale, was thereby established as the first in a line of 28 ancestors of the Zen lineage in India, the last of whom, Bodhidharma, transmitted it to China. The expressions “holding up a flower”拈花
and “smiling faintly”微笑
became emblematic of the idea that dharma transmission in the Zen lineage entails a kind of wordless communication between master and disciple, also known as “transmitting mind by means of mind以心傳心
.” However, most versions of the legend have the Buddha also stating that the “inconceivable mind of nirvāṇa” he bequeaths to Mahākāśyapa is “the subtle true dharma微妙正法
, the real sign of which is its signlessness實相無相
.” Thus, the awakening he attempted to demonstrate in his sermon on Vulture Peak is not only beyond verbal communication, which is what “holding up a flower” represents, but beyond signification through any such symbolic gestures, too.
The saying, “When you fiddle with a flower, its fragrance permeates your robe” expresses both the futility of the Buddha’s “holding up a flower” as a teaching method and, paradoxically, its success when that futility is understood by Mahākāśyapa. The saying is attributed to Wuzu Fayan五祖法演
(?-1104) in the Discourse Record of Chan Master Fayan法演禪師語錄
:
At a convocation in the dharma hall, [Master Fayan] raised the following kōan as a topic:
A monk asked Reverend Jian of Baling, “Are the meaning of the ancestors [of the Zen school] and the meaning of the teachings [conveyed by other Buddhist schools] the same, or are they different?” Jian said, “When chickens feel cold, they go up in trees; when ducks feel cold, they go under water.”
The master [Fayan] commented: “The supposedly great Baling was only able to express half the matter. [My teacher] Baiyun would not be like that. When you scoop up water with cupped hands, the reflected moon is in your grasp. When you fiddle with a flower, its fragrance permeates your robe.
上堂舉。僧問巴陵鑒和尚。祖意教意是同是別。鑒云。鷄寒上樹鴨寒下水。師云。大小大巴陵。只道得一半。白雲即不然。掬水月在手。弄花香滿衣。
Haojian顥鑑禪師
(d.u.) of Baling, who is featured in the kōan, was a disciple of Chan master Yunmen Kuangzhen雲門匡眞
(864–949). Wuzu Fayan, who in commenting on the kōan criticized [Hao]jian, was a disciple of Baiyun Shouduan白雲守端
(1025-1072).
Jian’s remark about chickens and ducks confirms the conventional view that the Zen lineage employs a “mind to mind” transmission of the Buddha’s awakening, whereas the “teachings lineages” rely on scriptures (sūtras and commentaries). Fayan does not dispute that those two approaches are different, but he says that that is only half the matter: the two are also the same insofar as they resort to devices that cannot really convey what the Buddha understood, but nevertheless succeed in keeping that understanding alive. The trope of “the moon reflected in water”水月
is a well-known Buddhist metaphor for verbal (or written) accounts of awakening, which resemble the real thing but are far removed from it.
