Miracles Of God

The Flower Sermon Revisited : A Different Perspective

The Flower Sermon Revisited : A Different Perspective

Toward the end of his life, the Buddha took his disciples to a quiet pond for instruction. As they had done so many times before, the Buddha’s followers sat in a small circle around him, and waited for the teaching.

But this time the Buddha had no words. He reached into the muck and pulled up a lotus flower. And he held it silently before them, its roots dripping mud and water.

The disciples were greatly confused. Buddha quietly displayed the lotus to each of them. In turn, the disciples did their best to expound upon the meaning of the flower: what it symbollized, and how it fit into the body of Buddha’s teaching.

When at last the Buddha came to his follower Mahakasyapa, the disciple suddenly understood. He smiled and began to laugh. Buddha handed the lotus to Mahakasyapa and began to speak.

“What can be said I have said to you,” smiled the Buddha, “and what cannot be said, I have given to Mahakashyapa.”

Mahakashyapa became Buddha’s successor from that day forward.

The above short story is famously known as the flower sermon . It is believed that Buddha transmitted direct knowledge to Maha Kasyapa without any words in this particular incidence . What was that which transmitted between the two ?  and whether  Knowledge/Enlightenment etc. can be transmitted in such a manner are the two questions which are  debated  among the so called scholars for the last millennium or so since this story was 1^st published sometime between the 10^th  and the 13^th century .

I am not a follower of Buddhism nor an expert of any kind but yet I couldn’t resist my self from putting my thoughts on paper about the same. I know it is not wise to comment on something which I do not know much about ! but what the heck , may be even fools like me may have something interesting to contribute ………

I would analyse the above story in 2 ways .  Of course there are many other ways possible. But I would love see some from you all .

Part -1 The Simple Analysis ( for us  the mango people )

It could be an example from everyday life , which many may have come across .

We can divide the followers into 3 groups –

1.      First is those who want to interpret every action/word/deed of the person they follow as some sort of mysterious sermon or directive. They are fanatic believers & may go to any length to prove that what they believe or their interpretation of their master’s action/word/deed is the only right interpretation .They are blinded by their faith ,they do not have individual analytical thought process & resent those who may have it. Such people in the end, end up doing only harm to themselves , to others in their vicinity & to the society in general .

2.      Second is those who follow a person just because he is popular and although they may not agree with some of his actions/words/deeds , they do not have the courage to oppose as they are afraid of the backlash they may have to face from the fanatics .

3.      The third are rare, actually the rarest of rare ,they are not even a group ! they are individuals  like Maha Kasyapa who do not read every action/word/deed of their master as some mysterious sermon or directive of some kind . They do not try to find some deep meaning into even smallest of the actions of their masters. They just live in the moment. They do not cling to the past nor hope about the future. They are here and now with their master and that’s all that matters.The only thing they know is this moment with their master.The past is already gone and nothing can be done about it & to think about the future is only a worry ! so just live in the now.

This is the sole reason why Maha Kasyapa Smiled , because he understood that what was a plain gesture by the Buddha the other disciples  were busy trying to give a deeper meaning to it . Buddha hence made him one the chief torch bearer of his teachings.

The Complex Analysis Part -2 (for the Scholarly unlike us )

1.      If the flower represents  knowledge. To gain it, Buddha demonstrated that one will have to step into the pond filled with muck and dirt (the muck and dirt represents the suffering , the very thing one tries to avoid ) just like Buddha did to pick it up .

2.      There is no other way .

3.      Even if Buddha tries to hand over this flower/knowledge to others (which he does to Maha Kasyapa ) to save them the trouble it will wither away as it will not survive the toll of time.

4.      Whether the flower was plucked or it  was left to remain in the pond , it will wither away with time anyway .

5.      Buddha picked just one lotus from the pond but the pond was filled with lotuses. Which means there is no bounds to knowledge.

6.      Also ponder how many such lotus ponds would be there in this world ?

7.      So it is better to pluck one’s own flower only if just to experience the freshness of it than to take a flower from someone else. You miss that experience of doing it yourself if nothing else. That self experience is important for each individual .

8.      So if Knowledge is not important than what is ? The experience in gaining through one’s own effort. One should not deny one’s self this chance of learning and experiencing through ones own self .

9.      This is the Truth and this is what Buddha demonstrated in action during the famous flower sermon .This was not told directly to all in words as not all were in a very well developed state of digesting and understanding this Truth . Only Maha Kasyapa was. 

Hence Buddha later smiled and said “What can be said I have said to you,” “and what cannot be said, I have given to Mahakashyapa.” 

I know that some may not agree with my view or may be none would . But will it matter ? because what I have written is now past ( just an echo ) .Future is yet to happen .What is present then ? For each of us this present moment is different. Who Knows ?

People Hate Death and Love Life

They do so out of ignorance as they think life begins with birth and ends with death.

When I looked myself in the mirror , I did not have the body I was born with but inside I knew it was me. When I look at myself in the mirror today , I am no more the same young body I was few years back , the mirror shows me actually a stranger everyday , but still inside I know its me .

I do not know how I was before I came into this world , I have already forgotten about how I looked then and how was my body ... but then surely I must have been there , for loss of memory doesnt mean loss of self or absence of life . I have forgotten many people I met in this world and yet I know that they must be still there somewhere .I am rational enough to understand the fact that lossing them from my memory doesnt cease their existence.its only that today they do not exist in my memory . Like wise if I dont know what happens to me after I lose my body doesnt really mean I will cease to exist . Life has shown me in last 48 years that my body doesnt remain the same . It is as if I changed many bodies from a child to a boy , from a boy to a young man , from a young man to this middle aged body and yet miraculously I remained unchanged throughout this transitions .I didnt cease to exist for me. Then why should this change after death ?

Don't you Agree ?

😊

Ishopanishad - Shanti Mantra

II ॐ श्री गं गणपतेय नमः II

II ॐ श्री शिवाय नमः  II

II ॐ श्री देव्यै नमः II

II ॐ श्री सद्गुरुवे नमः II

इशोपनिषद

Ishopanishad

शांतिः मंत्र

Invocation of peace

ॐ पूर्णं अध: पूर्णम इदं , पूर्णात  पूर्णम  उदच्यते II

पूर्णस्य पूर्णम आदाय पूर्णम एव अवशिष्यते II

ॐ  शांतिः  शांतिः  शांतिः II

अधः = " ते " ,that  ,  इदं =" हे " ,this  ,  उदच्यते = उदय होते , वर येते , उद्गमन  emerges or arises  , आदाय = काढून घेणे / वजा करणे  remove/substract  ,   also  बरोबर घेणे  taking along  ,   अवशिष्यते  = शिल्लक राहते, उरते remains

ॐ  ते पूर्ण आहे , हे  पूर्ण आहे .पूर्णा पासूनच  पूर्णा  ची  उत्पत्ती ( पूर्णातूनच पूर्णा चे  उद्गमन ) होते .( त्या ) पूर्णाचे   ( हे ) पूर्ण काढून घेतले किंवा ( त्या ) पूर्णात ( हे ) पूर्ण बरोबर घेतले तरी  पूर्णच शिल्लक उरते  . ॐ शांतिः  शांतिः  शांतिः

ॐ That is complete (Whole  without any deficiencies ) , This is Complete (Whole  without any deficiencies ). From the (That)Complete(Whole) , arises or emerges  the  (This)Complete (Whole) . If (this)Complete(Whole) is removed from or added to (that)Complete(Whole ). What remains still is Complete(Whole) .ॐ Let there be peace , peace , peace .

This peace invocation ( shanti mantra ) is a little intriguing in the sense that  the  "That" &  “This”  in this mantra are not clearly defined .So naturally there have been numerous interpretations & opinions regarding these twosome. I feel that in the above shanti mantra “That” means The Bramham while “This” means The Atman . It is stated above that both “That” & “This” are complete in their wholeness and hence their meaning should be derived & analysed from this point of view .

That “That”  means or indicates The Bramham should not have any second thoughts . “That” is a neuter gender and is deliberately used to show that “That” is neither masculine or feminine . The Bramham is also neither masculine or feminine , if it had been either of the only one then it could not have been complete in its wholeness .Since The Bramham is both masculine & feminine simultaneously , the neuter gender “That” is used to represent it .

That The Bramham is complete in its wholeness cannot be denied or falsified .Whatever is from yonder to yonder , seen & unseen , visible & invisible ,moving & unmoving , micro & macro is nothing but The Bramham . It is everywhere , nothing exists outside of The Bramham . So in the mantra “That” means The Bramham .

Now lets turn our attention  to “This” in the mantra . What was the Rishi’s (Sage’s) intention when he said “ This” ? What did he mean when he said “ This ”  is Complete(Whole  without any deficiencies ).

If we deduce that “This” means our World , then by our World we generally mean the Earth .So did the sage mean Earth when he said “This” ? Then it means that the Earth is Complete ! But to say this would be wrong .As we know that the  Earth is totally dependent on the Sun for its functioning and is only a part of the Sun’s planetary system .Without the Sun the Earth would certainly perish . How can a dependant and perishable thing which is just a part of something bigger be considered complete ? So the sage certainly didn’t mean the Earth (World) .

Lets read the mantra again and see what we can primarily conclude .

1.       The word “This” in the mantra indicates that there appears to be this something which is different from The Bramham .

2.      That “This” is near to us . How can we conclude that “This” is near to us ? Because the mantra doesn’t say “That” and “That” but it says “That” and “This” . “ That “ is used to refer to something which is farther(at a great distance) to us while “This” is used to refer something which is very near to us .

So from the above what is that thing which appears (only appear different due to circumstances) to be different from The Bramham , which is also near to us and at the same time is also Complete?

There is of course only one such thing which meets all these conditions . It is The Principle of Life ,Feeling ,Thought and Action in humans , regarded as a distinct entity separate from the body , and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body .We call this Principle The Atman .Hence it is “The Atman” which is indicated in the mantra by “This”.

Is the “Atman” Complete(Whole  without any deficiencies ) in its nature ? Yes it certainly is , As it arises or emerges from The Bramham itself which is Complete. The Atman is not born out of The Bramham rather it arises or emerges from The Bramham.

For The Atman there is  never birth nor death .Nor having once been does it cease to be .It is unborn ,eternal , ever-existing, undying and primeval .It is not slain when the body is slain (Bhagvat Geeta Chapter 2 , Verse 20 ).

In fact it would not be wrong to say that What we call The Bramham has actually risen or emerged from the One Supereme Atman of all the Atmans in the beginning .They called it Singularity (Advaita).This Singularity exploded (Dvaita) with a big bang and is ever expanding ever since .From this Singularity was born the Universe with its unlimited galaxies , stars within the galaxies , planetary systems of the stars . satellite systems of the planets and life distinct with its support systems all interdependent .This ever expanding expanse is what we refer to as  The Bramham  and so does the sage of this mantra . The Bramham is the ParamAtman itself .It is ,was and will always be Complete(Whole  without any deficiencies ). Therefore The Atman referred to by “This” in the mantra is also as Complete(Whole  without any deficiencies ) as The Bramham .

Hence

ॐ The Bramham is complete ,So The Atman is Complete. As from the Complete (Whole) , arises or emerges the Complete (Whole).

Now moving further we come across the line which says –

If Complete is removed from or added to the Complete , What remains still is Complete. This seems to be absurd in the view of our general Mathematics. If something is added to another it should increase and if subtracted or removed in that case it should decrease. That is the rule per say. But here in the mantra the sage says that nothing changes .Complete remains Complete .How can that be possible? We have to see how?

Consider us . We are born out of conjugation of a sperm and an egg as a single placental cell. Both the sperm and the egg are complete in terms of their functionality ,they must be .For if either of them is incomplete they will not combine to form a single living placental cell. So here we see that when two Complete(wholes) are brought/added  together  what remains is Complete(whole) single entity .This placental cell later undergoes cell division ( mitosis  & meiosis ) to form 2 cells from the original placental cell & goes on dividing to form 2, 4, 16 … cells and so on to form an embryo. Here we again see that when from one Complete(whole) cell another Complete(whole) cell is removed/emerges , What then remains is Complete(whole) one single entity. The human body is made up of trillions of such cells but yet it is one Complete(whole) entity.

Thus we see  that the 2^nd statement in the mantra –

“If Complete is removed from or added to the Complete , What remains still is Complete” also holds true .

Let there be Peace , Peace ,Peace .

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Inspired by Dr. P. V. Vartak’s  उपनिषदांचे विज्ञान निष्ठ निरुपण .