Why are you telling me this?

Wumen's Checkpoint 6:

The World Honored One a long time ago at a convocation on top of Spirit Mountain* picked up a flower and showed it to the multitude. At that time all the multitude were thus silent. Only Arya Kashyapa gave a broad smile and laughed a little.

The World Honored One said, “I possess the storehouse of the correct Dharma eye, the wonderful heart-mind of Nirvana, the formless true form, the subtle Dharma gate, not established by written words, transmitted separately outside the teaching. I hand it over and entrust these encouraging words to Kashyapa.”

Wumen's Instructional Verse says:

As the flower was picked and raised,

The python’s tail was already revealed;

[MM 17] When Kashyapa cracked a smile,

People and gods [devas] were collected in the net.

.

^Yo͞ok  Welcome! ^{Meet me}  My comment: Who cares whether some random dude from a long time ago waved around a bouquet he bought at the side of the road?

I'm glad you asked.

Because unlike Christianity, Buddhism, and Zazen Dogenism, Zen teaches that you are inherently complete. You don' have to earn anything, you don't have to practice anything, you don't have to know anything. There isn't anything supernatural that is going to save you because you don't need to be saved, you already possess the miraculous jewel of nirvana, that radiantly reflects the true reality around it without flaw or intention.

That that random dude was a Zen Master.

Submitted April 18, 2023 at 06:00AM by ewk https://ift.tt/Ii1Vj9C