KASSAPA'S FLOWER OR POISON IVY?

IN CONSTRUCTION

POISON IVY

All those who are seduced by the idea of Zen know well the tale of Kassapa, better known as the Flower Sermon. This Sermon was probably created during the expansion of Chinese Chan Buddhism. The legend says that, 

One day the Buddha was asked about ultimate truth and as a response silently held up a flower before the assembled throng of his disciples, only Kassapa understood the message and that this message was a direct transmission of the Zen truth.

This then is theoretically a "wordless sermon" and it is a valid form of instruction which pushes the cognitive mind beyond the frontiers of logical and lateral thought, but here it appears that the legend itself serves less this purpose.

We are not suggesting here that if a white flower was presented by Buddha as an answer to the question that in and of itself it was like poison ivy. We do suggest that the original perpetuation of the legend when presented today converts a simple white flower into poison ivy, which causes an allergic rash within the mind upon contact.

There are those who have read or heard this legend and captured the idea that Zen Direct Access to Absolute Truth was born in that moment.

If you believe that then the white flower has disappeared and you are holding in your consciousness poison ivy that has begun to generate contagious itching blisters in your mind.

If such an occasion actually came about, is it not equally evident that "Absolute Truth" is contained in a simple white flower? But this idea of teachings outside the scriptures serves well the Zen tradition.

What the legend does is connect a new approach to Buddha Dharma directly to Buddha, legitimizing its use.

There was of course no such thing as Zen or even Chan at that time and Buddha's own approach to Awakening was by way of the Supra-mundane Jhanas.

The "direct access" concept began with Chinese masters in the second century and this idea was much later presented as belonging to a method (zong) called Ch'an-na, a corruption of the Sanskrit word Dhyana or the Pali Jhana. This was shortened to Chan and later corrupted to Zen in Japan.

"Zen" then, which appeared much later when Chan ideas were transported to Japan by Japanese masters in a rather restricted form, is a mispronounciation of another mispronounciation. This of course does not matter at all. The flower is transformed to poison ivy when one is led to believe that Zen is the same as Chan and that the Zen transmissions from Chan were complete.

The original Chinese Masters who are quoted were Chan masters not Zen masters, but it serves well in Zen promotion packages.

To give you an idea of the problem, an excellent recommended book, if you can find it, is The Practice of Zen by Chang Chen-Chi. In it he uses an article entitled "The Nature of Chan Buddhism", which appeared in 1957 in Philosophy East and West. He then retitled it, "The Four Problems of Zen Buddhism". Certainly the idea was to bring this article to the attention of Zen practitioners at a time when Zen was the attachment of those who wanted an easy way to encounter the Buddhist Valhalla, but the act became Poison Ivy.

It is Poison Ivy, for it tends to condition a clinging to later Zen and a setting aside of the richness of the early Chan writings.

It is rather akin to going into a restaurant and ordering a Cola and being served with Pepsi-Cola Light instead of the original Coca-Cola. No attempt is made here to consider Coca-Cola the Chan of Beverages, but you get the point.

Chan Master Shen Tzan declared: 

"While the empty door is open wide

How foolish it is to try to get out

by thrusting against the windows.

Alas, how can you

Raise your head above the slough

By putting your head against old rotting papers

For a hundred years?"

One may assume that this is declaring that Chan is a Direct Experience and that one's head should not waste its time with ancient texts. The key however to understanding this is to note that one's head should not be immersed in old ROTTING papers.

Zen students accepting this will glory in the Zen SELECTED words of old Chan and Zen Masters and throw away the richness of early Chinese texts that are far from rotten. Any sectarian position limits the expansion of a mind which should be open and flexible if it seeks freedom.

The closing of the mind is to be in contact with Poison Ivy and not the simple white flower.

One of the great problems with clinging to the idea that this Truth, whatever that may be, theoretically attained outside the scriptures, is that it becomes easy to delude yourself believing that you have won the race when really you are still in the locker room looking for your running shoes.

In Zen one is cast into a nebulous world where the use of word concepts like "nothing exists", "empty mind,", "No-mind" and hundreds of other entrapments generate teachers who need go no deeper than the words to appear at the head of the Dharma Class with a pretty Master's Diploma posted on their bathroom wall.

In the mentioned book there is an interesting tale presented which brings this into focus.

A monk called himself the "Master of Silence". He was actually a fraud and had no genuine understanding. To sell his humbug Zen, he had two eloquent attendant monks to answer questions for him; but he himself never uttered a word, as if to show his inscrutable "Silent Zen". One day, during the absence of his two attendants, a pilgrim monk came to him and asked: "Master, what is the Buddha?" Not knowing what to do or answer, in his confusion he could only look desperately around in all directions - east and west, here and there- for his missing mouthpieces. The pilgrim monk, apparently satisfied, then asked him: "What is the Dharma?" He could not answer this question either, so he first looked up at the ceiling and then down at the floor, calling for help from heaven and hell. Again the monk asked: "What is the Sangha?" Now the "Master of Silence" could do nothing but close his eyes. Finally the monk asked: "What is blessing?" In desperation, the "Master of Silence", helplessly spread his hands to the questioner as a sign of surrender. But the pilgrim monk was very pleased and satisfied with this interview. He left the "Master" and set out again on his journey. On the road the pilgrim met the two attendant monks on their way home, and began telling them enthusiastically what an enlightened being this "Master of Silence" was. 

He said: "I asked him what Buddha is. He immediately turned his face to the east and then to the west, implying that human beings are always looking for Buddha here and there, but actually Buddha is not to be found either in the east nor in the west. I then asked him what the Dharma is. In answer to this question he looked up and down, meaning that the truth of Dharma is a totality of equalness,there being no discrimination between high and low, while both purity and impurity can be found therein. In answering my question as to the Sangha was, he simply closed his eyes and said nothing. That was a clue to the famous saying:

If one can close his eyes and sleep soundly in the deep recesses of the cloudy mountains,

He is then a great monk.

"Finally in answering my last question, 'What is the blessing?', he streched out his arms and showed both his hands to me. This implied that he was stretching out his helping hands to guide sentient beings with his blessings. Oh, what an enlightened Zen Master! How profound is his teaching!" When the attendant monks returned, the "Master of Silence" 

scolded them thus: "Where have you been all this time? A while ago I was embarrassed to death, and almost ruined, by an inquisitive pilgrim!"

You can perhaps see that the problem is compounded. What do the interpretations of the pilgrim really mean? Thay are as empty of significance as the folly of the Master of Silence.

 Look at them again.

Buddha is not to be found either in the east nor in the west. 

Both purity and impurity can be found in both the high and low Dharma.

One is a great monk if one can close his eyes and sleep soundly in the deep recesses of the cloudy mountains.

It is a greaat master who guides sentient beings with his blessings.

 Are these interpretations, in and of themselves, really profound and deep with meaning that will liberate the mind through direct experiences? Can you see that this is perpetuating folly? Anyone with a modicum of intelligence can build such interpretations which circle around the truth without touching it.

The enigmatic phrases are only useful if supported by valid contemplation and a base of true "old master" Chan documented understanding that is not in any way to be considered as "rotten." The texts are generous explanations of Emptiness, Two Truths, Consciousness and other important concepts that help any student understand what the Dharma is all about. 

Zen students are encouraged to avoid these as not being "Direct Experiences", sitting forever in a placid and perhaps blissful world where Peter Pan will never grow up. Yet most Zen Masters are unable to explain what is a direct experience nor even conduct their students to that point. they are not even able to distinguish the difference between "understanding wu", chieh wu, and "realization wu", cheng wu.  What is perhaps worse, this poison ivy blindness prevents them from understanding the difference between Awakening and Enlightenment.

Poison Ivy is everwhere blanketing the white flower which is as delicate as a snowdrop but when revealed as mighty as the oak.