Tricycle's Daily Dharma: July 31, 2007
See The Flower
One day the Buddha held up a
flower in front of an audience of 1,250 monks and nuns. He did not say
anything for quite a long time. The audience was perfectly silent.
Everyone seemed to be thinking hard, trying to see the meaning behind
the Buddha's gesture. Then, suddenly, the Buddha smiled. He smiled
because someone in the audience smiled at him and at the flower. . . .
To me the meaning is quite simple. When someone holds up a flower and
shows it to you, he wants you to see it. If you keep thinking, you miss
the flower. The person who was not thinking, who was just himself, was
able to encounter the flower in depth, and he smiled. That is the
problem of life. If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present
moment, we miss everything.
--Thich Nhat Hanh
