First things first - "The Flower Sermon"
The beginning of Zen can be traced to a brief but important incident, when the Buddha had gathered his monks together for a “Dharma talk”. The Buddha sat in front of the monks, not saying a word. The monks were worried. At length, he reached down and plucked a small flower, possibly a daisy, and twirled it in his fingers --
... — Hold you here, root and all,
in my hand, Little flower—
but if I could understand
What you are, root and all,
and all in all, 5
I should know what God and man is.
(From "FLOWER in the crannied wall" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson)
The monks offered several interpretations of what the flower meant, but were all wrong. One monk, Mahākāśyapa, understood, however, and laughed. The Buddha knew then that this monk had achieved enlightenment. How did he know? Because Buddhism until then had been about words and writing and speaking. When the Buddha twirled the flower, he was demonstrating the religion become experiential, free from verbal explanations. The flower was the flower itself. How can one explain or interpret a flower. It simply “is”. Buddhism was itself, as well. It should need no explanation or interpretation. It is as free as the flower -- “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin” (Matthew 6:28):
"ZenOfTheDay"
2500 years later, I came across a wonderful app - "ZenOfTheDay" - on ITunes.
Essentially, each day you get a quote. There is Japanese music in the background. Also, nicely, there is a brief animation at the beginning which plays like "The Flower Sermon", appropriately enough. In the animation, the Buddha glides along but trips -- a lotus flower tucked behind his ear plops into a bowl of water he is holding. This gives the Buddha great joy, for he realizes that one can stumble accidentally into Enlightenment. A Zen nun seated in the background, perhaps here meant to represent Mahākāśyapa, also smiles broadly, and then offers to us her wisdom, offering her bowl as a symbol of the Buddha’s bowl.
The bowl is empty but from the emptiness arises wise words much the way Zen monks pass onto their students “koans” (sayings which are meant to be contemplated and meditated on, before the answer is finally found and there is enlightenment). This is one of the ways Zen Buddhism goes - each patriarch (enlightened monk in the line of monks extending from Buddha to the present day) passes his/her wisdom along. "In the beginning, there was the Word," much as there is in the early stages of Buddhism, when one begins to travel the path from initiate to enlightened person. In "ZenOfTheDay" We are offered quotes which, like koans, serve to introduce us to wisdom and the road to enlightenment.
And there is fun in trying to figure out what the koans/quotes mean, as well. There is happiness when koans/quotes strike a chord of familiarity, crystallizing something known but never fully defined in the mind of the reader. A spark goes off; the other quotes, less familiar, can be savored over, can be thought about, til one finds the truth in them. Each morning, another flower of wisdom appears for one to consider throughout the day. It’s a nice touch. A nice app. Happy as a big, ponderous Buddha, I happily recommend "ZenOfTheDay".
