on details and flowers

cosmo, originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

An excerpt from ECS' post today:

Thich Nhat Hanh teaches us that we should learn to breathe consciously to notice and appreciate the details of life in the present moment so that we can BE happy.

These teachings are summed up nicely in this excerpt from the book: "Flower Insights"

There is a story about a flower which is well known in the Zen circles. 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.

The name of that monk was Mahakashyapa. He was the only person who smiled, and the Buddha smiled back and said, “I have a treasure of insight, and I have transmitted it to Mahakashyapa.”

That story has been discussed by many generations of Zen students, and people continue to look for its meaning. 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. When a child presents himself to you with his smile, if you are not really there - thinking about the future or the past, or preoccupied with other problems - then the child is not really there for you. The technique of being alive is to go back to yourself in order for the child to appear like a marvelous reality. Then you can see him smile and you can embrace him in your arms.

Sometimes it seems ridiculous to me that I get so much delight out of posting pictures of flowers. It's so easy, so cliche. But each time I post one I lose myself in that place, I go deeper down into each detail. I am calmer and more relaxed. At peace.