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Has he gone mad? This morning seems to be strange; Buddha has never done this -- he has always come and talked. Today he has come with a flower and he is sitting and looking at the flower as if he has forgotten all the ten thousand disciples who are there.
And then, look! Now this Mahakashyap was laughing -- and nobody had ever heard him laugh, he was such a silent man. In fact nobody had ever KNOWN him. This was the first time that he had done something publicly. He was so silent, unassuming; he lived like a shadow. Nobody ever felt his presence even. He was absolutely nonaggressive, because when you try to let your presence be felt, that is violence. You are trying to attract attention. This man nobody knew. What has happened to him? He has gone mad!
Buddha looked, called Mahakashyap near him, gave him the flower, and told him, "Whatsoever I could give through words I have given to others, and that which cannot be given through words -- I give it to you, Mahakashyap."
In Zen they call it a transfer beyond scriptures, a transfer beyond words.
What was given to Mahakashyap? Still they go on asking in Zen monasteries, still Buddhists go on pondering over it. Twenty-five centuries have passed since that morning, and great philosophers have pondered over it: What happened that morning? What was transferred? It was not a transfer of a flower, a flower is just a symbol. It was a transfer of the whole being of Buddha to Mahakashyap. Not that Buddha entered into Mahakashyap; he remained himself. It is just -- you bring one lighted lamp near another which is not lighted; suddenly the flame jumps from the lighted lamp to the unlighted lamp. The lighted lamp remains the same, nothing has been lost, not even a bit, but a new light has come into being. It is a leap, a jump of truth -- THAT had happened that morning.
Buddha gave the flower as a symbol. The flower has remained a symbol in India of the absolute flowering of consciousness. A lotus flower means when the consciousness has flowered absolutely, and the fragrance has been released into the cosmos. That morning Buddha jumped, the flame of Buddha jumped into Mahakashyap. This is how
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