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offered flowers, Buddha called Mahakashyapa and gave those flowers to him. And he said, "What could be said through words, I have said to everybody. What could not be said through words, but only through silence, I have imparted to Mahakashyapa."
This made him the first Zen master. But besides this, there is no other mention of him. Perhaps silence remained his method. Many must have become enlightened sitting by his side, but nothing was said. He was a silent master. So there is no record left.
Then the second great departure -- there have been many others -- but the second great departure from the past is Bodhidharma. He was even more strange than Mahakashyapa. He is the sixth in the line of Zen patriarchs.
After Bodhidharma, Nansen is a new point of departure. He opens Zen to a wider variety, he gives Zen more dimensions. It is no more a small stream, but becomes an ocean.
Today we are starting a series on Nansen. A little biographical introduction:
NANSEN, ALSO KNOWN AS NAN-CHUAN, WAS BORN IN NORTH CHINA IN 748.
BEGINNING HIS STUDY OF MEDITATION WHEN A YOUNG BOY, NANSEN BECAME A BUDDHIST PRIEST AT THIRTY AND TRAVELED TO VARIOUS WELL-KNOWN MONASTERIES.
ON ARRIVING AT CHIANG-SI AND MEETING WITH MA TZU, NANSEN IMMEDIATELY BECAME ONE OF MA TZU'S FOREMOST DISCIPLES.
We have discussed Ma Tzu. It is no wonder that a man of the insight of Nansen immediately became... he did not miss a single moment as he arrived at Ma Tzu's monastery, as he saw the master, he immediately touched his feet.
And this respect was not one-sided, this love was not one-sided; Ma Tzu showered great love and respect on Nansen. Both saw into each other, something immediately became connected. Ma Tzu understood the urgency and the intensity of the search of Nansen; and Nansen understood, "Here is the man. If I cannot make it with him, I am not going to make it at all."
This is how disciples and masters meet. It is not a superficial thing; it is something intrinsic, intuitive, and immediate. You have to understand the word `immediate'. It is not because of something, that Nansen becomes an intimate disciple of Ma Tzu. There
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