Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘At the assembly of a million beings on Vulture Peak, the World-Honored One held up an udumbara blossom and blinked. Then,Mahakashyapa smiled. The World-Honored One said, “I have the treasury of the true dharma eye, the wondrous heart of nirvana. I entrust it to Mahakashyapa.”

The Seven Original Buddhas and all buddhas equally hold up this flower. They realize and manifest holding up the flower of going beyond. They break open and clarify holding up the flower right at this moment. This being so, going beyond and going within, self and other, and the going forward and going back of holding up the flower are altogether holding up the entire flower. This is flower dimension, buddha dimension, mind dimension, and body dimension.

No matter how many times a flower is held up, it is transmission and entrusting [of the dharma] face to face, heir to heir. The World-Honored One’s holding up the flower has not been abandoned. Your holding up the flower that the World-Honored One held up is your inheriting the World-Honored One. As the moment of holding up the flower is throughout time, you are with the World-Honored One, holding up the flower.’ (Shobogenzo Udonge)

At the Monday Dogen group, we mused about this origin story for Zen’s notion of transmission, and if there is anything that can actually be transmitted, or entrusted. At heart though, this is just a moment meeting a moment, and that is timeless.