Buddha’s Sincerity

After having long travelled all over the places to preach the teachings for the mass, Buddha once called the monks back to Mount Grdhrakuta. This time World’s Most Venerable remained silent, raising a lotus flower and looking around the mass. While every monk was bewildered, only Arya Mahakasyapa was smiling. Since then, the story of “Holding flowers – Smiling” has become Immortal Evangelist.

As retold from the Sutra, in the night World’s Most Venerable gained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, the Saha Realm was filled with flowers and resounding heaven music, and the Earth was inundated with the light of Tathagata’s Enlightenment. Such great happiness! Oddly, World’s Most Venerable, however, wanted immediate death, a decision contrary to the initial will of leaving his home to become a monk. It was apparent that World’s Most Venerable, by the day of leaving the Citadel to become a monk, had made up his mind to find an emancipation path for all creatures, but changed his mind suddenly. Was it true that the Buddha no longer loved living beings?

 

As a result, the Devas were bound, earnestly imploring the Buddha, “Dear Buddha! We are bowing down before you to ask for your feeling compassion for us and all the living of next generations, honoring the Dharma and taking all creatures out of the damnation of birth and death.” Not a word did the Buddha say at all. When the Devas relentlessly raised petitions, Tathagata said, “It isn’t preaching the holy doctrines in order to moralize all sentient beings that I am not expecting, but I am afraid nobody trusts me.”

 

“Nonetheless, that does not matter, so You just try to preach whether what You says is believed or not. Why didn’t You do so” That is because He is afraid of living beings failing to take their faith back once losing it, especially belief in themselves. The most difficult thing was that Tathagata wasn’t able to say what He really meant to say. Even though He tried to be careful enough to say it wryly, sentient beings would not believe, so it would be better not to say a word. That was the only way to keep them believe in the future Buddha even if the belief had not appeared yet, it would never be lost however. As regards this point, it would be obvious that we couldn’t understand the Buddha thoroughly till we became Him.

 

The Devas refused to retreat, insisting on the petition, forcing Him to finally share some particular means to honor the Teachings for living beings’ sake. Three Collections of the Buddhist Canon has been born since then, but He gave very thoughtful advice: This was merely means, don’t rely on it so as to be hard on the Buddha. Honestly, the Buddha remained unchanged without saying a word.

After having long travelled all over the places to preach the teachings for the mass, the Buddha once called the monks back to Mount Grdhrakuta. This time World’s Most Venerable remained silent, raising a lotus flower and looking around the mass. While every monk was bewildered, only Arya Mahakasyapa was smiling. Since then, the story of “Holding flowers – Smiling” has become Immortal Evangelist.

 

Such a simple funny story! We also laugh, but nobody notices and notes it down because we don’t have the same smile as Venerable Kassapa, a smile the Buddha had been waiting for so long. Since the start to the preaching path, World’s Most Venerable had not been so glad till He was exonerated from the injustice of raising difficulties to all living beings at the beginning, in other words “refusing to teach the doctrines”. In fact, the Buddha is not teaching anything, isn’t He? However, in such striking silence, finding a heart-to-heart person all over the world does not sound easy indeed. Therefore, World’s Most Venerable right away passed on the Dharma Label to the venerable, who had met the Buddha’s expectation and understood Him, thus become a Buddha.

 

As a Tathagata, the Buddha had never told half a lie to any of the mass. He had shared what could be shared and neither said nor hidden what could not be said. Though Mahakasyapa Venerable became a witness to the Buddha in this case, He remained unrelieved, still afraid that later words would rebel, so the Buddha before entering Nirvana insisted, “For the past 49 years, Tathagata has never said a word.” Well, during the initial, middle and final stages, the Buddha kept unchanged, completely tight-lipped. That’s because He is always sincere.

Thanks to this, what the Buddha wished to pass on us has been preserved, and will remain forever. That is due to the fact that all things are not born, thus not extinct. Deception can’t happen. More wonderfully, that is also due to all beings’ incessant belief “We will surely become Buddhas”. Divine Father’s infinite compassion and mercy are undoubtedly incomparable. To this extent, that’s to be called “sincerity”. On the contrary, because we are talking too much, it turns out to be nonsense and lies which hurt each other. Nevertheless, ordinary people are blatantly insisting on their telling the truth.

 

In the mundane world, it is sworn that no matter what worst happens, “this heart” remains unchanged. That sounds apparently true! Never will that happen. Even if possible, “the heart” is thought to be made certainly hardened by ignorance and blind love. Life is an endlessly changing circulation, so how is it possible that an impermanent mind would not change along? Even the nature of birth and extinction is not real, thus how can words be true? In spite of that, we keep talking. So weird!

 

 It is time we stopped speaking. We had better sit still, contemplating green leaves and the birth-extinction river flowing through every breath in order to feel Tathagata’s sincerity squeezing through every beat of life-and-death. We are here, able to talk, hear and act adequately. Being aware of that is alright. Don’t keep thinking any further. Perhaps from that obvious truths, we suddenly get the a-thousand-year-ago smile. Till then we will see Tathagata’s absolute sincerity.

Hanh Chieu. 

Translated into English by Nguyen Minh Thuy Tien.