What does the Buddha's smile mean? What is the truth?

Many of us should know a famous word "smile at flowers", which means that we have a heart and a smile.

This word comes from Buddhism, especially Zen.

According to some people, when the Buddha touched a flower at the Lingshan Dharma, all the participants could not understand it. Only Mahagaya, the first disciple of the Buddha, smiled, and the Buddha immediately announced, "I have a real eye and a wonderful mind, that is, I entrusted it to you." Can be protected and can be continued. "

So Mahagaya became the ancestor of Zen.

So, where is the root of this story? Is there any reliable basis? Today we will talk about it.

First of all, we should understand that the allusion of "smiling at flowers" comes from a Buddhist scripture, which is "The Great Brahman asks the Buddha questions".

It stands to reason that if you want to verify the authenticity of a thing, you must first look at whether the source of this thing is reliable.

From a secular point of view, many records in Buddhist scriptures are similar to myths and legends, and some of them are difficult for the world to understand. This is not surprising, and Buddhists will not deny the records of Buddhist scriptures. Buddhism, after all, is a religion related to the spiritual world, and some extraordinary records are normal.

But the question is, what if there is something wrong with this so-called classic? What if Buddhists themselves deny this classic?

It turns out that this "The Great Brahma King Asks the Buddha for Doubt Sutra" has been proved to be a "False Sutra".

The so-called "apocrypha" is a work written by later generations under the guise of Buddha's mouth, which has never really happened. Among the Buddhist "Sanzang" classics, there are two categories: "pseudo-scripture" and "suspected pseudo-scripture", and there are many such Buddhist scriptures. The Great Brahman asks the Buddha to answer questions belongs to this category.

"The Brahma King Asks Buddhist Scriptures" appeared in China, then was cut off, and then returned to China via Japan.

This Buddhist sutra is regarded as a classic by some people and is one of the foundations of Zen. Unfortunately, this Buddhist scripture is probably a pseudo-scripture, not a real history, both in terms of text and source.

In fact, there is no need to delve into the origin of Buddhist meditation. In China, the rise of Zen Buddhism and the introduction of Buddhism are almost simultaneous, because meditation itself is a very important practice method of Buddhism, and it is a kung fu that almost all sects have to learn.

It can even be said that meditation is always accompanied by Buddhism. In that case, why did Mahagaya become the ancestor of Zen?

Of course, some people will put forward the difference between Buddhist epiphany and gradual enlightenment, but the question is, this difference only exists after the Tang Dynasty in China, and is it necessarily related to the primitive Buddhism in ancient India? In the final analysis, this is just a story derived from the "Sect View".

Zen has a long history in China, which has a far-reaching influence on the history of China and the culture of China. It has long been a part of the genes of Chinese civilization, imprinted in our blood.

However, when we treat our own history and culture, we should trace back to the source, discard the false and retain the true, and should not be superstitious and ignorant.