“It must have been an assembly like this: utterly silent and waiting for Gautam Buddha to come. As usual, he was going to give his morning sermon – but that day he was late. Waiting became intense; also there was some fear: ‘Has some accident happened? Why isn’t he on time? In his forty-two years of teaching, he has never missed, even on one occasion. Why is he late?’ But it was no ordinary gathering of spectators. These were people who were seeking and inquiring about their own being, and perhaps they thought, ‘This is one of the ways of Gautam Buddha – for us to learn how to wait silently, without asking.’
“And very unexpectedly, Gautam Buddha appeared with a roseflower in his hand. It was such an extraordinary event because Buddha had never come the way he came that day. He had always come with empty hands. Holding a beautiful roseflower – everybody must have thought, if you had been present you would have thought – ‘Perhaps he is going to say something about the rose.’
“But he was not a poet. He was not a painter. What could he say about the rose? And he did not talk either. He simply sat in his place and went on looking at the roseflower, making everybody almost crazy. What has happened to him? This is the time to speak to the commune and he is looking at the roseflower without even uttering a single word. There is a limit to how long people can wait; they became very impatient. One could feel the impatience all around.
“At this moment, Mahakashyapa, who had never spoken a word before nor after, laughed loudly. He had been a disciple of Gautam Buddha for twenty years. He had never asked a question. He used to sit under a special tree that he had almost monopolised. Nobody ever sat under that tree. Everybody knew: ‘Mahakashyapa will be coming, his place has to be left.’
“But his place was very strange. He was a prince before he renounced his kingdom – just like Gautam Buddha – well educated and cultured in all the ways of religion and philosophy. But it is strange that for twenty years he had been just sitting there, not asking even a single question. And suddenly today, when everybody is impatiently waiting for Buddha to speak, this strange fellow Mahakashyapa starts laughing. He had not even laughed for twenty years. This incident is the beginning of a very special branch of mystics called Zen.
“Mahakashyapa was called by Gautam Buddha to come close to him. Buddha offered the roseflower to him and the sermon was over. Without a single word being uttered, something was transferred; something as beautiful as a roseflower can represent – invisible, perhaps, like the fragrance of a rose. Mahakashyapa bowed down, touched his feet, took the rose on his head, and went back to his tree. And the whole audience of ten thousand monks simply watched this drama.
“Buddha left his seat. Ananda, who used to declare Buddha’s coming, or the subject on which he was going to speak, announced that the sermon was over. Since that day, for twenty-five centuries, those who have been interested in Gautam Buddha and his teachings have been asking again and again, ‘What has been transferred? What was it that Buddha gave to Mahakashyapa? And why did Mahakashyapa laugh?’
“Mahakashyapa is accepted as the first Zen master. Gautam Buddha has opened a new dimension of search, where words are not needed, only silence – where you can only say without saying, where to say anything is to miss. Yes, you can laugh, you can dance because while you are laughing in totality, the mind stops, time stops and your whole being melts into one unity, into one organism. Otherwise you are a crowd: one hand is going to the south, your other hand is going to the north, and your head is scattered into thousands of pieces. But with a good belly laugh everything comes back – suddenly you are united. Laughter is the beginning of Zen.”