Mahakasyapa

"'Does anyone here know about Mahakasyapa?'

"Several hands were raised. He pointed his finger at a little girl in a blue skirt and a necklace of shells sitting in the front row.

"'You tell us, Amiya.'

"Breathlessly and with a lisp, Amiya began.

"'Mahakathyapa,' she said, 'wath the only one of the dithipleth that underthtood what the Buddha wath talking about.'

"'And what was he talking about?'

"'He wathn't talking. That'th why they didn't underthtand.'

"'But Mahakasyapa understood what he was talking about even though he wasn't talking—is that it?'

"The little girl nodded. That was it exactly. 'They thought he wath going to preatth a thermon,' she said, 'but he didn't. He jutht picked a flower and held it up for everybody to look at.'

"'And that was the sermon,' shouted a small boy in a yellow loincloth, who had been wriggling in his seat, hardly able to contain his desire to impart what he knew. 'But nobody could underthand that kind of a thermon. Nobody but Mahakathyapa.'

"'So what did Mahakasyapa say when the Buddha held up that flower?'

"'Nothing!' the yellow loincloth shouted triumphantly.

"'He jutht thmiled,' Amiya elaborated. 'And that thowed the Buddha that he underthtood what it wath all about. So he thmiled back, and they jutht that there, thmiling and thmiling.'

"'What Buddha was implying and what Mahakasyapa understood was that one can't speak these teachings, one can only be them.'" — Aldous Huxley; Island, p. 265-267


Artist Unknown


Know the artist? Contact us!

Previous
Previous

Thoughts Aren’t Ours

Next
Next

The Soul’s Current