And The Flowers Showered
Discourses
Table of Contents
Flower shower
Osho tells of Subhuti, who sat in sublime emptiness until gods showered flowers—existence celebrates when ego dissolves. Ego is impotent; emptiness is true power. Drop all relative concepts, be a nobody, and blossoms rain on you.
The brash student
A brash student quotes Buddha's emptiness doctrine to impress Master Dokuon, who whacks him—anger exposes the mask. Knowledge is borrowed and dead; only being carries truth. Your anger is truer than borrowed buddha-words.
The temper
Bankei asks a student to show his temper—impossible on demand. Anger is not your true nature; it comes and goes. Control represses and poisons; transformation comes through aware watching, and anger becomes compassion.
What is the way?
A hermit master tells a seeker: you are the mountain blocking the Way. Divided, loaded with past, you cannot walk the path. Dissolve the mountain through aloneness and past-completion; only then does the Way open.
Is he dead?
Zengen asks if the dead man is really dead; Dogo refuses to answer. Death is a mystery to be lived, not explained. When Sekiso echoes the silence, Zengen awakens—satori born of the question dissolving.
The art of archery
Lieh-Tzu's perfect archery means nothing—on a precipice he trembles with fear. Technique is surface; non-shooting means no doer inside, the arrow shooting itself. Fearlessness is true perfection; the source, not the target, is everything.
Temple fire
Master Tokai, told of a kitchen fire, asks 'Where?' and goes back to sleep—when it reaches him, come back. A master lives in the present, plans nothing, fears nothing. Spontaneous alertness is the only morality.
Tozan's five pounds
Asked 'What is Buddha?' while weighing flax, Tozan answers: 'This flax weighs five pounds.' The ordinary moment is the ultimate. Mind repeats; life is ever-new. Zen masters renounce mind, not life—this very moment is Buddha.
Deaf, dumb and blind
Gensha despairs of saving the deaf, dumb, and blind. Ummon proves the monk can see, hear, and speak—so why worry about others? Solve your own problem first; only an enlightened person can help anyone.
Seeing double
The Way is right before your eyes, but you see double—I and you, subject and object. Drop the division and the clouds clear. When neither I nor you remains, who wants to see?
Not mind, not buddha, not things
Nansen reveals the teaching no master ever preached: not mind, not Buddha, not things. Via negativa—deny things, thoughts, and even the self. When all three layers dissolve, emptiness remains and flowers shower on you.