shaolin chan arts-金沙1005

if gongan of chan buddhism is compared to beautiful flowers, then making the beautiful flowers grow is unremitting meditation practice of monks. we appreciate flowers, being not only see flowers, but also see branches and leaves that supporting flowers, even roots and soil. flowers cannot leave branches, leaves and roots. if flowers left them, the former would fade. these gongan is so too and cannot isolate from monks’ daily practice. only the basic stuff is profound and daily practice is enough or sufficient, meditation practice will be able to blossom and yield fruit. if people couldn’t ensure fundamental daily meditation practice, then a whole life of practice would not be able to blossom too, much less yielding fruit. there is a famous gongan of chan buddhism that buddha picked up the flower with smile. the buddha picked up a flower by which all people were under a spell but only buddha is not so. as we read gongan of chan buddhism, all stories about gongan are beautiful flowers. whether we could be under a spell, it lies in ourselves. (from words of chan by shi yongxin)