In Zen Buddhism, a particularly famous story about a sacred lotus is “Holding Up a Lotus Flower and Smiling.”
One day, during a sermon, Buddha raised a single lotus flower without uttering a word. No one could understand its meaning, but only his disciple named Kasyapa (one of the ten great disciples of Buddha) smiled.
Seeing this, Buddha said that he conveyed to Kasyapa the truth that cannot be expressed in words.
This story symbolizes his principle that spiritual awakening cannot be experienced through words and letters. Instead, fundamental enlightenment can be attained only by the spiritual fellowship of mind with mind without reliance on words. Truth cannot be conveyed by words alone. Enlightenment is attained directly through intuition and insight.
The single beautiful flower of the sacred lotus symbolized the stupendous teachings of Buddha, and only the finest disciple intuitively received the transcendental wisdom through the graceful figure of the flower and the gentle smile of his teacher.
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