To me, if all the scriptures of Buddha disappear nothing is lost. Only this anecdote should not disappear. This is the most precious, and scholars have dropped it from Buddha’s biography. They say, ‘This is irrelevant; it doesn’t fit with Buddha.’ But I say to you, all else that Buddha did was just ordinary-anybody could do that-but this is extraordinary, this is exceptional. Only a buddha can do this.
A flower is a very receptive thing, and if you are aware of the new research in the West, you will understand it. Now they say plants are more sensitive than you, than man. A flower is the heart of the plant; the whole being comes into it. Much research has been done in Soviet Russia, in the USA, in England, about the sensitivity of plants, and something wonderful has been discovered.
One man, a scientist, was working on plants-how they feel, whether they feel anything or not, whether they have emotions or not. He was sitting with a plant with electrodes fixed to it to detect any movement in its inner being, any sensation, any emotions. He thought, ‘If I cut this plant, if I tear down a branch or cut it from the earth, what will happen?’ Suddenly, the needle making the graph jumped. He had not done anything, he had just had a thought: ‘If I cut this plant….’ The plant became afraid of death and the needle jumped, recording that the plant was trembling. Even the scientist became scared because he had not done anything-just a thought and the plant received it. Plants are telepathic.
Then he expanded his work-he worked at long distances. The plant was removed one thousand miles. His plant, the plant he had helped to grow, had watered, loved, was moved one thousand miles away. Here he thought against the plant and there, one thousand miles away, the plant became disturbed. So now, scientifically, it could be seen that the plant’s emotions were disturbed.
Not only this, but if you think of cutting one plant all the other plants surrounding the area become emotionally disturbed. Also, if someone has cut a plant and he comes into the garden, all the plants become disturbed because this man is not good and they carry the memory. Whenever this man enters the garden the whole garden feels that an evil person is coming in.
Now a few scientists think that plants can be used for telepathic communication, because they are more sensitive than the human mind. And a few scientists think that plants can be used to receive communications from other planets, because our instruments are not so refined.
In the East it has always been known that a flower is the most receptive thing. When Buddha looked at the flower and continued to look at the flower, something of him was transferred to that flower. Buddha entered the flower.
