“In the right hands even a rock becomes a rose; in the wrong hands even a rose becomes a rock—it all depends on you. To show and to emphasize this fact, in Zen monasteries they make rock gardens. Now before Zen tried that, nobody had ever thought that there could be something like a rock garden. A garden needs trees, needs flowers, needs lawns! But Zen people have done something tremendously beautiful. They make rock gardens; no tree, no plant—just sand and rock. But they arrange the sand and rocks in such beautiful patterns that the sand becomes as beautiful as any lawn can ever be. And the rocks become so tremendously graceful that even trees may feel jealous. In Zen rock gardens moss grows on ancient rocks like flowers; and the sand is so silent—naturally, there is nothing to make any sound. It is so innocent and so cool. When you sit in a rock garden slowly slowly you become part of it: sitting silently, doing nothing you ALSO become a rock. You start feeling a deep affinity with the rocks, with the sand. Many mystics have moved to the desert. The desert has been like a magnet; for a few people it has always been calling. The infinity of the desert, the unchangingness, the eternity of the desert and the beauty of the night in a desert is something incomparable, because the air is so clean, unpolluted—and the stars look so close that if you try just a little you can touch them. The stars look very close by, as if some distance is bridged. The other world, the other shore, is not far away: it is visible. So remember it: in the right hands, with the right approach, the desert also has a beauty of its own. In the wrong hands even the rose bushes are nothing. Unless you have the aesthetic sensibility, the flowers can’t do anything. And one has to keep it as a goal: the day a rock in your hand turns into a rose… the texture of it, the coolness of it, the feel of it and you are enchanted, you fall in love with the rock… That day is of great significance. From that day onwards there will be nothing ugly for you, nothing hard for you, because your heart is soft now. Even in a rock it can find a sermon; even in a rock it can find a song; even in a rock it can find some hidden beauty.”
— Osho (Scriptures in Silence)
