Mukta was my gardener in Poona.
She was always moving around with scissors, and whenever she would see me she would hide her scissors. I said, “Don’t do this. Why are you unnecessarily cutting these trees?” One tree particularly she used to call a monster, because she wanted to cut it. So first you have to call it a monster and then it becomes easy to cut.
First you give it a bad name – it is a cult – and then it is good to destroy it. It was a monster…. And it was such a beautiful tree, it was growing huge, but whenever I was not watching, she was cutting it. If it is a monster, then let it be a monster; it is that tree’s nature. Who are we to destroy it or to give it the shape of our ideas? Mukta has been in difficulty with me because she is Greek and follows the tradition of Aristotle – logical, mathematical. She wanted to create a European garden around my house.
I said, “It is not possible.” And a European garden, particularly the English garden, is so much against nature, because where in nature do you find symmetry? But in an English garden you will find symmetry. They will cut two trees symmetrically, will make lawns symmetrical, will put plants symmetrically….
Symmetry is unnatural, nature is asymmetrical.
So in a Zen garden in Japan you will not find any symmetry. Even if there is, the Zen people won’t allow it; they will disturb the symmetry – something has gone wrong.
Nature is wild, and when it is wild it has freedom.
A religious person is also wild.
In his wildness is his freedom.
And in his freedom he finds truth.
In his freedom he finds himself.
In his freedom he finds everything that there is to be found in existence.
Osho, From Ignorance to Innocence, Ch 18, Q 1
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