Zen: The Diamond Thunderbolt

Zen is so strange as far as intellectual understanding is concerned. It looks almost absurd. That is one of the reasons why it has not grown into a vast tree around the world, but has
remained a small stream of only those who can see beyond the mind, who can feel it, even though it is illogical, irrational.
Once Picasso was sitting in his garden with a beautiful rosebush; many roses had blossomed on it. A friend asked him, ”What is the meaning of the roses?”
Picasso said, ”There is no meaning in anything at all, but there is immense significance in even the smallest piece of grass.” You have to understand these two words, ‘meaning’ and ‘significance’. In the dictionary they have the same meaning, but in existence, in life, in truth, they are from different sources. Meaning is of the mind and significance is of the no-mind. Meaning is utilitarian, the bicycle has a meaning; but a
roseflower? – it is utterly meaningless. But does the bicycle have any significance? The roseflower has immense significance, a great grandeur; just look at the flower and its beauty and its impossibility. Out of earth comes such a
phenomenal, beautiful, fragrant rose for nobody in particular, but it spreads its fragrance to the whole universe. It is for anybody who is receptive. The concern of philosophy is meaning, and the concern of Zen is significance. Meaning has always to be rational, significance has no such bondage. What is the meaning of love? It has immense beauty, it has great joy, it is a blessing – but don’t ask the meaning.