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He was not paid that much for that work, but he was around his plants continuously. He had great compassion. Just his work was such an absorption for him. Compassion arose. He had no other life. He was not concerned with anything, he was not interested in anything. His whole world was the plants. The plants were the only people he lived with.
Even weeds he would not throw away. Weeds! He would pluck the weeds -- but very carefully, very lovingly. They are plants too. And he would put those weeds around rosebushes, underneath, close to the roots of the rosebushes.
I asked him, "What are you doing?"
He said, "Weeds carry great energy. There is no need to throw them, and they are people too. They have to be taken out, otherwise my roses will be spoiled. I have to take them, but I give them beautiful goodbyes. This is their graveyard. And I put them close to the roots of the roses. They will become roses sooner or later. They become manure. I transform them, I don't kill them."
That's art, that's skill. That's what Zen is. Zen doesn't say to you, "Fight with your sex, fight with your passion and lust!" It says: "There is no need to fight, create the bridge." And the lust becomes love, passion becomes compassion. It is desire itself, freed from objects, that becomes desirelessness.
THIS VERY WORLD, THE LOTUS LAND.
THIS VERY BODY, THE BUDDHA.
Zen does not solve the problems, it dissolves them.
Once a great Western philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein, was asked what he did with philosophy. This was his answer too: "I don't solve problems, I dissolve them." And he had some quality of Zen in him. He was the only Western philosopher of modern times who had something of Zen.
Once he was asked, "What is your aim in philosophy?"
He said: "To show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle."
That's exactly the definition of Zen: to show the fly the way out of the fly-bottle. The way is there!
You must have seen it happen many times. Sometimes a butterfly enters into a room. She knows she has entered by the door; she knows there is an entry, so she knows tacitly that by the same door she can go out. But
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