Arthur Koestler - Garden Quotes

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Its teaching is transmitted mainly in the form of parables as ambiguous as the pebbles in the rock-garden which symbolize now a mountain, now a fleeting tiger. When a disciple asks 'What is Zen?', the master's traditional answer is 'Three pounds of flax' or 'A decaying noodle' or 'A toilet stick' or a whack on the pupil's head.

Arthur Koestler

Zen is to religion what a Japanese rock garden is to a garden. Zen knows no god, no afterlife, no good and no evil, as the rock-garden knows no flowers, herbs or shrubs. It has no doctrine or holy writ.

Arthur Koestler