According to Osho, the rose and the cactus symbolize the mind’s restless swing between opposites—trading one fashion for another out of boredom and hunger for sensation. We tire of the rose, install the cactus, then reverse. This oscillation drives political alternation, changing partners or gurus. Only heartful steadiness dissolves mind’s fickleness, revealing timeless consciousness.
It means our mind gets bored and keeps swapping the rose for the cactus, but if we stop chasing new things and stick with one, the mind calms and peace appears.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Beloved Osho, in what soil and in which climate might one find the mystic rose?
Before dying he gave his robe to a person to whom he had never spoken a single word. And the person touched the feet of Mahakashyap and again the same story... the tears of joy and gratitude and thankfulness. And the man said, "You were a great master; you have given me a great responsibility, but I promise you that I will fulfill it with my total heart." This man became the second patriarch of Zen Buddhism. And because Mahakashyap gave his robe, this became the form of choosing the successor. For all these twenty-five centuries Zen masters have chosen their successors by just giving them their bowl, their robe. It is called the transmission of the light, the opening of the mystic rose. You are asking, "In what soil and in which climate might one find the mystic rose?" Your heart is the soil. Your trust is the climate.…
The seed was stagnant, the plant is a river. Bliss is a flower but you have to become the soil, and the ego has to die in the soil like the seed dies, then you can also know the invisible, then you can also manifest the unmanifested. That's what happens to a Jesus, to a Buddha, to a Lao Tzu: something of the unknown starts surrounding them, becomes their climate, their milieu. And those who are unprejudiced, those who are open, can see in a Buddha God walking on the earth, living in a body. It is only the blind who miss, it is only the deaf who miss, but the greater part of humanity consists of blind and deaf people. Initiation into sannyas means that now you will search for the eyes and the ears. They are there, we just have not used them.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHAT IS THE SECRET OF THE MAGIC ROSE? The symbol of the mystic rose is that if man takes care of the seed that he is born with, gives it the right soil, gives it the right atmosphere and the right vibrations, moves on a right path where the seed can start growing, then the ultimate growth is symbolized as the mystic rose -- when your being blossoms and opens all its petals and releases the beautiful fragrance. Unless you blossom into a mystic rose, your life is nothing but an exercise in utter futility. You are born unnecessarily, you are living unnecessarily, and you will die unnecessarily. Your whole biography can be reduced to a single word: unnecessary. But if you can blossom and release that which is hidden in you, you have fulfilled the longing of existence.
Swan, I'd like you to tell me your whole story! Where you first appeared, and what dark sand you are going toward, and where you sleep at night, and what you are looking for....
IT'S MORNING, SWAN, WAKE UP, CLIMB IN THE AIR, FOLLOW ME! I KNOW OF A COUNTRY THAT SPIRITUAL FLATNESS DOES NOT CONTROL, NOR CONSTANT DEPRESSION, AND THOSE ALIVE ARE NOT AFRAID TO DIE. THERE WILD FLOWERS COME UP THROUGH THE LEAFY FLOOR, AMD THE FRAGRANCE OF 'I AM HE' FLOATS ON THE WIND. THERE THE BEE OF THE HEART STAYS DEEP INSIDE THE FLOWER, AND CARES FOR NO OTHER THING. DON'T GO OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE TO SEE FLOWERS. MY FRIEND, DON'T BOTHER WITH THAT EXCURSION. INSIDE YOUR BODY THERE ARE FLOWERS. ONE FLOWER HAS A THOUSAND PETALS. THAT WILL DO FOR A PLACE TO SIT. SITTING THERE YOU WILL HAVE A GLIMPSE OF BEAUTY INSIDE THE BODY AND OUT OF IT, BEFORE GARDENS AND AFTER GARDENS. The swan is one of the metaphors most used by the Eastern mystics. The swan lives beyond the Himalayas, his home is beyond the…
Beloved Osho, nansen said to the assembled monks, "old master o (`o' was nansen's own lay name) is going to sell himself. Will anyone buy him?" a monk came out and said, "I will!" nansen said, "don't make me dear; don't make me cheap. How will you buy me?" the monk was silent. On another occasion nansen was asked by a monk, "where will the master be gone in a hundred years' time?" nansen said, "I'll be a water-colored ox." the monk said, "may I follow you or not?" nansen said, "well, if you do, bring a mouthful of grass with you!"
Only roses can bring smiles to your faces, and joy into your hearts. But the serious person has been the maker of the whole of society up to now. It has to be changed. Life has to be made fun, a play, a beautiful drama. And a person who can make life a drama, a beautiful story, a fiction will be able also to make death a fiction. His life will be simply a dance of love , of gratitude, of peace, of silence. That is the whole work of Zen, a great point of departure from the old traditional religions. A Zen poet, Sekiso, wrote: <q>WITH YOUR TALL, GOLDEN STAFF TINKLING, YOU HAVE COME ALL THE WAY DOWN. TALKING FOR DAYS ABOUT THINGS NOT OF THE WORLD, YOUR WORDS HAVE BEEN ALL WE NEEDED. SUMPTUOUS THE COLORS OF THE HALLS AND THE TEMPLE BUILDINGS, LUSH AND DENSE AROUND THEM…