CLOUDS COME FROM TIME TO TIME 

AND BRING TO MEN A CHANCE TO REST

FROM LOOKING AT THE MOON.

In the world of Zen, there are a few symbols which are specially used by poets, painters, mystics. You will come across bamboos again and again, because the bamboos have a quality of Zen: they are hollow inside. Inside there is nothing, and because of this nothingness, they can become flutes. 

Because of this inner hollowness, songs can be born out of them. Every bamboo has the capacity to become a flute. For these strange reasons, certain things have become very much symbolic of Zen: the moon, because it reflects in the lake, in the ocean, in the river. There is one moon and millions of reflections, one consciousness and millions of manifestations. 

So when you read Zen, remember, its symbols do not have ordinary dictionary meanings; they have a special quality to them. Clouds are used; you will come across many references to them. This whole series is devoted to the clouds, because the cloud is the symbol, in Zen, of freedom: no roots, nothing to tie it down, every direction available to move, with no map and no guide – but with what dignity, and with what joy! The cloud goes on moving from east to west, from west to east. The whole sky is its territory; it knows no boundaries.

Zen : The Diamond Thunderbolt 

Osho