Zen Rock Gardens

Looking for a way to energize your mind?

This past spring my wife, Wendy, and I were in Kyoto, Japan and had the opportunity to visit five different "Zen Rock Gardens." If you're unfamiliar with "Zen Rock Gardens," here's a little background. A typical one is a simple rectangular area comprised of several groups of rocks (and perhaps a few plants) which are surrounded by rake-lined sand (or fine gravel).

The garden works on two levels: a meditative one and an imaginative one. First, it provides the visitor with a place to quiet his mind and get away from the distractions of the everyday world. No cars, no commercials, no Internet!

And second, the garden can be a source of mental stimulation: the visitor is invited to look at the garden's simple shapes and objects and use his imagination. Do the rocks look like islands rising from the sea? Puffs of smoke? Clouds?

Of the five Zen Rock Gardens we visited, the highlight was the one at Ryoan Ji Temple. It consists of 15 rocks arranged in 5 different groups. It was laid out by the Buddhist painter Soami in about the year 1500.

It's rectangular and measures about 30 meters by 10 meters. There are no trees. Shown above is the central grouping of 3 rocks at Ryoan Ji. This is probably the most famous of the five groups. I liked this one a lot, and spent quite a few minutes contemplating it. What story does it tell? How does it fit into the other four groups? People have been asking these questions and others for five hundred years.

Wendy and I liked the Ryoan Ji Temple so much that we came back another day so that we could spend more time there. On our second visit, we arrived when it opened at nine, and had the whole place to ourselves for nearly forty-five minutes. And, course, the light was much different in the morning.

I have purposefully not shown you a photo of the entire garden with all 15 rocks. That's so you'll be motivated to go there yourself and experience its wonder first-hand.

Here's a little fun. At a different rock garden, I couldn't resist "entering into the frame" and posing the amazing Ball of Whacks on one of the rocks for a few moments. The rock garden smiled when I did this.

Comments

[David L Warner]

I love that you put the Ball of Whacks into the zen garden. A great way to project yourself onto the work, for just a few minutes. What's great about the zen garden, and which your description captures so well, is that the experience is determined by the viewer and the weather. Rather than dictating a certain interpretation, the artist has provided a minimal set of focal points to guide the viewer to her own interpretation.

[Dick Richards]

Nice Roger. I've been attracted to the feeling and symbolic richness of Zen gardens for some time. But...the only one I ever visited was in Mexico! Thanks for the real thing.

[Mark McGuinness]

I went to Ryoan-ji in January and my experience was dictated by the scaffolding all over the back wall! I tried to persuade myself that it wasn't very 'Zen' to want the garden to be in pristine condition, but I'm glad to see it's back to it's full (or rather minimalist) glory.

[Roger von Oech]

David: Yes, it was fun putting the Ball of Whacks in the garden. I felt just a tad bit guilty, but I felt it was in keeping of the spirit of the place. (And only for one minute!)

Dick: I think you get the "real" thing anywhere, but yes, being Kyoto certainly helps one get into the mood to experience it.

Mark: What a shame (to have the scaffolding), but you were probably able to make some connections that escaped me.

[Bryan]

Regarding Ryoanji, I thought it was interesting that you mentioned not including a picture with all 15 rocks. If I'm not mistaken, you would have had to do the impossible to take that picture! The garden was set up so that from no place on the platform can you see all 15 rocks. There is always one hidden, that you have to see "with your third eye". Very Zen.

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The influence of Zen on garden design was (probably) first described as such by Kuck in the early 20th century and disputed by Kuitert by the end of that century. What is not disputed is the fact that karesansui garden scenery was (and still is) inspired (or even based on) originally Chinese and later also Japanese, landscape paintings.

Though each garden is different in its composition, they mostly use rock groupings and shrubs to represent a classic scene of mountains, valleys and waterfalls taken from Chinese landscape painting. In some of them the view also incorporates existing scenery, e.g. the hills behind, as "borrowed scenery" (using a technique called Shakkei).

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Motivating! The small garden do look like a miniature island,looking at the pictures just took my imagination to another world. I think its one of the best ways to relief stress.

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This is really cool, I want to do this in my own lawn someday. Thanks for posting.