Zen Buddhist Gardens
The best-known result of this love of rocks is a very special type of Buddhist garden in Japan, made almost entirely from rocks, gravel and moss.
Zen Buddhist gardens in Japan
These gardens are often called ‘Zen gardens’ because they are made by a small branch of Japanese Buddhists called Zen Buddhists. The Zen training programme includes surprise methods for waking people up to the true nature of reality, which aim to get you out of your usual way of thinking about things. These surprise methods sometimes include artistic tasks and creating these gardens can be part of this.
These mysterious Zen gardens seem to turn Japanese rock gardens from miniature landscapes into abstract designs. Some people love Zen gardens. Some people cannot see the point – in photos they can look like rocks arranged at random. But a photo cannot show you what it is like to sit beside a well-designed Zen garden.
A Zen garden in London: Three Wheels Temple
There is a perfect traditional Zen Buddhist garden at Three Wheels Temple, a small Japanese Buddhist temple in west London. First you cross a lawn by stepping-stones and then up a couple of steps past the low wall which surrounds the Zen garden. You take your shoes off and sit on a low wooden viewing platform with a roof, which overlooks the Zen garden. This is how it is done in Japan. You never walk around in Zen gardens. Instead you look at them from a special viewing place.
It is very hard to explain why this Zen garden affects you like it does. Suddenly you feel a great peace and feel completely happy just to be sitting there. Yet there is only mossy rocks and gravel raked in simple, harmonious patterns. Without any effort, all your mind wants to do is to be there and take in tiny details like the shapes of the rocks and little patches of purple in the dark green of the moss. Recently a group of children were visiting the Three Wheels garden, who had come to Britain as refugees. Asked how the garden made them feel, they gave answers like ‘Love’, ‘Peacefulness’ and ‘Quietness’.
Much work has gone into creating this garden and it brought together many volunteers. First the rocks were chosen, one by one, by the garden designers. They are much bigger than you see because rocks in Zen gardens are always buried deep so they look firm. The designers toured Britain looking for rocks with the right shape. After they had chosen a rock, it gave them an idea for the shape of the next rock to look for. Most of the rocks came from Cumbrian mountains but some are from Scotland and Ireland. Some were pulled from freezing cold rivers. There are 12 rocks in this garden. This is a fairly typical number – some Zen gardens have as many as 15. Zen gardens always have rocks in clusters. These rocks were arranged in clusters by eye. Choosing the right arrangement is a key part of the design task.
The raking of the gravel is important too. Different patterns were tried and now this one is always followed. Often Zen gardens rake patterns in gravel which look like waves in water or eddies of water round a rock ‘island’. It takes five hours to rake the patterns in the gravel at Three Wheels Temple. In Zen gardens, the task of raking the gravel is seen as a Buddhist meditation activity to be done very carefully and mindfully.
Sitting and Reflecting
In Japan, Zen gardens are sometimes used as places for sitting meditation – quite often moonlit nights are chosen for this, when the gravel reflects the moonlight. But much more often people just sit and relax on the viewing platform. The garden itself brings about a feeling like meditation.
Why can Zen gardens have this effect? What is the connection between
their actual design and the Buddhist religion? Westerners have been much
puzzled by these questions. Here is a website which suggests some answers.
It also shows good photos of various Zen gardens and encourages you to
make a mini-Zen garden of your own:
http://zen.thetao.info/perceive/zengarden.htm
How might the designers of the Three Wheels Zen garden answer such questions?
On the wall of the viewing platform is their message to visitors – the
Three Wheels Garden Poem.
Continue reading: Buddhist gardens in Britain
Other Sources of Information
www.threewheels.co.uk - For more information and pictures of Three Wheels Zen garden in west London. The garden is easily reached by public transport, and can be visited on Open Gardens days or by arrangement (Phone Reverend Sato – see website for contact details).
http://www.missourizencenter.org/SeiwaEn/ - A website about a Japanese garden in the USA. It points out how Buddhist ideas influence the garden’s design.
http://www.soulofthegarden.com/Japan.html - A website with beautiful photos of Japanese gardens of all types, including Zen gardens.