Zen

Zen | home | email |links |

introduction

According to Buddha, we humans do have the capacity to change our lives.
This set us apart from the animals who don't have that power.
Unhappiness and complaints emerge from frustration of not
achieving our goals and desires in our live. Preoccupation, feelings of
unhappiness and sadness are the results of a live not worth to be lived.
This loss of energy could have been spent to other things like joy and creativeness.
We invest in the search for money , fame and so on, instead of changing our personal situation.
Zen is a way of getting rid of preoccupation and unhappiness by concentrating on nature.
Zen rock gardens makes it easier to get that concentration by creating the right
environment and atmosphere.This web site explains the rules for creating
Zen rockgarden , bonsai trees or a Zen aquarium or terrarium

Zen esthetic rules

There are some rules for creating environments in Zen:
1 Self-reference:
The meaning of this is that nature itself produces an image of itself.
Look at the sand on a beach on the photo: The sand resembles also dunes in the desert.

A stone resembles a moutain or an island, they only differ in seize.
But are made of the same material (granite). This is an another example of self-reference.
A small bonsai tree resembles an old big tree, they only differ in seize.

2 Silence and emptiness:
Important for achieving the right atmosphere. By looking at emptiness its facilitates
emptiness in our head.

3 Asymmetry and simplicity:
Everything in nature is asymmetric. Simple forms makes it easier to get in a state of meditation.

4 Intuition and chance
They play and important role. Natural things that are found by
accident can be admired for there form.

5 Natural materials
Only natural materials are used for creating an atmosfere for mediation
A garden , an aquarium or a bonsaitree is only created in a ecological way.

6 Natural scenes are used as a source of inspiration

introduction

Zen esthetic rules

further reading