Zen gardens

Zen gardens are famous for there serene atmosphere. They don't have the intention to create
a romantic feeling or to be admired for its beauty. Nor are they replica's of something.
The intention is to create a feeling of emptiness. In that way zen gardens facilitate meditation.
This is the reason that those gardens are fully integrated in Zen cloisters.
Its very hard to create a zengarden in our western world. But a temporary Zengarden can easely
be created in the wood or on the beach.

rules for Zen gardening

- Self-reference
Only really natural materials are used to create the objects in those gardens
Sand points to see, rocks points to mountains or islands. Of course those rocks
are not a replica of island. Lanterns or bridges are not part of a zen garden ,
but in Japanese gardens they are abundant.
- Silence and emptiness
No human sound is heard, no car, no light of street lanterns and so on.
Only some rocks or other natural objects are placed as meditation objects.

- asymmetry en simplicity
These rocky or wooden objects are placed as asymmetric as possible.
No symetrical constructions can be seen , no wires ,no pipes.
- Intuition and chance: intuition is used for collecting and placing the
objects in the garden.
- Only natural materials can be used, so no lamps , waterpumps etc.

The zengarden of Kinkakuji temple, Kyoto

Problems

By far the biggest problem is the creation of a silent garden.
Cars and machines destroy the silence , and tourists are worse then cars
For this reason these gardens are surrounded by walls
of natural materials like wood.
The seize of garden needs to be huge, so creating a feeling of emptiness.
No other human activity's other as meditation should happen in those gardens.