Green Tea Forum

sleepyredmoo · Posted: Sep 03, 2008 10:20 am Post subject: zen garden

well, i have one, a small one. i have no idea what I'm suppose to do with it though. does anyone know how I'm supposed to rake it or whatever?

Hushfield · Brown Belt Joined: 30 May 2008 Posts: 49

Hi sleepyredmoo,

A zen garden is also known as karesansui, or "dry landscape" for that is basically what it is, and although karesansui are typically associated with zen monasteries nowadays (because of the huge western interest in them), the 'zen' is little more than a fashion word. You'll find a lot of websites going on about 'zen' gardens being designed a long time ago to aid monks in reaching 'enlightenment' (another fashion word!) but the history of the japanese garden is a far more complex process, consisting of loans and imitations from mainland china, innovations from japanese, and whatnot. I know very little on the subject so I can't really help you with that. But that wasn't your question anyway.

Exactly how big or small is your garden? Is it outdoors or indoors? Portable or not? (The only limit to karesansui is your imagination). Care to share some photos? I have no idea what you are "supposed" to do with it, but here are some links which might be helpful:
- Rock Gardens, Dry Landscapes, Hill Gardens, Karesansui, Kasan, Tsukiyama, Others (it has a reference to Lafcadio Hearn, so it's probably not too bad)
- a little info on the rake
- the best source of information

cheers,
H

wehayley · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 194

Yeah Sleepy, give us some more detail. I'm very interested in this sort of thing, have access to quite a bit of information, and may be able to offer some insght...

sleepyredmoo · Posted: Sep 21, 2008 3:21 am Post subject:

it's very small, not even a square foot, hmm maybe i'll take a picture of it later

wehayley · 2nd Degree Black Belt Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 194

Zen is essentially the Japanese word for "meditation." It comes from the Chinese "chan" which in turn comes from the Indian word dhyana - back to the English meditation... use the garden, and your tending of it, as a form of meditation if that works for you...

sleepyredmoo · Posted: Sep 21, 2008 12:47 pm Post subject:

ok, thanks