Zen Garden

Japanese dry garden

The Japanese dry garden or Japanese rock garden, often called a Zen garden, is a distinctive style of Japanese garden. It creates a miniature stylized landscape through carefully composed arrangements of rocks, water features, moss, pruned trees and bushes, and uses gravel or sand that is raked to represent ripples in water. Zen gardens are commonly found at temples or monasteries. A Zen garden is usually relatively small, surrounded by a wall or buildings, and is usually meant to be seen while seated from a single viewpoint outside the garden, such as the porch of the hojo, the residence of the chief monk of the temple or monastery. Many, with gravel rather than grass, are only stepped into for maintenance. Classical Zen gardens were created at temples of Zen Buddhism in Kyoto during the Muromachi period. They were intended to imitate the essence of nature, not its actual appearance, and to serve as an aid for meditation.

Zen

Zen is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka philosophies, with Chinese Taoist thought, especially Neo-Daoist. Zen originated as the Chan school or the Buddha-mind school, and later developed into various sub-schools and branches.

Garden

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is control. The garden can incorporate both natural and artificial materials.

zen

Symbol

1. ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Zenaga.

Noun

1. Synonym of enlightenment, particularly the kind acquired through Zen meditation.
2. An approach to instruction, understanding, or an activity similarly emphasizing simplicity and intuition rather than conventional thinking or fixation on goals.

garden

Noun

1. An outdoor area containing one or more types of plants, usually plants grown for food or ornamental purposes.
2. Such an ornamental place to which the public have access.

Verb

1. To grow plants in a garden; to create or maintain a garden.
2. Of a batsman, to inspect and tap the pitch lightly with the bat so as to smooth out small rough patches and irregularities.