What is A Zen Garden Used for?

Zen Gardens have been around for a long time, and were originally created solely as places for Buddhist monks to meditate, find peace, and absorb the teachings of the Buddha. Today, they are used by many people and are a great way to attract simplicity and peace into life as well as reducing stress. The original Zen Gardens are dry, meaning they don’t have water features or elements, so their focal points are rocks, plants, and sand. If you are interested in making your own, check out this article next!

The Concept of Zen Buddhism

Zen Buddhism is an important part of Japanese culture. It dates back 2,500 years to a man from India named Siddhartha Gautama, who established the concept of zen and is often called the Buddha. The concept of zen involves meditation for self-discovery and to clear the mind of needless distractions, such as desiring material things.

According to an article from New Skills Academy, Zen Buddhism started in China, but it inspired Japanese temple gardens starting in the 1160s. Originally, the purpose of the gardens was to provide a tranquil place for monks to meditate on the Buddha’s teachings. Zen gardens were a part of Buddhist temples but migrated out of the temple sphere in the 11th century. By the 13th century, Zen Gardens had become a big part of Japanese living and culture. Maintaining a Zen garden takes your concentration away from the regular stress to the elements of nature. This activity is distressing in itself. By focusing on the space rather than the rocks, one can begin to understand the Buddhist ideal of emptiness and appreciate life’s beauty. The empty space filled by sand symbolize our lives and the stones symbolize emotional obstacles, anger, desire and ignorance.There is not a single zen garden definition or style. As I have explained before, there are many different ideas for layout, size of your garden and materials. The primary point is for it to be a tranquil area for contemplation.

What is A Zen Garden?

The Association for Asian Studies explains that the transmission of wisdom is supposed to be nonverbal. So, in a zen garden, ideas are transmitted by experience rather than by someone actively "teaching." The original meaning of the root word from which "zen" comes is a Sanskrit word meaning “meditation.” Zen garden style is simple and is intended to invoke the most meaning from the fewest materials.

Rather than creating a garden environment through plants, zen gardens usually conjure ideas of a landscape using play sand, rocks, artificial plants, and sometimes water. Often, though, the sand itself is meant to symbolize water. The zen garden sand is often raked into forms or patterns, with the rocks representing islands in that water. Sometimes, the sand can be fashioned into something that evokes a waterfall.

Rocks are valued as the bones of the earth, and as such are fundamental to the essence of nature and reality. Rocks symbolize immovable mountains, while the zen garden sand symbolizes the motion of water in a relationship of dual nature, or yin and yang. Often, zen gardens are simply called "rock gardens."

Purpose and Benefits of A Zen Garden

While in the zen garden landscape, it's hoped that the mind will find a tranquil place to rest and experience awareness and emptiness. As the landscape changes, so does our experience of the garden. As such, a Japanese zen garden can be considered a living work of art. The purpose of a Zen Garden is to bring harmony and find peace and quiet away from our busy everyday lives, noise, and problems.

It may be difficult to see the benefits, but it’s impossible to go back once you do. The seven principles of a Japanese Zen Garden are austerity, simplicity, naturalness, asymmetry, allusion, and tranquility, and it is important that a Zen Garden follows most of them. Using a mini desktop garden could be more beneficial as they are more portable and affordable as a real-life one. Now that you know that Zen Gardens are used to create an environment of peace and tranquility, it may be wise to invest in one. Whether you decide to make or buy one, you should notice the benefits it provides immediately.