For example, the ink paintings of the Chan monks of Song China, reproduced as a generic style by such Japanese Zen masters as Sesshū, Josetsu, and Shūbun, evoke the most meaning from the fewest materials and place the least demands upon the senses in doing so. What we first notice about Zen art is its conspicuous austerity and simplicity. The Zen “way” is built primarily upon the practice of meditation, and its aesthetic values are geared to optimizing meditation and bringing about the “perfection of wisdom” (prajnaparamita) that meditation can deliver to the diligent, single-minded seeker. Why are some gardens in Japan “Zen” gardens, rather than merely a Japanese garden, an Asian-style garden, or even just a garden? Zen is a Japanese translation of Chan, which is a sinification of dhyāna, a Sanskrit word meaning “meditation.” The Zen sect of Buddhism prioritizes above all things the central activity of meditation, the means by which the Buddha himself received enlightenment while sitting under a pipal tree sometime in the sixth century BCE. It goes without saying, perhaps, that every act of beholding-whether inspired by contemplation or sightseeing-adds new dimensions to the meaning of these gardens.Ī Quick Introduction to Zen Aesthetics Zen mountains and “waterfall” in the garden of Daisen-in.Īt the outset, I would propose that Zen, despite its fabled love of simplicity, is a very complex subject that encompasses a wide range of religious, philosophical, and cultural topics, of which stylized landscaping is only a part. This essay will examine the Zen garden in several selected meanings: as an artifact of landscaping, as an aid to Buddhist contemplation, and, finally, as a kind of historical “text” to be read by the beholder. Yet burdened as we are with the heavy baggage of language and history, we have to try to understand the elusive elements of Zen enlightenment with the expedient means of words in the pedestrian contexts of mundane reality. Since the moment the monk Mahākāsyapa received the first dharma transmission from the Buddha himself, marked by a silent smile in response to the beholding of a white flower, this progenitor of Zen and his successors have privileged the wordless experience of satori (enlightenment) over the dialectical understanding of its logic. This is only appropriate since the transmission of Zen wisdom is supposed to be nonverbal. The image of the Zen garden, however it is consumed, “speaks” for itself, and provides us with a representation of spiritual quality that is best experienced rather than discursively argued. It is the glossy photograph, perhaps-and not necessarily a color photograph-that best evokes the contemplative quality of the Zen garden. Unless one has some pull with the monks and can visit the temple off-hours, to appreciate these gardens in the state of serene reflection that they are supposed to enhance is more or less impossible.

While Zen gardens have been a fixture of Japanese aesthetics since the Muromachi Period (1336–1573), the purposes and meanings of these austere landscapes have been far less fixed, and indeed have changed somewhat since their first appearance as places for meditation in the Zen temples of medieval Japan.įor those of us who have been fortunate enough to visit such magnificent sites as Ryōanji or Tenryūji, the primary function of Zen gardens today seems to be to remind the busloads of tourists who visit these gardens how remote their hectic modern lives are from the tranquility that is promised- but not quite delivered-by the Zen temple environs.

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