In a Zen garden

“The spirit of Zen is fundamentally governed by a sense of transience and the impermanent quality of life known as ‘mujokan’. The natural world is interwoven with everyday living and daily life reflects the rhythms of nature.
Particular plants have come to symbolise each season... In a Zen garden, however, a single flowering tree signifies not only the arrival of spring, but new life, renewal and the fleeting nature of time... Japanese summers are long and hot so the predominantly green Zen garden is a calm refuge from the city streets and busy lives...
...In winter, evergreen trees and shrubs provide form and structure. ‘Hatsuhhana’ - the blobs of snow on the bare tree branches - are known as ‘the first flowers’, until the early blooms of Camella sasanqua appear and the annual cycle begins once again.
To the Zen gardener, the natural world is inseparably interwoven with everyday living...”

The article, which includes an extract from the book IN A ZEN GARDEN, published by Frances Lincoln, continues into a conversation with the book’s author, Judith Glover of the ideas behind the book.

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IN A ZEN GARDEN is available on special offer to readers of Yoga & Health magazine. Please see page 33 of the February 2006 issue for full details.