The Sogen-chi Garden: Tenryu-ji (Kyoto)

Gentle autumnal breezes keep flowing lightly, ripples forming and fading on the calm pond's surface reflecting the surrounding trees, which have just begun to turn red and yellow. White clouds appear one after another in the clear blue sky, drifting away and vanishing in a moment. This ever-changing spectacle of stillness is making me find the beautiful metaphor of ”Mujo," namely, the absolute transience of our universe.

This Sogenchi (Sogen pond) garden was initially designed by Muso Soseki (1275-1351) to symbolize the realm of Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment, or the Buddha's pure land.

Muso Soseki was one of the most prominent masters of Zen Buddhism in Japan and was known also as a superior poet, calligrapher, and landscape gardener. He established the foundation for spiritual landscaping in Japanese garden culture. In other words, his approach to garden design sought not merely scenic beauty, but was intended to visualize the vivid image of enlightenment that Buddha experienced.

The vast central pond is called “Sogen Pond." This name is said to originate from the discovery of a stone monument inscribed with the words “Sogen Itteki Sui” (a single drop of Sogen) when Muso Soseki was dredging the pond during the garden's construction.

This is the Zen saying that means “the essence of Zen (Buddhahood) is as pure as a single drop of water, which flows through this world like a stream becoming a brook, a brook becoming a river, a river becoming a great river, and a great river becoming the ocean."

 

The Sogen-chi Garden: Tenryu-ji (Kyoto)

The Zen garden is not merely for appreciating its beauty but is the essential place for meditation as part of the spiritual practice of Zen Buddhism.

Monks keep sitting quietly on the floor of Hojo (main hall), devotedly gazing at the peaceful garden to silence their chattering minds and quietly observing their streams of boiling delusions to erase them completely.

To reach the transcendent awakening of Zen, "San-doku" (the three mental poisons that dirty the mind of man), that is to say, the burning desire, anger, and ignorance based on the survival instinct, must be washed away and inhibited. The path to spiritual enlightenment is fundamentally obstructed by the dirty delusions caused by these deadly poisons.

Viewing the garden with a calm mind is the daily practice of watching inward and "Sen-shin" (washing one's mind). Sen-shin means the washing away of San-doku to enter into nirvana and attain supreme enlightenment.

The tranquil garden of Tenryu-ji serves as a place for both appreciation and contemplation (spiritual cultivation). Gazing quietly at Sogen Pond from the Hojo, the peaceful view of Arashiyama and Kameyama mountains is integrated with the garden's glassy pond. Thus the nature, the garden, and the mind must shape the clear, visual appearance of the very essence of Zen Buddhism.

The Sogen-chi Garden: Tenryu-ji (Kyoto)

The Zen garden, or the garden for meditation, is the most important place within Zen Buddhist temples, which embodies the essence of practice, philosophy, and aesthetic sensibility of Zen.

The Zen garden symbolically expresses the truths of our nature and universe without any verbal explanation. Rather than realistically recreating the view of actual nature and the universe, it evokes enlightenment in the viewer's mind by visualizing the "Ku" (emptiness) and "Mujo" (the state of flux) by the use of water, stones, gravel, trees, plants, and so on.

The Zen term "Ku" refers to the fundamental Buddhist concept that all things lack a fixed, inherent essence and are void, like just a fleeting day-dream. Because of our ignorance, we always fail to notice this truth. Our universe keeps arising and vanishing in a flash through the infinite interconnection between cause and effect.

The Zen garden serves as a place for “contemplation” (Kanso) during practice. Monks sit in the Hojo (the main hall), gaze at the garden, and silence their minds completely to shut out idle thoughts from their minds. Because thinking is the source of any delusion that hinders us from a spiritual awakening.

This allows them to intuit the deep movements of their mind and train themselves to attain a pure state of "Muga" (the perfect selflessness) away from all noisy thoughts.

The Zen garden is the intermediate gate that connects our earthy world (the human realm) and Nirvana (the realm of supreme enlightenment).  Passing through this gate, practitioners can detach from the stained delusions of daily life and enter into the purified land of mind that Buddha taught.

The Sogen-chi Garden: Tenryu-ji (Kyoto)

 

The Sogenchi garden of Tenryu-ji (Kyoto)

The subtle gradations and delicate coloring of summer green leaves were painting an exceptional and abstract picture in combination with the stones and water and were revealing the deep meaning hidden in the elegant arrangement of rocks in this celebrated Zen garden.

Autumn leaves in the garden of Tenryu-ji (Kyoto)

In the brief time of transition from autumn to winter, the garden of Tenryu-ji is beautified still more with red, vermilion and golden leaves under the transparent sky.

This elegant "Chisen-kaiyu-shiki" (pond-stroll) garden was designed and laid out by Muso Soseki (1275-1351), who is one of the most prominent Zen monks and the father of Zen garden in Japan.

This garden is expressive of the universe of true enlightenment. Every day, at dawn, gazing on this beautiful garden, the trainee monks sit in meditation to try to be spiritually awakened.

The colorful carps are peacefully swimming around in the still water as if to be wise to the eternal truth of this world.

Autumn leaves in the garden of Tenryu-ji (Kyoto)

Close by the "Sogen-chi" pond, the arrangement of rocks (Ishigumi), which takes the form of "Ryumon-baku" (Dragon Gate Fall) waterfall, is finely decorated with colored autumnal leaves.

Ryumon-baku is the precipitous waterfall in the old Chinese legend, by leaping up which a carp is said to be able to change into a dragon.

This stone arrangement consists of a "Suiraku-seki" (Water Dropping Stone) stone, a "Kannon-seki"(Kannon Bosatsu Stone) stone, a "Hekigan-seki"(Hekigan-koan Conundrum Stone) stone, a "Koi-seki" (Carp Stone) stone and so on. This form of stone arragement is essential to the Chisen-kaiyu-shiki (pond-stroll-style) Zen gardens of Japan.

In the seasons passing away, these picturesque Ishigumi rocks tell us about the esoteric teaching of Zen wordlessly.

Autumn leaves in the garden of Tenryu-ji (Kyoto)

The flamboyant autumnal tints are mirrored brilliantly in the gently rippled surface of the pond.

I know this lavish abundance of flaming colors is sure to fade away soon in the cold north wind as the bitter winter deepens . Precisely for this reason, I sincerely admire this transient beauty of autumn leaves.

Before long, the first snow of the season will flutter down to grace this quiet garden, where these splendid colors will have vanished without a trace.

Shidare-zakura (Prunus pendula f. pendula) blossoms in Tenryu-ji (Kyoto)

The countless pink blossoms of the Shidare-zakura were shining brilliantly against the sunlight of that spring afternoon as if to quietly burn themselves out.

Sakura blossoms in Tenryu-ji (Kyoto)

The white blossoms of Sakura were blooming modestly in the "Sogen-chi" pond garden of Tenryu-ji.

The Sogen-chi garden of Tenryu-ji (Kyoto)

This magnificent pond garden is one of the greatest masterpieces in the art of landscaping of Japan.

This Zen garden was created by Muso Soseki in the 15th century so as to represent the state of Satori (enlightenment) which a Zen monk seeks.

This pond is called "Sogen-chi," which is derived from the Zen word "Sogen no itteki sui." This  means that a droplet of water finally makes the vast ocean.