ZEN GARDEN IN A TRAY

By Vijay Chamundeshwari

While our living space grew smaller and smaller our creativity grew into miniaturizing everything from trees to pets to even an entire garden. We have done entire landscapes that can be placed on a table. We have played with the art of even visualizing a stone into abstract emotions and imaginative formations. This time our Bodhi Bonsai Friends have taken to a very serene and meditative state of mind – A Zen Garden in a Tray. 

Look at the creations and observe how peaceful it feels.......each creation can be gazed at for as long as your mind wanders into a state of trance.

Rocks, gravel, sand and a bit of calm imagination is all that is needed to create a dry zen garden.

Add some little plants or moss but keep it minimal.

Enhance the mood of the formation by adding a small statue that does not hinder with the space.

Get more creative and add a stone pathway that leads to where ever you want it to.....can be a little house or a tree or a statue.

The Japanese have categorized them into 3 types. Hill Gardens, Tea Gardens and Dry Gardens. Choose what suits your imagination with what you have in hand.

These gardens are generally dry but the element of water can be suggested with some coloured pebbles or gravel or glass.

Traditionally a stony pathway led to a tea ceremony and on either side were found beautiful rocks placed on gravel with spots of greenery here and there. Entering this tea garden would set you into a very serene state of mind and what followed was done with utmost humbleness. 

As with any art form Zen Garden too has a few principles to be borne in mind. The Zen masters have chalked out seven of them - Austerity, Simplicity, Naturalness, Asymmetry, Mystery or Subtlety, Magical or unconventional and Stillness We can bring in most of them if not all while making a Zen Garden.

The word Zen comes from the word Chan which meant Dhyana or meditation. Try making a Zen Garden in a tray and notice how meditative you become while you place the rocks so diligently and make waves and circles around them, either with your fingers or with a fork or stick. Keep changing the formations while you try to keep in mind the odd numbers and a triangle in mind. Maintain harmony and balance just like Mother Nature. Time just fades away and you get spaced out while you find yourself wandering or sitting in a Zen Garden......and there you will find...... PEACE.