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Zen garden - Definition and Overview |
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 The Zen garden at the Ryoan-ji A Zen garden, a Japanese type of Karesansui rock garden, is an enclosed shallow sandbox containing only sand or gravel and rocks. They are used by Japanese Zen monks in meditation.
Ryoan-ji Temple
The rock garden was added to provide a place for the monks to meditate and is often said to have a calming effect.
Layout
There have been many attempts to explain the Zen garden's layout. Some of these are:
- the gravel represents ocean and the rocks represent the islands of Japan
- the rocks represent a mother tiger with her cubs, swimming to a dragon
- the rocks form part of the kanji for heart or mind
 A small hand-held Zen garden It is doubtful that a Zen master would agree with these claims, however.
A recent suggestion by researchers Gert van Tonder of Kyoto University and Michael J. Lyons of ATR Media Information Labs is that the rocks form the subliminal image of a tree. This image cannot be consciously perceived when looking at them; the researchers claim the subconscious mind is able to see a subtle association between the rocks. They believe this is responsible for the calming effect of the garden.
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