Meditation in the Zen Garden

 

We slip almost unnoticed from one into the other, and back again. From reality into illusion, and back. The world of the zen garden, the contemplation of the beauty of autumn nature, teaches us to contemplate the nature of our own consciousness, thus bringing us one step closer to meditation. The trembling reflection of the world on the surface of the water speaks to us: voila the illusory nature of reality and the reality of illusion. At times, the sight of the water’s surface is so extraordinary that we no longer know what is reality, what is reflection, or what is being reflected - this is the illusory, playful, and ever-captivating nature of maya. 

Sometimes almost nothing moves, almost nothing happens. Nature slows the human being down - the human being caught in the dehumanizing rush in which we live: a superhuman trial of endurance for both body and soul. Yet within every movement, stillness is also present. Even in the midst of the greatest chaos, we can find something unmoving, something our attention can hold on to - such as our breath, which is always within reach as long as we live.

Every movement of the inner and outer world is a reminder of that silence, that stillness from which all movement grows, lives, and takes root in. Silence - as a life-giving, life sustaining oasis - has today become the most radical healing act we can perform for ourselves and for the world.