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.
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