rock garden

AZC Karesansui

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of our sangha, a new rock garden is being created at the Albuquerque Zen Center. In Japan, rock gardens are called karesansui: kare (枯) means “dry,” san (山) means “mountain,” and sui (水) means “water,” so a karesansui represents a landscape with rocks for mountains and raked gravel for water. Rock gardens are often found in front of the abbot’s hall in Zen monasteries and are composed from elements that include stones (ishi 石), sand or gravel (suna 砂), water (mizu 水), waterfalls (taki 滝), bamboo (take 竹), trees (ki 木), and flowers (hana 花). These phenomena of nature all arise from the nothingness (mu 無) and emptiness (kū 空) that makes existence possible. The raked circle with a stone in the center of the AZC karesansui is inspired by the ensō. This calligraphic circle drawn in a single stoke is a favorite Buddhist device because it is a form with no meaning: it can only be experienced, never explained.