Travel

BEAUTIFUL BACKYARD MEDITATIONS

View from Saihouji (kokedera) pond by Ivanoff.

by Ivanoff. View from Saihouji (kokedera) pond.

This week, we needed a beautiful break. Enjoy the best of BeautifulNow Summer with 10 BEAUTIFUL TENTS, revisited from Summer 2013.

All gardens are meditation gardens, of a sort. When we are in them alone, strolling or sitting, gardens gently pull our minds into their embraces. We shift our thinking, calming, quieting, considering both expansive and the tiniest things.

“My garden is my meditation and it’s whilst I’m in this chilled out mood that something hisses and spits at me—I nearly jump out of my skin….” PJ Girl, The Pyjama Gardener.

Meditation gardens are designed to optimize an altered state of consciousness, inducing relaxation, connection, focus, compassion, and well-being. You can enjoy them on the grounds of ancient temples, and, increasingly, in places of healing, and learning, including your own backyard.

Meditation gardens promote mindfulness that is restorative, reflective, and healing. Jon Kabat-Zinn is a longtime proponent and teacher of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the Stress Reduction Clinic. The methodology is supported by scientifically demonstrated benefits, increasing a person’s ability to heal, and move away from depression and anxiety, towards happiness and peace.

In her first book, “And I Shall Have Some Peace There: Trading in the Fast Lane for My Own Dirt Road," Margaret Roach transitions from life as Editorial Director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to a more tranquil one of a full-time gardener. Her latest book, “The Backyard Parables: Lessons on Gardening, and Life”, is a collection of memoirs and ideas, meditations, and philosophies, gained through her gardening experiences.

(Grand Central Publishing, 2013)

Meditation gardens are powerful, in their own gentle way, because they are both parallel and mutualistic at the same time. “Garden Meditation - Cultivating Peace,” by Timothy Mckibben, a book about life, gardening, and meditation, points out the parallels. Gardening cultivates the external environment, meditation cultivates the internal world. Remove rocks and weeds, remove the obstacles and clutter from our minds. Cultivate joy.

The life cycle, the growth process and the transformations that happen with plants and trees, happen within our minds.... a real winter and a metaphorical winter, both moving into spring, summer, and fall.

(Amazon Digital Services, 2012)

Meditation gardens have been increasingly installed in places like hospitals, hospices, schools, and prisons, as places of refuge and reflection for people at times when they need it most. Healing, learning, redirecting, and transitioning. They have also become popular at hotels, resorts, and spas, to serve less urgent but important retreats we can gift to ourselves.

Some meditation gardens are designed to fully engage the senses, with fragrant colored flowers, trickling water, textural nuance, and perhaps a berry to burst on your tongue. Some are more monochromatic quiet sanctuaries. Some have labyrinths. The meditation garden at Osmosis Spa has it all. It tells an “ancient tale of liberation through a labyrinth of plants, stones, and water.” Stroll, lay, sit, or mediate, as you wish. The garden has been built over a period of many years and was designed by the preeminent landscape designer, Robert Ketchell, of Britain.

Kretchell learned gardening as an “artform at the deepest level.” Drawing inspiration from both Western and Eastern traditions, his garden designs have a distinctive and enduring quality. Check it out in the documentary film, "Shishu" ('Poetic Beauty'), a study of the Japanese garden tradition, written and directed by Kretchell (available through www.worldspirit.org.uk).

Zen gardens are a genre of Japanese rock gardens (枯山水 karesansui) or "dry landscapes" garden, which are intended to mimic the essence of nature, while guiding you through different visual perspectives and experiences. They are walled, miniature landscapes, vignettes of composed rocks, moss, artfully pruned plantings, and rippled gravel or sand. Originally created for ancient Buddhist temples in Kyoto, like Garden of the Blissful Mountain at Zuiho-in (above), there are some gorgeous contemporary designs.

Imagine having access to a meditation garden every day, whether you are in a time of great need or just wanting to dip into the beauty of it on a regular basis. Home gardeners are increasingly carving out spaces for meditation gardens in their own backyards.

If you are looking for inspiration and guidance in designing a meditation garden for your backyard, you can get a great start with Kretchell’s “Japanese Gardens in a Weekend".

(Hamlyn Press, 2006)

Here are some other great resources to inspire your beautiful backyard meditation gardens:

“Infinite Spaces: The Art and Wisdom of the Japanese Garden,” by Joe Earle, Sadao Hibi & Julie Moir Messervy. Infinite Spaces pairs extracts from the Sakuteiki, an eleventh-century text with inspiring images from renowned Japanese photographer, Sadao Hibi.
“Zen Gardens: The Complete Works of Shunmyo Masuno, Japan's Leading Garden Designer,” by Mira Locher. Shunmyo Masuno, an 18th-generation Zen Buddhist priest, is searingly modern, yet steeped in ancient wisdom. See his designs for both ultra-modern and traditional properties, as presented in the beautiful book. With 400 drawings and color photographs, there is a lot to take in.

And get some practical advice and specific plans to follow from HGTV’s meditation garden design collection.

(Tuttle Publishing, 2012 & 2013)

Read more about Beautiful Summer, as they relate to Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact, including 10 Beautiful Tents, New Ideas with Beautiful Heat, Making Water More Beautiful to Drink, and Beautiful Beach Sand Sculptures.

Enter your own images and ideas about Beautiful Summer in this week’s creative Photo Competition. Open for entries now until 11:59 p.m. PT on 08.10.14. If you are reading this after that date, check out the current BN Creative Competition, and enter!