TUCKED BETWEEN THE UNTAMED FOREST OF CARMEL VALLEY on one side and the Carmel River on the other is a garden that was made for meditation.
A path of stones leads to wooden benches placed at points that provide clear views of the garden at different angles. Sitting on one alongside a pond on a bright and breezy day, the garden is animated with movement. The sounds of crickets chirping and wind chimes seem sharper, the steady flight of bees landing on flowers and dragonflies over the ponds more graceful and the world outside is forgettable, for a moment. It is, as intended, meditative.
It’s the garden of the Carmel Sambosa Buddhist Temple, one example of a zen garden, which is the centuries-old concept of capturing the essence of nature within a confined space. The Korean Buddhist temple was founded in 1973 – at the time, the first in the U.S. The garden, situated between the temple and a wall of trees, encapsulates the elements of simplicity and the freedom of nature so central to the Korean style of zen gardening.
Little lizards scatter across the stones and disappear into the shade of bushes. The garden includes a variety of flowers in shades of violet to orange, slim trees no taller than a windmill spinning, ponds with lily pads and tadpoles, a stone tower and five Buddha statues. All of this mingles with tall grass waving in the wind that may seem unruly by certain gardening standards.
Abbot Dae Man Sunim, the temple’s monk who has been known to enter thousand-day periods of meditation, explains how that untidy look is both intentional and unintentional.
“Garden at Sambosa conveys more meaning in a way that represents how we should live in harmony with nature,” Abbot Dae Man writes in an email, translated from Korean by Eun Kyeang Ji, a student practicing for enlightenment. “Not dominating, but being part of it.”
One can feel as if they’re part of nature even within the temple’s meditation room, a cozy space with spotless wooden floors, stacks of mats for sitting meditation and shelves adorned with small golden Buddha statues. The garden, free of people, is in full view through two screen doors.
“It’s different from Japanese zen gardening in a way that (the) human does not take a role in manipulating nature as they please,” Abbot Dae Man says. “We participate and let the interaction unfold itself as the impermanence of nature manifests itself over time.”
Though it would be hard to replicate the arrangement and conditions of Sambosa’s garden, it’s not impossible to design a garden at home emphasizing that same state of natural bliss.
Susan McDonald of the Monterey Bay Center has zen gardening experience (though not Korean zen gardens). She describes the basic components, and how they coexist simply.
“Water, rock, plants… flowering, yes, but no one element of the garden standing out from the others,” McDonald says. “It’s conveying qualities of modesty.”