Japanese Garden (Day 4 – 29. March)

mossEver wondered why Japanese gardens look so beautiful and spotlessly clean? It is not a specific Japanese self-cleaning kind of moss, it is lots of work, day by day …

During today’s Samu, the daily working period after breakfast, we had to pick the fallen leaves and pine-tree needles from the moss and carefully pull the omnipresent weeds out. About two square meters took two of us about one hour. 

Right after rain in the evening it looked as messy as before, and we had to start all over again the next day. A good lesson about impermanence, and my aching knees let me feel once more that in Zen doing something is considered more important than any enduring outcome of our activities.  

I am sure, next time I visit Ryoanji in Kyoto I will see the vast extend of spotlessly clean beautiful moss with different eyes.

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