Bruce Ross
Hampden, Maine, U.S.A.

The Stone Garden

Meditating on this garden where raked straight lines meet circles of gravel, said to represent “a-um,” inhalation-exhalation, positive-negative, male-female, inseparable from each other, the truth of the universe, the essence of Zen. I had pondered the dramatic screen painting of a huge stylized dragon, the force of energy in the universe and somehow its materiality, just above the garden. Staring at the garden in a higher state I had a flash of deep insight into form and emptiness and from somewhere a baby’s crying and then the mother holding the child.

Ryogen-in
a faint incense permeates
the ancient wood

Editor's Note: Ryōgen-in is a subtemple of the Daitoku-ji Buddhist complex, located in Kita-ku, Kyoto, Japan. It was constructed in 1502. Wikipedia, Nov. 15, 2012. Images of Ryōgen-in can be found here: Images.