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| Tulips in Spring |
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| Garden of earthly delights |
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| Bleeding Hearts and Lilacs |
I am looking forward to improving my technique on Sunday! Classes are only $10 and walk-ins are welcome. I hope to see you there!
And here is Lynn Johnson on her Zen meditation reflection experience:
Hmm. I must say I have been intrigued from the outset, and there are seven more classes coming up with a kaleidoscope of offerings. The one I attended recently was “Flower Gazing Meditation, Mini-Japanese Zen Garden Making, and Learning Basic Meditation,” the latter essentially meaning to breathe and focus for about 3-5 minutes. It was very relaxing just breathing, which for me after all sorts of allergies and bronchitis, is a gift in itself. Mary read different meditation pieces, and we sat quietly and listened. As for the rest of the two hours... I cannot replicate nor remember beyond being in the present Zen moment, and we were all there.
I did notice large plastic jars filled with what appeared to be rice and sand colored dirt, some small plates, a collection of little gardening utensils, and a bowl of rocks. Everyone was asked to pick four rocks, representing different things such as "fresh" and "clear," a wall, and two other items I frankly don’t remember because I was still so focused on breathing, but I really liked my selection of rocks. We held each one in our hand and did a slight meditation holding the thought of the rock we had chosen.
Afterward, we put those aside, and then we got our small plastic bowl, and we chose our dirt to start making our mini-Zen Garden. Loved this process! I chose a dark, reddish dirt that had an interesting smell and tossed my rocks into the dirt very much like the “Chance Dance” that Phillip Glass, the great composer, used to do with modern dancers, playing music as the dancers improvised as they went along. So I chanced the Zen Garden rock throwing, letting the rocks land where they may.
We got our choice of tiny garden tools, (i.e. a rake, trowel, and three-pronged fork). I chose the little rake and proceeded to arrange my little garden as Mary read to us peaceful stories about Zen Gardens and showed us wonderful pictures from famous Zen Gardens. While we were busy tending to our 8” bowls of dirt, we listened to stories about Haiku poetry and how many syllables they contain, and we talked about what each of our rocks meant to us. I chose my clear rock as the pinnacle of my garden, meaning "awake and clear." We then each wrote a Haiku poem. Next we chose our Shinto shrine; mine was a little box with a little roof where I put my poem and a special rock.
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| My Haiku written in green ink on a white slip of paper: “Loud bird sweetness sings Soft wind joyfully flowing Freedom soul awake” |
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| My mini-Zen Garden and Shinto shrine: pastel background, miniature blue roof with painted butterfly, tiny rake leaning on the roof and placed on red, gravelly dirt with a clear rock, gold rock, pink stone, and white stone. |
A Shinto shrine is a structure whose main purpose is to house one or more Shinto kami. Its most important building is used for the safekeeping of sacred objects and not for worship. Structurally, a shrine is usually characterized by the presence of a honden or sanctuary where the kami, or sacred object(s), are housed. My little Shinto shrine is now on my shelf in my office where it rests beside my mini-Zen Garden, in which I love to create new patterns in the dirt and scatter my rocks wherever they may wander.
There are many more classes to discover here at VSA Texas. These Horticultural Arts classes are available through July 16th. Visit the VSA Texas website or call me to sign up at 512-454-9912. Hey – it’s only $10, and you will never regret you came!
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