Shadows Of The Pines

Shadows of the pines

Placid ghosts on a white wall-

The teaching is of loving kindness to all.

Bare branches of the weeping cherry

Silver-grey strands as fine as hair,

A waterfall frozen in time perhaps

At last, something to understand.

Beauty born of quality

And the setting of clear intention,

The bowl is the space

Emptiness defining form.

Autumn sun

And the maples ablaze,

Transient beauty

Good enough to eat!

Silence that defines

Emptiness bringing form alive-

No thing to be seen

No thing to be grasped

No thing to be understood-

All aflow in constant unfolding

Even the dust settles.

If you enjoyed this blog then try my Facebook page, Robert Ketchell Garden Design. Feel free to leave comments there. Good gardening. If you enjoyed this, or any other post, please let me know! If there are specific aspects of the Japanese garden tradition you are interested in, please let me know. Thanks.

Mingling Of Conversations

In this ‘empty’ space

The mind is set free,

Even the boundary wall dissolves

So, heart set free.

A mingling of conversations

Float in the coffee house air,

Young lovers oblivious for now

To the world beyond their world.

Absorbed in a manga

The customer idly stirs his ice coffee,

Beyond the glass buses and cars roam,

Everyone about their business.

Breathing without effort or thought

Finding stillness within movement;

By the ancient gate, a mother and child.

Walking old roads and ways

Lined by experience and memory

The trees are taller, distance unmeasureable,

Everything and nothing remaining the same.

If you enjoyed this blog then try my Facebook page, Robert Ketchell Garden Design. Feel free to leave comments there. Good gardening. If you enjoyed this, or any other post, please let me know! If there are specific aspects of the Japanese garden tradition you are interested in, please let me know. Thanks.