Sound of Cherry Blossoms: Zen Lessons from the Garden on Contemplative Design

(Paperback)

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Contemplative design and Zen teachings--a look at how we can transform our lives and our work through the lens of Japanese garden design. "Garden design is the way of discovering the garden. And the Garden is a metaphor for life itself." At the heart of this practice, and this book, is a question, "Once we are aware of our own habitual patterns and the patterns of the environment, how do we design and build a place that is sacred, sustainable, adaptive, inspiring, and holy" This book explores the answer and offers insights and tools for gardeners, designers in all disciplines, and anyone looking for fresh perspectives on bringing harmony and balance to their lives. Part garden design philosophy and part Zen Buddhism, this book carefully and eloquently shows us how the principles of garden design are the same guidelines we can follow to design our life. Design work is intentional. If we approach our work in the garden, or in our life, through the practice of contemplative design, Martin Hakubai Mosko shows us that by working with more awareness and understanding of our materials--the rules and elements that make up our design--we can elevate the whole; we can unite the spiritual with the ordinary, we can join heaven and earth.

Reviews

The Sound of Cherry Blossoms is a profound, soulful book. Simple and practical but also expansive, it offers wise instruction about how to create a garden that facilitates contemplation. But it does much more than this. It invites readers into serious reflection about how to enter more deeply into life, how to cultivate true awareness of the living world and of oneself as part of the larger whole. This is the transformative vision at the heart of this beautiful, precious book.
Douglas E. Christie, author of The Blue Sapphire of the Mind

In this meditation on contemplative design, Mosko and Noden delicately balance practical advice and spiritual insight. An antidote to the mindlessness of computer-driven design, this book understands design as part of a holistic process of finding harmony. Written with concision and clarity, the authors show how the worlds of spiritual practice and landscape design come together in the contemplative Japanese garden. The Sound of Cherry Blossoms is an important manifesto.
Kendall H. Brown, author of Quiet Beauty and Visionary Landscapes

It was in our monasterys sacred garden on Kauai islanda garden that Martin Mosko helped createwhere this book took wing. Through him and his work, he taught me that if a garden is created with awareness from the beginning, it will become divine. Mosko and Noden can teach us how to make that happen, inside and out. Sadasivanathaswami

Author Bio

MARTIN HAKUBAI MOSKO, ASLA, founded the landscape design and construction firm Marpa & Associates in 1974. He studied painting and Sanskrit at Yale, and has apprenticed with Japanese master gardeners. Mosko is a Zen monk and heir to the lineage of Tenzan Keibun Otokawa Roshi, and has trained in Tibetan Buddhism with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. In addition to his responsibilities at Marpa, he is abbot of Hakubai Temple and travels the country lecturing on garden design and meditation. Along with his wife, Alxe Noden, he is the author of Landscape as Spirit.