The Emperor's Garden

The Emperor's Garden

In Old China, the emperor we have talked of before, returning from his experience in the forest of Caan, gathered his court around him and said that he would build a new palace to celebrate the livingness of all things. The palace was built and it was simple, but it had the grandeur of the mountains, of the forest and of the streams. He wanted a garden beyond all gardens, so he wanted the best gardener in all the empire.

Word went forth from his palace and soon they heard of a personage who knew the trees, who talked to the birds and insects, who was one with the four seasons. The emperor went to him and asked him to construct a garden. The gardener came and looked over the area. He selected a place and gathered his cloak around him and sat down on the Winter Solstice.

He watched the snow, and he watched the snow melt. He watched the winds and it's pattern on the landscape; he watched the spring and the rains. He watched the effect of a typhoon off the sea; he watched no sun and too much sun; he watched the hotness of the summer and the bleakness of the fall; he watched the ways the birds and insects lived and visited. The Fall Equinox came. At Winter Solstice he said, "I am ready to construct your garden; it will take one more year."

For three months until the Spring Equinox, he sat at the four corners of the garden, and he dedicated each and every part of the garden to the magnificence of the Living Spirit in all things.

In spring he began to construct. He planted trees from all over the empire; the jujube, the quince, the pine, the plum, the cherry. He planted grass and flowers, he made gardens of rocks and water, and he built ponds and bridges.

In spring the following year, he asked the Emperor to walk in the garden. He pointed out the way the water flowed, showing that the tree would grow, and the grass and the flowers would grow, and when the sun shone through the branches at a certain time of the day, there would be a design perfectly upon the ground. He showed him the way that the water would flow, and there would never be a flood, even in the greatest rain he showed him the way plants would come forth, and in the fall how the leaves would fall, not in large bunches, but in perfect patterns, and because the garden grew just rightly, the wind would flow through it and remove the leaves completely. The snow would fall and make designs on the garden of the things that are livingness in nature: rocks constructed so that when the snow was upon them they would reflect the living element; the patterns of the trees, with snow upon them, like ancient giants protecting the palace.

He took the emperor through the garden during each season, and finally said, "As long as you love this garden and as long as you love all who come in it, there will never be a pattern the same. Each year the leaves will fall a different way, but it will be a true pattern, one that you will know.. The snow will fall differently and leave different designs, perfectly geometric."

The gardener bowed to the emperor and went away. From that day on, at any time, the emperor could walk through his garden and he would never see the same design, the water flowing the same way, the leaves falling or growing the same way, or the birds nesting and landing in the same pattern, or the insects in the garden. He had an example of the perfection of nature.

Peace

Chung Fu

What is your garden like? Does it follow the beauty of the seasons or in accord with nature? What about the garden within? It is as easy as making the journey from the Winter, to the Spring and onto the Summer and finally the Fall when you must cut away what you no longer need in preparation for the next cycle to begin.

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