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So my brother bought me a tiny 'zen garden' for Wobbs, which sounds daft but is actually an almost telepathically wonderful gift because I love these things yet have never told anyone.

Look -
http://www.zen-g.co.uk/zengardens/zeng_black.gif
See how pretty they are? They're beautiful!

Anyway this one my brother bought me is about 2" wide by 3" long and comes with three tiny black stones and a tiny rake and I cannot make it look beautiful and zen for the fucking life of me, and it's winding me up and up and up and up and making me tense and the irony of this is just so delicious that I thought you'd like to know.

So, anyway, this is the thread where we talk about zen gardens, and maybe someone will tell me where to buy a larger one in the Devon area so I can do it and be at peace and not feel like an angry retard.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:02 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.amazed-rugs.co.uk/images/zen.jpg

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:03 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.sacredsites.com/images/final56/224.jpg

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:04 (twenty-one years ago)

This is the actual kit he bought me! Wow!

http://www.innergifts.com/images/ms_Music/zen-garden-zen%20garden-kit-I.jpg

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:05 (twenty-one years ago)

He got my dad a 'bonsai potato'.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:05 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.bulletholestore.com/images/zengarden.gif

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:06 (twenty-one years ago)

My brother and I were particularly excited when we saw that the kit contained a bag o' sand. We were gonna try and contact Emile Heskey so he could come down and show us how to trap it.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:07 (twenty-one years ago)

...... ....... ........
.........................................
.............. ...........
.... ... ... ... ...

[virtual zen garden]

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually that kit above looks better than mine. My box/frame thing is cardboard. I want a wooden one.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Orbit that is beautiful

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I recognise that wanting a better zen garden is totally not zen.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:08 (twenty-one years ago)

you have achieved enlightenment.

it is the sound of one hand typing.

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:10 (twenty-one years ago)

.......................
..............o........
.......................
.....O.................
.......................
..0....................
.......................

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Are you suggesting I'm having a wank, like?!

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:10 (twenty-one years ago)

that is *lovely*! [your virtual garden]

so peaceful...

[re: wanking--no, i'm not that dirtyminded. it's a joke on the famous zen koan "what is the sound of one hand clapping"]

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:12 (twenty-one years ago)

[I know {of course I do, I'm zen!}, I was just being rude!]

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:13 (twenty-one years ago)

...............................................................
...............................................................
.............0................................................
...............................................................
................................O............................
...............................................................
................o.............................................
...............................................................
...............................................................

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:15 (twenty-one years ago)

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0

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-----------------------------------
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-------------------
----------------
---

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:15 (twenty-one years ago)

------------O-----------

------------------
----------O---------
--------------
-------------------------O-------

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:17 (twenty-one years ago)

what is the sound of one fish typing?

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Not a lot.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Unless you mean Fish from 80's prog revivalists Marillion.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:20 (twenty-one years ago)

auspicious.

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:20 (twenty-one years ago)

In which case it is a very profound and Scottish sound, perhaps like the sound of s spider wandering aimlessly in some obscure Scottish cavern.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:20 (twenty-one years ago)

ehehehehehe...

I should really have seen that coming. The 'auspicious fish' is actually a buddhist sign for wealth and happiness, one of the eight 'auspicious' signs. I didn't realise this until way after I'd started my blog and got my email address.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:22 (twenty-one years ago)

satori!

*runs away*

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 3 January 2004 10:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Spooky, I got given a zen meditation garden for xmas too. It has chimes and a little mallet and sand and incence. I added my mini buddha and some stones to it and it looks lovely in the corner by the couch.

― Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 3 January 2004 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Chimes and a mallet and incense? Fucking hell! Mine is seeming really crap now.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 3 January 2004 12:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh nah, its tiny really, the mallet is plastic and the thing that holds the "sand garden" is only a small plastic tray!

― Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 3 January 2004 12:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I love Zen gardens - I have a few books on the subject. Do note that the gravel and rocks garden is only one type among several.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 3 January 2004 12:59 (twenty-one years ago)

the 'ryoanji' garden was visited by John Cage in the 1960s. He named a composition after it and its among my faves of his.

if you google you'll get some nice pics.

x-post: can you recommned a book on the subject martin?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 3 January 2004 13:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Well I like the ones with lots of good photos. There's one called Zen Gardens by Erik Borja which I found in the remainder bookshop opposite where I work (Julio knows the one) which is very good - if you want to borrow it, just say. I bought another just before Xmas called Japanese Gardens (so presumably a little more general) by Gunter Nitschke in the first such bookshop as you go down Charing Cross Road, but I haven't read it yet. I read another good one from a library last year, but I think it was my old local library rather than UCL's - still, might be worth checking there too.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 3 January 2004 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

*ohm*

― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 4 January 2004 03:43 (twenty-one years ago)

This is my little zen garden, with added mini buddha:

http://www.memorygongs.com/zengarden.jpg

Note the mallet is about the length of my index finger so it really is a tiny wee thing.

I was also given this AMAZING calligraphy set by my best friend:

http://www.memorygongs.com/callig.jpg

I cant wait to learn how to use it properly.

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 4 January 2004 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

That's a WAAAAY better Zen garden than mine.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Sunday, 4 January 2004 09:24 (twenty-one years ago)

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