Japanese healing gardens are created to remember and remind us of the fragility of life and the beauty that awakens each and very moment, giving attention to that which is right before us, in our now. In the blog series on Japanese Healing Gardens, I will take you on the path towards understanding the healing and restorative capabilities that a Japanese Healing Garden can offer for yourself, a family member or in memory of a loved one. It is only in awareness and education that one can truly begin living Zen.
When someone experiences a great loss, we can never know exactly how that person feels, yet we can honor. Through the the essence of water, Koi, plants, stone and the connection to a greater spirit, life goes on. Spending time in a Japanese garden has restorative qualities that gives peace and tranquility. Viewing Japanese Healing Gardens from the interior as well as from the outside is another importance to the design itself. Public corporations, schools, hospitals and healthcare facilities are seeing the positive results from this restorative approach to garden design. It has been noted the results of the healing qualities that a patient experiences when looking out the window to a healing garden or a memorial garden at the hospital. I have studied with several Masters that opened my eyes to the communicative and spiritual transformation that exists within this, especially if there is water and Koi within the design. In residential hospices, the Japanese Healing Garden becomes a spiritual part of the care that is given to the patient. The beautiful addition of Koi swimming across the rippled waters only adds a universal connection that reveals yes, life still exists. When we don’t know the answers of what to do, or why something is happening or even why someone is in our life, I know I find comfort within the Japanese garden. Everything comes into balance and the healing begins.
The Koi Whisperer Sanctuary and Japanese Gardens is honored to be designing several Zen Living Japanese Healing Gardens in 2014, both in residential and educational facilities. It is essential that the connection between the Koi from Japan and the history of the Japanese garden design stories are told. I am grateful for the awareness that is being given on the holistic aspect and the difference it is making both in educational facilities and the healthcare industry. I look forward to this journey with you.
We become compassionate not from altruism which denies the self for the sake of another, but from the insight that sees and feels one is the other. – Huston Smith
Love and Light…
copyright 2013 by MaryEllen Malinowski, Zen Living by design | Infrared Light Int’l zenlivingbydesign.com M@infraredlight.com Zen Living by design Magazine in Spring 2014
The purpose of the heling garden is not only to help heal but also that onhonor, in remberance of one that has passed.
Zen is experience. It is in the action that Zen becomes a way of life.
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