Photos of the Rock Garden in the Ryoanji Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan
The garden covers an area of about 30 by 10 meters which is filled with sand, carefully
raked every day. According to one interpretation, the sand represents the
sea (world). Groups of rocks, representing islands or continents, are scattered in the sand.
Along the whole length of the longer side of the Rock Garden are a few wooden steps
leading onto a not too wide platform on the side of the main temple building. People are
supposed to sit on this platform or on the steps below, observe the Rock Garden
and meditate about the world until struck by some sort of inner enlightenment and understanding.
I saw there mainly numerous Japanese school kids on their school trips
and quite a few western tourists, neither of whom meditated there for too long.
Under the pictures are the URL's of the pages where I found them:
