A Harder Thing

When Earth Day was observed this year, more than one billion people in one hundred ninety-two countries participated in political and civic action to support environmental protection. While I certainly see the value of constructive engagement for the planet (activism is, of course, a powerful way to change societies), I am convinced that contemplative engagement with the planet has the potential to be equally significant. The Buddha said, “To straighten the crooked / You must first do a harder thing— / Straighten yourself,” and encounters with nature, perhaps especially in gardens, offer precisely that opportunity.

The first known gardens were plots of planned and bound space whose purpose was the cultivation of food, but over the millennia gardens have evolved into a wide array of forms and functions that include places of peace and tranquility created to inspire, comfort, and sustain the human experience. Such aims make sense in light of the late Oliver Sacks’ assertion that “the desire to interact with, manage and tend nature, is […] deeply instilled in us,” which in turn helps explain the many benefits of gardens for body, mind, and spirit (those therapeutic impacts have been well documented since ancient times).

The potential for what Sacks called “hortophilia” is latent in all gardens, from aquascapes to xeriscapes, but I pay particular homage to the philosophy, principles, techniques, elements, and aesthetics of Japanese gardens with their acute awareness of nature and an attention to detail that “delights the senses and challenges the soul.” In a world that sometimes feels crooked my recommendation is to work in, walk through, or gaze upon a garden, for in this we just might manage to unbend ourselves.