An essay exploring the metaphorical content of Zen gardens. These gardens are expressions of the Japanese aesthetic sensibility that is centered on the Zen-inspired tea ceremony. Zen gardens, such as that at Rȳoan-ji in Kyoto, Japan, exhibit both the “accidental of the instant” and the “accidental for the ages.” Part of the beauty of these gardens rests on equivocation—a phenomenon particularly apparent in Rȳoan-ji. Within the Zen garden, equivocal spatiality and polymorphous temporality are unified and surpassed in a flash of inspiration where metaphors ultimately disappear.