On the Circulation of Metaphors in the Zen Garden.

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.