Feeling the silence: the new Japanese garden

Auroville Today: Where did the idea come from? What was the intention?

Noel: I always wanted to build a Japanese garden. I can’t say I knew much about them, but I visited some Japanese gardens in the US, and I knew that The Mother wanted the Matrimandir gardens to be done in the Japanese way, so this inspired me to work on the project.

I asked Jyoti if he would help me by looking after the design side. I, for the most part, worked on the physical materialization.

Jyoti: When he asked me I was very much interested. When I came to Auroville I learned what The Mother had said about the Japanese aspect of the Matrimandir gardens, and I wanted to share my knowledge. However, I found some difficulty in doing this as a very structured approach to the gardens was already in place. So when Noel asked me to help, I was very interested because here we were given a space of trust and the freedom to manifest it in our own way.

What were the challenges, both in terms of designing and manifesting this garden?

Noel: From the beginning we had freedom but no money to do anything: and it’s still the main obstacle. So my job also became fundraising. This limitation meant that although we began with a basic design, we had to adapt it along the way because of the lack of money. For example, the pond became smaller than we had originally planned, and we used whatever materials were given us, like stones and tiles left over from other projects Jyoti: But this challenge brought a lot of interesting developments. For example, we used recycled Kerala tiles for the pathways, and I think they came out well. In fact, they are very unique: I’ve never seen such pathways.

Actually, we use this approach quite a lot in Japan, where we use recycled materials from old temples for making walls or pathways. So this garden actually came in the Japanese way – respecting heritage from the past but using it in a new way.

Noel: Constructing the wall of the Zen garden was also really a challenge because I had to invent a way of getting the correct alignment for the tiles. I was helped at times by one or two volunteers, but constructing that wall still took around two months.

Building the bridge was also daunting because it involved working with heavy stones in the tropical heat. At times it felt never-ending, and I had to get through all of my personal ‘stuff’ that came up.

Another part of the challenge was holding a special energy, space, when different volunteers came to work here; allowing diversity but at the same time asking them to work in a way that was respectful to the space. We need and welcome these volunteers to help maintain the garden. But I have already had to ask other visitors to leave, including Aurovilians who wanted to do a fashion shoot here. I explained it is a garden of peace, and we want to build that energy here.

Jyoti: We need to put a signboard which clarifies what kind of atmosphere we are trying to create here.

What are the traditional Japanese elements in this garden?

Jyoti: The first thing which is important in a Japanese garden is the relationship with nature. We want people to find their own way – to choose their own pathway – and be in dialogue with the gardens: with the plants, rocks, water.

However, the main focus of a Japanese garden is not the details or design. It is the spirit. We want people to feel the silence, that’s the main focus. This is why we avoided any outstanding feature, and why we took away all unnecessary elements – most obviously, in the Zen garden – so people are not mentally distracted but have the space to explore within.

In fact, although there are classic features in this garden, nothing here is a copy of an existing Japanese garden. It’s more like what my body remembers of Japanese gardens from my childhood in Kyoto.

Noel: We knew that we could not create an entirely traditional Japanese garden in this climate, and there are clear Indian elements, like the mango and neem trees. That’s why it’s a unique project; it’s our own version of a traditional Japanese garden.

Jyoti: The pathways here have chakras, which is another unique feature we don’t have in Japan. But creating the garden is only 15% of the work. What makes classic Japanese gardens so special is not just the design but also the people dedicated to preserving these gardens over centuries: in Japan we can still find gardens in good condition that are 1200 years old. They were created as sadhana and maintained as sadhana, which is why the spiritual atmosphere is there, and they inspire people. Noel did this work with a similar dedication; without his dedication this garden would not exist.

Noel: Most of the work was new to me. But I’m very grateful that I was given the time and the space to do it in the way that I wanted to do it, in an inner way, but also as perfectly as possible given my level of skill and the conditions that we have here. I always wanted to do the work with a lot of consciousness, and in silence as much as possible, doing it as sadhana. So for me, from the very beginning, that was the process of building the garden.

Jyoti: This project took a long time. When we began in 2015 I had a basic idea, and we still keep that as a framework, but over the years the details have changed quite a lot. For example, the original idea was to have a large pond around the pavilion but now there is a smaller pond beside it. We changed because we have to be sensitive to water conservation in this climate. However, I like this design even better.

Is the garden finished now?

Jyoti: The main part is finished, but we need to fix wooden railings in the pavilion and put a simple roof over the meditation platform near the Zen garden. Traditionally, a Japanese garden contains the five elements…

Noel:...so we still need something which expresses the element of fire or light.

Jyoti: Every element in a Japanese garden has a meaning, nothing is meaningless. For example, the doorway at the entrance tells you that you are entering a very different space, where you are supposed to have special experiences. You need a symbolic entrance so that you show respect, otherwise the experience can be diluted. Again, the winding paths slow you down and invite you to go inwards.

What is the meaning and function of the Zen garden?

Jyoti: I think it represents a space where one can tune one’s inner nature to the outer nature, through using outer nature as a mirror.

Noel: People have asked me this question and looking at it from a physical standpoint, my understanding is that it is mimicking the sea with islands and mountains so that it gives another vantage point upon nature, it provides a wider perspective.

What is the importance of water?

Jyoti: Philosophically everything is yin and yang, so water brings a more feminine element, while rocks represent more the masculine element. Similarly, changes in levels also indicate yin and yang. Actually, Japanese masters don’t give many explanations like this because the goal is to go beyond mind and realise something through direct experience. In a Japanese garden, we are reaching for something much higher than the material form; it is like a doorway to a higher level, a higher landscape.

These kinds of explanations are almost prohibited traditionally, but given our multicultural context I realise we need to be able to explain something about these things. In fact, one of our next steps is to give simple information to visitors about what key elements – like the entrance, pavilion, pathways – represent in this garden.

Will the garden continue to evolve or will you control its development?

Jyoti: The garden has to evolve by itself but also through a conversation with our descendants who will maintain it in their own way. In fact, we have already observed that some plants we originally planted did not fit in this garden, so we replaced them with other plants.

But what about the Zen rock garden? Would that also evolve?

Jyoti: I think it would because nothing is absolutely final. I think if it was created many years ago, it can be modified if there is a consensus to do this among those who are maintaining it. If we don’t allow this, we are not really respecting the core of the teaching of the master or the Buddha.

And the stones also grow. They already have character but they will have even more character after a few decades or more because rain, sun and the other elements will help shape them. One stone in our Zen garden even has scratches from a JCB! This is very unique; it would never happen in a Zen garden in Japan because in Japan people treat stones very gently.

In fact, in Japan we believe the stones are living, so we need to be quiet enough to listen to their voice. The designer of a Zen garden needs to meditate in order to listen to the way they want to be arranged, to respect what they are expressing.

Have you grown yourselves through being involved in designing and constructing this garden?

Noel: I think we both had to learn a lot of patience because it has taken so long and we had such limited resources.

Jyoti: But the fact that it has taken so long has been a blessing. Now I can say that everything that happened was necessary for our learning experience. In the beginning I had a basic idea, but through the process we learned a lot about Japanese garden creation and, specifically, what it means to create a Japanese garden in Auroville.

The discovery of nature is endless. Every day I discover something new in my small garden, and here it is an even larger discovery. I think one of the most important learnings for me from this experience is the need for humility, the realisation that I know nothing, so now I am willing to learn more. This is the kind of attitude I got from this experience.

Noel: I gained a number of things from this experience, like the ability to let go and surrender to the process of how it had to be, because while I am very perfectionist and want to do things well, being confronted by daunting tasks like building this bridge or constructing these pathways meant I also had to learn patience, and trust in something larger. It was the same with the fundraising. I had no experience of fundraising for something like this, so I had to trust that the divine, the grace, was going to help in the way it was meant to be. And something always happened which pushed us forward to the next stage.

This work also pushed me to a physical extreme, so I had to develop my physical will. Also, Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s yoga is about bringing consciousness into matter and into the body so, as much as I could while I worked I would be chanting OM, trying to bring in that consciousness and offer the work. I would also take time to sit still, to listen, and just be, rather than just getting things done. As somebody who likes to get things done, with a very restless energy, this was a very good project for me.

A short video of this Japanese garden can be seen at https://youtu.be/Jmu9irb1_4s