The Sound of Cherry Blossoms: Zen Lessons from the Garden on Contemplative Design

Contemplative design and Zen teachings--a look at how we can transform our lives and our work through the lens of Japanese garden design.

Garden design is the way of discovering the garden. And the garden is a metaphor for life itself.

Part garden design philosophy and part Zen Buddhism, this book eloquently shows us how the principles of garden design are the same guidelines we can follow to design our life. Intentional living is the subject of design. When we approach our work in the garden, or in our life, through the practice of contemplative design, we can elevate the whole; we can unite the spiritual with the ordinary; we can join heaven and earth.

Martin Mosko (Hakubai Daishin) is the abbot of Hakubai Temple in Boulder, Colorado, where he teaches Buddhism and design. He is a graduate of Yale University, where he studied art and Sanskrit. In 1974 he founded Marpa, a landscape architecture and building firm whose gardens have won numerous awards and have been published in magazines and books throughout the world.

Alxe Noden is a writer, editor, and photographer who has written several other books, including Landscape as Spirit: Creating a Contemplative Garden (with Martin Mosko), and has made a documentary about the creation of a contemplative garden. She has studied Tibetan Buddhism both in the United States and abroad for more than twenty-five years.