Zen and the Brain

As I’ve discussed with my friend Katharina, sometime the space between objects, and focussing on ‘what is not there’ rather than what is, can greatly aid in an appreciation of ones surroundings. Katharina suggests that it also makes one more ‘creative’. From that perspective then, the recent analysis of a 500 year old Zen garden in Japan (see image above) should come as little surprise. The researchers used a medial axis analysis to determine the structural placement of the rocks from the point where one views the garden, and found that lines of symmetry, medially placed between the stones naturally converged to the viewing zone. Randomly placing the stones did not yield such a symmetry pattern. The pattern resembled a tree reaching out from viewing spot (the red point in the second image), and it is suggested that the mind picks up on such ‘structure’ in the space between the stones. This may be one reason why the garden has such a calming aesthetic. I am somewhat skeptical as to how far one can stretch this type of analysis to the experiential level of Zen mediatation. But nevertheless it is an elegant analysis of the structure in the space that goes someway to explaining its impact on us. This suggests that subconsciously we may focus on the space between objects in this type of environment, which gives up the experiential boost outlined above…

Posted by Ian at September 26, 2002 03:33 PM | TrackBack §