BAM 的首次“国际之旅”：日本和庭园
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BAM 的首次“国际之旅”启程啦！BAM 经过了 10 多年的辛勤工作，终于有机会组织了第一次实地考察旅行。BAM 来到日本，探索城市生活，品尝美味佳肴，并欣赏到了如此多的美丽事物。
BAM’s first international office trip! BAM has been working hard for over 10 years now and this is our first chance to organize such a field trip. BAM explores Japanese city life, eating tasty food, and seeing some beautiful shit.
在 BAM，工作是学习和探索生活方式的一部分。随着团队不断地成长，我们也在不断尝试开阔一些新的视野，这可以帮助我们拓宽思路和创意。
在这次旅行之前，每个 Bammer 都需要“做功课”—— 挑选一个 BAM 即将探访的庭园，对其进行记录和研究。通过绘制地形图，Bammers 在出发前就已这些庭园的空间特性开始了详细分析。同样，通过研究这些地方，Bammers 成为了优秀的“导游”，给我们带来了许多精彩的故事！
At BAM our work is part of a lifestyle of learning and exploration. As we grow we try to pick up new perspectives that can help us broaden our ideas.
Before the trip, each Bammer has documented and researched one of the gardens that BAM will visit. By drawing the site Bammers have begun to analyze the spatial qualities of these gardens. Also by learning about the site to act as a Guide Bammers have something to teach us all!
▲ Bammers 拜访龙安寺，边享受美景边分析空间特性。Bammers visit Ryoan-Ji garden, enjoying themselves in the beauty while analyzing the spatial qualities of the gardens.
▲ “冥想时间。” "Meditation time." [sic] -Bammer
这些庭园还能够帮你赚钱哦！我们共有 3 类奖项，每项的赢家都可以获得 1000 人民币的奖励。裁判名单如下：Allie，Jake，Dan，景文。
These gardens can help you because they could earn you MONEY!! Bammers can win 1,000 RMB in each of three categories. Judges: Allie, Jake, Dan, Jingwen.
旅途中的最佳绘画或素描。没有规则。Best drawing or sketch from the trip. No rules.
最佳场地导览。Best guide for a site.
最佳着装者奖。Best dressed person award.
了解这些庭园建造者背后的想法，实际上可以帮助我们解决自己目前的生态困境。（为何如此，你想知道吗？那就继续阅读吧！）我们将在本次旅程中看到的特别的庭园，可以帮助我们“明台”般清净地看待现实。（此话当真？）当我们明白到自己只不过是“万事万物”中的一分子，我们才算“开悟”了。（这才对嘛。）深入到这种古老的冥想中，感受一下一个人栖居在这种无形的虚空，以及虚无的境界。参观这些庭园，可以帮助我们理解到是现代主义和工业化彻底改变了我们接受和谈论那些“概念化想法”的方式。【你的意思是说，如果没有“开悟”，那么前现代主义（pre-Modernist）思想就仍然是有效？没错！】
Learning about the thinking behind the builders of these gardens can actually help us with our own current ecological predicament. (How so, you wonder? Read on!) The special gardens you will see along this journey can also help us see reality with “mirror-like”clarity. (Seriously? Swipe and weep!) When we understand that we are one of “10,000 things”no different from others we become enlightened. (Now we’re talking.) Going deeper into ancient meditative thought one dwells in that undifferentiated emptiness, the generative realm of nonbeing. Visiting these gardens can help us understand that Modernism and Industrialization completely shifted the way we accept and talk about conceptual ideas. (You mean, pre-Modernist thinking is valid, if not illuminating? You bet!)
▲ “运用植物来引导视线， 桂离宫的建造师在 1620 年就知道如何做到。” "Using plants to frame or hide view, builders of The Katsura Villa knew how to do it in 1620." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “桂离宫中为帝王打造的完美景色。” "Incredible landscape for the Emperor in Katsura Villa." [sic] -Bammer
第一个差异与我们对艺术的文化理解有关，而第二个差异，则与工业化的意识形态转变的模式有关。
The minds of the people who made these gardens are very different from our own in fundamental ways. To explore these differences let’s bring up two major events which create a chasm between our understanding of the gardens and the people who made them.
The first difference is related to our cultural understanding of art, and the second is related to the ideological paradigm shift of industrialization.
▲ “龙安寺中的园子可以被看做是自然的象征。” "The garden in Ryoan-Ji can be seen as an abstract of nature." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “在这里！西方寺中由苔藓营造的峡谷。” "Here! The Big Chasm created by moss in Saiho-Ji." [sic] -Bammer
在艺术和创意方面，我们经历了文化上的现代主义。因此，我们已不再接触“故事”的复杂性，也不再接触那些古代作品的象征意义或是禁忌。由于现代主义可作为一种文化的体验，我们对这些作品的解读也就存在于可见的形式和直接的意义层面上。现代主义已经将神话¹一网打尽，除非我们选择把这些知识带到我们对作品的解读中（这种选择是存在的），否则我们现在只能欣赏到古代园林浮于表面的形态。因此，现代主义改变了我们对艺术的文化理解，它们改变了我们接受“概念化想法”和讨论艺术的方式。
在 BAM 的日常工作中，我们经常碰到一些需要“故事”的客户。从某种意义上讲，这些“故事”是传统艺术实践思想的种子，艺术家通过“故事”将作品与更广泛的文化理解联系在一起。比如说，日本的许多园林都是为富有的地主或强大的方丈而建的，其中会出现很多象征性的事物，如仙鹤、乌龟和佛教圣山蓬莱。因此在这个“故事”中，造园者通过这些事物，将长寿、宁静、平和以及与这些隐喻相关的所有概念传输给了此园林的主人。
现如今，我们可能会嘲笑甚至轻视对“故事”的需求，因为它通常是被一些没有受过设计专业训练的客户提出的。他们未灌输过现代主义概念，也从来不相信一个作品应该独立于所谓的“故事”而存在。这些客户从没就读于西方的设计学校，也从没受到过现代主义的影响，因此他们始终需要一个“故事“的概念：他们希望这片土地能传达与神话有关的文化信息。然而他们鲜少知道的是，自 20 世纪以来，随着现代主义的兴起，这一“故事”的潮流早就过时了。
In artistic and creative terms we have culturally experienced Modernism. Thus we no longer access the complexity of a ‘story’, the symbolism, or the taboos of the ancient works. We read works for their visible form and direct meaning because of the Modernist experience as a culture. Modernism has sliced away the mythos¹, and unless we choose to bring this knowledge to our reading of a work, which is optional, we only appreciate the ancient gardens now for their apparent form. Thus Modernism shifted how we culturally read art, which justifications we accept for conceptual ideas, and how we discuss or talk about art.
Writing by Daniel A. Gass
In our own work at BAM we often see that a client may require a ‘story.’ In a way the story is a seed of the idea of traditional artistic practice wherein the artist ties the work to a larger cultural understanding. For example, many of the gardens in Japan which are for rich landowners or powerful abbots include symbolic references to cranes, tortoises, and the Buddhist holy mountain Penglai. In this ‘story’the garden creator is connecting the idea of longevity, tranquility, peacefulness and all the ideas associated with these metaphors to the life of the patron.
For us today we may scoff and look down upon the need to create a ‘story’because it is usually for some government officials or big bosses who are uneducated in design. They have not been indoctrinated by Modernism and never gave credence to the precept that a work should stand for itself independent of some ‘story.’ These clients never went to Western design schools or were never influenced by Modernism and thus they still require this notion of a story. They wish the landscape to impart a cultural message tied to the mythos. Little do they know this has fallen out of fashion since the 1900’s with the rise of the Modernism.
Olaffur Eliasson 深入研究了观察和体验现象以产生艺术的过程。他对光线、折射、反射、颜色和空气的美学特性进行了严谨的分析，创作出了不需要任何知识或文化理解的艺术作品。哪怕一个人刚从长久的昏迷中醒来看到一个 Eliasson 的作品，他对这部作品的理解也会和其他人是一样的。
Olaffur Eliasson delves into the process of seeing and experiencing phenomena to produce art. His investigation into aesthetic properties of light, refraction, reflection, color, and air using rigorous analysis produces art works which require no prior knowledge or cultural understanding. A person waking up from a coma their entire life and seeing an Eliasson work has the same basis to understand the work as any other person.
大仙院（Daisen-in）为我们呈现出一个具有历史意义和神话故事的场景。岩石代表着山脉的形状和神秘的动物，而碎石则代表着恢弘的瀑布和河流。群山中有一座佛教圣山；迷失在这条河之中的是一头逆流而上的公牛，它代表着一个反对自然秩序的人；而一只乌龟则以佛教的方式面对生活。对于一个从出生起就昏迷、刚刚醒来的成年人，或者对于一个没有读过这个神话的人来说，这一切都是没有意义的。
Daisen-in presents us with a scene layered in historical meaning and myth. Rocks are shaped to represent mountains and mythical animals, whereas the gravel is raked to represent a powerful waterfall and river. The mountains include a holy mountain from Buddhist scripture. Lost in the current of the river is a bull swimming upstream, representing one who fights against natural order, and a turtle dealing with life in a more Buddhist-approved manner. None of this meaning would be accessible to an adult waking up from a coma since birth, or to a person who has not learned this mythos.
▲ “两个白沙堆可以代表净化，也可以代表其他事物。” "Two cones of white sand can mean purify, or it can mean something else." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “你能看到西芳寺的苔藓花园中的龟岛吗？” "Can you see the Turtle Island in Saiho-Ji moss garden?" [sic] -Bammer
尽管我们在现代主义创造的这个巨大鸿沟中欣赏作品的能力有所减弱，但我们也必须承认，现代主义拥有的破坏性也为伟大的创新扫清了道路。此外，现代主义还为我们解读这些作品创造了另外的视角。为了强调现代主义“破坏性”对艺术追求和意义的潜在毁灭，可以参考日本的造园者们对“禁忌”的重视。（或许我们也可以尝试将这个想法告诉某些客户。）
While some parts of our ability to appreciate a work across this great chasm created by Modernism are diminished, we must also acknowledge that the wrecking ball of Modernism cleared the path for great innovations. Furthermore, Modernism creates yet another lens through which we may view these works today. To underscore the importance of the Modernist wrecking ball destroying potentially discursive artistic pursuits and meanings, consider the great importance by the Japanese garden makers placed on taboo. (We might want to this idea for a certain client.)
不要在与建筑物的梁柱上平行的线上放置任何石头。如若违背，你会损失所有的财富和财产，还会有大量的厄运接踵而来，甚至你的后代也将遭受痛苦。²
Do not set a stone so that it falls directly in line with the columns of the buildings. Violate this taboo and even one’s descendants will suffer, evil occurrences will abound, and all one’s wealth and possessions will be lost.²
Writing by Daniel A. Gass
创造神话的这种原始世界观，是一把双刃剑。那些使得园林具有“灵性”的丰富的象征意义，我们也看到了它的反面——一种负面能量——无论造园者是粗心大意还是认真负责的。神话的黑暗面催生了迷信和邪教，无数次地对造园者的实践进行干扰。在迷信与艺术重叠的地方，艺术就变成了护身符，艺术家就变成了虚假的神谕。而比禁忌更为阴暗的，是在这个原始的迷信世界中崛起宗教权威和神权。
With the primitive worldview that created the mythos comes a double-edged katana. For all of the rich meaning and symbolism that inspired the gardens we also see its opposite—a negative energy which the garden makers supposedly wield either recklessly or responsibly. This dark side of the mythos spawns superstition and cult, and creates innumerable opportunities for the garden makers to insulate their practice. Where the superstition is overlaid with the art the art becomes a talisman, and the artist becomes a false oracle. More insidious than the taboos is the institutions that rise up in this primitive superstitious world, including religious authority and divine right.
▲ “在桂离宫我们已经可以感受到建造者开始利用视觉分析来营造不同景观，例如强迫透视（也在我们的书里）。” "In Kastuta Villa we start to see the builder creating views with visual analysis like forced perspective (also in our book, Landscape Vision)." [sic] -Bammer
20 世纪初爆发的现代主义试图消除人们对神话的原始依恋，并将科学和逻辑的光芒带到“现代”生活的方方面面。现代主义开辟了一条通向普遍视觉分析的道路，强化了美学原则（顺便说一下，这也是我们的《景观视界》一书的主题），并为所有艺术的创新创造了新的基础。现代主义也打破了神话作为所有艺术的最高概念，以更民主的方式重新组织了可接受的艺术概念的体制。此外，现代主义通过将神话与艺术作品分开，将艺术家从护身符中分离出来，从而消除了艺术家的预言力量。
Modernism as it erupted at the turn of the 20th century sought to clear away the primitive attachments to mythos and turn the light of science and logic to all aspects of ‘modern’life. Modernism cleared a path to universal visual analysis, heightened aesthetic principles (these are the topics of our book Landscape Vision, by the way) and created a new grounds for innovation in all arts. Modernism also shattered the mythos as the supreme concept for all art and reorganized the regime of acceptable artistic concepts in a more democratic manner. Additionally Modernism, by separating the mythos from the artistic works, splits the artist from the talisman and thus removes the prophetic powers of the artist.
另外值得注意的是（正如我们在《景观视界》中许多例子指出的那样），现代主义的视觉原则与日本艺术的传统视觉原则惊人地相似。参观日本的园林是一个难得的机会，因为现代主义的视觉原则与传统的观念共存。其中一个关键的相似之处就是“减少”。从日本的生活哲学出发，出现了极简主义的美学原则。从空白到虚无，每个视觉元素都被认为是它最真实的自我。由这种原生极简主义所产生的所有艺术原则中，最引人注目的或许是对“平衡不对称”的欣赏。在世界任何其他地方的文化中，在如此早期的阶段，都没有艺术家如此热情地探索过不对称之美。当你穿行于这些古老的园林中时，或是在空闲时间参观京都二条城（与北京的紫禁城相比，去参观京都的皇宫），试着这样想想：
无论任何事物，均匀和一致性都是不可取的。留下一些不完整的东西，会使它变得更有趣，让人对它的成长抱有期待。³
In everything, no matter what it may be, uniformity is undesirable. Leaving something incomplete makes it interesting, and gives one the feeling that there is room for growth.³
Writing by Daniel A. Gass
▲ “在龙安寺中无论从任何视角，总有至少一块石头是不能被看到的，正如日本的侘寂美学。” "Standing in Ryoan-Ji. From any possible view, at least one of the rocks is always hidden from the viewer, just like the idea of Wabi-sabi." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “Dan 在给平面图加标注。”（龙安寺）"Dan is taking notes for the site drawing." [sic] -Bammer (Ryoan-Ji)
▲ “通过光影变化，时间也可以成为院子的一部分。” "Time can also be part of the garden through light and the changing shadow." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “我可以盯着这里的景色坐好几个小时……” "I can stay at Ryoan-Ji looking at this view for hours…" [sic] -Bammer
▲ “与其他 Bammers 一起在南禅寺茶道上凝视瀑布。” "With other Bammers at a tea ceremony in Nanzen-Ji, gazing upon a waterfall." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “再来些抹茶和和果子。” "And a cup of great matcha, also some Japanese cake." [sic] -Bammer
意识形态上的工业化造成了第二个“鸿沟”，使我们与那些创造了古代园林的人区分开来。我认为，工业化正是人类发展逻辑和科学方法首先引发的社会变革。有了逻辑和科学方法，人类能够解决极其复杂的问题，并且还能基于先前的发现衍生出一个又一个新的想法。以这个角度来看的话，我们可以将人类送上月球的能力实际上是一长串逻辑和决策的一部分，这些逻辑和决策可以追溯到牛顿发现万有引力的原理，而在他之前还有哥白尼，等等。
Ideologically industrialization creates a second chasm which separates us from those who made the ancient gardens. I am considering industrialization as the societal transformation that was first set in motion by humans developing logic and the scientific method. With logic and the scientific methods humans are capable of extremely complex problem solving, each idea building upon a previous discovery. Thus our ability to put a human being onto the moon is in fact part of a long chain of logic and decision making that goes back to Newton developing principles of gravitational force and before him Copernicus and so on…
▲ “我们看到的景色和造园者所造的是否一样？”（天授庵）"Are we seeing the same view that the builder originally created?" [sic] -Bammer (Tenju-An)
▲ “我们，和这个园子，是否都是自然的一部分？” "Are we part of nature? Is this man-made structure part of nature?" [sic] -Bammer
▲ “冬季的景色又会有怎样的不同？” "Keep wondering what this view will change in winter." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “城市也是自然的，就像其他任何一种景观。” "City is also part of nature just like every other landscape." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “我们都停下来，试着冥想。”（龙安寺）"We all took some time for meditation." [sic] -Bammer (Ryoan-Ji)
因此，当我说我们今天在工业化社会所处的位置，是在一系列由逻辑和科学创造的极其漫长的决定和发现链的末端时，我的意思是这种意识形态的转变已经发生了几千年了。此外，我还想指出，我们这个物种的轨迹也是由这种逻辑和科学所塑造和控制的。我们不可思议的进步，以及我们不可思议的社会弊病，都是这条长长的逻辑链的产物。我们深深扎根于这种工业化的心态之中，以至于我们只能在它提供的条件下考虑我们自己的未来。因此，当我们都承认人类正在破坏我们的环境、我们的气候正在迅速变化时，我们对这个问题的反应是接受社会迄今作出的所有决定。我们要么面对注定的末日的来临，要么乐观地去发展能摆脱这种困境所需的技术。
我之所以提出这个问题，是因为我们与自然的关系作为工业化进程的一部分，已经从那些造园者的理解中发生了根本的改变。我相信，转向工业化意识形态的转变将会出人意料地在近期发生，特别是在中国和日本。为了探索这一概念，让我们将注意力放到“自然”这个词上来。按照我们现在对自然的理解，“自然”这个词在中国和日本的出现，还是在马克思于 1890 年首次将其翻译成中文之后。
然而，“自然”这个词最初的意思或许与如今所知的“自然界”完全不同。“自然”意味着成为“自身”或“自我”的事物。这一观点显然与哲学有关，即所有的事物（他们说有 10000 种事物）都在不断地变化，从虚无中浮现并回归到虚无中。这种从虚无出现并成为“自我”的行为即为“自然”。因此，当我们明白自己是这万事万物中的一员，并且和与其他事物没有任何区别时，我们就“开悟”了。
So when I say where we stand today in industrialized society is at the end of an extremely long chain of decisions and discoveries created through logic and science, I mean that this ideological transformation has been taking place for thousands of years. Furthermore I wish to suggest that our trajectory as a species is shaped and controlled by this logic and science. Our incredible advancements, as well as our incredible societal ills, are the product of this long chain of logic. We are so embedded within this industrialized mentality that we can only consider our own future within its terms. Therefore when we collectively acknowledge that the human population is damaging our environment and our climate is changing quickly as a result, we respond to this problem accepting all the decisions made by society up to this point. Either we are facing an apocalypse where we are all doomed, or more optimistically we will invent the technology required to escape this dilemma.
在中国古代，冥想并不局限于僧侣，艺术家和知识分子阶层也在进行广泛地冥想，他们可以从冥想中看到“自然”的过程：它以思想的形式从虚无中迸发出来，又消失在虚无中。在这样的冥想中，我们从根本上脱离了我们通常认同的心理过程，而在最深刻的本体论意义上来看，我们就如同荒野。而深入到冥想实践中，人们只会停留在那无差别的虚无中，即非生命的生成境界。在这个空无的冥想中，我们处在中国“旷野宇宙学”的中心，以最深刻的方式居住在“原始宇宙”中。深入到这个维度后，你会发现它就存在于我们对自己最了解的那些万事万物之中。与此同时，空虚的心灵以明镜般的清晰度出现在那些万事万物上，这是一种精神实践，也是中国山水诗的结构在其意象主义的明确体现。⁴
In ancient China, meditation was not limited to monks; it was widely practiced by the artist-intellectual class, for it allows us to watch the process of zi-ran in the form of thought burgeoning forth from the emptiness and disappearing back into it. In such meditative practice, we see that we are fundamentally separate from the mental processes we normally identify with, that we are most essentially nothing other than wilderness in the most profound ontological sense. And going deeper into meditative practice, one simply dwells in that undifferentiated emptiness, that generative realm of nonbeing. With this meditative dwelling in the emptiness, we are at the heart of China’s wilderness cosmology, inhabiting the primal universe in the most profound way. At this depth, one sees that it is in the ten thousand things we know ourselves most deeply. As nonbeing, empty mind attends to those ten thousand things with a mirror-like clarity, a spiritual practice that is the very fabric of China’s rivers-and-mountains poetry, manifest in its texture of imagistic clarity.⁴
Writing by Daniel A. Gass
古代园林和维护它们的禅师正在实践对“自然”的不同理解。可以说他们的生活方式是原始的，因为它产生于社会工业化之前。在对自然的理解中，造园者或艺术家是自发地行事。艺术家的创作行为被比作世界创造自己，因此艺术家面临的挑战是成为他们“真正的自我”。伟大的艺术源于对自然的高度敏感的认知和欣赏。对他们来说，获得艺术敏感性的唯一途径就是培养内心的平静，一种能让人们看得更清楚更深入的宁静。
对于在这些寺庙里修行的禅僧来说，体力劳动是他们精神生活的重要组成部分。庭园是对自然持续冥想过程的一部分。但是他们冥想的本质，是变化的本质、虚空的本质，包括我们自己，所有事物都是造物的一部分。因此，僧人的生活方式非常简单和清晰，与我们对某些艺术家的看法也并无太大差异：人生的目标是不断消除那些会阻碍你按照自己的本性行事的障碍。对他们来说，成为“开悟者”或“伟大艺术家”的过程，也是一种“减法”。
For the Zen monks practicing in these temples physical work is a key component of their spiritual lives. The gardens are part of a continual meditation process on nature. But the nature they are meditating upon is the nature of change, the nature of the void, where all things, including ourselves, are parts of the creation. Thus the lifestyle of the monk is very clear and not too different from how we consider some artists. The goal of life is to remove obstructions that prevent one from acting on one’s true nature. In general, the process of becoming enlightened or a great artist, for them, is one of subtraction.
你必须真正地去观察。去庭园看看那块石头，那棵树。你说：“啊，大自然。”然后转身离开，然后再停下。你才发现，男人的手 —— 日本男人的手 —— 将石头和树放置在了那里。一个新的想法出现了：自然不是“碰巧存在”，而是“刻意创造”的。那么，这条新的规律就不言自明了：在“创造”之前，没有什么是“自然”的。⁵
You must truly observe. Go to the garden and look at the rock, the tree. Ah, nature, you say and turn away –then stop. You have just discovered that rock and tree have been placed there, placed by the hand of man, the Japanese hand. A new thought occurs: nature does not happen, it is wrought. A new rule offers itself: nothing is natural until it has been so created.⁵
Writing by Daniel A. Gass
或许，理解禅宗古老的“自然”概念的方法之一，是将其视为现实，因为它存在于我们对“现实”的理解之前。科学和逻辑是基于我们衡量和感知现实的能力而构建的人类思维。因此也可以说，科学和逻辑是在人们已经感知到“自然”之后出现的。禅宗对“自然界”的定义以及对“自然”的原始定义，早在人们将逻辑应用到自然之前，就捕捉到了“自然”的真相。如果能脱离那些科学方法使现实仍然存在，那么自然就是一个如此基本、如此普遍存在的谜题了。用逻辑来定义自然，实际上会阻碍人们对自然的真实理解。
从禅宗或中国古代的自然概念出发，有一系列的表达方式。当你无法用逻辑、而是用隐喻来表达现实的感觉时，你就有了诗意；当你用言语来组织你对现实感的觉时，你就有了哲学；当你用视觉去创造你对现实的感觉时，你就有了绘画。最后，当你拥有以上所有内容时，你就可以创造“自然”景观并实践“现实”的本质。
Perhaps one way to think of the ancient notion of nature practiced by Zen is to consider it as a reality, one that exists prior to our understanding of the reality. Science and logic are constructs of the human mind based on our ability to measure and perceive reality. Therefore science and logic begin after we are already perceiving a nature out there. The Zen definition of nature or the original definition of zi-ran captures a truth of nature prior to our own ability to apply logic to it. If we could strip away our scientific methods that reality still exists, and nature is so basic that it is a general mystery that we don’t really have words for. Defining nature through logic as we do actually prevents us from understanding the true reality of nature.
From the Zen or ancient Chinese idea of 自然, there is a series of expressions which unfold. When you have a sensation of a reality that cannot be expressed logically but you can capture it in metaphor you have poetry. When you have words to organize your sensations of reality you have philosophy. When you have the vision to create an image of your sensations of reality you have painting. And finally, when you have all the above you can create the physical landscape and practice the essence of the reality.
▲ “由幸运的桂离宫小队拍摄的照片。” "Precious photo from the lucky Katsura team." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “Dan 在继续给平面图加标注。” "Dan is taking notes to the site drawing again. (And Dan is too tall to the corridor.)" [sic] -Bammer
▲ “屏风上的龙栩栩如生。” "The dragon is coming out of the screen." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “龙源院中的开祖堂是一个非常受中国影响的建筑。” "Kaisodo in Ryogen-Ji is a very Chinese-influenced structure." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “据说东滴壶是日本最小的枯山水。” "Totekiko in Ryogen-ji is said to be the smallest rock garden in Japan." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “大脑般的苔藓，或许森林确实有她自己的想法。”（西芳寺）"Brain-like moss. Maybe the forest do have her own mind." [sic] -Bammer (Saiho-Ji)
▲ “小丹说龙安寺一级棒。” "Denise think Ryoan-Ji is great." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “Dan 和 Groot 坐在一起。” "Dan sitting next to Groot." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “竹林的声音加上溪流的声音，完美。” "The sound of bamboo plus the sound of stream; everything is perfect." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “现在我知道了怎么建造竹墙。” "Now I know how to build a bamboo wall." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “Bammers 了解园子的每一处细节，从榻榻米的尺寸到柱子的高度。” "Bammers know everything about the site, from the size of the Tatami to the height of the column." [sic] -Bammer
▲ “没有游客照的旅行是不完整的！” "The trip is incomplete without ‘tourist photo’!" [sic] -Bammer
▲ “小叶十分想念Miro。”（Miro 是生活在 BAM 办公室的狗狗。）"Mengting miss Miro very much." [sic] -Bammer [ref BAM office dog, Miro]
To conclude this topic of industrialization and the great chasm it has created between us and the builders of these gardens, we might consider our own current ecological predicament. As we mentioned earlier we seem to have two possible futures, either environmental apocalypse or technological success. Some of the philosophers who look at these solutions point out that for us to truly solve this ecological problem an entirely new approach to society would have to be formed. We would somehow have to evolve out of our industrialized view of the world and develop a new ‘ecosophy.⁶’In this term our understanding of the environment and ecosystem is tied to our ability to exist sustainably. The practice of the monks in these temples is one living example of a viable ecosophy which may put us in a much healthier environmental balance. In this trip to the gardens, perhaps you can bridge this chasm and see nature as the Buddhists see it within their practice.
Writing by Daniel A. Gass
▲ 龙安寺。Ryoan-ji.
▲ 大仙院。Daisen-in.
▲ 龙源寺。Ryogen-in.
▲ 光林院。Korin-in.
▲ 高桐院。Koto-in.
▲ 天龙寺。Tenryu-ji.
▲ 南禅寺。Nanzen-ji.
▲ 银阁寺。Ginkaku-ji.
▲ 诗仙堂。Shisen-do.
▲ 西芳寺。Saiho-ji.
▲ 退藏院。Taizo-in.
▲ 桂离宫。Katsura-Rikyu.
▲ 天龙寺。Tenryu-ji.
▲ 东福寺。Tofuku-ji.
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