THE MEANING OF THE LIFE GARDENS TO ME
I created a 3D virtual four quadrant labyrinth in the form of a rose, after a beautiful experience in 25 Life gardens. I called it my universal labyrinth of life, representing the four seasons in a human life.
When you start walking in this virtual labyrinth you see a Gate, on it the following words are written (translation from the Dutch words):
”One has to walk through many gates in order to arrive in the Garden of ones soul”.
This labyrinth has crossroads in it, meaning it is half maze, half labyrinth, allowing one to make choices on the way.
In a real uni-cursal labyrinth this is not possible, only one choice can be made, going forward to arrive in the centre and going forward again to arrive at the exist/entrance again, albeit in roundabout ways.
1st, Garden of fertilization:
The Desiderata: most important advice: be careful, aim at happiness.
The Kiss: This statue symbolizes the coming together of woman and man. To me it means: I have been touched by divine love, uniting masculine and feminine within myself:
2nd, Garden of darkness:
Symbolizes pregnancy. growing of the seed.
To me: symbolizes a slowly awakening of the light within me:
3rd, Garden of light:
Symbolizes the flow of life from the source.
To me the source is: my vision of the Central Sun (the colours of God), the kiss of life:
4th, paths of choice:
The Jungle symbolizes to me: not getting anywhere, walking around in circles without any result.
The path of ferns symbolizes to me: all my wishes are fulfilled in a tearing rush, i climb too high too fast and have to pay for this as yet by falling into the depth.
The valley symbolizes to me: the middle path, making me coming back into the Now and back with two feet on he ground:
5th, The Red Garden:
The first chakra garden, the tailbone chakra symbolizes sturdiness. I firmly stand grounded in the earth. It is also the symbol of the material. I know what I want, I act accordingly.
6th, The Swamp Garden:
Despite certainty, uncertainty is catching up on me again. Influenced by others, I let myself more or less be pushed into the swamp, I sink further and further, but almost gone ducking, I discover the power to rescue myself and just on time I realize again that I am allowed to be here just as I am.
From that moment on I ´dance´ through life. The way I see and experience my life is my way and that is the best way to live.
7th, The Garden of Sound:
The sound of the streaming water reminds me again of the flow of life. Being in the Now, the sound is reassuring. The environment is harmonious. I walk on the little steps of stone to the chapel.
To me the chapel is reminding me of the fact that at the base all religions are one, just like human being in essence is one, in essence we all are equal, everyone in his/her own individuality (disguise). When you are able to see the other as a part of yourself in another disguise, you loose the power of hurting, but also of being hurt and you win mutual respect. If you are able to radiate this, you receive it back.
From the chapel there is a wonderful view on the pond and the surroundings:
Someone wrote in the book of response: “It seems like I am walking in the hereafter”.
If the hereafter and the Here and Now are two sides of the same coin, than the connection is: PEACE.
8th, The Orange Garden (second chakra):
Symbolizes the sex chakra or secret chakra. The physical feeling. To me also the feeling that gives me inspiration. In essence all energy is sexual and can be expressed in myriads of ways.
The longing for oneness and to be lost in, is something that deeply resides in a human being. As soon as passion is the name of the game, this longing is realized. And so this passion can also be spiritual: inspiration, enthusiasm, curiosity; the game can be played in myriad ways. All possibilities are there and experience is the result of every possibility that has been fulfilled.
9th, Garden of the Deepening/: (path of choice):
When passion is realized from within, it is also deepened. A feeling of deep peace accompanies this. It can be compared with reaching a highly aspired goal.
10th, The Yellow Garden:
The third garden of the colours of the rainbow, the third chakra (around the navel). The rational, the reasoning out of things. When this is practiced in combination with the heart (4th chakra, spiritual) and the head, (6th chakra, vision), solutions are there to stay.
11th, The Garden of Seeing and 12th, the Garden of Touch:
The Garden of Seeing passes for a large part through the Garden of Touch. Here seeing and touching is a blessing. In the pond: an island with summerhouse. The four ´Jugendstil` female sculptures under the dome point to the four wind directions. The more consciously you look around, the more you see in all directions.
Touching the sculptures in the garden gives you a true feeling of the smooth, rough, cold and sometimes a bit warmer material.
13th, The Garden of mourning:
This garden symbolizes sorrow. Loss of loved ones, powerlessness regarding an unsolvable situation. This and other situations can cause grief. According to Buddha attachment causes all grief. Therefore here a big Buddha (made by Hans, one of the two owners of these Gardens) pointing you to the way of meditation and 4 stepping stones representing the four seasons. When you become aware of the cycle of nature here, in this garden, you also realize life, blossoming, decline, death and again this cycle:
The cycle of life we all go through. At the top we are happy, then again we go to the bottom and have sorrow, we survive and go in upward direction again. When we are able to let ourselves go with the flow, we will, despite everything, always arrive there where we ought to be. We always are where we ought to be. Every human is the centre of his/her own world.
Once aware of this, one can determine ones attitude towards that what appears on ones path by oneself. His/her reaction can then always be determined in such a way that this for him or her is the most optimal at that moment. The more meditative (the more you are in the NOW), the better your ability to react.
14th, The Green Garden:
The Garden of the fourth chakra. The heart chakra.
The heart beats for things that touch you. If you like something very much (for instance the roses), your heart is beating faster. When something happens that frightens you, the same happens. Life with its contradictions is intensively experienced by the heart and the balance is kept by the head. Yet the heart is more important because feelings are more human in general than reasons. The power of the human lies in his heart.
When heart and head are balanced, man will find happiness. Happiness is the normal condition of man. Unfortunately the rational is given too much importance by many people over the heart. This is especially the case in economics. To achieve is the main issue, making money the most important thing. If those two are in balance the heart does not count anymore. Then the rule everyone for himself and God for all is reigning.
15th, The avenue of Roses:
When the roses are fully blossoming, the smells of them are delightful. It is an enjoyment to walk along this warm avenue. By itself it makes you very happy. Wonderful, wonderful, words can hardly express this.
16th, The Garden of warmth (love):
To me this garden looks like a cultivated English garden with several romantic seats. The tea garden is cosy and the warmth of people sitting there shows up well.
The little beach has a special atmosphere and invites you to sit quietly here looking over the pond and muse. Contemplating:
The Kingdom of God is a way of living. It is a quality of life that can be found within. When one becomes aware of the world living within oneself and discovers that this is exactly the same as the world “outside”, then one will discover that one is the only one that determines the way his/her world will look like, both inside and outside.
Jesus said: “The kingdom of heaven is inside of you”.
When you become convinced that you yourself are the one that creates your own world and determines it, then you can determine exactly what you will want. Do you want a world that constantly runs you down, or do you want a world in which you play the main part and in which you are the one that creates his/her own paradise?
There are endless possibilities to make ones world pleasant. But one thing has to be at the basis of it:
Every world consists of contradictions. More like a paradox. Two sides of a coin. Contradiction makes it possible to experience.
Without contradictions no experience. And also true in my experience: That what one radiates, one receives back.
So the paradox is the field of all possibilities.
You received the freedom to react to this paradox in your own unique way.
And every time you succeed to unite a contradiction for yourself, a new possibility arises that is unique in your world and allows you to move on from there.
When you are able to understand life in this way it will become a path that “walks” itself.
17th, The Crossing point:
Last year i found myself at this point and i followed my intuition, that took me straight to the White Garden (going to the right).
What a Wonder: WaW!!:
I video filmed here and during that time i completely forgot everything around me. I do not know anymore how long I have been wandering in this garden, but it was an experience that remains in my memory as a highlight: to merge totally into your environment, in such a way that you are no longer aware that you exist at all.
I experienced these moments more often in my life. They come in ones flow of life by itself, again and again. It can hardly be explained, but when one does not expect anything and let everything happen by itself, one receives such moments by itself.
When, at the crossing point:
one goes straight ahead, one arrives in:
18th, The Blue Garden:
I walked this way another time when i visited these gardens, at a moment when the blue garden was at her finest. Really gorgeous to look at! The kitten lying sleeping there on the path, opened her eyes and looked up at me as if she wanted to tell me: ´no better life than a good one´, let go of everything and enjoy, cause just like me you are part of this wonderful whole. I sat there on a little bench, enjoying the blue atmosphere around me that has led me to write all these experiences down.
Blue, 5th chakra, throat chakra, centre of emotions, but also communication. Tell it, share it with others.
At the Crossing Point you can also turn around and walk back to the avenue of Roses. When the roses are at their finest you should certainly do that as if only for the wonderful smells.
In the maze of life, one is able to make choices and when one makes a ‘wrong` one, according to oneself, one encounters the consequences before making a new choice. What one radiates one receives back.
But does a ´wrong` choice actually exist? When you consider every choice an experience then there are no ´wrong` choices. You can learn from every experience. Every paradox in an experience can be united and often brings the solution you need at that exact moment. When you realize this you can ´learn playfully`, so to say, from what life has to offer you.
Practicing being human: the Homo Ludens, the Playful Human.
The last choice on the Crossing Point is to the left to:
19th, The Garden of Death:
This choice was made by me on another occasion, in spring, to discover that the Garden of Death was buzzing of life and the producing of new life. Dragonflies, frogs, flies, flowers, plants, everything was busy with the intention of making new life.
I could not have come up with a more beautiful reconciliation of the Paradox life <> death:
Life – Death – Life
The dance of Nature
If you are able to reconcile the paradox, it delivers the endless NOW to you, the Flow-experience that can only be known afterwards, when you are back again in “Life”. So the endless NOW can also be experienced when one is “Dead”. But only if the contradiction life <> death is experienced, you will know that the NOW is eternal. That is the eternal awareness of which all other is a derivative, necessary for the experience.
I am entering a new phase in life……
Next to the Blue Garden, you walk into the
20th, The Pink Garden: the 6th chakra, the (life) vision:
To me the pink colour means freedom: the freedom to be who you are.
One will have to accept this deeply for oneself, before one is able to grant the same to others. Hence: all the prejudices in life, the human paradox. When we truly understand this paradox, we are perhaps better capable to live and let live and work together when needed.
Every human represents another possibility of life. When one is able to understand this, one is much more able to share the other possibilities with one another and cooperate.
21st, The Garden of Minerals:
The Standing Stones: solid as rocks, with a large mineral in the middle. The rays of the sun reflecting in it on all sides and because of this brilliance the richness of life becomes visible.
Everyone radiates a small piece of this richness and together these rays are of invaluable meaning. Everyone makes a ripple with his/her own stone in
the water and this is expressed by the “hill of cobbles” on which stones and minerals from the whole world are lying peacefully together.
22nd, The Garden of Butterflies:
Butterflies, having reached their maturity, enjoy a profusion of plants and flowers, specially meant for them.
When a human being has reached its maturity, it can be compared with a butterfly. Its life shows abundance in every aspect. The abundance nature generously gives to all that know how to appreciate it. The paradise on earth is at our disposal if we can share this abundance.
23rd, A small Stretch of Wood:
Brings mild cooling on warm days, offers a hiding place when the rain is pouring heavily. Is turbulent in its growth and at the same time offers reflection when we want to rest a bit after our abundant enjoyments in the Garden of Butterflies.
24th , The Garden of Smells:
Recovered from all the nice smells of the roses, we are able to enjoy a variety of sweet-smelling flowers and plants in this Garden, from April till September. Each month there is at least one flower or plant that smells delicious and is a highlight. Some smells are even a bit intoxicating and may bring you into higher atmospheres and that might be suitable.
Cause through the Garden of Smells you can also walk into the White Garden , the garden of the 7th chakra, the oasis of silence and serenity with beautiful white flowers, in every corner a statue of a Buddha figure that inspires you to become silent.
In the middle: a beautiful pond with water lilies, beautiful small and large fishes. When you are able to open yourself here you feel like a fish in the water and are immersed in this environment. The highest chakra, reachable for man: his connection with the cosmos and therefore with himself.
And the 25th Garden is my own Inner Garden, my being ness in everything. It is represented through symbols of that which is the most valuable to me in life.
From the Bible:
Love will never die
Love is patient and
full of goodness
She is not jealous
not vain
not arrogant
Love is not ambitious
She does not seek her advantage
She does not let herself exasperate
She does not hold evil against someone
She is not delighted with injustice
But rejoices at the truth
She endures everything
She believes everything
She hopes everything
Love will never die
A mirrored labyrinth that looks like a butterfly flying up in all freedom to God who is watching benevolently:
And the many Gates I will have to go through in order to arrive in the garden of my soul.
These beautiful Gardens are certainly worth a visit and one can find all information about them at the site: http://www.levenstuinen.nl/.
My experiences in these Life gardens will always stay a tremendous memory of Happiness and I am very grateful for the inspiration to immortalize them into a 3D virtually walkable world on my computer, so I am able to visit them whenever I feel like it, both virtually and real.
