Help from an Unexpected Source

A drawing of Iraivan showing the areas to be landscaped.

Martin chats with Ganesha in the monastery vegetable garden.

He loved the rock work on the Wailua River.

Of the waterfall and pond he noted: "This is the best rock design I have ever seen."

Martin takes a stroll across the new granite bridge in Rishi Valley.

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For the past three days our Buddhist landscape architect has been exploring the sacred Siva Gardens with Sadasivanathaswami. The goal is to bring forth from within the most gracious, enchanting and meaningful landscape ideas for around Iraivan Temple.

Martin Mosco was sent here by Jim and Natalie Levin, at their expense, to spend 11 days creating a master plan. Martin is an amazing fellow and an intuitive maker of sacred space.

He stepped on the inner path when, at age 11, he was drowned in an infinite ocean of light. Nothing was ever the same. He studied for 20 years with a Tibetian master, and 12 more with a Japanese Zen master. At one point he took three years to do 108,000 full prostrations (he did that twice, as his master thought he had done the first set imperfectly!)

He is taking today off to visit the Limahuli garden on Kauai. And six of the monks are off to Kokee Park for three days. It will be Jaya's first such outing and all are excited for him.