Buddha in the Garden

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Buddhist monks are chosen by their community, but the young hero of this
story was discovered by the monks of one Eastern temple as a small
bundle abandoned at their gate. The monks adopted the boy and, as he
grew, trained him to be the temple gardener.

When the garden boy is nine, an old, blind monk speaks to him for the
first time, saying “Buddha is in the garden.” The boy searches in
vain, and later dreams of a young woman with a bundle in her frail arms.
Waking, he sees a starving kitten and begins to feed and care for it as
the monks have cared for him. Still later, when the cryptic phrase has
been repeated, the boy finds a bird with a broken wing and nurses it
back to health. By now, the boy and the blind monk are friends. The boy
is becoming the blind monk’s eyes, while the monk is leading the boy
in spiritual growth.

Later, seven monks return from their long travels in search of
enlightenment, only to discover in their garden a serene-smiling Buddha
on whose lap rests a tiny bird and a frail kitten. The monks realize
that they have found at home the peace and fulfilment they had been
seeking abroad.

The age-old story retold by David Bouchard is based on the four
Buddhist signs of enlightenment: hunger, sickness, death, and seeking
enlightenment. At the end of the book, artist Zhong-Yang Huang relates
the personal tale of his search for inspiration for the book’s
illustrations—a story that is both moving and surprising. Buddha in
the Garden is a spiritual tale that even young children could understand
intuitively. Highly recommended.