Water gets to choose its natural place in a Japanese garden. This helps to give the garden a true sense of nature. The water – a pond or a stream – symbolizes life and renewal, calm, wonder and continuity in the hereafter.
Originally meant to guide visitors at night, a lantern's light symbolised the light of knowledge clearing away the clouds of ignorance.
Plants are associated with moving thoughts and they personify the universal forms of life.
Stones have a special place in Eastern philosophy. They stand for duration and represent the omnipresence of the forces of the nature. The stones anchor the garden to the earth and give it its unique personality.
