Zen -Spiritual or just a pile of stones?

We have seen the Shoguns palace, the Emperor's palace and villa, and all of that seemed pretty rational. Today, however, and two days ago, we also visited Zen temples. Zen, like mainstream Buddhism, originated in India, developed in China, and seems to have found a home in Japan. Now Zen like most religions has positive values, and it's no accident that it became popular with hippies, but it does require a degree of intellectual masturbation because you should accept that everything is perception and perception is not reality. I suspect this us just a clever form of mysticism that ordinary people don't understand, but accept that others better than them have command of. If I am right, then it's like other religions, a method of control.
I let you decide for yourself if the karensansui is a magnificent spiritual object or just a pile of 15 stones. For my part, what I don't understand is that they represent water with sand when they could just use water, which is plentiful.

Nearby, we went for a walk in the bamboo forest. For my taste, a more beautiful and uplifting experience, even if at the end we lost Nora for 15 minutes and were mildly panicked.Read more