The title of the painting, "Five Worlds" comes from the teaching of Tibetan Lamas.  There are five basic elements: earth, water, fire, air, and space. All of these elements come to play in the perfection of a well-tended and balanced garden: earth is the fertile soil, water for the plants and the pond, fire from the pleasant, drowsy heat of the sun, air surrounds and the space is created both by the entire garden and internal calm it brings to you.

Imagine this is your back yard, the perfect retreat, where you can hide from the world in a shady spot and relax. Flowers offer a pleasant scent around you, and the colors are vibrant, soft and delicate. The statue of the Buddha invites you to share its serenity and the gentle sound of water and the lazy swimming of Koi in the small pond help you cast off the last bit of every day stress and strain.

A Zen priest, Muso Soseki, in the mid-1300's composed the following poem:

"The sounds of the streams splash out the Buddha's ideals, Don't say that the deepest meaning comes only from one's mouth,
Day and night, 80,000 poems arise one after the other, and in fact, not a single word has ever been spoken."