What do I know about Eastern philosophy - I'm an Italian Canadian lapsed Catholic!! But I was reading this story by ancient philosopher Chuang Tzu and I thought of how it relates to a way of working on/creating golf courses. (Probably as rare now as it was then).
Ch'ing, the chief carpenter, was carving wood into a stand for musical instruments, and when finished his work appeared so perfect as to be of supernatural execution. And so the Prince asked him: What mystery is there in your art? And Ch'ing replied: No mystery, Your Highness. When I am about to make a stand, I guard against any diminution of my essential powers. I first bring my mind into a state of absolute quiet. After 3 days in this state I become oblivious to any possible reward or gain. After 5 days, I become oblivious to any fame I might achieve. After 7 days, I become unconscious of my limbs and physical frame. Only then, when there is no thought of you or the Court in my mind, the skills I have become concentrated and all disturbing elements from without are gone. And only then do I enter some mountain forest, and I begin my search for a suitable tree. That tree already contains within it the form required, which I afterwards elaborate. I see the musical stand in my mind's eye, and then set to work. Beyond that there is nothing: I simply bring my own native capacity into relationship with that of the wood. What is suspected to be of supernatural execution in my work is due solely to this.
Lovely, isn't it? And to describe what an architect does as "elaborating" nature seems quite right.