Ensō

The Ensō.

A symbol of completeness: of coming home in a full circle to where we are, looking at the world through the lens of one. The understanding is complete, that there has never been any separation at all in the first place; the perceived persona but a mirage of the conscious mind, as sensations come and go the feelings that one is in existence. Yet in the full circle, it doesn't matter, for there is no circle to begin with but a curious mental game that is played on its own.

So Live on, while the mind chatters, and the beauty fades. The circle goes on. And there is Freedom.



A poem found on Youtube

A poem inspired by the zen calligraphy ichi en so by shingai tanaka.

Where does the circle begin?
Is it a line you guess with your pen?
Is the passage of time
just a spin of a dime
along crooked line
to a finishing sign?
If you go on and on
feeling lost, feeling numb,
will you find what you want
in this meaningless hunt?

Where does the circle begin?
Is it the distance you run from your sin?
Is your knowledge of past
what sustains you to last,
what you've seen,
what you've done,
under moon
under sun?
If you keep looking back
on your life in the black
will you see what you want
in this meaningless hunt?

Where does the circle begin?
Is it the distance you mark from a pin?
If you run round the edge
on the cusp of the ledge
searching bush, searching hedge
in the seas that you dredge
if you look for the one
under heaven and sun
will you find what you want
in this meaningless hunt?

Where does the circle begin?
Can you trace another thats been?
If you copy your father,
your mother,
your brother
will you find your true self
or will you still suffer?
Is there a template for you
to know what is true?
Can you find what you want
in this meaningless hunt?

Where does the circle begin?
I'll tell you, I've seen it, I've been!
It is born in the sound of the voice of the ground
and the moon and the stars
and the sky that is ours
and the compulsion to ask!

And though I stand on the sand
With my heart in my hand
I can hear there's a sound
In the darkness I found

For there is infinite possibility
In the depths of my limits, see
From a seed grows a tall tree
And the knowledge we're born free!

And in the sound that I found
In the voice of the ground.
And the resonant art
Of my hand and my heart

Where does the circle begin?
Its easy, its drawn from within!

by Dan Osborne