A BRIDGE WE ARE LEARNING TO BUILD and WALK ACROSS
The Ensō (circle) is a sacred symbol in the Zen school of Buddhism and is a fascinating expression and practice of individuality as expressed by variations in shape, ink tones, brushstroke thickness and even where the circle begins and ends.
The brushed ink of the ensō is usually done on silk or rice paper and in one single brushstroke movement freeing any possibility of perfecting. You take a brush, dip it in the ink and as you take an inhale begin drawing the circle and then you exhale and finish the movement
The Ensō is an expression of your practice and drawing this is not only a meditative exercise, it is much like a Yoga posture in that it is intended to be a spontaneous and uninhibited movement that does not disturb the breath and is an expression of what already existed within.
Invitations
Is it possible to leave something undone today? Perhaps a moment of stillness in a conversation, a pause before replying to a message or an empty space on your shelf. The Ensō is not the ink but the space it holds.
How would it feel to pause completely and take a single conscious breath.? To let the breath rise, come into form and fall away into emptiness without the need to control the breath, only to feel its fullness.
Speak one word with complete awareness. It could be someone’s name, a thank you or yes and with that, pause before and after. Let the word be like a brushstroke, deliberate, offered and spontaneous.
Choose one small task be that sweeping, washing a dish or folding a blanket and see if you can move through this task with attentiveness, care and with the presence of you breath. No rushing, no multitasking. You are completing a circle of devotion.
The thing with this practice, is that you know when you’re fully there and when you are not yet, the circle is never complete. When you draw an Ensō, the end of the movement of the circle never matches up to the beginning quite perfectly. Often there is an opening where the circle is not completing itself. This is a good metaphor for healing because when we have very intense things happen in our lives, something that impacts us, perhaps the Ensō is suggesting that these wounds become our reason to stay in-touch with our wounded-ness, because if we are not, we other this part.
We have a practice that allows us to feel these levels of experience and they then become the bridge, can connect us more deeply with our own hearts and with ongoing practice, become a bridge we learn to build and walk across. Yet we remember, The Ensō, like a posture, like a mood of the body or even your life, doesn’t complete itself. You do by being there, present and awake.
