Enso Beyond Fear

The meditative practice of creating an ensō belongs to the Japanese shodō Zen tradition, which is founded on a calm, undistracted state of mind.

There should be no hesitation or anticipation in the ritual of creating an ensō, engendering a fearless yet mindful attitude with no expectation or fear of failure. Just as with the practice of meditation itself.

When beginning the ritual of creating an ensō, one is first confronted with a clean blank piece of paper. Striking this fearlessly with a loaded brush of black ink, followed instantly by pushing clockwise (if right-handed) with one stroke of one breath, is a brave, irreversible commitment. The anticipation of this normally challenges a hopeful start to the creation, with the aim of this practice to be absent of any expectation, in Tibetan no hope རེ་བ་མེད As it is the ambition of creating something perfect or impressive which manifests in the ensō as being superficially contrived.

Then, within the next split second, when one is about halfway around the creation—normally at the point furthest away from oneself where one started—the challenge arises not to have apprehension དོགས་པ་མེད—a fear of not creating a perfectly formed ensō.

Both polar opposites of no hope and no fear, or beyond expectation and anxiety are summarised in this short phrase རེ་དོགས་བྲལ་བ meaning Beyond Hope & Fear, scribed as the title to this piece at the base of the artwork.

The practice of ensō highlights one’s expectations and doubts, which aids one’s awareness during meditation, but also serves as a wholesome philosophy to apply in everyday life.