Japanese Zen EnsoT-Shirt with Original Zen Enso Circle Calligraphy

Meditative Zen Circle t-shirts and apparel show your Zen ways in an artistic form. The popular Zen Enso on t-shirts and apparel is a splendid form of zen art that will inspire you and anyone who see it when you are wearing the Zen Enso t-shirt swearshirt or hoodie.

In Zen Buddhism the Zen Enso is seen as a symbol of enlightenment, infinity, the universe -the perfect meditative state, the search for enlightenment. As a matter of fact, a Zen circle can stand for many concepts in Zen Buddhism such as the unceasing circle of birth, death and rebirth or form and emptiness.

There aren’t immutable, fixed rules to brush an Enso Circle as an ensou embodies your state of mind when you shape and create it. A Zen Circle can be peaceful or spirited, serene or stormy, expansive or conservative. There are no two ensos alike. A famous Zen Enso by Fukushima Keido, a Japanese Rinzai Zen master who died in 2011 had the form of a triangle, but the Zen master considered it an enso all the same.

Most Zen enso Circles start at the lower left, but they can be drawn from any point of the circle. Creating a Zen Circle isn’t about brushing a flawless; faulty  is perfectly all right, because it is humans who draw the universal circle. The ink doesn’t have to be deep black all around the circle either, it can fade or vary, and can be wet or dry. Finally, the Zen Enso circle may be open or closed as well.

The Zen Enso Circle has become one of the most popular images of Zen art, at least in the West, and the symbol of Japanese Zen aesthetics and spiritual arts.

Traditionally, the tools and principles used for brushing an enso are the same as in traditional Japanese calligraphy: brush, ink and rice paper. Usually, you brush a circle in one fluid stroke and once you have brought the enso to life, you don’t change it in any way. It is what it is at that moment, which is like saying the expression of your mind at that very moment.

Brushing a Zen Enso is a spiritual practice that anyone can integrate in  their lives. It is the Way of the Brush, as Japanese calligraphy is understood.

enso symbol