Japanese Zen EnsoT-Shirt with Original Zen Enso Circle Calligraphy

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

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

There aren’t rigid, definite rules to draw a Zen Enso as an ensou embodies your state of mind when you shape and create it. A Zen Enso Circle can be tranquil or vibrant, serene or energetic, exuberant or sober. 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 circles start at the lower left, but they can be drawn from any point of the circle. Creating a Zen Enso Circle isn’t about drawing a flawless; imperfect  is perfectly all right, because it is people who brush 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 Enso Circle has become one of the most predominant 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 created the enso, you don’t modify 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 Circle is a spiritual practice that anyone can incorporate into  their lives. It is the Way of the Brush, as Japanese calligraphy is understood.