Enso is a form of zen art, zenga, which focuses on the painting of a circle. It involves considerable discipline, and mindfulness – and mindlessness. The very essence of Zen.

But the circle becomes a must. A circle must be painted. Never mind the movement, the free movement – whatever it may be – that his Deep Unconscious, his Buddha-Nature, would express at that moment.

So enso is never free. And neither is any painting that has a subject, for the subject is always a must. Even one as apparently simple as a circle.

A circle is a circle is a circle
– it points to itself, not directly to the Buddha-Nature.