Ross A. Laird

The enso is a symbol from Zen Buddhism that represents the circle of spiritual unity. Often, the phrase “go have tea!” is written alongside. This phrase derives from the Chinese Zen master Joshu, who lived during the 10th century. He was reputed to have taught until the age of 120.

Enso are sometimes called “circles of enlightenment.” They symbolize that everything is a wheel, rolling onward, with a center that is both full and empty. Enso drawings are the Zen equivalents of the center of the labyrinth (in the Christian tradition), the still point (in myth), the heart of the mandala (in Buddhism), and of rain falling on the roof of my home on the first morning of October (in Taoism). Every tradition and every moment speaks to the theme of unity in some way.

"Go have tea" indicates that the still center is found in the everyday: in eating and sleeping, in getting my feet wet as I tried to dig a trench in my wife’s garden to let the runoff drain down to the creek. It’s going to rain for a few days, I think, and it won’t do to have the sword grass sitting in four inches of water.