

My novelette, set in 2060, is a story filled with futuristic technology and incredible innovations and these may all seem very exciting and appealing to us now. Therefore, the incomplete ensō circle on the book cover represents a future society which may seem perfect to us in 2015 but may not be so perfect in 2060. I also wanted to offer something more substantial and deeper for my readers to think about as they turn each page. When I was thinking about the book cover design, I wanted to use a subject which would represent Japan and the story itself. This ensō circle appears on the cover of my latest book Tokyo 2060: Welcome to the Future. Popular interpretations say the ensō circle resembles universality, strength, elegance, simplicity, beauty, nothingness, or everything. The finished circle can symbolize many things to different people. The closed circle represents perfection and the incomplete circle represents the existance of an imperfection, a common theme in the Japanese tradition of wabi-sabi. The ensō circle can either be closed or incomplete.


Some people use meditation to try and achieve this state of mind but this Zen discipline of painting a circle to achieve enlightenment or self-realization could be just as satisfying and maybe even more powerful.
#ZEN ENSO CIRCLE MEANING FREE#
In Zen Buddhism, painting an ensō circle by hand is a discipline and Japanese aesthetic that is practised in the attempt to free the mind of all emotions and thoughts in order to produce a true and pure creation. Do You Know the Meaning of the Ensō Circle? Renae Lucas-Hall | 13th October 2015
