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The zen monastery Enso-ji Il Cerchio (Japanese: 円相寺, Ensō-ji; eng.: "Temple of the Circle") refers to a buddhist community and a cultural association recognised by the Italian Government, according to Soto Zen Buddhism, founded by the Italian Zen Master Carlo Zendo Tetsugen Serra (1953-), He was disciple of the Japanese Zen Master Ban Tetsugyu Soin (伴鐵牛, 1910-1996), between the last 80s and the first 90s of the last century. Later, he would be recognised as Zen Master in his lineage by his direct heir, the current abbot of Tosho-ji (東照寺), Tetsujyo Deguchi. "Il Cerchio Enso-ji" is also member of the Italian Buddhist Union (UBI), that collects in a federation the principal buddhist centers in Italy and of European Buddhist Union (EBU).
"Il Cerchio" is a creation of the Sangha della Foresta di Bambù (literally: Sangha of the bamboo forest) and, inside a Zen Soto lineage, follows the teachings of Harada Daiun Sogaku (原田祖岳, 1871-1961).
The school of Harada Daiun Sogaku distinguishes itself from the usual Soto traditional methods, based exclusively on the practice of sitting meditation, zazen (坐禅) known as shikantaza (只管打坐, "simply sitting"). The peculiarity of the School of Daiun Sogaku was the adoptation of frequent and intense use of kōans, questions or paradoxical sentences with the purpose to let go a severe rational approach to the practice, helping practitioners to obtain the kensho. Koans are still peculiar today of Rinzai and Obaku traditions.
The sangha of Il Cerchio is located in two places: the Monastery "Ensoji – il Cerchio", founded in Milan, in 1988, and the Monastery "Sanbo-ji – Tempio dei Tre Gioielli," (三寶寺), founded 1996 nearly Berceto, Parma.
At Enso-ji has been teaching the practice of sitting meditation zazen, have been shared koans and zen teachings of the Master Carlo Zendo Tetsugen Serra and take place seminars of eastern disciplines with the purpose to "put in action" the Zen awareness. The most successful of these is the practice of shiatsu(指圧), known as a real way to practice Zen same as zazen.
At Sanbo-ji are held retreats and seminars of meditation and eastern pratics lasting two, three days or more. Recently, in Sanbo-ji a permanent presence of resident monks are living and working. This way, the monastery can receive, during the whole year, the visit of anybody desires to approach the monk's daily life.
One of the latest initiative of this western zen association is the creation of MindfulZen, a lay method got by the mixing of cognitive psychology and zen teachings. Zen 2.0, la via della felicità, published in 2014, is the first book about the method of MindfulZen.