About my new "header"

I've designed a new header (the title thing at the top of the page). The purple oval thing is, believe it or not, based on an "enso" of the Zen Master Bankei (1622-1693), shown on the left.

Here is an explanation about the significance of the enso in Zen art, from a page on the Towson University website:

"The enso is one of the deepest symbols in Japanese zen: a symbolic representation of enlightenment, encompassing the universe in an endless, cyclical line. For the practitioner, the act of creating each single circle is a visual ko-an in which the state of that moment is revealed. As a daily practice, drawing Zen circles can act as a spiritual diary. No deception is possible in painting an enso, for the character of the artist is fully exposed in its nakedness. The more one contemplates it, the more profound its simplicity becomes..."

Interestingly, St. John of the Cross suggested that the circle is an appropriate symbol for God, because God "has no beginning or end" (Spiritual Canticle 37.7).

Given that Zen and St. John of the Cross are both important influences on my own thought, I thought it would be an appropriate symbol for my blog's header. So there you go.