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The zen monasteryEnso-ji Il Cerchio (japanese: 円相寺, Ensō-ji; eng.: "Temple of the Circle") describes a buddhist community and a cultural association acknowleged by the italian Republic, that refers to Soto Zen Buddhism, founded by the italian zen master Carlo Zendo Tetsugen Serra (1953-), disciple, between the last 80s and the first 90s of the last century, of the japanese zen master Ban Tetsugyu Soin (伴鐵牛, 1910-1996) and acknowledeged as zen master in his lineage by his direct heir, the current abbot of Tosho-ji (東照寺), for the lineage hereand the link to the italian monastery  Il Cerchio, qui. . "Il Cerchio Enso-ji" is also member of the Italian Buddhist Union, that collect in a federation the principal buddhist centers in Italy (UBI) e dell'Unione buddhista europea.

"Il Cerchio" is expression of the Sangha della Foresta di Bambù (Sangha of the bamboo forest) and, included in a Zen Soto lineage, follows the teachings of Harada Daiun Sogaku (原田祖岳, 1871-1961). The school of Harada Daiun Sogaku distinguish itself from the method of current Soto tradition that, from the 18th Century, has been based exclusively on the pratice of sitting meditation, zazen (坐禅) following the peculiar method known as shikantaza (只管打坐, "solo sedersi"). The peculiarity of the Daiun Sogaku was in the adoptation of a frequent and intense use of kōan, question or paradoxical sentences that aim to let go a severe rational approach to the pratice, helping him in getting the kensho. Koans are peculiar still today of Rinzai and Obaku Zen Schools.

The sangha of Il Cerchio has seat mainly in two places: the monastery "Ensoji – il Cerchio", founded in Milan, 1988, and in monastery  "Sanbo-ji – Tempio dei Tre Gioielli," (三寶寺), founded nearly Berceto, Parma, in 1996.

At Enso-ji is teached the pratice of sitting meditation zazen, are shared the koans and zen teachings of the master  Carlo Zendo Tetsugen Serra and are organized seminars of eastern disciplines thought as "put in action" of Zen awareness. The most successful of these is the pratice of shiatsu massage (指圧), thought as a real way to pratice zen as same as zazen.

At Sanbo-ji are holded retreats and seminars of meditation and eastern pratics during two, three day or more. Recently, Sanbo-ji hospitates a permanent presence of resident monks, that in the whole year can receive the visit of who would want to approach a monk's daily life to help his daily pratice.

An initiative of this western zen association is also the beginning of a lay method got by the mixing of cognitive psichology and zen teachings, indicated with the name of MindfulZen, introduced by the publishing of the essay  Zen 2.0, la via della felicità.