Circle, Triangle, Square
“The circle-triangle-square is Sengai’s picture of the universe."
These are three black and white ink drawings I made with Chinese black ink, Seawater and Hawaiian Sea Salt. They are on Strathmore Watercolor paper in the size of 24×24 inch. The Circle here represents the holy, nature, unity and then we enter the material realm of the Triangle and prone to decay Square.
The Universe – ○△□
“The circle-triangle-square is Sengai’s picture of the universe.”
The circle represents the infinite, and the infinite is at the basis of all beings.
But the infinite in itself is formless.
We humans endowed with senses and intellect demand tangible forms.
Hence a triangle.
The triangle is the beginning of all forms.
Out of it first comes the square.
A square is the triangle doubled.
This doubling process goes on infinitely and we have the multitudinosity of things, which the Chinese philosopher calls ‘the ten thousand things’, that is, the universe.
The trouble with us linguistically-minded beings is that we take language realistically and forget that language is of no significance whatsoever without time.
In truth, language is time and time is language.
