The Buddhist designers of the renku ritual wanted to coax minds forward, out of the vicious cycles of repetitious thought and addictions to a reality that, those designer knew well, is just a fiction created by those minds. Metaphorically, tragic repetition is described as rinne (Japanese) or samsara (Sanskrit), leading to popular images of getting stuck in bad karma and an endless cycle of unhappy reincarnations. Enlightened Buddhist teachers understood (and still understand) that the danger of getting stuck isn't a matter of many lives but only of this one life. Gautama Buddha taught that the way to end suffering is clear thinking. And to think clearly is to realize that the grasping, desirous "ego" that people think is who they are, isn't them at all. The renku ritual is about considering the universe bit by bit and, in the end (the penultimate blossom verse), transcending it and letting it all go—even the preciously held fiction of "self."
This is why renku must never end with an image that recalls its first verse, creating a neat circle. This would be tragic retrogression: staying stuck in the world of desire and suffering. The goal of the renku ritual is for one to move forward, realize the transience of all things, and in final contemplation of the transient beauty of flowers, let go, be free at last.
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