“The no-mind no-thinks no-thoughts about no-things”. – Buddhist Proverb
The term no-mind is shortened from a Zen expression ‘mushin no shin’ meaning the mind without mind. Which is commonly called, a state of no-mindness. So before I begin to explain what no-mind is I will talk about what the mind is first.
The mind is a creation of several faculties that include perception, thinking, judgment, consciousness, and memory. The mind provides you with ‘I’ an identity, with loads of memories of how you think you are, what you are going to do next, what you have achieved, how you think, expectations of how you should be, and expectations of how you should live with others. In more simpler terms mind is a projection of the past and the future, so it constantly thinks about what has happened yesterday and what will happen tomorrow, missing every moment at hand.
The past is a collection of memories and experiences that you have had with yourself and shared with others. This can be positive memories as well as negative memories. However, the mind tends to feed off the negative memories more than the positive ones most of the time. This makes one fearful, anxious and insecure about how to be with oneself and how to be with others. It creates an identity that is more closed off than open in front of others. It is questionable really, have you noticed, how much you think before you speak, constantly worried what others may think of you, so you decide to keep quiet. Bad experiences of the past limit you to express yourself fully at any given moment, have you noticed or are you still unconscious of it?
It is normal to think a lot about the past, as that determines what you can do in the present moment to make your future more fruitful. However it’s not as simple as it sounds, the past involves judgments and assumptions, of yourself and others through your inner voice which in turn influences every step you take and this makes one more indecisive than ever.
The extremes of remaining in the past are misery and suffering to always occur, this happens when one starts consistently repeating stories of negative scenarios that have occurred in their past, which develops a victim mentality over time. They become identified with it and constantly blame others for what they are going through, seeking drama all the time and complaining how they deserve better are examples of this form of identity. They are stuck in a delusion that they deserved better in the past. They try to live their past over and over again, by opening up to new people expressing how hard they have had it. This further enhances belief in what they are saying as they get comfort and sympathy. Overtime people that repeat start believing whatever that has happened to them is real and there is no way to recover from it. They are so busy denying their own mistakes in the matter so they can’t possibly learn from it and eventually call more negative situations to their life that strengthens their beliefs about themselves.
Furthermore, people that have continued sharing their stories overtime either get over it eventually or consequently become needier, seek more attention and become more insecure and manipulative, in getting what they want from other people. Humans are emotional creatures, any sad story told to them depending on who the person is will bring up many emotions, to feel sympathy and be wanting to help is normal in this sort of situation, sometimes you can also relate to the person sharing their story and your story of the past in similar ways. But be aware all the time, don’t become emotional that you become influenced easily by stories, first resolve your own issues of your own past before you try to help anyone, it is very important, what people have done for many centuries now, is forgot about their own pains of life and tried to help others whilst being broken themselves. They are not stable, so they suffer more than ever in the future. However understand everyone is unique and individual in how they express themselves some share their pains of the past because they are looking to resolve it one way or another and they unconsciously or consciously believe that to share their story with a significant person will help them resolve it, or at least find a solution, but this is not the case all the time.
Next time be aware, If you see repetition in your story of how you express yourself, see your pattern be aware and stop! If it’s someone you know that repeats their story of their past direct them to this blog. Certain rules you have to follow in life and one of them is, if you are not mentally stable or broken inside work on your own issues first, before others if you don’t, eventually you will break over time so be vary. If you are unconscious about your issues of the past whether they are suppressed or repressed try to bring it out and resolve it, understand that the person that dealt with all of that was your past self and the present self is completely different so let it go, be aware of how much you have changed for the better. Observe and let it go, “This happened to me, but this isn’t me anymore” (You are a different person now because you have learned from the past, haven’t you? See for yourself)
The future, on the other hand, makes one anxious, sometimes even worried and overthink every situation that may occur, hypothetical bullshit is what I call it. Sometimes situations of the future have not come yet, but you carry on worrying about it anyway. The future is unknown, you don’t know right now what you are going to think about in the next 5 minutes. So how can you ever be certain with what is going to happen in the future? The ambitious and the rich told you that they achieve what they achieved by planning for the future, they say write down goals, make a list of what you want to do during the day etc etc. But honestly, that’s not true, they acted more than they planned, in fact, planning slows one down. This is because planning makes you limited with what you want to do during the day. You consistently follow what you think you need to do rather than what you feel you need to do, do you know that is the reason you have never stuck with your plan with 100% discipline. Generally, when expectations of what you wanted to do are not fulfilled, you feel like crap, and procrastination further plays a HUGE role in this. In all honesty, to fulfill any of your goals in the first place, someone else has to set it for you to accomplish it, such as deadlines from university, or deadlines at work. And when you do achieve whatever you have set yourself to achieve the happiness only lasts for a few hours or days at the most, then it disappears and then you start struggling and feel like this is not enough, you want to do more so you start setting more goals to achieve. What is it really about? To boast to others that you have done this and that, how petty. Expectations of how your future should be, is the main cause of your suffering, your desire for more creates struggle, you miss the joy of life completely day in day out, you say you are doing this for others but really it’s just to boost your self-esteem and status in front of others, to further try to cover your insecurities with achievements, never work out because the insecurities have not been dealt with so still dormant. Whatever you are doing right now, are you happy? On a moment to moment basis, do you feel bliss? If you are not happy doing what you do, why do it in the first place? Life is simple, why make it hard. Follow your heart more than your mind in every matter.
The state of no-mind makes one free of thoughts of the future and dreams and memories of the past. You simply enjoy every moment given without your mind worrying about the past and future, in this realm time doesn’t exist, you simply enjoy the moment as it is, a very blissful state. But how to reach it? Please understand that your thinking cannot be stopped by chasing your thoughts and judging it further, that will create more problems and misery. You need to be aware that your mind can either be your best friend or your worst enemy. Your every effort to stop thinking will lead to further thinking, which will eventually lead you to insanity. To face your own mind you have to be very courageous, as it is something you have been avoiding for many years by keeping yourself occupied. To know whether what I am saying is true ..sit down for 5 minutes put the timer on and close your eyes and just breathe, inhaling in and exhaling out see how active your mind really is constantly thinking about, what next or what happened previously. To move past this clouded mind and to conquer it I will provide you with one technique.
The technique to attain no-mind is to, sit down on a chair or however, you feel comfortable, in a quiet room preferably, close your eyes and watch your thoughts. See all thoughts running through your head, don’t judge it, just watch it like clouds going by. Make sure you don’t try to stop your thoughts because that is what will cause your mind to resist, which will make it more difficult for you to make your mind still. Just watch your mind let it be completely free, you need to understand that the thoughts that pop up will sometimes even put you off guard, make sure you don’t think about it. Just watch without judgment. Practicing watching your thoughts eventually by and by your mind will become more still, at the start there will be a great struggle in trying to make sure you don’t get lost in thought, so in order for that not to happen to be aware of your breathe as well. After practicing for some time one day you will start experiencing and feeling glimpses of no-mind also known as satori, it will feel blissful but don’t be attached to it as this is only the beginning, it will come in intervals at the start, don’t judge and be attached to the blissful state of no-mind because if you do you will start the thought processes again. Don’t expect the state of no-mind to come either everytime you watch your thoughts, have no expectations, just let your thoughts flow like clouds in the sky, without any judgment. Be the watcher, enjoy it and don’t be attached to the experiences you get, be aware. The more watchful you become, the more aware you will be of the patterns going through your head. Be disciplined with this technique and watch your life change dramatically.
“You can watch your mind and you will be surprised that all that you carry in your mind and think is yours is NOT yours. It has all come from different sources- from parents, teachers, priests, politicians- others have given it to you” – Osho
Enough for today,
If you have any further questions feel free to email me at wisdombeyondmind@gmail.com
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