No-mind (Chinese: 無心, pinyin: wuxin; Japanese: mushin; Sanskrit: acitta, acittika, or acintya) is a mental state that is important in East Asian religions, Asian culture, and the arts. The idea is discussed in classic Zen Buddhist texts and has been described as "the experience of an instantaneous severing of thought that occurs in the course of a thoroughgoing pursuit of a Buddhist meditative exercise".[1][2] It is not necessarily a total absence of thinking however, instead, it can refer to an absence of clinging, conceptual proliferation, or being stuck in thought.[1] Chinese Buddhist texts also link this experience with Buddhist metaphysical concepts, like buddha-nature, Dharmakaya and non-duality. The term is also found in Daoist literature, including the Zhuangzi.
This idea eventually influenced other aspects of Asian culture and the arts. Thus, the effortless state of "no mind" is one which is cultivated by artists, poets, craftsmen, performers, and trained martial artists, who may or may not be associated with Buddhism or Daoism.[3][4][5][6][7] In this context, the term may have no religious connotations (or it may retain it, depending on the artist's own context), and is used to mean "the state at which a master is so at one with his art that his body naturally and spontaneously responds to all challenges without thought".[8] This has been compared to the psychological concept of flow and "being in the zone".[8]
- ^ a b Muller, Charles. "Innate Enlightenment and No-thought: A Response to the Critical Buddhist Position on Zen". Toyo Gakuen University, A paper delivered to the International Conference on Sôn at Paekyang-sa, Kwangju, Korea, August 22, 1998.
- ^ Lai, Whalen W. 'A Clue to the Authorship of the Awakening of Faith: "Siksananda's" Redaction of the Word "Nien"*' Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Volume 3, 1980, Number 1.
- ^ A Dictionary of the Martial Arts. Louis Frederic (author), Paul H Crompton (editor). 2006. Dover Publications Inc.. ISBN 978-0486444024
- ^ Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Manual Of Zen Buddhism, p. 80, http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/manual_zen.pdf
- ^ Kohn, Livia (2010), Sitting in Oblivion: The Heart of Daoist Meditation, Three Pines Press. pp 73-100
- ^ Steve Odin. Artistic Detachment in Japan and the West: Psychic Distance in Comparative Aesthetics. University of Hawaii Press, 2001, p. 152
- ^ Veltri, Michael (2017). The Mushin Way: How the Power, Clarity and Mindfulness of Aikido Can Bring Success in Business and Life. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. ISBN 9781119285267.
- ^ a b O'Brien, Barbara. The Circle of the Way: A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to the Modern World, p. 226. Shambhala Publications, Nov 12, 2019.