No-mind

Common card · No. 204629

No-mind (Chinese: 無心, pinyin: wúxīn; Japanese: mushin; Sanskrit: acitta, acittika, acintya; nirvikalpa) is a mental state that is important in East Asian religions, Asian culture, and the arts. The idea is discussed in classic Chan/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". 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. Chinese Buddhist texts also link this experience with Buddhist metaphysical concepts, like buddha-nature and Dharmakaya. 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...

Read on Wikipedia · Image cathexis-life, CC BY 3.0