Annihilate the Mind.

”No thought, no reflection, no analysis, no cultivation, no intention. Just let it Settle..”

~ Tilopa

I was being driven by a friend recently through a beautiful valley. The steep, flat-topped, magnificent mountains on all sides of us were covered in snow. We could have been travelling through Tibet.

He has just had a novel published, and deservedly so. We were idly discussing the intellectual pursuit, with him mentioning that no matter how hard one labours at an art one can never manifest what one so perfectly envisions in the mind. I remarked that I was weary of the mind. Completely. That I would like to annihilate the mind.

As I looked out over the snowy hills, I thought of herds-people and rugged clans all over the world, people who had the pure taste of mountain soil in the veins. Ruddy-faced nomads who could foretell the coming weather from reflections on a lake. Children of the earth who could decipher absolute truth on a breeze.

Annihilate has an interesting etymology. It means to ”cause to be Nothing”. It is perfect then, for Zen mind.

Nothing true can be figured out by the mind. It seems but a shabby counting-house that will be inevitably robbed by cruel time and then crumble absolutely. Mind is a constant and petty agitation in the stillness of the Void. So very rarely does it produce those lucid gems of wisdom that can dawn with a joyful levity, that we would be safe to ignore it for the most part. And how restful that would be…..

(When i wrote this post first i accidentally tumbled my alarm clock into my mug of mint tea…it seemed appropriate..)

About A.D.

Generally just Being. Nothing in particular, no claims to fame. I like gardening and the sea, nature, art in all forms from poetry to films and everything in between, and being in the company of my family.