Nothing is a word that we use very often. Today in the morning a friend asked what are you doing? I said nothing. The moment I said nothing, I started thinking is it possible to ever do nothing?
I am still thinking but my thought is veering more towards “not possible”. Although I am not fully convinced, I am there about 90% in believing that doing nothing is not a possibility.
One can justify that I have not moved even a finger hence, I am doing nothing. But can the mind do nothing? The more I think about it the nearer I am to being convinced that the mind cannot cease thinking.
If that’s the case, then how can we ever say that we are doing nothing? To me doing nothing is being in a state of mental vacuum. That is being in a state of shunya, the ultimate goal of meditation.
I am not sure how many of us have experienced being in a state of shunya. If one has, then it’s nirvana. Come to think of it, does the mind ever stop thinking? I can’t speak for others but mine doesn't. Please do let me know if any of you can achieve or have achieved a state of shunya.
Given that the mind works tirelessly 24/7, can we rightly claim to be doing nothing? I don’t know and am looking for answers. Does anyone have one?
3 comments:
Hi,
Interesting piece, in that, I have wondered the same a lot of times before.
Personally for me, my mind is never idle, not even for a fraction of a second. Infact, lately, I am coming to believe that if that ever happens, that will be the time I'll prolly go mad. :) I am serious.
Now, having said above, it also means that "the state of shunya" or "nirvana" is not just difficult to attain, but its gonna be detrimental to me in a way. But this again is just my thinking, may be because of the effects of living in this crazy world, where life goes by so fast, careers move so fast, people's salary go up so fast, people learn so fast, etc etc etc.
Its a crazy crazy world! atleast mine is. So come to think of it, we are the ones and the time is now that we start doing somehting about it. For me, I need to first start accepting the fact that there is somethign wrong. once i accept that, my next step would be to try to meditate may be? (Dont thikn i can never do that, though) and thus try to balance my crazy fast life and save myself from getting sucked up by TODAY.
Any thoughts on how to start accepting it? :)
P.S.: I liked your first post and am gonna go back and read the rest, so you can expect some more comments :)
Thank you. It's a crazy world for all of us. The pace is unrelenting. So my thought is even a minute of no thought would come as the first shower after a scorching summer. :-)
"For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude"
- Daffodils by William
Wordsworth
How can the mind be completely pensive or completely vacant, i guess the idea is 'nothing' :)
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