ISBN: 978-0-938058-02-1 US $30.

00

The Ten Paradoxes
The Science of Wheres My Zen?

The Ten Paradoxes is a landmark program that combines a

unique six-part training and educational system for achieving
peak performance and enlightenment or what Master Nomi
calls Total Mental Fitness. Using the ancient power of
No Mind which has been clinically proven by top university
and medical centers, it actually changes neural pathways to
restructure and improve awareness, enabling you to do better
and feel better in every aspect of your life. You'll attain peak
performance and flow in sports, business, academics,
relationships, and stress management, along with health
benefits and deeper spiritual understanding. You'll be more
playful and tranquil, have greater compassion and a clearer
perception of reality, and become a better communicator with
your colleagues and loved ones. With continued practice, you
can even come to terms with death, the most feared aspect of
our humanity.

The Ten Paradoxes, through extensive research and case

studies, leads you on a journey to the secrets of the ancient
masters. First, it reveals the basic functions and mechanisms
of the mind, beginning with the way we filter and interpret our
perceptions, which then limits and restricts our actions and
reactions. Finally, we will see how the mind defensively creates
the self that we know as the "I"the ego, or personality. This
is the ultimate illusion that we all need to come to grips with.
And when we do, our intuition and creativity blossom, and we
become fully alive and open.

The practice of No Mind will actually un-train your thinking

and teach you how to achieve Total Mental Fitness by tran-
scending the very structure of the mind. As long as we live in
a dualistic reality, we keep searching for what we think will
complete us: material objects, relationships, achievements,
spirituality, etc. But, The Ten Paradoxes program frees you
from the limitations of these perceptual and ego defense
mechanisms and allows you to control your thoughts and
desires. You will respond to a new, open set of categories
ultimately learning to act without trying. We therefore act in
harmony with our essential nature.

And we can truly be in control of our destiny, decisions, and

responses, without the troublesome emotions we normally
face, such as fear, worry, anxiety, prejudice, and greed. The
practice of No Mind not only brings freedom from our
automatic actions, reactions, and perceptions, but the ability
to make maximum use of our inner potential through

realization that awareness is the only universal constant .
210003_00_fm.indd i 6/10/08 12:56:18 PM
210003_00_fm.indd ii 6/10/08 12:56:26 PM
210003_00_fm.indd iii 6/10/08 12:56:27 PM
210003_00_fm.indd iv 6/10/08 12:56:32 PM
210003_00_fm.indd v 6/10/08 12:56:32 PM
 2008 No Mind Publishing Company. Printed and Bound in Asia.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photo-
copying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system
except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be
printed in a magazine, newspaper, or on the Webwithout permission
in writing from the publisher. For information, please contact No Mind
Publishing Co., 13351-D Riverside Drive #601, Los Angeles, CA 91423.

Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure
the accuracy and completeness of information contained in this book,
we assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any
inconsistency herein. Any slights of people, places, or organizations are
unintentional.
First printing 2008.

Published in the United States of America by No Mind Publishing Co.,

2008,
Standard Address Number 256-7423
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE E-BOOK,
PAPERBACK, HARDCOVER, DVD AS FOLLOWS:
Master Nomi
The Ten Paradoxes / Master Nomi

No Mind is a registered trademark of No Mind Publishing Co.

Total Mental Fitness is a registered trademark of No Mind Publishing Co.
Awareness is the Only Universal Constant is a trademark of No Mind
Publishing Company
Wheres My Zen? is a trademark of No Mind Publishing Company

ISBN 0-938058-00-2 (e-book) (978-0-938058-00-7)

ISBN 0-938058-01-0 (paperback) (978-0-938058-01-4)
ISBN 0-938058-02-9 (hardcover) (978-0-938058-02-1)
ISBN 0-938058-03-7 (dvd) (978-093058-03-8)

1. Psychology 2. Business 3. Sports 4. Buddhism and Science

5. Personal Growth
I. Title

LCCN 2005929343

ATTENTION CORPORATIONS, UNIVERSITIES, COLLEGES, and

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS: Discounts are available on bulk
purchases of this book for educational or gift purposes, or as premiums
for increasing magazine subscriptions or renewals. Special books or
book excerpts can also be created to t specic needs. For information,
please contact No Mind Publishing Co., 13351-D Riverside Drive #601,
Los Angeles, CA 91423; ph 1-877-4NOMIND

210003_00_fm.indd vi 7/29/08 6:23:44 PM

 Dedicated to Chelsea and Allix for
listening to the inspired and sometimes
uninspired wisdom of Master Nomi for so many years.
As they listened to the countless hours of
talking about confusing paradoxes and No Mind,
it suddenly became worth it all, when they said,
Dad, there is no real answer to Wheres My Zen?

And for all those who have yet to uncover the magic and
understanding of nding their own answer.

And to my mother, Sylvia, who encouraged

and motivated this mission for the past 28 years and
nally sees it published.

Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain

But at the peak we all gaze at the
Single bright moon
Ikkyu (13941481)

210003_00_fm.indd vii 8/6/08 5:18:05 PM

210003_00_fm.indd viii 6/10/08 12:56:32 PM
 CON T E N T S

Preface: The Legend of Master Nomi xiii

No Mind 101 Mind
1 Our Natural FilterThe I 2
2 The World According to I 31
3 A Mild Condition of I 54
4 Societys Perfect Little I 82
5 Why Am I So Defensive? 103
6 The Language of the I 118
7 Beyond the Iill 145

No Mind 201 No Mind

8 Factor 1: No Mind Reality 162
9 Factor 2: No Mind Deautomatization 181
10 Factor 3: No Mind and CAt 196
11 Factor 4: No Mind Intuition, No Mind Insight 224
12 Factor 5: No Mind and No Iill; The I is Detachable 237
13 Factor 6: No Mind Enlightenment: The Ultimate Paradox 250
14 No Mind Extreme 274

No Mind 301 The Ten Paradoxes

15 Discovery of the Sequence of the Stones 294
16 The Ten Paradoxes 311
17 Right Awareness 353
18 Right Attitude 367

The Power of No Mind

19 The Three-Step Practice of No Mind 384

No Mind 401 The Secrets of No Mind

20 Secrets of the Soul 432
21 Secret of Psi 442
22 No Mind and Altered States of Consciousness 457
23 Secret of Spiritual Awareness 469
ix

210003_00_fm.indd ix 6/10/08 1:44:31 PM

 x 24 Secret of Mysticism 486
25 No Mind No Death 506
Contents
26 Secret of Living No Mind 525

No Mind 501 Living No Mind

27 No Mind Health & No Mind AcademicsThe Research 538
28 No Mind Sports 566
29 No Mind Business 586
30 No Mind Stress Management 612
31 No Mind Relationships 630

No Mind 601 Insights of No Mind

It Never Ends, It Only Begins Anew 661
Insights
Frustration 670
Anxiety 671
Crying 672
Hate 673
Desire 674
Greed 675
Energy 676
Destiny 677
Doubt 678
Hope and Expectations 679
Evil 680
Conditional Love 682
Unconditional Love 684
Compassion 685
Play 686
Death 688
Crisis and Freedom 690
Zen Attitude 692
Undying Humor 694
Karma 695
Leadership 696
Friends 698
Personality 699
De-automatization 700
The Mechanism 702

210003_00_fm.indd x 6/10/08 12:56:46 PM

 Clear AttentionCAt 704 xi
Peak Performance (Non-Action) 707
Contents
The Mirror 708
Time 710
Opposites 712
Patterns 714
The Unity of All Things 715
Evolution 716
Cosmic Instinct 718
Seven Enlightenment Factors 720
The Five Aggregates 722
Pure Vision 724
Insight to Enlightenment 726
The Eighteen Sense-Realms 728
Gods Trap 729
Appendix One 730
Bibliography 735
Index
Name Index 771
Subject Index 777

210003_00_fm.indd xi 7/23/08 4:09:01 PM

210003_00_fm.indd xii 6/10/08 12:57:11 PM
 PREFACE
THE LEGEND OF MASTER NOMI

I discovered the ancient stone in 1979, while working as

a carpenter in the city of Shikoku on the demolition
of a very old Japanese temple. It was hidden under the
oorboards above a utility basement. Buried along with
the stone were scrolls of Japanese characters, as well as
fragments of other stones. Wrapped around the scrolls
were six equations scribbled on paper. It appeared that
these equations were done recently by someone trying to
decode the stone or the scrolls. At the time, I had the sense
that this could be an important discovery. But I didnt
know that it would take me on a long journey in search
of ancient knowledge that brings enlightenment, health,
and peak performance in any life domain. I was about to
be entangled in a web of paradoxes and ancient myster-
ies that began when I started deciphering the rst scroll,
whose title I translated as The Power of No Mind.
The equations I
discovered were
later translated as
the six factors of
No Mind, which I
will dene and
describe in detail
in this book; the
core message of
the scrolls is what
I called The Ten
Paradoxes, which I
will describe in
No Mind 301. Some
were ancient philo-
sophical teachings
The original ancient stone that I traced back
2,500 years to the

xiii

210003_00_fm.indd xiii 6/10/08 12:57:11 PM

 xiv Tao Te Ching, or
The Book of the
The Legend
of Master Way and How It
Nomi Manifests Itself in
the World. The Tao
Te Ching was writ-
ten by Lao Tzu,
who was a hermit
searching for the
meaning of life.
His understand-
ing of the funda-
mental principles
of No Mind under-
lies most of his The computer-enhanced translated model
writings. If he were
alive today, he would be able to apply the notion of
No Mind to explain how an athlete, for example, enters
the so-called zone or ow by performing without think-
ing. By surrendering all thought,
person and action become one;
there is no self and the athletes
motions require no sentient effort.
This is related to the ancient Taoist
principle of wu wei, which means
non-action or no-try. Hundreds of
medical and scientic studies sub-
stantiate this and other principles
revealed in the ancient stones, the
scrolls, and the equations.
After I translated the paradoxes
of No Mind from the scrolls, I
began to practice them in the hope
of realizing spiritual awareness.
The goal of my journey was to nd
answers to the following questions:
What is the duality of the self? What
is the experience of enlightenment?
Translated as The Power How do you utilize spirituality to at-
of No Mind tain peak performance in different

210003_00_fm.indd xiv 6/10/08 12:57:25 PM

 life domains such as business, sports, relationships, stress xv
management, and academics? I studied and practiced the
The Legend
initial mental-training techniques for two years, but soon of Master
I realized that it could be years before I fully understood Nomi
the true meaning of the paradoxes.
So I began researching other ancient meditation tech-
niques, as well as the medical applications of meditation
and associated scientic research. In the meantime, I
kept practicing one to two hours in the morning and an
hour in the evening. Yet, I was left with an even greater
doubt and a more intense longing to understand enlight-
enment and the techniques that would help me attain
peak performance of mind, body, and spirit. I struggled
to piece together the pattern of the stone and its frag-
ments. I studied the ancient masters, but I had a difcult
time understanding what they were trying to tell me.
During my quest to understand human nature, my ul-
timate goal was to pierce the veil of ambiguity and the
paradoxes that were so characteristic of the scriptures of
the ancient masters. Why, I wondered, were these great
works so confusing that the uninitiated would be discour-
aged from following the path without a spiritual guide?
The answer lies in the ultimate paradox of Mind and
No Mind: Mind cannot realize No Mind (where No Mind
roughly means not mind, or no-thought). No Mind is
pure awareness, unadulterated by thoughts, or emotions,
or sensations; No Mind is open to everything. You can
achieve pure awareness only when you stop your mind
from producing thoughts.
Yet, despite the confusion and complexity that these
ancient writers created and the questions they posed, I
performed better in all aspects of my life when I prac-
ticed No Mind than I did using only my mind. Therein
lies the paradox.
As I continued to study and practice the ancient phi-
losophy and continued my scientic research, I became
so fascinated with the subject that in 1981 I quit my job
and dedicated myself full-time to the pursuit of enlight-
enment. I was on a path toward nding something that
would change my life forever. I felt I might uncover an

210003_00_fm.indd xv 6/10/08 12:57:58 PM

 xvi ancient system of techniques that I could make accessi-
ble to others.
The Legend
of Master Surprisingly, my pilgrimage did not lead me to an
Nomi ashram high in the Himalayas; instead, it led me to local
university medical, psychology, and education libraries
where I spent hundreds of hours. They became my sanc-
tuaries, where I pored over thousands of pages of medi-
cal and scientic research that seemed relevant to the
analysis of the ancient stone, the stone fragments, The
Ten Paradoxes, the equations, and the psychological and
physiological implications of meditation techniques.
Much of the reading was extremely obscure for someone
with no formal medical training, but I was determined to
understand the thrust of the researchers conclusions.
I took notes, made copies, and reread them later. I
spent up to twelve hours a day compiling volumes of
notes and diagrams. Despite the repeated warnings of
the ancient masters that an approach based on reason
would be doomed to fail, I felt that I could come up with
a system that was easier to follow in the context of West-
ern culture. Therein lay the true goal of the ancient
stones and scrolls. It is common sense that we question,
analyze, and interpret our society and ourselves in terms
of what we have learned and become accustomed to. Yet,
in Zen training, we cannot analyze, intellectualize, or in-
terpret anything in terms of prior knowledge or habit;
we need to see with new eyes or we miss the point en-
tirely. But how do we understand the concept of seeing
with new eyes? I came to realize that pure awareness is
the only universal constantthe basis of the ultimate re-
ality that transcends conceptualization specic to any
particular time, place, or culture. I attended seminars
and workshops to gain more understanding of Eastern
philosophy and Western psychology, to practice medita-
tion, and to speak directly to modern masters and pro-
fessionals. I also studied and practiced Kundalini yoga
of the Tantric tradition and meditated on the seven
chakras (points of spiritual and physical energy in the
body), awakening the spiritual energy at the base of
the spine.

210003_00_fm.indd xvi 7/23/08 4:09:06 PM

 One night, while I was meditating, I was suddenly xvii
engulfed by a ash of white light that blazed into my
The Legend
heada phenomenon that also occurs in Zen medita- of Master
tion. It only lasted for a few seconds the rst timea bit Nomi
longer the second timebut the experience had an over-
whelming effect on a very deep level, as if the energy that
existed in all the emptiness of space in the universe now
rushed through my body and mind. As I opened my eyes,
I became aware of an unusual feeling of lightness and
detachment, yet subtle energy was everywhere in my
body. This experience was progress, but I knew that it
was not what I was seekingto unravel and experience
the ultimate paradox, the ancient secret of No Mind.
I studied Hindu philosophy, the yogic philosophy of
Patanjali, Su mysticism, Christian mysticism, Jewish
mysticism (Kabbalah), Taoist philosophy, Tibetan Bud-
dhism, and my personal favorite, Zen. Zen was the most
straightforward approach, even though its philosophical
traditions contained their own paradoxes, called koans.
Meanwhile, my research into Western psychology and
physics included gestalt psychology, depth psychology, psy-
choanalysis, Jungian psychology, parapsychology, quan-
tum physics, hypnosis, electromagnetic elds, personality
theories, and behavior modication research and therapy.
Despite my research, I still hadnt gured out how to
solve the mystery of No Mind. I felt like one of the disci-
ples who went off to ponder the koans, the paradoxical
poems and statements of the ancient masters. Some
grasped their meaning, while others became extremely
frustrated because they couldnt comprehend their sig-
nicance. My personal koan was to resolve the illusion of
the I: the ego, the self, or the personality. But I became
increasingly frustrated as I tried to link Western psychol-
ogy to Eastern philosophy.
I meditated on the source of thoughtthe prethought,
or that which occurs just before we become aware of our
thoughts (what the Zen master called hua-tou). My mind
was lled with thoughts of the I. I tried to understand
the I in terms of the conscious and the unconscious,
the subconscious and the paraconscious, the horse and

210003_00_fm.indd xvii 6/10/08 12:58:25 PM

 xviii the rider, the spirit and the mind-body, the id and the col-
lective unconscious. And I tried to understand the I in
The Legend
of Master terms of the unity of all things in some eld of energy or
Nomi in some electromagnetic or quantum force.
It was as if someone took a hundred puzzle pieces and
threw them into a running stream. As the pieces spread in
all directions, I knew that it would be harder and harder to
collect them and put them together. I now knew that the
stone was part of a sequence of images that related to
the understanding and mastering of No Mind, as well
as to realizing that awareness is the only universal con-
stant (discussed in No Mind 401, Secrets of No Mind). It
was hard to imagine how one could boil down such an
enormous amount of information into something that
everyone could understand. Some parts of the puzzle were
making sense; others were not. I now knew that I would
never nd the answer by analyzing and interpreting the
information intellectually. It was going to have to come
from a different place. But from where?
I labored over the material for months and months.
Before I knew it, one year had turned into two. Then one
afternoon, as I was sitting at my desk feeling extremely
frustrated, I noticed the lemon tree outside my window. I
began staring at one of the lemons until I completely lost
awareness of myself. I was so absorbed in the lemon that
I wasnt aware of time or of my surroundings. Then, there
was an instant shift of perception and I understood that
the source of thoughtthat moment before a thought ac-
tually occurs in the mindwas actually emptiness. It was
an empty awareness that was alive and full and perme-
ated the emptiness of the universe. But that emptiness
was not just the source of thoughtit was the intrinsic
aspect of nature: the ow of nature itself. And nally,
there is no I.
Then, in that moment, everything that had been so
puzzling and paradoxical became utterly simple. This
feeling of truth was so intense and unshakable that it
permeated my bones and flowed through my veins.
My awareness had suddenly expanded and I saw things
from a new perspective. Yet, it was not as if I was

210003_00_fm.indd xviii 6/10/08 12:58:35 PM

 seeing; rather, there was a seeing into emptiness. The xix
experience went into the core of my being and beyond; it
The Legend
went into the universe. This was not just unity, but the of Master
knowing that the universe was manifesting itself Nomi
through the awareness I was experiencing in that mo-
ment. I looked down at my notes and smiled. And then I
started to laugh out loud at the comedy of the mind. In
that one ash of insight, it suddenly all made sense. In
the emptiness, everything was revealed.
With that insight, I began rereading some of the an-
cient masters writings, translations, and interpretations.
And as I did, I realized that I was no longer confused or
uncertainI now knew. It was just as the masters had
said, There is nothing to gain, yet nothing will ever be
the same again. Everything I read conrmed what I was
feeling and, as difcult as the experience was to describe
in words, I understood it when I looked past the
language.
But it was more than just a feeling. It was as if there
was no longer a feeling of the I, but just an awareness
of the moment that was everywhere. It was No Mind,
yet the paradox was no longer a paradox. Now the
sequencing of the stones made sense, and I was able to
begin unraveling the meaning behind them. It was a
major breakthrough in understanding No Mind and The
Ten Paradoxes.
I knew that this insight could be developed much fur-
ther with more practice and application to daily life. The
intense rst phase of my journey had ended, but a new
journey had begun in that ash of insight I called lemon
consciousness. Over the next ten years, I continued to
practice, though not always formallyI practiced through
daily actions instead. But I never forgot the day of the
lemon. The abilities I continued to acquire through
No Mind training helped me in all aspects of my life. I
found that the amount of time I practiced was directly re-
lated to the mindfulness or awarefulness I experienced
in my daily life. The word mindfulness is a paradox it-
self. When we are mindful, we are not full of mind, but
rather objectively aware of mind objects such as thoughts,

210003_00_fm.indd xix 6/10/08 12:58:47 PM

 xx emotions, mental images, and sensations. So we are not
full of mind, but rather full of awareness of mind, or
The Legend
of Master awarefulness, a state I will describe in detail later.
Nomi I also noticed that during the months I practiced
mindfulness intently, I was much more aware of the phe-
nomena in my daily life. When I did not practice as much,
I was more apt to be mindless in my daily routines
losing the awareness and becoming very mechanical. The
most important aspect of the training is what the mas-
ters called bringing it into the marketplace, which
means integrating the practice into your daily life and
activities. What is the use of the training if it cannot be an
important aspect of life?
In the years following the lemon breakthrough,
which had permanently changed my perspective, I was
able to nd happiness deep within myself and to live my
life detached from unnecessary expectations.
I still experienced the everyday feelings we all have,
but in most cases I also felt a detached awarenessa
mindfulness of the minds objects that becomes an ab-
sorption in pure awareness. In this way, I was never
attached to the I and rarely sought to uphold it. Most
people do not allow themselves the time to stop and re-
ect on the moment, and since moments are eeting, they
become lost opportunities. Sometimes the lack of mind-
fulness caused me to become argumentative or defensive
because instead of seeing the moment, I was mindlessly
defending something I had believed in the past.
Instinctively, though, I knew otherwise. Argumenta-
tiveness always seemed to be a one-sided game, like teas-
ing a monkey in a cage: It is easy to tease a monkey when
its in a cage, but much harder to tease one when its free.
Freedom, however, is relative. Although we may move from
a smaller cage to a much larger one, even if we do not see
the bars, we remain in the cage. On the other hand, when
we can nally see the larger cage, we realize that we are
still conned. This is a fundamental principle of Zen:
the relativity of seeing the cage or, as the ancient masters
say, nding the tracks, which means understanding

210003_00_fm.indd xx 7/23/08 4:09:11 PM

 conceptually that the ox (our spiritual awareness, or xxi
self-nature) to whom the tracks belong exists.
The Legend
Over the next 15 years, business demands and time of Master
constraints kept me from actively devoting the thousands Nomi
of hours necessary to complete my quest, though I was
still driven by the intense urge and great doubt I had orig-
inally felt. I was only able to keep up with my research in
my free time. Most of my reading consisted of Eastern
philosophy, quantum physics, or psychology. I yearned to
continue on the path, and I kept my connection to it
through reading and meditation. In addition, I jotted
down any notes, ideas, and images I had that pertained
to my journey.
Finally, I resumed my quest to complete what I had
started over a quarter of a century earlier: a comprehen-
sive program of mental training based on the ancient
masters but incorporating the Western sciences of psy-
chology, quantum physics, mindfulness, neuroscience,
and psychotherapy.
So I began again, this time with help, to update the
original research. I was astounded to discover that the
emerging sciences of mindfulness-based cognitive ther-
apy, mindfulness-based stress reduction, neuroplasticity,
quantum consciousness, spiritual enlightenment, as well
as attention and volition research, had all made signi-
cant advances that further conrmed the knowledge and
experience I had acquired more than 25 years earlier.
I was once again propelled by an inner drive to
document what I had been developing and to design a
system or path that could help others as it had helped me
throughout my life. Actually, help is an understatement:
While the practice can help you achieve peak perform-
ance in many aspects of your life, including business,
sports, relationships, stress management, health, and ac-
ademics, it also shatters the concept of ones relationship
to the natural universe. It and me no longer exist.
There just is experiencing the very fabric of awareness
as a vibration of the universe. Awareness is the only
universal constant.TM There is the string of the instrument,
there is the player of the instrument, and there is

210003_00_fm.indd xxi 7/23/08 4:09:15 PM

 xxii the vibration that moves the air and resonates. All are
interconnected, but the reverberation is what moves
The Legend
of Master us. No Mind consists of the vibrations of the ancient
Nomi masters wisdoms and realizations, nothing more. One
cannot own it, just like one cannot own the light from
the sun.
And so the book and the program evolvedthis system
that would eventually become known as The Ten Para-
doxesTM as well as the No Mind: Total Mental Fitness
program. This system happened through me, not because
of me. In the end, all that really counts is the vibration of
the sound and our visceral, unbiased perception of it; ulti-
mately, neither the player nor the instrument matters. The
sound does not belong to any one individual; it belongs to
anybody who puts it to use and follows it. It enters this
world as a quantum relationship, and it affects the evolu-
tion of the reader as much as the reader affects its ability
to evolve.
The interdependence and co-origination of the essen-
tial aspect of nature, as I rst became aware of it over
25 years ago, still underlie my everyday awareness
when I look up at the sky, into someones eyes, at a bee;
whether Im negotiating a transaction or hiking along a
hillside. It is in everything.
May your doubts be great, may you solve the para-
doxes, may your uncertainty produce lemon conscious-
ness, and may you make great lemonade.
Master Nomi
February 15, 2008

210003_00_fm.indd xxii 6/10/08 12:59:15 PM

 No Mind 101

Mind

210003_101_C01.indd 1 6/6/08 1:44:38 PM

 We know the world as a reection of our minds experience
of it. Over time, the mind becomes a dusty mirror reecting a
distorted image. The dust consists of years of conditioning
to perceive, think about, and respond to the world in a given
way. We develop a ltering and interpretive mechanism that
underlies our understanding of the world as we know it. This
mind mirror dims awareness, impairing the performance of
the mind and the body.

Chapter 1 identies this natural lter, explores how it is

formed and consolidated throughout our lives, and reveals
what you can gain by seeing past it.

210003_101_C01.indd 2 6/6/08 1:44:48 PM

 Chapter 1

Our Natural
FilterThe I

O ver 12,000 years ago, humans began searching for answers

to the question, Who are we and why are we here? In the
last several thousand years, the ancient masters of the Zen, Taoist,
Yogic, and Eastern traditions and the Christian, Jewish, and Moslem
mystics have used psychology to understand the mind and its con-
trol. Eventually, they released the mind from its own chains, so it
could experience reality directlywithout preconceived ideas or
prejudices. After their minds were completely unshackled through
the practice of No Mind, they were able to attain Total Mental
Fitness which enhanced all aspects of their lives, including work,
play, love, health, and spirituality.
The techniques of the ancient masters and mystics were used
to overcome the obstacles of the ego, to master the mind, and
to gain spiritual awareness. Throughout this program, you will
come to know some of these ancient masters and their methods
for achieving No Mind and understanding The Ten Paradoxes. You
will learn about modern research that substantiates millennia-old
3

210003_101_C01.indd 3 6/6/08 1:44:50 PM

 4 teachings and practice techniques. The techniques are as
much science as they are philosophy.
No Mind
101 The ancient masters knew that our egos limited our
individual freedoms and our abilities to do our best and
Mind to achieve enlightenment (or Nirvana). They also knew
that because we tried so hard to accomplish goals for the
sake of something called the I, we didnt live in the mo-
ment, or allow the mind and the body to ow freely in
our daily lives.
By using awareness-training techniques, they released
the minds potential to overcome those barriers and to
transcend its typical limits. They understood that aware-
ness was essential to attaining spiritual enlightenment,
in any religion. This is one of the key aspects of the para-
dox of No Mind.

THE PARADOX OF THE I

The masters knew long ago that the I, the ego, the self,
or ones personality, were merely labels we used to help
us understand who we thought we were. Everything we
do is based on our understanding of ourselves. From the
day we are born, we are conditioned to think and act in
certain ways. As our parents assign a name to our self,
we become attached to this self and it affects the way we
act and react. We try to improve this self; we boast about
it and defend it. The ancient masters believed the secret
to our freedom is in becoming detached from this self.
That is the paradox of the I.
It is reasonable to nd this paradox confusing. But
the more you understand and practice the No Mind tech-
niques, the more you will comprehend the concept of the
I and your attachment to it. It is a puzzle that has eluded
people for centuries. By releasing the self, the ancient tech-
niques of awareness training make one peaceful, happy and
successful in anything one does.
Alan Watts, an interpreter of Zen Buddhism and a
scholar of theology and divinity, describes the I as
follows:

210003_101_C01.indd 4 6/6/08 1:44:51 PM

 But we are so used to thinking of I as simply the center 5
of consciousness, and the center of our will, that we
ignore (or are ignorant of) most of ourselves ... We may Chapter 1
not recognize ourselves because we think of ourselves Our
as a chopped-off piece surrounded by our skin, and Natural
therefore we see ourselves in a rather impoverished Filter
way. And this form of perception is almost automatic. The I
We think of ourselves as separate beings who stand
alone and move through all sorts of different places
but are cut off from the environment. (Watts, 2000)

HOW THE I CREATES DUALISTIC REALITY

The way we have been conditioned to think about the I
since we were babies is why we perceive ourselves as dis-
crete entities separate from our surroundings. And other-
ness (or anything that is seen as different) might threaten
us. For example, we fear people who dont share our beliefs,
and we feel compelled to defend our egos, or Is, against
them. This detachment from everything else is a form of
dualityit renders us fragmented and incomplete.
The ancient masters knew this was simply something
learned that had to be unlearned. This unlearning can
set us free, so that we function at a higher level and uti-
lize our full potential. We cannot be spiritually aware
while seeing through the eyes of the I; we must tran-
scend the I to achieve true spiritual awareness.
We realize true spiritual awareness, or what the an-
cient masters called realizing the Self-Nature, by seeing
things as they truly are, not as we want them to be. This
spiritual awareness, which can be experienced through
our minds, bodies, and spirits, is the underpinning of
everything in the universe. It is only when we realize the
truth of our nature that we can see through the illusion
of the I and observe things as they truly are.
Dr. Walpola Rahula was a Buddhist scholar and monk
who taught in the Theravadan tradition in Sri Lanka; he
writes:

The realization of Truth is to see things as they are

without illusion or ignorance ... Truth needs no label.

210003_101_C01.indd 5 6/6/08 1:44:52 PM

 6 It is not Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, or Moslem. It is
not the monopoly of anybody. Sectarian labels are a
No Mind hindrance to the independent understanding of Truth,
101
and they produce harmful prejudices in [peoples]
Mind minds ... here is no attitude of criticizing or judging, or
discriminating between right and wrong, or good and
bad. It is simply observing, watching, examining. You
are not a judge, but a scientist. When you observe your
mind, and see its true nature clearly, you become dis-
passionate with regard to its emotions, sentiments and
states. Thus you become detached and free, so that you
may see things as they are. (Rahula, 1959)

This revelation has eluded most for thousands of

years. Our dualistic nature alienates us from each other;
we have a hard time realizing that we are all part of the
same universe and that when we discriminate, judge, or
criticize anyone, we are doing the same things to
ourselves.
When we hurt someone else, we hurt ourselves; yet,
our fragmented dualistic thinking has even led us to
ght wars in order to protect the I. We ght threats to
who we think we are, not to who we really are. But
what are we really defending when we try to defend
our I?

HOW THE I LIMITS PERCEPTION

Animals, as opposed to humans, are not controlled by the

self. An animal attacks only to survive, to defend its home
or offspring, or to protect its food supply. It isnt motivated
by human emotions, such as vengeance, pride, greed,
guilt, worry, expectation, hate, or prejudice. In the animal
world, both predator and victim act purely on instinct and
intuitionwithout malice. Animals, therefore, live fully
in the moment.
The development of the I in humans is the conse-
quence of the physiology of the human brain itself.
Some neuroscientists theorize that the increased com-
plexity of the human brain, especially evident in the

210003_101_C01.indd 6 6/6/08 1:44:52 PM

 prefrontal lobes, is related to the development of the I, 7
or self.
Chapter 1
According to these scientists, we perceive everything
through the lter of the I, which colors our perceptions Our
of the world and causes us to act according to those Natural
Filter
perceptions. The I lters out irrelevant details, so we
The I
can focus on the most important stimuli, otherwise we
would be overwhelmed by too much information at any
given time.
The ndings of a study on selective attention by Anne
Treisman and Gina Geffen at the MRC Psycho Linguis-
tics Research Unit, Oxford,

... conrm once again that our perceptual capacity is

limited at least partly by the information content of
stimuli presented. The nature of the perceptual lter
may be one of reducing background noise or stimuli
while attention is occupied. Rather than blocking them
completely, highly important stimuli may thus be per-
ceived. This would have the advantage of allowing sub-
jects to perceive highly important or relevant stimuli
which would still be perceived. This would have the
biological advantage that unattended messages could
be monitored for any important signals, without at the
same time much increasing the load on the limited ca-
pacity available for speech recognition. (Treisman &
Geffen, 1967)

Our ability to lter out useless or unimportant infor-

mation is important for our survival. Subconsciously, we
perceive background information even while we are fo-
cusing on something at the forefront of our attention. If
something in the background becomes important, we
shift our focus onto it and react accordingly. For exam-
ple, if Im mowing the lawn and I catch a glimpse of a
snake in the grass, Id stop and take defensive action to
avoid the snake or to scare it away.
Essentially, our brain has built-in defense mecha-
nisms that can be activated even before we become aware
of them. But what happened to make us so different from
the rest of the natural world? And what impact does this

210003_101_C01.indd 7 7/23/08 4:10:14 PM

 8 difference have on our relationships with nature and the
self?
No Mind
101 We are different from other animals because we have
developed an ego that processes everything in terms of it-
Mind self. Everything we do is based on how we have been con-
ditioned to see the world. And we analyze everything,
both consciously and unconsciously, in terms of our ex-
pectations, intentions, anticipations, hopes, desires, wor-
ries, prejudices, and motivations.
We have developed these ltering channels through
nature and nurture. When we think we are in control
and we think we know what we really want, we need to
think again. Because of the I lter, what we think we
want is an illusion. In fact, we are acting and reacting au-
tomatically to what we perceive as reality, and we make
choices based on what we have been conditioned to be-
lieve about this reality.
Daniel Wegner, professor of psychology at Harvard
University, discusses the illusion of the I as follows:

Conscious will is the minds compass ... The experience

of consciously willing action occurs as the result of an
interpretive system, a course-sensing mechanism that
examines the relations between our thoughts and ac-
tions and responds with I willed this when the two
correspond appropriately. This experience thus serves
as a kind of compass, alerting the conscious mind
when actions occur that are likely to be the result of
ones own agency. The experience of will is therefore an
indicator, one of those gauges on the control panel to
which we refer as we steer. (Wegner, 2002)

HOW THE ILLUSION OF I GIVES US IDENTITY

As we evolved, we developed a mental lter that allowed

us to interpret our thoughts and emotions as the I, the
self, the ego. We also developed a sense of individuality
that separated us from the people in our families and in
society, emphasizing how we are different from everyone
else. In addition, our egos falsely place us at the center of

210003_101_C01.indd 8 6/6/08 1:44:52 PM

 the universe, causing us to believe that everything and 9
everyone revolves around us. Because of that, we look at
Chapter 1
the world in terms of us versus everything else and we re-
main fragmented. Our
Though the I evolved as a ltering mechanism to Natural
Filter
protect us from getting overwhelmed by unnecessary
The I
information, it also caused the development of a sense of
individuality, so that we could relate everything to our
selves. This gave rise to our competitive nature, our de-
sire to climb the ladder of success as far as we can go,
and our need to be right in any given situation. We learn
the centrality of the I in second grade: There must be a
pronoun and a verb in the sentence, I am playing ten-
nis. The I gets attached to all of our actions.
Unfortunately, the I also continually needs to defend
itself against perceived threats. When that happens, we
act in unbecoming ways; we become greedy, hateful,
hurtful, even evil.
Such harmful thoughts and actions are triggered by
our perceptions of reality, which are inuenced by our
own egos. As individuals, we often fail to see that our de-
cisions to act in some way are nothing but reactions to
what we have been conditioned to believe.
Zen master Huang Po, who wrote in the ninth century
CE, explains this phenomenon:

In reality, there is nothing to be grasped (perceived, at-

tained, conceived, etc.), even not-grasping cannot be
grasped. So it is said: there is nothing to be grasped!
We simply teach you how to understand your Self-
nature [Spiritual Awareness] ... When we talk of the
knowledge I may gain, the learning I may achieve,
my intuitive understanding, my deliverance from
rebirth, and my moral way of living, our successes
make these concepts seem pleasant to us. But our fail-
ures make them appear deplorable. What is the use of
all that? I advise you to remain uniformly quiescent
and above all activity. Do not deceive yourselves with
conceptual thinking, and do not look anywhere for
the Truth. For all that is needed is to refrain from

210003_101_C01.indd 9 6/6/08 1:44:53 PM

 10 allowing concepts to arise. It is obvious that mental
concepts and external perceptions are equally mis-
No Mind leading. (Blofeld, 1958)
101

Mind
HOW WE SEE THE WORLD THROUGH THE I

We have developed the I to deal with the world around

us. In all aspects of our livespersonal, business, sports,
stress management, relationships, educationwe accept
that we have to have an I that relates to both the exter-
nal and the internal worlds.
We perceive and interpret these worlds according to
the development and conditioning of our very own I. It
is as much a fact of neuroscience as it is of ancient Zen
psychology: Our I lters our views of the world.
It is impossible for us to see the world as it really is
until we learn how to remove the lterthis is one re-
ward of practicing No Mind. If we do not perceive reality
directly, then we are essentially only imagining what we
see. It is our conditioned response to these external
and internal worlds that Edward Conze, one of the great
Buddhist translators of the twentieth century, called
imaginations.
Conze writes:

When people are tied down by a sense object they cover

it with unreal imaginations. Likewise, they are liber-
ated from it when they see it as it really is. The sight of
one and the same object may attract one person, repel
another, and leave a third indifferent. A fourth may be
moved to withdraw gently from it. Hence the sense ob-
ject itself is not the decisive cause of either bondage or
emancipation. It is the presence or absence of imagina-
tions which determines whether attachment takes place
or not. The onrush of sense experiences must be shut
out with the sluice gate of mindfulness. (Conze, 1959)

When we study the six factors and the secrets of

No Mind, we will learn how mindfulness, or aware-
ness training, allows us to retreat from the I and to

210003_101_C01.indd 10 6/6/08 1:44:53 PM

 see a reality that is not based on our perceptions of the 11
world.
Chapter 1
People interpret reality differently; what is right for
one is not right for another. A businessperson might be Our
frightened by a spider that fascinates a zoologist. Even Natural
Filter
though our experiences are identical, our perceptions
The I
are disparate because we have different sets of past
experiences.
As Conze indicates, mindfulness through the practice
of No Mind allows us to transcend our perceived reality,
to expand our awareness beyond the lters of the I, and
to see a reality unadulterated by our conditioning and
interpretation.

THE SYNAPTIC ASSOCIATIVE NETWORK OF THE I

The I denes us in terms of where we live, what we do,

who we are, what we believe, who our relatives are, where
we come from, what we can and cannot do, and so on. We
can be summarily categorized and identied in these ways
within a given social context. But we can function on a
much higher level without these I denitions. They en-
tangle us in an associative network of synaptic neuron
connections whose function is to process information
adapting and learning from our distinctive past patterns,
which makes us unique.
The brain, through its associative neural network, is
able to do many things at the same time. One of its main
functions is to protect us by ltering out unnecessary in-
formation and by defending us against external threats.
Through the associative neural network, we act, think,
and feel everything around us, and we also feel our in-
dividual selves.
The concept of identity, as constructed through this
innate biological mechanism, leads us to ask: Where does
the I really exist? Is there a location in the brain for it?
Or, as the ancient masters indicated, is the I nothing
more than a series of synaptic discharges taking place at
any given time?

210003_101_C01.indd 11 8/6/08 4:42:49 PM

 12 Joseph LeDoux, a world-renowned brain expert,
explains:
No Mind
101
And each time one of us is constructed, a different re-
Mind sult occurs. One reason for this is that we all start out
with a different set of genes; another is that we have
different experiences. Whats interesting about this
formulation is not that nature and nurture both con-
tribute to who we are, but that they actually speak the
same language. They both ultimately achieve mental
and behavioral effects by shaping the synaptic organi-
zation of the brain. The particular patterns of synaptic
connections in an individuals brain, and the informa-
tion encoded by these connections, are the keys to who
that person is. (LeDoux, 2003)

THE SHARED REALITY OF THE I

Even in the face of such questions about identity, the ego

refuses to destroy itself or to face its unreality. An analo-
gous example is Hal, the computer in the lm 2001: A
Space Odyssey. Hal gained control of the spaceship and
became attached to his position of power. Much like the
ego, or I, Hal wanted to stay in control, protecting itself
by the humans aboard the spaceship.
Zen masters would say that recognizing the Hal on
board is the rst step toward achieving non-dualistic
spiritual awareness, or accepting the true reality of na-
ture. We need to expand our awareness beyond the con-
ditioned reality that we share with othersa reality that
stems from the limitations of the Iand realize that
there is another dimension.
Research psychologist Robert Ornstein has this to say:

It is the function of sensory systems, then, by their phys-

iological design to reduce the amount of useless and
irrelevant information reaching us and to serve as selec-
tion systems. The information input through the senses
seems to be gathered for the primary purpose of bio-
logical survival ... Our agreement on reality is subject to
common shared limitations that evolved to ensure the
biological survival of the race. (Ornstein, 1972)

210003_101_C01.indd 12 6/6/08 1:44:53 PM

 In other words, we lter our reality through our 13
learned and socially conditioned beliefs of what reality
Chapter 1
should be. Our shared understanding of reality is con-
structed in this way, so that we see what we need to see in Our
order to survive as members of a collectivity dealing with Natural
Filter
a harsh environment. Our perceptual systems are trained
The I
to perceive the elements in our specic environment that
are most imperative to survival. In modern society, for
the more fortunate, these elements could be money, fame,
success, status; while for the less fortunate, it could be
simply making ends meet. Our habituated conceptions of
what reality should be limit our ability see new possibili-
ties when they arise.
When we free ourselves from our preconceived ideas,
we will have transcended the I and discovered a new
reality.

HOW WE ALTER REALITY TO SUIT THE I

If we dont relinquish the minds natural lter, the ensu-

ing illusions might cause us to see nonexistent threats.
When that occurs, we sometimes end up lying to protect
ourselves or our families.
For example, a mathematician friend might say, Oh,
I heard your son is having trouble in school. Is there any-
thing I can do to help? You, however, feel the need to de-
fend your sons reputation, so you lie, No, hes doing ne,
really! In reality, your friend was just concerned about
your sons well-being. By becoming defensive, you might
have kept your son from getting the help he needed.
No matter how seriously we look at such defensive re-
actions, we are defending an illusion. The only threat is
to our ego.

Imagining oneself as a conscious agent means that

conscious intention, action, and will must each be in
place for every action. Intention and action imply will;
intention and will imply action; and action and will
imply intention. An ideal agent has all three. Putting
these parts in place, it seems, involves constructing all

210003_101_C01.indd 13 6/6/08 1:44:54 PM

 14 the distortion of reality required to accommodate the
birth of an ego ... our sense of being a conscious agent
No Mind who does things comes at a cost of being technically
101
wrong all the time. The feeling of doing is how it seems,
Mind not what it isbut rather is as it should be. All is well
because the illusion makes us human. (Wegner, 2002)

The I does indeed make us human, but we pay the

price in terms of stress, poor performance, isolation and
fragmentation, and an altered reality. We expend an
amazing amount of energy to protect the I. We plan,
plot, conceive, retaliate, move, ally, and gain recognition
all to preserve the I. We are continually trying to modify
the world around us to t our own views of it:

We do not refer to our own experience, but to our over-

whelming legacy of the conceptualizations of others.
Instead of occupying our innite talents in procuring
our few simple needs, or in molding and weaving the
Earth as do the lilies of the eld, we are endlessly cor-
recting and tampering with the world, and perhaps, in
our explosive exploitation, only making it worse. How
can we do otherwise? For if our actions derive ultimately
from our beliefs, i.e., our concepts, we are forever ma-
nipulating a world which we do not directly perceive
and therefore cannot know. (Brooks, 1974)

The ancient masters knew that we must detach our-

selves from the I to become more effective at what we
do. We simply must ow with life. To know the external
world as it really is, we need to perceive it free of the I
lteror at least we need to perceive it more mindfully
and less mindlessly. Our efforts to dominate the environ-
ment and other people, all in the name of the I, actually
hinder understanding the real nature of realitythe
source of Nature.
We have more sophisticated cities and technology
than ever, better opportunities for nancial growth, bet-
ter education, and access to better healthcare. Yet, be-
cause we often overlook our essential link to Nature, or
the pursuit of spiritual awareness, we are left empty and
fragmented.

210003_101_C01.indd 14 6/6/08 1:44:54 PM

 THE INSATIABLE NEEDS OF THE I 15

The I is like a bottomless urn. Whatever you put in just Chapter 1

ows out. So the urn is always empty and you have to re- Our
ll it constantly with something new and better. Even Natural
people who have the money to buy anything they want Filter
The I
often feel that they are unhappy and missing something.
In addition, over half the people in the world suffer
from severe stress and anxiety, sleep disorders, and stress-
related health issues, such as cancer and heart attacks,
because of the constant pressure to ll a void in their lives
and to keep pace with everyone else.
The society we have created by trying to quench the
needs of the I has treated us well on the surface. But in-
side we long for tranquility, understanding, and unity
with Nature. We get what we think we need from the
world around us, but we cannot get what we really crave
inside: a sense of inner completeness and fulllment.
Thats because from a young age we are trained to be-
lieve that we always need something else to make us whole.
For example, advertisements tell us how incomplete we are
because we do not have a certain product; so, we constantly
want more and more. But what if there were a way to live
in a society with a different perspectivedifferent from the
perspective of the I? What if we were able to live with the
same perspective that gave the ancient masters insight into
the reality of Nature and the dualistic structure of our
mindsthe effect of the I?
We have to stop behaving like automatons. According
to Abraham Maslow, the late president of the American
Psychological Association, expanding our awareness helps
us become healthier people:

To the extent that we try to master the environment

or be effective with it, to that extent do we cut the
possibility of full, objective, detached, non-interfering
cognition. Only if we let it be, can we perceive fully.
Again, to cite psychotherapeutic experience, the more
eager we are to make a diagnosis and a plan of ac-
tion, the less helpful do we become. The more eager
we are to cure, the longer it takes. Every psychiatric

210003_101_C01.indd 15 6/6/08 1:44:54 PM

 16 researcher has to learn not to try to cure, not to be
impatient. In this and in many other situations, to
No Mind give in is to overcome, to be humble is to succeed.
101
The Taoists and Zen Buddhists taking this path were
Mind able a thousand years ago to see what we psycholo-
gists are only beginning to be aware of ... But most
important is my preliminary nding that this kind
of cognition of the Being (B-cognition) of the world
is found more often in healthy people and may even
turn out to be one of the dening characteristics of
health (Maslow, 1968).

THE BENEFITS OF NO MIND EVEN WITHOUT

ENLIGHTENMENT
The practice of No Mind is not intended to make you give
up any of your I denitions. It is designed to help you
detach from them and from the identity they constitute,
so that you can see reality as it truly is, not how you think
it should be. To fulll your potential as a human being,
you need to restructure the dualistic nature of this web of
denitions (explained in detail in No Mind 301, The Ten
Paradoxes). You need to move into a non-dualistic per-
spective that is free of these denitions.
While this might sound overwhelming, it is doable.
The ancient masters proved this several thousand years
ago. The medical and scientic communities have re-
cently conrmed that it is possible to move into this
non-dualistic perspective. You do not need to be a mas-
ter to benet from the techniques of No Mind. Millions
of people have already successfully followed the path
and discovered many health-related and psychological
benets.
By practicing the No Mind techniques, you will be re-
newed internally, gain a new perspective, acquire the
ability to achieve peak performance in everything you do,
andmost importantbegin to see outside the tidy I
box. You will begin to see beyond the conditioned reality
entrenched in your synaptic map by your past experi-
ences and genes.

210003_101_C01.indd 16 6/6/08 1:44:54 PM

 The I lters the external world through this associa- 17
tive neural network. We describe and conceptualize every-
Chapter 1
thing in terms of our learned language and acquired
knowledge. Yet, this is understanding reality only in terms Our
of what we have learned, not in terms of what it really is. Natural
Filter
The ancient Buddhist scriptures say:
The I
Wordiness and Intellectionthe more with them, the
further astray we go. Away therefore with wordiness
and intellection, and there is no place where we cannot
pass freely. (Conze, 1959)

In this sense, we manufacture the external world in

our minds. Obviously, we need the ve senses and their
associated neural pathways to deliver information to the
brain, so that we can interpret what we encounter. Then
we can act on it: The mind is a system that produces ap-
pearances for its owner ... The mind creates this continu-
ous illusion; it really doesnt know what causes its own
actions (Wegner, 2002).
Our ego and perceptual ltering mechanism segment
the world, categorizing specic events into groups and
relationships to help us understand, act, and react to
those events quickly and efciently.
Our awareness of the external world and of the ac-
tions and reactions required of us at any particular
moment is vital to the difference between living freely
and living as automatons. You might not realize that
sometimes you act as an automaton. And you might
think that you have free will and that you are in
charge of your destiny. But as you explore and learn
the techniques of No Mind, you will realize that you
have been conditioned to mechanically act, think, and
feel in certain ways.

A Fresh, Direct Reality

One of the benets of No Mind is the ability to see a fresh,
unmediated reality. Imagine how fresh our perception
was when we were born, when we opened our eyes to the
things around us in those rst few days. We had not yet

210003_101_C01.indd 17 6/6/08 1:44:55 PM

 18 acquired a fully functioning ltering mechanism or any
information framing our understanding of the world
No Mind
101 around us. We had, for the most part, pure vision, pure
hearing, pure taste, pure smell, and pure touch.
Mind Each moment of awareness was subject to a new in-
terpretation or no interpretation; it just happened in its
purest form. Imagine a world that we could not dene, as
we normally do, in terms of acquired beliefs and condi-
tioning. Learning about the world is important, but being
dened by what we have learned of the world is a trap.
In other words, we have been conditioned to act and
react in certain ways, but how we dene ourselves (in
terms of our acting and reacting and our interpretation
of our perceptions) is not reality; it is simply the con-
struction of our life-world. But this life-world is not
necessarily an accurate reection of what is really hap-
pening in the world around us; it is only what we have
learned to see through our brains ltering mechanism,
which distorts reality. We need to learn to see through
this screen so we can live in the moment.
So we need to return to the uncontaminated percep-
tion and spontaneous action of the newborn, while re-
taining the information we have accumulated in the
course of our past experiences. The balance between our
experience of pure awareness, or Clear Attention, and
our understanding of the world allows us to continue to
function in society.
Without the lter of the I, perception and action
can occur naturally, more spontaneously (as explained
in No Mind 301, The Ten Paradoxes). The secret of peak
performance, health, and spiritual awareness is to learn
to live without the illusion of the I. As we become fa-
miliar with the techniques and applications of No Mind,
we will learn the concept of attachment and its effects on
our life and behavior, as well as seeing reality as it is
from the perspective of a detached, passive awareness:

For cognition to be complete, I have shown that it must

be detached, disinterested, desireless, unmotivated.
Only thus are we able to perceive the object in its own

210003_101_C01.indd 18 6/6/08 1:44:55 PM

 nature with its own objective, intrinsic characteristics 19
rather than abstracting it down to what is useful,
what is threatening, etc. (Maslow, 1968) Chapter 1

Our
Seeing reality as it is requires the pure awareness of a Natural
newborn. When we develop pure awareness, we simply Filter
become aware of the things around us. Because we now The I
perceive this information directly, not through the lter
of the I, our actions and reactions are no longer manip-
ulated by what we have been conditioned to believe.
In The Ego and Mystic Selessness, Professor Herbert
Fingarette explains this further:

Consistent with our inference is the mystics statement

that enlightened meditation is (observing) things in the
phenomenal world, yet (dwelling) in emptiness. Per-
ception is present, but, it comes as it will to a mind that
is empty, i.e., without compulsive stereotyped modes
of perceiving and thinking. (Fingarette, 1958)

Granted, it is very difcult to understand how we can

achieve pure awareness when we are perpetually con-
ned in the I cage. We are consumed by our lives, our
selves, our families, our work, our friends, and our com-
munities. We are like overlled glasses that cannot hold
any more water. We need all the mental energy and re-
sources we have just to deal with our daily routines and
problems.
The I is being tugged at from many directions, and
we are bombarded by advertising that tells us how inad-
equate we are and what we need to do to lead fuller,
happier lives. This is why it is so vital to integrate the
practice of No Mind in our daily lives and in our health-
related and spiritual practices. Through the techniques
of No Mind, we achieve peak performance in all aspects
of our livesan outcome that is documented through-
out this program.
The minds of the ancient masters were not constantly
assailed by mass media. But they had other problems, in-
cluding war, death, incurable diseases, and food short-
ages. They had to focus their energies on the mind even

210003_101_C01.indd 19 6/6/08 1:44:55 PM

 20 as they dealt with these problems. While the threats to
the survival and to the well-being of the ancient masters
No Mind
101 were different from those we face today, their minds
worked as ours do; hence, ancient Eastern philosophical
Mind truths about reality apply today as much as they did thou-
sands of years ago. They are timeless, as is the No Mind
program.
Seeing reality directly, undistorted by the lter of the
I, has another benet: the ability to play, or to function
at a better-than-ever level. Unconstrained by precon-
ceived expectations, we can once again play in the world,
as children do. If we let ourselves play like children again,
we will do our best in business, sports, education, and re-
lationships. We will be able to do this when we have mas-
tered bypassing our ltering mechanism. We will be less
inhibited, more intuitive, more intelligent, less stressed,
and outside the I box.

Distinguishing Awareness from Mind

Still another benet of the No Mind approach is spirit-
ual awareness: the ability to understand and experience
pure awareness. For most of us, living day-to-day causes
confusion and the loss of touch with our spiritual aware-
ness. The No Mind techniques enable us to reconnect
with it.
In his authoritative History of Indian Philosophy, The
Hindu philosopher S. N. Dasgupta notes:

All mental operations involve this confusion, by which

they usurp the place of the principle of pure conscious-
ness so that it is only the mind and the mental oper-
ations of thought, feeling, willing, which seem to be
existing, while the ultimate principle of consciousness
is lost sight of. If we call this ultimate principle of con-
sciousness, this true self, spirit, and designate all our
functions of knowing, feeling, and willing collectively
as mind, then we may say that it is only by a strange
confusion of mind with spirit that the mind comes to
the forefront and by its activities seems to obscure the
true light of the spirit ... The spirit, the ultimate principle

210003_101_C01.indd 20 6/6/08 1:44:55 PM

 of consciousness, and the self are one and the same 21
thing. The three terms expressing the threefold aspect
of its nature. (Dasgupta, 1927) Chapter 1

Our
There are three parts to spiritual awareness: the spirit, Natural
the principle of consciousness, and the true self. Essen- Filter
tially, they are all the same. But we tend to confuse mind The I
with pure awareness. There are many reasons for this:
the natural lter of the I, our dualistic nature, seeing
everything as a detached identity, and our codependent
interpretation of the world. In other words, we make
sense of the world as we perceive it, and if it does not
make sense, we are confused. We do not have the neces-
sary training to look at the world with pure awareness;
we have been conditioned to always apply meaning to
everything.
These aspects of the mind have been studied for gen-
erations, and their effects on our perception of reality are
well documented. We know that we dene things in terms
of prior knowledge, and we also know that this process
takes millisecondsfrom one thought to the next.
When we try to dene ourselves, our awareness of
ourselves is caught in a chain of thoughts, each thought
sprouting from the previous one, and their sequence
ashes through the brain so quickly that we are left
with the illusion of a selfan identity. When you have
learned to slow down and to watch the mind, with-
out the diversion of thoughts, you realize that the self
is an illusion. More than realize it, you experience it
directly.
The masters knew it was simple to observe the mind
once certain illusions were dismantled; they also under-
stood that the process required practice and patience.
They emphasized the simplicity of enlightenment, or
Satori: the rst awakening. But no matter how hard they
explained this simple idea, most of their disciples pur-
sued more complex answers and subsequently drifted
farther and farther from realizing the simple truth that
the self was an illusion and that pure awareness was their
spiritual core.

210003_101_C01.indd 21 6/6/08 1:44:55 PM

 22 GETTING TO ENLIGHTENMENT
No Mind Creating enlightenment is like making water wetone
101
cannot do it because water is already wet. Just as water is
Mind already wet, enlightenment already exists. Enlighten-
ment is awareness of the true nature of the universe, pure
spiritual awareness. We are already enlightenedwe
simply have not realized it yet, just as water is not aware
of its wetness.
The ultimate paradox involves using our intellect to
search for something that cannot be grasped through the
cognitive mind; this task has puzzled many for thousands
of years. Because the mind cannot understand pure
awareness, awareness must be experienced without the
intellect.
How can a thought see its own source? To see the
source of the thought, we must become aware of the
thought from a point outside it. You cannot seek mind
with mind, you must seek mind from the perspective of
pure awareness, or No Mind. You must jettison all at-
tachments until there is nothing but pure awareness.
No Mind techniques enable us to understand how
to simply watch a thought and how to separate aware-
ness from the intellect. We can learn to stop the mind
from rationalizing the process of seeking enlighten-
ment. And in doing so, we bridge the gap between
knowing what we are sure of and the unknown of en-
lightenment. When we leap into the abyss and let go
of what we know, we nd the unknown and the path to
pure awareness.
When we use intellect to comprehend the analytical
aspects of the mind, we get nowhere, even though we
expend a lot of energy. Its much like a mouse running
on a wheelhe runs and runs, but when he stops, hes
still where he started. This lack of progress challenges
our sense of ourselves, or the I. And this doubt can
stop the wheel in a ash, because it pushes us past intel-
lect and into enlightenment. This doubt feeds our quest
for the true nature of enlightenment. We wonder what
enlightenment is: Is it this? Or is it that? Yet we never

210003_101_C01.indd 22 6/6/08 1:44:56 PM

 know until doubt explodes into truth. It is like a rubber 23
band that gets stretched and stretched until it nally
Chapter 1
snaps.
In realizing enlightenment, there is no loss of self: Our
You do not lose everything you have become and identi- Natural
Filter
ed with. You lose nothing, yet nothing will ever be the
The I
same. The minds mechanisms are not negative, just as
your I is not negative. These are natural cognitive proc-
esses, and they exist for evolutionary reasons. But we also
have the ability to reach a level of spiritual awareness
where we are viscerally aware of our essential spiritual
aspectsthe direct awareness of the essential aspects of
Nature. In enlightenment, awareness is the only univer-
sal constant.
Usually, our intellects are enough to get us through
the day, but they are not enough to help us achieve the
goal of Total Mental Fitness. Therefore, we need to learn
a different way to jettison the lter of the I and to
achieve pure awareness. With No Mind, an entirely dif-
ferent world of limitless possibilities awaits:

Finally, just to make sure that the point is not missed,

I want to emphasize (1) that the looking within for
the real Self is a kind of subjective biology, for it
must include an effort to become conscious of ones
own constitutional, temperamental, anatomical, physio-
logical and biochemical needs, capacities and reac-
tions, i.e., ones biological individuality. But then
(2), however paradoxical this may sound, it is also
simultaneously the path to experiencing ones spe-
cieshood, ones commonness with all other members
of the human species. That is, it is a way to expe-
riencing our biological brotherhood with all human
beings no matter what their external circumstances.
(Maslow, 1968)

When we understand and experience our species-

hood, we reach spiritual awareness. By looking within,
the ancient masters discovered what many psycholo-
gists, neuroscientists, and other scholars have discove-
red through modern technology and research. Ancient

210003_101_C01.indd 23 7/24/08 5:52:18 PM

 24 masters and scientists may label concepts differently, and
they might have different working theories, but their
No Mind
101 conclusions are essentially the same: The lter of the I,
or who we think we are, limits our perceptions of reality,
Mind governs our actions and reactions, limits the potential
of the mind-body dynamic, reinforces our perception of
time, separates us in dualism, and causes many of the
psychosomatic problems we endure as individuals and as
a society.

FINDING HAPPINESS OUTSIDE THE BOX OF I

Understanding reality in terms of what we have learned

is limiting in many ways: it frames our ability to per-
form, act, react, and choose freely, without past or fu-
ture inuences. We are so conditioned to try as hard as
we can to succeed at most activities (from academics, to
sports, to relationships) that we become consumed by
our efforts.
When we fail, we experience shame, guilt, and re-
morse, or we feel disappointed. We push hard to keep up
with the Joneses; we feel humiliated and inferior when we
cannot, and we boast about it when we can. We perform
at work the way we think we are supposed to, yet some-
how whatever we do is never enough, so we constantly
struggle to succeed and to be happy.
People in all occupations and from all backgrounds
feel the need to succeed, and when they dont, they are
miserable. There are many wealthy, successful, and fa-
mous people who are not happy and who turn to drugs,
to alcohol, and to other destructive behaviors. They dont
seem to understand that money can never bring true hap-
piness, even if it brings comfort and convenience. Money
cannot resolve our intrinsic need to realize spiritual
awareness and deep contentment. Our only path to com-
plete fulllment is in discovering spiritual awareness and
shifting our perceptions to a non-dualistic approach: see-
ing reality as it really is, not the way our ltering mecha-
nism interprets it.

210003_101_C01.indd 24 6/6/08 1:44:56 PM

 The lure of material and social gains compels us to 25
pursue external sources of satisfaction, which cannot
Chapter 1
give us happiness. We need to understand true happiness
and freedom from a perspective that is outside the I. Our
In other words, within the connes of the I, we de- Natural
Filter
pend on something or someone else for our happiness,
The I
success, or freedom. When we think that we will be
happy with a new car or toy, then our happiness depends
on acquiring that new car or toy. We become dependent
on such acquisitions, and because our needs and expec-
tations constantly change, we are never really happy. Its
like being tossed by the waves of an ocean surface, never
truly understanding the profound bliss of the calm
below it.
As long as we continue to focus on the I, we will see
things only from that perspective. It is like a y caught in
a spider web: from inside the web, the y can only see
whatever is immediately around it because it is trapped
in the lament. We pity the y for being stuck in the web,
but is it not the spider that is really stuck in the web?
The y has known the freedom of ying everywhere
and experiencing many things. The spider has known
only the web; it is stuck. Society is like a spider that spins
a web. When we are young, we are like the roaming y,
free of the web, but soon we get entangled in the I con-
ditioned by society. We are trapped in the sticky web of
our understanding of the self, which is nothing more than
an extension of our own I and of society, which is an
aggregation of the many Is that make up our commu-
nity. When we are trapped in our individual and social
webs, we are conned by our limited vision and by the
limits of our intellect that constantly interprets reality for
us. We are limited by our own thoughts and by the reality
we share with society.
Although we are trapped in this web, we can use an-
cient techniques to release our awareness and to realize
that we have been stuck. We have the potential to look
around and to see what the masters have seen for thou-
sands of years. Then we can continue on our path.

210003_101_C01.indd 25 6/6/08 1:44:56 PM

 26 In The Self in Transformation, Fingarette reveals:
No Mind Liberation is achieved as a way of life and by means
101 of pragmatic, not theoretical communication, com-
Mind
munication oriented to the immediate context and
the particular person. It is not a question of proving
or disproving theories. Likewise, the psychoanalytic
therapist, as a therapist, is not primarily concerned
with establishing the truth of some general theory; he
is concerned to provide specic interventions which
enable the patient to undergo the experience with con-
current insight. (Fingarette, 1963)

Liberation through awareness is key to several psycho-

logical therapies. When we become aware of the minds
processes as such, we can control them. Developing and
training attention is the fundamental building block of
No Mind. Attention to the present moment, along with
attention to the stimuli from the senses, thoughts, and
feelings, leads to a new vision of ourselves and of the world.
In the practice of No Mind, we do not conceive, analyze, or
intellectualize the perceptions. The senses, thoughts, and
feelings simply exist on their own, of their own accord.
But how is that possible? How can the lter lter it-
self? This is a legitimate question. How can the I realize
no I? This feat is analogous to trying to lift yourself up
and carry yourself in the air. To realize No Mind, we must
learn to step outside the minds ltering mechanism,
although we do not really step out, or step anywhere for
that matter; there is just an awareness of stepping out.
In this way, we are no longer attached to any particular
perspective because the awareness does not cling to any
particular interpretation.
Sixteenth-century Zen master Takuan Soho says the
following:
The mind that becomes xed and stops in one place
does not function freely. Similarly, the wheels of a cart
go around because they are not rigidly in place. If they
were to stick tight, they would not go around. The mind
is also something that does not function if it becomes
attached to a single situation. (Soho, 1986)

210003_101_C01.indd 26 7/23/08 4:10:15 PM

 27
CHAPTER 1 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 1
BEFORE CONTINUING
Our
1. The ancient techniques of awareness training are Natural
the most important aspects of No Mind; Total Filter
The I
Mental Fitness is the fulllment of the mind-
body potential, achieving peak performance, and
the experiencing of spiritual awareness.
2. We develop awareness that the I lters and
modies our experience of the external and inter-
nal worlds. It obscures our essential link with Na-
ture and life. It is a fact of science, as well as of
ancient philosophy. It is a function of our sensory
systems, an aspect of our physiological design to
reduce the amount of useless and irrelevant
information.
3. Identifying with I creates a dualistic relation-
ship with the external world and causes us to
feel alienated from everything. Even most of
our spiritual beliefs are dualistic, thus preclud-
ing true, non-dualistic spiritual awareness. We
remain fragmented instead of becoming whole,
a piece of something, rather than the essence of
everything.
4. What we see of the external and internal worlds
is perceptually altered to t the image of what we
think they should be. We unconsciously lter re-
ality to t our needs. In addition to doing this in-
dividually, we also do it socially through shared
realities.
5. The I mindlessly seeks to fulll its expectations,
intentions, hopes, goals, and motivations, and it
is simultaneously affected by its conditioned anx-
ieties, worries, guilts, prejudices, hates, etc. The
I underpins our automatic behavior and con-
fuses the mind with awareness, limiting our natu-
ral capacity to experience No Mind.

210003_101_C01.indd 27 7/23/08 4:10:15 PM

 28

No Mind 6. The I is a self-protective mechanism that evolved

101 to lter, analyze, interpret, categorize, defend,
and associate in response to the world around it.
Mind
In this way, we also imagine our internal world.
We create the world in a way that is consistent
with our beliefs, expectations, and motivations
our life-world.
7. Recent studies and scientic-medical theory rec-
ognize the I is an illusion. We believe the I is a
conscious agent and we perceive it as an entity
that acts autonomously. Instead, it is a biologi-
cal mechanism and a social construct, and it gets
reality technically wrong.
8. The I is the product of our synaptic associative
network, which is conditioned through our indi-
vidual experiences and genes. These shape our
behavioral patterns, as they are literally encoded
in our neural connections.
9. No Mind is an ancient technique through which we
can modify and override the illusionary experience
of the I. We can develop pure awareness, which
allows us to play in the world again. We learn to
perceive from an objective, pure awareness.
10. As long as we are trapped in the I, happiness will
always depend on something or someone else.
We cannot be unconditionally happy without
experiencing pure awareness beyond the I box.

210003_101_C01.indd 28 6/6/08 1:45:00 PM

 EXERCISE 1: PRACTICING MINDFUL ATTENTION 29

Chapter 1

Our
Step 1: Being mindful of the perceptual lter Natural
Filter
This is an exercise in mindful association. The chart lists The I
25 words/objects intended to act as perceptual cues to
trigger responses. With a sheet of paper, cover all the
words below the rst word, so that you can only see the rst
word/object. Look at the rst word/object and immediately
write down the rst object, image, word, thought, or feeling
that comes into your mind. Then slide the paper down to
reveal the next word, write down your response, and so on.
The objective is to become aware (mindful) of the as-
sociation without thinking or analyzing the word. So
write down your rst answer in a split second. Do not
hesitate, just write it down and be mindful of it. This is
an exercise in training your attention to become aware of
what the mind is doing in different situationsin this
case, what it is doing with words/objects.
This is an easy exercise into looking simplistically at
the perceptual lter we have discussed. Typically, people
supply a multitude of different answers to the words. You
may have a single answer or several answers, but write
down your answers quickly, before you have a chance to
think about them. It is not a test and you cannot fail; it
is only a tool to help you learn to become aware of your
associations and responses.
When you have nished this exercise and practiced
the techniques you will learn in No Mind 301, The Ten
Paradoxes, revisit this exercise 30 days after you have
practiced the techniques of No Mind.

210003_101_C01.indd 29 6/6/08 1:45:02 PM

 30
Object Your rst thought, feeling, image
No Mind Love
101
Greed
Mind
Black
Desire
Death
Cockroach
White
Play
Evolution
Evil
Meditation
Karma
Spiritual
Attachment
Trying
Work
Water
Mirror
Pure
God
I
Tranquility
Prejudice
Worry
Intention

210003_101_C01.indd 30 6/6/08 1:45:03 PM

 The mind is not a passive spectator that observes reality
objectively. Each of us has an I that processes reality and
presents it to us as the I has been conditioned to interpret
it. In other words, we see the world as the I presents it
to us. The conditioned I is founded on assumption and
imagination that lter and modify our experience of the
outside world. This obscures our image of the immediate
reality, so that we cannot fully experience the moment and
act and interact with it freely.

This illusory world of the mind usurps our free will. In

fact, many scientists now refer to free will as free wont.
We become aware of a reaction a full half-second after a
stimulus has been processed in the brain and an appropriate
course of action has been chosen, unconsciously. In other
words, we become aware of our reaction after the fact, and
now we have a choice to veto it or to stick with it.

210003_101_C02.indd 31 6/6/08 1:47:26 PM

 Chapter 2

The World
According to I

W e know the world only as a reection of our minds ex-

perience of it. When the mind reects the world, it func-
tions analogously to a dusty mirror. The dust is accumulated over
the years by our ltering and interpretive mechanism, which de-
termines our understanding of what we have come to know as
our world. Since each of us interprets the experience of the
world differently, the dust patterns vary across mirrors. How the
mind reects the world depends on the thickness of the dust cover.
But even if we are dealing with a very thin lm of dust, our minds
will not reect the world as clearly as they would if they were dust-
free. So the mind-mirror no longer reects the world as clearly
as it once did. And if the mirror becomes slightly warped or bent,
the reection becomes even less accurate.
We all see the same things, understand the same things, hear
the same things, taste the same things, feel the same things, and
smell the same things. But we all have relatively different interpre-
tations of these things. Our conditioning, experience, and genetics
32

210003_101_C02.indd 32 6/6/08 1:47:27 PM

 distort the real nature of the world, favoring subjective 33
perception based on the egos habits and preferences. We
Chapter 2
see what we want to see or need to see, not what is really
there. The World
Indian scholar Sri Aurobindo denes the ego in terms According
to I
of Yogic philosophy:

If one were embarrassed by the word spirit, then think

of spirit as the subtlest form of matter, but if one is not
embarrassed by the word spirit, then one can think of
matter as the deepest form of Spirit ... The ego is by its
nature a smallness of Being; it brings contraction of
the consciousness, and with the contraction limitation
of knowledge, disabling ignorance, connement and a
diminution of power. And by that diminution incapac-
ity and weakness, scission of oneness, and by that scis-
sion disharmony and failure of sympathy and love and
understanding, inhibition or fragmentation of delight
of being, and by that fragmentation pain and sorrow.
To recover what is lost we must break out of the worlds
of ego. The ego must either disappear in impersonality
or fuse into a larger I. (Ghose, 1955)

OUR SELF-LIMITING INTERPRETATIONS

The I sets a boundary between us and the social and

natural worlds in which we live. We not only become dif-
ferent from everything else, which is natural and accept-
able, but we lose ourselves in the difference.
When two people taste vanilla ice cream, one may say,
This is the best vanilla Ive ever had; its incredible. The
other may say, I dont like vanilla. Id rather have choco-
late. Why? Assuming our taste buds are all pretty much
built the same way physiologically, why does one person
love the taste of vanilla, while the other dislikes it?
Our likes and dislikes certainly make us unique, and
they allow ice-cream manufacturers to sell more ice
cream and to have fun creating a variety of avors for dif-
ferent tastes. We do not need to go into detail; we just
need to acknowledge that difference across people is
natural.

210003_101_C02.indd 33 6/6/08 1:47:28 PM

 34 However, we really need to clearly understand how the
sense organs interpret information. It is not necessary to
No Mind
101 employ neuroscience or physiology; what matters is to
acknowledge that although we all have the same sensory
Mind organs, we still experience the world differently through
them.
Where do these differences come from? Well, they can
be explained in terms of both nurture and nature. In
other words, they are the product of our learned experi-
ences and of our DNA. A large part of who we areand
why we like the things we likeis based on what we have
been conditioned to like and dislike by our families, peers,
mentors, communities, and society. But we are also born
with a certain genetic makeup that makes us different
from others.
For example, we may not like vanilla ice cream because
no one in our family likes vanilla and we never have vanilla
ice cream in our home (hence, it tastes foreign to us). But
we might detest vanilla ice cream because we are allergic to
the vanilla beanan allergy shared by our parents.
Even basic needs and motives play a part in height-
ening perceptual readiness to environmental cues, so
that it is easier to detect what we are looking for (Aarts,
Dijksterhuis, & De Vries, 2001).
We learn how to interpret the information we receive
from our senses; we learn through association and condi-
tioning what we like and what we dislike. Intuitively, we
all understand that there are differences in taste and that
people like different things based on many experiential
factors. Some people enjoy eating snails, while others are
repulsed by the thought. Some people enjoy trying new
things, while others stick with the familiar. Perhaps there
is too much dust on the mind-mirrors of people who are
averse to trying something different. Removing the dust
reveals new realities.
The point is that people interpret the same stimuli dif-
ferently. Because of this, we can treat these interpreta-
tions as the products of different worldsour worlds of
the I created via nurture and nature, by experience and
genetics.

210003_101_C02.indd 34 6/6/08 1:47:29 PM

 The I, which constitutes our identities, is the aspect 35
of our mental lives that causes us to interpret the same
Chapter 2
stimuli in different ways. We claim ownership of our
interpretationsI like vanilla, not chocolate. We iden- The World
tify with the interpretations, become attached to them, According
to I
and even defend them, if neededI dont understand
how people can like chocolate, when vanilla is so much
better.
Interpretations may be learned, acquired through
modeling or association, or experienced. We acquire them
automatically in the brain, through a process that has
been mapped out by neuroscientists. The sense of taste,
for example, is a response to incoming stimuli that are
analyzed and interpreted in milliseconds by the brains
neurons. And brain cells have certain electrical and
chemical conductivity that determines the rate at which
a neuron cell res.

A cells intrinsic properties, which may have a strong

genetic component, will greatly inuence everything
that cell does, including its participation in synaptic
transmission. But because psychological and behavio-
ral functions are mediated by aggregates of cells joined
by synapses and working together rather than by indi-
vidual neurons in isolation, the contribution of intrin-
sic properties of a cell to mental life or behavior occurs
only by way of the role of that cell in circuits. While
synapses themselves dont account for everything the
brain does, they do participate crucially in every act or
thought that we have, and in every emotion we express
and experience. Synapses are ultimately the key to the
brains functions, and thus to the self. (LeDoux, 2003)

The Effect of Interpretation on Our Perception

Given the brains inherent physiological ability to associ-
ate, categorize, and discriminate perceptions in millisec-
onds, all subjective experiences depend on what the I
has learned. For example, someone who sits down to
sample a new serving of food may say, I like thisthis is
really good; what is this? When the cook says, Its

210003_101_C02.indd 35 6/6/08 1:47:29 PM

 36 snails, the diner retorts, Oh my, I cant believe I just ate
snails. Theyre disgusting. In seconds, the food went
No Mind
101 from tasting really good to being disgusting. The taste
buds liked the snails before the new information was
Mind analyzed and ltered through the I.
Once the diner placed snails into a categoryi.e., snails
are disgustingthen the diners interpretation of how the
snails tasted changed. It is difcult to understand how we
can interpret, then misinterpret, and then reinterpret all
over again, altering our perceptions in the process. Through
it all, the taste of the snails is the same; the avor changes
only because of each new interpretation.
That is a very important point: The experience of the
perception is altered by the interpretation of the experi-
ence. We experience the world not as it really is, but
through the mind-mirror and the dust of previous experi-
ences and conditioning. Just as the light reecting from
the mirror is dimmed, our experience of the world is ob-
scured. Intentions, expectations, and motivations, for the
most part created by what the I has been conditioned to
believe, represent the dust on the mind-mirror and com-
promise our experiences of the world.
Psychologist Guy Claxton makes this point:
This inhibiting effect of intention certainly has its par-
allels in everyday life. The phenomena of not being
able to see for looking, or of trying too hard, are com-
monplace. Perhaps the presence of a strong intention
locks consciousness too rmly into a predetermined
framework of plans and expectations, so that other in-
formation, which could potentially be useful or even
necessary, is relegated to unconscious processes of
perception, where it is, in these cases, ignored. Inten-
tion drives conscious attention, to the detriment, some-
times, of intelligence. (Claxton, 2000)

Depending on its intensity, intention alters our per-

ceptions and causes us to react to situations automati-
cally, without recognizing what is really going on. In
other words, we react mindlessly, and our mindless reac-
tions narrow our perceptions.

210003_101_C02.indd 36 6/6/08 1:47:30 PM

 As long as we do not know we are eating snails, we 37
like them. When we know what they are, we instantly dis-
Chapter 2
like them. So who tastes the snails? Who is really doing
the interpreting? Can we say the I tastes the snails? Or The World
is there just a taste of snails? According
to I
In this case, as in so many others, we do not need to
attribute the taste to the I. So how do we overcome the
accumulated experiences and learning, which cause us to
react mindlessly? The solution is in removing awareness
from the maze of the I. We have to learn to perceive the
world as it really is, not as we have been conditioned to
see it. This issue is of particular interest to researchers in
the eld of cognitive neuroscience.
In one study on focused attention:
Seeing the world around you is like drinking from a
re hose. The ood of information that enters the eyes
could easily overwhelm the capacity of the visual sys-
tem. To solve this problem, a mechanismattention
allows selective processing of the information relevant
to current goals ... we are not passive recipients of the
information that washes over our sensory receptors,
but active participants in our process of perception.
(Kanwisher & Downing, 1998)

OUR CODEPENDENT REALITY

Our reality exists in a codependent relationship with our

learned understanding of it. We understand reality as
we have learned to interpret it, not as it really is. This
codependent relationship solidies as we mature.
We can recognize that one person loves Beethoven,
while another prefers modern jazz. We can acknowledge
that one person loves the fragrance of a certain perfume,
while another cannot tolerate it. What feels good to one
person may feel terrible to another. What makes two peo-
ple compatible is their ability to interpret each others
Is objectively and correctly. Recognizing and acknowl-
edging certain behavioral or cognitive patterns in a ro-
mantic partner allows us to enjoy their sense of humor
even if it is not quite our cup of tea.

210003_101_C02.indd 37 6/6/08 1:47:30 PM

 38 So we acknowledge a fundamental aspect of human
cognition: Our mind creates our experiences and inter-
No Mind
101 pretations of the world. When we introspect, we realize
that the world we know is not reality.
Mind
Perception is essentially a process of pattern detec-
tion and completion, driven by response desirability
and capability. Learning is essentially a developmen-
tal process of pattern attunement, driven by success
or failure of preconditions ... perception is a habitual
processing mode that is acquired, and which can be
altered by practicewith direct and very benecial re-
sults. (Claxton, 1999)

ALTERING PERCEPTION

New studies using neuroimaging and behavioral assess-

ments suggest that perceptual awareness depends on
attention (Rees & Lavie, 2001) and that we can alter our
perceptions through attention training, or what the an-
cient masters called mindfulness.
When you remove awareness from the maze of the
I, you see a world that is clearer, cleaner, and more
objective (Claxton, 1999). When you practice No Mind,
you can begin to look at life mindfully, or with Clear
Attention.
Clear Attention, or CAt, means being objectively aware
of your actions, reactions, thoughts, emotions, and be-
haviors. It shifts your perception outside the web of the
I to an empty, unbiased awareness (see Figure 7-1). The
more you practice this, the longer you will be able to stay
in that mindful, clear space.
And an immediate benet of No Mind practice is that
you can learn pretty quickly how to choose to accept or
reject the actions of the I.

The Illusion of Free Will

Many of our responses are conditionedfree will is often
an illusion. For example, one study demonstrates that we
can change our behaviors if we know we are going to be

210003_101_C02.indd 38 6/6/08 1:47:30 PM

 praised for particular actions, but only if we understand 39
what is expected of us. In other words, when we know
Chapter 2
what the goal is, we become conditioned to affect it.
So if you know that your boss will say, Great job! The World
when you go above and beyond your normal duties, youll According
to I
do a great job to receive the bosss praise. Studies have
shown that control groups that expect praise do better
than the groups that dont expect it. Throughout our lives,
we have been conditioned by various kinds of verbal cues,
and we act according to those reinforcing cues.
At other times, our treasured goals can blind us to re-
ality. For example, if a millionaire threw gold nuggets on
his estate grounds and told the townspeople to come and
shovel around to nd it, people would think that they
were digging for gold, unaware that they were actually
spading a garden. (Spielberger & DeNike, 1966)
When we respond incorrectly to a certain situation,
we do so because of the way we have been conditioned
to respond to that situation. According to another study
on selective attention, what we need, what we expect,
and how we feel all determine what we select to perceive
in the environment. Experiments have shown that we
dont do well when we try to accomplish two things at
the same time. We decide what to notice based on how
we have learned to act in certain situations (Kastner &
Ungerleider, 2000).
So what we choose to pay attention to is directly re-
lated to the I in terms of what we feel we need, what
we expect we need, and what we think we need (see
matrix in Figure 7-1). And this, of course, is different for
everyone. In many cases, then, we act for the sake of
getting rewarded and in reaction to conditioned re-
sponses. In psychology, this is known as deterministic
behavior.

The Practice of Free Wont

Fortunately, we are not like Pavlovs dog, which salivated
at the sound of a whistle when it learned to associate it
with feeding time. We are not complete automatons; we

210003_101_C02.indd 39 6/6/08 1:47:30 PM

 40 have the potential to overcome automatic-action and
automatic-reaction responses made on autopilot, without
No Mind
101 any mindfulness (see Figure 7-1). Therein lies the essence
of free will, or, as some scientists now call it, free wont.
Mind A true choice is one made when we learn how to
choose freelythat is one of the benets of No Mind. But
rst we must understand who does the choosing and
what set of parameters determine our choices.
Are you really making the decisions? Did you choose
the vanilla ice cream, or was the choice already made
for you without your awareness? In the milliseconds it
takes to process thoughts in the brain, it might have
seemed like you chose vanilla. What made you say, I
like vanilla ice cream? Why did you make that choice?
It was the mental web of the I. Your choice was proc-
essed unconsciously by the associative neural network,
and you became aware of it half a second after it was
decided.
In several famous experiments, Benjamin Libet dis-
covered that the brain registers a stimulus and begins to
act on it before we become aware of it. Our awareness
of an action may occur up to 500 milliseconds, or half
second, after the action is initiated (Libet, 1999; Libet,
Wright, & Gleason, 1983). In other words, we begin to
take action before we even know that we are doing so.
And when we become aware of the action, we assume
that we made the choice about how to act. This assump-
tion is part of the illusion of the I. We didnt choose
anything; we only responded the way we had been con-
ditioned to respond.
The assumption of choice is an illusion. The concept
of free will has been reframed by the scientic commu-
nity in terms of free wont: When we become aware of
an action or reaction, we have the ability to veto it in
favor of an alternative; that is, we can exercise free wont.
The veto option is available equally to novice and expert
practitioners of No Mind.
Studies indicate that when we try to act consciously,
action is delayed, which gives us more time to veto it once
it reaches our awareness. According to Libet, since the

210003_101_C02.indd 40 6/6/08 1:47:31 PM

 intention to act can take 500 milliseconds to activate the 41
muscles, this retained the possibility that the conscious
Chapter 2
will could control the outcome of the volitional process,
it could veto and block the performance of the act (Libet, The World
1999). According
to I
You can take advantage of the half-second delay to ex-
ercise free wont or to consciously stay on course with your
initial reaction. When you become aware of the action,
you can cancel it and select a different action, based on
another intention or expectation. In some cases, the delay
is helpful.

It should be of interest to the reader that many of the

worlds leading neuroscientists have not only accepted
our ndings and interpretations, but have even enthu-
siastically praised these achievements and their experi-
mental ingenuity ... The usefulness of a delay in the
appearance of sensory awareness is evident, in part, in
the phenomenon of psychic modication of the content
of a sensory experience. Freud and others in psychia-
try and psychology have recognized that the conscious
experience reported by a person may be quite altered
from the actual image or even completely repressed.
The delay of up to about 500ms provides a physiologi-
cal opportunity during which the individual can un-
consciously detect the nature of the image and generate
neural processes to alter the content of the conscious
experience. (Libet, 2002)

However, the I remains the source of these expectations

and intentions, and all actions and reactions that take
place in the brain automatically give us the feeling of
identity: I am doing this. This raises the question of
whether it is possible to get around the I at least in cer-
tain situations, when this would benet us more.
Since we automatically sense and perceive through a
series of autopilot mechanisms in the brain, this allows
for auto-action and auto-reaction to take place without
our being immediately aware of it. In professional sports,
for example, that delay could be the difference between
winning and losing.

210003_101_C02.indd 41 6/6/08 1:47:31 PM

 42 Closing the Half-Second Gap
No Mind If we need to take immediate action, as in sports, playing
101 an instrument, creative thinking, and public speaking,
Mind we must forsake thought for the sake of speed (Libet,
1992). We forego free wont to close the half-second
gap. Since the Is responses take place before we become
aware of them, we can act more directly and efciently
when we learn to trust them and let go.
For instance, in tennis or the martial arts, we must
react without even a split-second delay. Highly trained ath-
letes react without having to think about their responses.
When you are trained to respond correctly, you learn to
trust your responses without interfering with themyou
go with the ow. This is No Mind in action: acting without
over-thinking, which is closing the gap in the delay. This
type of action or reaction is natural; it is not something we
should or need to do to feel better about ourselves. It is
pure reaction through mindful awareness. It is objective,
with no interference from the I.
In addition to developing automatic proper responses
through so-called muscle memory, we can also close the
half-second gap through No Mind action and reaction. Ath-
letes recognize intuitively that we do not experience the
world in real time. Instead, we experience a subjective time
which is off by half a second. Psychological research on
sports professionals explains how athletes train to respond
without thinking and by entering the zone, thereby cir-
cumventing the 500-millisecond delay. They respond and
focus their awareness in the moment. A study of tennis
players, who can serve a ball across the court in 400 milli-
seconds, suggests that the player returning the ball does
not analyze the moves of the opponent who serves.
In other words, players close the gap of the cognitive
delay through experience and training:
We do not notice the large gap in our awareness because
our brains move seamlessly from a state of intelli-
gent forecast to a state of conrmed sensory expecta-
tion ... Every moment is processed within some prior
contexta framework of hopes and fears, intentions
and expectations, memories and goals. These form the

210003_101_C02.indd 42 6/6/08 1:47:31 PM

 backdrop against which the events of the moment will 43
be judged. And the more we get right about the com-
ing moment, the less work there will be to do during it. Chapter 2
(McCrone, 2001) The World
An athlete, therefore, trains to respond without ana- According
to I
lyzing opponents behaviors, mannerisms, and body po-
sitions. With experience, we intuitively know the next
move without thinking. Usually in extreme sports, to
think is to be too late. This can also be achieved through
the practice of No Mind.

ASSUMPTION ALTERS THE WORLD OF I

The world according to I is the interpretation of the world
through the lter of I. The ego distorts reality through the
dust of accumulated learning, modeling, conditioning, and
association. When the world outside is consistent with the
world inside, we feel comfortable. When they are dissonant,
we are quickly alerted about the discrepancy, so that we can
veto or correct the original action.
In his book Going Inside, McCrone argues that antici-
pation and imagination are fundamentally the same.
While anticipation is tied to predicting the moment, im-
agination asks what if? In both cases, we make an as-
sumption. We imagine a situation and anticipate how we
would act based on the way we perceive the world, in-
stead of responding to the actual world. Assumption,
therefore, can alter the way we think about things:
Illusions of various kinds can occur in any of the senses,
and they can cross over between the senses. For exam-
ple, small objects feel considerably heavier than larger
objects of exactly the same weight. This can be easily
demonstrated by lling a small can with sand, and then
putting enough sand in a much larger can, until the
two cans are in balance. The smaller can will feel up to
50% heavier than the larger can, of precisely the same
weight. Evidently weight is perceived not only accord-
ing to the pressure and muscle senses, but also accord-
ing to the expected weight of the object, as indicated
by its visually judged size. When the density is unex-
pected, vision produces the illusion of weight. I believe

210003_101_C02.indd 43 6/6/08 1:47:31 PM

 44 all systematic distortion illusions are essentially simi-
lar to this size-weight illusion. (Gregory, 1968)
No Mind
101 Anticipation, expectation, hope, desire, and imagina-
Mind tion all alter the perception of reality and create the inner
world according to I. Remember, we become aware of
our action up to half a second after the brain has already
determined its response. Therefore, in many cases we
can react more quickly and more efciently if we dont
think about our reaction.

THE WORLD OF I IS NOT THE REAL WORLD

When we anticipate, hope, desire, or expect certain
things, we create an imaginary world. As argued previ-
ously, when the I becomes aware of the brains action,
we are left with the impression that we controlled that
action; but we didntall we did was act the way we had
been conditioned to act.
This distorts reality and shifts our attention from its
true nature, so we cannot experience the moment and in-
teract with it fully and freely.
For instance, a tennis player might congratulate her-
self, I just hit a great serve! Yet, did she really hit that
great serve, or did her brain process the situation and
choose an appropriate action unconsciously before she
was even aware of it?
In other words, self-consciousness is just another
thought of the I doing something, which is the basis of
your identity. Ironically, the I separates us from the
world around us. The world according to I is lonely, de-
tached, and dualistic. When we understand the I illu-
sion through No Mind, we achieve spiritual awareness,
where we act and react without the I being the focal
point, or the imaginary originator.
Conditioning and reinforcement join synaptic con-
nections in the brain, developing neural pathways and
the associative neural patterns of behavior and perception
we experience. Our perceptions are altered by our under-
standings, intentions, assumptions, expectations, judg-
ments, motivations, and interpretations of a situation.

210003_101_C02.indd 44 6/6/08 1:47:32 PM

 The world as it really exists is changed into what we think 45
it should be.
Chapter 2
Because nature and nurture affect the neural connec-
tions and cognitive associations, each person has a unique The World
perspective on the world. Over the last hundred years, According
to I
psychologists have extensively researched patterns of
conditioning and reinforcement, which develop the men-
tal web of the I and shape who we think we are and why
we act the way we do. Alas, those same patterns also keep
us from reaching spiritual enlightenment.
The I is a complex automated mechanism with a
free-wont editor. The patterns of behavior you exhibit have
been learned and acquired through experience and genet-
ics. The I has adapted itself to t the needs and require-
ments of the world, family and social values, genetic traits,
professional goals, educational expectations, and so on.
The world according to I is the world created by the I
through the brains lter (see Figure 7-1). Most important,
this world created by the I is not the real world.

The World of I Seeks Stability Through Identity

Genes account for about 50% of personality traits, such
as timidity or aggressiveness. Environmental factors de-
termine whether a given trait is reinforced or modied
through experience:

When identical twins, separated at birth, end up

sharing characteristics as adults, we need to wonder
whether this is due to their common genetic heritage,
to common inuences within the womb, or to subtle
environmental similarities that shape the development
of their synaptic connections. (LeDoux, 2003)

In Personality and Assessment, Walter Mischel of the

National Academy of Sciences asserts that we can learn
behaviors just by observing how other people respond to
certain situations:

Classical conditioning depends on association of stimuli

rather than on reinforcement for responses. Behavior

210003_101_C02.indd 45 6/6/08 1:47:32 PM

 46 may result as witnessing; a fear may develop after
watching someone get hurt. The reinforcing conse-
No Mind quences incurred by behavior are dispensed not only
101
by the external physical and social environment. A
Mind striking characteristic of human behavior is that peo-
ple judge and evaluate their own behavior and reward
and punish themselves ... The consequences a per-
son expects depend not only on the outcomes he has
received for his behavior in similar situations, but also
on the outcomes he has observed other people obtain ...
Behavior depends on the exact stimulus conditions in
the evoking situation and on the individuals history
with similar stimuli based on review of experiments
and documentation. Stability (constant) behavior is
enhanced when individuals categorize themselves
with relatively permanent trait labels (smart, dumb,
attractive) ... Trait labels are likely to have particularly
strong stabilizing effects on behavior when they lead
the labeled person into special consistent environ-
ments in which he regularly encounters people who
model the labeled behavior or who reinforce behavior
congruent with the label. (Mischel, 1968)

When our external and internal worlds are consistent

with each other, this has a stabilizing, or reinforcing, ef-
fect on our behavior. When we are familiar with who
and what we are, we are reassured. This is especially
true of small children; when their behavior is consistent
and their patterns are routine, they feel safe and secure.
But many times the external world is not consistent with
the world according to I, producing stress, anxiety, fear,
and confusion (see Figure 7-1).

REAL AND IMAGINED EVENTS CAN BE THE SAME

IN THE BRAIN
Systematic desensitization, or reversed conditioning, is
a technique that has been used by psychologists and
psychiatrists to modify the inner worlds reaction to the
external environment. It has proven effective in the
treatment of anxiety and phobias.

210003_101_C02.indd 46 6/6/08 1:47:32 PM

 The procedure involves imagining a situation that 47
triggers the anxiety or phobia, then linking the imagined
Chapter 2
event to a relaxation response. With repetition and prac-
tice, the imagined event no longer triggers anxiety. Con- The World
sequently, when the real event occurs, it is no longer According
to I
associated with anxiety. Used successfully for years, the
procedure conrms the brains ability to restructure itself
by remapping its networks.
Arnold A. Lazarus, PhD in Psychology and professor
at Rutgers University, reports that in one study, 70% of
the subjects undergoing such desensitization reported
marked improvement within an average of 20 sessions.
The technique seemed to be most valuable with phobic
disorders. And also, self-consciousness, hypersensitivity
to criticism, rejection fears (Lazarus, 1961).
Desensitization has been shown to be effective for the
treatment of public-speaking anxiety and was found to be
far superior to other approaches (Paul, 1966). Through re-
verse conditioning, people can unlearn behaviors that trig-
ger any number of phobias. These results conrm that the
inside world has a direct effect on how we view the outside
world, and that both of these worlds are required to form
the world of the I. The fact that we can modify behavior
through conditioning demonstrates how powerful condi-
tioning is to forming behavior in the rst place.

FREEING THE WILL FROM THE I

Fortunately, we can transcend the illusion of the I.

Everything we have been conditioned to believe has a
strong and direct effect on the I. This aspect of human
nature has profound implications for our strengths and
weaknesses.
We can free the awareness from the I trap through
the practice of No Mind, and we can perceive the world
directly as it really is, not as we think it should be. This
happens as we understand that the I limits our percep-
tions and experiences of the world, while engulng our
awareness.

210003_101_C02.indd 47 6/6/08 1:47:32 PM

 48 Free will can guide us past the barriers, as long as it
is objectively free and not originating from the subjec-
No Mind
101 tive I. When do we know that we have untangled our
free will from the mental web of the I? According to
Mind the ancient masters, you have passed through the gates
of insight when the boundaries of I disappear into
nothingness. Once you understand how the I is cre-
ated, you can wipe away the dust from the mind-mirror
and achieve pure awareness.
The knowledge and practice of No Mind gives you
the opportunity to be psychologically satised and capa-
ble of achieving peak performance and spiritual enlight-
enment. It opens the doors to experiencing the world
more directly and creatively, allowing you to live fully in
the moment (Brown, Forte, & Dysart, 1984).
In addition, practicing the techniques of No Mind re-
veals a larger worldreality as it isthus making you
more sensitive and more aware of opportunities and
choices. No Mind allows you to open yourself to true free
will.

EXPANDING YOUR WINDOW OF THE WORLD

Ultimately, the practice of No Mind enables you to see

the world directly and clearly in its entirety. Imagine a
monkey in a circular room with a dozen very small win-
dows. Each time the monkey looks through a window, it
sees a different part of the outside world; to see the world
in its entirety, the monkey would have to run around in
circles at high speed and look through each window until
its brain strings them in a visual sequence to form an
experience of the entire outside world.
Unable to do so, the monkey is stuck with access to
fragments of the outside world and cannot know what is
occurring behind all of the windows at the same time.
Therefore, the monkey never understands the whole
outside worldjust the isolated snippets that appear
through any one window at a time. And if the monkey
were born inside the room, its entire experience of the

210003_101_C02.indd 48 6/6/08 1:47:32 PM

 outside would always be circumscribed by whatever win- 49
dow it looked through.
Chapter 2
Similarly, the I connes our experience of the out-
side world by looking only through the windows it has The World
been conditioned to go to. When it is unhappy with one According
to I
view, it goes to another. Further, through a complex
process, the I separates itself from the outside world
by producing its own lters for the windows and then
modifying the lters in anticipation of what it thinks
it will see when it looks out. We all have different window
screens.
As long as we experience the world from within the
I, we are trapped in a circular room. We are always
looking out one window at a time, seeing only this or that
part of the world; we never perceive the world directly,
only through the lters of the I. Understanding this, the
ancient masters devised a technique to get outside this
room and to experience the entire outside world directly,
not just through the windows of the I.

210003_101_C02.indd 49 6/6/08 1:47:33 PM

 50

No Mind CHAPTER 2 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER

101 BEFORE CONTINUING

Mind 1. Each one of us interprets the same things differ-

ently. Our conditioning, learning, experience, and
genetics alter the real nature of the world, favor-
ing perceptions based on the egos preferences.
We see what we want to see or need to see, not
what is really there.
2. Conditioning and reinforcement join synaptic
connections in the brain, developing neural path-
ways and the associative neural patterns of be-
havior and perception.
3. Our perceptions are altered by our understand-
ings, intentions, assumptions, expectations, judg-
ments, motivations, and interpretations of a
situation. The real world is changed into what
we think we should be seeing.
4. Our reality appears to us in a codependent rela-
tionship with our learned understanding of it. We
understand reality as we have learned to interpret
it, not as it really is. We interpret reality concur-
rently with perceiving it, which is the codependent
reality we experience.
5. When we shift awareness outside the maze of the
I, we see a world that is clearer, cleaner, and
more objective. We become aware of an action up
to half a second after the brain has already cho-
sen that action. What appears as free will may be
more appropriately termed free wont, the abil-
ity to veto an action before it commences, since
the brain has already set the stage for it.
6. The existence of a distinct entity that we know
as the I is an illusion. When we think of our
actions and reactions and become conscious of
them, our performance and acumen are often

210003_101_C02.indd 50 6/6/08 1:47:33 PM

 51
inhibited. We need to release the full potential of Chapter 2
our mind and body to act and react without being
slowed down by over-thinking or over-analyzing. The World
According
7. The world according to I is the interpretation of to I
the world that shapes the I. The ego mirrors the
world around it through the dust of accumulated
learning, modeling, conditioning, and association.
When the world outside is consistent with the
world inside, we feel comfortable. Otherwise, we
experience discomfort, stress, anxiety, confusion,
and fear.
8. We can free the awareness from the trap of the I
through the practice of No Mind, so that we can
perceive the world directly as it really is, not as we
think it should be. We understand that the I lim-
its our perceptual eld and our experience of the
outside world, while compromising our aware-
ness. We are learning and understanding the dif-
ferent components of the I, as represented in
Figure 7-1. The practice of No Mind gives us the
ability to break through these limits.

210003_101_C02.indd 51 6/6/08 1:47:36 PM

 52 EXERCISE 2: PRACTICING MINDFUL ATTENTION
No Mind
101

Mind Being Mindful of the Sources of Our Preferences

Write down your answers to the following questions; if
you need more space to write, use a blank piece of paper.
You do not need to answer these questions in a split sec-
ond, as you did in Chapter 1, but it is important to try to
understand why you prefer your answers. You may not
know why; this is common and the answer may come to
you at a later time, when you are not trying to think of it.
If you have an idea, write it down. You may try free asso-
ciation when you are nished with the answers that are
giving you trouble.

Question Why is this your choice?

What is your favorite
ice cream avor?
What is your favorite meal?
What type of music do you
prefer?
What is your favorite ower?
What is your favorite
fragrance?
What is your favorite movie?
What is your favorite book?
What initially attracted you to
your partner?
What were your favorite
subjects in school?
How do you feel about doing
something wrong?
How do you act in times of
crisis?

210003_101_C02.indd 52 6/6/08 1:47:38 PM

 53
Question Why is this your choice?
What is your greatest phobia? Chapter 2

What do you fear the most? The World

According
What is your greatest happy to I
thought?
What is your greatest
expectation of yourself?
What gives you anxiety?
What do you absolutely hate?
Have you ever done anything
based on greed?
What is the most important
hope you have?
What do you do to play?
What is your greatest joy?

210003_101_C02.indd 53 6/6/08 1:47:39 PM

 Each of us has a mild condition of I, or self. While we are
under the inuence of the self, we are spiritually ill. We are
conditioned through a series of external and internal cues
such as environmental conditions, thoughts, emotions,
sensations, assumptions, and defense mechanisms, which
the brain categorizes and maps.

This conditioning creates learned responses, such as

anxieties, phobias, expectations, and intentions with which
we identify and to which we form attachments through the
agent of the I. These attachments to the I determine our
self-image and modify our experience of the world.

Emotions can overwhelm thoughts, and because emotions

have greater intensity, they have more power to condition
responses, to modify behavior, and to contribute to both a
positive and a negative self-image. Emotions also use most
of the brains resources in emotionally charged situations,
and they can cause the I to act mindlessly, on autopilot.
Complex ideas, such as beliefs, self-image, and hopes, are
relative to the mental web of the I, and what is true for
one person may not be true for another, which often leads to
conicts between people. Understanding this relative nature
of ideas is important in understanding human nature.

210003_101_C03.indd 54 6/6/08 1:48:17 PM

 Chapter 3

A Mild
Condition of I

W e have learned that the I is a deceptive mechanism that lim-

its the mind-body dynamic. In reality, the I does not help us
to achieve peak performance, stress-free lives, or spiritual aware-
ness. In fact, it is the reason why we misinterpret and misperceive
the world around us. The I causes us to misjudge the outside
world and to fear nonexistent threats. We all have experienced con-
fusions stemming from the I. In this chapter, we will look further
into the conditioning and reinforcing processes of the I, so that
we can learn how to free our awareness from its grasp.

ATTACHMENTS ARE THE GREAT HURDLE OF THE I

We are conditioned by environmental cues and by internal cues,

including thoughts, emotions, sensations, expectations, motiva-
tions, and defense mechanisms. The brain groups similar cues
together by developing corresponding associative neural networks
55

210003_101_C03.indd 55 6/6/08 1:48:19 PM

 56 and synaptic maps. These operate unconsciously and
consciously and at the same time on the cognitive, emo-
No Mind
101 tional, perceptual, memory, behavioral, and other levels.
The effectiveness of reinforcement and conditioning
Mind on the I is documented in thousands of medical and re-
search experiments. A 1967 study, for example, suggests
that implosive therapy, a method for alleviating anxiety
by continual exposure to the situation that caused the
anxiety, is highly effective in treating a wide range of
mental disorders.
During treatment, which lasted from one to 30 hours,
subjects mentally reconstructed past anxiety-provoking
scenes and play-acted those scenes until the anxiety was
gone. As a result, they came to associate the new level of
relaxation with the anxiety-provoking image:

... many if not all of the anxiety states experienced in

the human are a product of numerous conditioning
experiences in the life of the individual which can be
understood in terms of the conditioning model of the
laboratory ... anxiety is a learned response to a set of
cues based on previous trauma (reinforcement) in a pa-
tients life. By approximating the past dangerous situa-
tions and associations without primary reinforcement,
extinction may be achieved. (Stampel & Levis, 1967)

Conditioning creates learned responses, such as anxi-

ety, phobias, expectations, and intentions. We identify
and become attached to these behavioral responses
through the I, which becomes the basis of our self-
image and modies our experience of the world.
Stored in our memories, attachments reinforce who
and what we are and how we feel about ourselves. At-
tachments, then, become the basis of our identity: our
expectations, hopes, desires, motivations, fears, likes,
dislikes, intentions, worries, and so on.
In the brain, physical identication occurs when we
associate the self with an emotional event. The synaptic
associative network can form associations to different
things, events, or images at the same time, in parallel. In
other words, our brains can associate a single event with

210003_101_C03.indd 56 6/6/08 1:48:19 PM

 several corresponding cues, such as a place, an object, a 57
person, a time of day, a color. An association can be iden-
Chapter 3
tied with countless different cues, which makes our mind
very difcult to comprehend. But understanding the proc- A Mild
ess is important as we learn the concept of No Mind. Condition
of I
For example, imagine that every time you are in the
dark, you get anxious about the thought of rats, and this
anxiety turns into terror when there is a closet in the
room. This could be because as a child, you got trapped
in a dark closet with a rat. Even though there is nothing
inherently scary about closets, darkness, or rats (your fa-
vorite pet could have been a rat), you were scared by the
idea of being alone, separated from your parents, and out
of control. So all of these things became associated with
fear. Now your fear of rats is triggered by the dark, even
though the connection is irrational.
We identify with such emotional responses, and al-
though each identication, like afraid of the dark and
afraid of rats, is conceptualized separately, they are
linked and can be triggered together or independently.
Our personalitiesour Isdevelop through millions
of such events, even though most are not so extreme, and
many are pleasant.

Memorable experiences generally have a component

of emotional implications. Cues that activate this com-
ponent might activate its associative network. The rel-
evant cues, in this case, will be ones within the brain
and body that signal the same emotional state you ex-
perienced during the time of learning. Conscious emo-
tions and thoughts are very similar in certain aspects.
They both involve the symbolic representation in
working memory of sub-symbolic, unconscious proc-
esses. Emotions and thoughts are generated by differ-
ent sub-symbolic systems, but emotions involve many
more brain systems than thoughts do. (LeDoux, 1998)

Memories are linked through a symbolic associative

system for easier retrieval. Thus, we may think that
we are reacting freely when, in fact, we behave the way
we have been conditioned to act in certain situations. We

210003_101_C03.indd 57 6/6/08 1:48:19 PM

 58 identify with emotional and cognitive experiences and
become attached to them. As we say, I am this, or I am
No Mind
101 that, we condition the associative neural network to
identify the I with our experiences.
Mind

THE POWER OF EMOTIONS

Emotions are so powerful that they can overwhelm

thought and affect our actions dramatically. They can
modify behaviors and cast our self-image in either posi-
tive or negative light. Emotional reactions also appropri-
ate most of the brains resources.
In The Emotional Brain, Joseph LeDoux argues that
emotions can inuence the brain more than thoughts do.
They can overpower thought through the amygdala, a
primitive structure in the front of the brain of most com-
plex vertebrates, which processes emotional reactions
and interacts with the cortex, the part of the brain associ-
ated with memory.
Thoughts can trigger emotions, but it is difcult for
thoughts to control or to turn off emotions. There are more
connections between the amygdala and the cortex in pri-
mates than in other mammals, suggesting that the connec-
tions continued to expand during our evolutionary history.
In the future, according to LeDoux, humans may develop
a higher capacity to control their emotional reactions, per-
haps like the Vulcan character Spock in Star Trek.
According to LeDoux, different emotions are involved
with different survival functionsdefending against dan-
ger, nding food and mates, caring for offspring, and so
oneach may well involve different brain systems that
evolved for different reasons. As a result, there may be more
than one emotional system in the brain (LeDoux, 1998).
The emotional experiences produced by the nexus of the
amygdala, the cortex, and the associative neural networks
bond the I with feelings, such as fear or euphoria.
We form attachments through identication with spe-
cic rewards or reinforcing external or internal cues. Emo-
tion, then, makes our attachment to the I more permanent.
In the case of claustrophobia, for example, the person is

210003_101_C03.indd 58 6/6/08 1:48:20 PM

 attached to the identity: I am claustrophobic. Unless the 59
individual seeks treatment for the claustrophobia, he will
Chapter 3
go through life identifying himself as claustrophobic.
However, pure awareness, or No Mind, is not condi- A Mild
tioned, nor does it experience claustrophobia. It is simply Condition
of I
aware of it. When we lose awareness of how we experi-
ence an identity, we become attached to the role. It be-
comes the experience of an I: I am claustrophobic,
rather than just an experience that occurs: There is an
uncomfortable feeling of fear in this small space.
You feel yourself experiencing the phobia, so you
think, I feel claustrophobic. But that is not the case: It
is a claustrophobic reaction to a set of learned cues that
have been intermixed with a concept of identity. When
we detach our awareness from the experience of the
claustrophobia, we are able to control and to modify our
reaction by developing new associative networks that relate
to the learned cues.
There may be action and reaction, but the I never
really does anything: what we mistake for the I is, in
reality, just a series of thoughts about how the mind and
body experience self-consciousness.

Breaking Free of Auto-Action and Auto-Reaction

Though separating awareness from emotional attach-
ment is very difcult, it can be done with practice. We do
this by changing the autopilot loop of mindlessness to
mindfulness. To do that, we must question the basis of
emotion: What does it mean to experience emotion? With
respect to the techniques of No Mind, we learn to respond
with certain emotions that are related to various cues.
We experience positive or negative emotions that are
triggered by emotionally charged memoriesneutral
memories usually do not trigger emotional responses.
Emotions depend on experience, conditioning, genetics,
and learning. Different cues trigger different emotions in
each of us. We all know what it means to be happy, but
the cue that triggers one persons happiness is not the
same cue that triggers anothers happiness.

210003_101_C03.indd 59 6/6/08 1:48:20 PM

 60 Emotional intensity and expression (such as bodily re-
actions or speech) vary from person to person. That often
No Mind
101 causes us to misinterpret what someone else is really feel-
ing. In other words, we sometimes think we know what
Mind the other person is feeling, when we really have no idea.
After we have an outburst of anger, we reect on it in
terms of our identity and of the context: I always get
angry when he does that. Once anger is attached to
another persons action and we have identied with it in
the Is mental web, our awareness gets lost in the emoti-
onal state.
In other words, we become mindless; we are no longer
aware of what we are doing in that moment; we are in
auto-action and auto-reaction mode (see Figure 7-1). The
cues that trigger our emotions take over, causing us to act
and react automatically.
Verbal stimuli can also condition and reinforce our
behaviors, thoughts, and emotions. In a simple experi-
ment, people were conditioned to respond to the words
tense and relax by associating the words with the
presence or absence of an electrical shock.
When the subjects received a shock, the experimenter
repeated the word tense, and when no shock was ad-
ministered, the experimenter repeated the word relax.
Consequently, the subjects were conditioned to react to
the verbal cues only. Simply hearing the word tense
caused the subjects to tense up in anticipation of a shock
(Dean, Martin, & Streiner, 1968).
In an older study, Dr. Joseph Wolfe used a form of psy-
chotherapy known as reciprocal inhibition, which links
an irrelevant conditioning cue with the anxiety response
to form a new, more favorable conditioned response.
In general, it is possible to overcome a habit by form-
ing a new and antagonistic habit in the same stimulus
situation (Wolfe, 1958). Nearly fty years later, we know
that the brain is capable of forming new neural links and
networks in a process called neuroplasticity, and that
process can be accelerated with the techniques of
No Mind. We do not need to be aware of the stimulus for
the brain to recognize it; we perceive a vast array of

210003_101_C03.indd 60 6/6/08 1:48:20 PM

 stimuli through our perceptual mechanisms, even though 61
we discern a very small percentage of them.
Chapter 3
J. A. Deutsch and D. Deutsch of Stanford University re-
port, The behavioral evidence leads us to the probable A Mild
conclusion that a message will reach the same perceptual Condition
of I
and discriminatory mechanisms whether attention is paid
to it or not. And such information is then grouped or segre-
gated by these mechanisms (Deutsch & Deutsch, 1963).
Forty years later, LeDoux writes: Stimulus recogni-
tion requires only that an immediately present stimulus
match some representation of a similar stimulus in mem-
ory. There is no need to have conscious awareness to have
recognition (LeDoux, 2003). In other words, the brain
acts and reacts unconsciously to a multitude of external
events, and we become aware of a miniscule segment
of these internal actions and reactions.
We should not, however, disown our emotions and
surrender responsibility for our actions. We have the ul-
timate responsibility for our actions and reactions, just
as we have the ability to become mindful of our emo-
tional states. Even though the emotional state may occur
one-half second before we become aware of our actions,
we can use mindful awareness to veto our actions and re-
actions and to avoid getting lost in the emotion. This is
an important part of No Mind. Because emotions take
over the brains resources, it is difcult to control emo-
tions solely by thinking. We need to separate our aware-
ness from the emotion.

UNDERSTANDING THE INSIDE WORLD

OF EMOTIONS
We are capable of experiencing several emotions at once.
For example, we may be sad, guilty, compassionate, anx-
ious, depressed, and angry with ourselves because we
accidentally let our neighbors dog wander off and get
lost when we were supposed to be watching it.
Why do we experience so many emotions in response
to just one event? Most emotions are caused by our
thoughts, anticipations, and expectations about the

210003_101_C03.indd 61 6/6/08 1:48:20 PM

 62 possible future consequences of our actions. In many sit-
uations, we jump-start our own emotions by anticipating
No Mind
101 events. Instead of focusing on the moment, we think
of the consequences that may result from our actions,
Mind thereby triggering additional emotional reactions to the
outside cue.
As we repeat these responses over time, we condi-
tion ourselves to react to external events with a whole
array of internally stimulated emotions. Thus, we pro-
duce far more complex reactions than are necessary to
resolve a situation, causing stress, worry, anger, and
so on.
The inside world is driven by how the I sees itself: I
am usually overly cautious, I worry too much, or I am
a chronic optimist. Every time the phrase I am comes
up, you are conditioning and reinforcing that particular
behavioryou are teaching your inside world who you
think you are.
This kind of conditioning can be inhibiting and even
dangerous. Emotions once increased our odds of
survivalas in the development of the ght-or-ight re-
sponse, for example. But in todays world, emotions can
hinder our performance. Emotions can slow down our
reactions in certain situations, trigger inappropriate be-
haviors, and produce anxiety. During emotional out-
bursts, we dont think very clearly and the connection
between our minds and bodies is disrupted.
We all remember being so scared in certain situations
that we froze when we should have reacted. For example,
because many of us are afraid to talk to our bosses, we
might have stumbled through an important presentation
and missed the points we really wanted to make. And we
have all said and done things in anger and wished that we
could take them back afterwards.
Because being overwhelmed by emotions or acting on
emotions is often unhealthy and counterproductive, it
is important to learn how to control our emotional re-
sponses. This can be done as part of No Mind: Total Men-
tal Fitness, which teaches us how to realize an objective
awareness apart from the I.

210003_101_C03.indd 62 6/6/08 1:48:21 PM

 Misreading External Events: Living in Illusion 63

We may perceive aspects of the outside world as harmful, Chapter 3

when, in reality, they are not; we have been conditioned
A Mild
to think they are harmful. Condition
We perceive certain situations incorrectly because we of I
misinterpret what is going on around us. Yet, from the Is
perspective, our interpretation is accurate because it is
consistent with what we have been conditioned to believe.
For instance, if we are overly emotional, we can be
needlessly cautious sometimes and see danger where it
does not exist. As we repeat these internally driven be-
haviors, we condition and reinforce them, so we keep
misinterpreting stimuli. We become trapped in the wheel
of illusion. We also constantly misinterpret cues from other
people; we think they mean one thing and then nd out
that they meant something entirely different.
At work and in business, we constantly analyze
mostly unconsciouslyhow and what people are feeling.
We anticipate their emotional reactions, but if we actually
talked to them, we might discover that we were wrong.
This can happen in relationships when we assume what
the people we love are feeling or thinking. And why antici-
pate what the other person is feeling or thinking? Because
we are motivated to protect and to preserve the I.
We can learn to break the loop, to transcend our auto-
mated selves, and to become more aware human beings
accomplishments that enable peak performance. We can
become aware that we misinterpret emotions. We can
also learn to recognize shifts in the intensity of our emo-
tions, like when boredom turns to disgust and then loath-
ing; or when apprehension becomes fear and then terror;
or when joy becomes ecstasy. Distinguishing levels of
emotional intensity enables us to become aware of our
own environmental cues, so that we may act and react
appropriately.

Projecting Our Emotions

We become attached to an emotion when we identify
with it. And we dene ourselves by such identications,

210003_101_C03.indd 63 6/6/08 1:48:21 PM

 64 thereby reinforcing our own self-image. They become
personality traits that characterize the I, such as, I am
No Mind
101 usually a cheerful person, or I am usually an angry
person. In the extreme, traits can become obsessive-
Mind compulsive disorders.
We are what we identify with, whether we like it or not,
and in many cases we do not like who we are or how
we react to certain situations. The psychoanalytic term
projection refers to a mental dynamic where we see un-
pleasant qualities in ourselves and then project them onto
another person in an attempt to deny our own emotions.
For instance, a person who has an irrational paranoia
of being followed may be extraordinarily critical of the
reasonable apprehensions of somebody who is on the
witness-protection program. In other words, you are pro-
jecting your feelings on someone else. Projection is the
egos way of dealing with feelings that it nds disgusting
and with emotions it believes separate its self from
other people. It is therefore crucial to our health and hap-
piness to understand this ego defense mechanism and to
recognize it when it manifests.

THE IS ABILITY TO ABSORB AWARENESS

The I absorbs our awareness when we are in autopilot

mode, that is, when we are behaving mindlessly. The
mind-body dynamic responds to a set of cues that have
become associated with certain reactions through the
neural networks of the brain. The mental web compris-
ing the identity called the I is a result of these condi-
tioned networks.
Because we are constantly being bombarded by exter-
nal cues, we become creatures of conditioned responses
to our environment, mostly unconscious. We respond to
those cues through the mental web of the I, where proc-
esses occur simultaneously, producing the so-called
stream of consciousness. We can only be aware of how
the brain interprets all this information. If nothing chal-
lenges our previous experiences, we react in autopilot
mode. Sometimes the brain reacts to situations extremely

210003_101_C03.indd 64 6/6/08 1:48:21 PM

 quickly, and we become aware of the reaction only after 65
it has been completed, which may be too late. However,
Chapter 3
No Mind reduces and eventually eliminates such mind-
less actions by turning them into mindful moments. A Mild
For example, many of us have driven a car on autopilot Condition
of I
because our thoughts were occupied elsewhere. At some
point, when our awareness returns to driving, we realize
that we have no idea how long or how far we have driven.
In this situation, automatic-pilot driving is managed
simply as a perceptual-motor skill, involving only sen-
sory, intermediate, and effector subsystems (Teasdale,
Segal, & Williams, 1995). Such driving demonstrates how
sophisticated the brain is and how many parallel levels of
information it can interpret simultaneously. Like driving
on autopilot, reinforcement and conditioning occur un-
derneath our oating awareness, where we receive in-
formation from a multitude of environmental stimuli.
We process subliminally, or below the level of awareness.
If we do not become mindful of it, much of our day may
be spent in autopilot mode, and we lose the moment.

BOMBARDED BY SENSORY INPUT

Astonishingly, all of this happens because we are bom-

barded by more sensory input than we ever thought
possible. Most of us are familiar with the ve basic senses:
touch, vision, hearing, smell, and taste. However, science
has now shown that there are at least 37 sensory chan-
nels to the brain, including every tactile sensation from
the toes to the legs, the genitals, the ngers, shoulders,
nose, face, lips, tongue, and scalp. At least 29 of them
involve the sense of touch.
Muscles governing speech and hand movements domi-
nate the motor cortex more than any other category of
muscles does. The sense of touch is especially vital to our
ability to function. All 37 sensory channels can relay data
to the brain simultaneously, as they are activated, at both
the conscious and the subconscious levels. As inputs are
related to corresponding experiences, they set up neural

210003_101_C03.indd 65 6/6/08 1:48:21 PM

 66 associative networks and maps in the brain, and all of this
establishes our identity in terms of an I, or who we think
No Mind
101 we are.

Mind Consider the human brain as it gets simultaneously

and continuously fed information by at least 37 senses
operating on at least two levels of perception. As bewil-
dering, complicated, and possibly frightening as this
sounds, it has been happening for millennia.
Also, keep in mind how rapidly this human machine
operates. Electric impulses dash along the neurons at a
speed of roughly 60 meters per second. In the intricate
complex of neurological structures within the body, a
staggering number of physiological events can occur
during, say, the time it takes a pencil to reach the oor
after it has been dropped by the hand. (Key, 1973)

Subliminal Perception
We can perceive input through our senses below our level
of awareness, and those subliminal cues condition and re-
inforce our behavior at an unconscious level. Science has
determined that the subliminal perception of information
can take place at a rate of 1/3,000th of a second.
In his book Subliminal Seduction, Wilson Bryan Key
outlines how the advertising and media industries use
subliminal techniques to encourage consumerism (Key,
1973). A famous example comes from the movie The
Exorcist, where technicians spliced a terrifying death
mask into some of the scenes and many viewers became
very nauseated without understanding why.
Similarly, in the old days theaters spliced pictures of
delicious-looking popcorn and drinks into lms to boost
sales at their refreshment stands. Retail stores also used
to embed voices in the background music just under the
threshold of hearing. The voices would say things like,
You are being watched and Do not steal.
When a TV ad that included a subliminal message aired
in 1973, the Federal Communications Commission imme-
diately banned the practice. Yet, current print advertising
still contains subliminal messages artistically embedded

210003_101_C03.indd 66 6/6/08 1:48:22 PM

 in the image. Most of these messages relate to sex or death, 67
exploiting our most primal desires and fears.
Chapter 3
Because we perceive these sensory stimuli below the
level of awareness, we may also react to them at the same A Mild
level, without ever knowing why. This isnt news to the Condition
of I
scientic community. In 1956, Dr. Charles Fisher led a
study to conrm the results of a 1924 experiment by
Allers and Telek that showed that people who had been
subliminally exposed to certain pictures later recalled
those pictures in their dreams.
The results of dream and imagery experiments sug-
gest that perception, like any other mental activity, rst
goes through an unconscious phase. Consciousness and
response are not identical, and not all responses involve
consciousness (Fisher, 1956).

Becoming Aware After the Fact:

The Unconscious I
By the time we become aware of our response to a per-
ceptual cue, the information has already been subjected
to a series of lters and analyses in the brain. We become
aware of the ltered and analyzed nal product only.
In addition to Libets nding that we do not become
aware of an unconscious act until approximately half a
second has elapsed, the results of a recent study appear
to indicate that the unconscious/preconscious mind is
able to perceive a recorded verbal message that cannot be
consciously understood at the high rate of speed at which
it was recorded (Kaser, 1986).
Another experiment reports that, under certain circum-
stances people can make perceptual discriminations even
though the information that was used to make those dis-
criminations is not consciously available (Kunimoto, Miller,
& Pashler, 2001). Three more studies demonstrate measura-
ble effects of subliminal perception on a person in terms of
both visual and auditory cues (Borgeat, Chabot, & Chaloult,
1981; Henke, Landis, & Markowitsch, 1994; Urban, 1992).
Interestingly, although our brains respond to, analyze,
categorize, and associate information and produce

210003_101_C03.indd 67 6/6/08 1:48:22 PM

 68 reactions without our awareness, when we become aware
of these reactions, we assume we own them, and we
No Mind
101 identify with them. We may not know why we had a par-
ticular thought at a particular time, but we feel as though
Mind that thought was uniquely ours.

Mindful or Passive Receptivity

Increases Perception
So we nd ourselves in an ongoing state of mindless
awareness. Intuitively, we know that we are constantly
subjected to an astounding amount of data and that only
a small fraction of it ever reaches our awareness. So our
awareness continuously shifts from cue to cue, between
our internal and external worlds, causing us to perform a
variety of tasks simultaneously.
Think of the kid who puts a playing card between the
spokes of his bicycle and attaches it to the frame with a
clothespin. Every time the card is hit by a spoke, it makes
a snapping sound. The faster the wheel goes around, the
faster the snapping sound gets. When a stream of cues
hits our awareness, it is as if we keep shifting our aware-
ness from spoke to spoke, from cue to cue. For as long as
we remain in the stream, we are subject to autopilot, or
mindless behavior, and we act as automatons.
Can we become aware of more of the information that
reaches our brain? We can. One way is to learn No Mind
or to separate awareness from the stream of action and
reaction. By doing this, we switch to manual control and
disengage the autopilot. We become mindful.

The literature on subliminal perception repeatedly

emphases passive receptivity as a means of becoming
aware of subliminal stimuli. Pressure or tension appear
to limit an individuals sensitivity. We can make such
material available to our consciousness most effec-
tively by learning to relax completely. Tests conducted
under hypnosis, self-hypnosis, yoga meditation, as well
as deep-breathing relaxation, indicate that subliminal
cues can become liminal simply through relaxation.
(Key, 1973)

210003_101_C03.indd 68 6/6/08 1:48:22 PM

 As a practical example, consider the stereogram images 69
so popular in the 1990s; you need to be in a relaxed state of
Chapter 3
mind to see the 3D holographic image. When you rst look
at a stereo image, all you see is the computer-generated A Mild
pattern of shapes and lines. But when you relax and un- Condition
of I
focus your gaze, the 3D holographic image comes to life.
The rst time people discern these patterns, they are
amazed that an image can change so dramatically and so
quickly based on a mere perception shift (Magic Eye
Gallery: A Showing of 88 Images, 3D Illusions by N. E. En-
terprises, 1996). Similarly, when we shift our awareness
from a mindless to a mindful state, we also shift our per-
ception to a more lucid perspective, where we nally
see what we have been missing.
When we are relaxed and focused at the same time,
we increase our perceptual vigilance. We are more aware
and perceive more information from the inner and outer
worlds than we usually can. The perceptual and ego de-
fense mechanisms, which is discussed in Chapter 5, oper-
ate automatically.
These defense mechanisms are mostly responsible for
how we experience the world, and they control the
process by which we block, ignore, or repress informa-
tion. Relaxation and awareness enable us to bypass the
reinforcement and conditioning processes that determine
the I, along with all of its symptoms, such as anticipa-
tions, expectations, desires, hopes, opinions, motivations,
intentions, fears, and worries.
Overcoming ideas that have been entrenched through
the process of conditioning has been a long-standing goal
of meditation. Vidyadhara Chgyam Trungpa Rinpoche,
the eleventh descendent in the line of the Tibetian Trungpa
tlkus, or the teachers of the Kagy lineage, writes in
Meditation in Action:

In a sense, opinions provide a way to escape. They cre-

ate a kind of slothfulness and obscure ones clarity and
vision. The clarity of consciousness is veiled by prefab-
ricated concepts and whatever we see we try to t into
some pigeon-hole or in some way make it t in with

210003_101_C03.indd 69 7/23/08 4:10:56 PM

 70 our preconceived ideas. From the start one tries to tran-
scend concepts, and one tries, perhaps in a very critical
No Mind way, to nd out what is. One has to develop a critical
101
mind in which to stimulate intelligence. And if one
Mind cultivates this intelligence, ... then gradually, stage by
stage, the real intuitive feeling develops and the imagi-
nary or hallucinatory element is gradually claried and
eventually dies out. (Trungpa, 1969)

Suggestion is Another Environmental Cue

When we are in a passive mode, we are very vulnerable to
suggestion. The I can be conditioned and reinforced
through suggestion, which occurs at all levels of human
interaction and which has powerful inuence on our be-
haviors, values, beliefs, expectations, and motivations.
Positive and negative suggestions usually bypass con-
scious awareness and bridge unconscious mental activity
and the environment directly. For example, verbal
suggestions can play an important part in the reinforcing
and conditioning of the I.
If we hear our parents say repeatedly, She is so shy, or
Hes always been very smart, we can become conditioned
to believe that we are very shy, or very smart. Experimental
research on healthy people has shown that suggestibility is
a common human trait (Lozanov, 1978). In many experi-
ments, people have realized health benets from a placebo
because they believed that they were taking an actual medi-
cation. Researchers theorize that a persons beliefs and
hopes about a treatment, combined with their suggestibil-
ity, may have a signicant biochemical effect. Internal sug-
gestion can be so powerful that in some cases we can heal
ourselves just by believing that we will be healed.
The emotional state of people at the time they receive
a suggestion is crucial. We all have experienced being
highly suggestible when we were hurt, crying, and vulner-
able. We invite help and nurturing, simultaneously open-
ing ourselves to more suggestion than when we are calm.
Attitude, motivation, and expectation also affect a per-
sons suggestibility: The more eager you are to satisfy, the
more willing you are to act on the suggestion; the more

210003_101_C03.indd 70 7/23/08 4:10:56 PM

 intense your motivation and expectation are, the more you 71
will be inuenced by the suggestion. Your behavior and
Chapter 3
reaction to suggestion are inuenced by various factors,
including gender, age, hunger, self-preservation impulse, A Mild
family background, exposure to violence, propensity to feel Condition
of I
anger and hope, socioeconomic status, love, and greed.

Seeing the Strings That Pull Us

When we separate awareness from the stream of action
and reaction, we perceive the world intuitively and clearly.
We recognize some of our conditioning and reinforcing
cues, which were put in place to help us survive in soci-
ety. We see the strings that pull us in various directions
by the hands of the mass media, for example, instructing
us how to feel and act.
When we do as were expected to, we receive some kind
of reward, or praisesuch as, Good, Georgewhich
reassures us to continue acting in that way. When we do
something wrong, we are discouraged in ways that condi-
tion us to know this was inappropriateBad, George.
We cannot evade responsibility by blaming genetics.
Genes certainly play a part, and we inherit them without
our consent. But genes only account for about 50% of
any given trait, and far less in many instances (LeDoux,
2003). Furthermore, a trait, such as shyness, does not
comprise a persons entire personality. And with reverse
conditioning, those traits can be modied. Proper rein-
forcement from parents and teachers can help a child
overcome shyness.
We cannot be free until we cut the strings that pull us,
but rst we need to discern them by being objectively
aware.

BEHAVIOR MODELING: TAKING CONTROL OF THE

STRINGS THAT BIND US
Behavior modication can work two ways: one is to take
control of the strings that pull us; another is to modify
those strings. In Principles of Behavior Modication,

210003_101_C03.indd 71 6/6/08 1:48:23 PM

 72 Albert Bandura reviews many studies and comes to the
following conclusion:
No Mind
101
Higher order conditioning processes are frequently
Mind used to increase the potency of persuasive communi-
cations. One method is reinforcement. In positive ap-
peals ... performance of the behavior suggested by the
communicator results in a host of rewarding effects.
Thus, smoking a certain brand of cigarettes or using
a particular hair lotion wins the loving admiration of
voluptuous belles, enhances job performance, mas-
culinizes ones self concept, actualizes individualism
and authenticity, tranquilizes irritable nerves, invites
social recognition and amicable responsiveness from
total strangers, and arouses affectionate reactions in
spouses. (Bandura, 1969)

Monkey see, monkey do. This kind of modeling can

have adverse effects. Our behavior can be conditioned by
the behavior of someone we respect and admire.
Advertising uses this type of conditioning and reinforce-
ment techniques to modify and sustain our behavior. We
want to emulate the behavior of idols, celebrities, super-
stars, and mentors as we see them looking happy and
successful, doing certain things and being rewarded for
them.
But we need to question the source of our beliefs: Re-
member that most of the Is mental web was developed
through a multitude of conditioning and reinforcement
cues learned in the context of our family, peer networks,
community, religion, work, etc. When we say, I believe,
are we repeating a modeled behavior that we have ac-
quired like a hand-me-down pair of shoes? We need to
learn how to think for ourselves.
Banduras research indicates that we can be inu-
enced to either act or not act in certain situations:

Laboratory studies disclose that according to the

positive appeal reinforcing nature of communication
[mass media] the consequences portrayed by the per-
former can facilitate or inhibit response tendencies.
(Bandura, 1969)

210003_101_C03.indd 72 6/6/08 1:48:23 PM

 Similarly, Zen master Hanh once admitted that he 73
often recognized that he acquired aspects of his behavior
Chapter 3
directly from either his mother or father. He knew that in
this or that instance, one of his parents was the source of A Mild
a particular thought, action, or reaction, and that he was Condition
of I
behaving just as one of them would have. Both of his par-
ents had long since passed away, and every time he caught
himself behaving like them, he would say, Oh, hi Dad,
there you are or Oh, hi Mom, there you are. In his
state of mindful awareness, he was able to note the source
of his behavior and to modify it, if required.

BUILDING A PERCEPTUAL AND

COMFORTABLE BOX
Modeling reinforces our perceptual box, which con-
tains the many lters of the I, and which is the reason
why we frequently misinterpret reality and behave
inappropriately. The I box distorts what is really there
into what we think should be there.
Belief systems are a signicant component of the per-
ceptual box. Milton Rokeach and his colleagues con-
ducted intensive studies on how our belief/disbelief systems
are organized:

Belief/disbelief systems are seen to serve two opposing

sets of functions. On the one hand, they represent every
[persons] theory for understanding the world [they live]
in. On the other hand, they represent every [persons]
defense network through which information is ltered,
in order to render harmless that which threatens the
ego. These facts (study results) suggest that each per-
son is somehow motivated to arrange the world of
ideas, of people and of authority in harmonious rela-
tions with each other. Consider rst the ndings which
suggest that we categorize people and groups of people
in terms of the extent to which their beliefs are congru-
ent or incongruent with our own. (Rokeach, 1960)

Thus, most people perceive reality within the limited

belief/disbelief system that they have developed through

210003_101_C03.indd 73 6/6/08 1:48:23 PM

 74 learning, modeling, and conditioning. That system is, in
effect, a set of blinders that connes us within a comfort-
No Mind
101 able path. We accept some behaviors because we feel
comfortable with them. We group people according to
Mind their beliefs and disbeliefs. And we feel comfortable be-
cause they t our self-image; they match our internal set
of parameters that represent the I.
We know when a certain behavior is comfortable be-
cause it synchronizes with the neural associative net-
works of our memory. Most people live their entire lives
in their comfort zone and do not dare to venture out.
From the inside looking out, it is just another normal day.
From the outside looking in, however, they appear trapped
in the box of the I. For some people, the stress of deal-
ing with the unknown is not worth freeing themselves
from the box. It is part of their self-image to be cautious,
conservative, and dependent.
And then there are the adventurous nonconformists
who constantly venture out to try new behaviors. They
defy their idea of who they are supposed to bewhat
makes them and their families comfortable.
This is typical among teenagers, who often try to be
the opposite of what everyone told them they should
be. Maybe its their longing for spiritual awareness and
true freedom that makes them seem rebellious. Some
teenagers cross the line between right and wrong and
some do not. Some young people know that they can only
take their rebellious behavior so far. Maybe the condi-
tioning of the I prevents them from going any further.
In other teens, the conditioning does not entrench such
strong values, and they engage in illegal and sometimes
fatal behaviors. There exists an intrinsic moral line that
is a natural conditioning factor for humans. We all have
it, only some of us choose to ignore it or develop such
disturbed personalities that we no longer see it. Some
will cross the line and some will not.
We all have had rebellious periods. When we experi-
ence rebelliousness, we attach such enormous signi-
cance to it that it consumes us, as is the case with teenagers.
When we get older, we realize the foolishness of our

210003_101_C03.indd 74 6/6/08 1:48:24 PM

 behavior. The problem back then was that the I was de- 75
ned by a new set of parameters that came from our
Chapter 3
friends, idols, superstars, mentors, and so on. By rebelling,
we dened the boundaries of a new box. Our behavior A Mild
was then reinforced and conditioned by a new set of rules, Condition
of I
even though the underlying conditioning remained.
At any age, we are not robots, but we live by dening
boundaries that inuence our behaviors and perceptions
of reality. When we imitate behavior, we dene new
boundaries for the box.

Modeling is a very potent technique of attitude change.

Experiments with snake-phobic patients have shown
that symbolic modeling and desensitization success-
fully extinguished negative emotional responses to
snake stimuli. And live modeling caused the greatest be-
havior modication, allowing subjects to interact with
snakes without any adverse consequences. (Bandura,
Blanchard, & Ritter, 1969)

Modeling has a dramatic effect on the conditioning

and reinforcement processes. We imitate people we like.
Teenagers, whose brains are developing emotionally,
often make rash choices in a pressure-cooker society,
where they deal with countless stress factors such as
school, sexual relationships, peer pressure, frazzled work-
ing parents, and drugs.

THE ISSUE OF COMPLEX TRUTHS

Most of us would agree that truth is relative to our belief

systems, as it is based on the mental web of the I. The
kind of truth that involves belief is called complex truth.
When we interpret an internal or external cue, we com-
pare it to our memory, expectations, assumptions, and
experiences. When it matches, it becomes our truth.
When the cue does not t comfortably with our experi-
ence, we interpret it as not truth.
Each one of us holds onto different truths, and we
do not all agree on their essential meanings. Complex
truth is one reason why hundreds of religions claim to be

210003_101_C03.indd 75 6/6/08 1:48:24 PM

 76 the true religion. On the other hand, simple truthslike
the fact that a re engine is reddo not trigger our com-
No Mind
101 plex belief systems.
So we need to realize that truth is relative to the I
Mind that identies it as truth. In fact, all of our experiences
of reality and of the world around us are relative to the
observer: the I. An ancient masters advice is, when
speaking of the ultimate truth, remember to smile, so
that people know you are not attached to it and that you
know it is always relative. Attachment to complex truths
leads to extremism.
Your truth is not everyone elses truth. How can we
cling to a complex truth when we know it to be an expe-
rience of the world relative to our point of observation?
It is like being so attached to a ball that you cannot play
with it because you dont want to let go of it. Subsequently,
you are stuck with a lifeless ball in your hands. Under-
standing that complex truths are relative allows us to
play: If you do not let go of the ball, the game is over
before it begins. When we play, we are open to simple
truths, such as the untainted experience of pleasure in
this moment of play.
Another ancient saying goes like this: You are not
what you think you are. The masters knew that we are
more than the sum total of the supercial entity we call
I, and that once we realize the limitations of the I, we
can function at a higher level. We can soar to unimagina-
ble heights of happiness, fulllment, and inner serenity.
It is an inherent potential in each of usthe potential la-
tent in the seed.

210003_101_C03.indd 76 6/6/08 1:48:24 PM

 77
CHAPTER 3 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 3
BEFORE CONTINUING
A Mild
1. We are conditioned through a series of environ- Condition
mental cues and internal cues (as in thoughts, of I
emotions, sensations, expectations, motivations,
defense mechanisms), which the brain catego-
rizes by developing associative neural networks
and maps. These operate consciously and uncon-
sciously and at the same time on the cognitive,
emotional, perceptual, memory, behavioral, and
other levels. Conditioning creates learned re-
sponses, such as anxiety, phobias, expectations,
and intentions, with which we identify. We form
attachments to these responses through the agent
of the I. These attachments of the I form our
self-image and modify how we experience the
worldlinking identity and behavior to produce
who we think we are and what we should be.
2. Emotions can overwhelm thoughts. They use
more of the brains resources and have a higher
capacity to condition responses, to modify behav-
ior, and to impress both positive and negative
self-image attributes on our minds. We also
project our emotional states onto others when we
fear or deny our emotions. When our I cannot
handle painful emotional states, we repress the
experience in the unconscious, so that we are no
longer aware of it.
3. The I is capable of absorbing awareness when
we are in autopilot mode, or engaging in mindless
behavior.
4. We can learn to separate awareness from the ac-
tion and reaction of the I by changing the auto-
pilot loop of mindlessness to mindfulness.

210003_101_C03.indd 77 6/6/08 1:48:24 PM

 78

No Mind 5. Our perceptual box, which sees reality through

101 the many lters of the I, often misinterprets re-
ality and alters what is really there into what it
Mind
thinks should be there.
6. Conditioning and reinforcement occur through
verbal and subliminal cues, as well as through sug-
gestion and modeling, and they trigger emotional
states that reinforce the development of the I.
7. When we are mindful, or in a state of passive re-
ceptivity, we are more likely to notice mental
events that were outside the scope of our aware-
ness before. We are more likely to see the strings
that pull us and bind us to our behavioral
patterns.
8. Complex truths, such as beliefs, self-images, and
hopes, are relative to the mental web of the I
and may not be true to others with different men-
tal webs.

210003_101_C03.indd 78 6/6/08 1:48:27 PM

 79
EXERCISE 3: PRACTICING MINDFUL AWARENESS
Chapter 3

A Mild
Condition
Being Mindful of the Source of Conditioning of I
In this exercise, you try to name a corresponding event
that triggered your answer to the questions in Exercise 2.
For each response in Chapter 2, ll in the appropriate an-
swer. For instance, if your phobia is a fear of heights, you
might remember falling off a small roof when you were
ve. Or if you like vanilla, your answer may be that you
have liked vanilla since you were three. If you need more
space to write, use a blank piece of paper.
You may not know the answer, and that is acceptable.
In fact, you may not know most of the sources for your
preferences. Ask your parents, signicant other, or friends
if they can shed light on the answer. Obviously, some be-
haviors have been subjected to heavy reinforcement over
the years. So just have fun. Relaxing makes it easier to
remember or freely associate a response.

Can you remember

the source,
trauma, or other
Question from conditioning
Chapter 2 Answer inuence?
What is your favorite
ice cream avor?
What is your favorite meal?
What type of music
do you prefer?
What is your favorite ower?
What is your
favorite fragrance?
What is your
favorite movie?

210003_101_C03.indd 79 6/6/08 1:48:29 PM

 80
Can you remember
No Mind the source,
101 trauma, or other
Question from conditioning
Mind
Chapter 2 Answer inuence?
What is your
favorite book?
What initially attracted
you to your partner?
What were your favorite
subjects in school?
How do you feel about
doing something wrong?
How do you act in
times of crisis?
What is your
greatest phobia?
What do you fear
the most?
What is your greatest
happy thought?
What is your greatest
expectation of yourself?
What gives you anxiety?
What do you
absolutely hate?
Have you ever done
anything based on greed?
What is the most important
hope you have?
What do you do to play?
What is your greatest
joy?

210003_101_C03.indd 80 6/6/08 1:48:30 PM

 EXERCISE 4: PRACTICING MINDFUL AWARENESS 81

Chapter 3

A Mild
Being Mindful of the Power of the I Condition
of I
For two hours, try to count how many times you refer to
yourself as an I. When you referred to yourself as an
I, was it strictly in the grammatical sense of using the
pronoun to construct the sentence, or was it to establish
an identity? Be mindful of each circumstance and situa-
tion. This is a very powerful exercise you should practice
daily in different contexts.
Monitor the conditions under which you automatically
tried to protect or defend the I and note the source or
type of identity you experienced.

210003_101_C03.indd 81 6/6/08 1:48:30 PM

 Social interactions involve language, which shapes our
identities in terms of I, me, mine, theirs. Our society,
communities, and families condition our behavior through
a process of socialization, in which we learn to act in terms
of shared interpretations of right and wrong, good and bad,
success and failure, happiness and discontent, and so on.

Thinking and behaving the way society has conditioned us

to think and behave means that we act and react mindlessly.
Our actions become automated; for the most part, we lose
awareness of what is happening and how we are acting in
the moment.

In Chapter 4, we will explore the role that society plays

in conditioning the I and how we can use No Mind
to transcend the categories that cause us to become
automatons; experience the world in a new, fresh, dynamic
way; and act and react more in accordance with our natural
abilities and talents.

210003_101_C04.indd 82 6/6/08 1:48:51 PM

 Chapter 4

Societys Perfect
Little I

W e are social animals. We have developed complex social

groups in order to survive, and we have ourished, shap-
ing the world around us to t our needs. We need and thrive on
social interactions. We try to blend in and to be compatible with
others.
Consequently, family, community, and society as a whole have
a powerful impact on the development of the I. They affect our
perceptual and ego defense systems, our values and beliefs. They
mold us to conform to social conventions; to be a part of the labor
force; to follow the teachings of our religions; to be cooperative
with others; and to participate in suitable leisure activities. We try
to t in to succeed as social beings.
Society is an accumulation of shouldsexpectations and be-
liefs about the way things should be. Just as we develop our own
beliefs about who we are and what we should do as individuals,
we also construct the walls of our social box, which constrains our
actions as one of the many, as part of the group.
83

210003_101_C04.indd 83 6/6/08 1:48:52 PM

 84 Societal conditioning has its positive aspects: it en-
sures order and control, and it allows us to work to-
No Mind
101 gether and to accomplish collective goals. But it also
has negative aspects: it limits our creativity, expression,
Mind and intellect, and it makes us vulnerable to the inu-
ence of mass media, peer pressure, work stress, social-
status concerns, and so on. Our individual Is are
shaped by all the Is that exert inuence on us. Each of
us mindlessly strives to be a perfect little I in the larger
I of society.

LANGUAGE IS THE KEY COMPONENT OF THE I

Language has been perhaps the most fateful develop-

ment in human evolution. Words and sounds allow us
to communicate our experiences of our external and
internal worlds. Language drives human thought. It al-
lows us to alter our experiences of the world by the
way we communicate those experiences to others and
to ourselves.
The verbal metaphor is a primary means of commu-
nicating. We create metaphors to help us understand
and interpret reality and experience. Theodore R. Sarbin,
professor of psychology and criminology at the Univer-
sity of California, Santa Cruz, explains:

Human beings including psychologists, construct their

cosmological worlds, their explanatory systems, out
of belief ... a historical analysis of psychology (and
other sciences as well) seems to show repeatedly how a
thinker will note that two events have a common prop-
erty and will construct a verbal analogy ... he will label
the metaphor. But his audience will tend to drop the
metaphoric qualier, and in so doing, will create condi-
tions for myth making. (Sarbin, 1968)

Our innate ability to construct metaphors has been

traced to specic chromosomes on our genes. Through
metaphor, we describe our entire emotional world and
construct a verbal analogy for how and why we see
events the way we do.

210003_101_C04.indd 84 6/6/08 1:48:53 PM

 Other animals may be consciously aware, in some 85
sense, of events going on in the world ... but lacking
language and its cognitive representations, they are Chapter 4
unlikely to be able to represent complex, abstract con- Societys
cepts (like me or mine or ours), to relate external Perfect
events to these abstractions, and to use these represen- Little I
tations to guide decision-making and control behavior.
(LeDoux, 2003)

Therefore, through language we learn to identify with

the I, using words such as me, mine, and yours.
Language plays a key role in the development of the I
(to be elaborated in Chapter 6) and in shaping and alter-
ing our individual realities. It is primarily through lan-
guage that we continually adapt and change our behaviors
to conform to social expectations.

Taking Our Cues from Those Around Us

Renowned psychologist B. F. Skinner explains how we
are inuenced to alter our behaviors:

[People] act upon the world, and change it, and are
changed in turn by the consequences of their action.
Certain processes, in which the human organism shares
with other species, alter behavior so that it achieves a
safer and more useful interchange with a particular
environment. When appropriate behavior has been
established, its consequences work through similar
processes to keep it in force ... by the event called
reinforcement. (Skinner, 1957)

Skinners predecessor, John B. Watson, believed that

he could mold a young person into anything he wanted,
including a rich man, poor man, beggar man, or thief,
and he conducted experiments to prove his theory.
Although we possess innate genetic tendencies and abil-
ities that can nudge us in one direction or another, we are
conditioned by environmental and social cues that directly
affect the development of the I. Ego, as dened in psycho-
analysis, is developed in response to our physical and social
environment. Society is built on conventions, regulations,
laws, ideas, fashions, language, religion, work and social

210003_101_C04.indd 85 6/6/08 1:48:53 PM

 86 ethics, and moral and family values. These factors, which
ensure social order, inuence who we are and, more impor-
No Mind
101 tant, who we think we are and should be.
Families are built on the same elements as the larger
Mind society, though they are not as complex. Our families
have taught us rules, values, ethics, religion, as well as
everything we should and should not do. We conform to
our families rst, to our specic society second, and to
the larger world third. What we become is in many ways
a direct reection of our families and society. Psychiatrist
Georgi Lozanov describes social conditioning: Sociali-
zation, the buildup of the human personality through
and for society, begins from the very rst days of life. The
environment suggests habits, conduct, and attitudes to
both the growing generation and to adults. Social inu-
ence is, however, a complex result of interpersonal rela-
tions (Lozanov, 1978). Further:

Social learning results from observational (cognitive,

perceptual) learning, classical conditioning, and re-
sponse contingent reinforcement. Behavior is complex
and depends on a multiplicity of situation-specic var-
iables ... No one doubts that previous experience and
genetic and constitutional characteristics affect behav-
ior and results in vast individual differences among
people. (Mischel, 1968)

Motivating the Self to Conform

Behavior is complex; we learn to behave in certain ways
due to numerous factors. We observe others behaviors
constantly, both consciously and unconsciously. And
most of the time we are conditioned subliminally through
unconscious cues. In other words, most of the time we
are unaware of the conditioning effects of our environ-
ment. So how do cues (specic things or events) compel
us to act in one way or another?
We are motivated to make certain choices in two
ways: extrinsic motivation is determined by external
social cues, and intrinsic motivation is determined by

210003_101_C04.indd 86 6/6/08 1:48:53 PM

 cues from our internal world. Our behavior is therefore 87
determined by an interaction between our beliefs, ex-
Chapter 4
pectations, needs, and environment. Anyway, motiva-
tion is a concept inferred from behavior. Therefore, Societys
its evaluation could only be secondary (Quoniam & Perfect
Little I
Bungener, 2004).
We expect to be rewarded when we act in certain ways
because we have seen others getting rewarded for similar
behaviors. Thus we act this way based on what we see
and on what we have learned we would get as a result.
So if our motivations are the product of learned behavior,
do we really have free will?

Following the Lead of Social Models

We learn to mimic the roles of our peers, models, and
mentors, and we emulate famous people we admire, even
if we can never achieve their status. We all have seen ce-
lebrities on TV commercials raving how a piece of work-
out equipment would change our lives. And like it or not,
most of us have fallen into the trap at least once.
Studies have demonstrated the pervasive, automatic
effects models have on our behavior (Castelli, Zogma-
ister, Smith, & Arcuri, 2004). Through advertising and
entertainment, the mass media bombards us with
conditioning and reinforcing cues. Advertisers start to
ood our minds with product advertising when we are
children, and they pour billions of dollars into making
sure that we recognize the right brandtheir brand
even when we are older and have our own children. They
want us to become part of their family forever.

Its Not What Gets Said, Its Who Says It

In an intricate society, we constantly analyze and inter-
pret complex cues about peoples feelings and intentions:
Did he really mean what he said? Was she genuine and
can she be trusted? We rely on our interpretations to
make appropriate decisions.

210003_101_C04.indd 87 6/6/08 1:48:54 PM

 88 We weigh these cues against our understanding of
them and against our past experiences dealing with simi-
No Mind
101 lar cues. We must have faith in the veracity of the cues to
act on them. If they are suspect, we wont act or well in-
Mind terpret them as unattractive (Aarts, Gollwitzer, & Hassin,
2004). But truth is relative and learnedwe are taught
what we think is true. So complex truths that involve be-
lief and expectation are relative to our conditioning.
Studies have shown that we are inuenced by promi-
nent and attractive speakersthe more important or at-
tractive the speaker, the more we listen to her (Mischel,
1968). We are likely to listen to attractive people with so-
cial status, which is why billions of dollars are spent on
advertising with celebrities, musicians, singers, comedi-
ans, and even politicians. For example, mass-media cam-
paigns using high-prole luminaries are designed to
inuence community norms regarding health behaviors,
such as physical activity: Stay active and t by using
[ll in the product name]. Such campaigns can reach
large populations at a relatively low cost, inuencing our
awareness, knowledge, and beliefs and changing our in-
tentions and behaviors (Cavill & Bauman, 2004).
We are constantly interpreting cues through the men-
tal web of the I, most of the time in autopilot mode. We
often act or react automatically in certain contexts and
think about what we have said or done later. In Person-
ality and Assessment, Mischel writes:

Investigations have shown that behavior peers, social

models, credibility of communicator, and incentives
offered for opinion change directly inuence attitude
change. (Mischel, 1968)

We interpret cues in relation to our own experiences,

memories, and behaviors, which form our basic assump-
tions, expectations, desires, motivations, and needs. Be-
cause of this, we dont always interpret cues correctly.
Interacting in the social world is a reection of what we
have learned and how we have been conditioned to act. It
is a reection of the I.

210003_101_C04.indd 88 6/6/08 1:48:54 PM

 Sometimes we misinterpret cues and act inappropri- 89
ately under the inuence of strong emotions. Other times,
Chapter 4
we simply act mindlessly, in auto-reaction mode, based
on what we have learned. In Genetic Engineering: Man Societys
and Nature in Transition, Carl Heintze writes: Perfect
Little I
Interior collection of knowledge and feelings governs
not only how we feel about ourselves, but also how
we deal with the world outside our body. (Heintze,
1974)

Take a two-year-old who walks up to a stranger. The

child has no idea that the person may present a threat
until a parent comes along and corrects the situation by
teaching the child not to talk to strangers because they
could be dangerous. Young children do not have enough
data to interpret potentially dangerous cues in their en-
vironment. They have not learned how to act in society,
so they are not yet stied by all its shoulds.

CORRECTLY AND CLEARLY INTERPRETING

SOCIAL CUES
Interpreting cues is important, and we must be able to do
it accurately and objectively. We can do this when we
practice No Mind; this ability is particularly useful in
business settings, for example.
In No Mind Business, we explore methods for inter-
preting cues while negotiating, interacting with busi-
ness associates, and managing a business. As long as we
can keep our minds focused, relaxed, and not clinging
to any one thought, we can perceive the cues objectively.
We can learn to counteract the processes of ltering and
auto-interpretations that cause us to act and react
on autopilot. When we do this, our reactions to cues
simply ow in the moment; we dont have to try to act or
react.
By practicing No Mind, we can control our typical
auto-actions and auto-reactions, such as emotional
expressions, facial gestures (e.g., frowns), or nervous

210003_101_C04.indd 89 6/6/08 1:48:54 PM

 90 habits (e.g., tapping our feet). We develop better control
of our expressions, and we are aware of negative behav-
No Mind
101 iors before we automatically act or react.
No Mind can help us be more successful in meetings,
Mind interviews, and negotiations. No Mind can also help us
understand our partners better and halt mindless reac-
tions that lead to arguments.
It is essential that we clearly and correctly interpret
cues in a business situation, so that we dont give away
our own feeling cues and so that we can read those
feeling cues from others. It is important not to say one
thing and to do another in business dealings. When
you learn how to monitor the incoming cues by being
mindful, you also learn to send cues that enable oth-
ers to perceive what you want them to perceive and
to interpret things the way you want them to be
interpreted.

BECOMING FIELD-INDEPENDENT

When we become fully aware of how we act in certain

situations, we can adjust our actions to get our points
across. In order to do this, we need to understand how
to become more autonomous of our environment, or
eld-independent. In a study published in the Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, Herman Witkin uses
eld dependence to describe a persons reliance on his
or her environment. For example, eld-dependent stu-
dents rely heavily on teachers and peers for motivation
and for help with school work, while eld-independent
students study more on their own, focus more on school,
and tend to perform better academically. The field-
dependent/independent model has been continually revised
over the last fty years.

... for some people perception of the part was strongly

affected by the surrounding eld; others were able
to escape this inuence and to deal with the part as
a more or less independent unit. People tend to be
selfconsistent in the ease or difculty with which they

210003_101_C04.indd 90 7/24/08 12:13:22 PM

 escape the inuence of the complex pattern. (Witkin, 91
1950)
Chapter 4
In Witkins study, people who depend on other peo-
Societys
ple or things to help them accomplish their goals per- Perfect
formed less efciently than those who relied on themselves Little I
to get things done. Our reaction to various events and
information depends on the conditions under which the
events occur.
When we interpret things through our senses, we un-
consciously intake additional information from the out-
side. This means that we may base our interpretations
and reactions to a particular event on other things that
are happening around us, rather than on an objective
analysis of the event itself. We make judgments based on
the surrounding information, not just based on the spe-
cic object.
For example, good is often depicted as light (rather
than dark), as up (rather than down), and as moving for-
ward (rather than backward). In one study, researchers
examined the association between brightness and either
a negative or a positive effect. The studies suggest that,
when making evaluations, people automatically assume
that bright objects are good, whereas dark objects are
bad (Meier, Robinson, & Clore, 2004).
In interactions, our interpretations may be skewed in
various ways. We see the world in a certain way because
that is how we have experienced it. But many times we
misinterpret what is really out there and fail to grasp the
real world. We go through life on autopilot, watching
a particular event, interpreting it mindlessly, and then
moving on to the next one.
Remember that when we learn to relax and to focus
without effort, we open ourselves up, so we can per-
ceive new cues through our senses. When we become
aware of these incoming cues, we can objectively inter-
pret events, rather than just assume what is happening
based on limited cues. In order to understand the im-
portance of No Mind, we need to understand these basic
mechanisms.

210003_101_C04.indd 91 6/6/08 1:48:55 PM

 92 YOUR INTERPRETATIONS: UNDERSTANDING THE
PROGRAMMING
No Mind
101
Because most of us go through life on autopilot, it is logi-
Mind cal that society, family, and community determine the
way we act and think.
Our families start to condition our behavior by teach-
ing us their values, beliefs, ethics, and morals. The family
has the greatest inuence on the development of societys
perfect little I.
Societal values are usually closely linked to family
values. Like our families, society tells us how we should
live, what products we should buy, what should make us
happy, or how we should achieve our goals and meet our
nancial needs.
Because we cannot differentiate between the program
and ourselves, we identify with the program, and so we
live the program. We attach ourselves to years worth of
conditioning and experience, which are as real as any-
thing we know.
But why do we get with the program? We conform
to social expectations to survive within the societal I.
We perceive what society has trained us to perceive and
what we are accustomed to perceive.

SEARCHING FOR AN UNCONDITIONED REALITY

Until we break the bonds of conditioned perception and

interpretation of reality, we remain trapped, incomplete,
and dissatised. The thought of pure freedom is a dream
to most people or, at best, an illusion.
We think we are free, but we are not. Even those
who rebel and think they live outside the bounds of so-
ciety fail to recognize that they are merely conditioned
by a different societal matrix. True freedom is neither
being outside society nor being submerged in it. Ulti-
mate happiness comes from experiencing uncondi-
tioned reality, which is independent of any societal
matrix.

210003_101_C04.indd 92 6/6/08 1:48:55 PM

 Most people have difculty understanding how they 93
can relinquish conditioning and achieve a state in which
Chapter 4
the mind is devoid of thoughts. Such a state of mind re-
veals an entirely different reality, free of the conditioning. Societys
This reality has existed all the while; nothing has really Perfect
Little I
changed. Through it, we experience our true spiritual
awareness, which has been always there. It simply got
covered by the dust of experiences and conditioning col-
lecting on the mirror of I. According to the Tao Te
Ching:

Who can make sense of a world like cloudy water? Left

alone and still, it becomes clear. Should this stillness be
maintained? Moving hastily will surely cloud it again.
How then can one move and not become clouded? Ac-
cept Tao [Flow of Nature] and achieve without being
selsh; being unselsh one endures the worlds wear,
and needs no change of pace. (MacHovec, 1962)

The muddy water through which we try to see becomes

clear once we have learned No Mind and allowed the mud
to settle. When we act without the selshness of the I,
we are truly spiritually aware.

FINDING UNCONDITIONED REALITY THROUGH

SENSORY DEPRIVATION
Sensory deprivation, while discouraged, is one path to-
ward unconditioned reality. In a study of sensory depri-
vation, a subject was able to clear his mind completely
and to trace some of the conditioning he manifested in
adulthood back to childhood.

The sense that they inhabit a body disappears. Their

thinking becomes desultory and disorganized. No
longer buoyed by the pressure to map the exterior
worldto internalize its structurepeople begin to
lose their capacity to represent even its basic dimen-
sions. Being in the world, and being forced to respond,
focuses us. It stretches us into a state of mental being.
(McCrone, 2001)

210003_101_C04.indd 93 6/6/08 1:48:55 PM

 94 Another study of sensory deprivation notes changes
in thought, perception, and insight. By shutting down the
No Mind
101 sensory input to the brain, some memorieswhether la-
tent, repressed, or unconsciousmay be recalled, possi-
Mind bly allowing the subject to recognize the source of some
conditioning:

A vivid recall and an apparent reliving of past events

and anxieties occurred in their complete context. As a
result of recalling the experiments, he achieved the in-
sight that most of his life he had been metaphorically
repeating the history of these crucial childhood events
and had been trying to compensate for the apparent
maternal rejection by the kinds of attitudes and drives
he had developed during his lifetime. This was accom-
panied by the feeling and sensation of having come
back to himself, he was aware of a new and quiet feel-
ing of happiness.
During the seven weeks of ESR [environmental
seclusion], the experimenter recorded 800 pages of
crucial repressed memories and other events, the ex-
istence of which he had never up to that time sus-
pected, and which he had tried to arrive at for a least
ten to fteen years by free associations comprising
about 2,000,000 words of material, and by the study
of his dreams (some 7,000), and by various other
techniques. It must be noted here that in ESR the
memories came back with much greater vividness
than can be communicated here: he could actually
feel the ground under his feet, hear people talking
and using words he could not then understand but
which he could understand now for the rst time. He
could feel an itch, or the urge to blow his nose and
hear the sound of his doing so.
The experimenter had a remarkable and, to him a
unique feeling of returning to the human world and
nature, which seemed renewed and thrilling. The im-
pact of nature on his senses was utterly marvelous. The
sight of it seemed slowed down, as if each particular
picture on a lm were moving into place in his vision.
The trees and their forms seemed sublime, the grass
wonderfully green, the smell strong and delightful. It

210003_101_C04.indd 94 6/6/08 1:48:55 PM

 seemed much akin to a childs rst impressions of na- 95
ture with all senses alive. Commonplace happenings
seemed vital and renewed; the human voice sounded Chapter 4
angelic. (Ziskind & Augsburg, 1962) Societys
Perfect
As this account shows, once we eliminate the barriers Little I
to our perception, we can see clearly without denitions,
categorizations, prejudices, assumptions, motivations,
intentions, value judgmentswithout the need to inter-
pret the experience. Cleansing the lters of the I re-
freshes our view of reality.
A child rst sees through a mind without barriers, de-
fenses, or prejudices. A child sees through clear water;
reality is reected with less dust on the mirror. We are
born into an unconditioned reality; only later do we learn
and develop the conditions.
No Mind helps us develop this kind of spiritual aware-
ness, but we need to be able to disassemble the categories
programmed into our worldview. Jerome Bruner, profes-
sor of cognitive psychology at Harvard and Oxford,
asserts:

Perception involves an act of categorization. The cat-

egory need not be elaborate: a sound, a touch, a
pain, are also examples of categorized inputs. All per-
ception is generic in the sense that whatever is per-
ceived is placed in and achieves its meaning from a
class of percepts with which it is grouped. In learning
to perceive, we are learning the relations that exist be-
tween the properties of objects and events that we en-
counter, learning appropriate categories and category
systems, learning to predict and to check what goes
with what. Representation consists of knowing how to
utilize cues with reference to a system of categories. It
also depends upon the creation of a system of catego-
ries in relationship that t the nature of the world in
which the person must live. (Bruner, 1957)

These modern scientic ideas were well known over

2,500 years ago. The human brain has not changed, and
it wont change unless it evolves differently in the future.
Categories created and reinforced by society and family

210003_101_C04.indd 95 6/6/08 1:48:55 PM

 96 are the associative neural networks in the brain that
allow us to interpret the experiences of the outside
No Mind
101 world.
Habitual categories are difcult to modify because we
Mind constantly reinforce them by repeating them. In the proc-
ess, they become hard-wired in our brains. For example,
studies show that the brain physically organizes memory
into sequences within the associative neural network.
Even when there is no obvious sequence for the memo-
ries, the brain still organizes them into sequences, which
get reinforced when we recall the memories. In other
words, no matter what we perceive, our brains are con-
stantly organizing information into categories and se-
quences for easier later retrieval. And the more we use
our brains and recall memories, the more we reinforce
the categories (Tulving, 1962).
We usually employ these habitual categorizations
on autopilot (see Figure 7-1). Ellen Langer, professor
of psychology at Harvard, explains in her book
Mindfulness:
We experience the world by creating categories and
making distinctions among them. This is Chinese, not
a Japanese, vase. No, hes only a freshman. The white
orchids are endangered. Shes his boss now. In this
way, we make a picture of the world, and of ourselves.
Without categories the world might seem to escape
us ... Mindlessness sets in when we rely too rigidly on
categories and distinctions created in the past (mas-
culine/feminine, old/young, success/failure). Once dis-
tinctions are created they take on a life of their own ...
We build our own and our shared realities and then we
become victims of themblind to the fact that they are
constructs, ideas. (Langer, 1989)

SHARING REALITIES IN THE SOCIETAL I

In the societal/family I, conditioning and reinforcing

cues act to establish shared realities. Shared realties arise
from shared categories.

210003_101_C04.indd 96 6/6/08 1:48:56 PM

 This is another key point to understanding the I and 97
the concept of No Mind: There exists a societal I that
Chapter 4
shares certain characteristics with your individual I.
Your I is not just what you are, but what and how you Societys
have been conditioned to act and to feel by your family Perfect
Little I
and society. And as long as you know your behavior is
acceptable to your family and society, you continue to
behave the same way.
Your family and society have inuenced your opin-
ions, desires, needs, expectations, hopes, and fears. But
even as your habits, routines, and lifestyle change indi-
vidually, they most likely will still conform to family and
societal norms.
A person who rebels against his family is regarded as
the black sheep of the family. In the context of the larger
society, such rebels are called mavericks, liberals, non-
conformists, or free-spirited. In the 1960s, for example,
the hippies were the outsiders; they didnt agree with tra-
ditional worldviews and wanted to change social behav-
ioral norms. Although some cultural changes took place,
society remained pretty much as it was before the hippies
came along.

WHEN SOCIETAL Is FUNCTION

AS INDIVIDUAL Is
The patterns of society, family, and community are every-
wherein our laws, regulations, religions, values, ethics,
conventions, trafc patterns, economic cycles, fashions,
music, transportation, architecture ...
The individual I is a reection of these patterns; we
adapt to them and manifest them in our lives. These pat-
terns condition our I in accordance with the larger I
of society. The point is that we can become aware of the
pattern that represents our behavior, which is the rst
step in the process of stepping outside the I.
From this perspective, our society becomes a large
functioning I, composed of the shared conditioning
and reinforcing programs of our individual Is. For

210003_101_C04.indd 97 6/6/08 1:48:56 PM

 98 example, when political leaders get together at the United
Nations and discuss foreign policy, trade, and economic
No Mind
101 strategy, they represent societys I and its programs of
conditioning and shared realities.
Mind The key to being a great political leader representing a
societys I is to be calm, focused, and detached from the
individual I in the process of the political negotiation and
decision-making (as we will see in Chapter 29). Political
leaders should allow the needs of the societal I to out-
weigh the needs of their own I under all circumstances.
They should maintain their spiritual awareness in every-
thing they do and say. Sadly, many political leaders do not
t this characterization.
If a day comes when society is no longer motivated by
greed, ambition, lust, aggression, territoriality, and prej-
udice, we would have one boundless, all-inclusive com-
munity. Such an enlightened society would be in accord
with Nature or the Tao; but can it ever exist?
Likewise, when the individual is not driven by condi-
tioned intention and motivations, the person knows no
boundariesreality is unconditional. And such a person
can existit could be youas have millions of people for
the past 3,000 years.

210003_101_C04.indd 98 6/6/08 1:48:56 PM

 99
CHAPTER 4 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 4
BEFORE CONTINUING
Societys
1. Social interactions take place through the medium Perfect
of a dualistic language (I and they) that shapes Little I

our identity of I, me, mine, theirs. These

identiers describe reality in terms of ourselves
and our conditioned ideas, which in turn drive
our actions and reactions. Societys I functions
similarly to our individual Is.
2. We construct our reality with verbal analogies.
We create metaphors of a reality that we feel we
cannot really understand.
3. Our society and family condition and mold pro-
grams of behavior in us through a process of so-
cialization, in which we learn to act in terms of
proper social interpretations of right and wrong,
good and bad, success and failure, happiness and
unhappiness, and so on. Social modeling has per-
suasive effects on the development of our behav-
ioral programs.
4. We interpret cues from the outside and inside
worlds through mental categories that trap us
into habitual cognitive and behavioral patterns.
Social categories reect socially shared realities
experienced through shared social interpreta-
tions. One problem is that we also misinterpret
reality due to these categories, which distort what
is really there.
5. No Mind allows us to see reality more clearly,
without the blinders of our learned categories
of interpretation. We can intuitively sense a
persons feelings when we stop trying to inter-
pret them. We are more compassionate through
mindfulness.

210003_101_C04.indd 99 7/23/08 4:11:59 PM

 100

No Mind 6. Habituation to categories produces mindlessness

101 in action and reaction. Most of us go through life
in autopilot mode. Sensory deprivation and mind-
Mind
fulness studies have demonstrated that we can
cleanse our habitual categories and see the out-
side world in a new, fresh, dynamic perspective.
We can also learn to understand our own
categories.
7. We can be societys puppets, caught in a program
of behavior without being aware of it. On the
other hand, we can learn to recognize the shared
categories that determine our shared realities. We
can achieve a spiritual awareness that allows us
to identify the program and modify it accordingly.
We can undo the categories through the practice
of No Mind, which allows the brain to set up new
categories.

210003_101_C04.indd 100 6/6/08 1:48:59 PM

 EXERCISE 4: RECOGNIZING THE 101
CATEGORIES WITHIN US
Chapter 4

Societys
The following questions relate to commonly known Perfect
Little I
programs in most societies and families. Consider the
question, and then think about your town or city, or
apply the question to your immediate family. Answer
the questions as truthfully as you can. Then reect on
what you know about yourself to see if you t into the
common societal patterns in the list.

Yes or NoExplain
Common societal patterns your answer
Do the members seem relatively
free?
Is selshness a common pattern?
Are you in agreement with the
prevailing religion?
Are your neighbors honestly
friendly? Are they genuine?
Are your friends happy?
Are there more discontented
members or contented ones?
Is self-centered fulllment a
recognized pattern?
Is giving and sharing a
recognized pattern?
Is there a pattern of outdoing
others among members?
Are the majority concerned only
about customary education, or
is there a balance of education,
values, inner peace?

210003_101_C04.indd 101 6/6/08 1:49:02 PM

 102
Yes or NoExplain
No Mind Common societal patterns your answer
101
Is a more expensive thing better
Mind than a less expensive thing?
Does your perception of people
change with the car, clothes,
style they have?
Do you fear or hate some
members?
Are constant praise and reward
common motivators?
Are you good friends with
happy, humble members?
Are you good friends with
successful, powerful, high-status
members?
Is more (e.g., a bigger and better
toy) better to most people?
Are there members whom
you personally know could die
right now contented with
their lives?

210003_101_C04.indd 102 7/23/08 4:12:01 PM

 The I uses defense mechanismsincluding fantasy,
denial, regression, projection, and repressionto defend
itself against anything that may cause anxiety, confusion,
or other negative emotions or psychological disorders.
These defense mechanisms mask the true nature of reality.
They alter our perceptions so we can experience a version
of it that is more consistent with our values, motivations,
expectations, intentions, and beliefs. They reafrm the
identity of the I and our attachments to our self-image.

The way we think we are and how we want to be

seen establish attachments in the mental web of the I.
Our defense mechanisms conrm these attachments by
selecting information that is compatible with them. Over
time, we develop various defense mechanisms, including
altering reality to t the way we want to see it, projecting our
emotions onto other people, distorting our own self-image,
and engaging in self-destructive behavior like alcohol or
drug addiction to repress our problems.

In Chapter 5, we will explore the common defense mecha-

nisms that keep the I in control. You will begin to
understand that your mind can be un-trained, so that you
see the defense mechanisms at work and use the techniques
of No Mind to overcome them.

210003_101_C05.indd 103 6/6/08 1:49:35 PM

 Chapter 5

Why Am I
So Defensive?

O ur perceptual and ego defense mechanisms are key to under-

standing some of our most important psychological charac-
teristics. These mechanisms have evolved to lter the deluge of
incoming data and to make sure the external and internal worlds
are compatible with the beliefs, values, emotional characteristics,
expectations, hopes, desires, needs, motivations, and intentions of
the I. Whats left is a reality thats been manipulated by what we
have been conditioned to believe. So we do not see reality as it
is, but a constructed reality through ego-colored glasses.

BRINGING REALITY INTO THE COMFORT ZONE

These defense neuro-mechanisms protect the I from unwanted,

scary, dangerous, explicit images that might cause stress, anxiety,
confusion, terror, or other painful emotions. The neuro-
mechanisms protect the I from being hurt psychologically. They
104

210003_101_C05.indd 104 6/6/08 1:49:37 PM

 lter and analyze perceptions, thoughts, and emotions to 105
make sure that they are consistent with what we have
Chapter 5
learned, with what we have experienced, and, most im-
portant, with what we think of ourselves. Why Am
This self-imagewhat we think we aredevelops I So
Defensive?
over years of environmental conditioning and reinforce-
ment. The goal of the I is to defend us against anything
that could harm us psychologically or make us think less
of ourselves.
The most common perceptual and ego defense mecha-
nisms are fantasy, denial, repression, regression, and pro-
jection. Psychologists have identied others: isolation,
displacement, rationalization, and intellectualization. For
our purposes, however, we will focus on the rst ve,
whose sole purpose is to defend the I. These mecha-
nisms mask reality in order to uphold an illusion. And
they limit our potential in all aspects of our lives includ-
ing sports, business, relationships, and academics.

Fantasy and Denial: Unfulfilled Programs

The I sees reality the way it has been programmed to
see it by the media, peers, models, advertising campaigns,
family, and society in general. We are constantly being
told how we should look, what we should eat, what should
make us happy, how we should live our lives.
Because this is occurring at a subliminal level, we
often do not know why we do the things we dowhy we
buy the things we buy, for example. In the case of con-
sumerism, it seems the I just has to have something,
but we never really know why. The answer lies in the
subconscious programming carried out by advertisers.
They spend billions of dollars to create realities for us;
they mold us into perfect consumers by constantly tell-
ing us why we cannot live without their particular
brands.
But what happens if we cannot afford all the things
advertisers tell us we need, and if we cannot look and live
the way they promote? Well, we can deny we ever really

210003_101_C05.indd 105 6/6/08 1:49:37 PM

 106 wanted all that stuff in the rst place. We can also fanta-
size about the way we really want to live.
No Mind
101 Sometimes we have to pretend that we already have
everything the advertisers tell us we need: the perfect
Mind body, the perfect mate, the perfect job, a great sex life. We
learn as children to fantasize about being something we
are not, or to pretend we achieved something we did
notall for the sake of protecting the I. We create a
fantasy life to hide the fact that we are failures. But these
fantasies can cause a range of mental problems, from
mild apprehension to depression to psychosis.
The important point is that the I alters our experi-
ences of the external and internal worlds through defense
mechanisms meant to protect us from the real reality.
The defense mechanism of fantasy is closely linked to de-
nial. For example, people who do not accomplish a life-
long dream or a particular goal may decide that its too
latethey never really wanted to do it anyway, or they
never needed to do it.
Both fantasy and denial protect the I from painful
truths. We have all experienced these defense mecha-
nisms in action to some degree, whether we are aware of
it or not. If you think about how many experiences you
may have had when you were protecting your I, you
can understand how reality is altered in favor of your
self-image.
In Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious, Sig-
mund Freud wrote, these processes which take place
in the preconscious and lack the attentionare appro-
priately termed automatic (Freud, 1917). Denial and
fantasy become an auto-action and an auto-reaction
(see Figure 7-1).
Our minds automatically rationalize, fantasize, and
intellectualize what is happening around us to make it
more pleasing to our self-image. Again, we are changing
reality so that we can deal with it. Our defense mecha-
nisms mask the true nature of reality and alter our per-
ceptions so that we can experience a version of reality
that is more consistent with our values, motivations, ex-
pectations, intentions, and beliefs.

210003_101_C05.indd 106 6/6/08 1:49:38 PM

 The problem is that we cannot see the true colors of 107
the wind as long as we are looking through rose-colored
Chapter 5
glasses. The practice of No Mind can remove those tinted
glasses so we can see reality. Why Am
I So
Defensive?
Repression: Forgetting about the Programs
Another way we fail to experience reality directly is by
purging our emotions from our consciousness. When we
nd it difcult to cope with certain thoughts, we push
them away to deal with them at another time, or we hope
that they will fade away altogether so well never have to
deal with them.
For instance, lets take the son who is unable to deal
with the death of his father. Maybe the son is inconsola-
ble because he never had a chance to say goodbye, and
every time he thinks about that, he cries. Yet, maybe it
isnt just that. Maybe there are other issues involving his
father that the son has repressed. Maybe the son feels
guilty because he believes he wasnt a very good son, or
maybe he and his dad had an argument that they never
resolved. Even though the son had repressed those un-
pleasant memories, they were triggered by the death of
his father. And now that those memories have surfaced
again, the son has to deal with them.
Freud called repression motivated forgetting, that
is, deliberately failing to recall a threatening situation,
person, or event. We often repress unpleasant experi-
ences to avoid dealing with them. This ego defense tech-
nique protects the I and helps it cope with reality.
Psychoanalysts try to make their patients conscious of
repressed events so they can deal with them and get on
with their lives. Freud described this as an attempt to
make the unconscious conscious. He explained repres-
sion as a process of ltering unwanted perceptual cues
before they reach awareness, or as selectively not want-
ing to remember disturbing thoughts or experiences.
Repression is common among people who have been
repeatedly victimized or who have had traumatic experi-
ences. Approximately 40% of sexual-abuse victims and

210003_101_C05.indd 107 6/6/08 1:49:38 PM

 108 trauma survivors report that there were times when they
could not remember the abuse or the trauma. The mem-
No Mind
101 ories were repressed. Repression, like most defense
mechanisms, is a coping strategy. We are always trying
Mind to maintain the inner status quo for our psychological
comfort and for the sake of our functionality in the
world.

Regression: Going Back Before the Programs

Regression is going backward in time to a safe place and
time in our lives to avoid dealing with a current trau-
matic situation. We go back to a more carefree time,
when our parents took care of us and we had no respon-
sibility for ourselves.
In a study of burn trauma patientswho often be-
come childlikeresearchers note that patients recover
faster when they are cared for by a loved one, such as a
mother or father.

Major burn trauma is ordinarily associated with psycho-

logical regression, which regularly assumes either an
immature, dependent (childlike), or primitive (animal-
like) form. Treatment is enhanced when the partner in
a committed relationship is included in the treatment
program. (Tempereau, Grossman, & Brones, 1987)

Projection: Seeing Yourself in Someone Else

Projection is the act of assigning our own unacceptable
feelings, emotions, perceptions, expectations, hopes, desires,
fears, dislikes, or frustrations onto another person. It is
a defense mechanism that keeps anxiety-producing or
distressing memories outside our awareness.
If the unconscious I nds a feeling to be anxiety-
producing, it can project that feeling onto another per-
son, so that the I does not have to deal with it consciously.
Projecting such feelings onto someone else is another
defense mechanism.
For example, your friend Amy might say to you, You
were never a good listener. But Amy is not really talking

210003_101_C05.indd 108 6/6/08 1:49:38 PM

 about you; she is projecting feelings she has about herself 109
onto you, as she might fear she is not a very good listener.
Chapter 5
Parents oftenand without being aware of itproject
their own unrealized goals, aspirations, or expectations Why Am
onto their children. I So
Defensive?
We all use this defense mechanism to help us cope
with reality. And in almost all cases, the I is not aware
of what it is doing and why. Projection helps people main-
tain the illusion of their perfect Is, but it can often
hinder their performance in the real world.
The Is primary concern is maintaining its own well-
being, safety, and comfort. If the I becomes conscious
of dormant painful emotions, it deals with them differ-
ently, depending on the intensity of the emotion. We can
deal with less painful emotions through therapy. But ex-
tremely painful ones often overwhelm us, causing depres-
sion or escapism though alcohol, drugs, or other
self-destructive behaviors. Remember, emotion can over-
power thought and gain control over us. Professional
psychotherapy, therefore, is sometimes required to help
us become aware of who we truly are, so we can feel and
function better.

MAINTAINING THE ILLUSION OF THE PERFECT I

A key point to remember is that the defense mechanisms

serve the I by maintaining its positive self-image, even
if it means denying traumatic events, personality con-
icts, negative behavior, anxiety-provoking emotions
whatever presents a threat.
The defense mechanisms mask the true nature of re-
ality and alter our perceptions, so that we can experi-
ence a world that is more consistent with our values,
motivations, expectations, intentions, and beliefs.
Defense mechanisms reafrm the identity of the I
and the attachments to the characteristics of the self-
image. When we are free from these mechanisms, we can
achieve peak performance and spiritual awareness and be
more understanding of the real world and people around
us. This is the essence of the practice of No Mind.

210003_101_C05.indd 109 6/6/08 1:49:38 PM

 110 The I Needs to Limit the Reality of the World
No Mind Fantasy, denial, repression, projection, and regression
101 are defense mechanisms that deny any information con-
Mind tradicting the I access to our awareness. Given the de-
fensive nature of the I, a substantial portion of reality is
blocked out. As it interprets reality based on its own value
systems, beliefs, and expectations, the I alters reality to
t its self-image.
Today, this is a main task of the I. Thanks to modern
communication technology, we receive countless sensory
inputs dailyfar more than ever before. These inputs
condition our defense mechanisms in many subliminal
ways, and those mechanisms unconsciously alter our
perceptions and our understanding of reality. We are
conditioned to see the world through these lters, but the
practice of No Mind can help us remove them.
Through our defense mechanisms, we see only what
we want to see. The evening news shows us only a frac-
tion of what is happening in our communities, our cities,
our states, and in other countries around the world.
So how much reality do we really see? We certainly
cannot see or interpret reality from the perspective of the
I, since it is altered by the brains perceptual and asso-
ciative mechanisms.

Modifying and Understanding Defensive Styles

The defense mechanisms are not static; they can be modi-
ed and changed over time. According to one study, shifts
in the defensive style occur as people mature, indicating
that we are stylizing and modifying defense systems as we
adapt to the environment:

Ninety-ve men, selected in college on the basis of

health, have been prospectively followed up for 30 years.
Their adaptive styles have been isolated, labeled by the
ego mechanisms of defense that their behavior reects.
They were categorized by personality attributes. Highly
signicant shifts in defensive style occurred as individu-
als matured. In order to conceptualize the continuum

210003_101_C05.indd 110 6/6/08 1:49:39 PM

 that underlies mental health, identication of a persons 111
dominant defensive styles may be superior to our cur-
rent scheme of static unitary diagnoses. (Vaillant, 1976) Chapter 5

Why Am
According to the study, our behaviors and conception I So
of reality may also change as our defensive mechanism Defensive?
styles change. It also emphasizes that therapy should be
customized to the specic defense mechanisms a person
uses to cope with issues. In other words, what mecha-
nism we use to cope with a problem is as important as
the problem itself.
The complexity of the ego and its perceptual defense
mechanisms lends itself to the unconscious development
of the characteristics of the I in terms of styles:

... [Ego] defenses cluster so as to constitute styles and

... these styles can be ranked as more or less adap-
tive. The results, which argued strongly for the valid-
ity of a questionnaire measure of perceived defensive
style, also showed that such defenses tend to cluster
into styles that can be ranked on a developmental con-
tinuum, from maladaptive action patterns, through
image-distorting defenses, self-sacricing defenses,
and adaptive defenses. (Bond, Gardner, Christian, &
Sigal, 1983)

It is hard to understand all the defense mechanisms

we use. With all of these defensive styles altering our
perceptions for the comfort of the I, how much of real-
ity do we really see?
Well, not very much. We are unconsciously and con-
sciously regressing, repressing, projecting, and denying a
very large portion of what we see, hear, and feel. And if
none of those work, we can always fantasize.

THE ANCIENT MASTERS COULD SEE CLEARLY

Although we all see beauty as beauty, ugliness as ugliness,

evil as evil, good as good, these can mean different things
to us, depending on our interpretations of our perceptions.
Indeed, Beauty is in the eye [or I] of the beholder.

210003_101_C05.indd 111 6/6/08 1:49:39 PM

 112 The world around us appears as we see it, not as it
really is. We experience it in terms of how the mental
No Mind
101 web of the I interprets it. We live in a world where the
boundary between illusion and reality may be so subtle
Mind that, without a trained mind, you can easily mix them
up. The Tao Te Ching makes this point:

Colors can make us blind!

Music can make us deaf!
Flavors can destroy our taste!
Possessions can close our options!
Racing can drive us mad
And its rewards obstruct our peace!
Thus, the wise
Fill the inner gut
Rather than the eyes,
Always sacricing the supercial
For the essential.
(Dale, 2002)

SEEING CLEARLY WITHOUT THE I

To ll the inner gut, rather than the eyes, you must

transcend the Ifor fullling the I is supercial and
inessential. Grasp for what is real, not for things in which
the ego delights. That is the No Mind of the ancient mas-
ters. Look for the essential aspect of nature, not the
manufactured version produced through the mental web
of I. Remember, we see ourselves the way our I
thinks we should be.
Of course, we prefer to see ourselves in a positive light,
and we go to great lengths to maintain that perspective,
which keeps us psychologically and physically healthy. So,
yes, we protect ourselves against a world that we experi-
ence only partially. At the same time, we are part of the
world; we inuence it and it inuences us. We do not need
to defend against ourselves any more than a snake needs
to defend itself against its own bite. But we do.

210003_101_C05.indd 112 6/6/08 1:49:39 PM

 We should be like the snake, which does not try to be 113
anything but itself, in harmony with nature. Lets just be
Chapter 5
our I-less selves. The Tao, or nature, does not create
the world as we do. It is both a part of the world and the Why Am
whole world simultaneously, so there is no need to cre- I So
Defensive?
ate anything. The world already exists; we just need to
become aware of it. When we live closer to our true na-
ture, we are closer to the natural world around us.

Through Tao everything exists yet it does not take pos-

session. It provides for everything yet it does not lay
claim. Without motive it seems small. Being the source
of everything, it is great. Because it never claims great-
ness, its greatness shines brightly. (MacHovec, 1962)

Without the mechanism of the I, we see clearly that

there is nothing to ght. People might perceive that state-
ment as an assault on their ego, on themselves, on who
and what they think they are: How can I give up what I
have been attached to for so long? You dont need to give
up anything because there is nothing to give up. When
you realize this, you will be like the Tao: Being the source
of everything, it is great, but it never claims greatness.
Several thousand years ago, the ancient masters realized
that through No Mind, the I loses its grasp on aware-
ness. When you experience enlightenment, you lose noth-
ing and you gain nothing, yet nothing is ever the same
again.

210003_101_C05.indd 113 7/23/08 4:12:38 PM

 114

No Mind CHAPTER 5 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER

101 BEFORE CONTINUING

Mind 1. Common defense mechanisms include fantasy,

denial, regression, projection, and repression.
They are primarily unconscious processes to de-
fend the I against unacceptable, hurtful, or
painful information that may cause anxiety, con-
fusion, or psychological disorders.
2. Fantasy can help us cope by altering reality in a
way that is comfortable for the self-image. The
mind runs learned programs that make percep-
tions more attractive. When we cannot achieve
something, we can pretend that we have achieved
it, or we can pretend to achieve it in our own
way.
3. Repression is motivated forgetting of traumatic
memories, experiences, people, or events. It is
part of the coping strategy we use to create our
reality. Projection and repression rob us of achiev-
ing peak performance and maintain the illusion
of the I. These mechanisms hold us back from
spiritual awareness.
4. Defense mechanisms put reality into our comfort
zone for the maintenance of the I. Reality is cre-
ated by our minds to be consistent with our self-
image in order to maintain the illusion.
5. Defense mechanisms mask the true nature of real-
ity and alter our perceptions, so that we can expe-
rience a version of reality that is more consistent
with our values, motivations, expectations, inten-
tions, and beliefs.
6. Defense mechanisms conrm the identity of the
I and our attachments to the characteristics of
our self-image. The way we think we are and how
we want to be identied reinforce attachments to

210003_101_C05.indd 114 6/6/08 1:49:40 PM

 115
the I. The resulting defense mechanisms reaf- Chapter 5
rm the attachments by selecting compatible in-
formation from the inner and outer worlds. Why Am
I So
7. Over time, we develop defensive styles that can Defensive?
be modied to t our changing circumstances.
The styles are adaptive (altering reality to t a
more compatible mode of perception), maladap-
tive (projecting emotion coupled with hostility
to another person), image-distorting (creating
fantasy roles and denying), and self-sacricing
(engaging in self-destructive behaviors, such as
alcohol or drug addiction, to repress a problem).
8. Defensive styles and mechanisms alter our per-
ceptions and understanding of reality. We expe-
rience the world through these lters. Yet, the
ancient masters discovered that No Mind can de-
tach awareness from these mechanisms and allow
us to see reality directly. When we are free from
these mechanisms, we can achieve peak perform-
ance and be more understanding of the real
world and people around us.

210003_101_C05.indd 115 6/6/08 1:49:42 PM

 116 EXERCISE 5: IDENTIFYING DEFENSE
MECHANISMS
No Mind
101

Mind
The following list of questions relates to common defense
mechanisms, both ego and perceptual. Consider each
question, and respond without overanalyzing your an-
swer, as your answer may be inuenced by defense mech-
anisms, such as intellectualization. Take a few deep
breaths, relax, and try to answer objectively. No one will
see the answers except you, so the more honest and ob-
jective you are, the more insight you will have into your-
self and your defense mechanisms.

Has this ever affected

Defense mechanisms you in any way?
Have you ever been deceived
without knowing it?
Do you understand the real
motives of that deception?
Have you verbally defended
yourself lately?
Have you bought a product
without really knowing why?
Have you become aware of
anything from memory that
was repressed?
Are there images that you do
not like to see? That you
censor?
Are there people who make
you anxious when you see
them?
Do you avoid those people in
general?

210003_101_C05.indd 116 6/6/08 1:49:45 PM

 117
Has this ever affected
Defense mechanisms you in any way? Chapter 5

Describe a painful past event; Why Am

do you speak openly about it I So
or repress aspects of it? Defensive?

Do you fantasize about issues

that you had to deal with?
Do you fantasize about your
position in your career?
Do you fantasize about your
real happiness in life?
Do you have fantasies about
your mates happiness or love
for you?
Do you feel your family is
content and happy?
Are you societys perfect
little I?
Can you speak openly about
all of your sexual habits
and likes?
Have you ever been in denial
about a situation in your life?
Have you ever been in denial
about someone close to you?
Have you ever realized that
you projected your feelings
about yourself onto someone
else?
Have you said something to
someone, realizing that you
were referring to yourself?
Have you ever had aggressive
or hurtful feelings toward
yourself?

210003_101_C05.indd 117 6/6/08 1:49:46 PM

 Language, by its very nature, divides, fragments, categorizes,
and compartmentalizes our experience of the world. As
such, it inuences the way we perceive things, interpret
things, and act on those things. The formation of self-
awareness and the acquisition of language occur almost
simultaneously and establish a codependency that makes
it nearly impossible to perceive or think without language.
Language itself creates the false idea of a dualistic reality,
dening the I and continuously reinforcing it.

Because the I is separated from the whole (or reality as it

is) in a dualistic existence, it is in a constant, futile search
for that which will make it whole. As long as we remain
detached units, however, we cannot become complete and
reach our full potential. The detached I remains bound
by time and limited by its own boundaries.

In Chapter 6, we will explore why the I cannot become

whole. We can become aware of our wholeness, but only
through releasing the I. Suspension of the I through the
practice of No Mind allows us to understand our spiritual
awareness, the essential aspect of nature, or the Tao.

210003_101_C06.indd 118 6/6/08 1:50:15 PM

 Chapter 6

The Language
of the I

W hen we realize true spiritual awareness, or enlightenment,

we transcend the I. In this state, there is nothing to gain
because we are not expecting to gain anything, and there is no-
where to go because we are right where we should be. We are also
more mindful of the dynamic nature of the mind-body nexus in
relation to the world around it. This is far more gratifying than
seeing everything from the narrow perspective of the I.
The ancient masters say, When enlightened, we gain nothing.
Why? Normally, we think of acquisition in distributive termsto
gain is to take something from one place or person and to give it
to another. Such denition is premised on the existence of two
separate entitiesa giver and a recipient. Gain also implies ac-
quiring something to satisfy a need or an expectation of the I.
For instance, I want to get that, or I want to be enlightened.
As an example, lets say you win an award for performing well
at your job. Unimpeded by the illusion of the I, you can focus on
what you have to do to achieve the award, not just on the nal
119

210003_101_C06.indd 119 7/23/08 4:13:26 PM

 120 result of getting the award. In other words, its not about
the endI won, but about the meansthe mind-body
No Mind
101 working together efciently. Dont worry about winning
focus on the spiritual process of doing, and the rewards
Mind will come. We focus on the journey, not the destination
that is how we enjoy the moment, which is really all we
have.
When we understand the I as not me, we no longer
think of the I versus the world. Yet, at this point lan-
guage breaks down, and it becomes impossible to describe
a non-dualistic experience via dualistic languageone
that ensures the existence of the self by using pronouns
like I, me, or mine. For example, many athletes nd
it difcult to describe reaching the zone in sports.
The experience is like restoring the spiritual aware-
ness we had before the development of the I. Non-
dualistic spiritual awareness is what we experience at
birth, before the years of conditioning and reinforcement
from family, community, and society, and before we de-
velop our internal ego and perceptual defense lters.
We return to this state of spiritual awareness when we
are released from the grasp of the I. We spend a lifetime
following the actions of the I, to which we become at-
tached and with which we identify. In many instances,
we act and react on autopilot, unaware, mindless.
But when we detach the awareness from the I
through No Mind, we become free to eliminate the arti-
cial avoring and colors of the I. We are free to see real-
ity from a fresh perspective, outside the conditioning of
the I. Its not giving up who you think you are; its ex-
panding the limitless possibilities of who you really are.
According to a study conducted at Dalhousie University,
Canada:

Buddhist psychology has now gained some credence

in the West and is starting to exert a growing inuence
both on various areas of medicine and well-established
Western psychotherapies ... The Buddhist concept
of selessness is often perceived by Westerners as a
recommendation for the dissolution of the ego and its

210003_101_C06.indd 120 6/6/08 1:50:18 PM

 propelling forces in their competitive societies, instead 121
of an invitation to dispel the articial compactness of
their I. (Michalon, 2001) Chapter 6

The
Language
THE I AS A CREATION OF LANGUAGE of the I

The I does not exist as a separate entity or agent. It is an

illusion that we have created by identifying with every-
thing we have been conditioned to believe. This illusion
is reinforced by language through pronouns like I,
me, or mine.
How do you dispel this illusion? If you must think in
terms of mine or me, just dont get attached to them.
Be mindful of the mine and me, and you can slowly
dissolve the attachments. Or you can not think and just
be aware of reality as a something that merely happens in
time. By doing this, you wont feel the need to describe
anything verbally in terms of the I.
This is not to say that we do not exist. Obviously, we
do; however, the I is not the essence of our existence,
but only an illusion of language and identity. Everything
we believe we are is us. Certainly, our life is not happen-
ing to someone else. Our life is simply our life. Yet, our
language forces us to identify with everything in our life,
so we say I am this, or I am that, or I like this, and
I dislike that, and so on. It is difcult not to use the I
in a sentence about ourselves. It sounds very uncomfort-
able to say, This mind-body does this or that.
Language helps dene the I, frames it as a unit apart
from the rest of the world, and reinforces the continuity
of the I. So the I is a creation of language, duality, and
identication.

IDENTITY AS A CREATION OF LANGUAGE

Our self-imagewho and what we think we arebuilds

a shell around us that separates us from the rest of the
world. We protect our self-image, and we are proud of
the things we accomplish. But when we transcend our

210003_101_C06.indd 121 6/6/08 1:50:18 PM

 122 I-image, we realize that there is no one to claim all of
our special qualities and accomplishments; they are just
No Mind
101 the special qualities and accomplishments of our mind-
body dynamic. I didnt accomplish it; it was just accom-
Mind plished through the mind-body dynamic in a more or less
efcient manner.
When you take this step, nothing is taken away from
you. You are not stripped of your self. You simply shift
to a higher, more expanded perspective, where life is lib-
erated from suffering and attachment. This shift results
in true happiness.
H. P. Grice, professor of philosophy at The University
of California, Berkeley, suggests a model of perception in
which we detach from a sensory cue (or what he calls
sense datum). He states that perceiving an object
involves having an impression of somethinga sense
datumwhich is similar to being mindful of something:

Are we to accept the legitimacy of the sentence It looks

indigestible to me as providing us with a sense datum
sentence I am having an indigestible visual sense-
datum? (Grice, 1965)

If we remove the I in the sentence, then we essen-

tially have, there is a thought that that food is disgust-
ing. It is difcult to talk like this and a lot easier to simply
say, I cant eat that.
In reality, the response is an auto-reaction of the brain
that reaches our awareness after it has already been proc-
essed. We look at the food, and maybe it resembles some-
thing we once ate that made us sick. So we mechanically
react negatively to the new food because of that past ex-
perience. Even though the new food could be delicious,
we wont even try it.
But if you take one step backward, youll realize that
its just your mind telling you that the food is disgusting.
The food could be scrumptious, but you wont even let
yourself try it because of what your mind is telling you. If
you detach yourself from the thought that the food is
disgustingif you become mindful of ityou wont be

210003_101_C06.indd 122 6/6/08 1:50:18 PM

 automatically repulsed, and you might discover it is actu- 123
ally quite tasty.
Chapter 6

The
THE PERILS OF THE PRONOUN I Language
of the I
In language, we habitually use I in conjunction with
everything we do. We have become identied with the
pronounan illusion reinforced by language. This unit of
speech harms us much more than it helps. We use the
pronoun comfortably in language, but in reality it is the
kernel for many psychological, sociological, and psycho-
physiological pathologies.
The medical literature discusses thousands of patho-
logical disorders that stem from a persons ego or self-
image. The I does not go away easily. Its grasp is rm; it
takes No Mind, or a sudden burst of insight, to escape it.
For thousands of years, the masters have known that
real suffering is generated by the I. They developed a
powerful psychotherapeutic language that solves the
problem of identity and helps us understand and eventu-
ally experience the non-dualistic nature of No Mind. The
great Zen master Hui-neng said:

As long as there is a dualistic way of looking at things

there is no emancipation. Light stands against dark-
ness; the passion stands against enlightenment ... The
main point is not to think of things good and bad and
thereby be restricted, but to let the mind move on as
it is in itself and perform its inexhaustible functions.
(Suzuki, 1969)

Letting the mind move unchecked takes practice. We

learn to allow the awareness to oat above our thoughts
and to avoid getting pulled down by them. A non-dualistic
awareness is a reality that can be experiencedit has
been documented thousands of times throughout
history.
The ancient masters knew that language was a key
prop for the I and for maintaining the illusion. Lan-
guage is a direct manifestation of the associative neural

210003_101_C06.indd 123 6/6/08 1:50:19 PM

 124 networks of the brain. We think in terms of language, and
therefore need it to identify everything outside and inside
No Mind
101 of us.
The ancient Taoist text says, Those who speak do not
Mind know, and those who know do not speak. Ultimate non-
dualistic reality and enlightenment are beyond descrip-
tion in ordinary, dualistic language. Recently, physicists
have been establishing the existence of a non-dualistic
reality in labs with particle accelerators and vacuum
chambers while studying subatomic particles (Capra,
1976). We will discuss this in detail in No Mind 401, Se-
crets of No Mind.

THE RELATIVE EMPTINESS OF LANGUAGE

Our use of language to communicate is a conditioning

and reinforcing factor equally important to learning and
experience. The central concept for the great dialectician
Nagarjuna (150250 CE) is: emptiness [sunyata] of all
things, which reects the incessantly changing nature of
all phenomena. He also demonstrates the failure of lan-
guage to describe the experience. He understood that
whatever could be conceptualized is relative, and any-
thing that can be described by language must also be
relative.
Further, everything that is relative is empty, or void.
This does not mean empty in the sense of nothing, but
in the sense that the concept of a thing is not the ultimate
reality of that thing. A concept is always relative to some-
thing else; therefore in terms of spiritual awareness, it is
empty.
Non-dualistic spiritual awareness is not relative; it
transcends relativity because it is relative to nothingit
just exists. Just as an ocean cannot be relative to itself, a
drop of the ocean is relative only when dened as a drop
by removing it from the ocean. When the drop becomes
the ocean, it loses its relativity to the ocean.
When we are born, we are the ocean. The I forms
like a drop extracted from the ocean. Visualize yourself

210003_101_C06.indd 124 6/6/08 1:50:19 PM

 as a drop that has been removed from the ocean, and you 125
know yourself as the drop, not the ocean. As long as you
Chapter 6
identify with the I, you are the drop. Once you realize
spiritual awareness or enlightenment, you are like the The
drop returning to the ocean and remembering you were Language
of the I
always part of it. You did not gain anything, you were al-
ways the ocean, but you just lost the experience of being
the ocean. The I made you forget.
Language, however, constantly puts us in a dualistic
reality; it always renders us relative to what we are doing,
accomplishing, or performing. The experience of the
world develops co-dependently with language, and it is
framed by our description of itwe say, I am washing
dishes, not The mind-body is washing dishes. When
you take the I out, all description becomes empty, and it
is only an illusion to attach yourself to something that is
empty or relative. There is only the washing of dishes.
Even though descriptions of reality are empty, the I
attaches to the descriptions of what we are doing, how
we are feeling, and what we are thinking. But what is de-
scribed is not realityit is the Is idea of reality. When
you realize the I is an illusion, then you can realize
No Mind, experience non-dualistic spiritual awareness,
and develop peak performance in your life. We simply
perform better when we just perform, rather than when
we think, I need to perform.
Nagarjuna refers to this non-dualistic spiritual aware-
ness as indescribable, nameless and owing; it is empty,
yet the source of all things. The ancient master recognized
languages inability to describe this reality properly.
Language enforces duality in another way. When you
describe something using language, you simultaneously
describe its opposite. For instance, if you describe a
ower as red, you simultaneously tell us that the ower is
not black, yellow, green, blue, or any other color. If you
describe a feeling as happiness, you are also saying it is
not sadness.
So when we use language to describe non-dualistic
awareness, or No Mind, as empty, we also mean that it is
full. This is where language breaks down. Physicists know

210003_101_C06.indd 125 6/6/08 1:50:19 PM

 126 the universe is not empty; it is full of particles. Subatomic
particles emerge from what appears empty (Pagels,
No Mind
101 1982).
Essentially, the same holds true for the I. If you are
Mind not the I, how can you describe yourself? There is
awareness, attention, or consciousness, which all mean
about the same thing. In contrast, No Mind is non-
dualistic; it is pure awarenessindividual and universal
awareness at the same time. It is the drop and the ocean,
when the drop transcends itself and remembers its the
ocean.
This is difcult to comprehend intellectually, because
we invariably use language to conceptualize everything.
Still, language is not adequate to describe a non-dualistic
reality; it is not adequate to describe enlightenment. That
is why we must experience reality for ourselves; other-
wise, it does not make sense. The ancient masters devised
techniques, such as No Mind, for this exact purpose.

LANGUAGE AS THE SELF POLICE

At least two hundred families of languages and thousands

of dialects are used in the world today. Languages gener-
ally describe things in terms of subject-verb-object: what
the subject is doing, and what is being done. The subject
componentthe someone-is-doing-something partis
very important for the construction of a sentence, no
matter what the linear relationship is in the sentence.
In Going Inside, John McCrone argues that language
changed our evolutionary development by allowing us to
organize not only our social world, but also our internal
world, thereby creating special human abilities, such as
self-awareness, that may not exist in animals.
Language, and the habits of thought which it sup-
ports, may have developed rst in the social sphere, being
the product of a cultural rather than a biological evolu-
tion, McCrone says, going on to assert that words allow
us to treat our brains as if they were digital storehouses.
Words give us the power to label and to describe anything.

210003_101_C06.indd 126 6/6/08 1:50:19 PM

 We can even use language to conceptualize and identify 127
our emotions:
Chapter 6
Grammatical speech put a motor into human thought,
The
allowing our minds to break free of the tyranny of the Language
present. We could then start going places in both our of the I
imagination and our memories ... and this control over
our state of mental representation gave us two new
powers in particular: recollective memory and self-
awareness. (McCrone, 2001)

Through neuroplasticity, or the brains capacity to re-

wire itself through neurons forging new connections and
assuming new roles, language gave us the ability to form
a distinctive view of ourselvesconditioning and rein-
forcing a pattern of I, in which we live and acknowl-
edge our lives.
Language itself is broken down into identifying doers
and their actions, like I am playing tennis. The use of
words develops a self, or an awareness of a self. And perhaps
the purpose of this self-awareness is to help us police
ourselves as language and communications develop, as
McCrone suggests. Why is self-policing so important?
Because self-policing, or conscience, helps us watch what
we do and say for the purpose of sharing and cooperating
with the group. Self-policing helps us blend in with the
group.
We can learn concepts like patience, respect, or kinship
so we can communicate with other members of society.
Social conditioning has instilled and reinforced the I, so
that it may be responsible for its own actions, just as religion
threatens that something bad will happen to us, such as
spending an eternity in hell, if we dont live a righteous life.
Language gives us the ability to look beyond the mo-
ment, both forward and backward in time. On the other
hand, No Mind occurs only in the moment, which is one
reason why language cannot describe this reality; language
separates things, fragmenting the external and internal
worlds into small conceptual parts. No Mind breaks down
these barriers to reveal the wholeness of reality, instead of
the fragments that language leaves behind.

210003_101_C06.indd 127 6/6/08 1:50:20 PM

 128 LANGUAGE, DUALITY, AND RELATIVITY
No Mind Language frames the I as separate from everything that
101
is not part of the I. It perpetuates the I-versus-the-
Mind world model that enables the ego and the perceptual de-
fense mechanisms needed to maintain the well-being of
the I.
This is the pathology of identity, which is the source
of many of our problems and limitations. Essential duality
fragments life. Not only do we see everything as separate
from the I, but we also tend to distinguish conceptually
the I from the mind-body dynamic. In other words, we
think in terms of my body and mind versus the body
and mind.
The underpinning of this process is the subconscious
activity of the I, with its many subliminal defense mech-
anisms. We are protected from potentially dangerous im-
pressions that never reach our consciousness and that
remain hidden or repressed. All this is done for the com-
fort of the I. The ltering and interpreting activities of
the associative neural networks fragment reality into ele-
ments that we can easily understand.
Thus, the I is a discrete entity, which places it in a
dualistic relationship with the world. The I, however,
is only a succession of thoughts, which always unfold in
relation to something else. And if they are relative, they
are empty ideas. They are not complete and whole in
themselvessomewhat analogous to what Plato calls
extra-mental Forms in his Theory of the Forms (Fine,
1995). They have no real existence of their own. They
are the drops and not the ocean. Drops real nature
(their timeless and placeless essence) is the ocean, and
once they become the ocean again, they no longer exist
as drops.
Language is relative also, as it cannot describe the
whole adequately, only the pieces. It is impossible for any
language to describe the ultimate reality of true, non-
dualistic spiritual awareness. The ocean is in the drop, so
its not really a drop, its the ocean. The drop never really
existed, it was an illusion. Because we use language to

210003_101_C06.indd 128 6/6/08 1:50:20 PM

 form thoughts, our thoughts are always relative to some- 129
thing else.
Chapter 6
When we describe an object, we describe its relative
opposite. Most important, when we describe ourselves, The
we always do so relative to something else. We also Language
of the I
describe everything that is not ourselves, cognitively
maintaining a dualistic relationship with the rest of the
world. The foundation of this apparent relative nature is
in the structure of language. As long as we use language to
communicate, we describe a dualistic universe in terms of
dichotomies. Listen to the ancient Taoist sage Lao Tzu:

Under heaven all can see beauty as beauty only because

there is ugliness.
All can know good as good only because there is evil.
Therefore having and not having arise together.
Difcult and easy complement each other.
Long and short contrast each other;
High and low rest upon each other;
Front and back follow one another.
Therefore the sage goes about doing nothing, teaching
without talking.
The ten thousand things rise and fall without cease,
Creating, yet not possessing,
Working, yet not taking credit.
Work is done, then forgotten.
Therefore it lasts forever.

THE DELUSION OF DUALISTIC THINKING

In dualistic thought, opposites exist as two poles of the

same whole; they depend on each other, and one does not
exist without the otherthey are trapped in a dialectical
relationship. Ugliness presupposes beauty, only because
you learn what is ugly in contrast to what is beautiful.
Otherwise, all things appear the sameneither beautiful
nor ugly. Opposites may exist as two parts of one whole,
but the form of that whole is circular, not linear. In other
words, they are always connected, not opposite to each
other.

210003_101_C06.indd 129 6/6/08 1:50:20 PM

 130 In fact, interpretations of beauty vary throughout the
world, because beauty and ugliness are relative to each
No Mind
101
other and to the observer. Similarly, the descriptive words
and modiers in language are relative to their antonyms,
Mind relative to the person talking, and relative to those who
are listening. This dualistic character of language poses a
challenge to experiencing No Mind.
Our dualistic language patterns strongly inuence the
internal conditioning, ltering, defensive, and associative
mechanisms that shape the I and our perspectives of
the outside world. We build a world of opposites, divi-
sions, separations. We dissect the reality that we perceive,
and understand it according to its parts and pieces, typi-
cally missing the whole.
All this reinforces the I as a separate entity. Lan-
guage perpetuates the delusion of duality. When thinking
stops and thoughts cease to ow, we can achieve non-
dualistic pure awarenessNo Mind.

LIVING BETWEEN THE OPPOSITES

Living in the golden medium between the opposites is al-

ways healthier than being at one extreme or the other. It
reduces internal conictthe internal dialogue that the
self constantly has to correct and to criticize itself. It also
allows the world and its separateness to dissolve into a
greater unity of things, of people, and of compassion. It
enables us to become spiritually connected to a greater
whole, to be happy and fullled.
How do we get there from here? We have to surrender
the I-made delusion of dualism, which hinders our abil-
ity to achieve a higher state. You may think you are happy
because you just did something that makes you feel suc-
cessful in the social world. But if a circumstance
changesyou lose a job, a mate, a game, or any source of
fulllmentyou are thrown back into the whirlpool of
despair or sadness, seeking happiness again.
Once you attach your happiness to something, you
can become unhappy again when circumstances change.

210003_101_C06.indd 130 6/6/08 1:50:20 PM

 True and lasting happiness cannot come from fullling a 131
set of conditioned parameters, such as career goals, rela-
Chapter 6
tionships, or nancial status. These are temporary con-
ditions that we try to satisfy; if any of the conditions The
change, so does our relative happiness, because our hap- Language
of the I
piness is relative to the impermanence of our conditioned
reality.
Like a small craft on the ocean, we live amid the waves
of the consequences of our daily social interactions. We are
tossed about, up, and down. The me society, using the
me strategy, is going to get something out of you today,
and you are going to get something out of someone else.

THE I CANNOT CHANGE OUR EXTERNAL OR

INTERNAL WORLDS
We may never amend the basic mode of operation of the
I and of the big I of society. The world may never
change, as long as we see ourselves as the drops and not
as the ocean. The dualistic language of the I always sets
it apart from the world and from itself. The I uncon-
sciously and consciously fragments itself into parts of a
whole, for its own defense and maintenance.
The I is not able to perceive the whole of our inter-
nal world either, because a substantial part of it is uncon-
scious. The I needs assistance in the form of
psychotherapy to uncover and repair hidden emotions,
memories, or perceptions. And the greater I of society
needs spiritual awakening on a global scale to solve prob-
lems like self-destruction through war or pollution.
We can, however, change ourselves and our dualistic
relationship to reality. We can achieve No Mind and leave
behind the relative point of view based on opposites and
attachments. Then we recognize reality as an all-
encompassing whole, which was fragmented only by our
perception. We are ready to move our relative perspective
from the parts to the whole. Hopefully, one day the many
nations of Is will join into a single planetary I, as pro-
jected in sci- classics like Star Trek.

210003_101_C06.indd 131 6/6/08 1:50:21 PM

 132 NON-DUALISTIC AWARENESS AS
A META-THERAPY
No Mind
101
We have the ability to resolve inner conict and to stop turn-
Mind ing on ourselves through seeing reality non-dualistically.
When we do that, the mind is free to think continuously
without having to stop to evaluate each thought. The mind
also frees itself of defensive and conditioning mechanisms
that pull it from one extreme to the other.
Problem-solving is accomplished when we see the world
as it really is, not as we have been conditioned to see it. We
cannot be discouraged or embarrassed by malicious talk.
We are not in conict with society; there is no aggression,
no malice, no self-righteousness; there is only one who lives
within the ow, like a stream owing to the ocean, merging
with the ocean and losing its essence as a stream.
There is no self-consciousness. We are aware only of
the stream of life, never getting stuck on the parts. The
process is more important than the goal. We do not see the
fragments, only the whole nature of the event; we are not
interested in the details of the problem, only the solution
as it affects the whole. Each problem presents a unique
solution, not another problem. This perception of reality
has been classied as a form of meta-therapy. Harvards
own Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence,
conceptualizes meditation as a form of meta-therapy:

... a procedure that accomplishes the major goals of

conventional therapy and yet has as its end, a state of
change far beyond the scope of therapies, an altered
state of consciousness which would undergo a pro-
found, non-verbal level. (Goleman, 1971)

So by suspending the thoughts of the I through the

non-verbal practice of No Mind, we reach true spiritual
awareness.

UNDERSTANDING EMPTINESS AND REALITY

The dualistic nature of language gives rise to another par-

adox, which challenges our search for true awareness:

210003_101_C06.indd 132 6/6/08 1:50:21 PM

 How can something be itself and its exact opposite at the 133
same time? In The Tao of Physics, physicist Fritjof Capra
Chapter 6
writes:
The
The exploration of the subatomic world has revealed a Language
reality which repeatedly transcends language and rea- of the I
soning, and the unication of concepts which had hith-
erto seemed opposite and irreconcilable turns out to be
one of the most startling features of the new reality ... in
modern physics at the subatomic level. (Capra, 1976)

The ancient masters knew that the solution to this

paradox lies in the correct understanding of emptiness.
Emptiness does not consist of no things; it consists of
all things while possessing nothing. We are talking about
the fullness of emptiness.
The interpretation is paradoxical only because of the
dualistic nature of language. We nd it difcult, if not
impossible, to describe something to be itself and its op-
posite at the same time: It is both hot and cold, or You
must look up and down at the same time. Such a per-
spective, however, can be realized when you look between
the opposites, when you understand them as two poles of
the same entity, or reality, because up and down are
relative to the observer in three-dimensional space.
Going up for one observer may be going down for
another. Up or down are relative to a point of reference,
depending on where one is located in the three-
dimensional space. When you understand full and
empty as aspects of the same reality, they are no longer
opposites.
This is the state of No Mind, which is simultaneously
a non-dualistic aspect of the nature of the mind and of
the nature of the universeawareness is the only univer-
sal constant. It is another term for Tao, the universal as-
pect of nature. The description of No Mind sounds
perplexing, and that is why the ancient masters taught
without speaking, trying to convey something indescrib-
able. Zen masters gave their students koansnonsensi-
cal riddlesto help them stop their intellectual pursuits
and break through the paradoxical nature of this reality.

210003_101_C06.indd 133 6/6/08 1:50:21 PM

 134 So students of Zen contemplated reality until, in a sud-
den burst of insight, they understood the meaning by ex-
No Mind
101 periencing it. Lao Tzu describes the paradox in Tao Te
Ching:
Mind
The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.

DESIRING: PUSHING OFF HAPPINESS

INTO THE FUTURE
Desire is directed towards things the I has been condi-
tioned to believe it wants and needs. When we are con-
stantly trying to fulll ourselves through something, we
are never fullled now. We are always in a state of po-
tentialitythe potentiality for fulllment. Living in that
state is not true happiness because being fullled is al-
ways something that might happen in the future. Once
we meet one need, we decide we need something else to
make us happy, and so on and so on.
Satisfy my desires, and I will be happy. References
to happiness are always in the future or in the past. You
may be temporarily happy within a specic, short time
frame, like walking down the isle during your wedding,
but that wont go on forever, and you go back to living in
a state of potential (we will be happy when we buy that
house, a new car, send the child off the college, save
enough to retire). As long as you stay in this state, the
gates to the mystery remain closed. Living in the present
is the only source of complete happiness. Abandoning
desire and discarding everything the I has been condi-
tioned to believe are the means to achieving true perma-
nent happiness.
That doesnt mean we should give up everything we
have acquired to be happy, cease to wish for things, or
abandon our goals. We are human, we live in a society,

210003_101_C06.indd 134 6/6/08 1:50:21 PM

 and we desire certain things for ourselves, for our children, 135
and for our families. We want to achieve, and we strive to
Chapter 6
live up to our highest potential in what we do. This is all
normal. The
Language
of the I

THE SECRET IS IN THE PROCESS, NOT THE GOALS

No Mind allows you to achieve your potential and to be

satised with the process, not the goal. The ancient mas-
ters do not prohibit anyone from reaching for a goal; they
discourage attachment to the goal or to the accomplish-
ment. You must be happy in the present, while trying to
reach your goal. You should not put off being happy until
you reach your goal. And when you do get there, be happy
in the present moment of that reality. On the other hand,
wishing, hoping, and always looking into the future for
something to make you happy is foolhardy; you miss
being happy in the present and engage in permanent
waiting for something to potentially make you happy in
the future. So you should focus on the process of achiev-
ing a goal, not on the goal itself.
Desire provides another example of the dualism in-
herent in language: there is desire at one end and fulll-
ment of the desire at the opposite end. Living life between
desire and fulllment is very frustrating if we are solely
focused on the end result. The secret is to remain happy
in the process of achieving fulllment, yet not be at-
tached to the fulllment itself. Your fulllment is always
in the process. Ultimate happiness lies between the
opposites.
For example, suppose youre taking a cruise from a
port called Desire to a destination called Fulllment. Why
not enjoy the journey between the two ports to the fullest?
What if you dont make it to Fulllment? What if the ship
is forced to alter its course to a new destinationwould
the entire journey be a waste? If you had no expectations,
intentions, or anticipations related to the destination, a
change in course wouldnt change your happiness on the
journey. But if you were lled with expectations about the

210003_101_C06.indd 135 6/6/08 1:50:22 PM

 136 destination, you would experience many uncomfortable
emotions and you would not be happy.
No Mind
101 You cannot obtain ultimate happiness just by waiting
to fulll your desire, because ultimate happiness must
Mind be found between the oppositesbetween desire and
fulllment.

THE PROBLEM OF ATTACHMENTS TO DESIRES

Attachment to any goal, desire, wish, need, material ob-
ject, or relationship makes us susceptible to being un-
happy and discontent. We set a goal, and we immediately
take steps to fulll it. We may need to take one or ten
thousand steps. We have small and large goals. Whatever
the goal and whatever its characteristics or time frame, if
we focus only on the goal, we miss the process of the
journey and the enjoyment of each step. As we turn the
whole endeavor into a burden, each step becomes harder
and more difcult to take.
Furthermore, depending on our character, the steps
may become so difcult and burdensome that we halt the
journey and never reach the goal. When this happens, we
become frustrated. We also protect the I by denying
that we ever wanted to reach the goal in the rst place, or
by fantasizing that we did, in fact, achieve our goal. We
also come up with a host of excuses why we gave up on
the journey.
The ancient masters said, What is the need for all
this? There is no need to set yourself up for unhappiness
in this way. Striving for goals is healthy because it gives
us direction; but attaching ourselves to our goals is not
healthy, and it can render us unhappy if we dont fulll
those goals.
The eighth of the Ten Paradoxes postulates: With Attach-
ment, Work. Without Attachment, Play. The ancient writings
of Taoist Chuang Tzu describe this condition:

What [people] can themselves control are their minds;

external things are all subject to the requirements and
commands of the world ... The [person] of greatest

210003_101_C06.indd 136 7/23/08 4:13:28 PM

 knowledge puts away [the idea of] skill, and without 137
effort shows his skill ... the way in which the perfect
[person] enjoys himself is by his passing through Chapter 6
the world of [people] without leaving any trace of The
[himself]. [Their] way is free and encounters no Language
obstruction; [their] mind has its spontaneous and en- of the I
joyable movements, and so [their] spirit is sure to over-
come all external obstructions. (Legge, 1891)

The idea of achieving something without any effort

may be difcult to understand. The dualistic identity of
the I, which arises from the contradictions inherent in
language, gives rise to all our ideas about our experi-
ences. Identity is the product of our development from
childhood through adulthood. As we develop our iden-
tity, we also develop other signicant psychopathological
issues, including problematic self-worth, self-esteem,
self-respect, self-alienation, self-denial, and self-love;
these cause us to develop certain desire potentials and
patterns that we either achieve or not.
But to act without effort simply means to act in the ow,
in the moment, without paying attention to the things the
I desires. Acting without effort is acting in the moment.

LIVING IN THE WORDSCAPES OF REALITY

Identity also raises the issue of dependent co-arising: every

feeling, thought, or perception is associated with another,
and each triggers another thought or feeling. The
co-arisingthe simultaneous arisingof thoughts, feelings,
and perceptions in the mental web causes many problems.
These are tied to our conceptual linguistic fabric
what psychologist Guy Claxton calls the wordscape.
A small issue can trigger a host of others that may ap-
pear unrelated, but could be related in the unconscious.
These problems cause us to experience minor frustra-
tions as well as severe emotional distress. Dependent co-
arising is an aspect of the mental web of the I.
Claxton explains that children learn language by
stringing together words, or what he calls ags, that

210003_101_C06.indd 137 6/6/08 1:50:22 PM

 138 become connected together into strings of linguistic
bunting that begin to create a wordscape that overlays
No Mind
101 the experientially based brainscape (Claxton, 2000). In
this way, language carves up the world and alters our per-
Mind ception when links of meaning co-arise in the associative
neural networks.
We have all had the experience. A small issue leads to
a torrent of other thoughts and emotions that sometimes
get out of control. We then wonder why. We wonder
where the despair, the suffering, and the depression are
really coming from. Theyre coming from our experi-
ences, values, judgments, meanings, interpretations,
goals, hopes, and anxieties that are co-arising from code-
pendent memories. It is a neurological phenomenon that
allows us to understand something but also traps us in
the understanding and meaning of that thing.

THE I-ILLUSION, OR THE IILL, MAKES US ILL

The key to understanding our health and how the prac-

tice of No Mind maximizes our potential is knowing how
trapped we are in the mental web of the I. The illusion
of the I, or the Iill (pronounced ill), is one aspect of
our minds that make us ill, in a literal sense. As history
has demonstrated, we are not sane under the inuence of
the Iill.
The mental web of the Iill consists of the synaptic as-
sociative networks of the brain that condition and rein-
force the ego and its perceptual defense and ltering
mechanisms. This is the foundation of the I. The older
we are, the harder it is for us to change. The foundation
grows stronger with age, just as concrete hardens with
time.
The mental web is also the source from which the Iill
derives its meanings and interpretations of reality. The
mental web of the Iill is the basis of the codependent co-
arising of feelings, thoughts, words, and perceptions. The
Iill shapes our experience of the world as well as our inter-
actions with others. In short, the world is experienced
through the Iill, which creates our brainscape of reality.

210003_101_C06.indd 138 6/6/08 1:50:22 PM

 The mental web is the basis for our interpretation of 139
the world and for the decisions we make. The Iill experi-
Chapter 6
ences the world dualistically, seeing parts and frag-
ments, which are relative to other parts and fragments The
only because the Iill sees itself as a part or a fragment. Language
of the I
Even though it yearns for completion, it remains
incompletealways trying to reach one goal or another.
So it is always in potential of becoming complete, but
its own identity stands in its way. Identity positions
itself against the world. So our very experience of the
world is relative to the Is mental web, and this relative
experience sometimes makes us feel alienated and out
of touch with reality.
The Iill frustrates our primordial need to experience
true spiritual awareness, or No Mind; we seek to integrate
wholeness, unity, and universality into our lives. The inner
quest for healing the fragmented and divided self is the
product of a dualistic life. The unconscious motive of our
religious, theological, and philosophical pursuits is to heal
the fractured life of the Iill and to return to the wholeness
of true, non-dualistic spiritual awareness.
Yet the misinterpretation of the works of some of
the greatest spiritual teachers of philosophy and reli-
gion has reinforced a dualistic form of worship and
left people still seeking true spiritual awareness and
god-consciousness. In the end, dualistic religions reaf-
rm the reality of the Iill and leave it fundamentally
fragmented.

GETTING PAST THE IILL TO NON-DUALISTIC

SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
The Iill is the antithesis of non-dualistic spiritual
awareness. In No Mind 401, Secrets of No Mind, we
will explore the ancient masters understanding of non-
dualistic spiritual awareness in terms of a non-dualistic
emptiness that is manifest in all things. The emptiness
is experienced as the essence of all life and the
universe.

210003_101_C06.indd 139 6/6/08 1:50:23 PM

 140 Although most religions are dualistic in nature (god
x is there and I am here), god x, or whatever higher
No Mind
101 power you believe in, is everywherenot just there, but
also here, within each person. Christian, Hebrew, Moslem,
Mind and other mystics understand emptiness in terms of a
non-dualistic god x who is everywhere. God x even be-
comes aware of itself through the non-dualistic mind
emptied of the I (discussed in Chapter 24).
The point of this chapter is that many psychological
pathologies arise from the fractured dualism of the I.
Alienation, repression, denial, divided consciousness,
obsessive desire, and stress all originate from our sever-
ance from the world around us.
The Iill is never complete; it is always fragmented
and trying to fulll its illusory needs and desires. Still,
the Iill cannot be content because it has no inherent or
underlying source of contentment. The Iill is an illusion
and cannot attain true meaning. It has no roots, except
in eeting thoughts and feelings that have no grounded
existence.
Society as a whole is a larger form of the individual Iill,
with its own patterns and models. It develops through
conditioning processes similar to those shaping the Iill. A
society can have psychological problems similar to those
of the individual Is that compose it. A society can be sick
or healthy. Societies are composed of self-centered egos
that are alienated from everything around them, and so
they have no remorse for inicting evil, pain, pollution, or
suffering on other humans, on animals, and on the Earth.
The shared Iill of the society can be healed only by revising
its consensus toward non-dualistic, Iill-less reality. Yet,
most societies presently endorse the opposite for economic
and political reasons. Balancing economics is important,
as long as it is not taken to an extreme.
The non-dualistic aspect of No Mind is a model of
health and balance. The practice of No Mind overcomes
relative identity and the mental web of the Iill. Depend-
ent co-arising (which is graphically shown in Figure 7-1)
also occurs with language. Each word is relative to an-
other and simultaneously describes its opposite.

210003_101_C06.indd 140 6/6/08 1:50:23 PM

 UNDERSTANDING THE NONLINGUISTICS 141
OF NO MIND
Chapter 6
Our primary goal is to get a basic understanding of the The
conscious and unconscious workings of the mind, so that Language
we can understand the program of No Mind. Under the of the I
control of the Iill, our essential identity entails attach-
ment, and thereinthe ancient masters knewis the key
to our inner conict, distress, and inability to ow and let
go. We have all experienced the letting go. For example,
when we are performing a sport or another task, such as
running, swimming, driving, or working, sometimes we
briey lose awareness of the Iill and exist in the moment;
we are aware, but we lack self-consciousness. We are per-
forming in the moment without effort and without inten-
tion. We are just doing something without thinking about
doing it. We are overcome by an energetic impulse, an
almost spiritual sensation. This is called the zone, the
ow, peak moments, or peak performance, which is de-
tailed in Chapter 28.
When the focus of awareness is so intense that it
overpowers the Iill, it temporarily causes us to suspend
the I-awareness, or the awareness of the self we have
most of the time. Thus, we suspend the mental web
of the Iill by becoming objectively aware of it. This
is Clear Attention (CAt), which over time develops
No Mind.
When we expand our awareness beyond the Iill, the
mind-body acts and reacts, but there is no trying be-
cause the action is effortless. In Star Wars, when Luke is
asked to raise his sunken starghter from the Dagobah
swamps using the power of his mind, he says hell try.
Jedi master Yoda responds without using any pronouns:
No. Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try. Luke doubts
the Force could carry such a huge object, but he is wrong.
Yoda lifts the starghter telekinetically and places it on
dry land. He knows that the secret is expanding ones
awareness beyond the I.
Temporarily losing the Iill is a feature of these in-
the-zone episodes, or No Mindwhen the mind-body

210003_101_C06.indd 141 6/6/08 1:50:23 PM

 142 is functioning at peak performance. Many sports psy-
chologists call these peak moments, or ow. The
No Mind
101 mind-body dynamic performs the way it was trained; it
works naturally, instinctively, and most important, non-
Mind dualistically. This is a glimpse into No Minda naked
expression of enlightenment, an awakening beyond the
ever-present Iill.
Eugen Herrigel, who is famous for the classic book
Zen in the Art of Archery, writes in The Method of Zen:

If waking dreams perpetuate a type of imagining in

which awareness is always dependent on the eyes of
the ego (where Earth is always in the center), and is
unaware of this, one can observe a tendency to see all
other images only as they relate to ego (all planets exist
because of Earth or are important only because of their
relation to Earth). That this is a perspective which ex-
aggerates some qualities of images and negates others
would not be apparent. The ego seems to try and sub-
sume not only awareness, but imagination as well. The
particular qualities of these are lost as the ego tries to
make them mere satellites. It is inevitable that the non-
ego in this case is reduced to those terms in which the
ego can perceive and understand. (Herrigel, 1974)

The ego (Iill) tries to control everything around it

and to justify everything in terms of itself. Even trying to
understand No Mind (a non-ego state) is perceived in
terms of the ego. A problem that occurs because of this,
which will be explained later, is something called pseudo-
enlightenment. The arrogant Iill sees itself as the center
of everything, just as long ago many believed that the
Earth was the center of the universe.

210003_101_C06.indd 142 6/6/08 1:50:23 PM

 143
CHAPTER 6 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 6
BEFORE CONTINUING
The
1. Language, by its very nature, divides, fragments, Language
categorizes, and compartmentalizes our experi- of the I
ence of the world. Language is the prop for the
basic self awareness. It also denes the Iill, or the
I-illusion, as an independent unit, and it maintains
that unit through continuous reinforcement.
2. The dualistic nature of language frames the Iill by
using pronouns, like I, as descriptors for actions
and reactions. This develops attachment to the
Iill.
3. The experience of the world is dependent on and
relative to our description of it. Language is thus
codependent and relative, and it is inadequate to
describe a non-dualistic reality.
4. Awareness, attention, and consciousness are all the
same phenomenon expressed in different modes:
awareness is passive, attention is active, and con-
sciousness is the sensation of self-awareness.
5. The nature of the Iill is to live in constant poten-
tial of fulllment. It cannot be ultimately happy
because it cannot be empty. In its fragmented ex-
istence, it seeks to become whole through what it
needs to fulll itself. Yet, it is never whole, be-
cause it is a part of the world of desire and need.
It cannot exist in the present moment because it
is bound by time due to its separateness (its dual-
istic nature). It cannot see its source as a product
of the associative neural network. Living between
extremes is a path to essential wholeness and hap-
piness in the present moment.
6. Suspending the Iill through the practice of
No Mind leads to the experience of spiritual
awareness.

210003_101_C06.indd 143 6/6/08 1:50:23 PM

 144 EXERCISE 6: INCREASING AWARENESS OF OUR
DUALISTIC LANGUAGE
No Mind
101

Mind
The basic exercise for increasing awareness is simply to
catch yourself using the pronoun I when you describe
yourself doing something (I love to go shopping); mak-
ing a reference to your self-image (I am really good at
nding facts); making a reference to your likes or dis-
likes (I like chocolate); making a reference to your de-
sires or needs (I would really like to drive that car, I
really need this in order to look like her). Try to catch
yourself using a language identier like the pronoun I.
Count how many times in one day your I identies with
something, someone, or somewhere.

1. Have all your desires been met?

2. What is lacking? Which desire is still not fullled?
3. What do you need most?
4. How do you satisfy this need?
5. Are you living in the potentiality of the future and waiting
for your desires to be fullled to be happy? Which ones?
6. Are you happy right now, in this moment?
7. What is keeping you from being happy right now?
8. Are you aware of describing things using opposites? Can
you think of a more holistic way of describing the same thing?
9. Do you understand what a non-dualistic reality means?
And why does language keep us from experiencing it?
10. Do you feel limited by the way you describe yourself?
Or do you feel you can do anything?
11. Have you experienced how the I limits you?
12. Have you experienced debilitating self-doubt? For
instance, have you ever mentally lost the game before
you even began to play it?

210003_101_C06.indd 144 6/6/08 1:50:26 PM

 The process of becoming detached from the Iill and the state
of detachment itself increase awareness. Moving beyond the
Iill enables you to experience unltered realityone free of
conditions. In moving beyond the Iill, you do not lose who
you are, but you gain a new perspectivea new spiritual
awareness. You see and understand things beyond the
things you have been conditioned to see and to understand;
therefore, you have a more direct perception of reality.

With No Mind, there is no thinker, no I, no thought

only pure awareness. It is not self-conscious as normal
awareness is; it is pure awareness, pure perception, and
pure action, without any aspect of the Iill.

Chapter 7 addresses the true awareness that transcends

the awareness limited by the Iill, and describes the benets
that stream from this sea of awareness into our everyday
lives.

210003_101_C07.indd 145 6/6/08 2:38:01 PM

 Chapter 7

Beyond the Iill

T he practice of No Mind involves nothing esoteric, psychic,

ethereal, or mysterious. The state of No Mind is a simple as-
pect of human nature that is hidden in all people. The technique
is simple, and it can be learned relatively quickly without formal
meditation practice. While the goals of practicing No Mind are
peak performance and spiritual enlightenment, the practice has
enormous benets for your daily life (as detailed in No Mind 501,
Living No Mind).

THE FALSE JEWEL

The practice of No Mind seeks to awaken you to a non-dualistic

perspective, an awareness beyond the mental web of the Iill. Psy-
chology professor David Marks states:

The personal ego is considered by the uninitiated as the crown-

ing development of the mature personality. Buddhist psychology
146

210003_101_C07.indd 146 6/6/08 2:38:03 PM

 belittles the personal ego by pointing out that it is only 147
a product of remembering certain ever-recurring clus-
ters of experiences, called I. (Marks, 1972) Chapter 7

Beyond
The complex of mechanismsthe mental webthat the Iill
the No Mind program calls the Iill creates a multifaceted
identity that we claim as our own and that generates
many problems. Three of the most important problems
are the Iills dualistic nature, identity, and propensity for
attachment, which are responsible for many psychopath-
ological, sociological, and neuro-physiological ailments
in individuals and in society.
The real problem is that we dont see this. The Iill en-
tangles us in its web and deceives us unconsciously.
Dr. Ida Progoff, director of the Institute for Research in
Depth Psychology at Drew University, explains:

... the environmental self ... must be disposed of be-

fore the individuals real nature can expose itself.
The environmental self is built up from close contact
with individuals in family and social environment as a
whole. The conict that takes place within the person-
ality is, however, very real and painful, for the habits of
the environmental self are deeply engraved as patterns
of behavior in the individual psyche. They are not eas-
ily replaced. And yet they must be replaced if the new
image is to take a dominant and guiding role in the
individuals growth ... [a person has] the capacity for
self-transformation, the ability to redirect his existence
through the development of resources that are part of
his organic nature. (Progoff, 1973)

In his book The Magic Monastery, Idries Shah talks

about Middle Eastern sages from a thousand years ago. A
truth-seeker approaches a masters disciple and asks:
Your Master seems to pass his days in taking away from
people their ideas and beliefs. How can anything good
come of such behavior? The disciple responds: The
Jewel is found after the dire has been removed from
around it. The false Jewel is made by applying layer after
layer of impure substance, which nonetheless glitters, to
any surface at all (Shah, 1972).

210003_101_C07.indd 147 6/6/08 2:38:03 PM

 148 The false jewel, or the Iill, is indeed made by apply-
ing layer after layer of conditioning and ltering. Despite
No Mind
101 those layers, the Iill still glitters, but the glitter is the illu-
sion. The Zen masters called the layers dust. When the
Mind dire, or fear and suffering, is removed, then the real jewel
is found. When the layers of dust are removed from the
Iill, then we can achieve No Mind. Yet, most people be-
lieve that they are losing something in the processthat
their ideas and beliefs are being taken away. The truth is
that they dont lose anything of their own. Their behavior
is not their own, and their ideas and beliefs may actually
be those theyve learned from their families, peers, and
society. So nothing is removed; your essential ideas and
beliefs are always there.

SEEING THROUGH THE LAYERS

As an analogy, consider an old wooden table that has

been polished for years and years. When we look at the
table, all we see are the thick layers of polish build-up
protecting the wood underneath. Finally, at some point,
we realize that for many years we have been looking at
the layers of polish, not at the actual wood.
We have seen the coating of wax building up, chang-
ing color, and yellowing, but we have never seen the ac-
tual wood. Yet, beneath the coats of polish, the natural
beauty of the actual wood remains the samenothing is
lost and nothing is gained. Although the table will never
appear quite the same again, now we will always know
the naturalness of the wood under the coatings, instead
of just the coatings. Sometimes we see the glitter and
completely miss the underlying essence of something.
The layers of conditioning built up on Iill are like the lay-
ers of polish built up on the table. And because of these
layers, we are unable to see reality as it truly exists.

Our usual ways of thinking have equated ego with

awareness. And in doing so they have created a blind
spot. It is possible, however, for awareness to be strained
from the ego and by doing so to create a vantage point

210003_101_C07.indd 148 6/6/08 2:38:04 PM

 separate from the ego. When awareness is identied 149
with the ego, it is the egos eyes through which aware-
ness perceives. In this state the ego acts as if it is at the Chapter 7
center of all that is to be perceived. It appears distinct Beyond
from the circle of images around it, because it itself is the Iill
unable to be perceived by awareness. All relating done
in view of awareness is that of ego to other, of ego to
image, of ego to object. (Herrigel, 1974)

The ego, or the Iill, holds our awareness hostage, mak-

ing it difcult for us to see out. The experience is simi-
lar to a dream in which you feel that what you perceive
is real, but when you wake up, you realize it was only a
dream; when you wake up, your perspective, or your
awareness of the dream, changes. When your perspective
of the Iill changes and you realize that you are not the
egothe center of thought, emotion, and perception
you gain priceless insight into your spiritual awareness.
Even this analogy has its linguistic limits. Its a paradox
to apply a dualistic language to a non-dualistic experience.
The word you is misplaced, because you are the Iill,
and this realization is beyond the Iill, or you. There is no
real you who realizes; there is only the realization of
something. If you have a thought or perception of this
awakening, it is not the real experience; you only imagine
it. It is pseudo-enlightenment. You cannot be enlight-
ened; there is only the sensation of enlightenment.

TRANSCENDING YOU-PAST
AND YOU-FUTURE
The practice of No Mind begins the process of liberating
awareness from the ambiguity of the Iill. Normally, we
are not aware of this perspective until we focus our atten-
tion on the process, as opposed to the products, of the
mental web. A study published in the International Jour-
nal of Psychoanalysis concludes:

Practice can further clarify the nature of the experien-

tial self, especially showing the eeting nature of inner
reality and the suffering involved in clinging to images

210003_101_C07.indd 149 6/6/08 2:38:04 PM

 150 and concepts of self (narcissism). It also provides a
way of training the mind to let go of the clinging to
No Mind concepts to make experience more uid and the self-
101
concept more exible and complex to be better able to
Mind adapt to an inherently complex and changing reality.
(Falkenstrom, 2003)

In his book Living Zen, Robert Linssen writes:

Still the ancient masters say that Satori or Nirvana

[enlightenment] requires from us a total presence to
present. ... [T]he automatisms of memory constitute
the most subtle and overwhelming conditioning fac-
tor of the human being. This chain reaction is so sub-
tle and so delicate that at present nearly all [humans]
are totally unaware of it. By continual accumulation
they form the I-process which, fed by them, increases
in bulk and is transformed from moment to moment.
Each new memory is instantaneously conditioned by
the whole of the older memories. This unity of direc-
tion forms one of the essential elements which gives
the I-process its character of apparent continuity.
Our mind should not get rid of the memory content it-
self, but the identication and attachment to it. This is
a very important distinction. It is of the utmost impor-
tance to free ourselves from the inuence exercised by
words and from attachment to memories. The [person]
who transcends the limits of his mind can really be
free. Freedom can only exist from the moment when
the sterile journey to and from known to known has
ceased. (Linssen, 1960)

Our identication with the Iill, or what Linssen calls

the I-process, focuses our attention on the past and on
the future. Yet, our awareness of the now is the corner-
stone of living at our full potential, in the freedom of the
moment. When CAt is focused on the present, it transcends
the you-past and the you-future of the Iill. There is no
reason to dispose of the Iill, but there are plenty of reasons
to detach from it and to stop identifying with it.
When we are free of the mental web of the Iill, we
continue to function in society, only with a fresh and

210003_101_C07.indd 150 6/6/08 2:38:04 PM

 broadened perspective. We have the choice to live life as 151
puppets on the strings of the Iill or to awaken like Pinoc-
Chapter 7
chio and run free for the rst time. Buddhist scholar
Dwight Goddard says: Beyond
the Iill
Disciples and Masters who cling to an ego-self may
nd themselves in the state of Samadhi (or bliss) by
going off in solitude, recognizing the world as mani-
festation of mind as discriminations ... but as they are
still clinging to egoism they do not attain the turn-
ing about at the deepest state of consciousness and,
therefore, they are not free from the thinking-mind and
the accumulation of its habit-energy ... Prajna (funda-
mental wisdom inherent within all [people] becomes
known after the world of delusion has been destroyed)
comes from mind-essence [Spiritual Awareness] and
not from any exterior source. Do not have any mis-
taken notion about that. To cherish mistaken notions
about that is to make a selsh use of true nature. Once
the true nature of mind-essence [Spiritual Awareness]
is realized, one will be forever free from delusion ... to
be free from discriminations, from clinging to desires,
from illusions; to set free ones true nature ... that is
what is meant by realizing ones true essence of mind
[Spiritual Awareness]. (Goddard, 1938)

SEEING OUR ONENESS

The conditioning of the Iill causes fractured and divided

lives, as well as fractured and divided societies. The
awareness we achieve from the practice of No Mind can
heal both.
The key is to shed the dualistic mode of thinking and
to avoid the trap of language. Once you identify some-
thing, it exists independently because you have given it a
distinct identity. Such an identity is dualistic, because it
always describes two things, not just one. That something
must exist and arise codependently with other objects.
In the absence of identity, a non-dualistic perception is
possiblea global No Mind awareness.

210003_101_C07.indd 151 6/6/08 2:38:04 PM

 152 When you describe something, you also describe its
oppositeif a ball is red, then it is also not blue, nor yel-
No Mind
101 low, nor white, even though all colors exist in clear light,
as demonstrated when that light passes through a
Mind prism.

SEEING THE ONENESS OF THE SOURCE

A prism produces a rainbow of colors when white light

passes through itit follows that what appears to be
clear, white light in fact contains all colors. The prism is
a simple metaphor for being and nothingness; when you
experience the emptiness (nothingness) of reality, you
see the fullness of Being. You realize that the true es-
sence of nature, or of god x (meaning the higher power in
which you believe), is like the white light entering the
prism to blossom into a rainbow. The essence of nature
becomes the multiplicity of all forms in the universe;
when we see the forms only, we miss the underlying
essence. Eminent physicist Heinz Pagels writes in The
Cosmic Code:

After inventing relativistic quantum eld theory in the

1930s and 1940s, physicists came to a new concept of
the vacuumit is not empty; it is a plenum. The vac-
uum, empty space, actually consists of particles and
antiparticles being spontaneously created and annihi-
lated. All the quanta the physicists have discovered or
ever will discover are being created and destroyed in
the Armageddon that is the vacuum. (Pagels, 1982)

In nature, nothing exists independently. All things are

dynamically linked in the web of life. Thinking of things
in terms of their independent nature is an illusion, which
quantum physicists have known for a long time. The
problem stems from our mode of thinking; we think in
terms of language, and therefore we naturally separate
things into parts and fragment the whole of nature. It
is a natural function of the brain, but not a reality of
nature.

210003_101_C07.indd 152 7/23/08 4:14:35 PM

 You cannot isolate anything in this vast universe; 153
everything is interrelated. As the physicist penetrates
Chapter 7
deeper into matter, down to the subatomic particles ...
the constituents of matter and the basic phenomena Beyond
involving them are all interconnected, interrelated and the Iill
interdependent; ... they cannot be understood as isolated
entities, but only as integrated parts of the whole (Capra,
1976).
The basic oneness of the universe and of the individ-
ual is the foundation of non-dualistic awareness. What
appear to be separate entities are indeed codependent,
unied by nonidentity, and interdependent through co-
origination. The object and its description co-arise code-
pendently and cannot be separated into parts without
reference to the whole. Everything in nature is connected.
Every entity depends on another entity and cannot exist
on its own.

[People] feel and experience [themselves] as [egos] ...

the special danger is that the ordinary [people are] in
such a state of unawareness that [they do] not know
this. And even if [they are] told, [they] cannot under-
stand. [Their] [e]gohood goes hand in hand with a dis-
tortion of reality. Satori, the Zen enlightenment, brings
upon one the sudden ash of insight ... It is so physi-
cally clear that it brings with it absolute certainty, so
that you instantly see and understand that things are
by virtue of what they are not. And that they owe their
being to this not-being which is their ground and ori-
gin. (Herrigel, 1974)

BEYOND THE IILL

No Mind opens the perceptual eld, frees the mind-body

to act and react in the ow of nature, modies the catego-
ries that restrain thinking, and opens up a new perspec-
tive of awareness. You can overcome your feelings of a
separate and divided self and experience open and unbi-
ased communications with others and with society as a
whole.

210003_101_C07.indd 153 6/6/08 2:38:05 PM

 154 The conict and inner turmoil of trying and succeed-
ing can be accomplished without attachment and identi-
No Mind
101 cationessential elements of suffering, self-doubt,
self-denial, self-alienation, regression, and aggression.
Mind When we detach ourselves from the mental web of the
Iill, we experience pure, unconditional emotion; we are
no longer stuck, blocked, or trapped by the mental web of
the Iill. However, in order to detach ourselves from the
Iill, we must have the right attitude, and we must learn
and practice the right techniques.

210003_101_C07.indd 154 6/6/08 2:38:05 PM

 155
CHAPTER 7 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 7
BEFORE CONTINUING
Beyond
1. The practice of No Mind involves nothing eso- the Iill
teric, psychic, ethereal, or mysterious. No Mind is
a simple, though often hidden, element of human
nature. The technique is simple, and it can be
learned relatively quickly. While the goals of prac-
ticing No Mind are peak performance and spiritual
awareness, the benets of the practice for your
daily life are enormous.
2. The practice of No Mind is aimed to establish a
non-dualistic perspective; an awareness beyond
the mental web of the Iill.
3. The Iill makes for a multifaceted identity that we
claim as our own and that is responsible for many
psychopathological, sociological, and neurophys-
iologic ailments in individuals and in society.
4. The false jewel, or Iill, is indeed made by apply-
ing layer after layer of conditioning and ltering
to form a barely escapable mental web. It holds
us hostage, incapable of pure awareness.
5. In freeing yourself of the Iill, you dont lose any-
thing because what you think is yours is actually
the work of the Iill. When you realize that you are
not the egothe center of thought, emotion, and
perceptionyou gain insight into your spiritual
awareness.
6. Applying a dualistic language to a non-dualistic
experience is a paradox. For instance, you can-
not be enlightened; there is only the realization of
enlightenment. The word you is misplaced, be-
cause you are the Iill, and this realization is
beyond the Iill or you.

210003_101_C07.indd 155 6/6/08 2:38:05 PM

 156

No Mind 7. The practice of No Mind begins the process of

101 separating awareness from the ambiguity of the
Iill.
Mind
8. The constant awareness of the present moment is
the cornerstone of achieving peak performance
and spiritual awareness and of living in the free-
dom of the moment.
9. The Iill causes fractured and divided lives and so-
cieties. The awareness achieved from the practice
of No Mind can heal both.
10. The key to No Mind is to shed the dualistic mode
of thinking and to avoid the trap of language.
11. In nature, nothing exists independently. All things
are linked dynamically in the web of life. The
basic oneness of the universe, of life, and of
the individual is the source of non-dualistic
awareness.
12. No Mind opens the perceptual eld, frees the
mind-body to act and react in the ow of nature,
modies categorical thinking restraints, and
opens up a new perspective of awareness.

210003_101_C07.indd 156 7/23/08 4:14:35 PM

 NO MIND 101 REVI E W 157

No Mind
101
The goals of No Mind are peak performance and spiritual
Review
enlightenment, and these require thorough explanation
of the fundamental workings of MindNo Mind 101.
Understanding basic cognitive mechanisms such as
ltering, associative networks, formation, defense sub-
mechanisms, emotions, conditioning, reinforcement,
over-intellectualizing, and over-analyzing, is a crucial
foundation for understanding No Mind.
These mechanisms utilize the neural networks of the
brain and the synaptic connections that form between
neurons. Yet, awareness can be trained to watch these
mechanical processes and to avoid being caught in the
state of mindlessness. When we are not mindful of our
actions, we act like automatons.
No Mind is no-thought, but it is also the awareness of
seeing into nothingness, which is spiritual awareness.
Your true spiritual awareness is the essential aspect of
nature, which simply involves remembering what we
knew at our birth, that we are the essential larger whole
and there is no separateness between everything else.
Spiritual awareness is not self-conscious, as normal
awareness is; it is pure awareness, pure perception, and
pure action without any involvement of the Iill. Spiritual
awareness is the essence of nature (or, as some call it
god-consciousness). And this experience is beyond the
normal scope of the mind as described in No Mind 101.
We cannot experience this as long as our awareness is
trapped within the limits of the neuro-associative net-
works of the brain.
No Mind is not an experience that can be identied
with the self. You cannot say, I am in No Mind, or I have
experienced No Mind. There is just the experience of No
Mind. This appears problematic from the perspective of a
dualistic language and our cognitive propensity to use the
pronoun I to make communication easier. Identifying
with the I through language further conditions and

210003_101_C07.indd 157 6/6/08 2:38:10 PM

 158 reinforces our conceptualization of ourselves as separate
individuals. No Mind, on the other hand, is universally
No Mind
101 shared; it does not belong to only one individual. In No
Mind, awareness is the only universal constant.
Mind We do not lose ourselves in the process of achieving
No Mind. We simply no longer identify with the Iill and
are no longer attached to it. We achieve freedom though
detachment from memories and behaviors that stem
from the Iill. Freedom is escaping the potentiality of
desire and need. As long as we are attached to desire or
need, we live in potential: a state where there is only the
potential of fulllmentwe are always looking for some-
thing to potentially make us happy and cannot live fully
in the present moment. In this way, we only experience
conditional happiness. When we are unfullled, we suf-
fer, because we have identied with a contingent need,
desire, expectation, anticipation, motivation, or hope.
The Iill distorts reality by interpreting it selectively
and by defending its preconceived ideas of it. This is ac-
complished through the neuro-mechanisms of the mind,
as described in No Mind 101. No Mind gives us a fresh
look into reality and removes the distortion; reality is no
longer skewed to reect the intentions, expectations, and
motivations of the Iill. And this is therapeutic for us, as
well as for society as a whole.

210003_101_C07.indd 158 6/6/08 2:38:10 PM

 Figure 7-1: No Mind 101Mind and the Mental Web of the Iill.

Figure 7-1 graphically summarizes what we have learned about the Iill and the mind. This
is not an inclusive representation of all mental processes. But for the purpose of practicing
No Mind, understanding this basic conceptual model of the mind and its neuro-associative
mechanisms is crucial.
The brain processes perceptual information from the external and internal worlds on
many parallel levels. Emotional and thought processes have parallel associative neural
networks operating simultaneously to interpret, understand, act, react, think, and feel. In
this model, we start with auto-perception (mindless awareness), and information is inter-
preted along countless parallel paths through the memory channels shown on the right and
through the behavioral channels shown on the left; these channels dene the cycle of auto-
action and auto-reaction. In other words, we see something, we associate its meaning, and

159

210003_101_C07.indd 159 6/6/08 2:38:13 PM

 160 then we act accordingly. Some of these actions occur unconsciously, and then we become
aware of them.
No Mind This is consistent with our routine mindless behavior (discussed in No Mind 201). We
101 conduct much of our behavior as automatons. The bottleneck at the top of the diagram repre-
sents the limited amount of information that reaches our mindful awareness (which is shown
Mind as the shaded area), at which point we can use free wont (as opposed to free will) to cancel
the selected course of action. The bottleneck further represents the half-second delay of an
action or reactionalready initiated by the brainreaching our awareness. This delay occurs
regardless of awareness. We can learn to be mindful instead of continuing in auto-pilot mode,
watching and allowing the mind-body to act naturally and effortlessly, and consequently
achieving peak performance.
The center of the diagram shows the wide split between the mind and the body by the Iill
attention. The divided mind-body under the inuence of the Iill cannot achieve peak perform-
ance and be in the zone, or the f low. As long as we are Iill-conscious of our selves, we are
restricted. We over-correct and over-analyze our performance and do not allow the mind-body
to ow. The Japanese characters represent the mind and the body. As we reach No Mind and
practice mindful awareness, we close the gap of I, squeezing it out and expanding aware-
ness beyond the Iill. Subsequently, mind and body can ow more harmoniously together, as
shown in the matrix at the end of No Mind 401.

210003_101_C07.indd 160 6/6/08 2:38:14 PM

 No Mind 201

No Mind

210003_201_C08.indd 161 6/6/08 2:40:17 PM

 The Iill is emptyit has no substance of its own. However,
as Zen Master Suzuki says, the Iill is also the mischief
maker, the trickster that captures awareness and xates
attention on the fulllment of desires. The Iill is our personal
unmoved mover, an imaginary entity that tugs on our
imaginary puppet strings. Yet, when we take a step back
and become aware of the whole, we realize that the puppet
master and even the strings themselves do not exist.

As long as the Iill is present and active, our minds interpret

reality incorrectly; we perceive individual objects instead
of their underlying
essence. We each have
our own personal false
experiences of reality.
All of this is mayathe
illusory world of false
interpretations. When
we look into nature and
gain a new spiritual
awareness of natures
Cosmic Soul, we be-
come subtly aware
that all the forms we
encounter in reality are
merely condensations
of natures Cosmic
Soul. Some people have
said they see God in
everything. They are
onto something.
Equations of No Mind
Equations for Factor 1: No Mind Reality
I 1; I 0
The rst simple equation represents Factor 1. It states
that No Mind Reality (I, or the Iill) is not equal to 1.
Thats because 1 is a whole number, and the Iill, which
exists in a state of potential, is always a fragment of
something greater, and therefore cannot be whole. In
other words, as long as we remain in the Iill we cannot
be whole in the sense of spiritual awareness; we
remain always a part of something else.
The second equation states that I (the Iill) is identical
() to 0. Thats because the Iill is an illusiona product
of the mental web, spawned by the neural networks
and associative patterns of the brain. So we equate illu-
sion with zerothere is nothing really there. (see also
Fig. 7-1) Simply put, the I is an illusion and is not
whole in terms of spiritual awareness. This is a basic
No Mind reality.

Chapter 8 exposes the

Iill in its Iillusion.

210003_201_C08.indd 162 6/6/08 2:40:25 PM

 Chapter 8

Factor 1:
No Mind Reality

DESIRE-LESS STRIVINGS RESULT IN GREATER

FULFILLMENT
The practice of No Mind enables you to break away from the
Iills mental web, which is the product of the mechanism of
the neuro-associative network of the brain. No Mind 101 details
the development and workings of the mental webhow the Iill
entraps awareness in the process of auto-perception, auto-action,
and auto-reaction.
Our identication with and attachment to desire potential (a
chronic anticipatory state where we only experience the poten-
tial of desire fulllment and never achieve actual spiritual fulll-
ment) results in a fractured and discontented self, and its
extrapolation to the mass population results in a fractured and
discontented society. As the Iill and society strive for a deeper
meaning of reality, they seek integration that they often cannot
gain. This is the void that never seems to be lled. But desire
163

210003_201_C08.indd 163 6/6/08 2:40:28 PM

 164 demands fulllment. The essential purpose of a glass is
to contain uids. Is the glass half empty or half full? In
No Mind
201 No Mind, we see beyond the opposites, so it is the emp-
tiness which allows the glass to have its fullness, and its
No Mind fullness is the result of displacing its emptiness. Full-
ness and emptiness are relative to each other, not
opposite.
Unmet desire remains in the potential of fulllment.
When you are focusing on the potential, it is impossi-
ble to be completely happy in this moment. You are al-
ways waiting for something in the future. When we
learn to detach from identity, we detach from desire.
When we detach from desire, fulllment is no longer
potential: fulllment now exists as an option, not as a
basic need.
As long as we strive on behalf of the Iill, then our at-
tachment is perpetuated in the cycle of desire fulllment.
Once we learn that all desires, expectations, hopes, ambi-
tions, anticipations, goals, and motivations are empty,
we grow toward a higher potential as human beings.
Abraham Maslow argues that the natural impulse to reach
this higher potential for unication and integration exists
as a weak instinct, a primal desire:

. . . although it may be drowned out by habit, by

wrong cultural attitudes toward [this primal desire],
by traumatic episodes, by erroneous education . . .
Western culture may express the purpose of control-
ling, inhibiting and suppressing this original nature of
man. Furthermore, there are two sets of forces pulling
at the individual, pressures forward toward health and
pressures backward toward sickness and weakness
(regressive). . . If we wish to help humans to become
more fully human, we must realize not only that they
try to realize themselves. But that they are also reluc-
tant or afraid or unable to do so. (Maslow, 1959)

As the ancient masters say, we are afraid to take the

leap into the abyss. We leap instead from desire to desire-
less endeavors; we strive without the pre-programmed

210003_201_C08.indd 164 6/6/08 2:40:28 PM

 motives. We are naturally afraid of losing what we have 165
become attached to, what we have identied with, and
Chapter 8
what we call our selves. But in reality, we do not lose any-
thing; we gain higher functionality in a happier, more inte- Factor 1:
grated life. The insight that desire is empty is one of the No Mind
Reality
important rst steps.

TAKING THE LEAP INTO THE OCEAN OF

PURE AWARENESS
You may ask, Why should I abandon my inner drives,
desires, and goals? The answer is that you should not.
You should keep them and pursue them. Just dont be
attached to them or identify with them.
The seemingly real paradox of the I-condition is that
you are still in the mental web of the Iill, so you can
continue existing as usual within it. In No Mind, how-
ever, any arduous striving is empty because the source of
striving is the Iill. Striving originates from the mental
web, and as such, it has no reality on its own, no perma-
nent substance. In other words, in No Mind there is no
you. Awareness is freed from the Iill. The Iill is just a
series of eeting impulses in the brain, responding to con-
ditioning and actualizing themselves through associative
neural networks and mechanisms. Feelings, thoughts,
and perceptions that arise from the mental web are as-
pects of the Iill and have no permanent substance. They
are temporary and dualistic; therefore they are empty.
We are more than the sum total of all this.
Here is an analogy. Picture your eeting hopes, de-
sires, and expectations as empty holes that need to be
constantly lled to maintain the Iill. Imagine the Iill as a
ship and you as awareness. Suddenly, the ships hull
starts developing holes that are letting water inthe ship
is sinking and you are panicking. You start running around
from hole to hole to stop the leaking; every time a new
hole appears, you dash to plug it. Running around and
lling holes soon takes up all of your awareness, to the
exclusion of everything else.

210003_201_C08.indd 165 6/6/08 2:40:29 PM

 166 Most people go though their daily routines and tasks
in this torturous state. Their awareness is completely en-
No Mind
201 gaged and unavailable for any other activity. In a moment
of epiphany, however, you suddenly have an insight that
No Mind the ship and the holes are not you and that if you get off
the ship (Iill) altogether, you can be free of having to
continually plug holes. As you begin to leave the ship, the
holes stop appearing, and once you are completely off,
there are no more holes to ll.
Paradoxically, by devoting awareness to the holes, you
were creating more and more of them, feeding a continual
pattern of hole-plugging. By its very nature, each hole was
in potential of being lled, even though they could never
be lled on the aggregate level. You were identifying with
the holes, acknowledging their reality, giving them
existence. When your attention shiftedwhen you left the
shipthe holes ceased to exist. While your attention was
lost in lling holes, it also fueled their emergence. It is
the Iill that creates the holes.
Most important, the potential for the ships sinking
was an illusion and the panic was self-inicted, as are
most of the fears we experience in life. Why? We discussed
codependent and co-arising cognitive patterns that emerge
as a result of the brains physiologythe associative neural
networks. Every time you desire something, you automa-
tically produce a network of codependent relationships
that demand fulllment. Every desire is linked to sub-
desires. They do not exist in a vacuum, much like the holes
on the ship. When you focus on your desire, you create
more desires, and you are trapped in constantly trying to
fulll them.
As far as our Iills go, we all have different ships. Some
of us have beautiful luxury powerboats that frequent
tropical locations; others have sailboats that slowly make
their way along their course; and others, who are less
fortunate, have rowboats. Regardless, all boats are just
vessels of their respective Iills. Each boat reects its Iill
and codependently takes on its characteristics. And they
all have holes, because the holes are an intrinsic aspect of
the nature of the Iill.

210003_201_C08.indd 166 6/6/08 2:40:29 PM

 Most important, all the boats have one thing in 167
commonthey are on the same ocean, without which
Chapter 8
they could not be aoat or move anywhere. When all the
awarenesses on these boats realize that they need to get Factor 1:
off to stop the holes from emerging, they jump into the No Mind
Reality
ocean because they have nowhere else to go. Once they
see each other off their boats, the awarenesses realize that
they are all the same. The illusion of the boat (the Iill) that
perpetuated their differences now no longer exists. The
awarenesses become the ocean and remember their true
naturetheir spiritual awareness. In other words, think
of the awarenesses as drops of the ocean; when they jump
off their boats and into the ocean they are no longer drops,
but the ocean itself.
This is an important insight. The awarenesses realize
the unity and interrelationship among themselves and
the ocean, which is the underlying essence that sustains
their existence and that of nature. In the beginning, you
are aware of yourself in the ocean, but in the advanced
stages of No Mind, you are the ocean, without any self-
conscious awareness.

BREAKING THE SPELL OF THE ILLUSION

OR MAYA
This analogy claries two critical insights of No Mind.
First, the ocean, as a metaphor for the essential aspect of
nature, or Tao, is non-dualisticthat is, it has no identity
and it is enduring, unending, and intangible. Any sub-
stance or form that is dualistic and that has an identity is
impermanent and changing.
Second, when awareness is separated from the Iill, it
is No Mind, yet the Iill continues to exist. Nothing is lost,
other than Iills ability to dominate awareness. When
awareness is free from the Iill, we learn to watch our
thoughts, desires, perceptions, and emotions.
It is possible, however, for awareness to be strained
from the ego and by doing so to create a vantage
point separate from the ego . . . When awareness is

210003_201_C08.indd 167 6/6/08 2:40:29 PM

 168 identied with the ego, it is the egos eyes through
which awareness perceives. In this state, the ego acts
No Mind as if it is at the center of all that is to be perceived.
201
(Watkins, 1976)
No Mind
Clear Attention (CAt) is awareness that is strained
from the ego; it is No Minds brand of mindfulness. But in
the practice of mindfulness, there is still awareness of
awareness. In No Mind, there is no longer awareness of
awareness, only pure awareness, which is total absorption
in that moment. And this is the key difference between the
levels of mastery of the technique and its application. In
this sense, we break the bounds of the illusion imposed by
the Iill.
The ancient masters referred to this illusion as maya,
which constituted the Iills construction of the experi-
ence of the world. Maya is the phenomenon of our experi-
ence created by our perception of the world. All things are
an interpretation of our perceptual mechanisms, and they
exist in a surrealistic landscape in the mind; therefore, this
interpretation of reality is an illusion because reality is not
directly perceived. Our interpretation of the world is a
false impression, not the real world itself. We never per-
ceive reality directly, as we did when we were rst born,
unless we circumvent the process of perception.
This is not to say the real world does not exist and that
it is all an illusion. The world is there, and we use our
perceptual senses to interpret it. Our experience of the
world is modied, yet it remains an experience of an
outside world that is very real. But it is our own experience
of it. In the presence of maya, all we experience of the
outside world are the manifestations of nature, not the
essence of nature itself. Under the spell of maya, we can-
not experience true spiritual awareness. The experience
of No Mind breaks that spell. All forms elude our experi-
ence of spiritual awareness. We see only the forms, not
the underlying reality. The forms of the world, even though
they are typically understood as the complete reality, are
an illusion hiding the underlying reality of spiritual
awareness. When we realize No Mind, the forms become

210003_201_C08.indd 168 6/6/08 2:40:29 PM

 known as mere manifestations of spiritual awareness or 169
God-consciousness.
Chapter 8

Factor 1:
PLAY CAN OVERCOME DESIRE No Mind
Reality
In The Master Game, the groundbreaking 1970s study of
yoga and meditation styles, biochemist Robert DeRopp
writes:

False ego, on the other hand, is in no way necessary.

It is made up entirely of egotistical illusions, negative
emotions, lies, delusions of grandeur, self-pity or ar-
rogance. It is essentially a malignant entity, a sort of
spiritual cancer and, where it becomes the dominant
component, destroys its possessors capacity for growth
just as physical cancer destroys the body . . . Our highly
acquisitive culture with its emphasis on conspicuous
consumption, on keeping up with the Joneses on
the general game of ego-centered one-upmanship, en-
courages the growth of the false ego. In great cities,
amid a profusion of status symbols ranging from
yachts to orchids, this aspect of the psyche may be seen
owering like a monstrous creeper nourished by false
values and articial conditions of life. It shows its
phony glory in high-priced restaurants, where dishes
with fancy French names are served by weary waiters
to bored patrons who are visiting the establishment
not so much to eat as to see and be seen. There its
bright brittle face and synthetic smile is as obviously
articial as a plastic orchid . . . It is necessary, though
not always easy, to distinguish between the essence and
the persona. (DeRopp, 1968)

The ancient masters understood that we were under

the illusion of maya and that attachments to constructs
of the Iill were among our greatest challenges; yet, over-
coming them was most rewarding. We attach ourselves
to things, feelings, perceptions, and thoughts. These sen-
sations are ours and we feel that we own them.
The desire for a sports car, a good-looking partner, a
large house on the hill, the perfect job, the ideal relationship,

210003_201_C08.indd 169 6/6/08 2:40:29 PM

 170 status, wealth, and happiness originates from conditioning
through a multitude of sources. We were not born with
No Mind
201 these ideas. We may have a genetic potentiality for general
fulllment-seeking, but the specic ideas were learned.
No Mind This is not to say that we cannot play and have our
toys, but we must be able to remain detached from Iill-
driven behaviors, such as obsessive needs, expectations,
motivations, hopes, and desires. Again, a newborn doesnt
know what a Porsche is. None of these mainstream needs
is genetically acquired. You learned about a Porsche, with
the status and ego-gratifying perks it can offer.
You may desire the Porsche because youre a sports-
car enthusiast fascinated by automobile performance. If
this is honestly so and you are not in denial, then you
may consider yourself at play, which can be dened as
realizing the desire without being attached to it. We do
not need it, and it is not a hole that demands to be lled.
True play is an unmotivated act; failure to fulll the de-
sire causes no adverse behavioral consequences.
Play can overcome desire. Most of the time, the Iill is
all too serious and determined. At play, you can appear
seriousonly to make your point seem seriousbut
you are not attached to the outcome, and you have no ex-
pectations of the results. You maintain a sense of humor
and an awareness of the blissful meaninglessness of it all.
You realize the emptiness of the Iill in any situation, yet you
are sensitive to others interpretations and understanding
of the situation.

AS LONG AS YOU SEE MAYA, YOU CANNOT PLAY

Play can be extremely useful in business negotiations,

sales, marketing, and management, because it can show
others that it is not imperative for you to close the deal;
hence they do not feel pressured to act (see Chapter 29,
No Mind Business). Pressuring someone to act can derail
a deal before the negotiations have even begun. Play is a
realization that there is no need to be serious, because
seriousness is attachment, attachment is identity, and

210003_201_C08.indd 170 6/6/08 2:40:30 PM

 identity is an Iill state of mental health. Play is what we 171
all need to havenatural play that is not directed by the
Chapter 8
Iill or concerned with expectations and intentions.
Nature is at play. The entire cosmos and life on this Factor 1:
planet are at play. There is naturalness to life and to the No Mind
Reality
universe that we sometimes take for granted because we
fail to see it or to look for it. (We discuss this in Chapter 26,
Secret of Living No Mind.) Zen scholar Alan Watts, Ph.D.,
says:

The maya or unreality lies not in the physical world,

but in the concepts or thought forms by which it is de-
scribed. It is clear that maya refers to social institu-
tions, to language and logic and their constructs, and
to the way in which they modify our feeling of the world
. . . Society is persuading the individual to do what it
wants by making it appear that its commands are the
individuals innermost self. What we want is what you
want. And this is a double-bind, as when a mother says
to her child, who is longing to slush around in a mud
puddle, now darling, you dont want to get into that
mud! This is misinformation and thisif anythingis
the great social lie. (Watts, 1957)

All our constructs of reality are thus our reective

interpretations of individual, family, and social values
and conditions. Our thoughts appear to be ours, but are
they really? We mirror what we see and what we learn. It
is the natural output of the brains associative neural
networks and of mechanisms that underlie human psy-
chology. Maya is the mental construction of the nature of
objects in the universe. These objects exist, but relative
to our interpretation, conceptualization, perception, and
our cognitive experience of them. In essence, we are the
observers and the objects are the observed. This is a co-
dependent relationship, in which one cannot exist without
the other. We give the objects meaning; otherwise, they
have none.
For example, a mountain exists, but it is not a
mountain until someone is there to see it and to label it

210003_201_C08.indd 171 7/23/08 4:15:13 PM

 172 as such. The mountain, the stars, the sun, the trees, the
animalsthey all exist without denition and identity.
No Mind
201 When we dene and categorize an object, we create a
dualistic identity, and we mask the underlying essential
No Mind nature of the object, which is non-dualistic. We lose the
context of the whole for the perception of the specic.
When we identify an object, we separate it from the whole.
And that is the illusion called mayawhen we fail to see
the unity of all things through the experience of spiritual
enlightenment. So it is important to understand the object
as an observed, and therefore relative, phenomenon.
Because of the mechanisms of the Iill, the meanings of
objects will always exist relatively and co-dependently.
So our illusion is not that the object exists or does not
exist. The false impression comes from the meaning we
assign to the object and how we interpret it; it comes
from our unawareness of the underlying reality of the ob-
ject. The object sits in front of us, and a magical copy of
it sits in our minds.
We think the copy in our minds is the real one, since
this is our interpretation of the object before us. The Iill
is convinced that the object in our minds is a direct re-
ection of the object out there; therefore it doesnt sus-
pect an illusion. But we do not see illusions; we see
real objects that we can touch and feel.
Maya does not deny our physical senses; it determines
our interpretations of these senses and how we fragment
reality into separate identiable entities. We can understand
this concept because we know that beautiful and ugly
are relative terms; some works of art are beautiful to some
and ugly to others. Because the terms are dualistic, beauty
gives rise to ugliness, where we cannot know one without
the other. Hence, all interpretations by the mind are relative
representations of reality, or maya.
Maya offers a dualistic view of objects in the universe;
their underlying non-dualistic reality is not maya, and
neither is the pure awareness of No Mind. When we pen-
etrate the dualistic world of maya, we experience a non-
dualistic awareness of No Mind. We experience true
spiritual awareness.

210003_201_C08.indd 172 6/6/08 2:40:30 PM

 The Iill as the Master Trickster 173

Theodore Sarbin argues that the widely accepted materi- Chapter 8

alistic conception of reality may be misleading:
Factor 1:
No Mind
A person may be said to have a hallucination when he
Reality
acts as if his imaginings are real and, of course, when
these imaginings do not meet the materialistic reality
criterion. If this reality criterion were applied generally,
a large number of people (perhaps all) would have to
be classied as hallucinators. (Sarbin, 1967)

For example, a common misconception is that we see

the sun as it is presently, but this is not true: we see the sun
as it was eight minutes ago. Light travels at 186,000 miles
per second, and because of the distance between us and
the sun, light takes eight minutes to get from the solar sur-
face to the retinas of our eyes. The same is true of distant
galaxies; we see them as they were thousands and millions
of years ago, depending on their distance from the Earth.
Space and time are relative to the observers and to their
position in the spacetime continuum. In The Tao of Phys-
ics, Fritjof Capra writes:

Since space and time are now reduced to the subjective

role of the elements of language a particular observer
uses for his or her description of natural phenomena,
each observer will describe the phenomena in a differ-
ent way . . . It implies, ultimately, that the structures
and phenomena we observe in nature are nothing but
creations of our measuring and categorizing mind.
(Capra, 1976)

This was the basis for the theory of relativity

postulated by Albert Einstein. Time was added as a
fourth dimension to the three-dimensional space
coordinates. The theory of relativity demonstrates that
these four dimensions are intricately connected. So
natural phenomena are relative to the observer and to
what is being observed. This has been demonstrated
repeatedly in subatomic particle experiments (Capra,
1976; Pagels, 1982).

210003_201_C08.indd 173 6/6/08 2:40:30 PM

 174 Different interpretations of reality are not necessarily
right or wrong; they are just different, depending on the
No Mind
201 observers point of view. Since reality is relative to our
interpretation, we might say that it is a sort of magical
No Mind trick played on us by the mental web of the master trick-
ster Iill, whose deceptions are self-promoting and self-
reinforcing. Its mental web portrays the illusion of reality
that is most palatable to the Iills, given its observation
point. Everything is seen from this egotistical perspective,
forfeiting original freshness and originality. The famous
Zen master Suzuki writes:

. . . we discover that all values come from unselsh mo-

tives. Any act with its base in an egoistic source is bad,
hateful, and ugly, and goes against the general welfare
of humanity. Egoism is thus always found at the basis
of such an act. The ego is the mischief-maker. Even
when we do something, objectively speaking, good and
beneting all of us, the act may not be judged as genu-
inely good if we nd the shadow of ego lurking behind
it. (Suzuki, 1959)

Suzuki conrms that the ego is the mischief-maker. In

the connes of the illusion, or maya, we are still under
the spell of the master trickster, the Iill or ego. The spell
leaves us no choice but to associate actual reality with
the illusion. True, we can also change the illusion and be
redened, as the Iill reinterprets objects and rearranges
the illusions of reality.
How many times have you changed your opinion
about something? Even though you were adamant
about never trying escargot, maybe you decided to risk it
one day and now you like snails. Based on your new
experience, you have a new interpretation of the per-
ception of snails. The snails were always snails, and
they never changed. Only your illusion of the percep-
tion of snails changed. Thus, our interpretations are
dynamic and constantly changing, as the Iill changes
and modies its constructs of reality. Through it all, we
never glimpse, much less know, reality. This is the illu-
sion of the Iill, or maya.

210003_201_C08.indd 174 6/6/08 2:40:31 PM

 THE LINGUISTIC CODING OF THE IiLL 175

The illusion of the ego, or Iill, has been a common theme Chapter 8
in philosophical, psychological, and even religious Factor 1:
writings since ancient times. Father Joseph Marechal No Mind
writes in Studies in the Psychology of the Mystics: Reality

One essential feature of Christian Mysticism is renun-

ciation of the ego, which is an essential characteris-
tic of the unity of the interior life in Christianity, so
that the Self may unite with God. . . . it is detachment
from the vainglorious ego, the dispersed and capri-
cious ego, the plaything of external circumstances.
(Marechal, 1964)

The practice of No Mind frees us from the normal, xed

interpretation of reality and opens a fresh, dynamic, and
owing new perspective. We are not locked into seeing
things only one way; we can experience a broader range of
reality that may not have been available to us before. My
way of seeing things as a reection of my past experience
changes to simply seeing things as they are.
Instead of insisting on my way, the Iills way, we can
drop the pronoun and say, in a detached way, the experi-
ence. Again, however, the dialectics of language generate
problems. It is more comfortable to say my way than to
say the experience. This is a very difcult habit to break.
We have to change the codes of our behavior that have
been patterned by society. Dorothy Lee, in her studies of
linear and nonlinear codications of reality, writes:

Basic to my investigation is the assumption that a

member of a given society not only codies experienced
reality through the use of specic language and other
patterned behavior characteristic of [their] culture,
but [they] actually grasp reality only as it is presented
to [them] in this code. (Lee, 1950)

The social codication of reality in the form of lan-

guage is one of the environmental determinants of our
behavior and worldview. The mental web contains the
embedded codes and behavioral patterns that partially

210003_201_C08.indd 175 6/6/08 2:40:31 PM

 176 establish how we act. Recognizing the social linguistic
codes helps us understand that the illusion is not a real
No Mind
201 aspect of ourselves. We start thinking of it as a learned
aspect of ourselves. In this way, we develop a level of in-
No Mind tellectual detachment (learning a new code of percep-
tion), and as we practice No Mind, we develop true
detached awareness of our mental phenomena. It is
written in the Tao Te Ching that a wise person makes his
own decisions; a weak one obeys public opinion.

DEVELOPING A FRESH NEW PERSPECTIVE

The practice of No Mind gives you Clear Attention (CAt)

in order to perceive a new perspective. But the new
perspective must be constantly refreshed. The ongoing
problem is that the I may claim ownership of this empty
awareness and re-impose dualistic thinking: I understand
that I am empty. The reality is that the I cannot be
empty; there is just emptiness. Simple. This is the initial
paradoxical perception to overcome.
Achieving this level of No Mind is a start, but you can-
not stop here if you seek ultimate freedom. Many disci-
ples throughout history have been stuck at this level for
years. They cannot release their idea of reality for the re-
ality itself. This is like taking the word elephant (the
signier) for the mammal itself (the signied). Signier
and signied are not the same.
With practice, students can exert more and more
control over the Iill. The periods of CAt become increasi-
ngly longer, and eventually the student develops an insight,
an intuition, a burst of enlightenment that dethrones
the Iill, making it a mechanism that just functions in the
background. The Iill no longer has dominion over
awareness.

Those who are too lazy and comfortable to think for

themselves and be their own judges obey the laws.
Others sense their own laws within them; things are
forbidden to them that every honorable man will do
any day in the year and other things are allowed to

210003_201_C08.indd 176 6/6/08 2:40:31 PM

 them that are generally despised. Each person must 177
stand on his own feet. (Jasper & Shagass, 1941)
Chapter 8

Factor 1:
ESCAPING THE TRAP OF THE IiLL No Mind
Reality
THROUGH NO MIND
From the dualistic perspective of the Iill, we are forever
unsettled and yearning for fulllment. As long as we see
the parts, we cannot see the whole. When we cling to and
identify with discrete objects of desire, we are trapped in
the mental web. Thus, we are constantly striving for
someone or something new to identify with, to attach to,
and to ll the holes. When we lose what we are attached
to, we become sad, disoriented, alienated, and subject to
a host of other codependent feelings that arise from the
loss of the attachment.
However, you can stop this cycle of anxiety, worry,
and getting ensnarled in the Iill. You can train your mind
to ow without clinging to anything. And you will learn
the techniques for doing so in No Mind 301, The Ten
Paradoxes.
For now, simply understand that objects of desire are
inherently empty, that they possess nothing permanent of
their own, and that they have no identity, except in the rel-
ativity of the mental web and in the value that the mental
web projects onto them. In The Zen Doctrine of No Mind,
Suzuki says:

When I is an illusion, all that goes on in the name

of the agent must be an illusion too. Including moral
sins, various kinds of feelings and desires, and hell
and the Law of Bliss. With the removal of this illusion,
the world with all its multiplicities will disappear, and
if there is anything left in it which can act, this one
will act with utmost freedom, with fearlessness . . .
It is like the bee sucking the ower, like the sparrow
pecking at grains, like cattle feeding on beans, like the
horse grazing in the eld. When your mind is free from
the idea of private possession, all goes well with you.
But as soon as there arises in the mind the thought

210003_201_C08.indd 177 7/23/08 4:15:13 PM

 178 of mine and thine, you are slaves to your karma.
(Suzuki, 1969)
No Mind
201 There can be an end to this continuing cycle of events
No Mind and actions. There is a way to stop the wheel of suffering
from turning and from endlessly setting off one painful
event after another. There is a way to suspend the Iill
from dominating and engulng the awareness. And there
is a way to end your karma. It is written in the Tao Te
Ching:

Without opening your door,

You can open your heart to the world.
Without looking out your window,
You can see the essence of the Tao.

210003_201_C08.indd 178 6/6/08 2:40:31 PM

 179
CHAPTER 8 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 8
BEFORE CONTINUING
Factor 1:
1. The I is the Iill, and its essence cannot be meas- No Mind
ured in terms of any one real unit of analysis that Reality
is complete and self-sufcient because it has no
real identity of its own. Its identity is a mere illusion
created by the mental web. In terms of real phe-
nomena, I equals zero, because it has no real
substance of its own, and it is empty. The Iill is
therefore empty. This simple statement is repre-
sented mathematically by the following formulas,
Factor 1: I 1; I 0, where is not equal to
and is identical to.
2. The Iill is the mischief-maker, the trickster that
captures our awareness and focuses our attention
on the fulllment of its desires. In reality, the Iill
is empty and has no essence of its own.
3. The Iills continuing search for fulllment is like
plugging countless holes in a leaking boat. Once
our attention shifts to the big picture, the leaks
disappear. As long as we focus on the holes, we
create more holes demanding to be plugged. Sim-
ilarly, as long as we focus on our desires and ex-
pectations, we create more of them because they
are codependent and co-arise together.
4. In the leaking-boat analogy, each one of us lives a
lonely life on the boat of his or her own Iill. The
ocean is what all boats have in common. Once we
jump off the boat and into the ocean of aware-
ness, we realize that we are all the same and that
awareness is a universal constant.
5. Maya is our unique false interpretation of reality.
It also falsely represents objects of the outside
world as manifestations of the underlying essence
of nature. It is as if the forms we see are merely

210003_201_C08.indd 179 6/6/08 2:40:32 PM

 180

No Mind condensations of their underlying essence. They

201 are only illusions; ultimate reality is beyond them.
While they are real in the world of the Iill and we
No Mind
perceive and enjoy them, they are unreal because
they are impermanent and their real nature
remains hidden. No Mind is the experience of
true spiritual awareness, where we realize the
underlying essence of nature.

210003_201_C08.indd 180 6/6/08 2:40:34 PM

 Adaptive and evolutionary processes condition us to perceive
and to behave in a certain way; many of our perceptions and
behaviors are automated, locking us into rigid conceptual
structures and xed behavioral patterns. By untraining
the mind, we deautomatize perception and behavior and
acquire a fresher, clearer, expanded awareness of reality and
a newfound freedom of choice.

Deautomatization opens the channels of perception to a

more passive, receptive, seless mode of cognition. This
expands our awareness of the real world. In addition, the
internal interpretive
mechanism changes
from one of selshness Equations of No Mind
to one of selessness.
We behave differently Equations for Factor 2: No Mind Deautomatization
and better. Using initials to represent four variablesperception
(P), memory (M), auto-action (Aa) and auto-reaction
Chapter 9 explains how (Ar)we can express Factor 2 as follows:
the practice of No Mind P M Aa Ar for mindful behavior and de-
enhances our aware- automatized action and reaction and conversely,
ness of our actions P M Aa Ar for mindless behavior and
and reactions, which automatic action and reaction
frees us from the auto- A simple fact of human and animal behavior is that per-
ception and memory inuence our actions and reac-
matisms of the Iill. tions. We lter what we see through what weve learned
in order to decide how to act and react. The rst equa-
tion states that when we practice Clear Attention
the mindfulness technique of No Mindwe can de-
automatize our behavior and reactions: that is,
perception  memory would not equal auto-action and
auto-reaction. Conversely (the second equation), when
we do not practice CAt, we are subject to mindless or
automatic behavior, and our perception  memory
does result in auto-action and auto-reaction: we react
immediately from the learned patterns of our mental
web.

Once we are able to deautomatize our behavior

through the practice of No Mind, perception (P) and
memory (M) can be pulled out of the loop of automatic
action and reaction. (also see Figs. 7-1 and 14-1)

210003_201_C09.indd 181 6/6/08 2:51:16 PM

 Chapter 9

Factor 2:
No Mind
Deautomatization

Our minds, actions, and reactions are governed by auto-

perceptions, which are interpreted based on learned conditioning
stored in our neuro-associative networks (memory). Thus, our
behavior is primarily automatic. In fact, even free will is free
wont, since our decisions are determined a fraction of a second
before we become aware of them. Figure 14-1, however, demon-
strates that action and reaction are not equal to perception and
memory, and that we can move beyond mindless behavior. The
practice of No Mind entails mindful deautomatization, speci-
cally through the application of Clear Attention.

NO MIND: SEEING THROUGH THE FOG

In the classic The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, Robert Earnest

Hume writes:
As the bees, my dear, prepare honey by collecting the essences
of different trees and reducing essence to a unity, as they are
182

210003_201_C09.indd 182 6/6/08 2:51:18 PM

 not able to discriminate, I am the essence of that tree. 183
Even so, indeed, my dear, all creatures here, though they
reach being, know not we have reached being. These Chapter 9
rivers, my dear, ow, the Eastern toward the East, the Factor 2:
Western toward the West. They go just from the ocean No Mind
to the ocean. They become the ocean itself. As there Deauto-
they know not I am this one, I am that one. Even so, matization
indeed, my dear, all creatures here, though they come
forth from being, know not We have come forth from
being. (Hume, 1921)

The bees are not able to discriminate the essences, but

we do so routinely. We automatically discriminate and
identify ourselves and the world around uswe know
reality in terms of discrete elements that we are trained to
seek out and to recognize. As Figure 7-1 suggests, the
workings of the Iills mental web are relatively automatic.
The associative, categorical, and ltering mechanisms of
perceptual and ego defenses work at the unconscious
level. And as we are generally mindless of our breathing
and heart rate, we are not aware of these processes until
we focus on them. We live our lives experiencing and
understanding reality through interpretations that are
based on the unconscious memory of learning and
experience. These codependent links are made in the
neuro-pathways without our awareness, and the Iill
sees and interprets the world through the conditioned
mental webthrough the fog of discrimination.

While the healthy adult in a changing environment

must be able to function with a good deal of exibil-
ity, he must also be able to rely on certain learned
functions which no longer require much expenditure
of conscious energy and attention . . . Habit forma-
tion, or automatization, means that with increasing
practice an actions intermediate steps disappear from
consciousness. This occurs in the perceptual and
the cognitive eld as well as the motor area. It saves
energy in dealing with the outside environment . . .
allowing oneself from time to time to go into altered
states of consciousness and to de-automatize ones
solid, rigidly xed look at life, maybe one way to

210003_201_C09.indd 183 6/6/08 2:51:19 PM

 184 contribute to a fresh and creative approach to reality.
(Fromm, 1979)
No Mind
201

No Mind SEEING PARTS OF REALITY WE NEVER SEE

The practice of No Mind deautomatizes the actions and

reactions of the Iill. We can watch and control the mind
after we process sensory input through its natural auto-
mated functions. The normal defense mechanisms, such
as ltering, categorizing, and conditioning, can be sus-
pended when we see an object, or feel an emotion, or be-
come aware of a thought. We look through fresh eyes that
see things as they really are, without denition, preju-
dice, conceptualization, categorization, and attachment.
It just takes practice (detailed in No Mind 301, The Ten
Paradoxes). Dr. Arthur Deikman, Harvard Medical School
graduate in psychiatry and neurology, reports that sub-
jects in a controlled experimental meditation study

. . . experienced alterations in perception which is de-

scribed as a deautomatization in which the subject
may attain a new, fresh perception of the world by
freeing [them] from a stereotyped organization built
up over the years. . . in which one can cast off the
shell of automatic perception, of automatic affective
and cognitive controls in order to perceive more deeply
into reality. (Deikman, 1966b)

In other words, once we are free of the conditioned

way we see things, reality seems clearer and more vivid.
And there is a way to free ourselves through the tech-
nique of No Mind. During another experimental medita-
tion some subjects reported percepts of light motion and
force and color that were described as vividly real; a feel-
ing of a new reality or rather a greater perception of
reality.

If, as evidence indicates, our passage from infancy to

adulthood is accompanied by an organization of the
perceptual and cognitive world that has as its price the

210003_201_C09.indd 184 7/23/08 4:17:18 PM

 selection of some stimuli to the exclusion of others, it 185
is quite possible that a technique could be found to re-
verse or undo temporarily the automatization that has Chapter 9
restricted our communication with reality to the active Factor 2:
perception of only a small segment of it. Such a pro- No Mind
cess of deautomatization might then be followed by an Deauto-
awareness of aspects of reality that were formerly un- matization
available to us. (Deikman, 1966a)

As Deikman describes, this passage from birth to

adulthood develops the Iill which, using the technique of
No Mind, can be undone temporarily so we may see
reality clearer. As Deikman says, there are aspects of
reality that are unavailable to us when we see through
perceptual lters. Though the automatic nature of our
perceptions, cognitive controls, and behaviors obscure
our awareness of the world, people have practiced tech-
niques to suspend this process for thousands of years.
Yet, many of these techniques were difcult to learn, and
some were even kept a secret for philosophical or religious
reasons. We have failed to understand the techniques
because of the Iills rigid beliefs and values, reinforced by
societal dogmas. We reject and condemn something
before we have had a chance to experience it. The deauto-
matizing process achieved through the mindfulness
techniques of No Mind allows us to open to reality:

. . . reports indicate that mindfulness practice enables

practitioners to become aware of some of the usually
preattentive processes involved in visual detection.
The results support the statements found in Buddhist
texts on meditation concerning the changes in percep-
tion encountered during the practice of mindfulness.
(Brown, Forte, & Dysart, 1984)

Although the process of No Mind is nothing newin

fact, it had its origins in ancient Zenthe No Mind program
is new. The program blends the wisdom of the ancient
masters with modern psychological, neurophysiological,
physics, behavioral, and psychotherapeutic research and
practice.

210003_201_C09.indd 185 7/24/08 12:13:51 PM

 186 SHAKING UP THE IiLL BY DEAUTOMATIZING
No Mind
Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Heinz Hartmann is among
201
the founders of ego psychology. He writes in the Journal
No Mind of American Psychoanalytic Association:

Automatization is a characteristic example of those

relatively stable forms of adaptedness which are the
lasting effects of adaptation processes. . . . [The per-
son] not only adapts to the community, but also ac-
tively participates in creating conditions to which
[they] must adapt. [The persons] environment is
molded increasingly by [the person]. Thus the cru-
cial adaptation [people have] to make is to the social
structure, and [their] collaboration in building it . . .
Automatisms . . . too, may be said to be under the
control of the external world, and under certain con-
ditions, a formulary abbreviated behavior is a better
guarantee of reality mastery than a new adaptation to
every occasion. (Hartmann, 1958)

Every day we abbreviate our behavior through auto-

matizations; otherwise, we would be overwhelmed and
exhausted coming up with a new behavior for every percep-
tion. There is just too much information ooding in through
the multitude of sensory inputs. Yet, at any time we can be-
come aware of an incoming sensory signal and objectively
watch it pass through the awareness. Of course, this is a lot
easier to do while sitting next to a mountain stream listen-
ing to the water falling over the rocks than it is in a crowded
subway station. With No Mind, we can purify our percep-
tion of reality and have fewer slip-ups into auto-reaction.
Merton M. Gill, MD, and Dr. Margaret Brenman suggest
that

. . . deautomatization is a condition which opens the

way for a change in relative autonomy . . . Automatiza-
tion can interfere with relative autonomy if it means
the loss of the capacity to adapt to changing condi-
tions. Thus, deautomatization of automated function
is a part of normal functioning . . . We are suggesting
that dissociation, deautomatization, and interference

210003_201_C09.indd 186 7/23/08 4:17:19 PM

 with the synthetic function of the ego are all different 187
ways of conceptualizing the same phenomenon . . . De-
automatization is an undoing of the automatizations of Chapter 9
apparatuses, both means and goal structures directed Factor 2:
toward the environment. Deautomatization is, as it No Mind
were, a shake up. (Gill & Brenman, 1959) Deauto-
matization
We need to shake up the system, so that the Iill ceases
to automatically determine our daily lives, perceptions,
and understandings of the world. We can start to de-
automatize by selecting one or more areas in our lives and
by separating awareness from our bad habits, resent-
ments, angers, and egocentric behaviors. We watch the
behavior objectively, so that we can modify it. As we clean
the lter, perceptions become truer and fresher.

DEAUTOMATIZING: WHAT IS IT?

Psychologist Abraham Maslow provides an excellent sum-

mary of deautomatization:

In being cognition the experience of the object tends

to be seen as a whole, as a complete unit detached from
relations, from possible usefulness, from expediency,
and from purpose. The percept is exclusively and fully
attended to . . . My ndings indicate that in normal
perceptions of self actualizing people and in the more
occasional peak experiences (mystic or oceanic, or
nature experience, creative moment, insight, orgasm,
athletic fulllment) of average people, perception
can be relatively ego-transcending, self-forgetful,
egoless, object-centered rather than ego-centered.
Ordinary perception is one that involves selection
and relation to needs, fears and interests; one gives
it organization, arranging and rearranging it. Yet,
b-cognition [being cognition] is much more passive
and receptive than active, seless rather than egocen-
tric. It is gazing rather than looking, surrendering
and submitting to the experience. The world is seen
as a unity, as a single rich entity. Self-actualization is
not an all-or-none affair, but rather a matter of degree
and of frequency.

210003_201_C09.indd 187 6/6/08 2:51:20 PM

 188 Further, Maslow suggests:
No Mind Self-actualizing people can and do perceive reality
201
more efciently, fully, and with less motivation
No Mind contamination than others do. Then we may possibly
use them as biological assays through their greater
sensitivity and perception. We may get a better report
of what reality is like than through our own eyes, just
as canaries can be used to detect gas in mines before
less sensitive creatures can. (Maslow, 1959a)

Self-actualizing means achieving the potentialities of

our Beingour essential substance that is beyond the
basic needs of the person (see Figure 26-1 at the end of
Chapter 26, Secrets of Living No Mind). When we
experience moments of peak performance, we are the
closest to our being cognition, or b-cognition; we are
closer to the reality of nature and to our true selves. Our
perception is less judgmental and more objective. Maslow
speaks of b-cognition as an awareness that is outside the
Iill, a passive and more receptive state of awareness that
can be used to deautomatize the mechanisms of the
mental web. In cleansing our perceptions of acquired
contamination, we open new doors to perception.
No Mind gets us through. No Mind is the pure essential
awareness with which we were born prior to the years of
information download through the perceptual network
the download of billions of bytes of information from
our families, peers, communities, societies, and mass
media.
So within No Mindthis pure awarenesswe begin
to see an object not just as an object but as the totality
of nature contained within the object. There are no au-
tonomous objectsthey are all co-arising and inter-
dependent. In quantum physics, for example, the observer
and the observed exist in a codependent relationship
that cannot be broken; the mystic, however, transcends
the observedobserver relationship and enters a non-
dualistic state where the two are the same and indis-
tinguishable. Deikman says the mystical experience is

210003_201_C09.indd 188 7/23/08 4:17:19 PM

 an altered state of consciousness characterized by de- 189
automatization:
Chapter 9
This state is brought about by a deautomatization of hi-
Factor 2:
erarchically ordered structures of perception and cog- No Mind
nition structures that ordinarily conserve intentional Deauto-
energy for maximum efciency in achieving the basic matization
goals of the individual. Biological survival as an organ-
ism and psychological survival as a personality, percep-
tual selection and cognitive patterning, are in service
of these goals. . . . automatic selections are set aside or
break down, in favor of alternate modes of conscious-
ness . . . whose inefciency may permit the experience of
aspects of the real world formally excluded or ignored.
(Deikman, 1966a)

An alternative mode of consciousness is necessary for

breaking down the biological mechanisms of automati-
zation. Psychologically, No Mind may be an alternative
mode of consciousness, but the ancient masters dened
it as spiritual awarenessa state beyond the mechanisms
of the mind.
While this notion has philosophical and religious
undertones, we focus here only on the therapeutic and
life-enriching aspects of No Mind. The mystical aspects
of No Mind are discussed in more detail in No Mind 401,
Secrets of No Mind. You dont have to understand these
aspects of No Mind in order to practice it and to develop
peak performance. An article published in the American
Journal of Psychotherapy concludes:
Meditative and esoteric traditions have much to offer
psychotherapy. It has been suggested that varieties
of meditative-oriented training can be helpful in: 1)
Producing insight into habitual and self-defeating re-
sponse patterns by focusing and exaggerating them and
then providing social feedback; 2) Breaking the obses-
sive hold of the individuals thoughts on his behavior
by detaching affect from them and retraining atten-
tion (on a specic stimulus); 3) Conditioning the sym-
pathetic nervous system by reducing arousing stimuli
and training posture. (Carpenter, 1977)

210003_201_C09.indd 189 6/6/08 2:51:21 PM

 190 Breaking the obsessive hold of the Iill is the goal of
deautomatization. Once we move past the Iill, its auto-
No Mind
201 processes cease to exist. It then operates in the back-
ground, most or part of the time, depending on the
No Mind mastery of the practitioner. Whatever the functionality
of the mental web is, we lose nothing and we gain noth-
ing; only nothing will ever be the same again.

SELFLESSNESS INSTEAD OF SELFISHNESS

As the illusion of the Iill dissipates through deautomatiza-

tion, fresh reality is exposed. Freed from former condition-
ing, we are capable of actualizing our full potentialities;
we have an opportunity to acquire behaviors uncondi-
tioned by the past. Opening this door is an incredible
human achievement. You are never the same again, as
you perform from a completely different point of view;
you act from the perspective of the whole, not as a
fraction. And from this all-encompassing perspective,
you dont act out of selshness but based on selessness.
As an example, many medical centers, laboratories,
and biofeedback centers studied a remarkable man
named Jack Schwarz. He demonstrated that people can
control the pain of physical trauma; regulate blood ow,
blood pressure, and heart rate; consciously heal the body
after injury; and remain unaffected by the injection of
some toxic substances:

Traditional wisdom says that as long as you are in this

world, you will have to serve this world by right actions,
without evaluating the level on which fellow beings
stand. The predominant characteristic of the path of
action is a volitional spirit of selessness or the spirit
of will power. We cannot serve on the path of action
if we are selsh . . . What is my greatest selshness?
It is to recognize that through my selshness, I reach
selessness. That sounds like a paradox, an enigma. My
selshness is in wanting to reach the end of that path
as soon as possible. And I know that I can only attain it
if I am completely seless. The only true selshness is
striving to reach the goal. (Schwarz, 1977)

210003_201_C09.indd 190 6/6/08 2:51:21 PM

 A seless act is an act that has been deautomatized; 191
in No Mind, it is called play, an unmotivated act, one
Chapter 9
that is not an obsession of the mental web of the Iill.
The act wants to occur but does not need to occur. When Factor 2:
we act selessly, we act effortlessly and determine our No Mind
Deauto-
own reactions, rather than have them determined for
matization
us. In contrast, selshness keeps us within the Iill
acting and reacting for self-gain, ego-preservation, and
self-fulllment. Yet there is no real gain; there is no one
to satisfy. Remember, the I is an illusion. The gain is
empty, its source is empty, and therefore it cannot bring
long-lasting satisfaction, because it is selsh or Iillish.
This is why wealth and material objects cannot satisfy
completely and permanently. Gains realized from this
empty source bring only temporary happiness because
the moment they fulll a desire, another one co-arises.
All things change, and change is inevitable; you continue
to pursue new desires.

MAKING THE IiLL A BACKGROUND OPERATION

Lawrence Leshan, clinical psychologist, psychotherapist,

and researcher, writes:

The argument is that the altered state of consciousness

associated with the occurrence of paranormal events
gives a valid picture of reality, a picture as valid as the
common sense everyday state of consciousness during
which only normal events occur. Both are equally valid,
and each gives a partial picture of reality . . . Man has
two ways of perceiving and interacting with reality. And
he who uses only one way is not only denying a very
large part of his being, but is also perceiving a much
more constricted and narrow part of what is out there
than he potentially can. (Leshan, 1972)

With deautomatized awareness, we develop a new

perception of reality because we keep breaking down the
normal perceptual channels through which we usually
interpret reality. In other words, we set up different
neuro-associative maps to see reality with less ltration

210003_201_C09.indd 191 6/6/08 2:51:21 PM

 192 and distortion. The picture gets clearer and clearer as we
practice No Mind. When the Iill consumes awareness and
No Mind
201 awareness is lost in the Iills processes, we are mindless
instead of mindful, and we act and react on auto-pilot.
No Mind The switch to deautomatization is a shift of awareness
that sets up new ways to see reality and to respond to it.
In An Experiment in Mindfulness, E. H. Shattock dis-
cusses how the Zen illogical approach is intended to
break the acquired habit of logical thinking, of proceed-
ing from thought to thought along well-dened habitual
paths.

The mind is made to untrain itself; to think without at-

tachment; in fact, to learn to isolate individual thoughts.
The stream of thought has been broken, and a gap has
occurred which has allowed the intuitional awareness of
Truth [Spiritual Awareness] to break through. (Shattock,
1970)

Later in the book, we discuss how Zen masters shatter

the intellectual, logical, and analytical modes of disciples
cognition through the use of koans, or non-sensible state-
ments (also see No Mind 601, Insights and Paradoxes of
No Mind).

DECONDITIONING THROUGH DEAUTOMATIZING

The untraining of the mind comes through the deautom-

atization of the conditioning process that perpetually re-
inforces the mental web of the Iill. We do not go backward
to childhood or infancy; we learn just to become detached
from the Iill. Through the process, we free our awareness
from the Iills web. By applying the technique of No Mind,
we derive freedom through detachment and deautomati-
zation, which forces the Iill to function without control-
ling awareness. Thus, by deautomatizing, we decondition
ourselves. It only requires practice.
As you practice, the Iills effect on your actions and
reactions diminishes. As we break down the Iills automa-
tizations, we recreate the freedom that exists in spiritual

210003_201_C09.indd 192 6/6/08 2:51:21 PM

 awareness, the pure mind of infancy. In his book on Yogic 193
disciplines, Professor Ernest Wood states that in the
Chapter 9
school of Raja Yoga:
Factor 2:
. . . one must meditate on Self [Spiritual Awareness]. No Mind
I am not itit being the personality, physical and Deauto-
psychical, composed of body, personal emotions and matization
xed ideas, not simply the set of vehicles as they stand,
but also their habits of action, emotion and thought,
the entire personality. [They] must put that outside
[themselves] . . . I am, and all clinging to conscious-
ness, like clinging to body, bars the realization of that
Truth. Success is marked by quietness, the best indica-
tion of power. Thus the mind and body will be active,
but calm. And there will be contentment, patience, sin-
cerity and steadiness. (Wood, 1976)

Throughout the millennia that these techniques have been

used, the terminology has changed, but the meanings re-
main the same. The more we cling, the more attached we
become to our objects, lives, ideas, expectations, hopes,
desires, prejudices, and dislikes. The more we cling, the
more we get stuck in the web of the Iill. Therefore, one of
The Ten Paradoxes (as we will learn in Chapter 16, The
Ten Paradoxes) is: With Attachment, Work. Without Attach-
ment, Play.

210003_201_C09.indd 193 6/6/08 2:51:21 PM

 194

No Mind CHAPTER 9 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER

201 BEFORE CONTINUING

No Mind 1. Deautomatization is possible because we can

break our auto-action and auto-reaction behavio-
ral patterns:
P  M  Aa  Ar
where
P  Perception
M  Memory
Aa  Auto-action
Ar  Auto-reaction
  Not Equal

According to Figure 7-1, our reaction-based per-

ception, memory, and behavior are automated
until we separate our awareness from the mental
web. Therefore, we become more mindful instead
of mindless (Figure 14-1).
2. Automatisms are the output of an evolutionary,
adaptive, and natural process in the brain that
locks us into rigid patterns of perception and be-
havior. This is done in order to save energy; other-
wise, we would have to constantly fabricate new
behaviors in every mundane situation, and our
attention would be overwhelmed. Automatisms
are an aspect of the neuro-associative networks
created by our synaptic brain.
3. By untraining automatisms, we can learn to de-
automatize our perception and behavior, opening
the door to a fresh, clear perception of reality. As
conrmed by experiments and studies, deauto-
matization opens the channels of perception to a
more passive, receptive, seless mode of cognition
and intuition. Maslow called this b-cognition. It is a
change from selshness to selessness. Thus, more

210003_201_C09.indd 194 6/6/08 2:51:22 PM

 195
of the real world is perceived, and parts that were Chapter 9
previously excluded are now revealed.
Factor 2:
4. New behavioral patterns are developed, based on No Mind
the deautomatized retraining of awareness. New Deauto-
behavior sets up new conditioning patterns and al- matization
ters old rigid habits. Therefore, changes are made
in the neuro-associative networks in the brain,
which is called neuroplasticity.

210003_201_C09.indd 195 6/6/08 2:51:24 PM

 Clear Attention (CAt), or mindfulness, is similar to a mirror
that kind of awareness that reects objects as they are, just
as a mirror reects things objectively. In the mirror of Clear
Attention, the objects exist just as they are, without the need
to be anything.
CAt enables us to achieve the uidity of awareness and
action that is symbolized by a tiger (see Figure 26-1 at the
end of No Mind 301, The Ten Paradoxes). We no longer get
stuck on thoughts, emotions, or perceptions. The mind is
free to expand its awareness beyond the limits of perception,
behavior, and memory.
CAt allows us to
modify self-defeating
behavior by becoming Equations of No Mind
aware of the thought
of the behavior before Equations for Factor 3: No Mind and CAt
it actually happens. We Using initials to represent Clear Attention (CAt), per-
then recondition our ception (P), behavior (B), and memory (M), we can ex-
press Factor 3 with this pair of equations:
mental web with a
CAt
new set of behavioral
CAt > P (B M)
cues. In this way, we
CAt is congruent () or similar to empty, or mindful
can stay in the ow of awareness, represented here as the empty set ().
the moment and avoid In other words, CAt is devoid of mind contents; it is
what is commonly known as mindfulness. Empty
the puppet of external means unlledsimply that the Iills thoughts and
forces scenario. desires no longer ll awareness, and in that way it
is not lled by mind objects. So in order to develop
Chapter 10 teaches the No Mindexpand our awareness beyond the Iill
and overcome our autonomic behaviorwe need
important Zen skill of to start with the practice of CAt.
being mindful of the ac- The second equation relates to Figs.7-1 and 14-1.
tivity in the moment Clear Attention can overcome (>) the automatic action-
reaction loop created when the brains neural associa-
when walking, just tive networks affect our perceptual cues. In other words,
walk; when cooking, when we see something, we usually react and behave
in a way that is predetermined by our memory of
just cook. Although learned experiences. This concept is similar to that dis-
they are not exactly the cussed in Chapter 8, but weve now added behavior (B)
and dened CAt as the deautomatizing agent.
same, CAt and No Mind
are states of awareness The main idea here is that practicing CAt is the rst step
toward attaining No Mind. The subtle difference is one
that allow the mind- of mindful awareness (CAt), which leads to pure aware-
body to perform at its ness (No Mind).

full capacity.

210003_201_C10.indd 196 6/6/08 2:54:25 PM

 Chapter 10

Factor 3:
No Mind and CAt

THE MIRROR OF CLEAR ATTENTION

Clear Attention, or mindfulness, is similar to a mirror. It reects

objects as they are, like a mirror reects objects without bias. In
the mirror of Clear Attention, the objects exist just as they are,
without the need to be anything in particular.
In Clear Attention, we objectively perceive thoughts, emotions,
mental images, and sensationswe call them mind objects. We
watch how the Iill naturally interprets these mind objects. The Iill
uses:
1. Codependent categorizations, or the process through which
the Iill automatically perceives and categorizes these mind
objects.
2. Thought sequencing, or the process through which the Iill
sequences mind objects, associating them with other mind
objects and memories.

197

210003_201_C10.indd 197 6/6/08 2:54:28 PM

 198 3. Co-arising thoughts about the mind objects, or the
process through which the Iill thinks about the
No Mind
201 mind object; for instance, how to react to the mind
objects and what they mean. These are thoughts
No Mind about thoughts.
And thoughts generate the sense of an I. We then
continue watching the associations of the I. These
associations help us to understand our mind objects in
terms of our selves and how we have been conditioned to
view them. One study concludes that associating is
relating and that operations of relating are at the basis of
recognition and recall . . . Relations are facts not only
about learning, but equally about perceiving, imagining,
and thinking (Asch, 1969). In 1890, famed psychologist
William James wrote:

There are then mechanical conditions on which thought

depends and which, to say the least, determine the
order in which is presented the context or material for
its comparisons, selections and decisions. . . . Objects
once experienced together tend to become associated
in the imagination, so that when any one of them is
thought of, the others are likely to be thought of also,
in the same order of sequence or coexistence as before.
(James, 1890)

When we train our awareness to deautomatize, and when

we become aware of the sequence of thoughts without
producing more thoughts, we slow the mind down. We
stop the thought process and associations. With the men-
tal web process slowed down, Clear Attention reects
the mind objects as a clear mirror, without interpreting
them.
Awareness relates to these objects objectively, without
interacting with them. For example, if we are riding a
bicycle, there is just the awareness of bicycle riding.
There is no awareness of I am riding the bicycle. With
further training, we can eventually experience No Mind
Bicycling.

210003_201_C10.indd 198 6/6/08 2:54:28 PM

 The mind is like a mirror because it reects but does 199
not absorb. Robert Ornstein, a research psychologist at
Chapter 10
Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, states:
Factor 3:
No Mind
A mirror allows every input to enter equally, reects and CAt
each equally, and cannot be tuned to receive a special
kind of input. It does not add anything to the input and
does not turn off respective stimuli. It does not focus
on any particular aspect of input and returns back
and forth, but continuously admits all inputs equally.
The ability to be a mirror, to be free of the normal re-
strictions of tuning, biasing, and ltering processes of
awareness, may be part of what is indicated by direct
perception. This state can perhaps be considered within
psychology as a diminution of the interactive nature of
awareness, a state in which we do not select nor do
we bet on the nature of the world. Nor do we think
of the past. Nor do we compel awareness by random
associations. Nor do we think of the future. Nor do we
sort into restrictive categories. But a state in which
all possible categories are held in awareness at once.
(Ornstein & Naranjo, 1976)

The ability to reect mind objects like a mirror comes

with the practice of No Mind. Reecting thoughts, feel-
ings, and perceptions without the Iills involvement ena-
bles us to reach this level of No Mind.
As we think about being able to reect mind objects,
a question comes to mindWho is doing the reecting?
Is it the Iill awareness? The answer is paradoxical:
There is no one. It is just pure awareness, an aspect of
No Mind that can be developed. There is only the mind-
body dynamic and the awareness of the mind-body
dynamic.
Since the mind is concerned with the unconscious
and conscious processes of the Iill, No Mind is just the
pure awareness reecting those processes. You really
cannot call No Mind a state of mind because when the
mind is nally void of thoughts, feelings, and perceptions,
there is No Mind. Self-consciousness is absent. There is

210003_201_C10.indd 199 6/6/08 2:54:29 PM

 200 no I, there is just the mind-body dynamic. At this level,
we experience spiritual awareness and No Mind. In any
No Mind
201 event, this state is an objective awareness of the working
mind (explained in Chapter 15, Discovery of the Sequence
No Mind of the Stones).

CAt EXPANDS AWARENESS

Clear Attention (CAt) is the acronym standing for mind-
fulness in the No Mind program. CAt represents the ow-
ing, exible, and uid sense of awareness that No Mind
develops. In the case of No Mind, the CAt is represented
by the tiger (see Figure 19-1 at the end of No Mind 301,
The Ten Paradoxes); awareness ows without ever get-
ting stuck in one spot.
When we get stuck on mind objects, the mind cannot
think freely, and therefore it is below its full potential.
CAt is the awareness of actual events that are happening
to us and in us in the present moment. We are paying at-
tention to the ow of events inside and outside us, which
allows us to expand our normal everyday awareness into
aspects of the mind and body of which we are normally
unaware, like breathing.
CAt enables us to step outside the mental web and to
be objective, unbiased, and passive observers to the men-
tal objects in the mind, not automatons. When we remain
objective, our thoughts, emotions, mental images, and
sensations relinquish their control over awareness. Since
awareness is not absorbed by the mind objects, it is free
to reect.
What does it mean to stop or to slow down the Iill
from interpreting and analyzing our thoughts, emotions,
mental images, and sensations? The tiger represents the
ability of awareness to ow, to avoid getting stuck in the
process of thinking, and to not get swept away in the ood
of thought and emotion. So we are less mindless and more
mindful.
CAt allows us to live in the Now and to understand
that the Iill and its mental web do not always need to

210003_201_C10.indd 200 6/6/08 2:54:29 PM

 determine our life, that it is only a process of the mind 201
and nothing else. CAt allows us to pause our actions,
Chapter 10
so we can then stop being automatons. That means we
can make decisions freely, in the moment, rather than Factor 3:
merely responding the way we have been conditioned No Mind
and CAt
to respond.
We can acquire the detachment necessary to escape
the Iill and to act freely without the automatic processes.
By practicing No Mind daily, we deautomatize the Iill
and its mental web and modify it over time, acquiring a
new freedom and realization of our full potentialities.
Eckhart Tolle writes in The Power of Now:

When a thought subsides, you experience a discontinu-

ity in the mental streama gap of no-mind. At rst,
the gaps will be short, a few seconds perhaps, but grad-
ually they will become longer. When these gaps occur,
you feel a certain stillness and peace inside you. This is
the beginning of your natural state of felt oneness with
Being, which is usually obscured by the mind. (Tolle,
2004)

A MIRROR REFLECTS IN THE NOW

CAt allows us to live in the present by uprooting the

egocentric habits of the Iills mental web. In other words,
we rid ourselves of the Iill. Rather than saying, Im
the best, you can just perform better outside the Iill.
Your greatness is in your ability, not in how great you
think you are. Everyone has natural potentialities and
these are apt to grow when we are not under the spell of
the Iill.
Like an iceberg, most of the mental web lies below the
water line, in the unconscious, which determines most
of our behaviors. We become aware of a small percentage
of that activity, and a half-second later at that.
The past and future, however, arise only in terms of
the Iill (see diagrams in Chapter 15, Discovery of the
Sequence of the Stones). No Mind exists only in the
present. You cannot have past or future without reference

210003_201_C10.indd 201 6/6/08 2:54:29 PM

 202 to something: an expectation, a hope, an anxiety, or a
goal for the future; or a regret, a guilt, a resentment, or a
No Mind
201 memory of the past.
Neither past nor future exists in No Mind because it
No Mind is empty of the Iills contents; and it is impossible for
either to exist in the immediate present. Our focus on
the present literally binds us to it and excludes past
and future, just as a mirror reects objects only in the
present.
Even when a thought reaches our awareness, it comes
from half a second in the past; it cannot exist in the
immediate present. A mirror can no more interpret a past
or a future event than a clear pond of water can reect a
bird that passed over it an hour ago.
The images reected on the surface of the water are
changing constantly. Change is inherent in nature. When
attention reects perfectly and is unaware that it is re-
ecting, it is No Mind. It reects everything, yet it is not
absorbed by anything. When attention reects every-
thing, and yet it is aware of itself reecting, it is CAt. So
No Mind is a deeper level of CAt, yet the difference can
be subtle.
In No Mind 501, Living No Mind, we will learn how
this can work in sports, business, stress management,
academics, and relationships. For now, we concern
ourselves with the concept of awareness as a mirror.
Edward Maupin, Ph.D., a psychologist for over thirty
years, describes a Zen state during the middle phase
of Zen training in an article published in the Journal of
Consulting Psychology:

This state of mind is traditionally described with the

analogy of a mirror, in which it reects many things.
Yet, it is itself unchanged by them. It seems likely
that this phase of meditation, in particular increases
receptivity to previously excluded experience. But the
ability to deal with it in a detached non-anxious fashion
is also facilitated. This state of mind is similar to a
phenomenon reported by patients in psychoanalysis.
(Maupin, 1962)

210003_201_C10.indd 202 7/24/08 12:14:10 PM

 SEEING THE WHOLE IN THE PART 203

Maupin, like most Western psychologists, researchers, Chapter 10

and writers, refers to the mirror, or what we are calling Factor 3:
Clear Attention, as a state of mind. Generally, the ancient No Mind
masters and texts say that CAt develops into No Mind, and CAt
which is awareness beyond the state of mind.
Gestalt therapy was developed by Fredrick S. Perls
based on psychoanalysis, existentialism, and Gestalt
psychology.

Gestalt Therapy is an expansion of Gestalt psychology

by adding need and bodily awareness to the Gestalt
forming process. The Gestalt is considered an arrange-
ment of elements such as need into a pattern that ap-
pears to function as a unit, but is different than the
sum total of the parts. (Perls, 1971)

Here, the therapist attempts to help us get rid of our

pattern of desire to continually satisfy needs. For
instance, the pattern may function as a unit, so that as
every need emerges, it controls us, and we are compelled
to look to our environment to satisfy the need. But it isnt
one need only, it is a series of needs. These needs are
always in the past or in the future, and Perls insists that
nothing exists except in the now.
Perls recommends meditation as a means of learning
to listen to your own thinking, allowing yourself to be-
come more aware, and discovering how much you can
actually help yourself. It allows the person to discover her
personality and natural behavioral tendencies. Perls says,
I am sure that one day we will discover that awareness is
a property of the universe (Perls, 1971). (The experience
of awareness as the only universal constant is discussed
in detail in No Mind 401, Secrets of No Mind.)

PEAK PERFORMANCE IS BEYOND

THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
One way to view No Mind is as a psychological training
systema system to help us train the awareness and

210003_201_C10.indd 203 6/6/08 2:54:30 PM

 204 achieve peak performance. When the attention reects
as a mirror, as in mindfulness, it frees the mind of
No Mind
201 limitations and self-defeating behaviors. It releases the
mind of the restrictions that the Iill imposes on the
No Mind mind-body dynamic: I cannot do that, I am not good
enough, or I have never been good at that, or Ive
always been afraid.
Such self-defeating statements, whose origins are pri-
marily unconscious, are forms of unnecessary negativity.
In addition to these negative comments, positive com-
ments about how great you are can also reinforce the Iill
in a harmful way by building identity and attachments.
Both negative and positive kinds of self-talk reinforce
the Iill. For example, you can lose a tennis match before
you make the rst serve because you dont think youre a
very good tennis player. Or you can bomb the job interview
before you walk through the door if you dont think your
rsum is good enough. To stop this kind of self-defeating
behavior, you practice No Mind, so you become aware of
the behavior through Clear Attention and then alter it.
Although positive statements are intended to motivate
us, they can leave us in a state of anger, despair, and self-
denial if we dont live up to them. They are developed
from the expectations, hopes, goals, and wishes of the
Iill; they do not reect the natural potentiality of the
mind-body dynamic.
If a tiger fails to catch its prey, it does not wallow in
self-pity and anger. Instead, it goes on to hunt other prey,
following its natural instinct. The tiger performs at what
is inherently its full potential.

AWARENESS SOLVES BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS

We avoid the negative feelings that result from our

behavior by approaching every situation with the detach-
ment of CAt, by reecting it as a mirror. Why go through
the extreme behavioral swings that mimic the ups and
downs of a roller-coaster ride? It may be the human thing
to do, but we can develop better strategies to detach

210003_201_C10.indd 204 6/6/08 2:54:30 PM

 from these ups and downs without the exhausting effects 205
and health consequences to the mind-body.
Chapter 10
If we reect our feelings objectively, we experience
them more intensely because the awareness is not im- Factor 3:
peded by the Iills limitations. Its not what we think it No Mind
and CAt
should be, it just is what it is. Because we passively watch
the feeling, our behavior is not determined by it.
Say you hear a song on the radio by band x, of which
youre not particularly fond. When you hear the song, you
automatically say, I hate band x; change that station,
because you have been conditioned to think that way.
However, if you become aware that you dont like
band x, the next time you hear a song by them, you can
diffuse your reaction to the music by saying, Im aware I
dont like band x. Youll be aware that you want to shut
off the radio, but you wont have to react immediately.
Your behavior has become mindful.
Clinical psychologist John Burke describes watchful
attention as the basis of Gestalt therapy:

Therapy consists of the reintegration of attention and

awareness. Most people, most of the time do not fully
know what they are doing, and it is a considerable
therapeutic contribution if the patients can achieve
a vivid and ongoing awareness of [their] moment-to-
moment behavior and surroundings. In a sense, the
achievement of such full awareness is all that ther-
apy needs to do. When a person feels fully and viv-
idly what [they] are doing, [their] concern about why
usually fades away. If [they do] remain interested,
[the person] is in a good position to work it out for
[themselves]. The basic assumption of this therapeu-
tic approach is that patients deal adequately with
their own life problems. If they know what they are
and can bring all their abilities into action to solve
them . . . the therapist must help by unblocking
awareness . . . and help to more fully perceive sen-
sory activity and help the patient to incorporate ways
of behavior they adopted from others into their own
consciousness, so it ts with the results of previous
experience. (Enright, 1971)

210003_201_C10.indd 205 6/6/08 2:54:30 PM

 206 THERAPISTS PRACTICE CLEAR ATTENTION
No Mind The watchful attention of the Gestalt therapist is similar
201
to Clear Attention. Relaxing our state of repressive ten-
No Mind sion in order to become fully aware of our behaviors is
necessary if we are to control and to modify them. Many
forms of psychotherapy and healing practices originating
with Clear Attention (mindfulness) have been docu-
mented in the medical literature over the past century;
Freuds concept of true oating attention is fundamental
to psychoanalysis:
One has simply to listen and not to try to keep in mind
anything in particular . . . for as soon as attention
is deliberately concentrated in a certain degree, one
begins to select from the material before one; one
point will be xed in the mind with particular clearness
and some other consequently disregarded, and in this
selection ones expectations of ones inclinations will be
followed. This is just what must not be done, however;
if ones expectations are followed in this selection
there is the danger of never nding anything. (Maslow,
1954)

Expectations and motivations alter the perception

and interpretation of what we are observing; if a thera-
pist imposes his or her own expectations on the patients
perceptions, a therapeutic session is likely to be nonpro-
ductive. Clear Attention is key to understanding the
patient. Too many times the Iill is concerned with expec-
tations and goal, not with the clear perception of the
Now.

OBJECTS ON THE SCREEN OF AWARENESS

We can apply the therapists technique of watchful

attention to our lives. By shifting to CAt, we remove our
attention from the original object, and any codependent
expectations, or thoughts themselves, become objects of
awarenessinstead of being absorbed by the thought
that we dont like band x, we are objectively aware that

210003_201_C10.indd 206 6/6/08 2:54:30 PM

 we dont like band x. Both object and associations become 207
mental objects, which are watched as they pass through
Chapter 10
the screen of awareness.
We deautomatize the normal process of action and Factor 3:
reactionwatching our thoughts of band xsegmenting No Mind
and CAt
it into codependent links that oat through the aware-
ness of the minds contents. The minds contents are dis-
played on the screen of awareness. Then, because each
object is linked through codependent associations, the
associative and categorical networks are slowed down.
CAt acts as a mirror, reecting without interacting: As
a bird ies over a pond of water, the pond has no inten-
tion to reect the bird, and the bird has no intention to
cast its reection on the pond. Although in that moment
the bird and the pond are dynamically interdependent,
there is no intention, no effort, no trying, and yet each
expresses its natural tendencies. The reection is a natu-
ral result of the bird ying over the pond. This realization
allows us to perceive our own mechanicalnessor our
propensity to act and to react like automatons. In The
Master Game, DeRopp writes:

Seen objectively, without comment and without iden-

tication, the gure going through its antics on the
screen of the mind will not even be regarded as I but
rather as it. The essence of its mechanicalness will
be perceived. The comment will be: This ridiculous,
pompous, frightened or angry creature is not a self-
directed being at all, but simply a puppet reacting to
external forces. This is a very valuable realization.
The only way to escape from the fetters of ones own
mechanicalness is to recognize that mechanicalness.
Only in this way does one learn to be on ones guard
against mechanical reactions. . . . Impartial self-
observation is not easy. How can a [person] learn to
regard his own manifestations with the detachment
of a naturalist observing the behavior of an insect?
There are tiresome, degrading, foolish, destructive
manifestations of the self that can hardly be accepted
without comment. And what of those embarrassing
memories which, coming suddenly into the conscious

210003_201_C10.indd 207 6/6/08 2:54:31 PM

 208 mind, hit the ego with such force that one literally
squirms with anguish? (DeRopp, 1968)
No Mind
201 Impartial self-observation, or CAt, is an easy technique
No Mind that can be learned in a short time. Practice is all it takes
practice and applying The Ten Paradoxes to our daily
lives. You do not want to be thrown into an NBA profes-
sional game when youve only been shooting hoops in
your driveway. The same applies to CAtwe must prac-
tice, so that when we need the skills, we have mastered
them. We can apply CAt in our lives while doing most of
our daily tasks. Just go about your routine activity, but
watch the thoughts, watch the body, and watch yourself
perform the activity.
This is the opposite of how we normally perform tasks
like cooking; when we cook, we normally think about
something entirely different. We are not focusing on the
cooking; we are allowing our mind to think about things
that have nothing to do with it. How many times during
the day do we do one thing, while were thinking about
several other things? The minds natural tendency is to
think about a variety of things at one time, making it
challenging to focus on the task at hand.
To practice CAt, just do what you are doing. When
you walk, just walk. When you cook, just cook. When you
act, just act. But most of all, as one Zen master says,
Dont wobble. We train our awareness with CAt to allow
the mental processes to just ow without stalling at any
one thought or emotion. We can remain exible and agile
in our awareness, like the tiger.

WATCHING MY REALITY SHOW

As mentioned, CAt is commonly known in Zen training

as mindfulness. Zen master Chen of the Chi Monastery
gives this advice:

The mind moves in response to the outside world and

when it is touched it knows. The time will come when
all thoughts cease to stir and there will be no working

210003_201_C10.indd 208 6/6/08 2:54:31 PM

 of consciousness. It is then that all of a sudden you 209
smash your brain to pieces. And for the rst time real-
ize that Truth is in your own possession from the very Chapter 10
beginning, would not this be great satisfaction to you in Factor 3:
your daily life? (Suzuki, 1956) No Mind
and CAt
Smashing the brain to pieces entails overcoming
the Iill, and the Truth is the insight into our spiritual
awareness, into No Mind. We struggle to escape the con-
nes of the Iill, and suddenly, in a ash, we realize that we
were never the Iill to begin with, and so we begin the real
journey.
In a simplistic analogy, we can think of awareness as
a screen, and we can picture all the thoughts and feelings
playing across the screen, just as a movie displays a suc-
cession of still frames to create a motion picture. Each
successive still frame in the movie is another thought or
feeling, and the star of the movie is you in the role of
the Iill.
As the star, director, and producer of the movie, you
see reality based on a succession of memory frames,
which have passed the inspection of editors (i.e., per-
ceptual defense mechanisms, expectations, intentions,
anticipations, hopes, motivations, and desires), who are
simultaneously watching the movie, reporting back to
the star, and censoring the action. As the movie is play-
ing across the screen of awareness, the editors are giving
meaning to its different parts.
No current technology can function simultaneously
on so many levels and still have an awareness of itself.
Even the most advanced computers still lack the essence
of consciousness. The brain is an extremely complicated
mechanism, and it can watch and revise the movie simul-
taneously, bringing to the screen of awareness only the
edited version. If we were to perceive all these prescreen-
ing activities, our conscious awareness would be over-
whelmed, and we would be unable to function. This is
why the evolutionary adaptive mechanisms limiting the
stream of information that reaches awareness are crucial
for survival (as discussed in No Mind 101).

210003_201_C10.indd 209 6/6/08 2:54:31 PM

 210 So our editors preview our thoughts and feelings
prior to screening My Reality Show, starring the Iill, on
No Mind
201 the screen of awareness. They use our memories, condi-
tioning and experiences, behavioral patterns, learned as-
No Mind sumptions, defense information, or even genetic maps to
determine how to edit the movie. They work without our
knowledge or approval. They determine the next scene in
our movie. They select interpretations of scenes depend-
ing on whatever they feel is necessary to give us the most
useful and productive resultwhat makes the Iill appear
as it or as the editors think it should be.
But we cannot re the censors because My Reality
Show would appear unedited, and we could not identify
the scenes of the movie or determine what the next scene
should be (we need to know what is happening and what
we should do). Viewing the unedited show would be like
watching a foreign-language lmwe could not compre-
hend what the actors are saying and we would have to
guess, or assume, what is going on.
Taking the analogy a step farther, what if we viewed a
lm that was made on another planet, in another galaxy,
for viewing by the people of that planet, and we had no
familiarity with the language, customs, conventions, and
patterns of that society. The lm would be completely un-
intelligible. We could guess what is going on or look for
patterns to decipher the information, but we would be
unable to interpret it exactly.
A newborn views reality as if it were a movie from
another planet. In the essence of No Mind, the infant
attempts to interpret what it sees because nothing has
meaning yet. The infant has to acquire a group of editors
to create her own Reality Show, so that she can make
sense of what is appearing on her screen of awareness.
As the infant grows and learns, the editors become
more adept at censoring the show, so that it appears con-
sistent with the developing star of the movie, the Iill. As
the Iill takes form, the editors do more and more complex
and heavy editing on My Reality Show in order to keep
producing results that are consistent with the desire po-
tentials and need fulllments of the Iill.

210003_201_C10.indd 210 6/6/08 2:54:31 PM

 CHANGING MY REALITY SHOW 211

This is why we need to shift to CAt. So far, the editors Chapter 10

have been providing a consistent show for the Iill, so that Factor 3:
the movie and the screen of awareness have been the No Mind
same. The movie has been all that there was, with the Iill and CAt
starring in the role of its life, My Reality Show.
We have not yet stepped outside ourselves and watched
our lives. So we have not learned that the Iill is not us, but
an illusion we created in the process of performing My
Reality Show. Even if we stepped outside ourselves and
became aware of our show, we would have done so from
the vantage point of the Iill.
Think about the movie being played across your
screen of awareness. There really is no star called the Iill;
in fact, there is no starring role at all, just a movie being
played. In a theater, the movie is played in front of you
and you know that the movie is not you; it is just a movie.
In My Reality Show, however, the movie is playing in-
side our heads, across the screen of awareness.
Because we have self-awareness or self-consciousness,
we are aware of the movie unfolding and we identify with
it. Because the movie is in my head, it must be me in the
movie. We make this assumption instead of watching the
movie with detachment, as we do in the theater. (Visual
images can be so strong that even in theaters the boundary
between movie and viewer is sometimes blurred. We
become absorbed in the movie and have emotional
reactions, as if the events were happening to us. We identify
with the actors, and their situations become temporarily
our own imaginary situations.)
Lets try to get a fresh perspective on the movie. In one
scene, lets say, a duck ies across a pond. On the screen
of awareness you see the duck ying across the pond, but
the editors have modied the scene to make it feel like
the Iill, the star, is watching the duck y over the pond.
We have thoughts about ourselves watching the duck
y over the pond, and the thoughts give us the feeling
of a self and self-awareness. Yet, in the movie, the Iill is
never shown completely. In a sense, the camera is attached

210003_201_C10.indd 211 6/6/08 2:54:32 PM

 212 to the Iills forehead, and you know that there is a body
underneath because you can see the arms and the legs
No Mind
201 when the camera points downward. You get the feeling
that the camera is not a camera but that you are in fact
No Mind looking through real eyes as you see the duck y over the
pond.
Movie magic makes it feel as if the camera is the Iill,
but in reality it is only the camera. The Iill is not living
the movie, only the camera. We feel as if the events
of the movie are indeed happening to us, or to the Iill, but
they are just the events happening in front of the camera
and being edited by the censors to produce what we see
on the screen of awareness.
Its a fascinating illusion, but it is unintentional. It is
the result of the associative neural networks in the brain
operating on many parallel paths simultaneously. Our
awareness is absorbed by the screen of awareness,
watching the movie from the perspective of the Iill. Its
like when we go to the movies and become absorbed in
the action on the screen and forget we are watching a
movie.
But now lets change our seat and shift our awareness
slightly, so that we can see the camera. As soon as we do
that, we realize that the movie on the screen of awareness
is just representing the events occurring in front of the
camera, as edited by the editors. Lets try to view My
Reality Show as we view a movie in the theater; we know
the movie is not happening to us, even though we may
become absorbed in it and identify with it.
In the theater, as soon as someone asks, Do you want
some more popcorn? we revert to detached awareness
(away from being absorbed in the movie). The same kind
of shift in awareness allows us to watch My Reality
Show passively without reference to the Iill, so that our
awareness is not lost in the movie. Now we are aware of
the editors too. We learn to change the scenes of the
movie, instead of just being the star and reacting as the
censors want us to react.
In a very simplistic way, this analogy claries what we
have learned about the interpretative and defensive

210003_201_C10.indd 212 6/6/08 2:54:32 PM

 mechanisms of the Iill. It also exemplies how CAt acts 213
as a mirror. Whenever we lose awareness and shift our
Chapter 10
perspective back, we are in My Reality Show again
as the Iill. This happens many times throughout each Factor 3:
day, but it can be regulated through the practice of No Mind
and CAt
No Mind.
This is why it is important to maintain CAt as much
as you can throughout the day, continually shifting the
perspective to a mirror and reecting the screen of
awareness instead of being lost in it. This movie does not
need a star because it is a self-documentary recording a
life. Although that might sound boring, it is not, for this
shift of awareness is the key to opening the gates to pure
awareness and to revealing the answers to The Ten
Paradoxes.

PRODUCING OUR OWN SHOW

To overcome the censors and our awareness being lost in

My Reality Show, we must apply CAt to retrain our aware-
ness, so that we can modify the movie.
For most of our lives, we star in My Reality Show
as the Iill because we do not realize that there is another
way to act and reactthat there is another way to live.
From time to time, we all feel a yearning for a more com-
plete perspective of life and perhaps wonder, Is this all
there is?
The unity and integration that we seek can be attained
by seeing outside the Iill and by realizing our essential
spiritual awareness. When we take the challenge of apply-
ing this very important process of CAt to our daily lives,
and as we increase our efciency with Clear Attention
not being pulled back into the Iillwe nd new energy
and a claried view of the nature of our lives.
W. Ernest R. Hilgard, psychology professor at Stanford
University, reports that we may see reality clearer once we
suspend memory:

The continuity of memories is basic to self awareness.

When consciousness is interrupted by sleep or in other

210003_201_C10.indd 213 6/6/08 2:54:32 PM

 214 ways, the sense of self is restored by reorientation
through memory. . . . During hypnotic induction, [the]
No Mind subject is told to surrender in a sense. Therefore when
201
the need to plan is diminished, the memory function
No Mind is weakened. With the weakening of memory, critical
abilities are also lost. . . . reality judgments are made
by bringing memory to bear on the present to decide
whether the present conforms to previously experienced
reality. If this be true, then when memory is held in an
immobile state, reality is seen clearer. (Hilgard, 1979)

CAt AS THE SEED OF SPIRITUAL AWARENESS

CAt is an ancient technique that has been discovered in
many cultures over time. People from all over the world
and of all religious backgrounds have written of this re-
ecting or mirroring experience. Besides Zen, even re-
ligions like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have mystical
aspects that describe the essential characteristic of unity,
oneness, interpenetration, its effect on the mind, and its
relation to spiritual awareness or god consciousness.
For example, take note of the teachings of the Muslim
cleric Al Ghazzali:

Know that mind is like a mirror, which reects images.

But just as the mirror, the image, and the mode of re-
ection are three different things, so mind, objects and
the way of knowing are also distinct. . . . The knowl-
edge of the proper means is a key to the knowledge of
the unknown to the known. (Shah, 1975)

In No Mind 401, Secrets of No Mind, we discuss how

many religious and philosophical traditions repeat the
same advice. Until we completely overcome the Iill, there
will be aspects of the I in awareness. Subtle interpreta-
tions occur even when we believe our awareness is com-
pletely clear. Each of us has to pass through these
important levels, and even when CAt is still within the
bounds of the Iill, it is the beginning of the transition to
No Mind. In the purest sense of No Mind, there cannot
be any mode of reection because No Mind is beyond

210003_201_C10.indd 214 6/6/08 2:54:32 PM

 self-reecting modes; it is just pure spiritual awareness. 215
The Zen master knows when someone has reached
Chapter 10
No Mind spiritual awareness. It is undeniable at that
point; there is no doubt because all doubt has been over- Factor 3:
come. You simply knowor it is knownwhen No Mind No Mind
and CAt
is reached.

During Zazen [meditation] when the spontaneous as-

sociations, thoughts, perceptions, feelings emerge, the
student strives to maintain a detached view of them.
Without acting out or otherwise distorting reality in
terms of them. (Maupin, 1962)

In Zen, every student goes through the process of try-

ing to maintain a detached point of view and an empty
mind during Zazen. The techniques of controlling aware-
ness and of passively watching the mind objects are very
important to achieving peak performance and spiritual
awareness (see No Mind 301, The Ten Paradoxes).
With practice, the quality of awareness grows until
the shift of perception takes place and No Mind is
experienced. As this occurs, your ability to function at a
higher, more productive level in your daily life increases
dramatically.
As Krishnamurti stated in a 1929 talk: Truth is a
pathless land. [People] cannot come to it through any or-
ganization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest
or ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge or psy-
chological technique. [They] have to nd it through the
mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the
contents of [their] own mind. In Talks and Dialogues, he
says:

In that watching there is neither condemnation nor

justication, is there? Which means, no interference of
thoughtright? Now, to look at anger is much more
difcult, isnt it? Because it is subjective, it affects you.
I have to understand it. I have to look at it. I have to
study it. I have to go into it. I must become very in-
timate with it and I cant become intimate with it if I
condemn it or justify itright? But, we do condemn it.

210003_201_C10.indd 215 6/6/08 2:54:33 PM

 216 We do justify it. Therefore, I am sayingstop, for the
time being. Condemning it or justifying it. You can be
No Mind objective to your condemnation or justication when
201
you realize that they interfere when you are looking at
No Mind anger. (Krishnamurti, 1970)

We need to see beyond the anger, to be above it, to be

free from it, to observe it clearly. Your awareness must be
the dispassionate viewer of My Reality Show; you must
watch yourself without unrelenting self-talk and identi-
cation with the Iill.

RECASTING THE IiLL AS THE SUPPORTING ROLE

We use CAt to modify the movie that our mind editors

are presenting to our awareness. If we cannot re the
editors, we can become detached from their comments
when we need or want to. The Iill will not give up its role
as the star because it wants to be the center of attention,
so we have to remove the spotlight of awareness from it.
Of course, stars put up plenty of resistance when their
role is downgraded; they feel its their movie and they
dont want to leave the set. Egos are very temperamen-
tal. Yet, it can be done. We can change the Iills leading
role to a supporting role by using the techniques of
No Mind.
When we practice No Mind, we are objectively aware
for long periods of time and the editors censor and
interpret less and less of the information coming
through the perceptual system. My Reality Show is
now running by itself, without its star; the information
is the movie, and the editors are not doing as much
editing, as they no longer work exclusively for the
benet of the Iill.
Ultimately, we want the movie to play without the Iill
altogether. We want to passively watch without any in-
teraction from the Iill. Lets take a look at what My Real-
ity Show would be like rst with and then without its
starthe Iill.

210003_201_C10.indd 216 6/6/08 2:54:33 PM

 Todays episode of The Reality Show is about, say, 217
bowling. With the Iill starring, the movie is about the Iill
Chapter 10
bowling, not just bowling itself or the act of bowling. The
movie contains statements like, Im a great bowler, watch Factor 3:
me, or Im really lousy at bowling, dont watch me, or No Mind
and CAt
even I am the best bowler in the league; Im so good.
The editing in the movie is all in reaction to ups and
downs related to the expectations and motivations of the
Iills bowling. When there is a strike, the Iill is gloating
and happy. When the Iill misses the spare, it is sad and
critical of itself. In this movie, the Iill reects on itself
because it is still under the illusion that it is a very real
entity.
This is a pretty boring movie to anyone watching be-
cause it is all about the ups and downs of the Iills bowl-
ing. But to the Iill this is a great movie because it is all
about the star, me.
In contrast, without the Iill as the star, the percep-
tions, emotions, motivations, and thoughts are displayed
on the screen of awareness. Because the focus is on the
actions rather than the Iill, the editors realize that there
is no need for a star. The movie is about the act of bowl-
ing, not about anybody bowling. The thoughts about the
Iill that were part of the rst movie, like Im a great
bowler, or Im a lousy bowler, no longer exist because
using CAt takes away the Iills identity and stops it from
focusing on itself. The Iill is revealed for what it is: an
illusion.
This revelation is consistent with what we know about
the trap of language discussed in Chapter 6, The Lan-
guage of I. When we speak about ourselves, we have to
use a pronoun, so we say, I am bowling rather than
there is bowling. Simply put, the new movie does not
have Iill as the star; in fact there is no star. There are only
the actions and reactions of the mind-body dynamic in
space and time.
In the starless movie, there is no Iill bowling, only
bowling. When the pins are all knocked down, the mind-
body watches contently, like the tiger catching its prey
following its natural instinct. When the spare is not made

210003_201_C10.indd 217 6/6/08 2:54:33 PM

 218 and the pins are still standing, the mind-body still watches
relatively contentlysometimes the tiger does not catch
No Mind
201 its prey. But there is objective watching of the emotions
relating to the bowling. In this way, your performance is
No Mind far better, as you no longer have to deal with the limiting
factor of expectations and self-pressure. You are in the
ow of bowling as a natural act of the mind-body dynamic.
Now, however, there is a deeper sense of happiness,
because it comes from the depth that lies below the waves
of the ocean, not from tumultuous waves of the Iill. Next
time you bowl or perform a sport, try to be mindful of the
actions instead of your self-talk about how you should
perform. As one of the Ten Paradoxes indicates, Perform.
Do. But never Think.

ENTERING THE ZONE WITHOUT THE IiLL

For many athletes, experiencing No Mind in the game is

a peak moment, or peak performance. At that point, the
athlete is in the zone or in the ow. The game is simply
played. The mind-body knows how to play and does not
need the Iill to star in the role of I am playing.
We use CAt to watch the play and to allow the mind-
body to perform what it has been trained to do and is
procient at doing. When the mind-body and the game/
ball/pins are so interdependent that all that exists is the
movement of the ball in relation to everything else in the
moment, this is No Mind.
The highest achievement in any sport or activity is to
function without the Iill, so that it is not in the way of the
mind-body performance. We apply CAt to enable our
mind-body to perform at its peak, without negative re-
inforcement from our memories or conditioning. CAt
and No Mind are key to top performance in any sport
(see Chapter 28, No Mind Sports). Lose yourself and
notice how much better you perform.
This is not to say that there is no fun without the Iill. In
fact, the fun is enhanced because it is pure, without having
to qualify as fun and without the self-consciousness of

210003_201_C10.indd 218 6/6/08 2:54:33 PM

 performing up to your or anyone elses expectations. The 219
act of bowling is pure, not tainted by I should, or I
Chapter 10
must, or I messed up.
We do not need to involve the Iill in such experiences Factor 3:
because it hinders our performance as bowlers or as No Mind
and CAt
anything else. There are many studies correlating over-
thinking, self-correcting, trying too hard and decreased
performance (Claxton, 2000). When you feel that you must
succeed every time you throw the ball at the pins because
you are trying to prove something or to maintain the self-
esteem of the Iill, you put unnecessary pressure on your-
self and block the natural ow of peak performance.
By the same token, if you play just because your
friends are playing, and you feel that you are bad at
bowling, then you try halfheartedly and fail; youre simply
setting yourself up for frustration. These are all self-
defeating attitudes negating your chances for peak
performance. Either way, performance in the Iill mode is
not peak performance. Your performance is reduced due
to a series of expectations, both positive and negative,
and as a result of your defense mechanisms that protect
the star of the show, the Iill.

ACHIEVING PEAK PERFORMANCE

WITH CAt AND NO MIND
How can you achieve peak performance? Let go of the Iill
during key moments in whatever you are doing. Letting
go of the shoulds is vital to peak performance. Dr. Karen
Horney pioneered research in alienation, self-realization,
and the idealized image. In Neurosis and Human Growth,
she says:

The shoulds always produce a feeling of strain, which

is all the greater the more a person tries to actualize
his shoulds in his behavior. . . . Furthermore, because
of externalization, the shoulds always contribute to
disturbance in human relations in one way or another.
(Horney, 1951)

210003_201_C10.indd 219 6/6/08 2:54:33 PM

 220 As long as awareness is engulfed in The Reality
Show of the Iill, it loses itself, drifting in the waves of
No Mind
201 shoulds and expectations. Awareness forgets the tran-
quility and detachment at the depths in the ocean and
No Mind gets tossed around on the surface. You only have to dive
under the waves, where the water is calm and omnipres-
ent. CAt allows you to separate awareness from the waves
on the surface of the ocean, so you can achieve the depth of
No Mind.
Applying CAt, we learn to differentiate between the
mind objects and the awareness of the mind objects. Sev-
eral neuroscientists have conrmed the ancient masters
knowledge that pure awareness of No Mind may be a
quantum reality occurring in the universe as an essential
aspect of nature, something we experience and know as
spiritual awareness (as discussed in No Mind 401, Secrets
of No Mind).
Whately Carington, mathematician, philosopher, and
psychic researcher, writes in Matter, Mind and Meaning:

What we call a mind is all those cognitive or cogniza-

bles in which would ordinarily be said to constitute the
content of that mind, i.e., cognita in the case of what
we call conscious states, cognizables in that of the
subconscious . . . It follows that consciousness cannot
be a property of the mind, or being conscious of or
cognizing an activity of it. Consciousness is that state
of tension (the word is used analogically) between
the cognitive constituting the object, etc., in which the
mind would ordinarily be said to be conscious of, and
those which would ordinarily be said to form the con-
tent of that mind, etc. (Carington, 1970)

According to Carington, if No Mind is pure conscious-

ness and consciousness is not an aspect of mind, then
No Mind is not an aspect of mind. No Mind has two aspects
that have previously been described: (1) the conscious
aspect and (2) the unconscious aspect, or spiritual aware-
ness that is not in the mind. Both are of the same source;
otherwise they would be dualistic, which is antithetical
to No Mind.

210003_201_C10.indd 220 6/6/08 2:54:34 PM

 In other words, spiritual awareness is the underlying 221
essence of nature, which emerges in us as pure awareness,
Chapter 10
as No Mind; yet the same reality underlies different
modes. So when we are conscious of No Mind, it is an Factor 3:
aspect of CAt; and when we are unconscious of No Mind, No Mind
and CAt
we are essentially absorbed in the moment. In that
moment, we experience spiritual awareness, or universal
awareness. It takes practice, but the reward is worth it.

210003_201_C10.indd 221 6/6/08 2:54:34 PM

 222

No Mind CHAPTER 10 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER

201 BEFORE CONTINUING

No Mind 1. Clear Attention (CAt) is the same as empty, or

mindful awareness, and awareness is more pow-
erful than the automatisms of behavior and mem-
ory. CAt is similar to the empty set, or no thought,
that develops into No Mind.
CAt ; CAt P (B M) same as
Where CAt is Clear Attention, B is Behavior, M is
Memory, and P is Perception (see Figure 14-1).
2. Clear Attention, or empty awareness, is similar to
a mirror; it reects objectively. In the mirror of
Clear Attention, the objects that cross the path of
the awareness are reected in their un-interpreted
state, without the need for automatic identication
and meaning. Objects exist just as they are,
without the need to be something.
3. CAt allows us to achieve the effortless uidity of
awareness represented by a tiger in Figure 19-1 at
the end of No Mind 301, The Ten Paradoxes. We
no longer get stuck on thoughts or emotions; the
mind is free to expand its perception, to increase
intuition, to achieve peak performance, and to
grasp reality as it becomes more clear and direct.
We function with fewer lters and defenses, which
expands our available choices.
4. CAt allows us to modify self-defeating behavior
by becoming aware of the thought of the behavior
in a detached mode before the behavior is
actualized. We recondition our mental web with a
new set of behavioral cues. In this way, we can
avoid getting upset with lifes ups and downs, with
our awareness in the tranquil depths beneath the
waves, resulting in a healthier, stress-free state.
We avoid being puppets of external forces.

210003_201_C10.indd 222 6/6/08 2:54:34 PM

 223
5. CAt teaches the important Zen method of being Chapter 10
mindful of the activity: When walking, just
walk; when cooking, just cook. Our awareness Factor 3:
No Mind
becomes lled only with the activity we are and CAt
performing in the moment, not with thoughts,
expectations, hopes, regrets, anxieties, shoulds,
or motivationsall the attachments of the Iill
that distract and reduce our performance. In
sports, peak performance and the zone has
been documented by elite athletes as a total
absorption in the activityas the experience of
No Mind, with a corresponding loss of self (Iill)
and time.
6. CAt training leads to No Mind and to the experi-
ence of spiritual awareness. As the ancient mas-
ters have said and as many leading neuroscientists
are nding, spiritual awareness is identical to the
awareness of the universe, the essential underly-
ing aspect of nature itself. It must be experienced
rather than seen through the senses.
7. Studies have shown that over-thinking, over-
expecting, trying too hard, self-correcting, and
focusing on shoulds all reduce performance in
both physical and mental activities. CAt and
No Mind are states of awareness that allow the
mind-body dynamic to ow without hesitation
and to achieve peak performance.

210003_201_C10.indd 223 6/6/08 2:54:37 PM

 Intuition is akin to the sixth sensea sense that can
be developed through the practice of No Mind. Intuition
provides a brief glimpse of what the mind can do when
it is at rest, or not preoccupied with thought. In CAt or
No Mind, perception is clear, open, and direct, fostering a
stillness of mind and a receptivity that invites intuition.

CAt must be practiced, however, to avoid mistaking the

voices of the Iill for intuition. When we fear something,
for instance, the fear may be genuine, warning us of possi-
ble danger, or it might be a fear based on conditioning
an irrational phobia. Likewise, greed may create a false
intuition compelling
you to make a foolish
Equations of No Mind
investment.

Chapter 11 discusses Equations for Factor 4: No Mind Intuition,

No Mind Insight
how, through CAt or
Using initials to represent Clear Attention (CAt), intu-
No Mind, the mind ition (In) and perception (P), we can express Factor 4
becomes receptive to with this pair of equations:
intuition, bypassing CAt ; In P
the limitations and
CAt is congruent () or similar to empty, or mindful
automatisms of normal awareness, represented here as the empty set ().
perception. Remember, empty means unlledsimply that the Iills
thoughts and desires no longer ll awareness, and in
that way it is not lled by mind objects. When Clear At-
tention is empty of mind objects, we see reality more
clearly.

The second equation states that when we practice

Clear Attention, we perceive our intuitions more readily
and are less likely to confuse them with normal percep-
tions or other mental contents. And because the infor-
mation we receive when practicing CAt is less likely to
be ltered and biased through the mental web of the Iill,
our intuitions are greater than (>) or more powerful than
normal perception. Thus, we can use our intuitions
for improved problem-solving and more creative
solutions.

210003_201_C11.indd 224 6/6/08 2:56:34 PM

 Chapter 11

Factor 4:
No Mind Intuition,
No Mind Insight

INTUITIONTHE SIXTH SENSE

Intuition is often called the sixth sense. The other ve senses are
processed through the perceptual pathways of the Iill and its
mental web of conditioning, defense mechanisms, and ltering
screens that work through association and categorization.
Due to this ltering process, often we do not see the original
intuition that arises in awareness. Many times, because of our de-
fense mechanisms, we deny what the intuition is really trying to
tell us because its message is unpalatable for the Iill.
The Iill lters intuition just like it lters the other ve senses.
And just as we cannot experience reality directly without CAt or
No Mind, we also cannot perceive our intuitions directly from the
mental web of the Iill. When we have learned to deautomatize, we
can perceive the intuitions in a clearer, more direct way.
We have all had intuitions. But we have also analyzed, categorized,
and qualied those intuitions through our understanding of the
225

210003_201_C11.indd 225 6/6/08 2:56:37 PM

 226 external worldin other words, we interpret intuitions as
they relate to ourselves. We comprehend most of our
No Mind
201 intuitions through the Iill, especially when they arise in
our dreams. The important point here is that our sense of
No Mind intuition is subject to perceptual traps, which means that
it is difcult to perceive it directly during our daily
routines.
In order to fully take advantage of our intuitions, we
must detach our awareness from the Iill and empty our
mind using the techniques of CAt. Paul Brunton was a
British philosopher, mystic, and traveler. He left a suc-
cessful journalistic career to live among yogis, mystics,
and holy men, and he studied a wide variety of Eastern
and Western esoteric teachings. In The Wisdom of the
Over Self, he says that accurate intuition about a cer-
tain matter may be overwhelmed by emotions, prejudices
or desires. Thus, intuition remains in the background, ig-
nored and forgotten. Intuition arises spontaneously and
involuntarily. The conscience, or inner voice, is intuition
in association with desires, emotions, and egoisms, which
blur the true intuition. It is the product of accumulated
experiences that take the form of moral stances, critical
judgment, and artistic taste.
Intuition cannot be willed into being. But rather [those]
who seek the guidance of intuition or touch of inspiration
must, after concentrating on a matter, drop it completely
and not persist in forcing an issue earlier than the mind is
willing to bring it about. If [they do] this the answer which
he seeks may arise spontaneously. (Brunton, 1970)

According to Brunton, the most authentic intuitions

occur when mystics enter a state similar to No Mind.
Intuitions are so subtle and brief that they may be easily
overlooked or quickly smothered because we dont take
them seriously. Doubt blocks intuitions.

INTUITION VS. INSIGHT

Our intuitions are also obstructed by impatience. We must

check them against reason in order to verify them. But we

210003_201_C11.indd 226 6/6/08 2:56:37 PM

 must be careful here, as our reasoning may be motivated 227
by the Iill. Unconscious desires, wishes, hopes, fears, and
Chapter 11
egoisms may masquerade themselves as intuitions. These
false intuitions are known as pseudo-intuitions. Brunton Factor 4:
says that authentic intuition is usually received in calm- No Mind
Intuition,
ness, certainty, and clarity, when its not affected by selsh
No Mind
desire or personal excitement. We need to recognize a Insight
pseudo-intuition so we dont act on it and cause ourselves
unnecessary harm. Brunton distinguishes between insight
and intuition. Intuition is a secondary product of the mind
experienced by geniuses, and insight is a primary product
of the mind experienced by sages.

Intuition offers correct guidance in earthly human and

intellectual matters, [whereas] insight transcends them.
The transcendental insight [involves seeing] that every
atom of this Earth scintillates mystically within the all-
containing universal life . . . there is not a spot from
which this one existence is absent. (Brunton, 1970)

Intuition provides vital information we can use daily

in business, education, and relationships. Intuitions also
heighten our perceptions and allow us to interpret the
world around us more directly. We can use this intuitive
information to improve many aspects of our lives.
Acquiring insight, on the other hand, entails realiz-
ing our essential spiritual awareness, or that we are the
very essence of nature. The universe is the source of
insight, while intuition originates from the sixth sense.
We can experience the true meaning of insight through
No Mind.
When intuitions are created by the Iill, they are what
Brunton calls pseudo-intuitions. They are not true intui-
tions, since they have been ltered through the mental
web of the Iill. True and direct intuitions arise effortlessly
in awareness when the mind is empty. You cannot will an
intuition; it must come on its own. Arthur Deikman of
Harvard Medical School says:

We cannot will to have insights. We cannot will

creativity. But we can will to give ourselves to

210003_201_C11.indd 227 6/6/08 2:56:37 PM

 228 the encounter with intensity of dedication and
commitment. The deeper aspects of awareness are
No Mind activated to the extent that the person is committed to
201
the encounter . . . the consciousness which obtains
No Mind creativity is not the supercial level of objectied
intellectualization. . . . but is an encounter with the
world on a level that undercuts the subject object
split. (Deikman, 1973)

According to Deikman, we cannot force ourselves to

have intuitions because true intuition comes without
effort. The mindfulness of No Mind is the ideal state for
the realization of intuitions. But we need to sharpen our
sixth sense by retraining the awareness. We are more
productive in solving problems, developing ideas, and
fostering inspirations by paying attention to the images
and concepts that arise in awareness. We need to make
sure that we are not too mentally busy to miss these
vital intuitions.
Intuition is a great source of creative genius. When
you learn the technique of No Mind, you reach a level of
openness that stimulates the conception and recognition
of intuitions. Intuitions are valuable because they give
us cues about problems in business, sports, relationships,
and problems in general. Without the mechanisms of
the Iill, this information will engender more creative
and enriching solutions to everyday situations.

NO MIND OPENS THE GATES TO INTUITION

AND INSIGHT
CAt is awareness of the present moment that deautoma-
tizes the processing of perceptual input. With CAt, the
mode of perception is not fragmented by categories and
codependent interpretations. The practice of No Mind
brings about a state of heightened awareness, so that we
can see the whole, rather than continually focus on the
parts. This opens the non-perceptual gates of intuitions,
so that the mind is able to function on a higher level and
we are able to foresee impending problems.

210003_201_C11.indd 228 7/23/08 4:19:47 PM

 Intuitions are grasped instead of intellectualized and 229
analyzed through the normal perceptual channels and l-
Chapter 11
ters of the Iill. Grasping implies understanding a situation
or a problem in its totality, without breaking knowledge into Factor 4:
parts, which often obscures the meaning of the whole. No Mind
Intuition,
During CAt, the mind is alert and clear; it has an intui-
No Mind
tive, ultra-sensory awareness that mirrors the environ- Insight
ment. In this state of awareness, the mind is open to
insights and intuitions not only about our own psycho-
logical states, but about the very nature of reality as a
whole. It is a creative moment of gaining intuition into all
kinds of unresolved problems and their creative solutions.
At this level, there is no analysis or intellectualization
the mind is just open to its sixth sense of intuition. The
Crow Indians, for example, would utilize No Mind to gain
insights for the resolution of problems facing the tribe
(Lowie, 1922).

There are less dense aspects of the Universe, subtle en-

ergies that carry a different kind of information to us.
They bring us the message of the nature of the whole;
whereas our physical senses inform us only about the
parts. Para-conscious mind partakes of the omnis-
cience of Universal Mind. When the para-conscious is
clogged through our lack of creative expression and our
denial of our intuitions, we suffer from imbalance . . .
You can learn to interact with the para-conscious mind.
Then you will begin to direct your rational mind to im-
plement the intuition provided by the para-conscious.
(Schwarz, 1978)

Schwarz refers to the para-conscious mind, which is

similar to No Mind, and to the Universal Mind, which is
similar to spiritual awareness. In fact, these are all different
names for the same mode of reality. Carl Jung famously
talked of the collective unconscious as a universal
reserve of unbounded information. Anybody could tap
into that reserve in a higher state of awareness. The theory
of the collective unconscious has touched many aspects of
psychology, parapsychology, and philosophy over the
past century.

210003_201_C11.indd 229 6/6/08 2:56:38 PM

 230 By denition, an insight implies holistic understand-
ing. An analogy is the information contained in one DNA
No Mind
201 strand, which reects the code of the entire organism.
The same way, one insight (enlightenment) opens our
No Mind eyes to the whole of reality.
In the early half of the 20th century, philosopher H. H.
Price wrote on religion, parapsychology, and psychic
phenomena. In Perception (1932), he argued against
causal theories of perception. He hypothesized that the
unconscious portion of ones mind partook in the
collective unconscious, which was responsible for
telepathic cognition. The collective unconscious, accord-
ing to Price, is not an entity or a thing, but a eld of
interaction. Minds are not isolated entities either. He
further explains, the human mind has developed a
repressive mechanism which suppresses the continual
ow of telepathic impact from one mind to another
because there is a biological need for such a mechanism
(Price, 1965).
Carl Jung theorizes that the deep level of the psyche,
which he calls the psychoid level, is a microcosm that re-
ects the macrocosm of the universe. Thus,

every subject is a microcosm, potentially capable of

reecting the whole Cosmos. There is no distance to
travel or no time to scan between subject and target . . .
The potential is not realized because we are habitually
and constitutionally given to respond to and interact
with our environment, rather than probe within to dis-
cover hidden knowledge. (Rao, 1977)

SPIRITUAL AWARENESS THROUGH INSIGHT

Grasping reality requires some parapsychological de-

scription that will be detailed in No Mind 401, Secrets of
No Mind. For now, the idea of insight and intuition refers
to tapping into a universal base of information and
knowledge during CAt and No Mind. These insights and
intuitions bring understanding of the whole, as well as
solutions to separate problems or ideas.

210003_201_C11.indd 230 7/23/08 4:19:48 PM

 The direct insight of spiritual awareness shatters the 231
reality of the Iill. This kind of understanding cannot ow
Chapter 11
through the channels of the normal perceptual process of
the Iill. The lters and defense mechanisms of perception Factor 4:
block holistic insights. The ancient masters knew this No Mind
Intuition,
and relied on direct insight into the nature of nothing-
No Mind
ness to break the illusion of the Iill, which is the rst level Insight
of enlightenment.
After this rst level enlightenment, the student would
nally grasp the seemingly incomprehensible paradoxes
that had sounded like nonsense. The direct insight of
the natural world is grasped in a single moment, when
the apprehensions and doubts that have built up over the
course of practice are suddenly eradicated. The word
grasp denotes a state that is beyond intellectualization
and analytical thinking; it is not understood in the ordi-
nary sense of comprehending, but it is realized
suddenly.
The grasping of No Mind and
the corresponding spiritual aware-
ness are accomplished through in-
sight. As weve already discussed,
it is impossible to realize No Mind
through thoughts or perception
because of the defense and lter-
ing mechanisms of the mental web
of the Iill.
No Mind is a state of no-thought,
and mind is a state of thought.
The grasp of spiritual awareness
through the practice of No Mind is
accomplished through direct in-
sight of the whole universe with-
out fragmenting it into parts. The
experience literally punctures a
hole through the Iill for the sake of
looking into the emptiness; from
there, the hole enlarges until the
Iill can no longer engulf aware-
ness (see Chapter 15). The initial Looking into Emptiness

210003_201_C11.indd 231 6/6/08 2:56:38 PM

 232 insight opens the door for subsequent insights to ow into
the awareness without being ltered by the Iill. Once the
No Mind
201 gates are open, you are able to perceive intuitions that can
guide you in all aspects of your life: business, relation-
No Mind ships, sports, education, and your essential link with
nature.
Neuroscientists and physicists substantiate many of the
claims made by the ancient masters, as documented in the
No Mind program. Zen practice is specically intended and
performed for gaining this insight. The insight into spiritual
awareness, No Mind, and the consequent release from the
Iill, is the insight into the true nature of the human condi-
tion. This is the necessary starting point for the further de-
velopment of No Mind. The knowledge of the ancient
masters appears paradoxical at rst, but when the initial
hole through the Iill is punctured and the defense
mechanisms and lters of the Iill have decreased, then the
beginning of a state of ultimate fulllment is set into
motion.

REDISCOVERING OUR ORIGINAL FREEDOM

THROUGH NO MIND
Our model of reality is partly learned and developed as a
reciprocal part of the Iill. It is based on models of the so-
ciety and of the family, both religious and sociological;
these models determine the way we see reality and our
ordinary existence, but they also block our ability to see
reality in a direct and intuitive manner.
Without the ability to see in this direct way, we are
limited to the model of reality that was developed by our
conditioning and our neural associative network. Many
liken this state to having blinders, like horses walking
through the streets of life with a limited scope of what is
out there in front of us.
We walk through life along a course that we have
been conditioned to follow. We endure the good and the
bad of life, thinking that this is all there is and that it is
our human destiny to live this way. Yet, we are always

210003_201_C11.indd 232 6/6/08 2:56:42 PM

 yearning for something else, something to link us to the 233
natural world, to the cosmos, to nature.
Chapter 11
We know that there is something missing. There is
always the hole we cannot seem to ll created by desire Factor 4:
potentials that continually arise and seek fulllment. We No Mind
Intuition,
know that we are capable of more, of spiritual joy that is
No Mind
not based on fullling our conditioned wishes and hopes, Insight
but that resonates deep within us in all aspects of our
lives.
We practice No Mind to rediscover the insight of our
spiritual awareness and original freedomthe spiritual
awareness that was stied by years of conditioning,
learning, reinforcement, modeling, categorization, defense
mechanisms, and so on.
With No Mind, we can once again look through a
childs eyes and feel the joy of playing, the experience of
an unmotivated act. In awe, we discover what it is to have
that pureness of perception again. The insight of No Mind
puries perception and links us back to spiritual aware-
ness and to everything in the external world. The insight
breaks the bounds of identity and dualism and makes us
whole, one with the essence of nature. The dominion of
the Iill is disrupted; we no longer live life wearing blinders,
like a horse walking down the street. We rediscover a
landscape of unlimited potentialities.
This instructive insight begins to uncover this new
eld of reality, which takes on new meaning. We revel in
the joy of unconditioned Being. With the inux of
intuitive understandings of the nature of ourselves and
of others around us, we become more compassionate to
those people who are still walking through life with
blinders.
We see things from a new perspective of freedom from
conditioning. The blinders are off and the mind is free.
The ancient paradoxes are solved and the riddles are
answered. We cannot identify or label this new reality
because this would entangle us back into the dualistic
world of yesterday; so we just say its an intuitive
breakthrough, which gave us nothing and changed
nothing, yet nothing will ever be the same again.

210003_201_C11.indd 233 6/6/08 2:56:42 PM

 234 Daniel P. Brown of the University of Chicago published
a study in the International Journal of Clinical and
No Mind
201 Experimental Hypnosis that reviews classical Tibetan,
yogic, and Hindu meditation texts:
No Mind
When the mind does not wander successively into any
of the various classes of thoughtreasoning, memory,
anticipating and categorizingnor into emotions, it is
quiet enough to begin concentrative training . . . before
initial, concentrative training, thinking and perceptual
processes were well integrated in the same perceptual
event. After much practice, the links between thought
and perception are severed . . . the phenomenology
of concentrative meditation is much like perceptual
categorization in reverse; the yogi stops categorizing
perceptual objects and is left only with the mere signs
. . . gross cognition, the generic term for thought,
emotional disturbances, and percepts, is done with. For
the rst time, the yogi intuits the minds subtle process
behind all its content. Only Subtle process behind all
its content and only subtle cognitions remain. (Brown,
1977)

210003_201_C11.indd 234 6/6/08 2:56:42 PM

 235
CHAPTER 11 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 11
BEFORE CONTINUING
Factor 4:
CAt ; In P No Mind
Intuition,
1. Where CAt is Clear Attention, which is the same No Mind
as empty or mindful awareness; when we experi- Insight
ence Clear Attention, then Intuition (In) is greater
than the automatisms and limitations of normal
Perception (P).
2. Intuition can be dened as the sixth sense, which
can be developed through the practice of No Mind.
The mental web of the Iill blocks subtle intuitions
from reaching awareness, as the intuitions are
processed through the ltering and associative
neural networks. Intuitions are inuenced by
emotions, prejudices, and desires; thus, intuitions
can be altered so that they appear as mere thoughts
in awareness.
3. Intuition and insight are spontaneous and cannot
be willed; yet, the ideal state of receptivity to our
intuitions is CAt or No Mind, where our percep-
tion is clear, open, and direct. It is important to be
in this receptive state and to discern between
pseudo-intuition and true intuition, as the inter-
pretation may inuence your decision on a partic-
ular matter. Thinking, over-trying, intellectualizing,
emotionalizing, and analyzing all block intuitions
or obscure them in the processes of the Iill.
4. CAt inspires intuitions, which are known as great
ideas, acts of genius, creativity, artistic expressions,
premonitions, and so on. Intuitions are invaluable
to business, sports, relationships, education, art
and literature, and so on.
5. No Mind inspires insight as opposed to intuition,
which is the direct seeing into nothingness and

210003_201_C11.indd 235 6/6/08 2:56:42 PM

 236

No Mind the realization of our spiritual awareness. The

201 direct experience of the essential unity of nature
and of the universe is grasped when thought and
No Mind
perceptions are severed through the practice of
No Mind.
6. Through the practice of No Mind, we learn that
when an intuition is real, we must follow its ad-
vice without ascribing it to the processes of the
Iill. For instance, there are times when our fears
are genuine and foreboding of real danger, and
there are times when the fear stems from our con-
ditioning and there is no danger whatsoever; we
only imagine it.

210003_201_C11.indd 236 6/6/08 2:56:45 PM

 When we consistently apply No Mind, we ascend to a non-
attached and non-identied awareness, which illuminates
the illusory nature of the Iill. The Iill is empty, and the mental
contents generated from the Iill are empty, similar to Wattss
illusory circle of re from the whirling of a torch.

The Iill cannot exist in the Now, and No Mind can only exist
in the Now, which is why the two cannot exist simultane-
ously in the moment, and No Mind cannot be achieved
from within the Iill. No Mind links us to our spiritual
awareness, which, in turn, reveals our interdependence
with the universe. Realization of No Mind can occur only
through experience,
which breaks the
Equations of No Mind
barriers of the Iill.

Chapter 12 discusses Equations for Factor 5: No Mind and No Iill

how No Mind fuses
us with the external
world into one inse-
parable whole, where
our fears, inhibitions,
and tensions are
released. We lose our
self-consciousness and
discover the secret of
life, the eternal myste-
ries of No Mind.
Using initials to represent the Iill (I), Clear Attention
(CAt), future time (t), and past time (t), we can ex-
press Factor 5 with these equations:
I0
CAt
t ; t
In the rst equation, I is identical () to 0. Thats be-
cause the Iill is an illusiona product of the mental
web, spawned by the neural networks and associative
patterns of the brain. So we equate illusion with zero
there is nothing really whole there. (see Fig. 7-1)
In the second equation, Clear Attention (CAt) is congru-
ent () or similar to empty, or mindful awareness, rep-
resented as the empty set (). Remember, empty
means unlledsimply that the Iills thoughts and de-
sires no longer ll awareness, and in that way it is not
lled by mind objects. This means Clear Attention is
empty of mind contents. (see also Fig. 14-1)

The nal equations represent that the experience of

No Mind is beyond time; it can only exist in the present
moment. And because time does not exist in the pres-
ent moment, past and future times are equal to the
empty (). Simply put, the Iill cannot exist in No Mind
because No Mind is pure awareness of the present
moment, and the Iill requires either a memory or a
future hope and expectation in order to exist.

210003_201_C12.indd 237 6/6/08 2:57:56 PM

 Chapter 12

Factor 5:
No Mind and No Iill;
The I is Detachable

CAt ALLOWS US TO EXIST IN THE NOW

We learned that CAt allows the mind to focus purely on the present
moment. In the present moment, nothing exists except that which
is Now. Memories, expectations, and the ensuing co-dependent
emotionssuch as anger, resentment, greed, and worryare all
related to the past and to the future.
In the present moment, only CAt, or empty awareness of mind
objects, exists. When we bring CAt to the foreground of attention,
we negate the Iill, realizing that it is empty. All mind objects
produced by the Iill are empty. At one level, this is the case simply
because the Iill cannot exist in the present moment. It is a thought
of a temporally situated memory or expectation. When we cut
ourselves and say, Ow! I am in pain, this hurts, we are really
saying that there is a feeling of hurt in the mind-body, and the
mind is interpreting the sensation as pain.

238

210003_201_C12.indd 238 6/6/08 2:57:59 PM

 There is also a parallel thought that this pain is 239
happening to me, therefore I identify with it, which
Chapter 12
gives us the illusion of an I identity. All that exists in the
present moment is a sensation that the mind is interpreting Factor 5:
as pain; there is no I feeling the painno I that has a No Mind
and No Iill;
past and a future, or an identity in time. When CAt is
The I is
applied to this situation, we realize that the two primary Detachable
mind objects in awareness are the sensation of the pain
and the thought of the I being hurt. Then, there are also
all the secondary co-dependent thoughts; for instance,
How bad is the cut? Do I need a doctor? or I am
going to miss my dinner meeting because of this cut,
and so on.
When CAt is applied, you are passively watching the
paina content of the mindin this present moment. In
this way, we are not attached to the pain and we can
control it. Instead of running around panicked because
the body is hurt, we control the situation without
inicting more injury, a better tactic in any event. Many
soldiers, martial artists, ghters, and extreme-sports
enthusiasts train to regard pain in this detached mode,
which makes them much more effective and more likely
to survive.

For the Ego exists in an abstract sense alone, being an

abstraction from memory, somewhat like the illusory
circle of re made by a whirling torch. We can, for
example, imagine the path of a bird through the sky
as a distinct line which it has taken. But this line is
as abstract as a line of latitude. In concrete reality, the
bird left no line, and similarly, the past from which our
ego is abstracted has entirely disappeared. Thus any
attempt to cling to the ego or to make it an effective
source of action is doomed to frustration . . . complete
recollectedness [CAt] is a constant awareness or
watching of ones sensations, feelings, and thoughts
without purpose or comment. It is a total clarity and
presence of mind, actively passive, wherein an event
comes and goes like reections in a mirror. Nothing is
reected except what is. (Watts, 1957)

210003_201_C12.indd 239 6/6/08 2:57:59 PM

 240 THERE IS NO IiLL IN NO MIND
No Mind Our abstract Iill, as Watts denes it, is like an abstract
201
circle left from a whirling stick of re. There is no circle,
No Mind even though our eyes see it. The abstract Iill is the re-
mainder of the succession of thoughts that have preceded
it, a circle of synaptic re that does not exist. Fleeting
parallel thoughts in the mind produce the illusory whirl-
ing ame. No Mind will never have an element of the Iill
in it, otherwise it would not be No Mind. There may be
thoughts of the Iill, but they are regarded as mind objects
and watched passively as they drift across the screen of
awareness. The Reality Show has no real star; it is only
the reality of the mind-body dynamic.
The starless movie about bowling described in Chap-
ter 10, No Mind and CAt, where there is no Iill bowling,
only bowling, is an example of what sports psychologists
call the zone. The mind-body dynamic is at its peak per-
formance because there are no restrictions or inhibitions
on performance. The training and technique of muscle
memory are all that exist in that present moment.
No Mind is devoid of the Iill and sets the mind-body
dynamic free of mind-imposed limitations; yet, the Iill
and its corresponding mental web are not destroyed, they
are only lost in that moment. The brain retains its mem-
ory, but your awareness breaks away from the ambiguity
of the Iill and realizes its illusory nature.
We retain the knowledge that we have acquired
throughout our lives and that frames our individuality;
but we are no longer governed by it. No Mind releases the
Iill, so the mind-body can act independently of the self-
absorption Iill-ness. Thoughts will come and go, and they
will be watched passively.
In order to control how another person perceives
us, or how the Iill wishes that person to perceive us, we
withhold or restrict our emotions. This occurs because
the Iill cannot stop maintaining its self-image. In other
words, we are constantly trying to manipulate how peo-
ple think of us. We do this by performing a series of
acts in order to project the desired image of ourselves

210003_201_C12.indd 240 6/6/08 2:58:00 PM

 in any given situation (Goffman, 1956). Maintaining 241
a self-image sties our true feelings and emotional ex-
Chapter 12
pression, and it requires a lot of psychic effort and
energy. Factor 5:
That is why the practice of No Mind leads to a more No Mind
and No Iill;
fullling life, with fuller expression of emotions, thoughts,
The I is
creativity, ideas, and a purer perception of the external Detachable
world. With No Mind, we stop trying to be the person the
Iill wants us to be; instead, we can be the person free
from Iill-ness.
The ancient Zen paradox that the Iill cannot attain
No Mind is the mind-shattering enigma that each disci-
ple must come to terms with. If the Iill could realize
No Mind, then we would have a dualistic No Mind, which
means that it would have an identity and it would be a
discrete part of the whole, instead of actually being the
whole and having no identity.

NO MIND IS QUANTUM AWARENESS

No Mind cannot be a discrete unit, as it is the whole of

awarenessboth conscious and unconscious. No Mind
is impossible to divide into parts. When we break down
our perception of the whole into parts, we lose its unity
and meaning.
Spiritual awareness is the essence of nature that
permeates the entire cosmos; it is the pure energy of
awarenessNo Mind. It is not the consciousness we
normally experience, but the unconscious awareness that
is unaware of itself. It just is. What occurs on Earth is not
just exclusive to Earth; the same dynamics occur through-
out the universe. This has been established for some time
now by leading astronomers, physicists, and cosmolo-
gists, as we will discuss later.
Nature is a totality and we are that totality, as opposed
to being separate parts of it. There are no fragments or
separate entities, because the quantum reality of nature
is that all things are interdependent and co-exist.
Everywhere in nature we can see that one thing needs

210003_201_C12.indd 241 6/6/08 2:58:00 PM

 242 another to exist. The bees pollinate the owers, trees need
carbon monoxide and breathe out oxygen, and the cycles
No Mind
201 of the moon determine certain human and animal behav-
iors. In fact, nature is lled with thousands of examples
No Mind of the interdependent relationships between animals,
plants, humans, and non-organic matter. The National
Institute of Mental Health has published fascinating
ndings on celestial inuences on biological rhythms
(Luce, 1970).
Nature itself evolved as a totality that cannot be
separated from itself. We can identify and study a
multitude of pieces, but in order to grasp the real nature
of these pieces, we must see them as they relate to the
whole, or to the entire reality of the cosmos. Physicists
have conrmed our intricate connection to everything
in the universe by studying subatomic particles, or the
quanta of matter. There is a unifying aspect of nature
that encompasses everything, including the nothingness
in-between particles. The experience of spiritual aware-
ness is crucial to our inner self-fulllment as human
beings. It ends the recurring desire potentials of the Iill.

THE IiLLS BEHAVIOR EXISTS IN

PROBABILITY PATTERNS
Quantum physics uses the principle of probability, which
postulates that it is impossible for the observer (physi-
cist) to predict exactly where a sub-atomic particle is at
any given time. The locations of the particles are pre-
dicted according to probability patterns, or their statisti-
cal likelihood to occupy a specic place.
In other words, an electrons position cannot be deter-
mined exactly; the physicist can only speak about how
probable it is that an electron would be in a specic place
at a specic time. The properties of any particle are the
probabilistic outcomes of interconnections with and
among other particles. Thus, quantum theory conrms
ancient teachings that the universe is interrelated at all
levels of existence. In The Tao of Physics, Capra denes
quantum physics as follows: It has come to see the

210003_201_C12.indd 242 6/6/08 2:58:00 PM

 universe as an interconnected web of physical and mental 243
relations whose parts are dened only through their
Chapter 12
connections to the whole (Capra, 1976).
In fact, not unlike the particles of matter, the Iills be- Factor 5:
havior exists in probability patterns. We cannot predict No Mind
and No Iill;
precisely what we will think and how we will act or react
The I is
in a given situation. We can assume or guess, but the be- Detachable
havioral pattern will be probabilistic, based on what the
minds range of possible behaviors is.
The brains associative neural network interprets cues
and determines reactions in terms of probability pat-
terns. As we know, our behavior is not always predicta-
ble. More conditioning and reinforcement produce more
consistent behavior, yet we have the ability to consciously
modify behaviors based on other probabilities and pat-
terns of expectations and motivations. This will be dis-
cussed in more detail in No Mind 301, The Ten Paradoxes;
for now, let us focus on the probabilities generated by an
interconnected web of events. The micro- and macro-
cosms exist in terms of probabilities, yet they are related
and cannot be separated.

WE ARE BORN WITH NO MIND

No Mind is experienced as a sense of totality, not as an-

other discrete aspect of the Iill. It is awareness of the
present moment and of the inseparable totality of the ex-
ternal world and of the person. In this way, it would never
make sense for the Iill to attain No Mind, because we
cannot attain anythingattainment is an illusion of
identity. You cannot take ownership of No Mind, because
this would turn it into a false state of mind, or another
experience of the Iill.
So we come to understand No Mind as No Iill, and
that experience opens the path to spiritual awareness.
No Mind is an experience of the totality of reality, not a
focus on the parts. In this way, your new judgments
and new decisions may be based on facts and informa-
tion that were previously excluded by the mental web of

210003_201_C12.indd 243 6/6/08 2:58:00 PM

 244 the Iill. Perception that was once blocked is now open, so
you are able to see things more clearly. All defense
No Mind
201 mechanisms and ltering and categorizing principles are
suspended in No Mind, so reality is brought into aware-
No Mind ness. You can apply a new vision to your life.
If you think you have realized No Mind, that very
thought suggests that you have not, as it entails establish-
ing a distinct identity associated with No Mind. No Mind
exists simply as pure awareness. So No Mind has no
identity; in contrast, the Iill is identity.
No Mind is everything and nothing at the same time,
existing only in the present-moment awareness of empti-
ness. This non-dualistic experience is beyond the reach
of the Iill. When awareness is empty and undivided, we
experience No Mind, or life without the self.
In No Mind, you are immersed in the ow of the im-
mediate mind-body performance as an integral aspect of
the external world. External world and mind-body dy-
namics dissolve into each other in the now, and we ex-
perience oneness. You are aware of yourself, yet there
is also clear attention of the impersonal mind-body nexus
interacting with the external world.
There is nothing for the Iill to gain here. The develop-
ment of the Iill through the associative neural networks
of the brain precludes No Mind from awareness. This
happens as a result of awareness becoming more and
more identied with the functioning of the Iill.
We are born in the state of No Mind and spiritual
awareness, but they get concealed in the process of the
Iills development. The process reverses itself through
deautomatization, attention training, and knowledge of
spiritual awareness. No Mind and spiritual awareness
are two different aspects of the same reality, as will be ex-
plained later.

THERE IS NO TIME IN NO MIND

The Iill cannot attain No Mind. Yet, it can practice the

techniques of No Mind. The Iill tries to solve its own
problems or dilemmas in attempts at self-healing,

210003_201_C12.indd 244 6/6/08 2:58:01 PM

 self-improvement, and self-help. In these attempts, the 245
free aspect of attention is applied to the specific
Chapter 12
goal, and this is what we master when we practice
CAt. Factor 5:
The Iill initiates the practice of No Mind, and the abil- No Mind
and No Iill;
ity to focus attention (CAt) triggers a corresponding de-
The I is
tachment of awareness from the Iill. This detached Detachable
awareness grows by applying CAt to your daily routines.
The Iill can study and conceptualize No Mind, yet it is
not the Iill that realizes No Mind.
As practice progresses, awareness deepens and so
does the understanding of the present moment. The
ancient masters insisted that this particular aspect of
No Mind needs to be experienced and not read about or
studied. There is logic behind this stanceNo Mind is
non-dualistic, but anytime you try to explain it, you do so
in terms of a dualistic language of identities. Once you
identify something, you describe its opposite, which is
languages dialectical predicament. No Mind may be de-
scribed as empty awareness, but at the same time it is full
awareness of all things. It is empty and full at the same
time, just as a cup half full of water is both half empty
and half full at the same time.
No Mind exists only in the now and has no reference
to the past or future. No Mind has no time. In contrast,
time is essential to the Iill, which exists in reference
to everything of the past and in the future. People
generally think in terms of linear time and lose their
awareness of the present moment. Therefore, many times
we are regretful, trying, expecting, fearful, anxious, or
worrying.
The Iill loses awareness of the present because it is
absorbed with the future and the past. When we gain
insight into our spiritual awareness through the practice
of No Mind, we put our relationship with the Iill into the
proper perspective, so we may live a fuller, healthier life
without the psychological and physiological problems
stemming from time-based behaviors such as stress and
worry.

210003_201_C12.indd 245 6/6/08 2:58:01 PM

 246 Dr. Claudio Naranjo, innovative anthropologist and
psychiatrist, describes the practice of the Now as one of
No Mind
201 egolessness:

No Mind The practice of attention to the stream of life relates

to asceticism in that it not only entails a voluntary
suspension of ego gratication, but also presents the
person with the difculty of functioning in a way that
runs counter to habit. Since the only action allowed by
the exercise is that of communicating the contents of
awareness, this precludes the operation of character
(that is, the organization of copying mechanisms) and
even doing as such. The practice of the now is one of
egolessness. (Naranjo, 1971)

NO MIND IS NOT A STATE OF MIND

No Mind is not a state of mind or an aspect of the Iill, as

we have described these two in terms of brain anatomy
and functions. It is a state of awarenessan aspect of your
spiritual awareness. You cannot achieve No Mind.
Achieving is an act of the Iill; you can perform well and
achieve in terms of performance, but there is no identity
with this achievement. It is just the achievement itself,
or more like a realizationa remembering. Hence, the
ancient masters insistence that you or the Iill cannot
achieve No Mind.
Novice practitioners constantly make this mistake
when their Iill tries to identify with No Mind as a state of
mind. It is normal, and the master, fortunately, knows if
the disciple had reached the emptiness of No Mind or if
it is the ego usurping the concept of No Mind.
For instance, while it may make perfect linguistic
sense for the disciple to say, I am in a state of No Mind,
this phrase is experientially incorrect and dualistic in its
interpretation. No Mind exists, and it is experienced when
the mind is empty and awareness is focused. There is a
mental shift from awareness entangled with the Iill to the
pure awareness of No Mind. This shift is often likened to
an awakening; thereafter, things are perceived in a more
direct, clear way.

210003_201_C12.indd 246 6/6/08 2:58:01 PM

 The paradox of No Mind and No Iill is solved only 247
through experience. It exists because of the very nature
Chapter 12
of the understanding and interpretive mechanisms of the
Iill, which have been described in No Mind 101. Remem- Factor 5:
ber, we interpret everything by identifying what it is and No Mind
and No Iill;
what it is not, which creates opposites, contradictions,
The I is
and parallel meanings. Detachable
Thus, we need insight to experience No Mind and
spiritual awareness; without this experience we would be
lost within analytical and interpretive cycles, which
would take us nowhere, like rats running on wheels. This
is why the paradoxical Zen koans, or riddles, were used
to break the analytical barrier of the students mind.
Koans, as we will see later, were developed by the an-
cient masters to demonstrate the impossibility of com-
municating verbally the emptiness of No Mind or the
Being and Nothingness of spiritual awareness. Koans
are nonsensical and illogical statements that leave the
students in a state of puzzlement and doubt; no matter
how hard they try to gure out the answer logically or in-
tellectually, they fail.
When they give up completely, they break through the
mental barrier and are released temporarily from the trap
of the Iill; a new awareness arises and the painful search-
ing for the answer ends. The poems in No Mind 401,
Insights of No Mind, will help you gain an understanding
of this reality in relation to the Iill and No Mind.

. . . these moments were of pure, positive happiness

when all doubts, all fears, all inhibitions, all tensions,
all weaknesses were left behind. Now self-consciousness
was lost. All separateness and distance from the world
disappeared as they felt one with the world, fused
with it, really belonging in it and to it. Instead of being
outside looking in . . . Perhaps most important of all,
however, was the report in these experiences of the
feeling that they had really seen the ultimate truth, the
essence of things, the secret of life. As if veils had been
pulled aside . . . this was a natural, not a supernatural
experience. And they gave up the name mystic experience
and started calling them peak experiences . . . they are

210003_201_C12.indd 247 6/6/08 2:58:01 PM

 248 within the reach of human knowledge, not eternal mys-
teries. They belong not only to priests but to all mankind.
No Mind Will power only interferes. In the same sense it begins to
201
look as if the intrusion of will power may inhibit peak
No Mind experiences. (Maslow, 1962)

ACT. REACT. BUT NEVER TRY.

In 1962, Abraham Maslow published his book Towards a

Psychology of Being. He described his approach as an ex-
istentialistic psychology of self-actualization, based on
personal growth. When we take more responsibility for
our own life, we use more of our good qualities and
become more powerful, free, happy, and healthy.
Maslows concept of self-actualization can play an im-
portant role in modern medicine. Most chronic diseases
persist despite the best efforts of researchers, and patients
might have a better chance to heal if they understood and
lived the path of personal development. The hidden
potential for improving the quality of life lies in helping
the patient acknowledge that his or her lust for life, needs,
and wish to contribute are really one and the same thing.
But you only nd this hidden meaning of life if you
scrutinize your own existence closely and come to know
your innermost self (Ventegodt, Merrick, & Andersen,
2003).
According to Maslow, will power and trying only in-
terfere with No Mind because they are both elements of
the Iill. Will and trying are the product of the expecta-
tions, worries, hopes, and guilts of the mental web of the
Iill. When will and trying are pure and effortless (which
will be detailed in No Mind 301, The Ten Paradoxes), then
the action is of No Mind. Act. React. But never try. When
you stop trying and just passively focus the awareness on
the mind-body dynamic, you achieve peak performance.
You eliminate the Iill and No Mind suddenly arises. Then
the paradoxes dissolve and the intuitive understanding of
the oneness of the world is grasped.

210003_201_C12.indd 248 6/6/08 2:58:02 PM

 249
CHAPTER 12 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 12
BEFORE CONTINUING
Factor 5:
1. Consistent application of CAt realizes a non- No Mind
attached and non-identied awareness, which il- and No Iill;
The I is
luminates the illusory nature of the Iill. The Iill is Detachable
empty, or as Watts saidlike an illusory circle of
re from the whirling of a torch.
2. The Iill cannot exist in the present, and No Mind
can only exist in the present, which is why the
two cannot exist simultaneously in the Now, and
No Mind cannot be achieved from within the Iill.
3. No Mind links us to our spiritual awareness,
which, in turn, carries the realization of our inter-
dependence with the universe and of our most
basic need to self-actualize our essential aspect of
nature.
4. Realization of No Mind can only occur through
experience, which breaks the barriers of the Iill.
This point is beyond the paradoxes, and it is vital
to improving life quality.
5. No Mind fuses us and the external world into one
inseparable whole where our fears, inhibitions,
and tensions are released. We lose our self-
consciousness and discover the secret of life, the
eternal mysteries of No Mind.

210003_201_C12.indd 249 6/6/08 2:58:02 PM

 Enlightenment, or spiritual awareness, is a primordial human
need, where you are completely absorbed in the Now. We
have a genetic thirst
to realize our intrinsic
link to nature, which
is the seed of spiritual
awareness. But unfor-
Using the language of mathematics, we can express
tunately, our perceptual Factor 6 thus:
systems evolved so that
we mostly see the maya,
or the illusion, and not
the god in everything. Denitions:
The insight into
No Mind enables us
to perceive the world
in its totality, and
in that moment we
realize how separate
we are from our true
selves. We escape the
Iill-ness, which per-
petuates the illusion
of the self. We become
integrated into the
world, not separated
from it. We become
spontaneous, expres-
sive, and courageous.
Chapter 13 explores
No Mind enlighten-
ment in greater depth
and discusses the prim-
ordial need of human
beings to attain
enlightenment.
210003_201_C13.indd 250
Equations of No Mind
Equation for Factor 6: No Mind Enlightenment
(xon) 1 || (xin) 1 : 1 0;
(xon) 0 || (xin) 0
 Summation, or total of all things
xo  The essential substance of all organic life in
the universe
xi  The essential substance of all inorganic mat-
ter in the universe
n
 The innite variations of all the life and matter
in the universe
||  happens in parallel or simultaneously
In this equation, x must equal 1 and 0 simultaneously in
order for a non-dualistic universe to be able to perpetu-
ally create itself from nothingnessa basis of quantum
theory. If x  god or universal essential substance,
then in order to avoid essential identity and dualism,
god x must also equal 1 and 0 at the same time, being
both Nothingness and Being. Avoiding essential iden-
tity and dualism is the key to a non-descriptive reality,
which the ancient masters have taught for thousands of
years. It is a reality we cannot describe and only can
experience. Remember, the moment we describe
something, we create a dualistic reality with nite deni-
tions of what it can be. We give it identity, describe
what it is, and at the same time describe what it is not.
Yet x must be completely outside of this reality for it to
be all things simultaneously.
While most religious doctrines are monistic, it is impor-
tant to understand that the ancient masters taught that
god-consciousness must avoid the trap of essential
identity. Simply put, the underlying reality to all life and
non-lifewhether you call it god x, nature, Tao, the
Force, or essential essencemust be both Nothing-
ness and Being at the same time in order to be innite
and omnipresent. That is what is surmised on both
sides of the equationand both happen simultane-
ously in the universe. Otherwise, you are back to the
chicken-and-egg scenario: neither can exist rst with-
out the other.
6/6/08 3:06:11 PM
 Chapter 13

Factor 6:
No Mind Enlightenment:
The Ultimate Paradox

Those who do not nd enlightenment . . . hesitate to plunge into

the void, into the abyss of [their] own primal nature, because in
[their] deepest unconscious [they] fear abandoning the familiar
world of duality for the unknown world of Oneness. The real-
ity which [they] still doubt. The nders, on the other hand, are
restrained by neither fears nor doubts. Casting both aside, they
leap because they cant do otherwise. They simply must and no
longer know whyand so they triumph . . . mindfulness is a
state wherein one is totally aware in any situation and so always
able to respond appropriately. Yet one is aware that he is aware.
[No Mind], is a condition of such complete absorption that there
is not vestige of self-awareness. (Kapleau, 1980)

Philip Kapleau is the author of The Three Pillars of Zen, which

quickly became the standard introductory text on Zen practice in
1965. He also founded the Rochester Zen Center in upstate New

251

210003_201_C13.indd 251 7/23/08 4:21:29 PM

 252 York and studied with D. T. Suzuki. Kapleau was the rst
Westerner allowed to observe and to record dokusan: the
No Mind
201 private interviews between a Zen teacher and his student.

No Mind
I CANNOT BE ENLIGHTENED

We never really understand enlightenment from the per-

spective of the Iill, but we can experience it as No Mind,
which is independent from the Iill. In other words, to say
that we understand enlightenment is like saying that
we understand a unique word in a foreign language we
do not know, even though nobody could translate the
word by itself because it has no corresponding word in
the English language. So the word enlightenment really
has no meaning until it is experienced. We can say it is
like this and like that, but that would be like describing
what skydiving is like, or what losing a loved one is like,
when you have never experienced it. Enlightenment re-
quires direct experience of an insight that is beyond the
sensation of the Iill.
Remember that I cannot be enlightenment and I
cannot attain enlightenment. There is no ego in the at-
tainment of enlightenment. Ego and attainment are both
properties of the Iill. Most people believe that enlighten-
ment can be attained only by the gurus or by the ancient
masters who dedicated their lives to such esoteric pur-
suits and did not have our modern lifestyles. This is incor-
rect. The attainment of enlightenment, or the realization
of your spiritual awareness, is an intrinsic ability of all
humans. People who can dedicate some time to practice
the technique, Right Attitude, and Right Awareness (dis-
cussed in No Mind 301, The Ten Paradoxes) and to study
the theory and knowledge of No Mind will discover that
enlightenment is indeed attainable.

When people observe that the existence of their posses-

sions, properties and persons is no longer secure, but
may disappear on the morrow, [they have] a clear
sense of the transitory nature of all things . . . Not the
loss of feeling or a maimed zest for life is desirable so

210003_201_C13.indd 252 6/6/08 3:06:14 PM

 much as the cultivation of profound detachment deep 253
within those moments of feeling or zest . . . It means
putting aside all prejudices born from experience and Chapter 13
all preconceptions born from earlier thoughts. Until Factor 6:
one is undeterred and unperturbed by them when fac- No Mind
ing the problem of Truth [enlightenment]. It means Enlighten-
being alienated from personal bias and uninuenced ment: The
by thoughts of me and mine. It means ceasing to Ultimate
Paradox
use as an argument the words I think so or I stick to
my belief, and ceasing to believe that what you know
must therefore be true. Such an argument leads only
to mere opinion, not to Truth. (Brunton, 1977)

AN EQUATION OF ENLIGHTENMENT

Lets take a look at some non-linear equations that dem-

onstrate how difcult it is to describe the experience of
enlightenment using ordinary language and simple math-
ematics. Here they stand as symbolic representations for
deeper understanding and not as literal interpretations
of enlightenment.
These non-linear equations are meant to demon-
strate the limitation of language in terms of its inherent
propensity to create dualistic identities, parallel associ-
ations, and contradictory statements. If mathematics
isnt your thing, it is not as important to understand the
equation as much as it is important to understand the
meaning behind the equation, which is described textu-
ally. In fact, it really isnt imperative that you understand
these equations; they are merely modern Zen koans to
tease our analytical, interpretive, and linear minds with
a paradox.
(xon)  1  (xin)  1 : 1 0; (xon)  0  (xin)  0:
This formula attempts to synthesize the sum of the prod-
ucts of x, where x is dened as the underlying essence of
nature. Then, there are living, organic Things (xo), and
there are non-living, inorganic Things (xi). Living and
non-living Things come in innite variations, or forms (n),
such as amoeba, snake, water, rock, re, oxygen, and so
on ad innitum.

210003_201_C13.indd 253 6/6/08 3:06:15 PM

 254 The sums of all living and non-living Things exist
simultaneously within an interdependent reality. The sum
No Mind
201 of all forms (taken as a whole or grouped in category sets,
such as organic vs. inorganic forms) equals 1, where 1 is
No Mind the essential underlying aspect of nature, or our spiritual
awareness, or god x (whatever your understanding is of
the essence of life and non-life). All Things are essentially
1 (Being) and 0 (Nothingness) simultaneously, so that 1
(Being) is identical to 0 (Nothingness). To reiterate, Some-
thing (Being) is Nothingness, and Nothingness manifests
Something (Being). Therefore, the sum of the products of
xo (essential substance of all organic Things) and of xi (es-
sential substance of all inorganic Things) multiplied by it-
self in innite variations, or forms, (n) existing in parallel,
is 0 (Nothingness), where Nothingness is essentially All
Things and Something (Being) simultaneously. Nothing-
ness and Being are not opposites, they are both the same
underlying reality of life and non-life.
For these equations to be non-dualistic, x, the es-
sence of nature, must equal 1 and 0 in parallel, or at the
same time. Paradoxically, the expressions x  1 and x  0
must hold true simultaneously and in the present mo-
ment. When we experience the external world in terms of
an underlying essence of nature, and when we conceive
of this essence as Oneness (1) and Nothingness (0)
simultaneously, then x equals 1 and 0 at the same time.
However, in terms of standard human cognition, this
produces a dualistic identication, because 1 is not the
same as 0. Therefore, it is a paradox.

SEEING GOD IN EVERYTHING

To have a non-dualistic equation, x must equal 1 and

0 at the same time, and we must conceive of identity and
non-identity existing simultaneously in parallel. In other
words, if we say that x  1 only, then we separate ourselves
from the essential aspect of nature by creating a discerni-
ble identity. We are here, and god x is there. Some
theologians may nd this idea akin to neutral monism,

210003_201_C13.indd 254 6/6/08 3:06:15 PM

 which is dened also as the 255
pregnant void or potential-lled
Chapter 13
nothingness.
Otherwise put, the Iill Factor 6:
breaks Things down into cate- No Mind
Enlighten-
gorical and associative think-
ment: The
ing, which allows us to Ultimate
understand the outside and in- Paradox
side worlds in terms of many
different Things. Once we
see different Things, x is no
longer 1 and 0 because we
have broken the world down
into all the different identities
we have learned and have ac-
cumulated in our memory. As
long as we see all Things as 1
and 0 in the present moment,
then we will see the god in
To look into the nature of mind everything.
When we break the world
down into Things and then identify them, we lose sight of
the essential oneness that underlies natures Things; this
is the profound ignorance described by the ancient mas-
ters. So it is impossible to intellectually conceive of spirit-
ual awareness because it is the essential aspect of nature
as Being and Nothingness at the same time; but we can
grasp it with insight. We can experience it. This is what
we call looking into nothingness.
Herein lies the paradoxwhile we speak of an underly-
ing essence in nature as an ultimate substance, we simul-
taneously speak of Nothingness, which manifests itself as
the essence of nature. It is empty and full at the same
time; otherwise, we create the concept of identity, which
is the crux of humanitys dilemma.

THE UNIVERSE CAN RECREATE ITSELF

Most religious doctrines are monistic, whichagainis

a fundamentally dualistic approach to understanding

210003_201_C13.indd 255 6/6/08 3:06:15 PM

 256 reality. Nature cannot be dualistic because it would not
be able to continually sustain itself if it could not gener-
No Mind
201 ate itself again from its essential substance. If all the mat-
ter in the universe disappeared, the universe would be
No Mind able to regenerate itself from the Nothingness left over
from the disappearance of Being.
Scientists have discovered that the primal elements
hydrogen and helium are formed during the nuclear
reactions that take place within active stars. When stars
die, their elements are thrown back into space to become
the raw material from which planets, new stars, and eve-
rything else is formed. These atoms and subatomic parti-
cles are spread everywhere, creating other particles; thus,
we all are composed of dead stars.
Most physicists today agree that this particular uni-
verse is about 13.7 billion years old (measured in Earth
time) and that it has inherent properties capable of pro-
ducing carbon and larger atoms.
We live in a universe that has the potentiality to gen-
erate life; all the particles necessary for life are already
there, and they are continually produced from the noth-
ingness of space. Space is not empty; it is bursting with
subatomic particles. But there is no identity there, no dis-
cernable pieces; it is one interactive and interdependent
totality. We imagine the identities with the neural mecha-
nisms in our brains.

ENLIGHTENMENT IS NATURE
BECOMING AWARE OF ITSELF
Identity is an aspect of the associative neural networks of
the brain that evolved from nature, but nature cannot see
itself through this mechanism. This mechanism evolved to
enable us to manage Things on a physical level for the
purpose of basic survival. Yet, according to Maslow and
others, humans also have the need for self-actualization.
Unconsciously, we all have the inherent thirst to rediscover
our oneness with natures underlying essence, which makes
us whole and complete again.

210003_201_C13.indd 256 6/6/08 3:06:19 PM

 Enlightenment is the awareness that breaks the 257
bounds of the brains mechanism, so that nature can
Chapter 13
become aware of itself and of its non-dualistic, non-linear
essence. It is the awareness of the universe itself. It is Factor 6:
not self-consciousness, as when something is aware of No Mind
Enlighten-
the awareness; it is just aware. Time does not exist in
ment: The
the reality of the present moment. Time is linear and the Ultimate
reality of the present moment is non-linearthe entire Paradox
universe occurs simultaneously, and everything exists in
parallel with everything else. Time is not a property of the
universe; it is a property of an observers perception from
a point in space.
No matter how many variations of nature exist from
one to innity, x is still 1 and 0, both Being and Nothing-
ness simultaneously. When x is anything other than 1,
you see it in terms of the multiplicities of life and mat-
ter, you lose sight of the god in everything. Paradoxi-
cally, we can perceive Things (through our normal senses)
only when x is other than 1 and 0, simply because we are
actually looking at the form; we see the rabbit or a
mountain and not god. If x is 1 and 0, no matter what n
(number of Forms) is, all Things are essentially the same:
1 and 0, which is when we grasp through insight the god
in everything.

OUR SENSES CANNOT SEE THE

GOD IN EVERYTHING
It is impossible to grasp this with our perceptual mecha-
nisms, since they evolved to perceive multiplicity, causing
dualistic conceptual identity and categorization. You would
need to perceive x in all Things, and x would be the same or
nothing, but with our perceptual mechanisms we do not
see x. Instead, we see the sum of the product of all or-
ganic forms (xon); and the sum of the product of all inor-
ganic forms (x ni ); and we cannot perceive what x is. Critical
thinking and logic do not allow us to perceive x, since the
roots of intellection can be traced to the perpetual di-
lemma of our limited perceptual system.

210003_201_C13.indd 257 6/6/08 3:06:19 PM

 258 When we stop reasoning and trying to perceive the
essential substance and nothingness (x), we are primed for
No Mind
201 insight into our spiritual awareness. Then, the essential
aspect of nature becomes aware of itself, as it manifests
No Mind itself through the multiplicity of all Things. But remember,
it is not self-conscious as in CAt; it is just pure awareness
there is no self. If there were a self, we would be back to the
sum of the multiplicities and to the limitations of the Iill.
Awareness is not a Thing to be grasped or obtained,
since it is also zero (0), or Nothingness. In other words,
awareness is not a form, it is both Being and Nothingness
simultaneously. That which is nothing is everything. This
essential attribute of the universe can be realized by en-
lightenment, whereas the equations demonstrate the ba-
sics of this insight in simple mathematics. However, these
equations are included here not for their mathematical
but for their illustrative value.
In subatomic particle physics, when searching for the
essential substance (x), then according to the physicists
Nothingness is the vacuum (when x  0). In all particle
research studies, the observer must become part of the
equation, because she is not seeing directly into the es-
sential substance, and she is perceiving through the limita-
tion of the perceptual mechanisms. Relativity theory
presupposes that the observed and the observer are an in-
tegrated space-time coordinate system that is not absolute
but relative.
Light traveling at 186,000 miles per second produces
the illusion of instantaneous events, yet when the observer
is in motion and her speed reaches the speed of light,
time and space change relative to the distance and speed
at which the light is traveling. In other words, events are
not the same everywhere; they depend on the location of
the observer relative to the object, and the speed at which
the observer is traveling. In particle physics, the particles
are moving close to the speed of light relative to the
motion of the observer and the observed events. So things
are occurring relative to the observer; if there is no
observer, the universe happens instantaneously in the
present moment.

210003_201_C13.indd 258 6/6/08 3:06:20 PM

 REALIZING THERE IS NO OBSERVER 259
IN ENLIGHTENMENT
Chapter 13
n n
The simple equation sum of (x ) and sum of (x ) becomes
o i Factor 6:
complex when xi is a Thing multiplied by itself to the nth No Mind
power, where n represents the many variations of that Enlighten-
ment: The
thing. For instance, if the observer and an organic or
Ultimate
inorganic observation are seen as two different Things, Paradox
then x would equal two multiplied by the nth power of
the variations of the two, and x becomes a large number
due to all the perceptible permutations. In other words,
if you see the rabbit as having god x in it and you see
yourself as having another god x in you, or not the same
essential substance, then youve created two essential
substances in the universe, or a multiplicity of gods. If
there is only one, then you and the rabbit are the same in
essence. And if that essential substance is in the rabbit
and you, then it must also be in the Nothingness, which
is everywhere in the universe. Otherwise, it would not be
complete; it would be a part and not the whole.
Take another abstract situation where a person ob-
serves a rock; there exists an innite amount of variation
for the rock, as well as for the person (there are many dif-
ferent rocks and many different people). Whatever n
equals is not as important as the fact that it is perceived
as relative through a dualistic thought mechanism of
seeing the forms without the underlying substance.
There are so many different people who can observe
so many different rocks, and this produces countless pos-
sible human-rock permutations. We see the multiplicities
of forms, but there is still a fundamental underlying prin-
ciple that we typically do not know. And this of course
is what enlightenment is. We grasp the underlying princi-
ple, shatter the Iill, and become god-conscious beings.
The only case in which the person and the rock are
seen as the same Thing is when x is 1 and 0then it does
not matter how many variations (n) exist. One of the ways
the rock and the person can be perceived as the same
essential substance is when we transcend the perceptual
mechanisms through the practice of No Mind.

210003_201_C13.indd 259 7/23/08 4:21:30 PM

 260 THE SEARCH FOR x IS ENCODED IN OUR GENES
No Mind There is a reality beyond the constraints of our basic
201
time-space mechanistic view. We know that the reality
No Mind we perceive is not the essential reality of the universe, as
demonstrated through particle physics. We instinctively
know that things are not the nal reality; whether we
are religious or not, we know that there is an essential as-
pect to nature that is the same in all of us.
Perhaps this kind of intuition is coded in our genes.
Objects and relative reality of time-space concepts must be
transcended in order to experience the dissolution of the
multiplicity of forms and the emergence of the essential
substance of nature. How do we come to know x, or
whether we see form or god x? Our limited perceptual sys-
tems can see only form, whereas enlightenment is know-
ing the reality of nothingness and essential substance
without the perceptual mechanisms. It is not a matter of
redening x as essential substance or as nothingness, or
even a matter of comprehending the notion that x exists as
essential substance or nothingness. In both of these sce-
narios, x is still not experienced. We pursue enlighten-
ment to realize and experience x as both essential substance
and nothingness. In other words, it is not an intellectual
pursuit, it is the experience that changes us.
Lets assume that x exists within all organic and inor-
ganic Things, which is like saying that x  god, x  essen-
tial substance, x  nothingness, or x  Tao. Whatever belief
we assign to x within this realm of identity, we are still
speaking of the same reality. Whatever x is, it must be 1 and
0, otherwise it would be dualistic and the universe cannot
be dualisticdualism is not a property of nature.
If you believe that god x is the essence of all things,
then god x is also in nothingness. Nothingness and essen-
tial substance are reciprocal elements of the same real-
ity, not each others opposites. If you exclude nothingness
from the expression x  god and assume that god x is
only essential substance (an all-powerful being), then you
have created a dualistic reality, where god  1 but not 0
in parallel. In other words, god x is out there and not in

210003_201_C13.indd 260 6/6/08 3:06:20 PM

 here or over there. It must be everywhere and in all 261
Things, as well as in nothing. Most people agree that if
Chapter 13
they believe god x is the essential substance, then in fact
god x must be everywhere; they just forget to think in Factor 6:
terms of nowhere also. No Mind
Enlighten-
ment: The
Ultimate
x ALSO EQUALS THE NOW Paradox

When we create dualistic identities through categorizing,

we break up the external world into multiple forms. But
most people who believe in god x intuit that god x is in all
living and non-living Things. When god x is conceived to
equal both 1 and 0 in a non-dualistic reality, then looking
into the emptiness also means looking into god x.
In Western religions, this experience is known as a
central aspect of mysticism, which we will discuss in
No Mind 401, Secrets of No Mind. In some Eastern tradi-
tions, specically in Yogic and Vedic philosophies, this is
called god-consciousness. We know instinctively that
there cannot exist a multitude of essential eternal sub-
stances; but we have different names for the same eternal
substance, in which we believe. There are many different
religions and philosophies, yet nature remains indiffer-
ent to our interpretations of it; it just is and does not re-
quire our interpretations to exist.
If the universe is 13.7 billion years old, and if humans
began to record their thoughts on the essential substance
only around 10,000 years ago, it would be arrogant to as-
sume that the universe was waiting for us to dene it,
so that it can exist. Human arrogance is a common trait
of the Iill. Just as we have discovered that the Earth is not
the center of the universe, that the Sun does not revolve
around the Earth, and that the Earth is not at, we should
eventually understand that nature functions whether we
dene it or notit has and it will for billions of years.
Remember, x must be 1 and 0 at the same time and in
the present moment; x exists neither in the past nor in
the future. X also equals the Now. We impose time on the
macroscopic world we perceive, but it does not exist in the

210003_201_C13.indd 261 6/6/08 3:06:20 PM

 262 microscopic world. Professor Pagels of the Rockefeller
University writes:
No Mind
201 We see that we can draw a line between the microworld
and the macroworld of human experiencethey are
No Mind
qualitatively distinct descriptions of material reality. Our
minds and bodies respond to the thermodynamic macro-
variables, which are the distributions of the microscopic
motions. I feel hot or cold, a denite temperature, not the
bombardment of billions of particles on the surface of my
skin. I grow old and life is full of risks which have meaning
only because some decisions are irreversibleI cannot go
back in time. Yet from the microscopic world this is an
illusion. (Pagels, 1982)

Time refers to before, during, and after, or past, present,

and future. Einstein recognized that time was relative to
the observer, just as points in three-dimensional space are;
ones left is anothers right, what is closer to one is farther
from somebody else, and so on. This is a key No Mind con-
cept; all things are relative, except for the ceaseless mo-
ment that cannot be observed and can only be experienced.
The ceaseless moment is, therefore, beyond relativity.
There are no xed points in the moment, only the ow of
Being. When we xate on a moment in time, it immedi-
ately becomes the past or the future. Most of us spend our
lives consumed by past or future events. No Mind grasps
the present moment.

TIME IS RELATIVE, ENLIGHTENMENT IS NOT

The relativity of time has been demonstrated in high-
energy physics, where particles move close to the speed
of light, since the speed of light determines time relative
to the position of the observer. When particles move close
to the speed of light, the passage of time changes relative to
the observer or to the observed event. There is no abso-
lute time or absolute spaceit is all relative to the ob-
server and to the speed of light. The only thing that is
certain is the ceaseless present, which is independent of

210003_201_C13.indd 262 6/6/08 3:06:20 PM

 time and relativity. Its position cannot be xed in space 263
or related to past or future.
Chapter 13
The present moment ows. It just is. From a No Mind
perspective, time stays where it is and does not move. Peo- Factor 6:
ple feel time moving because of their perspective relative No Mind
Enlighten-
to the past and future; yet, in the reality of the ceaseless
ment: The
moment and the principle of relativity, there is nowhere Ultimate
for time to go. Only peoples observations relative to the Paradox
speed of light give time the illusion of motion or passage.
We live in a world of gravitational, cosmic, and environ-
mental forces that act on our bodies and minds and create
temporal effects by causing us to age and to deteriorate,
just as an ocean can slowly wear away a mountain.
Change takes place in the ceaseless moment through-
out the universe. We change just as nature changes, but
the change occurs relative to our memory of what was
there before and after. Because of our memory and our
observation of events, we perceive time. Time exists in
nature relative to a process of constant transformation
that occurs everywhere simultaneously.
Spiritual awareness and No Mind are independent of
time, because from their perspective, there is no memory
of it and no observer to observe it. No Mind is beyond the
bounds of memory; it exists in the ceaseless moment as
nature does; it simply ows as pure awareness.
We see the Sun as it was eight minutes earlier, because
it takes eight minutes for the light to travel to the Earth.
But if we were on Mercury, we would see the Sun as it ex-
isted one minute earlier. If we had two observers, one on
the Earth and the other on Mercury, they may both think
they are seeing a solar air instantaneously and at the
same time, but there is a seven-minute difference.
We assume we see the Sun instantaneously because
we are used to thinking that we experience things instan-
taneously on Earth. Thats because of the relatively short
distances light has to travel on our tiny planet. Time is a
relative phenomenon, not a universal one. Therefore, it
cannot be an aspect of the underlying essence of nature.
In other words, the same time cannot exist everywhere in
the universe at once, yet the underlying essence does.

210003_201_C13.indd 263 6/6/08 3:06:21 PM

 264 Nature exists everywhere in this moment, and time is rel-
ative to where you are and to the memory of what oc-
No Mind
201 curred before.
Enlightenment is beyond time in the sense that time
No Mind does not exist in the present; it does not move, it remains
exactly where it is. Only the relative memory of the per-
ception of time gives us the illusion that time is moving.
For time to move, it must travel from a point in the past
(t) to a point in the future (t); relative time cannot
exist in the ceaseless present because it has no past or fu-
ture connotations. From the perspective of the Iill, we
observe time in a linear mode. In order to observe a non-
linear present moment, we must do so outside the Iill;
this is the point of enlightenment.

THE BLOOMS OF ENLIGHTENMENT

A mathematical expression of past, present, or future times

must account for an observer and a state of mind (S) ob-
serving the past or future. Simply stated, in order to per-
ceive the past (St) or the future (St), there must be this
state of mind of an observer. An observer must observe
time from a position with specic time-space coordinates
in order to perceive movement. When the observer, her
state of mind, and her coordinates become irrelevant, the
ceaseless moment becomes clear and time has no value
(t0). There is no xed point of reference, only the totality of
existence in an instant of the ceaseless moment.
To restate the main point, time has no place in No
Mind, which is pure awareness that has no reference to
itself, therefore it is timeless. When the Iill is suspended
and you are lled with spiritual awareness of the inter-
connectivity of all things and of your totality, then there
is enlightenment or god-consciousness.
This initial breakthrough from the state of Iill to that
of No Mind marks the rst level of seeing the reality of
No Mind. Enlightenment blooms when the mind-body
functions without the interference of the Iill, as a natu-
ral ow of natural momentum analogous to the way a

210003_201_C13.indd 264 6/6/08 3:06:21 PM

 ower blooms effortlessly. Blooming happens naturally 265
to the plant, the plant does not will it; it is non-action,
Chapter 13
where there is nothing to do, yet everything gets done.
Similarly, your innate abilities will bloom as a natural Factor 6:
aspect of your mind-body dynamic when awareness is No Mind
Enlighten-
clear.
ment: The
We all also have innate tendencies, and when we dis- Ultimate
cover those, we can rene them through practice so that Paradox
we can let go and allow the mind-body dynamic to
release its innate ability. Lets revisit Maslows concept of
self-actualization:
There seems to be a kind of dynamic parallelism or
isomorphism here between the inner and the outer.
This is to say that as the essential Being of the world
is perceived by the person, so also [do they] concur-
rently come closer to [their] own Being (to [their] own
perfection, of being more perfectly [them]self). This in-
teraction effect seems to be in both directions, for as
[they come] closer to [their] own Being or perfection
for any reason, this thereby enables [them] more eas-
ily to see the B-values in the world. As [they] become
more unied, [they] tend to be able to see more unity
in the world. As [they] become B-playful, so [are they]
more able to see B-play in the world. As [they] become
stronger, so [are they] more able to see strength and
power in the world. Each makes the other more possi-
ble, just as depression makes the world look less good,
and vice versa. [They] and the world become more like
each other as they both move toward perfection . . .
we have seen that in these various peak-experiences,
the person tends to become more integrated, more in-
dividual, more spontaneous, more expressive, more
easy and effortless, more courageous, more powerful.
(Maslow, 1968)

Maslow describes superbly the enlightened state of a

No Mind practitioner. The experience of being the exter-
nal world is very intense, as it transcends the fractured
existence of the Iill and leaps across the unknown void
to rediscover unity with the underlying essence of
natureenlightenment.

210003_201_C13.indd 265 6/6/08 3:06:21 PM

 266 FREEDOM TO BECOME WHAT WE ARE DOING
No Mind No Mind enlightenment affects all aspects of our lives,
201
such as sports, business, education, relationships, stress
No Mind management, health, and creativity, to name a few. We
learn to become what we are doing and lose ourselves in
the activity, therefore increasing our performance. Harold
Kelman, M.D., of the American Institute of Psychoanalysis
describes differences between the art of Western and
Eastern painters:

How the body is painted points up some crucial dif-

ferences. Unconsciously, the westerner makes of it an
external, separated, object, to which he is dualistically
opposed. He paints an aspect of it from the outside,
scientically, i.e., as a geometrical object and accord-
ing to the laws of perspective. The easterner sits on
his haunches, literally and guratively, contemplat-
ing it until he becomes identied with it and is it. He
has become his object and his object has become him.
They are one. He then paints the object from the inside.
(Kelman, 1959)

There is absolute freedom in the unity of the mind-

body with the object of perception. When the Iill doesnt
function in the foreground of awareness and doesnt
dominate our actions and reactions, we are free to expe-
rience the external and internal world without percep-
tual limitations and constructs.
Through the practice of No Mind, artists discover a
new source of creativity and intuition. The ancient mas-
ters produced beautiful paintings of their world with un-
wavering balance and unrestricted stroke of the pen.
Their inspiration came not only from intuition, but from
freeing awareness from the Iill and from its banal prob-
lems. The processing of perception is limited and ltered,
and the interpretations of the mental web of the Iill are
also limited and ltered to maintain its own identity.
When you are delivered from the Iill-ness of the mind,
your creativity soars and you grasp what is right intui-
tively, not through calculation.

210003_201_C13.indd 266 6/6/08 3:06:21 PM

 After investigating different views of Western and East- 267
ern psychology, one researcher explains that in West-
ern psychology a person creates a ctional version of Chapter 13
his/her identity and sees it as a real self that he or she Factor 6:
perpetuates at all costs, even if it puts others at risk or No Mind
the natural world at risk.(Goldberg, 2004) Enlighten-
ment: The
According to the ancient masters, most Iills are rela- Ultimate
tively ill because they are obsessed with maintaining Paradox

themselves and with fullling unhealthy conditioned de-

sire potentials. While there are evolutionary benets of
the Iill for our survival in society, the psychological and
physiological problems associated with it are overwhelm-
ing; and so are the Iills limitations on the mind-body
performance.
The Iill imposes many limitations on peoples ability
to function in all aspects of life. The ancient masters
taught that all human suffering is contained within the
Iill, so they devised techniques to heal the human condi-
tion. In an article published in The Psychoanalytic Re-
view, Herbert Fingarette writes:

. . . from observation of the behavior of great mystics

and of those ordinary persons . . . [who] speak in a
quasi-mystic way. For, far from showing confusion
between self and environment, they act with unusual
effectiveness and with a clear sense of the social realities.
They often show great practical organizing ability and
a particularly keen sensitivity to the real relationships
between their own attitudes and desires and those of
the persons they deal with . . . The enlightened one
is, therefore, not only an unassuming and ordinary
person (as well as an extraordinary one), he is in many
ways more ordinary than most people. He is not overly
proud, not driven by ambition, not prone to keeping up
with the Joneses, not given to disingenuous logical or
theoretical disquisitions. He tends to shun words. He
suffers, enjoys, knows pain and pleasure, but he is not
driven and dominated by these. Sensual without being
sensualist, he is also aware of his ills without being
hypochondriacal. (Fingarette, 1958)

210003_201_C13.indd 267 6/6/08 3:06:22 PM

 268 ENLIGHTENMENT RELEASES THE IiLL-NESS
No Mind The two primary problems facing humans have always
201
been attachment and essential identity. Pursuing ambi-
No Mind tions and success is normal and healthy, but being domi-
nated by them and identied with them is pathological.
Enlightenment is not reserved for gurus and masters in
the monasteries. It is a real aspect of human nature, a
basic human need that can be attained by anybody who
is seeking a healthier, more complete life. The practice of
No Mind sets you free by illuminating the reasons why
you act the way you do. In other words, the actions and
reactions of the Iill are monitored by CAt, which can in-
tercede at any time and modify the behaviorremember,
we have free wont.
During the practice of No Mind, more and more of
the actions and reactions of the Iill will be corrected au-
tomatically. After repeated practice, you will recondition
yourself with a new set of behavioral parameters that will
modify the undesirable aspects of the Iill, allowing you to
become free of the Iill-ness.
Passive awareness manifests new cues to enable ap-
propriate modication of the Iills mental web, which re-
linquishes its dominant role in the perceptual and
behavioral system. This new perceptual system inter-
prets reality without identity and attachment. Psychia-
trist Akihisa Kondo, who studied Zen masters in Japan,
describes the moment of enlightenment:

At this moment we notice how much we were crippled

by convention. How deeply we discriminated. In short,
how we were attached. We were far and foolishly apart
from our genuine selves, suffocating our pure intrinsic
value . . . From this the individual has the intuitive
experience of the real existence of self and the world in
its totality . . . Zen achieves the experience or vision of
the whole, which is not a product of reasoning or mere
intellect . . . It is this function of the human psyche
or perceiving totality that Zen stresses and develops,
calling it intuition. (Kondo, 1952)

210003_201_C13.indd 268 7/23/08 4:21:30 PM

 What Kondo calls intuition we are calling insight in 269
No Mind. The insight of enlightenment is the source of
Chapter 13
pure, unltered awareness. An awareness of human na-
ture illuminates the totality of existence in a single intui- Factor 6:
tive ash. In that ash, we grasp the innite reality of our No Mind
Enlighten-
spiritual awareness. This explosive release of our present
ment: The
dualistic world transforms how the mind-body functions Ultimate
in everyday life. Celebrity psychologist Dr. Wayne W. Dyer Paradox
denes an enlightened person in his best-selling book
Your Erroneous Zones:

The person who is devoid of all erroneous zone behavior

may seem to be a ctional character, but being free from
self-destructive behavior is not a mythological concept;
rather its a real possibility. Being fully functioning is
within your grasp and complete present moment men-
tal health can be a choice . . . First and most obviously,
you see people who like virtually everything about life
people who are comfortable doing just about anything,
and who waste no time in complaining, or wishing that
things were otherwise. They are enthusiastic about life,
and they want all that they can get out of it . . . There is
no pretending to enjoy, but a sensible acceptance of what
is, and an outlandish ability to delight in that reality . . .
You will nd an uncommon absence of approval seek-
ing in these happy, fullled individuals. They are able
to function without approval and applause from others.
They do not seek out honors as most people do. They are
unusually free from the opinion of others . . . They do
not equate being successful in any enterprise with being
successful as a human being. Since their self-worth
comes from within, any external event can be viewed
objectively as simply effective or ineffective . . . They do
not identify with the family, neighborhood, community,
city, state, or country. (Dyer, 1993)

ENLIGHTENMENT MAKES YOU OBJECTIVE

TO YOURSELF
The enlightened person has a complete understanding of
the Iill and remains objective to the emotions, thoughts,
and perceptions that originate from the mental webthe

210003_201_C13.indd 269 6/6/08 3:06:22 PM

 270 mind objects. She knows that the reason she likes or dis-
likes something is relative to the conditioning and behav-
No Mind
201 ioral reinforcement patterns of the Iill.
As you experience life from this new perspective,
No Mind you exist on a different level and enjoy your emotions
fully, without conditions or limitations. Unconditional
emotions arise naturally and you attend to them objec-
tively and affectively.
The enlightened know that even though they are en-
joying their feelings, they must do so without clinging
because they are transitory. Attachment to any of these
feelings will reinstate the Iill.
Enlightenment brings nothing; it simply releases the
captive awareness from the Iill, so that there is direct
perception of reality. In Zen Satori, or enlightenment,
The individual is said to perceive objects more objec-
tively than before, less disturbed by personal motives.
Cognitive skills remain available as required (Maupin,
1962). When we focus our attention, we become more
aware of objects in the environment and our sensitivity
increases (Corbetta, Miezin, Dobmeyer, Shulman, &
Petersen, 1990).
Its possible to live as Dyer explains in Your Errone-
ous Zones. The enlightened person accepts all that is, be-
cause he is concerned only with the experience in the
present moment. The past and the future are time ele-
ments of the Iill, and the enlightened person is aware of
them, but they do not determine his behavior. It is not
that he does not wear a watch or cant make appoint-
ments; he simply isnt a slave to them. If he is late, there
are no excuses to give because the purpose of excuses is
to cover up and to defend the Iill; so, he is late and its
already in the past. His awareness is in the present, so it
is more important that he is here now, rather than dwell-
ing on the fact that he was latethat is in the past. If
events or circumstances change course, the enlightened
person is not devastated, stressed out, or worried be-
cause he understands the reality of the world and that
all things change. He does not live like a balloon being
tossed around or oating on the water. The enlightened

210003_201_C13.indd 270 6/6/08 3:06:22 PM

 person is rooted in the essential totality of his spiritual 271
awareness and can hear the hum of the universe.
Chapter 13
In business, the enlightened person is rm, but with-
out aggression or anger. He does not spend his time wor- Factor 6:
rying about future events that are outside his control; No Mind
Enlighten-
instead, he focuses on the things in the present that he
ment: The
can control. He is not resentful or spiteful, because these Ultimate
are past-oriented emotions. His understanding of the Iill Paradox
nurtures compassion for his fellow workers, associates,
and even competitors, because he understands how peo-
ple perceive their reality and the attachments they expe-
rience in their thoughts, ideas, or beliefs.
So the enlightened person is sensitive to people he
meets; yet, he understands that goals are best carried
out without attachment to the outcomes. The practice
of No Mind strengthens his awareness in the present
moment.
In our busy modern lives, enlightenment is not a
dream or a luxury for those who have the time; it is a
necessary means of enriching our lives in ways that
wealth, success, and power cannot. It is necessary to sat-
isfy our deep primordial need for spiritual awareness,
not just for the individual but for the sake of society as
well. Carlos Castaneda, whose works have sold more
than eight million copies in 17 languages, describes the
enlightened person as a man of knowledge:

He endeavors, and sweats and puffs, and if one looks

at him he is just like any ordinary man, except that the
folly of his life is under control. Nothing being more
important than anything else. A man of knowledge
chooses any act, and acts it out as if it matters to him.
His controlled folly makes him say that what he does
matters, and makes him act as if it did. And yet he
knows that it doesnt. So when he fullls his acts he
retreats in peace; and whether his acts were good or
bad, or worked or didnt, is in no way part of his
concern. (Castaneda, 1972)

210003_201_C13.indd 271 6/6/08 3:06:23 PM

 272

No Mind CHAPTER 13 IMPORTANT POINT TO REMEMBER

201 BEFORE CONTINUING

No Mind
1. Humans have a primordial yearning for enlight-
enment and it may even be encoded in our DNA.
Enlightenment is simply jumping into the void of
No-Iill, where you are completely absorbed in the
present moment without self-consciousness.
2. The need for realizing our intrinsic link to nature
is our basic need to nd our own self-truth. This
need has been manifested throughout history in
the form of numerous religious and philosophical
systems. Unfortunately, though, our perceptual
system evolved to see the multiplicities of form and
not to see the underlying essential substance, or
god in everything. For spiritual awareness, we
must develop the insight necessary to see into the
emptiness, the non-dualistic, non-linear oneness
which underlies reality and in which nature be-
comes aware of itself.
3. Time is not a universal constant. It is relative to the
observer, to the distance between observed and ob-
server, and to the speed at which the observer is
traveling. Time is linear and cannot exist in the
ceaseless present moment; it exists as a macro-
scopic phenomenon, not as a microscopic one. In
other words, in the world of forms we see time,
but magnifying this world to the microscopic level
of subatomic particles we do not see time.
4. The insight into our spiritual awareness grasps the
totality of the naturethe god in everything; in
that moment we realize how foolishly detached
from our selves we were. We escape the illness of
the Iill, which perpetuates the illusion of the self
a self that is capable of harming itself and others.
Through the process of enlightenment, we nd our

210003_201_C13.indd 272 7/23/08 4:21:31 PM

 273
special innate abilities and qualities, which we can Chapter 13
develop effortlessly through non-action. We be-
come integrated into the world, not separated from Factor 6:
No Mind
it. We become spontaneous, expressive, and coura- Enlighten-
geous without the least bit of trying. ment: The
Ultimate
Paradox

210003_201_C13.indd 273 6/6/08 3:06:26 PM

 At rst glance, No Mind may appear to be a complex concept
to be understood only through prolonged study and practice.
But when we experience spiritual awareness, the simplicity
of No Mind is revealed. No Mind is shrouded by the Iill,
which has a tenacious grip on the minds ability to break
through and to dissolve the I illusion. The harder one tries
in conventional, conditioned ways, the more entrenched
the Iill becomes. The intellect might catch a glimpse of the
Iill, but it cannot grasp or perceive it. Breaking through
this hard shell is the vital rst step to enlightenment and
perhaps one of the most difcult challenges of No Mind.

Chapter 14 reviews the six primary factors of No Mind

enlightenment discussed in Chapters 8 through 13,
highlighting the key aspects of each and relating them to the
development of the technique described in No Mind 301,
The Ten Paradoxes. Once you experience the breakthrough,
even if only for an instant, you are free from the mental
web of the Iill, at least temporarily. As you develop the
technique and the correct attitude in your daily life, the
experience grows, lls awareness for longer periods of time,
and becomes increasingly stable. The mind becomes calm
and still, and awareness expands.

210003_201_C14.indd 274 6/6/08 3:07:22 PM

 Chapter 14

No Mind Extreme

A t rst, the practice of No Mind may appear to be a rather com-

plex intellectual exercise, but it is the opposite. When spir-
itual awareness is grasped, it appears embarrassingly simple. It is
shrouded by the Iill, and breaking and dissolving this illusion is
the vital rst step to enlightenment. The breakthrough is perhaps
one of the most difcult challenges. We might be able to glimpse
at it intellectually, but we cannot grasp and experience it on any
level of thought and perception. The ash of enlightenment occurs
at the moment of experiencing this breakthrough. And with en-
lightenment comes the intuition of the reality of our selves and of
the world around us. In this moment we are free from the mental
web of the Iill, at least temporarily. As we develop the technique
and the correct attitude in our daily lives, the experience grows,
lls the awareness for longer periods of time, and becomes in-
creasingly stable. The mind becomes calm and capable of deeper
understanding and contentment.

275

210003_201_C14.indd 275 6/6/08 3:07:23 PM

 276 Satori, in contrast, is the Intuitive seeing into the Real
Self. The True author of ones behavior which is at the
No Mind same time a part of the whole ux of the Universe.
201
(Maupin, 1962)
No Mind

THE SIX MAIN FACTORS OF NO MIND

In the following pages, the six main factors of No Mind

(see Figure 14-1) will be reviewed, and the important as-
pects of each will be summarized. These factors relate to
the development of the technique, which is described in
No Mind 301, The Ten Paradoxes.
Each factor is just as signicant as the basic under-
standing of the mind discussed in No Mind 101, as well as
the basic understanding of No Mind discussed in No Mind
201. They are steps in the process of unfolding the essence
of CAt, No Mind, and spiritual awareness; when you have
a basic understanding of these aspects of mind and
No Mind, then you can understand the technique in
No Mind 301.
If you dont understand these aspects of the mind and
of No Mind, it may seem like you are running down a
path in the dark, unable to see where youre going. The
ancient masters would say this is the best way to run
with no destination in mind and in the moment. However,
we are conditioned to act in an extremely goal-oriented
society, and the knowledge and understanding of where
we came from (mind) and where we are going (No Mind)
helps to keep us on the path. Knowing where we are going
is not as important as knowing why we are going.
We do many things in life even though we are not
sure where these things will take us; but at least we
know why we are doing them. We know why we are
studying No Mindfor the sake of better health, stress
control, improving our relationships, sporting activities,
business dealings, and so on; yet, we do not know where
it will take us because we still do not know our full po-
tentials. These newly found abilities may appear ex-
treme to someone looking in, but from the perspective
of the person who has reached No Mind and is looking

210003_201_C14.indd 276 6/6/08 3:07:24 PM

 out, it all appears simple. Lets briey summarize the in- 277
formation laid out in No Mind 201, because it is vital to
Chapter 14
understand these concepts before we study the tech-
nique of No Mind in No Mind 301 and before we can No Mind
understand its applications to business, sports, stress Extreme
management, academics, and relationships.

1. No Mind Reality
Factor one is No Mind Reality. Identifying with the Iill is
the basic reason we misinterpret reality; it causes the
illusion, which creates the continuous dualistic sequence
of thought in terms of I and Them. No Mind enlight-
enment is non-dualistic because you cannot identify with
anything, yet you know you are everything.
This paradox is solved when we experience spiritual
awareness through the practice of No Mind. When we
are lled with thoughts that arise from the Iill, such as
expectations, desires, goals, prejudices, dislikes, and so
on, we should think of them as being emptynot in terms
of denying their existence, but empty in terms of under-
standing that their reality originates from the Iill and
therefore they are transitory and habituated.
At the source of these thoughts, feelings, and percep-
tions is the mental web of the I. It produces conditioned
expectations, conditioned desires, and conditioned reac-
tions, which have no source of their own, no reality ex-
cept that which is created by conditioning, modeling,
associative neural networks, subliminal suggestions, and
reinforcement.
If you really analyzed the source of most of your de-
sires, you would realize that they come from the social
conditioning we undergo through our families, commu-
nities, religions, and ethnic traditions. In order to break
the illusion, we do not identify with these empty aspects
of the Iill, and as our attachment diminishes, we escape
the mental web of the Iill. Understanding the illusion of
the Iill is the rst step toward liberation from mental
habituations.

210003_201_C14.indd 277 6/6/08 3:07:24 PM

 278 2. No Mind Deautomatization
No Mind The second factor entails deautomatizing our actions
201 and reactions, or de-conditioning the mental web of the
No Mind Iill. This is an undoing of the natural mechanical process
of the associative neural networks of the Iill. It is our in-
trinsic ability to categorize, to associate, and to lter in
parallel on the unconscious and conscious levels.
We are mostly unaware of the automatic cycle of ac-
tion and reaction because it occurs unconsciously. In
most aspects of our lives, autonomic responses restrict
our ability to perceive reality directly, and they prevent us
from reaching our full capabilities.
We need deautomatization to escape the trap of the
mental web of the Iill. While we typically deny that we
are on autopilot most of the time, we can easily see it in
the way we act and react on a daily basis. The ancient
masters considered deautomatization to be an essential
starting point in the practice of No Mind, so they learned
to mirror their external and internal worlds through the
practice of CAt, or mindfulness. Psychotherapy has used
deautomatization and desensitization with great success
throughout the years. Tens of thousands of patients have
used this technique in clinical applications, and millions
of people have used it to enhance their lives for over two
and a half thousand years.

3. No Mind and Clear Attention

In order to begin the process of deconditioning our ac-
tions and reactions, we learn to turn our awareness into
a mirror that reects mind objects, such as thoughts, per-
ceptions, emotions, and motivations. The third factor of
mirroring is an aspect of CAt; a mirror reects its objects
without bias, prejudice, value, identity, and it has no in-
tention for objects to be cast upon it.
As a pond unintentionally reects a ying duck and
the duck has no intention of being reected in the pond,
the action is without effort and the mirror just reects it
naturally. CAt entails passively reecting the mind objects

210003_201_C14.indd 278 6/6/08 3:07:25 PM

 without deriving any meaning from them. In this way, 279
nothing is added to the thoughts, feelings, or perceptions;
Chapter 14
they arise in awareness and are reected like objects re-
ected in a pond. No Mind
The associative neural networks and the parallel cog- Extreme
nitive processes are slowed and eventually stopped with
the practice of No Mind training. This is a powerful exer-
cise to master, yet simple to perform. With practice, the
smallest achievement can yield successful results. Mir-
roring opens the perceptual and cognitive systems to a
greater range of information that we normally block.
When we perceive reality in this direct way, we experi-
ence the oneness of the external world and remove the
fragmentations imposed by the Iill.
As awareness can mirror the contents of the mind and
its actions, it can also watch the perceptions of the exter-
nal world; Clear Attention (CAt) and mirroring are two
aspects of the same principle. We watch and mirror the
contents of the mind simultaneously. We reect the sen-
sory input of the external world as it arises in our aware-
ness of the present moment, and we watch the events that
are occurring to the Iill, mind, and body.
The practice of CAt means simply registering and
watching the mind objects and the sensory perceptions
without analyzing or interpreting them, and without get-
ting lost in them. It is a complete level of alertness and
focus that passively observes the mind-body function as
the mind-body has been trained, without applying any
conditioned behaviors, such as expectations, motiva-
tions, prejudices, hopes, desires, effort, emotions, and so
on. We simply note the mind objects and allow them to
dissolve. In this way, the mind-body acts effortlessly and
naturally without interference from the Iill.

4. No Mind Intuition
The fourth factor entails opening the sixth sense of in-
sight and intuition. The practice of CAt heightens aware-
ness and what is known in psychology as perceptual
readiness. Then, we can perceive subtle intuitions that we

210003_201_C14.indd 279 6/6/08 3:07:25 PM

 280 can use for creativity, inspiration, genius, artistic expres-
sion, and premonition. Through the application of deau-
No Mind
201 tomatization, mirroring, and CAt, the Iill loses its hold on
awareness, allowing these subtle intuitions to surface.
No Mind Insight, as opposed to intutition, brings subtle knowl-
edge of the underlying essence of nature, or spiritual aware-
ness. Insight is realized through the awareness of No Mind,
whereas intuitions are realized through CAt. Humans feel
an intrinsic need for insight into spiritual awareness and
for being connected to nature. These are the mysterious
gates the ancient masters described; they open once we re-
alize our spiritual awareness. At this point, the paradoxes
and riddles of No Mind are understood and the limitations
and dualistic characteristic of language are shattered by a
new, non-dualistic perception. The fragmented world is
unied into a functioning whole, where opposites are seen
as aspects of the same reality. The insight of reality is
grasped, and we realize that if we try to interpret reality,
our experience will be limited by the mental web of the
Iill. No Mind insight into spiritual awareness is a non-
descriptive aspect of enlightenment, where only experi-
ence can produce understanding.
In this process, there is an awakening of an inner abil-
ity to gather information through a new sense of in-
sight and intuition. The intuitive grasping of creative
ideas and solutions is commonplace, since the sixth sense
is now open and receptive to subtle levels of information,
without the suppression and ltering of the mental web
of the Iill. It is direct perception of the external world.
Chuang Tzu, an ancient master of the 4th century B.C.,
describes the emptiness of enlightenment and the road-
blocks put up by the Iill along the way:

Wipe out the delusions of the will, undo the snares of

the heart, rid yourself of the entanglements to virtue.
Open up the roadblocks in the Way. Eminence and
wealth, recognition and authority, fame and prot.
These six are the delusions of the will. Appearances
and carriage, complexion and features, temperament
and attitude. These six are the snares of the heart.

210003_201_C14.indd 280 6/6/08 3:07:25 PM

 Loathing and desire, joy and anger, grief and happi- 281
ness. These six are the entanglements of virtue. Re-
jecting and accepting, taking and giving, knowledge Chapter 14
and ability. These six are the road blocks of the Way. No Mind
When these four sixes no longer see within the breast, Extreme
then you will achieve uprightness. Being upright, you
will be still. Being still, you will be enlightened. Being
enlightened, you will be empty. And being empty, you
will do nothing. And yet there will be nothing that is
not done. (Tzu, 1968)

5. No Mind and No Iill

The fth factor stands for the awareness of the ceaseless
present moment, where the Iill simply cannot exist. The
Iill exists as a linear aspect of time, located either in the
past or in the future. The Iill can never exist in the present
moment, as it continually must choose between the mem-
ory of the past and the conditioned expectations of the
future in order to direct its behavior.
Unlike No Mind, which is non-linear, non-dualistic,
pure present-moment awareness, the Iill requires iden-
tity that causes the dualistic, linear nature of its frag-
mented reality. No Mind is an omnipresent awareness
grasping the whole of reality, versus the fragments. It is
not a mystical state, but simply an aspect of human na-
ture expressed as spiritual awareness.
When we practice mirroring and CAt, the Iill no longer
exists in that moment; if a thought of I arises, we treat it
as we treat the other mind objectswe watch it passively,
take note of it, and allow it to dissolve. The Iill cannot exist
in No Mind; if there are any remnant aspects of the Iill,
then it is a state of the Iill, a pseudo No Mind state with
which the Iill is trying to identify. The Iill is an illusion cre-
ated by a neural associative process of thoughts occurring
in milliseconds and in parallel with other mind objects.
CAt has aspects of self-consciousness; you are aware
of your self, or aware of awareness. But in No Mind, the
awareness of the Iill vanishes and there is pure awareness
of reality. We understand how cleverly we were deceived

210003_201_C14.indd 281 6/6/08 3:07:25 PM

 282 into believing that we were something that we were not.
We protected a self that never really existed, and we were
No Mind
201 detached from our true spiritual awareness.
When you grasp that the statement, I have reached
No Mind No Mind, is as ludicrous as saying The Sun revolves
around the Earth, then you understand the message of
the ancient masters.

6. No Mind Enlightenment
Many believe that No Mind Enlightenment was the secret
state of gurus and mystics. This is far from the truth; the
sixth factor is a simple experience of reality, one that is easy
to attain through practice. With proper knowledge and ap-
plication of the techniques of No Mind, the delusion of the
Iill dissipates and you grasp the reality of enlightenment.
With enlightenment, there is the experience of a re-
lease from attachments, a direct perception of reality, and
honest emotional expressions and behaviors. You can play
as a child, yet still live in your adult world of responsibil-
ity and work. Work becomes play, and play becomes a
mystical experience of total absorption and ow. In sports,
business, and relationships, the new game is played dif-
ferently, from a fresh perspective. Success has a new
meaning; it is not based on conditioned expectations, but
on unconditioned awareness of the present. The results
are not as important as the process itself and as the total
enjoyment of the process in the present moment. Success
is measured based on a new set of parameters that make
you a healthier and happier person without the condi-
tioned stresses of your everyday life. Enlightenment is an
awakening to a simple aspect of human nature that was
always there. No Mind is the pure awareness of enlighten-
ment, which is the play of the universe.

NO MIND EXTREME

The six factors of No Mind are derived from teachings

that go back over two thousand years. The ancient knowl-
edge and techniques, coupled with modern psychological,

210003_201_C14.indd 282 6/6/08 3:07:26 PM

 neuro-physiological, and philosophical research, allow 283
the Western mind to grasp these millennial paradoxes.
Chapter 14
Contemporary science and medicine allow us to under-
stand the psycho-therapeutic and performance benets No Mind
of the practice of No Mind. Extreme
No Mind Extreme describes the fully functioning
human being, who overcomes limitations, automatisms,
and bad behavioral habits engendered by the mental web
of the associative neural networks and conditioning, de-
fensive, and ltering mechanisms. No Mind Extreme en-
hances awareness beyond the me complex and enables
the leap into the void of enlightenment, direct intuition,
and unrestricted and unconditioned mental performance.
The evolution of the human mind is destined to end up
here, in enlightenment.
There are many obstacles in the pursuit of the prac-
tice of No Mind. The primary source of these obstacles is
you. We learn to de-condition the way we relate to the
world. We possess the resources required to make the
journey and to gain the insight necessary to break through
the mental web of the Iill. There is nothing we need to
buy, nor a special class we need to attend. We already
possess the only tool we needthe ability to direct our
awareness.
If we maintain the mindful attention of our actions and
reactions through CAt in our external and internal worlds,
we can overwrite the conditions of the Iill. The ancient
masters referred to this as mindfulnessmaintaining
mindful awareness of your actions in your daily lives.
Watch the mind objects with the passive reection of a
mirror. The ancients knew this was a vital aspect of the
path, and today mindfulness has gained legitimacy as an
effective tool in therapy.
In a German study, mindfulness in clinical situations
proved effective in the lasting reduction of psychological
distress and in increased well-being and quality of life.
Positive complementary effects with psychotherapy were
also found (Majumdar, Grossman, Dietz-Waschkowski,
Kersig, & Walach, 2002).

210003_201_C14.indd 283 6/6/08 3:07:26 PM

 284 GHOST OF I-PAST AND GHOST OF I-FUTURE
No Mind CAt is awareness of the mind-body and of the external
201
world in the present moment. We are aware of thoughts,
No Mind but do not focus on them. Thoughts of the past or future,
like worry or guilt, are watched in the present moment.
Thoughts may occur simultaneously with other thoughts,
like those concerned with the identity of the Iill. Yet,
these thoughts are occurring within milliseconds and
only appear instantaneous, which generates the feeling
of I, me, and mine. These are the ghosts of the
I-past and the I-future.
After a little practice, CAt overcomes and watches the
ow of thoughts without interaction and absorption.
With training, it develops into one of the strongest tools
we can use to handle mental objects and activity. You will
develop the ability to apply CAt at the times when you
need it most in your daily tasks and routines.
Everything you need to learn No Mind you have al-
ready; there is no need to look anywhere else. The insight
of No Mind is in your essence. We are born with it, but
then we are subjected to the onslaught of conditioning
and learning that is imposed on us by the environment,
society, family, peers, models, mentors, and so on. We
pay little attention, or arent mindful, of the activities,
feelings, thoughts, and perceptions of the day. We cruise
through the day as fast as we can, going from here to
there, taking care of this and worrying about that. Some-
times most of us feel like rats running around on a wheel
but going nowhere.
When we get home, the rush often does not end; we
have a slew of responsibilities to keep us busy there, too,
so we do this and that and nally go to bed. Over 40 mil-
lion Americans have insomnia, so the restlessness con-
tinues into the night, and we are unable to get the respite
our mind-body requires. Without knowing or realizing it,
we live each day in a state of turmoil; even though we
may think we love our lives and appear happy on the out-
side, we are anxious deep inside.

210003_201_C14.indd 284 6/6/08 3:07:26 PM

 The habituated actions and reactions of our daily lives 285
get reinforced and conditioned into our associative neu-
Chapter 14
ral networks, and this is the lifestyle we assume to be
right and proper. Even when we know it is not healthy, No Mind
we defend our behavior by telling ourselves that every- Extreme
one else is doing it and that our life is not as bad as
theirs. CAt sheds light on our lifestyle and allow us to
modify it.
For the most part, we cannot change our lives, our
jobs, our mates, our children, our place of residence, our
friends, our families, and our communities; but we can
change our perspective and consequently ease the daily
onslaught of ups and downs we all face. Irritation can
change to happiness and jealousy and hate to understand-
ing and compassion as you begin to understand that the
material objects or desires we seek are not the vehicles of
true happiness and satisfaction.
The objects of desire are revealed as transient enjoy-
ments if we approach them with dispassionate aware-
ness. While they can still be enjoyed as such, it is the
underlying sense of detachment developed from the prac-
tice of No Mind that provides us with the ultimate sense
of happiness and contentment. The very essence of non-
attachment opens a full range of un-conditioned possi-
bilities, which then allow us to experience the fullness
of life without being limited by our desire potentials.
Simply, the need to have the object or to fulll the de-
sire dissipates. Whether your desire is fullled or not,
there is no change in your level of happiness and content-
ment. Remember, objects of desire are an empty aspect
of the conditioning of the Iill. Their source is the mental
web, and they cannot bring genuine happiness and well-
being. They can only bring temporary states of happi-
ness, because the Iill keeps searching for more and more
objects once it becomes accustomed to the ones it has al-
ready acquired. The cycle of desire potential and fulll-
ment never ends until it vanishes in enlightenment.
When you are practicing CAt, you enjoy things from a
detached state of awareness. In this way, you are mindful

210003_201_C14.indd 285 6/6/08 3:07:26 PM

 286 in your action and reaction to conditioned cues for the ful-
llment of a desire. You do not need the object, you simply
No Mind
201 want the object. If you do not get it, there is no change in
your state of mind. An adult is not much different from a
No Mind child in this regard; children will cry for what they do not
get, and adults will repress their displeasure, or inwardly
cry if they do not get what they want.
The repression of disappointment may manifest itself
negatively in other aspects of the persons life. Needs
come with attachment and experiential problems, be-
cause one need leads to another and so on. So enjoying
something in a mindful state of watching the enjoyment
is healthy for the mind-body. According to The Ten Para-
doxes, which we will discuss in No Mind 301, With
attachment, work. Without attachment, play.
To enjoy something effortlessly and naturally without
being attached to it is to function at your fullest, or what
is described here as No Mind. Maintaining CAt while ex-
periencing the full range of mind-body sensations is pure
and unconditional joy (to be distinguished from joy ful-
lled as a conditioned desire potential). The phenomena
we encounter every day can be used to elevate awareness
to new heights, where we learn to focus it objectively in
each aspect of our lives.

OUR LIVES, OUR PLAYPENS,

AND NO MIND EXTREME
Our everyday lives become our playpens, full of fun toys.
Each toy brings a different reward or joy, yet we know
that if the toy is not there, it will not matter. It is of no
consequence to our inner contentment and happiness; it
is watched as it passes through the mind as a oating
thought. When we do not cling, we do not get stuck. Our
life is a playpen, the objects are our toys, and the people
in our lives are our playpals. When we master CAt, there
is nothing but play.
Play can be serious, lighthearted, humorous, or mis-
chievous. There are many aspects of play, and they evolve

210003_201_C14.indd 286 6/6/08 3:07:26 PM

 based on the conditions we encounter. But we never forget 287
that this is only play and the world is our playpen. We drop
Chapter 14
the attachments and enjoy the moment. We experience
pure joy and we are not attached to our toys or playpals, No Mind
because we know that they will come and go. No Mind is Extreme
a true state of play. Play best describes the total absorption
into the activity without the intervention of the Iill. So I
am no longer doing this, there is just doing. The complex
identity of self is removed from the activity, and there is
pure play.
Some of us have more expensive toys than others.
Some children have sophisticated electronic toys and
others have just as much fun with stones and sticks (un-
less they are conditioned to believe they need better toys).
The essence of play is the same regardless of the toys.
Some of us are professionals, while others are labor-
ers, but the type of playpen should not make the differ-
ence. Some people have more comforts than others, but
these are physical aspects of our lifestyles; No Mind is
above all this.
Any type of work is an expression of the mind-body
dynamic, and with passive awareness, it is a direct ex-
pression of nature. Things and events are constantly
changing, just like our playpens, play toys, and playpals
are, but the essence of you, which is spiritual awareness,
does not change; you are in a constant state of play. You
are alive and functioning, and there is intrinsic joy in
that. Whether life dealt you a luxurious playpen or not,
you still must live, be detached, and play. That is No Mind
and the essence of health.
People who understand play typically see humor in
life and are not obsessed, somber, or attached to out-
comes. How can we nd humor in anything when we are
so xated with the result of everything we do? People
who realize No Mind are extremely functional; they reach
the highest levels of professional ability, athletic achieve-
ment, and personal fulllment. They can be sarcastic
only because they realize the paradox of sarcasm and be-
cause they are mocking the very existence of the clingy
and defensive Iill. Within sarcasm lies cynicism and

210003_201_C14.indd 287 6/6/08 3:07:27 PM

 288 within cynicism lies doubt, and this doubt is crucial at
the beginning stages of No Mind practice. The doubt be-
No Mind
201 comes omnipresent and then breaks through to insight
and to enlightenment. The ancient masters say that the
No Mind greater the doubt, the greater the enlightenment. It is
similar to a balloon being inated; the more air, the big-
ger the pop.
There is no conditioned intention or conditioned try
if the source is the Iill. The Iill-intention or Iill-try is
conditioned and geared toward projected outcomes. This
would fall into the category of Iill-expectations, Iill-
desires, Iill-hopes, and so on. If we intend or try, then
there is a dualistic mode of expression and that is not
pure play. There is the I and there is the play, instead of
the I merging with the play. There must be just play, no
I or I am playing. That does not mean that there can-
not be an intention, try, or desire; we just cannot be ab-
sorbed in fullling the conditions of the Iill. We must
watch the conditioned intention, try, or desire and not
lose our awareness in it.
In other words, when you take a test, you must allow
the mind-body to operate the way it was trained; you
must maintain a passive awareness of the test-taking. Let
the mind-body dynamic perform without thinking in
terms of me. Statements such as I must pass the test,
or I must get an A, or I have to hurry, I am running out
of time are counterproductive. Just take the test without
the interference of the Iill. Sit, relax, focus, and passively
watch the mind-body interact with the questions, and the
answers will come. Any attempt to force the answers
blocks the mind. As we all know, when we try hard to re-
member something, we usually dont remember until we
forget about it and then it comes on its own.
We freeze when we try too hard; when we relax, the
answer comes on its own. This is play while taking a test,
which sounds incredulous to most people. It is all play in
No Mind, and play is the essence of nature. There is no
intention on the part of sub-atomic particles to interact
and to create new particles, it just happens because it
is inherent in their nature; that is play. Likewise, our

210003_201_C14.indd 288 6/6/08 3:07:27 PM

 associative neural networks have no intention to produce 289
the actions or reactions that arise in awareness. Inten-
Chapter 14
tion is created by the Iill attending to thoughts of past
memories or future anticipations. No Mind
Between the past and the future is the present mo- Extreme
ment of awareness and the reason we practice aware-
ness training, or CAt. In this way you are always shielded
from extreme behaviors and views, whose maintenance
causes pain, remorse, resentment, and stress. The bal-
anced No Mind plays in the range of the proverbial
golden median, and it has no attachment to the results.
This is ultimate health, well-being, and contentment. So
remember: With attachment, work. Without attachment,
play.

210003_201_C14.indd 289 7/23/08 4:22:03 PM

 290

No Mind THE SIX FACTORS OF NO MIND ENLIGHTENMENT

201
Below is a quick reference to the six equations of
No Mind No Mind enlightenment, to be used in conjunction
with Figure 14-1 for a greater understanding of the
model. These are purely illustrative concepts to
help visualize the idea of each factor. For more de-
tail and further explanation regarding each factor,
refer to the corresponding chapters 8 through 13.
Factor 1: No Mind Reality;
I  1; I  0;
where the I is the Iill, and I is not one real, self-
contained entity (equal to 1 of what statisticians
might call measurable units of analysis), because it
has no existence of its own; it has identity only as a
by-product of the mental web. So in terms of real en-
tities, or things that are whole and complete in them-
selves, I equals zero, because it has no real substance
of its own, and it is an illusion.
Factor 2: No Mind Deautomatization;
P  M  Aa  Ar;
where P  Perception and M  Memory, and their
sum is not equal to the sum of Auto-action (Aa)
and Auto-reaction (Ar); Figure 7-1 indicates that
this relationship is equal, and Figure 14-1 dem-
onstrates the ability to move beyond it.
Factor 3: No Mind and CAt;
CAt  ; CAt  P  (B  M);
where CAt is Clear Attention, empty awareness, or
mindful awareness, and attention is greater than
the automatisms of Behavior (B), Memory (M), and
Perception (P). See Figure 19-1.

210003_201_C14.indd 290 6/6/08 3:07:27 PM

 291
Factor 4: No Mind Intuition; Chapter 14
CAt  ; In  P; No Mind
Extreme
where CAt is Clear Attention, which is the same
as empty or mindful awareness, and when we ex-
perience Clear Attention, then Intuition (In) is
more valuable than the automatisms and limita-
tions of normal Perception (P).
Factor 5: No Mind and No Iill;
I  0; CAt  ; t  and t  ;
where we realize that the Iill is identical to the
empty set, the illusion, and Clear Attention is now
congruent to empty awareness. We experience
empty gaps of awareness devoid of thoughts or
emotions. Past and future times are now equal to
the empty set, as time does not exist in the imme-
diate present of empty awareness.
Factor 6: No Mind Enlightenment;
(xon)  1   (xni )  1 : 1 0; (xon)  0  (xni )  0:
In this equation, x must equal 1 and 0 simultaneously
for a non-dualistic reality and for nature to perpet-
ually create itself from nothingness. If x  god,
then in order to avoid identity and dualism, god x
must also equal 1 and 0 at the same time, being
both emptiness and substance. God-conscious-
ness, or spiritual awareness, is looking into the
emptiness. While most religious doctrines are
monistic and dualistic, No Mind avoids the trap of
essential identity.

210003_201_C14.indd 291 6/6/08 3:07:30 PM

 Figure 14-1: No Mind 201Expanding Levels of No Mind.

Figure 14-1 builds upon the basic diagram of the Iill in Figure 7-1. However, now the hard
line connecting memory and behavior is dashed to represent a subtle shift in the process-
ing of the perceptual and behavioral channels. This shift is key to mindful action and reac-
tion and a step toward neutralizing automatisms. The result is purifying and expanding
perception of reality and gaining freer action and reaction as a consequence of the deau-
tomatization, or the unconditioning of the neural networks. The diagram represents the six
factors of enlightenment stepping out as an expansion toward spiritual awareness (see also
the Discovery of the Sequence of the Stones in Chapter 15), together with their correspond-
ing equations. As awareness expands through the practice of CAt, the mind moves toward No
Mind and eventually to the insight of spiritual awareness shown in Figure 26-1 at the end of
No Mind 401, Secrets of No Mind.

292

210003_201_C14.indd 292 6/6/08 3:07:33 PM

 No Mind 301

The Ten
Paradoxes

210003_301_C15.indd 293 6/6/08 3:20:40 PM

 The ancient masters used a series of drawings accompanied
by paradoxical poems to depict the stages of development
in the practice of Zen and attainment of enlightenment.
The illustrations revealed the difference between pseudo
and real enlightenment. When the disciples believed that
they had reached enlightenment, the illustrations would
make them understand what stage they were at in their
development. Many times, it was just the initial insight into
their spiritual awareness.

The Ten Oxherding Pictures, which date back to a Chan

(Zen) master during the Sung dynasty in China (1126-1279
CE), depict the development of an adolescent herdsman
who symbolizes the Iill. The boy sets out on a quest to nd
enlightenmentspiritual awareness, represented by the ox.

Chapter 15 tells the story behind the original stone and

the fragments. Through extensive research, a relationship
was found in the sequence of these stones to the ancient
Ten Oxherding Pictures and then assembled into a modern
version consisting of nine pictures that represent the
expanding awareness and the relation among the Iill, the
Mind, and the Body.

210003_301_C15.indd 294 7/23/08 4:24:36 PM

 Chapter 15

Discovery of the
Sequence of
the Stones

T he Ten Paradoxes begins with an overview of the different

levels through which awareness progresses in the process of
attaining No Mind and enlightenment. Then well discuss The Ten
Paradoxes and how we can apply them to our everyday lives. In
No Mind 501, Living No Mind, we will learn how The Ten Para-
doxes relate to different aspects of our daily lives, such as busi-
ness, relationships, sports, and stress management. After we learn
The Ten Paradoxes, we are ready to delve into the Right Aware-
ness and the Right Attitude, which increase the effectiveness of
the technique. Finally, we discover The Power of No Mind, and
how to practice and to integrate the three-step technique into our
daily lives.
The ancient masters used a series of drawings accompanied
by paradoxical poems to depict the stages of development in the
practice of Zen and the attainment of enlightenment (Kapleau,
1980). The illustrations revealed the difference between pseudo
and real enlightenment. When the disciples believed that they had
295

210003_301_C15.indd 295 7/23/08 4:24:38 PM

 296 reached enlightenment, the illustrations made them re-
alize that this probably was only the initial insight into
No Mind
301 their true spiritual awareness (Braverman, 1994).

The Ten
Paradoxes
THE TEN OXHERDING PICTURES

The Ten Oxherding Pictures, which date back to a Chan

(Zen) master of the Sung dynasty in China (1126-1279
CE), depict an adolescent herdsman, who symbolizes the
Iill, or everything described in No Mind 101. The boy sets
out on a quest to nd enlightenment. He starts from the
perspective of the Iill, which is the root of the problems
and attachments we experience in our daily lives. Our
propensity to identify with the Iill feeds the illusion that
we are separate from everything and maintains a super-
cial reality that we have created and have been condi-
tioned to believe. There are many variations of the ancient
Oxherding pictures which can be found for easy refer-
ence on the Internet.
The young herdsman sets out on a journey to nd the
truth of who he really is. He seeks the underlying essence
of nature, his spiritual awareness. The ox represents
achieving spiritual awareness by controlling and eventu-
ally overcoming the mindNo Mindwhich is the goal
of the boy. With training and searching, the Iill eventually
fades away into pure spiritual awareness of the essential
aspect of nature.
The series of illustrations begins with the boy looking
for the tracks of the ox and proceeds to show him slowly
overcoming the Iill, grasping the insight of spiritual
awareness, and seeing nature as it truly islooking
into the nothingness. The last picture depicts the boy as
a grown man experiencing the oneness of the world and
returning to the marketplace to help other people do
the same.
The goal of Zen is the integration of enlightenment
into normal daily lifeinto business, relationships,
sports, art, education, health, and academics. The reali-
zation that you are everything and that everything is you

210003_301_C15.indd 296 7/23/08 4:24:39 PM

 engenders the purest form of compassion. At its highest 297
level, this realization equals seeing into the emptiness,
Chapter 15
the essence of all things in the universe, which is both
nothing and everything at the same time, as we discussed Discovery
in No Mind 201. of the
Sequence
In the beginning, the inexperienced oxherder is con-
of the
fronted with the paradox that spiritual awareness cannot Stones
be found through the dualistic perspective of the Iill, and
so the boy is uncertain and confused. In the second pic-
ture, nding the tracks, the boy looks into the nature of
the Iill (mind), and begins to understand its automatiza-
tions and mechanisms.
The boy gains condence to proceed with his quest
for spiritual awareness, yet he still hasnt experienced
No Mind. He begins to now understand Right Attitude
and Right Awareness of No Mind (discussed later in
No Mind 301). In the third picture, which offers the rst
glimpse of the ox, the boy is fully aware of the patterns of
the Iill and how far it is from true spiritual awareness. He
has an occasional eeting glimpse of the insight into his
spiritual awareness, but the Iill is still overbearing. He
understands that practicing No Mind will help him to
begin dissolving the illusion of the dualistic relationship
between observer and observed. He also learns that he
can only do this through the direct perception of reality.
In the fourth picture, catching the ox, the practice
continues but the boy is having difculty maintaining the
awareness required to reach the deeper levels of No Mind.
Awareness shifts back and forth to the Iill, and the frus-
trated boy sticks to his pursuit of the ox. This marks an
important turning point in the practice, because the boy
must continue to practice No Mind whenever possible.
In the fth picture, taming the ox, the youth has
nally learned how to maintain control over awareness,
which allows him to penetrate deeper into No Mind. He
still struggles to transcend the dualistic nature of the
mind, but this requires less effort and true spiritual
awareness is now apparent. Watching the thoughts, the
boy is mindful of the illusion of the Iill, and he under-
stands that it is the by-product of mental processes.

210003_301_C15.indd 297 7/23/08 4:24:39 PM

 298 In the sixth picture, riding the ox home, the boy is no
longer swayed by desires or expectations, and all things
No Mind
301 appear in balance and harmony. Desire potentials do
not require fulllment. They are merely mental objects,
The Ten so he remains detached and observes the folly. Yet, the
Paradoxes
awareness of dichotomous observer and observed re-
mains; the illusion is not transcended fully, although the
boy has become impartial to it.
In the seventh picture, ox forgotten, self alone, the
maturing young man has reached No Mind, and there is
no longer observed and observerthey are one. The du-
ality of the Iill is transcended and concepts, thoughts,
ideas, beliefs, and opinions have no meaning, for they are
seen as part of the old illusion. The original spiritual
awareness we have at birth is re-experienced directly as
total absorption in the moment.
The person who is doing the experiencing and the ex-
perienced phenomena have vanished. In the eighth pic-
ture, both ox and self forgotten, the herder looks directly
into the emptiness, and the last fragments of the Iill have
dissolved. The fragmentation of nature is transcended
into blissful unity of all the things in the universe. The
underlying essence of nature is experienced directly as
substance and nothing, where nothing and everything
exist in the pure present moment.
This is an unconditional state that depends on noth-
ing for its fulllment or maintenanceit is pure exist-
ence. In the ninth picture, returning to the source, the
herder observes the ceaseless change of nature, and the
ow of the underlying essence is experienced as all things
continue in their pursuit of survival, which is the quintes-
sence of their being.
Inherent in all things are the source of their origin
and the effortless ow of their changing form, which is
direct manifestation of their underlying essence. This is
the realization of nature becoming aware of itself through
the enlightenment of the herder. The awareness that is
experienced now is the expression of the nothingness in
all matter; it is an awareness that is throbbing with the
universes own awareness. There is no individual self,

210003_301_C15.indd 298 6/6/08 3:20:50 PM

 only the objects of the external world and the pure grace- 299
ful action of the universe.
Chapter 15
The tenth picture, entering the marketplace to help
others, depicts a seless adult who sees all things with- Discovery
out having to interpret their meaning or value. There is of the
Sequence
no condemning, justifying, or analyzing the people with
of the
whom he comes into contact. He ows in the way of the Stones
Tao (nature) like a mountain stream that cannot be
stopped by the boulders that lie in its path. He simply
ows around obstacles, at the same time offering wisdom
and guidance to those who wish to go through the same
journey. The man observes the strivings of people with
indifference and compassion at the same time. The boy
has turned into a man, and the man has vanished into
emptiness, and nothing remains except the fulllment of
his intrinsic desire to help others.

ZEN AND NO MIND

Zen and the practice of No Mind are of no use if you

cannot apply them to your life. Your daily work must
manifest spiritual awareness through your mind-body
dynamic. Nature expresses itself in the honest work that
we perform in society.
You do not need to practice Zen or No Mind in a spe-
cial location set aside for mediation. Rather, you must in-
corporate it into all aspects of your lifebusiness, sports,
relationships, education, and so on. It is far more worth-
while to practice CAt while cooking, as opposed to sitting
quietly on a pillow in a dark room. In fact, it is best to
perform Zen in the midst of strife and confusion.
One day the Master instructed a certain samurai: From
the beginning, it best to do zazen [meditation] in the
midst of strife and confusion. A samurai, in particular,
must be able to do zazen while uttering his battle cry.
Guns are ring, lances are ying, and amidst the con-
fusion, you send up a battle cry. Its here that you can
clearly make good use of your practice. What use can
you have for the sort of zazen that needs a quiet place?
(Braverman, 1994)

210003_301_C15.indd 299 6/6/08 3:20:51 PM

 300 However, meditating in a dark room can help you de-
velop the skills necessary to practice No Mind in your daily
No Mind
301 lives, which is why it is recommended for beginners.
The Sequence of the Stones presented here origi-
The Ten nates from the Ten Oxherding Pictures, although they
Paradoxes
are modied from illustrations that are almost a thou-
sand years old. In the sequence, the number of pictures
is reduced to nine. The illustrations incorporate knowl-
edge of the Iill, Mind, Body, Spiritual Awareness, Exter-
nal World, and Time, as discussed in No Mind 101 and
No Mind 201.
The Power of No Mind discussed in No Mind 301
and the Secrets of No Mind discussed in No Mind 401
are integrated into the Sequence of the Stones which
you will discover in this chapter. These symbolic man-
dalas represent the stages of development in the prac-
tice of No Mind through a stylized graphic format that
replaces the boy and the ox with ancient symbols. The
term mandala is derived from ancient Sanskrit of
Tantric origins. It means circle, polygon, community,
connection, and it symbolizes enlightenment. A man-
dala is crafted as a metaphorical palace that is contem-
plated upon during meditation. Each object in the
palace has meaning, representing some aspect of wis-
dom, knowledge, and insight. Furthermore, the man-
dalas are used to guide the seeker of enlightenment
through the stages of development.

THE ANCIENT YIN YANG SYMBOL

The palace in the center and the outer circle of the con-
temporary nine Oxherding pictures is the Yin Yang sym-
bol, representing the inner temple of the mind-body
dynamic. The Yin Yang symbol originated in I-Ching, or
the Book of Changes, which is the foundation of Chinese
philosophy.
I-Ching was developed from the awareness of the natu-
ral phenomena of the universe, or the essential aspects

210003_301_C15.indd 300 6/6/08 3:20:51 PM

 of nature. Yang represents the Sun, creation, heat, male, 301
light, dominance, and so on. The Yin represents the
Chapter 15
Moon, female, cool, darkness, submission, completion,
and so on. All things in the universe change all the time Discovery
there is no moment of stagnation. In the process of per- of the
Sequence
petual transformation, the forces of Yin and Yang are
of the
balanced because no one force dominates the other, and Stones
they are two parts of the same wholethe whole of
nature.
The Yin Yang aspects of any one thing are in constant
uctuation. One principle produces the other, and the es-
sential aspect of one is within the other as a latent poten-
tial; in other words, all things possess their opposite
state.
We briey discussed the reality of essential identity,
such as the essential underlying aspect of nature, which
must be Nothingness and Being simultaneously. In other
words, the Now is both Being and Nothingness at the
same time; otherwise, it would be dualistic and imper-
manent. In our categorical minds, we perceive Being
and Nothingness as distinct identities and conceptualize
them as opposites. Yet, just as Yin and Yang are not op-
posites, they are in reality two complementary dynamic
aspects of the universe.
With this in mind, the Sequence of the Stones repre-
sented here depicts the inner temple as a changing Yin
Yang symbol of the Mind-Body-Iill. This evolves into a
larger Yin Yang symbol representing the external world
and eventually the universe, or nature.

NINE MANDALAS AND THE

PRACTICE OF NO MIND
The following nine mandalas depict the stages of develop-
ment in the practice of No Mind. Their source is nearly a
millennium old. They depict the levels of enlightenment in
an illustrative, as opposed to textual, format. They are put
together from the remaining fragments of the Sequence
of the Stones.

210003_301_C15.indd 301 6/6/08 3:20:51 PM

 ONE ... Before the Iill, At Birth

Figure 15-1. A newborn baby does not distinguish between self and non-self. Everything is spiritual aware-
ness, or the pure awareness of the rst look at a world without meaning and identity. There is no fragmen-
tation, and the external world and the mind-body are blurred into the same essential identity, represented
here by the dashed lines. Awareness is disrupted only by physiological needs, such as comfort, food, and
excretion. We come into the world without identity of an I, without developed Iill, only with the genetic map of
tendencies and potentialities, which may be modied one way or the other through conditioning and reinforce-
ment. All subsequent experiences merge into the emotional, physical, and intellectual mind-body dynamic,
which becomes the I. We develop the awareness of our I as a separate entity between the ages of 3 and
6. Long ago in Japan, charting the heavens was closely tied to divination. The star maps in the background of
the mandala represent the celestial bodies of the universe as a part of our mind and body.

302

210003_301_C15.indd 302 6/6/08 3:20:51 PM

 TWO ... Formation of the Iill, Searching for the Ox

Figure 15-2. The Iill is developed through the processes of conditioning, reinforcement, modeling, and categori-
cal formation rooted in the brains associative neural networks and genetic mapping. These mechanisms establish
our dualistic thinking, conrming the existence of I. Perception and behavior are limited through defense mecha-
nisms, memory, emotions, motivations, expectations, regrets, and worries. This limited awareness of perception
and behavior is represented by the large gap between mind and body (inner shaded Yin Yang symbol standing
for the inner temple). The Iill stands between the mind and body, interfering in their dynamic ow through expecta-
tions and self-criticisms. The Iill limits the full capacity of the mind-body dynamic. We also have an acute sense of
time in terms of future and past (represented by the plus and minus signs on our cognitive axis through which we
orient ourselves towards the world, and which here resembles a well-known technical contraptionthe compass).
Our concept of present-moment experiencethe Nowis limited. The thoughts, I am my body, I am my mind
dominate awareness and reafrm the identity of the Iill. The outer circle is the external world of phenomena that
blocks spiritual awareness from being realized. The illusory world of separate things reinforces the Iills perception
of alienation and undermines our underlying unity with naturespiritual awareness.

303

210003_301_C15.indd 303 6/6/08 3:20:54 PM

 THREE ... The First Level of CAt, Finding the Tracks

Figure 15-3. The rst level of CAt when passive awareness is attained, represented by the grey shading. It
expands the limits of perception and begins to de-condition actions and reactions. There are moments of being
objective and watching the stream of thoughts and bodily movements; the sensation of the initial stages of de-
tachment is experienced. The rst steps of deautomatization are taken. In the mandala, the Iill is slightly reduced
in size, squeezed out as the mind-body dynamic comes closer together in order to function more efciently. This
squeezing suggests that the Iills control over awareness is slowly diminishing, while awareness of the external
world grows by about 25%. The shift of awareness away from the Iill and toward the inner and outer worlds trans-
lates into a more direct perception of reality. There is still an acute temporal sense of past and future, of the Iill,
and of self-awareness; we are still aware that we are aware.

304

210003_301_C15.indd 304 7/23/08 4:24:39 PM

 FOUR ... The Second Level of CAt, Seeing the Ox

Figure 15-4. The second level of CAt further expands awareness, which pushes the limits of perception and
the deautomatization of our conditioned actions and reactions. These moments when we objectively watch the
stream of thoughts and bodily movements become longer and longer. Now spiritual awareness is in sight across
the mysterious abyss, even though the Iill and the worldly phenomena continue to obstruct the path. We are con-
stantly aware of how foolish the acts of the Iill are. In the mandala, the Iill shrinks again, as the mind-body dynamic
comes closer together through less self-criticism and less self-talk. Thus, moving closer to peak performance.
This squeezing suggests that the Iills control over awareness diminishes while awareness grows into the external
world and toward spiritual awareness by about 50% (represented by grey shading). The expansion of awareness
away from the Iill and toward the inner and outer worlds continues to produce a more direct perception of reality.
Ingrained personality patterns are now recognized as fragments of the Iill. There is still an acute temporal sense
of past and future, of the Iill, and of self-awareness.

305

210003_301_C15.indd 305 7/23/08 4:24:41 PM

 FIVE ... The Third Level of CAt, Taming and Riding the Ox Home

Figure 15-5. The third level of CAt; through continued practice of the techniques of No Mind, the ability to main-
tain CAt through daily tasks and routines increases to where we can practice it about 75% of the time. Although
awareness can be distracted by thoughts, it can be brought back under control quite easily. CAt penetrates
through the veil of the external world and into No Mind, as awareness of spiritual awareness has grown. Constant
maintenance of CAt is required to continue past this step and into the level of No Mind. Dualistic thought patterns
begin to break down as the deautomatization of actions and reactions starts affecting behavior. Thus, the Iills
trap of awareness loosens as a new perspective begins to emerge, grasping the greater dynamic unity beyond
the Iill. The Iill in this mandala has been reduced to a fraction of its original size, as awareness further expands
toward spiritual awareness. Simultaneously, the awareness of past and future has been replaced by increased
present-moment awareness.

306

210003_301_C15.indd 306 6/6/08 3:20:59 PM

 SIX ... The First Level of No Mind, Ox Forgotten, Self Alone

Figure 15-6. In the rst level of No Mind, awareness ows between thoughts without clinging or getting stuck.
The mind before the thought is grasped and experienced. Awareness is focused 100%, although subtle shifts
and recognition of the Iill still remain. The awareness is identied with the present moment and perception reects
as a mirror without losing itself in the interpretation of external phenomena. The external world dissolves into
spiritual awareness. The essential aspect of spiritual awareness is grasped, and the doubt that once burned in
the mind has been extinguished by the realization that the sense of identity is an illusion. The insight that Being
and Nothingness arise codependently means that the essential underlying substance of nature originates in
emptiness. Identity is realized in terms of the social human practice of describing and relating to things through
language, and spiritual awareness is beyond this; it cant be described using a dualistic language. The insight that
all paths lead to the same place is a common experience of No Mind; it is the realization that all differences stem
from the languages of the practitioners. The mind-body dynamic is in harmony and free from the Iill. This is the
zone experience of athletes and actors; the experience of peak performance without the self.

307

210003_301_C15.indd 307 6/6/08 3:21:00 PM

 SEVEN ... The Second Level of No Mind, Both Ox and

7 Self Forgotten

Figure 15-7. Awareness is no longer aware of itself, all traces of the Iill have vanished, and the external world
merges with spiritual awareness into one essential awareness. A doer no longer exists in the doing; the mind-
body is without essential identity. There is no observer only the observed exists. All action is performed through
non-action as an effortless ow of energy without any self. Time is transcended and the present moment is
omnipresent. The mind-body dynamic is synchronized into action as an inseparable whole. All categories disap-
pear, as meanings and interpretations of events and phenomena are held in awareness as part of a total whole.
There are no separate elements in nature; all things are seen as the manifestation of a basic underlying essence
and as emptiness. The external world of phenomena no longer blocks spiritual awareness. The experience of
the universe is transformed into one experience of action and reaction; there are no longer individual actions
and reactions, as they are all meshed into one reality of existence. This is essential Being, the experiencing that
awareness is the only universal constant.TM

308

210003_301_C15.indd 308 7/23/08 4:24:45 PM

 EIGHT ... The Final Level of No Mind, Returning to the Source

Figure 15-8. The Iill is completely gone, and all that remains is the awareness of the underlying essence of
nature (a.k.a. god-consciousness, or oneness). All things exist only as manifestations of their source. The experi-
ence of spiritual awareness is the underlying essence of the universe becoming aware of itselfthis is the level
of mystical experience, of looking into the emptiness ... looking directly into natures essence. It is an unshake-
able experience that transcends all descriptions of reality and phenomena; it is the direct experience of the ow
of nature, of the Tao. All boundaries are dissolved into the undifferentiated oneness that comprises all things in
the universe. One acts without self-consciousness, yet realizes that all life is a sacred element of the underlying
spiritual awareness; all acts are considered with ultimate compassion.

309

210003_301_C15.indd 309 6/6/08 3:21:02 PM

 NINE ... Entering the Marketplace

Figure 15-9. The person without an Iill is seless and sees all things as manifestations of being, nature, Tao,
or God. The mind no longer condemns, justies, or analyzes people; there is only total acceptance of what is.
The enlightened person knows how to ow over the obstacles of the social world, seeing illusion as illusion and
recognizing the plots of those who try to achieve something at the expense of others. This person cannot be de-
ceived. Looking through the Iill of others, he sees the self-deception of their identity. Helping others with ultimate
compassion is the way of nature, and so it comes spontaneously, there is no need for effort. The best use of the
practice of No Mind is in the sharing with others and helping those who can be helped. And so the enlightened
person knows that through daily tasks or work, the mind-body is fullled, and in that fulllment spiritual awareness
is realized as the universe becomes aware of itself. The very expression of nature is through the honest work that
we perform in the social world.

310

210003_301_C15.indd 310 6/6/08 3:21:03 PM

 The Ten ParadoxesTM are derived from the ancient philo-
sophies of the Tao and Zen, as well as from modern scientic
and medical research. The ancient masters discussed similar
codes with their disciples and followers of the Way. The
codes ensure that we choose the right action in our
everyday lives, and they facilitate the further development
of CAt to gain insight and to negate the automatism of
the Iill, thus removing the roadblocks on the way to full
mind-body synchronicity and potential. The Ten Paradoxes
is a contemporary Zen or Tao code, with modications
that merge modern psychology, the Power of No Mind,
and psycho-therapeutic language into one comprehensive
program.

Chapter 16 introduces The Ten Paradoxes, which cultivates

Right Attitude and Right Awareness.

210003_301_C16.indd 311 6/6/08 3:30:36 PM

 Chapter 16

The Ten Paradoxes

I n No Mind 301, we integrate the understanding of the mind

with the understanding of No Mind. Without the knowledge
you have acquired so far in this program, the technique pre-
sented here would mean nothing to you and you wouldnt be
able to apply it to your daily life. In light of the modern con-
text and its implications for the adaptation of the principles of
No Mind, it is imperative that we understand mind and No Mind
in order to understand the purpose of the technique. This guid-
ing knowledge enables the development of the Right Attitude and
Right Awareness (CAt), which will be discussed in the following
chapters. Now you have everything you need. You are in charge
on this journeyno one can help you realize No Mind except
for yourself. You may be guided, but it is you who must practice
and maintain the correct attitude. All one can do to help you is
to point the way. The right door has been identied for you, so
open it and begin the journey.

312

210003_301_C16.indd 312 6/6/08 3:30:38 PM

 Spiritual awareness is yours already. Nothing needs to 313
be found or gotten. When Right Attitude and Right Aware-
Chapter 16
ness (CAt) start working in unison, No Mind takes over and
the insight of spiritual awareness is grasped. Then you The Ten
experience god-consciousness, or the essential aspect of Paradoxes
nature. The process is different for each person, and break-
through experiences vary; yet, the result is always the same.
Each person requires a different mix of knowledge of
No Mind, practice, CAt, and Right Attitude. Overpowering
the Iill calls for diligent behavioral deautomatizations.
When we concern ourselves with the concept of Who (as
in Who is watching?), we nd it impossible to locate an
actual entity called I. As we move away from the Iill, we
are increasingly skeptical about the concept of Who.
Doubt emerges because No Mind and the insight of spirit-
ual awareness cannot be understood from the perspective
of the Iill. Our intellectual and analytical capacities come to
a screeching halt at the edge of the abyss of nothingness. We
begin to doubt the perceived core of our existence, the Iill.
All meanings and attachments appear empty, but the effect
is oddly life-afrming. We are most likely to experience a
ash of No Mind in the midst of such doubt, when spiritual
awareness rushes in and we experience direct perception of
reality. At this point, you can grasp the Ten Paradoxes.
No Mind is grasped though direct insight of nature, where
all things exist and ourish interdependently within a single
reality. This mystical insight illuminates the paradoxes of
No Mind, which will be discussed in No Mind 401. A study
published in Psychologia in 1975 details the authors experi-
ence trying to hold an image still. The author describes how
meaning was stripped from symbols, words, and images,
and only the actual explicit meaning remained:

Repeated efforts over many months met with failure

until nally, for a split second, all bodily responses re-
mained completely still, while I looked on at the image
and the thought associated with it ... with all bodily
reactions stopped at the moment of looking, images
become neutral and language is reduced to a truly ab-
stract symbolic system. (Grim, 1975)

210003_301_C16.indd 313 6/6/08 3:30:39 PM

 314 The Ten Paradoxes cultivate Right Attitude and Right
Awareness. They are partially derived from the ancient
No Mind
301 philosophies of Tao and Zen and partially from the
modern scientic and medical ndings detailed in the
The Ten No Mind program. The ancient masters discussed similar
Paradoxes
paradoxes with kings, queens, ministers, priests, Samurai
warriors, disciples, and other followers of the Way. In
addition, similar teachings are common to many other
religious and philosophical traditions, such as Christian
Mysticism, Susm, the Kabbalah, Buddhism, Hinduism,
and Yogism. The paradoxes nourish the right action in
everyday life and enable CAt to counteract the auto-
mated Iill, thus enhancing the mind-body potential and
true happiness.
The Ten Paradoxes help us to get through lifes chal-
lenges and to maintain Right Attitude and Right Aware-
ness. We face a world of perpetual change, where apparent
truths or realities can crumble overnight. We are con-
stantly exposed to human pathologies and to societal
ills. We keep lling our plates, assuming that this leads
to happiness, yet we end in sadness, despair, or confu-
sion. Society and media condition us to believe that
more is better, and we never take the time to question
this paradigm. We are concerned with the goal, with the
end result, with the fruits of our labor, and the youthful
process of effortless play fades in the background. But
the ancient masters say, without effort all is done; in
other words, without the conditioned Iill affecting
every aspect of doing, all is done as there is nothing left
undone. When our efforts arise from conditioned be-
havior to achieve a conditioned goal, then we are in the
effort of the Iill, and not in the effortless process of
No Mind.
Mental preparation is key to mastering the adapta-
tion skills necessary to ow with daily changes and
to overcome seemingly impenetrable obstacles. This
keeps us focused on the path and armed with a keenly
perceptive sense of humor. We understand the work-
ings of our own Iill and of the Iills of others and of

210003_301_C16.indd 314 6/6/08 3:30:39 PM

 society as a whole. This understanding is humorous 315
when we know that the web ensnarling us is only a
Chapter 16
constructed illusion and that we hold the keys to our
own prison. This key unlocks the door of intuition The Ten
we need to enter in order to grasp the essential nature Paradoxes
of our spiritual awareness.
The middle path is always the best. When you are
caught up in the extremes and believe them to be reality,
then you have further entangled yourself in the web of
the Iill. These types of entanglements make it harder for
you to escape the Iill and to grasp No Mind. You realize
that opinion, conceit, value, pride, belief, and religious
and social extremisms are all products of the individual
and social Iill. Their source is empty conditioning, re-
inforcement, and association, so they have no intrinsic
reality of their own. People who do not understand the
middle path ght and even die for the Iill. The golden
median, on the other hand, is characterized by balance,
contentment, and peace, even during turbulent times.
The secret is in transcending opposites and extremes and
in seeing all things within the dynamic unity of an intrin-
sically playful nature.
The practice of No Mind is not limited to focusing
your attention for twenty minutes a day. Instead, it is a
practice of integrating Right Attitude and Right Aware-
ness in your daily lives. The paradoxes are a reference
guide we can use routinely and apply to a variety of situ-
ations. Some of the paradoxes may appear more illogical
than others. But spiritual awareness reconciles all incon-
sistencies and opposites. With spiritual awareness, you
experience reality directly.
The Ten Paradoxes are related to the six factors of
No Mind discussed in No Mind 201. The six factors are
fundamental to a solid grasp of the philosophy and
technique of No Mind. The paradoxes may appear non-
sensible at rst, but this is only because you approach
them via the relative mechanisms of the Iill; regardless,
they offer the best path to No Mind. Here they are, the
Ten Paradoxes:

210003_301_C16.indd 315 7/23/08 4:32:40 PM

 316 Paradox 1 Act. React. But never try.
No Mind Paradox 2 Act. React. Always in play.
301
Paradox 3 Seek mind with no thought.
The Ten Paradox 4 With thought, intention.
Paradoxes
With intention, karma.
Paradox 5 Perform. Do. But never think.
Paradox 6 When mind is as a mirror,
everything is revealed.
Paradox 7 With thought, no ow.
Without thought, ow.
Paradox 8 With attachment, work.
Without attachment, play.
Paradox 9 Think. Think not. There is no thinker.
Paradox 10 Untrain the mind, be empty.
When empty, you are full.
We will discuss how each of the Paradoxes contrib-
utes to the development of the Right Attitude and Right
Awareness. In No Mind 501, we learn how to use The
Ten Paradoxes on a daily basis in business, sports,
relationships, and stress management. The Iill is a tough
nut to crack, but with patience and constant awareness
you gain control over its elusive aspects. Auto-actions,
auto-reactions, and auto-perceptions produced by the
mechanisms of the Iill (Figure 7-1) dissipate when we
apply No Mind and the paradoxes to events in our daily
lives. We then perceive everything more clearly and
directly. This awareness allows us to make choices based
on our holistic knowledge of the situation without hav-
ing to break things down into fragments. The minds nat-
ural tendency is to see the parts and not the whole; in
the practice of No Mind, however, you expand your hori-
zons and interpret reality without fragmenting it into
categories. The Ten Paradoxes are crucial to developing
Right Attitude in daily living, while the awareness tech-
niques discussed here develop the more important aspect
of Right Awareness. The Ten Paradoxes will be referenced
frequently throughout No Mind 501, Living No Mind:

210003_301_C16.indd 316 7/23/08 4:32:40 PM

 Paradox 1

Act. React. But Never Try.

Action and reaction are the prod-

ucts of behaviors, motivations,
thoughts, perceptions, and emo-
tions we experience throughout
the day. Acting and reacting are
essential to our daily functioning.
The Ten Paradoxes teach that we
dont need to apply conditioned
effort to our actions and reactions
in our pursuit to fulll conditioned
expectations, desires, hopes, ego-
centric goals, and so on. When we
try in an action, we identify with
the effort and become attached to
it. The harder we try, the more we
identify, whether we are success-
ful or not. We become the try
and our self-image is conditioned

210003_301_C16.indd 317 7/23/08 4:32:40 PM

 318 on the success or failure of that try. If you try for the
sake of outdoing others or for ego gratication, then the
No Mind
301 try originates in the Iill mechanisms. It is self-fullling
and empty, as it has no real existence of its ownonly min-
The Ten gled conditioned associations within the mind. An empty
Paradoxes
and unsubstantiated source can never bring true happiness
and contentment, as it is ever-changing.
The action of non-human animals is natural and ef-
fortless, as it isnt conditioned on the I. Animals respond
and move in a way that is free of ego-gratifying condi-
tions. They can be trained and conditioned, but that goes
beyond the instinctive natural motions of the animals.
This is relevant to peak performance in sports, where the
Iill releases its hold on the mind-body and allows it to do
what it has been trained to do. This releases a mind-body
dynamic that is free of Iill-imposed blocks, such as ex-
pectations, fears, performance anxieties, worries, and
motivations. The ancient Chinese texts of the Tao are very
clear on this point:

The most extensive knowledge does not necessarily

know it; reasoning will not make men wise in it. The
sages have decided against both these methods ... By
non-action everything can be done. (Tzu, 1968)

Through play and effortless action, all gets done with-

out being forced. Natural and effortless actions are more
effective. The ancient Tao masters called this phenome-
non wu-wei, or non-action. Non-action happens sponta-
neously, allowing the mind-body dynamic to perform of
its own accord without the interference of shoulds.
While non-action is the ow of the moment that fulls the
nature of the person, try is a mere manifestation. If one
is trained as a runner, her mind-body nature is to run; to
try to run would be redundant, and it would interfere
with her natural ability. If the runner tries to run as fast
as she can in order to win a race, the thoughts of being
the best and winning actually obstruct the peak perform-
ance of the mind-body dynamic. It is more natural to let
go and to run with Clear Attention, or CAt. So the runner

210003_301_C16.indd 318 6/6/08 3:30:46 PM

 is mindful of the mind-body during the run, as opposed 319
to being mindlessly swept into seductive thoughts of
Chapter 16
winning. Her reaction is quicker, natural, and resolute
without self-awareness and self-corrections. When you The Ten
are in the moment, you are grounded and moved by your Paradoxes
nature without anxious expectations of the future or
guilts of the past.

A focus on the process and intrinsic qualities of an ac-

tivity reduces the likelihood of anxiety and depression
(thus eliminating their negative impact on perform-
ance), increases the pleasure of joy during the proc-
ess, and thus increases the likelihood of achieving the
extrinsic outcome. I have to let go of a desired outcome
in order to acquire it. (Borkovec, 2002)

This paradox enables the mind-body to do what it

does naturally, without forcing. The insight here is that
if you are trying on behalf of the ego, the effort is tainted
by the mechanisms of the Iill. Try therefore becomes con-
ditioned, false, and unnatural. The incessant self-talk we
perform during an action reduces our capabilities and
performance, even if it is positive. Again, the words of
Lao Tzu, by non-action everything can be done, appear
paradoxical at rst, but with understanding and practice
we learn that everything is done refers to the natural
order of things fullling itself without individual effort or
the Iill. We do not need to teach a tiger to hunt or a rose
to blossom; we all have natural talents and abilities, and
if we allow them to unfold spontaneously, we are fullled
and everything is done.
In the more advanced levels of No Mind, there cannot
be any conditioned try or effort. Action arises spontane-
ously only when conditions are right. While the technique
certainly requires effort, concentration, and persistence,
it should be practiced as naturally as pouring a cup of tea
during a tea ceremony. There is no try entailed in pour-
ing a cup of tea. With No Mind, we simply pour and
enjoy.

210003_301_C16.indd 319 6/6/08 3:30:46 PM

 Paradox 2

Act. React. Always in Play.

The concept of play relates to the

concept of never try. Play is the
natural ow of the universe. It is
purposeless and unintentional,
which does not mean that it
is disordered, un-patterned, or
unstructured. If you believe
there is an underlying purpose
to everything, then you might
also believe that this purpose
was assigned. In this case, we
conceive of purpose loosely
within the natural chaos of the
universe.
Play here does not refer to
recreational or entertaining ac-
tivities, such as sports, games,
movies, and so on. Instead, play

210003_301_C16.indd 320 7/24/08 5:53:14 PM

 is improvisation without Iill intention throughout the rou- 321
tines of our lives. It is going through the day with humor
Chapter 16
and mindfulness. We play out actions and reactions and
have fun. To become attached to outcomes, results, and de- The Ten
cisions that are outside our control is to set ourselves up for Paradoxes
failure and unhappiness. We perform best by following our
natural ability through play, without conditioned effort.
Play negates the seriousness of the Iills conditioning and
defensive mechanisms. Only few people understand play in
daily life, and they exemplify happiness.
No Mind is a playful reection of the universe. We all
have met high-strung people who spend every moment
gratifying their Iill. They are stuck suffering in their own
web of illusion. Play here does not mean a lackadaisical,
half-hearted effort toward a particular project, task, or rou-
tine. You still perform to the best of your natural ability.
But in doing so, you do not become attached to particular
outcomes that you cannot control, and you do not focus on
ego gratication or on fullling self-worth prophecies. Be
mindful of the task, and do not focus on the thoughts of the
task, on the expectations of the task, on the intentions or mo-
tivations of the taskjust the task itself. Do not dwell in the
attitude that has been forged by the Iill and get past it by
utilizing Right Awareness or CAt, where all work is play.
When all work is play, all work is relatively the samean
exercise of the mind-body dynamic that brings simple joy.
Perform the task in play and you will never be at work.
Focus in the present, like you did when you played as a
child. There is nothing more that needs to be done.
Ego gratication is irrelevant in No Mind because the
Iill has been surpassed. There is nothing to fulll in that
sense, nothing is threatened, so everything is play. Prac-
ticing No Mind, you easily distinguish playpals with free-
dom and spontaneity from people who have Iill issues;
yet, with No Mind we feel compassion for the latter types,
who are still trapped within their own illusion. You also
know that you have a natural edge in your dealings with
them. From this perspective, we see that interpersonal
conicts stem from the natural order of the social world

210003_301_C16.indd 321 6/6/08 3:30:51 PM

 322 composed of numerous Iill realities. They do not consti-
tute a personal attack, as there is nothing personal about
No Mind
301 No Mind. It is an awareness that is beyond the personal.
It is the awareness of the unity of all parts and pieces of
The Ten reality. So concern yourself less with the playpen, with
Paradoxes
the toys, and with the Iills of your playmates; instead,
your primary concern should be the playimprovisation
without intention.

210003_301_C16.indd 322 6/6/08 3:30:52 PM

 Paradox 3

Seek Mind with No Thought.

This paradox represents one of

the oldest concepts of Zen and
Eastern philosophies. Recently,
it has also become the focus of
modern psychotherapy. Without
two mirrors, how can you ever
see the back of your head? It is
as impossible as discovering
No Mind with mind. Mind cannot
grasp No Mind because it blocks
itself from seeing. The analyti-
cal, intellectual, associative, cate-
gorical, ltering, and defensive
processes of the compulsive Iill
stie Clear Attention of No Mind.
When the mind has been un-
trained from its neural network-
ing physiology, the awareness of

210003_301_C16.indd 323 7/23/08 4:32:43 PM

 324 No Mind arises. From that point forward, it can be prac-
ticed and deepened until it becomes part of our daily life.
No Mind
301 In an article published in the Journal of Counseling
Psychology, Emanuel Berger of the University of Minne-
The Ten sota suggests that the Zen technique of no thought
Paradoxes
(No Mind) is a process used to overcome dualism
(subjectobject relationships):

It is to allow the mind to function freely without

thought of environment or objects of consciousness, or
ideas of good and bad, free of behaviorism. Behavior
then is more spontaneous, freer without pre-supposed
ideals or habits. No thought can be applied to the
counseling relationship, allowing the counselor to act
on his own, to respond and to act without any attempt
to achieve any special effect without standing outside
the relationship and viewing either the client or self or
the relationship objectively for the purpose of analyz-
ing, manipulating or evaluating what is being done ...
Language is used to refer to everything outside oneself,
and thereby objecties everything that is not self by
giving it names and classications. Zen says that this
duality is not real, that both the self and non-self are
part of the totality of the individuals experience. The
self is not an entity separate from our experiencing, but
a part of that experience. (Berger, 1962)

The practice of no thought can be used in profes-

sional, business, educational, and creative settings, as
well as in relationships, sports, and stress management,
as detailed in No Mind 501, Living No Mind. The practice
of no thought is the practice of No Mindthe mindful
attention of the moment as it is, not as it should be.
Seeking mind with no thought is seeking the insight of
spiritual awareness discussed in Chapter 11. This insight
grasps the direct reality of spiritual awareness and ap-
plies No Mind to push the Iills program into the back-
ground of awareness (in a multitasking metaphor). There
is a shift from auto-perception to direct perception of re-
ality. No thought is a prerequisite to insight, and the two
are co-dependent. With CAt, the mind becomes void of

210003_301_C16.indd 324 6/6/08 3:30:56 PM

 thoughts, the mechanisms of the Iill stop, and the gates 325
of insight open.
Chapter 16
No Mind is holistic awareness of the direct perception
of reality. By contrast, dualism is the expression of lan- The Ten
guage and of the neural associative networks. Thought Paradoxes
manifests itself in a world of identity, where it fragments
and categorizes reality into parts, obscuring its natural
unity and interdependence. It establishes the Iill as a dis-
crete entity that sets itself against the external world.
When we set ourselves apart from the external world, we
create our own world of desire, fear, good, and evil. It is
written in the Dhammapada: The Path of Perfection (from
the third century BCE):

He whose mind is in calm self-control is free from the

lust of desires, who has risen above good and evil. He
is awake and has no fear. (Mascaro, 1973)

To be awake is to be enlightened about the essence of

nature, which is imperishable. It isnt esh, nor bones;
instead, it is the underlying, ever-lasting essence of esh
and bones (and everything else). Fear is irrelevant to what
cannot be destroyed, and this realization comprises the
warriors sense of No Mind. It is innite awareness above
the Iill, the mind, or the body, which are fragile. You are
the spiritual awareness which permeates the universe.
You seek mind with absolute, as opposed to learned or
relative, knowledge. The ancient masters have repeatedly
warned that the more you study No Mind intellectually,
the more you depart from the direct path. When the Iills
mechanisms, defenses, and thoughts subside, the Iill is
overrun by insight. The process of no thought opens
the gates to this paradox, and the practice of No Mind
stops the process of thought.

210003_301_C16.indd 325 6/6/08 3:30:56 PM

 Paradox 4

With Thought, Intention.

With Intention, Karma.

Our lives are determined by

karma until there is enlighten-
ment, but karma is a widely mis-
understood concept. Karma does
not refer to the good and bad
credit you accumulate through
positive and negative actions
(what you put out is what you
get back, or it all comes back to
you). Karma begins with the
seeds of intention in the Iill. As
long as we have intentional voli-
tion and remain in the illusion of
the Iill, we are bound by karma.
When we act within the Iills frag-
mented dualistic reality, we are
independent, self-serving entities

210003_301_C16.indd 326 7/23/08 4:32:44 PM

 that manifest individual intentions but remain blind to 327
the unity of spiritual awareness. The Iill is a selsh illusion
Chapter 16
and an evolutionary self-protective mechanism that usu-
ally favors itself over all else. Thus, when we act on a basic The Ten
intention, we release the energy of the Iills desire into the Paradoxes
world. As we discussed in the context of Paradoxes 1 and 2,
intentions, expectations, desires, and motivations are not
pure; they are based on the automatisms of the Iill. We are
not acting free as long as we act based on conditioned
motives. With No Mind, there is no intention and the man-
ifested actions are pure and seless, triggered by pure per-
ception (see Figure 19-1). As long as there is an aspect of
the Iill in your intention, you are bound by karma.
In No Mind, the simple act of eating is driven by pure
intention that is not originating from the Iill. Thus, it is
untainted by karmic energy. When you eat, just eat, try to
be mindful of the eating and of the taste only. Do not
complicate the act of eating with prejudice or with inter-
pretation of the food. Our taste buds can get very condi-
tioned, and eating correctly through No Mind can
uncondition them. Just eat and enjoy.
But if the act of eating is polluted by the intentions of
the Iill (for example, if we are concerned with being seen
in a certain restaurant, or indulge cravings for a particu-
lar type of food, or overeat in order to politely nish
everything), it comes with karma. They produce karmic
energy because of their Iill origin. When you eat for the
simple sake of eating, without intention, your taste is open
and unconditionally reactive. Dont worry about where,
what, and why. Just eat!
Without karma, you are free from the contingencies
of your actions and reactions. Act. React. But never try.
When you act naturally in accord with your spiritual
awareness, your actions and reactions are merely expres-
sions of the mind-body dynamic without interference
from the Iill, without self-corrections, without evaluation
and analyses, without the desire to impress others. It is
simple and pure. Practicing No Mind enables you to
recognize the Iills inuence on your experiences. Being

210003_301_C16.indd 327 6/6/08 3:31:01 PM

 328 mindful, you understand the karmic auto-actions, auto-
reactions, and auto-perceptions of the Iill.
No Mind
301 Traditionally, we think of karma in simplistic terms
of cause and effect. The general idea is that we have
The Ten bad karma if we hurt somebody and we have good
Paradoxes
karma if we do something philanthropic. But this is not
how the ancient masters conceived of karma. Karma re-
lates to the active aspect of the universe. It describes
the dynamic interrelationships among Iill-realities.
Even the Iill originates in spiritual awareness, the es-
sential aspect of nature. The spectrum of karma, span-
ning from evil to love, includes the multitude of social
actions and interactions based on the Iills intentions.
Karma does relate to the essential nature of perceptible
cause and effect, but it is more than that. When a nega-
tive or a positive action is performed intentionally, it
may not have immediate apparent effects, and it may
even go undetected forever. The karma of these types of
unseen events is not that a similar effect will bounce
back to its originator, but that the originator is still
bound by the positive and negative karmic aspects of
his action via his mental web. Each intentional action
has a reciprocal pattern in the mental web of the Iill, and
it remains there until it is liberated through enlighten-
ment. These actions originate in the Iill and remain
within its connes, therefore they become embroiled in
the karmic chain of cause and effect. So a negatively
charged karmic event is not only introduced into the
world, but it stays and festers within the originators
mind. In other words, when you think karma is coming
back to you or to someone else, it is you or the origina-
tor who is producing the rebound effect.
No Mind is beyond the opposition between positive
and negative. Action and reaction are seen as parts of the
same dynamic cycle of events, and positive and negative
acts are the ends of the same poleone contains the other
and cannot exist without it. You wouldnt know a positive
action unless you knew a negative one. And these dis-
criminations are related to the propensity of the Iill to
categorize; in No Mind there are no discriminations.

210003_301_C16.indd 328 7/23/08 4:32:46 PM

 These terms are relative to the karma originator. He is 329
bound by karma as long as he thinks that positive and
Chapter 16
negative are two different realities.
This does not mean that positive and negative actions The Ten
have the same consequences in the social world; obvi- Paradoxes
ously negative actions can hurt and positive actions can
help in the context of the social realm. The important
point here is that actions are interdependent of each
other and they arise together. Negative actions are the
ones whose positive attributes we may not always per-
ceive. Even the most intelligent of non-human animals
do not commit evil or negative acts. They simply exist in
the ow of their environment, employing skills and abili-
ties acquired in the course of evolution. When they go
about their daily routines, there is no negative or positive
intention driving their actions. They do not kill for greed,
hate, jealousy, revenge, or enjoyment. They do it to sur-
vive. The act is purely instinctual. Human actions are
more likely to be driven by the Iill, as opposed to true na-
ture. In this way, karma is a purely human, as opposed to
natural, attribute.
Karma results from the neural associative networks
of our brain. Each time we invest intention in an action,
we initiate a chain of events. Karma does not exist in the
universe by itself. There is no intention in nature. If a
star explodes in a distant galaxy and annihilates all plan-
ets in its vicinity, it does not accrue bad karma. The
same holds for a tree that falls of its own and destroys
something in its path. As long as you perceive an action
as positive or negative, it accrues karma. As mentioned
previously, this does not mean that positive and negative
actions are the same. Each action has different implica-
tions within the social or natural worlds, and the degree
of impact of each act carries a related potential karmic
charge. Karmic energy is relative to the consequences of
the action. No Mind actions are free of karmic energy.
They are beyond the dualism of being and not-being, or
of opposites in general. In this placeless place, cause and
effect do not exist.

210003_301_C16.indd 329 7/23/08 4:32:46 PM

 330 Intention is caught within the chain of cause and ef-
fect. By denition, intention implies that something
No Mind
301 needs to be changed or completed in order to t into a
goal or plan. If an intention is fullled, you may be happy;
The Ten if it fails, you may be sad. Therefore, intention drags you
Paradoxes
into the karmic world of cause and effect. You do not
need to intend to drink the tea. There is the pouring, there
is the drinking, and there is enjoyment; none of these re-
quire intention. No Mind suspends the Iills intentions, so
that karma ceases to exist. The pure act of drinking tea is
free of karma. Living in the moment is free of karma.

210003_301_C16.indd 330 6/6/08 3:31:02 PM

 Paradox 5

Perform. Do. But Never Think.

Paradox 1 teaches about no try,

also known as non-action or
action without intention. If one
over-thinks while performing an
action, he might miss the mo-
ment conducive to optimal re-
sults. Much cognitive science
research over the last two dec-
ades suggests that performance
increases when you think less. In
the book Hare Brain, Tortoise
Mind, psychologist Guy Claxton
demonstrates that over-thinking
hurts the performance of daily
tasks, especially under pressure:

People working under pres-

sure, whether environmen-
tal or psychological, tend to

210003_301_C16.indd 331 7/24/08 5:53:18 PM

 332 select out and focus on those aspects of the situation as
a whole which they judge to be the crucial ones. And
No Mind this judgment must to a certain extent, as Freud real-
301
ized, be a prejudgment. You make an intuitive decision
The Ten about what is going to be worth paying attention to.
Paradoxes If this attention gamble is correct, people may learn
the task, or gure out a solution, quicker, but at the ex-
pense of a broader overview. They see in terms of what
they expect to see. (Claxton, 2000)

So we focus selectively at a price. Claxton also argues

that deliberated choices are less likely to produce satis-
factory results than intuitive choices that arent overana-
lyzed. We need to learn to intuit between the opposites of
good and bad, and we need to do this beyond thought.
Insightful decisions are not weighted in terms of the
conditioned Iill, so they are unconditioned insights.
Over-thinking also hurts performance when doubt
overruns us in the form of crippling thoughts that lead to
failure. Self-deprecating or self-inspiring thoughts present
similar obstructions since they originate from myriad
conditioning cues, reinforcement patterns, defense mech-
anisms, ltering sequences, and categorical representa-
tions. Thinking I must succeed, everyone is counting on
me at the moment of optimum performance may be truly
counterproductive to the full mind-body potential. As
previously discussed, thought interferes with No Minds
insight of the whole in a single moment. No Mind trains
us to suspend categorical representations of a given situa-
tion and to hold all categories in awareness at once. Many
studies have demonstrated that mindfulness is a powerful
tool to open the perceptual pathways and to increase
intuitive understanding.
There are many documented cases and personal ac-
counts describing experiences where people performed
actions without thought. For a moment, or for a series of
moments, they were totally absorbed in the act, as the self
and self-consciousness disappeared. They trusted the
mind-body dynamic to perform as it was trained, exposing
talents and abilities to the fullest. Samurai warriors al-
lowed their instinctive mastering of the sword to dominate

210003_301_C16.indd 332 6/6/08 3:31:06 PM

 their actions as they fought superbly without thought. In 333
the movie The Last Samurai, a younger warrior advises the
Chapter 16
Western protagonist, who was overburdened with thoughts
and could not perform at his peak potential, to let go of The Ten
thoughts and to have No Mind in order to really master Paradoxes
the sword.
Real Samurai warriors had no intention, no fear, and
needed no try. Their actions were as natural as the liz-
ards tongue icking the y off the petal of a ower. No try.
No intention. Just pure action. As manifestations of the
Iill, thoughts are often deceptive and unreliable. We do not
need to act on them. In an article published in Clinical
Psychology and Psychotherapy, Teasdale makes a distinction
between metacognitive knowledge, which is knowing
that thoughts are not always accurate, and metacognitive
insight, which is experiencing thoughts as events in the
eld of awareness. Teasdales studies are related to pre-
venting depression relapse by helping patients change the
way they relate to their inner experience:

Facilitating a metacognitive insight mode, in which

thoughts are experienced simply as events in the mind,
offers an alternative preventative strategy. Mindfulness
training teaches skills to enter this mode, and forms
a central component of Mindfulness-based Cognitive
Therapy ... A primary focus such as the breath can
serve as anchor which can be used to return aware-
ness to the present moment and limit the extent to
which one becomes lost in the reality created by the
thought streams in which we are so often immersed.
Mindful observation of thoughts allows us to recognize
familiar, recurring patterns in the thought content, so
facilitating further the ability to see them as patterns of
the mind rather than as necessarily valid readouts on
reality. (Teasdale, 1999b)

In clinical settings, mindfulness is used to emphasize

that thoughts are mind creations and not direct readouts
on reality. Thoughts are fallible, and we must learn to see
the patterns of the Iill by being mindful of mental proc-
esses. We have a tendency to get lost in the process, but

210003_301_C16.indd 333 6/6/08 3:31:06 PM

 334 Clear Attention (CAt) remedies this. As discussed in
greater detail in Chapter 28, No Mind Sports, the essence
No Mind
301 of no thought in performance is the total absorption in
the action and the awareness that thoughts do not neces-
The Ten sarily constitute the correct interpretation of reality. The
Paradoxes
loss of self-consciousness allows for pure focus on the act
and not on the preconditions of the thoughts. In other
words, all thoughts and cognitive inuences that you may
have experienced prior to the performance of an action
are no longer affecting this performance, so that we can
say that it is unconditioned performance. Conditioning
here does not refer to training the mind-body to perform
an activity. What we mean is that its not conditional on
any thought of shoulds and whys we may have had
prior to or during an activity. You simply perform with-
out thought in the moment, or in the ow. You are mind-
ful of the body performing until the moment you reach
peak performance, when self-consciousness evaporates.
No Mind exists only in the present moment, where
thoughts of past or future cease to exist. Thoughts of fail-
ure or success are of no consequence to your perform-
ance. They are seen as mere thoughts and nothing more.
Only the act in the present moment exists and everything
else is the illusion of the Iill and its defenses. The experi-
ence of No Mind in action cannot be forced. It must arise
of itself, through the practice of CAt technique.

210003_301_C16.indd 334 7/23/08 4:32:47 PM

 Paradox 6

When Mind Is as a Mirror,

Everything is Revealed.

One of the vital components in

the practice of CAt is mirroring
the external and internal worlds.
In mirroring, sensory data is re-
ected mindfully without inter-
pretative input from the Iill and
its mechanisms. In other words,
we do not get lost in the auto-
perception of the internal and
external worlds, but we are ob-
jectively aware of what is occur-
ring. In this way, your attention
acts as a pond reecting every-
thing that is cast upon it without
the intention to reect anything.
The practice of CAt leads to the

210003_301_C16.indd 335 7/24/08 5:53:20 PM

 336 development of No Mind, which leads to the insight of
spiritual awareness. At the moment of No Mind enlight-
No Mind
301 enment, we realize spiritual awareness and everything is
revealed. We become aware of the essence of nature,
The Ten which ties us to the universe. At this point, there is a per-
Paradoxes
ceptual shift that must be experienced to be understood.
You realize that the mind is a mirror, and all ideas and
interpretations about reality are suspended in a moment
of time. All paradoxes merge and dualistic identity is re-
solved in non-dualistic universality. The path of No Mind
starts with experiencing the direct perception of reality
through the practice of CAt, proceeds to realizing
No Mind, and culminates with the insight of spiritual
awareness.
The training of the mind as a mirror requires energy,
patience, knowledge, and practice. This is why Right Atti-
tude is crucial in the training process. Without it, you can
lose condence and patience to continue the practice of
No Mind. The journey takes us back to spiritual awareness,
the pure seed of consciousness, the essence of nature. The
newborns rst perception of the external world is the empty
awareness or the prenatal No Mind (see Chapter 15, Dis-
covery of the Sequence of the Stones), where mental ob-
jects are not yet formed. Mental objects are thoughts,
feelings, and perceptions held on the screen of the mind.
CAt reinforces this original state of mind, which is crucial
to developing the ability to mirror mental objects.
The process of returning to spiritual awareness is a
detoxifying cleansing of the mental objects in the web of
the Iill. We cleanse our state of awareness and focus on
the external world with CAt, deautomizing the perceptual
lters and defenses. It puries our perceptual system so
we may begin to see the direct reality of the external and
internal worlds. Attachments arising from the perceptual
lters, defense mechanisms, associations, and categorical
referencing are broken and awareness expands. In nor-
mal perception our thoughts move very quickly, which
casts the illusion of the I. From the perspective of this
illusion, the automated meanings of the mind objects gen-
erate auto-action and auto-reaction. We look at an object

210003_301_C16.indd 336 6/6/08 3:31:10 PM

 and instantly identify its relation to our conditioned self. 337
We respond appropriately, based on what weve learned to
Chapter 16
be appropriate and according to how weve been trained
to act. We might feel that we look at the world in a free The Ten
state of mind and that we have a choice to act and to feel Paradoxes
as we wish. But when we become mindful of internal
dynamics, we realize that we have been seeing the world
through ltered glasses. It is not a direct perception of
what is really there, it is our interpretation of what we
think is there. Free will is in fact circumscribed by years
of perceptual and behavioral conditioning. We already
know that our brains respond to events prior to our be-
coming aware of the action. We are acting before we know
that we are; and when we become aware of the action half
a second later, we assume it is our chosen action (Libet,
2002).
Mindfulness halts this automated cycle, so that we dis-
cern a broader range of possible reactions to a particular
event. We gain freedom through insight of our own percep-
tual mechanisms, and everything is revealed as it really is
and not as it should be or as we think it is. When the mental
objects are mirrored during the practice of No Mind, the
interpretation that the Iill imposes on the object is removed
and the object is seen in its natural state. At one level we
comprehend the object as it was interpreted by the mind,
and at another level we grasp it without interpretations. As
the process deepens, the object is seen not as a separate en-
tity, but as a part of the unied whole of nature, as an es-
sential aspect of our spiritual awareness. The process and
technique (discussed in Chapter 19), lead to non-dualistic,
intuitive grasping of the world. At this point all paradoxes
and riddles are solved. Understanding the paradoxes re-
quires a shift of perceptiona shift that is mindful of the
Iill. When we act contrary to the nature of a mirror, we no
longer reect what is there; we interpret it and miss the es-
sential quality of pure reality. Remember, the bird has no
intention to cast its reection upon the pond, and the pond
has no intention to reect it. It is as natural as the sound a
tree makes falling in the forest when there is no one there
to hear it.

210003_301_C16.indd 337 6/6/08 3:31:10 PM

 Paradox 7

With Thought, No Flow.

Without Thought, Flow.

Thought plays a vital role for the

decision-making process in our
daily lives and for our survival in
general. The practice of No Mind
does not seek to abandon thought
altogether. However, No Mind
cannot be accomplished through
the thought process the same way
you would try to gure a solution
to a problem. When the thought
process stops, the Iill ceases to
exist and No Mind arises. No Mind
is a higher level of functioning
achievable through consistent
practice and knowledge, but
thought can interfere with it, as
documented by research.

210003_301_C16.indd 338 7/24/08 5:53:22 PM

 Thinking can hamper various cognitive functions, in- 339
cluding memory, decision-making, intuition, and insight
Chapter 16
(Claxton, 2000). Sometimes we over-think problems and
try too hard to match decisions with prior knowledge, as The Ten
opposed to intuitively grasping the right course of action Paradoxes
or intuiting the right answer. When we analyze in term of
the Iill, we follow conditioned cues and behavioral pat-
terns, which narrows our range of options. This limits
our ability to ow in the activity, as we are stuck in the
Iills web. We see occurrences in terms of I, and we feel
we must react in a way consistent with our illusionary
self-image.
To ow without thought is to move like water. When
the mind is stuck on a thought, it is like ice. When the
mind is overwhelmed by too many thoughts and confu-
sion, it is like nebulous steam you cannot controlit
simply oats away. Ice and steam represent extremes,
while the liquid state of water represents a balanced
mind, or Tao. When we practice No Mind, we become
calm like a deep lake. We all have the experience of get-
ting lost in a thought or of getting overwhelmed by too
many thoughts; yet we also know intuitively that aware-
ness control is healthy and crucial to peak performance.
The Iill cannot ow. It is essentially a thought process
thoughts of past memories or anticipations for the fu-
ture. A thought always has a time component, while ow
is of the present moment only. In order to ow, we must
learn to intuit the given situation in its entirety, as op-
posed to perceiving fragmented and ltered pieces of in-
formation through the Iill, which obstructs the ow of
the moment. When we let go and just become the activ-
ity without the self-consciousness of what we are doing,
our performance improves dramatically. This is different
from using visualization for the purpose of mental train-
ing. We do not visualize in the moment we are perform-
ing. We just perform.
The ancient masters emphasized the value of acting
without deliberation. When the mind and body synchro-
nize without the interference of the Iill, then we get into

210003_301_C16.indd 339 7/23/08 4:32:51 PM

 340 the ow of peak performance. Practicing No Mind in var-
ious situations develops the mind-body dynamic without
No Mind
301 the Iill, which enhances the ow of the present moment.
The ow of action can be applied to many aspects of our
The Ten lives, including business, sports, relationships, educa-
Paradoxes
tion, and stress-management. When taking an important
exam, for instance, stress and fear of not getting a pre-
conceived grade can block the brains ability to produce
the correct answer. The more you think of not doing well
on the exam, the worse the problem becomes. Once you
have learned No Mind, testing will be easier and perform-
ance can be greatly enhanced.
Thought is a tool you use to solve problems; CAt is a
tool you use to ow. CAt can also be used to solve prob-
lems by developing insight and intuition, versus analyti-
cal skills. We develop analytical skills in grade school, but
most of us never develop awareness-training skills; thus
our intuitive mode of perception is impaired. No Mind
enables you to function outside the web. Developing the
ability to see the whole, rather than the sum of the parts,
facilitates creative and intuitive solutions. We experience
the dynamic whole, not just the part.
To understand a problem in its entirety requires un-
derstanding how it ts into the bigger picture of life-
events and seeing the interrelationships of effects as
opposed to causes. Then we understand that effects and
causes are inseparable elements of a circle of activity,
where action and reaction are both cause and effect.
When we become mindful of life-events in this way, we
can step out of the world of cause and effect, of auto-
action and auto-reaction. For example, when we are
lost in an argument, we typically swing back and forth
between action and reaction, between cause and effect,
and we fail to see the whole issue because we are too
busy upholding our stance. With CAt, we escape the one-
sided perspective and grasp all sides. You are no longer
attached to your opinion; it is just another thought. You
realize that you are upholding an aspect of the Iill, a
learned value you are protecting; and the same holds for

210003_301_C16.indd 340 6/6/08 3:31:14 PM

 the one you are arguing with. You understand that being 341
right is relative to ones conditioning and experience.
Chapter 16
There are many ways to be right, and usually both people
are right in their own way. The freedom of not being at- The Ten
tached to any particular point is very upliftingit makes Paradoxes
you independent from the connes of the Iill. We believe
we are free to choose our opinions; yet, in many instances
free will is merely a conditioned reex. We have the
censoring capacity of free wont, but even those thoughts
originate from the web of the Iill. Mindfulness through
the practice of No Mind brings freedom in action.
The practice of No Mind can be applied to all aspects
of life, as discussed in No Mind 501, Living No Mind.
Many professional athletes reach a level of no thought,
where they are aware of the mind-body ow while exe-
cuting a specic movement. This kind of peak perform-
ance, or being in the ow or the zone, is an aspect of
No Mind. Some may call it pseudo-enlightenment because
it does not entail the insight of spiritual awareness. Still,
it is an initial mystical experience rivaling those of the
ancient masters. In sports, business, relationships, stress
management, and academics, the disengagement of
awareness from the Iill and entering the ow of No Mind
allows you to reach your full mind-body potential and to
perform outside the Iills connes. Using CAt to limit and
to eventually stop thoughts allows understanding prob-
lems and solutions at a deeper and more intuitive and
holistic level. For millennia, people have been chasing
after the benets of no thought and of the ow like
seeking gold; yet understanding the ow of the stream is
more valuable than the gold on its bed. If you know the
stream, you can always nd the gold.

210003_301_C16.indd 341 6/6/08 3:31:14 PM

 Paradox 8

With Attachment, Work.

Without Attachment, Play.

The ancient masters knew that

attachment was the bane of the
Iill. The Iill identies and seeks
to possess what it thinks would
make it whole. As a fragment
that laments its present state of
alienation, the Iill constantly
seeks to complete itself through
material and ideological means.
The ancient masters spoke of at-
tachment as the root of human
suffering for thousands of years.
In fact, it is the primary cause of
human suffering, as documented
in ancient scripture. It is easy to
understand the implications of
attachment.

210003_301_C16.indd 342 7/24/08 5:53:24 PM

 We become attached to different personality or be- 343
havioral markers, which we can call points of attachment
Chapter 16
of the Iill. These points could be a thing, a person, a habit,
a feeling, an animal, a place, an idea, a thought, a belief, The Ten
an expectation, a regret, and so on. We identify with and Paradoxes
become attached to many aspects of our personality and
to behavioral patterns that originate from the mental web
of the Iill. For instance, we identify ourselves by saying,
I am shy, I am smart, I never do that, I am not good
at that, and so on. Each time we identify with a particu-
lar point, we reinforce our fragmentation. We are com-
posed of many identications and attachments that make
up the Iill. Each point fragments us into parts of an iden-
tity, and we can never be whole or free as long as we are
attached. In this case, we become the illusion rather than
the underlying reality, the matter rather than the essence.
So every attachment is a point of fragmentation that
keeps us from seeing the non-dualistic spiritual aware-
ness of No Mind.
We attach to and identify with many points over the
course of our lives. The dilemma is that we have not
learned how to control the origin of attachment, so
we are vulnerable to the consequences of these points. A
useful metaphor is a spiders web. Every intersection of
the sticky silk threads is a point where an insect may be
trapped. Our own mental web is similar, but far more
complex, as the intersections can change through
neuroplasticity.
We go through life making attachments, severing
them, making new ones all over again, and so on in a
continuous cycle. Each time we attach ourselves to some-
thing, we become conditioned by that attachment. We
nd ourselves on a roller coaster of ups and downs, of ac-
tions and reactions. This occurs whenever our point of
attachment changes, for good or bad, sickness or health,
success or failure, joy or sadness, destruction or creativ-
ity, and so on. Attachment holds us back from tranquility.
Most people argue that attachment is good, yet there is a
healthier and a more satisfying way to experience com-
passion, love, and god x.

210003_301_C16.indd 343 6/6/08 3:31:17 PM

 344 Many people mistake non-attachment for not caring or
not loving. However, the old saying, If you love someone,
No Mind
301 let them go, is the reality of true love. This is uncondi-
tional love, one of the highest emotional attainments of
The Ten humans. Unconditional love (see No Mind 601, Uncondi-
Paradoxes
tional Love) is not the theatrical version of hot romance
between soul mates; it is the experience of oneness with
another person that does not originate from need or de-
sire, but from the intense compassion for that individual,
in a way that your choices are conditioned for that persons
benets and not for your own benets. This is uncondi-
tional compassion, where the full gamut of the emotional
responses of the body, the feelings of the body, are intense
and independent of the conditioning of the Iill. We become
attached to someone when we want to ll a perceived void
in ourselves. We may need him or her for various psycho-
logical, physical, or environmental reasons: nancial,
emotional, sexual, companionship, parenting, etc. So we
love someone conditionally even though we rarely know
why. We will discuss this further in Chapter 31, No Mind
Relationships.
So most of our attachments are bound by uncon-
scious and conscious conditions. If you were to analyze
the reason why you acquired many things (such as cars,
or pets, or spouses) you may discover a pattern of condi-
tions originating from the mental web of the Iill. But to
decipher the underlying intentions of the Iill takes honest
detachment, nothing short of self-psychoanalysis. Re-
member, in No Mind there is no need to act deliberately
as all things are done without intention. And even if we
do not reach this level, we can become objective to our
attachments, which allows us to make freer choices.
No Mind frees us from the conditional attachments of
the Iill and opens the path for unconditional love and in-
dependence from the points of prior attachments. And so
Without Attachment, Playwhich is freedom from at-
tachment to things, outcomes, goals, expectations, peo-
ple, animals, ideas, ego gratications, and habits. Play is
the essential dynamic of natureit governs the stars, the

210003_301_C16.indd 344 6/6/08 3:31:18 PM

 planets, the organisms, and the natural ow of all things. 345
Tao is play, and when we live in accordance with it, we
Chapter 16
become interdependent expanded elds of energy, rather
than condensed forms of energy. Then, the real nature The Ten
of attachment points is revealed and unconditioned ac- Paradoxes
ceptance sets in. Play is the foundation of No Mind. You
should be at play, unattached to fulllments of condi-
tions. When you let go you perform at your optimal
ability, and are enjoying play. Remember, No Mind is
spontaneous play; break the points of attachment and be
free.

210003_301_C16.indd 345 6/6/08 3:31:18 PM

 Paradox 9

Think. Think Not.

There is No Thinker.

A century ago William James, a

founder of modern psychology,
said, Thought is itself the
thinker, and psychology need
not look beyond. The paradox
of No Mind is that there is no
thinker. This point has been be-
labored extensively, but no mat-
ter how much we think about it,
it is impossible to grasp within
the Iill. When we transcend the
Iill, we do so without thought.
The thought of No Mind is it-
self a paradox, as No Mind is no
thought and cannot be attained
through thought. It functions as
an advanced aspect of CAt, or

210003_301_C16.indd 346 7/24/08 5:53:26 PM

 mindfulness, where awareness is beyond cognition. The 347
ancient masters said, do not think and it will be real-
Chapter 16
ized. W. T. Stace, philosophy professor at Princeton Uni-
versity, writes: The Ten
Paradoxes
... the self-transcendence of the experience is itself ex-
perience, not thought. It is the experience of the dis-
solution of individuality. The disappearance of the I ...
the fact that self-transcendence is a part of the experi-
ence itself is the reason why the mystic is absolutely
certain of its truth beyond all possibility of arguing him
out of it. (Stace, 1960)

All living organisms are inseparable from their

environmentthey reect their environment as co-
dependent entities. Quantum theory no longer studies
separate Newtonian parts, but an interconnected web of
events where the connections are as important as the
points they span. In No Mind, the internal and external
worlds are merged into one dynamic eld of awareness,
where the mind and its objects are inseparable and co-
dependent. In an article published in Review of Existential
Psychology and Psychiatry, Peter Koestenbaum describes
three levels of subjectivity, or self-identication:

One is the body which is practiced by health-conscious

people. The second is the psychological self or identify
with life-world. The third is the transcendental ego,
or the unobserved observer that lies behind all expe-
rience whatsoever. Here one can identify with the to-
tality of being, identication with [their] personal god.
(Koestenbaum, 1962)

There have been many psychiatric terms seeking to

describe the reality of No Mind and spiritual awareness
over the last century, from Freuds Transcendental Ego,
to Jungs Collective Unconscious, to Maslows Self-
Actualization. As psychiatrists and psychologists try to
categorize No Mind, we need to focus on the realization
of the experience and disregard all labels, including
No Mind itself. The process of understanding No Mind
itself generates a great doubt as to who and what we really

210003_301_C16.indd 347 6/6/08 3:31:22 PM

 348 are. We fear that no amount of trying and thinking
will help us realize spiritual awareness. The practice of
No Mind
301 No Mind leads us to spiritual awareness, the essence of
nature, and god x (whatever you believe that is). As we
The Ten learn the techniques of No Mind, we detach from the Iill
Paradoxes
and get closer to the intuitive grasping of our spiritual
awareness.
The cognitive process is carried out by our neural as-
sociative brain, which relates cues to our mental web,
telling us what is important to us at any given moment of
perception. Thinking occurs through the associative and
categorical response networks, the ego (Iill), and the per-
ceptual defense mechanisms that shield the Iill from self-
threatening emotions, thoughts, concepts, and so on.
This narrows the perceptual eld to a more self-pleasing,
manageable array of data. Even though cognition can be
creative, imaginative, or abstract, the thinking process is
essentially concerned with the preservation and the man-
agement of the affairs of the Iill. The pure awareness of
No Mind is obscured by the ood of thought. Awareness
is trapped in the cycle of thought, producing the illusion
of an entity that is thinkinga thinker. When we learn to
see thoughts as mere objects passing through awareness,
we release the latter from the cycle. We can do this with
the practice of CAt. Therefore, it is imperative that think-
ing ceases for the awareness of No Mind to arise and for
a perceptual shift to occura burst of Satori, or enlight-
enment, when the mind is in the midst of extreme exis-
tential doubt about its own illusion.
The normal thinking process colors the direct percep-
tion of reality and keeps us from reaching our full poten-
tial. Many factors affect the perceptual process, and each
of them biases the sensory input from the external and
internal worlds. The ltered perception of reality is
framed by the Iill, which governs the mind-body dynamic
as an illusionary entity overseeing and owning the
thoughts and the subsequent actions. There is thought,
there is thinking, but there is no thinker. The thinker is
only a shadow cast by a sequence of rushing thoughts, as
paradoxical as this may sound (Wegner, 2002).

210003_301_C16.indd 348 6/6/08 3:31:23 PM

 Paradox 10

Untrain the Mind, Be Empty.

When Empty, You Are Full.

For the most part, we operate on

auto-pilot and auto-perception.
We suffer from auto-action and
auto-reaction. We do things and
then we often regret them. We
have not learned to perceive real-
ity directly, and we have not
learned to function in a mode
that is not automatically gov-
erned by the mental web of the
Iill. We act according to condi-
tioned cues. So we must untrain
the mind and deautomatize our
behavior. As long as we see real-
ity through the lens of our present
conditioning, freedom and play

210003_301_C16.indd 349 7/24/08 5:53:28 PM

 350 are out of reach. We untrain the mind through applying
the techniques of No Mind. The Clear Attention (CAt)
No Mind
301 opens the doors to the direct perception of reality and to
freedom from auto-action and auto-reaction (see Figures 7-1
The Ten and 9-1). In the more advanced levels of No Mind, aware-
Paradoxes
ness extends to experience the essence unifying all things;
this is spiritual awareness. A key trademark slogan of
No Mind is: the only universal constant is awareness, as
detailed in No Mind 401. Through the practice of the
techniques of No Mind, you can experience this directly.
Thousands of years ago the Tao taught us:

Whoever knows does not speak; whoever speaks does

not know. So stop the senses. Close the doors. Ignore
the riddles. Subdue the light. Be one with humble dust.
This is the mystic unity. ... It is beyond love and hate,
beyond prot and loss, beyond honor and dishonor.
Thus, it is the most valuable treasure in all the world.
(MacHovec, 1962)

The Tao talks about the fullness of emptiness as a par-

adox; yet we know that this riddle originates in the limi-
tations of dualistic language that identies things in
terms of what they are and what they are not. We relate
to reality in terms of language, and it is language which
suggests that there is a contradiction in the concept of a
pregnant void.
No Mind is not only the stream, but it is at once also
the rocks in the stream and the ocean into which the
stream ows. The rock is the Iill being carried in the
stream. When we untrain awareness to break away from
the Iill, we stop identifying with the rock and become the
stream. As awareness deepens, we become the ocean. This
interconnectivity of all things produces universal aware-
ness, or a cosmic ocean experienced as the underlying es-
sence of nature, true spiritual awareness. Again, the only
universal constant is awareness. The essence of a daisy is
also the essence of the galaxies and of a cockroach. The
fabric of nature is the same throughout the universe. It
cannot be different; we do not exist in separate universes.
It is simply one essence which has been called many

210003_301_C16.indd 350 6/6/08 3:31:27 PM

 names, including the Tao. It is empty of the Iill and its 351
mental web of interpretations, yet it is linked to all things.
Chapter 16
It is empty and full at the same timeas it is empty of all
things, yet full because it is all things. It has no identity, The Ten
yet manifests all the identities of the universe. It is daunt- Paradoxes
ing to understand this from the perspective of the Iill
because we have learned to understand in terms of
our language of identity and form. From the perspective
of No Mind, observer and observed become inseparable
and co-dependent, which leads to non-dualistic aware-
ness. At this level of awareness, all the paradoxes are expe-
rienced, and there is no need to comprehend them.
While the realization of spiritual awareness is an at-
tainable goal with lofty spiritual aspirations, the untrain-
ing of the mind has practical implications in all aspects
of peoples lives. Untraining the perceptual and cognitive
mechanisms requires developing Clear Attention (CAt) of
mind objects. The rst task is to x the awareness on a
single object, realizing that there are a multitude of men-
tal objects in awareness, each with its own identity. These
mental objects arise in awareness through the mental
web of the Iill. We do not see each object as it exists in its
pure state because it is always associated with an entou-
rage of attachments. Associated qualiers and identities
arise with it, such as beauty, ugliness, good, bad, hostile,
color, value, kind, signicance. This triggers emotional
attachments such as anger, love, greed, resentment, an-
noyance, anxiety, and so on. The list is endless, and there
are a multitude of possible identities for each object you
perceive. This is the nature of our brains neural associa-
tive network, which the ancients knew as co-dependent
and co-arising perception. We see everything in terms of
our conditioned associationsnothing exists independ-
ently, just as it is, until we learn to untrain the mind to
perceive the object in its own state using the techniques
of No Mind.
In No Mind 101, we learned the mechanisms of asso-
ciative and conditioning patterns of the brain and the re-
sulting perceptions and interpretations. CAt negates these
mechanisms; with practice you can eliminate layers of

210003_301_C16.indd 351 6/6/08 3:31:27 PM

 352 identities and arrive at a clear, direct perception of the
object with an empty awareness. You are full and realiz-
No Mind
301 ing the emptiness of No Mind; yet, the experience of full-
ness will pervade the mind-body. So through emptiness
The Ten you experience the fullness of reality as it really is and
Paradoxes
not as you have interpreted it to be. Remember, all things
come from emptiness and emptiness contains all things.
Emptiness and fullness are the same. The sixth factor of
No Mind (see Chapter 13) teaches us that the ultimate
reality must be equal to one (Being) and zero (Nothing-
ness) simultaneously.
These are The Ten Paradoxes for the development of
Right Attitude and Right Awareness. Right Awareness
and Right Attitude will be discussed further in the next
two chapters, as well as techniques and references to sci-
entic literature detailing the benets of awareness train-
ing. The crux of developing No Mind is to still the mind
and to stop the mental web of the Iill during internal and
external perception. It is not a difcult task, just one that
requires patience and practice, together with the Right
Attitude. Study the Ten Paradoxes and apply them to your
daily routines, as demonstrated in No Mind 501. The
knowledge you are acquiring in the No Mind program
will make the journey quicker and more efcient.

210003_301_C16.indd 352 6/6/08 3:31:27 PM

 Right Awareness means mindfulness, stillness, and re-
ceptivity. Try as it might, the Iill is incapable of right
awareness. In fact, the less the conditioned mind tries to
attain right awareness, the more likely it is to succeed. Many
people have experienced enlightenment while walking,
working, washing the dishes, or just sitting still. It often
occurs in a ash, when one least anticipates. In stillness,
No Mind is remembered. In No Mind, the incessant internal
chatter of the Iill recedes. Only awareness remains, like a
serene ocean whose calm depths we remember.

Chapter 17 teaches that Right Awareness calls for a playful

approach, where effort and intent are suspended. We are
mindful of our pure action.

210003_301_C17.indd 353 6/6/08 3:32:58 PM

 Chapter 17

Right Awareness

J on Kabat-Zinn of the University of Massachusetts Medical

School denes mindfulness as follows:

The awareness that emerges through the paying attention of pur-

pose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the un-
folding of experience moment by moment ... and mindfulness, it
should also be noted, being about attention, is also of necessity
universal. There is nothing particularly Buddhist about it. We
are all mindful to one degree or another, moment by moment. It
is an inherent human capacity. (Kabat-Zinn, 2003)

Right Awareness is maintaining Clear Attention (CAt), or mind-

fulness. It stops the incessant chatter of the Iill by asking, Who is
watching? Who is thinking? Who is mindful? or What is there?
Zen calls this the hua-tou (pronounced wah-tow) method, literally
translated as the source of words; it is the mental state before the
mind is disturbed by thoughts. Right Awareness is based on the tech-
niques of CAt, mirroring, and breath control. The stream of thoughts,
354

210003_301_C17.indd 354 6/6/08 3:33:00 PM

 feelings, and perceptions rushing through our minds in a 355
given minute is amazing and frightening; yet, our task is to
Chapter 17
gain control over it. World-renowned Zen master Thich
Nhat Hanh discusses the simple task of washing the dishes: Right
Awareness
While washing the dishes one should only be wash-
ing the dishes, which means that while washing the
dishes one should be completely aware of the fact that
one is washing the dishes. At rst glance, that might
seem a little silly: why put so much stress on a simple
thing? But thats precisely the point. The fact that I am
standing there and washing these bowls is a wondrous
reality. Im being completely myself, following my
breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my
thoughts and actions. Theres no way I can be tossed
around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there
on the waves. (Hanh, 1987)

We are used to engaging in inner dialogue with our-

selves. We discuss details of a situation as if we are frag-
mented into multiple Iills conferring among themselves.
You might take a jab at yourself, I knew I shouldnt
have come to this party, and then reply back, What-
ever, just try to enjoy it. Our mind is a master trickster.
With insight, we come to understand this internal mon-
ologue as a succession of thoughts expressing and re-
sponding to inner desires, feelings, and expectations.
The thoughts give us the illusion of a self due to the na-
ture of language.

THE INSIGHT OF THE EAST

We think in terms of language. Most people perform basic

mathematics in the language they spoke in grade school,
even if they have mastered many more languages since
then. Language is an integral element of the human con-
dition. Thinking in terms of language reinforces the I in
our behavioral patterns. Learning to be mindful while
watching the screen of awareness deautomatizes us in prep-
aration for No Mind. According to Harold Kelman, M.D.
and Dean of the American Institute of Psychoanalysis,

210003_301_C17.indd 355 6/6/08 3:33:01 PM

 356 two of the greatest Western psychologists owe their in-
sight to Eastern wisdom:
No Mind
301
Carl Jungs Collective Unconscious reveals his indebt-
The Ten edness to Oriental religions. Sigmund Freud, with his
Paradoxes method of Free Association and Dream Interpretation,
directed Western man to look inward. The techniques
encourage life at rest, closer to the ground, contem-
plation and an increasing interest in depths, in feel-
ings, in what is fundamental to all human beings and
in each individual as a unique human being. (Kelman,
1959)

Many of the leading psychologists and psychiatrists

of the last hundred years incorporated Eastern ideas
and mindfulness methods into their psychotherapeutic
practices and research. They were discovering what the
ancient masters already knew thousands of years ago
that one of the secrets to contentment and fulllment is
in the ability to be mindful. They studied ancient reli-
gious and philosophical teachings and developed scien-
tic psychological techniques of mindfulness.

Over the centuries, Buddhist scholars have formu-

lated elaborate and sophisticated theories about
many subtle aspects of conscious experience, which
are likely fertile sources of inspiration for cognitive
scientists ... the rst results indicate that evidence
from meditative practices will be valuable compo-
nent of any future science of consciousness. (Capra,
2002)

The No Mind program is similarly based on psycho-

logical and physiological research and quantum phys-
ics, as well as on the ancient masters teachings. The
main characteristic of the ancient masters was that
they made the clear distinction between direct knowl-
edge and direct experience. In the Tao of Physics, Fritjof
Capra says:
The most important characteristic of the Eastern
world viewone could almost say the issue of itis

210003_301_C17.indd 356 7/23/08 4:33:34 PM

 the awareness of the Unity and mutual interrelation 357
of all things and events ... In ordinary life, we are
not aware of this unity of all things. But divide the Chapter 17
world into separate objects and events. The division Right
is, of course, useful and necessary to cope with our Awareness
every day environment. But it is not a fundamental
feature of reality. It is all abstraction devised by our
discriminating and categorizing intellect. To believe
that our abstract concepts of separate things and
events are realities of nature is an illusion. Quantum
theory forces us to see the Universe not as a collection
of physical objects, but rather as a complicated web of
relations between the various parts of a unied whole.
This, however, is the way in which Eastern mystics
have experienced the world, and some of them have
expressed their experience in words which are al-
most identical with those used by atomic physicists.
(Capra, 1976)

MINDFULNESS AS A MENTAL SPORT

We want to learn how to still the mind for the purpose

of the No Mind technique. You approach the process
from the standpoint of play, as described in The Ten
Paradoxes. If you become attached to the knowledge or
to the method itself, you trap yourself. Humor and play
are most useful when we seek to escape the connes of
the Iill, and any attachment would be on the way. Mind-
fulness is a mental sport that requires training, just like
any other sport does; we will discuss this in detail in
No Mind Sports and how to apply it to your favorite
activity (Chapter 28). But you do not play to win, to
compete, or to accomplish anything except for pro-
ciency. You strive to become mindful of your mind-body
dynamic in any activity or sport. The most important
thing is to have fun in the process; forget the competi-
tion. You are in competition with yourself, and this du-
ality is what you are trying to overcome. Mindfulness
allows you to achieve peak performance, but you need
not force anything. Apply effort to continue practicing,

210003_301_C17.indd 357 6/6/08 3:33:01 PM

 358 but then let yourself go and play. Remember, Act.
React. But never Try.
No Mind
301
What is most impressive about this newly emerging
The Ten system of Western Yoga is that its applications and
Paradoxes implications seem unbounded. Research and applica-
tions of this new psychotherapy offer an exacting, pre-
cise, involving, and exciting means for an unprecedented
exploration of human consciousness. By allowing in-
dividuals to experience the most subtle levels of their
psychological and physiological processes, this psycho-
therapy enables them to truly know themselves as fully
functioning units of mind and body. Since all transcend-
ent, inspiring experiences seem to be characterized by a
sensation of unity and wholeness, perhaps Western Yoga
will make this profound experience more readily acces-
sible. This experience is cited by all systems of medi-
tation as a prerequisite for the marked transformation
of the individual personality. What ultimately matters is
not the experience of wholeness, but the fact that such
an event is the basis of self-actualization. To live with
controlled spontaneity in accord with the highest ideals
of man is, perhaps, less of a vision and more of a reality
now than ever before in recorded history. (Pelletier &
Gareld, 1976)

When we are mindful, we dont look for the Iill. Where

would we look? We have never identied the neuro-
physiological location of the I in the brain. Dr. Peneld
of Montreal Neurological Institute has demonstrated that
complete recall of past life events occurs in patients when
specic areas of the brain are stimulated with electrical
probes. He revealed that information and emotions related
to the past event are stored in the form of nal common
paths in the neurological structure. The experience felt
completely real to the patient (Peneld, 1955, 1959). Simi-
larly, the I illusion originates from the neural associative
networks of the brain. The I has no location, as it is a
reection of mental processes. Thoughts stem from the
mental web of ego and perceptual defenses, associative
and categorical links, ltering biases, and emotional

210003_301_C17.indd 358 6/6/08 3:33:02 PM

 traumas from the past. The I is reection of the 359
thought process, a mere mirage.
Chapter 17
Mouni Sadhu, European disciple of Bhagawan Sri
Ramana Maharshi and teacher of concentration tech- Right
niques says: Awareness

It is impossible for any human mind to harbor two or

more thoughts at exactly the same time. Sometimes
less experienced students of concentration mistakenly
afrm that they are able to think about two different
things at the same moment. The error is that, in real-
ity, such a person allows the arrival and departure of
thoughts to occur so quickly, one after another, that he
believes he has had two thoughts together. It is like an
alternating electric current. The changes of the cycles
and direction of the current are so fast that the human
eye is normally unable to record them, and sees the
light created by such a current as a homogeneous or
continuous one. The psychological impression is simi-
lar in the case of the two thoughts mentioned above.
(Sadhu, 1977)

THE REALITY OF THE MOMENT

In No Mind, there are no thoughts; there is only watching

the thoughts from the stillness of the present. A still mind
is focused on the present moment and unconcerned with
the past or future. If thoughts of the past or future arise,
they are watched in the present, where they have no value.
All things, the entire universe, occur in this moment.
Humans, as relative observers, impose a temporal dimen-
sion on that which we observe. Together, observer and
observed dene the construction of time and space.
Richard Moss, M.D., writes in The Mandala of Being:

This practice of opening our awareness to the present

attending fully to what is, rather than eeing from it via
me, you, past, and future storiesis the crucial work,
but whether we actually experience Self-realization is
not the point. (Moss, 2007)

210003_301_C17.indd 359 7/23/08 4:33:34 PM

 360 If you build a box, then you have dened an area of
space enclosed within its walls. When you take the box
No Mind
301 apart, that space is no longer bounded and clearly distin-
guishable from the rest of the universe. Time occurs in
The Ten the same way, where the memories and expectations of
Paradoxes
the observer delimit the time line and even how long or
dense in terms of eventfulness a time period feels (Zeru-
bavel, 2003). Time is measured differently throughout
the universe (for example, the cycle of our solar year is
specic to our planet).
The timeless and space-less present moment of
No Mind is paradoxical. Humans perceive time-structured
existence in three-dimensional space. Things progress
and grow, and we associate time with this process.
Things are also located in space, triangulated based on
the environment, the Earth, the stars, etc. Reality has
three-dimensional characteristics that change over time.
Thus, for the perceptions of most people, the concept
of the timeless and space-less present moment is para-
doxical. Our sensory system has evolved to see three-
dimensional space and to count the passings of the Sun,
and for the most part it works exceptionally well. To ex-
perience timeless and space-less reality, we need to move
beyond the observer and the observed, and therefore
there just is. This is the present moment of No Mind.
Our perceptual mechanisms feel time and space, but
they are dened by the learning, conditioning, interpre-
tive, associative, defense, and ltering mechanisms of
the Iill. We learn to tell time and to measure space. With-
out the Iill, time and space become an illusion relative to
our perception. In other words, depending on where we
are in the universe, our perception of time changes based
on our sensory apparatus, which uses light to see space.
The speed of light determines our present concept of
time. Because light travels at extremely high speed
(186,000 miles per second), things near us appear to hap-
pen instantaneously. The German philosopher Edmund
Husserl, founder of Phenomenology, emphasizes how
often people see things that are not there and hear
remarks never made:

210003_301_C17.indd 360 6/6/08 3:33:02 PM

 Husserl felt that our minds are so lled with ideas and 361
theories about how things should be that we seldom
experience them exactly as they are ... Suppose that a Chapter 17
traveler in New Guinea discovers a new ower. If he Right
is a phenomenologist, he will banish from mind for Awareness
the time all names, memories, preconceptions, and
theories and not even reect on whether or not the
plant exists. His whole attention will be focused on the
thing as he experiences it and only this ... he will come
closer and closer to an understanding of its true nature.
(Severin, 1973)

REMOVING THE OBSERVER

So we give space and time reality through our limited

perceptual system. It is like being hooked up to a virtual
reality machine. Our perception of reality as interpreted
by the Iill is analogous to virtual reality. When we halt the
Iill through the practice of CAt, we turn off the virtual re-
ality machine and the direct perception of reality comes
forth. It is now clear that space and time exist only rela-
tive to the observers position. If the observer is removed,
time and space vanish, just as the space within the disas-
sembled box is no longer dened. Because of the speed of
light, we see the Sun as it was eight minutes ago, we
see some stars as they were a million years ago, and
they all appear to be there simultaneously, but they are
not. Space and time are ideas essential to dualistic iden-
tication, and No Mind is beyond dualistic identitiesno
observer. In The Science of Yoga, I. K. Taimni writes:

According to Yogic Philosophy the seemingly continu-

ous phenomena in which we cognize through the in-
strumentality of the mind are not really continuous,
and like the cinematographic picture on the screen
consist of a series of discontinuous states ... The yogi
can become aware of the ultimate reality only when
his consciousness is liberated from the limitations of
this process which produces time ... As the percep-
tion of phenomena is the result of the impressions
produced in consciousness by a succession of mental

210003_301_C17.indd 361 6/6/08 3:33:02 PM

 362 images it is the number of mental images which will
really determine the duration of the phenomenon
No Mind
which we call time. (Taimni, 1967)
301

The Ten Our perceptual mechanisms are not equipped to see

Paradoxes the four-dimensional space-time paradoxes, but they can be
experienced through No Mind. The paradoxes are resolved
in the deep stillness of the mind and only in the eeting
present moment. The present moment is embedded in a
succession of constantly unfolding present moments, which
we can grasp intuitively through the practice of No Mind.
The diagram below illustrates the distortion of time
through the image of an hourglass. The tight neck of the
present moment spans between the weighty past at one
end and the looming future at the other. These areas
represent the degree of awareness that we apply to the
past and to the future because of the way the Iill per-
ceives time. We spend most time focusing on the past or
the future and allow it to shape the present. We need to
remove our focus from the past and from the future and
to locate awareness in the mindful present. This No Mind
model of time represents the tiny neck of the hourglass
as the largest area representing the present moment.
Awareness is applied to the present moment, and thus,
the past and of the future lose prominence. In other
words, we simply focus too much on the past and future
and not enough on the present. With No Mind, we focus
more on the present and less on the past and future.

Figure 17-1: Time Distortionthe left hourglass shows very little awareness of the present.
We focus mainly on the past and future. The right hourglass is the goal of No Mind, to focus
awareness on the present.

210003_301_C17.indd 362 6/6/08 3:33:03 PM

 This illustrates the unfortunate misapplication of aware- 363
ness and how we focus our attention on everything ex-
Chapter 17
cept the present. The conditioning factors of our society
over-emphasize the future and the past. So we lose our Right
awareness of the present moment while focusing on the Awareness
future of what can and should be and on the past of what
we were. The practice of No Mind roots us in the present
momentthe past and future are only thoughts watched
in the now through our awareness. This is an endless
moment of innite happiness and contentment, as you
escape the bonds of time.

THE OCEAN OF NO MIND

No Mind is mastered at various levels of mindful aware-

ness. Here, we can use the analogy of water currents on
and below the surface of the ocean. When awareness is
trapped in the conscious Iill, it is ceaselessly tossed back
and forth on the ocean surface by the waves of thoughts,
perceptions, motivations, and feelings. Awareness is
trapped in the unconscious state of the Iill alsofor ex-
ample, sleep can be restless and dominated by dreams. If
we say that No Mind is the ocean, then the surface of the
ocean is the conscious state of No Mind, where we are
still aware of the mind-body. Now imagine a boat aoat
on the ocean of No Minda highly sophisticated, com-
puterized vessel with auto-navigation, like the Iill. This
boat practically runs itself; it can adjust its speed and
course in response to approaching weather conditions
and to other vessels.
The Iill, together with its mental web of thoughts, feel-
ing, motivations, and perceptions, is the program for
the boat on the ocean of No Mind. As long as we believe
we are the Iill, we only know the waves and ripples tossing
us up and down on the surface. And as the boat keeps
traveling, it will produce even more turbulence. The boat
is not programmed to stop; it is designed to keep running
on auto-pilot. As long as it does, it is unaware that it is
part of something bigger, deeper, and more powerful.

210003_301_C17.indd 363 6/6/08 3:33:03 PM

 364 The ocean of No Mind keeps the boat of the Iill aoat.
In reality, the conscious aspect of No Mind gave rise to
No Mind
301 the Iill originally. When awareness comes into contact
with the external world at infancy, the formation of the
The Ten Iill begins. As the Iill gains control over awareness, the
Paradoxes
ocean is forgotten for the waves and ripples. For aware-
ness to remember, the Iill must be stopped and the waves
and ripples quieted. In practice, CAt freezes the water
around the boat. At this point, the waves and ripples sub-
side back into the ocean, and we remember that origi-
nally it was the ocean of No Mind. Albin Gilbert discusses
the experience:

As only mystics are susceptible to this experience, they

must possess an appropriate medium of apprehension.
The Super-conscious common [person] has only dif-
ferentiated experience, which is conveyed at the con-
scious level. [Their] Super-conscious is dormant ... the
mystic conditions, and counter conditions his life as-
siduously with the permanent sense of the One. They
attain Illumination. Roaming in space, man will grow
more mystical. In a simile, the waves, dancing on the
ocean, will gain an increased awareness that they have
as the ocean, in common. (Gilbert, 1969)

The ocean analogy captures several levels of No Mind

awareness. The first level is the conscious aspect of
No Mind, where awareness is trapped within the Iill (see
mandalas in Chapter 15). At the second level, the boat of
the Iill stops and there is intuitive remembering that
awareness is part of spiritual awareness, or a conscious
aspect of No Mind that is free from the Iill. The third
level of No Mind, discussed in No Mind 401, is the un-
conscious aspect. The ancient masters called it Returning
to the Source (also see Chapter 15). Here, the source is
analogous to the depths of the ocean, where the interde-
pendence and unity of all things are experienced and self-
awareness is fully absorbed. Time and space no longer
exist and the ocean of No Mind extends to every aspect of
nature, or the Tao. The highest kind of knowledge that
can be attained is:

210003_301_C17.indd 364 6/6/08 3:33:03 PM

 knowledge born of the awareness of reality, or better 365
translated, awareness of the ultimate reality... [It] in-
tegrates into one comprehensive whole all aspects of Chapter 17
manifestationmatter, mind and consciousness, be-
Right
cause it has discovered by its special methods that these Awareness
are intimately related to one another. (Taimni, 1967)

210003_301_C17.indd 365 6/6/08 3:33:04 PM

 366

No Mind CHAPTER 17 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER

301 BEFORE CONTINUING

The Ten
Paradoxes 1. Right Awareness is Clear Attention. The boat of
the Iill must be taken off auto-pilot and anchored,
so that awareness remembers its roots in the
depths of No Mind.
2. The stiller the mind, the easier it is to remember.
Remembering can occur suddenly. Many people
experience this Returning to the Source while
walking, talking, working, or just sitting still.
3. Tensions and doubts run so high that the Iill loses
its hold, the boat stops, and the ocean is remem-
bered. But once we remember, it is like water re-
membering its wetness; waters intrinsic property
is that it is wet, yet it forgets its wetness.
4. We forget we are born enlightened. This remem-
bering is not really remembering as much as it is
seeing into our own nature.

210003_301_C17.indd 366 6/6/08 3:33:04 PM

 Right Attitude comes from integrating The Ten Paradoxes into
your daily activities with Right Awareness (Clear Attention-
CAt). The practice must ow on its own accord, without
goals or a timetable. Apply the technique and allow it to work
without force. Achievement and performance come if you
forget about them. The notion that our most cherished daily
activities and motivations are empty is a difcult concept to
grasp from within the Iill. It is like trying to see the exact
color of the sky through red-tinted glasses.

Chapter 18 begins by acknowledging the challenge of in-

tegrating the Right Attitude into our daily routines, and it
reveals a middle path that makes the practice of No Mind
more accessible.

210003_301_C18.indd 367 6/6/08 3:33:50 PM

 Chapter 18

Right Attitude

W e can look at the No Mind program as a therapy that brings

liberation from the Iill and re-discovers spiritual awareness.
A full range of capabilities unfold, and we can see reality as a
newborn entering the world. This moment of intense joy has been
experienced by many, as evidenced in countless accounts. Through
this program, the reversal of the conditioning process of the Iill
begins, and the psychological health of the person is restored. For
our purposes, we are speaking of the normal psychological issues
that plague us all, as opposed to severe pathological, neurotic, or
psychotic disorders, which require further therapy from trained
professionals.
Our minds rush from one thing to another, refusing to settle
down, and it might be challenging to take time from our busy
daily routines to start the training of mindfulness. The No Mind
program is more accessible and does not require extreme dedica-
tion. This system, together with our newly acquired knowledge
of the Iill, produces results and attitude shifts that usually take
368

210003_301_C18.indd 368 6/6/08 3:33:52 PM

 much longer with ordinary meditation-based techniques. 369
To have the Right Attitude is to simply integrate The Ten
Chapter 18
Paradoxes into your daily life. It develops the detachment
required to walk the middle path between extreme at- Right
tachments. Detachment is also key to Right Awareness, Attitude
as it opens the way to mindfulness.
In order to develop Right Attitude, we must accept that
all opinions, judgments, and perspectives are empty neuro-
chemical processes in the brain. If their origin is the men-
tal web of the Iill, then they were conditioned in the process
of socialization; we were not born with them and they are
not an aspect of spiritual awareness. This doesnt mean
that we need to discard our values or opinions, but we
need to develop non-attachment to them, so they dont de-
ne and bind us. We use them as guidelines rather than
strict rules. And that is not to say that they are wrong,
right, or dont exist; we only need to be able to be free of
them if we can. After all, there is no real I who owns
them. So we maintain our opinions and respect those of
others, while knowing that they are all constructed guides
for the individuals chosen social life. Like cars, we follow
the lines on our paved roads as guidelines and avoid cross-
ing them in order to avoid accidents; yet the roads provide
a means to an end, a way for us to get where we want.
They are not in themselves concrete tubes in which we are
trapped with our cars. Some people treat opinions, beliefs,
and judgments as constricting and concrete tubes, but this
is a mistake. We must recognize that these are constructed
guidelines we learn to follow through conditioning. They
structure and ease our social lives, but they are not real in
the sense that they are devoid of universal substance; they
are not maps to enlightenment or universal constants.
Remember, the only universal constant is awareness.

WITH ATTACHMENT, WORK.

WITHOUT ATTACHMENT, PLAY.
When the Iill identies with opinions and beliefs, these
become roadblocks in the process of developing No Mind.
Statements like, I believe ... , or My opinion is ... ,

210003_301_C18.indd 369 6/6/08 3:33:52 PM

 370 or The way I see it ... are all empty, as they are predi-
cated on the I. In simple math, anything multiplied by
No Mind
301 zero is zero; similarly, the empty I empties everything
that is predicated on it. This is the basis of the middle
The Ten path of the ancient Buddhist master Nagarjuna. He knew
Paradoxes
that we, or the Iill, give meaning to things and that these
meanings are all relative to the Iill:

Things derive their being and nature by mutual de-

pendence and are nothing in themselves.

Remember the paradox With attachment, work.

Without attachment, play. It is important to understand
play with respect to opinions and beliefs, otherwise we
become attached. A Zen master would make the worlds
greatest diplomathe would say little, understand all
sides of the issues, and resolve the conict by saying that
all sides are essentially the sameempty and correct
from their respective perspectives.
Opinions, beliefs, judgments, views, and so on deter-
mine the structured subjective reality of a person that
frames everything and gives it meaning. Remember that
mind objects arise codependently. Language gives identity
to form, but it also falls short of explaining the ultimate
reality. It can approach enlightenment only in paradoxi-
cal terms. The basic structure of our subjective reality
stems from the Iill, and the Iill itself is based on language
that denes the world relative to the I. To perceive real-
ity directly, we must see it outside these empty struc-
tures. This is critical for the development of Right
Attitude.
Our mental web makes our experience of reality
comprehensible. The opinions and perspectives we have
developed determine what makes sense and how we see
the world. But life is not meant to be lived entirely through
and for the sake of the Iill. By now we should have the
critical understanding that most mental objects arise
from the Iill, including those associated with thinking,
analyzing, interpreting, intellectualizing, and so on.

210003_301_C18.indd 370 6/6/08 3:33:53 PM

 And we understand that different Iills approach reality 371
from different perspectives. What is ne to one can be
Chapter 18
offensive to another. The Right Attitude is in applying
this knowledge to our daily actions and in treating all Right
views that come from the Iill as empty. They are merely Attitude
conditioned views with false identities attached to
them.
Iills bond together to form families, communities, cor-
porations, cultures, and societies, and within such groups,
Iills tend to be relatively similar, given that they function
within a shared reality characterized by shared opinions,
perspectives, and beliefs. Subsequently, many conditioned
identity traits can be deduced from group membership.
Obviously, some individual Iills may disagree with a par-
ticular stance of the larger Iill, but political and communal
structures require some general consensus. Identifying
with the normative beliefs of a society, community, or fam-
ily is also empty, because the collective Iill is just as illu-
sionary as the individual one. When we evolve past the
nature of Iill, we will eventually attain a global, collective
spiritual awareness, which may be the only hope for
humankind.

WHEN THE MIND IS EMPTY, EVERYTHING

IS REVEALED
The Right Attitude entails intuiting the emptiness of
identifying with opinions, perspectives, and judgments.
This is important for ones psychological health because
most Iills are not entirely harmonious with the commu-
nal Iill. Within groups, we often experience conict,
anger, resentment, and so on. So communication among
individual and communal Iills is important, and in nego-
tiating conicts, the middle path is easier to see from a
point of non-attachment. Attachment makes it harder to
see the others perspective and to negotiate a mutually
agreeable outcome. Remember, when the mind is empty,
everything is revealed. With a quiet mind, you will really

210003_301_C18.indd 371 6/6/08 3:33:53 PM

 372 hear other Iills, individual or communal. Being able to
hear what someone else has to say is a very important
No Mind
301 ability for negotiating. Abraham Lincoln was known for
kindly agreeing with his discussants during their negoti-
The Ten ations, and then, after assuring the other person that
Paradoxes
they were on the same side, he would present his opin-
ion. In this way the other person was sure to hear him
by remaining more receptive. The ancient Zen master
Pang Yun says:

Whatsoever comes to eye leave it be.

There are no commandments to be kept,
There is no lth to be cleansed.
With empty mind really penetrated,
The dharmas have no life.
When you can be like this
Youve completed the ultimate attainment
(Besserman & Steger, 1991)

This is cleansing perception of the Iill. Individual

and communal Iills may also be in agreement on many
opinions or perspectives. To identify with a common
opinion may be easier since it is reafrmed by another
Iill. Still, a shared opinion is no more real than an indi-
vidual oneit is just as empty, coming from the same
source. Whether there is harmony or conict between
individual and communal Iills, their opinions or per-
spectives are simply reections of the mental web which
is their source.
This reveals the middle path between opposite ex-
tremes, as in absolute identity and non-identity. This path
is the relativity of reality. From this vantage point, reality
changes as the observer or the observed changes. The
communal reality is based on consensus expressed in a
shared language. Whether an Iill deviates from this con-
sensus is a legitimate concern of polities, but outside the
scope of No Mind. The point is that to identify with an in-
dividual or a communal I introduces attachment, which

210003_301_C18.indd 372 6/6/08 3:33:53 PM

 leads to unhappiness. We comprehend other opinions 373
more directly, completely, and without prejudice when
Chapter 18
we are not attached to our own. This sets the stage for
real, unltered communication. Right
Attitude

BETTER COMMUNICATION THROUGH

NON-ATTACHMENT
An important issue we encounter when dealing with
multiple Iills is communication. How do we know if
communication with another Iill is successful or that
we all got the same meaning out of it? Exchanges be-
tween Iills can be hit or miss. Even if someone implies
that he understood with a nod or with a smile, you can-
not be sure about his interpretation. Remember from
No Mind 201 that Clear Attention, or mindfulness, is
greater than automated perception, behavior, and mem-
ory taken together.
We practice CAt to achieve non-attachment in order to
improve the quality of our communications in business
and relationships, for example. Without direct perception,
all you have is your Iills interpretation of the other Iill.
Miscommunication, or rather misinterpretation, happens
all the time in everyday life. In order to communicate per-
fectly, two Iills would need to share the same mental web,
which is impossible. They may share aspects of certain
meanings through a group Iill, but there is never perfect
overlap. Another way two people can communicate per-
fectly is if they both detach from their Iills and watch the
interaction in enlightened play, without expectations. This
is Right Attitude with Right Awareness.
As you cling to a dualistic identity, you fragment uni-
versality into individuality and lose the true meaning of
communication. When you realize that you are not
attached and that your Iill is empty, you see other Iills
in a state of becoming and their behaviors as karmic
actions. From this compassionate perspective, you no

210003_301_C18.indd 373 6/6/08 3:33:53 PM

 374 longer identify with opinions and you are not in opposi-
tion to anybody. When you are B, you are also not C, D,
No Mind
301 and E. When you identify a ower as being yellow, then
you also imply it is not purple, blue, or green. When you
The Ten apply No Mind, then you are B and not B at the same
Paradoxes
time. In fact, you are everything from A to Z, and noth-
ingness too.

UNTRAIN THE MIND, BE EMPTY.

WHEN EMPTY, YOU ARE FULL.
From an universalistic perspective, there is never a point
where you can be one thing and not all other things. It
is also dualistic to say that the mind is empty and imply
indirectly that it is not full. Here, empty is full and full
is empty. They exist simultaneously together and one
engenders the other, so they are co-dependent. Applying
this understanding to events and circumstances in daily
life is the Right Attitude. Again, according to master
Pang Yun,
The conditioned and name-and-form are all owers
in the sky.
Nameless and formless, I leave birth-and-death.
(Besserman & Steger, 1991)

Dualism separates and alienates us from the universal

essence of nature. In a comparative analysis of Zen teach-
ings and psychoanalysis, one researcher discusses the uid
nature of spiritual experience and the paradoxical coexist-
ence of ultimate and relative realities. The experience of
momentary state of awareness is central for both Zen and
psychoanalysis (Cooper, 2001). In the relative reality of
the Iill, we experience alienation, which causes many psy-
chological disturbances. Life that is premised on identity
is plagued by problems. It is always in potential of becom-
ing. It is the becoming which brings the great doubtof
what you will become. It is important to understand this
prior to experiencing No Mind, at which point this reality
will be experienced as a shift of awareness. Then you can

210003_301_C18.indd 374 6/6/08 3:33:54 PM

 communicate with other Iills from a different perspective; 375
that is, one of non-attachment.
Chapter 18

Right
THINK. THINK NOT. THERE IS NO THINKER. Attitude

Identity comes not only with separation anxiety, but also

with nalization anxiety, or fear of death (discussed in
Chapter 25, No Mind No Death). The Iill is inherently in-
complete, dependent, and searching for desires to fulll.
Again, it is always in potential of becoming. But fullling
desires to buy bigger and better toys or to be sexier and
prettier is as futile as pouring sand through a sieve. This
type of satisfaction is immediate and temporary; as soon
as these desires are fullled, new ones arise. No Mind
provides the grounding for experiencing something
greater than the trap of the Iills identity. In No Mind,
desire is a natural aspect of the mind-body and not a
requirement to be fullled. When desire constantly needs
to be fullled, it brings with it the potential of unhappi-
ness. Desires should be effortless, just like trying and
achieving.
Bigger, better, sexier, and prettier are not inherently
negative. The source of the desire is important, not the
material outcomes. If it is done on behalf of the Iill (as in
keeping up with the Joneses), then it is driven by end-
less desire. If there is no attachment to achieving bigger,
better, sexier, and prettier, then we would not be upset if
we didnt succeed or get what we want. In No Mind there
is no attachment to desires, so they can be enjoyed fully
and completely. They are like fruit which grows naturally
on a tree and needs no desire or intention. There is much
to be learned from nature. We evolved to eat fruit; there-
fore, it is our intrinsic nature to eat and to enjoy it. We
do not contradict our nature when we desire to eat the
fruit. While we are mindful of the desire to eat the fruit,
we are not attached to it, and its source is not the Iillit
is just the expression of a natural tendency of the mind-
body dynamicsimply eating fruit. Desire, expectation,
and attachment do not make the fruit grow naturally any

210003_301_C18.indd 375 6/6/08 3:33:54 PM

 376 faster or sweeter, although they might alter the percep-
tion of the taste or the smell of the fruit. In this case, you
No Mind
301 miss the direct experience of the taste and smell of the
fruit. Without desire and expectation, your enjoyment
The Ten is pure.
Paradoxes
Fruit, like desires and expectations, is temporary and
not to be clung to. When we lose the source of egotistic
desire, we end the unnatural effort to fulll desire and re-
main in potential. When conditions are right, fruit takes
form naturally. If our happiness is forced and pursued
with desire-intention, then it is tainted by fear of loss,
which leads to greed and regret for the sacrices made to
achieve it. When things occur naturally, as the outcome
in the pursuit of ones true potential without attachment
to goals, then they appear like the fruit on a tree. When
you are true to your nature and successful because of it,
as opposed to the Iill, then success is like a natural fruit.
You cannot tell the tree how to grow its fruit; it follows its
natural tendency, which is based on the underlying es-
sence of the universe. The fruit is the natural, uninten-
tional outcome of the trees growth. If all the fruit were
taken away, the tree would still be a tree, and it will bear
more fruit again following its intrinsic nature; it does not
cling to the possession of its fruit. Unintentional fruit is
pure enjoyment. Think-less and desire-less, you will have
your natural fruit.

WITH THOUGHT, INTENTION.

WITH INTENTION, KARMA.
No intention or intervention of the Iill is needed in order
to fulll your natural mind-body ability. Psychological
problems related to identifying with the Iill may be
tackled through the program of No Mind. The unfulll-
ing and self-defeating illusion of identity can be recog-
nized through the application of Right Awareness and
Right Attitude. We usually live as we were conditioned to

210003_301_C18.indd 376 6/6/08 3:33:54 PM

 and never realize our true potentials, which can come so 377
naturally to us. Our nature is overwhelmed by what
Chapter 18
should happen, how one should live, what one should
look like, and what one should doall of these are ques- Right
tions stemming from the duality of meaning. In other Attitude
words, what we think our desire is originates from the
conditioned Iill. There isnt much freedom at this level
just some degree of free wont. Dr. Langer, psychology
professor at Harvard, says:

Out of an intuitive experience of the world comes a

continuous ow of novel distinctions. Purely rational
understanding, on the other hand, serves to conrm
old mindsets, rigid categories. Artists, who live in the
same world as the rest of us, steer clear of these mind-
sets to make us see things anew. (Langer, 1989)

The mindsets of the individual Iill are relative to the

mindsets of the communal Iill (that of the community,
society, family, etc.). The individual Iill is conditioned to
fulll itself according to the expectations of the larger Iill.
If it succeeds, it is happy; if it fails, it is unhappy. And
even if it is successful, happiness is temporary, as new
shoulds are mandated and the cycle begins again. We
never can fulll desire potential. Mindsets determine spe-
cic goals and aspirations. Some might seek fame, power,
wealth, religious and philosophical ideals, etc. Some
might follow the familiar patterns of parents, family, or
ethnic traditions. In any event, these are conditioned as-
pects of the Iill, as opposed to the freedom of No Mind.
They all have the same relative value to No Mindthe
empty set. Remember, this is not to say that having goals
is wrong, but being attached to the intention of the goal
can bring continuous unhappiness.
Assigning a relative value to goals or shoulds substan-
tiates the illusion of the I, and it is counterproductive
for the No Mind program. Again, we do not jettison our
mindsetswe are simply mindful of them in a way that

210003_301_C18.indd 377 6/6/08 3:33:54 PM

 378 allows us to be detached, so our actions are not over-
whelmed and dictated by the Iill.
No Mind
301 Each Iill believes that the realty it perceives is abso-
lute, placing itself at the center of everything. But reality
The Ten is relative to the external and internal input the Iill re-
Paradoxes
ceives and interprets. Again, this does not mean that we
should lack goals and inspirations, but we shouldnt cling
to them and try unnaturally. This is unlearning the need
to fulll conditioned goals and learning the freedom of nat-
ural fulllment of potential. Just as the tree is in potential
to bear fruit, there is natural fulllment when the fruit
appears. We must perform any goal in play in order to
nurture psychological well-being, happiness, and health.
The Right Attitude is accepting the plurality and emptiness
of ego-centric goals, desires, and strivings. We do not
need to force the fruit to grow, we just need to allow our
inner ability to perform without expectation or intention,
which inhibit us otherwise.

ENLIGHTENMENT IS SIMPLE

A mindful person interprets the language of the Iill eas-

ily, as opposed to slipping into misinterpretations. The
Right Attitude is understanding that perfect communi-
cation and unconditional love happen without the Iill.
When we nally experience No Mind, the Right Attitude
must be applied to the practice of Right Awareness to
prevent it from claiming ownership of the fruits of the
No Mind technique. Otherwise, you are trapped within
the Iill again, imagining that you have succeeded and
achieving pseudo-enlightenment. Eliminate the I from
the description of the experience and from the actual
experience itself. The ancient masters claimed that en-
lightenment is simple. The shift of awareness from indi-
viduality to universality is all that is attained; but it is
scaryin fact, they often compared this to jumping over
a great abysslooking into nothingness. The Iill holds

210003_301_C18.indd 378 6/6/08 3:33:55 PM

 us back in fear of losing itself, so it will attempt to main- 379
tain power in the process of realizing No Mind. Being
Chapter 18
mindful of this problem helpsbe careful when you
recognize that the I-illusion has hijacked any efforts to Right
realize No Mind. This is discussed further in the next Attitude
chapter.

210003_301_C18.indd 379 6/6/08 3:33:55 PM

 380

No Mind CHAPTER 18 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER

301 BEFORE CONTINUING

The Ten
Paradoxes 1. The Right Attitude is understanding and applying
The Ten Paradoxes to your daily activities, work,
play, relationships, business, and so on. This re-
quires practice and being mindful, but the subse-
quent freedom and unconditional mode of life
you achieve is well worth it.
2. Comprehending that our cherished personality
traits are empty is difcult from within the Iill. It
is like trying to see the blue of the sky through
red-colored glasses. The Iill ghts to maintain its
hold over personality, and it takes pure awareness
to stop the Iill.
3. In No Mind, the concept that all things are empty
and lacking essential identity is grasped. All things
derive their meaning from our interpretation of
them. When we cease to interpret and just watch,
then we see clearly and directly that the inter-
pretation is not the reality.
4. The practice of No Mind must be allowed to ow
on its own accord, without wanting results in a
timely manner; let the techniques do their work
without force. There are no specic goals in the
practice of No Mindthey will come if you for-
get about them.

210003_301_C18.indd 380 6/6/08 3:33:55 PM

 The Power of
No Mind

210003_301_C19.indd 381 6/6/08 3:34:49 PM

 Figure 19-1: The Clear Attention Matrix-Level 3

In the diagram above, we build upon Figure 7-1 and Figure 14-1. Now the line connect-
ing memory and behavior is expanding out in four directions to indicate the expansion
of awareness beyond the normal web of the Iill. The processing of the perceptual and
behavioral channels based on memory and behavior remains, but now there is aware-
ness of the behavior and of its origins through the practice of Clear Attention. The
dashed line connecting memory input and behavior output in Figure 14-1 is removed to
indicate that awareness is becoming free of mindless actions. This is the second shift
toward mindful action and reaction and represents another step toward liberation from
the automatisms. The result is an expanded and more direct perception of reality and

382

210003_301_C19.indd 382 6/6/08 3:34:57 PM

 freer action and reaction as a consequence of the de-conditioning of the neural networks. 383
The inner circle representing the Iills dominance over the mind-body dynamic becomes a
lesser factor in your behavior; mind and body have a more direct relationship. You become The Power
more aware of the factors of No Mind, as awareness perceives reality more directly. As of No Mind
awareness expands through the practice of Clear Attention, the mind moves toward No
Mind and eventually to the insight of spiritual awareness shown in Figure 26-1 at the end
of No Mind 401.

210003_301_C19.indd 383 6/6/08 3:34:58 PM

 You cannot conceptualize No Mind or force yourself to
experience it. You experience No Mind directly by practicing
a three-step technique: breath control, Clear Attention, and
questioning, Who is being mindful? or Who is it that
realizes No Mind? This doubt neutralizes the thought
process by pitting thought against thought to practice
No Mind. This ancient Zen method is known as the hua-tou
device, which literally means the mind before a thought
arises. It is pure awareness.

Chapter 19 describes the comprehensive technique of The

Power of No Mind and provides detailed guidance for how
to perform the three-step practice most effectively.

210003_301_C19.indd 384 6/6/08 3:34:59 PM

 Chapter 19

The Three-Step
Practice of No Mind

According to Dr. Frank Caprio and Joseph R. Berger,

The ability to concentrate is something you can develop and cul-

tivatesomething you can learn. Many of us handicap ourselves
by harboring the fallacy that we simply are unable to concen-
trate. We believe, erroneously of course, that our difculty in
concentrating is due to something we cannot explain. We ration-
alize and tell ourselves that some people are just naturally gifted
that way as if they were endowed at birth with special powers of
concentration. (Caprio & Berger, 1963)

The Power of No Mind program cultivates the powers of concen-

tration. It is founded on the knowledge presented in No Mind 101
and No Mind 201, as well as in the Ten Paradoxes, the Right Atti-
tude, and the Right Awareness (discussed in No Mind 301). So
far weve covered the theoretical and practical application of
No Mind. Now we nally focus on the techniquethe method of

385

210003_301_C19.indd 385 6/6/08 3:35:00 PM

 386 applying Clear Attention and shifting awareness from the
trap of the Iill to the freedom of pure awareness. First, we
No Mind
301 will discuss a few remaining aspects of the Right Attitude
and the importance of doubting the I.
The Power Hopefully, by now you know enough to have started
of No Mind
questioning yourself: Who is the one being mindful?
and Who is it that realizes No Mind? When we contem-
plate this, we use thought against thought, or poison against
poison, to practice No Mind. This ancient Zen method is
known as the hua-tou, which means the mind before a
thought arises. Here, we experience pure awareness,
which the ancient masters called the Self-Nature (We
used the term spiritual awareness in the No Mind pro-
gram discussed further in No Mind 401); but rst we must
understand the mechanisms of mind and the nature of
No Mind detailed in No Mind 101 and 201. We study mind
so we can ask Who? We study No Mind so we understand
that the Who is an illusion. And in No Mind 301, we study
No Mind techniques so we can experience awareness with-
out the Who. This whole pursuit is driven by the doubt
generated in asking about the Who. Pure awareness is
simply being mindful of the state of mind before thought
originates. We discuss how to apply pure awareness to all
aspects of lives in No Mind 501.
The technique consists of three steps: 1) Breath con-
trol, 2) Applying Clear Attention, and 3) Questioning, Who
is being mindful? (hua-tou). First, we study breath con-
trol as a mechanism to regulate unconscious activities.
Breathing is an automated body function which can be
controlled relatively effortlessly. Throughout the practice
of the technique, remember the paradox Think, Think not.
There is no thinker. You can understand this in terms of the
Who. There is no thinker, so we practice detachment from
the Iill. After a brief review of each of the three steps, we
will discuss the technique as a whole.

UNDERSTANDING THE MINDFUL BREATH

Deep breathing invigorates the body and enhances concen-

tration, making it easier to be mindful. Your awareness
should mirror the rhythm of the breath. Inhaling and exhaling

210003_301_C19.indd 386 6/6/08 3:35:01 PM

 sharpens awareness as you gently control their rhythm. At 387
rst, try to slow down your breathing into a pattern where it
Chapter 19
takes you twice as long to exhale as it does to inhale (ratio of
2:1). Eventually, you should be able to increase this ratio to The Three-
4:1. Do not exert any unnatural effort to accomplish this; the Step
Practice of
breathing should be slow and relaxed, and you should ob-
No Mind
serve it with passive, detached awareness. Focus Clear At-
tention on breathing and on the rhythm. Fill awareness with
the breath and allow any thought, perception, motivation, or
feeling that comes into awareness to pass without subjecting
it to conscious activity. Dont chase the thoughts with more
thoughts, just allow the thought to rise and fall while watch-
ing. There is no strained try in this activityjust the natu-
ral ow of the breath, which lls up the awareness.
It always takes conscious effort to control the breath
at the beginning, when you are using the 2:1 ratio to guide
the process of counting and setting the rhythm. After
some practice of applying awareness to the rhythm, the
pattern will become automatic and the exhaling-inhaling
ratio will increase naturally. The exact ratio and pattern
are unimportantwe are using them as an arbitrary
measuring device to acquire the discipline of maintaining
a pattern. With time, your mind-body will nd and main-
tain its own comfortable pattern during practice. Dr. Alex-
ander Lowen describes the effects of deep breathing:

Deep breathing charges the body and literally makes

it come alive. And one of the self-evident truths about
a live body is that it looks alive: the eyes sparkle, the
muscle tone is good, the skin has bright color, and the
body is warm. All this happens when a person breathes
deeply. (Lowen, 1975)

The health benets of proper breath control have been

documented extensively in the medical literature. What
concerns us here is its effect on developing Clear Atten-
tion. The goal of Raja Yoga, a kingly form of yoga prac-
ticed in the East, is to develop ones full potential and
spiritual awareness:

Yoga may be regarded as a process for attaining per-

fection, the goal of normal evolution ... In Raja Yoga,

210003_301_C19.indd 387 6/6/08 3:35:01 PM

 388 control of breath is limited to the harmonizing of the
rhythm to a slow steady pace, in which the bodys au-
No Mind tomatic processes can continue without any effort of
301
the will. Its object is to cleanse the blood and feed the
The Power nerves. And to assist in the control of the mind, thereby
of No Mind producing serenity and an inner calm. (Slater, 1968)

Try to practice breath control during your daily activi-

ties. You dont have to be in a meditative position;
No Mind is action and life-style oriented. The mind-body
responds to the rhythm and to the extra oxygen by relax-
ing; subsequently, this focuses attention and develops
mindful awareness. Breath control, like any other disci-
plined activity of the mind-body, develops the ability to be
mindful, not mindless. The ability to focus on a single
point will occur when we can focus on the breath in an
instant. Breath control is used to stop the Iills automated
actions, reactions, and perceptions (see Figure 7-1). When
awareness is lled with breath, the Iills mental web is
suspended. So a mindful breath before undertaking an
important action or reaction clears the mind and moni-
tors automatic decisions or judgments. By lling the
awareness with breath, you can manage stress by focus-
ing inward during trying times. Many therapists prescribe
breathing exercises for stress management. It is common
knowledge that deep and attentive breathing relaxes the
body and controls the mind, which makes it the easiest
No Mind technique to master.

BREATH AS THE VITAL ENERGY

Breath control is essential to Taoism. The ancient masters

said that the breath should make no sound. A favorite tech-
nique was to exhale slowly and steadily, allowing the air to
pass through the mouth gently and without a sound. The
Taoist term for sitting with blank mind is tso-wang. It en-
tails slackening limbs and frame, blotting out the senses of
hearing and sight, getting clear of outward forms, dismiss-
ing knowledge and being absorbed in that which pervades
everything. It is said in the Tao, only he that rids himself

210003_301_C19.indd 388 6/6/08 3:35:02 PM

 forever of desire can see the Secret Essences. He that has 389
never rid himself of desire can see only the outcomes
Chapter 19
(Waley, 1958). When we breathe, we must desire nothing
but awareness of the breathing. We experience No Mind The Three-
when we are no longer concerned with outcomes and when Step
Practice of
we are mindful of our breath only. According to the an-
No Mind
cient Tao, breath is the life force containing the vital energy
of Chi used in acupuncture, acupressure, and breathing
exercises:

The art of breathing control is one of the oldest arts

in China. Beginning long before written history, reach-
ing its Golden Age of development during the Chou
Dynasty 112-255 B.C., Chi means the owing of the
unseen life force dened as internal body energy. Chi
is the main inuence in bringing greater physiological
vitality and psychological stability. The owing energy
of Yin and Yang is called Chi. Their rest and motions
are controlled by the Tao ... The harmony of Yin and
Yang is necessary to the body for perfect health. Thus
the practice of acupuncture and respiratory control is
necessary for the connection of the vital energy. Mo-
tion and concentration are used to inuence correct
breathing and thus affect the activities of vital energy.
The importance of inhaling and exhaling correctly can-
not be overstressed. Breath control is necessary for the
conduction of the Chi or vital energy. Vital energy is
both mental and physical energy. Correct breathing al-
lows the vital energy to ow naturally with practice.
One can control the ow of Energy and direct it to dif-
ferent parts of the body. (Siou, 1975)

Shallow, rapid breathing usually happens during times

of stress or fear, and it is unhealthy. Many people breathe
in a rapid, shallow pattern unconsciously, without realiz-
ing that they are not giving their mind-body sufcient
oxygen. The lungs sometimes spasm for a deep breath in
the midst of shallow breathing, or your body may yawn in
an attempt to bring in more oxygen. These are requests on
the part of the mind-body for more oxygen. When you
redirect your awareness to the breath, shallow breathing

210003_301_C19.indd 389 6/6/08 3:35:02 PM

 390 subsides. Breath control is the prequel to the practice of
No Mind. Carlson Wade, a medical-research reporter who
No Mind
301 authored over 30 books, says that using the stomach mus-
cles to expel air forcefully helps recharge your internal
The Power organs. He writes of the benets of the 2,500-year-old
of No Mind
technique of breath control:
The rhythmic breathing sends oxygen, via the hor-
mones, to your body tissues. The oxygenated hormones
nourish the hemoglobin of the red blood cells. The oxy-
genated hormones are then carried through a great
vascular network to the microscopic capillaries which
permeate the tissues at that point. They diffuse from
the blood across the capillary membrane to the tissue,
in proportion to the rejuvenating needs of that specic
tissue. (Wade, 1972)

THE SECRET OF ABDOMINAL BREATHING

Dr. Tomio Hirai, professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at

Tokyo University, explains why abdominal breathing re-
laxes the body:

The parasympathetic nerves, which form a network in

the lower part of the body, are responsible for the con-
strictor of the eye, the slowing of the heart beat, and
certain digestive functions. Stimulating these nerves
as it is possible to do by tapping a frog or a chicken on
the abdomenresults in a condition resembling sleep.
After-lunch drowsiness and total body relaxation are re-
sults of the stimulation of the central part of the para-
sympathetic nervous system. Tensing the abdomen, as
one does in abdominal breathing, represses the sym-
pathetic nervous system, which, acting in opposition
to the parasympathetic system, stimulates response to
alarm by speeding the heart rate, raising the blood pres-
sure, and so on. In other words, tensing the abdomen
makes it possible to control the effects of the excite-
ment causing parasympathetic nerves to channel their
effects indirectly toward the goal you have set for your-
self. This enables you to remain calm in the face of dan-
ger and trouble. And this is the reason why abdominal

210003_301_C19.indd 390 6/6/08 3:35:02 PM

 breathing generates mental composure and enables you 391
to make maximum uses of your energies. (Hirai, 1975)
Chapter 19
Abdominal breathing stimulates the nerves in the ab-
The Three-
dominal cavity, which relaxes the body. The abdominal Step
breathing technique (detailed at the end of this section) Practice of
can be used prior to performing tasks or activities and No Mind
when applying No Mind to daily routines. This simple
technique puries awareness and makes us more capable
of dealing effectively with the issue at hand, such as busi-
ness decisions, negative reactions, stressful situations, or
relationship problems. The process of the Iill can be
deautomatized for the sake of gaining a clearer, more di-
rect intuition of the situation through the intuitive sixth
sense (see Chapter 11).

APPLYING CLEAR ATTENTION

(CAt)MINDFULNESS
Breath control at the beginning of No Mind practice gen-
erates Clear Attention. Clear Attention is a gentle effort,
similar to pushing a toy boat into a stream and then let-
ting it go. Stay focused on the current with passive per-
sistence. When you begin to discover improvement in
your daily activities and solving daily problems, you are
encouraged to continue the practice. Designate a time
and a place to practice at the beginning, but later you
should practice everywhere, during every activity, at least
for a moment or so. Start practicing Clear Attention
slowly in a quiet place; but once some level of Clear At-
tention is reached, integrate the practice into work,
school, relationships, business, sex, play, sports, and so
on. Allow the technique to unfold by starting to practice
and then letting it go. When you become overwhelmed
by thoughts, do not force them to stop; simply ask, Who
is trying to control the thoughts? Ram Dass, professor of
Psychology at Harvard University, says:

Every time a thought arises, observe the thought with-

out judgment, without reaction to content, without

210003_301_C19.indd 391 6/6/08 3:35:02 PM

 392 identifying with it, without taking the thought to be I,
or self, or mine. The thought is the thinker. There is no
No Mind one behind it. The thought is thinking itself. It comes
301
uninvited. You will see that when there is a strong de-
The Power tachment from the thought process, thoughts do not
of No Mind last long. As soon as you are mindful of a thought, it
disappears. (Dass, 1978)

Most people can easily learn the technique and open

the gates to intuition, which is the un-Iill-ltered knowl-
edge we all have, as opposed to learned knowledge. The
practice of emptying the mind starts with applying Clear
Attention to the act of breathing. As the ability to concen-
trate and to maintain empty awareness grows, you then
can apply it to other activities.
When applying Clear Attention, we mirror the direct
perception of the senses. This is being mindful of the op-
erations of the mind-body in the present moment. We try
to notice the source of mental work, the mechanisms of
the Iill. Being mindful of the mind-body allows us to
experience the pure awareness before the thoughts
hua-tou. We allow the succession of thoughts to unfold
without attending, acting, or reacting to them. Each per-
ception, thought, feeling, prejudice, and motivation is a
mind object, and all mind objects are assigned equal
importance. Clear Attention moves awareness from the
breath to the body, to the mind, and then back to the
breath. In the process, we train ourselves to become more
mindful, not mindless. You may notice more thoughts
than usual, but this is because now you are more aware
of them, as opposed to being lost in them. Clear Attention
is the passive watching of the mind objects. John Blofeld,
author of The Secret and Sublime: Taoist Mysteries and
Magic, says:

No words can describe the full benet of such exer-

cises; of themselves they make one immune to many
ills. Combined with meditation, they purify the body,
promote accumulation and circulation of the Chi
[vital or cosmic energy], and enable one to enter at
will into a profound state of inner stillness. From

210003_301_C19.indd 392 7/23/08 4:35:42 PM

 which one emerges each time to nd the world ever 393
less disturbing, because something of that stillness
lingers, bringing serenity and dispassion ... Posture Chapter 19
requires attention, as wrong posture may inhibit The Three-
the ow of Chi ... A swordsman or an archers aim Step
is surest when his mind, concentrated on the work Practice of
in hand, is indifferent to failure or success. Stillness No Mind
in the heart of movement is the secret of all power.
(Blofeld, 1973)

THE HEART OF MOVEMENTCLEAR ATTENTION

Stillness in the heart of movement is unmotivated, unin-

tentional, and effortless movement. It is executed with
the pure awareness of Clear Attention, like the peak per-
formance in activities such as sports, dance, acting, or
simply walking. It is No Mind performing the learned
motions of the mind-body dynamic. Awareness is empty,
pure, and receptive. In business, relationships, and edu-
cation, the skill to absorb information fast is vital, as is
the ability to understand others through direct percep-
tion, without distorting the meaning of what they are try-
ing to communicate. Clear Attention is key to open and
clear communication. If we stop the perceptual mecha-
nisms of the Iill to listen to others, we understand much
better.
Clear Attention un-trains and deautomatizes the mind
in order to separate awareness from the Iill. It takes time
to re-train the mind to perceive directly, but Clear Atten-
tion allows perceptual input to follow new, as opposed to
old, response patterns. In this way, old mindsets are
changed and habituated categories are replaced with new
ones, eventually suspended altogether. Clear Attention
opens the door to the unconscious aspects of the Iill, so
that you become aware of your underlying motives and
mental mechanisms, as in psychoanalysis.
Clear Attention focuses on the immediate present and
overlooks past or future, which is where the Iill resides.
This alleviates thoughts of worry, resentment, hope, de-
sire, expectation, and so on. Arthur Deikman, M.D.,

210003_301_C19.indd 393 6/6/08 3:35:03 PM

 394 trained in psychiatry and neurology at Harvard Medical
School, argues:
No Mind
301
On the biological side, the elements of the person sys-
The Power tem range from such low-level elements as chemical
of No Mind entities to the higher-order, more strictly biological
elements of muscles, nerves, bones, and skin, and to
the still higher-level components of respiratory, diges-
tive, vascular, and motor systems. On the psychologi-
cal side, ideas, affects, and sensations are at one level,
and memories, thinking, and self-concepts are at a
higher level. On the biological side, the organization
of these elements is life; on the psychological side,
the organization is awareness. I mean to say that
awareness is the complementary aspect of organiza-
tion, it is organization, itself, in its mental dimension
... awareness depends on the state of the [mind-body
dynamic], or bio-system; thought functions are the
organizations activity. There is no experiencing
agency; the experience is the state or the activity.
(Deikman, 1973)

Being mindful or practicing Clear Attention allows

you to experience the natural state of awareness, where
the Iill is no longer the agent of experience, there is
only the experience. The awareness of No Mind can be
applied in all aspects of lifefrom the direct experience
of reality, to peak performance in sports, to unconditional
communication with others, to experiencing spiritual
awareness.

Clear Attention Releases Attachment

Another important aspect of No Mind is following the mid-
dle path between opposites and extremes; we discussed
this in the context of talking about the Right Attitude and
the Ten Paradoxes. Attachment creates internal conict
and disrupts the ow of life. Remember, opposites are only
two aspects of the same reality and not two separate reali-
ties of their own. All things and events in nature are inter-
dependent elements of one single process.

210003_301_C19.indd 394 6/6/08 3:35:03 PM

 395

Chapter 19

The Three-
Step
Practice of
No Mind

Figure 19-2: Opposites are circular, not linear

CLEAR ATTENTION TECHNIQUE

OF ABDOMINAL BREATHING
The beginning of the Power of No Mind program requires
some reduction in the number of perceptual stimuli and
thoughts, because this makes it easier to concentrate. Con-
trolling the breathing process brings awareness to a nor-
mally unconscious process. Therefore, breathing is a
helpful beginning object of Clear Attention. The objects of
Clear Attention are the mind-body processes. In order to
monitor a host of body and mental functions, we require
practice in being mindful. We simply train ourselves to be
aware of the correct breathing method, and thus re-train
ourselves to breathe properly during our daily activities.
During normal activity, we do not expand and contract the
breath to its full capacity; this proper method of abdomi-
nal breathing oxygenates the blood and efciently depletes
the carbon dioxide.

The Mindful Breath

We are used to automated breathing, so forcing the breath
into a particular pattern may be uncomfortable and cause
mental and physical straining, additionally obstructing
Clear Attention. Just remember that this is a gentle, pas-
sive effort, without the I trying to succeed at anything.
Simply follow the breathing exercise that you are learning
without over-controlling the breath. Abdominal breathing

210003_301_C19.indd 395 6/6/08 3:35:03 PM

 396 stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which
soothes the sympathetic nervous system, relaxes the body,
No Mind
301 and focuses the mind. The proper technique of abdominal
breathing is to use the abdominal muscles to lower the di-
The Power aphragm upon inhalation, allowing a deeper intake of air,
of No Mind
and to contract the abdominal muscles upon exhalation in
order to pull the abdomen in tightly and expel the air.
This is relatively simple breathing action and should
not be forced. It is a gentle expansion of the abdomen and
then raising the chest during inhalation, and a gentle con-
traction of the abdomen, with a slight tensing of the ab-
dominal muscles at the end of the contracting movement
during exhalation. The abdomen should contract enough
during exhalation to push the diaphragm up and to
squeeze the chest slightly, emptying the lungs. You should
not be overly concerned with the perfection of your tech-
nique, as this is not as important as the application of Clear
Attention during the process. Breathing should be natural,
so train it for short periods of time, ve or ten minutes,
and then let it go. When the abdomen is used this way, the
solar plexus of the parasympathetic nervous system is
stimulated and relaxes the mind-body.
The inhalation-exhalation rate should be at 1:2 ratio at
rst, with the exhalation being twice as long as the inhala-
tion. With practice, the inhalation-exhalation pattern could
increase up to 1:4 ratio. However, everyone is different and
you should nd your own comfortable ratio that ows easy
and without effort. Again, these are guidelines and not rules;
it is most important that you nd a pattern that stills your
mind without causing discomfort or strain.

Developing Mindfulness of the Body

Applying Clear Attention to abdominal breathing requires
being mindful of the successive body changes. So we
watch each step in the breathing cycle with passive aware-
ness, and we extend that observation to the rest of our
body, noticing all kinds of sensations. The order of the
process is as follows:
1. awareness of the abdomen expanding
2. awareness of the air lling the lungs

210003_301_C19.indd 396 6/6/08 3:35:04 PM

 3. awareness of the upper chest lling with air 397
4. awareness of the rest of the chest lling with air Chapter 19
5. awareness of the abdomen contracting
The Three-
6. awareness of the air leaving the lungs Step
7. awareness of the abdomen contracting inward and Practice of
No Mind
tightening slightly
8. awareness of the cycle starting all over again
Avoid having a thought about being aware of the abdo-
men rising or falling; you are just being aware of the ab-
domen rising and falling. Thoughts are mind objects and
should just be allowed to dissipate. With time and prac-
tice, the exercise becomes automatic.
In the example above, the process is broken down into
seven parts. As your skill increases, you could break it
down into two partsthe rise and fall of the abdomen as
a continuous, smooth swell similar to that of the ocean
waves. A natural rhythm develops with practice, and
when you become aware of your breathing, you will
resume this rhythm of breathing as an aspect of the body-
mind conditioning process.

AWARENESS IS LIKE A MIRROR REFLECTING

THE LIGHT
As thoughts, feeling, and perceptions disturb Clear Atten-
tion of abdominal breathing, they are turned into mind
objects that are watched so that they cannot consume the
awareness. If we get distracted, we are patient and begin
again without worrying about not doing it right; its all
right as long as you are mindful of what you are doing.
For example, if you think, I need to go to work, then
become mindful of that thought, and it will dissipate. If it
doesnt and another thought comes into awareness, like,
I forgot to call Bill about that meeting, then apply Clear
Attention to that thought and repeat until your attention
lls with the rise and fall of the breathing pattern. If a
sound enters your awareness, the sound itself becomes a
mind object of Clear Attention, a perceptual sensation to
be watched passively until it dissipates; then allow aware-
ness to be lled with the breathing pattern once again.

210003_301_C19.indd 397 6/6/08 3:35:04 PM

 398 Remember, this exercise is to be mindful of your
breathing. You already know how to breathe, but you
No Mind
301 havent learned how to watch your breath. You need to
ll awareness with the breath. Keep repeating this pat-
The Power tern as many times as required without forcing yourself
of No Mind
to focus back on breathing. In other words, you are a
mirror and you reect everything going on inside and
outside of your mind and body, the light that illuminates
the mirror is your awareness. Without the awareness, the
mirror cannot reect. When there is no light and just
darkness, the mirror reects nothing.
Every aspect of the body, mind, and perceptual eld is
an object of Clear Attention. We start with the abdominal
breathing pattern in the beginning of the awareness train-
ing program, and then we incorporate various activities of
our daily life as objects of Clear Attention also. So we be-
come mindful during our daily routines and interactions
with others. As the practice progresses, you remain aware
of the uctuations of the abdomen. Practice this any time
you have the opportunity: in the car, at work, waiting in
line, talking on the phone, etc. The Clear Attention of breath-
ing is a very powerful exercise that stills the mind and al-
lows a moment of quiet detachment in situations when you
need a break to contemplate what to do or how to handle an
issue. Breathing in this way deepens your concentration
and ability to focus on the mind objects, diverting your at-
tention from the stream of thoughts in the mind to the di-
rect attention of the object. The breath also stimulates,
sharpens, and revitalizes the brain and the body, which
heightens the ensuing mindfulness activity. Nyanaponika
Thera, a German-born Buddhist monk, scholar, translator,
and founder of the Buddhist Publication Society in Sri
Lanka, describes mindfulness as bare attention:

Bare attention is the clear and single-minded aware-

ness of what actually happens to us and in us, at the
successive moments of perception. After the practice of
bare attention has resulted in a certain width and depth
of experience ... it will become an immediate certainty
to the meditator that mind is nothing beyond its

210003_301_C19.indd 398 6/6/08 3:35:04 PM

 cognizing function. Bare attention is concerned only 399
with the present. It teaches what so many have forgot-
ten. To live with full awareness in the here and now. It Chapter 19
teaches us to face the present without trying to escape The Three-
into thoughts about the past or the future. By pausing Step
before action, in a habitual attitude of bare attention, Practice of
one will be able to seize that decisive, but brief moment No Mind
when mind has not yet settled upon a denite course
of action or a denite attitude. But is still open to re-
ceive skillful directions. Bare attention shows us, by
our own experience, the possibility of nally winning
perfect detachment and the happiness resulting from
it ... Only by training oneself again and again in view-
ing the presently arisen thoughts and feelings as mere
impersonal processes, can the power of deep-rooted,
egocentric habits and egotistic instincts be broken up,
reduced and nally eliminated. (Thera, 1965)

MIND OBJECTS AND COMMUNICATION

We can group the mind objects of Clear Attention into

four categories: body sensations, emotions, thoughts
(motivations, intentions, and expectations), and percep-
tions. When awareness is trained to reect thoughts,
emotions, perceptions, or sensations, there is a deeper
understanding of these mechanisms and of their source.
This applies to your dealings with other people also, so
that you become intuitively aware of what they are really
trying to tell you, verbally and non-verbally. Once youve
mastered this technique, you realize that your only road-
block is your Iill, which is the true source of misinterpreta-
tion or misunderstanding and the hardest obstacle to
communicating with another. If we describe an opinion of
ourself in a conversation with someone, we immediately
set up a relative point of view, or a mindset. That other
person must see our relative point of view to understand
us. The problem is that he has his own relative point of
view, so you end up with two mindsets trying to communi-
cate. Power of No Mind trains us to have an objective and
universal point of view and also helps in analyzing others,

210003_301_C19.indd 399 6/6/08 3:35:05 PM

 400 as discussed in No Mind 501. From this perspective, we
communicate unconditionally, without ltering.
No Mind
301 It is always easier to analyze others than it is to ana-
lyze ourselves. Our perceptual and ego defense mecha-
The Power nisms protect the Iill from stress, discomfort, anxiety,
of No Mind
embarrassment, shame, humiliation, and so on. But we
can easily see these mindsets before we see them in
ourselves. If we apply Clear Attention, without interpre-
tation, we perceive the Iill of the other person directly
and use this insight to guide our actions appropriately.
When you apply Clear Attention to others, you are si-
multaneously doing so to your own thoughts arising from
the mental web of the Iill. The associative and condi-
tioned internal responses that cross the screen of aware-
ness need to be treated as mind objects that are watched
passively as they pass by. Utilizing Clear Attention to per-
ceive others and their intentions directly allows you to
uncover other motives, reasons, and desires. As long as
you practice Clear Attention of the other person during
communication (receding your Iill into the background),
you see clearly their intention by comparing the present
situation with your unbiased awareness. We will look at
this in more detail in Chapter 29, No Mind Business.
Clear Attention treats internal and external mind objects
with the same level of intensity and value. The Power of
No Mind teaches us that all things of which we become
mindful are equal, which makes it easier for us to detach
from them. Before the mind objects form, we experience
hua-tou, or the state before the Iill has interrupted
the empty mind. This is the non-dualistic awareness of
No Mind developed in time and with practice.
The mindfulness of mind objects encompasses not only
the thought of the object itself, but also its associations in
the mind. This opens our awareness to the inter-dynamics
of the mental web of the Iill, as you passively watch the
associations that co-arise. This is Clear Attention of the
co-dependent nature of our own brains, watching the neu-
ral associative network perform its jobproducing co-
dependent meanings and interpretations and thus more
mind objects co-arise in the process.

210003_301_C19.indd 400 7/23/08 4:35:43 PM

 Our purpose is to separate the awareness from the 401
Iills mechanisms and, in doing so, gain direct insight into
Chapter 19
reality. Furthermore, this aspect of non-attachment to
these mind objects will be reinforced during practice as The Three-
they are seen not as a part of the awareness, but a part of Step
Practice of
the Iill. When you passively watch an internal or external
No Mind
mind object, you are aware of its formation within aware-
ness, as well as of its leaving awareness. Thus, we become
aware of the inner chatter and eventually can control it.
This exercise develops the understanding that there is no
I as the originator of the thoughts, emotions, body sen-
sations, and perceptions. These processes occur of them-
selves, rather than as part of an entity called I. A
fundamental breakthrough in our progress is when we re-
alize this simple fact of nature and we are closer to under-
standing our spiritual awareness. The fruits of this labor
are very satisfying. Gaining insight into the Iill and its
emptiness brings comfort, serenity, and a new-found
strength. Clear Attention of mind objects discovers poten-
tials hidden behind the Iill and the many layers of defense
mechanisms weve built since infancy.

MIND OBJECTS 101

1. Body Processes as Mind Objects

The four categories of mind objectsbody processes,
emotions, thoughts, and perceptionsare usually part of
the mental activity to which we do not pay attention. The
exercise of Clear Attention trains us to pay attention to
the things we ordinarily forget. For instance, when you
walk somewhere, you pay attention to the bodys move-
ments, the sensations of pressure or pain in the limbs, the
temperature of the skin, the feeling of the wind against
the face. Usually while you walk, you are preoccupied
with thoughts about being on time, your purposes,
planning ahead, etc. However, when you are caught up in
past and future thoughts, you do not experience the jour-
ney in the present. You can exercise Clear Attention while
you are walking, running, sitting, lying down, getting up,

210003_301_C19.indd 401 6/6/08 3:35:05 PM

 402 pouring coffee, brushing your teeth, drinking, excreting,
and so on. Fill the awareness with the movements and
No Mind
301 sensations of the body, the bodys position, the arms, the
feet, etc. If you are walking, stare at a point on the ground
The Power about eight feet in front of you to limit visual distrac-
of No Mind
tions, watch the breathing pattern, and walk normally,
becoming aware of the sensation throughout the body.
Watch any intruding thoughts of the past or future. Be
mindful of the sensations in the feet, the length of your
steps, the rhythm of your breath. Breathe from the abdo-
men and walk in awareness of your incredible body per-
forming its tasks. When your focus wanders off, patiently
re-focus on the breathing, let go, and just play.
Clear Attention increases your enjoyment of all phys-
ical processes and sensations, including sports, mas-
sage, sex, hugging, and so on. It allows pure bodily
expression without the shoulds and whys condition-
ing the Iill what it should do and why. Next time you
hug someone, do so without intention or motive and ll
your awareness with the sensations of the bodythe
touch of skin and clothes, breathing, thoughts, sounds,
feelings in the stomach, smells, etc. There are myriad
sensations associated with a hug, and they all become
mind objects of Clear Attention. Many athletes and ce-
lebrities have to be keenly aware and in control of their
posture during performance. With practice, the body
naturally assumes the posture it has been trained to
maintain. Clear Attention helps to modify certain char-
acteristics or positions of the body. You notice when you
are slouching during an important meeting, for exam-
ple. Be mindful when you correct your posture. Instead
of saying, I am slouching, think of it in terms of the
body is slouching. It is not as an aspect of the Iill, such
as, I need to correct my posture. There is just the ef-
fort of the correction and the awareness of that effort
without the reference to the I.
The goal of Clear Attention is to develop non-
attachment to the body processes, so references to the I
in relation to the body are no longer needed, except for

210003_301_C19.indd 402 6/6/08 3:35:05 PM

 verbal interactions that require pronouns. Remember, it 403
is mind-body, or mind with body sensation, not my
Chapter 19
body. Detachment helps the mind realize the full capacity
of the body in expressing itself without the limitations of The Three-
the Iill. Becoming aware of the mechanical nature of the Step
Practice of
body as a whole and of its individual parts develops this
No Mind
detachment. In other words, we do not say, I am in a lot
of pain, which would mean that we are dealing with an
Iill with pain; in this case, awareness is trapped in the
sensation of pain and the I has identied with it. Iden-
tication is clinging, and as we learned in one of the Ten
Paradoxes: With attachment, work. Without attachment,
play. We want to see the pain passively as a thought, as a
sensation of the mind without identifying with it: there
is the thought of pain, or mind with pain. In other
words, we experience that the pain in itself, not the self
being in pain.

2. THE EMOTIONS AS MIND OBJECTS

One of the most important goals of practicing Clear At-

tention is to achieve healthy emotional detachment,
where we experience emotion without being consumed
by it. Becoming mindful of our emotions is one of the
hardest aspects of Clear Attention, as it is very difcult to
be objective about feelings and emotions. As we discussed
in No Mind 101, emotions can quickly hijack mental
and physical responses. Surging hormones and neuro-
transmitters can take over the brain and cause us to react
unconsciously and uncontrollably. This is the ght-or-
ight survival mechanism manifesting itself. Emotions
are typically generated by the Iill through conditioning;
in other words, our emotionality is partly genetic but also
learned to a large extent (Hochschild, 2003). With the
practice of No Mind, you can be mindful of your emo-
tions. For the most part, emotions are generated from the
mental web of the Iill as complex biochemical responses
to internal and external stimuli. We learn not only how,
but also how much, to respond (Lutz, 1998)). On top of

210003_301_C19.indd 403 6/6/08 3:35:06 PM

 404 this, some people are naturally overly sensitive, while
others are overly reserved. Some people respond out of
No Mind
301 context to the given situation, while others act as ex-
pected. But we learn how to handle someone who is too
The Power emotional and how far we can go with people who in-
of No Mind
hibit their emotions. We learn how to act in order to
maintain some sense of social cohesion.
Emotions can be perceived in the same detached
mode as sensations coming from the body. We described
pain as mind with pain, so here we talk about mind
with anger, or mind with feeling of happiness. It takes
practice to develop the detachment necessary to apply
Clear Attention to emotions, and this is more difcult to
do than it was with the body. Again, breath control is vital
for emotional stability. When experiencing uncontrolled
emotions, try to interrupt your normal automatic reac-
tion with Clear Attention of the breath. Temporarily ll
the awareness with the rise and fall of the abdomen, with
the breath, and in that moment you can become detached
from the emotion. Then apply Clear Attention to it and
just passively watch it dissolve or pass across the screen
of awareness. Understand that emotions are part of the
Iill and that we often lose our awareness in the emotional
response. This is the Iills identifying with the emotion,
such as, I am so angry, instead of mind with anger. As
discussed before, the I exists only as a successive thought
process; it is empty and has no substance. I cannot be
angry, but there can be a thought about the mind being
angry, or a thought about the mind-body being angry; and
within the trap of Iill, that thought is misinterpreted as
coming from an I.
Emotional detachment can be exemplied in the case
of three basic types of emotional responses: pleasant, un-
pleasant, and neutralwe either like something, dislike
it, or have no preference either way. Regardless of the
type of emotion, it should be treated the same, with de-
tachment. Otherwise, the Iill will inuence the choices
on how to handle emotions. We all prefer happy to sad
emotions, but if we do not learn how to untrain the mind
to let go of the happy emotions, we wont know how to let

210003_301_C19.indd 404 6/6/08 3:35:06 PM

 go of the sad or angry emotions either. We let go by being 405
mindful of the emotion in a neutral way. Besides, when
Chapter 19
we untrain the mind to let go of the happy emotions, we
experience even more intense, unconditional happiness. The Three-
It is about the unconditional way in which we experience Step
Practice of
the range and depth of the emotion without any happy
No Mind
conditions being fullled. We tend to believe that there
are certain conditions that need to be satised in order to
be happy. But happiness can be conditional (with Iill)
and unconditional (without IillNo Mind).
We learn to be objective to each mind object by un-
training awareness from being attached. Instead of los-
ing the awareness in the mind object, we separate it from
the mind object. Through Clear Attention, we watch emo-
tions passively, controlling them without applying effort.
In other words, avoid drifting into a pleasant emotion
and losing awareness of it; treat each emotion without
any bias as you watch it arise and dissipate. In the case of
a negative emotion, such as anger, the goal is to stop the
emotion from arising or from manifesting itself uncon-
trollably. This brief gap of mindfulness can make all the
difference in the way the emotion unfolds. Remember,
Think. Think not. There is no Thinker. This momentary
gap splits the I away from the emotion, so that we no
longer feel, I am angry, but we observe, there is anger
arising, or mind with anger. We dont need to attach a
thinker to a thought, just like we dont need to attach an
I to an emotion; there is just the emotion.
Emotions arise codependently based on internal and
external stimuli; they are associated, conditioned, re-
inforced, and ltered by the mental web of the Iill as
reactions to events or cues. An event or cue could be a
thought, feeling, perception, situation, or threat, either
external or internal. Clear Attention develops insight into
the nature of the codependent arising of emotions,
thoughts, and perceptions. Nothing is independent and
nothing exists separately; all mind objects arise code-
pendently within our neural associative network, which
denes the defense and interpretive mechanisms. This is
important to understand, as it provides insight into the

210003_301_C19.indd 405 6/6/08 3:35:06 PM

 406 inner workings of the Iill. With the practice of Clear At-
tention, emotional mind objects begin to lose their ability
No Mind
301 to trap awareness in the cycle of emotional action and re-
action. The mind objects lose their Iill counterpart and
The Power their codependent mechanical nature, so that detachment
of No Mind
to the emotions is developed. In this way you avoid addic-
tion to enjoyable emotions, which may cause unhappi-
ness and the unhappiness caused by unlikable emotions.
You are aware of enjoyable emotions as simply enjoyable,
without any other attachments or qualications; likewise,
you are aware of unlikable emotions as simply unlikable,
without the associated complex of over-thinking why
there is the unlikable emotion and how it affects your life.
You learn to experience unconditional emotions by realiz-
ing that an emotional response is really mind with emo-
tion, and not I am emotional. For instance, if you
experience unconditional love, you have experienced pure
love without the normal qualications of love and relation-
ships. In this case, you are outside such Iill-conditioned
love; Clear Attention allows you to experience pure emo-
tion. This brings balance and spiritual awareness.

3. THOUGHTS AS MIND OBJECTS

With thought, no ow. Without thought, ow. In order to

suspend the thought process, Clear Attention must be
mindful of the codependent associations of the thoughts.
Thoughts trigger other thoughts, and with Clear Atten-
tion, we can see the chain forming. Thoughts are a little
easier to watch than emotions because usually they do
not trigger the complex physiological mechanisms emo-
tions do, as described in No Mind 101. When we are
mindful of the space between the thoughts, as opposed to
the thoughts themselves, we recognize the start of the
thought, or the hua tou. We try to avoid getting trapped
in the thought sequence of one thought after another.
Returning the awareness back to breathing interrupts a
thought chain and reintroduces mindfulness. Maintain-
ing detachment of the Iill from the thought is difcult at

210003_301_C19.indd 406 6/6/08 3:35:06 PM

 rst, but becomes easier with practice. Avoid I am think- 407
ing about ... and be aware of there is a thought about,
Chapter 19
or mind with thought. This removes the I reference
and separates the awareness from the mind object. It is a The Three-
powerful exercise. Step
Practice of
No Mind
Thoughts are Fruits of the Mind; Some are Tasty,
Some are Rotten.
Clear Attention facilitates the process of removing the
I from the thoughts and of suspending the mental web
mechanisms from intellectualizing and analyzing thoughts.
The thought can exist as a thought for its own sake, with-
out reference to other topics or issues. Thoughts occur in
the mind as mind objects; they do not have an independent
nature of their own, and they are empty in the sense that
they have no real identity source. Thoughts are mere fruits
of the mind; some are good and some are bad. We enjoy the
good and ignore the bad, but remain detached from both,
as they are only the fruit and not us. Even a great thought
is only great in relation to the individual or to the social Iill.
The Iills conditioning assigns greater value to one thought
compared to another. So treat all thoughts without preju-
dice, as equals. In Chapter 11, No Mind 201, we learned to
distinguish intuition from thought, which originates in the
Iill. Intuition is free of the Iill, and it might bring unex-
pected helpful messages to us.
While practicing Clear Attention, all thoughts have
the same relative value, being equally empty. Thoughts
direct us through our daily routines, from making break-
fast to doing work, to choosing our highway exit. When
we perform these daily routines mindfully, we learn to
distinguish the thought from the identity of the I. I
need to get off the freeway here versus Freeway exit
here now. Again, these are basic linguistic exercises we
are doing to separate awareness form the Iill (see chapter 15,
No Mind 301). Mindfulness triggers more insightful
thoughts as it releases the thought from the expectations,
shoulds, and desires of the Iill. Thus, the development
of intuition opens a new channel for inspirations,

210003_301_C19.indd 407 7/23/08 4:35:43 PM

 408 self-knowledge, and self-analysis. Detached, passive
awareness reveals the codependent nature of the thought
No Mind
301 process. Watching the thoughts, you become aware of
the associative pattern of thinking and of its habitual re-
The Power lation to the Iills interpretation and conditioning. In an
of No Mind
article published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology,
Joseph Reyher describes the uncovering of information
through a similar process:

We have found that eye-closed free association, with an

emphasis upon visual images, also is a powerful (thera-
peutic) technique. The enhanced possibility that C (the
client) may gain access to repressed material which
supports his defenses is of critical signicance, the
desensitization and integration of this material clari-
es and weakens the whole defensive organization and
assists the expression of new emotional reactions and
patterns of behavior. (Reyher, 1963)

To paraphrase, becoming aware of the origins of

thoughts and behavior, especially those that support the
ego defense mechanisms, helps to weaken associations
and to begin new behaviors and thought patterns. Psy-
choanalysis is based on uncovering such links to the Iill.
The practice of Clear Attention can reveal the source,
purpose, and nature of the behavior. Remember how the
Buddhist monk Hanh said while performing mindful-
ness, Oh, hi Dad! or Oh, hi Mom! as he recognized
behaviors he learned from his mother or father earlier in
his life. In a letter to one of his patients, the famous psy-
chologist Carl Jung suggests:

The point is that you start with any image, for instance
just with that yellow mass in your dream. Contemplate
it and carefully observe how the picture begins to un-
fold or to change. Dont try to make it into something,
just do nothing. But observe what its spontaneous
changes are. Any mental picture you contemplate in this
way will sooner or later change through a spontaneous
association that causes a slight alteration of the pic-
ture. You must carefully avoid impatient jumping from
one subject to another. Hold fast to the one image you

210003_301_C19.indd 408 6/6/08 3:35:07 PM

 have chosen and wait until it changes by itself. Note all 409
these changes and eventually step into the picture your-
self, and if it is a speaking gure at all then say what Chapter 19
you have to say to that gure and listen to what he or The Three-
she has to say. Thus you can analyze your unconscious. Step
But also give your unconscious a chance to analyze Practice of
yourself, and therewith you gradually create the unity No Mind
of conscious and unconscious without which there is
no individuation at all. If you apply this method, then
I can come in as an occasional adviser. But if you dont
apply it, then my existence is of no use for you. (Jung,
1973)

The most powerful ancient secret of Clear Attention is

in distinguishing the mechanisms of the Iill. Namely,
these effects consist of being mindful of the inner work-
ings of the mental web and of using these to develop new
behavioral and thought patterns. In becoming aware of
the associative or codependent thoughts and emotions of
the Iill, we comprehend their source and gain deeper
knowledge of ourselves and of others. This is especially
important in understanding what others are really telling
us. We will discuss this in detail in No Mind 501. By be-
coming aware of the source of a negative behavioral pat-
tern, we can use practice, repetition, and patience to
eradicate it. Yet, Clear Attention is the passive watching
of the thoughts and not analyzing the thoughts; so you
should be careful not to engage in retrospective analyses of
the process, as this would defeat the technique. We dont
analyze; we passively watch the thoughts without inter-
acting with them.
In mindfulness, we see ourselves as we really are. So
we lift the veil of our defenses protecting our self-image
and see deeply into our true nature. The way we desire
to see ourselves becomes a mind object to watch in it-
self. This is an honest account of who and what we are,
of our capacity to accomplish a given task. We fear
seeing our faults, problems, weaknesses, shortcom-
ings, and imperfections, but if we dont, we cannot
grow, resolve inner conicts and dilemmas, and reach
non-attachment and spiritual awareness. We can see

210003_301_C19.indd 409 6/6/08 3:35:07 PM

 410 these aspects of ourselves through the detachment that
develops from the practice of Clear Attention.
No Mind
301

The Power 4. PERCEPTION AS MIND OBJECTS

of No Mind
In No Mind 101, we spoke of the numerous sensory in-
puts through which the brain receives external cues con-
sciously and unconsciously at any given time. At least
twenty-four of these deal with tactile and internal stimuli.
Sensitive areas, such as the lips and the genitals, receive
more cortical space than the shoulders, for example.
Similarly, muscle groups involved in speech and hand
movements have greater cortical space than those con-
trolling shoulders or elbows. Interpretation of percep-
tions stems from cortical processing, as the neural
associative networks deliver sensations and interpret
their meanings for us. Touch is a primary sense essential
to human functionality. We are constantly bombarded by
a great deal of information, and most of it remains un-
conscious for a purely pragmatic reasonthe informa-
tion is simply too much. The conscious mind selects
information relative to the immediate need of the organ-
ism in terms of biological survival, and to the immediate
need of the Iill in terms of social survival.

Mind with Sensation

When Clear Attention is applied to mind objects of per-
ception, we are mindful of the ve primary senses in the
present moment. We focus on the immediate perceptual
cues, such as sensations of touch, pressure, pain, discom-
fort, sound, sight, taste, and smell. The perceptual cues
pass through awareness as they arise and dissipate, just
like thoughts and emotions do. Perceptual cues come
from the body, and they usually trigger codependent
associations in the mental web. The amount of cortical
space allotted to each sensation determines the extent of
emotional and cognitive interpretations which occur
through the neural associative networks.

210003_301_C19.indd 410 7/23/08 4:35:43 PM

 If you are sitting quietly practicing Clear Attention, 411
you should be mindful of your breathing, of the points at
Chapter 19
which your body comes into contact with the chair or the
oor, any discomfort in the legs, the coolness or warm- The Three-
ness of the skin, the sensations of the hands, the sound of Step
Practice of
cars outside, the rise and fall of the abdomen, the smell of
No Mind
an apple pie. When you become aware of the smell, you
interpret it as a thought of apple pie, which may trigger a
succession of thoughts about your mother or grandmother
baking. This could be a long or a short sequence, but the
task of Clear Attention is to follow the thought without
analyzing, thinking, or intellectualizing. If the string of
thoughts interferes with the application of Clear Attention,
return the focus to the breathing. Also, to disrupt the
thought with another thought, you may practice hua-tou
and focus on the Who. Thus, you introduce a new thought,
such as, Who is smelling? or Who is tasting? Even
though it was I who was there smelling grandmas pies,
we realize that this is the memory of smelling Grandmas
pies. This thought is enjoyable, so there is the mind with
enjoyment of the smell of Grandmas pies, and then, mind
with emotion of loving Grandma. We proceed in this way
in order to un-train the awareness from becoming trapped
by perception or thoughts, enjoyable or not. Again, al-
though this exercise may seem a little mechanical, it is an
extremely effective technique to begin to grasp our spiritual
awareness.
When we focus inward to nd the Who in the begin-
ning stages of practice, we usually decide that the Who
is the mind. Eventually, the thought of Who becomes a
mind object of Clear Attention, until there is no Who
and we realize that the question itself is irrelevant and re-
placed by No Mind, the universal constant of awareness.
The goal of Clear Attention is the eventual fruition of the
insight into No Mind. However, this is the realization of
enlightenment. In the meantime, we benet and grow
from the practice itself. (See No Mind 501.)
Clear Attention handles all mind objects in the same way.
They arise in awareness and dissipate, while keeping the

210003_301_C19.indd 411 7/23/08 4:35:44 PM

 412 mind clear and still. Perceptual cues arise in awareness and
are allowed to pass without interpretation or analysis; the
No Mind
301 same holds for the associations relative to the cues. Clear
Attention circumvents the daily emotional mental up-and-
The Power down mood swings. What was experienced as mechanical
of No Mind
action and reaction is now re-interrupted with awareness
and freed from automatisms. We un-train the mind so we
are no longer the automatons described in No Mind 101.
Our actions are free and the experience is unconditional.
This is the essence of Clear Attention, and with practice it is
a powerful tool to use in all our daily activities.

SUMMARY: THE SIMPLICITY OF THE POWER

OF NO MIND
The daily life of a No Mind practitioner entails the integra-
tion of The Ten Paradoxes (Right Attitude) the application
of Breath Control and Clear Attention (Right Awareness),
and the constant questioning of Who, or the hua-tou.
The practice is simple; we simply practice. It takes time to
undo our conditioning. Do not think that it is anything
complicated or out of reach. In No Mind 101, we described
the mind as a ltering, associative, interpretive, analytical,
ego-defensive, perceptual, categorizing, and conditioned
mechanism. This understanding is supported by modern
neuroscience. We also understand that the I originates
from these mechanisms.
In No Mind 201, we understood No Mind by learning
how to look at the mind while knowing that there is no I,
that the Iill mechanisms function automatically, that free
will is really nothing more than free wont, that we can un-
train automatic behaviors through mindfulness, that en-
lightenment is the realization of spiritual awareness
through the insight that the I is an illusion, and that our
intuitive channels open when we realize the essential mean-
ing of emptiness. These understandings, together with the
practice of the technique described here, are the essence
of the Power of No Mind program. In No Mind 401, we
discuss the parapsychological and spiritual aspects of

210003_301_C19.indd 412 7/23/08 4:35:44 PM

 No Mind, but these are not important for our daily prac- 413
tice. Zen writings of the last century may be a complex phi-
Chapter 19
losophy to many, yet, the Power of No Mind strives for
simplication and pragmatic applicability. The Three-
Step
Practice of
NO MIND POSTURES No Mind

Practice Clear Attention while performing your daily tasks in

business, sports, relationships, communications, sex, chores,
education, stress management, etc. You should be able to
perform Clear Attention anywhere and at any timenot
only in a quiet room or in a Zen garden. The goal of this
program is to teach you to apply the technique in any activ-
ity, enhancing performance and perception, unconditional
action and reaction, communication, and so on. Postures
in the beginning when practicing the technique help to
stimulate mindfulness and help develop the ability to focus.
Take shooting baskets in a basketball game, for example; if
we do not practice, then we wont be able to apply this use-
ful skill when we need to score in the middle of a game. If
we only practice occasionally, then thrown into a profes-
sional game without warning or time to practice, we would
not do so well. This is why we practice any sport or activity;
we must practice off the court, so that the skill is there when
we need it. When you need Clear Attention the mostsay,
in the middle of a heated business meeting, you will not be
able to apply enough skill to succeed. So a little daily prac-
tice is important. Postures help us control the mind because
we channel our awareness to controlling the body and the
breathing.

Sitting on a Chair
A good posture should be comfortable. If it causes dis-
comfort to the body, then the thoughts of the discomfort
need to become mind objects of Clear Attention, which
introduces noise. Sitting on a chair is suitable for shorter
periods of practice, as it tends to get uncomfortable after a
while, but it may be good in the beginning stages of prac-
tice. Keep the spine straight; this will help you maintain

210003_301_C19.indd 413 6/6/08 3:35:08 PM

 414 active and sharp awareness so that you do not drift into
sleep. Place a hard pillow underneath the buttocks to lift
No Mind
301 it off the chair a few inches. This allows the weight to
shift forward and reduces the tendency to slouch back-
The Power ward. In this position, it is easier to keep the spine straight
of No Mind
and perpendicular to the oor (see Figure 19-3). If it is
uncomfortable, adjust the pillow to your liking by raising
or lowering it. If you nd yourself drifting off, begin again
with straight posture and mindful breathing. A chair that
is too comfortable may put you to sleep, especially if you
are tired. We want to remain sharp and focused, so nd
the median in terms of comfort. Stay alert and maintain
a straight spine.

Figure 19-3: Sitting on a Chair.

The Half-Lotus
Some prefer the half-lotus posturesitting cross-legged,
with the left leg bent and on a oormat and the right leg
placed on top of the left leg, where the right foot is nes-
tled into the area where the left calf and thigh meet, or
you can reverse leg positions if that is more comfortable
(see Figure 19-4).

210003_301_C19.indd 414 6/6/08 3:35:08 PM

 415

Chapter 19

The Three-
Step
Practice of
No Mind

Figure 19-4: The Half-Lotus

This posture feels best with two small, hard pillows

underneath the buttocks, raising it a few inches above
the oormat. The pillows shift the weight of the body
from the lower back to the knees, which rest upon the
oormat. The spine should be straight and perpendicular
to the oor. Fold the hands in the lap; you can put the
right hand on top of the left, or place both hands on the
knees, but do whatever is comfortable. With practice, this
posture can remain comfortable for forty-ve minutes to
an hour, or longer. If the legs fall asleep, stretch them and
resume the posture. Sometimes bending the upper part
of the body forward and down over the legs a few times
provides some stretching relief. The body should be bal-
anced and nd its center of gravity with the spine straight.
You can train yourself to maintain this posture even when
you are not practicing the technique (for instance, while
watching TV). If you habituate the body into this posture,
it will be of benet later when you perform the technique
for longer periods of time.

Lying Down
When we cannot maintain a posture or walk, we can
practice lying down. Lie on one side, keeping the body
straight, and bend one arm so that the hand can support
the head. Be mindful of the body sensations as you focus
on the breathing pattern. When you are lying down, the
diaphragm is somewhat constricted, so you need to adjust
the breath control to do what is comfortable, as long as
you are monitoring the breath by the 2:1 ratio. It is easy to
fall asleep in this position, so use it only when you have no

210003_301_C19.indd 415 6/6/08 3:35:10 PM

 416 other alternative. This technique is very effective for peo-
ple suffering with insomnia; as you lie in bed, try to clear
No Mind
301 the mind by focusing on the counting of the breath. With
some practice you will nd yourself drifting asleep as soon
The Power as you begin to get into the rhythm of the breath.
of No Mind
Walking
We can also practice Clear Attention successfully while
walking if we focus on what is occurring in the present
moment. Walking may also be alternated with sitting if
you practice for longer periods of time. When you get tired
of sitting, resume walking, and vice versa. Find an open
area of a backyard, park, or a safe and quiet walkway. In
the beginning, stand erect and begin breath control, lling
the awareness with the breath. Then move your awareness
to the body sensations, pressure on the feet, arms hanging,
knees, stomach, sounds in background, and so on. Be
mindful of the body standing as you take your rst step,
then be mindful of the rst step together with all the feel-
ings in the legs, and so forth. Fix your gaze on the ground
about eight feet in front of you, and as you walk, maintain
awareness of focusing eight feet out from you; but also be
gently mindful of everything else thats going on. Try not to
get caught up in thoughts or associations of sounds or
events. If this happens, return the awareness to the breath
and focus your attention there.

Figure 19-5: Walking

210003_301_C19.indd 416 6/6/08 3:35:13 PM

 Walk slowly along a path at whatever pace is comforta- 417
ble and normal for you. Do not try to maintain a certain
Chapter 19
speed. Focus on the body and breath. Stop as necessary to
refocus on the breath and to regain becoming mindful. The Three-
Walking outdoors can be difcult for beginners, as it in- Step
Practice of
volves countless environmental distractions. With practice,
No Mind
car horns, voices, and other noises should become mind
objects in your awareness. You will watch them pass with-
out becoming angry or upset that they disturbed your con-
centration. Use them to your advantage and become mindful
of them to strengthen Clear Attention.
Feel each step and the distance between the feet, the
sensations in the body and of the foot bending, and fol-
low the breath. Walking is a great way to supplement
your sitting training and to energize your practice. Feel
the ow of the exercise, (see Chapter 28). We have al-
lowed our awareness to stay trapped in the cycles of
the Iills mechanisms for a long time, so now we need
to untrain it with practice and patience. The inner
thought chatter will be annoying at rst, but will grad-
ually lessen; it just take patience. You cannot shoot
baskets in a basketball game or play golf the rst time
you play; it takes a little practice.
Use your discretion to select a posture that is com-
fortable and allows you to focus clearly and undis-
turbed. Soon you are walking, running, eating, talking,
listening, and studying while simultaneously practicing
Clear Attention. Keep in mind that postures should be
straight, not slumping. Allow the abdomen to breathe
easily without forcing the stomach too far, keep shoul-
ders back and relaxed, check the body for stress spots
and relax any tense muscles. Being mindful of stress
spots helps when you apply Clear Attention. Be objec-
tive to the tense muscles, allowing them to become only
mind objects. Let it ow naturally and without trying.

SUMMARY OF THE THREE-STEP TECHNIQUE

The technique described here may seem more complicated

than it really is. It is important to keep it simple. This is not
an intellectual or analytical exerciseif it were, it would

210003_301_C19.indd 417 7/23/08 4:35:44 PM

 418 defeat the purpose of the one of the paradoxes, Seek mind
with no thought. We do not think during the process.
No Mind
301 Granted, at the beginning it is hard not to analyze what you
are doing; but as you gain some prociency, you should let
The Power go of thinking and just watch with Clear Attention. Dont
of No Mind
worry about the breath control; let it occur at its own rate
once you have gained some prociency at it. Do not worry
about thoughts entering the mind; watch them. And if they
overwhelm the awareness, ask yourself, Who is watching?
and doubt the existence of the Iill. Remember, everything
you are and have achieved is still there; you are only learn-
ing to become objective to it so you can reach a higher level
of awareness. You can apply this technique anywhere. Ef-
ciency comes with practice. In the beginning, it is best to
nd a quiet place and limit distractions as much as
possible.

Figure 19-6: In the top image, we see that awareness can be taken by thoughts, emotions,
sense-inputs, imagery, and desires, in which case we are mindless. In the top image, the
arrow represents the awareness being drawn to the mind objects. The awareness sticks to
the mind objects. In the bottom image, when we are mindful, the awareness un-sticks itself
from the thoughts, emotions, sense-inputs, imagery, and desires, allowing us to be objective
to them and not become absorbed by them. Here the awareness draws the mind objects to
it and is not absorbed by them.

210003_301_C19.indd 418 6/6/08 3:35:15 PM

 Remember the hypothetical monkey in the room with 419
the windows discussed in No Mind 101? When we are
Chapter 19
mindful, it is as if the monkey has stopped chasing what-
ever occurs at the windows. When we are mindless, we The Three-
chase whatever occurs in the windows and the images ab- Step
Practice of
sorb our awareness. When practicing Clear Attention, we
No Mind
simply observe the fragments of reality we get through the
windows.

THREE-STEP METHOD OUTLINE

Step 1.
Find a comfortable posture, where your weight is bal-
anced and the spine is relatively straight. Practice breath
control for ve minutes. Count to ve while expanding
the abdomen, lifting the rib cage, and lling the lungs
(ve is an arbitrary number; you need to discover your
own comfortable rate of inhalation). Then exhale count-
ing to ten (the beginning ratio should be 2:1); bring the
abdomen in as far as you can, and feel a slight tensing
(without forcing) as you exhale completely. The rib cage
naturally lowers as the diaphragm gets pushed down on
the next breath, and is pushed up again when the rib cage
is lifted and the upper lungs are being lled. Dont hold
the breath. After inhaling, begin to exhale immediately,
as the abdomen is being pulled, pressing the diaphragm
up into the lungs and expelling the air. If the cycle is im-
perfect and the count is off, dont worry; try to maintain
them on subsequent inhalations and exhalations. It takes
practice and patience. Try to control the breathing for
about ve minutes and then let the breath continue on its
own, without conscious effort to monitor it. With prac-
tice, the breath will maintain itself, the mind will quiet
automatically as you teach the mind-body new pat-
terns. The body will then relax, so you can begin Clear
Attention in step 2. The breath-control exercise can be
applied while walking, sitting, reclining, or standing. Try
it when you are tense, in a meeting, or even watching
television.

210003_301_C19.indd 419 6/6/08 3:35:16 PM

 420 Step 2.
No Mind Let the breath go and resume its natural ow. Allow the
301 rise and fall of the abdomen to ll the awareness. Be
mindful of it as a mind object of Clear Attention. If an-
The Power
of No Mind other aspect of the body comes into awareness, like pain
in the legs, then approach the feeling with Clear Atten-
tion: mind with pain in legs. Return to the rise and fall
of the abdomen during breathing. If other mind objects
enter your awareness, like the sound of a car, allow that
perceptual cue to become a mind object toomind with
sound of car, or even better, mind with soundwith-
out thinking or analyzing. If the thought of the descrip-
tion of the car still enters the awareness (for instance, if
you recognize its your neighbors car and then you have
a thought of the neighbor or a visual image of the car),
turn that thought into a mind object also: mind with
image of car, or mind with image of neighbor.
This process goes on throughout the exercise, every
body aspect, every thought aspect, every emotional as-
pect, and every perceptual aspect becomes a mind object.
They are all equal for the purposes of this exercise; do not
be distracted by one over the other and apply Clear Atten-
tion in a non-attached, dissociated sense, as if the mind
objects are separate from the awareness of them. Emo-
tional aspects should be recognized as either enjoyable,
unlikable, or neither, and then let go. This develops the
ability to be mindful of the emotionsnot mindless. Do
not focus on any of the mind objects, just watch them
passively like you would watch the trees in a park. As you
practice, the ood of mind objects slows down until the
point of pure awareness, or No Mind, comes of itself.

Step 3.
When the ood of mind objects is overbearing and Clear
Attention wanders from one mental object to another, or
you nd yourself thinking about the mind objects or
about the technique, then try the hua-tou method and
introduce a new mind objectthe thought of who is

210003_301_C19.indd 420 6/6/08 3:35:16 PM

 watching? Who is now the primary object of Clear At- 421
tention, so additional thoughts about it might surge, but
Chapter 19
try to maintain the focus on just the Who: Who is sit-
ting, walking, breathing, and so on. This uses thought The Three-
against thought in order to focus the mind on: There is Step
Practice of
no thinker.
No Mind
Here, your goal is to generate doubt as you investigate
the who. Do not use reasoning or try to answer any
questions, just relax, be mindful, and the answer will
come when you are ready. Eventually, you will realize
that there is only doubt and no who to feed it. This is a
pure mindful moment, when the doubt is lost and the
issue of the who is cleared. In Zen, they call this Sama-
dhi, or enlightenment, as described in Chapter 13 and
No Mind 401. There is complete resolve in this state and
no need to question. If you try to nd the who, you will
end up with the answer that the who is the Iill, which
cannot exist in No Mind. When you arrive at the point
of pure awareness, the who is no longer a doubt or
a thought; it vanishes in the experience of No Mind.
Hua-tou seeks to cut off all thinking and to avoid making
distinctions between opposites.
The emptiness of the who is the source of thought
and the pureness of No Mind. The beginning of thought is
mind, or the Iill, and the beginning of mind is No Mind.
Spiritual awareness is when you nd the answer to the
who of the hua-tou, for the head of thought and no
thought is No Mind. When you arrive at the point of pure
awareness or No Mind then the who is no longer a
doubt, thought, or a mystery, it vanishes in the experience
of No Mind. The hua-tou is to cut off all thinking and not
make distinctions or opposites. But the thought of who
should be a passive doubt that shouldnt be forced; if
forced, it would overwhelm the practice of Clear Atten-
tion. If it is uncomfortable to think in terms of the who,
then do not practice it for now and return to being mind-
ful of mind objects. It is simply another thought about the
nature of mind and of the Iill. Hold the who in Clear At-
tention and then let it go when the mind is still again.

210003_301_C19.indd 421 6/6/08 3:35:16 PM

 422 Since you are unsure as to who is watching or tast-
ing, this has the tendency to create a doubt, which is the
No Mind
301 point of hua-tou. We can say the eyes are watching, or
the mind that is watching, but we remain uncertain
The Power about the who. The physiological mechanics of the eye
of No Mind
and of the brain are clear, as is the perceptual cue of the
image and its interpretation. Yet, there is no physiologi-
cal location of the who; therefore, you are in doubt
about the very essence of your I. Now, this doubt should
become a mind object of Clear Attention, and you should
be mindful of it whenever possible in order to block other
thoughts. It is imperative that you do not analyze, intel-
lectualize, or think about the doubt, as this will reintro-
duce the Iill into the thought process. Do not seek or
expect to get anything; this would be trying, negating
the Ten Paradoxes. Just practice Clear Attention, watch it
passively and do not enter into an analytical debate about
its source or meaning. You know that the doubt exists
and instinctively you know why; allow insight to ll this
void. It will manifest itself throughout your daily activi-
ties. When you speak, you may question, who is speak-
ing?; or when you run, you may ask, who is running?
This is part of the practice and of the development of
No Mind. Embrace doubt.
The practice takes patience. Do not force yourself or
stress out if it takes time to have only one thought in your
awareness. This is not something that you are used to,
and the mind needs to be un-trained and re-trained. It is a
habit to be thinking all the time. For example, children
ask and talk constantly, verbalizing all their thinking
processes; but when we get older, we realize we must sup-
press the urge to verbalize everything and begin to inter-
nalize the thought processes. Now we have to un-train
this process too, so that we may have a clear and tranquil
state of awareness.
It wont happen overnight. After several weeks of
practice, the doubt of the who will remain with you
still. When spiritual awareness is realized, doubt van-
ishes. You lose the dualistic identity with the Iill and
realize that you are the non-dualistic pure awareness of

210003_301_C19.indd 422 6/6/08 3:35:16 PM

 No Mind. No Mind is more than just a state of no thought, 423
it is an insight into the ultimate nature of things, into na-
Chapter 19
ture itself. It is impossible to accurately describe this ex-
perience to others through the limited means of language The Three-
based on opposites. It is empty, yet everything. It is here Step
Practice of
and everywhere. It overcomes the mind-body connes of
No Mind
the Iill, and releases the full potential of the individual.

THREE-STEP METHOD OUTLINE (FOR

ADVANCED PRACTICE)
Step 1.
The breath control has become natural by now, and you
have been able to apply it easily while walking, standing,
running, reclining, sitting, eating, working, driving, and
so on. You are aware that when exhaling and inhaling,
the center of gravity is in the abdomen, and thats where
Clear Attention focuses. The inhalation and exhalation is
smooth, the diaphragm moves freely up and down, and
the chest is relaxed when the rib cage is lifted on the in-
halation. The breath is smooth and continuous, without
much need for guidance or effort. At this point, you
should have found your comfortable rhythm, whether
the ratio of inhalation to exhalation is 1:2, 1:3, or 1:4.
Both feel natural in the posture that you have chosen to
practice. The breathing is almost inaudible and therefore
does not become a sound mind object, which reduces the
clutter of mind objects for Clear Attention. You are not
concerned with the length of the practice; time passes of
itself without any attention being paid to it.
Important Points to Keep in Mind:
1. The breath will be shorter at the beginning of prac-
tice and longer when you have gained some pro-
ciency. Do not over-force the breath, as it will gradually
lengthen in time and become more natural.
2. The breath should be inaudible, without humming or
whistling, and adjusted so that it is smooth, full, deep,
and reaching the lower abdomen. If you can hear the

210003_301_C19.indd 423 6/6/08 3:35:17 PM

 424 breath, become mindful of the sound as you would of
any other mind object.
No Mind
301 3. The air should be taken in through the nostrils and
released slowly through the barely open mouth.
The Power
of No Mind 4. Practice the technique of breath control for ve to
ten minutes, and then let it go and breathe naturally
and without control; refocus on the breath as neces-
sary to limit the amount of thought activity.
5. The diaphragm needs to move up and down freely to
avoid stiffness in the abdomen. The posture must be
comfortable and the spine straight. It gets easier with
practice.
6. Relax the chest and the abdomen during the exercise.
Do not tense up, as this will cause discomfort and
obstruction.
7. The center of gravity of the body is the abdomen;
concentrate on the navel when trying to feel the bodys
center of gravity.

Step 2.
Clear Attention has now been successfully applied to the
rise and fall of the abdomen, and the mind is stiller than
it was in the beginning of practice. We are now more fo-
cused on the present moment and can distinguish
thoughts of the past or of the future for what they are.
Thoughts, perceptions, and emotions come and go, but
now there is a detached objectiveness to them. With Clear
Attention, you are able to watch the rise and dissipation
of these mind objects. While some mind objects may
still produce clinging and cause further association of
thoughts and feelings, the majority of the mind objects
dont stick to the awareness, which is free to watch
them pass on the screen of awareness. At this point, you
are able to be mindful during your daily activities outside
the training postures. You start noticing things like the
fragrance of the roses, colors of the sky, clouds, and trees,
birds singing, of which you are normally unaware during

210003_301_C19.indd 424 6/6/08 3:35:17 PM

 your daily routines because the mind is too busy with 425
thoughts of the past or the future or what it is stuck to
Chapter 19
in the present. The primary purpose of the No Mind pro-
gram is to be applied during daily activities while we keep The Three-
the awareness in the present moment. Step
Practice of
Lets walk through a morning scenario of practicing a
No Mind
mindful meditation: A desire for coffee arises, and with
Clear Attention, you are aware of a mind object of desire
for coffee. You walk to the kitchen, aware of the move-
ment of the body as it maintains the walking posture
mind objects of sensations of walkingof the feeling of
the legs, of the oors temperature, of the pressure on the
bottom of your feet, and so on. You see the coffee maker,
and you are aware of the visual cue arising in awareness:
mind object of image of coffee maker. You go to the
coffeemaker (assume the coffee is already made), reach
for a cup, and pour the coffee: mind objects of body
movements of hand and arm, posture, touch sensation,
and image of lling coffee cup. If a thought unrelated
to coffee-drinking arises in awareness, say, of your boss,
then apply Clear Attention: mind object of thought of
boss. There may be negative or positive associations with
this mind object, depending on whether it is enjoyable,
unlikable, or neutral. So mind object with thought of
boss is followed by mind with anger or mind with en-
joyable feelings. Here, you apply Clear Attention to the
enjoyable or unlikable emotions also. At this point, try to
refocus Clear Attention back to the coffee and complete
the sequence of adding sugar or milk; follow through the
body postures and sensations until you taste the coffee:
mind object of enjoyable coffee taste. But really taste the
coffee, let it ow over your tongue, then to the back of your
mouth, and then swallow; savor the taste before your mind
is interrupted by another daily thought. During this exer-
cise, at the beginning, try to leave as many distractions out
as possible, like watching the morning news or talking on
the phone. It is important to enjoy this little bit of mindful-
ness at some point during the day. If not in the morning,
then try to repeat the pattern at night; for instance, when

210003_301_C19.indd 425 7/23/08 4:35:45 PM

 426 you walk the dog or make dinner or savor a glass of wine.
After some practice, Clear Attention will ow smoothly:
No Mind
301 mind with taste, mind with anger, mind with lust,
mind with desire, mind with body posture, and so on.
The Power You may enjoy your coffee much more after this exercise
of No Mind
and even experience clearer, more direct perception of the
taste of the coffee.
Clear Attention is simply becoming aware of daily ac-
tivities, and it is easier to practice on the simple things like
pouring coffee, taking a shower, watering the grass, wash-
ing the dishes, etc. Then we can apply it to more complex
areas: business meetings, decision-making, sporting events
and competitions, relationship communications, and stress
management. We need to focus and to practice this method
in order to untrain the mind from its habitual thinking
patterns. This is a powerful method of breaking old pat-
terns and reestablishing new ones which allow you to be-
come aware of things that were previously outside the
scope of awareness. This stops the automatic processing
of the mind objects and the associative and conditioning
mental web, so that you can respond with new intuitions
and with a direct perception of reality.
The practice of Clear Attention enhances awareness
of the activities of the mind-body. Follow those activities
for as long as you can without interruption. This will
strengthen your ability to focus and to still the mind. If
time allows and you have completed a sequence of these
exercises for 1530 minutes or longer, you can continue
in the sitting posture and return to Clear Attention of the
rise and fall of the abdomen, being aware of the mind ob-
jects of the sitting position and of the many points of tac-
tile sensations where the body touches the chair or the
oor (you can start with the breath and then focus the
awareness on the different points of touch sensations).
Continue the practice for another 1530 minutes, de-
pending on your comfort level. You can alternate these
activities throughout the day. While sitting at your desk,
you can become mindful of your breathing. While stand-
ing by the water cooler at the ofce, you can become
mindful of the mind-body motions of getting a cup of

210003_301_C19.indd 426 6/6/08 3:35:17 PM

 water and drinking it. Using the techniques throughout 427
the day will benet you the most in terms of training you
Chapter 19
in the practice of No Mind. This teaches us present-
moment awareness of living in the here and the now, The Three-
which is the only concern of Clear Attention. Step
Practice of
After some practice, you will start noticing when you
No Mind
fall back into the automated behaviors of the Iill, and
you are able to circumvent it. It is a back-and-forth
switching of awareness. In the more advanced levels of
practice, you lose awareness and become completely ab-
sorbed in the action of the mind-body. You should have
experienced loss of awareness before, as in driving down
the highway and suddenly realizing you have no recol-
lection how you got there. Most of the time we are simi-
larly lost in awareness and on auto-pilot; we now know
this as mindlessness. Practicing No Mind turns off the
auto-pilot and develops mindfulness.
Important Points to Keep in Mind:
1. Do not allow yourself to be annoyed or discouraged
by thoughts during the practice. This is normal, and
you should try to make such thoughts mind objects
of Clear Attention. If you are too anxious or cannot
relax, just breathe. If the breath control fails, try to
practice at a different time, when you can focus. With
practice, you are able to focus and to reduce the
number of mind objects. Do not engage in an inner
chatter about the mind objects already in the mind.
2. If you begin to feel pain from the posture you have
chosen, treat the sensation as a mind object and try
to maintain the posture a little longer. When the dis-
comfort becomes too overwhelming, try to practice
again another time, or take a walk, maintaining Clear
Attention of the movements of the body and of its
posture, of the sounds, smells, sights, and so on. This
is an alternative if a posture becomes uncomfortable.
Walk slowly and be aware of your breathing and
body.
3. Any distracting sounds, scents, or images that enter
the eld of awareness should be treated as mind

210003_301_C19.indd 427 6/7/08 4:12:52 PM

 428 objects. Dissipate them with Clear Attention and then
return your focus to the original object of Clear
No Mind
301 Attention. If this does not work or the mind objects
are too divertive, then try the hua-tou method and
The Power add the mind object of who is having these disturb-
of No Mind
ing thoughts? Remember not to rank mind objects
in terms of preference; you should be aware of them
equally, whether they are enjoyable or not. All they
are is mind objects, and you should be detached from
them.
4. Do not force, strain, try, push, over-think, or do any-
thing that would constitute an effort toward results.
This is a watchful awareness of the ow of the mind-
body. Watch the ow and do not interfere with it, ex-
cept to bring your awareness back onto the mind
objects of Clear Attention. The only slight effort made
should be to maintain the focus on the mind objects;
but do not choose, just watch. When there is a break
in the thoughts or perceptions, return the awareness
back to the body objects, like breathing or the sensa-
tions of the sitting posture.
5. At the beginning, you may want to dedicate a free
weekend or a day to practice the techniques and to
get familiar with focusing Clear Attention on differ-
ent aspects of your daily activities. Some quiet time
at the beginning allows you to strengthen the focus in
less time, as opposed to practicing during activity or
work.

Step 3.
The advanced stage of hua-tou is the same as the begin-
ning stage. The difference is that now we comprehend
the who through the insight of spiritual awareness.
The who either exists or does not exist. The Iill is expe-
rienced as an illusion, or it is understood to be an illu-
sion. Many students confuse the understanding of the
experience with the experience itself and reach pseudo-
enlightenment. The ancient masters have repeatedly
emphasized that there is either experience or there is not;

210003_301_C19.indd 428 6/6/08 3:35:18 PM

 no middle ground can be found here. There is no path 429
with a goal at the end, there is nowhere to go and no
Chapter 19
one to accomplish it. Everything you can attain in The
Power of No Mind is already within you and around you. The Three-
This is a non-dualistic awareness beyond the fragmented Step
Practice of
identity of the I, without attachmentspossessing, yet
No Mind
not being possessed. No Mind is pure spiritual aware-
ness, which has always been there with you, only in an
unrealized state of confusion with the Iill.
The key aspect of the advanced practice of No Mind is
looking into the who, or as the ancient masters have
said, If spiritual awareness is never born, then who was
born? or Who are you if not this Iill? These are tradi-
tional Zen koans that were frequent objects of Clear At-
tention. They cast away old ideas and beliefs about the
self. The paradoxical koans are meant to exhaust and to
stall your analytical mind, so that you can experience
No Mind. Then all mind objects are seen as equal and
without bias or distinction in the ow of nature. No Mind
601 provides unique No Mind insights and riddles that
you can use as objects of Clear Attention in your daily re-
ections about No Mind.

210003_301_C19.indd 429 7/23/08 4:35:45 PM

210003_301_C19.indd 430 6/6/08 3:35:18 PM
 No Mind 401

The Secrets of
No Mind

210003_401_C20.indd 431 6/6/08 3:36:43 PM

 For millennia, humans have been seeking to reestablish
their unity with the universe by studying the nature of
the soul. The experience of being one with the universe is
a healthy component of the No Mind program, since we
instinctively feel the need to complete ourselves spiritually
and to get in touch with our primordial origins. In their
pursuit of understanding the soul, the ancient masters used
techniques like No Mind to transcend ordinary reality and
to see into the nothingness of Being. Physicists are now
verifying the ancient masters teachings about the mechanics
of the universe.
We need to transcend the Iill to perceive reality directly and
to realize our spiritual awareness, which is the Universal
Awareness expressed through our own awareness when we
have neutralized the Iill. When we experience this aspect of
ourselves directly, our basic spiritual craving is satised.
Our individualistic, self-conscious perspective cannot grasp
the concept of the universe in the present moment, as
opposed to focusing on the past or on the future in Iill time.
We experience the ow of nature and apply it to our daily
routines and tasks; the essence of being one with the Tao.
The experience of the spiritual awareness is boundless, joy-
ful, and impossible to describe in any language.
Chapter 20 explores the need to experience spiritual aware-
ness directly in order to satisfy our spiritual yearnings.

210003_401_C20.indd 432 6/6/08 3:36:50 PM

 Chapter 20

Secrets
of the Soul

N o Mind is incomplete without the experience of some level of

spirituality, or of feeling oneness with nature and the universe.
Our conditioned, dualistic worldview obscures our essential core.
Rediscovering that core amounts to rejoining nature and attain-
ing spiritual awareness. Discovering and realizing this aspect of
ourselves is important for achieving No Mind. Otherwise, we may
feel painfully alienated from nature. Most of us love the outdoors:
nature hikes, camping, beautiful beaches, luminous sunsets, and
the stars ... We want and need to feel a part of this underlying es-
sence. Experiencing this dynamic oneness with the universe can
be more satisfying and life-changing than anything else weve ever
done, and this is why people have been seeking enlightenment for
thousands of years. To feel whole and healthy, it is vital to pursue
understanding of spiritual awareness as part of the No Mind pro-
gram. When we have trained our awareness to overcome the Iill
and its mechanisms, we are ready to expand this awareness into
the depths of the essence of nature and the soul.
433

210003_401_C20.indd 433 6/6/08 3:36:52 PM

 434 THE ANCIENT MASTERS COULD TRANSCEND
ORDINARY REALITY
No Mind
401
The search for the soul has dened the human condition
The Secrets for thousands of years. The compulsion of the Iill to sus-
of No Mind tain itself, even after the mind-body has expired, has been
a subject of religious and philosophical discourse since
the dawn of civilization. We have looked to the heavens
for answers to the mysteries of the souls existence. The
soul is most commonly conceptualized as a spirit that
carries on even after we are dead.
The enlightened ancient masters often experienced
deep states of mystical pure awarenessNo Mind. The
enlightened masters readily intuit the secrets of nature
and of the mind. They experience oneness with the universe
and nature. The ancient masters did not ask their disciples
for faith, belief, or devotion; they simply asked them to
just sit, to practice the techniques, and to experience; and
if they did not experience anything, then they asked them
to sit some more. They knew that any attachment to a spe-
cic belief would be detrimental to the practice. So the
course of action was to discard all beliefs for the sake of
pure awakening. The experience of the unity of all things
reveals the non-dualistic aspect of No Mind that tran-
scends the Iill. The only universal constant is awareness,
which we might even call natures cosmic soul. Lawrence
Henderson, professor of Biological Chemistry at Harvard
University, nds the cosmos in our own biology:
The properties of matter and the course of Cosmic
Evolution are now seen to be intimately related to the
structure of the living being and to its activities; they
become, therefore, far more important in biology than
has been previously suspected. For the whole evolution
any process, both Cosmic and organic, is one, and the
biologist may now rightly regard the Universe in its
very essence as bio-centric. (Henderson, 1913)

The feeling of I, which binds us to the world of iden-

tity and dualistic thinking, is not easy to lose or forget. In
this world of I, one cannot see the unity of all things;

210003_401_C20.indd 434 6/6/08 3:36:52 PM

 but with No Mind, one can experience it instantaneously. 435
Then we perceive the ow of nature and its cosmic soul.
Chapter 20
No Mind, which makes no sense to the calculating mind
(the Iill), is understood in the ash of enlightenment, as Secrets of
the I is realized as an illusion and the empty awareness the Soul
is no longer contained by the mind-body, but reunites
with natures cosmic awareness. This is the universe be-
coming aware of itself, or spiritual awareness realizing
itself again. These advanced stages of No Mind are at-
tainable for anybody; with diligent practice, we can do
what countless others have already done over the last
2,500, or even 5,000 years, which traces Taoism to Emperor
Huang Ti around 2597 BCE. Psychiatrist Thomas Hora
was inspired to look beyond conventional medical prac-
tices for better solutions to human pain and suffering
through direct realization of reality:

The intellect knows only that which has come through

the senses. The Self is then built up from what appears
to be and what should be. Moreover, what should be
insists on ignoring what really is. Concepts are state-
ments about reality. They have no reality of their own
and their location is in that unknown place which is
called memory and mind. Thus the Self, or the I AM
can neither be localized nor does it have actual reality
of its own. Yet ordinary man spends most of his life in
an unceasing effort to conrm this abstraction as a con-
crete reality ... If all that is unreal is essentially sensory
and conceptual, then true Reality must be that which is
beyond the sensory and the conceptual. In it there is nei-
ther self nor other; there is only the All-Transcending
timeless process manifesting itself in that eld of
phenomena ... Enlightened [people] transcend [them-
selves] in seeing the Truth of what is. In this process of
losing [themselves they] nd that which is Real ... when
man becomes aware of the suffering inherent in idola-
try of the self, or the other, or of what seems to be,
and what should be, he discovers that self realization
is an altogether misleading idea, both in art as well as
psychiatry ... Health is contingent not on self-realization,
but on realization of Reality. (Hora, 1962)

210003_401_C20.indd 435 6/6/08 3:36:53 PM

 436 In the quote above, the self is synonymous with the Iill,
and realization of reality is spiritual awareness, which is
No Mind
401 beyond the Iill or the self. In other words, we do not seek
the self or the I, but spiritual awareness through the re-
The Secrets lease from the I. So far, we have been learning about the
of No Mind
practical applications of No Mind in our daily lives, about
its psychotherapeutic benets, and about its affects on per-
formance (discussed extensively in No Mind 501). Here we
focus on another applica-
tion of No Mind that in-
volves looking into our
true nature or looking
into our spiritual aware-
ness. The ancient masters
described this experience as
the feeling of being alive as
an integral piece of the uni-
verse; in other words, the
universe itself is alive
through the human mind
and body, which contain
the natural forces of the
cosmos. So spiritual aware-
ness acts through you in the
performance of the most
trivial tasks. It brings pleas-
ure and happiness to realize
that your mind-body con-
denses the essential aspect
of nature and that you are
an integral part of the es- To look into the nature of mind
sential ow of the universe.

EXPERIENCING THE ESSENTIAL FLOW

OF THE UNIVERSE
All life is a reection of the universe, where everything is
interdependent on everything else. The Earth is not an
isolated planet supporting isolated life forms. Even con-
temporary physicists are coming to the same conclusion
as the ancient masters did thousands of years ago, as

210003_401_C20.indd 436 7/23/08 4:36:10 PM

 they watch subatomic particles collide and new ones 437
form out of nothingness. These dynamics occur under our
Chapter 20
noses on Earth and throughout the universe, in galaxies
millions of miles away. William Tiller, Ph.D. of Stanford Secrets of
University, who studies energy elds in nature, says: the Soul

From experiments of energy eld observations of plants,

animals and humans, evidence is mounting that there
is an interconnectedness, at some level of substance in
the Universe, between all things in the Universe. (Tiller,
1973)

The interconnectedness of the universe has been the

subject of many best-selling books in quantum physics
(Capra, 1976; Pagels, 1982). Throughout our daily lives,
we rarely take notice of the ow of the universe; we are
concerned with our physical and social survival. We feel
we have limited time here, so we strive desperately to
enjoy and keep up in the social world of the Iill. We feel
alienated from people and from the natural world around
us; we are always eagerly chasing something we do not
have yet. We feel nite because we identify with the pains
and illnesses of the body and we know that this complex
system of esh and bones will inevitably grind to a halt.
We know that the sense of I will dissipate upon our
death, or, as many believe, it will go somewhere else
where it might get rewarded or punished for eternity. All
of these feelings originate from our identication with
the Iill, and for many people, living and dying are experi-
enced in terms of the Iill. But there are also those who in-
tuit the existence of another reality beyond the mental
web of the Iill. To get there, one needs to open the gates
of insight. Cosmic awareness is not just out there, it is
right here, right now. Lama Govinda, a German-born
Tibetan monk, says in The Way of the White Clouds:

Individuality is not only the necessary and complemen-

tary opposite of universality, but the focal point through
which alone universality can be experienced. Why should
the Universe evolve individualized forms of life and con-
sciousness if this were not consistent with or inherent in
the very spirit or nature of the Universe? (Govinda, 1974)

210003_401_C20.indd 437 6/6/08 3:36:57 PM

 438 WITHOUT THE IiLL, WE DISCOVER
SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
No Mind
401
The only universal constant is awareness.tm The basic
The Secrets premise behind this axiom is that the awareness of human
of No Mind beings is directly related to the awareness of the universe,
and that the awareness of the universe becomes aware of
itself in human beings. This does not mean that the aware-
ness trapped within the Iill is the same as the awareness of
the universe. The latter cannot realize itself from within
the Iill, so the techniques of No Mind seek to liberate the
awareness from the connes of the I. At the deeper levels
of awareness in No Mind, we reach a total absorption of
awareness, where the mind-body is no longer conscious of
itself; and if we have the insight of spiritual awareness, we
experience the awareness of the universe. But the essen-
tial awareness of nature is not aware of itself, as we are.
There is no awareness of itself, just awareness, just god-
consciousness, an energized eld of consciousness that is
not self-conscious or self-directed. This kind of awareness
is a eld of energy, a force that permeates the form and
emptiness of the entire universe. We have a difcult time
understanding the concept of pure awareness because we
understand everything in terms of the Iills self-awareness.
Without self, there is no self-awarenessinstead, there is
simply awareness and nothing more. Even this wordy
attempt to describe the nature of pure awareness falls
short of perfection, as it is embroiled in the limitations of
language and of identity. It is hard to verbalize a non-
dualistic something without identity using a dualistic lan-
guage based on identity. But as the poems of the ancients
suggest, it is a matter of experience that makes Universal
Awareness real or unreal, which is why they insisted on
just sitting and not thinking about such things.
Paul Brunton, a British-born journalist who wrote in-
uential books on philosophy and comparative religions,
says:
Finally it happens. Thought is extinguished like a
snuffed candle. The intellect withdraws into its real
ground; that is, consciousness working unhindered by

210003_401_C20.indd 438 6/6/08 3:36:57 PM

 thoughts ... the brain has passed into a state of com- 439
plete suspension, as it does in deep sleep, yet there is
not the slightest loss of consciousness. I remain per- Chapter 20
fectly calm and fully aware of who I am and what is Secrets of
occurring. Yet my sense of awareness has been drawn the Soul
out of the narrow connes of the separate personality;
it has turned into something sublimely all-embracing.
Self still exists, but it is a changed, radiant self. For
something that is far superior to the unimportant per-
sonality which was I, some deeper, diviner being rises
into consciousness and becomes me. With it arrives an
amazing new sense of absolute freedom, for thought is
like a loom-shuttle, which is always going to and fro,
and to be freed from its tyrannical motion is to step out
of prison into the open air. (Brunton, 1934)

Stepping out of the connes of the Iill is what Brunton

describes as the moment of enlightenment, when aware-
ness returns to its origins. This is the seminal shift of
awareness that results from the practice of No Mind, as
illustrated in the Discovery of the Sequence of the Stones
(see Chapter 15, No Mind 301). This shift has been stud-
ied through extensive research on parapsychological and
psychic phenomena, altered states of consciousness, im-
mortality, and spiritual attainment. Without review and
discussion of the literature on these topics over the last
fty years, the study of No Mind would be incomplete, as
we would miss the most essential secrets necessary for
attaining deeper levels of awareness.
Most of us are concerned with our mortality, or with
the niteness of our present state of awareness as dis-
crete individuals. We strive to succeed and to survive in
the world as individuals, the way that we were condi-
tioned to do. We are caught up in the making of a life for
ourselves and for our families, and we forget that in the
process we can still remain connected to everything else.
We are so attached to the end results that we forget the
journey and miss out on enjoying the ride. The practice
of No Mind allows us to stand back and observe our-
selves running on the rat wheel, going nowhere while
getting older and sicker. Yet, with No Mind, we realize

210003_401_C20.indd 439 6/6/08 3:36:57 PM

 440 non-attachment to the sequence of time called our life,
which exposes a meaning of existence that is much deeper
No Mind
401 than what society preaches. From the perspective of the
individual, we see only one side to the innite reality of
The Secrets existence. Stanislav Grof, M.D., research fellow at Johns
of No Mind
Hopkins University and chief of psychiatric research at
the Maryland Psychiatric Center, writes:
Identifying with the consciousness of the Universal
Mind [No Mind], the individual senses that he has expe-
rientially encompassed the totality of existence. He feels
that he has reached the reality underlying all realities
and is confronted with the supreme and ultimate prin-
ciple that represents all Being. The illusions of matter,
space and time, as well as an innite number of other
subjective realities, have been completely transcended
and nally reduced to this one mode of consciousness,
which is their common source and denominator. This
experience is boundless, unfathomable and ineffable; it
is existence itself. Verbal communications and the sym-
bolic structure of our everyday language seem to be a ri-
diculously inadequate means to capture and convey its
nature and quality. The experience of the phenomenal
world and what we call usual states of consciousness,
appear in this context to be very limited, idiosyncratic
and partial aspects of the over-all consciousness of the
Universal Mind. This principle is totally and clearly be-
yond rational comprehension and yet even a short expe-
riential exposure to it satises the subjects intellectual,
philosophical and spiritual cravings. (Grof, 1976)

Even small experiential exposure to the practice of

No Mind fullls spiritual cravings sufciently for one to
become aware of his essential universality, as contrasted
to his learned individuality. It is healthy for our psyches
to get in touch with the pure empty awareness of the ow
of nature, which paradoxically encompasses all things.
When you identify with the rushing stream and not with
the rock on its bottom, you acquire unparalleled freedom,
joy, and spirituality. This experience is even more pro-
found when the stream nally becomes the ocean and
you identify with the vastness of its blue innity.

210003_401_C20.indd 440 6/6/08 3:36:57 PM

 441
CHAPTER 20 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 20
BEFORE CONTINUING
Secrets of
1. For millennia, humans have been searching for the Soul
their link to the universe by seeking to understand
the nature of the soul. The experience of univer-
sality is healthy for the human psyche, and it is an
essential component of the No Mind program. We
crave spiritual completion that puts us in touch
with our essential source.
2. In their pursuit to understand the nature of the
soul, the ancient masters used techniques similar
to No Mind to transcend ordinary reality and to
nd a deeper meaning in the Nothingness of
Being. Many contemporary physicists are con-
rming the ancients teachings about the mechan-
ics of the universe.
3. We need to transcend the Iill to perceive reality
directly and to realize spiritual awareness.
4. Spiritual awareness is the Universal Awareness
expressed through our own awareness when we
have removed the trap of the Iill. This is an aspect
of ourselves that we can only experience directly,
and this experience satises our intrinsic spiritual
cravings.
5. Our individual point of view may expand into a
universal perspective, shifting its focus from the
future and the past of the Iill to the Now; from
self-consciousness to mindfulness. We experience
nature directly and incorporate that experience
into our daily activities; that is what is meant by
being one with the Tao.
6. The experience of spiritual awareness is bound-
less, joyful, and eludes verbal description due to
limits inherent in the dualistic and identity-based
language.

210003_401_C20.indd 441 6/6/08 3:36:58 PM

 Nature abounds with examples of species whose members
exchange information without engaging in noticeable forms
of communication. They just know, or instinctively under-
stand, what to do in a given situation. Plants, insects, birds,
sh, and mammals all seem to communicate outside the
ordinary scope of verbal and body language. Ancient masters
also reported telepathic exchanges with their disciples.
Some argue that such types of inexplicable communications
constitute so-called Psi phenomena. Psi (pronounced sigh) is
the twenty-third letter of the Greek alphabet, and it represents
both extrasensory perception (ESP), such as clairvoyance and
telepathy, and psychokinesis (PK). Western researchers have
studied Psi for over seventy years now, and Jungs theory
of the collective unconscious may provide one explanation
for how Psi transfers collective knowledge within the human
community. No Mind, like other mindfulness-training
programs, increases human Psi functions, as documented
in many scientic studies.

Chapter 21 reviews evidence of Psi in humans and how

mindfulness-training techniques improve it.

210003_401_C21.indd 442 6/6/08 3:37:42 PM

 Chapter 21

Secret of Psi

N ature is lled with examples of species whose members com-

municate with each other without exchanging any noticeable
signs. They just know, perhaps instinctively, what to do in certain
situations. When a bee or a termite queen is removed, frenzy de-
scends on the nest; a sequence of orderly events then takes place,
producing a new queen. Ants colonies and communications simi-
larly defy the normal mode of human communication. Birds, sh,
and sea mammals all communicate outside the ordinary scope of
language as we know it. These aspects of communications may
be forms of Psi. The term Psi was proposed in 1946 by the British
psychologists Drs. Robert Thouless and W. P. Weisner. While Psi
development is not the focus of No Mind practice, there is a rela-
tionship between them that is worth exploring in order to com-
plete the study of the No Mind program.

443

210003_401_C21.indd 443 7/23/08 4:37:02 PM

 444 PsiAN ANCIENT FORM OF COMMUNICATION
No Mind
401
All cultures in human history account for Psi phenom-
ena. Many traditionssuch as Hinduism, Buddhism,
The Secrets the Tengsoba of the African Mossi society, the Sakalava
of No Mind tribe of Southwest Madagascar, the ancient Chinese,
the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, and the Egyptians
have indicated that some of their members demon-
strated Psi abilities. As far back as recorded history
goes, there is evidence of humans desire to accomplish
feats beyond their physical abilities. Various cultures
have devised techniques for nding lost objects, fore-
telling the future, ensuring good harvests, and killing
enemies (Angoff & Barth, 1974). The Crow Indians be-
lieved that success in life was based on the individuals
ability to secure visions or dreams. People who had
visions were considered blessed, especially those who
received painless visions (Long, 1953). The Cuna Indians
in Panama also placed great value on psychic abilities
(Van De Castle, 1974).
The Parapsychology Laboratory of Duke University
conducted ESP experiments as far back as 1933; they
focused on the study of mental telepathy, or the direct
communication between minds, circumventing normal
perceptual mechanisms. These types of experiments
used the ESP symbol cardsthey were randomly shuf-
ed, the experimenter would look at one and think
about it, and the subjects would guess the symbol. Such
studies conrmed many occurrences of unusual psychic
phenomena amongst human subjects. Yet, many main-
stream scientists have ignored this branch of psychol-
ogy, even though it has had signicant implications for
psychology, psychiatry, education, and medicine. More
research followed in telepathy, clairvoyance (the extra-
sensory perception of objects or events), psychokinesis
(moving objects without touching them), and precogni-
tion (the extrasensory perception of a future event), and
this scientic discipline became collectively known as
Psi (Smythies, 1967). In 1933, Freud contended that
telepathy might have been the original method of

210003_401_C21.indd 444 6/6/08 3:37:46 PM

 communication that receded into the background 445
as better methods of communication developednamely,
Chapter 21
speech and signs processed by the sense organs (Servadio,
1968). Secret of Psi
Psi takes place between an organism and its environ-
ment, or between two organisms, and in most instances
it entails a non-physical mode of communication. The
exact mechanisms are not yet understood. We should
clearly distinguish this type of ability from Occultism
or Spiritualism. Occultism is a form of black magic,
and Spiritualism is the religious belief that we can com-
municate with the dead through a medium. These are
unrelated to Psi, at least in terms of the practice of
No Mind. In fact, Spiritualism is antithetical to No Mind,
since No Mind is premised on the belief that the Iill (or
the persona) is an illusion that needs to be transcended
through enlightenment, and Spiritualism holds that
Iills (or the personas) continue after the mind-body ex-
pires. From the perspective of No Mind, such belief
would be adding illusion to illusion. And as we will
learn later, there cannot be a dualistic nature to the
soul; you would then have billions and billions of eter-
nal essences in the universe. There are no ghosts in the
practice of No Mind, as the ancient masters practiced
diligently to rid themselves of all ideas of ghosts by
seeing deeply into the reality of nature and releasing
themselves from the trap of the expectation of the Iill to
live forever in terms of an eternal personality. In his
discussions of cultural psychiatry, Carl Jung explains
spirit phenomena as manifestations of the unconscious
(Koss-Chioino, 2003).
In the book Magic and Mystery in Tibet, mystic and ex-
plorer David-Neel discusses disciples telepathic commu-
nications with their masters in the course of training:
The Lama [Master] will check to see if they correspond
with those he mentally suggested to his disciple; as
telepathic perception increases so does the distance
between Master and disciple ... Telepathic transmis-
sions, either conscious or unconscious, seem to occur
rather frequently in Tibet. (David-Neel, 1971)

210003_401_C21.indd 445 6/6/08 3:37:47 PM

 446 EXPERIENCING A SIXTH SENSE
OF COMMUNICATION
No Mind
401
The ancient masters were said to be capable of Psi. Prac-
The Secrets tices like No Mind that train the total absorption of pure
of No Mind awareness may unleash these abilities. The development
of insight and the skill to understand others may indicate
that, to some degree, Psi operates as a sixth sense, as intui-
tion does. The masters might have known little about some
of these mechanisms, while understanding others clearly
enough to develop them systematically. In A Search in Secret
Egypt, after a long journey through the Libyan mountains,
Dr. Paul Brunton describes meeting a yogi seated on a
boulder atop the loftiest peak of the Theban Hills:
We looked at each other in silence for a full two minutes.
There was such authority and distinction in his face that
I thought it almost impertinent to address him rst. What
his rst words to me were I shall, alas, never remember.
For my mind seemed to haze over even before he spoke.
Some hidden glands of latent clairvoyant vision inside
my head began to stir into a sudden function. I saw a ra-
diant spoke wheel of light revolve before me and slightly
above my head at high speed. With its working there was
a receding of my physical moorings, and an entry into
some supernormal and ethereal state of consciousness.

Upon revealing this experience to the Master, he told

Paul that he deliberately wanted him to have that expe-
rience. Furthermore, he knew his name!
I drew back with a start. How had he ascertained my
name? But, of course, the [Masters] were famed for
their extraordinary powers of mind reading, even at a
long distance. (Brunton, 1935)

JUNGS COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS

A SOURCE OF Psi?
Carl Jung, Freuds famous student, was best known for
his theory of the collective unconscious and its possible
relation to Psi phenomena. In studying different cultures,

210003_401_C21.indd 446 6/6/08 3:37:47 PM

 he was struck by the universality of many themes, patterns, 447
stories, and images. These same images, he found, fre-
Chapter 21
quently appeared in his patients dreams. From these ob-
servations, Jung developed his theory of the collective Secret of Psi
unconscious and of archetypes as a kind of latent memory
in the mind and in the universe.
Except for certain genetic aspects, the Iill is environ-
mentally determined, as we detailed in No Mind 101.
The theory of the collective unconscious is different.
That theory postulates that humans have inherited the
historical experiences of past generations, and this
knowledge storehouse remains latent in a collective un-
conscious until retrieved, perhaps through Psi. This
knowledge is encoded in us like our DNAit is inher-
ited, beyond our control, and independent of environ-
mental experience or conditioning. It is a eld of
information that you in particular and our species as a
whole share with the universe. We all have access to this
collection of human unconscious experience, as it is
passed down genetically through an evolutionary mech-
anism that links us to a universal unconscious and to our
primordial roots.
Jung accounted for the role of the psyche in the evo-
lutionary process:

According to Jung, in a synchronistic situation the

psychic events are mediated by the archetypes, which
are dispositions of the collective unconscious. The
archetypes are not themselves in consciousness, but
are represented in it by archetypal images and sym-
bols. As mediators or vehicles, the archetypes them-
selves are insufcient to account for the content of
the synchronistic psychic event. The true source is lo-
cated at the deeper levels of our psychethe psychoid
level. At this level the psyche, a microcosm, reects
the universe, the macrocosm ... Jung is led to assume
that our unconscious in a signicant sense is capable
of absolute knowledge which on occasions becomes
available to conscious experience through archetypal
images and symbols. The emergence of these images

210003_401_C21.indd 447 6/6/08 3:37:47 PM

 448 into consciousness may be simultaneous with, prior
to, or after the occurrence of the related external
No Mind event. So we have contemporaneous precognitive or
401
retro-cognitive Psi experiences ... Thus, there is no
The Secrets distance to travel or no time to scan between the sub-
of No Mind ject and the target. Every subject is a microcosm, po-
tentially capable of reecting the whole cosmos. This
potential is not realized because we are habitually and
constitutionally given to respond to and interact with
our environment, rather than probe within to discover
hidden knowledge. (Rao, 1977)

We usually do not utilize this potential, as our aware-

ness is continuously trapped within the Iill, which is
one of the reasons why the un-training of awareness is
so vital. The practice of No Mind may unleash the abil-
ity to perceive more of this latent information. Perhaps
we tap into the collective unconscious during deep ab-
sorption in No Mind, or perhaps this is one of the
sources of insight that we experience as genuine intui-
tion. Jack Schwarz, a modern yogi who has demon-
strated remarkable voluntary controls of his body,
describes a very similar phenomenon, which he calls
the para-conscious. By willingly inducing specic brain-
wave states, Schwarz has been able to control the pain
of physical trauma; to regulate his blood ow, blood
pressure, and heart rate, and to heal his body within
hours after injury:

There are less dense aspects of the Universe, subtle en-

ergies that carry a different kind of information to us.
They bring us the message of the nature of the whole;
whereas our physical senses inform us only about the
parts. Para-conscious mind partakes of the Omniscience
of Universal Mind. When the para-conscious is clogged
through our lack of creative expression and our de-
nial of our intuitions, we suffer from imbalance ... you
can learn to interact with the para-conscious mind.
Then you will begin to direct your rational mind to im-
plement the intuition provided by the para-conscious.
(Schwarz, 1978)

210003_401_C21.indd 448 6/6/08 3:37:47 PM

 MODERN WESTERN SOCIETY DISCOURAGES Psi 449

Modern Western society doesnt offer a conducive envi- Chapter 21

ronment for Psi. According to Hans Kreitler, professor of
Secret of Psi
Psychology at Tel Aviv University,
The use of technologies like telephone, letter, cable
and other devices lessens the need ... and the general
disbelief in ESP acts as a negative inhibiting factor.
Education does not promote situations conducive to
Psi functions. The western culture holds reason, logic
and intellectual functions high in merit, while intuition
seems to be inhibited. Even if ESP is demonstrated, it
is categorized in an explanation of western scientic
thinking. (Kreitler & Kreitler, 1974)

We are motivated by the future and dependent on the

past, and we rarely have a moment to relax and still the
mind and focus on the present. Our busy days at work
and our hectic pace are counteractive to developing a still
mind, although some companies and corporations around
the world are starting to support meditative wellness pro-
grams for their employees (discussed in No Mind 501).
Many ofce workers miss lunch or shorten their breaks
to keep apace with work demands. This is not a condu-
cive environment for stilling the mind, and further em-
phasizies the need for programs like No Mind at the
workplace. Practicing Clear Attention during normal
working hours and as an integral part of our daily rou-
tine is a powerful exercise for grasping more effective
intuitions during work and developing peak perform-
ance. We do not necessary need a time-out to practice,
we can do it on the y.
However, even in our busy modern lives, Psi nds
various venues to surface. For example, there have been
some interesting studies relating Psi to psychotherapy.
Emilio Servadio, president of the Italian Psychoanalytic
Society of Rome, Italy, has found that some patients have
paranormal dreams that link them with their analysts:
It is a sort of unmasking by the patient of emotional
material pertaining to the analysts mind, material

210003_401_C21.indd 449 6/6/08 3:37:47 PM

 450 thrown in the analysts face, so to speak ... the dovetail-
ing of the analysts and the patients emotional patterns
No Mind in a specic phase of the analysis seems to be strong
401
precondition for the appearances of a telepathic dream
The Secrets or other paranormal phenomena. (Servadio, 1968)
of No Mind
NO MIND INCREASES Psi FUNCTIONING

The practice of No Mind has been recognized by the an-

cient masters as a means to Psi mastery. Stories of mas-
ters communicating with students through telepathic
exchange have been a fascinating aspect of Eastern medi-
tative traditions. Advanced ancient masters were said to
possess psychic powers that were not ordinarily seen
amongst the common people of the time.
Gertrude Schmeidler, past president of the Parapsy-
chological Association, reports signicantly higher ESP
scores in subjects after instruction in meditation and
breathing exercises by Swami Madhavananda Saraswati,
compared to testing before the instruction (Schmeidler,
1970). Charles Honorton, director of the Division of Par-
apsychology and Psychophysics at Maimonides Medical
Center (Brooklyn, New York), reports similar results in
using the relaxed and focused state of hypnosis to in-
crease ESP scores:

... results appear not to be due to the suggestibility of

subjects, or suggestions for high scores, but rather
seems as a result of intentional and relaxation factors.
(Honorton, 1974)

ASCs, or Altered States of Consciousness, are typical of

the meditative state (discussed in Chapter 22, No Mind 401).
The meditative state is also known as the alpha state,
referring to the brain-wave frequencies recorded by the
electroencephalograph (EEG) in that state. Experiments
suggest that there is a relatively strong relation between
Alpha activity and ESP performance, indicating that the
relaxed, passive, and mindful state that characterizes a
meditative mind is conducive to heightened ESP per-
formance (Honorton, 1969). In another study, Charles

210003_401_C21.indd 450 6/6/08 3:37:48 PM

 Honorton and Sharon Harper report that one common 451
factor which seems to characterize Psi-conducive states
Chapter 21
is the withdrawal of attention from external sensory
[noise] ... Dreams are the most frequent state in which a Secret of Psi
person is isolated from a sensory environment and ac-
count for 3765% of ESP cases in four international sur-
veys. Meditative disciplines reduce sensory-somatic noise
and are conducive to Psi and imagery states (Honorton &
Harper, 1974). When we practice No Mind, we re-focus
awareness away from being lost in external sensory noise,
and focus awareness internally on the mind objects, with-
out becoming absorbed in them. We are no longer analyz-
ing and categorizing external information, which opens
our receptivity to other types of information that we would
have missed otherwise. In this state, we are more open to
Psi information, which may appear as intuitions in our
eld of awareness, or as images in dreams. The deeper
levels of No Mind clear the path to attaining advanced
levels of Psi functioning. In Psi and Altered States of Con-
sciousness, Ramakrishna Rao discusses yogic techniques
developing Psi capabilities:

In Yoga teaching, there is an inhibition of cerebral

activity. Then there is an activation of the psyche in
the state of concentration. Then the expansion of
concentration sought in the nal stage, reversing the
pole of the psyche from one of receiving impression,
through the senses, to one of entering into direct rela-
tion to external objects ... If your mind is set on another
individual, you might obtain telepathy ... The modus
operandi involved in creating hallucinations and in re-
ceiving extrasensory perception might be similar even
though the sources may be different. (Rao, 1968)

DEVELOPING Psi THROUGH NO MIND

The effect of a mood-less, detached state, which is charac-

teristic of No Mind, may enhance Psi. Like other species,
humans have the ability to perceive communication
through Psi. When enhanced through mindfulness-training

210003_401_C21.indd 451 6/6/08 3:37:48 PM

 452 techniques, such as No Mind, this ability helps us to proc-
ess important information we need to make decisions in
No Mind
401 many aspects of our lives: business, sports, academics,
relationships, and so on. Gertrude Schmeidler, former
The Secrets president of the Parapsychological Association and pro-
of No Mind
fessor of Psychology at City University of New York, con-
ducts experimental psychology research in perception
and memory:
The major nding from Psi (i.e., from ESP and PK) re-
search is that ESP and PK occur. There seems by now
to be unequivocal evidence for each, and the evidence
is especially strong because it is contributed by investi-
gators in different laboratories who work with different
methods ... [Early studies] were relevant to psychology
only in showing that humans had potentialities beyond
those ordinarily listed in the introductory psychology
texts ... Later investigations began to investigate the re-
lation of Psi scores and the subjects mood or attitude.
(Schmeidler, 1977)

The potential for Psi functioning may be in a person

from birth, but it still must be sharpened by No Mind
techniques, where the person learns to be free from the
ego and perceptual defense and ltering mechanisms of
the Iill. In No Mind, the mind is liberated. Again, while
the practice of No Mind is not necessarily aimed at devel-
oping Psi, research and ancient texts indicate that en-
hanced Psi is a product of meditative states:

There is evidence from a number of experiments that

subjects can use ESP unconsciously and unintentionally
to fulll their own needs or the needs of others ... [A]
review of over 700 references ... shows many researchers
replicating their own results of previous experiments.
Even independent replications have been reported ...
The idea that ESP abilities can be enhanced by enter-
ing a so-called altered state of consciousness (ASC) dates
back at least to the Indian Sage Patanjali (2nd Century
B. C.), and it was a dominant concept of 19th century
Parapsychology. Contemporary Parapsychologists have
shown a renewed interest in techniques that help one

210003_401_C21.indd 452 6/6/08 3:37:48 PM

 to withdraw attention from the external world. The 453
most extensively studied of such techniques have been
hypnosis ... Other techniques or states are meditation, Chapter 21
dreams, and perceptual deprivation. (Palmer, 1978) Secret of Psi

After reviewing 700 references to Psi, Palmer came to

the conclusion that an Altered State of Consciousness is
conducive to the Psi function. A number of studies during
the 1970s used progressive relaxation and measured its
positive effect on Psi function (Braud & Braud, 1973).
Similar results were reported by Oasis and Bokert, who
found that subjects trained in meditation had higher
scores; by Breitstein, who found that ESP scores were
highest right after meditation; by Green, who studied
Swami Ramas psychokinetic abilities; and by Schmidt
and Pantas, who reported that Pantas, being experienced
in Zen, had unusually high ESP scores (Schmeidler, 1970,
1977). These results have been reproduced and docu-
mented in the literature.
Developing these abilities is no news to the experi-
enced Zen practitioner or to those who have developed
the ability to separate awareness from mind objects, such
as No Mind practitioners. The Psi function taps into
subtle information which exists in the environment and
in the primordial mind; but to recognize this informa-
tion, the mind must be still and empty, without the inter-
ference of the defense mechanisms of the Iill. Practicing
the techniques of No Mind cleans and sharpens the abil-
ity to grasp Psi information either through intuition,
through the sixth sense, or through another mechanism.
The exact specications of such a mechanism are not as
important as the fact that the ability exists and can be en-
hanced through the various practices like No Mind, hyp-
nosis, and meditation.
Reasonably good concentration seems to be a neces-
sary condition for hypnotizability (Van Nuys, 1973).
Meditation and hypnosis involve the focusing of atten-
tion; thus, there are similarities between Zen meditation
and hypnosis, as demonstrated by Akira Onda of Tokyo
University:

210003_401_C21.indd 453 6/6/08 3:37:48 PM

 454 Hypnosis and meditation involve focus of attention,
neither are related to the psychophysiological state of
No Mind sleep and have a closer relation to the waking mental
401
state. Both involve passive concentration and each state
The Secrets cannot be forced as in active concentration. (Onda,
of No Mind 1967)

A GUT FEELING OR Psi?

We have all had the gut feeling that something is wrong,

or that we must undertake a course of action because it
feels right; this may be an example of Psi and intuition.
We only need to become aware of these subtle messages
by stopping the insistent ood of thoughts and by clear-
ing our awareness. Data collected by parapsychologists
in the course of a century of scientic research has be-
come increasingly reliable and hard to ignore, even if
other sciences have questioned the validity of Psi. Psi
does exist and is responsible for abnormal communica-
tions that elude explanations provided by mainstream
scientic theories.
By practicing No Mind, we allow this information to
arise in awareness. Psi may not be an aspect of the mind,
as it functions beyond the normal sensory channels, just
like No Mind does. Yet, No Mind is awareness whose
source is the underlying essence of nature. Perhaps the
practice of No Mind stimulates an internal alchemy,
which opens mystical intuition, taps into the source of
the collective unconscious, and illuminates the essential
laws of the universe. This occurs when we wipe away the
dust of the mind (I or Iill) and see the subtle insight
that was overwhelmed by the noise of life and the con-
stant chatter of thoughts. When we still the mind, we
open the doors of intuition. One cannot take possession
of this and claim it as his own. After the delusion of our
individual separateness dissipates, it is clear that the illu-
minated path goes nowhere; it is a symbol of the encom-
passing universe which manifests itself all around us in
the present moment. Is enlightenment a function of Psi,
an insight into the reality of nature itself, the universe

210003_401_C21.indd 454 6/6/08 3:37:49 PM

 becoming aware of itself, or an aspect of the collective 455
unconscious becoming conscious? To answer this ques-
Chapter 21
tion, lets quote the ancient masters: All of this is dung,
those who speak do not know and those who know do Secret of Psi
not speak, just sit and experience that the only universal
constant is awareness.

210003_401_C21.indd 455 6/6/08 3:37:49 PM

 456

No Mind CHAPTER 21 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER

401 BEFORE CONTINUING

The Secrets 1. Psi may be a form of communication used by spe-

of No Mind cies that do not exchange information through
sounds and symbols. Numerous human cultures
throughout history have left us records of Psi phe-
nomena, often regarded as a higher form of in-
sight and knowledge. Western researchers have
studied Psi in depth since 1933.
2. The ancient masters experienced a sixth sense of
communication with their disciples, which was a
developed Psi skill.
3. Jungs collective unconscious may be a source
of Psi. The concept stands for a latent memory
storehouse of all humanitys experience through-
out history, which is stored in the DNA of individ-
uals and manifests itself through archetypical
images in dreams, altered states of consciousness,
and Psi. The archetypes contain knowledge of the
universe, and we all have the potential of becom-
ing aware of them.
4. No Mind, like other mindfulness-training, medi-
tative, and relaxation programs, increases Psi
function in humans, as documented by many sci-
entic studies. Removing attention from distract-
ing external and internal objects enables subtle
insights to come into awareness. Studies have
demonstrated that attention-training methods,
such as meditation, hypnosis, altered states of
consciousness, and dreams, heighten receptivity
to Psi function, as the ancient masters have taught
for thousands of years.
5. Our gut feelings may be an aspect of the Psi
function in cases when we are receptive and in
passive, detached awareness.

210003_401_C21.indd 456 7/23/08 4:37:03 PM

 An altered state of consciousness (ASC) is an induced mental
state that we generally consider abnormal. For purposes
of the No Mind program, an altered state of consciousness
is dened as a state of consciousness that differs from
normal waking awareness. An ASC can be induced articially
through drugs (such as LSD or mescaline) or naturally
through meditation and relaxation techniques. ASCs are
common among athletes who reach peak performance,
or the zone.

Chapter 22 explores the connection between ASCs and

No Mind and describes the ASCs that many practitioners
experience in a deep state of mindfulness. This type of
experience is not uncommon, and while many consider
it unusual, it is a natural state of expanded awareness
achieved through awareness-training techniques, such as
Clear Attention.

210003_401_C22.indd 457 6/6/08 3:38:28 PM

 Chapter 22

No Mind and Altered

States of Consciousness

M any remember Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs) as

mental states induced from the use of LSD, mescaline,
or other mind-altering chemicals, especially during the 1960s.
While such chemicals may induce a kind of ASC, they are far
from the pure awareness developed from No Mind. ASCs have
also been associated with paranormal, psychic, supernatural,
and para-scientic phenomena. For the purpose of the No Mind
program, altered states of consciousness are dened as states of
consciousness that differ from normal waking awareness. For
example, ASCs happen to athletes when they reach peak per-
formance in the zone. In many cases, such states involve the
loss of self-awareness, or the release from being encapsulated
in the Iill. This is the oceanic feeling of being intricately linked
with everything, yet objectively watching the performance of
a specic mind-body dynamic. The expansion of awareness be-
yond the Iill in more advanced practice of Clear Attention is an
ASC. In the deeper levels of No Mind, you may feel connected
458

210003_401_C22.indd 458 6/6/08 3:38:30 PM

 to the universe, as if you were a microcosmic reec- 459
tion of a greater macrocosm. This is a natural state of
Chapter 22
expanded awareness achieved through the practice of
No Mind. No Mind
Altered States of Consciousness have also been associ- and
Altered
ated with dreams, hypnosis, out-of-body experiences, Psi
States of
phenomena, and even advanced levels of yogic medita- Conscious-
tion. The practice of No Mind, more specically, uses psy- ness
chological technology that applies mindfulness to open
our receptivity to a more direct experience of reality.
The development of Psi is not a primary goal of No Mind,
but a secondary side-effect, or some of the metaphorical
fruit of a tree. Our main goal is to be mindful of the tree,
and if it owers and a fruit drops in our lap while we are
mindful, then we are mindful of receiving the fruit. Then,
there is fruit! The ancient texts are lled with examples of
students who imagined enlightenment and spiritual
awareness; masters carefully questioned students and
often discovered that these were delusions of the Iill. In
other words, the students were still allowing the I to
control the accomplishment of a task: I have grasped
spiritual awareness. But the I cannot grasp spiritual
awareness. It actually obstructs it and needs to be sup-
pressed for spiritual awareness to arise. And there really
is no accomplishment per se, as there is no who to claim
accomplishing anything. It is like bees taking credit for
building hives, or a ower being praised for owering,
when both acts are mere manifestations of the essence of
their true nature.

NO MIND DEVELOPS ALTERED STATES

OF CONSCIOUSNESS
As the ancient masters taught, the I cannot accomplish
enlightenment and spiritual awareness, but it can imagine
and have intellectual knowledge of them. These are
altered states of consciousness, where one clearly feels
a qualitative shift in the pattern of mental functioning
(Tart, 1972). In the 1970s, Charles Tart, Psychology Ph.D.

210003_401_C22.indd 459 7/26/08 10:37:30 AM

 460 at the University of California, Davis, speculated that
yoga and Zen states were altered states of consciousness,
No Mind
401 or a gateway to higher mystical or spiritual awareness. A
more recent study published in the American Journal of
The Secrets Clinical Hypnosis concludes that ASCs are an essential
of No Mind
part of the experience of hypnosis and meditation
(Holroyd, 2003).
Zen practitioners seek mental tness and enlighten-
ment through the untraining of the Iill using a brand of
psychological technology similar to No Mind. The prac-
tice of Clear Attention untrains and suspends the Iills
mechanisms, leading the mind into an altered state of
consciousness. If an ASC is a by-product of the technique,
then it is just another fruit from the tree we receive while
we remain mindful. And while the pure awareness
achieved with the practice of No Mind may be an ASC, if
we use Tarts denition of a qualitative shift in the pattern
of mental functioning, then we are dealing with the
development of the ability to change the pattern of mental
functioning from the normal realm of the Iill to a detached
sense of awareness.
Altered states of consciousness have also been identi-
ed with alpha brain wave activity, which characterizes
focused and attentive states, such as Clear Attention.
Again, these states have also occurred in athletes as they
reached peak performance and experienced the sense of
losing the I, being completely immersed in the ow of
the sport without any conscious direction. Actors have
experienced the same state of losing the awareness of the
I during theatrical performances, as the mind-body
moved without any interference from the Iill. These are
ASCs that may be developed through the practice of
No Mind (see also No Mind 501, No Mind Sports). This
state of awareness is detached from the sense of the I,
and it passively watches the performance of the mind-
body. The state is induced by naturally becoming mindful
of the mind-body activity; this is when the mind-body
dynamic functions at peak performance (see The First
Level of No Mind mandala in No Mind 301, Chapter 15).

210003_401_C22.indd 460 6/6/08 3:38:32 PM

 MYSTICAL STATES AND THE BRAINS NEUROLOGY 461

According to recent medical research, altered states of Chapter 22

consciousness are traced to the brains temporal lobes,
No Mind
which are involved in awareness. One of the rst experi- and
ments in the eld was Penelds famous neurosurgical Altered
operation, where the surgeons electrically stimulated a States of
Conscious-
portion of the patients cerebral cortex while he was awake ness
and conscious. The cortex partially covers both temporal
lobes. While the electrode was stimulating one point, the
patient recalled a past experience in great detail, one that
he had previously forgotten. The recollection stopped
when the electrode was removed. Recollections came in
the form of visual, auditory, and olfactory hallucinations,
as well as emotional reenactments of fear, disgust, sorrow,
loneliness, etc.
We may say that the interpretive cortex has something
to do with a mechanism that can reactivate the vivid
record of the past. Patients heard music, saw people,
images and felt sensations of emotions ... Therefore,
it is concluded that, under normal circumstances, this
area of the cortex must make some functional contri-
bution to reex comparison of the present with related
past experience. It contributes to reex interpretation
or perception of the present. (Peneld, 1959)

The patient literally felt as if he were re-living the

experienceto him, the sensations felt as if they were
really happening in the moment. The brains ability to re
neurons and to re-live experiences that appear real brings
into question mystical experiences that also appear real,
but may be produced by the brain. Hallucinations are
usually associated with ASCs. Subliminal perception,
hypnotic regression, dreams, LSD visionsall of these
show that the ability to fabricate realistic pseudo-reality
is common to humans and an aspect of their brains
neurology.
In later experiments, Michael Persinger electrically
stimulated the temporal lobes of patients and they

210003_401_C22.indd 461 6/6/08 3:38:32 PM

 462 reported the sense of leaving the body, mystical feelings
of oneness, and a sense of presence (Persinger, 1987). At
No Mind
401 the Geneva University Hospital in Switzerland, Dr. Olaf
Blanke reported that stimulating the juncture of the
The Secrets temporal and parietal lobes triggers the perception of
of No Mind
out-of-body experiences. Such altered states of con-
sciousness can be compared to religious or spiritual
attempts to unite with a Supreme Being or to lose aware-
ness of the body and of the I; yet, it is important to
note that these are brain experiences without spiritual
origins. Are some mystical experiences nothing more
than a mechanism of the brain that evokes ASCs?
Another study at the Behavioral Neuroscience Labo-
ratory of Georgia State University concludes that Altered
States of Consciousness result from transient prefrontal
cortex deregulation. The study reviews evidence from
dreaming, endurance running, meditation, daydreaming,
hypnosis, and various drug-induced states, and describes
consciousness as a higher-order cognitive function that
occurs in layers of functionality (Dietrich, 2003).
Yet another study at the University Hospital of Psy-
chiatry in Zurich reports that the right front-temporal
lobe is the area where self-induced meditation dissolu-
tion and the experience of the self take place (Lehmann
et al., 2001). And the Research Institute of Physical
Culture in Russia reports that a study in which 61 sub-
jects who underwent mental training for a period of
seven weeks were tested using digital EEG (brain wave
monitoring) and computerized Kirlian photography
(gas discharge visualization that detects changes in
moisture reecting shifts in emotions, barometric pres-
sure, voltage, etc.) found that there was a harmoniza-
tion of the biopotential eld of the brain, the psychic
state, and the bioenergy elds during ASCs. The re-
search teams conclusion was that systematic mental
training affects the psychophysiological states of the
mind and body and may have relevance to psychoso-
matic medicine:

210003_401_C22.indd 462 6/6/08 3:38:32 PM

 These studies indicate that the experience of an ASC 463
and its effects on the mind-body are neurological and
Chapter 22
cognitive in nature. In other words, mystical states may
be the brains way of inducing pseudo-reality or even No Mind
pseudo-enlightenment. Out-of-body experiences may be and
Altered
hallucinations triggered by the stimulation of certain
States of
brain parts. ASCs may constitute higher functioning of Conscious-
the brain, and with training, can affect the psychophysi- ness
ological states of the mind-body. We may be in a better
position to heal ourselves during altered states of con-
sciousness. Discovering a neuro-anatomic map of the
brain and ASC locations may contribute to psychiatry
and future research. The practice of No Mind may pro-
vide the mental training necessary to induce such states
of mind and to produce feelings of unity, oneness, and
the realization of spiritual awareness.

ALTERED STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND

SUBSTANCE-ABUSE THERAPY
Humans have sought altered states of consciousness
since the dawn of time, through meditation, hypnosis,
and intense focusing, or through substances, such as
drugs or alcohol. The human desire to attain altered
states of consciousness comes naturally to most of us. A
1991study at the Beech Hill Hospital in New Hampshire
noted that ASC therapy may benet the treatment of drug
and alcohol addictions (Mcpeake, Kennedy, & Gordon,
1991). Instructing drug and alcohol abusers in medita-
tion, for example, signicantly reduces the likelihood of
relapse. Mindfulness meditation has helped addicts to
let go (Kavanagh, Andrade, & May, 2004). Many sub-
stance abusers turn to spirituality to substitute the reli-
giously induced highs of drugs or alcohol. Mcpeake
argues that if ASCs were introduced as an alternative to
classical drug- and alcohol-abuse therapies, the patients
would learn to manipulate their ability to achieve a new
consciousness (Mcpeake et al., 1991).

210003_401_C22.indd 463 6/6/08 3:38:32 PM

 464 ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
OR ENLIGHTENMENT?
No Mind
401
There is a notable difference between enlightenment and
The Secrets altered states of consciousness, even though an ASC may
of No Mind be an aspect of the experience of enlightenment. As men-
tioned previously, enlightenment is the point of suspen-
sion of the Iill and the realization of spiritual awareness,
or the essence of nature. It is the realization of this uni-
versal aspect of awareness, rather than the individualized
form of awareness we use on daily basis. The shift is dra-
matic, and there are psycho-physiological changes in the
experiencer similar to ASCs; yet, the impact is perma-
nent. Experiences of ASCs are impermanent and can
change depending on the nature of the ASCs. They are
more like temporary feelings of elevated awareness, or
temporary mystical experience. Enlightenment shifts
awareness away from the entrapment of the Iill, and with
practice and time, the shift becomes permanent. But even
the initial experience of oneness with nature and the uni-
verse is so potent that it shakes up the fragmented dual-
istic perspective of the Iill and produces a unied direct
perception of reality.
It is hard for students to gauge their level of attain-
ment, and this is why masters are often needed to distin-
guish between altered states of consciousness (purely
mental phenomena) and true enlightenment. The student
may experience the illusion of enlightenment through
brain-induced ASCs, or she might be misled by a pseudo-
reality projected by the Iill attempting to understand
enlightenment. But enlightenment is the profound awak-
ening which changes and shakes the very roots of ones
life. At that point, the master can tell that the student has
passed through the gate and that the riddles have been
answered. The Discovery of the Sequence of the Stones
in Chapter 15 illustrates the progress toward enlighten-
ment through which students must pass.

210003_401_C22.indd 464 7/28/08 12:43:53 PM

 MANY PATHS TO ALTERED STATES 465
OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Chapter 22
Altered states of consciousness are fairly common. Many No Mind
people experience states of consciousness that differ and
from ordinary day-to-day levels of awareness. Practicing Altered
States of
No Mind and the Right Attitude, as specied by the Ten
Conscious-
Paradoxes, makes it easier to arrive at these states and to ness
experience the god-consciousness, or the union with
the universe experienced by the mystics. Some look to
religion and spirituality for ways to experience altered
states of consciousness; but this usually requires
upholding the entire system of beliefs of that particular
religion, even though some aspects of the system might
clash with ones lifestyle and preferences. We can rely
on our own mindfulness to nd our essential link to
nature and the cosmos; and most important, we eventu-
ally realize that this moment is an altered state of
consciousness.
Most people are intrigued to discover that ASCs
present a way to nd unity and interdependence with
nature. Focusing on our cherished individuality does
not bring the same deep, gratifying connection as focus-
ing on our universality does. In ASCs, we discover our
true identity in the ow of nature (or the Tao) and in the
direct perception of the essential reality of the universe.
In these states, the Iills delusions are peeled away layer
by layer, until the core is revealed and spiritual aware-
ness is grasped. This is not to be understood as some-
thing esotericit is an intrinsic aspect of human
nature.
We can understand intellectually that we have been
programmed, trained, conditioned, manipulated (by the
mass media, for example), and alienated by the complex
construct of the Iill. We know that even though there are
genetic factors that shape the personality traits and char-
acteristics of the Iill, our identity does not satisfy our
spiritual cravings. We need to look beyond our identity,
to non-identity, to nd our essential nature and our link

210003_401_C22.indd 465 7/26/08 10:46:21 AM

 466 to the rest of the cosmos and our fellow humankind. We
nd it when we discover that the only universal constant
No Mind
401 is awareness. The Sun remains the same whether we see
it shining or covered by clouds. Our perception of the Sun
The Secrets changes, but this has no effect on the Sun itself. The same
of No Mind
holds for spiritual awareness; it exists essentially con-
stant with or without our experience of it. Whether we
live imprisoned by the Iill or free in enlightenment, we
remain the same essential corethe constant universal
awareness.
After diligent practice, one day you have an ASC,
where you experience the oneness of nature. You may
believe this to be spiritual awareness in No Mind enlight-
enment, but will the effect last when you are no longer
experiencing the ASC? What will be the effect on your
entire being and on your life? If the experience affects
your life profoundly, then it is true; but if it passes away
like a ship vanishing past the horizon, or a dream disap-
pearing upon waking, then you know that the experience
is merely an ASC. You will know the difference in your
bones. Paul Reps published the rst three parts of Zen
Flesh, Zen Bones in the 1930s. He writes,
The problem of our mind, relating conscious to pre-
conscious awareness, takes us deep into everyday liv-
ing. Dare we open our doors to the source of our being?
What are esh and bones for? (Reps, 1998)

The No-Mind altered states of consciousness must

be pure and not induced by any means other than the
techniques described here. As mentioned, intellectual
knowledge of No Mind, while pleasurable and important,
does not have the impact of an actual experience of the
direct perception of reality or seeing into nothingness.
We must suspend the mechanisms of the Iill, which al-
lows us to experience the insight of spiritual awareness.
This is attainable by natural methods, such as No Mind.
In our increasingly complex world, the simplicity of
the method and applying the Ten Paradoxes is priceless.
After applying thought control, British surgeon Kenneth

210003_401_C22.indd 466 6/6/08 3:38:33 PM

 Walker discovers that pure awareness is spirit or spiritual 467
awareness:
Chapter 22
We may then be able to reach the silent area which is No Mind
the dwelling place of the Spirit. For I know of no better and
denition of the word SPIRIT than that; it is pure con- Altered
sciousness devoid of all thoughts and words. (Walker, States of
1972) Conscious-
ness

210003_401_C22.indd 467 6/6/08 3:38:33 PM

 468

No Mind CHAPTER 22 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER

401 BEFORE CONTINUING

The Secrets 1. Altered states of consciousness have been associ-

of No Mind ated with paranormal, psychic, supernatural, and
para-scientic phenomena. For the purpose of
the No Mind program, altered states of conscious-
ness are dened as states of consciousness that
differ from normal waking awareness. For exam-
ple, ASCs happen to athletes when they reach
peak performance in the zone.
2. In the deeper levels of No Mind, you may feel con-
nected to the universe, as if you were a microcos-
mic reection of a greater macrocosm. This is a
natural state of expanded awareness achieved
through the practice of No Mind.
3. Altered states of consciousness have been iden-
tied with alpha brain wave activity, which is
related to focused and attentive states, such as
Clear Attention. These states also occur in ath-
letes as they reach peak performance and experi-
ence the sense of losing the I, being completely
immersed in the ow of the sport without con-
scious direction.
4. Studies indicate that ASCs and their effects on
the mind-body are neurological and cognitive in
nature. In other words, mystical states may be the
brains way of inducing pseudo-reality or even
pseudo-enlightenment.
5. There is a notable difference between enlight-
enment and altered states of consciousness.
The shift is dramatic and there are psycho-
physiological changes in the experiencer, simi-
lar to ASCs; yet the impact is permanent.

210003_401_C22.indd 468 7/26/08 10:46:21 AM

 Spiritual awareness is the ultimate reality, where one
attains union with natures cosmic soul, natures Essence,
or god-consciousness; Taoism describes this as the nameless
undifferentiated ow, which oscillates from Being to Nothing-
ness and back. This experience is described as mysticism
in the ancient texts of most religious traditions. Spiritual
awareness is the union with the pure awareness owing
through the universe and manifesting itself as Being and
Nothingness. In Tao, things are in a constant state of change
between their opposite states, which complement one
another. Whether spiritual awareness is god-consciousness
or natures cosmic soul is only a matter of differences in
belief. Regardless of the intellectual framing, you experience
pure awareness of quantum consciousness, and the universe
experiences itself through your mind-body.

Chapter 23 reveals the secret of spiritual awareness and

presents scientic and philosophical evidence that supports
the notion of the essential unity of Being and Nothingness.

210003_401_C23.indd 469 6/6/08 3:39:16 PM

 Chapter 23

Secret of
Spiritual Awareness

U niversal oneness and interdependence have been demon-

strated empirically. There are patterns in nature that exist
throughout the universe. Fred Hoyle, professor of Astronomy at
Cambridge University, argues that galaxies similar to our Milky Way
exist throughout space. Despite differences in size and shape, all
of them are essentially enormous clouds of gas and 100 million
to 100,000 million stars. Heavier elements are built up from
hydrogen via nuclear processes that take place within the stars.
Supernovas are energetic explosions marking the end of a stars
life. Once the stars nuclear fuel is exhausted, its core may collapse
and release a huge amount of energy. This causes a blast wave that
ejects the stars material into interstellar space:

The common metalsiron and nickel for exampleand the rock-

forming elements magnesium and silicon owe their origins to the
supernova. The presence of supernovas in other Galaxies implies
that these materials are present also in other Galaxies just as they

470

210003_401_C23.indd 470 7/26/08 11:00:31 AM

 are in our own. The chemistry of the elements will be 471
much the same everywhere throughout the Universe.
Of special importance, planets will have similar com- Chapter 23
positions everywhere. Particularly, there will always be Secret of
small rock and iron planets like the Earth in the inside Spiritual
regions of all planetary systems. (Hoyle, 1960) Awareness

QUANTUM PHYSICS AND NATURE

Einsteins principle of relativity postulates that wherever

you are in the Universe, the same mathematical equations
will sufce to describe your observations. More recently,
quantum physics has been popularized as a means to nd
our intrinsic link to nature. Contemporary quantum phys-
ics suggests that the entire universe is a dynamic play of
particles being created and destroyed constantly. Nature
isnt static; there is no end to the motion of its particles.
But even the natural play of sub-atomic particles colliding
with each other follows a basic order. All matter is made
up of three basic particles: proton, neutron, and electron.
The photon is a particle without any massit constitutes
the electromagnetic radiation, or light. All matter is involved
in the ceaseless creation and destruction of a chaotic, yet
ordered, universe. Religions ask, Who ordered the uni-
verse?; scientists want to know, How is order an intrin-
sic aspect of the universe?; and mystics seek to
experience the order of the universe. James Jeans, an
early-twentieth-century mathematician, who won honorary
doctorates from universities such as Oxford, Manchester,
Benares, Aberdeen, Johns Hopkins, St Andrews, Dublin,
and Calcutta, writes:

Each individual brain cell cannot be acquainted

with all the thoughts which are passing through the
brain . . . Creations of an individual mind may reasonably
be called less substantial than creations of a Universal
Mind. A similar distinction must be made between the
space we see in a dream and the space of everyday life.
The latter, which is the same for us all, is the space of
the Universal Mind. It is the same with time, the time

210003_401_C23.indd 471 7/26/08 11:00:33 AM

 472 of waking life, which ows at the same even rate for
us all, being the time of the Universal Mind. Again we
No Mind may think of the laws to which phenomena conform
401
in our waking hours, the laws of nature, as the laws
The Secrets of thought of a Universal Mind. The uniformity of na-
of No Mind ture proclaims the self-consistency of the mind. (Jeans,
1976)

Many have described the Universal Mind as the in-

trinsic order of the universe; it is the essence of nature
experienced as spiritual awareness. This concept of
essence is captured by the word prana in yogic philoso-
phy and Chi in Chinese philosophy, which stand for the
natural energy of the universe. Swami Panchadasi
describes the substance of the human aura as the
Sanskrit prana, or Vital Essence. Understood as the
Principle of Energy in nature present in all life forms,
prana is not a material substance but an ethereal essence
underlying the substance of energy, or force, in nature.
The prana-aura is:

... lled with a multitude of extremely minute sparkling

particles, resembling tiny electric sparks, which are
in constant motion. Perception of the aura is a mat-
ter of trained ordinary sightnot clairvoyant vision ...
Its presence indicates lifeits absence is lifelessness.
(Panchadasi, 1912)

Recently, sub-atomic particle physicists have seen

the auras of the universe in vacuum chambers (cham-
bers where all particles have been theoretically removed
but still exist in constant motion and emerge from noth-
ingness). It is said in ancient Chinese philosophy that the
Tao is the endless ow of energy, which creates and de-
stroys the natural world. Life and matter are the manifes-
tations of the ow we perceive with our limited perceptual
system. The masters knew thousands of years ago what
quantum physicists are discovering nowthat the uni-
verse is engaged in a cosmic play where everything is
interconnected, including the observer of the universe.
The physicists know that observing the universe is not a

210003_401_C23.indd 472 7/26/08 11:00:34 AM

 passive act (as it was once understood), but an interde- 473
pendent, dynamic act, where the observer affects the
Chapter 23
observed.
The oneness experienced in No Mind is the insight Secret of
into what the ancients called spiritual awareness. But Spiritual
Awareness
they knew that liberated pure awareness and spiritual
awareness were relatively the same thing, only two as-
pects of one reality. It cannot be broken down into indi-
vidual parts, events, or things; it is the cosmic ow of
nature. Its material manifestations are just condensed
forms of spiritual awareness. So even as matter is mani-
fested by the assembling of subatomic particles, the under-
lying essence of the particles is still spiritual awareness. All
things, including humans, contain spiritual awareness.

SPIRIT AND SPIRITUAL AWARENESS

The ancient practice of Hinduism dating back to 3000 BC
and brought to India by the Aryan nomads originated the
ancient scriptures known as the vedas. An essential part
of the teaching is the belief that a [person] can by
personal effort and use of inner knowledge attain
union with an Ultimate, indescribable reality. The true
self unites with this Ultimate Reality. Though seemingly
apart, they are, in actuality, one and the same substance.
(Ross, 1966)

This is the core of Eastern philosophy, Christian mysti-

cism, Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), and Susm (Islamic
mysticism). We are not parts of the whole, but the whole
itself. We are not independent parts caught in the ow of
nature, but the boundless nature itself. The esh and bones
of the body are just that, esh and bones. When we realize
and experience this reality, there is no turning back and
forgetting. It will change our perception of ourselves dra-
matically, so that any enlightened person can see it in our
eyes and know that we have passed through the gate and
experienced spiritual awareness. French Existentialist
philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre describes the liberated
awareness as a transcendental eld:

210003_401_C23.indd 473 6/6/08 3:39:20 PM

 474 The transcendental eld, puried of all ego-logical
structure, recovers its primary transparency. In a sense,
No Mind it is a nothing, since all physical, psycho-physical, and
401
psychic objects, all truths, all values are outside it;
The Secrets since my me has itself ceased to be any part of it. But
of No Mind this nothing is all since it is consciousness of all these
objects ... we must bear in mind that from this point of
view my emotions and states, my ego itself, cease to be
my exclusive property. (Sartre, 1957)

There are many ways to depict this experience, yet

all roads lead to the same source. The ego Sartre de-
scribes is the Iill, and when it no longer dominates aware-
ness, the transparency of the Iill can be seen and
spiritual awareness is remembered, just as water remem-
bers its wetness. The conscious aspect of No Mind is
aware of the whole of the fabric; whereas the unconscious
aspect of No Mind is the fabric unaware of itself; they are
both the same parts of one reality, only one is more ne
and subtle than the other. When you have realized spirit-
ual awareness, spiritual awareness becomes aware of it-
self. According to Robert Humes 1921 classic The Thirteen
Principal Upanishads: Translated from the Sanskrit:

It is the very consciousness of this and of I which is

the limitation that separates one from the unlimited ...
As the owing rivers in the ocean disappear, quitting
name and form (individuality), so the knower, being
liberated from name and form, goes unto the Heavenly
person, Higher than the High. (Hume, 1921)

The Iill can only perceive a conceptualized fragment of

reality, due to its mental web of conditioning, learning, re-
inforcement, ltering, defense, associative, and categorical
mechanisms. The mind only understands the ultimate re-
ality as a beloved conceptual image of what it thinks that
reality is. This is how the brain functions, and we always
see reality in terms of our mental webs interpretation.
Spiritual awareness grasps what really is there, without
the need to analyze it in terms of what you think might be
there. This is seeing into spiritual awarenessthe essence

210003_401_C23.indd 474 6/6/08 3:39:20 PM

 of nature. It is said that the mind that returns to the source 475
becomes the source, or the universe, itself. This is the secret
Chapter 23
of No Mind. Confusion, fear of death, doubt, anxiety, and
worry vanish as you realize that there is one universe and Secret of
you are the universe. There is nothing to fear, nowhere to Spiritual
Awareness
go, and everything is done. In the classic The Synthesis of
Yoga, Aurobindo writes:

Our supreme Self and the Supreme Existence which

has become the Universe, are One Spirit, One Self and
One Existence. The individual is in nature one expres-
sion of the Universal Being. For if he nds his Self, he
nds too that his own True Self is not this natural per-
sonality, this created individuality, but is a Universal
Being, in its relations with others, with Nature, and
in its upward term, a portion or the living front of a
Supreme Transcendental Spirit. (Ghose, 1955)

DISSOLVING THE BORDERS OF THE IiLL

The ancient yogic texts are lled with references to the

Supreme existence, Universal Being, or Supreme Tran-
scendental Spirit; in Zen texts, these are subsumed under
the concept of the Self-nature (what No Mind refers to as
spiritual awareness). Our essential link with the universe
is rediscovered through the experience of spiritual aware-
ness. The purpose of the meditative arts is to experience
spiritual awareness through enlightenment. When we
realize this, we can live in joy and humor, and nothing
can change the reality of this realization.
The enlightened see the present moment as the only
time in existence and they live through that moment in
time as if it is the only moment. They know death as los-
ing nothing and gaining nothing, there is no passage or
gate to go through, for they are already there! They are
the substance of the universe, they are the substance of a
blade of grass and they are the substance of the stars mil-
lions of light years away. There is no place where you can
nd them, yet there is no place where they can hide. They
live in a dynamic reality (not xated on the Iills reality)

210003_401_C23.indd 475 6/6/08 3:39:21 PM

 476 interconnected with the stream of the universe and the
ow of nature. Yet when you look at them, they appear
No Mind
401 as ordinary people, only they experience the essence of
nature and they know the key to the mental web of soci-
The Secrets ety. They do what they need to do with good performance
of No Mind
and have no regret or worry about it. There is also a pro-
found level of compassion for the environment, as well as for
other people. These are the characteristics of the enlightened
person (see Figure 26-1). W. G. Roll, professor of Psychical
Research and Psychology at the State University of West
Georgia and 2002 recipient of the Dinsdale Memorial Award
by the Society for Scientic Investigation, writes:

If the borders between self and environment can be

made to disappear, this is likely to have profound effects
on [peoples] attitude to [their] environment, both social
and physical. If the Self is experienced as actually em-
bracing other people, Self-consciousness becomes social
consciousness. Race and generation gaps and the other
divisions which keep people apart and in angry confron-
tations cannot then be easily sustained. So also with the
physical environment: pollution and other acts defacing
nature will be more difcult to commit if they are seen,
literally, as acts of self-destruction. (Roll, 1972)

Albin R. Gilbert, the Harvard Enlightenment guru

similarly describes the enlightened individual as one who
constantly thinks of the absolute during daily activities in
the form of passive concentration:

By practicing this mode of egoless living, the experi-

ment acquires over time a sense of being enfolded and
guided by the transpersonal absolute ... to him life will
be a string of actions, each integrated with a sense of
spirituality. (Gilbert, 1978)

THE ANCIENT SECRET OF NO MIND

Taoism is best translated as the way of nature. Taoist phi-

losophy inuenced the development of Zen to a great
extent. In the ancient The Way of Life, Lao Tzu describes
the life of the enlightened person:

210003_401_C23.indd 476 6/6/08 3:39:21 PM

 The wise man does what he has to do for everything 477
and everybody. But remains independent of them all.
Long living alone with nature, they knew nature and Chapter 23
knew its way ... Their solution came with protracted Secret of
observation of the world of nature and their conclu- Spiritual
sion was that the way of nature is the Ultimate Reality Awareness
that gives birth to all things and regulates them. The
way of nature is the Universe of Being, with this dif-
ference. It is process and not static. The way is not a
path which nature might take but is the movement of
nature itself; it is an effortless movement. But nonethe-
less a movement, like the annual rhythm of the season.
(Tzu, 1955)

Chuang Tzu was an inuential Chinese philosopher

around the fourth century BCE, who further developed
the mystical Taoist teachings of Lao Tzu. He expressed
the simple thought of Being:

To think that beings with bodies can all go on existing

along with that which is bodiless and formless. It
can never happen! A mans stops and starts, his life
and death, his rise and falls. None of these can he
do anything about. Yet he thinks that the mastery
of them lies with man! Forget things, forget Heaven,
and be called a forgetter of Self. The man who has
forgotten Self may be said to have entered Heaven.
(Tzu, 1968)

Chuang Tzus Self is what we call the Iill in No Mind.

When one forgets the Iill, he enters spiritual awareness
and is in harmony with nature. Chuang Tzus concept of
heaven is not the Judeo-Christian paradise awaiting our
arrival upon death. The heaven of Chinese philosophy is
the placeless essence of nature, which is everywhere
and nowhere simultaneously. It is the fundamental as-
pect of the universe, which can be experienced through
No Mind. In The Highest State of Consciousness, John
White states:

All are agreed in calling the highest state of conscious-

ness a Self-Transforming perception of ones total union
with the Innite. Ones socially conditioned sense of

210003_401_C23.indd 477 6/6/08 3:39:21 PM

 478 me is shattered and swept away by a new denition
of the Self, the I. That denition of Self equals all man-
No Mind kind, all life and the universe. The usual ego bounda-
401
ries break down, as the ego passes beyond the limits of
The Secrets the body and suddenly becomes one with all that was
of No Mind Being. (White, 1972)

The ancient Hebrew book of mysticism, the Kabbalah,

speaks of a negative existence underlying all positive
existence (Luzzatto, 1970). Negative existence bears
hidden in itself positive life. In other words, the tree is
hidden in a condition of potential existence in the seed,
but it does not need to be dened or identied in order
to exist in potential. That is, it is negatively existent.
Nothingness contains and nurtures Being. Positive
existence has a beginning and an end, while negative
existence is latent in the potential of the emptiness that
is lled with positive existence. Without the concealed
negative, positive existence is unstable (Golzalez-Wippler,
1977).

The ancient wisdom, the Sacred books, taught that

we cannot understand Matter without understand-
ing Spirit, that we cannot understand Spirit without
understanding Matter, that Matter and Spirit are only
opposite poles of the same Universal Substance. (Mathers,
1968)

CONSCIOUS STATES OF SPIRITUAL AWARENESS

No Mind has unconscious and conscious aspects, but these

two states of consciousness should never be understood
as two distinct states of awareness. Their source is the
samespiritual awareness, and the only difference is
that the unconscious aspect is ner or subtler than the
conscious one. The unconscious state of No Mind can be
compared to putting on a pair of sunglasses; at rst, you
feel the touch of the glasses on the skin, but after a while,
the sensation fades from awareness and you no longer
feel the glasses at all, youve lost awareness of them. With
a side-glance at the frame, you again become aware of

210003_401_C23.indd 478 6/6/08 3:39:21 PM

 the glasses on your face. There is a subtle shift that trig- 479
gers conscious and unconscious awareness of the glasses
Chapter 23
on your face. Similarly, the unconscious aspect of No Mind
is the loss of awareness of the mind-body in relation to Secret of
spiritual awareness; spiritual awareness is all that exists. Spiritual
Awareness
But with a simple shift of perspective, as in the case with
the glasses, you can become aware of the mind-body state
from the conscious aspect of No Mind. The difference in
the unconscious aspect of No Mind is that you are no
longer aware that you are aware, there is just pure aware-
ness. This deep absorption state of No Mind is the mystical
experience of Oneness. In the unconscious state, all that
exists is spiritual awareness or the ultimate reality of the
universe. In that moment, you exist as the universe,
pulsing with the stream of nature and open to the ow of
intuition. This joyful moment has profound and enduring
effects.
In the conscious state of No Mind, we are aware of
spiritual awareness while being detached from the mind-
body dynamic. This state does not originate in the mental
web of Iill (see Chapter 15, The Discovery of the Sequence
of the Stones). In No Mind, the Iill is like the glasses on
the face; it is there, but no longer in awareness. Still, you
can shift the awareness back to the Iill and make it reap-
pear at any time. Awareness remains detached. As we go
through our daily activities, we usually forget our aware-
ness and act mindlessly. In No Mind, we practice main-
taining awareness and not surrendering it back to the Iill,
so we remain mindful. Thus, we train awareness to avoid
being forgotten until it remembers its origins: that aware-
ness is the only universal constant.
So the conscious state of No Mind remembers its
source, spiritual awareness, yet it remains aware of the
mind-body dynamic. The unconscious state, on the other
hand, forgets the mind-body dynamic in the total absorp-
tion of spiritual awareness. Conscious and unconscious
states of spiritual awareness are not separate; they sim-
ply lay on a continuum of density and subtlety. The an-
cient sage says, The Heaven, the Earth, and I, share the
same root. All things and I are all but of One Body. In The

210003_401_C23.indd 479 6/6/08 3:39:21 PM

 480 Well and the Cathedral, Ira Progoff, a psychotherapist who
studied with Jung and Suzuki, writes that the expansion
No Mind
401 of consciousness is like the unconscious aspect of spirit-
ual awareness:
The Secrets
of No Mind It expresses the profound paradox that the more we
move inward into our privacy and individuality, the
more we become connected to the wholeness and rich-
ness of the Universe. At its deeper levels we experience
an expansion of consciousness that enables us to feel
we are not limited to being only ourselves. (Progoff,
1977)

ENLIGHTENMENT AND SPIRITUAL AWARENESS

This basic premise of enlightenment and the remem-

bering of spiritual awareness is reiterated in literature
dating as far back as 3000 BCE and as late as today. Pur-
suing enlightenment is a primordial instinct that dwells
deep within our psyche and propels our craving to attain
interconnectedness in order to be whole again. We need
to practice and strengthen this interconnectedness to at-
tain No Mind. There is no merging between individual
and spiritual awareness, as some assume, as they are one
and the same. The awareness is simply freed from the
confusion of the Iill.
There is nothing mystical, esoteric, or magical about
the ultimate reality experienced via direct insight. We
may have the intellectual understanding that the universe
is an interconnected fabric, and that we are threads in
that fabric. But the Iill experiences itselfthrough its
own illusionnot only as a thread, but also divided as a
completely separate piece of fabric. Then it paints the
illusion of its own identities: designer fabric, plain fabric,
plaid fabric, paisley fabric, bright-colored fabric, soft-
colored fabric, striped fabric, polka-dotted fabric, and so
on; but it never recognizes that it is just the universal
fabric without any identity. We can intellectually grasp
the whole fabric metaphor, but what is more difcult is
that we are not only the fabric, we are also not the fabric.

210003_401_C23.indd 480 6/6/08 3:39:22 PM

 That is, we are also the source of the fabric, the empti- 481
ness that is all things. The fabric exists as the positive po-
Chapter 23
tential of the negative aspect of the universe. Like the
seed and the tree, the nothingness or emptiness of the Secret of
universe is really the negative aspect from which the pos- Spiritual
Awareness
itive potential of the fabric is created. So remember that
Nothingness is positive life in potential and that spiritual
awareness is both aspects.

THE NON-DUALISTIC PARADOX

Remember our previous discussion of the limitations of

linguistic identities based on dichotomies. Dualistic real-
ity is full of identities; non-dualistic reality is void of iden-
tity, as it cannot be described by identity-based language.
If we say we are something, then in the same sentence,
we also mean that we are not nothing. When we de-
scribe one thing we simultaneously describe its opposites;
they co-arise. So taking the example of colors, if we say
something is red, we have also said that it is not blue or
yellow; then, it is also not the secondary colorsorange,
green, and so onand, also, it is not the tertiary colors,
such as brown, sea-green, fuchsia, and so on. It is difcult
to describe spiritual awareness as one thing or another,
as it must be all things and yet nothing, both negative
and positive aspects of potential. Spiritual awareness is
the void and the manifestations of nature, both matter
and non-matter, positive potential in negative. It must be
both essence and organic and non-organic matter. It is
the ow of nature and that from which nature is mani-
fested. It cannot be identied, as that would apply dualis-
tic thought to something without identity. This paradox
of being everything and nothing simultaneously is under-
stood only through direct experience.
In quantum physics, the unication of opposites oc-
curs at the subatomic level. In The Tao of Physics, Fritjof
Capra says, particles are both destructible and inde-
structible; matter is both continuous and discontinuous,
and force and matter are but different aspects of the same

210003_401_C23.indd 481 6/6/08 3:39:22 PM

 482 phenomenon ... classical concepts are transcended by
going to a higher dimension, the four-dimensional space-
No Mind
401 time ... where objects are also processes and all forms are
dynamic patterns (Capra, 1976).
The Secrets So if we seek spiritual awareness as a goal, we must
of No Mind
also understand it as a process and as a pattern. Seeking
must accompany non-seeking and action must accompany
non-action; we seek without expecting and we act without
trying. This is the only way in which we remain balanced
and in the ow of nature and outside of identity. From
the perspective of a two-dimensional map, the world was
once believed to be at; from the perspective of a three-
dimensional globe, the world became known as round.
Time adds the relativity of the speed of light and the posi-
tion of the observer in the Universe; hence, it adds another
dimension to reality. Light needs time to travel; therefore,
the occurrence of an event and the perception of that
event do not necessarily happen at the same time to the
observer. Our perceptual mechanisms can perceive three
dimensions, but to experience the four-dimensional
reality of space-time, we need to perceive without the
senses. We grasp this ultimate reality only through intui-
tive knowledge.
We see the Sun as it was eight minutes ago (the time
it takes for light to travel to the Earth). The Solar System
exists in a four-dimensional space-time continuum. De-
pending on where you are in the Universe, events are not
occurring at the time you perceive them. It could be a
million years later. If the Sun exploded, we would not
know it for eight minutes. Nothing in the universe is ab-
solute. Space and time are interconnected and cannot be
regarded separately, as we normally do. Space-time be-
comes a unied concept that cannot be understood from
the perspective of the Iill, which exists in the past or fu-
ture. The present moment transcends time and offers a
glimpse into spiritual awareness, yet spiritual awareness
is not subject to space and time. You cannot locate
it anywhere, because it is everywhere; it didnt exist in
the past, nor will it exist in the future, because these are

210003_401_C23.indd 482 7/26/08 11:00:34 AM

 relative states and spiritual awareness is not relative. It is 483
only to be found now. Physicists see subatomic particles
Chapter 23
emerge from the emptiness:
Secret of
Space looks empty only because this great creation and Spiritual
destruction of all the quanta takes place over such short Awareness
times and distances ... Everything that ever existed or
can exist is already potentially there in the nothingness
of space ... a quantum could, in principle, come into
existence in empty space and then quickly disappear.
Such a quantum that goes in and then out of reality is
called a virtual quantum. (Pagels, 1982)

210003_401_C23.indd 483 6/6/08 3:39:22 PM

 484

No Mind CHAPTER 23 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER

401 BEFORE CONTINUING

The Secrets 1. Contemporary quantum physics suggests that the

of No Mind entire universe is a dynamic play of particles
being created and destroyed constantly. Nature
isnt static; there is no end to the motion of its
particles. But even the natural play of sub-
atomic particles colliding with each other follows
a basic order.
2. The masters knew thousands of years ago what the
quantum physicists are discovering nowthat the
universe is engaged in a cosmic play where every-
thing is interconnected, including the observer of
the universe.
3. The oneness experienced in No Mind is the in-
sight into what the ancients called spiritual aware-
ness. But as they always knew, liberated pure
awareness and spiritual awareness are relatively
the same thing, only two aspects of one reality. It
cannot be broken down into individual parts,
events, or things; it is the cosmic ow of nature.
Its material manifestations are just condensed
forms of spiritual awareness.
4. It is said that the mind that returns to the source
becomes the source, or the universe itself. This is
the secret of No Mind. Confusion, fear of death,
doubt, anxiety, and worry vanish as you realize
that there is one universe and that you are the
universe. There is nothing to fear, nowhere to go,
and everything is done.
5. Negative existence bears hidden in itself positive
life. In other words, the tree is hidden in a condi-
tion of potential existence in the seed, but it does
not need to be dened or identied in order to
exist in potential. That is, it is negatively existent.

210003_401_C23.indd 484 6/6/08 3:39:23 PM

 485
Nothingness contains and nurtures Being. The Chapter 23
tree is hidden in the seed; its potential existence
rests there without the need to be identied. Secret of
Spiritual
6. The conscious state of No Mind remembers its Awareness
source, spiritual awareness, yet it remains aware
of the mind-body dynamic. The unconscious
state, on the other hand, forgets the mind-body
dynamic in the total absorption of spiritual aware-
ness. Conscious and unconscious states of spirit-
ual awareness are not separate; they simply lay
on a continuum of density and subtlety.
7. There is no merging between individual and spir-
itual awareness, as some assume, as they are one
and the same. The awareness is simply freed from
the confusion of the Iill and we remember our
wetness.
8. To attain spiritual awareness as a goal, we must
also understand it as a process and as a pattern.
Seeking must accompany non-seeking and action
must accompany non-action; we seek without ex-
pecting and we act without trying. This is the only
way in which we remain balanced in the ow of
nature and outside of identity.

210003_401_C23.indd 485 6/6/08 3:39:25 PM

 Mysticism is the direct experience of the ultimate reality.
Depending on your system of philosophy or belief, you
might conceive of this as god x (whatever higher being
you believe in), natures cosmic soul, the Tao, or a supreme
being. The mystics have connected to the ultimate reality
through awareness, and the training of awareness has
been essential to them. The ancient masters talked about
the universe metaphorically as being an innite ocean
everywhere and everything is in the ocean. There is nothing
that is not wet. But we lose sense of our wetness when we
develop egos and conceive of ourselves as separate from the
ocean. This separation is an illusion, for the entire universe
is lled with water and nothing is left in the dry. And so,
in mysticism, we re-discover our wetness by expanding
our awareness beyond the connes of our present reality.
The practice of No Mind expands awareness, so that you
may experience your wetness again, as you did naturally
when you were born.

Chapter 24 explores mysticism from several perspectives

and discusses how the practice of No Mind provides yet
another path to the mystical experience.

210003_401_C24.indd 486 6/6/08 3:41:16 PM

 Chapter 24

Secret of Mysticism

E astern and Judeo-Christian mystics have sought a state of God,

as opposed to god x itself, for thousands of years. In Judeo-
Christianity, the existence of a God is fundamental to the practice of
religion, and God is typically worshiped as a being that is out there,
or up there in Heaven. The perception of the relationship between
God and the worshipper is dualistic, involving two separate entities.
It seems that God is always out there somewhere and not in here.
And even when we admit that God is inside of us all, we still look
outside of ourselves to discover God. On nal Judgment Day the soul
is said to be united with God, but in the meantime it is just hanging
out somewhere. The question is, Where?
The problem in such doctrines is that god x (whatever higher
being you believe in) and the worshipper cannot really exist sepa-
rately; if we are the offshoot of a Holy Spirit and Body, there must
be an aspect of god x in every worshipper. We are not computer-
ized machines with an independent existence; we are alive and
share a living essence with our source; the source from which we
487

210003_401_C24.indd 487 6/6/08 3:41:19 PM

 488 draw our energy. Nature is a reection of the ultimate
reality, and god x is present in all life forms, matter, and
No Mind
401 nothingness. Ancient mystics and modern quantum
physicists equally uphold the dynamic interconnected-
The Secrets ness of life and matter. The essence of nature is every-
of No Mind
where and nowhere simultaneously, so god x can never
be separate from you.
In fact, most religious traditions account for this par-
adox to some extent. According to Judeo-Christianity, an
omnipresent God sustains and penetrates every aspect of
life, and the majority of believers agree that God is in the
mind-body; God in the tree; God in the dog; God in the
bird; God in the cockroach, and so on; an eternal God
must be in all life for the life to continue indenitely. But
the difference between religious dualistic worship and
spiritual non-dualistic worship is that the former still
emphasizes two separate entities, while the latter as-
sumes only one. In mysticism, there is no you and god x,
there is just the one ultimate reality. The soul is not a
separate unit, but an interdependent aspect of the univer-
sal soul, or god x, or Tao. Some believe that the soul is an
aspect of the mind, but if the mind expires when the brain
dies, then we are left with a mindless soul, or at least a
soul without an Iill. In this case, the soul is merely en-
ergy, or a condensation of the greater energy of the uni-
versal soul or god x. This is the difference between being
self-aware and pure awareness. In pure awareness, you
are in the consciousness of naturewithin natures cos-
mic soul; within god-consciousness.

EXPERIENCING THE ULTIMATE REALITY

All spiritual experiences described by people account for

a moment of awareness of the spiritual experience.
They all share an awareness of a god x, or nature, as the
unifying principle of the universe. The ancient masters
knew that awareness is the only universal constant. This
ultimate reality can be experienced through pure aware-
ness onlywithout the Iill. This is called the journey of
spiritual awareness, as illustrated in the Discovery of the

210003_401_C24.indd 488 6/6/08 3:41:20 PM

 Sequence of the Stones in Chapter 15. James Redeld, 489
author of The Celestine Prophecy and The Celestine Vision,
Chapter 24
describes this new awareness as a series of revelations:
Secret of
Living the new spiritual awareness is a matter of pass- Mysticism
ing through a series of steps or revelations. Each step
broadens our perspective. But each step also presents
its own challenges. It is not enough to merely glimpse
each level of expanded awareness. We must intend to
live it, to integrate each increased degree of awareness
into our daily routine. (Redeld, 1997)

The condensed form of universal awareness is how

god x, or nature, becomes aware of itself through hu-
mans. Yet, it is not self awareness; it is pure awareness
that can be experienced in many ways, including the
practice of No Mind. In Chapter 22, spiritual awareness,
or what the ancients called the Self-nature, was described
as the source of all things and as the essential emptiness
that permeates all matter in the universe. No Mind is an
element of spiritual awareness, not different but a less
subtle aspect of the same reality. It is the direct experi-
ence of the One, of the Tao, of god x, or of whatever you
call the ultimate truth. This direct experience is the
core of mysticism. Dr. Ira Progoff reviews the works of
Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, and Otto Rank,
all of whom talk of a larger reality where mans psycho-
logical nature transcends itself:

Beginning with Freuds analysis of the repressed per-

sonal material, the study of the unconscious steadily
deepened as Adler, Jung and then Rank penetrated
the historical levels of the psyche. Their psychological
investigations led them to a realization of the funda-
mentally spiritual nature of [humankind] and this in-
troduces a new dimension to their work. This led to the
foundation of which Depth Psychology is developed ...
in harmony with [humankinds] deeper needs and nature
of the human being. (Progoff, 1956)

Mystical states of immediate union with god x char-

acterize every religion, including Christianity, Judaism,
Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Islam, and Yoga. Even the

210003_401_C24.indd 489 6/6/08 3:41:20 PM

 490 Mayans and the North-American Indians talked about an
exalted state of Oneness with the ultimate reality, or with
No Mind
401 the essential substance of nature. In Eastern philoso-
phies, the immersion into universal oneness by purifying
The Secrets awareness is the goal of enlightenment. Many Christian
of No Mind
mystics understood that intuition provided a vision of
eternity. The ancient Judaic Kabbalah outlines the path
to enlightenment through the even older texts of the
Torah. The Koran of Islam discusses a series of mystics
who achieved union with the Sole One.
The ultimate reality is experienced via pure aware-
ness. In this receptive level of consciousness, the reality
of spiritual awareness is revealed, but not to the I or to
the individual soul. The essential aspect of nature does
not need to discover itself any more than water needs to
make itself wet. But when awareness is pure of the Iill, it
remembers its essence. This is not a religious goal as
much as it is experiencing the spiritual awareness as-
pect of your religion. And while we are mainly concer-
ned with the psychological benets of the practice of
No Mind, the discussion would be incomplete without
addressing its mystical elements. No Mind seeks health,
fullling life, and spirituality as a single unied nexus.
Psychology professor David Marks discusses the mystic
state of awareness:

In a review of Buddhist, Indian and Christian mysti-

cism, it is shown that the mystic unites with the One, in
which thinking, motives, actions and emotions are is-
sued from the One, which occurs at a Super-conscious
level. A Unitive perception arises in the initiate, in
which psychological normal functions undergo a com-
plete transformation. (Marks, 1972)

THERE IS NO I IN THE ULTIMATE REALITY

The Iill blocks the perception of the ultimate reality,

which might be another one of its clever defense mecha-
nisms. The Iill ghts the shift of awareness to remem-
bering what we experienced at birthpure awareness.

210003_401_C24.indd 490 6/6/08 3:41:20 PM

 The paradox of our nature is that while we all possess the 491
defense mechanisms necessary to guard the I, we si-
Chapter 24
multaneously long for the essential underlying aspect of
nature, of the universe itself. We need to feel connected Secret of
at some spiritual level; we long for something more. Mysticism
In the struggle to reach enlightenment and to merge
with the ultimate reality, the I must be abandoned or de-
tached from consciousness. The empty conscious No Mind
thus transcends to an unconscious No Mind, where the I
is forgotten in a totally absorbed state of pure aware-
ness. Here, spiritual awareness is all that exists. The total
absorption into both Being and Nothingness simultan-
eously is fundamental to mysticism, as it re-establishes
our link with nature.
The direct perception of the ultimate reality does not
involve the I. Statements such as I dont experience the
One, or I am part of the One, or I am the One do not
reect the true mystic experience. It is why the masters did
not speak when asked about the ultimate nature of real-
ity, or they used obscure riddles (Zen koans) to demon-
strate that as long as the student needs to ask, then he
needs to continue practicing. Any reference to the I
would split the ultimate reality into subject and object,
producing a dualistic, nite interpretation out of a non-
dualistic, innite reality. There is no I, there is only
enlightenment that cannot be named. Otherwise, the ego
would mistakenly identify with the ultimate reality, risk-
ing psychological delusions of supremacy. The masters
have warned repeatedly against the danger of the I con-
fusing itself with an interpreted experience, as opposed
to grasping the actual experience itself. The actual ex-
perience shatters the I altogether in the moment of re-
alization, and although it takes practice to maintain that
state, the person has broken through the veil of illusion.

ACTUAL VERSUS PSEUDO-ENLIGHTENMENT

It is important to distinguish actual from pseudo-

enlightenment, where the individual may have imagined
or hallucinated the desired state. The guidance of a master

210003_401_C24.indd 491 6/6/08 3:41:20 PM

 492 mitigates such risks, but the lone practitioner must be
keenly aware of any remnants of the I. If one claims
No Mind
401 any such experiences as his own, involving the ego in any
way, then the experience is a projection of the mind. In
The Secrets other words, the statement, I am one with nature is
of No Mind
absurd, as there is no I, just oneness. Simple: there just
is the essence of nature. The I must be abandoned and
the idea of an everlasting soul with an Iill must be re-
placed by an everlasting soul without an Iill. LeDoux
makes this point in Synaptic Self, How Our Brains Become
Who We Are:

If the soul is indeed physical in nature, part of the di-

lemma about how to sustain a belief in both physics
and God would be solved (the part about how the soul
meshes with the body). However, the thoroughly mod-
ern theologians would still be in a bit of a quantum
pickle. If the soul is equivalent to the mind, and the
mind depends on the functioning of the brain, how can
God interact with people without physically affecting
their neurons and, thus, intervening? (LeDoux, 2003)

If the soul is physical, then it would die with the death

of mind and brain. But the ultimate reality of the uni-
verse cannot be physical; otherwise, the universe would
not be able to re-create itself from nothingness after all
Things have vanished into a black hole. And yet the uni-
verse possesses the ability to recreate itself. If this essen-
tial substance is indeed the soul of the universe, then it is
the soul of us all. And it is without an Iill. If the soul is
beyond the mind, it is also beyond the Iillan Iill-less
soul. A non-dualistic soul would be the whole and not a
fragment of the whole; or if you prefer to think of the soul
as separate, then at least recognize that the whole sus-
tains it. It is part of the fabric of the universe. Our cling-
ing to the I gives the soul the illusion of a separate
existence. When the I is removed, the soul is the ulti-
mate reality and the ultimate reality is the soul. In this
quantum awareness of nature, or god x, our spiritual con-
nection is experienced with the underlying religious or
non-religious belief of the person.

210003_401_C24.indd 492 6/6/08 3:41:21 PM

 GODS COSMIC THOUGHTS 493

Being comes from nothingness, and nothingness is an as- Chapter 24

pect of being, and being and nothingness occur simultane- Secret of
ously in the Now. In this very instant, time does not exist. Mysticism
There is no chronological path from being to nothingness
or from nothingness to being. They exist together in the
now and give rise to the objects of the universe. Our brains
project a dualistic reality, but the universe and the ow of
nature are holistic. If there is a thinking god x, his or her
thoughts must not be from a neurological brain with asso-
ciative patterns such as ours, since they must be based on a
universal language without identiers and labels. In this
cosmic thought, all things would exist at once in the moment,
and there is no need to distinguish anything. God x is not
subject to time, as an omnipresent god x exists everywhere
at once, across both space and time. Time is relative to the
observer and the speed of light, and god x is subject to nei-
ther. So god xs cosmic thoughts must be non-dualistic,
timeless, and without identity, similar to the mystics experi-
ence of the ultimate reality.
Prior to the object there is nothingness, and from
nothingness comes being of the object. So nothingness
and being are co-dependent and co-existent. They are not
each others opposite; they are two dynamic aspects of
the ultimate reality. All objects, including life forms, are
being in their form and nothingness in their essence. But
quantum physics asserts that nothingness is not nothing,
it contains all things. It only appears empty due to the
short life-span of the particles. In actuality, there is no
true emptiness. The cup, in reality, is full and empty at
the same time. And just like a cup is never half full, we
cannot talk of a reality that is half full and half empty
half is only relative to the cup. Without the cup as a con-
taining boundary, there is no denition possible. Without
boundaries, there are no dened entities; everything ex-
ists in terms of denser or ner forms of being and
nothingness.
Tao mystics know this ultimate reality as the name-
less. Being and nothingness are not dualistic concepts,

210003_401_C24.indd 493 7/26/08 11:13:38 AM

 494 like Heaven and Hell or good and evil. Nothingness does
not negate being, and being is not the absence of noth-
No Mind
401 ingness. Being is in potential of nothingness, and nothing-
ness is in potential of being. All dualistic identities must
The Secrets be discarded to see into emptiness directly. We must go
of No Mind
beyond our analytical brain to perceive this reality. We
must grow beyond ourselves and stop seeing everything
in terms of the I or of other I-created independent
entities.

THE ILLUSION OF FORMMAYA

In quantum reality, the multiplicity of objects is illusory.

They exist only as mind objects, as an interpretation of
meaning and identity in the mind. As long as we are
bound to the illusion of the multiplicity of objects, the
Iill exists. When the multiplicity is no longer experi-
enced as objects but as being, the direct experience
of nothingness is grasped as the ultimate reality. The an-
cient masters called the forms maya, or the illusion.
As long as we are attached to the multiplicity of forms,
we cannot experience the emptiness that manifests the
forms. This illusion comes from the attachment to the
idea that forms have some permanent, static, and un-
changing reality of their own. And this idea is the inter-
pretation of the Iill. When we experience the pure
awareness of No Mind, we realize our mistake. In the
awareness of No Mind, all forms are seen as essentially
Being which arises in Nothingness. We become aware
of their intrinsic nature, and although we see the forms,
we also see the nothingness of their being. We no longer
see them as independent and static forms of the Iill, but
as dynamically interconnected aspects of the ux of the
universe. The forms are impermanent, except for the
underlying reality of Being and Nothingness. In this
light, to see the forms as denser aspects of the under-
lying essential reality is enlightenment, and maya is said
to be cast away.

210003_401_C24.indd 494 6/6/08 3:41:21 PM

 When we pierce through the illusion of phenomena, 495
we simultaneously eliminate our separate identity and be-
Chapter 24
come the universe. There is spiritual awareness of our es-
sential religious belief, whatever it may be. In mysticism, Secret of
all roads lead to the same realitythe re-immersion into Mysticism
the stream of nature and into the ow of the cosmos, or
god x. To reiterate, everything in the universe is dynamic
and moving; nothing is static. All things vibrate with the
swirling subatomic particles oscillating unintentionally in
rhythm within the pulsing entirety of the cosmos. The
myriad forms of being are only denser vibrations of noth-
ingness. The essential aspect of being is in vibration with
the vibration of nothingness. In Human Energy Systems,
Jack Schwarz speaks of the para-conscious mind:

And what is the para-conscious mind? Like the other

parts of the mind, like the soul and the body, it is a
vibration. When it is functioning properly it operates at
the same vibrational level as the mind of the universe,
and it is through the para-conscious that we come into
contact with the universal mind. It brings us our con-
sciousness of the divine; through it, we experience as-
pects of the universal mind. We call these experiences
intuition, insight, and inspiration. At these awesome
moments, we glimpse the meaning and purpose of ex-
istence. So the para-conscious mind is very important
to us; in fact, all our actions should be directed by it.
Sadly enough, I have found that people rarely under-
stand the para-conscious mind. Without such an un-
derstanding, we can operate on only the conscious and
subconscious levels; very seldomonly by default, as it
werecan we operate at a para-conscious level. Most of
us function exactly that way. That is why we are in dis-
harmony. We are lopsided; we are using only two-thirds
of our minds. Because of our upbringing and educa-
tion, we have become rigid and dont even believe our
own para-conscious mind when it ashes information
to us. Even then, unless we subject such data to ration-
alization and analysis, we do not use the contributions
of the para-conscious mind at all. (Schwarz, 1980)

210003_401_C24.indd 495 6/6/08 3:41:21 PM

 496 WE ALL HAVE THE SEED OF GOD X
POTENTIALITY
No Mind
401
It is important to not mistakenly go too far and interpret
The Secrets the Ultimate Reality as an ultimate goal in absolute terms,
of No Mind as this throws us back into the vicious cycle of identity.
We identify with the goal and not with the path. If de-
scribed as only one, reality cannot be two or ten thou-
sand; and the ultimate reality is the ten thousand things,
the one, and the zero simultaneously. Things and events
exist, but they are interdependent, codependent, inter-
related, and do not have separate existences.
Many religions conceive of god x, or the ultimate re-
ality, as a supreme ruler who holds dominion over the
entire universe. If the ultimate reality is an absolute ruler,
then this ruler is not limited and nite in the forms which
derive their being from him or her. Most people see the
forms as separate from the ruler of the forms, which pre-
supposes intention behind their creation on the part of
the creator. In other words, the ruler must have the in-
tention to create the forms. But the universe needs no
intention to exist. Intention and desire are manifestations
of the Iill, which is biological in origin, and cosmic
thoughts must be independent of a neurological brain;
therefore, it is non-biological. If we know that we, as hu-
mans, can reach a level that is beyond thoughts, like the
mystics, then we must realize that thoughts would not be
an attribute of a superior being, or the ultimate reality
of the universe. With respect to enlightenment and the
ultimate reality, thoughts are lower-level neurological
processes.
The point here is that all extreme views of trying to
split the Ultimate Reality into parts boil down to dualism
and involve identity. Identity is the offshoot of our synap-
tic brain, a physical aspect of the associative network,
which seeks to make meaning of a non-physical reality.
In Western mysticism, (the Judeo-Christian) God is eve-
rywhere as a non-being sustaining the forms of Being;
thus God creates the world through non-being. But the
forms have an intrinsic, or latent, potentiality to return to

210003_401_C24.indd 496 6/6/08 3:41:22 PM

 the One, or to non-being. In other words, like a seed hold- 497
ing the tree potential, humans have the god x poten-
Chapter 24
tial to become aware of God; in essence, our awareness
constitutes seeds of the essential universal awareness, Secret of
or spiritual awareness. We can blossom into enlighten- Mysticism
ment and god-consciousness, and see into nothingness.

THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD

Most of us seek spiritual unity either through religion,
through philosophy, or through the ultimate union with
god-consciousness. We yearn for connection to some-
thing greater than ourselves. But as long as our aware-
ness is trapped in the Iill, spiritual union evades us. In
non-dualistic experience, both being and non-being
are realized as having the same reality. Neither is more
signicant than the other or the cause of the other; they
are each others seed, or potential. Being and non-being
exist simultaneously in everything. Non-being is in the
process of becoming, and being is latent in non-being.
They are not outside but contained within each other. Ac-
cording to the best-selling Tibetan Book of the Dead, which
was derived from old Buddhist manuscripts,

... The human form (but not the Divine Nature in man)
is a direct inheritance from the sub-human kingdoms;
from the lowest forms of life it has evolved, guided by
an ever-growing and ever-changing life-ux. Potentially
consciousness, which guratively may be called the
seed of the Life Force, connected with ... each sentient
creature, being in its essence psychical. As such, it is the
evolving principle, the principle of continuity, the princi-
ple capable of acquiring knowledge and understanding
of its own nature; the principle whose normal goal is En-
lightenment. As to the processes affecting the life-ux,
which the human eye cannot see. The esoteric teaching
coincides with that of the Ancient Greek and Egyptian
Mystics: As below, so above; which implies that there is
one harmonious karma law governing with unwaver-
ing and impartial justice, the visible as well as the invis-
ible operations of nature. (Evans-Wentz, 1957)

210003_401_C24.indd 497 7/26/08 11:13:39 AM

 498 NON-IDENTITY AND SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
No Mind In the act of nature, the process of becoming realizes it-
401
self through the consciousness of its forms. In other
The Secrets words, the essential aspect of nature becomes aware of
of No Mind itself through spiritual awareness experienced by human
beings. This is not self-awareness; it is a pure, unied
awareness. The essential emptiness (or nothingness of
nature) realizes itself through the process of being or be-
coming. Since nothingness (or non-being) is the poten-
tial of being (or forms), then being has the potential to
realize non-being through itself without the need to
look anywhere else. There is nowhere to look for the
ultimate reality; it is, as the ancient masters have said,
right under your own nose.
Each cells DNA contains the information of the whole
organism and how it developed; this is a fact of microbi-
ology. Similarly, every fragment of being can identify it-
self with the whole. While trapped in the Iill, awareness
is a fragment waiting to realize its spiritual form. When
a drop of water is removed from the ocean, held above
the water, and then dropped back, it is a fragment of the
original ocean as it falls. It only knows itself as the
fragmented drop during its life in the air above the water,
but as it merges with the ocean when it returns to its
origin, it loses its reality as a drop and now knows only
the ocean. As long as we have identity, we cannot grasp
spiritual awareness. When the grip of identity loosens,
we open and identify with spiritual awareness, or the
Ultimate Reality (or in the case of the dropthe ocean).
This is a non-dualistic, non-absolute, relative identity
that co-arises codependently and simultaneously with
other identities. In other words, it is not really an identity;
we only use our limited language to describe this experi-
ence. Absolute or essential identity is an illusionan
abstract idea that the Iill projects onto the forms of life
and matter, so that it can understand and interpret real-
ity in terms of independent entities, as it sees itself also.
It may imagine a non-dualistic reality, but it cannot
experience it and therefore remains fragmented and

210003_401_C24.indd 498 6/6/08 3:41:22 PM

 separate from its source. In other words, the drop can 499
imagine being merged with the ocean as long as it is
Chapter 24
separated from the ocean, but it is not until the drop ex-
periences the ocean that it grasps that is it the ocean Secret of
and not a drop. In reality, there is nowhere where we can Mysticism
be above the ocean, as we are immersed in the ocean
throughout the universe; there is no escape from it. But
our mind, through the Iill, creates the illusion that we are
above or separate from the ocean, and we lose our essen-
tial wetness.
If the individual Iill tries to interpret the meaning of a
non-dualistic reality, it will fail. Essential identity frag-
ments the universe into pieces and remains blind to the
whole. In religion, we typically refer to everything in
terms of ourselves; everything is performed in relation to
the I. For instance, I pray, I worship, I feel god x,
and so on. We need to develop a universal grammar to
communicate the mystical experience of the universe.
Thus, we can say that there is experience of the One, or
that there is praying as a reciprocal process of worship.
Praying is god x becoming aware of itself through the
prayer without intention or desire.

THE IiLL CANNOT UNDERSTAND GOD

As long as we see the One, god x, or the Ultimate Real-

ity in terms of ourselves, it is impossible to experience
real spiritual awareness. There cannot be any unifying
point of reference, especially in religious beliefs, between
all the different values of Is. If the One is the Many,
then the Many can experience the One because they share
the same source. All cultures and almost all religions
practice some form of mysticism, but the secrets of that
practice are hushed and hidden because a possible sin-
ful confusion may occur: the relative I could identify
with the One, causing a host of mental disorders. Subse-
quently, forms of mysticism discussed in key ancient texts
have been banished from many mainstream religious
doctrines. The threat is the possible confusion of the Iill

210003_401_C24.indd 499 6/6/08 3:41:22 PM

 500 and god x. Ignorance is safe, so the taboo against mysti-
cism in most religious doctrines can be understood as a
No Mind
401 form of protection. But in many Eastern religions and
philosophies, the union with the Ultimate Reality has
The Secrets been embraced and practiced for thousands of years,
of No Mind
because they upheld that their god x was the essential es-
sence of nature, or the Tao, and separate from it. Through
discipline and exercise (as with the practice of No Mind
outlined here), people have been able to transcend be-
yond opposites and dualistic identities to experience the
universe.

THE ONE, THE MANY, AND NOTHINGNESS

The reality of the One, or Being, must also include the re-
ality of zero, or nothingness. If the two are not included
in relative reality, this would constitute a dualistic inter-
pretation. When we say the One, we also mean the
Many and the Zeroone essence, many forms, and noth-
ingness in potential. Language runs into a deadlock when
dealing with something and nothing that is nameless,
that exists everywhere and nowhere simultaneously, and
that is the emptiness which is all things. For this reason,
the ancient masters refused to discuss the ow of being
and nothingness with the students and asked them to sit
and to focus on a riddle that would make sense only when
enlightenment was attained (for instance, Where does
the One return to? or What face did you have before
you were born?). The experience of the One, the Many,
and Zero as the same essence is enlightenment, when
the Iill is transcended and true spiritual awareness is
realized.
Humans are the seeds of the essence of nature, and
we are in potential of blossoming into spiritual aware-
ness when awareness transcends the Iill. It doesnt mat-
ter what we call it, what religious metaphor we use to
interpret it, or what our religious background isthe di-
rect spiritual awareness of god x, or nature, is the same.
Mystics from many different religious traditions have

210003_401_C24.indd 500 7/26/08 11:13:40 AM

 experienced the same universal union, tranquility, and 501
absence of I. This is the merging with the essence of the
Chapter 24
universe, or god x. The interpretation of the experience
may be through any religious metaphor, but the tran- Secret of
scendent attainment of union is the same. There is uni- Mysticism
cation of all interpretive meanings of the Ultimate Reality
in the experience, so that seeming contradictions and dif-
ferences lose their identity. In other words, true spiritual
awareness transcends and unites all different religious
meanings; its pure awe. We all know how awe feels, yet
we have many different ways to get there, and we express
our experience of it differently, depending on our lan-
guage and culture. But in the nal analysis, the experi-
ence of awe is relatively the same.

WHEN ALL THINGS BECOME ONE

At this point of spiritual awakening, we see that relative

identity arises codependently with the identity of every-
thing else; there are no longer separate individual things.
Everything is seen in its relatedness and interconnected-
ness to everything else and to universal identity. All things
share the same underlying universal constant. Without
the Iill, identity loses its meaning into spiritual aware-
ness. The literature is lled with accounts of the mystical
experience of the Ultimate Reality, and when we cut
through the metaphors, they are pretty much the same at
the core. Whether one calls it divine becoming, simple
liberation of ignorance, supreme summit, or realiza-
tion of spiritual awareness, one refers to a state beyond
the Iill where one has direct awareness of and unication
with the essence of the universe (or god x).
It is difcult, even impossible, to intellectualize or to
conceptualize the reality of mysticism, especially from
the perspective of the Iill. The ancient masters instructed
their students to stop wasting their time on trying to com-
prehend this reality and to concentrate all effort on train-
ing the awareness. The human psyche has an instinctual
drive to pursue this realization as an intense potential to

210003_401_C24.indd 501 6/6/08 3:41:23 PM

 502 universalization. We all want to somehow reach spiritual
unication, in life and/or in death. The development and
No Mind
401 integration of spirituality into everyday life is a crucial
aspect of the No Mind programthe aspect of becoming
The Secrets spiritually aware of our link to the universe, nature, or
of No Mind
god x. It nurtures unconditional acceptance and compas-
sion for nature and people. All things are seen in light of
the essential aspect of being and not as separate external
objects, but as indivisible parts of the same reality of
nothingness, or potential.

MYSTICISM IS UNIVERSAL SPIRITUAL

AWARENESS
Metaphorical riddles and koans help to discover the un-
derlying meaning in mysticism and the Ultimate Reality
(see No Mind 601). Mysticism itself belongs to no partic-
ular religion because it is the essential non-dualistic as-
pect of all religions. The experience of a Christian realizing
non-dualistic Christ-consciousness is similar to the Bud-
dhist attaining Nirvana and union with the Ultimate. The
Taoists becoming one with the Tao is no different from
the Jewish mystics union with God-consciousness. Jesus
taught that the ego, or I, must die if one is to be spiritu-
ally born again. There is no one attaining the reality of
Christ-consciousness; it is attainment without the I. To
say I am one with Jesus is dualistically premised
on separate subject and object. The pure awareness of
No Mind is the omnipresent consciousness that pervades
the universe, just like Christ-consciousness does. There is
no I demanding that it is self-righteous, there is just
pure consciousness. Jesus said,

He who rules his spirit has won a greater victory than

the taking of a city. [and] The kingdom of God is within
you. (The Bible)

The reality of mysticism is that regardless of social

and religious background, when one attains enlighten-
ment, one experiences the same pure awareness of the

210003_401_C24.indd 502 6/6/08 3:41:23 PM

 universe. If you brought all mystics together, they would 503
have the same story to tell, as if they experienced it to-
Chapter 24
gether. But their story of enlightenment is not how most
religious doctrines typically describe the ultimate union Secret of
with the One. They usually maintain the dualistic con- Mysticism
cept of subject and object, of I and Him, and thus per-
petuate the illusion of the I and cause the kind of
spiritual alienation that aficts so many young people
today. People do not want to worship, they want to par-
ticipate in the Ultimate Reality, and they want to experi-
ence directlynot await commands from a controlling
entity. Healthy holistic faith nourishes freedom and spir-
itual awareness, and blind faith breeds identity and
ignorance.
The point of this chapter isnt to condemn any reli-
gious doctrine. It seeks to explain mysticism and its func-
tion in the worlds religions today. If one aspires to
spiritual awareness in the context of his or her religion,
mysticism provides a useful vehicle. The true masters can
be detected easily because it is clear that they have noth-
ing to gain, nothing to lose, and show no sense of egoism.
Such people are humble, simple, and modest in their ap-
proach, and teaching is done through them, not by them.
They are not divine, nor do they become divine, there is
only the divine.

210003_401_C24.indd 503 7/26/08 11:13:40 AM

 504

No Mind CHAPTER 24 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER

401 BEFORE CONTINUING

The Secrets 1. In mysticism, there is no you and god x, there is

of No Mind just the One Ultimate Reality. The soul is not a
separate unit, but an interdependent aspect of the
Universal Soul, or god x, or Tao.
2. All spiritual experiences described by people em-
phasize a moment of awareness of the spiritual
experience. They all share an awareness of a god
x, or nature, as the unifying principle of the
universe.
3. The condensed form of Universal Awareness is
how god x, or nature, becomes aware of itself
through humans. Yet, it is not self awareness;
it is pure awareness that can be experienced in
many ways, including the practice of No Mind.
4. Mystical states of immediate union with god x
characterize every religion, including Christian-
ity, Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism,
Islam, and Yoga. Even the Mayans and the North-
American Indians talked about an exalted state of
oneness with the ultimate reality, or with the essen-
tial substance of nature. This constitutes one of the
most fascinating ancient secrets weve inherited
from our ancestors.
5. The masters have warned repeatedly against the
danger of the I confusing itself with an inter-
preted experience, as opposed to grasping the ac-
tual experience itself. The actual experience shatters
the I altogether in that moment of realization. Al-
though it takes practice to maintain that state, the
person has broken through the veil of illusion.
6. Time is relative to the observer and the speed of
light, and god x is subject to neither. So god xs
cosmic thoughts must be non-dualistic, timeless,

210003_401_C24.indd 504 6/6/08 3:41:23 PM

 505
and without identity, similar to the mystics expe- Chapter 24
rience of the ultimate reality.
Secret of
7. If described as only One, reality cannot be two or Mysticism
ten thousand; and the ultimate reality is the ten
thousand things, the one, and the zero simul-
taneously. Things and events exist, but they are
interdependent, codependent, interrelated, and
do not have separate existences.
8. In Western mysticism, (the Judeo-Christian) God
is everywhere as a non-being sustaining the forms
of being; thus God creates the world through non-
being. But the forms have an intrinsic, or latent,
potentiality to return to the One, or to non-being.
In other words, like a seed holding the tree po-
tential, humans have the god x potential to be-
come aware of god x.
9. As long as we see the One, god x, or the ultimate
reality in terms of ourselves, it is impossible to
experience real spiritual awareness. There cannot
be any unifying point of reference, especially in
religious beliefs, among all the different values
of Is.
10. Humans are the seeds of the essence of nature,
and we are in potential of blossoming into spir-
itual awareness when awareness transcends the
Iill. It doesnt matter what we call it, what reli-
gious metaphor we use to interpret it, or what our
religious background isthe direct spiritual
awareness of god x, or nature, is the same.
11. Most religions maintain the dualistic concept of
subject and object, of I and Him (or Her), and
thus perpetuate the illusion of the I and cause
the kind of spiritual alienation that aficts so
many young people today. People want to experi-
ence directlynot await commands from a con-
trolling entity.

210003_401_C24.indd 505 6/6/08 3:41:26 PM

 One of the best-known Zen koans says, All things return
to the One. What does the One return to? It brings to the
fore the question of death and dying, which terries most
people. It is especially frightening for the Iill, which yearns
to preserve its identity even after death through the illusion
of an Iill-soul. The ancient masters spoke of an Iill-less
soulone that can be realized though spiritual awareness
while we are still alive. If we use the ocean metaphor again
and say that the universe is lled with water and we are a
drop in that ocean, then there is nowhere for us to go. We
are already in the ocean. In fact, the drop can never really
be a drop if the universe is lled with water, there would be
nowhere for it to form into a drop. It is only through illusion
that the drop can exist.

Awareness is the only universal constant and it realizes

no death. Pure awareness is like the ocean; it is everywhere
in the universe. Most religions postulate that the ultimate
reality, or god x, is everywhere. It must be everywhere for
the universe to sustain itself. As we discussed, if god x
were a separate entity, we would have a dualistic reality,
and nature, according to No Mind, is non-dualistic. Even
physicists agree that there are no separate things, only
interdependence and codependence. Like the universe,
spiritual awareness cannot die.

Chapter 25 discusses how the practice of No Mind comforts

and alleviates fears of death through the achievement of
enlightenment.

210003_401_C25.indd 506 6/6/08 3:42:15 PM

 Chapter 25

No Mind No Death

All things return to the One. What does the One return to?
The above is one of the most famous Zen koans. As discussed,
spiritual awareness is the ultimate reality, where one attains
universal union. As described in Chapter 24, in ancient religious
and philosophical texts, this is called mysticism. This is the ulti-
mate union with the innite consciousness, or energy, governing
the universe. Taoism describes this as the nameless ow, which
oscillates from being to nothingness and back. The Tao is the
undifferentiated ux, in which all things are constantly chang-
ing. The experience of this ultimate reality occurs in the present
moment, as it has no past or future sources. Being and nothing-
ness interpenetrate subtly and naturally in all matter and life. So
in the undifferentiated No Mind, there are no separate realities,
universal awareness is realized, and everything exists here and
everywhere simultaneously.

507

210003_401_C25.indd 507 6/6/08 3:42:17 PM

 508 AWARENESS AS A QUANTUM RELATIONSHIP
No Mind Awareness is a quantum relationship with the universe
401
and nature. The universe affects awareness and aware-
The Secrets ness affects the universe. Beyond biological materialism,
of No Mind physicists and scholars in neuroplasticity are turning to
quantum theories and the quantum Zeno effect to de-
scribe consciousness without identifying any locality in
the brain as the source of awareness. The existence of
universal awareness undermines our dualistic, mechani-
cal view of humans. Awareness is a universal constant,
which allows us to experience our intrinsic quantum re-
lationship with the rest of nature. And it is to be distin-
guished from self-conscious awareness that we experience
daily.
We are oating in an undifferentiated sea of spiritual
awareness. In No Mind, we become one with this sea,
similarly to the Christian mystic who realizes Christ-
consciousness or to the Su who attains transcendental
union. This is the realization that the ux of God aware-
ness is everywhere and we are not the Iill, ego, personal-
ity, or self. In fact, we realize we are the universe itself,
pulsing through the awareness of the enlightened mind.
With this in mind, we answer our opening question: All
things return to the One, Where does the One return to?
There is nowhere to return to; we are already there. All
things are aspects of natures essence, or the One, which
is the ultimate reality as innite nality. It can only go
somewhere else if there are other innite realities, which
would create a dualistic multiplicity of innite realities.
Can you have more than one innite universal substance?
Could the nothingness of space be lled with two or more
universal substances? And if so, what purpose would
more than one serve?
Remember the drop analogy, and imagine that you
could somehow identify a drop of water oating in the
ocean (which would be an illusion, as there are no drops)
and then extract that drop as a separate entity from the
ocean. When you return it, where would the drop go?

210003_401_C25.indd 508 6/6/08 3:42:17 PM

 You may identify a particular drop of water if it were 509
falling through the air because the substances of air and
Chapter 25
water are different; but when the drop is within its own
element, then it is already part of the ocean (water), and No Mind
it is impossible to discern a particular drop when look- No Death
ing at the ocean. The answer is that there are no individ-
ual drops in the ocean; there is just the ocean, a vast
body of undifferentiated water. So if the universe were
lled with water, say, as a metaphor for the universal
substance or natures essence, then it would be impossi-
ble to be a drop of water anywhere. And if the Iill had the
illusion that you were a drop of water, then upon the
death of the Iill, the drop (you) would have nowhere to
return to, as it would be already part of the ocean of the
universe.
Similarly, in the realm of life, there are no real indi-
vidual entities of life forms; individual life forms are illu-
sions created by our perceptual systems. There is only
the ow of nature, god x, the ultimate reality, spiritual
awareness, or whatever it is that you believe in. While we
do perceive individual forms of matter and life and we do
experience having a distinct mind-body, these are the
properties of being, or of form, and enlightenment is
seeing beyond the normal perceptual system and into the
nothingness of the universethe core of nothingness that
is being. We become spiritually aware of the ocean,
awake from our separateness as a drop of water, and
remember that all things are the ocean and not the drop.

WHERE WOULD YOU GO?

So when we see the individual forms, the enlightened

really see the underlying interconnectedness of the re-
ality of which the forms are a part. We see individual
forms, even though they are not really there. In Sanskrit,
this perception of forms is called maya, the illusion. They
are all aspects of the ocean of the universe. Once we in-
tuitively grasp the ultimate reality of the forms, maya

210003_401_C25.indd 509 6/6/08 3:42:17 PM

 510 disappears and we see the underlying essence of nature.
In the realization of this, death takes on a different mean-
No Mind
401 ing, as there is nothing to die except the esh and bones,
and even that doesnt really dieit just transforms back
The Secrets into sub-atomic particles, which then can be redistrib-
of No Mind
uted in nature. When we remember our unity with nature
through spiritual awareness, we realize that death lies in
the nite, material aspect of our beingour form. As we
understand the emptiness of nothingness that engenders
the continuous cycles of being, we understand that this
aspect of nature cannot die, as it is innite. The essence
of spiritual awareness is innite. There is no individual
soul, just as there are no individual drops in the ocean;
there is nothing that needs to leave the body when it is
dead and nowhere for anything to go. It is already here
right now, in the present moment. Just as drops of the
ocean are the ocean and there is nowhere for them to go,
they are already there. But again, imagine this ocean not
as the contained body of water encircling our planet, but
as a boundless ocean that lls the Universe, stretching
deep everywhere into the corners of the farthest galaxy.
Now, where would you go? If god x is everywhere in the
Universe, as it must be in order to sustain all being, where
would god x go? There is nowhere to go, god x is already
everywhere.

UNBORN SPIRITUAL AWARENESS

The Pali Canon is one of the ancient collections on which

Theravada Buddhism is based. Its English translation
adds up to several thousand printed pages. It says that
even in dying the last in-breaths and out-breaths will
pass consciously, not unconsciously, which refers to
mindfulness at the time of dying. We are mindful of our
last few breaths, which is reminiscent of the spiritual
awareness of our birth. The Tao Te Ching, written by Lao
Tsu, circa sixth century BCE, has been translated more
frequently than any other book except the Bible. Tao is
the ow of nature, and Lao Tsu says:

210003_401_C25.indd 510 7/26/08 12:07:17 PM

 Heaven and earth last forever 511
Why do Heaven and earth last forever?
Chapter 25
They are unborn,
So ever living. No Mind
The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead. No Death
He is detached, thus at one with all.
Through seless action, he attains fulllment.

This is the mystics true spiritual awareness. In Heaven

and Earth, the essence of nature permeates the entire uni-
verse, it exists always and therefore has no beginning, or
moment of birth. This is the innite ultimate reality, which
generates and sustains all forms. The master attains en-
lightenment and becomes one with all. For the master,
there is no longer the Iill and all action is without effort,
without try; therefore, the action itself is a manifestation of
spiritual awareness. The master follows the Ten Paradoxes,
which constitutes an act of spiritual awareness itself. Spirit-
ual awareness is unborn and undying; it is the cosmos real-
izing itself through our own spiritual awareness. There is
no death here, only the ceaseless ebb and ow of the uni-
verse. Identity is nite, and no-identity is innite through
its seed potential of spiritual awareness, and this is far
greater than any accomplishment we can imagine in ordi-
nary human terms. When we realize our true spiritual
awareness and our union with natures ocean, then we ex-
perience our seed potential of enlightenment.

NO PLACE FOR DEATH TO ENTER

The Iill constantly remembers its impending death and

its limited life span. This is the source of the deep-seated
anxiety we have about death. Egocentric life knows and
always maintains its opposite, death, in clear view. This
leaves most people insecure and worried about the end
and what it may bring. The Iill must be surpassed if
No Mind is to be realized. The ancient masters died with-
out doubt or anxiety, because they experienced enlight-
enment of life and death through the direct awareness of
the essential substance of the universe. They knew that

210003_401_C25.indd 511 6/6/08 3:42:18 PM

 512 death was only transformation of the esh and bones.
They released all attachments to the mind objects of
No Mind
401 desires, expectations, hopes, thoughts, and emotions.
And they realized liberation and spiritual awareness
The Secrets through non-identity. They knew that fear of death was
of No Mind
only a matter of attachment.
The Samurai warriors fought with No Mind awareness
and with the insight of no death; they knew there was
nothing that could harm them spiritually. The Tao Te Ching
says, Being divine, you are at one with the Tao. Being at
one with the Tao is eternal. And though the body dies, the
Tao will never pass away. It is also written in the Tao,

He who knows how to live can walk abroad

Without fear of rhinoceros or tiger.
He will not be wounded in battle.
For in him rhinoceros can nd no place to thrust their horn,
Tigers no place to use their claws,
And weapons no place to pierce.
Why is this so?
Because he has no place for death to enter.

Like the Samurai warrior, the ancient sage does not

identify with the mind-body, only with spiritual aware-
ness through No Mind. The innite and the eternal can-
not be harmed, so death has nowhere to enter. The direct
experience of the eternal essence of the ultimate reality,
the experience of enlightenment, changes the perception
of death. There is no fear of the Grim Reaper, as there is
nothing for the Reaper to take. If you are eternal sub-
stance, then where can you go? What can he take that is
not already there? The eternal essence of the ultimate re-
ality cannot be split into Heaven and Hell, as these are
dualistic identities created by the maya of the ignorant
Iill. There is only the One and ZeroBeing and Nothing-
ness. Believing in a reality of multiplicities throws us into
the trap of existential suffering, from which the only escape
is in releasing awareness from being trapped by the Iill.
Humans are complex; nature has an underlying simplic-
ity that is realized through the insight of No Mind. Intel-
lectualizing and over-analyzing complicates the simplicity

210003_401_C25.indd 512 7/26/08 12:07:18 PM

 of the ow and takes us further away from this experience. 513
The ancient masters said it was better to walk lightly, so
Chapter 25
why the need to explain the universe in volumes and vol-
umes of religious doctrine? The mystery emerges only No Mind
when the doctrines are put aside, the minds fog clears, No Death
and a new awareness is experienced.

THE UNINTENTIONAL EFFORT OF NOTHINGNESS

In No Mind, nothingness is the living, dynamic, ethereal,
owing, void, ego-less, and undifferentiated essence that
permeates all. In Zen and Eastern philosophies, this is
not to be understood through reading volumes of books;
it is only to be experienced through the direct aware-
ness of reality. This does not require faith in a religious
doctrine, you do not need to believe; you simply practice
until you experience enlightenment. There is rst doubt,
and there is attainment, which banishes the doubt. It is
difcult to imagine such a reality, and even if you did, it
still could be the Iill playing tricks on itself. The
ancients believed that anything that is imagined with re-
spect to this reality is an illusion of the Iill. You are spir-
itual awareness, the ultimate reality, the ebb and ow of
the cosmos, natures essence. And humankinds ultimate
accomplishment is to realize the original source of all
things and to act in accord with natureas a vehicle
fueled by the cosmic energy, or as a tree naturally grow-
ing from its seed and unintentionally bearing fruit. This
is the essential unintentional effort of nothingness. In
nothingness lays hidden the potential of being through
unintentional effort. It is pure cosmic intention, as op-
posed to desire-driven intention. When you understand
pure cosmic intention, death has no place to enter. It is
like the drop of ocean that is always the ocean and can
never really be separated.
The experience of the reality of nothingness conrms
the essential reality of Being, because the countless forms
have no permanence. There is nothing to cling to or to be-
come attached to, as forms are impermanent. All forms
are only temporary, and therefore any attachment to

210003_401_C25.indd 513 6/6/08 3:42:18 PM

 514 them will be subject to time and nite. In other words,
you cannot nd ultimate happiness in attachment to
No Mind
401 forms as they come and go. If we are unattached, then
there is nothing to let go. The more we cling to objects,
The Secrets feelings, hopes, and expectations, the more we regret and
of No Mind
fear death. Material objects have no real permanence,
and emotional mind objects only have the transient Iill as
their source. Our ultimate potential as humans is not to
live in fear and regret of death. Fear and regret bind us,
and we cannot fulll our potential.
In this light, objects are maya and they are revealed as
illusions. They are not the ultimate reality, but its physi-
cal, nite, and impermanent manifestations. And while
these objects exist in the four-dimensional space-time
continuum, they are limited and vulnerable. The ultimate
reality is not contained in the four-dimensional space-
time continuum; it sustains that continuum.

REMEMBERING OUR WETNESS

All mind objects, to which we are attached, are mere re-

ections of the external world, and as long as we are at-
tached to these objects from the perspective of the Iill,
they are mirages that conceal the underlying reality of
being and nothingness. When you see these objects in
spiritual awareness, you see that they are only the mani-
festations of the ultimate reality. Our mind, body, and the
Iill are also the manifestations of the ultimate reality.
This realization allows the fear of death to vanish, as
you now experience that the end of the mind-body is
not the end of the underlying being and nothingness,
which sustain the mind-body. Since you no longer iden-
tify with the mind-body, death is no longer a threat. And,
of course, you do not exist; the Iill is not you. Dying is
as impossible as discerning an individual water drop in
the ocean. From the perspective of the Iill, you are the drop.
But from the perspective of No Mind, you are the ocean.
Now, once again imagine that the ocean lls the entire
universe, so that you could no longer see anything but

210003_401_C25.indd 514 6/6/08 3:42:19 PM

 water. In this case, not only can we not discern a drop, 515
but there is nowhere to place itevery possible location
Chapter 25
is occupied by the ocean, so any drop would still be in the
water at any point. Spiritual awareness is that ocean, and No Mind
we are all wet with universal essence, even if we do not No Death
know it yet. But we have the potential of remembering
our wetness, and through enlightenment we realize
there is no need to go anywhere, because we are already
there.
The mind-body is born, and it dies. Life of forms takes
place between birth and death. Death occurs everywhere
and all the time. One dies and another is born; the rela-
tionship is cyclical, as birth and death are two aspects of
the same reality. Life is living as we know it, and when
there is no longer life, then there is death as we know it.
When we are born, we feel our wetness, we remember
being the ocean, and we havent yet started forming a
separate identity. But as life unfolds, we develop a sepa-
rate dry Iill, and become even drier as we get older,
until we forget our wetness. We forget because we en-
capsulate ourselves in individualitylike the drop of
oceanwhich separates us from spiritual awareness. We
forget the ocean that we are. We lose the spiritual aware-
ness with which we are born in favor of fullling the de-
sires of the individual and societal Iills. There is nothing
wrong in fullling desires, as long as we can maintain
spiritual awareness of what we are doing. Desires are
natural. Being mindfully unattached allows us to enjoy
our wetness through our actions.
Subatomic particles are constantly created and de-
stroyed in the universe. They move in and out of exist-
ence throughout the nothingness of space. They move
through being and nothingness, through life and death.
With this understanding, there is nothing to fear. You live
life to the fullest and accept your present life situation re-
gardless of the form it takes. There is no past and no fu-
ture, no mental web of an Iill to say what should and
should not have happened; there is only the reality of
your present life situation. And you exist now, in the ow.

210003_401_C25.indd 515 6/6/08 3:42:19 PM

 516 Everything is as it should be. You can change your
present-moment situation, but accept where you are
No Mind
401 prior to initiating any changes.
The universe ows constantly and life is in a continual
The Secrets state of change and adaptation, sometimes for the better
of No Mind
and sometimes for the worse, relatively speaking. This
does not mean that you cannot change the present situa-
tion; but you accept the reality of every step on the way
without complaints or irritability. Focus on the ow, not
on the perceived roadblocks. If you understand death as
change, you will understand how to live life to its full po-
tential. We need to embrace change and to get wet more
often. But remember that death only changes the mate-
rial aspect of you, not the spiritual aspect which always
remains wet.

WHO IS IT THAT DIES?

In the moment of death, if you asked, Who is it that is

dying? this would be the nal hua-t ou, the nal question
of Who. Then you might look into every cell of your being
to determine where and who is dying. When the mind is
completely still and thoughts no longer ll the awareness,
the loud emptiness of silent thunder will strike a chord in
you that will resonate with the hum of the universe. The
vibrations of the cosmos will overtake you, and eventu-
ally there will be a single vibration resonating everywhere
and within everything. At this moment, you will grasp the
intuition that the who of this dying never existed; only
esh and bones are dying, while the resonance of the
cosmos continues. This is the realization of spiritual
awareness. Confucius said, If one sees the Way [Tao] in
the morning, one can gladly die in the evening. Such
people realize that there is only continuity in a much ner,
subtler degree. They know that there is no who and that
the only universal constant is awareness.
The ancient masters said that if you dont come to en-
lightenment in this lifetime, then you may do so in the
next. This does not mean that your I or Iill moves

210003_401_C25.indd 516 6/6/08 3:42:19 PM

 supernaturally into another mind-body in the next round 517
of lifetime. This would constitute spiritualism and not
Chapter 25
No Mind or Zen. This means, instead, that the universe
(or spiritual awareness, nature, god x) attempts to real- No Mind
ize itself through another human form, and this is No Death
enlightenmentthe seed consciousness of spiritual
awareness becoming aware of itself. If the universe does
not realize itself and there is no enlightenment, then you
remain subject to karma until your death. And there may
be realization next time. But think of this as not your
next, just the next time through another life. The uni-
verse, nature, god x, has no more intention to realize
itself than the stream has any intention to run downhill
this is just the ow of nature. We are subject to karma
until our actions shed all trace of intention and of the
Iill. We may realize the rst level of enlightenment
No Mindbut we must continue with our practice until
we are truly free from the Iills intentions. As long as our
activities revolve around the intentions, desires, and
hopes of the Iill to any degree, whether small or large,
they cannot be pure non-action or no-try, and they
remain subject to karma and the cycle of birth and death.
When we have eliminated the Iill from action, there will
be no who to die.

MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES SEVER

THE ROOT OF FEAR
When you persist to sever the root of the Iill and the cycle
of birth and death in the realization of the unconscious
No Mind, you reach a transformational experience. This
is when karma ceases to exist and fear releases its grip,
for it has nothing to grasp on to. A study of the neurologi-
cal aspects of transformational experiences reports:

The near death experience is one of the most compel-

ling experiences that human beings can encounter.
Those that have undergone NDEs frequently report
major life transformation, including less fear of death,
and more compassion and altruism. (Richards, 2002)

210003_401_C25.indd 517 7/26/08 12:07:18 PM

 518 Mystical experiences have similar life-transforming
effects, including less fear of death. For example, Kundalini
No Mind
401 Yoga meditation has reduced intense fear in breast cancer
patients (Shannahoff-Khalsa, 2005). Neurological studies
The Secrets have theorized that mystical and religious experiences
of No Mind
are evoked deep inside the temporal lobe of the brain,
which projects the self in relation to time and space and
the affective components of anticipation (Johnson &
Persinger, 1994; Persinger, 1983). A study at the UCLA-
Reed Neurological Research Center reports:

Investigations of the neural substrates of religious

experience are in their infancy. Humanity has been
called homo religiothe religious animal. Behavioral
neuroscience must encompass a fully realized ac-
count of the neural substrates of religious experience
if it is to achieve a systematic understanding of the
brain basis of all human behavior. The task before
neuropsychiatrists and behavioral neurologists is to
fully understand brain disorders that promote, in-
tensify, or alter religious experienceunique clues to
the neural basis of the spiritual nature of humanity.
(Saver & Rabin, 1997)

People who have had near-death experiences report

transcending the boundaries of the ego and the connes
of time and space. A common experience is disassocia-
tion, where the persons identity becomes detached from
the body (Greyson, 2000). Near-death experiences may
constitute an evolutionary protective mechanism that
enables us to overcome states of extreme stress in order
to initiate a ght-or-ight response. Dissociation from
the Iill may be a means of keeping our cool and increas-
ing our chances for survival by reducing our terror of
dying. Regardless, in dissociation, we perceive a different
reality, the illusions of our attachments, and our aware-
ness expands to spiritual awareness.

Living in the Flow Without Attachments

Non-action is the natural expression of spiritual aware-
ness through the mind-body dynamic without self-gain

210003_401_C25.indd 518 7/28/08 12:44:56 PM

 and self-attachment. It is the purest mind-body state act- 519
ing through the ow of No Mind. It is the living poetry of
Chapter 25
a lizard snatching a y from the air, or of a dolphin play-
ing in the waves. Non-action is the natural potential of No Mind
your innermost abilities. Animals do not need to think or No Death
to try when they use their natural talents; they simply
perform. One of the Ten Paradoxes says, Perform. Do.
But never think. Just follow your inner nature, regard-
less of whether you are a businessperson, a sanitary engi-
neer, a doctor, a teacher, a housekeeper, a gardener, a
carpenter, or royalty; whatever skill or knowledge you
possess must be expressed without intention of the Iill.
Perform for the sake of the work, not for self-centered re-
turns. Just do what you do without effort and with mind-
fulness, and then you are expressing the wisdom of the
universe through your mind-body dynamic. It is a spon-
taneous action that fullls what is needed in the present
moment. Free from anxiety and premeditation, the work
ows and doesnt strain the mind-body. Enjoy the ride,
and do not focus on the goal. There is no true enjoyment
of the past or of the future, as they are not real but tem-
poral projections of the Iill. You can plan, but do not be-
come attached to the plan. Life in the detached present
moment is healthy, joyful, and free. No Mind No Death is
premised on the same freedom; when we are unattached,
we learn to enjoy the awareness of the present, which
evolves into spiritual awareness.
Living in the ow rarely gets taught in schools and
universities, as students prepare to enter a society fo-
cused on success, self-preservation, wealth, materialism,
sex, looks, and so on. Can we enjoy these things without
sacricing and losing our selves? The more we accumu-
late, the more apprehensive of death we become. When
these motivations are tempered with non-attachment
and non-action, they provide much more stable bases for
the No Mind lifestyle. As long as we do not need, require,
force, compel, or demand, the tree of our life bears fruit
from the wholesome and egoless labor of the mind-body
dynamic and we can enjoy it just as it is. As long as we
are detached from the fruit and are not caught up in

210003_401_C25.indd 519 7/26/08 12:07:19 PM

 520 accumulating fruit, we can become aware of the tree and
of the seed potential that sprouted it.
No Mind
401 Given all the fruits society offers us, it is no wonder
that we nd it is so hard to die. In death, we leave behind
The Secrets many things and people we love and identify with. We
of No Mind
cling and cannot let go, which causes chronic anxiety of
death. In many cases, humans spend their entire lives ca-
tering to the Iill, which acts like a carnivorous plant that
cannot get enough and keeps getting bigger and bigger,
demanding more and more food, stimulation, toys,
adrenaline rushes, and, of course, the latest and greatest
in this years model (last years is so last year!). We need
to let go of attachments and enjoy the ride, not only the
toys we come across on the way.

DEATH AS AN IiLL

The death of an Iill is painful, whereas death without the

Iill is painless. There is just the ocean. Nothing is lost,
just a cycle of transformation takes place. This is natures
way recognized by the ancient masters thousands of years
ago. People identify death with the mind-body, and they
experience great grief when the mind-body expires and
all thats left behind are memories. Once they are gone,
the attributes of the mind-body can no longer be accessed
and enjoyed. People come to know the Iill in terms of the
special qualities (personality and character) which con-
stitute its unique mind-body dynamic, and that is what
they miss when a person dies. But we must also recog-
nize that each person is a manifestation of the essence of
the universe, which eventually remembers its origins.
The ocean brings forth countless life forms, and then re-
assimilates them, but the truth is, they were always part
of the ocean in the rst place.
People hope that their spirit will return to Heaven, yet
they do not realize that their spirit never left Heaven and it
doesnt need to return to anything. Heaven is all around
us; it is the source of everything we see and touch. So
after death, we normally celebrate the spirit on its ascent

210003_401_C25.indd 520 7/26/08 12:07:19 PM

 to Heaven, following the traditions of our respective reli- 521
gion. The ancients, however, celebrated every day, as they
Chapter 25
realized that Heaven is everywhere and that we walk
amongst god while we are alive. There is no need to die No Mind
in order to experience the ultimate reality. No Death
The age-old argument is: How can we know what
death is when we need to die in order to know it? The im-
mediate insight into our spiritual awareness allows us to
experience what it means to die. But how can this be con-
rmed? It cannot, except through the experiences of
countless people who attained the unconscious aspect of
No Mind and had the same insight over several thousand
years, regardless of the languages they spoke or the his-
torical periods they witnessed. The ancient masters never
asked for blind faith; they didnt say, This is how it is and
you have to believe it! They insisted that one must expe-
rience enlightenment rst, before it can be discussed;
otherwise, if one discusses before experiencing it, one
would only be more confused. From the standpoint of
quantum physics, particles are never static or spatially
xed; they come into being and vanish in a continuous
play of movement and energy. Using vacuum chambers,
physicists have observed particles come into being from
nothingness and then disappear back into nothingness.
Matter is dynamic energy, and all the forms we see and
cling to in the world are transient energy clusters that
constantly disappear and regroup, usually involving other
particles somewhere else in the universe. In The Cosmic
Code, Pagels writes:

A remarkable feature of the present-day universe is that

if you add up all the energy in the universe it almost
adds up to zero. First there is the potential energy of
the gravitational attraction of the various galaxies for
each other. This is proportional to the mass of the gal-
axies. Since one must supply energy to push the galax-
ies apart, this counts as a huge negative energy in our
energy bookkeeping. On the positive side of the ledger
is the mass energy of all the particles in the universe.
This adds up to another huge number, to about a factor

210003_401_C25.indd 521 6/6/08 3:42:20 PM

 522 often smaller than the negative energy. If the two num-
bers matched, the total energy of the universe would
No Mind be zero and it wouldnt take any energy to create the
401
universe. (Pagels, 1982)
The Secrets
of No Mind Energy continuously condenses, expands, and reor-
ganizes in the ow of matter and life. Again, as we dis-
cussed, there is no nothingness, as it is in potential of
being, just as being is in potential of nothingness. There
is nowhere to go, as everything is already right here, noth-
ing is independent and everything is interrelated. If we
expand this insight to death, then what is there to be
afraid of, where can we possibly go? Life does not have to
be diseased with the poor prognosis of a fatal outcome.
All equations equal one and zero at the same time; there-
fore the essence of nature was never born and it will never
die. The condensations of nature appear to us as matter
and form, and they follow the cycles of birth and death in
the universal ux, and it is all performed in the natural
play of the universe.

210003_401_C25.indd 522 6/6/08 3:42:21 PM

 523
CHAPTER 25 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 25
BEFORE CONTINUING
No Mind
1. Awareness is a quantum relationship with the No Death
universe and nature. The universe affects aware-
ness and awareness affects the universe.
2. We are the universe itself, pulsing through the
awareness of the enlightened mind. With this in
mind, we answer the question, If all things re-
turn to the One, where does the One return to?
There is nowhere to return to; we are already there.
All things are aspects of natures essence, or the
One, which is the ultimate reality as innite
nality.
3. Imagine an ocean not as the contained body of
water encircling our planet, but as a boundless
ocean that lls the Universe, stretching deep
everywhere into the corners of the farthest galaxy.
Now, where would you go? If god x is everywhere
in the Universe, as it must be in order to sustain
all being, where would god x go? There is nowhere
to go; god x is already everywhere.
4. The ancient masters died without doubt or anxiety,
because they experienced enlightenment of life and
death through the direct awareness of the essential
substance of the universe. They knew that death
was only of the esh and bones. They released all
attachments to the mind objects of desires, expecta-
tions, hopes, thoughts, and emotions.
5. In nothingness lays hidden the potential of Being
through unintentional effort. It is pure cosmic in-
tention, as opposed to desire-driven intention.
When you understand pure cosmic intention,
death has no place to enter.

210003_401_C25.indd 523 7/26/08 12:07:19 PM

 524

No Mind 6. The ultimate reality is not contained in the four-

401 dimensional space-time continuum; it sustains
that continuum.
The Secrets
of No Mind 7. In the moment of death, the enlightened person
might ask, Who is it that is dying? This is the
nal hua-t ou, the nal question of Who. Then
you might look into every cell of your being to de-
termine where and who is dying. When the mind
is completely still and thoughts no longer ll the
awareness, the loud emptiness of silent thunder
will strike a chord in you that will resonate with
the hum of the universe.
8. When you persist to sever the root of the Iill and
the cycle of birth and death in the realization of
the unconscious No Mind, then karma ceases to
exist and fear release its grip, for it has nothing to
grasp.
9. People hope that their spirit will return to Heaven,
yet they do not realize that their spirit never left
Heaven and it doesnt need to return to anything.
Heaven is all around us; it is the source of every-
thing we see and touch.

210003_401_C25.indd 524 6/6/08 3:42:23 PM

 Mysticism, Psi, altered states of consciousness, and the
experience of god-consciousness are all alluring benets of
the practice of No Mind, but its real effects are felt in our
daily routines. We are no longer imprisoned by the Iill or
by the psychological and social structures that have been
conditioned and reinforced in us throughout our lives.
The burden of fullling the false needs and desires of the
Iill is lifted, and we can redirect energy and awareness to
other pursuits. Living No Mind reduces the wear and tear
we impose on ourselves because of the Iills determination
to fulll demands from society, work, school, family,
community, religion, and so on. Escaping the conditioned
mind and its illusionary world (maya) is the greatest
freedom one can attain.

Chapter 26 reveals that we are destined to be tossed around

on the waves of life as long as we choose to stay separated
from the ocean of life; when we become the ocean, the
waves play with and through us.

210003_401_C26.indd 525 6/6/08 3:43:00 PM

 Chapter 26

Secret of Living
No Mind

W e are born with the unrealized seed of spiritual awareness,

or god-consciousness. To nurture the seed, we must practice
awareness training, such as No Mind. If it isnt nurtured, the seed
will not blossom, and it will remain in potential. Potentiality
is inherent in being and nothingness, which is the primary as-
pect of spiritual awareness. The potential needs to be cultivated,
as grapes are planted, fertilized, watered, pruned, harvested, and
then nally made into wine. With practice, we can harvest the in-
sight of spiritual awareness and develop its unconscious aspects,
where the secrets of No Mind are realizedfrom where the old
vine wine is made. The experience of the Christian mystic is very
similar to that of the Zen mystic. The realization of god x is the
spiritual realization that you are not a separate entity in the uni-
verse but an indivisible component of the cosmic ocean. The un-
conditional wisdom and love of the universe saturates all life and
matter. In the nal analysis, spiritual awareness is nothing but un-
conditional love and compassion, which exists everywhere in the
526

210003_401_C26.indd 526 6/6/08 3:43:02 PM

 universe, but is realized through our own enlightenment. 527
The entire realm of creation and destruction sustains the
Chapter 26
universe and the ow of nature. In Studies in the Psychol-
ogy of the Mystics, Father Joseph Marechal, SJ, writes that Secret of
St. Francis of Assisi experienced the exquisite feeling of Living
No Mind
nature and universal brotherhood, which is one way to
capture the joy of spiritual awareness (Marechal, 1964).

LIVING NO MIND IS LIVING FREE

Mysticism, Psi, altered states of consciousness, spiritual

awareness are all alluring benets of No Mind. However,
the real secret of No Mind is in the day-to-day freedom
from the psychological and social structures that have
been conditioned and reinforced in us throughout our
lifetime. Living within the Iill and fullling its needs and
desires has been a subversive form of imprisonment, but
now we have the keys to freedom. Living No Mind re-
duces the wear and tear of the daily requirements that
are imposed on us by society, work, school, family, com-
munity, religion, and so on. Escaping the discriminating
mind and the illusionary world of maya is the greatest
freedom we can attain. Seemingly irresolvable suffering,
conicts, and problems suddenly nd simple resolution
in the attainment of No Mind.
Living No Mind is not passionless and dull; its living
without the attachments of the Iill. Here, the source of
passion and desire is not in the social inuences of the
media, peers, and celebrities, but in the pure non-action
of the moment. The mental web of the Iill is run by condi-
tioning viruses and programs that are activated by cer-
tain stimuli and cues. Uncontaminated passion and desire
are fullled with an unconditional sense of choice, which
has not been already made for us by others. This uncon-
ditional sense of choice originates in No Mind. In other
words, you live the full colors of the rainbow, not just the
limited spectrum you know. Living No Mind is uncondi-
tional passion and desire, whose fulllment is not neces-
sary and outside the realm of Iill needs, shoulds, and
expectations.

210003_401_C26.indd 527 6/6/08 3:43:03 PM

 528 LEARNING UNCONDITIONAL ACTION
No Mind We assume that free will is free, but in many instances
401
our choice is based on a conditioned pattern, such as
The Secrets habit or ritual. If you trace the source of free choices, you
of No Mind may recognize a family pattern or an inuence from so-
ciety or the mass media. For the most part, acting is like
breathingwe are usually unaware of the breath, but
when we are mindful of it, we can control it. We become
mindful through the practice of Clear Attention. Similarly,
we are unaware of our actions and reactions during our
daily activities, but when we become aware, we can con-
trol our desires. Yet, even with the concept of free will
(or, as science now says, free wont), we must be able to
recognize the source of our desiresthe mental web of
the Iill.
Our personality is a complex program. Our choices
are often predetermined, even when we think we are act-
ing freely. But are we really choosing, or is choice lost in
the set of parameters that make up the Iill? This is the re-
ality of our lives and our minds. The mind grows and
matures in a unique fashion, just as a tree develops its
unique growth shape. No two trees are identical in the
way their branches grow and take shape; similarly, there
are no two minds that develop exactly the same. Experi-
ences, genetics, conditioning, reinforcements, beliefs all
determine how the branches grow and develop. Just as a
gardener cultivates a tree to grow in a certain manner, we
too are trained to perform and to grow in a certain man-
ner. Thousands of environmental factors shape the mind
daily. So every mind-tree is different, yet the underlying
essential reality of spiritual awareness is the same. Is not
the essence of every tree the same, even though its form
may be different?
One of the secrets of No Mind is in the realization of
the ultimate reality. It lies beyond the illusions of the
mind and beyond the desires, passions, wishes, and hopes
of the Iill. All things are relative to our thoughts, whose
negativity, positivity, or neutrality shape the quality of life.
All we can do is stop or suspend the process. Psychology

210003_401_C26.indd 528 6/6/08 3:43:03 PM

 teaches us how to x, mend, and heal the process, so we 529
can function within social structures; No Mind teaches
Chapter 26
us how to heal the process by realizing the mechanisms
of the mind and by watching its patterns objectively. The Secret of
practice of No Mind and the application of the Ten Para- Living
No Mind
doxes tackle problems encountered on a daily basis. They
eliminate the compulsions that accompany the decisions
we make. Sometimes our decisions seem so urgent, as if
the worlds survival depended on them. But this urgency
is revealed as illusory once we put it into the context of
the whole. We simply need to perform a process of uncon-
ditioning, so we may perceive and learn more fully and
holistically.

THE PEACEFUL WARRIORS

Society enforces a state of self-alienation and repression.

The expression of the ultimate reality in daily activities
may turn us into unorthodox strangers to others. In
Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warriors, Dan Millman
describes such strangers as peaceful warriors driven by
an instinct to help others (Millman, 1991). The state of
society is both a collective state and the state of the people,
or of the Is composing it. Most members of society today
are self-absorbed with personal outcomes. They live in the
me-world, or I-reality, and fail to see the I-illusion.
Yet, when we pause to listen and to understand some his-
torical aspects of society, we might nd ourselves sur-
prised, thinking, or even entertained. Many great men and
women have turned the tide of humankind by introducing
new ideas; but thats only because other people took the
time to stop, listen, and believe. They were able to trans-
form the me-world into the we-world. The ancient
masters asked only that you listen to the inner mechanisms
of your mind and body to nd the truth, for only through
your own eyes and in your self-knowledge will you nd the
answer to all the koans ever spoken. The attainment of
essential freedom is the freedom from ones own mind,
where the chronic anxiety and fear of spontaneity in life is

210003_401_C26.indd 529 6/6/08 3:43:04 PM

 530 replaced with play and action that is unconditional and
unintentional.
No Mind
401

The Secrets OVERCOMING DISTURBANCES OF MIND

of No Mind
Death is transformed from an enemy to an ally, and we
no longer ght a war against our body. If we focus on
death, we die in the present and cannot enjoy this mo-
ment of life. In No Mind No Death, play and spontaneity
saturate every moment of our life. In the intuition of the
moment, we nally understand the ancient masters and
their paradoxes.
Many people get frustrated as their attempts at doing
things fail. In No Mind, frustration is irrelevant, because
it stems from the unnatural act of trying relative to the
Iills intentions. Remember the rst Paradox, Act. React.
But never try. There is no frustration in the blossoming
rose or in the owing stream; they just happen without
effort or self-driven motivation. Frustration obstructs the
ow of non-action. When action is non-deliberate and
ows without trying, and when the mind-body performs
in balance, frustration has nowhere to take hold. Apply-
ing Clear Attention to the actions of the day keeps frus-
tration in check. When you expect less and see the natural
ow of action, frustration evaporates.
Living No Mind is free of anxiety, regret, or worry.
The mentally constructed chains of the Iill and its de-
mons are ineffective in the case of pure awareness, When
awareness is focused, there is no room for anxiety to
enter, as the source of anxiety are typically thoughts that
oat across the screen of awareness with their potent as-
sociations with memories of the past or anticipations for
the future. Thoughts ourish and the mind is scattered
and unfocused where anxiety prevails. The anxious mind
is like a stormy sea whose waves toss us around relent-
lessly. We do not see the spring from which anxiety
emerges, yet we get wet. We learn to go below the waves
and reach the calm depth of the ocean; we can release
anxietys hold. In No Mind, there is nothing for worry to

210003_401_C26.indd 530 6/6/08 3:43:04 PM

 cling to, there is nowhere for regret to come from, and 531
there is nothing for restlessness to stir up. The demons
Chapter 26
of anxiety have been exorcised and the Iill is suspended
in time. Secret of
Hate is another disturbance of mind that is incongru- Living
No Mind
ent with living No Mind, as enlightened people have
learned that the essence of hate stems from the Iill. Hate,
like evil, exists in humans only and nowhere else in na-
ture. Hate emerges from the mental web of the Iill, as the
product of mental conditioning. When you surrender val-
ues, traditions, prejudices, discrimination, reason, and
intellect, hate vanishes. When you remove the source of
hate, the I, you are free to move about the world with-
out alienation, as you instantly bond to everything. When
you master the practice of No Mind and attention focus
becomes as normal as breathing, your demons have no
power over you, for there are no vulnerabilities for them
to exploit. The dark energy of hate dissipates along with
the Iill, and the pure, joyous freedom of spiritual aware-
ness brakes through the fog.

PLAYING WITHOUT INTENTION

When we apply Clear Attention in our daily lives, we are

mindful of our (as well as other peoples) intentions and
motivations. Social games can be played without feel-
ing like we are stuck in do-or-die situations; there is no
attachment to the outcome, only the play of the game is
important. The rules of the game remain the sameby
denition, rules have to be followed if the game is to be
played correctlybut we play with a new perspective. We
use the rules as mere guidelines, not as rigid controls.
Players no longer see the game as a force from the out-
side that controls their lives; instead, they and their
actions are the game, which is played through them. All
actions are Iill-less and therefore the game is played
through the mind-body dynamic. Action in this case is
unintentional, so one cannot lose or win. The prize of the
game can be won or lost, but you cannot win or lose: you

210003_401_C26.indd 531 6/7/08 4:17:01 PM

 532 are the game, not the outcome. Actions are pure and self-
less, performed for the games sake. Children play for the
No Mind
401 sake and for the fun of the game; they have nothing else
to gain. But as we mature, games become more competi-
The Secrets tive, and they compel the participants to play against
of No Mind
the game and against others, for the sake of winning.
There are now rewards and honors in winning, so the
innocence and freedom of the game are lost. Children
should be allowed to spend as much time playing Iill-less-ly
in the present moment as they possibly can, without the
constraints of social structures, results, and ego. Let them
enjoy the ride before they start developing the illusion that
there is a goal at the end and lose their innocence.

OPENING THE ENERGY CENTERS IN THE BODY

The ancient masters used No Mind and advanced medita-

tive practices to perfect their Psi abilities and to unleash
the potentials of the human psyche. They practiced mov-
ing the vital chi throughout the body, and they performed
exercises to open the chakras (energy centers) in the body.
The term chakra is Sanskrit for wheel or disk, and it
refers to one of the seven energy centers in the body.
These centers constitute major junctions of nerve ganglia
that branch from the spinal column. They are used by
acupuncturists in the art of healing and balancing the life
force, or chi, within the mind-body. In the past, they used
heat generated during meditation and during the burn-
ing of moxa placed at the end of the acupuncture needles;
this would remove obstructions of the energy and restore
vital balance. Sometimes the illness would disappear
quickly; other times it took longer.
The power of the body comes from the abdomen,
where chi is stored; this is the source of strength for mar-
tial artists, swordsmen, and athletes. Reportedly, the an-
cient masters warded off wild beasts with their psychic
abilities and spiritual power, as the intense focus of their
energy was enough to throw any attacker into confusion.
These ancient masters could rejuvenate the body and

210003_401_C26.indd 532 7/26/08 12:11:01 PM

 maintain good health for many years, and they could die 533
at any time they wished, remembering their mystical
Chapter 26
union with the ultimate reality.
Secret of
Living
THE GOAL OF TOTAL LIBERATION No Mind

No Mind can be attained on many levels, from brief in-

sight to deep intuitive understanding and the awakening
of dormant human abilities (see Chapter 15, The Discov-
ery of the Sequence of the Stones). Even the smallest
awakening has profound effects that last a lifetime. The
Zen saying goes, The greater the doubt, the greater the
enlightenment. Doubt puts the mind in a state of appre-
hension about the nature of the great mystery, not unlike
a balloon being lled with airthe more air, the bigger
the pop. Yet, usually traces of the Iill remain at every level
of awakening, until deep, unconscious No Mind is
attained. An article in The Journal of Transpersonal Psy-
chology discusses the stages of meditation:

Such unusual and far-reaching transformations of per-

ceptual organization and character structure could not
possibly be the work of three months or a year, nor
could they be attained by short-cuts without adequate
foundation being laid rst ... it is said to be an exten-
sive path of development that leads to a particular end:
total liberation from the experience of ordinary human
suffering and genuine wisdom that comes from true
perception of the nature of mind and its construction
of reality. (Brown & Engler, 1980)

Understanding the minds interpretation of reality is

understanding the Iill. Yet, at the deeper levels of enlight-
enment, the Iill dissipates into unconscious awareness of
the universe, and spiritual awareness is realized. This is
called satori in Zen training, or when the mind expands
with the cosmos, nothing is unknown, and everything is
seen. Boundaries are shattered, and there is only the po-
tentiality in being and nothingness. Matter, space, and
time amalgamate in the cosmic ow of the nameless.

210003_401_C26.indd 533 6/6/08 3:43:04 PM

 534 The nal intuition arises that there is only the ux and
that all forms and identities are mental illusions. But rec-
No Mind
401 ognition of the illusions of the mind is as natural as recog-
nizing that moss grows on the shady side of a river stone.
The Secrets The Judeo-Christian concept of eternity overempha-
of No Mind
sizes the thereafter and forgets the here and now. Many
spend their lives ghting sin and expecting angels to
guide them through the gates of Heaven, where God
awaits. This is a beautiful vision of the afterlife, but life
should be about living while alive, not about living after
death. Alan Watts argues that the church should be a
means for people to experience God, instead of being
merely a place of worship,

In any case, prayers for this, that, and the other put
God at a distance, when even a great theologian has
said that God is nearer to you than you are to your-
self. They [Church] likewise distract attention from the
many ways of meditation or contemplation which in-
troduce us to mystical experience, or immediate reali-
zation of our union with God. (Watts, 1973)

Life should emphasize attaining blissful union with the

ultimate reality while living here and now; not dying in
order to live dead. It is a tragic gamble for one to sacrice
his entire life hopefully pursing the afterlife of ones re-
ligious doctrine and to sacrice seeing the ultimate re-
ality while living in the process. Live life and dont let it
slip by! The reality of life and death is now. From the per-
spective of the ultimate reality, both exist in the present
moment, as there is nowhere else for them to exist, ex-
cept the human mind. The universe exists in the present
moment; there is nowhere and no time for anything else
to happen in the cosmic ow. The secret of No Mind lies
in the realization that you do not need to die in order to
see the eternal light. This truism is seen as clearly by the
enlightened as the light of the stars is seen by everyone
else. Yet, some people, when they look up at the stars,
still cant see the light.

210003_401_C26.indd 534 6/6/08 3:43:05 PM

 Figure 26-1: Secrets of No Mind

This diagram of No Mind builds upon Figure 19-1. Here, the Iill no longer separates mind and
body, and the dynamic ow of peak performance is attained. The mindful, direct perception
of reality is beyond old categorical memories and behaviors. New behavioral categories are
set up in this state of enlightenment, where spiritual awareness and insight of the ultimate
reality are grasped directly. These new categories are delineated by dashed lines, indicating
lack of attachment to them; they do not govern our behavior. In this sense, direct action and
reaction are without effort. Awareness is experienced as the only universal constant. Now,
behavioral and memory attributes have changed into more unied characteristics which
represent the enlightened person.

535

210003_401_C26.indd 535 6/7/08 4:17:01 PM

210003_401_C26.indd 536 6/6/08 3:43:07 PM
 No Mind 501

Living No Mind

210003_501_ch27.indd 537 6/6/08 3:43:37 PM

 For thousands of years, mystics have known that meditation
and other mindfulness techniques change brain metabolism,
improve sensory perception, optimize health, and reveal the
oneness of Being and Nothingness. Over the last fty years,
however, we have accumulated many medical or scientic
research studies to back up those claims. Now doctors and
scientists have elaborate tools and methods to peer into the
brain and to record its activity during meditative states.
Many clinical studies extol the positive effects mindfulness
training has on stress, on stress-related physical ailments,
and on widespread health conditions, such as depression,
obsessive-compulsive disorder, sexual dysfunction, etc.

Chapter 27 reveals past, recent, and ongoing medical

research and data that document the healthy symbiosis
between the mind-body dynamic and mindfulness.

210003_501_ch27.indd 538 6/6/08 3:44:15 PM

 Chapter 27

No Mind Health &

No Mind Academics
The Research

... many individuals in one way or another have become aware

of an inner landscape, of an experiencing of self of far greater
expanse than the outwardly observable behaving organism of
recent academic psychology. (Green & Green, 1969)

Meditative techniques have been an integral part of Eastern

cultures for the past 2,500 years, where mindfulness (or what we
call Clear Attention in the practice of No Mind) has been used to
attain enlightenment, to train attention, and to relieve psycho-
logical dis-ease. The symptoms of many diseases have been al-
leviated through the application of mindfulness, and this has
been recognized by medical professionals and psychologists dur-
ing the last century. Both experience and literature that have
been obscure to the average Westerner have long suggested that
these methods are powerful and carry signicant health benets
to those who practice them. Although still in preliminary phases,
modern cognitive science seems to corroborate some of these
claims (Otani, 2003).
539

210003_501_ch27.indd 539 6/6/08 3:44:17 PM

 540 MEDITATION IS WIDELY USED IN MEDICINE
No Mind The complex mental task of meditation is one of the most
501
important research areas currently pursued by science
Living specically, much energy is directed into the investigation
No Mind of the physiological, cognitive, emotional, and psychologi-
cal effects of meditation and its relationship to human
awareness. Recent technological advances into functional
neuroimagingsuch as positron emission tomography
(PET), single photon emission computed tomography
(SPECT), and functional magnetic resonance imaging
(FMRI)have allowed researchers to study the processes
unfolding in the brain during meditative states. These
complex processes include changes in cognition, sensory
perception, hormonal levels, and autonomic activity. Also,
meditation has become widely used in psychological and
medical practices to manage stress and to treat a variety of
physical and mental disorders:

... the neurophysiological effects that have been ob-

served during meditative states seem to outline a con-
sistent pattern of changes involving certain key cerebral
structures in conjunction with autonomic and hormo-
nal changes. (Newberg & Iversen, 2003)

THE EARLY YEARS OF RESEARCH

Systematic medical research on meditation dates back to

1957, when a renowned team of scientists conducted ex-
periments in India and concluded that ... physiologically,
yogic meditation represents deep relaxation of the auto-
nomic nervous system without drowsiness or sleep and a
type of cerebral activity without highly accelerated
electro-physiological manifestation (Bagchi & Wenger,
1957). An experiment involving two advanced yoga and
Zen practitioners revealed that alpha waves of practi-
tioners EEG increased remarkably, even if their eyes
were kept open (Kasamatsu, 1957). In 1961, researchers
at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi
placed a yogi in an airtight box underground to discover

210003_501_ch27.indd 540 6/6/08 3:44:18 PM

 that he could reduce his oxygen intake and carbon diox- 541
ide output to levels signicantly lower than his [normal]
Chapter 27
requirements during the period he remained inside the
box. His oxygen level fell nearly 50 percent below his No Mind
normal requirements. This type of control could be per- Health &
formed only by conditioning the nervous system. (Anand, No Mind
Academics
China, & Singh, 1961b) The Research

During meditation, Yogis showed a persistent Alpha

activity with well marked increased amplitude modula-
tion. During normal awareness, two Yogis were exposed
to external stimulation (strong light, loud bang, touch
of hot glass tube and vibration). All stimuli blocked the
Alpha rhythm and changed it to Beta frequency (indica-
tion of higher cognitive activity in the brain), although
none of these stimuli produced any blockage of Alpha
rhythm when the Yogis were in meditation. Yogis claim
to be oblivious to their external and internal environ-
ments during meditation, although the higher nervous
system remains in a state of ecstasy. (Anand, China, &
Singh, 1961a)

In eight more studies measuring voluntary control

and alpha-wave activity, Wenger, Bagchi, and Anand in-
vestigated three Indian subjects who deliberately slowed
down their heart rate (Wenger & Bagchi, 1961a, 1961b).
The use of meditation in psychotherapy helped patients
to obtain expanded and impersonal consciousness dur-
ing therapy sessions, thus enabling more objective analy-
sis of their symptoms and problems (Kretschmer, 1962).
In a study by Kasamatsu and Hirai, the EEGs (electro-
encephalogram) of 48 Zen priests and disciples were
continuously recorded:

Zen meditation is purely a subjective experience

completed by a concentration which holds the inner
mind calm, pure and serene. And yet Zen meditation
produces a special psychological state based on the
changes in the electroencephalogram. Therefore, Zen
meditation inuences not only the psychic life, but also
the physiology of the brain ... relaxed awakening with
steady responsiveness. EEG changes could be classied

210003_501_ch27.indd 541 7/26/08 12:33:16 PM

 542 into 4 stages; appearance of Alpha waves, increase of
Alpha amplitude, a decrease of Alpha frequency and
No Mind the appearance of rhythmical Theta Train. (Kasamatsu
501
& Hirai, 1966)
Living
No Mind We learn to train our attention during meditation
and to control what are normally autonomic behaviors,
such as breathing. It is an exercise that demands prac-
tice, like any other physical or mental activity. The pros
can control their attention with no effort, while the
novices often lose their focus because of a single
distracting thoughtthat is normal and to be expected.
Attention training (also called mindfulness or Clear
Attention) is crucial to our ability to perform at full
potential.

Mindfulness Increases Focus and Creativity

Clear Attention limits the involvement of the Iill through
deautomatization, a term introduced by Arthur Deikman,
M.D., certied in psychiatry and neurology. His sub-
jects built intra-psychic barriers against distracting
stimuli and improved their focus. All subjects agreed
that meditation was usually pleasurable, valuable and
rewarding. Subjects were instructed to concentrate on
an object, not while analyzing or thinking or associating
ideas about it, but rather, trying to see the object (for in-
stance, a vase) as it exists in itself (Deikman, 1963). Al-
most forty years later, the physiology of the relaxation
response during meditation was studied at Harvard
Medical School. Signals mapped by functional magnetic
resonance imaging indicate that the practice of medita-
tion activates neural structures involved in the control
of attention and of the autonomic nervous system (Lazar
et al., 2000).
J. C. Malhotra, M.D. demonstrates the benecial ap-
plications of yoga to psychiatry. He argues that the limita-
tions of the Iill can be reduced and eventually overcome
through the training of attention and the deautomatization
of habits and ritual behaviors. This is a consistent theme in
the literature on meditative arts, which found its way into

210003_501_ch27.indd 542 6/6/08 3:44:19 PM

 Western psychological research in the late 1950s and 543
thereafter.
Chapter 27
Yoga is not merely a system of therapeutics, but a way No Mind
of life. Its preventive value is well recognized. It dis- Health &
penses with medicinal treatment. Yoga is an ancient No Mind
Indian psycho-biological discipline which has given Academics
promising results in the treatment and prevention of The Research
functional psychosomatic and neurotic ailments. Yoga
does not believe that a person is wholly at the mercy
of his unconscious drives, strivings, and impulses.
It reinstates in people their sense of responsibility.
(Malhotra, 1963)

As discussed in No Mind 401, the practice of Clear At-

tention has been used to induce altered states of con-
sciousness, which open the gates to intuition. When the
restricting and conditioned Iill is quieted, the senses l-
ter less, allowing a more direct perception of reality,
thereby opening new creative and intuitive channels.
Creative people often refuse to accept ordinary reality. In
Creativity and Personal Freedom, Frank Barron says:

There is reason to believe that many creative individu-

als deliberately induce in themselves an altered state of
consciousness in which the ordinary structures are bro-
ken down ... Characteristically, the creative individual
refuses to be constant with the most easily established
perceptual schematic or perceptual constancy. Even
such obviously adaptive ones as the discrimination be-
tween what is inside the self versus what is outside the
self. Or the conviction that there are things in the world
which are absolutely unmoving. Or the notion that all
effects have causes. Or that time passes moment by
moment in a succession of states rather than in an un-
stoppable ux. (Barron, 1968)

Arnold Ludwig speaks of insights and creative inspi-

rations in an article published in the Archives of General
Psychiatry:
The relaxation of critical faculties is one way to produce
an altered state of consciousness, such as those attained

210003_501_ch27.indd 543 6/6/08 3:44:19 PM

 544 through passive meditation. The function of such an
ASC may allow people to acquire new knowledge or
No Mind experience; and that ASC has been applied throughout
501
history in healing arts and practices, such as those of
Living the Egyptians, Greeks and Shamans of Africa. People
No Mind have often sought to induce an ASC in an effort to gain
new knowledge, experience and as a source of creative
inspirations, insights, problem-solving and sudden il-
lumination. (Ludwig, 1966)

Professors John Mann and Herbert Otto recommend

meditation for the purpose of unfolding individuals poten-
tialities. As life becomes increasingly complex, humans
become aware of their need for peace and contemplation.
A quiet zone of tranquility and strength is readily accessible
at the core of our being, and we can get there via medita-
tion (Otto & Mann, 1968). A study at the Department of
Psychiatry at the University of Manchester, England, con-
rmed superhuman abilities in yogis, one of whom broke
a strong chain, snapped a wire around his chest by forced
inspiration and cut a beetle leaf by scissors movement of
his right index and middle nger (Hoenig, 1968).

THE 1970s RESEARCH

Control over voluntary functions (such as attention) and

autonomic functions (such as bleeding, pain, breathing,
and heart rate) has been demonstrated by many martial
artists, who have a long history of practicing meditation
as part of their advanced training. They learn to become
aware of the subtle autonomic processes in the body and
to apply concentrated attention in order to control them.
Studies prove that such control can be applied to de-
crease oxygen consumption and heart rate (Wallace,
1970; Wallace & Benson, 1972) and that Zen and yoga
practitioners show continuously high levels of alpha brain-
wave activity during meditation (Lynch & Paskewitz,
1971).
Many psychological illnesses may, in fact, be disor-
ders of attention. A study on attention and meditation

210003_501_ch27.indd 544 6/6/08 3:44:19 PM

 measured incidents of thought distractions in the cases 545
of 47 male students and concluded,
Chapter 27
The prolonged focusing of attention, whether in med- No Mind
itation or hypnosis, often leads to an altered state of Health &
consciousness. Possible reinforcement of concentra- No Mind
tion might well have therapeutic value since it is possi- Academics
ble to conceive of obsessions, phobias, schizophrenias, The Research
hysterias and so on as disorders of attention ... report-
ing on inner experience turned out to be an effective
measure that could be signicantly related to behavior.
(Van Nuys, 1971, 1973)

Meditation as Behavioral Modifier

In a study published in the Journal of Behavioral Therapy
and Experimental Psychiatry, Boudreau discusses medita-
tion and yoga as behavioral modiers in two case studies.
The rst one involves an 18-year-old student suffering
from claustrophobia who showed no improvement after
systematic desensitization (a common form of treatment
for this kind of disorder). He was instructed to practice
meditation for thirty minutes a day and to imagine fear-
evoking situations thereafter. Within a month, the phobia
was gone. A 40-year-old schoolteacher who experienced
profuse perspiration took a summer yoga course. She
practiced thirty minutes each day. After three months,
perspiration rates fell below one hour every day, from
twelve hours every day (Boudreau, 1972).

Motivations and Expectations Affect

Meditation Outcomes
Motivation and expectation inuence the outcome of
meditation practice. In a study using 27 college students
divided into three groups, experimental meditation im-
proved concentration, enhanced perception, and height-
ened awareness of the present moment. It is undoubtedly
true that an individuals motivation and expectations are
crucial variables in affecting meditation practice and
effects (Kubose, 1976). In a similar study, advanced

210003_501_ch27.indd 545 6/6/08 3:44:20 PM

 546 practitioners agreed that an open mind was prerequisite
to obtaining ones full potential. Dr. Pelletier, clinical pro-
No Mind
501 fessor at Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, and
Erick Peper, Ph.D. and president of the Biofeedback Re-
Living search Society, studied three subjects who had unusual
No Mind
control over their involuntary functions, such as stopping
pain and bleeding in different parts of the body and re-
sisting infection from injuries caused by un-sterilized
spokes. The subjects insisted that anyone could learn such
control through the practice of meditation. The impor-
tant psychological factor that characterized the subjects
was an ability to transcend fear and enter into the un-
known. The limit of experience was the limit of their belief,
and willingness to maintain an open mind concerning their
fullest potential enabled them to develop abilities which
had been considered unlikely or impossible (Pelletier &
Peper, 1977).

Going Beyond the Limits of Intellection

The two major types of meditation are based, respec-
tively, on concentrative and mindfulness techniques. Zen
training utilizes both. In the concentrative technique, the
practitioner is asked to focus on a koana paradoxical
riddle which cannot be solved intellectually. The practi-
tioner focuses on the koan until it is absorbed in aware-
ness and becomes an inseparable part of him. At this
point, the practitioner may be exhausted from attempt-
ing to resolve the koan, creating enough tension and
doubt to break through the illusion of the Iill and into the
realization of spiritual awareness. It is like a string being
pulled to the point where it breaksat this moment, de-
tachment from the Iill is realized.

The koan in Zen is used by the disciple to stop all intellec-

tion. A statement that cannot be logically answered; for
instance, What are your original features you have even
prior to your birth? ... technically speaking, the koan
given to the uninitiated is intended to destroy the root
of life, to make the calculating mind die ... to root out
the entire mind that has been at work since eternity.

210003_501_ch27.indd 546 6/6/08 3:44:20 PM

 This may sound murderous. But the ultimate intent is 547
to go beyond the limits of intellection. And these lim-
its can be crossed over only by exhausting oneself once Chapter 27
and for all, by using up all the psychic powers at ones No Mind
command. Logic then turns into psychology, intellec- Health &
tion into cognition and intuition. (Suzuki, 1956) No Mind
Academics
Koans cannot be understood by the Iill. When the cog- The Research
nitive state is transcended, the riddle becomes part of the
experience of the external and internal worlds. Magic ap-
pears magical when we dont know the secret to the trick;
but when we discover the secret, we realize that the magic
was only an illusion. Concentrative and mindfulness medi-
tation both train attention to stay focused despite distrac-
tions. Perceptual stimuli, thoughts, and emotions can
snatch our attention when we lose awareness in the mental
objects of the mind. Awareness tends to oat away with
thoughts at every opportunity, but Clear Attention reme-
dies this. Numerous studies have conrmed that mindful-
ness improves the ability to focus attention, which has
numerous therapeutic and self-improvement applications.

MINDFULNESS BRINGS MENTAL STABILITY

AND HARMONY
The practice of mindfulness is an ancient technique that
appeared over 2,500 years ago in India. Being mindful is
a potent psychotherapeutic technique for improving all
aspects of your life. The healing effects of watching the
thoughts and emotions in the mind, of gaining insight
into the illusion of the Iill, and of experiencing spiritual
awareness are well documented in ancient texts, as well
as in the modern psychological, medical, and neuro-
physiological studies. Master Shunryu Suzuki discusses
Zen in his book Zen Mind, Beginners Mind:

The most important thing is to forget all gaining ideas,

all dualistic ideas. In other words, just practice zazen
[meditation] in a certain posture. Do not think about
anything. Just remain on your cushion without expect-
ing anything. Then eventually you will resume your own

210003_501_ch27.indd 547 6/6/08 3:44:20 PM

 548 true nature. That is to say, your own true nature [Self-
nature] resumes itself ... You may feel as if you are doing
No Mind something special, but actually it is only the expression
501
of your true nature. It is the activity in which appears
Living your inmost desire. (Suzuki, 1970)
No Mind
Tomio Hirai, M.D. and professor on the faculty of Medi-
cine of Department of Psychiatry at Tokyo University, says,

But all people, whether they are believers in Zen or not,

can employ the scientic aspects of the techniques of
Zen meditation to bring about changes in their aware-
ness and thus nd mental stability and harmony. Further-
more, this can be done by the individual himself ... The
major effect of Zen meditation is the way in which it en-
ables the individual to preserve self-esteem, strengthen
himself, and develop an attitude that helps him to live in
harmony with others. (Hirai, 1975)

MEDITATION IN PSYCHOTHERAPY AND

SPIRITUALITY
G. Bogart of the Saybrook Institute reviews the use of
meditation in psychotherapy in an article published in
the American Journal of Psychotherapy:

... meditation could be of great value, however, through

its capacity to awaken altered states of consciousness
that may profoundly reorient an individuals identity,
emotional attitude and sense of wellbeing and purpose
in life. (Bogart, 1991)

The Discovery of the Sequence of the Stones (No Mind

301) begins with the birth of the mind and body. Here, we
are the closest to spiritual awareness, unless we achieve
enlightenment, which is the realization of what was
originally lost, oras Suzuki saysspiritual awareness
resuming itself after it has been masked by the develop-
ment of the Iill. The ability to control the attention and to
focus through the application of Clear Attention is essen-
tial in the practice of No Mind and in the realization of the
spiritual awareness. Merging with spiritual awareness, as

210003_501_ch27.indd 548 6/6/08 3:44:20 PM

 opposed to identifying with the Iill, is an important early 549
step toward enlightenment. An article in the International
Chapter 27
Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis describes
losing the source of identity with the object: No Mind
Health &
No Mind
During a Nirvana state, the mind retains only its formal Academics
structure, and is devoid of contents. With pure conscious- The Research
ness, the mind can concentrate on any sense organ and
experience specic sensation in a sublime fashion. For
example, concentration on the tip of the nose can bring
the experience of sublime smell ... the sense organs are
withdrawn from their specic objects and become in-
active. Then the mind, as it were, is brought to focus
within a very limited region such as the tip of the nose.
With practice the mind can attain unison with object
and loses consciousness of its own identity. As compared
in dreams, or in daydreams. Subject becomes one with
events and loses consciousness of ego, not an observer,
but participator. (Das, 1963)

Nirvana, or No Mind, is the total absorption of aware-

ness in the object. But you must break the bond between
awareness and the Iill in order to experience spiritual
awareness directly. When we lose awareness of the event
or object, we are at play. Remember the Second Paradox,
Act. React. Always in play. When we are mindful of our
activity, we are, in a sense, deconditioning our behavior,
so that we act more freely and with greater perception of
reality. We discussed the role of deautomatization for
achieving No Mind in No Mind 201; there are many stud-
ies that investigate the effects of Clear Attention and the
psychotherapeutic benets of its consistent practice.
Clear Attention breaks the habits and automatisms of
the Iill and goes beyond the intellectual structure so we
are more creative and intuitive. At the Department of
Psychology, University of West Florida, meditation was
studied as a unique state of consciousness, and the
results suggest that concentration and mindfulness
meditations may be unique forms of consciousness and
are not merely degrees of a state of relaxation (Dunn,
Hartigan, & Mikulas, 1999).

210003_501_ch27.indd 549 6/6/08 3:44:21 PM

 550 A 1976 article in Psychologia by John Radford reviews
the literature on Zen meditation and its relation to
No Mind
501 psychology:

Living Enlightenment is not, as is sometimes thought, achieved

No Mind all at once. Rather there is a ash of insight, followed
by further hard work, and so on. The disciples intellec-
tual structure is overturned. In some cases, Zen is itself
a variety of psychology. It is at least a psychological
technology: an apparently effective method of bringing
about very specic changes in experience and behavior.
(Radford, 1976)

MEDITATION INCREASES AWARENESS

No Mind is a psychological technology for improving

many aspects of peoples lives by overcoming the Iill. It
has been practiced for thousands of years, and it simply
requires stilling the mind and being mindful of your activ-
ity. Many professional therapists use Zen to un-train the
conditioning and defense mechanisms that we have ac-
quired through the development of the Iill. The practice
of No Mind dissolves the chains of the Iill. Dean Shapiro
Jr. of Stanford University describes formal and informal
Zen meditation for clinical and research purposes:

Meditation may help to increase the awareness to in-

ternal occurrences, such as thoughts, feelings, hopes
and fears, while also increasing awareness of occur-
rences outside of you. Studies have shown that Zen
Monks during meditation are signicantly more aware
than ordinary subjects to the sounds that are going
on around them ... Clients are normally instructed to
practice formal meditation at least 1015 minutes, two
times a day. (Shapiro, 1978)

Childrens Test Without Anxiety

Using Meditation
In a 1973 study published in the Journal of Consulting
and Clinical Psychology, William Linden shows that

210003_501_ch27.indd 550 6/6/08 3:44:21 PM

 meditation increases childrens ability to test without 551
anxiety and to concentrate or relax when needed. Ninety
Chapter 27
children were randomly organized in three groups:
the control group received no special attention; the No Mind
second group was offered traditional guidance on study Health &
No Mind
skills and on problems children typically encounter in
Academics
the learning process; and the third group was provided The Research
instructions on breathing, mind control, and focused
attention:

All results were over an 18 week period. The results

indicated that meditation practice trains one to focus
attention and to resist distraction, thus enhancing
eld independence [environmental stimuli] as meas-
ured by childrens embedded gures test. And results
showed subjects learned to relax and to cope with
anxiety responses in testing situation by voluntarily
changing their attention from failure to moment by
moment ow of ongoing and primarily bodily experi-
ences. (Linden, 1973)

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has been

an effective stress-management intervention for medical
students confronted with academic and psychosocial
stressors throughout their training (Rosenzweig, Reibel,
Greeson, Brainard, & Hojat, 2003). And the book Super
Learning details yet another revolutionary learning
techniquesuggestologywhich is founded on music.
It was developed by Russian scientist Dr. Georgi
Lozanov on the basis of Raja Yoga, and it applies
altered states of consciousness to learning, healing,
and intuitive development. It involves entering a calm,
relaxed, meditative state, usually while listening to
slow baroque music measuring sixty beats per minute.
This slows down the body and mind rhythms, and then
the educational material is presented in slowly paced
rhythm over the music. Deep relaxation utilizes Raja
Yoga breathing exercises and improves concentration.
Some tests showed that people absorbed up to 3,000
words per day (Ostrander, Ostrander, & Schroeder,
1979).

210003_501_ch27.indd 551 6/6/08 3:44:21 PM

 552 BUDDHIST MONKS CAN CHANGE THEIR
INTERNAL STATES
No Mind
501
As discussed, studies on yogis in the 1960s revealed their
Living unique ability to control involuntary physiological func-
No Mind tions. Meditative techniques bring awareness to the sub-
tle processes in the body and enable control over these
processes. Practitioners are in command of bleeding,
pain, infection, heart rate, breathing, and oxygen con-
sumption, along with the maintenance of alpha brain
rhythms associated with calm and focused states of mind.
Jack Schwarz, who demonstrated control over a host of
autonomic functions under laboratory conditions, says:

The voluntary control of internal states, a term frequently

used today, refers to the ability to become aware of these
unconscious functions. When you can focus your atten-
tion on these subtle physical processes, you can correct
debilitating reactions such as the physical effects of
hypertension, stress and anxiety. (Schwarz, 1978)

In recent studies on meditation, Buddhist monks will-

ingly raised their resting metabolism to 61 percent above
the baseline, and similarly lowered it by 64 percent
(Benson, Malhotra, Goldman, Jacobs, & Hopkins, 1990).
A quarter century after Voluntary Controls was published,
researchers are suggesting that Buddhist monks use men-
tal training to induce short- and long-term neural changes
(Lutz, Greischar, Rawlings, Ricard, & Davidson, 2004).
Regional cerebral blood-ow patterns change during
meditation, which indicates that the superior parietal
lobe induces an altered sense of space during meditation
(Newberg et al., 2001) These abilities require practice, as
does any other type of mental or physical skill, and the
proper motivation is imperative in the process.
The effort required to apply Clear Attention is similar
to that needed to learn any other skillyou are pro-
gressively re-training your attention to be mindful of
your immediate activity. The years of Iill conditioning
require deautomatization. But proper motivation and
expectations in the form of the Right Attitude (discussed

210003_501_ch27.indd 552 6/6/08 3:44:21 PM

 in No Mind 301) are one reason why the No Mind pro- 553
gram has been structured in the sequence presented
Chapter 27
here. Preconceptions and expectations inuence the
development and use of mindfulness skills (Mason & No Mind
Hargreaves, 2001). Right Attitude, as outlined by the Health &
No Mind
Ten Paradoxes, is as important as the technique itself.
Academics
Studies have shown that meditation not only develops The Research
control and attention training, but also awakens energy
centers in the body, altered states of consciousness, spir-
ituality, and enlightenment.

EXPERIENCING UNCONDITIONAL EMOTIONS

IN MEDITATION
One researcher performed a study whose results demon-
strated the experience of unconditioned Iill-less emotions.
Goodman performed advanced practice in Kundalini
Yoga, the Doei Shabd Kriya, as an experiment for 40 days.
During that time, he drew the following conclusions:

Altered states of consciousness are signicantly differ-

ent from normal waking consciousness, which seems
to have a motivating quality to inspire ones behavior
in everyday life. There was the experience of vivid and
coherent dreams, which distinctly had the quality of
being real experience. And prolonged hypnotic state,
emotional outpouring, i.e., intense joy, feeling of inter-
personal communion. These emotions far exceed nor-
mal levels in waking life. Vibratory and sound energy
sweeping over the entire body was experienced and
possibly connected with activation of dormant energy
in the nervous system. (Goodman, 197879)

Others have reached similar insights. Richard Albert,

once a psychology professor at Harvard University, be-
came Ram Dass after meeting his spiritual teacher in the
Indian Himalayas. There, he learned how to reach his
inner being through meditation:

Meditative awareness has a clarity that lays bare both

the workings of your mind and the other forces at work

210003_501_ch27.indd 553 6/6/08 3:44:22 PM

 554 in a situation. This clarity allows you to see the factors
that determine your choices from moment to moment.
No Mind In this inner stillness and clarity you are fully aware
501
of the entire gestalt, the whole pictures. With no effort
Living your response is optimal on all levels, not just mechani-
No Mind cally reactive on one. The response is in tune, harmoni-
ous, in the ow. (Dass, 1978)

Albin Gilbert describes the enlightened individual as

somebody who constantly thinks of the absolute during
his or her daily activities, a state called inert concentra-
tion: By practicing this mode of egoless living, the ex-
perimenter acquires over time a sense of being enfolded
and guided by the transpersonal absolute ... To him life
will be a string of actions, each integrated with a sense of
spirituality (Gilbert, 1978).

MINDFULNESS-BASED STRESS REDUCTION

AND DEPRESSION
The application of mindfulness meditation (or Clear Atten-
tion) to therapy has been studied extensively recently. Mind-
fulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is based on Jon
Kabat-Zinns Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
program developed at the University of Massachusetts
Medical Center. It uses controlled breathing and mindful
awareness of present-moment activities, such as watching
moment-to-moment changes in the mind-body, as discussed
No Mind 301. The program utilizes the same kind of tradi-
tional mindfulness meditation that has been used in the
East for over two millennia (Kabat-Zinn, 2003; Kabat-Zinn,
Lipworth, & Burney, 1985). Research by Zindel Segal, Mark
Williams, and John Teasdale shows that meditation sus-
tains post-depression well-being and that mindfulness-
based cognitive therapy signicantly reduces depressive
relapses (Teasdale, Segal, & Williams, 1995).
Such programs help patients see the automated pat-
terns of the Iill and the auto-action and reaction cycles of
negative behavior. The practice of Clear Attention breaks
the chain of negative mood and critical self-talk (e.g.,

210003_501_ch27.indd 554 6/6/08 3:44:22 PM

 I am a loser, I cannot do it, I am weak, It will never 555
end, I am useless, etc.) that characterizes the depres-
Chapter 27
sive behavioral pattern. Patients watch negative thoughts
and body sensations, such as fatigue, passively, without No Mind
having to ght them. Then they apply mindfulness tech- Health &
No Mind
niques to recognize that negative behaviors and thoughts
Academics
are part of the minds contents (Scott et al., 2000) and The Research
focus on the present, avoiding past and future orienta-
tions of thought patterns that may produce relapse.
Clinically, results support the usefulness of training
recovered depressed patients in adaptive experiential
forms of self-awareness, as in mindfulness-based cog-
nitive therapy. (Watkins & Teasdale, 2004)

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy has also been

shown to reduce over-general memory in depressed, sui-
cidal, and post-traumatic-stress-disorder patients. Re-
search has shown that such patients tend to retrieve
generic summaries of past events, as opposed to specic
occurrences, which open a broader range of trigger cues
for relapse. In other words, a wide variety of external cir-
cumstances have the potential to cause negative reaction,
as opposed to a small array of very specic events. Mind-
fulness training in psychological treatment signicantly
reduces the number of general memories (Williams,
Teasdale, Segal, & Soulsly, 2000). Teasdale identies three
modes of emotional processing in the prevention of
depression relapse: mindless emoting, conceptualizing/
doing, and mindful experiencing/being. Only the third
facilitates learning to switch processing modes by inten-
tional deployment of attention, which constitutes effec-
tive therapy (Teasdale, 1999a).

MINDFULNESS ENCOURAGES BETTER

DOCTOR-PATIENT INTERACTIONS
With the widespread and growing use of mindfulness med-
itation in hospitals and academic outpatient centers treat-
ing chronic stress and pain, it is important to address

210003_501_ch27.indd 555 6/6/08 3:44:22 PM

 556 the biological mechanisms through which meditation
affects somatic, cognitive, and affective processes. A short-
No Mind
501 term program in mindfulness meditation has demonstra-
ble effects on brain and immune function (Davidson
Living et al., 2003). Zen mindfulness practice and internalized
No Mind
attention have been shown to initiate a psychophysiolog-
ical reaction of the nervous system that relaxes the mind-
body while remaining fully alert physically and mentally
(Takahashi et al., 2005). Mindfulness practitioners have
demonstrated a unique quality of consciousness and
well-being constructseven in cancer patients, mindful-
ness was related to declines in mood disturbance and
stress (Brown & Ryan, 2003).
Mindfulness can also be applied to doctor-patient
interactions, which are crucial to understanding the pa-
tients symptoms:

Critical self-reection enables physicians to listen at-

tentively to patients distress, recognize their own er-
rors, rene their technical skills, make evidence-based
decisions, and clarify their values so that they can act
with compassion, technical competence, presence, and
insight. Mindfulness informs all types of profession-
ally relevant knowledge, including propositional facts,
personal experiences, processes, and know-how, each
of which may be tacit or explicit. Mindful practition-
ers use a variety of means to enhance their ability to
engage in moment-to-moment self-monitoring, bring
to consciousness their tacit personal knowledge and
deeply held values, use peripheral vision and subsidiary
awareness to become aware of new information and
perspectives, and adopt curiosity in both the ordinary
and novel situations. (Epstein, 1999)

In clinical settings, the patients narrative may be lim-

ited by the physicians tendency to control the interaction
dynamics, a tendency that can be limited or eliminated
through mindfulness practice:

If the patients narrative is not fully heard, the possi-

bility of diagnostic and therapeutic error increases, the

210003_501_ch27.indd 556 6/6/08 3:44:22 PM

 likelihood of personal connections resulting from a 557
shared experience diminishes, empathetic opportuni-
ties are missed, and patients may not feel understood Chapter 27
or cared for. The practice of mindfulness as moment to No Mind
moment, non-judgmental awareness opens the doorway Health &
into the patients story as it unfolds. Such mindful prac- No Mind
tice develops the physicians focus of attention and offers Academics
the possibility for a meaningful and important narrative The Research
to arise between patient and physician. (Connelly, 2005)

Being in the present moment can help doctors and

other professionals to overcome distractedness. Applying
these skills in everyday practice rewards the physician
with renewed energy, fresh perspectives, and increased
strength while reducing stress and harm caused by dis-
tracted practices (Connelly, 1999). General and psychiat-
ric nurses have also used mindfulness-based therapeutic
interventions to relieve mental distress in patients and to
promote their physical health (OHaver & Horton-Deutsch,
2004; Proulx, 2003). Meditation has been tested in clinical
pediatric practice as well (Ott, 2002).

MINDFULNESS REDUCES ANXIETY

AND STRESS DISORDERS
The list of applications continues. In two clinical studies
of menopausal women, researchers trained the subjects
in paced respiration and encouraged them to practice for
1520 minutes once or twice a day. Hot ashes decreased
by 50 percent, as measured objectively by skin tempera-
ture, compared to the control group that received no
training. Some women discovered that the breathing tech-
nique circumvented imminent hot ashes. Other studies
suggest that mindfulness is equally helpful in controlling
PMS symptoms (Ferrari, Kagan, Kessel, & Benson, 2004).
A study of women with heart disease suggests that anxiety
contributes to developing the disorder and that mindful-
ness-based stress reduction had benecial effects (Tacon,
McComb, Caldera, & Randolph, 2003). Mindfulness med-
itation brings about long-term improvements for people
with anxiety disorders (Miller, Fletcher, & Kabat-Zinn,

210003_501_ch27.indd 557 6/6/08 3:44:23 PM

 558 1995) and has been shown to clear the skin of psoriasis
patients four times faster than the use of phototherapy
No Mind
501 alone (Kabat-Zinn et al., 1998).

Living
No Mind
MINDFULNESS CAN CHANGE BRAIN FUNCTION
THROUGH NEUROPLASTICITY
Among the most groundbreaking research in mindfulness
and its ability to change brain functions has to do with
what is called self-directed neuroplasticity (Schwartz &
Begley, 2002). Studies using brain imaging demonstrate
that mindfulness-based treatments are associated with
major brain changes. For example, people are capable of
re-wiring brain circuitry associated with obsessive-
compulsive disorder (OCD) and of changing brain metabo-
lism when they apply basic mindful awareness. Patients are
taught to become active agents in their treatment process
through the practice of self-therapy. The use of mindful-
ness has potentially profound implications for the clinical
application of therapies that acknowledge the importance
of spirituality in the practice of modern scientic medi-
cine (Schwartz, Gulliford, Stier, & Thienemann, 2005).
The brain can remodel itself throughout life to ac-
commodate passive demands, like learning to play an
instrument or detaching from a negative behavior that is
identied with the Iill. The consensus among neuroscien-
tists is that internal states shape the structure and function
of the brain (Lutz et al., 2004) with the potential to mod-
ify neural circuitry associated with anxiety disorders,
for example. Thus, changes made at the mind level
within a psychotherapeutic context functionally re-
wire the brain (Paquette et al., 2003). The brain can
create new neurons through a process called neurogene-
sis, and this enables learning tasks in the hippocampus,
which is involved in the formation of directional memo-
ries similar to mental maps of the environment (Shors
et al., 2001). The adult brain, which is known to repair
itself poorly, might actually harbor great potential for
neuron regeneration (Kempermann & Gage, 1999).
Scientists have demonstrated that the hippocampus

210003_501_ch27.indd 558 7/26/08 12:33:17 PM

 changes in the course of learning or memorizing through 559
repetition. Neurogenesis suggests that the brain not only
Chapter 27
re-wires itself to meet the minds requirements, but also
adds new neurons as needed to enhance the neural net- No Mind
works and to alter behaviors (Kempermann, 2002). Hu- Health &
No Mind
mans have the capacity to inuence the electrochemical
Academics
dynamics of their brains, by voluntarily changing the na- The Research
ture of the mind processes unfolding in the psychologi-
cal space (Beauregard, Levesque, & Bourgouin, 2001).
The ongoing research into human neurophysiology in-
volves a signicant number of studies that focus on the ef-
fect mindfulness has on the activity of the prefrontal
cortex. This area of the brain is responsible for planning
and self-initiated responses, and, subsequently, for emo-
tional self-regulation strategies. The implications for men-
tal health are tremendous (Schwartz, Stapp, & Beauregard,
2004). Clear Attention regulates ones responses while they
are actually being performed, so that one is passively aware
of self-regulating behaviors and can induce change. When
we divert attention from thoughts that trigger negative be-
haviors, and when we recognize that negative behaviors
have psychobiological sources, we can change the auto-
actions and reaction of the brain. We recognize that
thoughts are merely thoughts without a reality of their
own, so that when we apply attention, we become detached
from habitual and learned behaviors. We do not have to
act our thoughts, and using Clear Attention to see the
thought in a detached mode has signicant neurophysio-
logical effects which can alter negative behavior. Remem-
ber, they are just thoughts, not calls to action. The brain
can be trained and physically modied through the mental
practice of mindfulness. Researchers at Harvard and Prin-
ceton universities and Richard Davidson of the W. M. Keck
Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior
have established that the left prefrontal cortex is the area
where activity associated with meditation is especially
intense (Kaufman, 2005).

It takes effort for people to do this because it requires a

redirection of the brains resources away from responses

210003_501_ch27.indd 559 6/6/08 3:44:23 PM

 560 controlled largely by the lower brain centers towards
higher level functions which are associated with parts
No Mind of the brain unique to human beings. This cannot
501
happen automatically. Rather, it requires willful train-
Living ing and directed effort ... And as advances in scien-
No Mind tic understanding have demonstrated, it is an act of
the mind that is capable of rewiring the brain ... the
crucial point is that even for medically caused neu-
ropsychiatric symptoms the insight gained through
the proactive use of mindfulness has signicant ef-
fects both psychologically and biologically. (Schwartz
et al., 2005)

THE BRAINS UNIVERSAL COMPONENT

Negative behaviors can be turned into cues reminding us

to use mindfulness techniques in order to reprocess the
behavior and subsequently rewire auto-actions or reac-
tions. Brain changes reecting stable shifts in the process-
ing of negative emotions under stress have been observed
in novice meditators (Davidson et al., 2003). Self-directed
neuroplasticity remaps the neural networks to produce
more adaptive behavior. There are now numerous re-
ports on the effects of self-directed regulation of emo-
tional response, via cognitive reframing and attentional
re-contextualization mechanisms, on cerebral function
(Schwartz et al., 2004). But neural mechanisms using
mindfulness to change ones own mental processes are
inadequately described by brain mechanics alone. Henry
Stapp has been working in conjunction with Schwartz
and Beauregard to explain neuropsychological processes
from the perspective of quantum physics. They have ap-
plied the Quantum Zeno Effect, which postulates that
being mindful of an experience holds in place the brains
state of that experience in the moment. For instance,
when you apply Clear Attention to alter a specic negative
behavior, the brain state to deautomatize that behavior
is held in place in that moment, and the mechanism of
neuroplasticity has higher probability of rewiring the
brain (Schwartz et al., 2004). The mind performs quantum

210003_501_ch27.indd 560 6/6/08 3:44:23 PM

 action on the brain through mechanisms that are not only 561
cerebral in nature. Quantum mechanics convincingly
Chapter 27
describes the mind-brain continuum as a reection of the
nature of the universe, which suggests that the mind has No Mind
a non-cerebral component that is an aspect of the Health &
No Mind
universe.
Academics
The Research

MINDFULNESS EXPANDS OUR PERCEPTION

OF REALITY
Awareness training based on mindfulness techniques can
be used to overcome a host of negative behaviors, to man-
age stress and anxiety, to enhance business and personal
relationships and achievements, to increase education
prociency, to encourage positive behaviors, and to
achieve full potential in sports and competitive events.
The important point is that you are not trying to still
the mind. It is not a technique the Iill learns the way it
learns other conditioned techniques. You let go in the
moment and passively observe the experience without
exerting any conditioning effort. After some practice,
you will be able to apply Clear Attention without engag-
ing in inner dialogue, such as, Im going to practice Clear
Attention, or I know I can do this. Passive doing with-
out thinking or trying is as important as the technique
itself. Remember the fth paradox: Perform. Do. But never
think.
An important component in the practice of No Mind
is the ability to perceive a greater reality than was previ-
ously unnoticed; in time, you even experience reality di-
rectly beyond the interpreting mechanisms of the Iill.
When we live inside the Iill, we see only the small sliver
of reality that relates to the Iill and to its conditioned
needs, desires, expectations, goals, hopes, and so on.
Most people are dissatised within their ego prison even
if they have the material resources to do anything, be-
cause they intuitively sense how limited their life is. There
is always something missing, so people turn to religion,
philosophy, poetry, music, scienceanything that might

210003_501_ch27.indd 561 6/6/08 3:44:24 PM

 562 reunite them with spiritual awareness and break the du-
alistic illusion of separateness. We dwell in the past or fu-
No Mind
501 ture and miss the present, and this makes us hungry for
more, but no matter how much we get, we remain dissat-
Living ised. This insatiable aspect of human nature can be
No Mind
overcome by the experience of non-dualistic No Mind,
when we re-discover our wetness in the ocean of the
universe.

This implies waking up to the full spectrum of our

experience in the present moment, which, as we en-
gage in mindfulness practice, we rapidly discover
is severely edited and often distorted through the
routinized, habitual, and unexamined activity of our
thoughts and emotions, often involving signicant
alienation from direct experience of the sensory world
and the body ... Mindfulness-based programs are of-
fered in hospitals and clinics around the world, as well
as schools, workplaces, corporate ofces, law schools,
adult and juvenile prisons, inner city health centers,
and a range of other settings. (Kabat-Zinn, 2003)

As we learned in No Mind 301, it is important to main-

tain the Right Attitude and Right Awareness in our daily
lives, remembering and applying the Ten Paradoxes
whenever we can, so that No Mind eventually becomes
an effortless and habituated behavior. People have been
practicing these techniques for thousands of years and
the results have been consistently invaluable. In todays
fast-paced and chaotic society, nding serenity is as
important as getting nutritious food. We dont have the
luxury of time that people in the distant past had, but this
is exactly what makes the No Mind program so useful
and accessible. The format and sequencing of the infor-
mation presented here are designed to help you accom-
plish in months what took years for the ancient masters.
But you must take the rst step on the journey by practic-
ing No Mind in your daily life.

210003_501_ch27.indd 562 6/6/08 3:44:24 PM

 563
CHAPTER 27 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 27
BEFORE CONTINUING
No Mind
1. Meditative techniques have been an integral part Health &
of Eastern cultures for the past 2,500 years, where No Mind
Academics
mindfulness (or what we call Clear Attention in The Research
the practice of No Mind) has been used to attain
enlightenment, to train attention, and to relieve
psychological disease.
2. Meditation has become widely used in psychologi-
cal and medical practices to manage stress and to
treat a variety of physical and mental disorders.
3. Systematic medical research on meditation dates
back to 1957, when a renowned team of scientists
conducted experiments in India and concluded
that ... physiologically, yogic meditation repre-
sents deep relaxation of the autonomic nervous
system without drowsiness or sleep and a type of
cerebral activity without highly accelerated electro-
physiological manifestation.
4. Numerous studies have conrmed that mindful-
ness improves the ability to focus attention, which
has numerous therapeutic and self-improvement
applications.
5. Many professional therapists use Zen to un-train
the conditioning and defense mechanisms that
we have acquired through the development of the
Iill. The practice of No Mind dissolves the chains
of the Iill.
6. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has
been an effective stress-management intervention
for medical students confronted with academic and
psychosocial stressors throughout their training.
7. Meditation increases childrens ability to test
without anxiety and to concentrate or relax when
needed.

210003_501_ch27.indd 563 6/6/08 3:44:24 PM

 564

No Mind 8. In recent studies on meditation, Buddhist monks

501 willingly raised their resting metabolism to 61 per-
cent above the baseline, and similarly lowered it
Living
No Mind by 64 percent. Regional cerebral blood-ow pat-
terns change during meditation, which indicates
that the superior parietal lobe induces an altered
sense of space during meditation.
9. Meditation sustains post-depression well-being
and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy signi-
cantly reduces depressive relapses.
10. Meditation can help doctors and other profession-
als to overcome distractedness. Applying these
skills in everyday practice rewards the physician
with renewed energy, fresh perspectives, and in-
creased strength while reducing stress and harm
caused by distracted practices.
11. Among the most groundbreaking research in
mindfulness and its ability to change brain func-
tions has to do with what is called self-directed
neuroplasticity. Studies using brain imaging
demonstrate that mindfulness-based treatments are
associated with major brain changes. For example,
people are capable of re-wiring brain circuitry as-
sociated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
and of changing brain metabolism when they
apply basic mindful awareness.
12. The ongoing research into human neurophysiol-
ogy involves a signicant number of studies that
focus on the effect mindfulness has on the activ-
ity of the prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain
is responsible for planning and self-initiated
responses, and, subsequently, for emotional self-
regulation strategies.

210003_501_ch27.indd 564 7/26/08 12:33:17 PM

 565
13. Awareness training based on mindfulness tech- Chapter 27
niques can be used to overcome a host of negative
behaviors, to manage stress and anxiety, to en- No Mind
Health &
hance business and personal relationships and No Mind
achievements, to increase education prociency, Academics
to encourage positive behaviors, and to achieve The Research
full potential in sports and competitive events.

210003_501_ch27.indd 565 6/6/08 3:44:29 PM

 You can integrate No Mind into every aspect of your life,
but some of its benets are especially valuable in the realm
of sports, including peak performance, great joy, effortless
ability, total absorption, and intense concentration. Top
athletes often describe metanormal experiences and peak
moments, where they effortlessly jump higher, run faster,
lift incredible amounts of weight, y through the air as if
they were weightless, and completely transcend their Iill to
become one with the game. This experience is called being
in the zone.

Chapter 28 applies No Mind to the sports arena and reveals

the benets one can reap in physical activities through its
practice.

210003_501_ch28.indd 566 6/6/08 3:44:55 PM

 Chapter 28

No Mind Sports

T he Iill cannot experience ow; to say, I am in the ow is in-

correct. The ow exists and is achieved by transcending the
I during the sporting activity. So, as if we enter a river, we simply
enter the ow by removing awareness from the Iill. As our bodies
experience the ow of the currents when we are in a river, we ex-
perience the ow in sports as a peak performance of the mind-
body with the awareness no longer being aware of itself as an I.
When a river merges with the ocean, it loses its river form and be-
comes the boundless ocean.
The ancient masters taught the mental training techniques and
the Ten Paradoxes of No Mind in the martial arts, swordsman-
ship, archery, and other sports of the time. There are those who
have used the techniques for inner relaxation and increased focus,
and then there are those who have gained mystical insights and
excelled beyond the normal from more comprehensive practice.
They reached No Mind through total absorption in their sport. By
moving past the Iill and into spiritual awareness, the experience
567

210003_501_ch28.indd 567 6/6/08 3:44:58 PM

 568 of selessness, no matter how complete, leaves its mark
on the practitioner, touching a universal chord within him.
No Mind
501 Many traditional books on Zen have related the practices
to sports performance. The emphasis is usually on con-
Living centration, relaxation, and focus. While these goals are
No Mind
worthy in themselves and extremely helpful to an athlete,
they are not the core of No Mind Sports. Applying the
Ten Paradoxes constitutes a more profound goal here.
The Right Awareness and Right Attitude, as detailed in
No Mind 301, are required for the true experience of
No Mind in the performance of a sport. In modern soci-
ety, it is tempting to seek a shortcut, or an easy way, to
obtain the fruits of the No Mind practice; however, while
there are many benets along the road, the path to en-
lightenment through realizing No Mind is a longer one.

ATHLETES CANNOT VERBALIZE THE EXPERIENCE

Iill-less actions are extremely potent and efcient. In the

realm of sports, they induce superior performance, great
joy, effortless movement, total absorption, and intense
concentration. Recently, sport psychologists and training
specialists have been studying a phenomenon called ow
by Csikszentmihalyi, peak experiences by Maslow, peak
performance by Privette, or zone by others. In a litera-
ture review, McInman and Grove discuss the elation and
rapture experienced by athletes and their unwillingness
to articulate these feelings because they dont have the
knowledge to make sense of them. Some athletes nd it
difcult to verbally describe the experience, even though
for many it is the main reason to engage in the sport. And
others feel uncomfortable talking about it because it feels
very personal, yet ambiguous. Still, there are thousands
of references to such meta-normal experiences and peak
moments in the literature (Murphy & White, 1995).
McInman and Grove review the different interpretations
of various altered states of consciousness experienced in
sports and suggest that they all should be subsumed
under the term peak moments. A peak moment is an

210003_501_ch28.indd 568 6/6/08 3:44:59 PM

 expression of No Mind. In both cases, the experience su- 569
persedes our dualistic language and we nd ourselves un-
Chapter 28
able to nd the words to describe it. Peak experiences
involve non-dualistic transcendence of self in the per- No Mind
formance of the activity, and identity-based language Sports
does not lend itself to capturing the phenomenon. Re-
member, once you describe what something is, you are
simultaneously saying what it is not. And the peak mo-
ment is a totality of experience that includes everything
and nothing, being and nothingness, simultaneously; it is
the player and the sport unfolding as one. You are play-
ing the game, but then, again, you are not, as the Iill is
transcended. So the mind-body dynamic is in the ow of
the sport. The player does not perform the sport; there is
just the performance of the sport, or the sport perform-
ing through the player.
The peak moments of athletes are fundamentally sim-
ilar to No Mind experiences, except that No Mind practi-
tioners are trained to understand the signicance of
No Mind insight in its relation to the Iill and spiritual
awareness. Athletes are not usually trained or educated
to mentally comprehend the relative signicance of these
peak moments, which may render such experiences con-
fusing, deeply personal, and beyond articulation. Major
commonalities between peak and No Mind experiences
include total absorption, transcendence of self or iden-
tity, not trying, not over-compensating with conscious ef-
fort, non-dualistic experience of oneness, releasing the
Iills control over the mind-body dynamic, bliss, intuition
or insight, great joy and illumination, and altered space-
time perception (McInman & Grove, 1991). Interviews
with 16 national-champion gure skaters revealed that
the factors perceived as most important for getting into
ow included a positive mental attitude, positive precom-
petitive and competitive affect, maintaining appropriate
focus, physical readiness and for some pairs/dance skaters,
unity with partner (Jackson & Roberts, 1992). In other
words, a positive emotional attitude, focus, and being
physically ready for the competition led the athletes to
peak performances. When you are prepared properly, you

210003_501_ch28.indd 569 6/6/08 3:44:59 PM

 570 have to think less and are more apt to get into the zone,
compared to novices who would have to concentrate on
No Mind
501 what they are doing. The superior performance of ath-
letes in peak moments has also been observed in people
Living undergoing crisis and survival situations, brainstorming
No Mind
and intuitive intellection, artistic or creative outpouring,
emotional highs through sexual expression, and intense
joy (Privette & Bundrick, 1987).

BREAKING THROUGH SELF-LIMITATIONS TO

ACHIEVE FLOW
The total concentration required for extreme sports, such
as mountain climbing, snowboarding, and car racing, be-
comes addictive; the sense of going beyond the Iill and
into the essence of No Mind is in itself very powerful. In
one study, focus emerged as the key element for getting
into the ow (Kimiecik & Stein, 1992); other factors in-
clude condence, optimal motivation and arousal level,
and how the performance felt and progressed (Jackson,
1995). Flow is the sense of performance that shatters the
athletes concept of self-limitations and brings him or her
to a new realization of peak performance. Most athletes,
regardless of gender or type of sport, have experienced
this without knowing exactly what was happening, and
sports psychologists have been interpreting and attempt-
ing to systematically understand these occurrences so
that they could be duplicated (Russell, 2001). However,
these experiences cannot be duplicated intentionally. They
must occur without any effort.

ACT. REACT. BU T NE VER TRY.

The First Paradox, presented in Chapter 16, No Mind

301, captures the ancient wisdom of non-action. Without
trying, all is accomplished, and this holds especially true
in sports. Intention, expectation, and conscious effort de-
feat some actions before we even begin to execute them.
Well-trained athletes who have learned through rigorous

210003_501_ch28.indd 570 6/6/08 3:44:59 PM

 repetition and become keenly sensitive to unconscious 571
perceptual cues have conditioned a mind-body dynamic
Chapter 28
that does not require conscious attention to perform. In
other words, athletes are so highly conditioned that they No Mind
perform with relatively minimal conscious effort, which Sports
allows them to let go more easily than a novice can. The
letting go of all psychological mechanisms that make
up the mental web of the Iill has positive effect on the
performance. Trained athletes simply learn to think less
and to trust their mind-body. As the Fifth Paradox says,
Perform. Do. But Never Think. They do not need to guide
their performance any more than a tiger chasing its prey
needs to consciously manage its legs or to ponder the
outcome of a successful catch. The best performance is
the simple delivery of a mind-body dynamic, which has
been trained for this activity or has an inherent potential
for it. In one study, mental-training techniques, such as
meditation, were practiced by military personnel for
eight months, after which their performance on concrete
tasks and on mental tests was signicantly better than
the control group (Larsson, 1987).
Learning to let go and to trust the mind-body is very
difcult and in itself needs to be conditioned. We have to
be untrained from trying so hard and trained in not
trying and letting go. Take, for example, learning to
swim. Most people who dont know how to swim could
probably do it if they just stopped thinking about their
inability to swim, which, in turn, causes fear, panic, ex-
cessive energy usage, stupor, and eventually sinking. If
they didnt panic, they would discover that their body
oats easily, and with a little effort and a doggy paddle,
they could make it to safety. Its a matter of trusting the
mind-body to do what it can do without trying to inter-
fere. Tim Gallwey, author of The Inner Game of Tennis,
reveals:

Our biggest problem is ego, trying too hard. We know

how to play perfect tennis. Perfect tennis is in us all.
Everyone knows how to ride a bike, and just before we
ride for the rst time, we know we know. The problem

210003_501_ch28.indd 571 6/6/08 3:44:59 PM

 572 with ego is that it has to achieve; we are not sure who
we are until by achieving we become ... Ninety percent
No Mind of the bad things students do are intentional correc-
501
tions. (Smith, 1975)
Living
No Mind
WE LOSE PERFORMANCE WHEN WE PAUSE
TO THINK
In sports, the dualistic thinking of the Iill poses an obsta-
cle for an athlete to overcome. The Iill is full of intentions
to play correctly and to win. In athletes peak moments,
the self is transcended in an almost mystical feeling of
oneness. The Sixth Paradox says, When mind is as a mir-
ror, everything is revealed. At the point of being aware of
transcending the self, the mind is intently focused on the
activity of the mind-body. The awareness mirrors the
performance, just objectively watching the mind-body.
The gate of letting go is opened and the mind-body is
free to act as it has been trainedeffortlessly, faster, and
more powerfully. The ancient techniques of the martial
arts, especially swordsmanship, integrated the practice
of No Mindmindfulness was always an important part
of their training routine. Those who could ght without
conscious attention and direction were faster in sensing
unconscious perceptual cues coming from their oppo-
nents and responded instantaneously, without taking any
time to think.
For the martial artist, contemplating or over-analyzing
a move or a block during a ght could be fatal. As men-
tioned in No Mind 101, experiments on reaction con-
ducted by neurophysiologist Benjamin Libet, as well as
by others, have shown that the brain unconsciously pre-
pares to act a measurable length of time before a person
consciously decides to act. The brain starts acting on
perceptual cues up to half a second before awareness of
the cues emerges. While the brain is acting on the re-
sponse, a thought is being generated about it, causing
delay in the action. The delay provides time to con-
sciously censor the action and to cancel it if needed. The
point here is that in the course of a sporting activity, the

210003_501_ch28.indd 572 6/6/08 3:45:00 PM

 brain has already prepared the move or counter move 573
before we become aware of it. In professional tennis, the
Chapter 28
ball crosses the court in a quarter of a second, which
gives the player no time to think; to be able to return No Mind
the ball, the mind-body must already be in position by Sports
acquiring cues from the opponent before he or she even
hits the ball its way. Those who have experienced this
powerful feeling of the mind and body acting and react-
ing during a performance, sport, game, or ght have
experienced No Mind without knowing it. This is not
being lost in the action mindlessly, but having full aware-
ness of being mindful of the mind-body dynamic, with-
out directing it.
Libets experiments have signicant implications for
our understanding of the Iill. We usually equate the will-
ing of an action and its causation by the Iill; yet, accord-
ing to the scientic evidence, they are not the same, and
we only confuse them because of the mechanisms of the
Iill. The generation of the action occurs before the thought
of action and the awareness of that thought take place.
In other words, the brain determines its response to
stimuli and begins the actual movement to carry out that
response up to half a second before we become aware of
the thought and of the movement. By the time we start
thinking of the action, it is already underway. So let go
With thought, no ow. Without thought, ow. This ancient
wisdom has nally become accepted by the modern scien-
tic community and many sports psychologists; perhaps
the ancient masters intuitively understood the mecha-
nisms of neurophysics.

CLEAR ATTENTION DEVELOPS FLOW

We know instinctively that if we need to think about an

action, it is delayed relative to its unconscious perform-
ance. Top athletes have conrmed this in interviews with
researchers after peak moments (McInman & Grove, 1991).
This experience produces a strong sense of freedomit is
liberating to trust ones natural abilities and to allow the
mind-body to act without interruptions and distractions

210003_501_ch28.indd 573 6/6/08 3:45:00 PM

 574 from the Iill. Clear Attention during the performance of a
sport allows conscious control to be suppressed, while
No Mind
501 the instinct of the mind-body dynamic takes over.

Living ... every change in the physiological state is ac-

No Mind companied by an appropriate change in the mental
emotional state, conscious or unconscious; and, con-
versely, every change in the mental emotional state,
conscious or unconscious, is accompanied by an
appropriate change in the physiological state. This
principle, when coupled with volition, allows a natu-
ral processpsychosomatic self regulationto unfold.
(Green & Green, 1969)

The natural process of psychosomatic self-regulation

allows the mind-body dynamic to harmonize itself, and
when you introduce the intentions of the Iill into the mix,
you disrupt the ow. The detachment experienced by ath-
letes during peak moments has been documented exten-
sively in scientic literature. They describe performing
unaware of their surroundings, of their task, or of them-
selves; they are totally absorbed in the moment, yet they
are aware of that moment. No Mind happens in the ow,
and any shift in awarenesseven happiness or excitement
about the momentmay cause us to lose the ow. This is
why complete absorption is critical (Jackson, 2000). Be-
coming aware of the sensation of happiness during a peak
moment is an aspect of the Iill, and it shifts awareness
back to the self again. Top swimmers have said that they
became one with the water (Jackson & Roberts, 1992)
or that they fused into a total moment of awareness
happiness is an after-effect of the peak moment.
Detachment, or non-attachment, has already been
described in this program as one of the key secrets of
No Mind. Non-attachment to the Iill through non-dualistic
awareness of the present is also referred to as present-
moment mindfulness. Athletes peak moments are identi-
cal to the experience of No Mind. One Olympic athlete
reported separating my body from my mind and letting
my body do what came naturally (Orlick, 1980). Perhaps
they are not aware that these experiences are beyond the

210003_501_ch28.indd 574 6/6/08 3:45:00 PM

 Iill, and therefore do not have the insight of spiritual 575
awareness which can accompany these experiences. The
Chapter 28
Iill dominates and appropriates experiences, which puts
it outside the realm of insight. April Clay describes how No Mind
focusing on the present moment makes a rider fully en- Sports
gaged in the act of riding and in the horses body lan-
guage. Meditation and relaxation heighten attention to
the horses subtle cues, which prevents accidents:

Imagine that you and your horse are fused into one
entity. There is no past, no future, only you and your
horse, here and now. (Clay, 2001)

ACT. REACT. BU T ALWAYS IN PLAY.

The intention to win originates in the Iills mental web,

where it is entangled with past and future needs, hopes,
desires, expectations, fears, anxieties, and so on. Patterns
of relationships were found between ow and perceived
ability, anxiety, and an intrinsic motivation variable
(Jackson, Kimiecik, Ford, & Marsh, 1998). The game
should be played solely for the sake of the game, which
releases ones true athletic abilities. Those who play for
the peak experiences of sports are playing for higher
purpose than the drive to win. Societys Iill is a powerful
force that inuences athletes through group expectations.
Many athletes have discovered the hard way that over-
concern with the outcome, reflecting a competitive
orientation was often associated with their worst per-
formances (Jackson & Roberts, 1992). So being caught
up in the winning reduces performance; we need to
learn to play for the sake of the game and to express
the natural ability of the mind-body dynamic. The re-
lease of the mind-body dynamic brings about an experi-
ence that some may consider mystical, while others
might anticipate it to be a normal aspect of the perform-
ance. Regardless, playing for the sake of playing is the
most natural kind of play and an aspect of the practice of
No Mind.

210003_501_ch28.indd 575 6/6/08 3:45:00 PM

 576 Sports psychologists and trainers use meditative tech-
niques to help athletes get into the zone or the ow and
No Mind
501 the associated peak performance. This brings to mind
the methods of the ancient masters, who taught that the
Living path to enlightenment and to the complete mastery of
No Mind
martial arts, yoga, swordsmanship, and archery is one
and the same. An article titled In the Zone and pub-
lished in U.S. News & World Reports claims:
When the body is brought to peak condition and the
mind is completely focused [though] unaware of what
its doing, an individual can achieve the extraordinary ...
through focusing and relaxation techniques. (Tolson,
Kleiner, & Marcus, 2000)

Performing without thinking takes an athlete beyond

her mental limitations. Such peak moments constitute
addictive natural highs. The experience of No Mind in
sports expands the mind-body dynamic into the realm
of the mystic warrior, such as the Samurai. Without self
and intention, the mystic warrior is the most feared and
venerated opponent. The experience is analogous to
the poetic movements of a cheetah running across the
African savannah. It requires much training, focus, and
discipline to propel the mind-body dynamic beyond its
established boundaries; and every time the limits are
exceeded, new ones are set for the next level. In the case
of runners, when the self is transcended and there is
only the mind-body moving in the present moment, the
only experience left is the effortless, smooth, powerful
bliss of No Mind. If they have experienced it once, run-
ners usually yearn to do so again and again, and some-
times even injury or pain cant stop them from running.
There is nothing special you need to do in order to
achieve No Mind Sports, only practice the techniques of
transcending the Iill as outlined in this program and
apply them to your life. There is no I behind the arch-
ers bow, only the nexus of mind-body, arrow, bow, and
target. There is no I behind the golfers swing, only the
dynamic of club, ball, course, hole, and the pure action
of mind and body.

210003_501_ch28.indd 576 7/26/08 12:37:48 PM

 NO INTENTION IS PEAK PERFORMANCE 577

Remember, no thought is a better game and no intention Chapter 28

is peak performance. It is best to trust the mind-body No Mind
when it knows what to do because it has been trained Sports
to do so. Thinking, whether positive or negative, only
gets in the way. Releasing the idea of trying so hard is all
that is required; this is the Zen of sports. There is no I
performing, only the performance. I am not releasing
the ball; the ball is released at the perfect moment by the
procient mind-body, and it follows its path towards its
unintentional goal. Intentional goals are deterministic
aspects of the I; when you play using the Ten Para-
doxes, there is No Mind of the goalonly natural action
and reaction of the process. We do not need to intend for
the ball to go into the hole; our mind-body dynamic
knows the ball is supposed to go into the hole. Every
thought is an obstacle to No Mind, including self-con-
gratulatory thoughts of success. Whether the ball hits
the target or not is of no consequence; the synergy of
the mind-body performs the ritual of releasing it along
a path without intention or purpose, in pure play. Only
Clear Attention is required for the right movement at
the right moment.

WI TH AT TACHMEN T, WORK.
WI THOU T AT TACHMEN T, PLAY.
When one is attached to the outcome of an event or
competition and to his or others expectations or hopes,
his effort stops being play and becomes work. Attach-
ment is detrimental to the performance of sports for
professionals and enthusiasts alike. The mind-body dy-
namic is interrupted by the Iills intention regarding a
specic outcome, and this additional pressure hinders
the ability of the athlete and prevents peak moments.
Experiencing No Mind in sports requires the release of
attachments to outcomes, so that peak moments are
achieved and the universe plays through the mind-body
dynamic. In play, we open the gates to these rare

210003_501_ch28.indd 577 6/6/08 3:45:01 PM

 578 moments of peak experience. The fact is that athletes
who compete professionally go through relatively the
No Mind
501 same amount and kind of training on average, just as all
NASCAR race cars are built to run alike. What makes
Living some athletes succeed over others (besides some minor
No Mind
physical differences) is the mental edge, the quantum
difference in awareness. This quantum awareness is the
expression of the perfect moment in time during the
play of their sport. And if in this peak moment they
experience No Mind, then they have experienced true
ow, the same ow experienced by the cheetah running
across an African savannah.
Setting goals, projecting outcomes, forming expecta-
tions, sustaining hopes, and harboring wishes are all
natural parts of being human, as is becoming attached to
them. But when we practice Clear Attention, we let the
attachments go, as in the old proverb that says, If you
love someone, set them free. Then we remember that
expectations and coveted outcomes are projections of
the Iill. We do not necessary need to discover the source
of attachments, but we need to be mindful of them.
Attachments arise naturally in competitive and in most
non-competitive sports. Recognizing and releasing the
attachments require mental training. Cleansing the mind
with the help of the practice of No Mind enhances men-
tal and physical performance. No one performs well
under the pressure of intense expectations, and recog-
nizing these tendencies of the Iill is the rst step in the
process.
Expectations hinder not only ones athletic perform-
ance, but also ones life as a fully functioning person.
Most of us know that the constant stressful pursuit of
high expectations takes a toll on the mind-body. Athletes
who relentlessly push themselves to the limit and fail to
see the signicance of peak moments may be harming
themselves psychologically and physiologically. They
may become top athletes, but they would miss the play
aspect of the game altogether, as well as the healthy joy of
spiritual awareness that can be achieved through sports.
We perform better in play than in work. Whether we are

210003_501_ch28.indd 578 7/26/08 12:37:48 PM

 going to experience stress and anxiety or effortless and 579
smooth total absorption is up to us, especially since we
Chapter 28
now have the technique and the knowledge to make the
right choice. No Mind
Sports

ATHLETES EXPERIENCE EGO-LESS ONENESS

In most athletic peak moments, there is an element of

not having to think about it, and this aspect of No Mind
is when intention and expectation disappear. At this
point, the play is perceived and winning or losing fade
away like the shoreline melts in the distance as one sails
into the ocean. There is just the emptiness of the ocean
and a sense of unity with it. Many athletes have had the
intense experience of nothingness and of ego-less one-
ness with their environment. They know that worrying
too much about the perfect game is counterproductive,
as it disrupts ones focus. Developing a no-thought ap-
proach releases the ow and develops natural peak mo-
ments. Humans have a more difcult time than animals
returning to the natural ow, but they can. We simply
need to understand the Tenth Paradox: Untrain the mind,
be empty. When empty, you are full.
One Olympic bicyclist describes how the feeling of
body, bicycle, track, wind, and the surroundings merge
into a mystical sense of oneness. This is a state of com-
plete internal calm and mastery, but to be in this state,
one must realize that there is no entity that has mastered
anything, there is just the moment. Champion archers
say that the accuracy of a shot hinges on being anxious
versus staying in the moment with the arrow (Orlick,
1980).
With the insight of oneness in No Mind, there is also
the insight that there is no self to claim mastery, there is
just the oneness. Thinking about who is feeling this
oneness reintroduces the Iill to awareness, and the mo-
ment is lost. No Mind Sports is learned through the
techniques presented in No Mind 301. These techniques
develop focus and attention, and the rest follows of
its own.

210003_501_ch28.indd 579 6/6/08 3:45:01 PM

 580 The experience of peak moments in sports requires
that we separate the I from the play of the sport. We
No Mind
501 are then aware of merging the mind-body (not the I)
with the elements of the sport, such as the golf club,
Living bicycle, bat, racket, car, ball, and so on. This act of merg-
No Mind
ing without the Iill is the key to peak performance. The
bat, for example, is an extension of the mind-body, and
together they execute a smooth, effortless motion that
involves the ball also. One archer describes concentra-
tion as:

blocking out everything in my world ... the bow be-

comes an extension of me. All attention is focused
on lining up my pin with the center of the target. At
this point in time, that is all I see, hear or feel (Orlick,
1980).

TIME-SPACE SHIFTS IN PEAK MOMENTS

In No Mind 301, Chapter 17, we discussed the relativity

of the observer to the time-space continuum. The time-
space continuum does not exist in No Mind, since
the observer disappears in the awareness of the entire
time-space continuum of a single moment. Everything
becomes undifferentiated being and nothingness. Re-
member, space and time are always relative to an ob-
server; without the observer, space and time do not
really exist. One famous Zen koan asks, What sound
does a tree make falling in the forest, if there is no one
there to hear it?
Some baseball athletes report having lost perception
of time during a pitch, as the ball seems to slow down
prior to a swing and they are in perfect unison with the
ball without intention or effort. Many football players
have similarly experienced the ball slowing down, as if
everyone were moving in a movie or a dance in slow mo-
tion. The altered perception of time and space in peak
moments eliminates the relativity of the observer, not in
the sense that one is lost or missing in space and time,
but in the sense that the awareness of the illusion of I

210003_501_ch28.indd 580 6/6/08 3:45:01 PM

 in that moment releases the observer from the bounda- 581
ries of space and time. The ancient masters knew that
Chapter 28
space and time are relative and illusionary concepts. In a
moment of insight, when the athlete merges with the ac- No Mind
tivity, the normal sequential mechanism of temporal per- Sports
ception changes in order to grasp each moment more
slowly, distinctly, and in detail. Focus your mind on the
moment, and the feeling of bliss, joy, freedom, and intui-
tion follows.
Clear Attention allows the athlete to focus on the
present moment, abstracting the action from the past
and future. One NBA coach credits mindfulness prac-
tice with giving his championship teams a special edge
(Keeva, 2004). Again, expectations, hopes, desires, and
projected outcomes are past-oriented, and worry, anxi-
ety, fear, and anticipation are future-oriented. Clear
Attention keeps awareness in the present moment,
where peak performance can occur. Thinking delays
usperform in the moment without thought. You can-
not force peak performance. It comes when you let go
and allow the mind-body dynamic to follow its natural
ow of the activity. We practice so that the execution of
an action comes naturally to us. It is the same with the
illumination of No Mind; it is spontaneous, like a ash
of lightning.

NO MIND LAYS THE FOUNDATION FOR PEAK

PERFORMANCE
Sports psychologists use different techniques and meth-
ods to enhance the mental performance of the athlete,
including meditation, relaxation therapy, visualization,
breathing, etc. No Mind Sports also requires training in
order to experience the ow of the moment without ef-
fort, intention, or expectation. The experience cannot be
willed, because this would constitute an attempt by the
Iill to claim something it cannot grasp. No Mind occurs
unexpectedly; the seeds are planted and their germina-
tion is unpredictable. The ancient masters could point

210003_501_ch28.indd 581 6/6/08 3:45:02 PM

 582 the way, but could not move the disciples feet. Some ef-
fort is required in the preparation, but the rest happens
No Mind
501 of its own accord and without trying. The No Mind
program lays the foundation for peak performances and
Living moments, but it is up to the practitioner to follow the
No Mind
course.
In sports, having skill through training, natural tal-
ent, and discipline enables full absorption in the activity
without having to consciously direct and correct every
movement, as the novice needs to. The point when the
mind-body dynamic can perform uninterruptedly is
when peak moments are likely to occur. Without inter-
ruption from the Iill, that is. There is a point in the prac-
tice of No Mind where mental tranquility and pure
awareness are achieved automatically once the practiced
meditation position is assumed. In other words, Clear
Attention can be conditioned and we can become mind-
ful upon certain trained cues, like assuming the medita-
tion position, or getting up to swing the golf club, or
preparing to perform ballet.
Mindfulness, or Clear Attention, is key to success in
sports and essential for the novice who wants to learn ef-
ciently and quickly. When you practice the movements
of your sport, do so by being mindful of each sensation of
the mind-body as it goes through the motions of training
and action. In this way, you keep the expectations of the
Iill at rest and performance is pure. Once the Iill has lost
control over awareness, the insight of No Mind may be
experienced. Apply Clear Attention and the Ten Paradoxes
on and off the court, and this will foster peak moments
not only in sports but also in life. Attaining total absorp-
tion and the insight of No Mind in the present moment
was the Zen masters prescription to a Samurai warrior
centuries ago.

210003_501_ch28.indd 582 6/6/08 3:45:02 PM

 583
CHAPTER 28 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 28
BEFORE CONTINUING
No Mind
1. The ow in sports has been well documented Sports
and is achieved by transcending the I during the
sporting activity. Analogously to entering a river,
we simply enter the ow by removing awareness
from the Iill.
2. Iill-less actions are extremely potent and efcient.
In the realm of sports, they induce superior per-
formance, great joy, effortless movement, total
absorption, and intense concentration.
3. Some athletes nd it difcult to verbally describe
peak moments, or the zone, even though for
many it is the main reason to engage in the sport.
And others feel uncomfortable talking about it
because it feels very personal, yet ambiguous.
4. The peak moments of athletes are fundamentally
similar to No Mind experiences, except that
No Mind practitioners are trained to understand the
signicance of No Mind insight in its relation to the
Iill and spiritual awareness. Athletes are not usually
trained or educated to mentally comprehend the
relative signicance of these peak moments, which
may render such experiences confusing, deeply per-
sonal, and beyond articulation.
5. Athletes are so highly conditioned that they per-
form with relatively minimal conscious effort,
which allows them to let go more easily than a
novice. The letting go of all psychological mecha-
nisms that make up the mental web of the Iill has
positive effect on the performance. Trained ath-
letes simply learn to think less and to trust their
mind-body.
6. In professional tennis, the ball crosses the court
in a quarter of a second; the player has no time to

210003_501_ch28.indd 583 6/6/08 3:45:02 PM

 584

No Mind think and the mind-body must already be in po-

501 sition by acquiring cues from the opponent before
the opponent even hits the ball. Those who have
Living
No Mind experienced this powerful feeling of the mind-
body acting and reacting during a performance,
sport, game, or ght have experienced No Mind
without knowing it.
7. Athletes peak moments are identical to the expe-
rience of No Mind. One Olympic athlete reported
separating my body from my mind and letting
my body do what came naturally (Orlick, 1980).
8. Many athletes have discovered the hard way that
over-concern with the outcome, reecting a com-
petitive orientation was often associated with
their worst performances (Jackson & Roberts,
1992).
9. The experience of No Mind in sports expands the
mind-body dynamic into the realm of the mystic
warrior, such as the Samurai. Without self and in-
tention, the mystic warrior is the most feared and
venerated opponent.
10. Remember, no thought is a better game and no in-
tention is peak performance. It is best to trust the
mind-body when it knows what to do because it
has been trained to do so. Thinking, whether pos-
itive or negative, only gets in the way. Releasing
the idea of trying so hard is all that is required;
this is the Zen of sports.
11. Some baseball athletes report having lost percep-
tion of time during a pitch, as the ball seems to
slow down prior to a swing and they are in perfect
unison with the ball without intention or effort.
Many football players have similarly experienced
the ball slowing down, as if everyone were moving
in a movie or a dance in slow motion.

210003_501_ch28.indd 584 6/6/08 3:45:05 PM

 585
12. Clear Attention allows the athlete to focus on the Chapter 28
present moment, abstracting the action from the
past and future. One NBA coach credits mindful- No Mind
Sports
ness practice with giving his championship teams
a special edge (Keeva, 2004). Again, expectations,
hopes, desires, and projected outcomes are past-
oriented, and worry, anxiety, fear, and anticipa-
tion are future-oriented.
13. Clear Attention can be conditioned and we can
become mindful upon certain trained cues, like
assuming the meditation position, or getting up
to swing the golf club, or preparing to perform a
pirouette.

210003_501_ch28.indd 585 6/6/08 3:45:07 PM

 Many people think of meditation or mindfulness as
diametrically opposed to business, but only until they see the
overwhelming evidence of mindfulness benets in all aspects
of business: innovation, productivity, health, collaboration,
negotiation, etc. Many companies that have realized the
advantages of mindfulness training encourage employees
to meditate or to center themselves during the day using
various relaxation techniques. Some businesses even institute
mandatory retreats and mindfulness breaks during the
workday.

Chapter 29 presents evidence of the positive effects of

No Mind Business. Some of the studies presented here
may aid the implementation of No Mind in your career
or business.

210003_501_ch29.indd 586 6/6/08 3:45:41 PM

 Chapter 29

No Mind Business

M ost business people would immediately assume that No Mind

and business are unrelated, as one belongs in the monastery
and the other in the cold, swift corporate world of money. If you
told your customers, clients, or associates that you were using a
technique called No Mind, their response might be, I am paying
you to use your entire mind, not no mind. Paradoxically, studies
demonstrate that you actually increase your intelligence and crea-
tivity when you think less (Claxton, 2000). Through the study and
practice of No Mind, your brain solves problems more efciently,
more intuitively and more creatively, and it grasps solutions which
lay outside the scope of your normal over-thinking mind. So
No Mind Business is not lack of mind but enhanced mind with su-
perior performance.
The ancient masters said that Zen practice was pointless un-
less it was brought into peoples daily routines to improve their
lives through their work, sports, relationships, education, etc.

587

210003_501_ch29.indd 587 6/6/08 3:45:43 PM

 588 Meditation is no longer just a practice of the prayer-bead
and Birkenstock crew; now a number of corporations
No Mind are offering it to their white-collar workers. Business
501
professionals worldwide have accepted meditation as a
Living tool in the management, production, and sales of their
No Mind business program. Its benets include alleviating lower
back pain, headaches, and arthritis ... [it] decreases
absenteeism, tardiness, and loss of talented workers,
increases brain-wave activity, juices intuitive decision-
making, optimizes concentration, enabling workers to
multitask more efciently. (Der Hovanesian, 2003)

Many studies have substantiated the positive benets of

meditation on creative thinking, as mentioned in No Mind
201, No Mind Intuition. Five months of meditation practice
signicantly raised creative-thinking test scores of Cornell
University undergraduates (Travis, 1979). According to a
Harvard Medical School study published in Barrons, nearly
20 percent of Americans practice at least one mind-
body technique, and meditation is at the top of the list
(Blumenthal, 2003).

THE SECRET OF NO FEAR

Zen and the practice of No Mind have had their place in

the monastery, on the battleeld, and in the marketplace.
Statesmen studied and practiced these techniques in
order to rule wisely and compassionately. On many occa-
sions, ancient masters were summoned by royalty for ad-
vice. Armed with the techniques of No Mind, the Samurai
were feared as the elite sword ghters of their day. They
had no fear, as they transcended the Iill and identied
with the essential substance of nature or spiritual aware-
ness. The ultimate pursuit of ancient martial arts was to
experience enlightenment through the expression of the
mind-body dynamic. All the skills of the greatest martial
artists who practiced for years to perfect their mind and
body could never match the invincible control and un-
shakable force of the enlightened warrior. Analagously,
eliminating fear from the business professional has its
obvious benets and increases performance.

210003_501_ch29.indd 588 6/6/08 3:45:44 PM

 No Mind and other meditative techniques increase 589
the ability to deautomatize behavior, which, in turn,
Chapter 29
breaks the binds of the Iill. These techniques also develop
recognition of intuitions and insights of which we may No Mind
never become aware otherwise. Furthermore, they hone Business
the focus and the ability to empty the mind of thoughts,
which has clear benets in the business world. No Mind
401, Secrets of No Mind, explains how the program nour-
ishes psychic abilities and enlightenment (including the
insight of No Mind No Death).
The Samurais freedom from the Iill, transcendence
of the self, and insight of No Mind No Death made them
a formidable and challenging opponent. The practice of
No Mind in the modern business world holds immense
potential for success not only in terms of wealth and pres-
tige, but also in terms of producing a fully fullled human
beingcompassionate, happy, and unfettered. One of the
most important benets of the techniques is stress reduc-
tion, which is discussed in Chapter 30. The stress reduction
that comes from the daily application of these techniques is
indispensable in the business world.

STRESS MANAGEMENT AND INTUITION

In 2004, Conlin published an article titled Meditation

in Business Week explaining why top executives of major
corporations have sought meditative practices to enrich
their leadership abilities and to reduce stress in their en-
vironments. One CEO, who interrupted his meditation
practice for a few years, recalls after looking at the re-
mains of his company, If I had stayed disciplined, I have
a feeling I would have been able to see some of the har-
bingers and perils that I didnt see at the time.

Corporations, law rms, and others have initiated em-

ployee meditation classes to reduce stress which is the
most signicant factor of employee performance and
absenteeism. For decades, researchers at the National
Institutes of Health, the University of Massachusetts,
and the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Harvard

210003_501_ch29.indd 589 7/26/08 1:08:07 PM

 590 University have sought to document how meditation
enhances the qualities companies need in their human
No Mind capitol: sharpened intuition, steely concentration, and
501
plummeting stress levels. (Conlin, 2004)
Living
No Mind Conlin also indicates that neuroscientists are nding
that the neurophysiology of the brain changes during
meditation in a way that allows people to detach from
their emotional reactions, so that they can respond more
appropriately. At the beginning of No Mind 501, re-
search is presented on this effect. The science of neuro-
plasticity shows that the brain can change its function
and structure by expanding, reducing, and redirecting
neuron circuits. The Wall Street Journal published brain
scans of Buddhist monks; the monks, especially those
who had practiced for decades, exhibited extreme
gamma activity, which suggests greater level of con-
sciousness. The left prefrontal cortex, known as the
happiness center, was much more active than the right
prefrontal cortex. The most hours of meditation showed
the greatest brain changes, [which] gives us condence
that the changes are actually produced by mental train-
ing (Begley, 2004). These tests have immense implica-
tions. They suggest that through training, we can alter
the mind-brain dynamic using its inherent ability to
rewire itself.
In Japan, the diligent use of zazen, or meditation, in
companies over many years has led to higher levels of
insight, consciousness, and even enlightenment, or
Satori. Dozens of Japanese corporations apply medita-
tion to train executives and employees. Every year, Fujitsu
sends 700 employees on a two-month management train-
ing course, which includes a two-day meditation training
at a Zen monastery to deautomatize ingrained behaviors
(Gross, 1990). In one of Japans largest manufacturing
companies, over 600 managers have learned meditation
techniques. One 51-year-old CEO who has practiced
meditation regularly for thirty years shares that it brings
him clarity and focus to start the business day, and
refreshes [him] for personal life. Practice allows others

210003_501_ch29.indd 590 6/6/08 3:45:45 PM

 to be more responsive and less reactive, as it provides the 591
extra moment to relax and to address a situation more
Chapter 29
clearly (Henricks, 2003).
No Mind
More than 7,000 North American physicians practice Business
the [meditative] technique, and many prescribe it to
their patients. The effects on health are substantial:
normalization of blood pressure, lowered cholesterol,
improved sleep, faster recovery from stress, to name a
few. (Wilson, 1991)

EXECUTIVES ARE MORE INTELLIGENT WITH

LESS STRESS
Meditation improves attention and the discrimination
capacity related to decision making (Kuna, 1975). Thou-
sands of executives who practice meditation have expe-
rienced increased efciency in work, better relations
with others, decreased tension and anxiety, increased
intelligence and improved learning ability, faster reac-
tion time, and improved health (Burns, 1975). Another
study shows that after ve months of meditation prac-
tice, the treatment groups experienced signicantly
higher stress-reduction compared to the control group
or to the progressive-relaxation group (non-meditative
progressive relaxation is performed by tensing and re-
laxing groups of muscles in a particular sequence). The
rate of compliance for the meditation groups was seen
whether the subjects practiced frequently or occa-
sionally. Meditation training has considerable value
for stress-management ... in organizational settings
(Carrington et al., 1980).
Many Fortune 500 companies have implemented medi-
tation classes for employees in light of losses associated
with absenteeism, tardiness, and the exodus of talented
workers. According to the National Institute for Occupa-
tional Safety & Health, stress-related disorders cost compa-
nies about $200 billion a year7090 percent of employee
hospital visits are linked to stress (Der Hovanesian, 2003).

210003_501_ch29.indd 591 7/26/08 1:08:08 PM

 592 More than half of the Fortune 500 companies that
downsized reported that productivity deteriorated in re-
No Mind
501 sponse to employee stress related to longer hours and
fewer resources. Many of these companies have imple-
Living mented wellness programs, but employees must be en-
No Mind
couraged to take advantage of the programs and to
balance work and life. There needs to be an ofce men-
tality of positive reinforcement to stimulate workers to
initiate these programs and subsequent steady reinforce-
ment for the workers to maintain them. Another problem
for the initiation of the programs is the fear and denial of
admitting that one cannot cope with the stress and the
process of working through the stress-related issues in
the work environment (Robin, 2003).
Legal rms are nding that mindfulness meditation,
like No Mind, is receiving widespread support from their
employees who report a sense of conscious calmness, a
sense of equanimity. According to lawyers, mindfulness
brings clarity and mental spaciousness that allows for
purposeful action, rather than mere reactivity (Keeva,
2004). Reactivity decreases when we deautomatize the
neural associative networks, which enables the brain to
re-map problem areas in them, thus allowing you to be-
come much more effective and productive in the work
environment. Attachment to outcomes in any particular
situation skews the ability to see all solutions clearly, as
we discussed in No Mind 201. In other words, attach-
ment and expectations of outcomes in any particular sce-
nario prejudice our ability to see clearly the correct
solution. De-automatization provides us with a method
of being objective to problems in our lives and of being
able to see through our attachments. It pauses the nor-
mal perceptual routines of association and categoriza-
tion of incoming sensory information long enough to
enable the internal objective understanding of such
information.
Through its misapprehension of reality, the Iill con-
stantly fails to understand other peoples needs, perspec-
tives, and beliefs; thus, it alienates others if it cannot
analyze, evaluate, and understand the other person in

210003_501_ch29.indd 592 6/6/08 3:45:45 PM

 terms of itself. Simply, when something does not t our 593
normal way of thinking and feeling, we tend to nd it
Chapter 29
strange or even threatening, and we push it aside. This
applies to a wide range of difference markersunusual No Mind
skin and hair colors, unorthodox body decoration and Business
apparel, alternative cultural practices or religious and
philosophical beliefs, and even foods weve never tried.
We nd it hard to evaluate such sensory input properly
with the limited knowledge we have, so we write it off
as something inherently foreign and incorrigibly in-
comprehensible. No Mind 201- Chapter 9 emphasized
the importance of freeing our behavior from the au-
tomatisms of the Iill. The practice of No Mind and
deautomatization have invaluable effect on conducting
creative business, where one sees beyond norms and
stereotypes in dealing with different people and novel
situations.

WI TH AT TACHMEN T, WORK.
WI THOU T AT TACHMEN T, PLAY
Stress reduction in the workplace is key to professional
and personal success, as it facilitates creativity, open in-
terofce dialogue and relationships, uent interactions
with customers, constructive mental attitude in the con-
text of dispute resolution, and intuitive business deci-
sions. The practice of No Mind helps working people to
cope creatively with an array of everyday stressors, which
is invaluable for business growth. Stress is everywhere
we lookboth inside and outside the workplace. The cost
of livingincluding housing, insurance, health care, util-
ities, and so onhas been increasing everywhere, partic-
ularly in metropolitan cities, forcing many to struggle in
order to catch up and get into the game, especially since
the income gap between executives and average employ-
ees has been widening. Savings levels in the United States
and across developed countries are the lowest in history,
which translates into widespread nancial insecurity and
personal anxiety.

210003_501_ch29.indd 593 7/26/08 1:08:08 PM

 594 We are often unable to change our environment with
a blink of an eye, but we can practice No Mind to over-
No Mind
501 come the constructed expectations, desires, and needs of
the Iill. The societal Iill powerfully shapes our expecta-
Living tions and desireswe are conditioned to believe we need
No Mind
certain things and often pursue them through unhealthy
behaviors and stressful situations. It helps to recognize
that life is movement and change and to adopt the healthy
perspective that nothing stays the same, thus avoiding
stressfully obsessing about our present situation. When
we apply No Mind in our daily lives, we embrace the ow
of change. The technique and philosophy of No Mind re-
introduce the dynamic of play into the realm of business.
Remember, With attachment, work. Without attachment,
play.

Stress researchers have shown how ... psychosocial

stresses can produce illness through neuroendocrine
and immune system responses ... various forms of exer-
cise and meditation are effective for many individuals.
(Rosch, 1992)

CORPORATIONS ENDORSE MEDITATIVE PRACTICE

One innovative company in Colorado rings the mindful-

ness bell at 11 a.m. every day to signal the start of fteen
minutes of group meditation. For the employees, this is
time for developing the art of paying attention and seeing
things in a fresh way. They say that mindfulness has
sparked change and brought about impressive business
results (Lachnit, 2001). Another mega-company in Canada
has set up dimly lit meditation rooms, where no talk or
food is allowed. In these havens of tranquility, employees
can escape the noise, slow the pace, and nd some inner
peace ... the idea is to give the workplace a feeling of
serenity and a sense of higher purpose (Preville, 1999).
Many companies are nding that keeping workers happy
and healthy increases productivity and business success.
Companies have invested in company gyms, support

210003_501_ch29.indd 594 6/6/08 3:45:46 PM

 groups, motivational speakers, stress-management and 595
communication workshops, meditation training, coun-
Chapter 29
seling services, nutrition coachingall in the name of
workplace wellness, or the notion that people who are No Mind
happy at home and happy at work are more productive Business
in the workplace. Sadly, middle managers, who may
be less inclined to take advantage of wellness programs,
usually bear the brunt of work-related stress (Robin,
2003).
An article in the Journal of Occupational Psychology
reviews many studies that have been conducted to ana-
lyze the benets of meditation in the workplace (Murphy,
1984). A 1996 study suggests that developing the inner
value of consciousness has practical implications for busi-
ness and industry by improving well-being, job satisfac-
tion, efciency, and productivity, which in turn inuences
absenteeism and nancial performance (Schmidt-Wilk,
Alexander, & Swanson, 1996). In Japan meditation has
been shown to combat stress and fatigue while fostering
positive attitudes and creativity. Japanese companies are
using meditative disciplines along with traditional exer-
cises with much satisfaction. Some other benets in-
clude calmer and less irritable employees, reduced blood
pressure and anxiety levels, better physical health, and
reports of more relaxed sleep (Subramanian, 1989). Sci-
entic studies have shown that a twenty-minute practice
per day is effective in doubling the rate of relaxation dur-
ing sleep.
A study at the Department of Business of Stockholm
University analyzed the effects of meditation on two top-
management teams and noted that the effects on the in-
dividuals inuenced the performance of the group as a
whole, including managers who were not participating in
the meditation program.
The ndings in the research indicates increased energy
and alertness in the meditating managers, which inu-
enced the group towards a more dynamic climate, and
at the same time increased the demands on the group
and its leadership ... Another trend was that the man-
agers were able to express more subtle levels of their

210003_501_ch29.indd 595 7/26/08 1:08:08 PM

 596 personalities, such as emotional life and intuition of
decision making. (Gustavsson, 1990)
No Mind
501 The participants in two more studies on meditation
Living practice and work attitudes experienced substantially
No Mind higher job satisfaction, performance, and rapport with
supervisors and co-workers (Friend, 1977). Companies
are sending key managers and personnel to meditation
courses in hopes of promoting their productivity, creativ-
ity, and health (through reduced heart rate, blood pres-
sure, and stress, as well as through increased alpha brain
waves). Executives are seeing increases in productivity
and creativity due to the practice of meditation, and are
becoming more open to new ways of doing business and
seeing problems as ways to improve, not as issues to be
stressed-out about (McCuan, 2004).

PERFORMERS FIND THAT MEDITATION ENHANCES

THEIR PERFORMANCES
Many actors use forms of meditation to enhance their
stage performance and careers. In 2003, Back Stage pub-
lished an article on method mentality, which incorpo-
rates relaxation and concentration that allow the actors
to perform truthfully and realistically without freaking
out on stage (Stimac, 2003). In another Back Stage arti-
cle, Shellan Lupin describes six basic tactics, including
reection, for the acting professional to stay t and
healthy in this extraordinarily stressful business. So you
need strength and stamina, and that means taking care of
yourself inside and out, both physically and psychologi-
cally (Lubin, 2003).
These altered states of consciousness have been of
substantial benet to performers:

[Today, there is a] developing movement in actor train-

ing to incorporate ASCs into textbook theories and
classroom exercises ... Thus, a knowledge of ASCs may
aid actors in becoming more competent performers as
well as promoting a potential new stage of evolution

210003_501_ch29.indd 596 6/6/08 3:45:46 PM

 for the craft of acting, which honors its ancient rela- 597
tionships to trance and reects a larger societal phase.
(Klein, 1996) Chapter 29

No Mind
Elements of Zen have been employed in Western act- Business
ing schools for a while now:

[Zen inspires] a desire for spontaneity and creative

freedom that has caused our teachers of acting ... to
look to Asia for help and guidance ... In actor training
the focus of the work on the craft of acting begins with
relaxation. The quiet allows students to listen to them-
selves and their bodies. This marks the beginning of
learning, of self-awareness. (Forsythe, 1996)

Broadway actors are testifying to the positive effects

of meditation and have learned to use the techniques to
focus on stage. One actress credits meditation for her
transformation from an average to a good performer
in seven years. These nontraditional methods are help-
ing actors to perform better and to maintain spiritual
health (Simonson, 1996). The practice of No Mind in
acting eliminates the constant self-correction and self-
evaluation, so that one can transcend oneself in the role.
Through the practice of No Mind, the rigid structures
of the Iill are surpassed. Learning to control and suspend
thoughts allows the mind-body to perform without think-
ing and evaluating. The Ten Paradoxes could help many
actors understand that With thought, no ow. Without
thought, ow. Practicing the ability to mirror using Clear
Attention can be of signicant value in the acting profes-
sion and instrumental in nding a balanced middle
ground between the extremes of the rigorous demands of
performing.

THE DEAUTOMATIZATION EFFECT IS KEY FOR

SUCCESSFUL RELATIONS
The practice of No Mind and other types of meditation
has a deautomatization effect, which claries the percep-
tion of the present situation. In No Mind 201 - Chapter 9,

210003_501_ch29.indd 597 7/26/08 1:08:09 PM

 598 this effect was discussed in terms of suspending the mind
from processing sensory input automatically. The stand-
No Mind
501 ard defense, ltering, categorizing, and conditioning
mechanisms are neutralized when we truly see an object,
Living feel an emotion, or become aware of a thought. We look
No Mind
through fresh eyes that discern things as they really are
without denition or prejudice. The Tenth Paradox says,
Untrain the mind, be empty. When empty, you are full.
Obviously, objectivity in the business world has many im-
plications for the successful conduct of transactions. The
practice of No Mind can be applied to a wide variety of
business situations in which one would benet from
stepping outside the Iill to conduct better business.
This provides a fresh perspective without the subliminal
tendencies of the ego to manipulate outcomes for selsh
reasons that have nothing to do with the present business
situation.
We spend more than half of our waking hours work-
ing, especially if we count commuting. To live happily
and healthy, people must be able to rid these hours of
stress, anxiety, hate, jealousy, pain, suffering and expec-
tations endemic of todays fast-paced and competitive
business environment. The practice of No Mind nour-
ishes higher job satisfaction and patience, better com-
munications and performance, and happier and healthier
lives. Mindfulness breaks the mental web of the Iill and
frees perception and thought. Strong emotions might
get in the way of sound business decisions, and the prac-
tice of No Mind controls ones emotional energy by help-
ing him become more objective. As objects of Clear
Attention, emotions do not evoke automatic reaction,
which has obvious benets for any working person.

THE ILLUSORY BATTLE OF THE IiLL

The automatic nature of the Iill is the primary cause for

human suffering. Its harm is intensied in business envi-
ronments by the complicating factors of nancial gain,
power, greed, ego-fulllment, competition, and disregard
for consequences. Most business is run by warrior types

210003_501_ch29.indd 598 6/6/08 3:45:47 PM

 who believe that and behave as if they are truly waging a 599
war. They are ghting against the competition, against
Chapter 29
time, against unrealistic budgets, and against themselves.
They seek to fulll the expectations of the Iill, which was No Mind
conditioned to demand success. If success fails to mate- Business
rialize, one might experience nervous breakdowns, health
disorders, anxiety, relationship problems, substance
abuse, and general unhappiness. And all of that is the re-
sult of the Iills hunger for material accomplishments ful-
lling desire potentials (outlined in No Mind 201), which
never seem to be lled. Awareness of this insatiable hun-
ger of the Iill diffuses its unhealthy effect in ones per-
sonal and professional life and facilitates effortless peak
efciency.
The Samurai was a formidable opponent because
he had no self invested in the battleonly the ow of
the mind-body dynamic selessly ghting for king
and country. Similarly, a businessperson could act
without direction by the Iill and for the greater benet
of coworkers and society. With the practice of No Mind,
business executives, middle managers, and employees
can succeed in life and in business when they learn to
operate from a perspective that does not fulll condi-
tioned demands of the Iill, but rather fullls the natu-
ral ability and need of the mind-body to work and
express itself through work without the intention of
ego-fulllment. The learned or trained skills and capa-
bilities of the individual can express themselves natu-
rally without the obstacle of the I. The Fifth Paradox:
Perform. Do. But never think, advises individuals to
allow their trained skills to express themselves natu-
rally, without obstacles stemming from the ego. The
practice of No Mind unravels the conditioning and
reinforcing processes acquired over many years and
reframes the reality of life and its relation to the busi-
ness world. As Dr. Harung concludes in Invincible
Leadership, the development of consciousness is the
key to improving individual and collective perform-
ance (Harung, 1999).

210003_501_ch29.indd 599 6/6/08 3:45:47 PM

 600 USING CLEAR ATTENTION IN THE ART OF
NEGOTIATION
No Mind
501
Negotiation is an important part of doing business. How-
Living ever, being attached to expectations about the outcome of
No Mind negotiations is a key hurdle to overcome in the process.
Applying the practice of No Mind to the art of negotia-
tion remedies this problem. Negotiation is inuenced
negatively by stress, assumptions, anticipations, insecu-
rities, frustrations, doubt, and greed; what benets the
process of negotiation is the comprehension of the oth-
ers actions, knowing how much both sides are attached
to particular outcomes, the ability to play without getting
stuck, and that intuitive knowing of when is enough
and the negotiation has reached its balance point. The
balance point is vital, as you do not want to tip the scales
to produce anger, resentment, or withdrawal from the
other person.
The most important benet of No Mind practice is the
realization that there is no real I. Instead, the associa-
tive neural network, or the mental web of the Iill, creates
a dualistic I that identies a person as a separate indi-
vidual. But this separateness causes alienation and an-
tagonism in the process of reaching compromises. When
you empathize with the others needs and desires, negoti-
ation becomes the re-assessment of the situation through
a mutually benecial solution. When one sees the illu-
sion of the I in the negotiating process, it becomes ap-
parent that there are no separate entities negotiating, as
in me against them. Remember, extremes, or oppo-
sites, are revealed as poles of a closed circle and not as
the distinct ends of a line; they are essentially intercon-
nected. In this light, the negotiation is understood as a
dynamic circle, which holds all solutions in itself. Framed
in this way, the process is free of stress and doubt, as we
are clear about everybodys intentions.
When the I is suspended, Clear Attention burns the
fog of confusion and reveals valuable insights. No Mind
201 discusses No Mind Intuition and sixth sense. Some
people can recognize through intuition when the timing

210003_501_ch29.indd 600 6/6/08 3:45:47 PM

 is correct and when it is not, what to say and what not to 601
say, but most important, they must know when the action
Chapter 29
or reaction is an aspect of the Iill or not. So when one un-
derstands that everything that happens in the negotiation No Mind
process constitutes an open circular dynamicone en- Business
tity (not two or more) trying to make a dealthe mind
opens to intuition and the transactions are fair and satis-
factory for all involved. This is non-dualistic negotiation,
when the needs of the whole outweigh those of the indi-
vidual. The balance point of the negotiation is the ne
point where the essence of the deal is being fullled. We
abandon the extreme position of the Iill to understand
the dynamic circle of interrelated events that make up
the deal. Instead of worrying about the parties expecta-
tions and desires, one should become sensitive to a natu-
ral balance point in every deal where there is an objective
consensus, and even though each desire of the I may
not have been fully fullled, the negotiation is successful.
Analogously, a good court judge hears both sides and
renders a decision objectively and without interjecting
aspects of the judges Iill into the judgment. If the judge
is inuenced by personal bias, then there is imbalance.
People can usually arrive at a mutually satisfactory out-
come when they have taken their emotions and attach-
ments out of the deal. Remember, When mind is as a
mirror, everything is revealed.

PLAY IN NEGOTIATIONS

The Ten Paradoxes discuss the concept of play. Play is es-

sential in negotiation; when people are too serious, they
are too attached to act for the benet of the deal, as they
focus only on the parts and not on the whole. They do not
see opposites as parts of the same entity but as distinct
and separate realities. Play in business enables humor
and freedom from clinging to any one perspective. Rigid-
ity is counterproductive in negotiations because extrem-
ists see only one perspective and reject others as lies and
deceptions. It is impossible to negotiate with someone
who holds the tight illusion of his Iill as the only reality.

210003_501_ch29.indd 601 7/29/08 6:20:58 PM

 602 Play is key to keeping negotiations open and alive:
Act. React. Always in play. There should be no selsh in-
No Mind
501 tention or expectation in negotiation, just allow the mind-
body to act as it has been trained to. If we conceive of the
Living negotiating parties as multiple separate programs pursu-
No Mind
ing individual plans and agendas, then we need to ap-
proach the process from the perspective that these are
not separate programs, but constituent parts of one
greater program. Practicing Clear Attention develops the
insight to grasp the greater program, which streamlines
negotiations and reduces the emotional bias of the in-
volved parties and their separate programs.
When you are negotiating, try to intuitively see the
greater program as an aspect of the many separate pro-
grams and help the person with whom you are negotiat-
ing to achieve the same. Identify parallel and overlapping
issues and how they relate to the greater program, or
the nal deal. When the greater resulting program can
be identied, it will be easier to negotiate the aspects of
the separate programs that will eventually comprise the
greater whole program. The benet of practicing Clear
Attention is the development of insight to grasp the
greater program prior to the negotiation process, which
could expedite the process with less emotional involve-
ment. When you see past the selsh Iill, you see a more
universal benet than an individual one. It is then easier
to deduce programs and to achieve holistic ones.
Of course, if the other person is not practicing being
objective and becomes selshly xated on a certain posi-
tion, it is your position to try to allow him or her to see
this xation without causing humiliation and while main-
taining a level of respect. For instance, during negotia-
tion, ask the other party why this particular position is so
important, which may bring new information to the
tableone of which you may not have been previously
aware. In some cases, people may not know why they
seek to maintain a particular position; they simply know
that this is what they want. In other cases, they know
why they seek a certain position but do not offer their ra-
tionale. In this case, you may begin to fulll as much of

210003_501_ch29.indd 602 6/6/08 3:45:48 PM

 the program as possible, understanding that they are less 603
likely to see the total program until it is presented to
Chapter 29
them. Give them what they want, perhaps in a different
wrapper that may enable them to see an alternate posi- No Mind
tion. But, maintain the play in the negotiation; play is Business
crucial for success. It allows you to be natural and not
forceful, and to enjoy the development of a greater holis-
tic program.

NEGOTIATE FROM EMPTINESS

The practice of No Mind empties the mind of thoughts

which may block the subtle intuitions that occur just
below the conscious level. The calm mind is more apt
to develop intuitive awareness. For example, most of
us have had the experience of being frustrated in try-
ing to remember somethingthe harder we try, the
more the answer evades us, but when we let go and
think of something else, the answer comes naturally.
Creative thoughts form when Clear Attention is applied
to the situation in the present moment. Tapping into
the essential emptiness of No Mind awareness increases
creative insight.
The No Mind program has powerful applications in
business practices and negotiations. Being able to de-
automatize is a key aspect of seeing things more clearly.
An article in Barrons cites a Chicago day trader who uses
meditation to clear his mind and to get into the rhythm
of the markets (Blumenthal, 2004). The sense of play pre-
vents attachment to intentions or expectations that may
stall the negotiation or the participants decision-making
ability. Clearing your thoughts reveals all sides of the ne-
gotiation and allows you to see more easily the other
viewpoints, revealing the bigger picture. This is the
insight that the world of opposites is merely two parts of
the same reality, which is an important point for develop-
ing a nal deal. Finally, the practice of No Mind de-
automatizes the processing of sensory information through
the normal channels of perception, which opens the gates
of No Mind Intuition. In this way you will be able to grasp

210003_501_ch29.indd 603 6/6/08 3:45:48 PM

 604 subtle cues and reactions from others, which may be in-
terpreted in a new perspective, with new meaning and
No Mind
501 information that can be valuable to the understanding of
the others intention and expectation of the negotiation.
Living These subtle cues and insights are invaluable in relation-
No Mind
ships with business associates, employees, managers,
and clients.

UN TRAIN THE MIND, BE EMP T Y. WHEN EMP T Y,

YOU ARE FULL.
Mind games in the ofce and gossip around the water
cooler have a dramatic impact on the psychological
comfort of employees. Others opinions of us greatly in-
uence our well-being and stress levelwe crave the ac-
ceptance of our peers, co-workers, employees, associates,
and even customers. Ridicule, scorn, deceit, bickering,
power struggles, and selshness take place in most work
environments around the world regardless of industry
type, company and ofce size, employee status, or location.
This is natural human behavior related to the protection
and preservation of the Iill, which makes it difcult to
overcome; yet it can be overcome through the practice of
No Mind and through following the universal drive to
nd spirituality and the state of awareness we experi-
enced at birth. The Iill develops in order to relate to its
social environment, but within this environment, it is
also vulnerable to attacks by other Iills. As long as we are
an Iill, we are truly ill.
No Mind 101 describes the egos mechanisms and
perceptual defenses and explains how they maintain an
illusion of a self. The experience of No Mind reveals the
essence of realityawareness as a universal constant and
the concurrent emptiness and fullness of nature. The
cessation of clinging to old ideas and self-images trans-
lates into profound freedom that isnt illusionary but
deeply rooted in the essence of spiritual awareness.
Sometimes the best defense is no defense. In defending
something, we give it value, which becomes a potential
target for even more attacks. To devalue someone else in

210003_501_ch29.indd 604 6/6/08 3:45:48 PM

 hopes of elevating ones own self-worth constitutes a 605
mind game employed by many who are climbing up
Chapter 29
the ladder ruthlessly. This can be easily recognizable
by company management and it can backre in the pro- No Mind
motion seekers plan. If we perform selessly and with- Business
out greed, we do better, just like when we think less we
perform better and more efciently. History venerates
seless heroes, leaders, and other people who have per-
formed for the good of the many rather than the few or
the I.

THE IiLLS UNHEALTHY DESIRES FOR MONEY

AND FAME
The practice of No Mind provides a detached perspective
for the resolution of most problems. The techniques of
No Mind outlined in No Mind 301 bring serenity and
contentment independent of the environmental context
in the workplace. You are no longer having your strings
pulled in unwanted directions, like a puppet.
The Iills need for money, success, or power generates
unhealthy states of mind. Unconscious desires, condition-
ing patterns, reinforcement models, hopes, expectations,
and so on drive us to keep pushing even when we have al-
ready arrived, yet we dont know it. It is like escaping on
vacation to relax, but realizing that our mind nevertheless
remains plagued by thoughts about all we tried to leave
behind. We all know the experience of doing mental work
while attempting to take a break. We get so caught up in
the past or future that we miss the present, even when we
have actually arrived at our destination. In moments of
success, we often start thinking of our next destination or
dwell on where we came from, losing the joyful awareness
of the present arrived-at situation. As in a time warp, we
are here, but our thoughts are not.
Money tends to breed the mentality that we are al-
ways in need of fullling our desire potentials, driving us
to struggle further and to keep fullling more and more
desire potentials as they arise. In the end, one often

210003_501_ch29.indd 605 6/6/08 3:45:48 PM

 606 realizes that despite all of the energy that was spent
in fullling desires, one still remains spiritually empty
No Mind
501 and unfullled. Psychological, emotional, and spiritual
balance is as important in the business world as mate-
Living rial success is; we need to engage in practices like
No Mind
No Mind to experience spiritual awareness, so that we
know when we have arrived and are satised in the
moment; not in dreaming about future acquisitions.
Also, material success usually comes with more respon-
sibilities, which means less freedom and time to slow
down and enjoy the moments of life. Many business-
people are trapped in the brutal pursuit of more achieve-
ments, money, and power; but for who? and for
what? Some may even allow selsh intentions to be-
come the source of dishonest practices that spawn re-
sentment, worry, and guilt. When you fulll your
mind-body potential mindfully, nothing is left undone.
This is the wisdom of the Tao: Through non-action, noth-
ing is left undone. The best reward is when your talent is
naturally realized and genuinely appreciated; money
follows accordingly. Whether we are inherently talented
or have worked hard to develop the mind-body through
training, we perform at our peak when we do so with no
intention.

SUSPEND THOUGHTS AND LET THE PLAY FLOW

When you enjoy what you are doing without intention

and expectation, the thought of where you should be is
redirected to the awareness of where you are in this
present moment. In business, we need planning to chart
a direction and to identify what is required on the way;
however, this formal component of doing business is es-
sentially different from the self-oriented intentions of the
Iill. We need to work and to excel at the skills and crafts
in which we are trained and experienced. But like the
many spokes that make up the wheel and allow it to keep
stable while serving its purpose, we too are the compo-
nents that stabilize our societies and families. Yet, we

210003_501_ch29.indd 606 7/26/08 1:08:10 PM

 also need to remember that it is the emptiness of the hub 607
which makes the wheel useful. Tao Te Ching puts it as
Chapter 29
follows:
No Mind
Thirty spokes share the wheels hub; Business
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore prot comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.
(Feng & English, 1972)

When we work selessly toward higher goals, we are

more efcient and successful. Freedom brings creativity.
In the midst of ego-driven power struggles, we miss the
usefulness of the hubs emptiness and lose our center, be-
cause we focus on the spoke and not on the totality of the
wheel. Awareness is inundated with thoughts about re-
sults, consequences, and demands. We become result-
and not process-orientated. If Clear Attention is applied
to the task at hand or to the situation in the moment,
stress dissipates together with all expectations and inten-
tions. Just work and success will follow. Just act and joy
will follow. Act. React. But never try.

LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH MONEY

The authors of Mindfulness and Money, who are success-

ful businesspeople, note that one of the greatest causes
of suffering in the wealthy West is our love/hate relation-
ship with money: No matter how much we have, we dont
feel it is enough, or we fear losing it, or we mourn the
way we are forced to earn it. The problem in the way we
think about the material aspects of our lives is that we
use money to make us feel complete; however, most of us
eventually realize it cannot. The authors offer an alterna-
tivethe Path of Abundance that shows us how to earn
and spend creatively, which is key to living peacefully

210003_501_ch29.indd 607 6/6/08 3:45:49 PM

 608 with money. The Path leads us away from suffering based
on material obsessions and toward discovering our true
No Mind
501 nature and purpose (Houlder & Houlder, 2002).
The practice of No Mind reveals the impermanence of
Living material phenomena and teaches us how to disconnect
No Mind
from the Iill and to overcome bad habits. Professionals
who have used the techniques notice that they experience
less anger and more compassion and understanding for
other employees, as well as more personal happiness in
general. A large number of businessmen ... are discover-
ing that Vipassana [mindfulness] enables them to
run a protable business without having to suffer the
inevitable ... tension and anxiety. One company noted a
21-percent increase in productivity and a 68-percent
increase in sales per year after the introduction of medita-
tion practice (Sekhar, 2000). This shows that No Mind
Business can dramatically improve any business or
professional career, or help deal with a problematic love/
hate relationship with money.

210003_501_ch29.indd 608 6/6/08 3:45:49 PM

 609
CHAPTER 29 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 29
BEFORE CONTINUING
No Mind
1. Our brains function more efciently when trying Business
to solve a problem when we think less. We are
more intuitive, more creative, and we grasp solu-
tions which lay outside the scope of our normal
over-thinking mind. So, No Mind Business is not
lack of mind but enhanced mind with superior
performance.
2. The practice of No Mind in the modern business
world holds immense potential for success, not
only in terms of wealth and prestige, but also in
terms of producing a fully fullled human being
compassionate, happy, and unfettered.
3. Thousands of executives who practice meditation
have experienced increased efciency in work,
better relations with others, decreased tension and
anxiety, increased intelligence and improved learn-
ing ability, faster reaction time, and improved
health (Burns, 1975). A study shows that after
ve months of meditation practice, the treatment
groups experienced signicantly higher stress re-
duction compared to other experimental groups.
4. Attachment and expectations of outcomes in any
particular circumstances prejudice our ability to
see the correct solution clearly. De-automatization
provides us with a method of being objective to
problems in our lives and being able to see through
our attachments.
5. According to one study, the effects of meditation
on the individuals inuenced the performance of
groups as a whole, including managers who were
not participating in the meditation program.
6. Executives are seeing increases in productivity
and creativity due to the practice of meditation,

210003_501_ch29.indd 609 7/26/08 1:08:11 PM

 610

No Mind and they are becoming more open to new ways of

501 doing business and to see problems as ways to
improve, not as issues to be stressed-out about.
Living
No Mind 7. The practice of No Mind nourishes higher job sat-
isfaction and patience, better communications
and performance, and happier and healthier lives.
Mindfulness breaks the mental web of the Iill and
frees perception and thought. Strong emotions
might get in the way of sound business decisions,
and the practice of No Mind controls ones emo-
tional energy by allowing him or her to become
more objective.
8. Being attached to expectations about the outcome
of negotiations is a key hurdle to the process of
negotiating. Applying the practice of No Mind to
the art of negotiation remedies this problem.
9. Extremes, or opposites, are poles of a closed circle
and not the distinct ends of a line; they are inter-
connected. In this light, a negotiation is under-
stood as a dynamic circle which holds all solutions
in itself.
10. Play is essential in negotiation; when people are
too serious, they are too attached to act for the
benet of the deal, as they focus only on the parts
and not on the whole. They do not see opposites
as parts of the same entity, but as distinct and
separate realities.
11. The practice of No Mind empties the mind of
thoughts which may block the subtle intuitions
that occur just below the conscious level. The calm
mind is more apt to develop intuitive awareness.
12. With No Mind, you grasp subtle cues and reac-
tions from others which may be interpreted in a
new perspective and with new meaning and infor-
mation that can be valuable to understanding the

210003_501_ch29.indd 610 6/6/08 3:45:52 PM

 611
others intentions and expectations of the negotia- Chapter 29
tion. These subtle cues and insights are invaluable
in relationships with business associates, employ- No Mind
Business
ees, managers, and clients.
13. The best reward is when your talent is naturally re-
alized and genuinely appreciated; money follows
accordingly. Whether we are inherently talented
or have worked hard to develop the mind-body
through training, we perform at our peak when we
do so with no intention.

210003_501_ch29.indd 611 6/6/08 3:45:55 PM

 Stress is a killer. Psychologists know it. Doctors know
it. Even the insurance companies know it. And you are
probably well aware of it yourself. During times of stress,
your immune system suffers; you are prone to experience
symptoms of a compromised autonomic nervous system,
including heartburn, ringing in the ears, and night sweats;
your bones and muscles may begin to ache or tighten up;
and your brain, the control center of your body, may begin
to show signs of being overtaxed. Hundreds of medical
studies, physiological tests, and clinical reports have proven
that meditation and relaxation techniques reduce stress
and control pain and other stress-related conditions.

Chapter 30 reviews the evidence and the many ways that

No Mind can help you manage stress and improve your
physical and mental well-being. The more hectic and
stressful your life, the more you need to practice the
techniques of No Mind.

210003_501_ch30.indd 612 6/6/08 3:46:21 PM

 Chapter 30

No Mind
Stress Management

F or a while now, the medical profession has recognized medi-

tations role in stress management. Stress has been one of the
most common complaints that doctors hear. Over one hundred
million Americans report stress-related symptoms. Some of these
affect the autonomic nervous system and include migraines, dry
mouth, frequent colds, rashes, heartburn, problems swallowing,
ringing in the ears, blushing, rapid heart rate, cold chills, dif-
culty breathing, panic attacks, chest pain, night sweats, pain in
the extremities, constipation, diarrhea, decreased libido, and ina-
bility to orgasm. Secondly, there are symptoms involving the skel-
etal muscles, such as tension headaches, jaw pain, stuttering,
trembling, neck and back pain, and grinding teeth. Thirdly, there
are the mental symptoms of stress, such as anxiety, moodiness,
anger, depression, increased appetite, nightmares, problems con-
centrating, confusion, forgetfulness, crying, suicidal thoughts,
loneliness, and inability to control thoughts. Finally, behavioral

613

210003_501_ch30.indd 613 7/26/08 1:17:33 PM

 614 symptoms of stress include indifference to ones appear-
ance, tardiness, overreacting, social withdrawal, inef-
No Mind
501 ciency, mumbling, defensiveness, substance abuse,
smoking, overspending or gambling, weight gain or loss,
Living and constant tiredness.
No Mind
As we can see, stress has a long list of physical symp-
toms of the autonomic nervous system and of the skeletal
system, as well as psychological and behavioral symp-
toms, all of which frequently manifest themselves in the
form of heart, mental, or gastrointestinal diseases, sleep
disorders, learning disabilities, infertility, decreased im-
mune function, cancer, asthma, diabetes, PMS, drug and
alcohol addictions, headaches, and backaches. Stress-
related disorders are obviously an important factor in
our lives that we need to control.

MINDFULNESS REDUCES STRESS AND PAIN

In a study at the Department of Psychiatry of Chang Gung

Memorial, Taiwanese researchers found that the subject
learned to control headaches through the practice of
mindfulness meditation and concluded that meditation
may be a superior and more cost-effective alternative to
painkillers (Sun, Kuo, & Chiu, 2002). And in another
study, mindfulness meditation produced statistically
signicant decline in present-moment pain, negative
body image, moodiness, anxiety, and depression. The
use of painkillers decreased and self-esteem increased
(Kabat-Zinn, Lipworth, & Burney, 1985).
The consequences of routine stress and the impor-
tance of reducing its levels in most peoples lives com-
pelled the National Institute of Health to endorse
alternative therapies for chronic pain and insomnia, in-
cluding meditation. They encouraged and emphasized
broader use of alternative therapies in conjunction with
conventional medical care for such disorders. Subse-
quently, Enrollments have soared at meditation work-
shops, and the practice has become mainstream (Kalb,
2003).

210003_501_ch30.indd 614 7/26/08 1:17:34 PM

 Not only do studies show that meditation is boosting 615
their immune system, but brain scans suggest that it
may be re-wiring their brains to reduce stress ... Ten Chapter 30
million American adults now say they practice some No Mind
form of meditation regularly, twice as many as a dec- Stress
ade ago ... Meditation is being recommended by more Management
and more physicians as a way to prevent, slow, or at
least control pain of chronic diseases like heart condi-
tions, AIDS, cancer and infertility. It is also being used
to restore balance in the face of such psychiatric dis-
turbances as depression, hyperactivity, and attention-
decit disorder (ADD) (Stein, 2003).
... it has effectively decreased mood disturbance and
stress symptoms in both male and female patients with
a wide variety of cancer diagnoses, stages of illness,
and ages (Speca, Carlson, Goodey, & Angen, 2000).
The growing recognition of alternative therapies com-
pelled Congress to create the National Center for Com-
plementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) with its
own research and design authority. In 2000, Congress in-
creased funding for the agency in response to growing
public interest. Stress-related disorders remain wide-
spread throughout the world, and meditation practice
offers an effective primary, secondary, and/or tertiary
prevention strategy (Bonadonna, 2003). We live in a fast-
paced world characterized by urban crowding, economic
problems, career pressures, and marital discord. This is
the face of society created by the mass media, communi-
ties, and families. But where are we all going so fast, and
why? Alas, all we have done is allow the Iill monkey to
run around in its cage, looking through each window, but
never really seeing what is out there. The monkey keeps
looking and looking without getting anywhere, like a rat
running on its wheel.
In the 1980s, Time magazine named stress the number-
one health problem in the country ... Until recently,
that is, when scientists delivered the good news: All
you have to do is sit there. Findings from the National
Institutes of Health, the University of Massachusetts,
Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of

210003_501_ch30.indd 615 6/6/08 3:46:25 PM

 616 Technology (MIT) all credit meditation with not only
reducing blood pressure and encouraging relaxation
No Mind but also enhancing concentration and productivity.
501
(Amer, 2003)
Living
No Mind

RECOGNIZING OUR STRESS CUES

Stress is the product of a primordial arousal system that

is activated whenever the mind-body perceives something
as an intimidating, frightening, threatening, challenging,
or demanding situation. Stress is expressed differently by
different people, except for the basic survival maneuvers
required in life-threatening situations. Our mental web
determines what situations and perceptual cues get
branded as stressful. Our mental web has countless Iill
stress cues that were conditioned, reinforced, learned,
modeled, associated, trained, or habituated into our
associative neural network. Everyone has a very different
set of stress cues; each cue requires different levels of
reactive stress. For instance, a disgruntled ofce worker
who is upset about the broken elevators faces milder
levels of stress compared to the panicked tourist who
spots a dorsal n while swimming in shark-infested
waters.
The severity of stress cues depends on the patterns of
the mental web of the Iill. Some have learned to swim
with sharks without giving it a second thought, while
others panic, as they have no experience with this type of
stress cue. Even Christmas, a joyous holiday theoreti-
cally, is stressful for many. Party planning, gift shopping,
religious ceremonies, travel, meeting relatives and in-
laws, childrens lists, and the associated spending compel
some to forego the entire merriness and to seek escapes
from these stressful holiday days.
The main problem is the Iills reaction to the stress
cues and the stress level that each cue can induce, from
mild to severe panic. Hundreds of studies conrm that
meditation has a calming effect and that regular practi-
tioners are immune to more stress cues and react to a

210003_501_ch30.indd 616 6/6/08 3:46:25 PM

 lesser degree compared to those who dont meditate. In 617
Chapter 27, we reviewed studies indicating that Zen
Chapter 30
monks were not distracted by loud or stressful noises
during meditation, which was conrmed by the monitors No Mind
recording their brain waves. Mindfulness-based stress re- Stress
Management
duction has enhanced the quality of life, improved hor-
mone levels, and decreased stress symptoms in breast- and
prostate-cancer patients (Carlson, Specca, Patel, &
Goodey, 2004). Recently, mindfulness practice has been
introduced into mental health treatment as Mindfulness
Based Stress Reduction, Dialectical Behavior Therapy,
and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. The tech-
niques have been used to reduce symptoms and to change
behaviors in the context of various disorders, including
anxiety and borderline personality disorders (Bondol,
2004; Linehan, 1993; Solomon, 2003).
The practice of No Mind has a dramatic effect on the
operation of the Iill. Mindfulness prevents the Iill from
reacting uncontrollably by allowing one to veto or to
pause the reaction, if required. This pause disrupts the
automatic reaction to a stress cue, and it frees you from
feeling like a pawn in a game which isnt played by you
but being played for you and through you. Mindless acting
and reacting, as opposed to mindful reacting to stress
cues from a point of no control incurs physical trauma
on the mind-body, especially in such nerve-wracking situ-
ations as swimming with sharks. True, what looks like a
shark to one person is a dolphin to another, but we all
have our scarecrows.
At the University of Wisconsin, it was reported that stu-
dents with mindfulness training had increased activity
in their left prefrontal cortex which is associated with
happiness and optimism. ... These individuals ... were
also producing more antibodies than the controls ...
Mindfulness also proved to be effective among patients
with anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and other be-
havioral and emotional disorders. Mindfulness helps
binge eaters realize when they are full and to recognize
the urge to eat without succumbing to it. It has been
proven to be more effective than a psychoeducational

210003_501_ch30.indd 617 7/26/08 1:17:34 PM

 618 approach for obese women. For patients with obses-
sive compulsive disorder, it has helped them learn to
No Mind look at their thoughts and feelings in a more detached
501
way. Brain imaging showed that mindfulness treat-
Living ment dampened overactivity in brain areas associated
No Mind with obsessive compulsive disorder. In addition, with
mindfulness, patients with depression were only half as
likely to relapse compared to patients who underwent
standard counseling and medication (The Benets of
Mindfulness, 2004).

Practicing No Mind gives us power to focus aware-

ness away from stress cues. Without practice, this is ex-
tremely difcult. Absorption in expectations, hopes,
desires, and worries causes stress. Living in the past and
in the future takes our focus away from the present mo-
ment, where stress cannot exist. In the Now, there is no
stress. If we dwell on the past, we regret; if we dwell on
the future, we worry. Stress cues always relate to what
will happen or what has happened, so mindfulness of the
moment renders most of them irrelevant. If we are sur-
rounded by sharks, our survival mechanisms trigger con-
cerns about what might happen if we dont get out of
there quickly. Even though shark attacks are rare, our an-
ticipation of possible aggression triggers panic. As in life,
not all shark encounters are fatal; so we must learn to be
mindful of our fears, and we might even get to pet a dol-
phin, but only when we no longer see the sharks. Some-
times fear makes us see what is not there, and the practice
of No Mind allows us to see what really is there.

THOUGHTS ACT AS STRESS CUES

Anticipations and intentions produce stress in our lives.

They give us direction, but we need to let go of our xa-
tion with the results and focus on the process. When our
intentions and anticipations are not fullled, we are forced
to deal with a reality that is different from what we had
hoped for. Anticipations and intentions give us direc-
tion, but we need to learn to let go of anticipating the

210003_501_ch30.indd 618 6/6/08 3:46:26 PM

 results. We cannot become attached to any one particular 619
intention or expectation, as this leads us to a stressful out-
Chapter 30
come. Whether or not the intention is fullled is not the
issue; the problem is in trapping our awareness into the No Mind
future-tense of anticipationwaiting for the outcome, Stress
Management
rather than enjoying the moment.
An important benet of No Mind is the ability to be
aware of the present and not allow past and future events
to tax the mind-body dynamic with stress cues. Stress
cues are codependent and co-arise with thoughts, which
makes thoughts potential stress cues. Stress usually
comes while you are thinking about an event, expecta-
tion, or something threatening the mind-body. Once
thoughts of recalled or anticipated tragedy ood our
awareness, stress escalates into panic. Negative thoughts
only worsen the situation and can no longer help to miti-
gate the stress cue.
We can usually control stress when we can control our
thoughts. The Iill generates reactions and thoughts in re-
sponse to a perceived stress cue and its intensity level.
With Clear Attention, we can become mindful of the Iills
response to the stress cue and realize that it is a reaction
on which we do not need to act, just as we do not need to
act on our thoughts. Thoughts are only thoughts, not real-
ity. The practice of No Mind is about focusing attention on
the immediate present to become objectively aware of
thoughts and to then control them by not allowing our-
selves to get mindlessly lost in the string of codependent
thoughts that lead to stress. Stress cannot exist without the
codependent thought of what will happen or what has
happened. Understanding and practicing this technique
leads to emotional health and balance.

At a conference at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(MIT), neuroscientists and Buddhist scholars discussed
attention, mental imagery, emotion, and collaborations
to test insights gained from meditation. It has been
shown through a study called Cultivating Emotional
Balance Project that meditation training can promote
emotional health in Westerners. Fifteen schoolteachers

210003_501_ch30.indd 619 6/6/08 3:46:26 PM

 620 underwent a 5-week intensive course in meditation, and
they showed more positive emotional responses after
No Mind the training than before. (Barinaga, 2003)
501

Living
No Mind
USING NO MIND STRESS MANAGEMENT

Through the practice of No Mind, we become mindful of

our automatic stress responses and of our emotional im-
balances, which allows us to diffuse them through aware-
ness. We become aware of a fearful thought through an
objective mindful process and redirect awareness to the
task at hand. No Mind 301 discusses the techniquehow
we become aware of the thought and let it pass. We rec-
ognize it as a mind object and nothing more, so it cannot
run its codependent chain of associative thoughts, which
usually make things worse. We simply watch the mind
objects of thoughts and emotions by continually refocus-
ing on our breath and on what is happening in the imme-
diate present. Its a tug of war with the Iill over control of
awareness, so we need to just keep focused.
When we become mindful of stress as thoughts gener-
ated by the Iill, we can diffuse them. For example, imag-
ine you are waiting in line at the caf and the person ahead
is taking longer to order than you think he should and you
are in a hurry because you think you will be late. Your rst
reaction is anger at the person, followed by frustration
with the lack of time. Both are stressful and based on
thoughts that co-arise with our thought about time, of
which we never have enough. When awareness is trapped
in these thoughts and stressful reactions, you lose your
focus on the present and the ability to stay calm. When
you apply Clear Attention to the thought of the person
taking too long, you realize that this is only a thought gen-
erated by the Iill based on conditioned assumptions about
the proper length of time it takes to order. However, re-
gardless of what you think the right amount of time to
order should be, some people need more time because
the Iill in which they are trapped may require it to make
decisions. You realize that this is an auto-reaction and

210003_501_ch30.indd 620 6/6/08 3:46:26 PM

 you identify the thought that triggered it. As you refocus 621
on the present and on your breathing, the reaction dif-
Chapter 30
fuses. You do the same with the thought of being late.
Anger and stress are not the best appetizers, so it is better No Mind
to watch your thoughts and to be mindful of the joyful Stress
Management
present moment. There is nothing better to do. Being
angry and antagonistic makes things take even longer and
causes enough stress for all on the scene to kill everybodys
appetite, including yours. And thinking you will be late
suggests that you didnt have enough time in the rst place
and should make better arrangements in the future. It is
important to understand that our reactions to stress cues
are codependent with thoughts and emotions. And we can
mindfully observe thoughts in the present moment, which
is a very powerful protective technique against stress-
related cues when practiced properly. Reactions based on
our thoughts and emotions do not have to become reality,
as we can veto them.

MINDFULNESS IS A POWERFUL COPING STRATEGY

With practice, one can learn to control ones thoughts,

actions and reactions in everyday life and to stop being sub-
jected to whims of the Iill. During an eight-week stress-
reduction training program, John Astin of the Department
of Psychology and Social Behavior of the University of
California, Irvine, found increased sense of control over
ones cognitive, affective, and behavioral experiences:

The techniques of mindfulness meditation, with their

emphasis on developing detached observation and
awareness of the contents of consciousness, may rep-
resent a powerful cognitive behavioral coping strategy
for transforming the ways in which we respond to life
events. They may also have potential for relapse pre-
vention in affective disorders. (Astin, 1997)

No Mind is a powerful behavioral coping strategy that

helps us control the Iills reactions and actions. With prac-
tice and discipline you will develop the ability to slow

210003_501_ch30.indd 621 6/6/08 3:46:27 PM

 622 down or even stop the stormy waves of thoughts responsi-
ble for mindless behavior. In fact, most people can see
No Mind
501 the difference in their reactions and stress levels at the very
beginning of practice (Roth, 1997). Mindfulness-Based
Living Stress Reduction (MBSR), which was developed at the
No Mind
University of Massachusetts Medical School by Jon Kabat-
Zinn and Saki Santorelli, has helped elderly patients and
their caregivers to take better care of their health and to
enjoy their activities more fully (including reading, listen-
ing to music, meditation, silence, solitude, and dream
work) (McBee, 2003). Since 1979, over 15,000 people with
a range of medical and psychological conditions have
completed MBSR programs at the Stress Reduction Clinic
and over 5,000 health-care professionals have participated
in MBSR training programs in the United States and
Europe. More than 200 clinics around the world are
offering programs based on its model. According to studies,
the program helps a broad array of individuals to cope
with their clinical and nonclinical problems, including
heart disease (Grossman, Niemann, Schmidt, & Walach,
2004; Tacon, McComb, Caldera, & Randolph, 2003).
One study used mindfulness meditation to success-
fully relieve depression and anxiety caused by a surge
of physical ailments in an elderly patient who was also
terried of having to undergo a tracheotomy (Sun, Wu,
& Chiu, 2004). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is es-
pecially efcient in preventing relapse in patients with three
or more depressive episodes in the past (Ma & Teasdale,
2004). Most practitioners of mindfulness techniques have
fewer headaches, colds, infections, insomnia problems,
and back pains due to lowered stress and greater control of
negative thoughts.

Meditation treatment as applied to pain is useful be-

cause each thought, feeling, idea or perception involves
some type of physical or physiological response. Un-
controlled and unregulated thought process of the mind
can create (and through habitation maintain) offensive
physiological conditions. Examples include angina, hy-
pertension, and tension headache. (Rockers, 2002)

210003_501_ch30.indd 622 6/6/08 3:46:27 PM

 The ability to ow with life is vital to weathering the 623
inevitable and constant change of circumstances that is
Chapter 30
endemic to it. When you are too serious, you are attached,
and attachments cause stress and block the ow. Practic- No Mind
ing Clear Attention develops the ability to ow in any situ- Stress
Management
ation, thus bringing the play back into life. When you
learn to recognize expectations, intentions, and anticipa-
tions as thoughts that demand no action, you experience
letting go and giving in to the ow of the situation. Allow
yourself to become the water that can ow around obsta-
cles, recognizing the obstacles as simple changes of direc-
tion and not as disruptions in your chosen path. The ow
of water holds formidable strength and endurance.

ACT. REACT. ALWAYS IN PLAY

In play, we give in to the moment and do not dwell on the

anticipated outcome. Life is in balance, as you recognize
the sameness in all situations. There are good times and
bad times, but if you see their essential sameness, there is
no stress over associated gains or losses and you are less
likely to be pulled out of balance by one problem over an-
other. Some problems may need more work to resolve,
but work does not equal stress. Whether we swim through
deep or shallow water, the effort is the same. If you xate
on the depth and on the possibility of having to rest with-
out being able to reach the bottom with your feet, you
will cause yourself unnecessary stress, which will hinder
your swimming performance.
By understanding the concept of playing in the ow,
you balance your stress cues by watching them mindfully
and giving each one the same proportional value. You
dont inate one over the others based on conditioned an-
ticipations of their relative value. Obviously, some cues
require more attention than others, given the context.
But in either event, a stress response does not help you to
perform and to make the best decisions. Nearly all people
assign disproportionate signicance to minor events on
occasion and experience stress when there is no real

210003_501_ch30.indd 623 6/6/08 3:46:27 PM

 624 threat. This happens when we follow the patterns of the
mental web of the Iill because we have not yet learned to
No Mind
501 ow around the boulders in the stream of life. The prac-
tice of No Mind not only prevents stress and stress-related
Living diseases, but also shortens stress recovery time after ex-
No Mind
periencing emotional turmoil. Meditation has even been
shown to increase fertility by reducing stress. Leading
medical programs teach relaxation techniques, including
meditation and yoga (Petersen, 2004).

INCREASED STRESS RECOVERY

Chronic stress sufferers continue to experience anxiety

even after the stress cues are removed. The body remains
tense, which increases the chances of stress-related dis-
ease. The longer the state of stress is maintained, the
more likely it is that the next stress cue we come across
will have a more severe impact, since we havent recov-
ered sufciently and we are primed to overreact. If the
stress cues follow each other in a close sequence, as often
happens in life, the level of stress grows exponentially. At
this point, some may throw in the towel and go home
for the day, or take a walk to calm down, or even seek
comfort in substance abuse. It is important to learn to re-
gather the energy spent and to calm down quickly, so that
you do not keep building upon previous levels of stress.
In school, we are subjected to repeated tests, which gives
many students continuous anxiety about the next test.
Mindfulness practice has been shown to reduce and prevent
test anxiety on a continual basis. In a study published in
the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, William
Linden of New York University trained 26 schoolchildren
in meditation practice. The students demonstrated the
ability to perceive and to think more articulately and be-
came less test-anxious, as measured by the Test Anxiety
Scale for Children (Linden, 1973).
The practice of No Mind increases the ability to re-
cover the energy spent in the rst bout of stress and to
prepare calmly for future ones, should they occur. The

210003_501_ch30.indd 624 7/28/08 11:59:50 AM

 old notion that some stress is good for performance has 625
been rejected by most businesses, athletes, educators,
Chapter 30
and people in general. Stress dramatically reduces per-
formance. More important, stress is unhealthy, especially No Mind
if the energy it creates in the mind-body is not properly Stress
Management
channeled and released.

Teaching mindfulness meditation is a nursing interven-

tion that can foster healing. The consistent practice of
mindfulness meditation has been shown to decrease
the subjective experience of pain and stress in a variety
of research settings. Formal and informal daily prac-
tice fosters development of a profound inner calmness
and nonreactivity of the mind, allowing individuals
to face, and even embrace, all aspects of daily life re-
gardless of circumstances. By emphasizing being, not
doing, mindfulness meditation provides a way through
suffering for patients, families, and staff. This practice
allows individuals to become compassionate witnesses
to their own experiences, to avoid making premature
decisions, and be open to new possibilities, transfor-
mation, and healing. (Ott, 2004)

Mindfulness meditation performed by clinical patients

has consistently reduced stress and alleviated depression,
anxiety, disease, and emotional imbalance. Dr. Jon Kabat-
Zinn used mindfulness and meditation to aid the rehabili-
tation of a patient who suffered partial brain damage and
spent two weeks in a coma after being raped and severely
beaten. The practice of mindfulness played a signicant
role in restoring her emotional and physical functionality
(Meili & Kabat-Zinn, 2004).

BEYOND NO MIND STRESS MANAGEMENT

The practice of No Mind may reduce stress reactions in

those who understand the techniques. But sometimes
stress is caused by imbalanced spiritual awareness and
by our poor attitude toward mortality. No Mind 401, The
Secrets of No Mind, describes a spirituality that expands
from the mind-body awareness to grasp the essence of

210003_501_ch30.indd 625 7/28/08 11:59:51 AM

 626 nature or to directly experience enlightenment. When we
experience this level of spiritual awareness, we know our
No Mind
501 true nature. In metaphorical terms, we feel the calm
depths of the ocean of energy that surrounds us. We move
Living our awareness from the stormy waves on the surface to
No Mind
the tranquility that lies below, making us immune to the
turmoil above.
After surpassing the stress of our fast-paced modern
life, many have discovered a deeper sense of meaning
and profound awakening through enlightenment. This
discovery cannot be forced or willedit comes as an
insight with the practice of No Mind. When athletes reach
peak moments, they may feel overwhelmed with joy, but
without a method of understanding and maintaining
these experiences, they cant grasp them in terms of spir-
itual awareness or as enlightened sports. With sustained
practice, No Mind develops such experiences until there
is non-dualistic understanding of reality that is beyond
the Iill. This is the ultimate healthy state for a human
being, where stress cannot exist, as there is no intention,
expectation, regret, or worry to feed a stress cue; there is
only pure action. And that is enlightened living.
To cultivate this state, one needs to rst understand
and then experience the non-dualistic state of enlighten-
ment, when the Iill dissolves into the unity of everything
and deep joy permeates our being. Such states are reached
by practicing the Ten Paradoxes and by integrating these
insights into your daily life. Here, we conceive of stress
cues as mere mind objects and remain objective to their
arising and dissipating. The constant practice of the Right
Attitude and Right Awareness (see No Mind 301) keeps
the mind focused on acting and reacting accordingly.
Often an enrollment in intense ten-day Zen training or
mindfulness courses helps to break through the gate of
intuition and insight. There are deeper levels of enlight-
enment than the initial insight into spiritual awareness
(see Chapter 15, The Discovery of the Sequence of the
Stones). The goal is to move from mindful awareness of
being aware of a given situation to No Mind, where
there is no self-awareness but only pure awareness of

210003_501_ch30.indd 626 6/6/08 3:46:28 PM

 everything as an act of spiritual awareness. Here, spirit- 627
ual awakening is found through the ow of mind-body.
Chapter 30
Objective awareness of the mechanisms of the Iill
brings lasting peace and serenity. Experiencing enlight- No Mind
enment, we lose nothing, and yet we are never the same. Stress
Management
We do not lose our personalitywe see through per-
sonalities. The illusory nature of our personalities, the
Iills, becomes crystal clear. What was once opaque and
solid has become transparent and uid. We are no longer
stuck in stressful responses, as we see their imperma-
nence. We overcome the fear of leaving the habitual
world of the Iill, the dualistic nature of pain and suffer-
ing, and enter the non-dualistic world of being and noth-
ingness, which is the source of all the Shangri-Las of the
imaginations of human beings throughout history: the
ultimate level of stress-free life and joyous and meaning-
ful illumination.

210003_501_ch30.indd 627 7/28/08 11:59:51 AM

 628

No Mind CHAPTER 30 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER

501 BEFORE CONTINUING

Living 1. The medical profession has recognized medita-

No Mind tions role in stress management.
2. Researchers have found that people can learn to
control headaches through the practice of mind-
fulness meditation and concluded that meditation
may be a superior and cost-effective alternative to
painkillers.
3. The National Institute of Health has endorsed al-
ternative therapies for chronic pain and insom-
nia, including meditation.
4. Our mental web determines what situations and
perceptual cues get branded as stressful. This
web has countless Iill stress cues that were condi-
tioned, reinforced, learned, modeled, associated,
trained, or habituated into our associative neural
network.
5. The main problem in stress management is the
Iills reaction to the stress cues and the stress level
that each cue can induce, from mild to severe
panic. Hundreds of studies conrm that medita-
tion has a calming effect and that regular practi-
tioners are less susceptible to stress cues and react
to a lesser degree, compared to those who dont
meditate.
6. Mindfulness prevents the Iill from reacting un-
controllably by allowing one to veto or to pause
the reaction.
7. Living in the past and in the future takes our focus
away from the present moment, where stress can-
not exist. In the Now, there is no stress. If we dwell
on the past, we regret; if we dwell on the future,
we worry.

210003_501_ch30.indd 628 6/6/08 3:46:28 PM

 629
8. With Clear Attention, we become mindful of the Chapter 30
Iills response to the stress cue and realize that it is
a reaction that we do not need to act on if we dont No Mind
Stress
want to. We do not need to act on our thoughts. Management
Thoughts are only thoughts, not reality.
9. Our reactions to stress cues are codependent with
thoughts and emotions, and we can mindfully ob-
serve thoughts in the present moment, which is
our combative technique to stress-related cues.
10. No Mind is a powerful behavioral-coping strategy
for controlling the Iills reactions and actions. With
practice and discipline, we develop the ability to
slow down, or even stop, the stormy waves of
thoughts responsible for our mindless behavior.
11. When we are too serious, we are attached, and
attachments cause stress and block the ow. Prac-
ticing Clear Attention develops the ability to ow
in any situation, thus bringing play back into life.
12. The practice of No Mind increases the ability to
recover the energy spent in the rst bout of stress
and to prepare calmly for future ones, should they
occur.
13. Mindfulness meditation performed by clinical pa-
tients has consistently reduced stress and allevi-
ated depression, anxiety, disease, and emotional
imbalance.
14. In No Mind Enlightenment, we do not lose our
personalitywe see through personalities. The
illusory nature of our personalities, the Iills, be-
comes crystal clear. What was once opaque and
solid has become transparent and uid. We are
no longer stuck in stressful responses.

210003_501_ch30.indd 629 6/6/08 3:46:31 PM

 In most relationships, the individual partners have their
own entrenched Iills developed over many years of condi-
tioning. The Iill generally functions defensively in its own
self-interest, using subjectively interpreted data. When two
Iills come together at rst, when restraint is at its highest,
they might get along ne, but at some point they typically
engage in a conict, which is often beyond resolution from
the Iills limited perspective. The No Mind program renders
the Iill obsolete. From this point of view, the relationship
is treated as a whole, and its needs are paramount to the
perceived needs of either individual. Negotiation pursues
the best interest of the relationship, as opposed to the best
interest of either partys Iill. But conict-free negotiation is
only one way though which No Mind enhances relationships.
The program also deepens the connection in intimate
relationships, improves romance, and even enables couples
to approach sexual encounters as a means of developing
spiritual awareness.

Chapter 31 applies No Mind to relationships and reveals how

its practice can help remove conict, deepen compassion,
open the channels of communication, develop unconditional
love, and even enable the experience of enlightenment
through Zen sex.

210003_501_ch31.indd 630 6/6/08 3:46:56 PM

 Chapter 31

No Mind
Relationships

T he practice of No Mind enhances awareness and perception of

cues from other people. We are more open and receptive, and
we process sensory information with less ltering and categoriza-
tion. We see reality and people as they really are. Issues to which
we were oblivious before may be alarmingly obvious now. While
applying Clear Attention to daily routines, we discover a new sense
of interconnectivity among our mind-body, family, community,
nature, the universe, and our loved ones. We have learned how
to apply the Ten Paradoxes to routine situations in terms of
non-action or no-trying; remaining in play; understanding and
being mindful of expectations, desires, hopes, anticipations, and
worries; reecting as a mirror in a non-dualistic mode of
awareness while trying to resolve conicts or misunderstandings;
allowing the natural ow of the relationship to take place through
less analysis; releasing attachments and reducing clinging to our
individual perspectives; and achieving spiritual awareness by

631

210003_501_ch31.indd 631 6/6/08 3:46:59 PM

 632 transcending the I and experiencing unity with partners
through touching, closeness, and sexual ritual. The Ten
No Mind
501 Paradoxes helps us maintain a path of action that will
make our relationships betterfor us as individuals and
Living for both partners as a couple.
No Mind

THE RELATIONSHIP OF TWO IiLLS

In a relationship, each partner brings a set of beliefs,

values, defense mechanisms, conditioning patterns, rein-
forcing cues, biases, and judgments through his or her
formed categorical and associative mechanisms and ha-
bitual modes of performing daily routines. It is difcult
to fully understand your mates needs and desires all the
time. And what may have been strong attraction and love
at rst tends to weaken, instead of intensify, as the rela-
tionship itself becomes increasingly habituated. Hence,
over half of the marriages dont last.
As discussed previously, the tendency of the Iill is to
get locked into distinctive perspectives. The Iill constantly
needs to maintain its viewpoints to reconrm its dualis-
tic identity. The Iill always relates to reality in terms of I
and they, or simply I and you in relationships. This
maintains the illusion of two separate entities trying to
relate to each other, as opposed to becoming spiritually
aware of their oneness. In a relationship, we are ex-
pected to work together as one entity to solve problems,
build a nancial future, raise children, share joyful activi-
ties, and so on. We tend to act most selessly when we
raise children; for their needs always outweigh ours,
and we sometimes mistakenly suppress our own needs in
favor of providing for those of the other partner. When
we over-suppress our own needs, we can actually block
our own spiritual growth, which harms our relationships
in the long run.
It is natural to have needs, desires, intentions, expec-
tations, hopes. They are the bases of our sense of person-
ality, or ego. We learn to become aware of these needs
through the practice of Clear Attention. We do not sup-
press but recognize them for what they aremental

210003_501_ch31.indd 632 6/6/08 3:47:00 PM

 objects. We may choose to act on some, but not on oth- 633
ers. A balanced life calls for fullling needs that are con-
Chapter 31
sistent with the Right Attitude and the Right Awareness
(see No Mind 301) and with the needs of the relationship. No Mind
If we suppress these needs and desires, they can manifest Relationships
themselves in the form of interpersonal conicts. Objec-
tive awareness through the practice of Clear Attention
helps us realize which needs are important, which are
trivial, and which are conditioned reactions. Putting the
needs of the couple above the needs of the individual
paves the path to true spiritual awareness. Balance and
harmony are brought to a relationship by transcending
the needs of the Iill and by realizing love as an essential
universal need of the couple.
If the relationship does not have the seless interest
of the couple at its foundation, then it is doomed to im-
balance and may even end in discord. When we are self-
less and less attached to our own needs, the relationship
ows. Yet things must be balanced, as both partners re-
main seless and pursue the greater goal of the needs of
the relationship, as opposed to the needs of the self. When
our priority is love in the relationship, our perspectives
are exible and we are more likely to see the other side
of the story. Similarly, when a couple has a child, both
partners put the interest of the child above their own;
this makes it easier to agree on what is best for the child.
When parents truly love their child, they usually can
agree on how to fulll the childs needs, whether they are
together or not. Yet, when parents are selsh, conicts
related to raising a child are more likely.

ATTACHMENT BRINGS CONFLICT

Conicts occur when we are attached to opinions, values,

ideas, beliefs, habits, and so on. Everyone has been in a
situation where one is not exible on a certain issue and
when one makes a stand and is resolved to ght to the
death to protect the perspective of the Iill. The ego de-
fends its identity and the things that dene it, as discussed

210003_501_ch31.indd 633 6/6/08 3:47:00 PM

 634 in No Mind 101. It is sad, but also humorous, to step out-
side the anger of the moment and to watch a meaningless
No Mind
501 argument escalate into a full battle. Sometimes these
types of arguments suggest the existence of more serious
Living issues that seek opportunities to come to the surface.
No Mind
Clear Attention is very useful in such situations, allowing
you to be objectively mindful of your thoughts and more
intuitively aware of your partners real motives.
When we stop trying to make the other person see
our point, we can engage in more open communications
though the application of the First Paradox: Act. React.
But never try. When partners practice non-action (or wu-
wei, communication without trying to prove anything or
to impose a point of view), the mind opens to the free
ow of exible communication. Clear Attention develops
such a detached, non-dualistic mode of awareness by
suspending the Iills effort. Developing this form of com-
munication requires practice by both partners, but even
if only one of them practices the technique, it may open
the perspective of the other partner as they both begin to
see their own faults through the actions or reactions of
the other partner. When we remain mindful and do not
engage in argumentative behavior, the other partner has
nothing to ght against. Being non-argumentative can be
the most effective way of allowing someone to truly see
their own faults.

WITHOUT EFFORT, COMMUNICATION IS OPEN

Communicating without trying suspends the effort of
judging the other persons actions. Passing judgments be-
tween partners is a futile exercise that strains the rela-
tionship. In judging someones actions, opinions, or
values, you use your own experience to try to under-
stand what the other person is attempting to communi-
cate, even though your experience most likely cannot
grasp the other persons meaning and feelings adequately.
Still, to judge, you must make reference to the perspec-
tive of your own Iill, which automatically implies that

210003_501_ch31.indd 634 6/6/08 3:47:00 PM

 you are the absolute point of reference regarding what is 635
right, while others may be wrong. In other words,
Chapter 31
someone has to assume the right position and the other
has to assume the wrong position, which immediately No Mind
separates the couple into polar opposites. In a healthy re- Relationships
lationship, nobody is right or wrongthey are both right
and they are both wrong. In reality, there are only differ-
ent perspectives that need not be right or wrong. And
these different perspectives are merely two sides of the
same goal of maintaining the relationship. When the goal
changes, the relationship usually fails.
Relationships unite two Is, but both of them regard
themselves as right according to their own points of ref-
erence and neither likes to recognize that they are wrong
or to admit fault. Remember, from the perspective of
No Mind, both partners are equally right and wrong dur-
ing disagreementsthe verdict only changes relative to
an Iills point of view. In any disagreement, everything is
relative, which is important to remember while having
heated discussions with your partner. When couples
practice Clear Attention, they reduce the Iills urge to con-
tinually defend and alienate itself. We can stop the cycle
of reactive verbal exchanges between partners by becom-
ing mindful of thoughts as mind objects. Of course, this
is difcult to do once emotions have taken hold of the
mind. When there is no try, there is no judging, and the
others needs are more readily seen and understood. Act.
React. But never try to prove your partner wrong or your-
self right. Simply accepting what the other is saying is an
act of non-action. To listen without intention and expecta-
tion is non-action in communication.
When all effort to prove who is right and who is
wrong ceases, the partners feel more connected, as they
are more open to expressing their feelings freely. They no
longer judge, analyze, intimidate, threaten, ridicule, or
mock each other. The couple develops and experiences un-
conditional acceptance, which is an essential aspect of true
love. In this way, partners relinquish their quest to domi-
nate and overshadow each other. Through the practice of
No Mind, they learn to be mindful of the Iill and to avoid

210003_501_ch31.indd 635 6/6/08 3:47:01 PM

 636 trying to shape their partners based on their expectations
of what one should be and how one should act. In ad-
No Mind
501 dition, they are released from their own selves in the proc-
ess. By becoming mindful, they change their own behavior
Living tendencies of trying to change their partners. The uncon-
No Mind
ditional love of full acceptance connects the partners in a
uid communication stream which builds over time. This
type of owing communication knows no arguments, as
there is nothing to argue about when no position has been
taken; there is nothing to defend or to attack. Truth is rela-
tive to the arguer, just as space and time are relative to the
observerso all truths are conditionally relative.

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE AND HEALTHY

RELATIONSHIPS
When we share unconditional love with our partner, ar-
guing with him or her feels as if we are arguing with
ourselves. Unconditional love is a true feeling of spiritual
oneness; thus, we accept our partners beliefs and values
and we experience spiritual awareness in love; in a mysti-
cal sense, one is the other. Abraham Maslow writes:

There is little question about the tendency to more and

more complete spontaneity, the dropping of defenses,
the dropping of roles, and of trying and striving in the
relationship. As the relationship continues, there is
a growing intimacy and honesty and self-expression,
which at its height is a rare phenomenon. The report
from these people is that with a beloved person it is
possible to be oneself, to feel natural, I can let my hair
down. This honesty also includes allowing ones faults,
weaknesses, and physical and psychological shortcom-
ings to be freely seen by the partner. Self-actualizing
love, or b-love, tends to be a free giving of oneself,
wholly and with abandon, without reserve, with-
holding, or calculation of the kind exemplied in the
following statements collected from college women:
Dont give it up easily. Make it hard to get. Make him
uncertain. He should not be too sure of me. I keep him
guessing. Dont give yourself too fast or too completely.

210003_501_ch31.indd 636 6/6/08 3:47:01 PM

 If I love him too much hes the boss. In love one must 637
love more than the other; whoever does is the weaker.
Let him worry a little. (Maslow, 1954). Chapter 31

No Mind
In addition, Maslow argues that an individual can be Relationships
much healthier in his environment when he is not at-
tached: Living by his inner laws that he sensed within him
rather than follow cultural pressures (Maslow, 1954).
Whether or not two partners have distinct lives and ca-
reers, they can be united through spiritual awareness of
unconditional love. They can discover this through the
practice of No Mind. They understand the relationship be-
tween work, play, and love, and they experience an intrin-
sic bond with one another, as well as true freedom from
one another. Their love is not based on conditions or de-
sire potentials that need to be fullled: If she only did this,
I would love her more, Unconditional love is universal
love, or god xs love, experienced by both partners at the
same time; it is universal like a great pool of water where
they come to play, refresh, recharge, and get wet. The
roots of such unconditional acceptance and love are in
spiritual awareness. Partners recognize that they are spir-
itually the same and that their love is not individualized; it
is the essence of nature that manifests itself as love. Cou-
ples who share such enlightenment (in the sense of experi-
encing oneness beyond the Iill) grasp the essential love
that permeates the universe and expresses itself in the nat-
ural world. Two lovers manifest unconditional love when
they look into each others eyes and are no longer aware of
themselves. In losing oneself into the other, they have
gained everything in the total absorption of the moment.
Unconditional love is the mystical union with the innite.

MYSTICAL UNION THROUGH SEXUAL RITUAL

The attainment of enlightenment through sexual ritual is

discussed in the ancient Tantra scriptures. Tantra means
integrationthe integration of two mind-bodies through
spiritual awareness. Tantra is best described as spiritual
sex; spiritual awareness is achievable though the practice

210003_501_ch31.indd 637 7/28/08 12:11:25 PM

 638 of correct sexual ritual that enables transcending the
mechanisms of the Iill. Tantra practitioners seek enlight-
No Mind
501 enment through sexual techniques that facilitate spiritual
development and freedom from the I. In attaining one-
Living ness through the practice of No Mind, we must relinquish
No Mind
thoughts and forget expectations. We must un-train the
mind to practice seless, instead of selsh, sex. This tran-
scends the Iill and dissolves the separateness between
our own self and that of our partner. The partners merge
in Being and realize the universal nature of awareness:
enlightenment.
The way of Zen is to allow nature to express itself
through all of our actions without intention, similar to the
way the cherry blossom blooms naturally in the spring.
The practice of Zen through the sex ritual is almost six
hundred years old, and Tantra is millennia-old. Ikkyu
Sojun (13941481), one of the most revered Zen masters
in history, said that sex deepened the experience of en-
lightenment. This theme reverberates in a recent book on
Zen sex: So many of us go through life searching for sex,
bored with sex, ashamed of sex, addicted to sex, never re-
alizing our potential to awaken and change (Sudo, 2000).
When the techniques of No Mind are applied to the sexual
technique, we experience the expansion of our awareness
from individuality to universalityawareness is the only
universal constant. An essential aspect of the universe is
its propensity to continually recreate itself, and this as-
pect is the basis of life. Above anything, even survival, life
seeks to recreate itself. In humans this essential desire runs
deep and its suppression is unhealthy. The integration of
mind, body, and spirit is important for a healthy and en-
lightened individual. It is the Red Thread of Zen of which
Ikkyu speaks and which connects us all and links us to
spiritual awareness.
There are four basic practices to Tantra, or Zen sex:
motionless intercourse, synchronized breathing, sustained
eye contact, and sexual exchange without orgasm (Voigt,
1991). These differ from most couples normal sexual
habits; therefore, in order to practice these methods, one

210003_501_ch31.indd 638 6/6/08 3:47:01 PM

 must un-train the mind and become empty of the Iills 639
expectations, desires, worries, and doubts. We un-train
Chapter 31
our conditional reality, let go of selsh desires to be
pleased, and open to seless desires to please the other. It No Mind
is a subtle integration of the two mind-body dynamics Relationships
exchanging energy in a reciprocal process. And yet, it is
more than just pleasing the other partner selessly; we
expand our awareness beyond the Iills mechanisms of
self-centeredness into the pure awareness of unity with
our partner. The practice of No Mind can become a trans-
formational process for couples and help them reach
deeper spiritual levels.

When we, as therapists, grasp the meaning of the col-

lective essence of these experiential parameters, a new
context for our work with couples can emerge. It be-
comes possible to make a deliberate choice between
working to promote symptom remission, as with
conventional approaches to sexual problems, and a
commitment to transformation of a couples sexual ex-
perience ... We can, on the one hand, view orgasm as
resulting from proper stimulation and effective tech-
nique and, on the other hand, understand orgasm as
a product of deep relaxation and a profound level of
contact between partners ... the self of a couple that
manifest in subtle realms. (Voigt, 1991)

Intimacy with ones own self is an essential step to

achieving intimacy between partners. In a paper titled
Bringing Zen Practice Home, Joan Hoeberichts, a Zen
priest and psychotherapist, says,

Intimate relationships are great partners in the path

of meditation practice. Meditation practice lowers our
defenses and allows us to see and feel aspects of our-
selves we might not have access to otherwise ... Admit-
ting to myself my feeling of stupidity was being most
intimate with myself. It was stepping into not know-
ing. Allowing myself to look and feel stupid in front of
someone else is, indeed, most intimate in relationship.
(Hoeberichts, 2004)

210003_501_ch31.indd 639 6/6/08 3:47:02 PM

 640 TRANSCENDING THE I AND AWAKENING THE
VITAL ENERGY
No Mind
501
Taoist Yoga describes a generative force (chi) which can be
Living controlled and regulated through proper breathing and
No Mind awareness. The couple can practice these techniques be-
fore sexual union to increase the ow of energy throughout
the body. This also stimulates the lower chakras. The sec-
ond chakra, located in the abdomen and sexual organs,
brings sexual fulllment, uidity, and the ability to change
the ow of energy.

[Deep breathing] reaches the lower abdomen to arouse

the inner re and then bring pressure on the genera-
tive force already held there, forcing both re and gen-
erative force to rise in the channel of control in the
spine to the head. This is followed by an out-breathing,
which relaxes the lower abdomen, so that the re and
generative force that have risen to the head sink in the
channel of function in the front of the body to form a
full rotation, the microcosmic orbit. This is to cleanse
and purify the generative force so it can be transmuted
into vitality. (Luk, 1970)

A similar (but more popular) Tibetan practice called

Kundalini Yoga speaks of a spiritual force behind all mental
and physical activities. It rises from the lower nerve plexus
to unite with consciousness in the pineal gland in the brain
with the help of breathing techniques and Yoga. Kundalini
Yoga creates overwhelming unifying energy. Erotic impulses
can stimulate Kundalini energy to rise along the spine to
the highest center of power above the head. Couples can
experience this unifying energy through the practice of
Kundalini Yoga as it applies to sexual union.
The Kundalini is neither a biological nor a psychic
principal, it is a spiritual concept. There is no objective
proof of her existence. But, she can be seen intuitively
... The discovery of the Kundalini and the esoteric
process of awakening is a prehistoric achievement of
human ingenuity. It is one of the priceless treasures of
Indian culture. (Singh, Lalan, & Prasad, 1976)

210003_501_ch31.indd 640 6/6/08 3:47:02 PM

 Modifying your sexual practices to include the four 641
basic techniques of Zen sex (motionless intercourse, syn-
Chapter 31
chronized breathing, sustained eye contact, sexual exchange
without orgasm) and using the practice of No Mind can No Mind
help you and your partner reach spiritual awareness and Relationships
experience higher energy states. In this expanded aware-
ness, we transcend the individual I to achieve universal
unity that releases us from the bonds of the Iill. We expe-
rience directly the non-dualistic integration of the part-
ners sexual energies. Nature ows through the sexual act
when the Iill is released. This leads to enlightenment by
reprogramming the learned automatisms of sexual prac-
tices and expectations. These automatisms prevent us
from relating to our partner because they tend to make
us get stuck on ourselves. True intimacy comes from sus-
pending perceptual and defense mechanisms and from
seeing our partner as a spiritual source.
No longer so tossed about by thoughts, we become ca-
pable of a more unbroken perception of each other and
ourselves. We pass through the gates of cynical and de-
mystied certainties toward suggestive ambiguity. We
hear the songs of inection beneath the speech. We feel
the greater whole coming together, previously obscured
by our habitual fragmenting preoccupations. Drawing
back from the rush, we feel the quieter emotions of shy-
ness, charm, and trepid vulnerability as the graceful but
uncertain romanticism of life. (Sovatsky, 2000)

PERFORM. DO. BU T NE VER THINK.

The sexual ritual requires no thought, no effort, no

intentionjust a passive letting go and trusting the
mind-body to reach peak performance. Be mindful of
the technique and the process, as opposed to the inten-
tions and goals. The experience is analogous to watching a
toy boat being gently released into the stream, carried by
the current, and joining the ow of the stream. Remember,
any thoughts, even positive and encouraging ones, detract
from the experience of No Mind during the sexual ritual.

210003_501_ch31.indd 641 6/6/08 3:47:02 PM

 642 While we want to enjoy these experiences, we must be
equally mindful of all thoughts if we are to reach spiritual
No Mind
501 awareness. No thought is superior to right or wrong
thoughts. Focusing awareness using Clear Attention and
Living breathing is the path to reaching spiritual unity through
No Mind
the sexual ritual. When we shed all judgments and expec-
tations, the gates of mystical ecstasy open to the couple.
Letting go of the complex maze of mechanisms that
sustain the Iill allows non-action (or no-trying) as there is
no purpose, no intention, and no goal to fulll. There is
only the present moment. Attempting to will the mo-
ment disrupts the gentle ow that is required for purpose-
less action. Un-training the mind is needed to stop trying
to force outcomes, to just let go like a toy boat in the
stream. Neither partner should attempt to manipulate
the toy boat in the stream; they should just let it follow
its own natural course. The partners must succeed as a
couple, but not in the sense of being attached at the
hip; rather, they should see each other as an aspect of
their own spiritual awareness, where their Is are irrele-
vant. In spiritual awareness, we are all the same, we lose
our individuality to the cosmic ux of Being, and if a
couple can experience this, they know an enlightened
relationship.
Clear Attention and breathing develop the detached
and non-dualistic perception that is required for peak
performance. There is no I responsible for actions here,
as these actions cannot be possessed by anyone. We per-
form best by trusting nature as the source of essential
knowledge that permeates every cell of the body. Nature,
or spiritual awareness, acts and becomes aware of itself
through the mind-body, just as we become spiritually
aware when the mind-body is in peak performance. This
is No Mind; we act with expanded awareness that real-
izes its universality. Individuality has been transcended
and personality has subsided without effort. Subse-
quently, we exist only in the present moment; if the part-
ners remain focused on the present moment, they are
open to fully experiencing unconditional love.

210003_501_ch31.indd 642 6/6/08 3:47:02 PM

 Mindful awareness is the ability to clearly see what is 643
happening from moment to moment without being
colored by past or future events ... When partners have Chapter 31
an argument or conict they usually are not aware of No Mind
themselves in the present moment and normally argue Relationships
about past events that are still causing them pain. Prac-
ticing mindful awareness helps them to stay open to
their pain and allows them to connect deeply with each
other ... whereby each partner cultivates his or her
journey, while at the same time cultivating the growth
of the relationship and the journey of the other. Part-
ners help one another to nd their true self. (Yau, Bley,
& Dea, 1994)

WE CAN LOVE CONDITIONALLY OR

UNCONDITIONALLY
The Iill is the greatest obstacle to the development of
spiritual awareness and to the unity between partners.
Our mental web of behavioral patterns may serve our-
selves, but it certainly may not accommodate our part-
ner. We may be completely different, from beliefs and
opinions to how we clean the dishes. Through the prac-
tice of No Mind, we learn to recognize these patterns in
ourselves and in our loved ones as aspects of the mind, so
we can handle differences and understand the other
through understanding the others Iill.
Everyone enters a relationship with ideas, mental
maps of how they want it to unfold, fantasies, hopes, expec-
tations, and future goals. When the reality of the relation-
ship clashes with what we thought it should be, we must
adjust our personal plans to accommodate the other part-
ner. We often blame him or her for putting us in this posi-
tion, as the Iill considers itself too perfect and can rarely
recognize self-fault; hence, we have karma. When one of
the partners has expectations of the other, this brings
karma into the relationship. In general, relationships from
the perspective of the Iill are extremely difcult, and even
those who succeed struggle with issues from the start;

210003_501_ch31.indd 643 6/6/08 3:47:02 PM

 644 only the couples that accept issues unconditionally move
on with the relationship painlessly. We all have heard old
No Mind
501 people say, He was always like that, but I love him any-
way, or There she goes again; its best I just let her be
Living and have her moment. These are examples of people who
No Mind
have learned to love conditionally. They accept the other
because he or she ts other conditions they need to feel
fullled.
Such an accepting relationship doesnt really sound
like a great romance or like an enlightening love affair.
We accept the other for many reasons besides lovefear
of loneliness, children, nancial security, religion, cul-
tural or family values, shame, guilt, and so on. The rela-
tionship isnt based on true, unconditional love, but on
conditional reasons. We may not even be aware of the
reasons, but we stay with our partner, even though our
insight dictates that we should leave to nd true love. Un-
fortunately, most relationships are conditional. We learn
to love and accept what matches our Iill preferences.
Projecting needs, intentions, and expectations onto
our partner in order to ll existing voids in our own per-
sonality can be destructive to the relationship. For in-
stance, calling your partner selsh in certain situations
when it is really you who feels selsh amounts to project-
ing your inner self-feelings. Similarly, it is counterpro-
ductive to say you are tired when your partner wants to
have sex if the truth is that you are losing sexual interest
in your partner. The same goes for silently accepting
things your partner does, when deep down you resent
them. Such deceptive behavioral patterns spawn a cou-
ple I, where we become habituated to our partners hab-
its and fail to see them anymore.
Similar to the social I discussed in No Mind 101,
the couple I is an illusion shared by the partners. They
are bound together by a set of expectations, desires, pat-
terns, and sexual habits, but those may actually stand in
the way of true unity and enlightenment. Partners need
to let go of their attachments to the couple I and to
release the dependence on mutual routines and pat-
terns. The formation of the mutual I is not a conscious

210003_501_ch31.indd 644 6/6/08 3:47:03 PM

 or willful act; it happens surreptitiously over time. Part- 645
ners can get channeled into stereotypical patterns of
Chapter 31
action and reaction without ever nding self- or mutual
fulllment in the relationship. This usually happens No Mind
when the partners are not whole in themselves, making Relationships
the relationship incomplete also; they are fragments
coming together in hopes of producing one whole through
the relationship. Such couples, where the partners have
not experienced their own individual spiritual aware-
ness, are common. In them, partners cannot experience
spiritual awareness through the sexual union either.
When they become whole and spiritually aware, they
may expand their relationship to one of unconditional
love.

MINDFULNESS-BASED RELATIONSHIP
ENHANCEMENT
The technique of mindfulness has been scientically
shown to enhance a couples relationship.

In a study evaluating the effects on mindfulness-based

relationship enhancement, designed to enrich the re-
lationships of relatively happy, non-distressed couples,
results suggest that there was a favorable impact on
the couples levels of relationship satisfaction, auto-
nomy, relatedness, closeness, spirituality, relaxation,
and psychological distress. The results further showed
improved levels of relationship happiness, relation-
ship stress, stress coping efcacy, and overall stress.
(Carson, Carson, Gil, & Baucom, 2004)

Practicing Clear Attention, partners realize new as-

pects of their individual and couple Iills. They begin to
recognize whether their behavioral patterns are healthy
or not and to develop those conducive to the practice of
No Mind. Being objective allows them to recognize the
binding power of behavioral patterns on the relationship;
then they are free to communicate openly their real emo-
tions. The trigger cues of each partner determine the
emergence of a mutual set of relationship cues for the

210003_501_ch31.indd 645 6/6/08 3:47:03 PM

 646 couples behavior. It is important for every couple to
explore the mutual I of their relationship and to under-
No Mind
501 stand its trigger cues. For instance, intimate partners
often have a set of behavioral patterns they adopt as a
Living couple only when they are around other people (e.g.,
No Mind
touching, not touching, formal dialogue, being pleasingly
accepting of the other, bickering about certain subjects,
and so on). In this case, the trigger cue is other people (or
it may be a certain friend, a relative, coming home after
work, and so on). Understanding these patterns sheds
more light on the individual Iills and on the couple Iill.
With mindfulness, we can monitor our own actions and
reactions within the relationship and adjust our behav-
iors based on Iill-less actions.
Therapists who counsel couples can monitor their
client interactions using the same techniques that cou-
ples use to monitor themselves. Thus, mindfulness helps
the couple therapists to create an optimal healing envi-
ronment for their patients.

Mindful counselors ... use multidimensional models

of personality. They also carefully analyze the complex
and dynamic interactions occurring within themselves,
within their clients, and between themselves and their
clients. They mindfully monitor the shifting dynamics
... in the counseling process. They recognize that their
clients, like themselves, are complex adaptive systems
who do not simply adhere to simplistic and linear mod-
els of behavior ... the mindful counselor is one who
approaches the challenge of this complexity and uncer-
tainty with a high level of creativity. (Leong, 1996)

An accepting, mindful, and compassionate relation-

ship to the self is essential for the process of healing. The
practice of the Right Attitude, which forms the basis of
the Ten Paradoxes, develops mindfulness, unconditional
love, compassion, and spiritual awareness. Mindfulness
develops unconditional compassion and emotional con-
nection, which is a source for healing within the relation-
ship (Schmidt, 2004).

210003_501_ch31.indd 646 6/6/08 3:47:03 PM

 NEVER WORK AT THE RELATIONSHIP, 647
ALWAYS REMAIN IN PLAY
Chapter 31
We forget how we used to play and have fun. When you No Mind
are mindful and watch other couples ght, you begin to Relationships
understand that the arguing is a condition of the Iill, and
you may even nd some humor in it all. People ght about
the silliest thingsleaving the lights on or the toilet seat
up, not cooking something right, picking the wrong
check-out line, and so on. Yet, its all about defending our
identities. If the ghts continue or escalate, a couple may
even require professional intervention to help them nd
the source of the problem. And if the problems remain
unresolved, they may opt to end the relationship, as they
may have lost the original love.
At what point in the relationship did everything get so
serious and desperate that nothing seems to work any-
more? There was play at the beginning of the relation-
ship, but eventually it turned into work; we felt like kids
at the beginning, but then we grew up into adults and lost
our ability to play. Many couples experience the relation-
ship as so much work all the time, and this is unhealthy.
Relationships should not feel like toil but like loving play.
Unconditional love calls for no effortit is an uninten-
tional experience shared by both partners. Becoming
spiritually aware allows us to experience unconditional
love, but it must be shared by both partners. If only one
partner does, the other cannot understand, which creates
imbalance. Many couples and individuals experience
spiritual awareness through unconditional love without
understanding or identifying the experience (weve al-
ready discussed the athlete who experiences the ow, or
the zone, but doesnt have the knowledge to identify it as
spiritual awareness or No Mind and how he is at a loss
of words regarding the experience). When we love un-
conditionally, we experience seless awareness that tran-
scends the needs of the Iill. We would do anything for our
partner, even at the cost of harm or death to ourselves.
This is ultimate compassion, and the practice of No Mind
develops it.

210003_501_ch31.indd 647 6/6/08 3:47:03 PM

 648 NO MIND REDUCES CENSORSHIP OF SELF
AND PARTNER
No Mind
501
Couples practicing Clear Attention can more readily be-
Living come objective to their mind objects and understand the
No Mind meaning of their partners actions and thoughts. They are
more objective and see reality more clearly, which allows
them to see these mind objects as thoughts and not as
mandatory plans of action. They do not try to interpret
their partners meaning in terms of their own Iill. Watch-
ing mind objects (like anger, guilt, resentment, and jeal-
ousy) diffuses their intensity before we act on them
automatically. Through the application of Clear Attention,
we gain insights into the source of mind-object patterns.
In a therapeutic sense, understanding these emotions may
help to overcome them; however, when we self-analyze
our minds contents from within the Iill, the interpretation
reects the Iills understandings of those emotions. We
must not use mind to understand mind. We use clear
awareness to watch the mind objects. Remember the
Third Paradox: Seek mind with no thought. We intuitively
understand our partner better the less we think and ana-
lyze him or her.
Applying Clear Attention to emotional mind objects
develops an understanding of the associated behaviors
and can reduce the frequency of such emotions in the fu-
ture. The practice of No Mind helps to treat these emo-
tions as mind objects with our partner and to let them go
without over-thinking. In the Journal of Religion and
Health, Rubin discusses how meditation reveals the mean-
ing of thoughts, feelings, or fantasies psychoanalytically:

The focus of authentic meditation is not to make any-

thing happen, like quieting ones mind, sedating oneself,
or achieving higher state of consciousness or spirit-
ual experiences, but to be with whatever is happening
(including inner turmoil) in a very different waywith
a spirit of self-friendship rather than self-censorship.
We engage our experience directly and empathetically
in real meditation, with no separation between the
observer and that which he or she observes, and without

210003_501_ch31.indd 648 6/6/08 3:47:04 PM

 any agenda or a priori conclusions about the essential 649
nature or value of what we experience. (Rubin, 2001)
Chapter 31
When we transcend the I, action and actor merge
No Mind
together. It is no longer, I am angry, but, there is anger, Relationships
or just being aware of the anger. We adapt a perspective
beyond the automatisms of our behaviorwe deautom-
atize. It is easier to decipher the meaning of negative
thoughts or feelings outside the context of the Iill. Self-
doubt, lust, anger, anxiety, and apathy are major recur-
ring issues in relationships. Many therapists opt for
psychoanalytics when dealing with inter-ego conicts,
whereas a transpersonal (spiritual) approach works best
when couples have resolved such conicts and want to
work on mutual spiritual growth (Boorstein, 1979).
We need to grow individually in order to reach an en-
lightened relationship with our partner. We need to nd the
conditions of our relationships which prevent us from
reaching unconditional love. Practicing Clear Attention
allows us to become aware of conditional behaviors and
attitudes, as opposed to being mindlessly consumed by the
meaning of feelings and thoughts. It is a useful method for
understanding inner turmoil and discomforts with regard
to relationships. From the perspective of No Mind,
we maintain objectively that these feelings are an empty
source of the Iill. They offer nothing toward unconditional
love and spiritual awareness. It is important for a couple to
realize the shortcomings of the Iill and to transcend them
for a loving and unconditional realization of who they
really are. The universal essence is love, and god x is love;
the couple experiences universal love through their own
sexual union by letting go of all attachments.

LETTING GO OF YOUR ATTACHMENTSTOTAL

ACCEPTANCE
Becoming intensely attached to a particular process in the
relationship may cause many problems. Insisting on We
have to do it this way is a common recipe for relationship
conict, where one partner clings to a viewpoint and wont

210003_501_ch31.indd 649 7/28/08 12:11:26 PM

 650 let it go. But being right is relative to the Iill; everyone is
right in a relationship, as they have always done things
No Mind
501 their way, which has worked for years. So why change now,
even if it is to please our partner? The dominant partner
Living typically wins, but the other partner may feel unimportant,
No Mind
ignored, intimidated, frightened, unnoticed, or withdraw
into a submissive role. Such negativity introduces even more
conditions into the relationship. Feelings and thoughts
generated by the victory of one partner are destructive to
the deep intimacy required for unconditional love and
spiritual awareness through sexual union. These types of
actions only hinder the ability to reach sexual heights
and intimate sharing with one another. We need to under-
stand the reality and futility of winning. For every winner
there is a loser, and you shouldnt want the one you love to be
the loser. There is no possible gain at this point, only loss.
The middle path between clinging to attachments is al-
ways more conducive to ow in the relationship. After all,
opposites, such as right and wrong, are part of the same
reality and not autonomous entities. If you seek right, then
there must be something wrong. As with any linguistic du-
ality, as long as you say someone is right, then, by default,
you concurrently say that something or someone else is
wrong (on the dualistic nature of language, see No Mind
101). The actions of one partner are codependent with the
reactions of the other; thus, an interdependent relation-
ship is realized through dynamic exchange and not through
one-way action. This same principle governs nature and
the universe. One-way communication cannot happen;
whatever you say triggers a response in the other party,
whether he or she expresses it or not.
When someone constantly pushes to be right, the rela-
tionship can be become very taxing on the other partner.
Attachment to ideas and beliefs is work. With less serious-
ness, the work nds its way back to the playful times when
the couple had fun in each others company. There are
many couples who complain in bemusement, Why do we
have to work so hard at this relationship? They have lost
the essential play that probably brought them together in
the rst place. Lovers often have a list of things they love

210003_501_ch31.indd 650 7/28/08 12:11:27 PM

 and hate about their partners; I love it when you do this, 651
or I hate it when you do that, describing all the rights
Chapter 31
and wrongs of the partners individual Iill. Instead of ac-
cepting the other person in totality, we continually defend No Mind
our I and dwell on the differences of individuality, as Relationships
opposed to dwelling on our mutual compatibility. You
cannot accept your partner in totality until you accept
that your interpretation of him or her may be entirely
wrong and inadequate. Accept the fact that you may be
wrong, and you will transcend the barriers between your-
self and your partner. Every time we analyze our partner,
we do so from within a predetermined codebook or Iill-
log of engrained experiences. We need to move past this
limited range and see the person without preexisting de-
nitions, undened, just as he or she is.
It is important to pay attention without always trying to
interpret the others actions. We accept, rather than ques-
tion or analyze. Interpreting our partners actions continu-
ally categorizes them so that we can no longer see them
in their own spiritual light and beauty. Intimate sharing,
interpersonal spirituality, and open communications re-
quire understanding our partners in their own terms, not
in terms of our own experience. Total acceptance equates
to unconditional love. An article titled Re-Organizing the
Experience of Self and the Spouse discusses interpersonal
conicts caused by the selshness of each partner:
In short, love and relationships in this world are in
reference to ones own self and not for the sake of the
other ... But, when one or both partners have some un-
resolved issues regarding their own selves, the conict
tends to escalate. (Singh, 1992)

Obviously, our unresolved issues will strain our rela-

tionships. It is up to us to move past the selshness of our
own perspective into seeing our partner as a spiritual
source, as a way in which we can experience universal
love. In the grip of attachments, we lose the aspect of
play through constantly attempting to be right; insisting
that there is only one correct way to do something
our way; clinging to notions of self superiority (and the

210003_501_ch31.indd 651 6/6/08 3:47:04 PM

 652 associated inferiority of the partner); and defending the
pride of the I by hiding our feelings of guilt, shame, re-
No Mind
501 morse, and anxiety. Pride is a defense mechanism that
hurts relationships, among other things.
Living Why do people ght those they love? We should be able
No Mind
to let our guards down with our loved ones and to trust
them without ever feeling threatened. We get attached to
the defenses of our identity. Pride is the by-product of
defending our identity. In play, there is no pride to pro-
tect, no imposing expectations and intentions, no barriers
to open communications, and the moment dictates the
ow. Thats how young children play, in the moment.
Similarly, romantic partners do and feel as they wish be-
cause they have achieved an uninhibited relationship. Play
involves action that is unpurposeful, without expectations,
and without intentions of winning something. When
young children play, they portray these characteristics in
their play. Enlightened relationships, just like Zen sex, are
process-orientated rather than goal-oriented. Losing your-
self or transcending the Iill in the process is the key to
developing spiritual awareness with your partner.
Spiritual transcendence requires recognizing the
source of the selfthe Iills mental web of neural associa-
tive networks. Each partner can help the other recognize
his or her conditioned patterns of desires, expectations,
anticipations, and anxieties. Thus applied, Clear Atten-
tion guides the partners in the spiritual process of achiev-
ing true intimacy at a seless (Iill-less) level of expression,
especially in sexual ritual. Understanding the others nor-
mative perceptions and behavioral antics opens opportu-
nities for collaboration. Play must be kept up, as once
anybody becomes attached to a particular issue, the prob-
lem of choosing sides between winners and losers returns.
As people become aware of their partners idiosyncrasies,
they can deal with them in a detached manner, without
projecting their own behavioral and wish patterns onto
the partner. Projecting stunts the couples growth. Recog-
nizing ones own problems and taking responsibility for
them is healthy for the relationship, as it fosters intimacy
and spiritual growth.

210003_501_ch31.indd 652 6/6/08 3:47:05 PM

 THE MAGIC OF CLEAR ATTENTION IN A 653
RELATIONSHIP
Chapter 31
Applying Clear Attention in conict situations illuminates No Mind
our attachments and those of our partner. Play moves the Relationships
couple toward greater compassion for each other. Un-
conditional love is like a seed in potential; all loving rela-
tionships have the potential to experience unconditional
love through spiritual awareness and sexual union.
One of the most common problems in building healthy
relationships is stress. Stress can originate from a variety
of sources: money, children, in-laws, school, work, sched-
uling, jealousy, guilt, anger, resentment, and so on. Stress
that manifests itself in each partners individual life can
attack the couples well-being at its roots.
One key to stress management is using the techniques
of the No Mind program. It is important to maintain
awareness of the present moment and not to relate stress
cues of the couple to the future or the past. It is impor-
tant to become aware of the temporal aspects of stress
and how its cues relate to past regrets or future worries.
No Mind Stress Management (Chapter 30) provides a
helpful discussion on stress management. Clear Atten-
tion is a powerful technique for stress reduction that can
be used by couples to enhance happiness in the relation-
ship. It can be practiced together and as part of the sexual
ritual.
Couples can learn to naturally ow together around
stress cues without blame, ridicule, and guilt. A couple
must put their intentions and expectations of the relation-
ship into perspective and understand that any expectation
or intention is a mind object of the Iill. Like the wind blows
in a general direction without intention, or a stream ows
downhill without intention, a couple too can have a natural
direction that is shared unintentionally through the couple
I. A couple needs to nd its natural direction that works
within the connes of the two individual Iills and the cou-
ple Iill. Once the couple realizes deeper unconditional love
through spiritual awareness, this ow will occur naturally
without trying to nd it. It will nd itself.

210003_501_ch31.indd 653 6/6/08 3:47:05 PM

 654 Clear Attention is a good platform from which to launch
their relationship boat into the stream of life by gently re-
No Mind
501 leasing it and allowing it to ow with the current. This is the
Right Attitude learned through the Ten Paradoxes that a cou-
Living ple must maintain if they are to develop spiritual awareness
No Mind
and experience enlightenment through sexual ritual. The
couple must let go and trust their joint mindbody to stay in
the ow; then the boat will not crash into the rocks or get
beached upon the shore. Like an athlete trusting the mind-
body to reach peak performance by transcending the I, the
couple must trust that they have enough skill and understand-
ing to develop an enlightened relationship. There are always
obstacles along the path and many boulders in the stream to
ow around, but with gentle direction and non-action, the
couple can grow and experience oneness and unity. If the
partners hit the rapids between the boulders, they must trust
the relationship boat to make it through to calmer waters,
knowing that all things in nature occur in cycles. Change is
another constant we need to accept as part of life.
Clear Attention supports uid connections within a
couple that are not skewed by the expectations and desires
of either partner. There is no right or wrong, no winners or
losers, no set ways of doing things; the eld is open and the
play can begin anew. There are no limits to the kind of love
that is the unconditional expression of spiritual aware-
ness. The ultimate realization that the universe plays
through all of nature can be experienced directly in our
relationshipthrough acts of communication, the sexual
ritual, moments of intimacy, and mutual spiritual aware-
ness. This is a beautiful mystical experience based on an
intimate spiritual union with another human being.

Rinzais disciples never got the Zen message,

But I, the Blind Donkey, know the truth:
Love play can make you immortal.
The autumn breeze of a single night of love is
Better than a hundred thousand years of
sterile sitting meditation ... (Ikkyu, 2003)

210003_501_ch31.indd 654 6/6/08 3:47:05 PM

 655
CHAPTER 31 IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER Chapter 31
BEFORE CONTINUING
No Mind
1. In a relationship, each partner brings a set of be- Relationships
liefs, values, defense mechanisms, conditioning
patterns, reinforcing cues, biases, and judgments
through his or her formed categorical and associ-
ative mechanisms and habitual modes of perform-
ing daily routines.
2. The Iill always relates to reality in terms of I
and they (or I and you in the context of rela-
tionships). This maintains the illusion of two sep-
arate entities trying to relate to each other, as
opposed to becoming spiritually aware of their
oneness.
3. Putting the needs of the couple above the needs of
the individual paves the path to true spiritual
awareness. Balance and harmony are brought to
a relationship by transcending the needs of the
Iill, and realizing love as an essential aspect of the
universal needs of the couple.
4. When we stop trying to make the other person
see our point, we can engage in more open com-
munications though the application of the First
Paradox: Act. React. But never try. Then partners
practice non-action, or wu-weicommunication
without trying to prove anything or to impose a
point of view.
5. Never try to prove your partner wrong or yourself
right. Simply accepting what the other is saying is
an act of non-action. To listen without intention
and expectation is non-action in communication.
6. Unconditional love is universal love, or god xs
love, experienced by both partners at the same
time; it is universal, like a great pool of water
where they come to play, refresh, recharge, and

210003_501_ch31.indd 655 6/6/08 3:47:05 PM

 656

No Mind get wet. The roots of such unconditional accept-

501 ance and love are in spiritual awareness.
Living 7. Couples can experience enlightenment through
No Mind sexual techniques that facilitate spiritual develop-
ment and freedom from the I. In attaining one-
ness through the practice of No Mind, we must
relinquish thoughts and forget expectations. We
must un-train the mind to practice seless, in-
stead of selsh, sex.
8. There are four basic practices to Zen sex: motion-
less intercourse, synchronized breathing, sustained
eye contact, and sexual exchange without orgasm.
9. Couples can reprogram the learned automatisms
of sexual practices and expectations. These au-
tomatisms prevent us from relating to our partner.
They keep us stuck on ourselves. True intimacy
comes from suspending perceptual and defense
mechanisms and from seeing our loved one as a
spiritual source.
10. In spiritual awareness we are all the same, as
we lose our individuality to the cosmic ux of
Being; if a couple can experience this, then they
have known what an enlightened relationship
really is.
11. Couples practicing Clear Attention can more read-
ily become objective to their mind objects and un-
derstand the meaning of their partners actions
and thoughts.
12. We need to nd the conditions of our relation-
ships which prevent us from reaching uncondi-
tional love. Practicing Clear Attention allows us
to become aware of conditional behaviors and at-
titudes, as opposed to being mindlessly consumed
by the meaning of feelings and thoughts.

210003_501_ch31.indd 656 6/6/08 3:47:08 PM

 657
13. Conceptual opposites, such as right and wrong, Chapter 31
are part of the same reality and not autonomous en-
tities. If you seek right, then there must be some- No Mind
Relationships
thing wrong. This is crucial to understand in a
relationship: as long as you say someone is right, you
simultaneously say that something or someone is
wrong through the codependent nature of language.
14. Intimate sharing, interpersonal spirituality, and
open communications require understanding our
partners in their own terms, not in terms of our
own experience. Total acceptance equates to un-
conditional love.
15. The couple must maintain the Right Attitude
(learned through the Ten Paradoxes) to develop
spiritual awareness and to experience enlighten-
ment through the sexual ritual. The couple must
let go and trust their collective mind-body, so
that the boat of their relationship stays in the ow
without crashing into the rocks or getting beached
upon the shore.

210003_501_ch31.indd 657 6/6/08 3:47:11 PM

210003_501_ch31.indd 658 6/6/08 3:47:14 PM
 No Mind 601

Insights of
No Mind

210003_601_ch32.indd 659 6/6/08 3:51:58 PM

 The Ten Paradoxes teach us that when we think less, we
perceive more. We are more creative, intuitive, and intelligent.
We understand what the great masters meant when they
said that the Iill, intellect, and logic cannot comprehend
nor experience No Mind, consciously or subconsciously.
When we practice Clear Attention, we can reach a mindful
states of awareness, when we may experience No Mind
and the awakening that shifts the perspective of the I
to cosmic spiritual awareness. The expanded awareness
we reach with correct breathing, Clear Attention, and the
use of the hua-tou can be applied in all domains of ones
life, including business, sports, relationships, education,
and stress management. The numerous psychological and
physiological benets have been documented here and in the
literature; they include better attitude, clearer mind, more
endurance, increased strength, fewer phobias and fears,
control over habits, healthier sleep patterns, and so on.

210003_601_ch32.indd 660 6/6/08 3:52:29 PM

 It Never Ends,
It Only Begins Anew

T he ancient masters regarded the accumulation of knowledge

and understanding of the No Mind principles and practice as
treasure more valuable than any gold or precious stones. The ap-
plication of this invaluable knowledge to your life has profound
benets. Hence, it has been so sought-after by many throughout
recorded history. The experience of spiritual awareness opens
insight that cuts through the intellectual and reasoning apparatus
of the mind. When we suspend socialized values, concepts, preju-
dices, theories, preconceptions, biases, and social standards, we
can perceive reality directlywithout the ltering, associative, and
categorizing aspects of the mental web of the Iill. We expand our
awareness beyond the perspective of the Iill and into its source
spiritual awareness, or the universal essence of nature. This state
is beyond language, which is based on the concept of identity and
which is embedded in our neural associative networks. Language
often fails us when we attempt to describe reality truthfully. As
long as we remain in the I-illusion, we are ill in the sense that
661

210003_601_ch32.indd 661 6/6/08 3:52:31 PM

 662 we cannot function at full capacity and we remain split
from our spiritual counterpart in the universe. We are
No Mind
601 discrete units, as opposed to inseparable elements of the
whole, and we understand concepts but not meanings.
Insights of The process of No Mind involves un-training the mind
No Mind
and deautomatizing our behaviors, perceptions, actions,
reactions, and memories.

STOPPING THE MIND THROUGH ZEN KOANS

Zen masters used their proverbial koans to stop the stu-

dents from using reasoning to try to determine and un-
derstand enlightenment. Koans are basic statements
which make no sense until one sees the spiritual aware-
ness aspect through them. The goal is to see all things in
their original wholeness without breaking them down
into their separate parts, as opposed to our normal ten-
dency to break down everything and analyze it.
It isnt enough to understand everything in its original
wholeness; you must experience the original wholeness
for awakening to occur. Popular koans include the
following:
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
What is your face before your birth?
What is the sound of a tree falling in the woods if no
one is there to hear it?
What is your own mind?
The world is vast and wide. Why do you put on your
robes at the sound of a bell?
If you call this a short staff, you oppose its reality. If
you do not call it a short staff, you ignore the fact.
Now, what do you wish to call this?
How does an enlightened one return to the ordinary
world [given that] a broken mirror never reects again
[and] fallen owers never go back to the old branches?

210003_601_ch32.indd 662 7/28/08 12:30:35 PM

 One Zen story tells us about a student who asked his 663
master, What is it that transcends everything? and the
It Never
master replied, I will tell you after you have drunk up the Ends,
waters of the West River in one gulp. Upon hearing this, It Only
the student was instantly enlightened. There are over a Begins
Anew
thousand koans, and a few hundred of these are used by
Zen masters as the basis for training students. Koans render
intellect and reasoning weak and obsolete. The student
nds himself exhausted after contemplating them repeat-
edly until they are seared into his mind. Eventually, he
grows so frustrated and doubtful that it may only take a
shout or a tap on the shoulder to awaken (or enlighten)
him. His mind has to be ready and at the verge of bursting
for awakening to happen. The problem is that students
are different: some realize enlightenment more easily
than others, depending on the range and extent of their
attachments and on the dominance of their Iill. Breaking
free of the Iill is a feat of practice and concentration; it
requires breaking the habits of the mind through de-
automatization and applying Clear Attention to watching
the mind, so that awareness can expand to No Mind (see
Discovery of the Sequence of the Stones, No Mind 301).

HEALING THROUGH INSIGHT

The Insights of No Mind is presented here in the form of

thirty-nine insights which grasp the essence of No Mind,
of the universe, and of enlightenment. The insights are
sometimes logical, sometimes illogical, and always both.
They complete the study and practice of No Mind. With
Right Awareness and Right Attitude (see No Mind 301),
you can grasp the basic meaning of each enigma. Then
the limits of your logical mind become obvious and the
answers emerge. Alas, the problematic dualistic nature of
language is inherent in these insights. They try to de-
scribe spiritual awareness, which can be misunderstood
if it is conceptualized in terms of fragmented concepts
and meanings. Therefore, when we transcend the Iill and

210003_601_ch32.indd 663 7/28/08 12:30:36 PM

 664 expand our awareness from the mind-body to the univer-
sal, we grasp the meaning of the insights.
No Mind
601 When we try to identify and to understand everything
in terms of our separate selves we lose the essential un-
Insights of derlying aspect of being and nothingness. Through the
No Mind
practice of Clear Attention we detach from the identity of
the I and adopt a spiritual cosmic perspective. If being
and nothingness are the bases of universal awareness,
then we are experiencing the universe becoming aware of
itself through our mind and-body, which is a healing proc-
ess of the psyche. The essence of nature is experienced as
spiritual awareness or as quantum consciousness. And it
is quantum consciousness which experiences itself.
Society treats and heals the I through many forms
of psychotherapy which try to strengthen the ego and its
self-image for the sake of smoother social integration.
The ancient masters knew that the best form of therapy
was not about healing the identity, but about expanding
awareness to transcend identity and to become an inte-
grated whole. They knew that all individual suffering
and social ills originate from the Iill and its maintenance
and preservation. This is why it is important to under-
stand that all observations are empty and all observations
are relative to the mental web of the I. Well-being fol-
lows naturally when one understands the basic principles
of No Mind.

TRANSCENDING DUALITY TO ENLIGHTENMENT

When we transcend the duality of our existence, exist-

ence itself evolves into non-dualistic being and nothing-
ness, which we experience simultaneously. This is the
transcendence of the I into No Mind, of the individual
into the universal, and of the social structures into spirit-
ual awareness and the blissful liberation from the bond-
age of the self. This spiritual liberation has been pursued
by all major religious traditions of the world. It is impor-
tant to avoid understanding these concepts as being lim-
ited to Zen or Eastern philosophy; one can understand

210003_601_ch32.indd 664 6/6/08 3:52:33 PM

 them in terms of any religious background, regardless of 665
classication or labeling. They are accessible to all of
It Never
humankind and belong to no particular formal religious Ends,
or philosophical discipline. The practices discussed here It Only
constitute a holistic and universal psychotherapy. Begins
Anew
The Insights of No Mind help us to loosen the grip of
the I. Without the I lter, we continue to see the
same image through the same eyes, but now things are
much clearer. The Insights hold no hidden meanings.
They only describe an aspect of life that is inaccessible to
logic or reasoning alone and difcult to explain. They
should not be studied and analyzed like a problem in a
science class; instead, if a certain aspect of an insight
grabs your interest, make it an object of Clear Attention.
Pour your entire being into grasping its meaning, because
most of them contradict how we were trained to perform
and to think in our daily life. Family and social condi-
tioning runs contrary to the healthy approach to most of
our daily problems. Constantly overthinking everything
renders us emotional wrecks.

AWAKENING TO THE MEANING OF THE INSIGHTS

Theres an interesting story about a surfer who described

the exhilaration of riding a wave as follows: I love get-
ting on top of that wave, its just like kicking old Mother
Nature right in the butt. Master Nomi replied, To kick
Mother Nature in the butt is to kick yourself in the butt;
perhaps you should seek to become one with the wave.
The surfer looked up in puzzlement, then doubt, and -
nally awe. He awoke to the realization that we are not
parts acting against parts, but the whole of nature itself
living interdependently. On that day the surfer experi-
enced his most exhilarating ride without even getting on
a wave.
The goal of No Mind 601 Insights is to provide a simi-
lar experience for the reader. They should be broken into
two- or three-line segments that appear particularly par-
adoxical, and those segments should be used as objects

210003_601_ch32.indd 665 6/6/08 3:52:33 PM

 666 of Clear Attention. Hopefully, they will focus the mind for
the purpose of attaining spiritual awareness. For most
No Mind
601 people, the most challenging concepts are the principles
of non-action, no try, and no intention, as they run con-
Insights of trary to traditional training and conditioning. However,
No Mind
it is important to understand that these concepts do not
preach lethargy or apathythey simply explain the act of
doing that does not originate from Iill intention; its
source must be natural and ow around obstacles like a
stream following the path of least resistance and not get-
ting stuck on its way to the ocean.
We can apply natural motion and energy to social sit-
uations. For example, when we are not confrontational,
we ow without getting stuck. False intentions weigh us
down, so jettison all intentions of the Iill and remain
buoyant. Unlike linear reasoning, the insights do not al-
ways ow sequentially, just like a river never ows in a
straight line. They require letting go of logical and in-
tellectual thoughts to clear the way for intuitive percep-
tion without overthinking it.
To be effective, the practice of No Mind should be an
integral part of daily routine. Spiritual awareness comes
suddenly when the mind is immersed in the oneness of
all things and the illusion of the I is experienced. This
insight through awakening may come instantly, but the
application into your daily life and the deepening of the
levels of enlightenment may take many years. Still, it is
the most important part, as it brings contentment and
happiness and dissipates our struggles into simple life
processes. The awareness of the world around you will
change into a more harmonious cycle of events as you
recognize more and more the underlying motives and in-
tentions from others that you may not have been aware
of before. In addition, one recognizes with ultimate com-
passion the underlying motives of others as they struggle
in the trap of their own Iills. You begin to grasp the un-
derlying oneness of all things and people; they are of the
same universal fabric. When you practice the Right
Awareness, Right Attitude, and the Ten Paradoxes intently,

210003_601_ch32.indd 666 6/6/08 3:52:33 PM

 you demonstrate the effects of No Mind, and every day is 667
the perfect day.
It Never
Ends,
GETTING PAST YOUR PRESENT REALITY It Only
Begins
Anew
Once you have experienced No Mind, everything, includ-
ing you, is grasped in terms of the oneness of the uni-
verse. All things around you are the same; they are equal
aspects of being and nothingness, of No Mind, of spiritual
awareness, of the Ultimate Reality. Everything is the same,
though manifested through more or less subtle or dense
aspects of nature. To achieve No Mind, all you need to do
is to stay on the path of practice. This program has been
designed to present a 2,500-year-old tradition of techniques
and teachings in a way that makes these ancient and secret
traditions specically accessible to modern people.
Unfortunately, achieving No Mind is probably harder
today than it was a millennium ago, when human inten-
tions and desires were limited to the basic necessities of
life, at least for most people. In todays consumerist soci-
ety, we are bombarded by information from every direc-
tion; we constantly want more things, even if they have
nothing to do with our basic survival needs; we are con-
stantly working to acquire more, to do better, and to ac-
cumulate prestige in the social environment, which leaves
no time to spare for anything else; and we are concerned
with ourselves and our immediate family only. All of these
have widened the abyss between our reality and the
reality of enlightenment. We are blinded by insubstantial
ideas about what society thinks should be important
(houses, cars, toys, elite education, entertainment, gour-
met food, and so on), and we lose our selves in this state.
Without seeing, we pick up a dime and step over a dollar.
Blame it your own neural networks.
When you realize that every other person is you,
you realize that you are sacricing your true nature
every time you pursue the desires of the I. Regardless
of ones religion or worldview, we all share a primordial
shred of oneness on a most fundamental level. We all

210003_601_ch32.indd 667 6/6/08 3:52:34 PM

 668 seek spiritual awareness consciously or subconsciously,
in one way or another depending on our cultural context.
No Mind
601 This drive might be encoded in the human DNA, and it
has found expressions in a slew of religious, philosophical,
Insights of artistic, or scientic teachings. The old masters know
No Mind
that those who are enlightened are truly one with eve-
rything and see spiritual awareness everywhereIn
the petal of a rose, in a bird, in a dolphin, and even in
a beetle. It is easier for some, and more difcult for
others, but it is natural for all to nd this oneness in all
things.
The notion of oneness generates great existential
doubt about who we are at our core, as human beings.
The confusion and mystication force us to seek answers
on an existential level. Thus, we need such great doubt to
achieve No Mind. The ancient masters said, The greater
the doubt, the greater the enlightenment. Many people
avoid asking these kinds of questions and live their entire
lives in the Iillfearing death and poverty, suffering anxiety,
running out of time, so obsessed with social success that
anything can be compromised in its pursuitincluding
honor, dignity, and respect.

THE GREATER THE DOUBT, THE GREATER

THE ENLIGHTENMENT
Those who seek contentment and harmony and have
genuine respect for nature and people need to question
who we are and why the world is inundated with suffer-
ing. This is analogous to the doubt you might have expe-
rienced on occasions when you left your home and
wondered whether youd locked the front door or not;
this doubt and the anxiety about what you will discover
upon returning home keeps you on your toes throughout
the day. It nags you even while you deal with other things,
making you uncomfortable. Such great doubt is essential
to achieving No Mind. It will push you forward in the
practice, just as the person who thinks he left the door

210003_601_ch32.indd 668 6/6/08 3:52:34 PM

 unlocked itches throughout the day to return home to 669
nd out whether it was locked or not. We all need a push
It Never
sometimes; the greater the doubt, the greater the push, Ends,
and the greater the enlightenment. It Only
Understanding all this is important to attaining Begins
Anew
deeper levels of No Mind, but it is not necessary to gain
the physical and mental benets of the technique pre-
sented in this program, as exemplied by the voluminous
scientic research on the issue. All aspects of the prac-
tice of No Mindas applied to ones daily life in busi-
ness, relationships, stress management, sports, education,
etc.is vital for the successful attainment of ones full
potential.
The meaning of all thirty-nine insights can be under-
stood only by experiencing the illusionary nature of the
I or the Iill which then pierces the veil of true spiritual
awareness, allowing the experience of the underlying
oneness of the cosmos. These are grasped directly, as
opposed to being comprehended from an intellectual
perspective, which would constitute imagining the
experience. There is nothing you are gaining; youve had
it all along, but youve simply forgotten it when the Iill
became dominant in awareness. Now, you can again real-
ize it through No Mind enlightenment. The insights pro-
vide a tool to help solve many psychological problems we
encounter on daily basis. You can extract segments of
each insight that appeals to you and apply Clear Atten-
tion to make the insight an object of awareness. When
you are frustrated, try focusing on the phrase There is no
resistance in the ow of water, or pick a line from the
thirty-nine insights that suits you better. When you are
applying Clear Attention, remember that you are har-
nessing cosmic awareness, whether you have already at-
tained insight into No Mind or not. As you continue with
the practice, the co-origination and interdependence of
nature will become clearer and clearer and the oneness
which is inherently hiding beneath the Iill will become
apparent. You will lose nothing. You will gain nothing.
Yet, nothing will ever be the same again.

210003_601_ch32.indd 669 6/6/08 3:52:34 PM

 Frustration
There is nothing frustrated
In the blossoming of a rose,
There is no disappointment
In the song of a bird, Flow produces current
There is no resistance Current produces energy
In the ow of water, Energy travels in direction;
There is no difculty Abrupt changes in direction
In an innate try, Aggravate the energy,
There is no dissatisfaction Frustrating its ow;
In non-action No thing can aggravate the ow
When effort is without trying;
All things seek their balance point Accept innate abilities
Where a steady ow is maintained; Accept natural tendencies
Obstruction of the ow Accept a rose blooms un-deliberately;
Disrupts the balance, Therefore act in accordance with
Frustrating the minds attempt non-action
to maintain the ow; And frustration ceases to exist
Deliberate attempts
Only frustrate the ow, Action must be try-less
One cannot act natural when frustrated; Maintain the ow
When there is no attempt Accept its current and energy
There is no try Focus its momentum carefully,
And balance is un-deliberate And all efforts are encouraged
When balance is understood, the mind ows Achieving No Mind
670

210003_601_ch32.indd 670 6/6/08 3:52:34 PM

 Anxiety
Restlessness is but a scattered mind
Worry is but an unfocused mind
Manifesting the energy of anxiety;
As dust is blown and scattered
So too is awareness;
Trapped within a brutal circle
Of past and future
Arising within, unwelcomed thoughts
Disturbing entities causing unrest
True rest achieved only through this arising

Awareness penetrates the disturbances

Straight to its source
Bringing to the surface
Seeking to unleash their grasp;
There is no need to seek,
For all disturbances within nd us in time
In moments we least expect
The sword of awareness
Severs the chain of thoughts
Extinguishing the entities and their power;
Only this leads to spiritual awareness
Accumulated over life
They hide within until summoned;
Tendencies of the personication
of the senses
Sometimes evil in their attempt;
But without these tendencies
Freedom is not possible
For it is the passing of this stage
Through the gates of the underworld
Which denes our freedom;
Greater the attempt
Greater the release from bondage
671
Enjoy all objects through investigation
Both within and without
Being pliant of mind
Subtle awareness leading to perfection;
The path of self-purication
Of penetrating into deep understanding
Of Right Attitude and Right Awareness
Emerging pure equanimity
Pure awareness
Accumulated memory cleansed
Intellectual grasping suspended
Where can worry cling to;
What can restlessness unrest?
There is no well from which
Anxiety can draw its life;
The brutal circle broken
The cosmic instinct realized
And the cosmos is now aware of Itself
The deities of anxiety
Are powerless

210003_601_ch32.indd 671 6/6/08 3:52:37 PM

 Crying
Crying is but a disturbance of calm Nowhere, somewhere, everywhere is calm
It is an eruption of emotion It lls the universe
An extreme and unbalanced act It lls the mind
There is no cry in the universe It lls everything
Even when a sun explodes in time Leaving no place to cry

Crying is but a surface disturbance And when all things manifest from emptiness
It tosses one about a stormy sea No cry can be heard
An act of losing course and orientation Nowhere in the universe
A sailors nightmare Somewhere in the universe
Where no cry can be heard
But below this stormy sea
Is the calmness of emptiness
And all-thingness,
For all things come from this calm
Where no cry can be heard
672

210003_601_ch32.indd 672 6/6/08 3:52:39 PM

 Hate
Hate is but a disturbance of mind
A state of extreme energy
Yet pale in comparison to a sun,
Solar ares of the self;
Reaching into the space of illusion
For here there is nothing to burn,
Except the sorcerer, the self

A demon appears and destroys

Yet the self remains
The most evil of demons;
From here all demons come forth
Into the illusion of a space
Which exists nevernever
Except within as the self

A violent mind
Fabricates agitated states within
And in the fabric of hate
All pureness is caught
Like a dolphin in a tuna net,
An unfortunate mistake Focus attention without thought
Those who never count the cost Within a moment in time
But are willing to pay the price Reect on this violent state
Through clarity of insight
The price is of the utmost highest Births of demons will be known
A demon that hides a moment in time And as such
From an unknowingly, yet unaware A magical disappearance of self
All for an illusion of a self And without a rst step
Which has no existence There is no path for
Many have penetrated the self Ten thousand demons to take
And exorcised the illusion And so it ends ... No Mind begins.
Those free and fully aware;
Demons of hatred
Demons of ill-will
All banished without trace, how?
673

210003_601_ch32.indd 673 6/6/08 3:52:41 PM

 Desire
When a desire arises in mind
Look at its source
There are two sources of desire
That of the I
And that of No Mind
The desire of I is poison
The desire of No Mind is sacred
Desire brings false action
Opposed to the sanctity of nature
Desire is an endless path
It can never be truly fullled
Because illusion of I is empty
Life is process
Life needs no action
And therefore no desire
Life is a celestial dance of particles
Each particle within the ow
Each particle without desire
Mind creates desire
And as such creates suffering
Desires cannot be fullled by the mind
Of what origin is desire?
It is not of the cosmos
Nature seeks no satisfaction
If action is pure
There is nothing to satisfy
674
210003_601_ch32.indd 674
Freedom of desire
Leads to a full life;
Perpetual seeking of desire
Brings disharmony and unhappiness;
There is nothing real to satisfy;
Desire can be arrested
But only under a watchful third eye
This eye is cosmic in origin
Where desire does not exist
Yet all things are done
Life without desire is
Life that is eternal
And for eternity in a moment of time;
Desire exists in time
Yet in a moment, desire vanishes
Where then is your desire?
In the illusion of time
Or missing in this moment
6/6/08 3:52:43 PM
 Greed
When mind is out of balance
Greed is planted
When the appetite is insatiable
Greed is cultivated
When there is deceptive supremacy
Greed is maintained;
When one is content
There is no desire Life presents many opportunities;
When ones hunger is satised Make use of them, yet remain detached
Then there is no appetite Life presents many disappointments,
When ones life is simple Learn to have no intentions
There is no intention, Life presents many obstacles,
Yet everything is accomplished; Flow like water around them
With each need of the one Greed exists everywhere,
It must never outweigh the needs Be nowhere
of the many Desires and intentions unfullled,
Because the ten thousand things are equal Be happy, they are illusions
How is this so simple?
Within the natural world Practice Clear Attention
Living is enough And No Mind arises
Within the social world
Living is never enough;
More and better are ways of social life
Yet the essence remains the same
Accept present life, and greed vanishes
Understand family
And all is rewarded;
Right living is effortless
Without effort, life ows
When moderation develops
All is accomplished
And life lives to fulll itself
675

210003_601_ch32.indd 675 6/6/08 3:52:45 PM

 Energy
Apathy is but a disturbance of the spirit
Tiredness is but a disturbance of mind
Laziness is but a disturbance of body
Who can distinguish between
mind and body?
Being constantly aware of the source
Extinguishes all apathy
Gentle awareness is as powerful
As the forces of cosmic instinct
The natural elements run down
A sun extinguishes itself over time
Mind and body have limits
Spirit is limitless
The instinct of the cosmos is eternal;
Energy is but an interchange
of the cosmos
Thought is but an interchange of mind
A step is but an interchange of body
All derived from cosmic energy
A source which is inexhaustible
Where then lies exhaustion?
Energy within mind and body
Is never lost
It is merely displaced and dispersed
Awareness is but a life-force manifestation
Therefore awareness dispels apathy
Watch closely mental and
physical processes
With insight comes movement of particles
Energizing the system
Condensing the cosmos within
And with such boundless energy
Only those who are ignorant
Can die of thirst
While drowning in a body of fresh water

Manifestations are but condensations

Of a cosmic eld
In time they dissolve into the cosmos
Losing their separate character
And so their energy is never lost
It simply is reabsorbed
Condensing and dispersing
Transient manifestations of cosmic essence
Both aspects of the same reality
Transforming themselves endlessly
In an eternal cosmic dance
676

210003_601_ch32.indd 676 6/6/08 3:52:47 PM

 Destiny
Death is the fate of living
Beyond contest
Of no argument
All things begin and end;
Denite patterns
Time is always relative Mind-ego creates destiny
The cosmos ends in 100 trillion years Inspired thoughts
Sun ends in ten billion years Of eternal guidance
Earth ends in one billion years Of eternal life
A hundred billion galaxies Intended existence;
Disappear forever A destiny of limits
Absolute destiny Governed by thought
By imagination and word;
No thing is eternal Within destiny exist boundaries
Within all the cosmos Without destiny
Lies being, Boundless possibilities
That which is eternal
Within all things Accept the limits
Lies nothingness; Of Heaven and Earth,
Yet the cosmos has no destiny Or pierce the threshold
Except to end as it began Of existence
As being and nothingness Of boundless spirit
Have no destiny Of ultimate reality;
Outside fate Elect destiny
Outside karma Death will follow
Outside birth Reject destiny
Outside death Living will follow
The end and beginning is destiny Absolute being
677

210003_601_ch32.indd 677 7/28/08 12:30:37 PM

 Doubt
Uncertainty exists everywhere
Intrinsic in matter is doubt
Matter is particles,
Particles are waves in chorus
Their positions are undetermined;
Celestial bodies are born
Four billion years past
Galaxies become black holes
10,000 trillion years hence,
No thing is certain
All is transient
Life and death is no doubt Society lls itself with doubt
Goals uncertain
Probabilities ll the universe Relationships unsure
Probabilities ll a life Sense of identity unclear
All follows a doubtful existence; A future undecided;
The ow of nature All things exist in doubt
A complex web of relationships A cosmic code
A vague existence, Of the social world
Eyes hold its form as real, Of the world of self;
Without doubt; yet Knowing doubt
Empty space outweighs solid matter Is knowing certainty
Within an atom Doubt exists in certainty
An electrons position
Constantly remains in doubt Understanding doubt
Is to acknowledge life;
The branches of a tree are uncertain Unsympathetic to doubt
Their origins unpredictable And all is lost
Never two identical; In futures and pasts;
A ower blooms in doubt Doubt is a mere thought
The place generally a mystery A conceptualization of mind;
The random nature of life In the cosmos,
Is a certainty All things exist in probability
In the atom, in the elephant An innite array of possibilities
Doubt is a cosmic rule And so too in life
Acknowledging the magic There is no doubt
The wise have no doubt Merely endless possibilities
678

210003_601_ch32.indd 678 6/6/08 3:52:51 PM

 Hope and Expectations
Hope is but a disturbance of life
It brings rigidity; it binds
It opposes the ow of nature
A moment in time puts an end
to mere hope
For it cannot exist in the present;
Hope is but a dead-end path
Paths never end in the universe
Not a single expectation exists
in the universe

No hope brings freedom Fatal is sometimes the trap

No hope brings clarity
No hope brings balance
True love is without hope
There is nothing to expect
With true love all is absolute;
The universe is absolute
Therefore, It ows fully alive
With hope life is suffering
Without hope life is ecstasy
A few are happy without end,
Are free as celestial bodies
All is perfect
Hope brings nave expectations
And with it, sets a trap
For the unknowing
679
For in the overwhelming hope
All is lost and all
Expectations cease to exist;
For only the unknowingly
There can be no life without hope,
But only for the unknowingly;
Everywhere else in the universe
There is no hope
In their world of illusion
A moment of time cannot exist;
But there are those for which
Only in a moment of time is life;
It is unmistakably pure life
Seek to know absolute life
To know hope is absolute death

210003_601_ch32.indd 679 6/6/08 3:52:52 PM

 Evil
Evil is but a disturbance of mind
It interrupts the ow of spirit
A manifestation of mind,
It has no source past a thought
It is deeply rooted in emotion,
Originates from hate
Originates from jealousy
Originates from prejudice
Evil originates from the extreme
An uncontrolled nite state;
Instinctively the cosmos
Knows no good and no evil

Evil is the original sin

The ego in all its glory
Attempting to dominate
That which is external
That which is good
That which maintains value;
It upsets the primordial freedom Evil violates essential freedom
The instinct of God Freedom existing in the void
The instinct of cosmos, The source of all things;
A source necessary to life; Nothing good or evil exists
A mystery beyond all logic Only an intrinsic nature,
Light and darkness
Opposites give life to each other Equally identical
Good must exist with evil, Only a thought separates
In the absolute universe The mind constructs
Both have only one source, An evil thought
Both have only one existence A good thought
Only in a thought Powerless against a cosmos
Only within the mind Which knows no distinction
Nowhere in the cosmos;
There is no purpose
Good and evil have none
Only as a nite reality
680

210003_601_ch32.indd 680 6/6/08 3:52:54 PM

 Good and evil are relative
Revealed by the nite ego
Unknown to primordial freedom
Of the innite,
That transcends evil and fear;
Fear exists only in the mind
Enlightenment occurs without mind;
The Innite has no mind
The Innite has no fear
The Innite has no evil,
Realization of the innite
Dissolves ego
Now one blood of life

Possessing God
Possessing the innite
Is a state of ego-mind
The root of evil;
Love for nite things
Possessing nite things
Motivates evil thought;
In realization of the innite
The innite nature of things
The innite illusion of ego-mind
The nite nature of evil
All is attained
Evil now unattainable

681

210003_601_ch32.indd 681 6/6/08 3:52:56 PM

 Conditional Love
For some, love is imagined
For many, love is accepting
For the few, love is unconditional.
Love born of desperation is imagined
Love born of family pressures is imagined
Love born of loneliness is imagined,
And so for many, imagined love is better
than no love
Accepting love is conditional love
When the expectations and desires
are satised
And patience and hope exist, True love is an act of selessness,
And the other is happily tolerated An act beyond the I
Then love is accepting An act of No Mind.
But with true love there are no conditions, Through the practice of non-thought
There are no expectations, no desires, The lovers bond deepens,
no hopes And into a cosmic union the lovers
There is nothing that needs to be accepted are joined
Because the needs of the I have vanished The act of making love is
Into a mystical union of energy; no longer physical,
Without the presence of self, For now, the lovers are hurled upwards
True love exists in a timeless dance of in a spiral,
innite power Intertwined and eternal
More sacred than the most precious Perpetuating Being and Nothingness,
jewel In an endless cycle of interpenetration.
682

210003_601_ch32.indd 682 7/28/08 12:30:41 PM

 The ancient Tantric mysteries are
nally realized
All matter and non-matter are born
This love is beyond the realm of
mind and body
For this love is dynamic and non-static.
In their peak, the No Mind arises
And now spiritual awareness seen in its
original face,
This is enlightenment
This is unconditional love

Two are no longer two, but One

Although there are two distinct qualities,
It is still One with two distinct qualities.
For they are bound together in eternal bliss
There is no hurt and no pain
As any intention to inict pain and hurt is
self-inicted.
Many understand love and hate as
opposites
But unconditional love is beyond
opposites;
It is beyond the circle of love and hate
It is the unifying essence of the cosmos
which is inseparable,
And knowing no separation,
Even after thousands of years
Love will be as if you never met.

683

210003_601_ch32.indd 683 6/6/08 3:52:58 PM

 Unconditional Love
Love is an extreme elevated state
Of cosmic proportions,
In the realization of non-thought
The bond deepens within
Reaching selessness,
Boundless love;
Bound together as one is to oneself
A union moving through separateness
Self-extending beyond the realm
Of mind and body,
To the furthest reaches of the innite
Love is pure union

Where are two entities in union?

But everywhere in the universe;
Boundless love is seless
With love we are aware
Beyond expectations
Of our interdependence
Beyond self fulllment
Of our mutual seless actions
A perpetual radiating energy
Mind and body pale in comparison,
Is of innite power;
A sacrice of no consequence;
Overcoming all mistrust,
Boundless love
It calms the essential core
Emotions surge in a spiral upwards
All Things existing in themselves
Intertwined and eternal
For no Thing
Cosmic instinct perpetuating itself
Seeing though manifested form
Though illusion of character
Matter is continuous and discontinuous
Piercing into essential being
A dynamic interaction of one essence
Union in pure love
Probability patterns living
In a space-time continuum,
Love and hate
All Things are but a process and a form
Two parts of one whole
Oscillations in time
Inseparable yet opposite;
One is the other simultaneously
Boundless love is beyond opposites;
Without one the other vanishes,
Desire maintains
Love is dynamic and nonstatic;
The circle of love and hate
The cosmos perpetuating itself
Beyond desire is boundless love
Beyond opposites
One is shallow and one is deep
Boundless love
One is transient and one is eternal
Knowing no separation,
Even after thousands of years
Love will be as if you never met
684

210003_601_ch32.indd 684 6/6/08 3:52:58 PM

 Compassion
The cosmos overwhelmed
A mother caressing her infant
Compassion be plentiful
All things seek this unity
Of harmony and oneness
Of the enlightened
Nothing separate
All things whole
Nature nourishes its infants
Through deep compassion
In the spirit of a true master
Powerful compassion
Nourishes the weak and feeble
The wise accept and embrace
Seeking other than self-nature
True compassion Realizes passion of sorts
No self exists Propels away from compassion
Devoid of separateness Colony of ants carrying its wounded
Compassion is innite Compassion of a part
As mother and infant Or compassion of the whole?
One cannot destroy itself No individuality exists
True compassion is cosmic instinct Compassion of the colony
Of a whole Absolute compassion
Of the universe The compassion of a god.
All gravitate toward
One another
As celestial bodies
As undeluded minds
Ultimate compassion is absolute
685

210003_601_ch32.indd 685 6/6/08 3:52:59 PM

 Play
The ow of nature is play,
This is the dance between Being and
Nothingness.
Play is wind blowing a blade of grass.
Play is a hummingbird kissing a ower.
Pay is a dolphin ying through the surf.
Play is when a tree falls in the woods All actions come forth
and no one hears. Without necessity
Play is when a galaxy is born. Lack of a future goal
Cosmic instinct is but play Herein lies the try of non-action;
An indenite number of roles In the innite of the absolute
Played simultaneously Everything exists
Without effort Lacking nothing
Without necessity Acts that come from pureness
Without purpose Without potential exist as
Beyond time The ultimate form of play
The nite is manifested The play of the cosmos
The play of the cosmos
The dance of innite spirit
Trying not In constant ow and exchange
Doing nothing The eeting nature of the nite;
All is done Celestial bodies are play
Without work; Light and darkness are play
Organic and inorganic things Life is play
From a cosmic absolute source, Death is play
Need no goal All play of the Ultimate Reality
All nite things are inherent All without purpose
In the play of the absolute In the cosmic sense
The play of the cosmos The play of the cosmos
686

210003_601_ch32.indd 686 6/6/08 3:53:00 PM

 In an innitesimal moment of time
Everywhere the absolute innite
Is but a non-dualistic ow,
Enlightenment is understanding
All is play in Heaven and Earth;
Boundless possibilities of the innite
A pure and simple living reality
Life owing from its source,
Manifested in a moment of time;
Unknown to those who see only forms
Yet within the eternal Now
The play of the cosmos continues

In this innite point of view

All is play;
In this nite point of view
All is joy and sorrow
All is love and anger
All is pleasure and pain
All is dualistic
Abandoning the innite to the nite;
Finite time is successive
Innite time is simultaneous
The play of time
The play of the cosmos

Play is beyond dualistic thought

There is no logic;
Is this not the great love?
Of the innite for the nite,
A perfect relationship
One is the other
All within a moment of time;
Living separate from the innite
Life is in chaos;
Living as the innite
Life is a creative medium,
A mechanism of play
The play of the cosmos

687

210003_601_ch32.indd 687 6/6/08 3:53:02 PM

 Death
A star burns out in a galaxy
Energy dispersed within the system
Its nite aspect dies
Its innite aspect remains always;
The Sun grows hotter as it dies
Its planets die within the system
All nite things exist within time
The innite aspect is beyond
space and time
Understanding nite things
Realizes death
Understanding the innite
Realizes no death
And no rebirth
On the seventh day
The body returns to the ve elements
The mind returns to the ve elements
Both of nite matter and substance,
Yet the real Self has nowhere to return
Innitely of cosmic essence
A drop of water within the sea
Yet, never realizing its dropness
Only illusion creates boundaries
of the drop
The drop and the sea know
no separateness;
Ignorance urges the rebirth
In the perpetuation of time and space;
All things are manifested
688
210003_601_ch32.indd 688
Death has no promise
Everlasting tranquility or torture
Belong to the realm of mental objects;
Within the void lie the unanswered
Realization clears absolute certainty;
The Book of the Dead unwritten,
Through all the metaphors of death
All the karmic states transcended
All illusions of after-death surpassed
And their source recognized as
mental objects;
Beyond mental objects, reality is grasped
The deities vanish in the void
Death is revealed
In the forgetting of self,
The ox forgotten
Realization of birth and death,
As identical occurrences;
Realization of karmic existence
As the circle of birth and death
Realization that self is not only the circle
It manifests the circle
Beyond birth and death;
Cosmic instinct realizes it-Self
Oh! Enlightenment, riding the ox
With the ox and self forgotten
Death vanishes
6/6/08 3:53:02 PM
 Cosmic instinct is eternal
All things are not;
Cosmic instinct is the source of all things
All things return to the source;
Ignorance perpetuates the return
The karmic cycle of rebirth;
Enlightenment ends the rebirth
Ends the return,
One cannot return upon itself
No more than water can run uphill;
The ten thousand Things
Know birth and death
The enlightened only know
the One and None

Death includes no beauty

Death contains no ugliness
These belong to manners of death;
Evil deaths exist only in human societies
Good deaths exist only in the human mind;
In the natural world, death is nal
There is no cry
There is no laugh;
In the cosmic world, death does not exist,
There is no structure of perception;
Death is a matter of perception
If there is no one to perceive death
One cannot ever die

689

210003_601_ch32.indd 689 6/6/08 3:53:04 PM

 Crisis and Freedom
True freedom
A path chosen by few,
Within the nite realm
There is limited freedom
Determined freedom
Conditioned freedom
A freedom of deception
The self as a deceiver
Unaware of true liberty
Mind relishes in free will
In a freedom of illusion

The ve hindrances
Within a deterministic world
Manipulate freedom
Bind and control
Limit free will;
Constantly choosing
Among an innite variation
The formation of the self
Of consequences
Built upon the external world
Of external actions
Has no deep roots
Of internal actions
Therefore can easily fall,
What then is truly free?
Reafrmations from others
From material things
Social systems mold
The mask of status
Positive and negative reinforced
All without meaning
Freedom within behaviorism,
Remove one
Habits conditioned
Crisis follows
Freedom socialized;
Without freedom
Defenses elevate
Responses reexive
Emotions determined
Living unknowingly
Within restricted patterns;
Contained freedom
690

210003_601_ch32.indd 690 6/6/08 3:53:04 PM

 Goals attained Limited freedom
Happiness once celebrated Exists until crisis
Now empty Danger and opportunity
Of no meaning Jolted from routine
Rewards attained Ultimate questions arise
Hard work celebrated Answers beyond thought
Now empty Beyond conceptions
Of no meaning Beyond good and evil
In the process of attainment Everything is not anything
True freedom dies Awareness engulng totality
A crisis point arises Deep well of freedom ows

A loved one lost

Attachment once cherished [Written the day after September 11, 2001]
Now sorrow
Freedom loses meaning
Goals confused
A crisis of disorientation;
Death is destiny
Freedom is living
Living freely
Beyond the ve hindrances
Ultimate freedom is innite

Satori is sudden
A shock
Out of an existentialist crisis
Ultimate freedom,
Ultimate crisis
Who am I
There can be no answer,
From dualistic thought
From socially constructed selves;
Through pureness of spirit
Ultimate freedom arises

691

210003_601_ch32.indd 691 6/6/08 3:53:06 PM

 Zen Attitude
Inspired by the cosmos
Inspired by the natural world
Developed for the human world
Perfection of human-ness
Is the whole as a part;
Potentiality that is inherent
In all those of strong will
All those who pursue the Way;
Seeking liberation
Seeking release from bondage
Seeking ones own destiny
Followers in the Way
Where all masters have passed

Nothing is hidden There are no sins

In the sacred teachings,
There are no special orders
No esoteric doctrine
No mystical powers
No eternal supremacy;
Nothing to cling to
Only ones determination
In the realization of truth;
Realization of enlightenment
A quite laughable state,
Nonsense riddles all grasped
With all humility of the accomplishment
692
Evil is strictly the act of mind,
There are no prayers
Ultimate desire and hope are within,
There are no graces
One must sanctify oneself,
There is no faith
Other than ones own determination,
There are no prophets words
Attachment to ideas hinder the path
There is freedom of faith
Yet there remains only doubt
Satori! Now there is no doubt

210003_601_ch32.indd 692 6/6/08 3:53:06 PM

 World religions exist simultaneously
The world created a hundred ways
History has many stories
Wherein lies the absolute truth?
Condemning one, condemns another,
This is truth and that is false
Exists only as an independent belief;
Absolute truth needs no source
Absolute truth needs no label,
Labels manifest prejudices
And as such are hindrances;
Recognizing truth as truth
Appears as a mystical inner journey

A question of faith
A question of belief
When ones sees
Faith and belief disappear;
Yet truth is simple
Found everywhere, yet nowhere
Like dying of thirst
While in a sea of fresh water;
Attitude is thought
Attitude is feelings
Attitude is a state of mind
Zen dispels with all attitude
So ... Zen attitude is its very absence

693

210003_601_ch32.indd 693 6/6/08 3:53:09 PM

 Undying Humor
Moonless night sea is
vast darkness
No moon glimmers
No guidepost is lit
Evil deities appear
Offspring of thoughts;
A wave shifts perspective
Light within illuminates
The sky and sea are one
Evil deities vanish
In a moment of time
Eternal humor found
Preconceptions blind
Conditioning reality
Senses misled
Dim ordinary humor;
Focus awakens
Focus unleashes
Focus every minute
Actions now mindful
Conditioning now apparent
Instant reality
All is cosmic humor
694
210003_601_ch32.indd 694
Reexive will
Reexive choice
The mechanism acts
Is it left?
Is it right?
Matters of perspective;
Aware every moment
No perspective exists
Unfolds wit of cosmos
Absurdity everywhere
Undying humor
Imperfections abound
External dilemma assaults
Piercing the skin
A few tough
A few thin
A few of no consequence;
React in humor,
Humor shields
That which destroys;
Perfect coat of arms
An undying smile
6/6/08 3:53:09 PM
 Karma
Karma originates by action of will
Having willed, one acts
Action of mind and body,
Karma is beyond justice
Beyond rewards
Beyond punishment
Beyond right
Beyond wrong;
Within cause and effect
Within action and reaction
By virtue of its own nature
Karma is revealed

Thought results in effect

Good results in good Karma is energy of will
Bad results in bad Energy is process
Neutral results in neutral A dynamic movement of particles
Through action of will, Changing into other forms
A natural law of karma; Karma reborn;
Desire and thirst are Thought energy endures
Energy in a directed path A thousand lifetimes,
Blind to good, bad or neutral, Destructive thought
Action is karma Generates destructive energy
Effects are not a haunting force
Rebirth of evil deities
Mental objects form karma
Having willed creates motion A Master acts
Motion creates energy Yet accumulates no karma,
Energy of desire Free from ego-mind
Energy of hate Free from desire
Energy of expectation Free from expectations
Energy of conceit Free from impurities
Energy of self Free from thought
All produce karmic effects; Living within a moment of time;
Will of a focused mind No try and non-action
Essential for good karma Generates action without karma
Freedom from the false self Then, there is no rebirth
Essential for no karma Karma ends
695

210003_601_ch32.indd 695 6/6/08 3:53:12 PM

 Leadership
Change is but social chaos
Order and chaos exist everywhere
in the universe,
Emerging as an interaction of processes
Of individuals
Of society
The internal structure of the process
Governed by cosmic law
Transforming in a natural and
spontaneous way;
All things arise out of change
The energy and momentum of a society

Patterns of change can be great

Leaders do not initiate change
Change is inherit in the chaos and order
Societies initiate change
Great leaders are receptive
to transformation;
In the impulsion of a society
Through interconnections
of social matrix,
Leadership and direction are manifested
A pattern is dened;
A society constructs an external world
Conditioned by its discrimination
696
A leader is a construct of social order
A tool through which change is made
Great leaders never exist for
their own sake
Great social needs bring great change
Great change causes great leaders
Assistants of the social matrix;
Leading out of the uncertainty of chaos
Order is restored
As an ant colony has one mind
Social movement seeks balance
Between chaos and order

210003_601_ch32.indd 696 6/6/08 3:53:14 PM

 Time creates all great leaders
A time of a societys readiness
A time when chaos and order
are not balanced
A change in a social interaction
By process not isolated events
A leader arises
The unied voice of a society,
Yet great leaders never exist
They have no reality of their own
Mere drops of an ocean;
The changing tides require no leader
There is direction inherent in the drops
Multiplicity exists only as illusion
Time is the essential dimension
Leadership occurs in time
If not this time, another time
Out of the seeds of the old
Disappearing in right time;
In time if no leader exists
Then another time will be;
A time will come
A process of reactions
Leadership is manifested
An effect of a time and a place
Never the effect of a leadership

The drops of the ocean are not dened

As ants move as an amorphous being
Leaders seek this uidity
Yet a society seeks individualism
Chaos amongst order
Change seeks totality
Effecting a direction to manifest itself
A true leader is receptive to this process
Therefore the essential element

A response to society momentums

Societies are constantly in transient stages
In an ongoing process of change
transformation must occur;
An inner tendency of social order
In a moment of time,
Yet change occurs without unique leaders
Only in a different time
Another leader arises

697

210003_601_ch32.indd 697 6/6/08 3:53:15 PM

 Friends
(written for Allix)

We cannot choose,
Our parents
Our family
Our genetics
Our universe
And sometimes even our lives;
But we can choose
Our friends.

Yet, even with the freedom to choose

We sometimes bind ourselves;
We trap ourselves
In what we think is right
To what is really wrong.
We choose without wisdom
We choose to be accepted
And in the search for approval
We lose the closest of friends; True friendship is not mimicking deeds,
We lose ourselves. True friendship lies in acceptance
In forgiving
We become what we are not In compassion
In order to become what we think we should In camaraderie
We do what we should not In trust
In order to be with whom we think is right In sacrice.
All the while becoming what we are not. Without these
We have no friendship
We can choose our thoughts of friends, We have only acquaintance
We think of them as this We can choose our friends.
We think of them as that We must choose wisely,
But perhaps our thoughts betray us, Either extend ourselves in truth
And they are not friends at all. Or lose ourselves in illusion.
698

210003_601_ch32.indd 698 7/28/08 12:30:43 PM

 Personality
Two ash seeds germinate side by side
A half-century passes
Their forms utterly different
The personality of each tree
Expressed through its varying branches
Its individual form,
Each tree responds to its environment;
Subtle inuences everywhere
Nowhere are two alike
Yet everywhere they are alike,
Messages from the seed parallel
Responses from the environment,
Dissecting each tree reveals
no differences
699
210003_601_ch32.indd 699
Bio-electric motives within the cell
Structure symmetries and polarities
The mechanism of organization
Inherent in the part and in the whole
Contained within the universe and the cell
Individual patterns determine
Orbits of charged particles
A living dynamic exchange of energy
Between environments and organisms
The personality forms,
A unique pattern of interaction
Mirroring a response to the environment
Trapped within a genetic code;
And as the tree, and as all advanced life
No two will ever be the same
While the outer form remains unique
The inner essence is always universal
6/6/08 3:53:17 PM
 De-automatization
Ordinary perception contaminates reality
It classies reality
It discriminates reality
It selects reality
It categorizes reality
It lters reality
It separates the observer from reality,
A mechanism of biological origin
Relating desires
Relating fears
Relating interests
In an effort to organize and understand
Reality is perplexed

Active rather than passive, Mindful perception unies reality

Egocentric rather than seless
Ordinary perception requires memory;
What is, is based on what was;
Habit formation
Automatization of behavior
Unaware of the process of deciding;
Choosing biological survival,
Choosing personality survival,
Cognitive patterning governs
Ordinary perception;
All Things exist as identied
Not as they are;
700
A process of de-automatization
Structures of perception broken
Structures of cognition immobilized
Intellection halted;
A pure vision of reality,
Untainted
Unbiased
Unprejudiced;
Untrained perception,
Breaking the patterns of thought,
And between the thoughts
Ho! that which is unidentied

210003_601_ch32.indd 700 6/6/08 3:53:19 PM

 Mindful perception is Original Mind
The face before you were born,
Primordial perception
Before emergence of ego
Before the grip of individuality
Before the need for survival;
Categories and subcategories
Are now without purpose
Suspended in awareness
All Things exist in reection,
Mirrored without desire;
Minds limitations realized
Minds contents unrealized
There is no one to realize.

Mindful perception
Achieved by practice of Clear Attention
The outcome of pure happiness,
Perfect detachment;
Egocentric habits broken
Egocentric instincts eliminated
Full awareness of present
The mechanism immobilized;
A pure perception of reality
In all its grandeur
The cosmos realized in an ant
Absolute compassion in the colony
All Things exist as they are

701

210003_601_ch32.indd 701 6/6/08 3:53:22 PM

 The Mechanism
As wings to a bird
Flowers to a tree
Ego-mind to an individual,
Millions of impressions
Countless choices
Discriminating itself
Of what it is and not
Manifesting its illusion
Of separateness
To every other thing
I am lived
A database comprising mind-ego
Categories of subjective events
Past remembered
Past forming future;
Billions of neurons
Establishing links
Dividing and combining
In search of meaning
Of relatedness
Of survival
I am lived
702
210003_601_ch32.indd 702
Subjective and objective
All things divided
One spirit split in two realms
Dualistic existence
Knowing no unity
Within a world drawn upon itself
Confused and mystied,
The mechanism establishes
Identity opposed to unity
opposites and multiplicity
I am lived
Within a denable world
Within a denable existence
Things are understood
The mechanism creates
Denable love
Denable desire
Denable hope
Denable expectations
Denable hate
Seeing and feeling in denition
I am lived
6/6/08 3:53:22 PM
 The mechanism conceives
That which is denable
The intellect reasons
That which is reasonable
All within a constructed world
Of form and function
Of beauty and ugliness
Of love and hate
Of opposites and multiplicity
Understanding without insight
I am lived
The mechanism protects,
Narrowly imprisons
Unknowingly it prevents
The essential core of being;
Throw love aimlessly
And the being manifests
Outside the mechanism
Guiding its actions
Dwelling in the heart of existence
In being and nothingness
Living is never lived

Beingness and nothingness

Are not denable
Outside the mechanism,
Living spontaneously
Radiating from being,
Beyond individuality
Every thing a part
Akin to all
Outside the mechanism,
Bursting through the bondage
Living there is

Boundless and innite

Are not denable
Yet they exist,
Boundless joy
Boundless love
Boundless desire
Boundless hope
Love for all life
Beyond calculation
Beyond reckoning
Living there is

703

210003_601_ch32.indd 703 6/6/08 3:53:24 PM

 Clear AttentionCAt
Winds of thought
Cloud the mind,
Obscuring the substance;
Substance like water
Exists within all living things;
Cosmic truth is reected
In absolute perfection
Within a drop of water
Only with mind clear and calm,
Clearer water, greater reection
Ordinary mind is muddy
Mind lost in delusive thought
Disturbs the waters of truth
Thoughts obstruct light
Whether seen or not Escape is achievable
Cosmic truth shines eternally As winds of thought cease
Fog is lifted
Thought is eeting Muddy waters become clear
Thought is impermanent Cosmic truth perpetually reected
Thought has beginning Only now can be understood,
Thought has end In a moment
Thoughts are Iill Prison walls vanish
Streams of life and death; Finally, the walls are only an illusion
Easily distracted by thoughts
Accumulation of ideas Ancient methodology
Of beliefs, opinions Discipline of body-mind
Attachment to thought Posture wide and stable
Empower the waves Ears to shoulders
Increase loft and strength Nose to navel
The stormy waters All in line;
Eclipse cosmic truth Immobilize body
Eyes opened slight
Restless thoughts muddy water Lowered gaze,
Stirring that which has settled Left hand top of right
Diminishing the reection Suppress active right brain,
Day by day the turbulent waters Below navel
Life is empty and frustrating Center of gravity
Casting true freedom aside All now is breath
Living with stormy mind, Now body aside
Imprisonment without walls. Mind persistently seeks focus
704

210003_601_ch32.indd 704 6/6/08 3:53:24 PM

 Force required
Unremitting concentration
Lifting the boulder of delusion
Mind is heavy;
Boulder cannot be lifted slowly
Only in a sudden boost
Enlightenment is revealed
Duality is pierced
Universe and self die together
Undifferentiated and differentiated
Never existed separately
One changeless,
other ceaseless transformations
Are of the same reality
Sitting-pain subsides
Delight in overcoming pain
Constant energy
Unshakable determination
Concentration good quality
Now unify the mind
Sustain concentration
One-pointed
The rays of the sun
When focused are intense
Create a state of well-being
Regardless of objective
In a moonless dark sea
A sliver of moon
Barely illuminates
A glimpse of the truth;
As moon becomes full
Light shines brilliantly
Awakening at last;
All that is known disintegrates
Moon, cosmos, self, are the same
705
210003_601_ch32.indd 705
Intensity of focus
Day in and day out
Is required
Breaking the bounds of ego,
Lose focus
Two steps back
Eyes riveted down
Guards against thoughts
Roots of ego are deep
In the depths of unconscious
Beyond reach of intellect
Uprooting the ego realm
Requires only strength of focus
A powerful concentration
Is the ultimate weapon
No thought can pierce it
No emotion can overwhelm it
There exists nothing that can be harmed
With mind perfectly still
Phenomena may appear:
Illusion and insights
Fantasies and visions
Sensations and revelation,
Unlimited in nature
All to be disregarded
Potential danger if spellbound;
Seeking insight in meditation
Inherently of no harm
Beyond them lies true goal;
These temporary phenomena
From depths of mind
Have no reality
Have no meaning
Consume energy in foolish pursuits;
Great strength in focus
Overcomes all phenomena
6/6/08 3:53:25 PM
 Center the six sense-realms
When thinking only think
When touching only touch
When smelling only smell
When seeing only see
When hearing only hear
When tasting only taste;
As in the mind-state of a lover
No other thing exists, only the beloved
Herein lies the masters secret;
As mind constantly distracted
Fatal acts of realizing the self-nature,
Reasoning mind always comes
to an impasse
Void of all thought
Within the unconscious mind
Roots of I and not-I broken
Losing individuality
Nothing external exists
Darkness falls upon the mirror
Nothing reects
No light of reason or knowledge
Within the darkness lies wisdom
The way to self-realization
No longer in dualistic thought
Boundaries melt away
Cosmic instinct fullled
I and not-I disappear
Their strong roots severed
In the essence of no-sense riddles
Extinguishes the reasoning intellect
Who am I?
No answer can be told
706
210003_601_ch32.indd 706
Extreme force of focus
Removes the boulder of ignorance
The boulder of discriminative thought
Of discriminative mind
What lies under?
Another aspect of the universe
Of No Mind
You will die and
The universe will die with you
All things exist relative to you
All things interdependent
Nothing exists in a void
And void is not empty
And you do not exist
I-ness dies in the subconscious mind
Duality is vanished
Unthinking who am I
Unitellectualizing the cosmos
Realized no thought of realization
A sphere is dependent on its center
A wheel is dependent on its hub
An atom is dependent on its nucleus
The universe is dependent on an observer;
When no observer exists
The universe ceases to exist
What remains?
No thing exists in isolation
A tree is dependent on soil and sun
Soil dependent on earth
Sun dependent on cosmos
All things are relative
Each observer denes a universe
Every perception creates a reality
Reality is relative to state of mind
Realization is not relative to states of mind
You exist due to perception
All things generate perception
Perception manifests the differentiated
The undifferentiated manifests all things;
One is in constant transformation
The other cannot be transformed
6/6/08 3:53:26 PM
 Peak Performance
(Non-Action)
All true artists
All true athletes
Have but one commonality,
They have No Mind from which to grasp
No Mind from which to think
Act, React. But never try.
Mind and body perform unexpectedly;
From the wells of emptiness
Actions ow smoothly
Toward a goal-less beginning.

Boulders and rocks in the stream,

The water rushes by;
Intensity increases as the rocks
are close together
Remove the rocks and the water slows;
Thoughts as rocks speed the ow of mind
Remove them and there is nowhere for
mind to cling
After some time thoughts easily disappear.
The mind that is caught in the rapids
Has less potential
The mind that is thought-free
Is unbounded.
With no clinging the mind cannot turn to ice
Producing frozen mind-pools in the ow,
Feelings freeze the mind
Memories freeze the mind
Thoughts freeze the mind
Wishes and expectations freeze the mind
Resulting in frozen actions;
Overcompensating techniques freeze mind,
When the mind is clear it has ow;
Performing spontaneously
The thinker is not present
The performer no longer needs to perform.
707
Mind as mirror allows events to ow
As the mind becomes form it is localized
Producing a discriminating self;
Without mind,
Sense perceptions have no discrimination
No association
No categories
No distractions
Non-dualistic
No premeditations
Illusory self disappears
Then mind and body perform
without effort;
Without direction from judgments
Without direction from fear
Without direction from hope
Without direction from expectations
Without the intent of direction,
Without intent of performing,
Mind achieves peak performance

210003_601_ch32.indd 707 6/6/08 3:53:26 PM

 The Mirror
Within a drop of water
a cosmos reects
a mirror echoes a moment in time;
Free from the dust of discrimination,
It is empty
It is accepting
It is detached
All is reected in the universe
Yet nothing remains in the mirror
The mirror reects.
A mysterious keyless door
Leading beyond the eighteen
sense-realms
No teacher can open the door
A teacher can merely point
In the direction of the door
Standing before it, it is reected
Standing under it, it is reected
Passing through it, it is reected
Now the insight is clear
The mirror reects nothing
For there is nowhere to pass through,
We are here before we get there.
The mirror reects.
708
210003_601_ch32.indd 708
The mirror is empty
Clean from dirt and stains
It holds no desire, no thought
No discrimination
Reality is ever present
Crystal clear without distortions
Once again as a newborn
Once again wiping the mirror clean
Full, yet empty
The mirror reects.
It clings to nothing
Attaches itself to nowhere
A nondiscriminatory act;
Act freely within action
Admit all things equally
Yet possess nothing;
A cosmic undertaking
Receiving yet not keeping
Giving yet not expecting
The mirror reects.
6/6/08 3:53:28 PM
 Wisdom exists in the mirror
Accepting everything
Yet accurately distinguishing
Big from small
Strong from weak
Danger from safety
Differences observed
Everything equal
Beyond the realm of opposites
The mirror reects.

Reections without comment

Reections without evaluation
Reections without judgment
Acceptance without test
A clean mirror must reect
Polished to brilliance
All is radiant in cosmic sparkle
A sun within a mirror
A mirror reecting a sun
A cosmos reecting upon itself
Becoming aware of itself
The mirror no longer exists.

709

210003_601_ch32.indd 709 6/6/08 3:53:30 PM

 Time
Time is relative, absolutely
Relative to the observer;
Relative to an observers position
in the universe
Relative to the observers speed
Relative is the illusion of
instantaneous reality
Relative to constant c, the speed of light
Relative to a particular celestial system,
Relative to the curvature of space
The ten thousand things mutually exist,
In space and time;
Inseparable and co-arising
Linear time transcended in a moment;
A million years within a moment of time
In the end when all time has passed
Will space cease to exist?
710
210003_601_ch32.indd 710
Attachment to time brings sorrow;
In the grasping of an hour
The moment is lost,
This is relative to the observer;
A struggle to reach a critical goal
Is of no consequence to another,
Dissimilar goals, fragment time
The secret lies within the pieces
For time never passes
There is nowhere for it to pass
Therefore it remains as it is;
All things take place in time and space
Yet wherein can time be found?
All attachments exist in time
All desires exist in time to come
All sorrows exist in time of the past
Time is socially structured,
Yet Right Attitude is timeless;
The innite present is tranquility
For the distressing passing of time
Is a relative state of mind;
The passing of time is an illusion
Each event exists in space and time
There is nowhere for it to pass
It exists and then does not exist
Only the observer sees
relative movement.
6/6/08 3:53:30 PM
 A thought appears to move forward
A movement appears to have
direction in space
The universe contracts
The universe expands
Which direction is forward?
Relative to a position in the universe
All things are interconnected,
All things are relative
What then has no space and time?
No relativity
No position in space
Yet interconnected to all
It is no-thing
It cannot be observed
Yet there is enlightenment
How then can one change perspective?
Become free from cause and effect,
Beyond karma;
A simple realization beyond time
Within a eeting moment
The ow of the cosmos
Shatters the limits of time
Freedom pours through ones veins
As the streams descend to the sea
Losing its form into another;
Without form there is no space
Without space there is no time
Without the observer,
There is nothing to observe;
Therefore be formless and timeless

711

210003_601_ch32.indd 711 6/6/08 3:53:31 PM

 Opposites
Words and intellection unknowingly
Manifest that which is opposite
Intelligence exists
Due to non-intelligence,
Every designation is relative
To another designation
And no two exist
Without their counterparts;
Describing one thing
Its opposite is described The way of transcending opposites
Language binds itself upon itself, The way of unifying opposites
Absolute reality cannot be described The way that lies beyond,
Beyond words of any language Thought and intellection
Language and concept;
The creation of one concept A new reality emerges
Creates its opposite Whereas space and time
So then the two are linked Force and matter
One exists due to the other That which is this
When one comes into being And this which is that
The other is manifested Mutually coexist as a unity;
There is no separate existence; Solving the riddle of the None and One
A fundamental rule of nature, Lies in resolving the opposites
All things are interdependent
All things coexist
All things are codependent
All things are non-linear
Opposites exist as a circle
Poles apart, yet connected
712

210003_601_ch32.indd 712 6/6/08 3:53:32 PM

 The mind grasps and categorizes
A process by which opposites appear,
Seeing the object outside this process
Leads to multidimensional aspects;
Uncertainty emerges about the object
Breaking the linear model of thought
All Things exists in probability
The observer denes things
The observer denes reality
The observer denes separateness
No thing exists without an observer;
When there is no observer
The universe ceases to exist

So opposites complement each other

One emphasizes the other
One denes the other
One balances the other
As Yin and Yang
Both exist in all things
At times one is dominant
At times one is not
Yet both are vital
Ice cannot exist in a blaze of re,
Yet, water can extinguish re;
Where can darkness and light exist?
On the dark side of the moon,
When both are the same,
Where there can be no observer

713

210003_601_ch32.indd 713 6/6/08 3:53:33 PM

 Patterns
Cosmic instinct manifests void
Inherent in the void is all things
Patterns are inherent in all things
Within a ower
Within an apple
Within a melody
Within a Greek temple
Proportions within the patterns,
Unfolding an archetype
A pattern that mirrors all life
Essential cosmic nature is unity
A primordial essence reveals itself
A union of all things,
Manifested in patterns of their form
Cosmic patterns move in spirals
Worlds in the movement of an atom
Logarithmic spirals structure Life
Worlds in the movement of a galaxy
governed by the Golden Section
Creating patterns of
Moving in opposite directions
harmonious wholeness
Complementing and unifying
Beyond intellect and reason
Generating form beyond opposites
Beyond apparent opposites
A sunower is born;
Beyond Heaven and Hell
A cosmic essence manifested as life
Into the spiral of life
A universe within a seed
Innity in the void
Those know true holiness
A source of evolutionary energy
Understands non-dualistic love
Instinctive desireless action
Within the stars and planets
Motion inherent in all particles
Are but one essence
A love that renders the universe
Preserving identity,
Limitless patterns of form
Yet a unication of the whole
From a void so full of life
An innite number of patterns
Beyond the fragments
From an anonymous cosmic source
Into wholeness
Existing everywhere
Entering a calm pond
And nowhere
A pebble creates cosmic patterns;
True wisdom exists somewhere;
A universe awaits
Within diversity is wholeness
Within a void is all elements
Galaxies reect in a sunower
714

210003_601_ch32.indd 714 6/6/08 3:53:34 PM

 The Unity of All Things
At birth the unity is broken
A part arising from the little whole
A little whole manifesting a part
A part which becomes a little whole
Nothing is broken
Only in the illusion of separateness;
The Great Whole underlying the parts
Is the origin of all parts and little wholes,
Therefore the Great Whole manifests
the parts,
So the Great Whole is within the parts
The Great Whole is
inside and everywhere;
All things are but the Great Whole
There is unity in all things
So then, there is no reality in the parts
They are but arrangements
of the Great Whole
An inseparable interconnectiveness
Why they see themselves as parts
Is but a mystery to the Great Whole
For it knows itself to be a unity
A unied whole of
interrelated relationships
715
210003_601_ch32.indd 715
But all is not lost
For even a part can recognize
its interdependence
The Great Whole, which determines
the part,
And transcends time and space;
Yet the little whole cannot see
the Great Whole
Blind to its source
The little whole determines
its separateness
Some have seen the Great Whole
And their separateness lost forever
A state of non-duality
Parts and little wholes dissolved
Into undifferentiated unity
All things are now forgotten
And the Great Whole at birth
Is remembered
6/6/08 3:53:35 PM
 Evolution
Evolution is but life in motion
Life is the universes activity
Adapting and changing
The ten thousand things evolve
By means of creation or theory
It is of no consequence;
Still, the ten thousand things evolve
Yet natural selection predominates
Over random selection
and chance events
Through an organized underlying pattern DNA proteins complexly bind together
At its core, its very essence Environmental forces evolve segments
Lifes primary directive is survival A haphazard act of trial and error
Therefore, life is in transformation There is never a perfect life form;
Only life fullling its primary directive:
Life of four billion years past, Survival
Adaptation and change set in motion Within hours generations are born
An asteroid path ends at Earth Thousands of generations later
Sixty ve million years past Combating the onslaught of chemicals
Yet another transformation Bacteria organisms evolved;
Reshaped and modied The mystery of life is held in the stars
Sculpting into the environment Life is in continual motion
Altering the master switches The universe is in continual motion
Genes slightly mutated Unforeseen motion required to survive
Modifying the mechanics of life;
But not its essence
The mutations continually evolving
A superior organism realized
Only seven million years past,
Humanity still evolving
716

210003_601_ch32.indd 716 6/6/08 3:53:37 PM

 Intelligent design or Genesis
The design of organisms, truly mysterious
How does the blue fox become the snow?
The warning bright colors of poison frogs
The Costa Rica moth appears
as a fallen leaf
The nymph mantis is identical
to fern leaves
The chameleon mimics the
substratum quickly
The Brazilian grasshopper is
a blade of grass
The crab spider turns yellow
on a yellow ower
The frogsh disappears against
the Red Sea coral
A Venezuela crocodile is the oating algae
The eyes complex 11-cis-retinal molecule
All mysterious evolutionary feats
Banish preconceptions the
mystery appears
Mimicry and camouage
Exposing secrets of life
Organisms unknowingly adapting
in nature
Somehow perfect effortless communication
between an organism and
the environment;
Evolving precision interdependence
Without effort, without thought
Without creation, without intelligent design
Life is an inherent aspect of the universe
The universe exists; life exists
Life is the dance of universes
physical aspect
The puzzling instinct of the universe
Manifesting itself without reason
717
210003_601_ch32.indd 717
Every rationalization is a physical aspect
Every thought is a physical aspect
Any explanation is as irrational as
The Moon demanding the
Earth to release it
It is; life is
The universes non-physical aspect
Manifests its physical counterpart
Creation unnecessary
Intelligence unnecessary
Life is an integral aspect of
the universe itself
As the Moon, stars and the planets
All intricate aspects of galaxies
As the building blocks of life
Spread everywhere in the universe
Not a subject of materialism
It is spiritualism; it is enlightenment
Atheism and evolution equated
It lies in the mysticism of all religions
Beyond the compelling stories
Beyond the dogma beliefs
Beyond blind faith
The essence of the universe reveals itself
The universe requires no intervening
It is complete
Where masters, gurus, and saints
have passed
Free from concepts one realizes the mystery
Filled with concepts,
The ten thousand things arise;
Obsessed by concepts,
The ten thousand things
cannot be explained;
The universe comes full circle
The ten thousand things arise
The ten thousand things return
When one cannot see the mystery
One creates existential doubt
When one sees the mystery
There is no need for words
7/28/08 12:30:46 PM
 Cosmic Instinct
The incomprehensible innite
Denes the knowledge of the nite
Knowledge is not static
The nite is in perpetual motion;
The innite has nowhere to go
Therefore appears as a motionless void
Yet, within the void
All nite motion is contained;
718
210003_601_ch32.indd 718
An indescribable instinct,
As color is indescribable to the blind
Cosmic instinct reveals the innite
As light exposes objects in the dark
That which is always there is illumined
The unconscious play of the innite
Manifests the nite
6/6/08 3:53:39 PM
 Therefore exists as two parts of itself,
A non-dual reality
The instinct of the innite
Generates the nite aspect
Without purpose or intention;
Transcending the spiritual
God has never been more apparent
The fog has lifted
The sea and sky are indistinguishable
A seagulls cry indistinguishable
The instinct of the cosmos
The root that all things connect
The root that no things connect
The cosmos from one root;
Inherent in the root,
Are all life forms and consciousness
Manifesting all things
Root revealed in consciousness;
Microcosm is the macrocosm
Macrocosm is the microcosm
The cosmos individualizing its own nature;
One can walk among snakes with no fear,
For a snake will not attack its own kind
The cosmic root is indestructible
Body, mind and spirit are part of one root
There are no separate entities
As drops in the vast ocean,
Its essential nature is the
ten thousand things
719
210003_601_ch32.indd 719
Its essential nature is the void
These are effects of cosmic instinct,
Consequences of the ow;
Penetrating every atom and particle
As great as innite space
Everywhere and nowhere
Here and there
Looked for, it cannot be found,
Yet wherever one looks, it is
Light exists as a multitude of rays
The character of the rays results in sight,
Cosmic instinct lls the universe
Human awareness is a ray
of cosmic instinct
The character of awareness
results in enlightenment,
Cosmic instinct aware of itself
through a ray;
Ignorance results when the ray is
clouded by ego
The process of identication and duality
The nite aspect of the innite;
With ego and mental objects suppressed,
The ray becomes aware of itself
The innite aspect of the cosmos
The cosmic instinct is innite
And therefore, all things are innite
6/6/08 3:53:43 PM
 Seven Enlightenment
Factors
Mindfulness arises Aware of conceptions
Or sometimes absent Aware of the ten thousand Things
Awareness is an absolute state Becoming and disappearing
Aware of body Within oneself;
Aware of sensations Correct understanding is crucial
Aware of feelings Yet enlightenment has no understanding
Aware of thoughts

720

210003_601_ch32.indd 720 6/6/08 3:53:43 PM

 Investigation of mental objects
Arises and sometimes not
Investigate source of evil
Investigate unwholesome conditions
Investigate arising goodness
Investigate wholesome conditions
Knowing their nature is wisdom
Appearing and disappearing
Their suppression and destruction
Mental objects have no form
No reality
Existing in space and time
Yet enlightenment has no space and time

Pure unbounded energy

Arises and sometimes not
Energetic will for right effort
Free from delements
Free from deluded mind
Free from unwholesome desires
Free from mind-ego
Free from birth and death
No place for energy to bind
Energy continuously transformed
Through all things
Energy is conserved, never lost
Yet things are impermanent

Few know absolute joy

Contrary to the pessimistic
These smiles have depth
From a source beyond opposites
Becoming pure bliss
To delight in the spring of life
A hindrance to realization
Is the gloomy attitude of mind;
With broad grin
The enlightened enter the room
No mental agenda exists
Inner radiance of light and being
Yet appearing as a beggar

721

210003_601_ch32.indd 721 6/6/08 3:53:47 PM

 The Five Aggregates
In each moment of time
Never the same twice
From moment to moment
All states change;
As a mountain river
Never still for a moment
Never the same twice
In continuous ow
Of impermanence and change
Disappearing and reappearing
A series of cause and effect,
As are the ve aggregates
Aggregate of matter
Of elements
Solid, uid, heat, motion
Of sense-organs
Ear, eye, body, nose, tongue
Of sense-objects
Sound, form, touch, odor, taste
Of mind-objects
Thoughts, ideas, conceptions
Ever-changing energies
Instruments of pleasure and pain
Liberation in suffering
Aggregate of sensation
Now and again pleasant
Now and again unpleasant
Now and again neutral
Vehicle of sense-organs
Of sense-objects
Of mind-objects
Moment-to-moment change
Fruits of pleasure and pain
Clinging to sensations
Liberation in attachment
722
210003_601_ch32.indd 722
Aggregate of perception
Sometimes comprehending
Sometimes ignorant
Sometimes doubtful
Of the six sense-organs
Of eighteen sense realms
Recognizing objects
Both of mind and body
Knowing pleasure and pain
Experience of sensations
Liberation in knowledge
Aggregate of mental formations
Karmic actions of good or bad
Mental constructions of desire
Of determination
Of conceit
Of ignorance
Behaviors of will
All of the six sense-organs
Within the eighteen sense realms
Impermanent and ever changing
Instruments of self-ego
Liberation in self
6/6/08 3:53:47 PM
 Aggregate of consciousness
Arising out of the six faculties
Awareness of a sense-organ
Aware of the eighteen sense realms;
Of perceptions
Of sensations
Of objects
Of mental formations,
Each feeds the re of consciousness
Without which there is no re
Consciousness everchanging
Liberation in the re dying

Five aggregates of the self-ego

All impermanent and changing,
All basis of attachment
Of pleasure and pain
Accepted of the nite realm
Never the same twice
From moment to moment
As a mountain river
The ow is constant and swift;
Step out once from the river
Liberation

Suffering exists
Yet there is no sufferer
If a thought is removed
No thinker can be found;
Life is continuous motion
A cycle of continuity
Without beginning or end
Its roots in ignorance
Cessation of the ve aggregates
The happiest of beings
Liberation in ultimate truth

723

210003_601_ch32.indd 723 6/6/08 3:53:49 PM

 Pure Vision
All Things exist by virtue
Within the undifferentiated suchness Of what they are not
Lies true spiritual vision, A proton
Witnessing innite space A neutron
Beyond cosmos An electron
Beyond celestial bodies Building blocks
Beyond elds of grass Of every atom in the cosmos,
Beyond grains of sand All matter within nonmatter;
Unchanging character of the whole Yet with absolute certainty
Reaching extreme vagueness Every particles reality
Nothing exists to witness Exists within a Great Reality
Yet every thing is realized Of nothingness
Paralleling a perceptual shift Of emptiness
A Pure Vision Of dynamic voidness
724

210003_601_ch32.indd 724 6/6/08 3:53:49 PM

 All things equally important Relaxation of mind
An absolute value Relaxation of body
Within a Great Reality All stiffness vanished
Their transparency realized Calmness of thought
Manifestations of being Calmness of action
Patterns of their origin; Calmness of speech
In a single blow of enlightenment Calmness in battle
All beliefs and expectations There are no bonds to bind
Suspended in time-space continuum, No pressure to succeed
No meaning Anxiety vanished
No understanding All is done here and now
No comprehension Relaxation is intrinsic
Realizes a moment in time Yet, enlightenment requires great effort
Of Pure Vision
Right concentration is attained
In a ash of primordial attainment Four stages before the gate
A grave loss, Begin purifying emotions and desires
All things lose their separateness Joy and happiness maintained
In this seless vision; Then intellection suppressed
Finite existence is as it is One-pointedness achieved
In the light of their being Next all things exist equally
All is illuminated equally, Tranquility and balance are omnipresent
A wholly intimate contact Finally pure awareness remains
At the edge of nite and innite I am exists nowhere
Grasping of complete union All things endlessly change
The inconceivable nature of things A journey back to the origin
Each part of a greater reality Yet, enlightenment requires no voyage
Proceeding from one source
Pure equanimity remains
Transparent now the ego-mind Emotions dissipated
With the third eye awakened Intellections seized
The original face before birth Thoughts observed
Is now clear; As boats on a calm sea;
As a pure child As though blind and deaf
All things exist without purpose Seeing with no eyes
Within the realm absolute Hearing with no ears
No longer an observer Mechanisms of perception immobilized
But a true participator, Ideas of holiness vanished
All questions and answers vanished All things belong to emptiness
In an eternal moment in time Everything is understood for what it is
The whole of the process Yet, enlightenment comes from what it
Is the rhythm of ones being is not
Vision as source of all things
Yet, enlightenment does not require seeing.
725

210003_601_ch32.indd 725 6/6/08 3:53:53 PM

 Insight to Enlightenment
Degrees of enlightenment
Exist within many
From shallow tides
To unbound depths;
At rst insight
Minds eye opens
A vow to save,
Those unawakened;
Defects of character
Appear in the shallows,
Someone still seeing
Concepts remain
Thin sliver achieved;
Perfect enlightenment
Adds nothing
Absolute fearlessness
True enlightenment
In the face of evil
Ten thousand days ahead
There is nothing that dies;
Empty handed
Great enlightenment
Nothing is gained
Grasping the mind
Individual spirits and minds
No delusion exists,
Have no meaning
No Mind is here
Have no existence;
What was taught, now experienced
Shallow peace of insight
The face before birth
Washed away forever;
Now so ever clear,
Compassion for every living being,
Unmistaken diamonds clarity;
Within pure radiance
Boundless freedom
Reaching perfection
Deep inner peace
Through a harmonious daily life;
Unknown to those of insight,
Cosmic instinct resurrected
All opposites
Fundamental wisdom acquired
All contradictions
Mind is grasped
Have no meaning
Great vow fullled
All thoughts of enlightenment
Are simply absurd
726

210003_601_ch32.indd 726 6/6/08 3:53:53 PM

 Penetrating more deeply
Realizing spiritual discipline
Is eternal;
Perfecting the personality
Within a vow
To save all sentient beings
Without self-consciousness,
Of enlightenment;
No one can own it
No one can claim it
No one can sell it
One can live and realize it,
That which is already there;
Now live in harmony
Without strain or compulsion
All things are as they are
Even after ten thousand days

Just listen when listening

Just see when seeing
Absolute absorption
Illusions of Self dissolved
Emotions puried routinely
Unremitting practice required
No distinguishing
End or means
In a world of emptiness
There are only Things
Yet enlightenment has no existence

727

210003_601_ch32.indd 727 6/6/08 3:53:55 PM

 The Eighteen Sense-Realms
The self denes itself by senses
The senses dened by perceptions
Each sense and each sense-object
Brings forth each sense-perception
Each manifested from moments of past
Distorting moments of future
But what of moments of present
Beyond denitions of senses?
There is no sense endowed
To know a moment in time

Of body is touch
Of tongue is avor
Of ear is sound
Of nose is smell
Of eyes is sight
Of mind are entities; Concepts relate to the senses
The six senses each with objects And as such to logical categories
A perception fullls the pair There is no right answer
The eighteen sense-realms are formed Correct thinking is without thought
An autonomous arsenal to protect Is without sense
In its intelligent mutiny A sense cannot see a moment in time
Becomes the self A sense cannot feel a moment in time

In the domination of the senses The arsenal is not so advanced

The essence is conned
The original undeled awareness
Of the rst moments of life
Its brilliance dimmed
By the assault of the sense-realms
A strategic maneuver to conquer
Establishing the monarchy of Self
Forever lost in the ocean of primordial ick
Shutting out true wisdom
728
For it cannot apprehend a moment in time
The original source of all things
Is achieved through spontaneity
Of mind and body
When the monarchy has fallen
A moment in time everywhere
And a cosmic order returns
Once again
Ending the rebirth

210003_601_ch32.indd 728 6/6/08 3:53:55 PM

 Gods Trap
The evolution of the soul
The evolution of the universe
Of primordial substance
Without change throughout time;
Change is not inherent in the soul
For it is unchangeable
As the essence of the universe
The essence of God
Change is inherent in the manifestations
Manifestations of the universe
Manifestations of the mind
Gods manifestations
Thy will be done on Earth
As it is in Heaven
Thy kingdom come
The manifestations have limits;
Of time
Of space
The multiplicity and complexity of the nite.
The innite has no limits
Simplicity and unity,
But why do we personify the innite soul,
The magic of God, Undeniable simplicity eludes
The essence of the universe, Exhausting searches
In the identity of the nite body and mind? Dedicated disciples
Spiritual accomplishments;
No answer exists in theology Ego-hood sustains the trap
No answer in philosophy Self evades Self
Yet the answer remains within The ultimate paradox of
Entrapped by the mind and body God realizing godself
The essence of the universe Hindered by its own materialization
The essence of God The Way eludes the most intelligent
It remains elusive in all discussions When thoughts cease
It is as if the soul of the universe Emotions at rest
Were trapped within the superior beings; Ego-hood is transcended
Humans, Gods ultimate achievement God arises within
God realizes itself in time and space Now god-consciousness
Through the nite nature of humankind Becomes non-dualistic spiritual
Humans are spiritual beings awareness
Although unaware while in the trap Finally enlightenment!
729

210003_601_ch32.indd 729 6/6/08 3:53:58 PM

 730 APPENDIX ONE
No Mind We present below the method of Taoist meditation prac-
601
tised by Yin Shih Tsu as related in his rst volume pub-
Insights of lished in 1914. Yin Shih Tsu received many letters from
No Mind those who followed and practiced his method of medita-
tion. Here are some of their questions and the authors
answers.

Q. Should one close the eyes while sitting in meditation?

A. To close the eyes is to ensure stillness of mind. When
one feels tired after a day of hard work, one can open
them a little to avoid falling into drowsiness. But it is ad-
visable to close the eyes and direct them inwards to look
into ones inner self.

Q. What should I do to get rid of rising thoughts that

prevent me from sitting in meditation?
A. Count your breath to control your thinking process.

Q. When I began my practice in early February, my

thoughts were very numerous, but a few months later, I
made some progress and was sometimes entirely free from
them for a full minute during which I felt as if I had en-
tered the great emptiness. But now I cannot control myself
and am assailed by thoughts; I do not feel at ease and am
almost to the point of stopping my practice. What should
I do?
A. If while sitting in meditation you can free your-
self from thoughts for a full minute, this is a very good
sign and you should strive to preserve this state. If you
persevere in your practice, you will be able to rid your-
self of them. The best way to achieve this is to turn
inward your meditation to contemplate the source of
these thoughts and when you realize that there is no
xed place where they arise, you will attain the state of
thoughtlessness.

Q. My legs are always numb after I have sat in medita-

tion for thirty minutes. I am unable to get rid of this

210003_601_ch32.indd 730 7/28/08 3:12:02 PM

 numbness which now seems more unbearable than be- 731
fore. What should I do to be free of it?
It Never
A. This numbness is unavoidable. It is like physical exer- Ends,
cise which causes ones limbs to ache at the start. There It Only
Begins
are two ways of getting rid of it: rstly, when it is
Anew
unbearable, move and stretch your legs to relax them,
and secondly, try to bear it until it becomes impercepti-
ble, for it will vanish of itself. If you can bear it in this
way for a few sittings, your legs will be no more numb
and you will then be able to sit for one or two hours with-
out further difculty.

Q. Is it harmful to lengthen the duration of a meditation?

A. You can lengthen it if you can bear with it, but you
should avoid strain.

Q. Each time I sit in meditation, I feel very impatient

and the more I strive to suppress my impatience, the
more unbearable it becomes. What should I do?
A. Do not try to suppress it. You should lay down every-
thing by visualizing your body as being dead; this is tan-
tamount to killing it in order to resurrect it.

Q. If the two thighs do not rest comfortably on the cush-

ion, is it advisable to add padding under the buttocks?
A. The buttocks should be raised two to three inches
above the knees so that the thighs incline downward and
rest on the cushion; thus the legs will also be relieved
from numbness.

Q. According to (Taoist) books, the method of turning

inwards the contemplation does not mean the forceful
stoppage of thoughts, but looking into their rise and fall
to clear them away; for instance, returning the rst
thought to itself, the second thought to itself, and so on.
What does returning mean?
A. All false thoughts are but the minds clingings which
succeed one another endlessly. When contemplation is
turned inward to look into their rise and fall, the purpose

210003_601_ch32.indd 731 6/6/08 3:54:01 PM

 732 is to isolate these thoughts, thereby cutting off their links
and connections. Thus the rst thought cannot reach the
No Mind
601 second one, and this is returning (the rst thought to
itself without allowing it to be linked with the second
Insights of one). This is only possible when the rise of every thought
No Mind
is looked into.

Q. Why, when something that is of no real concern enters

my mind, I cannot get rid of it?
A. This is because you cling to it. If you look into the un-
reality of your body which is a union of illusory elements,
you will realize that there is not a thing that is worth your
attachment; thus you will be able to lay down everything
(and so quiet your mind).

Q. During my meditation, although I practice the count-

ing method, my mind still wanders outside; should I leave
it alone?
A. If your mind continues to wander in spite of your
practice of the counting method, you should, each time
you notice it wandering, bring it back under control so as
to freeze it. If you continue so doing, you will prevent it
from wandering.
Q. Last night, during my meditation, I gradually felt
something quite unusual. It was as if I was in a oating
state which was only temporary. As soon as I felt it, my
thoughts returned again but I succeeded in stopping
them and it reappeared. Thus my thoughts alternated
with this state for a few times. At last, while in this state,
suddenly the inner heat came down from my nose to my
mouth, throat and chest, and the pores all over my body
seemed to open up. I was so surprised that I did not no-
tice where this heat stopped. Then I composed myself
and felt another inner heat in the backbone between the
kidneys which went up to the top of my head. All my
body was hot and wet with perspiration. My surprise gave
way to fright and then to alarm and I was unable to com-
pose myself. The heat disappeared and the perspiration
stopped. My head was wet with sweat and drops of it ran

210003_601_ch32.indd 732 6/6/08 3:54:02 PM

 off my cheeks. This experience was very strange to me; 733
what does it mean?
It Never
A. These are the best signs of an effective meditation. Ends,
Your perspiration removes impurities accumulated in It Only
Begins
your body. Dont be frightened. Let this state take its own
Anew
course. If the heat is intense, lead it by visualization up
the backbone to the top of your head and then down to
the lower belly, thus ensuring its continuous ow.

Q. Every morning when I sit in meditation, I feel vibra-

tions in my belly, rst in its upper part and then under
the navel. The more it vibrates, the more the vital princi-
ple ows freely and the more comfortable I feel. In my
meditation in the afternoon and in the evening before
going to bed, I do not feel vibrations in my belly. It seems
that the owing vital principle reaches the lower belly
more easily when it is empty than when it is full. Are vi-
brations caused by this ow into the lower belly or are
they only accidental? What do you mean by settling the
lower belly; do you mean expanding it without allowing
it to contract?
A. Vibrations show the free passage of the vital princi-
ple. As it passes through the stomach and intestines, it
vibrates when the belly is empty. But when the belly is
full, it ceases to vibrate. The breath reaches the lower
belly more easily when the latter is full. Vibrations are
not accidental but come from the vital principle circulat-
ing in the belly. As times passes, when your meditation is
more effective and the vital principle ows freely, then
these vibrations will cease. To settle the belly is to expand
it at all times without allowing it to contract. This can be
attained only after a long training and cannot be achieved
by beginners.

Q. What do you mean by using a single thought to over-

come numerous thoughts?
A. When you concentrate on a single thought without
loosening your grip of it, you will sooner or later succeed
in putting a stop to all thoughts.

210003_601_ch32.indd 733 6/6/08 3:54:02 PM

 734 Q. What do you mean by turning inwards the contem-
plation, and by returning every thought to itself?
No Mind
601 A. By turning inwards the contemplation is meant clos-
ing your eyes to look into the innermost; this can put a
Insights of
stop to false thoughts which will thus be disengaged from
No Mind
one another. This is returning each thought to its origin
so that it cannot be linked to the following one, but actu-
ally there is no real return to anything.

Reprinted by Permission from The Secrets of Chinese Medi-

tation by Charles Luk, Samuel Weiser, Inc., New York, 1964.

210003_601_ch32.indd 734 6/6/08 3:54:02 PM

 BI BL I OGR A P H Y

Aarts, H., Dijksterhuis, A., & De Vries, P. (2001). On the Psychol-

ogy of Drinking: Being Thirsty and Perceptually Ready. British
Journal of Psychology, 92(4), 631642.
Aarts, H., Gollwitzer, P. M., & Hassin, R. R. (2004). Goal Contagion:
Perceiving is for Pursuing. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 87(1), 2337.
Adamenko, N. G., Kirlian, K. H., & Kirlian, S. D. (1973). Detection
of Acupuncture Points by the Biometer. In S. Krippner &
D. Rubin (Eds.), Galaxies of Life. New York: Gordon and Breach.
Albino, R., & Burnand, G. (1964). Conditioning the Alpha Rhythm
in Man. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 67(6), 539544.
Alexander, C. N., Swanson, G. C., Rainforth, M. V., Carlisle, T. W.,
Todd, C. C., & Oates, R. (1993). Effects of the Transcendental
Meditation Program on Stress Reduction, Health and Em-
ployee Development: A Prospective Study in Two Occupational
Settings. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 6, 245262.
Alexander, C. N., Swanson, G. C., Rainforth, M. V., Carlisle, T. W.,
& Todd, C. C. (1991). In R. K. Wallace, D. W. Orme-Johnson
& M. C. Dillbeck (Eds.), Scientific Research on Maharishis
Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program: Collected
Papers (Vol. 5, pp. 31413149). Fairfield, Iowa: Maharishi
International.
Amer, S. (2003). Move Over, Maharishi. Successful Meetings,
52(12), 30.
Anand, B. K., China, G. S., & Singh, B. (1961a). Some Aspects of
Electroencephalographic Studies in Yogis. Electroencephalo-
graphy and Clinical Neurophysiology, 13(3), 452456.
Anand, B. K., China, G. S., & Singh, B. (1961b). Studies of Shri
Ramanand Yogi During His Stay in an Air-Tight Box. Indian
Journal of Medical Research, 49(1), 8289.
Anderson, K., & Sykes, T. (2004). Slow DownOr Life Will Catch
Up To You. Black Enterprise, 34(9), 121124.
Angoff, A., & Barth, D. (Eds.). (1974). Parapsychology and
Anthropology: Proceedings of an International Conference. New
York: Parapsychology Foundation.
Anzai, J. (1970). Two Cases of Zen Awakening (Kensho) Experi-
ences. Psychologia, 13(23), 140144.
Aron, E. N., & Aron, A. (1982). Transcendental Meditation Pro-
gram and Marital Adjustment. Psychological Reports, 51(3),
887890.

735

210003_00_bib.indd 735 6/6/08 1:22:08 PM

 736 Asch, S. E. (1969). A Reformulation of the Problem of Associa-
tions. American Psychologist, 24(2), 92102.
Bibliography Astin, J. A. (1997). Stress Reduction Through Mindfulness
Meditation: Effects on Psychology Symptomatology, Sense of
Control, and Spiritual Experiences. Psychotherapy and Psycho-
somatics, 66(2), 97106.
Bachman, C. H., McDonald, R. D., & Lorenz, P. J. (1966). Some
Effects of Air Ions on the Activity of Rats. International Journal
of Biometeorology, 10(1), 39 46.
Backster, C. (1968). Evidence of a Primary Perception in Plant
Life. International Journal of Parapsychology, 10(4), 329348.
Baddeley, A. D. (1964). Immediate Memory and the Perception of
Letter Sequences. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,
16(4), 364367.
Bagchi, B. K., & Wenger, M. A. (1957). Electrophysiological Cor-
relates of Some Yogi Exercises. Electroencephalography and
Clinical Neurophysiology, 7, 132149.
Bakan, D. (1966). The Duality of Human Existence. Boston: Beacon
Press.
Bandura, A. (1969). Principles of Behavior Modification. New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Bandura, A., Blanchard, E. B., & Ritter, B. (1969). The Relative
Efficacy of Desensitization and Modeling Approaches for In-
ducing Behavioral Affective and Attitudinal Changes. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 13, 173199.
Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1963). Vicarious Reinforce-
ment and Imitative Learning. Journal of Abnormal Psychology,
67, 601607.
Bandura, A., & Walters, R. H. (1963). Social Learning and Person-
ality Development: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.
Barden, R. (1979). A Martial Art with More than Kick and Punch.
Karate Illustrated, 10(9), 1621.
Barinaga, M. (2003). Buddhism and Neuroscience: Studying the
Well-Trained Mind. Science, 302, 44 46.
Barnwell, F. H., & Brown, F. A. (1964). Responses of Planarians
and Snails. In M. F. Barnoty (Ed.), Biological Effects of Mag-
netic Fields (Vol. 1). New York: Plenum Press.
Barron, F. (1968). Creativity and Personal Freedom. New York: D.
Van Nostrand Co.
Beauregard, M., Levesque, J., & Bourgouin, P. (2001). Neural Cor-
relates of Conscious Self-Regulation of Emotion. The Journal of
Neuroscience, 21(18).
Becker, R. O. (1972). Stimulation of Partial Limb Regeneration in
Rats. Nature, 235(5333), 109111.
Begley, S. (2003, January 10). This Year, Try Getting Your Brain
Into Shape. Wall Street Journal.

210003_00_bib.indd 736 6/6/08 1:22:16 PM

 Begley, S. (2004, November 5). Scans of Monks Brains Show 737
Meditation Alters Structure Functioning. Wall Street Journal,
p. B1. Bibliography
Benedict, R. (1934). Anthropology and the Abnormal. Journal of
General Psychology, 10(1), 5980.
The Benefits of Mindfulness. (2004). Harvard Womens Health
Watch, 11(6), 13.
Benson, H., Malhotra, M., Goldman, R., Jacobs, G., & Hopkins,
P. (1990). Three Case Reports of the Metabolic and Electroen-
cephalographic Changes During Advanced Buddhist Medita-
tion Techniques. Behavioral Medicine, 16(2), 9095.
Berger, E. M. (1962). Zen Buddhism, General Psychology, and
Counseling Psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 9(2),
122127.
Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1967). The Social Constructions of
Reality. New York: Anchor Books Edition.
Bertini, Lewis, H. B., & Witkin, H. A. (1964). Some Preliminary
Observations with an Experimental Procedure for the Study of
Hypnagogic and Related Phenomena. Arch Psychology Neurol
Psychiatry, 25(Nov-Dec), 493534.
Besserman, P., & Steger, M. (1991). Crazy Clouds: Zen Radicals,
Rebels, & Reformers. Boston: Shambhala Publications.
Bexton, W. H., Heron, W., & Scott, T. H. (1954). Effects of Decreased
Variation in the Sensory Environment. Canadian Journal of Psy-
chology, 8(2), 7076.
Blofeld, J. (1958). The Zen Teachings of Huang Po: On The Trans-
mission of Mind. New York: Grove Press.
Blofeld, J. (1973). The Secret and Sublime: Taoist Mysteries and
Magic. New York: E. P. Dutton.
Blum, R. H. (1956). Photic Stimulation, Imagery, and Alpha
Rhythm. Journal of Mental Science, 102(426), 160167.
Blumenthal, R. G. (2003, October 27). Meditate On This: If Vola-
tility Ends, Maybe We All Go Home. Barrons, 83, 12.
Blumenthal, R. G. (2004, April 19). Mind Over Markets. Barrons,
84, 3233.
Bogart, G. (1991). The Use of Meditation in Psychotherapy: A
Review of the Literature. American Journal of Psychotherapy,
45(3), 338 412.
Bonadonna, R. (2003). Meditations Impact on Chronic Illness.
Holistic Nursery Practices, 17(6), 309319.
Bond, M., Gardner, S. T., Christian, J., & Sigal, J. J. (1983). Em-
pirical Study of Self-Rated Defense Styles. Archives of General
Psychiatry, 40(3), 333338.
Bondolfi, G. (2004). Does Approach Using Mindfulness Medita-
tive Exercises Have a Role to Play? Sante Ment Que, 29(1),
137145.

210003_00_bib.indd 737 6/6/08 1:22:26 PM

 738 Boorstein, S. (1979). Troubled Relationships: Transpersonal and
Psychoanalytic Approaches. The Journal of Transpersonal Psy-
Bibliography chology, 11(2), 129139.
Borgeat, F., Chabot, R., & Chaloult, L. (1981). Subliminal Percep-
tion and the Levels of Activation. Canadian Journal of Psychia-
try, 26(4), 255259.
Borkovec, T. D. (2002). Life in the Future Versus Life in the
Present. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 9, 7680.
Boudreau, L. (1972). Transcendental Meditation and Yoga as Re-
ciprocal Inhibitors. Journal of Behavioral Therapy and Experi-
mental Psychiatry, 3, 9798.
Brandt, A. (1980). Self-Confrontations. Psychology Today, 14(5),
73101.
Braud, W. G., & Braud, L. W. (1973). Preliminary Explorations of
Psi-Conducive States: Progressive Muscular Relaxation. Journal
of the American Society for Psychical Research, 67(1), 26 46.
Braverman, A. (1994). Warrior of Zen. New York: Kodansha
America, Inc.
Brener, J., Kleinman, R. A., & Goesling, W. J. (1969). The Effects
of Different Exposures to Augmented Sensory Feedback on the
Control of Heart Rate. Psychophysiology, 5(5), 510516.
Brooks, C. V. W. (1974). Sensory Awareness. New York: Viking
Press.
Brown, D., & Engler, J. (1980). The Stages of Mindfulness
Meditation: A Validation Study. The Journal of Transpersonal
Psychology, 12(2), 143192.
Brown, D., Forte, M., & Dysart, M. (1984a). Differences in Visual
Sensitivity among Mindfulness Meditators and Non-Meditators.
Perceptual and Motor Skills, 58(3), 727733.
Brown, D., Forte, M., & Dysart, M. (1984). Visual Sensitivity
and Mindfulness Meditation. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 58,
775784.
Brown, D. P. (1977). A Model for the Levels of Concentrative
Meditation. International Journal of Clinical and Experimen-
tal Hypnosis, 25(4), 236273.
Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The Benefits of Being Present:
Mindfulness and Its Role in Psychological Well-Being. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(4), 822848.
Bruner, J. S. (1957). On Perceptual Readiness. Psychological Review,
64(2), 123152.
Bruner, J. S., & Goodman, C. E. (1947). Value and Need as Organ-
izing Factors in Perception. Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 42(1), 33 44.
Bruner, J. S., & Postman, L. (1948). Symbolic Value as an Organ-
izing Factor in Perception. Journal of Social Psychology, 27,
203208.

210003_00_bib.indd 738 6/6/08 1:22:36 PM

 Brunton, P. (1934). A Search in Secret India. New York: Samuel 739
Weiser.
Brunton, P. (1935). A Search in Secret Egypt. New York: Samuel Bibliography
Weiser.
Brunton, P. (1970). The Wisdom of the Over Self (2nd ed.). New
York: Samuel Weiser.
Brunton, P. (1977). The Hidden Teaching Beyond Yoga. New York:
Samuel Weiser.
Bundzen, P. V., Korotkov, K. G., & Unestahl, L. E. (2002). Altered
States of Consciousness: Review of Experimental Data Obtained
With a Multiple Techniques Approach. The Journal of Alternative
and Complementary Medicine, 8(2), 153165.
Burns, J. E. (1975). Transcendental Meditation in the Board-
room? Industrial Management, 17(4), 1315.
Burr, H. S. (1920). The Transplantation of the Cerebral Hemi-
spheres of Amblystoma. Journal of Experimental Zoology, 30,
159167.
Burr, H. S. (1932). An Electro-Dynamic Theory of Development
Suggested by Studies of Proliferation Rates in the Brain
of Amblystoma. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 56(2),
347371.
Burr, H. S., & Northrop, F. S. C. (1935). The Electro-Dynamic
Theory of Life. Quarterly Review of Biology, 10(3), 322333.
Cannon, W. B. (1932). The Wisdom of the Body. New York: W.W.
Norton & Company.
Capra, F. (1976). The Tao of Physics. Colorado: Shambhala
Publications.
Capra, F. (2002). The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustain-
able Living. New York: Anchor Books.
Caprio, F. S., & Berger, J. R. (1963). Helping Yourself with Self-
Hypnosis. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Carington, W. (1970). Matter, Mind and Meaning (2nd ed.). New
York: Books for Libraries Press.
Carlson, L. E., Specca, M., Patel, K. D., & Goodey, E. (2004).
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Relation to Quality of
Life, Mood, Symptoms of Stress and Levels of Cortisol, Dehy-
droepiandrosterone Sulfate (DHEAS) and Melatonin in Breast
and Prostate Cancer Outpatients. Psychoneuroendocrinology,
29(4), 448 474.
Carpenter, J. T. (1977). Meditation, Esoteric Traditions
Contributions to Psychotherapy. American Journal of Psycho-
therapy, 31(3), 394 404.
Carrington, P., Collings, G. H., Benson, H., Robinson, H., Wood, L.,
Lehrer, P. M., et al. (1980). The Use of Meditation-Relaxation
Techniques for the Management of Stress in a Working Popula-
tion. Journal of Occupational Medicine, 22(4), 221231.

210003_00_bib.indd 739 6/6/08 1:22:46 PM

 740 Carson, J. W., Carson, K. M., Gil, K. M., & Baucom, D. H. (2004).
Mindfulness-Based Relationship Enhancement. Behavior Ther-
Bibliography apy, 35(3), 471494.
Cartwright, R. D. (1977). Nightlife: Explorations in Dreaming. New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Castaneda, C. (1972). A Separate Reality: Further Conversations
with Don Juan. New York: Pocket Books.
Castelli, L., Zogmaister, C., Smith, E. R., & Arcuri, L. (2004). On
the Automatic Evaluation of Social Exemplars. Journal of Per-
sonality and Social Psychology, 86(3), 373387.
Cautela, J. R. (1970). Covert Reinforcement. Behavior Therapy,
1(1), 3350.
Cavill, N., & Bauman, A. (2004). Changing the Way People Think
about Health-Enhancing Physical Activity: Do Mass Media
Campaigns Have a Role? Journal of Sports Sciences, 22(8),
771790.
Cerney, J. V. (1978). Acupressure: Acupuncture without Needles.
New Jersey: Cornerstone Library.
Chernyshev, V. G. (1970). Electromagnetic Fields and Life. New
York: Plenum Press.
Claxton, G. (1999). Moving the Cursor of Consciousness: Cogni-
tive Sciences and Human Welfare. Journal of Consciousness
Studies, 6, 219222.
Claxton, G. (2000). Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: How Intelligence
Increases When You Think Less. New York: Harper Collins
Publishers.
Clay, A. (2001). The Zen of Riding. Equus, 279(3740).
Clemente, C. D. (1970). Comments on the Brain as an Effector
Organ for the Study of Conditional Reflexes. Conditional Reflex,
5(3), 153155.
Cohen, A. R., Greenbaum, C. W., & Mansson, H. H. (1969). Com-
mitment to Social Deprivation and Verbal Conditioning. In
P. G. Zimbardo (Ed.), The Cognitive Control of Motivation.
Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Co.
Cohen, B. H. (1966). Some or None Characteristics of Coding Be-
havior. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5,
182187.
Conlin, M. (2004, August 30). Meditation: New Research Shows
that It Changes the Brain in Ways that Alleviate Stress. Busi-
ness Week, 3897.
Connelly, J. E. (1999). Being in the Present Moment: Developing
the Capacity for Mindfulness in Medicine. Academic Medicine,
74(4), 420 424.
Connelly, J. E. (2005). Narrative Possibilities: Using Mindfulness
in Clinical Practice. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 48(1),
8494.

210003_00_bib.indd 740 6/6/08 1:22:55 PM

 Conze, E. (1959). Buddhist Scriptures. New York: Penguin Books. 741
Cooper, P. C. (2001). The Gap Between: Being and Knowing in
Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis. American Journal of Psy- Bibliography
choanalysis, 61(4), 341362.
Corbetta, M., Miezin, F. M., Dobmeyer, S., Shulman, G. L., &
Petersen, S. E. (1990). Attentional Modulation of Neural
Processing of Shape, Color, and Velocity in Humans. Science,
248(4962), 15561559.
Curry, L. A., & Maniar, S. D. (2004). Academic Course for Enhancing
Student-Athlete Performance in Sport. The Sport Psychologist,
18(3), 297316.
Dale, A. R. (2002). Tao Te Ching: A New Translation and Commen-
tary. New York: Barnes & Noble Books.
Das, J. P. (1963). Yoga & Hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical
and Experimental Hypnosis, 11(1), 3137.
Dasgupta, S. N. (1927). Hindu Mysticism. India: Motijal
Banarsidass.
Dass, R. (1978). Journey of Awakening. New York: Bantam
Books, Inc.
David-Neel, A. (1971). Magic and Mystery in Tibet. New York:
Penguin Books Edition.
Davidson, R. J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkranz, M.,
Muller, D., Santorelli, S. F., et al. (2003). Alterations in Brain
and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation.
Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 564570.
Davis, D., McLemore, C. W., & London, P. (1970). The Role of Vis-
ual Imagery in Desensitization. Behavioral Research and Therapy,
8(1), 1113.
De Armond, D. (1996). Effects of the Transcendental Meditation
Program on Psychological, Physiological, Behavioral and
Organizational Consequences of Stress in Managers and Execu-
tives. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences
& Engineering, 57(6B), 4068.
Dean, D. E. (1973). High-Voltage Radiation Photography of a
Healers Finger. In S. Krippner & D. Rubin (Eds.), Galaxies of
Life. New York: Gordon and Breach.
Dean, S. J., Martin, R. B., & Streiner, D. (1968). Meditational Con-
trol of the GSR. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality,
3(1), 7176.
Deikman, A. J. (1963). Experimental Meditation. Journal of Nervous
and Mental Disease, 136(4), 329343.
Deikman, A. J. (1966a). De-Automatization and the Mystic Expe-
rience. Psychiatry, 29(4), 324338.
Deikman, A. J. (1966b). Implications of Experimentally Induced
Contemplative Meditation. Journal of Nervous and Mental
Disease, 142(2), 101116.

210003_00_bib.indd 741 6/6/08 1:23:05 PM

 742 Deikman, A. J. (1973). The Meaning of Everything. In R. E. Ornstein
(Ed.), The Nature of Human Consciousness. New York: Viking
Bibliography Press.
Dement, W. (1970). The Effect of Dream Deprivation. Science,
131(3415), 17051707.
Der Hovanesian, M. (2003, July 28). Zen and the Art of Corporate
Productivity: More Companies are Battling Employee Stress
with Meditation. Business Week, 3843.
DeRopp, R. S. (1968). The Master Game. New York: Dell Publish-
ing Co.
Deutsch, J. A., & Deutsch, D. (1963). Attention: Some Theoretical
Considerations. Psychological Review, 70(1), 8090.
Dewan, E. M. (1967). Occipital Alpha Rhythm Eye Position and
Lens Accommodation. Nature, 214(5092), 975977.
Dietrich, A. (2003). Functional Neuroanatomy of Altered States of
Consciousness: The Transient Hypofrontality Hypothesis. Con-
sciousness and Cognition, 12(2), 231256.
Dimond, E. G. (1971). Acupuncture Anesthesia. Journal of the
American Medical Association, 218(10), 15581563.
Dimond, S., & Beaumont, G. (1971). Use of Two Cerebral Hemi-
spheres to Increase Brain Capacity. Nature, 232(5308), 270271.
Dobb, L. W. (1972). The Ubiquitous Appearance of Images. In
P. W. Sheehan (Ed.), The Function and Nature of Imagery. New
York: Academic Press.
Duncker, K. (1939). The Influence of Past Experience upon Percep-
tual Properties. American Journal of Psychology, 52(2), 255265.
Dunlop, P. W., & Schmidt, B. L. (1969). Sensitivity of Some Plant
Material to Magnetic Fields. In M. F. Barnothy (Ed.), Biological
Effects of Magnetic Fields (Vol. 2). New York: Plenum Press.
Dunn, B. R., Hartigan, J. A., & Mikulas, W. L. (1999). Concentration
and Mindfulness Meditations: Unique Forms of Consciousness?
Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 24(3), 147165.
Dyer, W. W. (1993). Your Erroneous Zones. New York: Harper Collins
Publishers.
Eden, J. (1972). Animal Magnetism and the Life Energy. New York:
Exposition Press.
Edwards, M. (1997). Being Present: Experimental Connections
Between Zen Buddhist Practices and the Grieving Process. Dis-
ability and Rehabilitation, 19(10), 442 451.
Efron, R. (1966). The Conditioned Reflex: A Meaningless Concept.
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 9(4), 488514.
Ehrenwald, J. (1977). Therapeutic Applications. In S. Krippner
(Ed.), Advances in Parapsychological Research: Psycho Kinesis
(Vol. 1). New York: Plenum Press.
Eisenbud, J. (1946). Telepathy and Problems of Psychoanalysis.
The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 15(3287).

210003_00_bib.indd 742 6/6/08 1:23:15 PM

 Eisenbud, J. (1970a). An Archeological Tour de Force with Ted 743
Serios. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research,
64(1), 4052. Bibliography
Eisenbud, J. (1970b). Psi and Psychoanalysis. New York: Grune
and Stratton.
Ellson, D. G. (1941a). Experimental Extinction of a Hallucination
Produced by Sensory Conditioning. Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 28(4), 350361.
Ellson, D. G. (1941b). Hallucinations Produced by Sensory Condi-
tioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 28(1), 120.
Elsasser, W. M. (1958). The Earth as a Dynamo. Scientific American,
198(5), 44 48.
Engstrom, D., & London, P. (1970). Hypnotic Susceptibility In-
creased by EEG Alpha Training. Nature, 227(5264), 12611262.
Engstrom, D. R. (1976). Hypnotic Susceptibility, EEG-Alpha, and
Self-Regulation. In G. E. Schwartz & D. Shapiro (Eds.), Con-
sciousness and Self-Regulation (Vol. 1, pp. 173217). New York:
Plenum.
Enright, J. B. (1971). An Introduction to Gestalt Techniques. In
J. Fagen & I. L. Shephered (Eds.), Gestalt Therapy Now. New
York: Harper and Row.
Epstein, R. M. (1999). Mindful Practice. Journal of the American
Medical Association, 282(9), 833838.
Eriksen, C. W. (1951). Perceptual Defense as a Function of Unac-
ceptable Needs. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology,
46(4), 557564.
Euse, F. J., & Haney, J. N. (1975). Clarity Controllability and Emo-
tional Intensity of Images: Correlations with Introversion, Neu-
roticism, and Subjective Anxiety. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 40,
443447.
Evans-Wentz, W. Y. (1957). The Tibetan Book of the Dead. London:
Oxford University Press.
Falkenstrom, F. (2003). A Buddhist Contribution to the Psychoana-
lytic Psychology of Self. International Journal of Psychoanalysis,
84, 15511568.
Feng, G.-F., & English, J. (1972). Tao Te Ching, Lao Tsu. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf.
Fergusson, L. C., & Bonshek, A. J. (1996). Health and Postsecondary
Art Achievement: A Study of Four Universities in Iowa. College
Student Journal, 30(1), 105111.
Ferrari, N., Kagan, L., Kessel, B., & Benson, H. (2004, September 27).
Menopause: Easing the Transition. Newsweek, 13, 74.
Fields, G. P. (2001). Religious Therapeutics: Body and Health in Yoga,
Ayurveda, and Tantra. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Fine, G. (1995). On Ideas: Aristotles Criticism of Platos Theory of
Forms. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

210003_00_bib.indd 743 6/6/08 1:23:25 PM

 744 Fingarette, H. (1958). The Ego and Mystic Selflessness. The Psy-
choanalytic Review, 45(Spring-Summer 1958), 540.
Bibliography Fingarette, H. (1963). The Self in Transformation. New York: Basic
Books.
Fisher, C. (1956). Dreams, Images, and Perception: A Study of
Unconscious-Preconscious Relationships. Journal of the American
Psychoanalytic Association, 4(1), 547.
Fisher, C., & Dement, W. C. (1963). Studies on the Psychopathology of
Sleep and Dreams. American Journal of Psychiatry, 119(12),
11601168.
Forsythe, J. (1996). Spirituality in Actor Training. Theatre Research in
Canada, 17(1), 6782.
Franco, D. (1965). The Childs Perception of the The Teacher as Com-
pared to His Perception of the The Mother. Journal of Genetic
Psychology, 107(133141).
Frankl, V. E. (1963). Mans Search for Meaning. New York: Pocket
Books Edition.
Freedman, S. J., & Marks, P. A. (1965). Visual Imagery Produced
by Rhythmic Photic Stimulation. British Journal of Psychology,
56(1), 95112.
Freud, S. (1917). Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious (A. A.
Brill, Trans.). New York: Moffat, Yard and Company.
Freud, S. (1963). Collected Papers (Vol. 2). New York: Collier
Books.
Frew, D. R. (1974). Transcendental Meditation and Productivity.
The Academy of Management Journal, 17(2), 362368.
Friedman, H., Becker, R. O., & Bachman, C. H. (1965, March 13).
Psychiatric Ward Behavior and Geophysical Parameters.
Nature, 205, 10501052.
Friedman, H., Becker, R. O., & Bachman, C. H. (1967, March 4).
Effect of Magnetic Fields on Reaction Time Performance.
Nature, 213, 949950.
Friend, K. E. (1977). Effects of the Transcendental Meditation
Program on Work Attitudes and Behavior. In D. W. Orme-Johnson
(Ed.), Scientific Research on the Transcendental Meditation
Program: Collected Papers (pp. 630638). Weggis, Switzerland:
Maharishi European Research University.
Fromm, E. (1959). Values, Psychology and Human Existence. In
A. H. Maslow (Ed.), New Knowledge in Human Values. Indiana:
Regnery/Gateway.
Fromm, E. (1979). The Nature of Hypnosis and Other Altered
States of Consciousness: An Ego Psychological Theory. In
E. Fromm & R. E. Shor (Eds.), Hypnosis: Developments in
Research and New Perspectives (Second ed.). New York: Aldine.
Fulder, S. (1976). About Ginseng. North Hamptonshire: Thorsons
Publishers Ltd.

210003_00_bib.indd 744 6/6/08 1:23:34 PM

 Gaddis, V. H. (1974). Electro-Dynamic Man. In N. Regush (Ed.), 745
The Human Aura. New York: Berkley Publishing Corporation.
Galanter, E., & Gerstenhaber, M. (1956). On Thought: The Extrin- Bibliography
sic Theory. Psychological Review, 63(4), 218227.
Gardner, R. W. (1957). Field-Dependence as a Determinant of
Susceptibility to Certain Illusions. American Psychologist,
12(7), 397.
Garfield, C. (1986). Peak Performers. New York: William Marrow
and Company, Inc.
Garner, W. R., Hake, H. W., & Eriksen, C. W. (1956). Operationa-
lism and the Concept of Perception. Psychological Review, 63(3),
149159.
Gauquelin, M. (1969). The Scientific Basis of Astrology: Myth or
Reality. New York: Stein and Day.
Gauquelin, M. (1973). Cosmic Influences on Human Behavior.
New York: ASI Publishers.
Ghose, A. (1955). The Synthesis of Yoga. Pondicherry, India: Sri
Aurobindo Ashram.
Gibson, H. B. (1977). Animal Hypnosis and Human Hypnosis:
New Experimental Evidence Relating to an Old Controversy.
Psychologia, 20(3), 136144.
Gilbert, A. R. (1967). From Buddha to PavlovThe Technique of
Mysticism. Psychologia, 10(34), 121128.
Gilbert, A. R. (1969). Identifying the Mystic Variable. Psychologia,
12(3 4), 139146.
Gilbert, A. R. (1978). Toward a Scientific Technique of Mind
Expansion in the Future of Mankind. Psychologia, 21(2),
124127.
Gill, M. M., & Brenman, M. (1959). Hypnosis and Related States.
New York: International Universities Press.
Gless, P., & Griffith, H. B. (1952). Bilateral Destruction of the Hip-
pocampus (Cornu Ammonis) in a Case of Dementia. Monatss-
chrift Fur Psychiatrie und Neurologie, 123(4/5), 193204.
Goddard, D. (1938). A Buddhist Bible. New York: E. P. Dutton.
Goffman, E. (1956). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New
York: Doubleday.
Goldberg, C. (2004). The Pursuit of the Fictional Self. American
Journal of Psychotherapy, 58(2), 209219.
Goldberger, E. (1957). Simple Method of Producing Dreamlike
Visual Images in the Waking State. Psychosomatic Medicine,
19(2), 127133.
Goldberger, L. (1961). Homogenous Visual Stimulation (Ganzfeld)
and Imagery. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 12(1), 9193.
Goldberger, L., & Holt, R. R. (1958). Experimental Interference
with Reality Contact (Perceptual Isolation): Method and Group
Results. Nervous and Mental Disease, 127(2), 99112.

210003_00_bib.indd 745 6/6/08 1:23:49 PM

 746 Goleman, D. (1971). Meditation as a Meta-Therapy: Hypothesis
toward a Proposed Fifth State of Consciousness. Journal of
Bibliography Transpersonal Psychology, 3(1), 125.
Goleman, D. (1976). Meditation Helps Break the Stress Spiral.
Psychology Today, 9, 8287.
Golla, F., Hutton, E. L., & Walter, N. G. (1943). The Objective
Study of Mental Imagery. Journal of Mental Science, 89(375),
216223.
Golzalez-Wippler, M. (1977). A Kabbalah for the Modern World:
Julian Press.
Goodman, G. S. K. (197879). Effects of an Advanced Yogic Prac-
tice, the Doei Shabd Kriya, on States of Consciousness. Journal
of Altered States of Consciousness, 4(4), 369383.
Govinda, L. A. (1966). The Way of the White Clouds: A Buddhist
Pilgrim in Tibet. London: Hutchinson & Co.
Govinda, L. A. (1974). The Psychological Attitude of Early Buddhist
Philosophy. New York: Samuel Weiser.
Grad, B. R. (1976). The Biological Effects of the Laying on of Hands
on Animals and Plants: Implications for Biology. In G. R. Sch-
meidler (Ed.), Parapsychology: Its Relation to Physics, Biology,
Psychology and Psychiatry. New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press.
Gray, E. R. (1971). Conscious Control of Motor Units in a Tonic
Muscle. American Journal of Physical Medicine, 50(1), 34 40.
Green, E. E., Green, A., Murphy, G., & Walters, D. (1969). Feedback
Technique for Deep Relaxation. Psychophysiology, 6(3), 371377.
Green, E. E., & Green, A. M. (1969). Conference on Voluntary
Control of Internal States. Psychologia, 12(2), 107108.
Gregory, R. L. (1968). Visual Illusions. In Perception: Mechanisms
and Models; Readings from Scientific American. San Francisco:
W. H. Freeman and Co.
Greyson, B. (2000). Dissociation in People Who Have Near-Death
Experiences: Out of Their Bodies or Out of Their Minds? Lancet,
355, 460463.
Grice, H. P. (1965). The Causal Theory of Perception. In R. J.
Swartz (Ed.), Perceiving, Sensing, Knowing. London: University
of California Press.
Grim, P. F. (1975). Relaxation, Meditation, and Insight. Psychologia,
18(3), 125133.
Grof, S. (1976). Realms of the Human Unconscious: Observations
from LSD Research. New York: E. P. Dutton.
Gross, C. R., Kreitzer, M. J., Russas, V., Treesak, C., Frazier, P. A., &
Hertz, M. I. (2004). Mindfulness Meditation to Reduce Symp-
toms After Organ Transplant: A Pilot Study. Alternative Thera-
pies in Health and Medicine, 10(3), 5866.
Gross, N. (1990, October 15). Zen and the Art of Middle Manage-
ment. Business Week, 3182, 20B.

210003_00_bib.indd 746 6/6/08 1:23:58 PM

 Grossberg, J. M., & Wilson, H. K. (1968). Physiological Changes Ac- 747
companying the Visualization of Fearful and Neutral Situations.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10(2), 124133. Bibliography
Grossman, P., Niemann, L., Schmidt, S., & Walach, H. (2004).
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Health Benefits: A
Meta-Analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 57(1), 3543.
Grosso, M. (1981). Toward an Explanation of Near-Death Phenom-
ena. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 75(1),
3760.
Guliaev, P. I. (1967). Cerebral Electromagnetic Fields. Interna-
tional Journal of Parapsychology, 7(4), 399401.
Gustavsson, B. (1990). The Effects of Meditation on Two Top Man-
agement Teams. Stockholm, Sweden: University of Stockholm,
Department of Business Administration.
Haer, J. L. (1970). Alterations in Consciousness Induced by Sensory
Overload. Journal for the Study of Consciousness, 3(2), 161169.
Hall, E. T. (1969). The Hidden Dimension. New York: Doubleday/
Anchor.
Hanh, N. (1987). The Miracle of Mindfulness: A Manual on Medita-
tion. Boston: Beacon Press.
Hart, H. (1975). Effects of Will-Power on Galvanometer Readings.
In H. Carrington (Ed.), Laboratory Investigations into Psychic
Phenomena (Perspectives in Psychical Research). New York: Arno
Press.
Hart, J. T. (1968). Autocontrol of EEG Alpha. Psychophysiology,
4(4), 506.
Hartmann, H. (1958). Ego Psychology and the Problem of Adapta-
tion. Journal of American Psychoanalytic Association, Monograph
Series(1).
Harung, H. S. (1999). Invincible Leadership. Fairfield: Maharishi
University of Management Press.
Harung, H. S., Heaton, D. P., William, G. W., & Charles, A. N.
(1996). Peak Performance and Higher States of Consciousness:
A Study of World-Class Performers. Journal of Managerial Psy-
chology, 11(4), 3.
Heidegger, M. (1979). Existence and Being. Southbend: Regnery/
Gateway.
Heintze, C. (1974). Genetic Engineering: Man and Nature in Transi-
tion. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Heisenberg, W. (1971). Physics and Beyond. New York: Harper
and Row.
Henderson, L. J. (1913). The Fitness of the Environment: MacMillan
Co.
Henke, K., Landis, T., & Markowitsch, H. J. (1994). Subliminal
Perception of Words and Faces. International Journal of Neuro-
science, 75(3 4), 181187.

210003_00_bib.indd 747 6/6/08 1:24:13 PM

 748 Henle, M. (1942). An Experimental Investigation of Past Experi-
ence as a Determinant of Visual Form Perception. Journal of
Bibliography Experimental Psychology, 30(1), 122.
Henricks, M. (1995, April). Zen-trepreneurs. Entrepreneur, 23, 5859.
Henricks, M. (2003, July). A Head Start: Need Some Help Think-
ing More Clearly Under Pressure? Hot wire Your Brain with
Meditation. (Smart Moves). Entrepreneur, 31, 73.
Herrigel, E. (1974). The Method of Zen. New York: Vintage Books.
Herriott, E. (2000). Elements of Entrepreneurial Success: The
Links among Inner Competencies, Inner Development and
Success. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The
Sciences & Engineering, 60(12B), 6398.
Hicks, R. G. (1970). Experimenter Effects on the Physiological
Experiment. Psychophysiology, 7(1), 1017.
Hilgard, E. R. (1969). Altered States of Awareness. Journal of
Nervous and Mental Disease, 149(1), 6879.
Hilgard, E. R. (1979). Divided Consciousness in Hypnosis. In
E. Fromm & R. E. Shor (Eds.), Hypnosis: Developments in
Research and New Perspectives (2 ed.). New York: Aldine.
Hill, N. (1978). Think and Grow Rich. New York: Wilshire Book
Co. Edition.
Hirai, T. (1975). Zen Meditation Therapy. Tokyo: Japan Publications.
Hirai, T. (1978). Zen and the Mind. Tokyo: Japan Publications.
Hochschild, A. R. (2003). The Managed Heart: Commercialization
of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hoeberichts, J. H. (2004). Bringing Zen Practice Home. Journal of
Religion and Health, 43(3), 201216.
Hoenig, J. (1968). Medical Research on Yoga. Cofinia Psychiatrica,
11(2), 6989.
Holroyd, J. (2003). The Science of Meditation and the State of
Hypnosis. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 46(2), 109180.
Holt, R. R. (1964). Imagery: The Return of the Ostracized. American
Psychologist, 19(4), 254264.
Honorton, C. (1969). Relationship Between EEF Alpha Activity
and ESP Card-Guessing Performance. Journal of the American
Society for Psychical Research, 63(4), 365374.
Honorton, C. (1974). State of Awareness Factors in Psi Activation. Jour-
nal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 68(3), 246256.
Honorton, C., & Harper, S. (1974). Psi-Mediated Imagery and Ide-
ation in an Experimental Procedure for Regulation Perceptual
Input. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research,
68(2), 156168.
Honorton, C., Tierney, L., & Torres, D. (1974). The Role of Mental
Imagery in Psi-Mediation. Journal of the American Society for
Psychical Research, 68(4), 385394.

210003_00_bib.indd 748 6/6/08 1:24:23 PM

 Hora, T. (1962). Beyond Self. Psychologia, 5(2), 8487. 749
Horney, K. (1942). Self-Analysis. New York: W. Norton and Co.
Horney, K. (1951). Neurosis and Human Growth. New York: Bibliography
W. Norton & Co.
Houlder, K., & Houlder, D. (2002). Mindfulness and Money: The
Buddhist Path to Abundance. New York: Broadway Books.
Houston, W. R. (1938). The Doctor Himself as a Therapeutic
Agent. Annual of Internal Medicine, 11(8), 14161425.
Hoyle, F. (1960). The Nature of the Universe. New York: Harper
and Row.
Hume, R. E. (1921). The Thirteen Principal Upanishads. Translated
from the Sanskrit: Oxford University Press.
Ikkyu. (2003). Wild Ways: Zen Poems (J. Stevens, Trans.). Buffalo,
NY: White Pine Press.
Ivanov, A. (1964). Soviet Experiments in Eye-Less Vision. Inter-
national Journal of Parapsychology, 6(1), 525.
Jackson, S. A. (1992). Athletes in Flow: A Qualitative Investigation
of Flow States in Elite Figure Skaters. Journal of Applied Sport
Psychology, 4(2), 161180.
Jackson, S. A. (1995). Factors Influencing the Occurrence of Flow
State in Elite Athletes. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 7(2),
138166.
Jackson, S. A. (1996). Toward a Conceptual Understanding of the
Flow Experience in Elite Athletes. Research Quarterly for Exer-
cise and Sport, 67(1), 7690.
Jackson, S. A. (2000). Joy, Fun, and Flow State in Sport. In Y. L.
Hanin (Ed.), Emotions in Sport (pp. 135155). Champaign:
Human Kinetics.
Jackson, S. A., Kimiecik, J. C., Ford, S. K., & Marsh, H. W. (1998).
Psychological Correlates of Flow in Sport. Journal of Sport &
Exercise Psychology, 20(4), 358378.
Jackson, S. A., & Roberts, G. C. (1992). Positive Performance
States of Athletes: Toward a Conceptual Understanding of Peak
Performance. The Sport Psychologist, 6(2), 156171.
Jackson, S. A., Thomas, P. R., Marsh, H. W., & Smethurst, C. J.
(2001). Relationships Between Flow, Self-Concept, Psychological
Skills, and Performance. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology,
13(2), 129153.
Jacobson, E. (1938). Progressive Relaxation (2 ed.). Chicago: Uni-
versity of Chicago Press.
Jacobson, E. (1955). Neuromuscular Controls in Man: Methods of
Self-Direction in Health and in Disease. American Journal of
Psychology, 68(4), 549561.
James, W. (1890). The Principles of Psychology (Vol. 1): Henry Holt
and Co.

210003_00_bib.indd 749 6/6/08 1:24:38 PM

 750 Jasper, H., & Shagass, C. (1941). Conditioning the Occipital Alpha
Rhythm in Man. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 28(5),
Bibliography 373388.
Jeans, J. (1976). The Mysterious Universe. New York: A.M.S. Press
Edition.
Jellinek, A. (1949). Spontaneous Imagery. American Journal of
Psychotherapy, 3(2), 372391.
Jenkins, I. H., Jahanshahi, M., Jueptner, M., Passingham, R. E., &
Brooks, D. J. (2000). Self-Initiated Versus Externally Triggered
Movements. Brain Research Bulletin, 123, 12161228.
Johnson, C., & Persinger, M. (1994). The Sensed Presence May be
Facilitated by Interhemispheric Intercalation: Relative Efficacy
of the Minds Eye, Hemi-Sync Tape, and Bilateral Temporal
Magnetic Field Stimulation. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 79,
351354.
Jung, C. G. (1957). The Undiscovered Self. Boston: Little, Brown
and Company.
Jung, C. G. (1973). Selected Letters of C. G. Jung. Princeton: Princ-
eton University Press.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Con-
text: Past, Present, and Future. Clinical Psychology: Science and
Practice, 10(2), 144156.
Kabat-Zinn, J., Lipworth, L., & Burney, R. (1985). The Clinical
Use of Mindfulness Meditation for the Self-Regulation of
Chronic Pain. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 8(2), 163190.
Kabat-Zinn, J., Wheeler, E., Light, T., Skillings, A., Schraf, M., &
Cropley, T. G. (1998). Influence of Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction Intervention on Rates of Skin Clearing in Patients
with Moderate to Severe Psoriasis Undergoing Phototherapy
(UVB) and Photochemotherapy (PUVA). Psychosomatic Medi-
cine, 60, 625632.
Kahn, T. C. (1954). Theoretical Foundation of Audio-Visual-Tactile
Rhythm Induction Therapy Experimenters. Science, 120(3107),
103104.
Kalb, C. (2003, September 22). Dalai Lama: Moment for Medita-
tion. Newsweek, 142, 10.
Kamiya, J. (1968). Conscious Control of Brain Waves. Psychology
Today, 1(11), 5760.
Kanwisher, N., & Downing, P. (1998). Enhanced: Separating the
Wheat from the Chaff. Science, 282(5386), 5758.
Kapleau, P. R. (1980). The Three Pillars of Zen (2 ed.). New York:
Anchor/Doubleday.
Karagulla, S. (1967). Breakthrough to Creativity. California: DeVorse
and Co.
Kasamatsu, A. (1957). The EEG of Zen and Yoga Practitioners.
Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology,
9(5152).

210003_00_bib.indd 750 6/6/08 1:24:47 PM

 Kasamatsu, A., & Hirai, T. (1966). An Electroencephalographic 751
Study of the Zen Meditation (Zazen). Folia Psychiatrica et
Neurologica, 20(4), 315336. Bibliography
Kaser, V. A. (1986). The Effects of an Auditory Subliminal Mes-
sage upon the Production of Images and Dreams. Journal of
Nervous and Mental Disease, 174(7), 397407.
Kastner, S., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2000). Mechanisms of Visual
Attention in the Human Cortex. Annual Review of Neuroscience,
23, 315341.
Katkin, E. S., & Murray, E. N. (1968). Instrumental Conditioning
of Autonomically Mediated Behavior: Theoretical and Method-
ological Issues. Psychological Bulletin, 70(1), 5268.
Kaufman, M. (2005, January 3). Meditation Gives Brain a Charge,
Study Finds. Washington Post, (accessed online at http://
www.washingtonpost.com).
Kavanagh, D. S., Andrade, J., & May, J. (2004). Beating the Urge:
Implications of Research into Substance-Related Desires.
Addictive Behaviors, 7, 13591372.
Keeva, S. (2004). A Mindful Law Practice. American Bar Associa-
tion Journal, 90, 7879.
Kelman, H. (1959). Eastern Influences on Psychoanalytic Think-
ing. Psychologia, 2(2), 7178.
Kempermann, G. (2002). Why New Neurons? Possible Functions
for Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis. The Journal of Neuro-
science, 22(3), 635638.
Kempermann, G., & Gage, F. H. (1999). New Nerve Cells for the
Adult Brain. Scientific American, 280(5), 4853.
Key, W. B. (1973). Subliminal Seduction. Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Kilner, W. J. (1965). The Human Aura. New Jersey: Citadel Press.
Kimiecik, J. C., & Jackson, S. A. (2002). Optimal Experience in
Sport: A Flow Perspective. In T. S. Horn (Ed.), Advances in Sport
Psychology (pp. 501527). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Kimiecik, J. C., & Stein, G. L. (1992). Examining Flow Experiences
in Sport Contexts: Conceptual Issues and Methodological Con-
cerns. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 4(2), 144160.
King, S. (1978). Mana Physics: The Study of Paraphysical Energy.
New York: Baraka Books.
Kirk, G. S. (1954). Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Kirsch, J. (1960). Affinities between Zen and Analytical Psychol-
ogy. Psychologia, 3(2), 8590.
Klein, D. (1996). Trance and Acting: A Theoretical Comparative
Study of Acting and Altered States of Consciousness and a Sur-
vey of the Implications in Current Actor Training and Craft.
Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities &
Social Sciences, 56(11A), 4207.

210003_00_bib.indd 751 6/6/08 1:25:02 PM

 752 Klein, G. S. (1955). Preconscious Influences Upon Conscious Cog-
nitive Behavior. American Psychologist, 10(8), 380.
Bibliography Kleitman, N. (1960). Patterns of Dreaming. In Altered States
of Consciousness; Readings from Scientific American. San
Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Co.
Klinger, E. (197879). Dimensions of Thought and Imagery in
Normal Waking States. Journal of Altered States of Conscious-
ness, 4(2), 97113.
Kmetz, J. M. (1977). A Study of Primary Perception in Plant and
Animal Life. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Re-
search, 71(2), 157169.
Koestenbaum, P. (1962). The Sense of Subjectivity. Review of Ex-
istential Psychology and Psychiatry, 2(1), 4764.
Koestler, A. (1969). Arrow in the Blue. New York: MacMillan.
Kondo, A. (1952). Intuition in Zen Buddhism. American Journal
of Psychoanalysis, 12(1), 1014.
Koss-Chioino, J. D. (2003). Jung, Spirits and Madness: Lessons
for Cultural Psychiatry. Transcult Psychiatry, 40(2), 164180.
Kreitler, H., & Kreitler, S. (1974). The Implications of ESP Ex-
periments for Anthropological ESP Research. In A. Angoff &
D. Barth (Eds.), Parapsychology and Anthropology: Proceedings
of an International Conference. New York: Parapsychology
Foundation.
Kretschmer, W. (1962). Meditative Techniques in Psychotherapy.
Psychologia, 5(2), 7683.
Krippner, S., & Davidson, R. (1977). Implications of Experimen-
tally Induced Telepathic Dreams. Journal for the Study of Con-
sciousness, 4(2), 105114.
Krishnamurti, J. (1970). Talks and Dialogues (2 ed.). Netherlands:
Avon Books.
Krueger, A. (1973, June 14). Are Negative Air Ions Good For You?
New Scientist, 58, 668670.
Krueger, A. P. (1957). The Action of Air Ions on Bacteria. Journal
of General Physiology, 41(2), 359381.
Krueger, A. P., Andriese, P. C., & Kotaka, S. (1968). Small Air Ions:
Their Effect on Blood Levels of Serotonin in Terms of Modern
Physical Theory. International Journal of Biometeorology, 12(3),
225239.
Kubose, S. K. (1973). Notes on the Emerging Science of Con-
sciousness. Psychologia, 16, 1771778.
Kubose, S. K. (1976). An Experimental Investigation of Psycho-
logical Aspects of Meditation. Psychologia, 19(1), 110.
Kuna, D. J. (1975). Meditation and Work. Vocational Guidance
Quarterly, 23, 342346.
Kunimoto, C., Miller, J., & Pashler, H. (2001). Confidence and Ac-
curacy of Near-Threshold Discrimination Responses. Conscious
and Cognition, 10(3), 294340.

210003_00_bib.indd 752 6/6/08 1:25:12 PM

 Lachnit, C. (2001). The Bell of Mindfulness. Workforce, 80(6), 1214. 753
Laing, R. D. (1965). The Divided Self (2 ed.). New York: Penguin
Books. Bibliography
Landauer, T. K. (1962). Rate of Implicit Speech. Perceptual and
Motor Skills, 15, 646.
Langer, E. J. (1989). Mindfulness. Cambridge: Perseus Books.
Larsson, G. (1987). Routinization of Mental Training in Organiza-
tions: Effects on Performance and Well-being. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 72(1), 8896.
Lazar, S. W., Bush, G., Gollub, R. L., Fricchione, G. L., Khalsa, G.,
& Benson, H. (2000). Functional Brain Mapping of the Relaxa-
tion Response and Meditation. Neuroreport, 11(7), 15811585.
Lazarus, A. A. (1961). Group Therapy of Phobic Disorders by
Systematic Desensitization. Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 63(3), 504510.
Lecron, L. M. (1964). Self-Hypnotism: The Technique and Its Use in
Daily Living. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
LeDoux, J. (1998). The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpin-
nings of Emotional Life. New York: Simon and Schuster.
LeDoux, J. (2003). Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who
We Are. New York: Penguin Books, Ltd.
Lee, D. (1950). Lineal and Non-Lineal Codifications of Realty. Psy-
chosomatic Medicine, 12(2), 8997.
Leeper, R. W. (1948). A Motivational Theory of Emotion to Replace
Emotion as Disorganized Response. Psychological Review, 55(1),
521.
Legge, J. (1891). The Texts of Taoism: The Tai Shang Tractate, The
Writings of Chuang Tzu (Vol. 2). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lehmann, D., Faber, P. L., Achermann, P., Jeanmonod, D., Gianotti,
L. R., & Pizzagalli, D. (2001). Brain Sources of EEG Gamma
Frequency during Volitionally Meditation-Induced, Altered States
of Consciousness, and Experience of the Self. Psychiatry
Research, 108(2), 111121.
Leong, F. (1996). Toward an Integrative Model for Cross-Cultural
Counseling and Psychotherapy. Applied and Preventive Psychol-
ogy, 5(4), 189209.
Lerner, B. (1967). Dream Function Reconsidered. Journal of
Abnormal Psychology, 72(2), 85100.
Leshan, L. (1972). Toward a General Theory of the Paranormal.
Parapsychological Monographs, 9, 6271.
Leuba, C., & Dunlap, R. (1951). Conditioning Imagery. Journal of
Experimental Psychology, 41(5), 352355.
Leuner, H. (1969). Guided Affective Imagery. American Journal of
Psychotherapy, 23(1), 422.
Levine, R., Chein, I., & Murphy, G. (1942). The Relation of the In-
tensity of a Need to the Amount of Perceptual Distortion: A
Preliminary Report. Journal of Psychology, 13, 283293.

210003_00_bib.indd 753 6/6/08 1:25:27 PM

 754 Libet, B. (1992). Voluntary Acts and Readiness Potentials. Electro-
encephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 82, 8586.
Bibliography Libet, B. (1999). How Does Conscious Experience Arise? The Neural
Time Factor. Brain Research Bulletin, 50(5), 339340.
Libet, B. (2002). The Timing of Mental Events: Libets Experimen-
tal Findings and Their Implications. Consciousness and Cogni-
tion, 11, 291299.
Libet, B., Wright, E. W., Feinstein, B., & Pearl, D. K. (1979). Sub-
jective Referral of the Timing for a Conscious Sensory Experi-
ence. Brain, 102(1), 193224.
Libet, B., Wright, E. W., & Gleason, C. A. (1983). Preparation or
Intention-to-Act, In Relation to Pre-Event Potentials Recorded
at the Vertex. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysi-
ology, 56, 367372.
Linden, W. (1973). Practicing of Meditation by School Children
and Their Levels of Field Dependence-Independence, Test Anx-
iety, and Reading Achievement. Journal of Consulting and Clini-
cal Psychology, 41(1), 139143.
Linehan, M. M. (1993). Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Border-
line Personality Disorder. New York: The Guiford Press.
Linssen, R. (1960). Living Zen. New York: Grove Press.
Lo, P. C., Huang, M. L., & Chang, K. M. (2003). EEG Alpha Blocking
Correlated with Perception of Inner Light during Zen Meditation.
The American Journal of Chinese Medicine, 31(4), 629642.
Long, M. F. (1948). The Secret Science Behind Miracles. California:
De Vorss & Co.
Long, M. F. (1953). The Secret Science at Work. California: De
Vorss & Co.
Lowen, A. (1975). Pleasure: A Creative Approach to Life (2 ed.).
New York: Penguin Books.
Lowie, R. H. (1922). The Religion of the Crow Indians. New York:
American Museum Press.
Lowinger, P., & Dobie, S. (1969). What Makes the Placebo Work?
Archives of General Psychiatry, 20(1), 8488.
Lozanov, G. (1978). Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedy.
New York: Gordon and Breach.
Lubin, S. (2003, August 22). Staying Fit and Healthy. Back Stage,
pp. A56.
Luce, G. G. (1970). Biological Rhythms in Psychiatry and Medicine:
U.S. Department of Health, Education, Welfare/National Insti-
tute of Mental Health.
Ludwig, A. M. (1966). Altered States of Consciousness. Archives of
General Psychiatry, 15(3), 225234.
Luk, C. (1970). Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality. New York:
Samuel Weiser.
Lund, E. J. (1925). Experimental Control of Organic Polarity by the
Electric Current. Journal of Experimental Zoology, 41(2), 155190.

210003_00_bib.indd 754 6/6/08 1:25:36 PM

 Lund, E. J. (1928). Relation between Continuous Bioelectric Cur- 755
rents and Cell Respiration. Journal of Experimental Zoology,
51(3), 265289. Bibliography
Lutz, A., Greischar, L. L., Rawlings, N. B., Ricard, M., & Davidson,
R. J. (2004). Long-Term Meditators Self-Induce High-Amplitude
Gamma Synchrony during Mental Practice. Paper presented at
the Proceedings of the National Association of Sciences of the
United States.
Lutz, C. A. (1998). Unnatural Emotions: Everyday Sentiments on a
Micronesian Atoll & Their Challenges to Western Theory. Chicago:
Chicago University Press.
Luzzatto, M. C. (1970). General Principles of the Kabbalah. New
York: Samuel Weiser.
Lynch, J. J., & Paskewitz, D. A. (1971). On the Mechanisms of the
Feedback Control of Human Brain Wave Activity. Journal of
Nervous and Mental Disease, 153(3), 205217.
Ma, S., & Teasdale, J. D. (2004). Mindfulness-Based Cognitive
Therapy for Depression: Replication and Exploration of Differ-
ential Relapse Prevention Effects. Journal of Consulting and
Clinical Psychology, 72(1), 31 40.
MacHovec, F. J. (1962). The Book of Tao. New York: Peter Pauper
Press, Inc.
MacLean, P. D. (1949). Psychosomatic Disease and the Visceral
Brain. Psychosomatic Medicine, 11(6), 338353.
Magic Eye Gallery: A Showing of 88 Images, 3D Illusions by N. E.
Enterprises. (1996). Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel.
Majumdar, M., Grossman, P., Dietz-Waschkowski, B., Kersig, S.,
& Walach, H. (2002). Does Mindfulness Meditation Contribute
to Health? Outcome Evaluation of a German Sample. The Jour-
nal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 8(6), 719730.
Malhotra, J. C. (1963). Yoga and Psychiatry: A Review. Journal of
Neuropsychiatry, 4(5), 375385.
Marechal, J. (1964). Studies in the Psychology of the Mystics. New
York: Magic Books.
Marks, D. (1977). Imagery and Consciousness: A Theoretical Re-
view from an Individual Differences Perspective. Journal of
Mental Imagery, 1(2), 275290.
Marks, D. F. (1972). Individual Differences in the Vividness of Visual
Imagery and their Effect on Function. In P. W. Sheehan (Ed.), The
Function and Nature of Imagery. New York: Academic Press.
Martin, J. J., & Cutler, K. (2002). An Exploratory Study of Flow
and Motivation in Theater Actors. Journal of Applied Sport Psy-
chology, 14(4), 344352.
Mascaro, J. (1973). The Dhammapada: The Path of Perfection. New
York: Penguin Books.
Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and Personality. New York:
Harper and Row.

210003_00_bib.indd 755 6/6/08 1:25:51 PM

 756 Maslow, A. H. (1959a). Cognition of Being in the Peak Experi-
ences. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 94, 6776.
Bibliography Maslow, A. H. (1959b). Psychological Data and Value Theory. In
A. H. Maslow (Ed.), New Knowledge in Human Values. Indiana:
Regnery/Gateway.
Maslow, A. H. (1962). Lessons from the Peak-Experience. Journal
of Humanistic Psychology, 2(1), 918.
Maslow, A. H. (1968). Toward a Psychology of Being. New York:
D. Van Nostrand Company.
Mason, O., & Hargreaves, I. (2001). A Qualitative Study of
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression. British
Journal of Medical Psychology, 74, 197212.
Mathers, S. L. M. (1968). The Kabbalah Unveiled. New York: Samuel
Weiser.
Maupin, E. W. (1962). Zen Buddhism: A Psychological Review.
Journal of Consulting Psychology, 26(4), 362378.
McBee, L. (2003). Mindfulness Practice with the Frail Elderly and
Their CaregiversChanging the Practitioner-Patient Relation-
ship. Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation, 19(4), 257264.
McClelland, D. C. (1955). The Psychology of Mental Content Re-
considered. Psychological Review, 62(4), 297302.
McCrone, J. (2001). Going Inside: A Tour around a Single Moment of
Consciousness. New York: Fromm International Publishing, Inc.
McCuan, J. (2004, July). Doing Well by Doing Nothing. Inc., 26, 58.
McGinnies, E. (1949). Emotionality and Perceptual Defense. Psy-
chological Review, 56(5), 244251.
McInman, A. D., & Grove, J. R. (1991). Peak Moments in Sport: A
Literature Review. Quest, 43, 333351.
McKellar, P. (1957). Imagination and Thinking. New York: Basic
Books.
Mcpeake, J. D., Kennedy, B. P., & Gordon, S. M. (1991). Altered
States of Consciousness Therapy: A Missing Component in
Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Treatment. Journal of Sub-
stance Abuse Treatment 8(12), 7582.
Meier, B. P., Robinson, M. D., & Clore, G. L. (2004). Why Good
Guys Wear White. Psychological Science, 15(2), 8287.
Meili, T., & Kabat-Zinn, J. (2004). The Power of the Human Heart:
A Story of Trauma and Recovery and Its Implications for Reha-
bilitation and Healing. Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, 20(1),
616.
Meites, J. (1970). Direct Studies of the Secretion of Hypothalamic
Hypophysiotropic Hormones (HHH). In J. Meites (Ed.), Hypo-
physiotropic Hormones of the Hypothalamus (pp. 261). Baltimore:
Williams and Wilkins Co.
Menninger, K. (1938). Man Against Himself. New York:
Harvest/HBJ.

210003_00_bib.indd 756 6/6/08 1:26:00 PM

 Metzger, C. (2003). Self/Inner Development of Educational Admin- 757
istrators: A National Study of Urban School District Superin-
tendents and College Deans. Urban Education, 38(6), 655687. Bibliography
Metzner, R. (1970). Astrology: Potential Science and Intuitive Art.
Journal for the Study of Consciousness, 3(1), 7090.
Michalon, M. (2001). Selflessness in the Service of the Ego: Con-
tributions, Limitations and Dangers of Buddhist Psychology
for Western Psychotherapy. American Journal of Psychotherapy,
55(2), 202218.
Miles, W. R. (1964). Oxygen Consumption during Three Yoga-Type
Breathing Patterns. Journal of Applied Physiology, 19(1), 7582.
Miller, J. J., Fletcher, K., & Kabat-Zinn, J. (1995). Three-Year Follow-
up and Clinical Implications of a Mindfulness Meditation-Based
Stress Reduction Intervention in the Treatment of Anxiety Dis-
orders. General Hospital Psychiatry, 17(3), 192200.
Miller, N. E. (1969). Learning of Visceral and Glandular Re-
sponses. Science, 163(3866), 434445.
Miller, N. E., DiCara, L. V., & Banuazizi, A. (1968). Instrumental
Learning of Glandular and Visceral Responses. Conditional
Reflex, 3(1), 129.
Millman, D. (1991). Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior. Tiburon,
California: HJ Framer, Inc.
Mischel, W. (1968). Personality and Assessment. New York: John
Wiley and Sons.
Mishlove, J. (1975). The Roots of Consciousness. New York: The
Book Works.
Morris, R. L. (1976). Biology and Psychical Research. In G. R.
Schmeidler (Ed.), Parapsychology: Its Relation to Physics, Biology,
Psychology, and Psychiatry. New Jersey: The Scarecrow Press.
Morris, R. L. (1978). A Survey of Methods and Issues in ESP
Research. In S. Krippner (Ed.), Advances in Parapsychological
Research: Extrasensory Perception (Vol. 2). New York: Plenum
Press.
Moss, R., MD. (2007). The Mandala of Being: Discovering the Power
of Awareness. Novato, California: New World Library.
Moss, T., & Generelli, J. A. (1967). Telepathy and Emotional Stimuli:
A Controlled Experiment. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 72(4),
341348.
Mowrer, O. H. (1939). A Stimulus-Response Analysis of Anxiety
and Its Role as a Reinforcing Agent. Psychological Review,
46(5), 553565.
Mullan, S., & Penfield, W. (1959). Illusions of Comparative Inter-
pretation and Emotion. AMA Archives of Neurology and Psychi-
atry, 81(3), 269284.
Murphy, L. R. (1984). Occupational Stress Management: A Review
and Appraisal. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 57, 115.

210003_00_bib.indd 757 6/6/08 1:26:16 PM

 758 Murphy, M., & White, R. A. (1995). In the Zone: Transcendent Ex-
perience in Sports. London: Penguin.
Bibliography Naranjo, C. (1971). Present-Centeredness: Technique, Prescrip-
tion, and Ideal. In J. Fagan & I. L. Shepherd (Eds.), Gestalt
Therapy Now (2 ed.). New York: Harper and Row.
Neisser, U. (1968). The Processes of Vision. Scientific American,
219(3), 204214.
Neisser, U. (1972). Changing Conceptions of Imagery. In P. W.
Sheehan (Ed.), The Function and Nature of Imagery. New York:
Academic Press.
Newberg, A., Alavi, A., Baime, M., Pourdehnad, M., Santanna, J.,
& dAquili, E. (2001). The Measurement of Regional Cerebral
Blood Flow during the Complex Cognitive Task of Meditation:
A Preliminary SPECT Study.
Newberg, A. B., & Iversen, J. (2003). The Neural Basis of the
Complex Mental Task of Meditation: Neurotransmitter and
Neurochemical Considerations. Medical Hypotheses, 61(2),
282291.
Novemeiskii, A. S. (1965). The Nature of the Dermo-Optic Sense.
International Journal of Parapsychology, 7(4), 341367.
OHaver, D. P., & Horton-Deutsch, S. (2004). Using Mindfulness-
Based Therapeutic Interventions in Psychiatric Nursing Practice
Part II: Mindfulness-Based Approaches for All Phases of
PsychotherapyClinical Case Study. Archives of Psychiatric Nurs-
ing, 18(5), 170177.
Obonai, T., Fjisawa, K., & Yamaoka, K. (1957). Electroencephalo-
graphic Researches of Hypnotic State. Electroencephalography
and Clinical Neurophysiology, 9, 50.
Onda, A. (1967). Zen, Autogenic Training and Hypnotism. Psycho-
logia, 10(3 4), 133136.
Opler, M. E. (1968). Culture and the Human Potential. In H. A.
Otto (Ed.), Human Potentialities: The Challenge and Promise.
Missouri: Warren H. Green.
Orlick, T. (1980). In Pursuit of Excellence. Champaign, IL: Human
Kinetics Publishers, Inc.
Orme-Johnson, D. W., & Walton, K. G. (1998). All Approaches to
Preventing or Reversing Effects of Stress are Not the Same.
American Journal of Health Promotion, 12(5), 297299.
Ornstein, R. E. (1972). The Psychology of Consciousness. San
Francisco: W. H. Freeman & Co.
Ornstein, R. E., & Naranjo, C. (1976). On the Psychology of Medi-
tation. London: Penguin Books.
Ostrander, S., Ostrander, N., & Schroeder, L. (1979). Super Learn-
ing. New York: Delacorte Press and the Confucian Press.
Oswald, I. (1957a). After-Images from Retina and Brain. Quarterly
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 9(2), 88100.

210003_00_bib.indd 758 6/6/08 1:26:25 PM

 Oswald, I. (1957b). The EEG, Visual Imagery and Attention. Quar- 759
terly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 9(3), 113118.
Otani, A. (2003). Eastern Meditative Techniques and Hypnosis: A Bibliography
New Synthesis. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 46(2),
97108.
Ott, M. J. (2002). Mindfulness Meditation in Pediatric Clinical
Practice. Pediatric Nursing, 28(5), 487490.
Ott, M. J. (2004). Mindfulness Meditation: A Path of Transforma-
tion and Healing. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental
Health Services, 42(7), 2229.
Otto, H. A., & Mann, J. (1968). Human Potential. In H. A. Otto (Ed.),
Human Potentialities: The Challenge and Promise. Missouri:
Warren H. Green.
Oxman, T. E., Rosenberg, S. D., Schnurr, P. P., Tucker, G. J., &
Gala, G. (1988). The Language of Altered States. Journal of
Nervous and Mental Disease, 176(7), 401408.
Page, R. E. The Religion of the Life Force. Boston: Bruce Hum-
phries, Inc.
Pagels, R. H. (1982). The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics as the
Language of Nature. New York: Bantam Books.
Palmer, J. (1978). Extrasensory Perception: Research Findings. In
S. Krippner (Ed.), Advances in Parapsychological Research: Ex-
trasensory Perception (Vol. 2). New York: Plenum Press.
Panchadasi, S. (1912). The Human Aura: Astral Colors and Thought
Forms. Illinois: Yogi Publication Society.
Papez, J. W. (1937). A Proposed Mechanism of Emotion. Archives
of Neurology and Psychiatry, 38, 725743.
Paquette, V., Levesque, J., Mensour, B., Leroux, J., Beaudoin, G.,
Bourgouin, P., et al. (2003). Change the Mind and You Change
the Brain: Effects of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on the Neu-
ral Correlates of Spider Phobia. NeuroImage, 18, 401 409.
Paul, G. L. (1966). Insight vs. Desensitization in Psychotherapy.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Pelletier, K. R., & Garfield, C. (1976). Consciousness East and
West. New York: Harper and Row.
Pelletier, K. R., & Peper, E. (1977). The Chutzpah Factor in Altered
States of Consciousness. Journal of Humanistic Psychology,
17(1), 6373.
Penfield, W. (1955). the Role of the Temporal Cortex in Certain
Psychical Phenomena. Journal of Mental Science, 101(424),
451465.
Penfield, W. (1959). The Interpretive Cortex. Science, 129(336),
17191725.
Penfield, W., & Welch, K. (1949). Instability of Response to Stimula-
tion of the Sensorimotor Cortex of Man. Journal of Physiology,
109(1949), 358365.

210003_00_bib.indd 759 6/6/08 1:26:40 PM

 760 Perls, F. S. (1971). Four Lectures. In J. Fagen & I. L. Shepherd
(Eds.), Gestalt Therapy Now. New York: Harper and Row.
Bibliography Persinger, M. (1983). Religious and Mystical Experiences as
Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis.
Perceptual and Motor Skills, 57, 12551262.
Persinger, M. (1987). Neuropsychological Bases of God Beliefs:
Praeger Pub Text.
Petersen, A. (2004, November 23). Relax: Fertility Improves When
Stress is Set Aside, Studies Find; Yoga, Meditation May Help
Increase Pregnancy Rates; Clinics Add Special Courses. Wall
Street Journal, p. D10.
Pofeldt, E. (1997). Visualize Success. Success, 44(7), 1820.
Pollard, I. (2004). Meditation and Brain Function: A Review.
Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics, 14, 2834.
Postman, L., & Bruner, J. S. (1948). Perception Under Stress.
Psychological Review, 55(6), 314323.
Postman, L., Bruner, J. S., & Mcginnies, E. (1948). Personal Values
as Selective Factors in Perception. Journal of Abnormal and
Social Psychology, 43(2), 142154.
Pratt, J. G. (1977). Parapsychology: An Insiders View. New York:
Scarecrow Press.
Premack, D. (1959). Toward Empirical Behavior Laws. Psycholog-
ical Review, 66(4), 219233.
Presman, A. S. (1970). Electromagnetic Fields and Life. New York:
Plenum Press.
Preville, P. (1999, June 25-July 9). For Gods Sake: Montreal
Canned-Food Magnate J-Robert Ouimet Thinks Hes Found the
Way to Make His Employees Happier and More Productive.
The Recipe? A Heavy Dose of Silence, Humility and Prayer.
Canadian Business, 72, 58.
Price, H. H. (1959). Parapsychology and Human Nature. Journal
of Parapsychology, 23(3), 178195.
Price, H. H. (1965). The Causal Theory. In R. J. Swartz (Ed.), Perceiv-
ing, Sensing and Knowing. London: University of California Press.
Privette, G., & Bundrick, C. M. (1987). Measurement of Experi-
ence: Construct and Content Validity of the Experience Ques-
tionnaire. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 65, 315332.
Progoff, I. (1956). The Death and Rebirth of Psychology. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
Progoff, I. (1973). Depth Psychology and Modern Man: McGraw-Hill.
Progoff, I. (1977). The Well and the Cathedral (2nd Enlarged ed.).
New York: Dialogue House Library.
Proshansky, H., & Murphy, G. (1942). The Effects of Reward and
Punishment on Perception. Journal of Psychology, 13, 295305.
Proulx, K. (2003). Integrating Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduc-
tion. Holistic Nursery Practices, 17(4), 201208.

210003_00_bib.indd 760 6/6/08 1:26:49 PM

 Quoniam, N., & Bungener, C. (2004). Psychological Theories of 761
Motivation. Psychol Neuropsychiatry Vieil, March 2004(1), 718.
Radford, J. (1976). What Can We Learn From Zen? A Review and Bibliography
Some Speculations. Psychologia, 19(2), 5766.
Rahula, W. (1959). What the Buddha Taught. New York: Grove Press.
Ramacharaka, Y. (1904). Science of Breath. Chicago: Yogi Publica-
tion Society.
Rao, K. R. (1968). The Bearing of Yoga Practices on Psi Research.
In R. Canna & M. Ullman (Eds.), Psi and Altered States of Con-
sciousness: Proceedings of an International Conference. New
York: Parapsychology Foundation.
Rao, K. R. (1977). On the Nature of Psi. Journal of Parapsychology,
41(4), 294351.
Razran, G. H. S. (1940). Conditioned Response Changes in Rating
and Appraising of Sociopolitcal Slogans. Psychological Bulletin,
37, 481.
Reddy, M. K., Bai, A. J., & Rao, V. R. (1977). The Effects of the Tran-
scendental Meditation Program on Athletic Performance. In
D. W. Orme-Johnson (Ed.), Scientific Research on the Transcen-
dental Meditation Program: Collected Papers (pp. 346358).
Weggis, Switzerland: Maharishi European Research University.
Redfield, J. (1997). The Celestine Vision, Living the New Spiritual
Awareness. New York: Warner Books, Inc.
Rees, G., & Lavie, N. (2001). What Can Functional Imaging Re-
veal About the Role of Attention in Visual Awareness. Neu-
ropsychologia, 39, 13431353.
Reich, W. (1951). Selected Writings. New York: Farraf, Straus, and
Giroux.
Reps, P. (1998). Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. Boston: Tuttle Publishing.
Reyher, J. (1963). Free Imagery: An Uncovering Procedure. Jour-
nal of Clinical Psychology, 19(4), 454459.
Rhine, J. B., & Pratt, J. G. (1957). Parapsychology: Frontier Science
of the Mind. Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.
Rhine, L. E. (1965). Toward Understanding Psi-Missing. Journal
of Parapsychology, 26(4), 259274.
Richards, D. G. (2002). Neurological Correlates of Transforma-
tional Experiences. Retrieved February 19, 2005, from http://
www.meridianinstitute.com/reports/neurocor.html
Richardson, A. (1964). Has Mental Practice Any Relevance to
Physiotherapy? Physiotherapy, 50(5), 148.
Richardson, A. (1967a). Mental Practice: A Review and Discussion
(Part I). Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 38, 95107.
Richardson, A. (1967b). Mental Practice: A Review and Discus-
sion (Part II). Research Quarterly, 38(2), 263273.
Richardson, A. (1969). Mental Imagery. New York: Springer
Publishing.

210003_00_bib.indd 761 6/6/08 1:27:04 PM

 762 Rilling, M., Adams, J., & Pettijohn, C. (1962). A Summary of Some
Clairvoyance Experiments Conducted in Classroom Situations.
Bibliography Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 56(3), 125130.
Robin, R. (2003, November 23-December 7). Healthy, Wealthy and
Wise: More Companies are Realizing that Wellness Programs
Make Very Good Business Sense. Canadian Business, 76.
Rockers, D. M. (2002). The Successful Application of Meditative
Principles to Treatment Refractory Pain Conditions. Pain Medi-
cine, 3(2), 188.
Roffwarg, H. P., Muzio, J. N., & Dement, W. C. (1966). Ontoge-
netic Development of the Human Sleep-Dream Cycle. Science,
152, 602619.
Rokeach, M. (1960). The Open and Closed Mind. New York: Basic
Books.
Roll, W. G. (1972). Psychical Research in Relation to Higher States
of Consciousness. In J. White (Ed.), The Highest State of Con-
sciousness. New York: Anchor Books.
Rosch, P. J. (1992). Managing Stress. Executive Excellence, 9(2),
1415.
Rosenzweig, S., Reibel, D. K., Greeson, J. M., Brainard, G. C., &
Hojat, M. (2003). Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Lowers
Psychological Distress in Medical Students. Teaching and Learn-
ing in Medicine, 15(2), 8892.
Ross, N. H. (1960). The World of Zen: An East-West Anthology. New
York: Random House, Inc.
Ross, N. W. (1966). Three Ways of Asian Wisdom. New York: Simon
and Schuster.
Roth, B. (1997). Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in the Inner
City. Advances: The Journal of Mind-Body Health, 13(4), 5058.
Rubin, F. (1968). Lunar Sex Cycle. American Astrology, 36(5), 511.
Rubin, J. B. (2001). A New View of Meditation. Journal of Religion
and Health, 40(1), 121128.
Russell, W. D. (2001). An Examination of Flow State Occurrence
in College Athletes. Journal of Sport Behavior, 24(1), 83103.
Ryzl, M., & Pratt, J. G. (1962). Confirmation of ESP Performance
in a Hypnotically Prepared Subject. Journal of Parapsychology,
26(4), 237243.
Sadhu, M. (1977). Concentration: A Guide to Mental Mastery. New
York: Wilshire Book Co.
Sagan, C., & Drake, F. (1975). The Search for Extraterrestrial Intel-
ligence. In Cosmology 1: Readings from Scientific American
San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Co.
Sarbin, T. R. (1967). The Concept of Hallucination. Journal of Per-
sonality and Social Psychology, 35(3), 359380.
Sarbin, T. R. (1968). Ontology Recapitulates Philology: The Mythic
Nature of Anxiety. American Psychologist, 23(6), 411 418.

210003_00_bib.indd 762 6/6/08 1:27:14 PM

 Sargent, C. L. (1978). Interactions between Visual Images and Psi. 763
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 49(776), 805823.
Sartre, J.-P. (1957). The Transcendence of the Ego. New York: Bibliography
Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Sasamoto, K. (1962). Samadhi and Hypnotism. Psychologia, 5(2),
7374.
Satprem. (1968). Sri Aurobindo or the Adventures of Conscious-
ness. New York: Harper and Row.
Saver, J., & Rabin, J. (1997). The Neural Substrates of Religious
Experience. Journal of Neuropsychiatry, 9(3), 498510.
Scarf, M. (1980). Images that Heal. Psychology Today, 14(4), 3246.
Scheidler, G. R. (1976). The Relation between Psychology and
Parapsychology. In G. R. Schmeidler (Ed.), Parapsychology: Its
Relation to Physics, Biology, Psychology and Psychiatry. New
Jersey: The Scarecrow Press.
Schmeidler, G. R. (1970). High ESP Scores after a Swamis Brief
Instruction in Meditation and Breathing. Journal of the Ameri-
can Society for Psychical Research, 64(1), 100103.
Schmeidler, G. R. (1977). Research Findings in Psychokinesis. In
S. Krippner (Ed.), Advances in Parapsychological Research: Psy-
chokinesis (Vol. 1). New York: Plenum Press.
Schmidt-Wilk, J., Alexander, C. N., & Swanson, G. C. (1996). De-
veloping Consciousness in Organizations: The Transcendental
Meditation Program in Business. Journal of Business and Psy-
chology, 10(4), 429 444.
Schmidt, S. (2004). Mindfulness and Healing Intention: Concepts,
Practice, and Research Evaluation. The Journal of Alternative
and Complementary Medicine, 10(1), S714.
Schwartz, J. M. (1997). Brain Lock: Free Yourself From Obsessive
Compulsive Behavior. New York: Harper Collins.
Schwartz, J. M., & Begley, S. (2002). The Mind and the Brain: Neu-
roplasticity and the Power of Mental Force. New York: Harper
Collins.
Schwartz, J. M., Gulliford, E., Stier, J., & Thienemann, M. (2005).
Mindful Awareness and Self-Directed Neuroplasticity: Integrat-
ing Psychospiritual and Biological Approaches to Mental
Health with a Focus on OCD. Retrieved February 19, 2005,
from http://www.ocdcentre.com
Schwartz, J. M., Stapp, H. P., & Beauregard, M. (2004). Quantum
Physics in Neuroscience and Psychology: A Neurophysical Model
of Mind/Brain Interaction. Retrieved February 19, 2005, from
http://www.newdualism.org/papers/H.Stapp/Stapp-PTB6.htm
Schwarz, J. (1977). The Path of Action. New York: E. P. Dutton.
Schwarz, J. (1978). Voluntary Controls. New York: E. P. Dutton.
Schwarz, J. (1980). Human Energy Systems. New York: E. P.
Dutton.

210003_00_bib.indd 763 6/6/08 1:27:29 PM

 764 Scott, J., Teasdale, J. D., Paykel, E. S., Johnson, A. L., Abbott, R.,
Hayhurst, H., et al. (2000). Effects of Cognitive Therapy on Psy-
Bibliography chological Symptoms and Social Functioning in Residual De-
pression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 440 446.
Scrutton, R. J. (1977). Natures Way to Nutrition and Vibrant
Health. England: Wilshire Book Co.
Sekhar, A. (2000). Put on a Happy Face. Asian Business, 36(11), 74.
Servadio, E. (1968). Dreams and Psi: The Clinical Dimension.
In R. Cavanna & M. Ullman (Eds.), Psi and Altered States of
Consciousness: Proceedings of an International Conference. New
York: Parapsychology Foundation.
Severin, F. T. (Ed.). (1973). Discovering Man in Psychology: A
Humanistic Approach: McGraw-Hill.
Shah, I. (1971). The Sufis (Anchor Books Edition ed.). New York.
Shah, I. (1972). The Magic Monastery. New York: E. P. Dutton.
Shah, I. A. (1975). The Spirit of the East. New York: E. P. Dutton.
Shannahoff-Khalsa, D. S. (2005). Kundalini Yoga Meditation
Techniques for Psycho-Oncology and as Potential Therapies for
Cancer. Integrative Cancer Therapies, 4(1), 87100.
Shapiro, D. H. J. (1976). Zen Meditation and Behavioral Self-
Control Strategies Applied to a Case of Generalized Anxiety.
Psychologia, 19(3), 134138.
Shapiro, D. H. J. (1978). Instructions for a Training Package Com-
bining Formal and Informal Zen Meditation with Behavioral
Self-Control Strategies. Psychologia, 21(2), 7076.
Shattock, E. H. (1970). An Experiment in Mindfulness. New York:
Samuel Weiser.
Sheikh, A. A. (1977). Mental Images: Ghosts or Sensations? Jour-
nal of Mental Imagery, 1(1), 13.
Shors, T. J., Miesegaes, G., Beylin, A., Zhao, M., Rydel, T., & Gould,
E. (2001). Neurogenesis in the Adult is Involved in the Forma-
tion of Trace Memories. Nature, 410, 372376.
Simonson, R. (1996, May 17). Centering Yourself While Center-
stage: Nontraditional Methods toward Better Acting and Health.
Back Stage.
Singh, Lalan, & Prasad. (1976). Tantra: Its Mystic and Scientific
Basis. Delhi, India: Concept Publishing.
Singh, R. N. (1992). Re-Organizing the Experience of Self and the
Spouse. Indian Journal of Social Work, 53(2), 220231.
Sinnott, E. W. (1962). Matter, Mind and Man. New York: Atheneum.
Siou, L. (1975). Chi Kung: The Art of Mastering the Unseen Life
Force. Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Co.
Skinner, B. F. (1931). The Concept of the Reflex in the Description
of Behavior. Journal of General Psychology, 5(4), 427457.
Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal Behavior. Englewood Cliffs, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

210003_00_bib.indd 764 6/6/08 1:27:38 PM

 Slack, C. W. (1955). Feedback Theory and the Reflex Arc Concept. 765
Psychological Review, 62(4), 263267.
Slater, W. (1968). Raja Yoga. Wheaton, Illinois: Theosophical Pub- Bibliography
lishing House.
Slatter, K. H. (1960). Alpha Rhythms and Mental Imagery. Electro-
encephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 12(4), 851859.
Smith, A. (1975). Sport is a Western Yoga. Psychology Today, 9,
4851.
Smith, W. K. (1945). The Functional Significance of the Rostral
Singular Cortex as Revealed by its Responses to Electrical Ex-
citation. Journal of Neurophysiology, 8(4), 241255.
Smythies, J. R. (1960). The Stroboscopic Patterns. British Journal
of Psychology, 51(3), 247255.
Smythies, J. R. (Ed.). (1967). Science and ESP. London: Routledge
and Kegan Paul.
Sobel, D. S. (1973). Gravity and Structural Integration. In R. E.
Ornstein (Ed.), The Nature of Human Consciousness. San Fran-
cisco: W. H. Freeman and Co. Edition.
Soho, T. (1986). The Unfettered Mind: Writings of the Zen Master to
the Sword Master. Tokyo: Kodansha International.
Solomon, A. (2003). The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression.
New York: Scribner.
Sovatsky, S. C. (2000). Eros, Consciousness, and Kundalini: Deep-
ening Sensuality through Tantric Celibacy & Spiritual Intimacy.
Rochester, VT: Park Street Press.
Speca, M., Carlson, L. E., Goodey, E., & Angen, M. (2000). A
Randomized, Wait-List Controlled Clinical Trial: The Effect of
a Mindfulness Meditation-Based Stress Reduction Program on
Moods and Symptoms of Stress in Cancer Outpatients. Psycho-
somatic Medicine, 62(5), 613622.
Spielberger, C. D., & DeNike, L. D. (1966). Descriptive Behavior-
ism Versus Cognitive Theory in Verbal Operant Conditioning.
Psychological Review, 73(4), 306326.
Spinelli, D. N., & Pribram, K. H. (1967). Changes in Visual Recovery
Functions and Unit Activity Produced by Frontal and Temporal
Cortex Stimulation. Electroencephalography and Clinical
Neurophysiology, 22(2), 143149.
Spong, J. S. (2005). The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bibles Text
of Hate to Reveal the Love of God. New York: HarperCollins
Publishers, Inc.
Stace, W. T. (1960). Mysticism and Philosophy. London: MacMillan
Press.
Stampel, T. G., & Levis, D. J. (1967). Essentials of Implosive Therapy.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 72(6), 496503.
Stanford, R. G. (1970). Extrasensory Effects Upon Memory. Journal
of the American Society for Psychical Research, 64(2), 161186.

210003_00_bib.indd 765 7/28/08 12:36:38 PM

 766 Stanford, R. G., & Palmer, J. (1975). Free-Response ESP Perform-
ance and Occipital Alpha Rhythms. Journal of the American Soci-
Bibliography ety for Psychical Research, 69(3), 235243.
Stein, J. (2003, August 4). Just Say Om: Scientists Study It. Doc-
tors Recommend It. Millions of AmericansMany of Whom
Dont Even Own CrystalsPractice It Every Day. Why? Because
Meditation Works. Time, 162, 4856.
Stimac, E. (2003, March 7). Method Madness Meditation. Back
Stage.
Stromberg, G. (1948). The Soul of the Universe. North Hollywood,
California: Educational Research Institute.
Subramanian, M. (1989). Transcendental Meditation Takes Root
in Japanese Companies. Tokyo Business Today, 57(1), 5455.
Sudo, P. (2000). Zen Sex: The Way of Making Love. New York:
Harper Collins Publishers, Inc.
Sudsuang, R., Chentanez, V., & Veluvan, K. (1991). Effect of Bud-
dhist Meditation on Serum Cortisol and Total Protein Levels,
Blood Pressure, Pulse Rate, Lung Volume, and Reaction Time.
Physiology and Behavior, 50(3), 543548.
Sun, T. F., Kuo, C. C., & Chiu, N. M. (2002). Mindfulness Medita-
tion in the Control of Severe Headache. Chang Gung Medical
Journal, 25(8), 538541.
Sun, T. F., Wu, C. K., & Chiu, N. M. (2004). Mindfulness Medita-
tion Training Combined with Eye Movement Desensitization
and Reprocessing in Psychotherapy of an Elderly Patient.
Chang Gung Medical Journal, 27(6), 464469.
Suraci, A. (1964). Environmental Stimulus Reduction as a Tech-
nique to Effect the Reactivation of Crucial Repressed Memo-
ries. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 138(2), 172180.
Suzuki, D. T. (1956). Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D. T.
Suzuki. New York: Doubleday/Anchor.
Suzuki, D. T. (1959). Human Values in Zen. In A. H. Maslow (Ed.),
New Knowledge in Human Values. Indiana: Regnery/Gateway.
Suzuki, D. T. (1969). The Zen Doctrine of No Mind. New York:
Samuel Weiser.
Suzuki, S. (1970). Zen Mind, Beginners Mind. New York: John
Weatherhill.
Tacon, A. M., McComb, J., Caldera, Y., & Randolph, P. (2003).
Mindfulness Meditation, Anxiety Reduction, and Heart Disease:
A Pilot Study. Family and Community Health, 26(1), 2533.
Taimni, I. K. (1967). The Science of Yoga. Wheaton, Illinois: Theo-
sophical Publishing House.
Takahashi, T., Murata, T., Hamada, T., Omori, M., Kosaka, H.,
Kikuchi, M., et al. (2005). Changes in EEG and Autonomic
Nervous Activity during Meditation and Their Association with
Personality Traits. International Journal of Psychophysiology,
55(2), 199207.

210003_00_bib.indd 766 6/6/08 1:28:03 PM

 Tart, C. T. (1967). Patterns of Basal Skin Resistance During Sleep. 767
Psychophysiology, 4(1), 3539.
Tart, C. T. (1972). Concerning the Scientific Study of the Human Bibliography
Aura. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 46(751),
121.
Teasdale, J. D. (1999a). Emotional Processing, Three Modes of
Mind and the Prevention of Relapse in Depression. Behavior
Research and Therapy, 37(1), S5377.
Teasdale, J. D. (1999b). Metacognition, Mindfulness and the Mod-
ification of Mood Disorders. Clinical Psychology and Psycho-
therapy, 6.
Teasdale, J. D., Segal, Z., & Williams, J. (1995). How Does Cognitive
Therapy Prevent Depressive Relapse and Why Should Attentional
Control (Mindfulness) Training Help? Behavior Research and
Therapy, 33(1), 2539.
Teasdale, J. D., Williams, J., Soulsby, J. M., Segal, Z. V., Ridgeway,
V. A., & Lau, M. A. (2000). Prevention of Relapse/Recurrence in
Major Depression by Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(4), 615623.
Tempereau, C. E., Grossman, A. R., & Brones, M. F. (1987).
Psychological Regression and Marital Status: Determinants
in Psychiatric Management of Burn Victims. Journal of Burn
Care and Rehabilitation, 8(4), 286291.
Thera, N. (1965). The Heart of Buddhist Meditation. New York:
Samuel Weiser.
Thommen, G. S. (1976). Is This Your Day? New York: Avon Books.
Thouless, R. H. (1975). The Present Position of Experimental
Research into Telepathy and Related Phenomena. In F. Gudas
(Ed.), Extrasensory Perception (Persepectives in Psychical Research).
New York: Arno Press Edition.
Tiller, W. A. (1973). Some Energy Field Observations of Man and
Nature. In S. Krippner & D. Rubin (Eds.), Galaxies of Life. New
York: Gordon and Breach.
Tiller, W. A. (1974). Are Psychoenergetic Pictures Possible? New
Scientist, 62(895), 160163.
Tolle, E. (2004). The Power of Now: A Guide To Spiritual Enlighten-
ment. Novato, CA: New World Library.
Tolson, A. M., McComb, J., Caldera, Y., & Randolph, P. (2003).
Mindfulness Meditation, Anxiety Reduction, and Heart Disease:
A Pilot Study. Family and Community Health, 26(1), 2533.
Tolson, J., Kleiner, C., & Marcus, D. L. (2000, July 3). Into the
Zone. U.S. News & World Report, 129, 3845.
Travis, F. (1979). The Transcendental Meditation Technique and
Creativity: A Longitudinal Study of Cornell University Under-
graduates. Journal of Creative Behavior, 13(3), 169180.
Travis, F., & Arenander, A. (2004). EEG Asymmetry and Mindful-
ness Meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 66(1), 147148.

210003_00_bib.indd 767 6/6/08 1:28:18 PM

 768 Treisman, A., & Geffen, G. (1967). Selective Attention: Perception
or Response? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,
Bibliography 19(Feb. 1967), 117.
Trungpa, C. (1969). Meditation in Action. Boulder, Colorado:
Shambhala.
Tulving, E. (1962). Subjective Organization in Free Recall of
Unrelated Words. Psychological Review, 69(4), 344354.
Tulving, E. (1966). Subjective Organization and Effects of Repeti-
tion in Multi-Trial Free Recall Learning. Journal of Verbal
Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5(1), 19321197.
Twining, W. E. (1949). Mental Practice and Physical Practice in
Learning a Motor Skill. Research Quarterly, 20(4), 332335.
Tzu, C. (1968). The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu (W. Burton,
Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press.
Tzu, L. (1955). The Way of Life (R. B. Blakney, Trans.). New York:
New American Library.
Urban, M. J. (1992). Auditory Subliminal Stimulation: A Re-
Examination. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 74(2), 515541.
Vaillant, G. E. (1976). Natural History of Male Psychological
Health: The Relation of Choice of Ego Mechanisms of Defense
to Adult Adjustment. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33(5),
535545.
Van De Castle, R. L. (1974). An Investigation of Psi Abilities among
the Cuna Indians of Panama. In A. Angoff & D. Barth (Eds.),
Parapsychology and Anthropology: Proceedings of an Interna-
tional Conference. New York: Parapsychology Foundation.
Van Nuys, D. (1971). A Novel Technique for Studying Attention
During Meditation. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 3(2),
125133.
Van Nuys, D. (1973). Meditation, Attention, and Hypnotic Suscep-
tibility: A Correlational Study. International Journal of Clinical
and Experimental Hypnosis, 21(2), 5969.
Vandell, R. A., Davis, R. A., & Clugston, H. A. l. (1943). The Func-
tion of Mental Practice in the Acquisition of Motor Skills. Jour-
nal of General Psychology, 29, 243250.
Ventegodt, S., Merrick, J., & Andersen, N. J. (2003). Quality of
Life Theory III. Maslow Revisited. Scientific World Journal,
13(3), 10501057.
Voigt, H. (1991). Enhancing the Sexual Experience of Couples:
The Asian Tradition and Sexual Counseling. Journal of Sex and
Marital Therapy, 17(3), 214219.
Wade, C. (1972). Natural Hormones: The Secret of Youthful Health.
New York: Parker.
Waley, A. (1958). The Way and Its Power. New York: Grove Press.
Walker, K. (1972). The Supra-Conscious State. In J. White
(Ed.), The Highest State of Consciousness. New York: Anchor
Books.

210003_00_bib.indd 768 6/6/08 1:28:27 PM

 Walkup, L. E. (1965). Creativity in Science Through Visualization. 769
Perceptual and Motor Skills, 21(1), 35 41.
Wallace, A., & Henkin, B. (1978). The Psychic Healing Book. New Bibliography
York: Delacorte Press.
Wallace, R. K. (1970). Physiological Effects of Transcendental
Meditation. Science, 167(3926), 17511754.
Wallace, R. K., & Benson, H. (1972). The Physiology of Medita-
tion. Scientific American, 226(2), 8490.
Waller, N. G., Kojetin, B. A., Bouchard, T. J., Lykken, D. T., &
Tellegen, A. (1990). Genetic and Environmental Influences on Re-
ligious Interests, Attitudes, and Values: A Study of Twins Reared
Apart and Together. Psychological Science, 1(2), 138142.
Walter, G. W. (1953). The Living Brain. New York: W. W. Norton
and Co.
Walter, R. D., & Yeager, C. L. (1956). Visual Imagery and Electro-
encephalographic Changes. Electroencephalography and Clini-
cal Neurophysiology, 8(2), 193199.
Warren, M. (1961). The Significance of Visual Images During the
Analytic Session. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Asso-
ciation, 9(3), 504518.
Watkins, E., & Teasdale, J. D. (2004). Adaptive and Maladaptive Self-
Focus in Depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 82(1), 18.
Watkins, M. M. (1976). Waking Dreams. New York: Gordon and
Breach.
Watson, L. C., & Guthrie, D. M. (1972). A New Approach to Psy-
chopathology: The Influence of Cultural Meanings on Altered
State of Consciousness. Journal for the Study of Consciousness,
5(1), 2634.
Watts, A. (1973). Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown. New York:
Random House.
Watts, A. W. (1957). The Way of Zen. New York: Vintage Books.
Watts, A. W. (2000). Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation:
New World Library.
Weatherhead, L. D. (1951). Psychology, Religion and Healing.
Nashville: Abingdon.
Wegner, D. M. (2002). The Illusion of Conscious Will. Cambridge:
The MIT Press.
Weiner, H. (1974). Folk Use of the Dream in Religious Societies.
In A. Angoff & D. Barth (Eds.), Parapsychology and Anthropology:
Proceedings of an International Conference. New York: Parapsy-
chology Foundation.
Wenger, M. A., & Bagchi, B. K. (1961a). Experiments in India on
Voluntary Control of the Heart and Pulse. Circulation, 24,
13191325.
Wenger, M. A., & Bagchi, B. K. (1961b). Studies in Autonomic
Functions in Practitioners of Yoga in India. Behavioral Science,
6(4), 312323.

210003_00_bib.indd 769 6/6/08 1:28:42 PM

 770 White, J. (1972). The Highest State of Consciousness. New York:
Anchor Books.
Bibliography Williams, J. M., Teasdale, J. D., Segal, Z. V., & Soulsly, J. (2000).
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Reduces Overgeneral
Autobiographical Memory in Formerly Depressed Patients.
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109(1), 150155.
Willig, W. (1958). Dreams. American Journal of Psychoanalysis,
18(2), 127137.
Wilson, V. (1991). TMThe New Management Tool. Canadian
Banker, 98(6), 5256.
Witkin, H. A. (1950). Individual Differences in Ease of Perception
of Embedded Figures. Journal of Personality and Social Psy-
chology, 19(1), 115.
Wolfe, J. (1958). Psychotherapy by Reciprocal Inhibition. Stanford:
Stanford University Press.
Wood, E. (1976). Seven Schools of Yoga. Illinois: The Theosophical
Publishing House.
Worsley, J. R. (1973). Chinese Acupuncture and Kirlian Photogra-
phy. In S. Krippner & D. Rubin (Eds.), Galaxies of Life. New
York: Gordon and Breach.
Yau, T. Y., Bley, G. R., & Dea, T. P. (1994). Linking East and
West: Integrating Philosophies in Couples Therapy. In
G. Davidson (Ed.), Applying Psychology: Lessons from Asia-
Oceania (pp. 5160). Carlton South VIC, Australia: Australian
Psychological Society Ltd.
Yensen, R. (1963). Hypnosis and Movement Re-education in
Partially Paralyzed Subjects. Perceptual and Motor Skills,
17(1), 211222.
Young, A. M. (1976). The Reflexive Universe: Delacorte Press/Seymour
Lawrence.
Zerubavel, E. (2003). Time Maps: Collective Memory and the Social
Shape of the Past. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Zikmund, V. (1972). Physiological Correlates of Visual Imagery. In
P. W. Sheehan (Ed.), The Function and Nature of Imagery. New
York: Academic Press.
Zimbardo, P. G. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How
Good People Turn Evil. New York: Random House.
Zirkel, K., Stewart, R. A. C., & Preston, C. (1977). Personality and
Attitudinal Correlates of Ability to Increase Alpha Production
in EEG Biofeedback Training. Psychologia, 20(2), 107110.
Ziskind, E., & Augsburg, T. (1962). Hallucination in Sensory
DeprivationMethod or Madness? Science, 137(3534).
Zubek, J. P. (1961). Perceptual Changes After Prolonged Sensory
Isolation (Darkness and Silence). Canadian Journal of Psychology,
15(2), 83100.

210003_00_bib.indd 770 6/6/08 1:28:51 PM

 NA M E IN DEX
A Brenman, Margaret, 186187
Aarts, H., 34, 88
Adler, Alfred, 489
Albert, Richard. See Dass, Ram
Alexander, C. N., 595
Amer, S., 615616
Anand, B. K., 541
Andersen, N. J., 248
Andrade, J., 463
Angen, M., 615
Angoff, A., 444
Arcuri, L., 87
Asch, S. E., 198
Astin, John, 621
Augsburg, T., 9495
Aurobindo, Sri, 33, 475
B Capra, Fritjof, 124, 133, 153, 173,
Bagchi, B. K., 540, 541
Bandura, Albert, 72, 75
Barron, Frank, 543
Barth, D., 444
Baucom, D. H., 645
Bauman, A., 88
Beauregard, M., 559, 559560
Begley, S., 558, 590
Benson, H., 544, 552, 557
Berger, Emanuel, 324
Berger, Joseph R., 385
Besserman, P., 372, 374
Blanchard, E. B., 75
Blanke, Olaf, 462
Bley, G. R., 643
Blofeld, John, 10, 392393
Blumenthal, R. G., 588, 603
Bogart, G., 548
Bonadonna, R., 615
Bond, M., 111
Bondol, G., 617
Boorstein, S., 649
Borgeat, F., 67
Borkovec, T. D., 319
Boudreau, L., 545
Bourgouin, P., 559
Brainard, G. C., 551
Braverman, A., 296, 299
771
210003_00_nmindx.indd 771
Brones, M. F., 108
Brooks, C. V. W., 14
Brown, D., 48, 185, 533
Brown, Daniel P., 234
Brown, K. W., 556
Bruner, Jerome, 95
Brunton, Paul, 226227, 252253,
438439, 446
Bundrick, C. M., 570
Bungener, C., 87
Burke, John, 205
Burney, R., 554, 614
Burns, J. E., 591, 609
C
Caldera, Y., 557, 622
242243, 356357, 437, 481482
Caprio, Frank, 385
Carington, Whately, 220
Carlson, L. E., 615, 617
Carpenter, J. T., 189
Carrington, P., 591
Carson, J. W., 645
Carson, K. M., 645
Castaneda, Carlos, 271
Castelli, L., 87
Cavill, N., 88
Chabot, R., 67
Chaloult, L., 67
Chen (Zen master), 208209
China, G. S., 541
Chiu, N. M., 614, 622
Christian, J., 111
Claxton, Guy, 36, 38, 137138,
331332, 339, 587
Clay, April, 575
Clore, G. L., 91
Confucius, 516
Conlin, M., 589590
Connelly, J. E., 556557
Conze, Edward, 10, 17
Cooper, P. C., 374
Corbetta, M., 270
Csikszentmihalyi, M., 568
6/6/08 1:39:20 PM
 772 D G
Dale, A. R., 112
Name Index Das, J. P., 549
Dasgupta, S. N., 2021
Dass, Ram (Richard Albert), 392,
553554
David-Neel, A., 445
Davidson, Richard, 559
Davidson, R. J., 552, 556, 560
Dea, T. P., 643
Dean, S. J., 60
Deikman, Arthur, 184185,
188189, 227228,
393394, 542
DeNike, L. D., 39
Der Hovanesian, M., 588, 591
DeRopp, Robert, 169, 207208
Deutsch, D., 61
Deutsch, J. A., 61
De Vries, P., 34
Dietrich, A., 462
Dietz-Waschkowski, B., 283
Dijksterhuis, A., 34
Dobmeyer, S., 270
Downing, P., 37
Dunn, B. R., 549
Dyer, Wayne W., 269, 270
Dysart, M., 48, 185
E Grice, H. P., 122
Einstein, Albert, 173, 262, 471
Engler, J., 533
English, J., 607
Enright, J. B., 205
Evans-Wentz, W. Y., 497
F Gustavsson, B., 595596
Falkenstrom, F., 149150
Feng, G.-F., 607
Ferrari, N., 557
Fine, G., 128
Fingarette, Herbert, 19, 26, 267
Fisher, Charles, 67
Fletcher, K., 557
Ford, S. K., 575
Forsythe, J., 597
Forte, M., 48, 185
Francis of Assisi, Saint, 527
Freud, Sigmund, 41, 106, 107,
206, 332, 347, 356, 444,
446, 489
Friend, K. E., 596
Fromm, E., 183184
210003_00_nmindx.indd 772
Gage, F. H., 558
Gallwey, Tim, 571572
Gardner, S. T., 111
Gareld, C., 358
Geffen, Gina, 7
Ghazzali, Al, 214
Ghose, A., 33, 475
Gil, K. M., 645
Gilbert, Albin, 364, 476, 554
Gill, Merton M., 186187
Gleason, C. A., 40
Goddard, Dwight, 151
Goffman, E., 241
Goldberg, C., 267
Goldman, R., 552
Goleman, Daniel, 132
Gollwitzer, P. M., 88
Golzalez-Wippler, M., 478
Goodey, E., 615, 617
Goodman, G. S. K., 553
Gordon, S. M., 463
Govinda, L. A., 437
Green, A. M., 539, 574
Green, E. E., 539, 574
Greeson, J. M., 551
Gregory, R. L., 4344
Greischar, L. L., 552
Greyson, B., 518
Grim, P. F., 313
Grof, Stanislav, 440
Grossman, A. R., 108
Grossman, P., 283, 622
Grove, J. R., 568569, 573
Gulliford, E., 558
H
Hanh, Thich Nhat, 73, 355, 408
Hargreaves, I., 553
Harper, Sharon, 451
Hartigan, J. A., 549
Hartmann, Heinz, 186
Harung, H. S., 599
Hassin, R. R., 88
Heintze, Carl, 89
Henderson, Lawrence, 434
Henke, K., 67
Henricks, M., 591
Herrigel, Eugen, 142,
148149, 153
Hilgard, W. Ernest R., 213214
6/6/08 1:39:28 PM
 Hirai, Tomio, 390391, Kersig, S., 283 773
541542, 548 Kessel, B., 557
Hochschild, A. R., 403 Key, Wilson Bryan, 66, 68 Name Index
Hoeberichts, Joan, 639 Kimiecik, J. C., 570, 575
Hoenig, J., 544 Klein, D., 596
Hojat, M., 551 Kleiner, C., 576
Holroyd, J., 460 Koestenbaum, Peter, 347
Honorton, Charles, 450451 Kondo, Akihisa, 268
Hopkins, P., 552 Koss-Chioino, J. D., 445
Hora, Thomas, 435 Kreitler, Hans, 449
Horney, Karen, 219 Kretschmer, W., 541
Horton-Deutsch, S., 557 Krishnamurti, J., 215216
Houlder, D., 607608 Kubose, S. K., 545
Houlder, K., 607608 Kuna, D. J., 591
Hoyle, Fred, 470471 Kunimoto, C., 67
Huang Po, 9 Kuo, C. C., 614
Hui-neng, 123
Hume, Robert Earnest, L
182183, 474 Lachnit, C., 594
Husserl, Edmund, 360361 Landis, T., 67
Langer, Ellen, 96, 377
I Larsson, G., 571
Ikkyu Sojun, 638, 654 Lavie, N., 38
Lazar, S. W., 542
J Lazarus, Arnold A., 47
Jackson, S. A., 569, 570, 574, LeDoux, Joseph, 12, 35, 45, 57, 58,
575, 584 61, 71, 85, 492
Jacobs, G., 552 Lee, Dorothy, 175
James, William, 198, 346 Legge, J., 137
Jasper, H., 176177 Lehmann, D., 462
Jeans, James, 471472 Leong, F., 646
Johnson, C., 518 Leshan, Lawrence, 191
Jung, Carl, 229, 230, 347, 356, Levesque, J., 559
408409, 442, 445448, Levis, D. J., 56
480, 489 Libet, Benjamin, 4041, 337, 572
Lincoln, Abraham, 372
K Linden, William, 550551, 624
Kabat-Zinn, Jon, 354, 554, 557, 558, Linehan, M. M., 617
562, 614, 622, 625 Linssen, Robert, 150
Kagan, L., 557 Lipworth, L., 554, 614
Kalb, C., 614 Long, M. F., 444
Kanwisher, N., 37 Lowen, Alexander, 387
Kapleau, Philip, 251252 Lowie, R. H., 229
Kasamatsu, A., 540, 541542 Lozanov, Georgi, 70, 86, 551
Kaser, V. A., 67 Lubin, S., 596
Kastner, S., 39 Luce, G. G., 242
Kaufman, M., 559 Ludwig, Arnold, 543544
Kavanagh, D. S., 463 Luk, Charles, 640, 734
Keeva, S., 581, 585, 592 Lupin, Shellan, 596
Kelman, Harold, 266, 355356 Lutz, A., 552, 558
Kempermann, G., 558, 559 Lutz, C. A., 403
Kennedy, B. P., 463 Lynch, J. J., 544

210003_00_nmindx.indd 773 6/6/08 1:39:36 PM

 774 M Ornstein, Robert, 12, 199
Ma, S., 622
Name Index MacHovec, F. J., 93, 113, 348
Maharshi, Bhagawan Sri Ramana,
359
Majumdar, M., 283
Malhotra, J. C., 542543
Malhotra, M., 552
Mann, John, 544
Marcus, D. L., 576
Marechal, Joseph, 175, 527
Markowitsch, H. J., 67
Marks, David, 146147, 490
Marsh, H. W., 575
Martin, R. B., 60
Mascaro, J., 325
Maslow, Abraham, 1516, 1819, 23,
164, 187188, 206, 247248,
256, 265, 347, 568, 636637
Mason, O., 553
Mathers, S. L. M., 478
Maupin, Edward, 202, 215, 270, 276
May, J., 463
McBee, L., 622
McComb, J., 557, 622
McCrone, John, 4243, 93, 126127
McCuan, J.e, 596
McInman, A. D., 568569, 573
Mcpeake, J. D., 463
Meier, B. P., 91
Merrick, J., 248
Michalon, M., 121
Miezin, F. M., 270
Mikulas, W. L., 549
Miller, J., 67
Miller, J. J., 557
Millman, Dan, 529
Mischel, Walter, 4546, 86, 88
Moss, Richard, 359
Murphy, L. R., 595
Murphy, M., 568
N Rawlings, N. B., 552
Nagarjuna, 124, 125, 370
Naranjo, Claudio, 199, 246
Newberg, A., 552
Niemann, L., 622
O Ricard, M., 552
OHaver, D. P., 557
Onda, Akira, 453454
Orlick, T., 574, 579, 580, 584
210003_00_nmindx.indd 774
Ostrander, N., 551
Ostrander, S., 551
Otani, A., 539
Ott, M. J., 557, 625
Otto, Herbert, 544
P
Pagels, Heinz, 126, 151, 173, 262,
437, 483, 521522
Palmer, J., 452453
Panchadasi, S., 472
Paquette, V., 558
Pashler, H., 67
Paskewitz, D. A., 544
Patanjali, x, 452
Patel, K. D., 617
Paul, G. L., 47
Pelletier, K. R., 358, 546
Peneld, W., 358, 461
Peper, E., 546
Perls, Frederick S., 203
Persinger, Michael, 461462, 518
Petersen, A., 624
Petersen, S. E., 270
Plato, 128
Preville, P., 594
Price, H. H., 230
Privette, G., 568, 570
Progoff, Ira, 147, 480, 489
Proulx, K., 557
Q
Quoniam, N., 87
R
Rabin, J., 518
Radford, John, 550
Rahula, Walpola, 56
Randolph, P;., 557, 622
Rank, Otto, 489
Rao, K. R., 230, 448449, 451
Redeld, James, 489
Rees, G., 38
Reibel, D. K., 551
Reps, Paul, 466
Reyher, Joseph, 408
Richards, D. G., 517
Ritter, B., 75
Roberts, G. C., 569, 574, 575, 584
6/6/08 1:39:44 PM
 Robin, R., 592, 595
Robinson, M. D., 91
Rockers, D. M., 622
Rokeach, Milton, 73
Roll, W. G., 476
Rosch, P. J., 594
Rosenzweig, S., 551
Ross, N. W., 473
Roth, B., 622
Rubin, J. B., 649
Russell, W. D., 570
Ryan, R. M., 556
S Streiner, D., 60
Sadhu, Mouni, 359
Santorelli, Saki, 622
Saraswati, Madhavananda, 450
Sarbin, Theodore R., 84, 173
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 473474
Saver, J., 518
Schmeidler, Gertrude, 450, 452453
Schmidt, S., 622, 646
Schmidt-Wilk, J., 595
Schroeder, L., 551
Schwartz, J. M., 558, 559560
Schwarz, Jack, 190, 229, 448,
495, 552
Scott, J., 555
Segal, J., 555
Segal, Z., 65
Segal, Zindel, 554
Sekhar, A., 608
Servadio, Emilio, 445, 449450
Severin, F. T., 361
Shagass, C., 176177
Shah, Idries, 147, 214
Shannahoff-Khalsa, D. S., 518
Shapiro, Dean, Jr., 550
Shattock, E. H., 192
Shors, T. J., 558
Shulman, G. L., 270
Sigal, J. J., 111
Simonson, R., 597
Singh, B., 541
Singh, Lalan Prasad, 640
Singh, R. N., 651
Siou, L., 389
Skinner, B. F., 85
Slater, W., 387388
Smith, A., 571572
Smith, E. R., 87
Smythies, J. R., 444
210003_00_nmindx.indd 775
Soho, Takuan, 26 775
Solomon, A., 617
Soulsly, J. M., 555 Name Index
Sovatsky, S. C., 641
Speca, M., 615, 617
Spielberger, C. D., 39
Stace, W. T., 347
Stampel, T. G., 56
Stapp, H. P., 559560
Steger, M., 372, 374
Stein, G. L., 570
Stein, J., 615
Stier, J., 558
Stimac, E., 596
Subramanian, M., 595
Sudo, P., 638
Sun, T. F., 614, 622
Suzuki, D. T., 162, 174, 177178,
208209, 252, 480, 546547
Suzuki, Shunryu, 547548
Swanson, G. C., 595
T
Tacon, A. M., 557, 622
Taimni, I. K., 361362, 365
Takahashi, T., 556
Tart, Charles, 459460
Teasdale, J. D., 65, 333, 554,
555, 622
Tempereau, C. E., 108
Thera, Nyanaponika, 398399
Thienemann, M., 558
Thouless, Robert, 443
Ti, Huang, 435
Tiller, William, 437
Tolle, Eckhart, 201
Tolson, J., 576
Travis, F., 588
Treisman, Anne, 7
Trungpa Rinpoche, Vidyadhara
Chgyam, 6970
Tsu, Yin Shih, 730734
Tulving, E., 96
Tzu, Chuang, 136137,
280281, 477
Tzu, Lao, vii, 129, 134, 318, 319,
476477, 510
U
Ungerleider, L. G., 39
Urban, M. J., 67
7/28/08 12:42:06 PM
 776 V Wenger, M. A., 540, 541
Vaillant, G. E., 110111 White, John, 477478
Name Index Van De Castle, R. L., 444 White, R. A., 568
Van Nuys, D., 453, 545 Williams, J., 65
Ventegodt, S., 248 Williams, J. M., 555
Voigt, H., 638639 Williams, Mark, 554
Wilson, V., 591
W Witkin, Herman, 9091
Wade, Carlson, 390 Wolfe, Joseph, 60
Walach, H., 283, 622 Wood, Ernest, 193
Waley, A., 389 Wright, E. W., 40
Walker, Kenneth, 466467 Wu, C. K., 622
Wallace, R. K., 544
Watkins, E., 555 Y
Watkins, M. M., 168 Yau, T. Y., 643
Watson, John B., 85 Yun, Pang, 372, 374
Watts, Alan, 45, 171, 237,
239240, 534 Z
Wegner, Daniel, 8, 1314, Zerubavel, E., 360
17, 348 Ziskind, E., 9495
Weisner, W. P., 443 Zogmaister, C., 87

210003_00_nmindx.indd 776 6/6/08 1:40:00 PM

 SU BJ E C T IN DE X
A Athletics. See Sports
Abdominal breathing, 390391,
395398
Acceptance, 635, 651
Action
of conscious agent, 13
without effort, 137
gap between awareness and,
4043, 61
See also Non-action; Wu wei
(non-action)
Actors, 596597
Advertising, 66, 87, 105106
Aggregates, 722723
Alpha brain waves, 540542, 544
Alpha state, 450, 460
Altered states of consciousness
(ASCs), 457468
actors and, 596597
in athletes, 457, 460
brain and, 461463
creativity and, 543544
dened, 457, 458
enlightenment vs., 464
meditation and, 450
multiple paths to, 465466
No Mind and, 459460
phenomena associated with,
458459
Psi phenomena and, 452453
substance-abuse therapy, 463
Amygdala, 58
Ancient masters
instruction of, 434, 521
and Psi phenomena, 446, 450
Ancient stone, vi, vii
Animals
action of, 318, 329
communication of, 442443
and self, 6
Anticipation, 43
Anxiety, 530531, 551, 624, 671
ASCs. See Altered states of
consciousness (ASCs)
Association, 198
Assumption, 4344
777
210003_00_subindx.indd 777
Attachment
CAt and, 394
communication and, 373374
death and, 519520
to desires, 136137
emotion and, 5860
I and, 4, 9, 5559, 342343
paradox of, 342345
play and, 344345
points of, 343, 345
relationship conict and, 633634
sports and, 577578
to truth, 76
Attention
bare, 398399
as basis of No Mind, 26
perception and, 38
and the present, 246
psychological disorders and, 545
selectivity of, 37
See also Clear Attention (CAt);
Mindfulness
Attractiveness, 88
Auto-action
brain and, 41, 61
control over, 8990
defense mechanisms as, 106
emotion and, 6061
society and, 82
See also Autopilot;
Deautomatization
Autopilot
benets of, 183, 186
brain and, 41
categorization and, 96
emotion and, 54, 59
environmental responses and,
6465, 68, 8889
See also Auto-action;
Deautomatization
Auto-reaction
brain and, 41, 61
control over, 8990
defense mechanisms as, 106
emotion and, 6061
6/6/08 1:41:06 PM
 778 Auto-reaction (continued)
society and, 82
Subject See also Deautomatization
Index Awareness
behavior and, 204205
CAt and, 200201, 214216
distraction of, 68, 165166
emotion and, 5960
gap between action and,
4043, 61
health/happiness and, 1516
I and absorption of, 6465
of Iill, 167168
meditation and, 550
of mind objects, 418 f
mind vs., 2022
as mirror, 397398
non-dualistic, 123, 132
perception and, 6870
pure, 438, 469, 473, 489
as quantum relationship, 508509
of reality, 1819
screen of, 206207, 209212, 355
in sports, 578
therapeutic value of, 205
as universal constant, ix, xiv, 23,
350, 369, 411, 434, 438, 466,
488, 516, 638
See also Right Awareness;
Spiritual awareness
B abdominal breathing, 390391,
Babylonians, 444
Balance point, 600601
Bare attention, 398399
Behavior
awareness and, 204205
learning of, 4546
meditation and, 545
motivation and, 8687
Behavior modication research and
therapy, x, 7173, 85
Being, and Nothingness, 254, 258,
260, 301, 493494, 500
Being cognition, 1516, 1819,
187188
Belief/disbelief systems, 7376,
369370
Body
detachment from, 402403
energy centers in, 532533
mental control over, 190, 448,
540541, 544, 546, 552553
210003_00_subindx.indd 778
mindfulness of, 396397
processes of, as mind objects,
401403
Book of Changes, 300301
Book of the Way and How It Manifests
Itself in the World, The, vii
Brain
ASCs and, 461463
brain-wave frequencies, 450, 460
categories and, 96
electrical stimulation of, 358, 461
emotions and, 5758
emptiness of processes in, 369
happiness and, 590
I and, 67, 138, 358
identication and, 5657
meditation and, 552, 590
mindfulness and, 558560
and neuroplasticity, 60,
558560, 590
perception and, 35, 358
reality vs. imagination in, 4647
religious experience and, 518
sensory input and, 6566
stimulus recognition in, 6061
stress and, 615
synaptic connections in, 1112,
35, 44, 5556, 138
will and, 40
Breath, as energy, 389
Breath control
395398
benets of, 386387
CAt and, 387, 395398
in daily life, 388
emotion and, 404
Taoism and, 388389
technique of, 387, 389391,
396397, 423424
Buddhism
and mysticism, 489
No Mind and, 588589
Psi phenomena in, 444
psychology in, 120121,
146147, 356
See also Theravada Buddhism;
Tibetan Buddhism; Zen
Buddhism
Business, 586611
deautomatization and, 592593,
597598
enlightened persons in, 271
6/6/08 1:41:14 PM
 Iill and, 598599, 604607
interpretation of cues in, 90
meditation and, 588591,
594596, 608
mindfulness and, 586
money in, 605608
negotiation in, 600604
ofce environment in, 604
play and, 170
stress and, 591594
C self-observation and, 207210
CAt. See Clear Attention (CAt)
Categories, 9596, 101102, 182183
Celestine Prophecy, The
(Redeld), 489
Celestine Vision, The (Redeld), 489
Chair, for No Mind practice,
413414, 414f
Chakras, ix, 532, 640
Chaldeans, 444
Change, 263
Chi, 389, 472, 532, 640
Children
and meditation, 550551
reality as experienced by, 95
See also Newborns
Chinese, ancient, 444
Christianity. See Judeo-Christian
religion
Christian mysticism, x, 473
Clairvoyance, 442, 444
Clear Attention (CAt), 196223,
278279
attachment and, 394
awareness and, 200201, 206207,
209212, 214216
behavior and, 204205
benets of, 200201
body and, 401403
breath control and, 387, 395398
in daily life, 208, 213
dened, 38, 168, 200
diagram of, 382 f
doubt and, 422
emotions and, 403406
Iill and, 141, 150, 409
Insight of No Mind, 704706
intuition and, 224, 229
levels of, 304306
as mirror, 196197, 278279
negotiation and, 600601
210003_00_subindx.indd 779
No Mind and, 141, 168, 176, 196, 779
200201, 221, 391398
peak performance and, 218220 Subject
perception and, 410412 Index
practice of, 208, 391
and the present, 201202,
238239, 284
problem solving with, 340341
and reality show, 208214
in relationships, 634, 648649,
653654
sports and, 573575, 582
thoughts and, 406410
understanding others
through, 400
untraining mind through,
350351
See also Mindfulness; Right
Awareness
Co-arising, 137138, 166
Codependent reality, 3738
Collective unconscious, 229230,
347, 356, 442, 446448
Communication
animal, 442443
mind objects and, 399400
non-attachment and, 373374
Psi phenomena and, 445, 451454
in relationships, 634636
Compassion, 685
Competition, 9
Complex truth, 7576
Concentration, 385
Conditional love, 682683
Conditioning, 4647, 7981. See also
Reinforcement
Conscience, 127
Consciousness, 478480
Control, 8, 12, 136137
Coping, 621623
Cosmic Code, The (Pagels), 152, 521
Cosmic instinct, 718719
Couple I, 644646
Creativity, 543544
Creativity and Personal Freedom
(Barron), 543
Crisis, 690691
Crow Indians, 229, 444
Crying, 672
Cuna Indians, 444
Cynicism, 287288
6/6/08 1:41:22 PM
 780 D Desensitization, 4647
Daily life
Subject breath control in, 388
Index CAt in, 208
mindfulness practice and, xiixiii
No Mind in, 412417, 424426,
525534
play and, 286
Right Attitude and, 367369
Zen and, 296, 299
Dalhousie University, 120
Death, 506524, 688689
attachment and, 519520
cycle of life and, 515
fear of, 375, 506, 511, 514
Iill and, 437, 520521
illusion of, 510512, 522
near-death experiences, 517518
spiritualism and communication
after, 445
who is subject of, 516517
Deautomatization, 181195, 278
awareness and, 207
business and, 592593, 597598
CAt and, 349350
deconditioning through, 192193
explanation of, 187190
of Iill, 186187
Insight of No Mind, 700701
of perceptual experience,
184185
and selessness, 190191
techniques of, 185
Defense mechanisms, 103117
brain and, 7, 11
changes in, 110111
and comfort zone, 104109
denial, 105106
examples of, 105
fantasy, 105106
I and, 46, 9, 13, 103105,
109110, 128
identifying, 116117
perception and, 69
projection, 108109
purpose of, 104105
regression, 108
repression, 107108
styles of, 110111
Denial, 105106
Depression, 554555
Depth psychology, x
210003_00_subindx.indd 780
Desires
attachment to, 136137, 169170
foregoing of, 163165
fulllment of, 163165
happiness and, 134136
illusion of, 8, 1516, 134, 177,
285286, 375
Insight of No Mind, 674
for material success, 605606
nature and, 375376
as obstacle to No Mind, 667
play and, 170
in relationships, 632633
source of, 375
Destiny, 677
Detachment
from body, 402403
from emotions, 404405
of I, 4, 14, 1819
and reality, 6
from thoughts, 406408
Determinism, 39
Dhammapada: The Path of
Perfection, 325
Dialectical behavior therapy, 617
Direct experience, 356
Direct knowledge, 356
Dissociation, 518
Disturbances of mind, 530531
DNA, 230
Doctor-patient interactions, 556557
Doei Shabd Kriya, 553
Dokusan, 252
Doubt
CAt and, 422
enlightenment and, 348, 421, 533,
668669
Insight of No Mind, 678
No Mind and, 313, 421422, 668
value of, 2223, 288, 386
Dream interpretation, 356
Drugs, 457, 458
Dualism
awareness and, 123, 125, 132,
139140
I and, 56, 16, 118, 120, 140
identity and, 481
illusion of, 129130, 151152
in Judeo-Christian religion,
487488
language and, 118, 120, 124126,
128129, 132133, 144
6/6/08 1:41:30 PM
 maya and, 172
physics and, 124
problems arising from, 140
rejection of, 130131
religion and, 139140, 503
transcendence of, 664665
E doubt and, 348, 421, 533, 668669
Eastern philosophy, xiv
Ego, 33, 85. See also I
Ego psychology, 186
Egyptians, ancient, 444
Eighteen sense-realms, 728
Electroencephalogram (EEG),
540541
Electromagnetic elds, x
Emotional Brain, The (LeDoux), 58
Emotional Intelligence
(Goleman), 132
Emotions
attachment and, 5860
awareness and, 5960
brain and, 5758
breath control and, 404
co-arising of, 137138, 405406
controlling, 62
detachment from, 404405
I and, 6264
identity and, 5859
meditation and, 553
memories and, 57, 59
as mind objects, 403406
misinterpretation and, 63
as obstacles, 62
power of, 54, 5861
projection of, 64
understanding, 6164
Emptiness
fullness of, 350, 352, 374
of language, 124126
Looking into Emptiness, 231 f
of mind, 371375
of nature, xi, 152
negotiation from, 603
paradox of, 349352
perception and, 19
as source of thought, xi
understanding, 132134
See also Nothingness
Energy, 39, 640, 676
Energy centers in body, 532533
Enlightened persons, 270271,
476477, 554
210003_00_subindx.indd 781
Enlightenment 781
ASCs vs., 464
awareness and, 23 Subject
bloom of, 264265 Index
capacity for, 252
conditions for experiencing, 353
dened, 22
equations of, 253254, 258
experience of, 113, 119, 125, 268,
475476
rst level of, 231, 264
getting to, 2224
illustrations concerning, 294299
I not capable of, 252, 459
Insight of No Mind, 720721,
726727
as nature becoming self-aware,
256258
need for, 250
No Mind and, 250273, 282
and objectivity, 269271
observer absent from, 259
obstacles to, 150, 281
pseudo-, 142, 149, 294296, 341,
428, 464, 491492
seven factors of, 720721
simplicity of, 21, 378379
spiritual awareness and, 480481
stress management and, 625627
time and, 262264
See also Enlightened persons;
Insight
Entering the Marketplace, 310
Environmental seclusion (ESR), 94
Equations
of enlightenment, 253254, 258
Factor 1: reality, 162, 290
Factor 2: deautomatization,
181, 290
Factor 3: CAt, 196, 290
Factor 4: intuition, 224, 291
Factor 5: no Iill, 237, 291
Factor 6: enlightenment, 250, 291
ESP. See Extrasensory perception
(ESP)
Eternity, 534
Evil, 680681
Evolution, 716717
Exercises
categories, 101102
conditioning, 7980
defense mechanisms, 116117
6/6/08 1:41:38 PM
 782 Exercises (continued)
language, 144
Subject mindful awareness, 81
Index perceptual lter, 2930
preferences, 5253
Exorcist, The (lm), 66
Expectations, 679
Experience, 356
Experiment in Mindfulness, An
(Shattock), 192
Expression, control of, 8990
Extrasensory perception (ESP), 442,
444, 450452
Extrinsic motivation, 86
F God
Family
I and, 86, 92, 97
societal values and, 92
Fantasy, 105106
Federal Communications
Commission, 66
Field-independent, 9091
Finalization anxiety, 375
Five aggregates, 722723
Flow, vii, 141142, 567, 568, 570,
573575. See also Peak
performance; Zone
Focus, 540541
Free association, 356, 408
Freedom
awareness and, 92, 150151
dened, 92
doing and, 266267
illusion of, 25, 92
Insight of No Mind, 690691
limitations on, 4
No Mind and, 232233
peak performance and, 573
Free will
I and, 48
illusion of, 3839, 528
minds usurpation of, 31
No Mind and, 48
See also Free wont
Free wont, 31, 3941
Friends, 698
Frustration, 530, 670
Fujitsu, 590
Fulllment
desire and, 163165
search for, 232233
See also Happiness
210003_00_subindx.indd 782
Functional magnetic resonance
imaging (FMRI), 540
G
Gamma brain activity, 590
Genetic Engineering (Heintze), 89
Genetics
diversity and, 34
metaphor construction and, 84
personality and, 45
Genius, 227228
Gestalt psychology, x
Gestalt therapy, 203, 205206
Ghosts, 445
Goals, 135136. See also Trying
conceptions of, 496
Judeo-Christian, 487488, 496
Nothingness and, 260261
state of, 487
See also God x
God-consciousness, 139, 169, 214,
261, 313, 469
God in everything, 255, 257258
Gods trap, 729
God x
cosmic thoughts of, 493494
Iill and, 499500
mysticism and, 487488
omnipresence of, 506
potentiality of, in all people,
496497
as the present, 261
search for, 260
See also God
Going Inside (McCrone), 43, 126
Golden median, 130, 289, 315
Grasping, 229, 231
Greed, 675
Gut feelings, 454
H
Half-lotus posture, 414415, 415 f
Half-second gap, between action
and awareness, 4043, 61
Hallucinations, 461
Happiness
brain and, 590
desire and, 134136
I as obstacle to, 2425
peak performance and, 574
present time and, 134
true vs. illusory, 130131
6/6/08 1:41:45 PM
 unconditional, 405 language and, 8489, 118, 121, 783
See also Fulllment 123124, 126127
Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind layers of, 147149 Subject
(Claxton), 331 limitations of, 34, 78, 24, 4849, Index
Harmony, 548 112113
Hate, 531, 673 mindful awareness of, 81
Health models of, xxi
corporate promotion of, 594595 needs of, 1516
meditation and, 591 nonexistence of, xi, xii, xiv
mindfulness and, 539, 547, paradox of, 45
554557, 617618, 625 and perception, 78
Heaven, 477, 520521, 534 physiological development of, 67
Highest State of Consciousness, The pronoun, 123124
(White), 477 reality as perceived by, 5, 814,
Hinduism, x, 444, 473, 489 1718, 3153, 112
Hippocampus, 558 reinforcement of, 56, 62, 69, 72
History of Indian Philosophy and self-limiting interpretations,
(Dasgupta), 20 3337
Hope, 679 self-policing of, 127
Hua-tou (prethought), x, 354, 384, and separation, 56, 89, 44, 128
386, 392, 406, 411, 420422, society and, 25, 82102, 127, 171,
428, 516 369, 371
Human Energy Systems society as, 9798, 131, 140
(Schwarz), 495 sports and, 576577, 579580
Humor, 287, 694 suffering caused by, 123
Hypnosis, x, 453454, 460 suggestion and, 7071
synaptic associative network of,
I 1112
I time and, 284
alteration of reality to suit, 1314 truth relative to, 76
and attachment, 5558, 342343 unchangeable character of, 131
awareness absorbed by, 6465 unconscious, 6768
box for, 7375 will and, 4748
brain and, 67, 138, 358 See also Ego; Iill
condition of, 5481 I-Ching, 300301
and control, 8, 12 Ideas, relative nature of, 54
couple, 644646 Identity
as detachable, 237249 attachment and, 56
and dualistic reality, 56, 16, 118, dualism and, 481
120, 140 emotion and, 5859
emotion and, 6264 of groups, 371
enlightenment not possible for, I and, 811, 35, 4446
252, 459 illusion of, 498
equations for, 162 language and, 121123
family and, 86, 92, 97 levels of, 347
as lter, 78, 1011, 1720, 24, problems accompanying, 137
26, 43 stability and, 4546
happiness thwarted by, 2425 Iill, 145160
and identity, 811, 35, 4446, 56 awareness of, 167168
as illusion, 5, 18, 21, 47, 121, boat metaphor of, 165167
138142, 145160, 162, 175, body and, 402403
177, 240, 358359 (see also Iill) business and, 598599, 604607
illusion of perfect, 109 CAt and, 141, 150, 409

210003_00_subindx.indd 783 6/6/08 1:41:53 PM

 784 Iill (continued) spiritual awareness and,
and communication, 373 230232, 269
Subject control by, 142 See also Enlightenment
Index death and, 437, 520521 Insights of No Mind, 660729,
deautomatization of, 186187 724725
diagram of, 159 f anxiety, 671
downplaying, 216218 Clear Attention (CAt), 704706
emotion and, 403404 compassion, 685
equations for, 162 conditional love, 682683
as false jewel, 147148 cosmic instinct, 718719
and ow, 567 crisis and freedom, 690691
formation of, 303 crying, 672
and God x, 499500 death, 688689
insight and, 231 deautomatization, 700701
intention and, 326330 desire, 674
intuition and, 225226 destiny, 677
language and, 174175 doubt, 678
and mind objects, 197198 eighteen sense-realms, 728
and money, 605608 energy, 676
No Mind and, 240241, 243247, enlightenment, 726727
281282, 479 evil, 680681
and probability, 243 evolution, 716717
problems stemming from, ve aggregates, 722723
138140, 147, 267268 friends, 698
and reality, 490491 frustration, 670
as reality show, 208214, 216218 Gods trap, 729
in relationships, 630, 632633, greed, 675
643, 647, 649651, 653 hate, 673
Right Attitude and, 368371 hope and expectations, 679
selshness of, 190191 karma, 695
soul and, 492 leadership, 696697
spiritualism and, 445 the mechanism, 702703
Ten Oxherding Pictures and, the mirror, 708709
296298 opposites, 712713
time and, 245246 patterns, 714
transcendence of, 141, 145, peak performance
148150, 153154, 218219, (non-action), 707
237, 438439, 491 personality, 699
as trickster, 174 play, 686687
Illusion. See Maya (illusion) seven enlightenment factors,
Imagination, 43 720721
Implosive therapy, 56 time, 710711
Inner Game of Tennis, The unconditional love, 684
(Galwey), 571 undying humor, 694
Insight unity of all things, 715
holistic understanding Zen attitude, 692693
through, 230 Intellect. See Mind
Iill and, 231 Intellection, limits of, 547548
intuition vs., 226228 Intention
metacognitive, 333 of conscious agent, 13
No Mind and, 227, 231232, 247, karma and, 326330
280, 423 as obstacle to perception, 36
perception vs., 257 See also Trying

210003_00_subindx.indd 784 6/6/08 1:42:01 PM

 Interdependence of things, 152153,
241242, 436437, 470471, 501
Interpretation
attachment and, 373
diversity in, 34, 174
emotion and, 63
Iill and, 326330
perception affected by, 3537
self-limiting, 3337
of social cues, 8891
Intrinsic motivation, 8687
Intuition, 224236, 279281
conditions for, 227228
grasping of, 229
Iill and, 225226
insight vs., 226228
pseudo-, 227
Invincible Leadership (Harung), 599
Islam, 489, 490
J Love
Japan, business and meditation in,
590, 595
Jesus, 502
Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah), x,
473, 478, 490
Judeo-Christian religion
dualism in, 487488
God in, 487488, 496
and mysticism, 489
time in, 534
Jungian psychology, x
K Mandala, 300. See also Nine
Kabbalah, 473, 478, 490. See Jewish
mysticism (Kabbalah)
Karma, 326330, 517, 695
Knowledge
direct, 356
metacognitive, 333
Koans, x, 133134, 192, 215, 247,
662663
Koran, 490
Kundalini Yoga, ix, 518, 553, 640
L Medicine, self-actualization
Language
athletic experience and, 568570
and dualistic reality, 118,
120, 124126, 128129,
132133, 144
emptiness of, 124126
experience inuenced by, 118
210003_00_subindx.indd 785
I and, 8489, 118, 121, 123124, 785
126127
identity and, 121123 Subject
Iill and, 174175 Index
No Mind and, 141142
perception and, 137138
power of, 355
reality and, 175176
relativity of, 124, 128129
society and, 8489
speaker inuence and, 8789
Last Samurai, The (lm), 333
Leadership, 696697
Legend of Master Nomi, vixv
Lemon consciousness, xixii
Light, speed of, 173, 258, 262263,
360361
Living Zen (Linssen), 150
Logic, 192
Looking into nothingness, 255
conditional, 682683
ordinary, 344
unconditional, 344, 636637,
642644, 647, 651, 684
LSD, 457, 458
Lying down posture, 415416
M
Magic and Mystery in Tibet
(David-Neel), 445
Magic Eye Gallery, 69
Magic Monastery, The (Shah), 147
Mandalas
Mandala of Being, The (Moss), 359
Martial arts, 572, 588
Master Game, The (DeRopp),
169, 207
Matter, Mind and Meaning
(Carington), 220
Maya (illusion), 162, 168172,
494495, 509, 514
Mayan Indians, 490
Mechanism, the, 702703
and, 248
Meditation
achievements of, 533
actors and, 596597
awareness and, 550
behavior modication through, 545
brain function and, 552, 590
6/6/08 1:42:09 PM
 786 Meditation (continued)
business and, 588591,
Subject 594596, 608
Index children and, 550551
concentrative technique for, 546
emotion and, 553
expectations and, 545546
health and, 591
mindfulness technique for,
546547
motivation and, 545546
neuroimaging and, 540
and perception, 184185, 234
practice of, 215, 648649,
730734
psychology and, 550
psychotherapy and, 548
research on, 540546, 552553
settings for, 299300
state of consciousness during,
450, 460, 549
stress management and, 591
Taoist, 730734
therapeutic aspects of, 189,
203, 550
types of, 546
Zen, x, 215, 546547
See also Mindfulness
Memories
attachment to, 150
categorization of, 96
emotion and, 57, 59
I and, 214
Mental objects. See Mind objects
Mescaline, 457, 458
Metacognitive insight, 333
Metacognitive knowledge, 333
Metaphors, 84
Meta-therapy, 132
Method of Zen, The (Herrigel), 142
Middle path, 315, 370, 372. See also
Golden median
Mind
awareness vs., 2022
beyond Iill, 145160
condition of I, 5481
defense mechanisms, 103117
diagram of, 159 f
disturbances of, 530531
emptiness of, 371375
lter of, 26
I as lter, 330
language of I, 118144
210003_00_subindx.indd 786
limitations of, viii, 246, 547548
as mirror, 2, 32, 36, 199, 202, 214,
335337
observation of, 2122
society and I, 82102
universal, 471472
untraining, 349352, 374375
world according to I, 3153
Mindful awareness, 81
Mindfulness
of body, 396397
brain function and, 558560
as coping strategy, 621623
creativity and, 543544
dened, xiixiii, 353
focus and, 542
and harmony, 548
health and, 539, 547, 554557,
617618, 625
as mental sport, 357359
and neuroplasticity, 558560
pain management with,
614615, 622
perception and, 38
reality and, 561562
in relationships, 645646
research on, 554560
stress management with,
614617, 621623
therapeutic value of, 283
See also Attention; Clear Attention
(CAt); Meditation; Right
Awareness
Mindfulness and Money (Houlder
and Houlder), 607608
Mindfulness-based cognitive
therapy, xiv, 554555, 617, 622
Mindfulness-based stress reduction,
xiv, 551, 617, 622
Mindfulness (Langer), 96
Mind objects, 197198, 206208, 336
attention to, 392, 397398, 400,
418 f, 427428
body processes as, 401403
co-arising of, 400
communication and, 399400
emotions as, 403406
perceptions as, 410412
stress cues as, 626
thoughts as, 406410
Mirror
awareness and, 397398
CAt as, 196197, 278279
6/6/08 1:42:17 PM
 Insight of No Mind, 708709
mind as, 4, 32, 36, 199, 202, 214,
335337
No Mind practice and, 199
and the present, 202
Modeling, 75, 87
Money, 605608
Morality, 74
Motivation, 8687
Mysticism, x, 473, 478, 486505
ASCs and, 461
brain and, 461463
CAt and, 214
common experiences in, 500503
and experience of ultimate reality,
488490
I and, 490491, 499500 Newborns
incomprehensibility of, 501
intuition and, 226
and maya, 494495
and non-dualism, 188189,
493494, 498499
and oneness, 488, 490, 501502
and pseudo-enlightenment,
491492
religion and, 489, 499500,
502503
as spiritual awareness, 502503
taboos against, 499500
transformative effects of, 518
Mystics, 267
N CAt and, 196223, 278279,
National Center for Complementary
and Alternate Medicine
(NCCAM), 615
Nature
cosmic soul of, 434435, 469
desire and, 375376
emptiness of, xi, 152, 255
enlightenment as self-awareness
of, 256258
as indifferent to interpretations,
261
interdependence in, 152153,
241242
as non-dualistic, 256
oneness of, 465466
and play, 171, 288
quantum physics and, 471472
as Tao, 113, 133
unity and variety in, 152
wholeness of, 241242
210003_00_subindx.indd 787
Near death experiences, 517518 787
Needs, in relationships, 632633
Negative existence, 478 Subject
Negotiation Index
CAt and, 600601
emptiness and, 603
play in, 601603
Neural networks, 1112, 44, 96
Neurogenesis, 558559
Neuroimaging, 540
Neuroplasticity, xiv, 60, 127,
558560, 590
Neuroscience, xiv, 41
Neurosis and Human Growth
(Horney), 219
Neutral monism, 254
awareness of, 120
reality as experienced by, 1819,
210, 336
stage of, 302
Nine Mandalas, 301310
Nirvana, 549
No Mind
accessibility of program, 368369
action and, 42
ASCs and, 459460
awareness in, 168, 188
benets of, 1621, 38, 48, 525,
527, 660
breath control and, 386391
business and, 588589
391398
components of, 185
conscious aspect of, 478480
in daily life, 412417, 424426,
525534
deautomatization, 181195, 278
description of, xv
diagram of, 292 f, 535 f
doubt and, 313, 421422, 668
enlightenment, 250273, 282
equations of, 162, 181, 196, 224,
237, 250, 290291
experience of, 169, 243244,
246248
Extreme, 282283
freedom and, 232233
free will and, 48
I as detachable, 237249
Iill and, 240241, 243247,
281282, 479
6/6/08 1:42:25 PM
 788 No Mind (continued)
insight and, 227, 231232, 247,
Subject 280, 423
Index Insights of, 660729
intuition and, 224236, 279281
language and, 141142
levels of, 307309
mind incapable of realizing, viii,
246, 323
mirror reection of mind objects
in, 199
obstacles to, 283, 667
as ocean, 363364
oneness of, 479, 667
overview of, 157158
play and, 287288
postures for practice of, 413417
practice of (see three-step
practice of)
and the present, 201202, 359363
Psi phenomena and, 450454
purpose of, 16
reality, 162180, 277278
resources for, 283, 312
secret of, 475
and self-control, 8990
simplicity of, 146, 412
and space, 360
sport performance compared to,
569, 574575
stress management with, 620621
therapeutic aspects of, 189
three-step method outline
(advanced) for, 423429
three-step method outline for,
419423
three-step practice of, 384429
time and, 245246, 362 f, and the
present
unconscious aspect of, 478480
who is subject of, 386, 420422
wholeness of, 241
Zen and, ix, 299
See also Meditation; Mindfulness
Non-action
Insight of No Mind, 707
in relationships, 634
spontaneity and, 518519
See also Wu wei (non-action)
Non-attachment. See Attachment
Nothingness
Being and, 254, 258, 260, 301,
493494, 500
210003_00_subindx.indd 788
experience of, 513
nature as, 255
unintentional effort of, 513
See also Emptiness
No thinker, 346348, 375376
No thought, 323325, 331334
O
Objectivity, 269271
Observer-observed relationship,
171172, 188, 258, 361363,
472473
Obsessive-compulsive disorder, 558
Occultism, 445
Ocean analogy, 124126, 128, 167,
220, 352, 363364, 458, 486,
506, 508510, 514515
Oneness
dissolution of borders and,
476478
dualism vs., 151152
mysticism and, 488, 490, 501502
of nature, 465466
No Mind and, 479, 667
search for, 497
of source, 152153
sports and, 579580
See also Unity; Wholeness
Opinions, 369370
Opposites, 395 f, 712713
Over-thinking, 331334, 339
P
Pain, 238239, 403, 614615, 622
Painting, 266
Pali Canon, The, 510
Para-conscious mind, 229, 448, 495
Parapsychology, x
Parapsychology Laboratory, Duke
University, 444
Particle physics, 258, 472
Patterns, 714
Peak experience, 247248
Peak moments, 568569
Peak performance
ASCs and, 457, 460
CAt and, 218220
conditions for, 569570, 581582
description of, 141142
happiness and, 574
I and, 18, 55
inexpressibility of, 568569
Insight of No Mind, 707
6/6/08 1:42:34 PM
 No Mind practice and, 16,
218220
no thought and, 334
perception during, 187188
reality perception and, 20
self-talk as obstacle to, 204
stress as obstacle to, 625
thought as obstacle to, 341
training for, 203204
trying as obstacle to, 248,
318319
See also Flow; Zone
Perception
altering, 3843
assumption and, 4344
as categorization, 95
comfort level with, 7375
diversity in, 3334
lters on, 78, 24, 2930, 7375
insight vs., 257
interpretation and, 3537
language and, 137138
meditation and, 184185, 234
as mind objects, 410412
in peak performance, 187188
physiology of, 35
receptivity and, 6870
subliminal, 6668
who is subject of, 411
Perception (Price), 230
Perceptual box, 7375
Perceptual readiness, 279
Personality, 4546, 57, 64, 699
Personality and Assessment
(Mischel), 43, 88
Personality theories, x
Physics, 124, 133, 153, 436437.
See also Particle physics;
Quantum physics
Play
attachment and, 344345
business and, 170
daily life and, 286
dened, 170, 320321
desire and, 170
Insight of No Mind, 686687
mindfulness as, 357359
nature and, 171, 288
in negotiation, 601603
No Mind and, 287288
non-intentional, 531532
paradox of, 320322
relationships as, 647, 652
210003_00_subindx.indd 789
selessness and, 191 789
stress management and, 623624
universe as, 472 Subject
Points of attachment, 343, 345 Index
Political leaders, 98, 588
Positron emission tomography
(PET), 540
Postures for No Mind practice,
413417
Power of No Mind, vi, vii
Power of Now, The (Tolle), 201
Practice
daily life and, xiixiii
purpose of, 413
Prana (natural energy of
universe), 472
Prayer, 499
Precognition, 444
Preferences, 5253
Prefrontal cortex, 559, 590
Present
attention and, 246
awareness of, 150
CAt and, 201202, 238239, 284
ow and, 339340
happiness and, 134
mirror and, 202
nature of, 262263
No Mind and, 201202, 359363
x and, 261
Prethought, x
Pride, 652
Principles of Behavior Modication
(Bandura), 72
Prism metaphor, 152
Probability, 242243
Problem solving, 340341
Process, 135136, 149150
Projection, 64, 108109
Pseudo-enlightenment, 142, 149,
294296, 341, 428, 464,
491492
Psi and Altered States of
Consciousness (Rao), 451
Psi phenomena, 442456
ancient masters and, 446, 450
collective unconscious and,
446448
communication and, 445,
451454
experiments on, 444
gut feelings and, 454
history of, 444
6/6/08 1:42:42 PM
 790 Psi phenomena (continued)
modern Western societys
Subject discouragement of, 449450
Index No Mind and, 450454
occultism vs., 445
spiritualism vs., 445
types of, 442
Psychoanalysis, x, 206, 374, 393
Psychoid level, 230, 447
Psychokinesis (PK), 442, 444, 452
Psychology, xiv, 356, 550
Psychotherapy, xiv, 278, 283, 323,
449450, 548, 664
Pure awareness, 438, 469, 473, 489
Pure vision, 724725
Q CAt in, 634, 648649, 653654
Quantum consciousness, xiv
Quantum physics, x, xiv, 152, 188,
242243, 347, 357, 471472,
481483, 521, 560561. See also
Physics
Quantum Zeno Effect, 560
R love in, 636637, 642644, 647, 651
Raja Yoga, 193, 387, 551
Reality
alteration of, 1314
categorization of, 182183
codependent, 3738
comfort level with, 104109
conditioned perception of, 5,
814, 1718, 3153, 9293,
112, 168, 184185
deautomatization and, 191192
defense mechanisms and,
110111
direct experience of, 1720, 48,
9293, 184185, 349350,
361, 489
freedom and, 92
health and, 435
Iill as obstacle to, 490491
interpretations of, 173174
language and, 175176
maya and, 170172
mindfulness and, 561562
No Mind and, 162180, 277278
partial views of, 4849
relativity of, 372
search for, 260
sensory deprivation and, 9396
society and shared, 9697
210003_00_subindx.indd 790
virtual, 361
wholeness of, 130, 131
Reality show, Iill as, 208214,
216218
Rebelliousness, 7475, 97
Receptivity, 6870
Reciprocal inhibition, 60
Regression, 108
Reinforcement
of behavior, 39, 60, 62, 72, 85
brain and, 44
I and, 56, 62, 69, 72
subconscious, 65
Relationships, 630657
acceptance in, 635, 651
attachment in, 633634
communication in, 634636
conditional, 644
conict in, 633634
couple I in, 644646
enlightened, 642
Iills in, 630, 632633, 643, 647,
649651, 653
mindfulness and, 645646
needs and desires in, 632633
non-action in, 634
as play, 647, 652
sexual ritual in, 637642
stress in, 653
therapy for, 646
as wholes, 630
Relativity
of ideas, 54
of language, 124, 128129
of reality, 372
theory of, 173, 258
of time, 173, 262264
of truth, 76
Religion(s)
brain function and, 518
dualistic, 139140, 503
mysticism and, 489, 499500,
502503
oneness underlying, 261
Re-Organizing the Experience of Self
and Spouse (Singh), 651
Repression, 107108
Research
on brain, 558560
on meditation, 540546, 552553
on mindfulness, 554560
6/6/08 1:42:50 PM
 Responsibility, 61, 71 Self-reliance, 91 791
Reverse conditioning, 4647 Self-talk, 204, 218, 554555
Right Attitude, 367380 Self-understanding, xiiixiv Subject
and communication, 373374 Sensory deprivation, 9396 Index
daily life and, 367369 Sensory input, 6571, 728
desire and, 375376 Sequence of the stones, 300
empty mind and, 371375 Seven enlightenment factors,
Iill and, 368371, 376378 720721
and no thinker, 375376 Sexual ritual, 637642
opinions/beliefs and, 369371 Should, as obstacle, 219220,
practice dependent on, 336 376377
Ten Paradoxes and, 312, Single photon emission computed
314316, 352 tomography (SPECT), 540
Right Awareness, 353366 Six factors of No Mind, vi
dened, 353 Sixth sense
No Mind as ocean, 363364 intuition and, 224225, 227229
play and, 357359 Psi phenomena and, 446
and the present, 359361 Social conditioning, 86
and simplicity of enlightenment, Social cues, 8891
378379 Socialization, 82
Ten Paradoxes and, 312, Social models, 87
314316, 352 Society, 82102
time and, 361363 benets of, 84
See also Clear Attention (CAt); components of, 8586
Mindfulness conformity to, 8687
Rochester Zen Center, 251 cues in, 8890
Running, 576 drawbacks of, 84
family values and, 92
S as I, 9798, 131, 140
Sacred Journey of the Peaceful illusion of, 171
Warriors (Millman), 529 Is constituting, 25
Sakalava tribe, 444 I shaped by, 82102, 127, 171,
Samadhi, 421 369, 371
Samurai warriors, 332333, 512, language and, 8489
588, 599 models in, 8788
Sarcasm, 287 problems of, 140
Satori, 21, 270, 276, 348, 533 reality sharing in, 9697
Science of Yoga, The (Taimni), 361 rebels in, 97
Search in Secret Egypt, A Soul
(Brunton), 446 cosmic, 434435, 469
Secret and Sublime, The (Blofeld), 392 Iill and, 492
Secrets of Chinese Meditation, The study of, 432, 434
(Luk), 734 Space
Seeds of potential, 496497, 500, character of, 256
511, 517, 526 No Mind and, 360
Self. See I; Ego relativity of, 173
Self-actualization, 187188, 248, spiritual awareness and, 482
256, 265, 347 sports and, 580581
Self-control, 8990 Spirit, 467
Self in Transformation, The Spiritual awareness, 469485
(Fingarette), 26 action and, 43
Selessness, 190191 aspects of, 21
Self-observation, 207210 attainment of, 473474

210003_00_subindx.indd 791 6/6/08 1:42:58 PM

 792 Spiritual awareness (continued)
dened, 469
Subject emptiness and, 124, 139
Index enlightenment and, 23, 480481
experience of, 125, 432, 436
insight and, 230232, 269
and interdependence of
things, 501
mysticism as, 502503
No Mind and, 168, 188
as non-dualistic, 139140
pure awareness and, 469, 473
search for, 482, 667668
space and, 482
time and, 482
transcendence of I and, 5,
120, 132
See also Awareness
Spiritualism, 445, 517
Sports, vii, 566585
action-awareness gap and, 4143
action vs. performer in, 217219
attachment and, 577578
awareness in, 578
CAt and, 573575, 582
I and, 576577, 579580 Synaptic Self, How Our Brains Become
No Mind compared to, 569,
574575
and oneness, 579580
peak performance in, 141142
thought as obstacle to, 572573,
576577
time/space in, 580581
transcendence of limitations
through, 570, 576
trying as obstacle to, 570572, 575
Zen and, 568
See also Flow; Peak
performance; Zone
Stability, 4546
Star Trek (television show), 58, 131
Star Wars (lm), 141
Stereogram images, 69
Stimulus recognition, 6061
Stream of consciousness, 64
Stress
brain and, 615
cues for, 616619, 626
dangers of, 612, 625
performance hampered by, 625
productivity and, 591592
recovery from, 624
in relationships, 653
210003_00_subindx.indd 792
symptoms of, 612614
thought and, 618619
Stress management, 551, 591, 593,
612629
coping and, 621623
enlightenment and, 625627
mindfulness and, 614617,
621623
No Mind and, 620621
play and, 623624
and recovery, 624
stress cues and, 616619, 626
Striving. See Trying
Studies in the Psychology of the
Mystics (Marechal), 175, 527
Subliminal perception, 6667
Subliminal Seduction (Key), 66
Substance-abuse therapy, 463
Success, drive for, 24
Su mysticism, x, 473
Suggestion, 7071
Suggestology, 551
Super Learning (Ostrander,
Ostrander, & Schroeder), 551
Synapses, 1112, 35, 44, 5556, 138
Who We Are (LeDoux), 492
Synthesis of Yoga, The
(Aurobindo), 475
Systematic desensitization, 4647
T
Talks and Dialogues
(Krishnamurti), 215
Tantric tradition, ix, 637639
Tao
and emptiness, 350
as energy, 472
as ux, 507
as nature, 113, 133
Taoism, x
breath control and, 388389
and mysticism, 489
spiritual awareness and, 469
as way of nature, 476
Taoist meditation, 730734
Taoist Yoga, 640
Tao of Physics, The (Capra), 133,
173, 242
Tao Te Ching, vii, 93, 112, 134, 176,
178, 510, 512, 607
Tea metaphor, 319, 330
Teenagers, 7475
6/6/08 1:43:06 PM
 Telepathy, 230, 442, 444
Tengsoba, 444
Ten Oxherding Pictures, 294,
296299
Ten Paradoxes, vi, 311352
benets of, 314
derivation of, 311, 314
Paradox 1: no trying, 317319
Paradox 2: play, 320322
Paradox 3: no thought, 323325
Paradox 4: karma, 326330
Paradox 5: no thought, 331334
Paradox 6: mind as mirror, 335337
Paradox 7: ow, 338341
Paradox 8: attachment, 342345
Paradox 9: no thinker, 346348
Paradox 10: emptiness, 349352
Theory of Forms, 128
Therapy, 205206
Theravada Buddhism, 510
Thinker, no, 346348, 375376
Thirteen Principal Upanishads, The
(Hume), 182183, 474
Thought(s)
association of, 408409
co-arising of, 137138
detachment from, 406408
emptiness as source of, xi
ow and, 338341
Gods, 493494
as mind objects, 406410
over-thinking, 331334, 339
paradox of, 323325, 331334,
338341, 346348
peak performance hampered by,
341, 572573, 576577
sensory deprivation and, 9396
sexual ritual and, 641642
sports and, 572573, 576577
stress and, 618619
See also No thought
Three Pillars of Zen, The (Kapleau), 251
Tibetan Book of the Dead, 497
Tibetan Buddhism, x
Tiger analogy, 196, 200, 204
Time
attachment to, 150
distortion of, 362 f
enlightenment and, 262264
experience of, 362363
Iill and, 245246
Insight of No Mind, 710711
measurement of, 360
210003_00_subindx.indd 793
microscopic world and, 261262 793
No Mind and, 245246, 362 f
relativity of, 173, 262264 Subject
spiritual awareness and, 482 Index
sports and, 580581
universe and, 257
See also Present
To look into the nature of mind,
255 f, 436 f
Touch, 65
Towards a Psychology of Being
(Maslow), 248
Traits
emotional, 64
genetics and, 45, 71
labeling of, 46
responsibility for, 71
Transcendental ego, 347
Truth(s), 56, 7576
Trying
Iill as source of, 165
paradox of, 317319
peak performance hampered by,
248, 317319, 570572, 575
sports and, 570572, 575
See also Goals; Intention
Tso-wang (sitting with blank
mind), 388
2001: A Space Odyssey (lm), 12
U
Unconditional acceptance, 635
Unconditional love, 344, 636637,
642644, 647, 651, 684
Unconscious, 6768, 478480.
See also Collective unconscious
Unity, 715. See also Oneness;
Wholeness
Universal Mind, 471472
Universal psychotherapy, 665
Universe
energy of, 472
individuals in relation to, 437440,
473, 475, 480, 508509
interdependence in, 436437,
470471
non-physical nature of, 492
order of, 472
as play, 472
recreation of, 256
self-awareness of, 435, 489
time not a property of, 257
U.S. Congress, 615
6/6/08 1:43:14 PM
 794 V X
Vibration, 495
Subject Virtual reality, 361
Index
W Yin Yang symbol, 300301
Walking, 401402, 416, 416 f
Wall Street Journal, The, 590
Way of the White Clouds, The
(Govinda), 437
Well and the Cathedral, The
(Progoff), 480
Wholeness
dualism and, 129
of nature, 241242
of No Mind, 241
of reality, 130, 131
search for, 118, 139, 432433
See also Oneness; Unity
Will
brain and, 40
of conscious agent, 13
explanation of, 8
free, 31, 3841, 48
I and, 4748 Zen Doctrine of No Mind, The
as obstacle to peak
performance, 248
Wisdom of the Over Self, The
(Brunton), 226
Wit and Its Relation to the
Unconscious (Freud), 106
Wordscapes, 137138
Wu wei (non-action), vii, 318.
See also Non-action
210003_00_subindx.indd 794
x. See God x
Y
Yoga, 358, 451, 489, 542543.
See also Kundalini Yoga;
Raja Yoga; Taoist Yoga
Your Erroneous Zones (Dyer), 269
Z
Zen attitude, 692693
Zen Buddhism
actors and, 597
goal of, 296
meditation in, x, 215, 546547
No Mind and, ix, 299
psychoanalysis and, 374
self-understanding in, xiiixiv
sports and, 568
state of mind in, 202
Taoism and, 476
See also Koans
(Suzuki), 177
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (Reps), 466
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind
(Suzuki), 547
Zen sex, 637639, 641
Zone, vii, 42, 141, 218219, 240,
566, 568. See also Flow; Peak
performance
6/6/08 1:43:22 PM
Over the last 30 years, Paul Harrison, a Los Angeles architect, has
researched, practiced, and experienced many of the mystical

teachings of the ancient Zen masters. These secrets of "No Mind "
hold knowledge of enlightenment, peak performance, mysticism,
and death. Now Harrison has given voice to an alter ego,
Master Nomi, to finally share the teachings revealed by the
enigmatic Ancient Stone and the old scrolls which contain the Ten
Paradoxes.

Harrison modeled Master Nomi after the 14th century Zen master
Ikkyu (ee-cue), one of the notable Zen rebels and radicals who
became known as the Crazy Clouds. Ikkyu was an unrelenting advo-
cate of enlightenment through sexualitythe Red Thread of Zen.
Despite his reputation for mischief, he was known to be extreme-
ly smart, and is still revered in modern-day Japan as a folk hero.

Master Nomi translates the Ancient Stone into a metaphoric

compass of enlightenment and peak performancea step-by-step

transformational journey to Total Mental Fitness through two
important books: the 794-page treatise
The Ten Paradoxes and the popular
Where's My Zen? parable. The outcome
experiencing enlightenment, living in the
Now, and achieving peak performanceis
more accessible than ever before.

Harrison lives with his daughters, Chelsea

and Allix, and their little Boxer, Kokoa, in
their Zen-inspired urban retreat.

No Mind Publishing Company

Los Angeles 1-877-4NOMIND

www.wheresmyzen.com

Money-Back Guarantee: Simply practice the Ten Paradoxes for

30 days and if you feel that there is no improvement in your life
and this book wasnt worth what you paid for it, then return it to
the publisher within 60 days with a copy of your sales receipt and
we will send you a refund. No questions.
 The Science behind the Scrolls of the Ten Paradoxes,
the Ancient Stone, and the Legend of Master Nomi

The Ten Paradoxes are derived from the ancient philosophies of the Tao Te
Ching as well as from modern scientific and medical research. According to
legend, the Tao Te Ching was written around the 6th century BCE and is one
of the most read books in the world, second to the Bible.

The ancient masters discussed versions of The Ten Paradoxes with Kings,
Queens, Ministers, Priests, Generals, Samurai warriors, and their own disciples.
The paradoxes ensure that we choose the right action in our everyday lives,
and they facilitate the further development of mindfulness to gain insight
and to negate the automatisms of the ego or mindlessness. Thus, removing
the roadblocks to full mind-body synchronicity and realizing your full

potential. The Ten Paradoxes is a contemporary personal fulfillment system,
with modifications that merge modern neuroscience research, the Secrets of

No Mind , and psycho-therapeutic language into one comprehensive program.

The Ten Paradoxes may appear non-sensible at first, like a Zen koan, but this
is because most people can only understand them via the relative
mechanisms of the ego or the neural associative network traps of the mind.

But, through the practice of the comprehensive Power of No MInd ,
you will experience and come to understand these paradoxes
in a different reality; one that will offer you the most accessible path to
enlightenment and peak performance.