Mindfull—Mindless

“Too much mind”—The advice given to Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) in the movie The Last Samurai. Algren fled to Japan, thinking he could leave his distress behind. In the early days of his stay, he is trying to drown his misery in booze. His despair resulted from his participation in the mass slaughter in the American Indian wars. And during this time of anguish, he becomes captured by a band of Samurai warriors where he has no choice but to come to terms with his demons. In the process, he learns the Samurai way and gets beaten repeatedly before he can let go. Slowly he begins to understand: “Too much mind.”

The way of the Samurai arose in direct response to the rise of Zen in Japan. And the practice of Japanese Zen arose from the teachings of Bodhidharma in China. There’s a famous story of a conversation that occurred between Bodhidharma and his student Huike. One day Huike came to Bodhidharma and said: “My mind is anxious. Please pacify it.” Bodhidharma replied, “Bring me your mind, and I will pacify it.” Huike said, “Although I’ve sought it, I cannot find it.” Bodhidharma replied, “There, I have pacified your mind.” On hearing this, Huike became enlightened.

When we hear that story, our rational mind becomes confused. How, we think, can we have too much mind yet somehow pacification happens by not finding it? That requires some non-thought to comprehend, yet when we really understand, we also might become enlightened.

The problem is we think. The solution is not thinking. I know that sounds puzzling, but here is the Rosetta Stone answer: Our real mind is always at peace and enlightened, and our thinking mind is perpetually restless and unenlightened. What we believe is our mind is not our mind because our real mind is the source of thinking and not thinking but is itself neither. Our true mind is transcendent and can’t possibly be one or the other since it is the source of both. There is no discrimination in our true mind, so it can’t be one thing vs. another. And our true mind contains nothing, yet everything comes from there. It is an “everything nothing mind.” On the one hand, empty yet full at the same time.

When Captain Algren finally gets it, he is no longer roped in by his thinking, but instead, he is just there, at which point he stops losing and becomes a true warrior. In the Japanese form of Zen, there is a saying: Mushin, Shin. “Mu” means nothing (emptiness), and “shin” means thinking mind, so putting this together means that when we lose our thinking (rational) mind we find our true (transcendent) mind (Shin). Of course, the mind that is being lost is not really our mind but rather is our thoughts and emotions, which obscure and hide our true mind: The source of all thought. It is neither thought nor non-thought. Do you get it? If you really do understand, then you too might be enlightened, unless you start thinking about it. Then you must lose that as well. So just go crazy and lose your mind.