No-mind (Chinese: , pinyin: wúxīn; Japanese: mushin; Sanskrit: acitta, acittika, acintya; nirvikalpa) is a mental state that is important in East Asian religions, Asian culture, and the arts. The idea is discussed in classic Chan/Zen Buddhist texts and has been described as "the experience of an instantaneous severing of thought that occurs in the course of a thoroughgoing pursuit of a Buddhist meditative exercise". It is not necessarily a total absence of thinking however, instead, it can refer to an absence of clinging, conceptual proliferation, or being stuck in thought. Chinese Buddhist texts also link this experience with Buddhist metaphysical concepts, like buddha-nature and Dharmakaya. The term is also found in Daoist literature, including the Zhuangzi.
This idea eventually influenced other aspects of Asian culture and the arts. Thus, the effortless state of "no mind" is one which is cultivated by artists, poets, craftsmen, performers, and trained martial artists, who may or may not be associated with Buddhism or Daoism.A Dictionary of the Martial Arts. Louis Frederic (author), Paul H Crompton (editor). 2006. Dover Publications Inc.. Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Manual Of Zen Buddhism, p. 80, https://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/manual_zen.pdfKohn, Livia (2010), Sitting in Oblivion: The Heart of Daoist Meditation, Three Pines Press. pp 73-100Steve Odin. Artistic Detachment in Japan and the West: Psychic Distance in Comparative Aesthetics. University of Hawaii Press, 2001, p. 152 In this context, the term may have no religious connotations (or it may retain it, depending on the artist's own context), and is used to mean "the state at which a master is so at one with his art that his body naturally and spontaneously responds to all challenges without thought". This has been compared to the psychological concept of flow and "being in the zone".
Terminology The term contains the Chinese character for negation, "not" or "without" (), along with the character for heart-mind (). Likewise, in Sanskrit, the term is a compound of the prefix a- (for negation) and the word citta (mind, thought, consciousness, heart). In China, the term came to mean a state in which there was no mental activity, or a mind free of all discrimination and conceptualization, making it similar to the Buddhist Sanskrit term nisprapañca and the Sanskrit term nirvikalpa. Another similar Sanskrit term is amanasikāra (non-thinking, mental non-engagement), which is found in the works of the 11th century tantric yogi Maitripa.Mathes, Klaus-Dieter, A Fine Blend of Mahamudra and Madhyamaka: Maitripa's Collection of Texts on Non-Conceptual Realization (Amanasikara), (Sitzungsberichte Der Philosophisch-Historischen Klasse), 2016, p. 1.
Some scholars like D.T. Suzuki see the term wu-nien (, without thought, without recollection, with nien possibly rendering smṛti, "mindfulness") as being synonymous to wu-xin. Furthermore, while wunien is common in the texts of the Southern school of Zen, the texts of the Northern school prefer the term "freedom from thought" or "freedom from conceptualization" (離念). Some scholars also offer other Sanskrit terms as being the source of the Chinese term wunien, including: a-cintya, a-vikalpa or a-saṃjñā.
Regarding terms which negate "vikalpa" (conceptualization, discrimination, imagination), such as avikalpa and nirvikalpa, these are also widely used in Buddhist sources. The type of knowledge known as nirvikalpa-jñāna is an important term used in Mahayana Buddhist sources to refer to a transcendent type of knowledge.Lusthaus, Dan. Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogacara Buddhism and the Ch'eng Wei-shih Lun, p. 173. Routledge, Feb 4, 2014.Wood, Thomas E. Mind Only: A Philosophical and Doctrinal Analysis of the Vijñānavāda, p. 85. Motilal Banarsidass Publisher, 1994. Furthermore, the term nirvikalpa is also sometimes applied to other concepts, such as Buddha nature. The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra for example, states that the buddha-nature is nirvikalpa and nirbhāsa (without appearance).Edelglass, W.; Garfield, J. Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings, p. 317. Oxford University Press, Apr 21, 2009. Other Mahayana sources use nirvikalpa as a description of the Buddha's Dharmakaya (Dharma-body).Kalupahana, David J. Buddhist Philosophy: A Historical Analysis, p. 122. University of Hawaii Press, Jul 1, 1984.
Another related Sanskrit term is anupalabdhi / anupalambha (non-perception, non-apprehension) which is found in the Prajñaparamita sutras as a description of Prajñaparamita (the perfection of wisdom). For example, in the Diamond Sutra, the Buddha states: "there is nothing whatsoever for me to apprehend in unexcelled complete perfect enlightenment." The Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā sutra even equates the two, stating: "the non-perception (anupalambha) of all principles (dharmas) is called the perfection of wisdom".Warder, A.K. Indian Buddhism, p. 351. Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 2004.
The term no-mind is also found in the Japanese phrase , a Zen expression meaning the mind without mind. That is, a mind not fixed or occupied by thought or emotion and thus open to everything. It is translated by D.T. Suzuki as "being free from mind-attachment".
"Stopping thought," or "quieting the mind," is also a practice in Zen and other forms of meditation and yoga referring to the achievement of the mental state of samādhi, where the normal mental chatter slows and then stops for brief or longer periods. This may first occur during zazen and other meditation practices.
Paradoxically, Chan/Zen teaches that the attainment of this state is not through the normal method of intent and application of skill or technique. As stated in the Chan/Zen poem Xinxin Ming:
Similarly, Takuan Sōhō points out that to try to remove one's thoughts is itself to become preoccupied with the thought of their removal. He explains that if one does not think about removing thoughts, then the mind will remove them on its own and arrive at the condition of no-mind by itself. Takuan quotes from an old poem:
Similar statements may be found in Indian Buddhist materials. For example, the Samādhirāja Sūtra says, "He who has the concept, 'I will eliminate concepts!' / Deals in the elaboration of concepts; he will not be freed from concepts."Thomas, Paul. The Samādhirājasūtra and “Sūtra Mahāmudrā”: A Critical Edition and Translation of Verses 1–118 from Chapter 32 of the Samādhirājasūtra, in Mahāmudrā in India and Tibet, edited by Roger R. Jackson and Klaus-Dieter Mathes, page 81. Brill, 2020. On the other hand, Patañjali in the Yoga Sutras states "Yogaś citta-vritti-nirodhaḥ" ("Yoga is the restriction of the fluctuations of mindstuff").
In Indian Buddhism The Sanskrit term acitta (no-mind, no-thought, unconceived, inconceivable, from a+citta) is found in several Mahayana sutras, and it is often related to an absence of conceptualization (vikalpa), clinging and negative mental states or thoughts. In some of these texts, the term is associated with another important term in Mahayana Buddhism, the naturally luminous mind (cittasya prabhāsvarā). For example, the Pañcavimsati Prajñaparamita sutra states:This mind (citta) is no-mind (acitta), because its natural character is luminous. What is this state of the mind’s luminosity (prabhāsvaratā)? When the mind is neither associated with nor dissociated from greed, hatred, delusion, proclivities (anusaya), fetters (samyojana), or false views (drsti), then this constitutes its luminosity. Does the mind exist as no-mind? In the state of no-mind (acittat), the states of existence or non-existence can be neither found nor established... What is this state of no-mind? The state of no-mind, which is immutable (avikra) and undifferentiated (avikalpa), constitutes the ultimate reality (dharmata) of all dharmas [phenomena]. Such is the state of no-mind.As such, this is a state which is beyond all craving or attachment, beyond all views, conceptualization, or dualities (such as being and non-being, birth and death).Suzuki, D.T. (1930). Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra (1998 ed.), p. 284, 286. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. .
The term also appears in the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā sutra, which states:Strive for awakening (bodhi) freed from false view (darśana), and for essential nature (svabhāva) which is like an illusion (māya) and mirage (marīci). Strive to attain non-thought (acitta), even though the thought does not exist in reality, and to teach unchanging dharmas.Han, Jaehee. The Sky as a Mahāyāna Symbol of Emptiness and Generous Fullness A Study and Translation of the Gaganagañjaparipṛcchā: Volume 2: Edition and Translation, p. 212. PHD dissertation, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo, October 2020. The Indian Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu also mentions the term in his Thirty Verses on Consciousness Only. He associates it with a kind of non-conceptual knowledge (nirvikalpa-jñana) of ultimate reality (paramartha) which does not rely on or grasp any cognitive object (anupalambha) or thought (acintya), indeed it is totally beyond all cognition or thinking. According to Vasubandhu:When the mind no longer seizes on any object (alambana) whatever, then the mind is established in the nature of consciousness only. When there is nothing that is grasped, that is mind only, because there is no grasping. That is the supreme, world-transcending knowledge (jñana), without mind (acitta) and without support or object (anupalambha).In his commentary on this passage, the later Indian philosopher Sthiramati states that this kind of supramundane knowledge refers to a non-discriminative experience beyond subject-object duality.Kochumuttom, Thomas A. A Buddhist Doctrine of Experience: A New Translation and Interpretation of the Works of Vasubandhu, the Yogācārin. p. 159. Motilal Banarsidass Publisher, 1982.
In Chinese sources Taoism
The term no-mind (wu-xin) is also found in the Zhuangzi as well as in the commentary of Guo Xiang, as was thus also discussed by Chinese Daoist thinkers. This would entail that the term existed in Chinese sources which pre-date the introduction of Buddhism to China. As such, many scholars like Fukunaga Mitsuji have suggested that this Daoist idea also influenced the Chinese Buddhist understanding of no-mind.
In Daoist philosophy, the term no-mind was associated with the inner state of a Daoist sage (shengren ), "one who has no-mind and accords with things" (Guo Xiang), as well as with other Daoist concepts like virtue (de), wu wei (non-action) and self-forgetting (wu-chi). It is a state of being carefree and ease which the sage has achieved through the pursuit of Daoist self-cultivation practices such as fasting the mind (, xīn zhāi) and sitting and forgetting (; zuòwàng).Garfield, J.; Edelglass, W. The Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy, p. 54. Oxford University Press, 2011
Chinese Buddhism
The term no mind (wuxin) was first discussed by Chinese exegetes of the Prajñaparamita sutras, who understood the term as a gloss on emptiness. These commentators were known as "the school of no-mind" (, xinwu zong) and included figures like Zhi Mindu (fl. 326).