Nothing is Something

Last week a student asked me the following question, "... how we can think of nothing?" The student posing the question was a special needs child that I have been fortunate enough to be working with for the past two years.

I looked at him and offered my standard answer of how we have to focus our minds on something specific like the sound of our breath in order to slowly silence our minds, and as he said "think of nothing." He accepted the answer, although as his teacher I struggle with that question and know that silencing my mind is easier said than done.

A few days later at Judo class wih my young son, I asked my Sensei the same question. My Sensei is a 70 year old Japanese master who has been my Judo teacher since I was 6. Under the word Zen in the dictionary you would probably find his picture. He looked at me, paused, and before I could think, I was in mid air. As soon as I hit the mat I got it. No mind, mushin..... how can we think of nothing?..... to be so total in the doing that there is no room for cluttered thoughts, to be so in the moment that all there is, is the moment. I knew this, but had to feel it again.

After the class was over my son looked at me and told me that he now knew what nothing was. "Yes", I asked...
"nothing is something" he answered.

feel everything, force nothing,

Isauro