Is it possible to think nothing at all?
Grey ocean around Greymouth. Pentax MX, Cinestill 50, Apr 2024.
Even on a bike touring trip, where I have all day in the saddle to not think about everything, I find myself thinking about everything, or rather, a small number of things, over and over again. Things I have said and done wrong, things that are yet to be done, or need doing, things that have no consequence at all, worrying about things I have no control over. To think nothing at all appears to be a rather difficult exercise indeed.
Sea bluffs around Cape Foulwind. Pentax MX, Cinestill 50, April 2024.
It’s our de facto state, to be in thought land.
Imagining a world without thought is to discard Descartes' ‘I think therefore I am’.
But what if Descartes had said, ‘ I am, therefore I am.”?
What if thoughts are just there to distract us from being? Our busy mental babble is eternally occupying our consciousness. What are we missing on observing in the here and now, when we are trying to remember the third item on our shopping list? Was it eggs? No there are still some left in the fridge. How about bread? No, there is still half a loaf. Oh, how about, nothing? Yes, that’s right, the third item on the list was nothing at all.
West Coast haze. Pentax MX, Cinestill 50, April 2024.
I met this fella at a holiday park in Foxton Beach, North Island. He wore round glasses, had some hair left on the top of his head, and he was a man of philosophy and a practitioner of meditation. After some careful questioning he revealed that the current philosophy that he follows is by an Indian fella who teaches that no mantra, no master, no technique, no religion, no god will ever lead to enlightenment. The only thing that can possibly work is nothing at all. Big fat zero. Clearing out the mind from thought altogether, abandoning the old habit of thinking and thought; that’s what needs to be done.
And it was to this cause that my friend at Foxton Beach was set on devoting the rest of his life. To absolutely nothing at all. But while he was at it he bought me a cup of coffee and we sat on the verandah of the Little White Rabbit’ in Foxon and we talked about life.
Cape Foulwind. Te Weipounamu, Pentax MX, Cinestill 50, April 2024.