Mushine: The Art of No Mind

Mushine, pronounced moo shin ey, is the Japanese art of placing your mind outside of the present to de-compress, focus, re-think, find emptiness, and many other Zen like experiences. I have been practicing Mushine meditation for more than 40 years and have found it a handy tool to incorporate into my personal reality many sorts of experiences that I intend.


Zen meditations in themselves are fairly easy to practice. All one need to do is relax and focus upon the breath letting it flow in the nose and out the mouth at regular intervals at given periods of time, depending upon your experience level and lung capacity. Zen breathing can cause anxiety; long breaths can cause the practitioner to feel like there is no breathing at all. This causes the anxiety.

Mushine takes Zen meditation into the everyday realm of sit and space out. The idea is to sit quietly and empty the mind. Then let thoughts flow freely focusing on those that feel relevant to the specific situation. Mushine can be considered one of the first forms of visualization done by athletes, it was practiced by Samurai, some of the greatest athletes who ever trod the plains of Japan.

By practicing Mushine I managed to learn five forms and katas simultaneously. I started them all within a couple days of each other. At the end of the experiment I had learned the five routines and had them dedicated to memory. At this time I learned that the human mind is capable of much more than the normal individual would realize. We are all vessels of the internal God.

Peace and Balance,
John