The Art of Mindlessness

 The Art of Mindlessness, Levi Ouwendijk, Depaix Library, 2021

 

This book is a series of short meditations on the subjects of zen and meditation. It includes titles like The Medium of Thought, The Empty Mind, The Meditative State and The Great Attainment of Nothing.

It attempts to show that it is wrong that there is just one "proper" way to do meditation. Thinking of the world in absolutes of right and wrong limits the full experience of existence. The world seems to be full of breathing exercises and other ways to reach enlightenment.

Meditation will not, by itself, lead a person to enlightenment. If a person happens to attain it, then they had the right qualities already inside them. Meditation is about an awareness in the very feature of being.

This book is best for those who already know their way around the worlds of zen and meditation; it is not a beginner's book. It will take some patience on the part of the reader. If it opens the mind of the reader, even a little bit, to other ways of thinking, it will have done its job. It gets at least 4 stars.