Thoughtless

In today’s fast-paced world, we always have something on our minds. Always a task ahead, a goal to achieve, a deadline to meet. Our minds are rarely, if ever, truly ‘clear’ or ‘clean.’ And even on the rare occasions when they are, we fail to acknowledge it. However, it most definitely does not mean that we are always (or even often) ‘thoughtful’ either. There are always ‘some’ thoughts lingering, yet we rarely take the time to organize or fully understand them.

Then one fine day we end up somewhere far away from the buzz, on a trip, on a hike. In an isolated village, a dark mountaintop, a silent beach. Somewhere peaceful, remote, and perhaps a bit chilly. That’s when we unknowingly fall into the zone of thoughtlessness.

In that village—far from the clutter, noise, lights, and dust—you lie on your back and observe a sky filled with stars. There’s nothing else in sight, just the stars, light-years away. Or on a quiet beach – in the evening when you rest yourself on the sand. Your hands buried in it because it feels cozy that way. You watch the waves roll in as the red sun sets in the background.

That’s when the realisation hits! ‘I haven’t been in such a place in forever.’ You are just ‘seeing’ things as they are. No contemplation, no analysis, no worries, no tasks, no deadlines. Just you and the stars; just you and the ocean. That’s when you actually appreciate the serenity of the scenery.

Here it is very important to know that in these situations you are physically far away from modern-day distractions. You are at peace. You don’t need to have every worry resolved or your life figured out to experience this serenity. All you need is to leave those worries behind for a brief moment. That’s all it takes.

Although getting away from distractions is important for achieving thoughtlessness, it’s worth noting that even those peaceful settings act as distractions themselves. Gazing stars itself is sort of a distraction – a shortcut to get thoughtless. As it is extremely difficult to do so without any external support. It requires immense dedication and meditation.

Moreover, although this is a sweet shortcut, it is short-lived as well. After some time of thoughtlessness – ‘wonder’ful thoughts start popping up. We start questioning stuff, we start to ponder about it. Thoughtlessness evolves into curiosity. For we are actually ‘observing’ something much greater than us, which we as humans are naturally inclined to analyse. Our mind slowly starts to grasp itself around the mysteries of what we were initially thoughtlessly seeing. Rather, it realises how much we ‘don’t know’ about that – which as humans we need to. This reflective state might even mirror how early humans began to question the world around them, potentially sparking the origin of scientific thought.

Absolute thoughtlessness, achieved through endless meditation, is a different matter altogether. There we actually need to be at peace, with absolutely no worry in our mind, no task and no deadline; with no relationships to intrude – you are to be all alone – doing, nothing – thinking about, nothing. It demands complete solitude and a total absence of thought—an incredibly challenging goal for most people. For most of us, these occasional moments of thoughtlessness and wonder refresh our minds. They remind us of the beauty of pausing and help us return to life’s demands with renewed energy—which, perhaps, is good enough…