T'ai Chi Mind, Empty Mind

(image credit)

In Western culture, our minds are rarely, if ever, empty.  We pride ourselves on ideas and insights, while at times worry, distraction and obsession overcome our minds.  Even if we can reconcile these things, the very notion of emptiness is associated psychologically with depression and philosophically with nothingness or death.

To wit, Blaise Pascal:

Man finds nothing so intolerable as to be in a state of complete rest, without passions, without occupation, without diversion, without effort. Then he feels his nullity, loneliness, inadequacy, dependence, helplessness, emptiness.

It will take time, then, for those who dread an empty mind to feel comfortable with, and adopt, Chi meditation and practice.  Nastasha Dern offers some guidance and promise in Why do we Fear an Empty Mind? (emphasis, added):  

When you believe this mind, you seek this "I" outside yourself. All one has to do is to remain quiet, calm the mind and experience this space between the thoughts. In this state, only the "I" exists. When you let this "I" in your mind be, without resisting, you enter the realm of emptiness -- pure consciousness or the creative void. Whatever comes up, do not take it personally. Just observe. Allowing your mind to "go blank" for a little while won't kill you, and will actually help you discover your potential, unlimited.

When self is absent and thoughts negated, we are open to the unknown. Not only does the mind become utterly blank, but it loses the all encompassing idea of a personal ego. We are oblivious to all lower sensations and are instead awake to the rich, conscious and sublime nothingness. Since the capacity to remain in this state for more than a few minutes can impose a strain, the intellect or imagination rush in with ideas or images, thus ending the tension. With time and practice we can endure the weight of this indescribable and incomprehensible experience.