Zen is not No Thing: Meditation & Mindfulness

Aeons ago, when I was a young investment banker (think early 1980s, without the red braces), an Italian colleague gave a presentation on Zen. In his inimitable Italian accent, Tizziano said: “Zen eez nusssing”.

I discovered meditation and mantras at university when TM (Transcendental Meditation) was just getting going in the early 70s. It was the second decade of psychedelia, and though I’ve never been a user of hallucinogenic drugs, I had researched them in-depth for a major science project and was curious about the experiences of those who were medical and casual users. It was impossible not to, given the prominence they were given in the hip culture that spread worldwide in the 1960s and 1970s.

As an amateur musician, sometime rock/pop/folk bandleader from an early age, and with a deep interest in psychology and peak experiences, such altered states were familiar to me in mind-altering music I was listening to and playing at the time. Although music was all I needed to “get high”, it appeared that many other musicians of the period, from Lennon and McCartney to Hendrix, Joplin, and hundreds of others, were seriously, publicly, and often tragically, “into that”.

At the age of 13 Jimi Hendrix was my favorite guitar hero.

At the age of 13, Jimi Hendrix was my favorite guitar hero. As a guitarist of five years standing, starting with Segovia, Flamenco, Jazz, Folk, and Rock…